Final Project part 20: Bird Food Blues... Finished Animation Plus Extras

Last Friday I was able to finish my final animation for uni and although I could see some errors here and there, I am very proud of how it came out. It was not easy to accomplish this but I am very glad that I was able to finish my animation.
Here it is if anyone is interested to watch


Bird Food Blues...



For a little extra I have also finished making my Demo Reel. I was actually aiming for a minute long video but with all my turnarounds the video came around just under 3 minutes. Good thing I have found a piece of music to keep it entertaining.


Shahbir's Demo Reel 2012


Next is the Making of for Bird Food Blues. This should show how much hard work I went though to make this final project.Making of Bird Food Blues

The final bit to my work is my Technical Paper. In this document it explains how I have made the Squash Stretch control for my worm character.

Technical Paper Squash and Stretch Blend Shape 01

This was definitely my toughest animation, yet felt slightly easy when compared to my minor animation. I really did enjoy this project because I had a lot of freedom to do what ever animation I want. I hope I did everything I could to show off my animating skills.

Final Project part 19: Bird Food Blues... Pre-vis Collection part 3 and Second Image Render

Here is my latest set of Pre-vis videos, I have also added some head shots of the worm's lip-sync because I felt that when watching the actual animation you don't get to see much. Another thing to note is that the pre-vis delay slightly which makes the audio and the video not syncing properly.











I have also added an updated render version, this time the making the shadows feel more natural. I still have a few bits to sort out like making the trees a bit lower to the ground and add some spots underneath the trees to make it look like the ground is moist.

That is all I have to show for now.

Final Project part 18: Bird Food Blues... Pre-vis Collection part 2 and First Image Render

Here is the latest update for my project. I have made some more pre-vis videos and some scene test renders.

The first pre-vis is an update animation on the worm singing inside the bird. This time his tail moves, it is meant to represent a finger/foot tapping to the beat of the music. I actually had trouble doing this, as mentioned on the group blog the entire worm is mainly controlled by the tip of the worms tail. However I was able to resolved this (with some help) by using the bend deformer for the tail. I won't lie this was actually tricky but I was able to get it done. I am pround of the out come but when I have time I will come back and fix this.

The second pre-vis is the second part of scene seven for my animation where we the worm actually singing to the bird. Here I am trying to get the head movements matching the rhythm to the music as well as have both characters interacting with each other. This is what I have got so far, I am almost done just need to get the bounciness of the bird's head right because to me it still feels off.

Also here are some test renders for my animation, I was using highlights to my animation look more interesting when rendered. The first image was just applying the highlights to the body and the wing for the bird while the second image has all the objects in my scene except the ground and sky having the highlight applied to them.

Image 01

 Image 02

This is all I have to show so far, so until next time have a nice day.

Final Project part 17: Bird Food Blues... Pre-vis Collection

Here are some pre-vis scenes from my animation. The first scene has the camera panning to the right and we see the bird trying to pluck the worm from the ground. The second scene is a whole body shot were the bird finally pulled the worm from the ground. The third scene carry's on from the second scene where we see the bird eating the worm, however he suddenly hears a noise and started to look for the source. The forth scene has the bird finding the source. The fifth scene has an inside shot where we see the worm singing inside the bird. The sixth scene has the bird rising up with a surprise look, and finally the seventh has bird still surprised and started to look around in confusing.






















Getting the movements feeling natural was very challenging mostly trying to make my bird life like. However I still feel like there are some room for improvements. I believe this is when I really need some helpful criticisms so if any fells have some good advice to make my animation better then please let me know. Also I know my worm needs some life to his tail but his rig is kind of messy so I need some help on that.

Final Project part 16: My Lipsync Reference Video

For a while now I was meant to make a lip sync reference video to help me animate my worm's mouth movement which I have finally did. However it was not easy because I kept laughing. Sad thing is that I did not record that :(.  While looking at the video I notice that my head moves to the beat so I thought I could also use that to help me to give some life to the worm as well.

Enjoy the vid :)

Final Project part 15: Tree and Worm Hole Design as well a Test Render of my Scenery

Here is the latest update on my work. First I have finished making the entire tree for my animation, when looking at the images you can see the type of changes that was done to the bottom of the tree. The first two images made the bottom look kind of chunky and I did not like that so I have redone the entire stump, to me it looks much better. The new stump can be seen on the last two tree images.

First Tree Design

 First Tree Design Bottom Close Up

 Second Tree Design

 Second Tree Design Bottom Close Up

I have also applied a texture to the tree to see how it looks, I am actually okay with it because it has the simple feeling I was going for. I have actually talk to Phil about this and we decided that although the texture is good we think that I should add some lines on the tree for close ups. He also suggested that I should also add some grasses on the tree to give it some more shape.

Next model to look at is the is the worm hole, the first image shows the worm hole by itself while the second image show the worm hole with a plane to represent the grass. I have also shown this to Phil and he said the the worm hole doesn't seem to fit in my world because it looks too detailed. Listening to Phil's response I will re-edit the worm hole so it will look like it fits in my world. I did two textures renders on the dirt of the worm hole to see which colour looks better, the brown muddy dirt or grey dry dirt. I believe the brown muddy dirt is the better choice because it has a nice warm feel to it.

Finally some test renders on my scenery for my animation, and already I can see that this scene needs serious help. First the colour of the grass and the colour of the tree bark are the same, the shadows and lighting needs help and some of the trees are fusing to each other, I have talk to Tom about this and he gave me a helpful tip to fix the trees which is 'instancing' the objects. However I think I will talk to Alan about working on the shadows. I did two different light renders on this scene to give some brightness to it but I will still work on setting up the necessary amount of brightness on the scene so it would look nice to look at.

Low Instance Render

 High Instance Render

That is all I have to show for now.

Final Project part 14: Tree Design and Bird Texture

Here are some tree designs for my background in my animation. The type of tree I was trying to design was a simplistic version of the very tall trees in a field or forest that have a pointy/triangular appearance. I started drawing a slightly realistic tree without the leaves then I simplified it. The last image has the type of trees I want but I still need to work on it more, the next thing to do is to try and design what the tree looks like up close.

Next are the two birds finally textured. The two textures are based off the colour schemes I chose for my two birds, it was actually challenging to make their textures. I had to make an outline around the UV image with the pen tool then use the paint bucket tool to fill in the colour. It sounded easy but it is not, because I had to make sure the colours are not clashing with each other and try to have the outlines around the feet not looking badly made.

With all of the textures done I can start animating my short, at the same time I will also try to make some trees and a worm whole.

Final Project part 13: Finished Bird Character

Apologise for not blogging in a while, just focusing on finishing my bird. Working on my bird was no walk in the park, it was really troublesome to make sure the bird will move perfectly when I animate him. I first began UV mapping him so I can add some extra textures on his body, wing, beak, tongue and feet if needed, then I layered out the joints.

When I was placing the joints on my bird I wanted to have a lot of control on every part of his body, from moving the body to controlling the wing and tail feathers. This is so when the bird is moving I will give it an extra bounce when moving the tail feathers. I used some locaters to mark out the places for where my joints will sit. 

Skinning the model was also hard and time consuming because I had to make sure my bird will not look blocky when bending.Placing the controllers was also tricky because I have to make sure the controls will rotate nicely and will not act funny when using it.  

The next two images shows off the blend shapes that are used on my model and the cluster shape that I used to make the blend shapes.

While I was making the blend shapes for the bird's mouth I notice that whenever he opens his mouth he looks funny, evidence of this can be seen in the next two images when both mouth blend shapes are at 50%.

Failed Open Smile Blend Shape 

 Failed Open Sad Blend Shape

I have experimented some different ways to fix this, sorry I don't have any pictures to show my progress on how I solve this problem. The way I solved it was to make an open mouth blend shape and have it controlled by the lower beak control. The result was a success, as proven by my next when the mouth blend shapes are at 50% again.

Open Mouth Blend Shape 

 Open Mouth Blend Shape on Bird Model

 Better Open Mouth Smile

 Better Open Mouth Sad 

 To end this post I will show a previs on one of my birds blend shape where his stomach expands and contract, this is meant to represent the worm singing inside the birds tummy. 


Bird Body Blend Shape Previs
  
 That is all I have to show for now, in the future I will start animating my animation while also texturing the bird and making the scenery, wish me luck.

Final Project part 12: Worm Blend Shapes

As mentioned in my previous post I have finished my worm character and I thought I would post the blendshapes that I will be using for my worm. They range from mouth motions to the two shapes his body will take when squishing and stretching.

 Worm Blendshapes

Worm's Mouth Motion: Aaa, I

Worm's Mouth Motion: Eee

Worm's Mouth Motion: Uuu, W

Worm's Mouth Motion: O

Worm's Mouth Motion: Fff, Vvv

Worm's Mouth Motion: B, Mmm

Soon I am going to make a video reference where I will lip sync the words to Kenny Neal's song 'Baby Bee', this is so when I watch the video I can then use the appropriate mouth belndshapes on my worm to make it more accurate to the lyrics to the song. However if I notice a mouth shape I do not have on my worm then I will quickly make it. When making the lip sync video I will try to make the mouth motions very exaggerated for a nice comedic effect which will be good for when my worm singing.

Final Project part 11: Finished Worm Model & Three Bird Wings Designs

Last night I have finally finished my worm character, I layed out it's UVs and fully rigged it.

Worm UV Map Layout

I have also created a special control for the worm so he can squash and stretch, here is a video that demonstrate it.

Creating the squash and stretch was not very hard to make in my opinion, because the way the control was done is the same way as creating the mouth blend shapes controls.

I have made three wings designs for my bird to see which one will be the right one for me to animate.

First Design

Second Design

Third Design


I did have a chat with Alan about the wing designs, and we descided to go with the third design because it looks like it would animate the way I want it to when compared to the other wings. The first design was too chunky and the second one has a big dip inside which would look odd when the bird is flying. So I am sticking with the third design, which seems to be a mix of the two.

Once that was settled I can now finally start focusing on finishing my bird :).

Also the other thing that is left to do is to name my worm, which I would like you to think up. I have thought of naming it Alan but lets see what names you guys can think up. You can even send in your name as well if you want, just don't write anything inappropriate. The winning name will be credited at the end of my animation.

12 Drawings a Day

This animation is about the animator drawings 12 times everyday for 3 years. What makes this animation interesting is that it is all instinct with no plan besides drawing 12 frames a day.
Give it a look it is brilliant and fun.

Final Project part 11: Bird 3D Model

Here is the latest update on my work progress. During last week I have started modelling my bird and I just recently finished him. Modelling the bird was actually very hard, because he has more parts than the worm and they were very tricky to make. Although I am very glad on how he looks, but I think I need Alans opinion on the way my bird is modelled. Mainly on his wings because Alan and I had a discussing on how to animate my bird's wings, from folded around the birds body to spread out. He advise me to model the wings folded around the body first, then when I see him he will help me to make my wings operational.

The next image shows what the body looked like without the details on the body. I thought this would be interesting to show because it really is surprising how much better it looks with the extra details applied the birds body.

Bird Body Mesh Not Detailed

Bird Complete Mesh

Bird Complete Mesh Wire

Bird Body Mesh Detailed

Bird Body Mesh Wire

Bird Top Beak Mesh

Bird Top Beak Mesh Wire

Bird Bottom Beak and Tongue Mesh

Bird Bottom Beak and Tongue Mesh Wire

Bird Foot Mesh

Bird Foot Mesh Wire

Here is my bird's wing that I need Alan assistance on. In my opinion it looks fine but I do not know if the wing will work well when my bird spreads it. I have an idea on how I will make the wing looks like it is spreading but I think I need to ask Alan's help on this one.

Bird Wing Mesh

Bird Wing Mesh Wire