Animating the Snowman
The main idea of the project is to really show off the ability to animate the character without the use of voice, voiceovers or speech bubbles. This means that the person watching the animation needs to be able to understand what feelings and emotions the character is trying to portray just from his facial expressions and actions.
The main part of the animating on the Snowman comes from his facial features. The Snowman has cartoon style eyes, a carrot for a nose and individual pebbles that make up his mouth. All of these parts of the Snowman are able to be animated individually to really be able to create the perfect look.
I created the facial features in this way so that all feelings and emotions could be emphasized just through the use of the face if required. The pebbles are able to move freely around the face and mouth area because the Snowman is obviously made of snow therefore making it easy for harder objects to move around.
After conducting research into how humans react in different scenarios it was important I tried to re-create this with the Snowman. There are a range of feelings and emotions that are shown by just the facial expressions of the Snowman.
Snowman Sad
When the Snowman is sad, his top eyelid closes down and his bottom eyelid droops. His eyes focus on a point below him to really get the feeling that he is about to cry. The nose has been animated to point and flop down to emphasize how upset he is. The final expression is created through the pebbles that make up the mouth. I decided to create the Snowman with these pebbles to allow him to show different emotions just through the use of his mouth. When the Snowman is sad, these pebbles move into an upside down smile and really make the Snowman look sad.
Snowman Happy
To animate the Snowman being happy, the opposite was done to him being sad. The eyelids are wide open really making his eyes visible, which are both looking up into the sky and in front of him. His nose is pointing up and forward making him look good. The pebbles that make up his mouth morph into a huge smile that really is over the top but effective as it shows him being very happy.
Snowman Worried
The Snowman is very eager to go outside and make friends with the penguin but he doesn’t realise what he is about to do. When he heads outside onto the edge of the cliff to meet the penguin, he is very happy as he is about to make a new friend. Once he reaches the penguin, he looks over the edge of the cliff to see how deep the drop is going to be. He now becomes extremely worried as he does not feel confident on his skies.
The camera moves position to be as if it is from his point of view when the Snowman is looking over the edge. After a few seconds of this view, the camera switches back to catch the reaction of the Snowman. It was quite hard to work out how to animate the Snowman being very worried and anxious about skiing down the hill but I think the way it has come out is very good.
As he approaches the drop off the cliff, the Snowman’s mouth becomes squiggly with the end 2 pebbles dropping down alongside the middle two. This gives the impression of the Snowman screwing up his face in fear of not knowing what is going on. The Snowman’s head is shaking as if he is saying “What am I doing this for????” and he continues to move off the edge. As he finally moves off the edge, his head looks down to where he is about to fall and he shakes the head to say “No!!” but he is now too late.
Snowman Sleepy
At the beginning of the animation, the Snowman is waking up and I feel that this is shown very well by the use of his eyes. When a human wakes up they usually will open their eyes for a few seconds, get their surroundings and let their eyes start to adjust before closing them again. This is just a natural reaction to waking up and allows your eyes to adjust from being closed whilst asleep to suddenly opening them.
A person will then re-open them up and may blink a few more times before they finally adjust to the scene that they are in. The Snowman does these actions in the same way as a human because I feel it really gives the Snowman a human feel and making him very lifelike.
Snowman Shocked
When the Snowman falls off the edge of the cliff, I really wanted him to look scared to go along with the cartoon drop that is about to happen. When a human is shocked they usually will open their mouth widely and the phrase “jaw dropping wide open” is usually said about someone who is shocked. I wanted to create this same reaction but it was hard to do it because the Snowman doesn’t have a normal human mouth with lips.
The closest thing that I could think of using for this idea was the Internet Emoticon for a shocked face (:o)
This is the face that is used in many online chat programs and online forums to represent a shocked face. I thought that I could possibly try and encorporate this into the Snowman’s facial expression as a way of showing that he was shocked whilst still being quite comical.
I attempted to create this affect by adding in 2 extra pebbles to the mouth that came out of the Snowman’s face in the same way that the nose did earlier. I placed these on top of 2 of the middle pebbles to create a round shape. Unfortunately this turned out quite poorly and basically looked like the Snowman had a moustache.
I showed this animation to a few classmates and although it was highly amusing, they agreed it did not look great and I should change it. One classmate liked the idea of doing the Emoticon smiley face and said that I should attempt to move the pebbles into a circle to create the “o” look of the mouth.
As the Snowman is about to fall down onto the cliff, I animated the pebbles to morph into a circle and create the look of the Snowman opening his jaw wide open. I rendered this animation and was a lot happier with how it looked and decided to go with this animation as I really feel it gives the human effect of being shocked. I also feel it is rather comical and suits with the rest of the layout in the animation.
Snowman Hands
From the moment I decided on using a Snowman as the main character in my animation, I had decided that the hands would be created similar to those of Mr Potato Head from the Disney Pixar animation Toy Story. The arms would be independent from the body and individually boned so that they could freely animate without relying on the position of the body or rest of the Snowman.
When the Snowman is Happy, the Snowman has his hands raised up in the air to really show that he is happy. When he is sad the hands of the Snowman drop down by his side to help assist the facial features to show the sad feelings.
When the Snowman is flying down the hill on his skis, he is holding his hands up in front of him and waving them about in the “Stop” motion. Unfortunately as he is on skis and flying down a mountain, this is very unlikely to happen unless he runs into an object to stop him.
In the initial scene, we see the Snowman waking up and changing his heads. I used the hands to animate the removal and placing his new head back onto his body in the same method that a human would. I feel that this really shows how effective the hands are of the Snowman with them twisting side to side to ensure the head is on correctly.
Snowman Head
The Snowman’s head is animated at multiple times throughout the animation to back up the feelings shown by the facial features. There is obviously a limit as to how much animation can be put into the movements of a head because I didn’t want to turn my animation into an example of the Exorcist with ridiculous head movements. This is to ensure that it is suitable for the target audience.
When the Snowman replaces his head, the Snowman tilts his hands to twist the head to ensure that the head is on properly. This small movement makes the Snowman look like he’s an object and just screwing in his head. It is mainly just for a bit of comical effect to show off what the Snowman can do.
When the Snowman is flying down the hill, his head shakes from side to side to show that he is not happy about skiing down a hill. The idea of him shaking his head gives the impression of a person saying “No!!!!!” or “Stop!!!”, which seeing as the animation does not have any voices in, this is the best way of doing it.
Wednesday 20 April 2011
Thursday 17 March 2011
Creating the Snowman
- Using Geospheres rather than Spheres because all parts of the Geosphere will remain the same size. As theres going to be no materials theres going to be no stretching due to triangles and not quads.
Friday 11 March 2011
Mood Board
I created a Mood Board of a range of Images that all outline the kind of impressions that I am aiming to achieve. Some of them are characters that do not talk and just use animations to show feelings whereas others are using objects and turning them into human like characters.
*Edit - I was unable to upload the image of the mood board due to the site suffering "Technical Difficulties" last night.*
I will attempt to re-upload it later and see if it is fine.
I went through and gathered a selection of images that all are animated characters able to show feelings and emotions. I then brought these together to create a mood board of all possible ideas in an attempt to give me some more inspiration for my own animation.
I selected characters from films/programmes that I had seen before and had found them to be effective. Animations such as Kung Fu Panda, The dog from Up, Little Mermaid all use animals and give them voices. This makes them more human like and allows them to use their emotions and feelings to show the interaction with other characters as if they were human.
Animations such as Toy Story, Luxo and Cars use objects (Toys,Lamps,Cars) to turn them into characters.
-Toy Story allows the viewer to feel as if the toys have come to life by the way they interact with each other and the humans in the film.
-Luxo is a series of short animations created by Disney that all started with a simple opening scene animation for a film. Here they have made a Lamp come to life and carry out actions that humans do but in the lamp's own way using the physical features he has available to him. Disney have now continued this for Luxo to hae a child (Luxo Jnr), which definitely gives viewers the feel that Luxo is human.
-Cars was a hit Blockbuster for viewers of all age because it had humour and action that appealed to the older generation whereas still having the typical Disney/Fairytale feeling to it making it appealing to the younger audience. In this film Cars have come to life and speak and interact with other cars in the same ways that humans do. Tasks are carried out by particular cars that would be what humans are doing such as Tires being changed by a special forklift/wheel jack car.
I have also included images of two of my favourite animations, Morph and Pingu. In both of these the characters never talk in a language that we can understand but interact with other characters in the animation in thier own language giving it the feel that they are like humans. The actions that theyc arry out are always relating to similar actions that can be carried out by humans
*Edit - I was unable to upload the image of the mood board due to the site suffering "Technical Difficulties" last night.*
I will attempt to re-upload it later and see if it is fine.
I went through and gathered a selection of images that all are animated characters able to show feelings and emotions. I then brought these together to create a mood board of all possible ideas in an attempt to give me some more inspiration for my own animation.
I selected characters from films/programmes that I had seen before and had found them to be effective. Animations such as Kung Fu Panda, The dog from Up, Little Mermaid all use animals and give them voices. This makes them more human like and allows them to use their emotions and feelings to show the interaction with other characters as if they were human.
Animations such as Toy Story, Luxo and Cars use objects (Toys,Lamps,Cars) to turn them into characters.
-Toy Story allows the viewer to feel as if the toys have come to life by the way they interact with each other and the humans in the film.
-Luxo is a series of short animations created by Disney that all started with a simple opening scene animation for a film. Here they have made a Lamp come to life and carry out actions that humans do but in the lamp's own way using the physical features he has available to him. Disney have now continued this for Luxo to hae a child (Luxo Jnr), which definitely gives viewers the feel that Luxo is human.
-Cars was a hit Blockbuster for viewers of all age because it had humour and action that appealed to the older generation whereas still having the typical Disney/Fairytale feeling to it making it appealing to the younger audience. In this film Cars have come to life and speak and interact with other cars in the same ways that humans do. Tasks are carried out by particular cars that would be what humans are doing such as Tires being changed by a special forklift/wheel jack car.
I have also included images of two of my favourite animations, Morph and Pingu. In both of these the characters never talk in a language that we can understand but interact with other characters in the animation in thier own language giving it the feel that they are like humans. The actions that theyc arry out are always relating to similar actions that can be carried out by humans
Friday 4 March 2011
Storyboard Write Up
After changing my idea from the penguin to the snowman, I decided to create a storyboard of how I want the animation to finish. In most cases the animation finishes up being lightly based on the original storyboard due to issues and problems that arrise throughout the creation process.
1. Snowman wakes up with head on that only has eyes. Sleepy eyes until he wakes up properly.
2. Snowman changes his head by throwing the other one away. new head has all the facial features on and Snowman smiles at the end of it. Gives the impression of the snowman putting make up on.
3. Looks out the window and sees a sunny scene. Looks Happy. Window appears to fall down but it is actually a blind or picture that falls down. Reveals the normal outside, which saddens the Snowman as it is boring.
4. The Snowman hears some music and looks back at the window to see a Penguin skating by. Penguin goes by twice playing his music and camera checks back to the Snowman who is smiling because he thinks he could make a friend.
5. The Snowman gets his skis on and heads outside to meet the Penguin at the top of the cliff. He looks very worried about going skiing and is really not happy about it. The penguin slides off the cliff with no trouble before the Snowman begrudgingly moves off the cliff.
6. The penguin is skiing down the hill with no problems. He has his eyes closed and starts doing a few tricks. Skiing on 1 foot and doing spins.
7. The penguin hits the bottom of the hill and theres a small ramp for the penguin to run up. He slides up the hill and does a little flip and lands it on the ice. He turns to the Snowman as if he is showing off.
8, The Snowman drops off the hill in a cartoony way with him heading off the edge, waiting for a few seconds and ten dropping down.
9. The Snowman flies down the same hill that the Penguin although he is a bit less stable on his skies. He is shaking his head as he goes down and waving his hands around wanting to stop but he has already started going.
10 The Snowman hits the bottom of the hill and slides up the ice ready to jump over the hill. He has lost all control and slides up the hill. As he is in mid-air the 3 balls of the Snowman come apart with the top piece going through a basketball hoop and landing on the other pieces of the Snowman.
11. The Snowman moves towards the Penguin and shows him that he is very happy with what he did even though he had no control. The penguin turns around and slides away on the ice because he is not impressed.
12. The camera pans to the Snowman and he is very sad . The camera fades to black with the Snowman being sad.
As you can see from the storyboard, I want to try to show a range of emotions by the Snowman. This could be quite hard to do all of them but I would like to achieve as many of them as possible. The key ones that I have mentioned are:
Happy
Sad
Sleepy
Impressed With Himself
Upset
Worried
Shocked
There are a lot of different feelings here. Some that will be easier to animate and show in the animation than others. I will try to show as many of these as I can in the final animation.
1. Snowman wakes up with head on that only has eyes. Sleepy eyes until he wakes up properly.
2. Snowman changes his head by throwing the other one away. new head has all the facial features on and Snowman smiles at the end of it. Gives the impression of the snowman putting make up on.
3. Looks out the window and sees a sunny scene. Looks Happy. Window appears to fall down but it is actually a blind or picture that falls down. Reveals the normal outside, which saddens the Snowman as it is boring.
4. The Snowman hears some music and looks back at the window to see a Penguin skating by. Penguin goes by twice playing his music and camera checks back to the Snowman who is smiling because he thinks he could make a friend.
5. The Snowman gets his skis on and heads outside to meet the Penguin at the top of the cliff. He looks very worried about going skiing and is really not happy about it. The penguin slides off the cliff with no trouble before the Snowman begrudgingly moves off the cliff.
6. The penguin is skiing down the hill with no problems. He has his eyes closed and starts doing a few tricks. Skiing on 1 foot and doing spins.
7. The penguin hits the bottom of the hill and theres a small ramp for the penguin to run up. He slides up the hill and does a little flip and lands it on the ice. He turns to the Snowman as if he is showing off.
8, The Snowman drops off the hill in a cartoony way with him heading off the edge, waiting for a few seconds and ten dropping down.
9. The Snowman flies down the same hill that the Penguin although he is a bit less stable on his skies. He is shaking his head as he goes down and waving his hands around wanting to stop but he has already started going.
10 The Snowman hits the bottom of the hill and slides up the ice ready to jump over the hill. He has lost all control and slides up the hill. As he is in mid-air the 3 balls of the Snowman come apart with the top piece going through a basketball hoop and landing on the other pieces of the Snowman.
11. The Snowman moves towards the Penguin and shows him that he is very happy with what he did even though he had no control. The penguin turns around and slides away on the ice because he is not impressed.
12. The camera pans to the Snowman and he is very sad . The camera fades to black with the Snowman being sad.
As you can see from the storyboard, I want to try to show a range of emotions by the Snowman. This could be quite hard to do all of them but I would like to achieve as many of them as possible. The key ones that I have mentioned are:
Happy
Sad
Sleepy
Impressed With Himself
Upset
Worried
Shocked
There are a lot of different feelings here. Some that will be easier to animate and show in the animation than others. I will try to show as many of these as I can in the final animation.
Edited Idea - Snowman
I had a discussion with Richard Barnes about the progress that I had currently made with the animation and models. We had a bit of an issue with my main character model of the penguin. Unfortunately because I created it working closely alongside images of Pingu, the animated character, the final model ended up looking very similar to the character. This would be an issue because it limits my ideas of the development of the character because I am struggling to think of ways of editing the penguin to make it less like Pingu but still keeping the penguin character.
I spoke with Richard and we decided that this could be an issue when it came to marking the models. We decided that the best solution would be to create a new model to use as my main character and could use the current model of the penguin briefly in the animation. The main focus would still be this new model however using the penguin I could create the ability for the new character to react according to what the penguin does.
I wanted to stick with the snow/ice/arctic idea so that I could keep my penguin model and incorporate it into my animation. We spoke about possible ideas for characters that would fit well into this scene. One idea that we thought of that I liked the idea of was creating a Snowman as the mainc haracter. I had a fear that it would be a struggle to create and animate using a biped for a Snowman but RIchard clamed my fears by saying that the biped was not a necessity in the animation.
A snowman has very little manouverability because it is 3 blobs of snow with stick arms and no feet. This makes it impossible for the snowman to walk around and do most animations that normal characters could do. I thought that it would be interesting and a challenge to create an animation using a character with very little manouverability yet still be bale to show a great amound of feelings and emotions.
My next task is to carry out some research into the different looks of a snowman and the huge range of already created designs. I will also need to look at current examples of Snowman animations that have been made and see how different actions and animations have already been made. The final piece of research I need to do next is looking at other character/animals/people that have a similar body shape and characteristics and investigate how they move and carry out actions.
I spoke with Richard and we decided that this could be an issue when it came to marking the models. We decided that the best solution would be to create a new model to use as my main character and could use the current model of the penguin briefly in the animation. The main focus would still be this new model however using the penguin I could create the ability for the new character to react according to what the penguin does.
I wanted to stick with the snow/ice/arctic idea so that I could keep my penguin model and incorporate it into my animation. We spoke about possible ideas for characters that would fit well into this scene. One idea that we thought of that I liked the idea of was creating a Snowman as the mainc haracter. I had a fear that it would be a struggle to create and animate using a biped for a Snowman but RIchard clamed my fears by saying that the biped was not a necessity in the animation.
A snowman has very little manouverability because it is 3 blobs of snow with stick arms and no feet. This makes it impossible for the snowman to walk around and do most animations that normal characters could do. I thought that it would be interesting and a challenge to create an animation using a character with very little manouverability yet still be bale to show a great amound of feelings and emotions.
My next task is to carry out some research into the different looks of a snowman and the huge range of already created designs. I will also need to look at current examples of Snowman animations that have been made and see how different actions and animations have already been made. The final piece of research I need to do next is looking at other character/animals/people that have a similar body shape and characteristics and investigate how they move and carry out actions.
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