9 hours to go!!!

Body parts!

Thuggee Life micro animation production blog pt. 8 - Project status

Just three days left until deadline, so here's a brief update on where things stand right now:



Green = animated, inked and painted. Effectively done.
Yellow = currently being worked on.
Red = work has yet to begin.

I'll try and upload more of the fun stuff tomorrow, must admit it does feel like blogging this production is eating into my time. Worth it though right?

Thuggee Life micro animation production blog pt. 7 - First shot is complete!!

All the shots I'm animating are still in line test stage - meaning none of the character animation is ready for colour just yet. I have no idea if I'll even make it to final colour stage by the deadline. However I couldn't resist adding colour to the characters in the opening shot, in the name of a "colour test" :)

I guess this shot is the first one to get completed! As for the other 14....

Thuggee Life micro animation production blog pt. 6 - More Animation Tests!

Here's some more animation line tests:

CLOSEUP ON THUGGEE#13




CLOSE-UP ON MOLA RAM WITH BEATING HEART
(warning: the volume is oddly very loud on this one)



I'm trying to get the easier (well, less complicated is probably more accurate) shots blocked in as early in the week as possible, before getting stuck into the longer more demanding shots. Four and a half days to go...

Thuggee Life micro animation production blog pt. 5 - Animation Tests!

MOLA RAM CHARACTER ANIMATION LINE TEST
Here's a line test of Mola Ram, one of the two characters in Thuggee Life. It's around 9 seconds of animation (technically 20% of the running length of the full short!):

CARTOON FIRE EFFECTS ANIMATION TEST
The role of fire is integral to the plot, it's almost a third character! So here's some fire effects animation I've been working on:



I'm having a lot of fun with the various aspects of production on this project - a lot of new stuff I've never done before - so far this is proving to be a rather stimulating challenge! :)
Still got tonnes left to do, and only 5 days left to make all the bits work together - EEK!!

Acting in animation (with dialogue)

Here's another animation test I did as a student at Animation Mentor:

Uncle Lorne Final
Uploaded by rafianimates

(click the video to watch a larger version on dailymotion)

This was my first test with two characters. Up until this point I had only attempted monologue-esque acting - i.e. single-shot tests with one character speaking (you can view these here and here).

A short multi-character dialogue test like this got me thinking about editing, the importance of maintaining eye line and screen space as well as exploring contrast between the characters. It was hard to keep track of everything alongside building a convincing performance with subtext, but ultimately a really fun and worthwhile experience throughout. It got me really interested in the storyboard and shot-design side of animation - more on that in a later post!

About the audio track I used - I found it at the end of a version of "Red Telephone" by Love, and haven't been able to find out which movie they sampled it from. If anyone recognises it, please let me know in the comments.

Acting in animation (early tests)

Here's a couple of animation tests I did as a student at Animation Mentor. The idea behind these assignments is to pick an audio clip from any source, and create a performance to go with it. These were my first attempts at acting in animation:


(there's a larger version on dailymotion)


(there's a larger version on dailymotion)

Animation principle - overlap test

In Term 1 of Animation Mentor we did a series of tests using a simple bouncing ball model to learn the principles of animation (eg. timing, spacing, ease-in & outs, anticipation etc. etc.).

Here's one I did for overlapping action using a character rig called Tailor - essentially a ball with a tail attached. (Click a blank area of the video to view the full size):

Overlapping Tail Bounce (ANIMATION TEST)
Uploaded by rafianimates

Struttin' - walk test

Here's a short mechanics test I did when I was a student at Animation Mentor. Way back in 2005. The idea was to explore the mechanics of a walk, animate the locomotion and add some personality to it too. (Click a blank area of the video to view the full size):


Struttin' (animation test)
Uploaded by rafianimates