Metamorphosis reflection

Module 3

Practice enrichment

For this project I was asked to animate the storyboard we designed for the previous project using different software and in the form of a new style.

For my first step I was given a list of videos to watch and choose a few clips that could help influence my work, I ended up choosing The Silhouettes and Kiko and the Hand. The reason why I chose the Silhouettes is because I like how their character designs were shaped and how the surrounding environment matched their style along with the simple animation of 2D, this is what mainly influenced me to redesign my characters in their style, with a little change within their outlook this idea was suggested by my tutor to make them look more funny and goofy.

As for the Kiko and the Hand animation I personally liked not only how the 3D graphics were used but also how the animator was able to make the multiple colours on the hand move around continuously, originally this gave the idea of making the colourful patterns on my elephant to move around, as if it was almost similar to the optical illusion effect, however I was unable to do this in time and so just stuck with having a colourful pattern.

The silhouettes 

Kiko and the hand

For my character designs I originally sketched them as small stubby silhouettes to resemble the ones from the original video clip, then was told to make them look more goofy and lanky in appearance. Once the frames were all sketched I had them scanned and edited on Photoshop going over each image with overlay so that I had one with colour and one with black.

Original designs

I was then introduced to the new software known as Cinema4D which has taken me a while to get use to with all the multiple tools and settings, I eventually got the hang of how to upload an image as a new material while merging it with its silhouette. For my first ever image I was asked to produce a tree and upload it on to Cinema4d, I ended up creating a bizarre looking willow tree in both colour and as a silhouette. Once I learnt how to upload new materials I was then able to copy the image and produce a forest while learning how to zoom in and out with the camera.

Willow tree designs and forest

When it came to animating something in Cinema4D I had two choices to choose how I was going to animate it either pose to pose by placing separate frames of a character over the other or by moving each body part separately one at a time. I found it a little difficult to move a character piece by piece so I settled on the pose-to-pose technique finding it much easier.

I had a few other steps to overcome when it came to animating the separate poses such as where to place each separate image without fully merging it with the background, how to record the material on to another time frame and how to key frame the movements while dragging the character across the area.

Overlay examples

Eventually I was able to animate every scene, the only thing I wasn’t able to do in time was download the sounds that would match the correct moment of the scene such as the sound of grass being run over. It has also taken me a while to learn what was required in the change of the render settings and to actually fully render a scene. Due to a glitch i am unable to upload the videos properly so i'll just show a few screenshots.

 

For my second task as part of an exercise I was asked to design a character based on a description that I was given. For my first sketch I drew a low class bearded human that seemed emotionless clothed in a filthy jacket, shirt, jogging bottoms and woolly hat. I was then told to sketch him again but in any sort of form I could design related to any part of his description, so for that I drew my “rubbish monster” made entirely out of different types of waste such as a rubbish bin for a head, a cardboard box and half a pizza slice for the body, a scooter for the right leg, an umbrella for the left leg, bananas and carrots for fingers a rubbish bag, a desktop lamp, a tyre and a beer bottle for the arms.

When I read the “pigeon-chested scavenger” phrase I immediately thought of animals that have been known to scavenge for scraps, for example there’s a fox for the main head, a feral pigeon as the main chest/body and wings and a rats legs, tail and front legs as the upper arms. As for the “nervous tick” phrase I made an immediate sketch of a bipedal shy tick with an unconfident look on his face.

For my last two final sketches I drew a leftover thrown out pizza blob on a tyre based on the “leftovers blob” phrase and a three-headed hydra having an annoying headache with its two other heads based on the “head spasm” phrase.

As for my third task I was asked to sketch a metamorphosis the shape shifting of an animal into a vehicle, i was given the challenge of transforming rhinoceros in to an army tank. I ended up producing 11 frames with the rhino slowly morphing in to the tank in the style of a blob. 

Later on I had to produce a 25-frame metamorphosis of any animal into another mechanical device, eventually after going through so many potential ideas I settled upon a dragonfly into a helicopter. Even though some of the lines went off track the transformation still turned out ok although am still learning how to use Dragonframe properly.

For my final task I had produce multiple live sketches of a naked man. Even though I have drawn people and objects before I find drawing humans a little difficult, every time I do try to sketch someone I end up shaping them into something similar to a cartoon.

Overall I have found this project both interesting and a little bit challenging, learning how to properly use cinema4D and render each scene, I’m hoping with a little more practise I be able to improve my skills for future projects.

SWOT analysis

• Trying to remember the process of uploading a character.
• Trying how to remember the key frame works.
• Learning how to use dragon frame to animate separate frames.
• Pose to pose animation is easier for me.
• Didn't have time to insert the sound effects.