I know my site has been quiet lately. I know you’ve missed me.
But the animation isn’t going to animate itself, now is it?
While it’s true I did not meet my April goal of completing the Entryway scene, I feel that what I have accomplished is to be considered a major hurdle jumped.
This entire animation process has been gnawing at me for over a few years and I’ve been extremely intimidated by even the mention of it. I was having so much fun modeling and designing the characters, and building the sets and props. No doubt I was delaying the animation out of fear I’d screw it up.
I’ve always wondered if I have a fear of success or a fear of failure, or a lil bit of both. Goals and deadlines are not the handcuffs I enjoy wearing; in my life, I’ve learned how to slip out of them, but also that they have importance and purpose.
There will be no rain cloud over my head for not reaching my April deadline. I’m really happy with my progress and with being able to break through my fears. Here’s a video of what’s what.
The live-action scene was shot in 2002 or 2003. I am so happy I have that footage as it served as my video reference. I have many other scenes on video already performed and now that I’ve figured out an appropriate workflow, I’m excited to get hopping onto another scene, and then another, and another!
Challenges of the Entryway Scene
1. Mr. Collinsworth has a cane (in the live-action video it’s an umbrella) which switches from his left to right hand, and then into Mr. Brahms left hand. There’s a great tutorial by David Ward on BlenderCookie.com dealing with this very thing.
2. Mr. Collinsworth wears a cape. The cape has both a tall collar and ties that are knotted up. All these things need to be animated. I couldn’t trust a cloth simulator to move the cape around the character and my custom armature was a joke. I had a vision that “shape keys” might be the solution and sure enough, I was right. However, these shape keys need to be applied to the cape on EVERY SINGLE FRAME!!! And there are approximately 248 frames of the cape’s cameo before it is whipped out of sight! This process is going to be tedious, but shortcuts are not really an option. Yes, I could have skipped the cape and just given him an inanimate object to tinker with. The cape stays true to the original idea and is a great bit of humor.
3. As mention in 2., the ties that keep the cape around Collinsworth’s neck need to be animated. That will be simple enough, as well as incredibly tedious.
Lip syncing and expression are still needed, but I’m not very worried about those things. I believe I’ll get them right. I’m sure you’ll trust me on this and just be happy I’m not wasting everyone’s time dissecting more scenes of Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull.
Completed Project Deadline: December 25, 2013
Progress Completed Thus Far (or PCTF): 40%
Cheers,




