Monthly Archives: July 2012

July 24, 2012 · 11:55 am

Just Like i’ve Been Saying…

A new Dreamworks feature, “Me and My Shadow” which combines 3d and 2d animation – admittedly not in any innovative new methods of blending the two together like Paperman is supposed to be doing.

Hopefully this isn’t just a gimmick aimed at getting attention from the people fed up with ‘copy & paste’ 3d animation features – the story needs to hold up too and make it seem relevant to even try this combination.

Anyway, let’s hope this is only the start.

 

Link for some angry/let down comments already; http://www.cartoonbrew.com/cgi/me-and-my-shadow-poster.html#comments

 

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July 12, 2012 · 11:00 pm

Jaffa Cakes; The Movie

Yeah, yeah, 12 seconds long. I think i’ll work a little bit more on this short after I finish this MA course (2 weeks). It’s looking quite nice, yes there are a few problems with it, things that if I were to work in this style again I would know and implement from the outset, i.e. hands and feet being a part of the attached limb rather than just follow it. Be more careful with the face! The eyes/mouth/hair don’t move and shift perfectly with the face, but I like them all as separate objects… a compromise perhaps?

Hmm I don’t know, but it’s an interesting mix of 2d and 3d and certainly looks handmade.

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July 6, 2012 · 3:27 pm

Diffuse Glow

With even more talk and hype around Disney’s “Paperman” I thought I’d try recreating this groundbreaking combination of 2d and 3d animation.

I don’t mean to sound so sour about this, but every image I have seen just looks like somebody has added a grainy diffuse filter in post production to a ‘normal’ 3d render. I really hope that the technique they’re using does justify the hype. I think 3d animation would really benefit from the charm of hand made marks, rather than being ‘plasticy’ and sterile as it so often is – that’s why I’ve been trying to do just that.

Like I said, I don’t want to sound bitter, I hope it is brilliant, I hope it validates everything I am working towards! It just seems odd getting so excited about animation when you can only see stills.

Taking of which, here is a still from the animation I am doing…

A link to some cool Paperman stuff: http://www.cartoonbrew.com/cgi/a-little-more-about-disneys-paperman.html

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July 5, 2012 · 12:25 pm

Jaffa Cakes Guy

So i’m back to doing this again and everything was running quite smoothly, which means something confusing will happen soon.

The arms (and other blend shapes) are really tricky. Due to them being completely flat they can only move in certain motions without becoming invisible. Distorting and twisting the drawings to use them as blend shapes is an interesting technique though, it allows the looped texture of an object to be animated with and controlled in 3d software. It also gives you the option to mix up 2d and 3d animation quite nicely.

I am finding the right arm to be especially difficult as it will need to move more than the rest and has the most complicated paths. Linking body parts together in the hierarchy is proving to be annoying too because moving a limb via blend shapes does not change it’s position in the world space, just it’s appearance – so a hand or foot won’t follow the bent arm or leg.

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