Identical Twins Take 2

 So here is the second take of the 'Identical Twins' project with many improvements. The original post was a first run through to block out he action. Here I go for more personality defining the characters in more detail.

 The parts I think benefit most from these changes are the snatch and grab where there"s a nice anticipation action and reaction as well as overlapping action and flexibility in the characters. And where the more pushy one holds the sharpener out of the more anxious one's reach. I think you really get to see the personality there in the timing, with the one having a fast timing but a soft accent to his actions and the other having a relatively slow timing to its actions but a harder accent with a rebound.

 The only part I still feel could be better is the very end where the more mousy green blob gets his sharpener back and runs off with it. I also think there could maybe be more holds. I have an urge to put holds during the snatch and grab, because I think it goes by too fast... so maybe just a 3 or 5 frame hold? I want to reserve longer 8+ frame holds for the big story points. I think I did an okay job anticipating these story points though.

 If anyone would like to leave feed back it would be really helpful, Thank you!

What I would really like to know is how well I balanced out the action of the two characters? When one is moving; is the other still alive but not overpowering the scene?

Identical Twins

 So, I've been reading "Animated Performance, bringing imaginary, animal, human and fantasy characters to life" by Nancy Beiman. This is a first run through on an exercise called Identical twins. The story is that these are two children fighting over a toy and the objective is to establish personality through timing. I don't feel as though I've succeeded yet, but this is just my first try, trying to hit the main poses and solve staging problems. One thing I didn't foresee and solved on the animation table was how the second twin would actually take the "toy" away from the other. One major staging problem was when the twin on the left lunges for the toy, he comes too close and it kind of ruins the effect of when he reaches out and grabs the twin on the right.

 In the next run through I plan on fixing these problems and adding onto the established action... I'm going for personality. In my opinion the clay ball is the stop-motion equivalent of the 2d flour sac. The challenge of making an inanimate object with limited means of communication come alive is still the same.

 Here are some notes I took while reading the book...

• You can switch between characters, letting each lead the action in turn by putting them in the focal point of the frame
• Secondary character should delay a bit before taking over the action to indicate a thought process
• Don't switch between characters too quickly.
• The lead character will not always be at the center of interest, 
• but they will be at the focal point of the scene with no distractions from background elements. 
• The center of interest will shift back and forth between the lead and secondary character based on who is delivering the story point.
•  Secondary characters should sperform subtle actions like blink or tilt their head while the lead is taking over the action so that they don't 'die'. This is called a moving hold.

That's all for today, more to come soon hopefully :)

A few tests with a new setup

 

 Okay, Here are a bunch of new animation tests! The one above was just a spontaneous exercise to try out a new stage set up. Of all the videos I think this one was the most successful in establishing a personality for the ball.

 

Two more exercises, more technical this time. Just trying to get a hang of more detailed facial animation with clay. It's kind of tricky... especially when the clay starts to get soft under the lights. You can see where I had to stop in the first video because the clay wanted to move in more dramatic ways than I needed it to. A trick I just learned is to use compressed air to cool the clay and stiffen it up for more subtle / smaller movements.

The Second video has no sound, I was just following the animators survival guide lip sync examples. What is shows though is how easy it is to animate a simple mouth. This mouth was just a gash I made with a sculpting tool. More complex mouths are possible of course with tongues and teeth and such, but  that requires a commitment beyond just trying out mouth shapes for the first time.

Recyclers storyboards

The animation hasn't been timed out yet, this is just to show the progression of events, with a little temp music.

Recyclers

A not so distant future, where all hydro-carbon based fuel sources have been depleated. Humanity is faced with only one choice; recycle or die. Although the landscape has changed, human nature has not, as soon as the waste of the past century becomes the dominant resource on the planet, nations and states begin fighting and waging war over what was once our trash. So before you throw out that milk jug or that egg carton, think of the future soldires who will die fighting over it in the coming Trash Wars.

My Demo Reel