After completing the Previs side of this project and handing over the proxy environment to the artist it was time to start animating the more final shots. For each shot I had about 1 week, so unfortunately due to time restrictions I was unable to animate as smooth and refined as ideally intended. However it gave me good practice in animating intense creature body-mechanics over a short period time, which will strongly benefit me when it comes to working in TV or Adverts which short turn around are expected compared to an industry such as film.
Shot 1: Shot 1 is the simplest shot of the project in terms of animation, but in terms of FX and environment it's a large undertaking due to the smoke/fire FX we want to be filling the expansive forest. The animation in this shot is rather simple, the dragon powers over the camera and banks to the left mid flight before exiting the screen. Using the tool 'RedNine' I was able to add randomised key-frames to certain controllers on the dragon making it look even faster, as the wings shake to simulate the wind that the speeding dragon is creating. I also used this tool to add shake to the camera, which gives the dragon an even greater sense of speed and power.
Shot 2: Shot 2 offered a few challenges which made it quite a difficult shot to animate. The main problems I encounter here were the dragons slowing down in-front of the castle and hovering there as it breathes fire into the keep. This was difficult because I had a short time to make all the motions blend together nicely and flow cleanly. Making the dragon the hover was easier as I was able to make a loop then offset certain controllers to make sure it wasn't too repetitive, then to making the dragon actually breathe fire I had a couple of methods to approach this, I could of used animation layers, or just animated the head freely; because I haven't used animation layers very often I decided to just animate the head freely, the results I imagine would be similar, however it meant the timeline was slightly more cluttered.
Shot 3: Shot 3 is the direct continuation of shot 2 an it is double in length, this shot is roughly 14 seconds long which meant it is longest shot of the project. Animating the shot meant I had to closely work with the previous shot to make sure that it flowed nicely, by examining poses and timings. The dragon falling onto the wall was again uses the tool 'RedNine' to give it the extra sense of extreme weight, as well as when the dragon breathes fire; this is because I noticed that it made the shot look more believable when the camera wobbled as to suggest the power of the fire. At the end of this show the dragon anticipates the launch off the wall which in turn makes the wall collapses, these FX will be added using Houdini in the post production stage of production. I had to be careful with the flying upwards during this shot as the dragon was so close to the wall, I will have to re adjust this once I get the final environment to make sure the dragon does not clip through any of the elements.
Shot 4: This shot was more spontaneous in terms of what is happening due to me realising that the original idea was not as exciting as I hoped for in the previs stage. Animating this piece offered a new challenge to both the artist and FX, this i because I wanted the dragon to fly into the tower and tear down the wall as it jumps backwards off the wall, revealing the inside of the keep. The dragon then proceeds to breathes fire into the castle which means the fire can burst outside the windows and engulf the whole building. Animating the dragon for this piece was rather simple, as it was two main points, hitting the wall and bouncing off of the wall, so I tried to show a lot of weight and anticipation to make the dragon feel heavy and powerful.
Shot 4.5: This is a test I did regarding shot 4, I wanted to see what it would look like if there was a moment where the camera spun around the burning castle in slow motion. The FX would be slowed down and the dragon would also be moving in slow motion, this shot would be there mainly as an art piece to show how interesting and beautiful the final project is. However I decided to go against this due to the complications it would add to both the FX and rendering parts of the project.
Here we can see what the all the clips together looks like from start to finish. Although before the final edition there will be some small changes this is more of a comparison between the original Previs idea and the current look of the project. It is very interesting to see the path I decided to go as a director and animator. This movie also misses out the interesting aspects of the final environment and any of the FX.
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