My Third Year Blog

Hello - Welcome to my blog! I have just finished my 3rd year BA course in Animation at the University of Lincoln. Below is the final film which I have submitted called 'The Rhythmic Squirrel'



Part of the brief encouraged us to work on other projects in our specialised area. As my main skills are in animation, Matt Bayfield had asked if I could animate a few characters that he had created for his project called 'Psychadelic Panda Launch'. The rigs and characters that I was given to work with were great fun to use and I am really pleased with the animation that I produced.
Panda getting shot in the shoulder.

Mushroom bobbing to the music.

First edit of film.

Storyboards and Animation

Example of planning for routine3.


When I first started animating I worked by stepping the characters which can make the animations look robotic. After trying different techniques and watching tutorials I discovered many ways in which Maya can help visualise how my animation would look. For example, I used Animation snapshot which allowed me to see the exact route my hoop was taking, and when I adjusted the curves the snapshot updated allowing me instantly to assess the results. When I came to animating the scenes towards the end of Hazel's routine, I tended to used clamped curves which I found was easier to see the animation working. I also tried to use the front and side views as much as possible so that I wasn't animating too many rotations or movements at a time.









The clip below shows my first attempt at routine1 and also shows some examples of sketches I did to help with timing and visualise the motions of each scene. There are also some images from a book about rhythmic gymnastics which helped me to think about possible moves that I could piece into my routine.

The idea for the rhythmic squirrel came about during a formative review on the 18th of December. During this review I was showing the 2nd idea that I had produced called 'Mr Pennel' after viewing the animatic and receiving feedback, we discussed ideas that could be more benificial to me. One of the tutors taking the review, called Les, pointed out the squirrel from the beginning of my animatic expressed how something nice and simple like what was shown might be a simpler idea.

With all the feedback I had received I had decided to use the squirrel rig available from CreativeCrash.com and had the Christmas holiday to produce an idea that I could finally get

in motion.

I returned in the New Year and had decided my squirrel would definitely be doing gymnastics so that I could push my animation skills to hopefully show an understanding of body motion and reaction. Also with the Olympics being held in London in 2012 this would be a subject that is of current interest.










The images above were for one concept in which the coach accidentally enters his male pole vaulter into the female rhythmic ball section and he had to compete and pretend he is female.

Whilst thinking about what the squirrel's story would be, I tried to take the opportunity when I could to familiarise myself with the Squirrel rig and carried out a few animation tests.





Modelling the Stadium

As I continued too visualise my film I started to design and create the scenes and assets that I would need.








Finally I had settled on my final idea which was going to be about Hazel Williams, she is competing in the final of the rhythmic hoop section and is Britains best hope of a medal. With all the pressure and the home crowd watching can she handle the pressure?

I did have a few pressures myself along the way in my final year; changing my film concept twice and in the final high pressured weeks of production deadline my hard drive was damaged and I lost a month's worth of animation files!! Shock horror!! After explaining this to my tutors they gave me an extension. Even with this extra time I was unsure how many scenes I could recover and reproduce. On the positive side using this high pressure I was able to animate more efficiently to the tight deadline and actually feel pleased with the final outcome of my film!!

My Previous Ideas

At the beginning of the academic term I came up with a few ideas which I believed could really test my skills in character animation.

My first idea is called 'Mr Pennel' and involves a musical pod which acts like a bus transporting people to different destinations whilst providing fun along the way. The main character is a lonely old guy in his 60's that doesn't like technology or see the need for change. Then one day the mail hits his door and he discovers he has won an experience on 'The Pod'. Altough he is unsure and slightly cautious about technology he loves the idea of experiencing his favourite era, the 70's...

The pod arrives and the man gets on and has a menu of different themes that he could experience, and one of them themes is the 70's which reminds him of his youth. As soon as the 70's theme kicks in he is overjoyed and can't help but dance to one of his old favourites.

The pod suddenly stops to pick up another passenger. The guy dancing doesn't realise it has stopped until the doors have opened and he feels slightly embarrassed as the new lady passenger caught him dancing.

The snobby lady looks disgusted and shuffles on and presses her destination. I wanted to use two characters with conflicting personalities to create an interesting story as well as push me to practice character interaction in my animation.

After I received feedback from my animatic, I took on board the comments and looked at giving my story a bit more meaning and making it easier too understand.

My Current idea - The Dreammaker



My story concentrates on an elderly couple that win a free pass on the dreammaker which allows them to revisit memories from their past.
The story starts with the old lady bringing her husband a cup of tea as he watches tv.
The husband watches an advert about the dreammaker and he leans forward slightly with interest thinking about what he could visit before being put off when the advert reveals that it does cost money.




Script Part One..

Old Lady

"oh look we forgot to open the post today"

Old man

slight grunt ( he's not really bothered.)

She reads the letter and sees that they have one something!

"I think we've won something dear"

Old man

"haay, what u on about?"

She rushes over all excited and shows him the letter "look it says it'll be here tomorrow"

The Old man looks too find an excuse not to go.

"well we can't tomorrow it's washing day"

Old Lady looks upset

"oohh... we never win anything"

The Old man looks over and as he likes to make his wife happy he says

"Well I suppose we could leave the washing till wednesday"

She's pleased and leans over and gives him a kiss.

The next scene starts with the old lady excited announcing that the dreammaker has arrived and they both head out towards it. We then see different shots of the dreammaker and a car or two hover past.

The old couple enter, the old man is a bit cautious but he is excited too and they both sit down.

The dreammaker looks great from the outside but is a bit scruffy inside and the seats look like there from an old hairdressers.

The dreammaker then starts up and we are taken to the memory created by the dreammaker and we can see the characters looking younger and enjoying themselves in a 70's nightclub.

We see a dreamy drinking scene where they are laughing and joking, followed by a groovy dance scene, and then a scene where they go in for a kiss.

When they are about to have their romantic kiss the dream is suddenly stopped.
The Dreammaker says - "For more time on the dreammaker sign up now at www.dreammaker.com"

They both wake and get their bearings, the old man finds it a little amusing that their memory was stopped. The old lady is a bit disappointed it ended early and the old man comforts her and says "we dont need no dreammaker dear, do we?" she replies "no course not" and they walk off hand in hand.

Concept Design

Characters by Matt Bayfield.

My Animatic