The Gardener and The Gopher

Finished!

Natalie Rocks — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 20:19:42 +0000

English Country Gopher is finished!

Shot 16

Natalie Rocks — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 14:48:09 +0000

Latest…

This shot will be cut to black a frame earlier than is shown here.

Shot 16 – Ref

Natalie Rocks — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 21:35:54 +0000

Some ref footage and stills filmed for the final stab shot:

Animation update soon..

ExpoTees Footage

Matt Cox — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 11:02:14 +0000

Yesterday was the ExpoTees show, we got some real interest in our animation and got some great feedback. Our presentation featured two videos, one was a capture of our animation and the other was a showreel of some of the development work for the project. You can watch the showreel again below…

ExpoTees 2010

Natalie Rocks — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 22:35:03 +0000

Our project will be on show at ExpoTees 2010 at Teesside University on the 23rd March.

Exciting.

Shot 11 – 12 update & ref

Natalie Rocks — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 22:59:01 +0000

Other than the troublesome gopher constraints in this shot I was feeling like the gardeners poses and movements were not quite right. So I set about acting out the shot and instantly realised the biggest mistake was that the hips should dip down as he sneaks across. I was stepping the gardener too high. Also spent a lot of time refining the timing and other poses in this shot.

Ref Footage:

And some stills I used:

Having fun with line of action in this shot:

The shot itself:

Shot 02 update and ref footage

Natalie Rocks — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 21:35:24 +0000

I was struggling with timing in shot 02. So I filmed myself acting out the shot…

Notes based on ref:

Lose the pause when lifting flower out of pot and then sniffing.
Look at wobbly flower should be touch longer but not move as far/possibly add a shift of pose
Clean up drift on head when looking proud
Jump back should be quick and snappy / doesn’t have to jump back far
Snap back forward quicker after flower gone
Alter arm poses

And the latest version, almost complete! I keep tweaking poses and curves but need to step away from this shot for a bit before final polishing.

Shot 02, 09 – 12 latest updates and other related matters…

Natalie Rocks — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 21:22:54 +0000

Shot 02 latest:

Shot 09 research:

I have been struggling with creating a snappy jump awake in this shot. After watching lots of classic Tom & Jerry episodes I made these observations which really helped me work out the poses and timing for this shot.

Shot 09 – 12 latest:

Sound effect for flowers going down still to add in shot 09
Shape animation added on chest when snoring
Shots 11-12 still at an early spline blocking stage
Cut between shot 10 & 11 needs a longer hold on gardener at start of shot 10

Story alterations:

Lost the worm & dead leaf in shot 02 / added gardener sniffing the flower.
Night to day transition slowed the pace too much & will aid rendering time to get rid of the pan up & down- removed shot 07 & 08 – fade out gardener falling asleep in shot 06 – come straight in to shot 09 .
Lost one of the gun shots [2 instead of 3].
Gardener drops in dismay after statue breaks instead of yelling.
Shot 11-12 Gopher dives down hole just before the pitch fork stabs him rather than the gardener stab next to him and then gopher goes down hole [enhances gardeners cruelty].
Will be changes to the post-credits shot.

Shot 02 – early blocking & wormy pull test

Natalie Rocks — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 19:05:56 +0000

Quick capture of shot 02 WIP. Hit a difficult point in that I want him to tug at the worm briefly before it pops out, and I want us to feel that stretch of the worm holding on. However the I’ve needed to set a pose constraint on the worm to lock it to the finger tip. I need the root of the worms rig to stay in place [inside the mud block] and using a constraint to do so results in the two constraints fighting against one another.

So I need to come with a logical solution, which was pretty obvious in the end: First constraining the worms effector to the finger tip [rather than a null] then with the root constrained in place the fingers tips may pull the effector. I then release the constraint on the root when I want the worm to come loose. The only issue is pulling the hand too far away when the worm reaches maximum stretch, I can overcome that by just being careful! Here is a quick test of this set up in action:

Shot 05 – First Pass

Matt Cox — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 22:28:21 +0000

Here is a first pass of Shot 05.

This shot will feature a panning camera on the final piece and also the gopher popping up at various places in the garden, however, we have decided to add this as a 2D element in post production.

As this shot ends, it will immediately cut to a close up of the gardener showing his reaction.