Scale Number Two

Is this ok in scale for the Mongolian to the Marmot?

If so I can start creating the skeleton for him tomorrow :)

Man Model Changes

Ok I need a couple of changes for the man - I will need the beard and eyebrows to be final before I do the blendshapes as they will be moved while I am using the grab tool for the expressions. This is the main priority for me to start work on him.


Also the inside of the mouth looks disgusting - remember it will be seen and textured and also it probably needs to be joined at the back otherwise you will see through to the back of his head.

Please can I have the changes by tomorrow? I can start to add the joints in when I have scaled him to the Marmot

Ice Age 3

Screenshots:


1. Scratt against the tree similar to the Marmot hiding

2. Leads with his nose to smell the acorn

3. Manny on edge of the cliff - nice stylised trees too - could be good shot idea


4. The same position camera changed to above


5. Manny falls onto the trees - again nice and stylised with Mountains in the background


6. This is a later sequence with Syd chasing the dino eggs. Here they are running down a hill


7. Syd trips on a stone like our character hit the tree


8. Nice low angle looking up the hill at them. This is how I imagined the shot of the Marmot where the eggs are followed by the Man where Syd is


9. Syd then hits a bit of tree and slides down the rest of the hill on it


10. Nice long shot from the air to vary the camera shots


11. He then also goes inside of a tree this is nice to vary the action and provide a gag


12. POV almost got the egg. The trees and background look really nice here too. Maybe if we added a bit of snow on the trees we could stylise them like this when on higher ground.


13. At the end he hits a ramp and they all go flying into the air, a bit like we had it. This is a really nice shot with him central as the camera pans to follow him. And again the backgounds look awesome.



I urge everyone to watch this film it is awesome reference

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0ykM1ALggE

This video is just to reference Scratt leading with his nose around the tree and also how they pull the acorn from one to the other fighting with it.

The trailer for it is also really useful:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4gvxUlGNAs

The sweeping camera is really good for our establishing move at the beginning. There is also the idea of them walking through snow and pushing against it if you want to use the mountain. Also Mike said about holding the man in midair and this is a perfect example, and is funny as he steps in the air before he falls. We could definitely use that as one of the gags.

Nice example of a very simplistic animation.

Lion King Research

At 3 mins is the passing of time section

also this is the short running scene where he is in the background really small and there is the close up of his feet. This is really nice.

Warner Bros Research

Merrie Melodies - A Wild Hare (First Bugs Episode)



3:42ish going around tree





Nice silhouette use near beginning


Roadrunner 3D



Aw these are awesome, the backgrounds have nice textures and the fur on the coyote looks wicked. Could be a great inspiration for cartoony styling.


I couldn't find much useful stuff on Youtube but I've ordered a Looney Tunes DVD, hopefully I will find a bit more on there and post it afterwards.

Tex Avery Research

'Happy Go Nutty' - squirrel similar to Marmot



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTttAkELFZc



This one wouldn't let me embed, but it is awesome reference for the film. I like the squirrel going inside the trees that could be good to use, and also the balance between a bit of running and a gag, bit of running and a gag etc. The ending is also pretty cool, we could use 'the end' sign in ours in like mongolian script...


Tex Avery Chilly Willy The Legend Of Rockabye Point 1955



I put this one up mainly for the walk cycles. I really like the way that the penguin bends backwards and the polar bear bends mainly forwards. I think if the Marmot ran bending backwards it would be better with his bigger feet, so I am going to try this tomorrow. The polar bear stance could also be taken by the man to show they are opposites or against each other. Again I will try this with a different rig and then our final model when he is ready. The end when they go up the iceberg could be similar to the two running up the mountain and shows that we could do it quickly- it doesn't have to be timed realistically.
(I also think when he rocks the dog to sleep with his bum it's hilarious)



'The Black Cat'



This one is mainly just for fun, but I do like the way the dog holds his belly when he laughs. The Marmot could do this if he thinks he has got one over the Mongolian.


Droopy Dog-Out Foxed



This one is quite funny aswell. I like it around 4:50 when the fox is hiding around the dog and also at around 5:45 when the fox kicks droopy as they are running. The marmot himself could curl up and trip the man over?



Droopy Dog-Northwest Hounded Police



Nice camera shots running through the icy mountains- with him running towards camera- also theres a super big mountain about half way through.

Monday Th. Update.

Today we Had a group update to make sure everything was ok and to be clear on what we all were doing.

(David) Me

• Will be attempting to rig a tree
• Matt painting, for models

(Tara)

• Finishing the Marmot Rig finished in the next couple of days.

(Hayley)

• Rigging the man and getting on with blend shapes for face expressions.

(Dean) 

• Modeling props and UV mapping.

(Sam)

• Render Tests 

Testing the Marmot: Run Cycle

Here is a short test for the run with the Marmot. He is on 3s because it looks better and will look good when I have cleaned it up and added better inbetweens. I think the arms are a little too small they are a bit pointless as we won't be able to do much with them... I don't know something just doesn't feel right about them.

Marmot Hand Problems

UPDATE: There's also problems when you move the clavicle controls and I cannot twist the hop half of the torso... Sorry Tara

Tara the Marmot's right hand does not work at all, either breaking the hand, the index curl I think doesn't do anything because the bones are not attached to the finger etc.

New Marmot Feet Problems

How is this scale for the chicken?

I'm still having problems with the legs...
If you look at the picture there is a crease on the back of the legs, when they are moved it is what makes the legs deform


See the crease here and this is just from a little movement.

Could the model be changed so that the back of the leg is straight? That way it should not deform. Sorry if that makes more hassle...

On the positive side, the rig is much better :) :)

Man Model

Here is the model i did i know its not amazing as i started yesterday but it will have a face and be finished by friday. ive been keeping it low res for rigging ease let me know if you spot any changes. hayley i will send you the finished face asap for blend shapes. :)

Marmot Feet Problems

I've only done the feet for a Marmot walk cycle so far (sorry for being ill guys) but I think we are going to have problems with the size of the feet and them going into the body of the Marmot:


Also when I just moved the leg back slightly there was this break:

I made the walk quite bouncy, I am going to see tomorrow if keeping him higher off the ground with his torso or rotating it will accommodate the feet, if not we may need to make the legs longer? or reduce his body size?

I don't know how to fix the break though- any ideas Tara?

UPDATE: I also started to rotate the body and this happened... don't know if this is due to how the weights are painted but it doesn't look good

First 3.D environment camera test!! mmmmm potential

CHECK IT OUT AT 0:09 SAMS REDNERS HAD A SIMILAR LOOK AND WITH SOME MATT PAINTING WE COULD DO IT.

0:09

check it out

http://www.blogger.com/page-edit.g?blogID=7582620331075602781&pageID=6813160964665082564

Man and his Blend Shapes

Hopefully this is the final model of the man- David or Sam need to test the textures or renders on him


And here are his blend shapes:
All of them


Eyebrow positions

Emotions

Mouth Positions

Cheeks

I haven't put them into Maya yet and will do when he is scaled properly tomorrow and I can rename and scale all the heads properly

marmot Model..

I have the marmot rig up to the stage of the weights done. I do need to find a IK stretchy tutorial that will work with my rig, And Hayley do i need to make face controls? i'm not sure on that. The file for some reason wasn't emailing because the file is too big. Discuss it tomorrow when everyone is in.

See you all tomorrow.

Tara

Block Out So Far

• Ill spend sunday creating the rest.
• One concern is that if I model the scene as one piece that it may be a bit much for maya to handle I have been modeling a lot of the mountains separately so it should be ok if we have to cut the scenes up.
• I may have to get rid of the cliff part as its causing a bit tricky sculpting the landscape to tie in with that section.
• I think we should take it into mudbox after.

Group aims for this weekend 18th-21st

Howdy, I know i forgot to post this yesterday. :-) Hope all your dissertations went well....

David - Block out environment so on monday we can go through some camera angles.

Tara - I know- still not finished, Marmot, but id like it to be finished today.

Sam- Environment trees - Ice age have some cool looking pine trees.

Dean - Environment UV mapping - log / hut

Hayley - Completion of model and blend shapes for mongolian

Any questions ect, email me.

cheers.

Mongolian: Adding the Hat

Basic shape:
I can make it bigger and change it however when we meet tomorrow :)



And just experimenting with a furry texture: