Animals & Creatures 2 - Week 4

From Blocking to Blocking Plus I went through a TON of changes in this assignment! Fortunately I had a peer buddy who noticed that I had made my shot was 3 and a half times over the limit of the assignment - 29 seconds as oppose to 7!!

I had to re-think, re-structure and re-evaluate the whole shot. I asked myself questions like, should I carry on using this matchmove? Will the idea still come through if I cut it down by so much? I was quite stressed out by the whole thing because I know I had to get a lot done in a short space of time and I really wanted this to be a great shot to put in my reel - that's 95% of the point!

I made several versions in each layer, but to save time and space in this post I will just show the crucial versions of each pass...

Blocking 29 seconds version 1 Blocking 29 seconds version 2 Re-Block Version 1 Re-Block Version 2 Re-Block Version 5 Blocking Plus Version 7 I also made the necessary changes to my storyboard

Animals & Creatures 2 - Week 3

Following my mentors final notes on the flght cycle, I made changes and uploaded a revision. The new assignment from last week now required reference footage to help guide me through the complicated choreography and mechanics. The matchmove was a very nice plate of a helicam soaring over the cliffs of Hawaii - perfect setting for a Dragon! This was just the planning which gave an idea how the Dragon was going to use screen space and get from point A, to B and C etc.

Animals & Creatures 2 - Week 2

This weeks assignment was to do final animation of the Flight Cycle following the penultimate notes from my mentor's e-critiques and to start a new assignment, planning a shot against our first matchmove plate.
I couldn't decide which matchmove plate I preferred to use, so I planned out the shots for both and sent them to my mentor for his feedback.

In the end we both felt that the second idea had more potential and used the plate more to its potential.

Animals & Creatures 2 - Week 1

I've had a fantastic break over the Christmas and New Year holiday and felt very excited to start the new and final term of Animals and Creature Master Class.

The first assignment (spread over 2 weeks) is to produce a vanilla flight cycle. For the first couple of days I spent a lot of time reading, researching and studying the various aspects that make up a flight cycle. Here is my first try:
I am pleased with my progress so far because I understand what's going on "under the hood" in this basic flight cycle. But of course there are a lot fo changes to make, which I will do for next week - and demonstrate my understanding more clearly.

Below is the reference video I compiled and the notes I made...