First 3D Animatic Pass Done, What's Next?

Last week, we had our first animatic pass for the semester. It was our first animatic pass fully in 3D! It was really cool to finally see our work all put together nicely and in the screening room! That was the first time seeing some of the shots in our story animated because I worked primarily on the beginning parts whereas others did the end.

One of the things that the teachers mentioned was to keep an ear out for when your peers react to something on screen. Those scenes are ones that are either really good or ones that are weird and you might need to take a look at. We had a couple of these scenes and we made sure to take note of them. One of the things we decided that we would do next time is try to have someone follow along and write out what parts people are reacting to so we can have them directly. I think it will be good so we are not trying to remember them later on. One of the things that they gasped and laughed at was when the Ring Master threw Finn down the stairs.

These are more advanced than what we had in our animatic. It was my goal this week to work on blocking for Sequence 0. The part that I got done was shots 1 and 2. The Ring Master drags Finn towards the stairs and ends up throwing him down. I was partly dreading animating this part because I would have to go through and make sure that Finn was in the Ring Master's hand at every single frame, but fortunately one of my professors, Brett, saved me. He was able to help me parent Finn to the Ring Master's hand and be able to turn it on and off so I could just animate the Ring Master's hand instead of frame by framing it. It allowed me to have Finn be jostled and moved around a little bit more before the throw which I think will look much better and more realistic in the film.

I also animated Finn's hair and sash moving and rocking as the Ring Master walks. I think that's more of a polishing pass thing to do but I wanted to do it now as sort of a treat for my other good work.

I really love doing super-specific animations like fingers, expressions, and little movements. So blocking and rough passes are a little difficult for me because I keep wanting to get sidetracked with the stuff I like. I have been able to do better, but hopefully, it won't make it so my rough passes get messed up because I'm doing too much (much like how I do extra for blocking passes)

One of the things that I did this week was make an alternate version of Sequence 0 Shot 4. In this version, Finn is on their back (see above). One of my team members wanted to try it so maybe there would be better camera angles and we could get more of their faces. I tried it and sent it to my group for feedback and we decided to keep Finn on their stomach.

Once we decided for the stomach version of this shot, I continued the rough animation pass. I think what I have for the way Rory lifting Finn up looks good and has some nice curves. The only thing is timing, it feels slow so hopefully, someone will say something or when I go to my teacher he will give suggestions.

I also really like the curve of Rory's back that I got for this part. Once Rory's tail is fixed up, it will make it have an even better curve that I can make that goes all the way from Rory's head to their tail. The curve really shows the effort Rory is going through. I think during the polish pass I'll even make Rory's feet have a bit more emotion.

For next week, I get to keep working on the rough animation passes of the scenes. I am going to need to pick up the pace because the group wants to have the whole thing in the rough state by the next Animatic Pass. Wish me luck!