Animating Process - Scene 7

Since scene 6 can potentially be summed up with a black screen and some funny sound effects I decided to skip it for now to concentrate on more important scenes.

Scene 7 is the introduction for the reveal of the doctors machine. The camera pans out from an extreme closeup of the machine until the doctor is revealed making last minute adjustments to the control panel.

Setting the Scene

Making adjustments

As the camera pans out the doctor animates his arms and head as if making adjustments to the machine.

The oval shape pod of the machine, highlighted in pink here was taken from an existing free to use model to save time.

This model can be found here:-
http://www.turbosquid.com/FullPreview/Index.cfm/ID/154630 
The use of this model is protected under the standard royalty free license.

Animating Process - Scene 5

This is the scene that basically shows the doctor getting to work, he pulls on his goggles, causing the rubber band to stretch and then lets go snapping them into place over his eyes.

Hands Positioned, Grabbing Goggles

Same as above, without bones showing

To animate the goggle strap stretching I used the modifier FFD 4X4X4 which allows simple deformation of the object.

Before Modifier

After Modifier

This gives a fairly realistic stretching look as the object is deformed. He then moves the goggles to be about eye level and releases them. This is achieved by animating the fingers individually.

Holding at eye level

Release!

Here is a quick render of the whole animation as it looks so far. I added a small recoil animation on his head as the goggle goes into place to overemphasise the force.

Animating Process - Scene 4 Continued

Continued from the previous post I have animated the basic animation for the character laughing maniacally. He raises his arms up in a dramatic pose and laughs hard by leaning back. The scene still needs some facial expressions including him opening and closing his mouth to present laughter.

I have looked into proper use of the morpher tool to achieve this effect here:-

http://extrox.com/3ds_max_tutorials/3ds_max_animation/animating-facial-expressions-using-the-morpher-modifier

The link above his a couple great videos on the use of morpher for facial animation including how to create phonemes to simulate speach. However I have decided to come back to this later if possible as the deadline for the project is looming closer and I fear I will not have a complete animation in time if I stop to encorporate this. 

The classic pose

Another angle showing camera setup

Messing With Morpher

Ive had a great deal of trouble trying to get morpher to behave in conjuntion with both the CAT Motion system and the Skin Modifier. It seems that attempting to create copies of the mesh after rigging does not work in the slightest. The only success ive been able to have is to turn off skin, thus losing all rigging and animation so far and then create morph targets.

Even like this it doesnt seem to work correctly so, since the amount of time left to complete the animation is quite short I have decided to not use the morpher modifier. Unfortunatly this means I cant animate the mouth during the scenes where he should be grinning or laughing.

Just to show that I am capable of using morpher I quicker created a test animation blending his slightly adjar mouth into fully open.

Morph Target Copy

Smiling

Open Mouth

Animating Process - Scene 4

In scene 4, Dr. Charles reveals his dastardly plan to the audience by unravelling his blueprints onto the desk in front of him. The words Doomsday Device Number 22 are visible at the top of the blueprint indicating the potential danger of his plan as well as the success he has had so far with the previous 21 devices (None).

This scene start in a first person view from the doctors perspective as he puts the blueprint on the desk and unravels it.

Blueprint as created in Adobe Photoshop CS4

Setting up the scene

Unravelling the blueprint in first person

View of the scene from a different angle

Camera pans up slowly to finally reveal the character

The screen shot above is the view that leads into the character grinning and then laughing manically which I am going to work on next.

Animating Process - Scene 2 & 3

Scene 2 is a short short segment where the character claps his hands to turn on the laboratory lights. It leads directly into scene 3 after the lights have flickered into life.

In scene 3 the character drums his fingers together in a thoughtful yet creepy manner. This is the end of the introduction scenes and simply jump cuts into the next scene where things get started.

Scene 2 - Clapping on the lights

Scene 3 - Drumming fingers

The drumming of the fingers was a simple yet fiddely process, animated using keyframing techniques for each finger. Once I had the initial sequence of fingers drumming I copied the frames and duplicated the sequence twice more.

Here is what it looks like at the moment:

 

The sequences feel a bit jumpy between each other so I will probably go back and try and make it flow better. 

Animating Process - Scene 0 (Intro Scene)

Probably would have been easier to call this scene 1 but what you gonna do?

Anyway this scene is the introduction of the character, shot in silhouette to maintain mystery and suspense.

Character is revealed!

This scene didnt take too long to create, he simply stands in the doorway with his hands on his hips in an impatient manner as the doors slide open. A target spot camera is placed behind him with high intensity to create a silhouette.

Here is how it looks at the moment: