Scene 14: Jump Research

Scene 14 Freefalling Update

I have been working today on the freefall scene, using the Woody arm flaps as inspiration for the ending so the Mongolian does not look like he is just floating. I have left the movement until the end to emphasise the realisation that the ground is getting closer and panic has set in. I like the movement I think it suits the scene well.

I do realise this is no where near finished especially with the movement of the Marmot. I again concentrated on the end so where he does the jumps over the Mongolian's head and now there are 3 chickens in the scene - one parented to each character and one for the air spin. The transition between the three is pretty good and hopefully you cannot tell.

Improvements for tomorrow:

• Middle section - where marmot jumps on his arms I am going to try and get him to flap his arms and feet to gain height to jump on the man. This could be a reason the man tries to copy him aswell
• Beginning Marmot- he moves down quicker than the man and he needs to be grabbing the chicken on the way down
• Facial Expressions - realisation of man and happiness of marmot for getting it back, as well as struggle when they are fighting
  

Toy Story Free Falling

The main scene I have been struggling with (and somewhat leaving until last to concentrate on the other scenes) is the Freefall sequence. I have had trouble due to the director changing his mind on what he wants and also deciding how complex to make the sequence.

Finally we decided to just have the characters falling straight, and I would like to keep the pulling section at the beginning so they are fighting over the chicken, but the ending was undecided.

I have used these two Toy Story references as it shows the two paths I could take. The first is very controlled and is more like a planned free fall with the arms out and kind of 'floating' down to the ground. The second is much more panicky and shows the desperation by the arms keep flapping in the air.

I particularly like the second one and feel this would be perfect to use for the Mongolian as he would be panicked as he falls to the ground. I am not sure what to use for the Marmot however, I may make him calmer as it would suit his cheeky character better and also he will seemingly be in control as he ends with the chicken in his possession at the end of the scene. Furthermore, too much movement in the scene may make it look unappealing to the audience and I do not want to confuse them. I am going to test this tonight and see if it suits the characters.

After Effects Flame Test

As I have been testing the flames in Maya I thought I would also try in After Effects to see which the group prefers. I have been playing with Trapcode Particular and think this looked the best, but I can sit with Dave and try for something better if you prefer



Using the same flame on a still in Sam's scene:



Reminder of the cartoon flame I made in Maya (which can be textured however you want) :



Let me know which you prefer and I will keep testing them this week until they are perfect :)

Scene 8: Run cycle

I have quickened the Marmot's run cycle as he seemed too slow to be properly running away from the Mongolian:



Although from the camera shot and scale of the scene it probably will not make much distance. I have done it in the cartoony fast run like in the Animatic as there is no way he could cover this much distance in the timeframe. Again we will probably get away with the feet being in different positions for example when landing and taking off again as he is so small compared to the environment and there are no close ups of the feet.


I know Sam is doing all the posh rendering with Ambient Occlusions etc, but I wanted to test a bit of rendering myself so I used my cartoon ramp shader again to see how it would look on one of our characters. I do actually think it looks pretty cool.

I then took the footage into After Effects and used the Luma Key to block out the black background, although he did lose some of his nose in the process I think it still suits the style

Scene 21 Arm Problems

I don't know what I have done to the arm... the hand will not follow the arm... please help or tell me how to fix him, thank you! xx

Scene 21 and 22 Update

This is the first pass of scenes twenty one and twenty two. The two are probably going to be combined into one shot as it is a continual movement of him sneaking up behind the Marmot and grabbing the chicken.

Before this I just had the Marmot dancing on the spot with the chicken, so it is vastly improved in that the Mongolian is there and it is within the environment. I needed the environment to be here early in the production of the scene as the geometry of the mountain top changes. I need to plant the feet of the Mongolian and the Marmot on the floor at different angles for the walk cycles as it is not a flat trajectory. Unfortunately, another team member refused to give me the file for a while, so after a little nagging I finally got hold of it.

When I began the scene I was unsure how to have the Mongolian take the chicken back, as obviously he will not be seen by the Marmot until the final moment or after it has been taken. I spoke to my director regarding this and he wants the Mongolian to push the Marmot out of the way when he is about to eat the chicken. I like my movement of the Mongolian at this point, it reminds me of a computer game fighting pose - for example a Tekken move. The scene now just needs refining.