This module has been split up into two parts. Part One is 'Posing and Staging' and Part Two is the 'Lip Sync Animation'.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
PART ONE
For Part One I have been given 6 posing titles:
'I think it's dead'
'What's under there?'
'Full bladder!'
'Just missed it'
'Dancing to impress'
'Waiting for the train'
From these 6 pose titles I have chosen 4. For these 4 titles, I will be drawing a page of poses, before picking the best pose from each page. The final poses from each page will then be staged in Softimage using an already existing rig!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
After showing the above poses to my class and listening to their opinions I have now further developed my poses and now have these final four poses!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
So after submitting the final poses above, the feed back I received was very promising! Out of a possible 15 marks I got 11 which I was happy about and had some very positive feedback about my preliminary sketches, the ''I Think It's Dead'' pose and the ''Waiting For The Train'' pose. Sadly my ''Just Missed It'' pose and ''Dancing To Impress'' pose let me down but the feedback was still positive, it just showed me how I could have done better. All in all I am happy with what I got and will carry this happy energy into the next part of the module!!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
The next stage of this ICA is to come up with an animation to accompany a sound clip. This means the first thing I needed to do was listen too all 8 sound clips and choose which one I liked best.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
PART TWO
The next stage of this ICA is to come up with an animation to accompany a sound clip. This means the first thing I needed to do was listen too all 8 sound clips and choose which one I liked best.
So, out of these 8 sound files I decided the best clip for me was 'Cake and Fine Wine!' From a scene in the film 'Withnail and I' where by Withnail (played by Richard E. Grant) is demanding that he and his friend Marwood (played by Paul McGann) get "Cake and the finest wines available to humanity".
As you can see in the clip above, in the films original scene Withnail and Marwood are in a coffee shop and quite clearly drunk. For my animation, I plan on having my character quite clearly drunk as well, however instead of a coffee shop the scene shall be set in a Church!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Now I know what sound clip I am using and have a general idea about what will be going on in my animation, the next stage for me is to draw up some key poses so that I can see if my animation will potentially work and how it may look!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
With my idea layed out in key pose sketches, its now time to find a suitable rig to use and build my scene!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
With my idea layed out in key pose sketches, its now time to find a suitable rig to use and build my scene!
Below is a character layout of my rig that I plan on using for this animation:
And here are some screen shots from the scene i have built:
So now that I have chosen my character rig and built my scene the next stage for me is to create a rough animation using the blocking-out technique before filling in the gaps and making the animation smooth. After this I will finish the animation off by adding the lip sync!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
As it is actually quite difficult to animate a drunken person, I have been looking into a lot of reference videos to help me.
The videos below, which were found on YouTube, have been very useful and as well as making me laugh, gave me some good ideas of how people act and react to things when they are drunk!
Great Drunk Acting - 'Jim Lahey'
Drunk Man Trying To Walk Up Hill
Drunk Girl Talking
Rambling Drunk Girl Making No Sense
Really Drunk Guy Struggling To Walk In Store
Drunk People Compilation
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
And here are some screen shots from the scene i have built:
 |
| Full Church Scene |
 |
| The Alter |
 |
| Close Up of Railings |
 |
| Church Bench |
 |
| Bible Stand |
So now that I have chosen my character rig and built my scene the next stage for me is to create a rough animation using the blocking-out technique before filling in the gaps and making the animation smooth. After this I will finish the animation off by adding the lip sync!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
As it is actually quite difficult to animate a drunken person, I have been looking into a lot of reference videos to help me.
The videos below, which were found on YouTube, have been very useful and as well as making me laugh, gave me some good ideas of how people act and react to things when they are drunk!
Great Drunk Acting - 'Jim Lahey'
Drunk Man Trying To Walk Up Hill
Drunk Girl Talking
Rambling Drunk Girl Making No Sense
Really Drunk Guy Struggling To Walk In Store
Drunk People Compilation
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Before I start to block out and animate my scene I have decided that it is a good idea to film a video reference of my own, showing what I want to happen in the scene.
Hopefully with the use of this video, I can really transform my character from a normal guy who looks like he is just stood talking, to a convincing drunken mess!
So after hiring the Uni's camera, here are a couple videos of me looking pretty silly acting out my scene:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
As well as the two video references above, i decided that to help me lip sync I would film some video reference close up of my mouth. I shot this twice one in real time and one where I have slowed everything with the idea that they will hopefully help me to successfully lip sync my scene.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Now i have all my referencing, it is time to start animating! So with the character all set up and the scene fully modelled I am going to set about blocking my animation out. This will then be followed by the lip-syncing before finally smoothing everything out before render.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
So here it is, the first stage of animating my scene, the blocking out. It is still pretty rough and I still have a few sways and staggers to put in but I will simply add them in later on when I go to smooth everything out.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
As well as this, here is a close up shot of the lip-syncing I have done in the scene before I come to smooth all the animation out and render the final video!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
As well as this, here is a close up shot of the lip-syncing I have done in the scene before I come to smooth all the animation out and render the final video!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Finally, now that I have my blocking out and lip-syncing all completed, it is time to add in the little extra last few touches and smooth everything out before rendering and editing it!
So here is the final animation.
Over all I feel that this project actually went really well and I am happy with the way the final animation turned out! I am really pleased with my lip-syncing and I feel that the breaking up of the sound clip I did to give me more time to add drunken motions, really helped improve the animation from my blocking stage to its final complete stage.
If I had more time on the project I think I would go back and improve the emotion my character shows through his eyes and eye brows and try make him seem more drunk. I would also try and make the animation flow a little smoother as it wasn't as smooth as I'd hoped.
Apart from these things though I am still happy with the final result and had a really enjoyable time working on this project!
