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Blocking and Referencing

As we begin blocking out animation and key poses, the following are the scene parts that I will be taking on over the next few weeks to create -

AI speaks to YOU
GIRL begins to fuss
AI speaks to GIRL, hands over drawing paper
AI walks away, cleaning tables
GIRL draws
GIRL speaks to you
GIRL throws drawing on ground, is bored, stands up
AI goes to get coffee, walks over to the MAN, pours it
AI spills on MAN, first glitch
MAN freaks, jumping out of chair
GIRL laughs
AI reassures
MAN sits back down
GIRL picks up drawing

As an inexperienced animator, and as a person who likes to see things come together fast rather that see them in stages.  I struggled with the aspect of blocking animation.  I knew it needed to be done but was frustrated with the time needed to do simply, what I could just do in fluid motion and get done.


https://www.emeraldsong.com/2017/02/08/what-is-layered-animation/

I soon became aware of how stupid it was to think that and went about blocking out most of my key poses for my section of animation.  After doing some rough posing saves for my animations, I decided to start working into them, adding further key frames and poses.

Eventually, I had the AI waitress animation look relatively nice for the first 5 second of animation, but I knew there would be a long way to go.  I was struggling to get the waitress to bring the menu out from behind her back and realistically set it on the table.  I struggled with the rig limitations and struggled with the parenting the menu model to the AI's hand so that it followed that path.




It was while blocking this section that it soon became clear to me that I would need to change approach.  Instead of the AI holding the menu and bringing it out from behind her back, maybe instead the menu could already be on the table and she, with a wave of her hand, could activate it in front of this.  I presented this idea to the rest of the team and received positive feedback to pursue this and change the beginning of our animation to include this asset location change.



In addition to this, I was struggling a lot with the male animation in which he picks up the cup to take a drink.  Timing this and including follow through animation proved tough and so we recorded some reference footage that helped a lot with the timing of this part of our narrative.





With this stage of animating close to finishing, I am excited to get onto refinements and lip syncs as we begin tying together our animations and developing them closer and closer to the final edited version, ready to introduce into Unity for our VR experience!

In addition to animation, our producer Lorna, forwarded a list of the things that we still need to accomplish as a team alongside the animating we are working on -

Other Jobs Bar Character Animation:
User Testing
·         Set date (Wednesday 13th, with blocked animation)
·         Questionnaire or survey after experience
Technology
·         Build Technician - 2 person job
Promotion
·         Social Media - Wednesday the 13th Set up all accounts – Facebook (Thomas), Instagram (Megan), Vimeo (Megan/ Thomas)
·         Trailer - Fake Company promotion, motion explaining (Cassie)
·         Promotion imagery/ posts - Implement Design work within scene in promotion, character promotion (Everyone)
·         Finalise Logo (Megan/ Thomas)
Lighting (Cassie)
·         Animate lighting flickering to sound
·         Fog lights for Tables
·         Kitchen Light
·         Neon Lights - Fridge, sign
·         Possible window lighting
·         Lighting Colours
Sound (Cassie)
·         Tweaking sound timing depending on animation
·         Vocals over music
·         Add sound effects
·         Add distortion
Effects
·         Holographic - Cassie
o   Menus
o   You
·         Particles
o   Back Wall/ Void WIP - Cassie
o   Outside Window WIP - Cassie
o   Bulb shatter - Cassie
o   Coffee mug bubbles over - Lorna
o   Steam from mug - Cassie
·         Liquids
o   Melting sauce bottles - Cassie
o   Coffee pot pour - Lorna
·         Animating props
o   Objects glitching location wise - Lorna
o   Visibility – Lorna/ Thomas/ Megan
§  Posters
§  Drawing
§  Scratches
§  Cracks on the mug
o   Gumball machine - eyes - Lorna
o   Clock - Lorna
Designs
·         Alternative drawings design (Cassie/ Megan)
o   Poster Alternation
o   Girl Drawing Alteration
o   Glitch textures
·         Menu board/ handheld design (Thomas/ Cassie)
·         Mans body model alteration/ Different Textures (Lorna)
·         Loading and Error Screen a mixture of 3D logo and motion graphics (Thomas/ Cassie)

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