Experimental here we come!!!

Well I've changed my direction and I feel much happier with the results, the edit works better and the music that Ben has produced has made all the difference to the believability. I have now re-titled my project as I felt it needed to reflect the changes that I have made to the piece. It is now called 'The Uncanny Doll Valley'.

Here is my final image for you all to reflect upon.

Editing

I am at the stage where I am editing my footage. I have done a first draft and I don't think the results are very good, the overall effect is quite disturbing because the animation is lacking realism and the dancers are scary looking. This isn't working out as I'd planned. I think I'm going to have to think again and maybe produce something in keeping with the style so far. I think I need to make my composition more experimental as this is the only way that this will work.

This is the first draft:-

Getting around problems

I decided that I would go the simpler route and duplicate my characters using after effects and green screen. The decision was also made because the animation that I'd done so far wasn't perfect and I felt that it would be easier to composite footage together with some effects and make the overall project more interesting. I have used my first model to create two other girls and I have adjusted their costume, lip and eye colour to make them different. I'm quite happy with the results and now that I have done this I can render out all my footage with a green screen background and use After Effects to removed it.
I think the best way to remove the background would be to use colour keying. I have done this before, however, I thought it important to source a few pointers from the internet for doing this in a more accurate way and I think the results that I have produced work quite well. It's obviously getting very close to the dead line for this piece and therefore I need to use this week to edit and composite my footage. I'm also going to have to get a hard drive to transport all my footage because the files are too big to fit on a USB stick as I need to use a more powerful computer to render out the After effects project in university. I tend to find that my computer doesn't give a very good finish to projects when produced with After Effects, maybe it's too memory intensive.

Frustration

I've tried to copy the the animation from one character to another using the trax editor but it's not really working out as I'd hoped. I'm not sure whether each individual element of movement needs to be duplicated as so far I've had not luck. I've tried copying the pelvis movements as a control but it's just not working as I;d hoped. There seem to be just too many variables for me to get the combination right. I think I'll try one more time. I haven't got time for this problem with everything else that needs doing. The rendering of the character and camera choices and movements will no doubt take a week or two, so I need to get this finished and move on to editing.

Test animation

I have done a basic test for copying the animation from one character to another. I used a cube and a sphere, using the trax editor and the character mapper. The movement is working out fine but the scale isn't working. I don't need the scale to work as my character doesn't change size but I don't know whether this may cause problems when I try it on the main animation because of all of the movement and keying.

Duplicating the animation

The main problem I have found about doing this project is that I have no knowledge of duplicating animation from one character to another. I have been researching on the internet and haven't found anything of use. I been into university and spoken to Andrew and whilst he doesn't have a solution to the problem it was useful to brainstorm with someone with knowledge. It also became apparent when I was talking to him what a mess my rig is in. I think I knew this but we have found a solution to this. I'm going to copy all of the key sets from the pelvis on the circle and detach it and redraw a new one and copy the keys over. I can then group all of the elements of the rig together under one header. The problem I was having is that for some reason the circle that controls the pelvis is fixed which means when you want to move the whole character the model distorts and cannot be relocated. By following the steps above it means I can pick the whole character up and move them easily which will also help me when I come to copying the other girls.

I think I can duplicate the animation using the trax editor and the character mapper function in Maya. I think I will try this with a simple object and see if it works before I try it with my complicated model.

The best solution that we came up with if I don't manage to duplicate the girls is the use of After Effects it may mean that I have to produce a composition film, which may look better anyway. I can render out each girl in their various coloured costumes and head dresses, I need to move the stage across for each one so that they look like they are positioned accordingly in comparison to each other and then take the footage and composite it in After Effects. It works out kind of like doing a green screen where you superimpose someone.

Animation

I have set the stage and put a single dancer on it. I'm concentrating on getting her animated moves correct prior to adding the other dancers. The reason being that I am duplicating the animation for each girl, therefore if I can do a nice piece for one, it is a nice piece for all. I'm struggling to make the animation realistic at the moment she is still stiff and mechanical looking. I have been into university and I have shown Carol who has suggested the following ways of improving what I have without starting again.

Anticipation
Overshoot movements
Keep the various parts of the body animated slightly out of sync
Add more up and down movement

I have taken these on board and I've changed the moves that I have done so far. I have posted up a before and after playblast to show the differences I have made.


BEFORE


AFTER