Dance moves

I have been studying the film clips and shorts that I found on YouTube to see if I could put down some basic dance moves on paper, basic stances and strong outline shapes, I have a series of about 13 strong silhouette shapes that I'm going to use. I wanted to storyboard prior to starting the animation so I think I will sit with the music playing and get some inspiration. The dance is going to be slow movements as I don't want to make things impossible to animate well for myself. Up until this point the animating side of the whole process is the bit that I'm least comfortable with so I need to work really hard to achieve what I have in my mind.

Animating

I have decided that I will get on animating the first character of my dance troupe and try and copy the key sets that I make to each new girl in due course. I feel that I need to get at least the lead female dancing and then the others can fall into place once I am happy with the results. For obvious reasons I would like to do good animation not just a vast quantity amount of bad animation. I'm feeling quite positive. The other thing that I have decided to leave until later is the few accessories that make the girls look different, I can always add them towards the end.

Blend shapes

I can't decide whether to do blend shapes with the characters face so that she has expression, I should do I guess because I don't want her to appear stiff and unnatural, the only thing is that I don't want to move her face too much. Maybe the odd smile and blink would be sufficient. I might just stick with three basic blend shapes for animating, smile, left eye open/close, right eye open/close.

Rigging the model

I have had a few problems as I expected rigging the model. I found a tutorial to help as I felt that it was important to have a good rig for moving the character around and to try and make the animation process as simple as possible. I wanted to have inverse kinematics for the arms as I thought it would be easier to position them by dragging the wrist instead of rotating the shoulder and elbow joints. The arms are a little dysfunctional in some of the positions, but I feel at this stage they are a good as I can do with the time constraints, I feel that I need to start animating in order to meet the deadline. I have had a few problems as well with deformation of my character when moving certain parts, when I finished rigging and bound the skin to the skeleton I have quite a bad deformation under the arm which meant that the side of the body came out as the arm went up in the air, I have sorted most of the issues out using the paint weight tool which adjusts which skeleton joint has influence over the different areas of the skin. I'm still struggling to get the paint weight tool to function properly and I'm wondering whether I have a bug in my Maya programme, it certainly doesn't appear to be doing what the tutorial says!
Anyway I think I've fixed the problems to a sufficient degree to animate. I can't be a perfectionist unfortunately as don't have the time, I need to leave it and move on.

Character colourways

I've just stretched the model and changed the colourway.
I can't decide at this point whether to make all the clothes the same and just vary the eye colour, hair colour and accessories ie. cane, bowler hat, top hat, feather etc.
I may need to adapt the face slightly to suit so that each girl is slightly different.

Here are a few more render pictures:-

Decisions, decisions

Initially when I started this project I was going to draw stylised sketches of the final dancer idea that I had and model it in Maya. Whilst I am still modelling in Maya I have decided to model the character using photos of myself. I felt that the models I have produced so far are only as good as the sketches I have done and because of this mine aren't up to scratch, in my mind, what better than using real reference materials. Don't get me wrong I am not looking to produce a model that looks like myself I just feel that the photos are a strong base to start from. I don't wish to share these pictures of me in my underwear with you but I have got to a stage where I am almost finished the generic character for the dance troup.

Here are the single render shots that I have done to demonstrate where I'm up to:-







I'm pleased with the results.

Initial sketches

Here are a my initial drawing sketches based on the research I have done so far for my project.










Some of them are obviously better than others!

Project research

I thought it important to gather some photos that would be of interest to my project idea.
Whilst the type of dance routine idea needs some firming down I've looked generally for pictures with girl dance troupes in, which will assist me with the final look of the project. These images are generic and I may concentrate more on one particular era.






All these images were found using Google images search engine.
I also wanted to ensure that I had some film clips of dance routines to enable me to try and choreograph something realistic. I searched www.youtube.com whci seemed the most obvious place to look.

Below is the embedded videos for my research found on youTube:-



This is the poster that I have, this is where the original inspiration came from for the project.

Project Submission Proposal

Submission Proposal for Double Project

Project Title Proposal: Virtually Vaudeville

Brief Overview Of Project:

The idea for this project is taken from a stage poster which dates back to approximately 1975, it is the promotional poster from Chicago the musical, directed by Bob Fosse and starring Gwen Verdon. The poster shows a series of stylised dancing girls and the idea of my project is to model, rig and animate a 3D version of a stage girl troupe dance similar to that of the Can-Can but using a modern interpretation of the music. The piece is an short animation to enable me to develop my skills in animation and modelling and will ultimately be useful as a piece for work for my portfolio, which will help show my versatility. This project will require the character modelling to be as good as possible due to the flexibility required to prevent distortion of the limbs when the dance moves involve high leg kicks and large actions. The piece will be stylised and the figures elongated and curvaceous to add a statuesque and elegant feel to them, they will not be modelled using human proportions. Because it is 3D reproduction of a stage show I will try and keep the lighting effects and atmosphere of the theatre as realistic as possible with the use of stage spotlights and the smoky, dusty air.

Research Thesis Subject Area:

The research for this project will delve into the study of women, dance and sexuality in the theatre. Looking at a time line starting from when women were first allowed to take to the stage and in what context, working through history to the point in where women were allowed use sexually expression through the medium of dance.
When were women first allowed on stage and in what capacity? What were the rules of engagement where dress and clothing were concerned and how did history evolve to allow sexual expression from women through clothing and dance? The thesis will look into any significant turning points or controversy in the history of women, dance and the stage through the ages. Studies will explore French stage entertainment, dance troupes and study the movement and history of well known dances such as the Can-Can to provide insight into it's popularity as a world famous stage performance. The majority of pictures and some factual research will be sourced via the web. This is a thesis will be a work in progress and I will potentially look at the following books to aid my project and theoretical research:-

Dancing Desires: Choreographing Sexualities On And Off Stage (Studies In Dance History). Jane C. Desmond

Broken Boundaries: Women And Feminism In Restoration Drama. Katherine Quinsey

Race, Sex And Gender In Contemporary Women's Theatre. The Construction Of Woman. Mary F. Brewer

Dance, Sex And Gender: Signs Of Identity, Dominance, Defiance And Desire. Judith Lynne Hanna

Fatal Desire: Women, Sexuality And The English Stage 1660-1720. Jean I. Marsden

The First English Actresses: Women And Drama, 1660-1700. Elizabeth Howe
Dance And Gender. Kim Grover-Haskin

Redressing The Canon: Essays On Theatre And Gender. Alisa Solomon

Proposed Schedule:

Weeks 1-3:
Set up blog space on-line for demonstrating working practices. Research and find appropriate film clips with of stage shows such as Chicago and film clips of the French dance troupes doing the Can-Can or similar. Provide proposal information to the musician to start work on the modern interpretation music for short animation. On going blog and research for thesis.

Weeks 4-5:
Make stylised character sketches along with of sketches of appropriate dance moves and costumes. Choose a basic character figure which can be adapted easily within Maya to be more than one person using different hair colour & style, costume and eye colour. Produce a sketch for the final stage appearance and feel. On going blog and research for thesis.

Weeks 6-7:
Model the character in 3D, along with the various adapted versions for multiple characters. Model a basic stage set with large tie back curtains. Texture the character models and scene. Receive music. On going blog and research for thesis.

Week 8:
Rig the characters from scratch. Story board the dance routine and the camera shots. On going blog and research for thesis.

Week 9-10:
Animate the central character. Add animation to all other characters. On going blog and research for thesis.

Week 11:
Render animation and pull into Premier for editing. On going blog and research for thesis.

Week 12:
Edit work and add titles using After Effects. Add music and theatre/crowd sound. On going blog and research for thesis.

Week 13:
Room for error and finalising paperwork.

Week 14:
Submit all elements on data disc or DVD including blog URL.