Hansel & Gretel - 30 mins Animation WIP

[satyajit]

The rest of character designs

[Harregarre]

Great! Good luck mate!

About the webspace: I don't know how much you can upload but you could create your own youtube.com account.

I'm staying tuned to see how you're doing things. :thumbsup:

[satyajit]

The Script of Hansel & Gretel

The story of Hansel & Gretel has several popular versions other than the original Grimm’s tale. Several dramatizations are available in DVD format. Live action, animation and stop motion, every variety. So, this project had to be unique from the script. I visualized the whole project to be aimed at pre-school audiences. May be Grade I/II. And, I conceived the script in a rhyme. Gathering from all the version of stories available, a pretty long rhyme is written. The writer was ‘Manas Choudhury’. He was my art mentor. He did a fabulous job with the rhyme. I knew he has got talents of a poet, but at the end he way surpassed my expectations. I still remember when he got his first few line, I knew it then that he has got it.

A portion of Script is attached.

Storyboards coming up..

[FlaminGlow]

very nice story and sketches, this thread will be exciting specially when the animation part comes. good luck.:buttrock:

[satyajit]

The Storyboard

Storyboarding is a very important step to me. May be the most important. This is the only time I look at the story as a whole, without any built up notions of the characters, the animation and the voices. Also, my storyboards don’t look like storyboards at all. No exposure sheet, no script tags. Nothing. Just comic book like panels. And, through the panels I try to design the flow of the story. The drawing is very important too. Other than staging and framing it incorporates various other important things like BGs, expression of the characters, the situation, and the overall mood. If a frame doesn’t feel sad or happy or violent, suiting my entire story, then it’s not working for me. The drawing cannot be rough, depicting just lines of action and compositions. Lines of action and compositions are important, but my panels must hold the moments in its entirety.

In every sense, storyboard becomes a guide to the storytelling more than animation. My every coming step must respect and learn from this storyboard.


http://www.satyajitchakraborty.com/storyboards/hgs1.gif
http://www.satyajitchakraborty.com/storyboards/hgs2.gif
http://www.satyajitchakraborty.com/storyboards/hgs3.gif
http://www.satyajitchakraborty.com/storyboards/hgs4.gif
http://www.satyajitchakraborty.com/storyboards/hgs5.gif
http://www.satyajitchakraborty.com/storyboards/hgs6.gif
http://www.satyajitchakraborty.com/storyboards/hgs7.gif
http://www.satyajitchakraborty.com/storyboards/hgs8.gif
http://www.satyajitchakraborty.com/storyboards/hgs9.gif
http://www.satyajitchakraborty.com/storyboards/hgs10.gif

3D Models Coming up …

[Harregarre]

Wouldn't coloring the storyboards be even better for the purpose you're looking for? Then you know if you want to add bluetints or whatever to suit the 'feel' of the scene.

[satyajit]

Wouldn't coloring the storyboards be even better for the purpose you're looking for? Then you know if you want to add bluetints or whatever to suit the 'feel' of the scene.

You're right. Coloring the storyboard is a good idea. Anyway, I didn't do the groundwork for the lighting during this phase. For this movie, I had pre-chosen some lighting templates for this movie. There are basically three main templates with minor variations. My lights are all three point lights. I'll discuss about the lighing later in details.

Satyajit

[satyajit]

The 3D Models of Hansel & Gretel

While designing the characters I tried to develop a specific look. Somewhere between claymation models and soft toys. The costumes are consulted from various books. Biswajit ‘Paul’ came up with the characters pretty quickly. I remember we got a little stuck on the witch design. But we got through it. Paul did a great work. Then it was my turn. I began modeling them. Starting from Hansel. I tried to develop on the style Paul maintained throughout the characters. It took a month to model and rig them. Meanwhile ‘Kheto’, my other artist, came up with the color chart for the characters. Characters are looking lovable. And that’s the point. Question : Do you find the characters inspired from something? We took lot of care to maintain originality. Is there anything we missed?

The Music & Voices coming up …

[satyajit]

The Voice & Music

The voice artist is Nilanjana. And the music is given by his husband, Indra. Nilanjana works as a Radio Jockey. Indra is a professional Keyboard player, popular in local rock bands. They came recommended by the producing company Asha Audio. When we met, I discussed about the script and we both listened to some musicals. I remember we all liked the way “Boundin” by Pixar was composed. They took some time to come up with musical concepts and home recordings. Nilanjana has a little husky voice and I think that goes well with storytelling for kids. Indra composed some music loops and a nifty little signature tune of the movie. I sounded sweet to me.

At the recording studio, Nilanjana’s voice was to be recorded first. After taking some time to cut out unnecessary huskiness and other defects were all set. I told Nilanjana to make it as expressive as possible. Indra was there throughout the recording. Sometimes, I intervened to give suggestions of dramas into the script, to make it expressive. Indra took care in helping Nilanjana during difficult voice modulations. After about two recording sessions the voice was done.

Then Indra came into the scene, loading his homemade loops from his keyboard into the Recording Studio Tapes. The loops were all separated into tracks. After that, the recordist and Indra sat together to compose the tracks in Adobe Audition. Occasionally, cracks were discovered in the voice of Nilajana and those portions were retaken. The main problem with this type of process is that composer doesn’t have a clue, when to hold moments and when to pass. But here, since I got the movie in my head, I sat with the storyboard, listening to the music and giving cues where to hold the music, to indicate passing of time.

After the music was done, we did a rough mix and I had in my hand the voice track, the music track and the rough mix. I can start from this.

Listen to the unmixed track (http://www.4shared.com/file/3112090/97f7ac6d/hgmp3.html)

Animatic coming up…

[FlaminGlow]

Hello there, i like that storyboards you've drawn it gives nice feel to what you are about to make, i also liked the sound track alot is it original and recorded specialy for your story or you purchased the story with the sound and you wanted to do it using 3D, while for me it realy doesn't matter you took that story from somewhere else or you did it yourself the matter is your 3d and the final look of your short film.

good luck very nice so far.:)

[satyajit]

Hi,

is it original and recorded specialy for your story or you purchased the story with the sound

The script and soundtrack is original and recorded specifically for this animation. The script and recordings are concieved and directed by me.

Satyajit

[satyajit]

The Animatic

During the development of the animatic with the voice+music track in Adobe Premier, the storyboard proved mostly insufficient. So, I have to duplicate the frames and occasionally draw new frames to accommodate the camera cuts. This movie is not going to have many moving camera shots. I mean, shots like dolly and crane are limited. Most of shots being made are still shots and track shots. And, there is a significant difference between the timing of still shots and moving shots. In moving shots, camera itself becomes one of the actors and helps immensely to guide the eyes and mind of the audience. It’s a vital tool for the director to have the camera on move. Also, it uses the parallax to stand out the subjects and their relative distance. Whereas, in still shots, the camera becomes dead. And all the killing camera moves becomes totally irrelevant. In this case studying traditional animations (Disney, warner bros., anime) becomes helpful. And soon I began to discover the beauty and power of this technique. I’ll discuss more about this later.

Now, I’ll return to the animatic. The reason I got into this topic is, it requires understanding of this difference while doing the shot divisions. Animatic doesn’t incorporate certain things. The time of one shot with a moving camera looks faster than the shot of a still camera. And again, the movement of actors in a scene makes shots shorter or longer. But, animatic is always still. And while designing a fast paced shot division, it becomes difficult to determine shot lengths. It requires understanding of the craft. Until one goes through the exercise of storyboard-animatic-animation several times, it’s difficult to develop this intuition. Anyway, I do not claim I’ve developed the intuition, but I noticed that I’m getting better with practice.

My animatic is finished with about 120 shots in total. Timing and pacing is critical in telling good stories. I’m not that experienced in making a full proof animatic. During animation, I use to go back several times to the storyboards and re-edit the animatic. In this phase, the animatic becomes a rough sketch of the story. And, I’m all ready to get into the animation.

A portion of The Animatic (http://www.4shared.com/file/3472828/ab46c83f/animatic_cut.html)

But there’s a little step to be taken in before that. I have to rig, smartskin (weight) the characters. And have to give them expression/lip poses too.

I’ll discuss about the rig next. I’d pick the witch model for dissection. he he…

The rigging coming up…

[satyajit]

The Rigging

The discussion of the rig will be relatively short. Because I depend entirely on the rig installing software by Raf Anzovin called The Setup Machine (www..com). Having used a few rig. I must say Raf’s TSM rig is not the most complex, craziest rig. There are rigs with better controllability of the mesh. The squetch rig of Hash inc is one of them. Raf’s rig, although customizable to a vast extent, keeps it simple while animating, and that’s why I like it and can’t live without it.

Rigging is an important step. For me, whatever magic functionality the rig may offer, while animating, the controls must be simple and minimal. This is very important. As I work alone, I constantly have to balance the quality in complexity and speed of production. So, the rig mustn’t have unnecessary controls that are seldom used. Extra control means extra time taken for animation. When the project is of 30 mins, an extra click while animating a frame counts. So, the rig must be sleek. Extra controls like squash-stretch can stay hidden from my view. I want to have a clear view of the character without lots of controllers floating here and there. But the question arises, does the quality suffers by keeping it simple?

Not necessarily !

I’m a storyteller (or at least trying to be) more than an animator. To me, if the character carries out the story as I want it to, I can do without that extra facial bone. The point is, knowing when to stop pushing the rig.

TSM 2 is a fabulous piece of software. It’s possible to dig into and customize the rig suiting your animation. In my case I use the stretching sliders seldom. Also, I never use the auto CG functions, doesn’t work for me. Apart from that, I’ve taken some steps to speed up the production time during rigging and posing/morphing. I’ve made a hand pose/morph for each hand from fist open position to close position. I can build up most of the hand animation using just these, for the others I can animate the fingers separately. The brows and face animation are done through pose sliders. I use only four Phoneme shapes – M, A in one slider and E, O on another. The eyelids are controlled through a single slider. Secondary animations of hair locks are done by Dynamic constraints.

That’s it ! I’m not using a facial rig or special scripts. Mainly to speed up the animation production. But does that affect the storytelling? I guess only the animation itself can verify that.

Acting during animation coming up…

[lemonyfresh]

The links to your site seem to be broken. What hosting company are you using that you don't have enough space to post your animations. I have Ipower Web and I have 2000 megs for just under 100 bones a year. It's a really good deal and its even better now. I've had them for a while and they've increased the storage space for new customers alot.

I swear I don't work for I Power Web.

[satyajit]

Acting during animation

Animation is acting, but in a weird sense. The methodology of acting and preparation of acting directly contradicts with the methodology of animation. Acting school teaches various ways to get into the character and the scene, and act mostly involuntarily. Actor acts as if the scene is real and tries to be into the situation, into the moment, without being concerned about how his limbs, walks and face should move. These movements mustn’t be voluntary, or the act will look unrealistic. As Ed Hooks said in “Acting for animation” (There should be more books like this) – Acting is reacting. In this book Hooks tried to bridge the gap between acting and animating. Acting and animating still remains the opposite banks of a river. Ideas can travel from this side to that. But that’s all.

Animators doesn’t have the advantages of the methodology modern actors do. For my characters cannot act involuntarily. Animation is very much voluntary action. So, every time I animate a scene, I find it hard to focus on the acting performance. I always have the feeling, that my performance is suffering immensely. As I cannot stay in the moment or character. Cannot apply the Stanislavisky’s principles. Sometimes I try to find solution in video recording a long performance and then playing it back to build my animation over it. But it seems unrealistic to apply it to cartoon characters. For example an actor mustn’t build up anticipation for an action. Which is a must for cartoon animation. So I couldn’t act, record it and rotoscope it for cartoon action. Rotoscoping may be applicable for ‘gollum’, but not here.

Gradually my animation acts start looking like from the age of ‘Francois Delsarte’. Where the acts are voluntarily designed upon poses and physical signals. Studying various acting theories only helps in creating the scene. An animator has a tougher task than actors when acting is concerned. I have to recreate the act every time, mechanically, when I animate. Many time, sitting on my chair. So, I guess mixture of pose based acting and a deep striving to act involuntarily while putting together an act is the key.

At every scene or sequence, I try to work out the act first. And, that’s the biggest problem. Keeping in mind the various principles of acting, I try to solve this problem. And most of the time this is where I get stuck. I cannot find the acting solution! Sometime the solution appears in ‘mime’-ing the act. Like trying to describe the words through gestures. But the words, which can’t be gestured, were most difficult to handle. I try to concentrate on Stanislavisky’s methods and other methods to work out the act. And when every trial is unfruitful I find it helpful to discuss with friends and family to find a way. And I tell you, this is a fine way, you’ll be surprised to find so many natural actors in your surroundings eager to help you out.
A third problem was the narration in between dialogues.

Like…

“Save your sobering,” said the witch
“It doesn’t help you at all”

This ‘said the witch’ phrase disturbs the flow of act and results unusually long anticipations or follow-thru phases. I had to be careful and plan some in between acts during the narration.

Anyway, after the act is designed and in my mind it’s essential to block out the animation at one go. Then I can start giving as much passes of anticipation, follow-thru and secondary actions my limited time quota permits.

At the end, I think, it’s the acting, which separates a good animator from a bad. I’m only beginning to gather an understanding of ‘Acting for animation’. There’s so much scope for a better act within the same dialogues. I should be practicing acting with monologues and attend some good acting classes. I’m nowhere a good actor. And if I nurture this weakness, I'll see my goal getting far away. I know, the way to reach it is to keep on animating. And acting. Over and over again. It’s no wonder during Disney’s golden era an animator was considered an animator after he has spent at least 13 years animating.

Now, the animations will start coming up. I’ve decided to put the WIP of the entire 30 mins film online. It’ll be shown in 3-5 mins serialized parts. I’ll use the youtube.com service to showcase this film. Also, the compositing of the film has not started. So, only the animation with the guide track will be showcased and put up for critics. You have to bear with blank backgrounds.

Next …The First Part of the “Hansel & Gretel” will be online. I’m eager to hear opinions and suggestions about it.

Satyajit

[satyajit]

Animation WIP Part 1/9

This is the first part of the nine part series of animation. Only animations are there. Compositing hasn't been done yet. Please check it out. This WIP video file will be online for a window of one week. After that it'll be deleted from youtube and the subsequent part will be online.

PART 1/9 (http://satyajitchakraborty.blogspot.com/2006/09/hansel-gretel-animation-wip-part-19.html)

You can post your feedback and critics here on this forum if you face difficulty to post at bloggers. I've included the shot no and frame no for specifying mistakes and suggest improvements.

I'm working alone in this project. So, your feedbacks are really valuable to me. I'm looking forward to make this real good. Please help me out on this.

Satyajit

[satyajit]

Hi, again

Part 2/9 coming up on 30th September.

Satyajit

[Flog]

Great work Sat. Love your work as always.

I think the rendering could be slightly better, maybe since you are using such great background images you can use a Image based lighting or something.

Great nonetheless!

[satyajit]

Thank you for posting Flog,

I wish I had the latest version of A:M. This one that I'm using doesn't have image based lighting. So, I had to create it the old fashioned way.

Satyajit

[satyajit]

Animation WIP Part 2/9

Part 2/9 is uploaded and Part 1/9 is removed.

This is the 2nd part of the nine part series of animation WIP. Only animations are there. Compositing hasn't been done yet. Please check it out. This WIP video file will be online for a window of one week. After that it'll be deleted from youtube and the subsequent part will be online.

PART 2/9 Link (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSnREuAC0gM)

Please post your feedbacks, your previous feedbacks were immensely helpful. I'm starting to believe that this is in the right hands for critic.

Satyajit

[coolwizj]

Looking good, satyajit:thumbsup: Looking forward to the finished film:)

[Kinematics]

dude it looks major fancy man! looking good so far. U seem to be handling this project really well. looking forward to the completed piece. Keep at it.!!!

[FlaminGlow]

very nice animation, keep it up it is nice to see a short with a painted backgrounds.

[satyajit]

Thank you for posting.

Any crtics ? On the characters, animations, voice, music?

Part 3/9 coming up on 8th October. Till then enjoy part 2.

Satyajit

[Flog]

Hey Satyajit,

Looking better and better. I think the A:M renderer though is lacking. Lighting is off a bit, but maybe with the backgrounds it will work more.

I really enjoyed the animation.

On part 1 I had to mention Hanzel's feet on the swing were timed wrong. He was swinging upward and then when he is finally at the end top of teh up swing his legs pop up. They should go up together.

Can't wait to see the kids in the woods :)

Great story so far and great look.

[satyajit]

Thank you Flog,

That's the kind of help I'm in need badly. I'll check the portion.

Also, you can check some shots out from the composite.

http://www.satyajitchakraborty.com/gallery/shot1.jpg
http://www.satyajitchakraborty.com/gallery/shot2.jpg
http://www.satyajitchakraborty.com/gallery/shot3.jpg
http://www.satyajitchakraborty.com/gallery/shot4.jpg
http://www.satyajitchakraborty.com/gallery/shot5.jpg

Satyajit

[timartman]

one of my favourites !!! and looking very good !!!

BTW: this is called "Hannu ja Kerttu" in Finland ... :thumbsup:

[satyajit]

Animation WIP Part 3/9

Part 3/9 is uploaded and Part 2/9 is removed.

This is the 3rd part of the nine part series of animation WIP. Only animations are there. Compositing hasn't been done yet. Please check it out. This WIP video file will be online for a window of one week. After that it'll be deleted from youtube and the subsequent part will be online.

PART 3/9 Link (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZil1zECZgM)

Also, you can view the trailer HERE (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hmxy9cYED6g)

Please post your feedbacks.

Satyajit

[Flog]

You should leave them all up Satyajit.

You can leave more than one video up on youtube :)

[satyajit]

Animation Weekly WIP Part 4/9

You should leave them all up Satyajit.

You can leave more than one video up on youtube :)

I'll leave them up for viewing. But I want to correct the mistakes and then composite them with BGs first.

Anyway, here goes the next Part.

Part 4/9 is uploaded and Part 3/9 is removed. I'm still on the corrections of Part 3. The 4th Part is up for critic.

This WIP video file will be online for a window of one week. That is upto 21st October. After that it'll be deleted from youtube and the subsequent part will be online.

PART 4/9 Link (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rewLxj4yfXU)

Also, you can view the trailer HERE (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZil1zECZgM)

Please post your feedbacks.

Satyajit

[satyajit]

Part 5/9 is uploaded and Part 4/9 is removed.

This WIP video file will be online for a window of one week. That is upto 28st October. After that it'll be deleted from youtube and the subsequent part will be online.

PART 5/9 Link (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBLq9yg-sCU)

Also, you can view the trailer HERE (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZil1zECZgM)

Please post your feedbacks. Please Please Please...

Satyajit

[satyajit]

Animation Weekly WIP Part 6/9

Part 6/9 is uploaded and Part 5/9 is removed.

This WIP video file will be online for a window of one week. That is upto 4th Novembor. After that it'll be deleted from youtube and the subsequent part will be online.

PART 6/9 Link (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKYMqZmtcNY)

Also, you can view the trailer HERE (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hmxy9cYED6g)

Please post your feedbacks.

Satyajit

[satyajit]

Hi all,

I'm getting closer to the end of the my 30 mins short 'Hansel & Gretel'. I couldn't do it without the help and support from you. Now, at the end of my journey, I'm inviting you to view the Special Youtube premier of 'Hansel & Gretel'.

I'm planning to show the complete and finished 30 mins movie in an one time special premier show on Youtube (http://www.youtube.com/satyajitchakraborty). Then this movie will be released on DVD. This Youtube broadcast will be a special show for many reason. First of all it'll be a Private show. Not a public show. So, you have to mail me to your e-mail ID to send an invitation from Youtube. Secondly, this show will be viewable for a window of 48 hrs only. The Premier date is not decided yet. But I think it'll be a weekend. Friday and saturday. So that everybody can watch either from home or office. And last of all, wherever I release the DVD, I cannot reach the audience I can reach through this. I don't want miss a single one interested in seeing this film. Please spread the word to those who are interested.

This is an intimation of the show. I'll let you know the release date and another announcement will come up prior the show.

So, those who want the FREE passes/invitation for this show please start to mail me at satyajit2000@hotmail.com (http://forums.cgsociety.org/satyajit2000@hotmail.com).

Satyajit

[satyajit]

Animation Weekly WIP Part 7/9

Part 7/9 is uploaded and Part 6/9 is removed.

This WIP video file will be online for a window of one week. That is upto 11th Novembor. After that it'll be deleted from youtube and the subsequent part will be online.

PART 7/9 Link (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUkAcmA-JfY)

Also, you can view the trailer HERE (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKYMqZmtcNY)

Please post your feedbacks.

Satyajit

[satyajit]

Animation Weekly WIP Part 8/9

Part 8/9 is uploaded and Part 7/9 is removed.

This WIP video file will be online for a window of one week. That is upto 18th Novembor. After that it'll be deleted from youtube and the concluding part will be online.

PART 8/9 Link (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNxRi73rIs4)

to be concluded in the next part

Also, you can view the trailer HERE (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hmxy9cYED6g)

Please post your feedbacks.

Satyajit

[satyajit]

Animation Weekly WIP Part 9/9

Part 9/9 is uploaded and Part 8/9 is removed.

This is the concluding part of the Animation Instalments. Thank you everybody to be with me throughout the journey.

PART 9/9 Link (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQzoW5wlu4Q)

Also, you can view the trailer HERE (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hmxy9cYED6g)

Please post your feedbacks.

Satyajit

Next ....Compositing

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