Christmas animation 2009

[skarab]

New character sketch...

[skarab]

Here's her T-pose. She's a hardcore Santa groupie, more interested in meeting Santa than getting presents! (if you can believe that) Still trying to tease out a good punchline but I think I'm getting closer.

[Zookoo]

The title at the end of the storyboard should be renamed Poltergeist XD Haha nah, but I like how u drew the text forming. Its clear how it would look animated.

[skarab]

my coworker is a wizard at After Effects and I'm looking forward to him making that transition shine!

[skarab]

I've been having some trouble with the ending but I think I've figured it out.

She dives into the TV and dances with the gingerbread men, when their heads, arms, legs start disappearing with a crunch. She watches in shock as they're being eaten while they're dancing! We return to the view of her on couch, fast asleep, and pan over to a closeup of the plate of cookies. Only one remains, and we see Santa's hand come into frame and take the last one. The end.

[Zookoo]

Sounds freaky! But I like this new ending :D

[skarab]

Thanks. Here's the wireframe of the girl:

[skarab]

Here's my shot list:
1) Close up of plate of gingerbread men and note for Santa
2) Long shot of room, slow zoom in as Annie, clicking remote, tries to stay awake, then nods off
3) Profile shot of Annie jerking awake
4) Over shoulder shot as she looks at the candy cane remote, then pull back to include TV in shot
5) Head-on shot of TV as she clicks, then zoom in as gingerbread men jump up from plate
6) Jazzy shot of gingerbread men in kickline
7) Annie reaction shot, then she hops off the couch out of frame
8) Profile shot of TV, she dives into the screen in slo-mo, in a crackling plasma cloud
9) Head-on shot of TV as plasma cloud dissipates, and we see Annie dancing in the kickline
10) Two-shot of Annie and GBM, then his head snaps off
11) Two-shot of 2 GBM’s as they lose heads and arms
12) Annie reaction shot, which dissolves to-
13) Annie asleep on couch. Slow pan to cookie dish, then camera rises for different vantage point as Santa’s hand comes in from off camera and takes the last cookie.

[skarab]

Here's a quick slideshow I made of the color storyboards.
http://www.mooneyart.com/filetransfer/Visualex2009storyboard.mov

[skarab]

First render of the livingroom scene. Still needs some detail work but I think the mood is working.

[skarab]

I'm blocking the first couple of shots although I don't have the little girl's face rig in yet. This is a wireframe render of the first shot as we see the cookies, then the girl trying not to fall asleep.
http://www.mooneyart.com/filetransfer/Shot1_2Combo_v4_h264.mov

[skarab]

here's an animatic timed to music so I can time out my shots. 12.8 mb QT movie.
http://www.mooneyart.com/filetransfer/master%20comp_h264.mov

[skarab]

So there will ultimately be two dance routines in this piece: one, when Annie first turns on the TV in her dream, will be the G-men doing a Rockettes-style kickline. then, when she dives into the TV screen and she starts dancing with them, it will be a more funky, Michael Jackson-inspired step. Here's a quick render of the second one:
http://www.mooneyart.com/filetransfer/AnnieandGmenDancetest_h264.mov

[skarab]

Here's a first draft with all the main animation in place except for one effects shot where Annie dives into the TV screen. Now I can start making a list of everything that needs fixing! Comments welcome.

http://www.mooneyart.com/filetransfer/Mastercomp_animatic_h264.mov

[TheNeverman]

Looks like it's coming along quite nicely Gerry.
The pelvic thrust seems a bit much for a young kid... but that's just a matter of taste.

I think it's great that your sharing the progression of the project, the sketches, the animatics...

The thing that is standing out to me the most at this point is the camera movement, it seems to start/stop a bit too abrubtly, I'd smooth it out a tad so it dosen't feel so mechanical and CG'ish.

Looking forward to the final product man

[skarab]

Thanks for the comments. Yeah, the hip bump is getting some interesting comments! But so far the consensus is to leave it in.

I'm also in the process of smoothing out a lot of the camera moves, so hopefully that will fix a lot of what you mention.

[skarab]

Stick a fork in it, it's done!
http://www.visualexllc.com/vlexholiday2009/2009Holiday.html

[skarab]

For anyone who's interested I did keep careful track of my hours on this and just today got a printout from the company bookkeeper. Total hours for everything, 292 hours. It's broken down into various tasks (modeling, decaling, etc.) so if you really really want to know I can tell you that too.

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