Managed to grab a few moments all to myself today. I thought it would be a good time to make a start on this contest.
So, to get the ball rolling, here’s my storyboard:
www.hash.com/users/milos/sb.jpg
Judging from past experience, I’ll probably change everything by the time I finish the actual animation, I generally do. I can foresee some technical challenges just constraining all that junk to him.
HAHA, that is great! Nice Story boarding. Layed out great and beautifully drawn. Wish I had talent for that.
Whoa! A new level of professionalism has been set! This is fantastic! I am going to LOVE watching this develop.
Awesome, Stephen!
Jim
Hello Stephen!
Wonderful! I’m looking forward to this!
Maybe, just after the screen test clapper comes down (panel 7) the first thing that happens is the contents of the diamond bag begins to pour out. Schlitzy makes a move to pick the diamonds up – he begins to stoop & reach down – but his bare foot comes down onto a sharp diamond. A jump back in pain (dancing up & down on his slippered foot?) leads to the uproar in panel 8, & the collapse in panel 9.
Whatever you decide this is gonna be fun to watch! I like how little dialog there is in this.
I just watched “Safety Last” with Harold Lloyd a couple of days ago. I love silent films.
Sincerely,
Carl Raillard
But shouldn’t it say Snow White instead of Sleeping Beauty?
Doh! I’ve just this second quickly rubbed that out, how embarrassing. Cheers Cosmonaut.
Anyway, thanks Jim, you are entering this part of the contest as well, aren’t you?
Zaryin, The great thing about 3D, is you don’t necessarily need to draw well to produce good stuff, I’m counting on it 
Carl, good suggestion. There needs to be more of a reason he loses balance.
Originally posted by pequod
Anyway, thanks Jim, you are entering this part of the contest as well, aren’t you?
Yes, I am going to try to animate. This should be interesting! Maybe if I just have him passed out on the floor. I can do that! (I think.)
Thanks for keeping the pressure on,
Jim
Hello Pequod:wavey: Nice to see you entering this one. I think that your story-board will look great animated (partly because you will be doing it).
Hey pequod,
Storyboard looks great and funny gag. This one is going to be fun watching progress!
David
Thanks John and David. I shall look forward to seeing the progress of both of YOUR entries, hint hint.
Incidentally Carl, I’ve opted for the silent movie approach, mostly to save time hunting around for a suitable piece of audio and to avoid having to make all those mouth shapes for the lip synch. But I’m a big fan of those movies, especially Buster keaton and Charlie Chaplin.
Here’s a very VERY rough first pass of my Schlitzy animation, I’m almost too embarrassed to show it. But, in the spirit of the contest it should be seen. I guess it’s a few steps on from just blocking out the scene, so there is the minimum of facial and hand movement, lots of channel drifting and intersections.
Oh! one other thing, you’ll probably notice I’ve completely changed the idea from the storyboard, this one seemed more achievable. Although, I still have to shave off two seconds from somewhere.
QT6 1.8mb
Nice work as usual. It is a lot less sketchy than I expected after reading your post but I can see that there is a fair bit to do. If you want to shave a few seconds off it then I think that the best route would be to remove the bit where he leans on the stool for the first time as I don’t think that it is necessary.
I like the bit where he tries to take the paper and ends up spinning round. I think that you could play on it more though.
By the way, what does the note say? will this be revealed?
Looking forward to seing more.
Man, do you suck, haha. That’s pretty good for being embarrassed. I couldn’t even get that paper to flip over! :). Other than that I agree with John.
Stephen,
Thanks for posting this! It’s great being able to see how this will progress.
The whole first part where he stumbles into view until he reaches back for the paper looks great to me (except for the fingers/hands as you’re aware already). It shows real weight to the body as he tries to maintain his balance. I had initially tried to add some of that swaying to my animation, but it is way over my head at this stage. Bravo!
You’ve made him act very cute and almost innocent as he tries to read the card while turning it over. I love it!
Will there be someone telling him that there is something stuck on him? It looks as though he is listening to someone.
I like the big nose gag. Will the paper conform around the nose?
I’d like to see the fall at the end last longer, kind of hanging in the air a bit as he struggles to stay up. This part may be just blocked in at the moment, though.
Thanks for showing us,
Jim
Thanks Carl! I am of course using the ‘Chatter Buster arm rig’ for Schlitzy. I did originally have him spinning on his legs, but changed it to the stool, which is a better use of props and it allowed me to add the interest of the script sticking to his bum. It’s annoying and probably not very professional, but better ideas often occur to me while I’m in the process of animating.
Jim, I think I will have a muffled voice pointing out that the script is stuck to his bum. As to the fall at the end, I might have the camera start to slowly zoom in so by the end of the scene, when he falls over, he will disappear from the frame.
Zaryin, the paper is going to be my biggest headache. It has to be constrained to the stool, his behind, his left hand, then both his hands constrained to the paper, then the paper constrained back to his right hand then to the left!
John, the paper won’t have anything visible written on it, cuz that will give us a clue that he is trying to read it upside down. You are probably right about the section, (or near that area) I can edit out to save some seconds.
Thanks everyone for the comments, it’s much appreciated.
I watch a ton of Laurel & Hardy stuff and thought your rough was brilliant.! I thought I saw a couple of Ollie moves in there, especially the delicate way he tries to turn the script-sheet around but the facial gesture when trying to read the script was very Stan Laurel to me.
Any crits? yes, I spilt my coffee when laughing so hard! apart from the fact that your storyboard seems quite different… then I thought maybe there could be some longer pauses for inebriate effect than you have at present.
Although, I still have to shave off two seconds from somewhere.
Ouch! surely if the quality is this good, your audience will accept an extra 2 seconds?
brilliant stuff though Pequod!
Cheers Alfiebabes!
I haven’t been able to do anymore on Schlitzy, but I know where I can save at least a second from the clip. But like you mentioned, there are one or two places I’d liked to pause for longer :hmm:
Originally posted by Wycoff3d
[B]Whats this?‘Chatter Buster arm rig’ [/B]
Hello.
The chatter buster arm rig is a special type of IK rig that I developed. The IK wrist target is a child of a big arm bone, which starts at the shoulder. A picture is worth a thousand words:
The rig allows one to make smooth arm swings using an IK setup. Here’s a zipped .mov file:
http://www.sonic.net/raillard/hash/gatyjump.zip
Stephen has been employing chatter buster rigs in a bunch of his models, for he appreciates the straightforward nature of IK animation, but he dislikes IK chatter as much as I do.
On the animaster mailing list, Justin Barrett mentioned that Michael Comet devised a similar arm rig system (independently) while he was working at Big Ideas. Michael calls it a “Pseudo FK” rig. That’s probably a better name for this sort of rig, 'cuz it’s shorter.
Sincerely,
Carl Raillard