AM week 305-307

For the second assignment of Class 3 I wanted to try a shot that had a tiny bit of acting in it, as well as a mini story, while still focusing on challenging body mechanics. We are not supposed to focus on story and acting in this class, but I find that having a little something there makes the shot itself and working on it so much more fun.

So the idea was that a happy character is walking and hooping through the woods, enjoying a beautiful day. Then he suddenly steps on something, jumps away in surprise before he notices that he just squashed an innocent squirrel :)

I went to the park and shot some video reference before breaking down the movement into thumbnails. I was especially interested in trying a transition from a skip to a walk, as well as having the character not walk in a straight line, but around a corner. In an actual production shot I suppose a character will more often move in a non-linear fashion than just in one direction, so it's good to practice that :)

I tried several versions for the ending, you'll see that in the different steps. In the beginning the exit was more cartoony, but it didn't feel like the character's mood had actually changed, so - with the help and suggestions from my mentor - I made the ending more subtle and careful, so hopefully it feels more guilty and embarrassed.

polished version - week 307



blocking plus / refining - week 306



blocking - week 305



planning - week 304


Ok, that's it for now, I'll post more soon. Actually I think it's not too bad having all the steps for an assignment within one larger post. Maybe I'll keep it this way.
As always, comments are very welcome!! So don't hold back ;)

Have a great week everyone and go see "Coraline"! (that applies to the german animation fans, the movie was just released here. We have to wait for "Up" until September!!!)