Lip syncing Maya tiger animation

Today I have managed to finish my lip syncing and animation movement to the voice of Jame Earl Jones, known as Darth Vader and Shia Khan. I have really enjoyed this project as it has allowed my to really analyse tigers movements and then apply it into practice. I started by watching tiger videos of them walking and then once applying a face cam I over emphasised its gestures to add comedic effect. I think I am going to improve the ending as the tigers face doesn't look at the person it talks to, it changes direction. Also I want to change the movement of the tail in some places as it is not quite realistic. However overall I am so proud of this , I like the transition of the tiger sitting down the standing, it emphasises its aggression. Then the sudden contrast at the end when it seems happy.

Mapping out my 3D Background

Today I finished mapping out my 3D background, I am really happy with the result as it is very detailed. The only problem is that in the textures lesson today Georg said that it is best that you texture as you go along otherwise it will take you forever. I have created loads and loads of polygons therefore it is going to be extremely time consuming when it comes to applying the textures. However looking back from my reference images in Django Unchained, this portrays a realistic setting in a Western Town. I am really happy with the water tower as well as the cart as these are little touches that really make the scene interesting. I'm just worried how time consuming the appliance of textures is going to be later on.

Paper Aeroplanes Idea for Title Sequence

As we are basing our title sequence on female aviators, we have come up with the idea of using paper aeroplanes to take the audience on a journey through Amelia Earhart's life. We were also thinking of overlaying archive footage as well.We did research on stop motion artists who use paper craft to tell a story. Maciek Janicki produced an amazing paper animation hand cut, however I think we will be doing this on After Effects rather than by hand due to time constraints.

Life Drawing 2

This week we had another life drawing class. Once again we ha to calculate he proportions with the needles and I was starting to get the hang of this. I got some really useful constructive criticism about my drawings. How the model was positioned from my viewpoint made it quite difficult for getting the perspective right. However next lesson we are going to be given proper lessons on how to improve our drawings. Overall I am happy with the progress I am achieving with these in depth life drawing sessions. I am going to continue my drawings so that the quality will improve.

Inspiration for 3D Environment

I was trying to find inspiration for the Wild West Town, where we have to create a 3D environment in Maya. I created a Pinterest board for inspiration from old western games and virtual maps that others ave cretaed too. However it is the scene in Django Unchained that I took most inspiration from, this is because it is the perfect Western Town with Saloons and Sheriffs. I was thinking of including a water tower for special effect as well. I also like the ranch themed decor, textures will have to be mainly wooden based in order to convey a realistic setting.

Title Sequence Research

We have decided to do our title sequence about women aviators such as Amelia Earhart.

We were looking into inspiration for the theme of female aviators, especially because they are dated around the 1930s. I looked at film title sequences based in this time period and found so very helpful ones such as:

Captain America: The First Avenger
We liked the idea of creating a parallax with still images but the camera movement makes it look really effective.

The Grand Budapest Hotel
We also really like the style of this title sequence, it is lots of vector images that tell you a story. Therefore we were thinking of creating a story through the aviators lives using these kind of images and compositions.