Pre-Production Methods: Woody Allen research

One of the pieces of feedback I gained from my pitch was that my character bore a resemblance to actor Woody Allen. While this was initially unintentional, I was pointed out to how Allen often plays neurotic and anxiety ridden characters and his films. Afterwards I decided to look at Allen's facial structure. Below is a PhotoShop drawing of my character based on Allen. I think my character looks a lot more nervous here.      

Pre-Production Summer Pitch Presentation

During the Summer, we had to create an idea for a short animated film that we would produce during the second semester as part of our Final Major Project. We would then do the Pre-production concept work in the first semester. My idea was about a superhero with anxiety, as it meant I could tackle two topics that I feel passionate about.   

Final Music Video

This is the final music video. I created it whilst working with Luke. It was based on the book 'the man who mistook his wife for a hat', particularly on a section about a man who could form no new memories past 1945. The final film was put together by Luke, with the song 'Feeling good' by Muse added. He also sped up a few of my sections, which is why there is a difference between the final and my sections posts. 

I think the film went rather well, although we could have met up maybe a little more so we could discuss the animation flow a bit better. However, it turned out ok.

Music Video: my assets

These are the assets I used to create my sections of the music video.  

These are the animations used in the video. Luke also made use of the falling animation to create the parachute scene. 

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This is a background used for several scenes in the video. I created it using different WW2 era photos gathered from the internet. Luke has posted all the images used for this on his blog. 

I also created this groom figure for Luke's wedding scene. 

During the plane, jump scene, I made use of a small snippet of this video. 

During the first and last scenes of my sections, I used this living room photo for the old man's living room. 

Music Video: my sections

These are the sections that I did for the music video. I created the animations in flash and then bought them into Aftereffects to edit them. Because the animations were all at 12fps, I had had to extend them in Aftereffects to make the clips longer. 

the first section

the fall scene

For the fall scene, Luke asked me to change the fall to a spin so it could transition better to the wedding scene. It was a simple matter of rotating the animated sequence in Aftereffects. 

the plane jump scene

the final section, with the woman with her hand on the old man's knee.  

Music Video: Storyboard

This is an updated version of the earlier storyboard that Luke made. I have added some more inbetweens to the scenes so that they are more detailed.

The man sits in his chair, and then falls through it.

He falls through a void, with pictures from WW2 flying around him.

His wedding, with the bride turning into an army general.

The general's face, with a zoom in on his mouth. 

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The planes, with the jump off.

he falls towards a woman's face, and as it unravels, he deploys a parachute.

More parachutes appear, which start turning into sperm.

The sperm then turn into missles. 

A boat is then destroyed at sea by said missiles 

A child's hand then reaches toward a woman's. 

The final scene, with the woman's hand on the old man's knee.

Group Project TB2: Production Diary: Final Animation and Breakdown Reel.

This is the final animation. On the whole I don't think it turned out too bad. There were a few problems with the cameras and I probably took longer than I should have to film. The animation also feels somewhat limited and I could have done more with it, perhaps like adding a batarang throw before the pants rip. However, I think the lighting was quite well done, and the editing was good as well. 

This is the breakdown reel for the shots

Group Project Animation TB2: final renders

These are the final rendered shots of my Animation. Before I could render them out, I had to put them through aftereffects and distort the camera footage so that it would line up with the animation and  would have less noise.

Shot 1

Shot 2

Shot 3

                                     

When editing, I had to use some sound effects in the edits

a sword clash for the batarang effects 

a paper rip sound effect for when the pants rip.

the classic Danny Elfman theme from the 1989 Batman 

I also added a university of portsmouth logo at the end.

Group Project TB2: Production Diary, animation progress

These are some progress videos I took. As the lighting and cameras were set up, the animation was the last real problem I had. Because I had only 8 seconds in the animatic, 

I had to add some extra animation, such as an extra batarang on the first shot.     

The second shot. One of the problems I faced with this was the ncloth. Because ncloth is difficult to get the hang of, it is the only real thing that looks out of place in the animation. Ironically actually, it seems to have it's roles switched in the last two scenes. In the second scene, it flails around, whilst in the third it stays relatively still. 

The Third shot.

Group Project TB2 Production Diary: Camera Setups.

These are the scene setups for each of my shots. As I stated earlier, I missed out a few very key measurements whilst I was filming, such as the camera angles, and the focal measurement for the camera, which made setting up the camera extremely diffucult. However, with help and after a few tests, I was able to set the three scenes up. 

These are the original setups for the first two scenes. As can be seen here, the setups are problematic because the camera angles are non-existent. This would cause a problem during compositing as any shadows that would be present wouldn't come out right in the render.  

This is the first setup. The camera was angled a bit more here, so that the lighting and shadow would look more convincing during the compositing. I added three area lights to this setup, and kept them at medium intensities so as not to make the scene too bright.

This is the second setup, similarly to the first shot, I would have to angle the camera manually. I also added more area lights but kept the intensities between medium and high. The light behind Batman would need to be brighter, as there would be shadows on the front of the body in the light test I did while filming. I would flit between using image planes and switching them off, which is why the image plane is absent here.

This is the third setup/ Suprisingly, this was the only one I had very few problems with, as I managed to grab the camera angle measurement, the camera match went relatively alright. I was worried initially, beacuse the building in question is quite intricate in it's design, so I was worried I would have to build it. However, as the rootop was the only thing really in the shot, that proved to be unnecessary, so a simple cube would suffice. I added an area light very high and far from the scene, as it was early evening during the filming time, so the light would be minimal but still noticeable. 

One problem I did have after filming was that the photo backup I took of the scene and the actual footage were two different sizes. This was because I had shot them at different resolutions. (the photos were taken at 1606 x 4000, while the film was shot at 1920 x 1080). As a result I had to render a single frame from each shot in Aftereffects so i would get the right sized image. 

these are the resized images 

Group Project TB2: Production Diary: Textures

These are the textures for the models in the film.

Joker target texture

Cape

The eye texture, shown here in full white. 

Ears and nose

Initial texture before the shorts were added. 

Final texture with shorts added.

Group Project TB2: Production Diary: Models

For the animation, we were given a series of pre-made body mechanics rigs to use, as modeling and rigging a character would take FAR too long to do within a twelve week animation period (at least, for me). 

I decided to use the herc rig, as I felt it would suit the Batman physique perfectly. I tried out the rig with a pose atop a rooftop-like enviroment. 

This is the model with the costume details, like the cape, ears, and gauntlet spikes added. One of the things I had to keep in mind was that I had to parent the added accessories to the rig, rather than the mesh, as the latter would likely have broken the rig. 

Model with initial texture. Needed to retexture as it was quite blurry.

Retextured, but with an added pair of shorts. The only problem was that I would have to make the shorts Ncloth to make them realistic.

This is the final model of Batman. I added the shorts to the UV. I only wished I could have removed the grey on the legs and replaced them with a skintone, which likely would have made it funnier. 

This is the Target that batman will throw his Batarangs into. I decided to put the Joker's face on it, as it would Batman a better reason to hit the target. 

This is the textured target

The textured model.

I also had a look at archery targets for reference 

These are initial designs for the Batarang

This is the final batarang model. 

I had a look at existing batarang designs, as well as boomerangs.