I just figured I'd upload what we've got so far, just so you can compare with the old versions and give us any thoughts/feedback that you have :]
Beginning scene, altered timings! This was quite a tricky one to do — we wanted the scarecrow/crows to enter from the distance quite slowly and pick up speed as they approached the camera (in line with Ron's advice from last week) but, without use of a curve/interpolation editor, the only way to do this was with multiple keyframes which caused a lot of weird pauses at points in the animation where the speed changed. We've luckily discovered the curve editor now, so hopefully we can go back and re-tweak the speeds so that it's a little more accurate. Personally, I kinda think he approaches the camera just a little too quickly. Not sure if anyone else agrees?
Few tweaks to this bit — the standing up was altered to give it a little more lifelike movement/timing (had a bit of a giggle standing up from chairs repeatedly trying to figure out exactly how it worked) and slowed down the pan/zoom a bit. This will hopefully allow a little more "breathing space" for sounds/music to be added. It's much easier to cut down on time than add it in, so if we've got too much of a pause it'll be relatively simple to cut it out.
We also altered the "running uphill" section to flow a bit better — we opted not to show the scarecrow reaching the top of the hill at this point as in the next shot, he emerges over the top, which wouldn't make too much sense if he was shown to reach the top here as well. If that makes sense...
In accordance with Ron's feedback, we've altered the hang glider scene. This is probably the biggest change (and the cause of the biggest headaches) — not going to lie, this has been an absolute bitch to animate. Getting the timings right is incredibly tricky and don't even get me started on those God damn bushes! Originally, Jazzy (bless 'er cotton socks) was pushing them into the distance and scaling them down by hand in order to give the effect that they were scrolling into the horizon. This was incredibly laborious for her though so we desperately sought a more automated option. I've kind of figured out half a solution — After Effects has an amazing effect called "motion tile" which can basically be used to create an endlessly repeating loop or scroll of an image. I used a simple circle shape as a placeholder (just to test the effect) and, happily, was able to get the bushes to loop relatively seamlessly but it's still not quite right. The biggest issue we're having is getting the perspective right. We've sort of worked it out, using something called the 'Corner Pin' tool (which works something like Photoshop's perspective option). Jazzy pointed out that the bushes should be taller at their closest point, but this is mostly fault of the shape itself — the circles I used as bushes are wider than they are tall, so when we come to replicate the effect using actual bushes we'll make them taller which should fix the problem.
Not too much difference here; just some slight timing alterations (hang glider comes in a little slower and the crow pauses a little more). Biggest change is that the background doesn't move — I thought that having it stationary helps to bring the focus onto the crow. What do you guys think?
This scene isn't definitive yet; we both kind of agreed that the previous version was lacking in something and I suggested that maybe the hang glider's silhouette against the sun should mimic the movement of the shadow as it creeps over the crow. We're still not 100% sure — seems to flow a little better, but tweaks and changes can of course still be made!
We did also attempt a dolly zoom (is that the correct term?) which would probably have looked lovely, but because the background is so simple it didn't really make much difference. I still have the file, so I may well upload it just so you can have a gander.
Last change for now — again, almost exactly the same as Jazzy's version, we just tried a slightly different method for the focus shifting to make it a little smoother. This one was done using a fancy-shmancy camera with the crow set as a 3D layer and pulled closer to the camera than the backdrop. This allowed us to keyframe the focal point/blur level of the camera, creating a nice depth of field effect.
We also added a slight pause at the beginning and cushioned the start of the upward pan, to hopefully give it a more organic feel as the crow looks around — as if we're really looking through her eyes. (God, that sounded pretentious). It also gives us a bit longer to admire Jazzy's beautiful backdrop :]
So yeah! That's pretty much all we've been mucking around with so far. Please let us know if you have any thoughts or opinions — any suggestions or whatnot.
I'm going to spend the evening tweaking some of these a little more — not to disrespect anybody of course, or to run off and take control of the entire project — just to see if I can iron out any of the little nuances and such. I'm a picky bastard.
Happy trails everybody!
Alex
You guys have seriously worked hard on getting these few scenes up to scratch and things! Well done to you both for your hard work! Obviously the only critic is the one where you guys really struggled to animate it (The one with the scarecrow chasing crow on hand glider!) You guys have done well to experiment and produce what we have so far and we can always patch it all up but it seems to me you guys need a break from that animatic as you know what they say, have a break or ruin your work! Overall guys well done though and hopefully you can sort out that one scene! As an input i think in say the final thing the crow should be running on the spot with both the bushes and pavement moving to show the effect that she is moving. Apart from that, everything is great! :D
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