[Scene 00] Alternative Opening v2

Here's version numero dos. I took on board Alex's suggestions from the previous version and shortened the beginning by one second, made drop of the water quicker, easy eased the pan and altered the ripples. The radio waves I used for the effect was limited to when the sizes can change but hopefully this looks slightly better. Give it that subtle change that's noticeable :]

[Scene 00] Alternative Opening v1

I was thinking over how we can make an effective opening. Something with a little bit of difference from the camera movement we've done before. Because Andy had mentioned something about water drops falling at the corner of the barn's wall I was taken back to how 'A Bug's Life' was opened. So I researched a little bit on water ripple effects in AE and I came up with this for starters.

Here's the link to the opening: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrW_TTxP1ow

I like the bird flying by but I think the first bird we need to be introduced to is the crow so I didn't try with that :] There was another suggestion that Andy said and that was to pan across the barn wall and see a very dusty window before we come to the corner. And through the window's dust we barely see the Interior shot, hinting off future events. Now of course that's another idea I'd really like to use ^^

At the end is when the scarecrow will sneak around the wall before the crow joins him etc. :] I think I might need to change that reflection. I'm not sure whether it looks odd or not. I need another opinion.

Scene 17 & 18 (1st Versions)

Hey guys here's the first versions of scenes 17 and 18. Calling them the first versions just in you guys wanna see some changes! :)

Scene 17

Scene 18

Scene 4 Revamp

Hey guys, this is just scene 4 with a slight adjustment that Jazzy requested. The glider now peers over the top of the hill slightly at the end of the scene. This should now be the finished version.

[Scene 15] Picking Insect v1

This is the first time I've used Jae's puppets! Good work you did there ^^

Unluckily there was a problem I immediately encountered and that was the size of the puppet. Unfortunately it was a tad too small for the widescreen on After Effects and I had to scale it up so that's why it looks a bit blurry on the edges etc. Despite this I still wanted to try my hand at it :]

I think the timings are not exactly the same as they are on the animatic here. This is because I had to keep the quick tempos of the flinch and such, and still keep it to the duration. The animatic changes are quite jumpy with no inbetweens so that's why I messed with the timings a bit. Only to make it work though, I hope I didn't change it too much ^^;

I might make the beginning a millisecond longer before the crow approaches. I think it might be a bit too quick at the start there but I'm not too sure, everyone please tell me you're opinion :]

Also the part when the scarecrow fully opens his eyes again, I want to change that a little bit too. Still keeping the hesitant opening of the eyes but have him look up after they're fully opened. What do you guys think?

[Scene 06] v1

I wasn't trying too hard with this version because I just wanted to get the basics done before I played around with it. I managed to have the underside of the hang glider show when it turns, thank the heavens. I was quite worried about doing that ^^;

What I really want to focus on next is showing the scarecrow flop around underneath it. Now I don't think I have a puppet for that so that will limit the amount I can do.

Exploring with the Hang Glider

Taking photos of a small paper and cocktail stick model I made last night, I explored different perspectives and I'll tell you what, it really helped. I don't think I could have done that without a physical 3D model. I know I need to practice with perspective because it's something I'm not too good at and it's very important to know for animation. I only managed to get one finalised picture done and I'm sorry if I got the colour scheme on the scarecrow slightly wrong. I noticed I didn't have reference actually on my macbook so I had to eyeball it with images on my iPhone :]

(bad quality photo is bad)

Scarecrow Walks

After I've finally got After Effects I managed to play around with a scarecrow walk to help me understand and explore the tools I could use with him. I know we've done After Effects before hey my last walking sequence was so stiff it looked like my character had a cactus lodged up her backside. So... I explored with creating a puppet and separating the limbs at appropriate joints.

Scarecrow Walk v1


This is a really rough draft. I wanted to see if I could make him lanky and weightless.

Rons' Feedback: The feet look too rigid, give it a pivot point at the ankle to prevent his walk looking too soft and gingerly. 


He's full of hay, since we didn't go with the stick in his body design ;) so we can really look at how flexible he is. Because of lack of limits like humans have, it is easier for him to move around.

Scarecrow Walk v2 (silly)


I thought using the Puppet Tool of After Effects might give a different impression of how he walks. Now I wasn't originally being serious with this walk, I was doing it just for fun, but I did like the beginning section of how he walked. I need another opinion so I dared to show it to Ron ^^;

Rons' Feedback: The main issue with it is the change in volume. Should we choose to use this form of moving the scarecrow we have to make sure we keep the volume the same. The squash and stretch doesn't work. However it does make him look more lightweight and free to move around. 


Like Woody in Toy Story his limbs can do things humans' can't. Ron suggested Breaking Joints. I remembered this from the Richard Williams series we watched on Digital Skills. In both arms and legs, breaking the joints might give a better illusion of more flexibility that working to the rules can't. This is because in theory a scarecrow can do that. The human eye wouldn't think it's wrong because we'll only see how flexible the limbs are.

I've decided to try the walking cycle again, working with both of the feedbacks, and see what I come up with :]