This is where I'll post my work on sequence _2_02 aka "The Thicket". I like this sequence because it's a nice self-contained scene with clear beginning, middle and end.

On the one hand it's bit of a luxury to have a whole contiguous sequence to animate. Most animators on a feature have to take what ever shot is out of pre-production. On the other hand, I'll be trying to do this all myself and it's a big chunk. Ninety seconds would be a bigger continuous piece of animation than I have attempted before.

Anyway, I'll try to put all the best practices I've learned over the last three years or so into actual use and we'll see what comes out.

Here's my original concept of the sequence. I did this last year. This is ancien regime, from even before Bob was involved with TWO. This isn't an "animatic" yet, with specific camera shots laid out. This is more like a "pitch" that one might act out live for a producer, with some storyboard drawings added. But it demonstrates the general tone and flavor that I'm going for.

loonville.mov 7MB

The next step is to develop this properly. Devise better poses, "plus" the performance of the characters, decide where to cut, pick out effective camera angles, other things I haven't thought of...

I don't know how long this will all take. A professional Hollywood animator who knows what he is doing would spend about 25-30 weeks on 90 seconds of animation. But since I'm not in Hollywood and not a professional and have only a novice's insight into what I'm doing, maybe some corners can be cut and it can be done sooner.

no guarantees, however.

Very nice of you share this Robert. Please keep it up.

"A box of matches"!!! I love it. I'm looking forward to your progress.

This thread will be fun to follow!
I'm sure you'll do a wonderful job!

Looking forward to watching you work Robert. You did some great work in AM and I am sure you will do so again here!!

Nice to see this moving forward. It'll be great to see this develop.

That was very educational!
Thanks for posting!

Mike Fitz
www.3dartz.com

I've been otherwise distracted for several weeks, but along the way I've been re-thinking my staging of this sequence. Basically I knew I needed to use the visual element to better show the shifting alliances within our group of characters during the sequence.

Here's a walk thru:

thicket_walkthru.mov ~4.5 megs

(It's kind of like the sock puppet version of Incredibles but I didn't have any sock puppets.)

Real movie makers would probably draw this and make a new animatic... this was faster. But this is all part of what they call "planning": making sure you know what you're doing before you invest a lot of labor into animation.

Now that I have a clearer idea of what the characters are actually doing (I didn't before) I can start picking out actual camera angles to best show it.

Talk about your 'Making of'!

That was hilarious! Cool... Pixar behind the scenes level cool.

I love it.

Ok - let me get this straight - you ingested ALL the pills before you did this?

Fun technique.

That should definitely go on the special features part of the TWO dvd!

I was worried about the one camera angle for so long. But then you said close ups at the end. It's an interesting idea and I think it might just work.....it's almost like watching a play.

One thing I thought might be good.....

When woot goes off to look and leaves the other two discussing alternative routes, it might be funny if tinman asks woot what he thinks (double take) and then looks for woot.

Using what I learned from the experiment above, I think I can stake out the actual camera angles and shots now.

So in sequence:

Scarecrow reading the sign...


Main poses movie:Click to view attachment



Then they take a look down the path and we see their POV of the forest. It could be a classic scary forest with trees that look like they have arms and faces, or maybe just the light and shadow on it make it look scary...




Scarecrow:Maybe we should go another way...
Tinman: good idea... how about if we double back along the river...


pose movie: 2_07_10.mov


as Tinman continues, Woot gets curious... and exits to the right


pose movie: 2_07_11.mov



We see Tinman is still talking but Woot dashes back into frameand interrupts: I wanna see this Loonville!


2_02_13 deleted, now part of 2_02_12


continued in next post...

Scarecrow pushes Tinman aside to say:
But a warning sign means danger ...



scarecrow: and I for one... (blah blah blah) ...don't you agree, sire?
scarecrow hasn't noticed tinman has gone screen right



Now at this point I'm of two minds about what to do...

we could go back to the master shot to find Tinman over at the right:

Tinman: well... uh...



then go to a close-up for Woot saying : I'm not afraid




OR... we could go to a Scarecrow POV to catch the Tinman (the upper left frame): well... uh...
then we hear Woot's voice: I'm not afriad!
and then pan down as if we were the Scarecrow to see Woot challenging him (lower right frame)


pose movie: pose movie: 2_07_15.mov


I'm leaning towards the latter version

2_02_16 has been rolled into scene 15
continued in next post

Scarecrow: well, you wouldn't be, but what if we ran into...

pose movie: Click to view attachment



now we take a camera opposite the scarecrow to put him in the background as he babbles.
Tinman walks up close, peers down the path and shrugs his shoulders.

pose movie: Click to view attachment


back to Scarecrow: ... or... a box of matches!



two versions again for next bit...

1) Scarecrow's POV to see the Tinman turn with his axe and say: We'll manage, OK?




2) or... it might be funny to just have the Tinman poke the axe in from the edge of the frame:

We'll manage, OK?




continued in next post

I'm thinking of dividing the next one into two close ups
Scarecrow: Now let's think this thru...
Woot: Maybe you should just stay here then!




Scarecrow: by myself?

Pose movie: Click to view attachment


Woot reacts

Pose movie: Click to view attachment


Scarecrow: Well... maybe I will!

Pose Movie: Click to view attachment

Tinman stomps back into frame: Oh, that's a good idea... you stay in this open, exposed clearing and wait for the Opteryx to come by!



We don't have to go back to a close up here but it's slightly easier
Scarecrow: Opteryx?



Woot coaches Tinman
Tinman: Oh, you can't miss her. She's got, uh... twenty foot wings! and, uh... a giant beak... and...

Woot: And she flys around looking for straw to build her nest with!
Pluck!




Woot (offscreen) : Goodbye!



Tinman: See you later!



Scarecrow: hmmpph! "Opteryx"!




continued in next post

Scarecrow: Hey wait for me guys... you're gonna need me!




end of sequence.

Great shot breakdown Robert... and play by play too.
This is going to be great.

Ok, back to moving this boulder.

I promised to get back to this before February, so now I'm back to it.

My goal is to get the whole sequence posed out by the end of this month. The 1st shot is posted up by its storyboard drawing.

These are just the main storytelling poses so far. No breakdowns or polishing yet.

Four more pose movies up above by their drawings.

15 to go.

The storyboard drawings are now numbered to conform to the TWO script numbering as closely as possible.

I notice the Wiki script has some obvious omissions and repetitions, probably copy and paste errors.

12 to go.

2_02_23

Here's the blocking pass followed by the "it will have to do" pass

Click to view attachment


Still haven't figured out how to close Scarecrow's mouth all the way. The small eyes are killing me. I also find the permanently arched eyebrows hard to work with. I pulled some CPs to try to straighten them out in the last pose.

That's very subtle movement... Effective though. I'm a believer.

A short film about three people standing around looking at something and then turning to look at something else.

http://www.hash.com/two/RCHolme...1_take51MP4.mov

No lip-sync on Scarecrow yet.

I'll need to rethink the stretch where Tin Woodman is listening to Scarecrow read the sign.

I, for one, certainly want to know more about Loonville!

Not my department, I'm afraid. I'm only in charge of standing around and talking about not going to Loonville.

Yes, but the sign saying not to go there makes the promise of Loonville even more intriguing.....as your animation so adequately suggests.

This happens while Scarecrow and Tinman are talking about not going to Loonville.

There are three blocking passes on the front. I ended up changing my original notion.

Click to view attachment


There's a pass through with the Tinman I'll have to fix, and I'll need to think of some moving hold motion for him and the Scarecrow.

Cool. Some comments:

1) When he looks back the first time, it would seem more credible for him to look up at the the characters faces to see if they're looking at him creeping away.

2) I'm not getting the whole non bending arms while he creeps away. I think it would benefit from more upper body movement.....especially chest y axis rotation.

Yeah, the left arm isn't animated at all during the sneak, I'm trying to avoid the "dogpaddle" look that these things tend to turn into. I'll probably revist the arms.

Really lovely animation so far Robert, and you're a natural teacher to boot.

Thanks! Teaching is easier when there's only one at a time. I never got that 75-kids-in-a-room bit figured out.

"Well.... uh...."

The tide begins to turn against Scarecrow. This is right after Scarecrow says, "Don't you agree, Sire?"

Click to view attachment

That's funny. I assume you're going to add blinks and stuff. It feels like Woots lean forward of enthusiasm could be abit bigger. Generally he's a little static. Also, TW is still for a while before the camera goes off him.....perhaps the turn could be delayed or slowed.

Actually, my goal is to make it even smaller. Maybe get rid of the bump entirely.

I found that he pretty much needs to stop his gesture before Woot's voice is heard or it almost is as if he were stepping on Woot's line. I'm thinking that maybe if he scratched the back of his head a bit more that would keep him alive better without being too much.

Show do you put anticapations into camera motion as well? should I be doing that for 2_01_54 camera moves?

Normally you wouldn't make th camera do that. I did it in this one shot to make it seem more like the Scarecrow's point-of-view, and to try to convey his surprise at what Woot said. If we had been looking at Scarecrow he might have done a "take" or something like that. Here, it's like we're seeing the "take" through his eyes.

In almost any other situation I wouldn't want Tinman and Woot looking directly at the camera, I'd try to maintain the 180° rule where the camera always stays on the opposite side of a line between it and the characters. I can briefly bend it here because the characters' positions on the set have been well-established (I hope).

Is there any online references or examples of these 180 rules and other movie making guidlines? I need to get movie making shot by shot from the library and finish this time

These two explain it a bit differently than my filmmaking 101 teacher did but the end result is the same.

http://www.fathom.com/course/10701053/session4.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/180_degree_rule



http://jodi.ecs.soton.ac.uk/Articles/v01/i...g/180degre.html

I don't actually "cross the line" in the above shot, but I come really, really close to it. If the sign weren't there to help clue the viewer to the new camera angle, I think it would fail. It helps that the sign is still pointing to screen right (as it does in previous shots) even at this extreme angle. If the camera had moved even farther so that we were seeing the back of the sign, it would point screen left, which would be confusing.

Here's a shot that took way too long.

This happens right after Woot chimes in with "I'm not afraid!"

Click to view attachment

Still need to do lip synch, and I think I need to change the way his hand rests on his hip.

Very nice, Robert. (Not in the script but I trust you.)

Fun Fun Fun!!! Damn, it's handy you're SCs voice.

A brief shot, but it had to be done.

This is right after Scarecrow says "b...by myself?"

2_02_021b.mov

This is another one I would like to make smaller if I have time to come back to it.

That Woot is a cheeky sonofagun.

My first tentative use of head squetch.

I put the blocking on the front of this. This is one where I decided the blocking was too big, so i tried to shrink it down. I find it hard to keep "small" from looking floaty, however.

Click to view attachment

I'm almost out of short shots. I'm going to have to start doing the long ones.

"Well... maybe I will"

Click to view attachment

I love subtle animation. A lot of believability in your movements and expressions.

Nicely done

Hmmm, ya know? I think that head needs some scooping action.... If you don't know how that's done, I have about an hour of quicktime movies explaining alllll about it! Oh wait, you made those movies