I am at a stage where most of the animation is in a decent state. There are still some gaps left but the majority of what I had in mind is in a good place for an early update. This also provides a good chance to see the piece in its entirety in current its current state of production.
One challenge now is to sync the animation with the soundscape. This will extend the piece slightly as there are areas where breaks in the monologues might be worthwhile.and areas where a soundscape could fill in some of the blanks.
For the past couple of days I have primarily been working on creating animations for the creature to move about the world.
More significantly, the camera's focal length has been changed to provide a more natural look. Looking back and forth the previous camera angle felt a little wide, exaggerating the distance between the foreground and the background which made the rooms look enormous. So far it is only the sequences before and with the grub and with the adult form that the camera angle has been adjusted. The camera angles for the juvenile form will need to be updated and that is on my list.
Most of the camera angles have remained the same save for the distance the camera is from the subject, save for one or two minor changes to improve flow and keep interest. Some of the angles had to be re-tilted as they pointed towards the floor but the improvement does feel significant.
The Easter break knocked me out a bit but now I'm back in the game! The Juvenile has been roughly worked out so what is upcoming is working on the adult's animations. For all the work I made on the model, this one is the briefest on screen, but it's also perhaps the most tense sequence as it shows Four's final escape.
At this point, most of the sequences are done, some basic polish is needed for the corridor escape but with its completion I plan to go back and improve the placeholder animations for the grub, as all that form really does is slide around its incubator like it is living on ice.
To demonstrate her freedom the idea was that she would open the airlock to a blinding light, finally getting a chance to see the world outside of her laboratory prison. Initially a basic white, this was tinged to be more golden to better indicate it is sunlight.
Four's model does receive light, however due to the shader used she doesn't have an ambient occlusion shader on her form, this and a lack of any external lighting is what is creating the pitch black shape of her profile.
The idea for the final moment is she will be temporarily blinded from the light from outside, before leaving the base and running to freedom.
As I'm getting into animating, I'm finding myself occasionally adding the smaller details. As can be seen in the final few seconds, her face does indeed move. I had initially planned to reserve this for second pass animating (to add finer details after the bulk movements are sequenced) but it certainly adds a certain something to the character's life at this early stage.
Animation sequences continue. Much of today was spent in an attempt to get Four's jog/run right. A bit of referencing on otter run cycles helped to correct things after some difficulty and this might be good enough to install into a previous segment.
A pre-vis section will come soon I am nearly done with the first pass of the juvenile sections to the piece.
More progress done, this time the sequence where Four explores her owner's office as Amelia expresses doubts continuing a relationship with him. A bit of time was taken to get her rise to the table looking right.
The way she pushes the phone off the table, maybe there is a connotation there given the way she pushes it? She's not entirely sweets and strawberries especially as she gets older and the other scientists and the people upstairs start thinking of David less.
