Advanced Animation Techniques
Undertaking an assignment at University, to dive into an area of animation that most interests me, earn about it and to then produce a piece of my own. My chosen path being CINEMATOGRAPHY.
To Start
To start I wanted to create a basic previs for the animation I wanted to produce as the final piece. Taking on the skills used in cinematography I wanted a scene for the camera to be the main actor might you say. Having the idea of a ball bouncing around the room against another a character in the scene.
But portraying the ball as the camera shooting around the scene.
Changing The Idea
After receiving feedback from the first presentation it was advised to change the idea for the animations itself. ALso to be careful of the camera cuts and angles. So instead I wanted to create a more of a comical animation.
Haveing the gravity change in the scene and messing with the character in the scene. This story helped being told with the cameras. Using them to set the scene and introduce the character.
Focusing on the main aspects of cinematography, this was a lot better than just using the cameras alone. So instead I have taken into account the depth of field, camera cuts, panning and the rule of thirds.
Rule of Thirds
Focusing on mostly Disney and Dreamworks films I studies how they had use of the rule of thirds as well as the depth on field in use in their films.
Also looking into the Disney shorts that they develop such as Geri's Game.
Creating My Own Camera
Using a camera, a dummy and a helper, linking a lookat constraint from the camera I was able to create something that had multi purpose.
To use it as a target camera, being able to pan the camera, to dolly and to have rotation for this also.
Testing f-stops
To start with when I was testing the focusing and the f-stops on the cameras I wanted to get used to the depth of field. Focusing on each of the teapots to get the feel of the focus and how much the f-stop can change the effect.
Finding that the lower the fs-top then the more blur you would get from whatever that wasn't in focus.
Practice
I then went onto practicing the use of the methods all together. Using depth of field, rule of thirds and a use of the f-stops in the animation.
Whilst working on the new and more polished previs animation it was the prefect time to find out where I wanted my new camera and the strength of the f-stops.
Lighting The Scene
After the animation was complete I wanted to light and set the scene as best as I could. Having playing around with a lot of the lighting to get the right shadows using the attenuation on an omni light, but by using a negative value I was able to create shadows in the areas which would be darker. Like under the desk for example.
