Scene 5 Finished Keys - Before Clean-Up

Hey guys,

So just finished the Edward level on Scene 5 - keys that is. It needs cleaned-up and inbetweened. Unfortunately the crazy weather conditions here in Dundee are making it difficult to locate my crack team, as it's hard for a lot of people to get in. The art college was closed yesterday, which was severely unhelpful.

Everyone's also similarly 'snowed under' with work.


Ahahaha. See what I did there. Ah ha. Ha.

Ha.

Anyway. Found this scene majorly difficult to do. Took me far too long. Serious slaps on wrist. Well it's done, so now to crack on with emily and the duke.

More steam photographs

© All rights reserved by Envisage Photo
Found on this Flickr discussion thread. Some stunning stuff. Now back to dissertation editing.

Dundee in the age of steam

I'm not sure of the original sources of these photographs, I lifted them from a treasure trove collection of old Dundee photographs on John Hunter's facebook. Some familar views for us west end residents!

3D gears test

All the parts are linked by a combination of constraints and everything is driven from an expression on the right wheel.
There's some pretty bad slipping on a couple of joints, particularly the bullet shaped one on the right but I reckon I can eliminate them all 2nd time around.
Nothings textured I should add.

Layout guides scenes 2-8

These printed layout guides, rendered from maya, will be used as reference for 2D animation.

Texturing

Been a long time since I textured a model so I done this as a test, aiming for the 2D look. Summit bizarre going on with the maya toon line.

Sc5 Glass Test

Quick test for the shattering glass as Edward comes through the skylight. The glass mioght be falling a little slow.

Rough Sc 5 Part 2

Just in the midst of roughing out the second part of Scene 5 - so Edward's jumped in, now he's trying to get back up...

Kudos for Johnno for having the cool idea of the back of his waistcoat getting stuck over his head.

It's been an absoloute nightmare to attempt, but hey, think I'm getting there...? There's a lot to work on after the rough posing - a proper line of action on that wasitcoat, follow through on hair etc, but currently it's making me smile, which is a good sign.

Jewel shader test

I've used the interior geometry to look at how the 2D animation will be reflected in the surafce of the jewel. The clasp will be rendered in a more 2Dish way, only shaded for now.

To Inbetween, Or Not to Inbetween. THAT, is the question.

So I'm halfway through animating Edward in Scene 5 - that's when he smashes through the top of the train and lands in front of Emily and the Duke, much to her feigned, and his genuine, surprise.

The action has to take place over 17 frames the way we've timed it, so no extra time can be garnered. The movement's pretty quick though, so the question is, to inbetween or not...?

Version One is without inbetweens on 2's, and Version Two is inbetweened on 1s. Yup, 1s. *shudders*

Anyway, feedback as to which looks better would be much appreciated. :) I personally am thinking towards 2s - not to influence anyone here - but I feel he falls slower, and paradoxically, the movement is smoother and clearer, whereas on ones it seems rushed, albeit fluid.

Jewel geometry work in progress

I shall work at making the clasp look a little cuter...

Chair geometry

Nothing like a hard day's chair modeling. Wey, chair.

Chairs

We need chairs. Here is a chair design. Now to Maya.

An interesting random photograph. © 2005 Jonathan Hey - www.palojono.com

Carriage interior geometry

The second high vantage point could make a more interesting composition for scene 3.

Finished Inbetweens - Scene One!

I forgot how long clean-up and inbetweens take. It was very naive to assume that I could do it in a day. Nonetheless, here we have finished inbetweened clean-up!

The great thing about doing this whole scene myself was it's taught me a lot about my process and how I work, so I can easier relay this to my wonderful clean-up artists/inbetweeners from now on. Ie. Having done it mysef, I feel in a better position to be able to explain what I want from the crack team we've assembled. It's given me confidence. :)

So Scene 1 Duke, all done. It's now going to be blown up to a larger scale and retraced to enhance the line quality before we start manipulating it for the reflection/jewel effect. In that process the sash and medals will also be added -all courtesy of the wonderful Lyndsy. :D Lyndsy, I love you. You're a star.

Cracking on with another scene now, yaaaaay!

Gear system

I know this might look like an enormous waste of time, but I reckon it'll help when it comes to rigging the pistons; they are on screen for at least 2 or 3 seconds after all.

Behold! A finished linetest!

Kind of.

This is the cleaned-up keyframes for Scene One, in which the Duke admires his reflection in the diamond. So fingers crossed and I'll have this inbetweened for Monday/Tuesday, which means our first 2D scene in the bag. Yay!

Quite happy with how it's turned out, in the end, having started from scratch this week. It's been good to be back in the studio. Special thanks to Brian Lindsay for helping me out with the tricksy moustache. :)

Exterior Geometry

The Flying Duchess engine and royal carriage.
Still missing some wheels and the drive mechanism.

Carriage interior geometry in progress

The beginings of the first carriage interior. I'm finding that the overall shape of the orthographic designs are needing much tweeking once seen in 3D.