poster design

Just to get it done with...I`d rather just leave it entirely black, except for the letters. But that seemed too minimalistic. Now it looks more like a bad ad I`ve seen somewhere before...don`t know what product tho. Probably some hi-fi or MP3-player ad. In case I miraculously find myself with some leftover time I will change it...I`ll leave it for now.

Montage

Finally, a montage version I am satisfied with. The timing needs just a little bit more work before I lock it.
The robot rig just keeps acting up. It still has some flipping, I`ll need to fix that aswell...

Mayhem

In the meanwhile, my maya files have turned in complete mayhem. As it turned out, my robot rig wasn`t foolproof...at a point it kept flipping over. So, the only solution was to add a Forward Kinematic function including a FK/IK switch...
Some technicalities:
- A regular FK system wasnt possible, due to the fact that the root of the chains was at the base, whereas I needed them to be at the tips...so I improvised a Backward Kinematic system routing IK-handles back to the base.
- Then every bend in the arms needed controllers, so I can animate them (those are all the blue circles in the pic below). I accidentally created them to big, but I`m affraid to go back and fix that...since everything is routed in a way now that it seems to work.
- I dont know how I parented everything, but I`ve got stray joints visible. This causes some more clutter in the screen.
- Working with 7 separate camera (the green things, hovering around the character) for my montage in 1 maya file...but good old traditional paper helps keep track of what frames I eventually need to render out from what camera.
- Number of file-versions: rocketing

Ah, well montage is coming along, hopefully online later today or tomorrow. Then I can focus on making things pretty.

Reel may 2008

Something I had still laying around...

progress...

machine: check.
Still needs quite some work, but it`s ready for animation.

Finding the moves

Down below are you can see a rough setup for the animation. Sofar I`m trying to figure out only the moves. Camera will be adjusted once I finish the choreography. Also, I made a union-skin like picture of the fall. Because it would be too small to see if I had put it in the vid like that, I actually do prefer the camera position from the side.

Falling

I felt it was time for another update, so here`s a small one. Some time ago, I finished the final rig for animating and started to block in the final thing. Along the way I came to realise this project isn`t exactly as straight-forward as I thought when starting it. Main focus is the movements of the characters. In their movements their motives should become clear. Though they are pretty straight forward, the turning point has proven quite difficult so far. It is a full reversal of motives between the two characters. The other day I had someone check out my project who had absolutely no previous knowledge of it. She suggested to let the dancer just take a long deep dive and having the robot still catch her. As I thought about it, this event would obviously show the dancer and the audience that she`ll be safe, no matter what. So here`s a picture of the deep dive, from my rough (cut up) model. I`ll stick with this solution for now, though at first I had in mind it would be more interesting to have the dancer devieate more and more from what the robot intends untils she has fully taken the lead.