Letting Off Steam

THE IDEA

My final animation in collaboration with The National Gallery is called 'Letting Off Steam' and features Philomena, a stressed out businesswoman with a great love of tea!
The animation was inspired by the painting 'A Lady in the Garden taking Coffee'.
I loved the way the female character pouring the teapot looked so elegant and graceful whilst performing what we now see as an everyday action.
I appreciated that the artist had taken the time to centre a painting around taking coffee, although it is many years old we can still relate to it. This convinced me to animate a modern day twist on this theme.

The final idea is probably a result of watching too much of The Apprentice (Jenny was a big inspiration with character designs and walks!) and developing a character with two sides to her. The uptight stressed businesswoman is the front that is really hiding an elegant graceful woman who is desperate to escape.

I tried to keep the idea simple. I think a cup of a tea is something British audiences can all relate to. Disaster strikes, but in England once the kettle is on everything 'will be ok'!! I know some people who rely on a certain number of cups of tea to get through the day. I wanted to combine this need, with the relief of putting the kettle on, and the enjoyment of the process of making it.
Another inspiration was Wallace from Aardman's Wallace & Gromit. Wallace's love of cheese is very real to me as a viewer and I wanted to capture an essense of this in my animation.




The National Gallery Painting Inspiration


My modern take on the painting


Wallace enjoying cheese

CHARACTER & ENVIRONMENT DESIGNS

These are the first really quick sketches I did whilst coming up with ideas.










Eventually I came up with something like this:




I was relatively pleased with these drawings and sent them off to my modeller Steve Moore to work his magic.


CHARACTER MODELLING

Here are some early renders of the model provided by Steve. This is really getting there, there are just a few more changes that need to take place to get her spot on.





A few updated images here, Steve's done some wicked eyeset ups and blend shapes for the face :) I also suggested a few changes which he's done, such as more hair on the face, make the figure more womanly with the hip/waist ratio and I'm very pleased with the end result.







ANIMATIC

Firstly, I drew out some really quick thumbnails on post it notes to develop the narrative and the character. This took some time and quite a lot of work, but after I was happy with this I redrew the drawings and put them into an animatic.



Link to the animatic! Sound is essential so turn up those speakers!


Untitled from Nicola on Vimeo.

Some comments in response to this animation at The National Gallery were to suggest that something bad is going to happen by perhaps having the cups slightly wobble everytime the character does a spin/move. This would make the ending clearer as the audience are prepared for what is about to happen, although it will still be a surprise.
At the acting sessions, the idea of having a really strong contrast between the opening and closing scenes and the scene in the middle cropped up. This is going to be acheived by dropping the shoulders in the middle section, making the movements in the opening and closing sections very urgent and stressed compared the elegant, floaty moves in the middle.
I was also advised to look at the rhythm of the ending, the fridge door, the shelf falling, and the phone were 3 different build ups to the ending. One of the acting tutors felt it should be more of a definate ending, so this is something I've been considering.


ANIMATION

In the meantime I've been working on the animation.
Here's a sneak peak of the opening walking shot. There's a few clicks in it, but I'm sticking to my daily schedule and only allowing myself the luxury of clean ups at the end when I have something for every shot.

Untitled from Nicola on Vimeo.


SOUND ISSUES

I visited the Royal College of Music last week to meet some composition students who were interested in putting together some scores for our animations.
I was very impressed with their work and picked up some business cards and website addresses.
On this occasion I don't think I will be using the students as my tutor Steve managed to find a website that offers a royalty free version of the track used in the animatic for around £30.
I think I am going to go down this route as £30 isn't bad for a royalty free soundtrack. (I've heard rumours of some artists asking in the realms of £500!) and it will save me a lot of time as if I stick closely to my animatic, there shouldn't be the need for too much editing.
I also think the track works rather well :o)

I've been animating for about 2 weeks now. I am almost! on schedule but I am not 100% happy with all of the animation I have done. I need time to finesse details, animate the fingers, do more facial animation etc!! I think this project has a lot of potential it's a shame the timescale is so short.
I will get it finished by the deadline but I won't stop working on it until the animation is a lot more polished.

1/2 WAY CRIT

Quick update from the half way crit. Was basically told that it was all working well but to not forget the cups wobbling etc when she does a spin to keep things relative.
The secondary animation of the inanimate objects I'm going to add this week as part of my cleap up stage.
Still got 1 scene left to animate!! Beginning to panic!!
Everything else is going well.
Got some great detailed feedback on friday scene by scene from my tutor that will help to polish my animation.

Enough talk, here's some animation so far:


Untitled from Nicola on Vimeo.

Some changes I'm going to make:


- Scene 1 starts too fast, going to have a shot of the kitchen and the door bursting open (as if she's kicked it) then she walks in, so the audience get more of an establishing shot
- Walk cycle: try smaller shoulder movements and spinning the head with the body
- General elbow positions need to look less awkward
- Need to cut sooner so we see the phone already on the table (continuity here)
-More follow through on the head sigh, and also some shoulder movement to indicate breathing
- Delay the reaction smile after viewing the kettle
- Overshoot when she lifts her head up and a bit of head wobble would be nice
-Kettle flick needs more anticipation of the hand, going to try using just one finger to give a more elegant feel
- Timing of the arm movements is very even in the first move (from table to the cupboard)
- Add some head anticipation before the spin
- Make sure the eyes are watching the correct item at all times (bit off here)
- Generally I think it will all look better when I go in and add some follow through to the fingers and a bit of facial


Sorry that didn't make for rivetting reading and was more for my purposes than anything but any more critism welcome please!!


Just a real quick look here at how I'm possibly gonna make this look decent in 2 weeks. Think I'm just gonna render it out with mental ray's final gather. Haven't decided on the shadows yet or the colour of the lighting....it's all a bit boring just testing out render techniques and times. Also have to sort out my set/background/....get some funky wallpaper in there, but I quite like the way this looks a bit stop motion/plasticine like




ANIMATION UPDATE

So here goes. I have something for every scene now. I'm happy I've got it all under control but I'm not happy that it's all a bit average and unfortunately I don't have much time left for cleanup. I need to work on the follow through, arcs, spacing etc etc so much to improve so little time! So so tired...


Untitled from Nicola on Vimeo.

RENDERING/LIGHTING
In terms of rendering I wanted quite a soft, appealing look to the piece that would suit the character's mood whilst making the cup of tea. I decided to go for nice, soft lighting using Mental Ray's Final Gather. Around this time I watched the work of Studio Aka, in particular their Lloyds TSB adverts as I love them, and think the rendering style is very similar to what would suit my animation.