JERRY SPRINGERS FINAL THOUGHT......

OK so we are finished, and I must say I am relieved!!! It has been a hard year but I am very pleased with the outcome of the film. So let me take you back to how it all began.......

"And the films are......Matt Fidler 'El Bandito'......Kanika Andrew 'Glitched'.....IM SORRY WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY!!! mmmmm decisions decisions.

I was extremely taken back at the fact that my film had been picked, and was very humble at the fact that Mike Smith believed in my ideas and thought it had the potential to become a good short film. However me and the other members of El Bandito had always wanted to work together for the final 3rd year film. We spent the whole summer before meeting, coming up with various amounts of ideas and we had already made a decision based on what we would do if a scenario like this occurred (i just didn't think it would be me that would have to make the hard decision!!). Matt was very understanding in the sense that even though we had spoken about what we would do in a situation like this before, he made it clear that if I did want to change my mind and work on my own film he would not hold me to our previous agreement.

In the end I decided that I wanted to drop my film and work with the guys of El Bandito, and told Mike in the very first week that I would not be doing my film. However there were a few people who initially wanted to work on Glithched, Alex Bedminister, Principe Short, Natasha Monk and Mehmet Izmen. I let these people know immeadiatley that I would not be making my film, and I would be working on El Bandito; however in a strange turn of events they still wanted to make the film. I was pleased to here this and said that I would supply them with all the work which I had done for the pitch but I would not be the director of the film. So in the second week of the first term Alex took the role of Director. Throughout the year Alex had been updating as to the progress of the film and had let me know of the vast changes they had made to the story to make the filmic language receive better to the audience. I was delighted to hear that they had incorporated their own story ideas, and cared enough to make the story even better. I would just like to say thankyou to the guys at glitch (what they renamed it) and Kanika AndrewS, cannot wait to see the finish product.

So back to the Banditos! The first term was very much about getting the story right, we had everyone look over the anamatic!! Dan Dali (about 5 times), Mike Smith, even the industry lecturer from Aardman. We wanted to make sure that the story was right before we took further steps to start modelling.

Second term, this was the hardest term, mainly because of the dissertation. It took alot out of the film making process, but as a group we had timetabled in when we were going to focus on the film, and when we were going to focus on the dissertation. I don't think if it wasn't for the extreme organisational skills (particularly from Sam Harvey) and the group determination to not let the dissertation get in the way of our film, that we would have been in the moderately strong position we were in heading for term 3.

Third term, this term to was hard. Towards the end it got extremely stressful, and although there were a couple of disagreements, it never crippled the production of the film, we knew the show must go on and it showed how much passion we each had for the film we were producing. It would have been ludicrous to assume that we were all going to agree on everything all the time, and I feel that it made the final product much stronger than it would if we all sat there and did what was asked of us in silence.

All in all I had a blast working with the following guys...............Matt Fidler, Sam Harvey, Sam King, Joshua Collinson and Tony Trimmer thanks for making my last year at Ravensbourne hell...I mean a blessing!!!

Love you guys and I wish you the best in all that you do......Kaniks

URGENT: Forgot shot 49 on shot list!!!

Animation: Marshals and Sheriff

Animated finalised by Joshua Collinson

El Bandito small compilation of three folders

Technical

UV Mapping.....................

Artistic

Texturing.........................................

Artistic

Concept..................

Animation

This is the actual animation which was supposed to be on the sheriff for shot 29. As I explained in my shot list, there was a technical difficulty with the shot and will be re rendered in time for the degree show.

Glitich Artistic Folder

Glitch concept work for artistic folder. These are the initial character designs I presented for my pitch.

Shot 49

This shot has caused me so much stress and I am not that happy with the result, I have been trying to connect my animation with Matts, as Matt has voiced to me at a certain point of his animation one of the marshals need to be in the bandits way, so that when the bandit turns in the air it's because the Bandit has made contact with the marshal. In the end I had to hand the shot over to Josh to finish as it was stressing me out, so he took the work that I did and worked from there.

Here is the progress for shot 49.............

Shot 22: Development and Finalisation

This was one of the most difficult shots to animate, it took me a long time to get the animation right, I am still not happy with it but I feel it does enough to again compliment the Sheriff (Matts animation) which is the main focus of the shot. The main problem was trying to get that traditional wild west feel in the marshals walk. Again I refered to the live action reference I had filmed with Harvey, to help me with this shot. But with the second marshal I kept on adding to many key frames which made it glitch out, then I had to go back and figure out which key frames I didn't need. So I actually made it much worse before making it better!!

Progress for shot 22......

Finalisation:

Shot 24 progress and finalisation

Here is the progress for shot 24, I am currently animating to Matts Sheriff which he has already animated. Its a ver quick shot and quite simple animation, as the marshals are there just to compliment the sheriff animation.

Shot 20: Development and Finalisation

Rendering: Shot 32a

Now that the animation is finished for this shot and Josh has done the NCloth for it, Me and Harvey have now set up the render for it. Below is the screenshots of the render process. To get the best look for the shot we had to render 6 passes. The train AO, train RGB, Character AO, Character RGB, Depth, Shadow.

Shot 49:Setting up the sheriff in the scene

The following screenshots show that I have now imported the sheriff in to shot 49, which has already been animated by Matt. I have used Matt's bandit animation to work out the best place to situate the sheriff.

After this screen shot I realised the sheriff needed to be more central......

Shot 29: Development and Finalisation

This playblast is focusing on the secondary animation of the accessories on the marshal

Finalisation for shot 29

Camera Angle 1

Camera Angle 2

Not sure which camera angle to go with..............

Aim for today......................

Today I plan to finish shot 29 as it is so close to finalisation, and start shot 49, so that they can be added to the block out.

Shot 27: Finalised

My section in this shot is finally finished. After having to redo it, because a second year turned of my computer!! I am happy with the result and think it will complement Harvey and Matt's animation.

Degree Show and D&AD Preparation

My two images which will be given to Harvey for the degree show and D&AD

The progress of shot 29

I have now beeen working on the marshal animation for shot 29, I want to make sure that the two marshals look different when they stumble back. I also used a live action reference thanks to filming Harvey stumbiling back, to get a better hold on things.

Below is my progression through playblasts......

Shot 27 and 32c: Development and Finalisation

Shot 27: Here are the playblasts and developments for shot 27

Shot 32c: This shot will be split with Harveys prisoners animation

Finalised Shot:

Shot 32a: finalised

This is the final shot for shot 32a, I tried to incorporate the famous hand movement you always see in the westerns when the character is getting ready to reach for his gun. I like the shot however its a shame that it extreme close up and such a quick shot, but it needs to be this fast for the pace of the film.

The Trails and Tribulations of Shot 20a

Ok so I had alot of problems with this shot. Its amazing how sometimes just the subtle movements can give you the most grief when It comes to animating. At first when I was animating the marshals in the shot, both Matt and I had different ways of looking at it. I saw it as more of a exaggerated shock, and Matt saw it as a glance up to back the sheriff. After much deliberation, we as our fellow group member Harvey. His opinion was to combine both our ideas together, so that the secondary characters wouldn't takeaway from the sheriff; but still have something more than just looking up.

This is one of the initial playblasts

The next playblast is the one I am working on now, I have pretty much finished the marshal on the right, since my group members last saw it I have added some secondary action to the hands, and made the head movement just a touch quicker. I have now moved on to animating the the other marshal,but I can't get it quite right. Fellow Banditos a lil help please!!!! would really appreciate your comments. It still in the early stages but I still want to see what you all think, what I could add or take out....... (personally I think he could be a little faster)

Blockout: adding shots

Technical: I have put the shot which I have just animated in to the blockout below is the playblast for it.

Shot 29 with reference

I have started to animate my shots for the film. This particular shot is after the driver has been shot which makes the train go faster, and causes the sheriff and the marshals to loose their balance.

For this shot Matt filmed myself attempting to stumble which actually turned into two very real stumbles!! perfect!! This Live action reference really helped when I referred back to it. I am extremely happy with how the sheriff has turned out. I don't think I would change much considering the time allocated for this shot.

Animation Test: Marshal Walk Test

This third test is a walk cycle. I am not happy with it at all as the character looks like he has a limp, he looks quite rigid to me and quite glitchy. I like the head movement and the pace he is walking is fine, but it needs some work. However the time has come now where I need to stop doing tests and start focusing on animating shots for the film.

This is a screen shot of my shot list which Harvey has given me, to let me know what shots I am doing what they entail, and how long each shot is. I will be using this shot list throughout to remind myself of what I need to do.

Animation Test: Marshall Run Cycle

This is the second test that I have done from the marshal rig. This test is a run, I am pleased with this test, as I think it loops well. I also tried to get some secondary action with the head, to make it look like he was driving himself to go on (Paula Radcliff inspired!). There is one problem with the rig at the moment, with his left hand, you can't really notice it (but now I have mentioned it your gonna look for it!) I have let Matt know and he knows how to fix it, and assures me it will be fixed by the time I start animating for the film

Animation test: Marshall Jump

I HAVE THE MARSHAL RIG YAY!!!!! Thanks to Matt I have been supplied with the Marshal rig. I have no decided that it is in the best interest of the film considering the time we have left, if I start doing tests with the marshal rig. The test above is a jump test, I feel this test could be better, by putting more movement when he lands, and more momentum when he starts. If there is time to improve it I will put alot more anticipation at the beginning of the animation.

Texturing a Buiilding

I have now started to texture one of my building models, however time is slipping away and the Character rigs are nearly finished. So I might have to abandon texturing to focus on the animation soon. But this is how far I have go so far, I have been texturing every single plank to make it look more authentic. I have also used the checkerboard texture to assign the right UVs to each part of the model.

Texturing: TNT and Gold Coins

The coins were alot easier to texture, but getting the settings right for the reflective surface took some time to get right.

TNT Texturing and UV Mapping

Texturing for TNT. I definitely believe that the texturing makes all the difference. After I did the texture for my model I was really satisfied with the end result. The time I put in to making sure that the textures looked to their best has been well worth it. Because I was new to texturing I made alot of mistakes before I got it completely right, I had to texture each side separately because of the way I modelled it. I know I will make less mistakes next time, practice makes perfect!!!

Progress on TNT texturing..............


UV Plannar Maping and Photoshop............

Applying the texture in Maya..........

Bucket Texturing Finished (I think!)

Now that I have some knowledge on texturing I have gone back to my previous props to texture them up. This is the progress for the bucket....

Basic Texturing

Today I mainly focused on developing my texturing skills. I had a tutorial on basic texturing by my fellow group member Sam King, and with that I was able to try out texturing a couple of my props.

Plannar Mapping...............

Photoshop.......................

Cylindrical Mapping................

Photoshop...............................