Animation: The Erlking's First Appearance .04

The Father Son and Horse Animation

Alan told me to push a few of the key frames in the horse from the last update on the Horse and I think that it is now working smoother and more fluid as an animation. I also added the bounce of the the father and son 

Animation: The Erlking's First Appearance .03

1. So far that's the fog. It shall be rendered on separate layers and further improved in post-production.

2. The Erlking subtle animation when he appears. The hands are always covered by the fog so there wasn't much attention given to them. 

Final Horse Run Cycle

I offset some of the keys in the neck pelvis tail and legs to try and a create a more fluid animation and I think that I was able to capture it.

Animation: The Erlking's First Appearance .02

Developing the fog, fog layers and movements and the Erlking's animation. 

Horse Animation test

I have been trrying to clean up the graph editor for the animaiton on the Horse creating a smoother cycle I think now it needs the legs to be offset a little more.

Animation: The Erlking's First Appearance

Matte painting of the background:

Figuring out the fog layers and fog movement:

Developing the fog animation; still long way to go.

Father Son and Horse animation test

My attempt at layering the characters on the horse, I need to now clean up the animation to get rid  of the popping 

Horse Animation Progression

I tried to push the neck out more and push the keyframes for the run cycle this is the result. 

Horse Animation Progression

I think he still needs to be pushed a little bit more and then I can begin stacking the base animation of the father and the son on top. 

Animation: Pretty Dress Scene

Slight adjustement of the hand: 

Horse Run Cycle Progression

The right front leg still needs work but the other legs seem to be flowing correctly but there is still more refining to be done.

The Forest of Two Daughters - Compositing Test .01

A test render with basic puppet tool and single detail traveling from left to right. For the final animation the fog puppet movement will be refined and more floating details shall be added. Next step is to check how the character look when placed in the environment. 

Father and Horse Animation Test

Today I attempted to get the father and the Horse working together but, I will be focussing on the horse again without the father to really get his animation loop working correctly focussing on the horses performance of a run cycle.

The Environment - Texturing the Assets .02

1. Brushstroke Planes on the Scary Forest Trees

2. Willows

Horse Running Test 02

The Environment: More Fog Designs

The fog is an important feature of the environment that appears in majority of the scenes and for that reason more designs were required. 

Horse Animation Cycle Test

The Erlking: Pre-Viz Draft.01

Below is the draft.01 of the pre-viz. The soundtrack and all SFX have not been changed since the final version of the animatic, but that change is on the to-do list. PG blocked out all the scenes, I only put them together. There are still things to be fixed within the models (blendshapes, rivets) of which we are aware of, but for the pre-viz we left them faulty, for which we apologize. 

TO-DO LIST: 

00:00 - 00:07 
* scene needs to be a little bit longer for the title to fade in and fade out
* the horse needs to be bigger
* the environment needs to be calmed down (that issue reoccurs in other shots as well)

00:07 - 00:10 
* adjusting the shot so the horse's head does not appear in the scene, only its legs (possible change, to be tested out)

00:10 - 00:26 
* instead of a cut from the Son to the Father, possibly a camera pan (possible change, to be tested out)

00:26 - 00:36
* adjusting the angle of the camera to a front view

00:43 - 00:46 
* adjusting the angle of the camera to a lower view, so the Erlking feels more royal and powerful

01:03 - 01:07
* the Father character more centered
* sort out the lip rivets problem

01:08 - 01:12 
* hold the shot for a little bit to establish the Erlking's appearance

01:13 - 01:18
* the fog enters and leaves the shot as a guide from the Son's to the Erlking's shots

01:19 - 01:30
* the Daughters rising up & dancing around the Son as one, continuous shot with a slow zoom out in the beginning to make space for the dancing sequence

01:30 - 01:35
* a cut from the dancing to the Son's close up scene

The Forest of Two Daughters - Developing the Set .01

Figuring out and developing the Forest of Two Daughters set will help and speed up the future post production process that will be applied to other sets.

1. Lighting

2. Fog

3. Luminance Depth/Depth of Field Pass Test (to be corrected)

4. Further Development in Maya and After Effects (to be continued)

5. ...and also this psychodelic image that got accidently created: 

The Forest of Two Daughters - Pretty Dress Scene Textured

The scene assets modelled by PG and textured by me.

Edited and split between two slides.

The Scary Forest - Texturing the Assets

With the 'happy forest' lighting process being still in progress, the time has come to move to texturing the 'scary forest' that had been modelled by Peta-Gaye. I have also followed Phil's advice about trying different ways of presenting the textures and below are some very early and basic tests. This process can also help with figuring out the layout for the Art of books that soon will have to start being taken more seriously. 

The Plant Daughter - Texturing Completed

1. More Details

2. Teeth, Tongue and Gums

3. Character Textured (Excluding Additional Brushstroke Planes)

4. Brushstroke Planes

5. Bump Maps

6. The Plant Daughter Texturing Complete