Billy Bob log 1

We've been given this character made by our program head, Saf, and have the option of either designing a vehicle for him, or create two animation clips for him. I decided to do the animation clips - one running loop animation, and one 15-second clip showing Bob negotiating an obstacle.

First part of this project is pre-production, for which we should hand in the following:

• Thumbnail sketches
• A variety of scenarios and ideas in which Billy Bob will be animated to
• Reference footage, with an appropriate level of examination with regards to particular frames considered a Keyframes or in-between
• The subtext of the shot
• Accents or areas in the audio you are keen to hit or exploit for entertainment purposes
• The camera’s framing of the character and the environment (Cinematography).
• Thumbnails exploring different body dynamics and acting choices
• A storyboard or animatic
• Production Planning (Gantt Charts)
• Lighting and colour design
• Mind maps

Creating a character sheet for a character actually is very helpful to creating an organized focus on what kind of action this character might do for the loop, and how he will react to any given obstacles. So I made this for Billy Bob as part of pre-production. Learning from Bouncing Balls' biggest mistake, this time I will spend effort into solidifying a storyboard before starting to animate anything in Softimage. Because, even though there isn't much time to spend on creating a storyboard, there is even less time to waste on changing minds half way through like I did with Bouncing Balls.

Alex and another guy from the Taekwondo society kindly let me filmed them doing kicks for the loop animation.... which I scratched in the end... sorry guys! All the demonstrators in the Archery society also kindly let me filmed them demonstrating firing different types of bows, which I also scratched for the loop animation. James from my class helped me filmed myself trying to get up from the ground as reference.