texturing my hens

As I made my hens adding the texture to the form of the model, using a realistic style of texture will not work well with the style. I made a test piece to see how it would look but as I thought it did not work. I used the 3D paint tool and painted the feathers on the unwrapped mesh. If I were to keep to this style and take out the textured area's on my characters, I would add a bump map adding definintion so that it doesn't look so flat.



This is one of my hens, I have added a shader as I didn't want to add any more actual texture to it, I quite like this and it will be easier to makethe blend shapes as Iwont get any distortion on the skin.




I took away the textured area's to test how my hen will look if I add texture to the skin. I then added a bump map to see how it looks. Although I think this works quite well, I feel that it doesn't suit the style of my animation as much as my original design.



I then put the two together and just added an ambient light to test how well there textures look.

review on Up

Plot-

This was quite an emotional film, it begins by showing us the lives of Ellie and Carl who fall in love. For 70 years they have a dream to go and visit a lost land in South America. 70 years later they still have not been to there desired place and Ellie the love of Carl's life dies. We see an empty chair as Carl sits alone in his quiet house of 70 years. As he walks outside to check his mailbox we see a contrast in his house and the surroundings as his little house sits in the middle of a huge building site. A young boy a wilderness explorer knocks on Carl's house and asks of his help to be able to assist the elderly, Carl refuses closing the door. Being forced out of his home by the builders and being put into an old people's home Carl makes an attempt to escape by attaching millions of balloons to his house and floating away. Carl is now resting on his arm chair still with his beloved wife's chair beside his as he sits in piece and quiet... until he hears a knock on the door, onfused by this he goes to check the noise out and discovers that he isn't alone after all. Russel the little boy was hiding on his porch and after shutting the door on him again Carl begins to feel sorry for Russel and decides to let him in. Through a storm the house becomes a bit of a wreck but Carl tries to stop the things braking to the floor as they fall so he catches the precious objects such as Ellie's photograph. Finally the house comes to a stop as they discover a dark and sinister world, not being able to move any more Carl and Russel begin to pull the house as it floats above them. As they walk they soon discover a tlking dog that is actually the pet of a hunter looking for a certain rare bird. Following Carl and the little boy the dog is loved by Russel but not so much by Carl. They soon come across the rare bird that the hunter is looking for and Russle name's the bird Kevin. Carl soon becomes aware that they are walking along the territories of the lost land of South America as he looks at a picture that Ellie
made of their house on the top of a waterfall. Looking at the waterfall in the far distance Carl and the others make their way for the waterfall. But the hunter has his other dogs on watch for the dog and discover that he has found the bird. Carl and Russle come into contact with the hunter and Carl and Ellie's idol but as he realizes that the hunter is after the bird he becomes defensive and tries to get away, but the hunter has his dogs on the case and soon captures Kevin. Once Carl reaches the waterfall he looks at a book that Ellie left to Carl about the things that she had done, thinking that Ellie had left the pages blank and that she had not done anything with her life he soon finds that she has as she has placed photographs of her life showing that she has been happy. He then decides that he has to help kevin and to make life easier he gets rid of his belongings making the house lighter and makes his way to help Kevin. They manage to rescue Kevin letting her go back to her babies. The film ends by showing Russel being giving his award for helping the aged and Carl is the person who gives it to him. We then see various photo's of Carl and Russel as they share their lives together and have fun times.

What keeps the audience's attention?

The audience are kept engaged by the emotional journey of Carl a 70 year old man. We see his life change from good to bad to worse as he loses his wife and is being forced out of his own home where he has spent his life with his beloved wife. From the beginning of the film the animation is emotional and we want to see Carl have a positive side to his life.

Reaction from an audience-

I felt emotion whilst watching this animation, not only sorrow for the old guy for loosing his wife but aslo the fact that this does happen in day to day life; the fact that we loose the people we love and hope that they get the best out of life. In this case Ellie, Carls wife dies but at first we think that she has not lived her life to her expectations and we feel guilt, but then at the end as he reveals the rest of the pages in Ellie's diary we find that she has enjoyed her life with Carl although she never had the chance to experience her dream. We then feel happier at this and then as we are shown the photographs showing Carls life as he spends it with the young boy, we then feel happy for Carl and Russel. Parts of this animation are funny as we see an eldery man trying to relate to a young boy, of course there is a contrast but at the end we see that they get along well and become more of a family rather than friends.

review on MTV Ident

The MTV Ident starts by showing the audience a dark underground view of a building, as the camera follows the forming black lines that appear from a flickering begin forming across the ground of a shadowed world, then working their way up the outside of the buildings in a city, this is quite sinister as the lines begin to form words such as "dark", "fear", "pain" and "hell". As the sun comes out the style of the Ident changes and we see quite a contrast from that dark and sinister world that now becomes a bright and colorful one. The lines are now various bright colours reflecting the next word "rainbow" and as the camera follows the lines still forming up the buildings; they begin to spell out positive words such as "light", "happy" and "love". At the end of the animation the lines run up a tall building and join forming the MTV logo.

The audience are kept engaged in the animation by the constant flow and morphing imagery, the way that the lines create random words wants us to know what this animation is about and what the words are reflecting. The Ident is aimed at a wide audience as the colours are unisex and the changing of style from dark to bright will attract the "gothic" and the bouncy kind of people. The animation uses live action with CG animation and at first the lines are made to kind of blend in with the buildings but as the colours change there is quite a contrast with the buildings and wording, the words/lines stand out from the buildings. The words are used to reflect the feelings of MTV and this is what MTV is full of as they all form into the logo.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O01E2IIhLmM

review on channel 4 Idents

Channel 4 are well known for their use of puzzle affects on their Idents; such as floating crates in the air in the shape of the channel 4 logo. Most of the Idents are similar in the way that they use the camera, as though it is a car driving past a scenery, the scenery differs from hay bales floating above fields to buildings being positioned in the shape of the channel 4 logo; only when the camera pans the camera pans past the scenery at a certain angle do we see the channel 4 logo and only for a quick glimpse, then once the camera has past the scenery we see again that there are depth between the buildings/hay bales etc. These Idents are made from live action and CG animation. The scenery's that are used vary from a rough estate to a view of the country side or a city. I quite like the sci-fi effect Ident where the objects that make the channel 4 logo move in a space ship way and along with the alien styled music it adds to the sci-fi approach. I also like the way that they have used shadows to create the channel 4 logo; having the bushes coming to life whilst people are playing a game of bowls, ending with showing the shadows of the bushes to create the logo.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CVdllN67OQ

This channel 4 Ident is quite different in the way that they have used the camera and the channel 4 logo, still the logo is made of floating objects but this time the logo is already formed and only alters a little at the end when it turns into some kind of pigeon trap then forms back to the shape of the channel 4 logo. The style is very similar to the other Idents but this time it has been used in a different and darker way. The channel 4 logo is used as a monument and is a place where pigeons gather, it starts by showing a close up of the pigeons then shows the audience a view of the monument being the channel 4 logo.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwEocD2_d9U&feature=related


The channel 4 Idents are aimed at a broad audience and different countries and ages so the Idents are all different to suit a certain audience. The Idents use different parts of the world in their animations such as Dubai, a rocky island and Tokyo. Different themes are used also to attract the audience such as a fun fair would attract a younger audience, a


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R94X1M7r1SU&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbZ505w3U_k&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGniDcglBHM&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSf-9zjhS6w&feature=related

review on E4 E-sting

This is an Ident for E4, they have used a bird to attract the audiences attention by showing him running on the screen and discovering a button on the ground. I like the way that they have used the character; having an affect on the way that they have shown the E4 logo i.e popping out an E4 egg. I am using a similar approach in my E4 Ident using hens and a rooster, I have used an egg also to use to show the E4 logo but the affects of the egg once it has been cracked i.e using the E4 to create the egg yolk. The bird is a simple design and also has use of simple movements as it bounces in a bird like way whereas in my animation I will have the characters walking in a human like way. The I dent has a limited use of colour, using cream and purple; which makes the purple stand out. I need to keep this in mind and not have too many colour in my animation, it needs to be recognizable as E4.

review on honda advertisement

This is a popular advertisement that catches peoples attention by the domino effect they create by using car parts. Most of the advertisement uses the sound effects of the moving objects, at the end the music begins as the CD player is switched on during the domino process with a voice over reflecting the message to the advertisement showing that the Honda is a reliable car. This has been cleverly thought about; the way they have created motion, they have thought it through the way that the objects move and also the reaction it would give to other objects once they have been approached by the moving object for example the car seats being pulled backwards hitting the window wiper, making it spin around then knocking another object over using the window wipers. I think that the flow of moving objects is realistic apart from the tires rolling up the ramp I personally feel that the tires would need to be going at a faster pace to be rolling up it. The advertisement uses all kinds of objects such as wheels, windows, exhaust down to the smallest objects used on the car like screws n bolts etc. Whilst most of the advertisement is showing a working process using a constant flow the advertisement ends showing the results of all of the objects and also the conclusion to the flow showing that everything on the car works, along with the quote explaining this to the audience "isn't it just amazing when everything works".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5m6EtN5sbM

modelling my rooster in Maya

my three hens

hen 1



hen 2



hen 3

maquette of one of my hens

This is my maquette for one of my hens. I am going to make the heads of the other two as their body shape will be very similar. As I have given my rooster a big chest I want the opposite for my hens giving them wider hips looking more feminine. On Maya I will apply a thin line of eye lashes adding to the feminine approach. Her beak is slimmer than the roosters. I will not bake this maquette until I has recieved feedback on the design and form as there maybe changes yet to make; such as the wings, I may add texture to these or alter the form a little. I am satisfied by the front view of my hen but am not so sure about the side view, I think i need to have the eye's maybe sunken in a little as her eye's stick out too much.

Developing my hen's

As I have designed and developed my rooster I have a good idea of the style and form of my hens, I don't want there to be a big contrast in them only a little in the form of the characters. I am going to create three hens so they all need to have their own uniqueness; whether it's form, size or colour.

references for my rooster

Chicken Run- As I am specializing in CG animation my characters are going to be in 3D, I have looked at chicken run for the way that they have used the texture and form. At first I wanted my character to have hands and arms similar to these but as my character is more like a bird it doesn't suit the style, whereas in chicken run they can get away with having the human like feature's as they have designed their character's to be more human like; their body structure is mainly running on the "Y" axis whereas my rooster and hens are going to be running on the "Y" and "X" axis, the structure of a bird but with exaggaeration.






Creature Comforts- simple design of hens but recognisable to what they are.



Chicken Little- I will look at chicken little for the texture of the character.

Warner bro's Rooster- again a human like character.




Kellogg's Cornflakes- simple shapes but affective and recognisable to what it is.



The Mixed Up Rooster- using his wing as though an arm resting on his belly, whereas a realistic birds wing would be stiff and down by his side.



Robin Hood Rooster- using wings as hands.



Pixar- another example of using a wing but in a human arm like way.


Using feet as hands.