Adaptation: Housewife Walk Cycle

Housewife Walk Cycle

This is the basic walk cycle for the Housewife character. In each of the scenes, the Housewife walks in from outside the frame, so getting this right was pretty vital. I've saved the key poses using PoseLib, so I can transfer the basic walk cycle structure between scenes and save myself a bit of time animating what is probably the longest shot in each of the scenes. It needs a bit of polish here and there, but overall, I'm pretty happy with it so far.

Housewife Walk Cycle Front

Housewife Walk Cycle Side

As for the rest of the animation, I plan to do several passes of animation, blocking it all in initially and then refining it once everything is in place. I'm cutting it fairly close to the deadline, so at least if I animate this way, I can make sure I have everything basically animated by the crit, even if it isn't perfect in places. 

Adaptation: Housewife Blendshapes Complete

Housewife Blendshapes Complete

I've spent the day giving my Housewife character the desperately needed ability to express herself (in the words of NWA), constructing blendshapes making overall making her a lot less corpse-like. Other than some minor tweaks here and there (her buttons are misbehaving, for example) she's pretty much done. The Puppet still needs controls added and the strings properly figured out, but I'll sort that once I've got the main Housewife scenes animated, as the Puppet is only on screen for a short period. Below are the Housewife's blendshapes (Note, she has all the phonemes and visemes, but she doesn't speak, so they're sort of superfluous, but I've added them for a little more flexibility with her facial animation regardless).

Adaptation: Prop Modelling- Bottles

Prop Modelling- Bottles

The props are as simple as the rest of the environment, but detailed enough to distinguish them from the general environment. I've attempted to design them so that they are in keeping with the simple graphic style of the rest of the animation. I've got a series of boxes and jars that are yet to be textured, but they should be sorted and uploaded tomorrow.

High Street Environment Progress 13/4/13

High Street Environment Progress 13/4/13

Getting closer to finalising the environment now, just some refinements around reflectivity of surfaces and set dressing left to sort.

Adaptation: High Street Environment Progress 12/4/13

High Street Environment Progress 12/4/13

The texturing is almost finished now. All thats left is to dress the windows and liven up some of the smaller areas, such as the glass in the doors and the pavement area (most likely using a tessellated texture, as I did in the Kitchen environment). The circular texture used here may possibly be changed to something simpler, as I don't want it to be perceived as a graphic but more of a textured surface.

Adaptation: High Street Modelling Progress 11/4/13

High Street Modelling Progress 11/4/13

This is the current state of the High Street environment. The scene will consist of the same building duplicated along a length, spaced out and resized in slight ways to differentiate them to a degree. The repetition should be too much of an issue, as the buildings will be set a fair distance from the camera and out of focus. The modelling is pretty much finished now, but a bit of set dressing needs to be added. Tomorrow, I aim to finish the modelling and get the bulk of the texturing out of the way.

Adaptation: Kitchen Environment Ambient Occlusion Update

Kitchen Environment Ambient Occlusion Update

In response to Tom's suggestion, I've applied a quick Ambient Occlusion pass, just to see how it affects the scene. Its using the default settings in Mental Ray, with no adjustments to shadows or much else at this point (yes, I'm very, very lazy). Its very washed out at this stage, but when I refine it, tone down the shadows and harsh lighting, I can finally see the potential of the final outcome (which gives me one less thing to worry about. Well, half a thing. More a third of a thing. But still! Less worrying!)

Adaptation: Kitchen Environment Complete

Kitchen Environment Complete

The Kitchen environment is now complete, with only a bit of set dressing to be added (the props for this will be used in all three environments, so I'll add those in once they're complete). The environment is now fit to be animated in, so I should have the few shots that don't require any facial animation sorted  over the next few days. Whilst animating these shots, I shall refine the Supermarket and construct the High Street, multitasking to the best of my abilities. 

Adaptation: Kitchen Modelling Progress 7/4/13

Kitchen Modelling Progress 7/4/13

The Kitchen environment is practically finished now, just need to rescale some elements to make them fit in a little better, as well as completing the texturing and modelling some odd bits here and there. 

I've still got a lot left to sort (another environment, for instance), but once this is finished and the props are added, I should finally be able to get some animating done. I'm having quite a lot of trouble sorting the eye-blinking mechanics and the blendshapes out at the moment, but luckily, the Kitchen and Supermarket scenes don't involve that many shots that are directly face on, so I can animate the majority of these shots and get those rendered whilst I figure out those issues. 

Adaptation: Kitchen Modelling Progress 5/4/13

Kitchen Modelling Progress 5/4/13

I've made a bit more progress on the Kitchen environment, adding smaller details here and there, as well as progressively UV mapping and texturing elements to give myself an idea of the final appearance of the area. Below is a render of the Kitchen's current state, as well as a simple ambient occlusion pass that I rendered simply out of curiosity. The result is pretty satisfying, as I hadn't really pictured it as a monochromatic environment until now. It looks as if it would be at home in an episode of The Honeymooners. 

The Kitchen's Current State (Looking very Deee-Lite).

A Simple Ambient Occlusion Pass

Adaptation: Kitchen Modelling Progress 4/4/13

Kitchen Modelling Progress 4/4/13

I've began modelling the Kitchen environment, UV mapping elements as I go. Its more or less the same as it was in the pre-vis, with some minor adjustments to the design of certain elements, such as the table and chairs, added curtains and space for a sink area on the worktop. I've made fairly good progress on this, and if all goes well, it should be modelled and textured by the end of tomorrow, so even if I don't manage to get the High Street environment completed by the end of the week, at least I'll have two environments I can begin to animate in next week. Below is quick render of the Kitchen environment at the moment. The final textures will be in same vein as those in the Supermarket environment, although dominant colours will be adjusted to suit the character's design (Note, the Housewife in the shot is simply there so that I can gauge the scale of the various elements, and will not be the final character used in this environment).

Adaptation: Supermarket Modelling Progress 2/4/13

Supermarket Modelling Progress 2/4/13

This is the current state of the Supermarket environment. The environments are specifically simplified, with a colour scheme that is designed to directly reflect the design of the character within it. I've taken influence from cel animation background paintings, keeping the environment simple to keep the focus on the characters. I'm pretty happy with the state of things at the moment, but as always, I'm open to any feedback.

Adaptation: Puppet Outfit Variants

Puppet Outfit Variants

Much like the Housewife character, these are the outfit variants for the Puppet character. More or less the same process as with the Housewife, just a bit more fiddly to sort out.

As well as putting these together, I've also been working on the Supermarket environment today, which should be in a semi-finished form by the end of tomorrow.