Setting new goals

To start, some inspiration...


The following video was made by a band called The Cobbs(formerly Mad Action). The song is called Smile and the video was created by Jonas Odell who works for a company called FilmTecknarna which is based in Sweden. I discovered a partially completed version of the video submitted at www.ralphrocks.com for a competition, but heres the finished version...damn impressive compositing work:


After meeting with Hosenfeld last week I was again reminded of a Radiohead video that is entirely CG with an unsmoothed Polygon look to it. I hadn't been able to find the video, but I finally buckled down and searched for it pretty hard and discovered it, for the song Go to Sleep:


Now for an update:

I've been working pretty hard this week on posing Justin, especially putting together the first three pieces--attempting some positions that don't work and then figuring it out. I've given him two failures and then a success each time so far, three is always enough to seem feasible but not too much to get monotonous. Of course, with three more pieces to add I intend less attempts for the others, probably two for the white piece and the red and yellow are pretty obvious once everything else is in place, so he'll probably just turn it over and inspect the puzzle and figure it out on the first go with those two. I also deleted the FPO (for placement only) cube and created a reference file for the rock, with a preliminary model. At the moment its bigger than I imagined, but it looks pretty good.

Some issues that have arisen as I've been working:

Shot 1, towards the end, when the camera starts to pan up to reveal the first piece falling. I'm realizing that he will be singing throughout the piece (though I'm only showing his lips here and there, so I will only be creating a lip sync occasionally, but I want it to feel as though he is singing the whole thing)--and I don't really want him to be singing "You were sent to me, fallen from the sky" before the piece lands in his lap...so I need to figure out what to do with the camera so you don't see his face when the lyrics start. Maybe I can cut to shot 2 earlier--at around frame 400 the camera has pulled in and not yet panned up to show the piece and the lyrics haven't started. I could just have the second shot follow the piece from further out.

Shot 6, the one after the close-up on "hey" and before he is down crouching on the ground has been broken into two shots: 6 and 6a. In 6 the camera pulls across to the right as the orange piece lands next to him. Then it pulls up over his left shoulder as he figures out how the green and orange fit. Shot 6a is still in the works. Somehow I need to show the blue piece land on his right side without completely disorienting the viewer. Cutting from over his left shoulder to a medium shot on his right side is jarring to say the least.

Shots 7, 8, 9
At the moment shot 6a pulls in slowly to show him fitting the blue piece in. Shot 7 then starts out again and follows the same long slow pull in to show his eyes reflected in the puzzle during the lyrics, "But no one can find me when I'm lost in your eyes." Both shots suggest a long slow pull...I just have to figure out how to make them different...shots 8 and 9 currently pan back and forth as he climbs back up on the rock and puts together the last few pieces--I need to minimize the panning, its a little much, and I'm toying with the idea that he doesn't get up and sit on the rock again...that maybe all the pieces land within reach on the rock or the ground and he finishes the puzzle sitting on the ground---this could mean that as he realizes that its a little planet, he stands up in shock...nice change of pose to denote change in emotion...this would completely change all of the camera movement...


So, my current goal is to try to get basic poses and cameras done for the whole thing by the end of the week...its a lot of work as I've only done about half of it so far, but I've done the harder part--it gets easier and there are less major poses. If I can get some more textures done early next week then for my wednesday meeting with Hosenfeld I can render out the whole thing. Ideally I'd reference in the puzzle ball twice more and place pieces floating in space as well as texture an environment sphere. That may be pushing it, but it would be a lot of progress from two weeks ago.