Shot 4 Test 3 and Render Preview

Baring in mind that I am going to speed up and slow down different parts to get the best out of this video as a whole, I am now extremely pleased with the flow of the movement right now. Even though some parts will be faster, it was essential to ensure that the footage worked well to begin with, not adjusting the speed to cover up problems.

Now, I have smoothed out all of the jerky movements, the character nicely turns after a reasonable lean forward and pause to look at the goods in the window. granted this is only a short clip, but every part has to have good composition and move well regardless.

For this Render preview makes me feel much more confident about my animation, now that I can see the face looking exactly as I imagined it and projected onto the model instead of animated flat as a file. I also edited the footage speed times so that it moves the way I intend it to in the final edit. It looks just how I wanted it too and I am now confident to go ahead with the final render, putting in the sky etc. and all the things that will really make the scene.

Shot 4 Test 2

This time I really like the movement of the character, the timing is much better. I had to move all of the frames forward and extend the length of the animation to fit in more time for the character to pause and look at the beginning, and this really makes the whole thing come together. There is still a bit of a jerk to the turning movement which I can iron out in the next revision.

When I decided to give this shot the angle it is at I knew that when I rendered the scene there would be a really strong aesthetic reflection in the glass that it is facing. There will also be a reflection in the glass that the camera is behind which will add more interest to the shot.

Shot 4 Test 1

To start off the second part of the advert the girl is looking adoringly at something in the shop window. She then walks off as in the next shot she is going to be at the counter inside a shop. At the moment this shot all moves a little too quickly for my liking, it doesn't do what I need it too. I like the way that the character moves away but the turn itself is far too jerky, unconvinving. She doesnt currently stop and take enough time to really look at what it is in the shop window! She also doesn't appear very interested judging by her body language, so perhaps I can make some refinements to make her seem like she is a bit more drawn in.

Shot 3 Final

This is the final version of this shot. got there Eventually.

It actually took me quite a long time to get the lighting for this shot looking right. I had wanted the character's face to be in shadow so that the room had a realistic lighting that carried on from the previous shot, but I didn't like the way her face literally only had the one tone to is because the light was behind her. Her hair also only had the one tone so I decided to add a light in front of her.




The light I added in front of her face originally looked quite nice, but in the second test I realised it affected shadow in the whole room which was very noticeable when she moved. To amend this I changed the brightness of the light close to her face. this worked, but getting the shadow to be the right shape was a bit of a pain. I must have made at least 50+ one frame test renders to get it to look right. Also she leans forward as she looks down and I had to check that the shadow was acceptable at that angle too. Eventually I found one that looked right.

The point of this shot is so that the character looks kind of shocked at the clothes falling out of the wardrobe, which is why she opens her mouth in such a way. The shocked expression is followed by a concerned grit of the teeth which is the end of the first half of the advert.

Shot 3 Test 2

This version of this shot is much better, I think the animation works very well now. I am concerned about the perspective now though. This view from the inside of the wardrobe makes the wardrobe itself look huge as you can see how far out the doors are are the character looks tiny by comparison, where as in a regular shot she isn't drastically dwarfed by it. I don't think there is a lot I can really do about this. I want to keep the camera level with the characters head because if I put the camera below it will look odd to the view, and If I put the camera above it will exacerbate the dwarfing situation.

To ensure that the character is in view and can be seen properly I made an additional light close to her. This has provided another obstacle however, as when she leans forward to look down you can see that her shadow in the background is huge because the light is so close to her. It is only obvious because of the way shadows are cast on the handles of the chest of drawers. I imagine I can select them individually and tell them not to receive shadows. Fingers Crossed.

Shot 3 Test

Originally the third shot was going to be as though we were looking through the eyes of the girl into the wardrobe. I decided this was an unnecessary shot and would break up the flow of the animation too much, plus we've already seen that the wardrobe is jam packed with clothes from the previous shot.

This shot 3, formerly shot 4, is a view from inside the wardrobe, looking out at the character's facial expression, a reaction to what has just happened.

In this test the arms of the character move far too slowly on the way down by her sides, and her head too moves too slowly down, it should be a more sharp reaction to what has happened. At the moment the head has a rather sharp movement back to its original position, which makes the hair look very noticeably rigid, which I can't do anything about particularly, as it is indeed rigid. However, think a slow head movement back up again could look quite effective instead of a sharp one. I will try this out in a second test of this scene.

7+ Nearly there!!

This is the closest I have been to finishing this sequence.

At the moment I have noticed I need to add a handle to the door first seen as she walks in the room. The handles of the bags look ungenuine and too far apart in her 'hands'. I am really dissatisfied with the characters face so I am going to re-design the animation for that before I produce a final render, but other that that I am pretty much pleased with the animation. I will be speeding it up about 25% and may edit out some of the beginning as it is a little bit too long and too slow. the clothes falling out of the wardrobe especially needs speeding up. there is a small section where her jacket pops through itself, clipping obviously.

Once the facial animation is finalized I will be making the walk cycle more interesting by tweaking parts, perhaps introducing a head turn and making the movement in general look less generic/repeated.

Also, I dont like that she stops before opening the doors. I'll be amending that.