Okay - I like the story idea, though I think you need a final coda to round things off - perhaps the final shot is the disgraced hat-stand shut away in the attic, or in a charity shop window - or in a skip. Looking at your storyboards, you've got an essentially 'mid-shot' staging, and while you need this in terms of establishing the spatial relations between characters etc. be wary of locking yourself into this mode of coverage alone. I want you to think imaginatively about 'directing with a pencil' and variety of shots - and also about economies of staging - using the limitations of line and white space to your advantage. Think about POV shots for the hat-stand - and do not be afraid of exaggeration - you need to really plasticise your object. I can already see that you've got no close-ups of the hat-stand, but when you want to demonstrate it's disappointment, consider the droop of its pegs - we're going to want to see that.
In terms of walk-cycles etc. you might want to look at how crabs ambulate - as a reference for your hat-stand's movement; think too about secondary movement - so the sway of the 'spine' and the nod of the 'head' - avoid the approach where the feet move, but nothing else does. Construe the logic of your object's physicality and use it to add nuance and sophistication to your animation of it.
Re. your written assignment; I can already see that you've done very little interesting research around Lasseter - a couple of websites. I've read a great many really very dull assignments about Lasseter and Pixar wherein students just recount the stuff that everybody already knows already. I suggest you dig a little deeper and seek to discuss him more critically. For example, it might be interesting to look at those people who are not so pro-Pixar and see how their views compare and contrast. Just don't write me a hurried, generic, my research = 2 websites-style essay...
OGR 20/02/2012
ReplyDeleteHey George,
Okay - I like the story idea, though I think you need a final coda to round things off - perhaps the final shot is the disgraced hat-stand shut away in the attic, or in a charity shop window - or in a skip. Looking at your storyboards, you've got an essentially 'mid-shot' staging, and while you need this in terms of establishing the spatial relations between characters etc. be wary of locking yourself into this mode of coverage alone. I want you to think imaginatively about 'directing with a pencil' and variety of shots - and also about economies of staging - using the limitations of line and white space to your advantage. Think about POV shots for the hat-stand - and do not be afraid of exaggeration - you need to really plasticise your object. I can already see that you've got no close-ups of the hat-stand, but when you want to demonstrate it's disappointment, consider the droop of its pegs - we're going to want to see that.
In terms of walk-cycles etc. you might want to look at how crabs ambulate - as a reference for your hat-stand's movement; think too about secondary movement - so the sway of the 'spine' and the nod of the 'head' - avoid the approach where the feet move, but nothing else does. Construe the logic of your object's physicality and use it to add nuance and sophistication to your animation of it.
Re. your written assignment; I can already see that you've done very little interesting research around Lasseter - a couple of websites. I've read a great many really very dull assignments about Lasseter and Pixar wherein students just recount the stuff that everybody already knows already. I suggest you dig a little deeper and seek to discuss him more critically. For example, it might be interesting to look at those people who are not so pro-Pixar and see how their views compare and contrast. Just don't write me a hurried, generic, my research = 2 websites-style essay...