fast week

Have been doing a lot of animating this week, some problems, but most of it was fun. :)

I noticed some slowdown when there was a fullscreen movieclip symbol animating.
It looks like slow motion during playback. I can easily change the motion tweened MC to a frame by frame shape motion to prevent this.
But I like the slow motion effect, so I'll try to keep one slow motion section during the beam movement.

I also had to horiztonally flip both the dino's ( sniff, O_O, >=) ) scenes because I built them the wrong way.
Because I flipped everything most of the shape tweens where out of whack, so I spend a bit of time fixing them as well. I had to fix this scene because blue is always coming in from the left, and red is always coming in from the right. This is to keep it consistant, so the viewer can understand what is going on since the action is kinda fast.

Also, I haven't animated any arms on the dinos yet. The characters don't use them at all so it is not really needed. I can acomplish the dino's gestures without arms. Throughout the planning I really tried to think about how the dinosaurs would move without arms, as they are tiny compared to his main devices (teeth+feet+tail). So I watched sparrows and seagulls and stuff in the holidays. Just paying attention to how they move about.
If I have time at the end (which I doubt I will), I would want to go back and animate them in. Just because it would make it more like a dinosaur and not a like a dinosaur-like creature with no arms. Or maybe having no arms adds to the animation's story line on how the dinos are ant-size, and the whole fanstasy type enviroment.

bg colour tests

I chose to use pastel like backgrounds because it allows the characters to easily stand out. I have warm and cool colours to match the warm and cool coloured characters and their elements.
- blue + purple sky = blue electric dino
- yellow + redish sand = red fire dino.

I decided on the bottom one. There may be a transition through the animation from the lighter rock colours in the bottom panel to the darker ones in the top. To suggest the sun is going down/time is passing.

flash processes + research

I have done up some tests in flash (speed depiction, dust clouds etc) and they seem to be acheivable enough so far.

I also started animating portions, FUN! :D
- Blue smell > O_O > >=)
- Red smell > O_O > >=)
- Most of the abstract fighting scene (just need to add fire/lighting)

Next thing to do is probally draw up the landscape in flash, and finally decide on the colours. As that is rather important for the characters to interact with.

I have been studing some cartoons (dragon ball + naruto) and paying attention to how they depict speed and effects(dust/fire/lighting/etc). Visually flowing things(dust/fire/water) take time to animate because there are no shortcuts, and it pretty mmuch has to be frame by frame.
While also looking at the camera angles and perspective used.

I also took some photos of my old toy dinosaur for reference in the holidays, I never really thought about dipicting the size of the dinosaurs. Maybe they could be the size of ants for a joke at the end and the massive explosion would only be a tiny spark. Interesting me not thinking about a certain element can add to the animation in the end. :P
I don't know how horizon lines works with tiny landscapes. I guess they don't have any. Might do some camera tests today.

after break update

Cut the music, runs for about 1.26 or so.

Created a new flash document. synced up the keyframes with the beat of the song. That took ages. Then I realised it was on 12 frames per second. :/

Whipped up some tests which prove to depict the speed I want, which proved needed it to be at about 24 frames per second. god damn.

So I had to change the frames frickin MANUALLY which was a complete *****. That took ages also. :(

But it was probably worth the extra effort, because speed is a focus in the animation.

Completed thumbnail storyboards, most came out the way I had in my head, but some didn't (like the jump secquences)

The storyboards definitely helped as it showed things I didn't think about (like the dinos movements when they fire their energy beams, + that I probably need a widescreen part when they jump back + weather and light direction)

From the start I decided to not have any animation that was too time consuming. So most of the shots are like from an anime, with small, subtle gestures instead of over the top movement.

Possible difficulties:
-Initial running scene. At the moment I dont this to be from side on, I want a perspective (may change to a more abstract version, or just have a the dino go from still movement to w/lightning/fire)
-All the action seems rather mirrored. eg same perspective run, just flipped horizontally for both dinos. Dunno if I should mix this up or not. :/
-Spiral fire twist. I really want this, will have to be frame by frame so it will be a bit of a bitch to animate. Still need some reference.
-Still no reason as to why the dinosaurs are fighting and what the outcome is.

T-Rex 101

Tyrannosaurus

-Balanced by tail
-Cretaceous Period, approximately 68 to 65 million years ago;
-it was among the last non-avian dinosaurs to exist prior to the Cretaceous–Tertiary extinction event. (yay no plot holes)
-bore two clawed digits (might need to change this for 2 and a thumb for readability)


Other cretceous dinosaurs:
Ankylosaurus, Gallimimus, Iguanodon, Velociraptor, Triceratops

Music

Aight, so I found a enjoyable piece of music which fits the pace of my storyboards.
I have already edited the track down to the desired length, now I shall attempt to mark the cues of the music with basic keyframe notes in flash.

I also need to research some t-rex info. eg. period (jurassic/etc) + foliage + other similar period dinosaurs.

research:
-landscape
-foliage
-other dinos.

It doesn't need to be super accurate, but I will try to give some sense of realism.

storyboard

I have been reading a lot of animation blogs, splinedoctors.com is run by a few pixar guys, and as usual they reitorate that th story is the most important.

STORY — no surprises there. The single most important criterion that you must not let suffer under any circumstances. More important than any character’s consistency, more important than any scene’s entertainment value or appeal, if you fail to convey the story point of a scene, you fail to tell the story. And that’s really what this medium is all about: telling a relevant story that will affect an audience. It’s the whole reason animation and indeed movies themselves were invented in the first place. An audience must be able to follow the story. And this is where showing your animation to your peers is vital. You can find ten different people that will give you ten different opinions on your animation’s appeal, but if half of them can’t understand what’s going on, you’ve got a problem on your hands.

So my two dinosaurs will fight over some land/girl and will be the reason of their own extinction. :)

Also on animating a snake like movement, instead of animating it frame by frame, I can just draw a long snake path, and then move it across the screen.
===============
Starts off by showing the setting in landscape. Focuses on each of the 2 dinosaurs, they smell each other, and race towards the other. a Dragon ball z style fight ensues for a little bit. they jump back and rest for a bit. they both charge up their ultimate attacks, and fire them. camera focuses on the beams closing in, and sceen goes white from explosion. the 2 dinos defend, and the electric/fire wave goes around the world killing all the dinosaurs, so we find out these 2 elemental dinos were the reason for the dinosaurs extinction. :)

Maybe more dinosaurs popped up after all the rexes died, so that doesn't need to be accurate for the storys sake.

will put up rough storyboard later. :)

colour test

Animated gif. May take a while to load.
I'm satisfied with the lightning effect, as it should be be easy enough to convert it into a beam/kick/punch/tail/etc. Looks cleaner in SWF, but blogger/flickr doesn't upload swf files.





colour testing.
red vs blue for contrast.
might animate into abstract. Maybe a mix.

I need to research into some animated fire that doesn't take too long to animate. Fire is rather fluid and could become troublesome.
I could animate a horizontal section of flames, then I can flip/rotate for beams.
Ideally I want flames that can sway realistically from movement. For example if a dude does a flame punch or something the fire can leave a trail.
The action scene/s would probably be quick, which requires less frames.

Need to keep working on the storyboard.

Not sure if I want music or sound effects atm. I don't think I'll have enough time to source/sync any sfx.

fire vs electricity battle

Manipulation of elements:
naruto, avatar, pokemon, DBZ, heroes, full metal alchemist, ben 10

t-rex moves:
growl/roar, kicks, thrash/rage, punches, body slam, speed/agility, tail attacks, bites, tackle/charges/headbutt

fire moves:
flamethrower, fire spin, fire blast, overheat, heat wave, flame wheel, fire punch, sunny day, ember, smokescreen, will-o-wisp

electric moves:
thunder/shock/bolt/wave, flash, zap cannon, sonic boom, light screen, shock wave, explosion

other:
increased power/recovers with sun
close combat burns
soak in water to absorb burns
lightning rods
obscure vision w/heat from fire
paralyzed from electricity
slow motion
horizon heat waves
wall of fire
burn marks in/on ground
cracks/destruction from impact
burns/blood/scars/damage
seal to stop elemental powers
dragon energy blast
weather conditions
elemental bullets

rough storyline(red=fire, yellow=electric):
-Yellow backs Red into corner near water
-Red creates fog smokescreen
-Yellow sneaks up behind + hits Red into water
-Yellow thinks Red is done
-water starts steaming, then boling
-jumps out + continues

I want something in a cave to play with light a bit. Through it? Can they smell each other?
Both in cave + turned off fire/electric to hide/stalk.
Then they can "light up" + battle some more.
-one goes to hide, the other slowly sniffing him out, reaches him but opponent is above! Then opponent attacks + runs.

Yellow (electric) rex is hunting the last elemental rex, Red (fire) to become the ruler of the dinosaurs. or something.