Rationale and Final Animation

My animation is about a breed of dog which is often viewed as scary and intimidating. My character is a Doberman. I wanted to communicate that once a dog is in the care of the SPCA and is able to play and be with the public that it is guaranteed a safe family pet. 

The scene starts with close ups of my characters nose, eyes and then zooms out to reveal his whole face. I used these close ups to create the feeling that the character could potentially be intimidating. Then the dog is seen jumping for the a pink ball, watches it bounce, headbutts it into the air, stops the ball and then looks at the audience and winks while the tagline comes up. This juxtaposes against the previous shots and tells the audience that this dog is just playful.

The music builds up from the start and becomes more exciting as soon as the dog starts jumping. This music suited the close up shots of the dogs face and also the slow motion action scene afterwards. The line "I am a good boy." is also well suited to the idea behind this animation.

I chose the blue background because the SPCA logo has blue in it. I didn't want the scene to be depressing looking so I chose a more brighter blue to suit this. 

I had to change the storyboard a couple of times because of my characters rig system. He was able to move his legs to run but its rig wasn't hugely suitable to jump with his legs going right back or right forward. However, I feel this final animation still portrayed my idea successfully. 

The tagline "You don't have to adopt us to help us." ties in with my own idea of not judging a dog based on its breed. Because it is being taken care of by the SPCA and it open to the public, it is a family friendly dog and you don't have to adopt him to help him. Just playing and having contact with the animals available at the SPCA helps them feel comfortable with people and become more social. 

Final Animation:

Original Renders

First render previews, testing music. I decided to stick to the second videos music.


What to fix: 

• Some of the camera framing is off
• The timing. Some of it is meant to be slow motion and some not. I need to tweak this a bit
• The timing of the head is awkward when the ball bounces near the end
• He is too still at the end -I'm thinking of adding a wink in there

Camera Testing and Render Previews

Looks like hes about to be hit in the face with the ball...

Woooooooo, rendering time! Just one more scene to render!

Playblast

So my rig wasn't really set up to do some of what I wanted so I did a test animation to see what I can do with it.
This is a small playblast of when he jumps for the ball and headbutts it into the air. -There is not ball yet so ignore that. This took ages to upload onto YouTube so I've already made some drastic changes to this.

Planning the Animation

Some reference sketches of key points in my animation. This helps me while animating. 

Jumping for the ball and landing

Pouncing around the ball, nudging the ball into the air

Watching the ball bounce, stops the ball with his paw, turns to the audience while the message is displayed

Playblast

My first Playblast. Blend shapes in action. First 10 seconds of my animation complete... The quality is incredibly bad but I just wanted to put a rough copy on here.

Blend Shapes

Nose, Ears, Eyes Blendshapes:

Ears:

Nostrils:
Flaring nostrils

Eyes:
It looks like he's been punched in both eyes but when the texture is on, it looks fine...

Weight Painting

UV Mapping

The nose was such a mission to map out. I'm never doing anything like that again...

Testing...

Nearly finished! Just need to fix those crazy eyes... It looks really dark at the moment because there isn't any light either.

Rigging my Character

Animatic Draft

Very rough timing plan. The jump in the air is going to be slow motion so that's why it takes a while...

Final Model

Continuation of Character Modeling

The best part was modeling the ears! I extended them because I thought is made the character look more dramatic and give him more character.

Just need to mirror him now...

Week Four: Interim: Storyboards

Storyboard Final:
I altered my storyboard to fit my model. I found it a bit too tricky for my time limit to model and animate a dog that can open its mouth and catch a ball, pant etc, so I modeled his mouth shut. 

I changed from the dog catching the ball in his mouth to missing it, chasing after it, nudging it way up in the air with his nose and head butting it playfully. I feel like this actually benefited my work because it forced me to think of uncommon, fun and unrealistic ways this dog could play with a ball. 

Final Story:

• After various close ups of the dogs face, the camera pans out to reveal the dogs whole face
• Dog starts running but we don't know why yet (the ball isn't in view)
• Jumps for the ball
• Misses the ball completely
• Lands and trots excitedly after the ball
• Ball stops and the dog pounces around it
• Dog knocks the ball, ball starts to roll away
• Dog trots after it again
• Dog nudges the ball up high in the air with his nose (like a soccer player kicks up a ball with his feet)
• Dog head butts the ball
• Dog pounces down again
• Ball bounces in front of the dog
• Dog pounces around the ball like before
• Dog puts his paw on the ball to stop it from moving
• Dog looks up
• The SPCA message (I don't know if it will be text or a voice over yet)

Modeling the Doberman: Process so Far

Final Character

Final Character:

Middle Dog is my final character

Rough Front and Side Views:

I researched into dogs skeletons and mapped out a rough rig

Drawing Front and Side Views in Photoshop:

Digitally drawing my Character. I modified the drawings slightly so they were proportionally correct with each other. 

Finals:

I printed off my final character and drew on a mesh guideline for when I import it to Maya as planes and model from there. The mesh drawn on both views work together. I know it might not be right right now but when I start modeling in Maya, I can alter it as I go. 

Doberman References

Image Reference:

Video Reference:
The next video I haven't used as reference yet but the way the mouth is animated is what I'm looking for. I'm not making my Doberman talk but bark once.

Rough Storyboard Changes

Original Storyboard:
Original rough line: "Don't judge a book by it's cover." -all dogs to come from the SPCA are guaranteed to be family safe.

New Storyboard:
"You don't have to adopt us to help us." -volunteering and playing with the animals at the SPCA helps a lot more than most people would think.

Feedback of Character and Story

Feedback from my Tutor:
I talked to my tutor about my character and she said that he was a little too realistic and could be a lot more interesting if he was stylized more. We decided to go back and use one of my original designs I created earlier in the process. 

We decided the middle Doberman was the best option. He is my final design.

Feedback on my Story Line and Changes made:
My original Story: Based off the cliche saying "Don't judge a book by it's cover."

• Close up of the Dobermans eye
• Close up of mouth while it barks 
• The dog starts running in slow motion (the audience starts to wonder what this dog is up to -starts to get a little worried)
• Jumps into the air
• Catches a ball (back to normal speed)
• Trots with the ball happily
• Drops the ball and lays down next to it happily
• Quote

My original idea was to have the audience slightly suspicious of this dog as it is commonly thought of as an aggressive or strong dog. Then we are shown that he is a lovely dog who is just playing. Because it is an SPCA dog, its guaranteed to be family friendly.

Feedback from the Tutor and changes made:
The SPCA has given us a line to work with "You don't have to adopt us to help us." Although we don't have to absolutely work with this line, it is recommended that we do. So we decided that we can combine both ideas together. 

New Idea: You can really help an animal and make them happy just by playing and volunteering to help them.  

• Close up of eye at the start, blinks
• Close up of mouth, pans out to view whole dog face, dog barks
• Dog starts running with excitement (slow motion)
• Jumps (we don't see ball yet)
• Catches ball in their mouth (normal speed again)
• Happily trots over
• Pounces down playfully and refuses to give ball up
• Sits (straight posture)
• Drops ball
• Watches it bounce
• Looks side to side
• Quote (not sure if written or voice over yet) 

About my Character

• Playful
• Always happy, it takes a lot to upset him
• Outgoing 
• Cheeky 
• Friendly with humans, other dogs and animals
• Caring
• Protective
• Curious
• Nosy
• Active
• Loves going for walks but loves running more
• Constantly wants to play or be patted
• Great at hearing

Side and Front view of Character, Starting to model Character

I decided to go for a realistic look for the Doberman because I want him to be instantly recognizable. His ears are cropped to stay up and his tail is short also. Some people want their Dobermans to have this look to give the impression that they are a strong, tough dog. 

My drawings I created in Photoshop. Targa files: 1024x1024

 Starting to Model my Character in Maya:

Making the planes to reference with

Using the Polygon Tool to start the Edge Looping Process