11 Second Club

[lwaxana]

I've been inspired by all of the 11 second club projects people have been showing lately and decided to give it the old college try. So far I have the concept and blocking figured out. Do they seem to be working? Any suggestions for improvement? I'm not sure if I want to show the woman actively bandaging the injured man or just standing near him. Also planning to show the archer man with bow and arrow props to make the situation more clear. And just noticed the back of the woman's hair is not spiraling consistently with the front. Hoping to refine this more into finalized keyframes and breakdowns this weekend. I'd appreciate any feedback. Thanks!

[Danimal]

I would suggest having the woman stand there and nag, then right at the end a giant 16 Ton weight falls on her, then wolves eat her corpse. That's about the only way I can see making that whiny hag into something people would want to watch.

Your animatic looks good, and standing near the bandaged man is enough to convey. Sadly, you're kind of saddled with an awful sound clip to animate.

[lwaxana]

Yeah, the audio is very annoying. Definitely adds to the challenge!

Working on setting up the vectors for this in AS. Background is subject to change, but working on finalizing the characters and the "wah wah wah" key frame. Any suggestions for poses, composition, etc?



[edit: updated image]

[lwaxana]

I'm thinking the composition and concept work better with the woman standing further back after all...?

[Danimal]

Definitely standing farther back. It looks better. In the first one it just looks like the bandaged man is really tiny. The second shows a sense of depth.

[lwaxana]

Thanks, Danimal! It really helps to have a another set of eyes on this stuff!

[neeters_guy]

Looks really good. Just from the still, the storyline and character relationships read really well. Can't wait to see the final entry.

Glad to see a couple other AS entries in 11 Second Club. Good luck!

[lwaxana]

Thanks, Neeters! Unfortunately, it's looking unlikely that I'll finish in time. I am still working on the key frames. I have a new ending in work. Right now I just have an image as a placeholder, but will draw in some merry men in an acrobatic pyramid with apples on their heads. For some reason when I render the video the animation seems to fall behind the audio...?

[neeters_guy]

It's a good effort. You might want post it anyway for feedback, but I would ignore the score since being unfinished will really hurt it.

For some reason when I render the video the animation seems to fall behind the audio...?

This is a problem since I read somewhere it's best to have the lip sync lead the audio by a few frames. Sometimes I'll shift all my lip sync keys back a frame to see if that helps the timing.

[lwaxana]

Okay, considering Neeters's comments and thinking about it some more, I decided to make the time for this. I have a new plan for the final shot when the woman says "...to fail big and stick around" to put more emphasis on the (visual) punchline. I think the concept and blocking are working better than on my previous two versions of this last shot. I'd appreciate any feedback to improve things. Thanks, guys!

[patricia3d]

nicely done. Thanks

[lwaxana]

Thanks, Patricia!

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Here is my latest progress. The final scene is still rough because I'm struggling with how to approach it. I have tried it three different ways now and all of the ideas seem too weak to end the animation with. I can't find a clear, pleasing composition to fit everything I need into this shot. Maybe that means I'm trying to show too much at once. I do want to show her gesture and I do want to show the archery victims. I'm thinking a camera move could be used to reveal the victims. But I'm thinking about scrapping the human pyramid because the shape doesn't seem to be doing me any favors here. Maybe one really big unamused guy would work better?

I'd love to hear any suggestions so I can improve this as much as possible before submitting it.

[neeters_guy]

I'd horizontally flip the acrobats so the top two guys form a line of action that points back at the couple. Also scale down all of the acrobats so they don't tangent with top and bottom frame. Otherwise, it's looking great!

[lwaxana]

Neeters guy -- Thanks! I tried your idea to horizontally flip the acrobats and it improved the composition a lot, but I ended up going with an alternate ending.
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Here is the latest WIP. Now just working on fixing things up.

[Danimal]

Nice tag, adds a new dimension to the otherwise horrible soundtrack. Don't get me wrong, it's still horrible, but the visuals almost detract from it.