Final project

Abstract and Storyboard

I want to do a zombie chasing a human into a room. The human will shut the door behind him, leaving the zombie slightly puzzled and frustrated for having lost his meal. He pounds on the door, which opens and pelts him with rubber ducks. While distracted, his prey escapes.

Production Log

I was advised to use the Lowman instead of trying to rig my own characters. The set is pretty simple; a hallway with a door at the end.

 

I had a slight problem with trying to make the characters physically unique. Originally I wanted the zombie to have a greenish skin tone, but the shaders didn't show up on him. There was one shader I could change that altered the whole body for both of them. I discovered that there were 2 different shaders for eyes so I made the zombie's bloodshot.

I had fun playing with the Lowman's facial expression. He's a pretty content looking character so it was tricky getting him to look afraid. I think opening the mouth and raising the eyebrows, he conveys alarm.

Lowman has a moment of realization. He pushes forward to escape the zombie.

I stayed mostly true to the original storyboard, except for the part with the ducks. I left them out due to time constraints. I ended it with the zombie trying to lure Lowman out by knocking, but is knocked back by the door as he flees.

Due to the number of different angles I wanted, I used a couple different cameras to render several small clips and spliced them together with Final Cut Pro. There was a slight problem in Final Cut where I wasn't happy with the quality of the video. It's mostly because I haven't used it in a while, but it took me a while to find the right way to save my file.

 

Self-Evaluation

Despite the difficulties I had with some parts of the project, I sort of like how this project turned out. I would have liked to build original models but with the time we had it was unlikely I would have finished it. The set itself could be improved; I intended it to be a creepy dark hallway, but only one of the walls is visible and I worry that it might be unclear that they're running down a hall. There's also glaring flaw while the door is open. It could be more complex. I think the gag at the end is a common cartoon trope, and I think if I had the time I could turn it into a Scooby Doo-like scenario where the hallway is lined with doors and Lowman evades the zombie by running in and out.

Self-reflection

I'm actually happy with how my midterm project changed from what it was supposed to be. It went from something really abstract (the idea of rubber duck social hierarchies is probably not appealing to all) to bathtub toys. More importantly, it let me model a lot more than the original idea. I might have approached it backwards by starting with the smallest possible piece and then building up, from the bathtub to the floor to the walls and finally all the decorative pieces like the sink and door. Figuring out the camera path after several failures was a proud moment.

There is certainly room to improve. I would like to add in some more animated objects and water effects like splashing when the dolphin jumps. It's only 13 seconds long but it could benefit from water sounds. If I could, I would slow the camera down a little and add footsteps so it would be like a child walking into the bathroom and discovering their toys swimming around.

Documentation Edit

Some people asked how I did the water in the bathtub. It's the shader shown above. You can tweak all kinds of things like wave length, wind speed and so on.

Tweaking

I've smoothed out the camera's path a bit so that the toys are more visible, and added a spout and knobs to the bathtub that I forgot to do last week. I'm pretty happy with it now; when I showed it to some friends asking for criticism, only one found a problem with the floor pattern. He thought it looked too much like a place holder. My intention was to have a tiled floor like my bathroom at home- I just associate tiles with bathrooms, so I might leave it as is.

Camera trouble

I want to put a camera on a motion path but it's currently not working how I want it to.



It doesn't show enough of the toys in the bathtub for my tastes. My previous idea involved leaving the room open and never showing the black space at the end, but I'll probably have to put a fourth wall up if I can't get the camera to face away from it.

Some changes

My project has deviated from my original concept. It started when I needed to make something for the ducks to swim in, so I made a bathtub (in a similar fashion to the Jack in the box tutorial). Then I made a floor and walls so the bathtub wasn't just floating in space. The changed idea is what bath toys do when no one is around.

Picture of the bathroom. The ducks swim in circles while the dolphin jumps around.

Also, I had fun putting bubbles on a shampoo bottle.

Midterm concept

My initial idea was a very short story about rubber ducks. The storyboard (once I upload it) is a little difficult to see but the idea is this:
Panel 1- Overhead view of 3 ducks orbiting a gold duck.
Panel 2- Change of camera. Gold duck spots a blue duck.
Panel 3- The 3 ducks block blue duck from approaching. Another change of camera.
Panel 4- Back to overhead view. Gold duck swims from behind them.
Panel 5- They swim away.
Panel 6- They swim in a new pattern.

Motion paths are used to animate the ducks' swimming patterns. If I had the time and ability to implement sound, I would love to add in rubber duck squeaks.

Duck model: