Moom Rotoscope, Early Days

 

Walk cycle needs a bit of improvement, impact from ball (obviously yet to be added) seems a bit too Matrix Bullet Dodge...and it's a little early. 

All of this to be fixed and a ball to be added.

Rotoscope Reference Footage

Jack getting clonked in the face by a football.

I chose this because I thought it would be a challenge (it might be a minor one to some but not me) because of the fall. I want to try and get it looking as natural as possible.

Plus it's just funny to watch.

Moom Walk Cycle, Final

I don't think he looks too bad really. Thankfully I managed to fix the 'pop' in his hips so he doesn't look quite so freaky now.

Although looking at it now, I think I should've at least made his head nod a little when his feet make contact with the floor. He looks a little bit stiff without it.

Moon Upper and Lower Walk

Now the arms move! I this video, he seems to be floating rather than walking. Some improvement most certainly needed!

I think this is steadily getting better, although I think the bounce is a little too high.

Moom Action Pose

Of course I did what probably everyone else did and went with a Spiderman pose...

I'm not quite sure what the hell is going on with the tops of his legs. They seem to be folding like cardboard here. And he's covered in squares!

Here's the cleaner, non-squared version.

I think I managed to get this fairly accurate. I was worried while doing the whole thing in case I broke the rig (which happens a lot) and would have to start again. He protested a few times I was posing him, but he came through for me in the end.

Moom Walk Lower Half

Moom lower half walk

Oh my. I found this a bit hard when i first started simply because there are so many boxes and buttons and other stuff. I kept forgetting which bit did what thing.

 Moom Walk, Side view

So far it's not as fluid as I'd like it to be and he might be rising up a little too high on the up step, but hopefully I can improve this.

Also he seems to pop like a boss!

FCurves

Just when my mind couldn't get any more thrown...

Ball Park

MORE BALLS!

Now that I rewatch this, I've noticed that the red ball is a bit slow on its way back after it hits the block. Ew.

Again, for this, I wanted the ball to have a bit of character, so he slides gracefully through the hoops and jumps into the box at the end. 

I don't quite know why I insist on making the balls hop in or off things. But I think it makes me work a little harder, because some of the movements are almost subtle (at least I hope they're subtle) and they don't need to be so exadurated. For example, when the ball leans/squashes down before making the leap, I tried to make that movement small and then have the jump big. An enthusiastic jump.

I don't know anymore...

Croquet Ball Exercise

This was simple enough to do. Just move the bat, hit the ball and let it roll.

However, I decided that at the end, rather than just have the ball simply roll off the edge, he could roll back and jump off instead. I think I just wanted the ball to have a bit of character.

SoftImage Ball Roll Exercise

The very basics of animating, but it has to be done. If you can't do this, then there is no hope.

Rolling, rolling, rolling our balls.

Mr and Mrs Potatohead comic

Good God, I don't even know!

Idea came from watching this This is Sparta with Electronic Sounds.

Found this a little bit hard to do since I have never used SoftImage in my life, so making the limbs and everything else go to the place I wanted them was a bit mind boggling.

Thumbnails

These are the thumbnails I made just so everyone had an idea of what I had in mind for the animation. These were passed on to Farideh, who made the storyboards from these.

 

Here are Farideh's storyboards created from these.

Layout Designs

For the room layout, I wanted to keep the room as simple and empty as possible. The only pieces of furniture in the room would be a desk, a chair and a clock.

The only other thing besides the character would be the piles of paper, which would steadily grow as the animation goes on.

Because of the amount of paper that appears, the room would feel quite claustrophobic, which will add to the characters distress.

More Character Development

At this point, I asked everyone to come up with some character designs of their own. That way we would have more variety and the character used need not be just mind "because I like it". This is supposed to be a team effort, and every part of it needs everyones involvement.

Everyone was given, or already knew, a discription of the character and what he/she needed to look like.

For this version, I gave the character a short and stumpy look. This way the character would look small next to the piles of work they generate and it'd look easier for the character to become lost under it. The character could also look fairly innocent as well.

This version of the character looks more alien but still retains a look of innocence. 

I feel that the character should have a look of innocence about them. After all, the character did not ask for this phobia, and depending on how strong minded the character is, they might not know how to handle it which makes the situation a whole lot worse for them.

Basic Narrative and Script: Draft and Final Edit.

Basic Narrative

A character is sat at a desk working, a clock ticks quietly behind (pan across past small piles of paper).

The character hears a quiet whisper and looks behind them for the source of the sound. Seeing nothing there they return to their work.

They hear another whisper, only this time it's louder. The character tries to ignore it and starts to work faster. The paper piles steadily grow higher and higher and the clock appears to speed up. The whispers start shouting at the character who begins to look drained (black bags begin to frame their eyes) but they continue to work (some of the words they hear come out of their head as text).

The work pile turns into towers of paper which teeter and threaten to fall (vertigo-style shot of the paper).

Words fly out of the characters head and the voices bellow.

*

The character screams and throws their work to the side, knocking over the paper towers. The voices come to an abrupt stop. The character collapses and curls into a ball, a shivering wreck on the floor.

Paper flutters down and slowly begin to bury the character underneath (pan up to see the paper drifting like snow).

*Alternate ending*

The character’s pen/pencil snaps in their hand. They’ve been gripping it so hard it breaks from the strain, as does the character. They stare at the broken pen, eyes wide, and throw it away and violently push the towers of paper. Momentum causes the character to fall from their chair and they curl into themselves, sobbing. The paper topples onto them and buries them underneath.

Paper flutters down and slowly begin to bury the character underneath (pan up to see the paper drifting like snow).

Script, Draft

INT. STUDY – NIGHT

PAN ACROSS

Small piles of paper litter a small desk. Each varies in size.

A character is sat at a desk working. A clock ticks quietly behind them.

Disembodied Voice 1, V.O. Whisper

Keep working.

Character looks up, eyebrows cocked. They look behind them: there is nothing there.

They return to their working, looking slightly unnerved.

Disembodied Voice 2, V.O. Louder whisper.

Don’t fail.

Character starts to churn more work out.

Papers get higher and higher.

Clock appears to speed up.

Voices begin to overlap each other.

Disembodied Voice 1, V.O. Shouting.

You’re letting them down!

Disembodied Voice 2, V.O. Shouting.

You’re letting yourself down!

Disembodied Voice 3, V.O. Shouting.

You’ll amount to nothing!

Disembodied Voice 4, V.O. Shouting.

Worthless!

Disembodied Voice 5, V.O. Shouting.

No wonder they hate you!

 Some of the words they hear come out of their head as text.

The work pile turns into towers of paper, which teeter and threaten to fall.

Disembodied Voice 1, V.O. Bellowing.

Worthless!

Disembodied Voice 2, V.O. Bellowing.

Useless!

Disembodied Voice 3, V.O. Bellowing.

A disappointment!

Disembodied Voice 4, V.O. Bellowing.

Pathetic!

Disembodied Voice 5, V.O. Bellowing.

Let down!

*

Character screams and throws their work to the side, knocking over the paper towers.

The voices come to an abrupt stop.

Character collapses and curls into a ball, a shivering wreck on the floor.

Paper flutters down and slowly begin to bury the character underneath

PAN UP

 The paper drifts like snow.

FADE OUT

*Alternate ending*

Character’s pen/pencil snaps in their hand.

They’ve been gripping it so hard it breaks from the strain, as does the character.

They stare at the broken pen, eyes wide, and throw it away and violently push the towers of paper.

Momentum causes the character to fall from their chair and they curl into themselves, sobbing.

BIRDS EYE VIEW

The paper topples onto them and buries them underneath.

The paper fills the screen.

FADE OUT TO WHITE.

END

After a group meeting, this script was edited. We all decided on what bits should stay, what should go and what could be changed to make it better.

Script

INT. STUDY – NIGHT

PAN ACROSS

Small piles of paper litter a small desk. Each varies in size.

A character is sat at a desk working. A clock ticks quietly behind them.

                                                                             Disembodied Voice 1, V.O. Whisper

Keep working.

Character looks up, eyebrows cocked.

They return to their working, looking slightly unnerved.

Disembodied Voice 2, V.O. Louder whisper.

Don’t fail.

They look behind them: there is nothing there.

Character starts to churn more work out.

Papers get higher and higher.

Clock appears to speed up.

Voices begin to overlap each other.

Disembodied Voice 1, V.O. Shouting.

You’re letting them down!

Disembodied Voice 2, V.O. Shouting.

You’re letting yourself down!

Disembodied Voice 3, V.O. Shouting.

You’ll amount to nothing!

Disembodied Voice 4, V.O. Shouting.

Worthless!

Disembodied Voice 5, V.O. Shouting.

No wonder they hate you!

 Some of the words they hear come out of their head as text.

The work pile turns into towers of paper, which teeter and threaten to fall.

Disembodied Voice 1, V.O. Bellowing.

Worthless!

Disembodied Voice 2, V.O. Bellowing.

Useless!

Disembodied Voice 3, V.O. Bellowing.

A disappointment!

Disembodied Voice 4, V.O. Bellowing.

Pathetic!

Disembodied Voice 5, V.O. Bellowing.

Let down!

Character’s pen/pencil snaps in their hand.

They’ve been gripping it so hard it breaks from the strain, as does the character.

They stare at the broken pen, eyes wide, and throw it away and violently push the towers of paper.

Character collapses and curls into a ball, a shivering wreck on the floor.

Paper flutters down and slowly begin to bury the character underneath

BIRDS EYE VIEW

The paper topples onto them and buries them underneath.

The paper fills the screen.

FADE OUT TO WHITE.

END