doodlemammoth

[doodlemammoth]

FILM PROGRESS PART 2: THE ELECTRIC BOOGALOO

Oi. It's me. Dood of le Mammoth.

I mentioned before that I would add another post showing some of the stuff from my film so here it is! Some 3D models, including the cabinet that holds the MYSTICAL BOOK OF SECRETS (cookbook.) as well as the book itself.

Also, Pocket's a little clever scamp so he tends to experiment with the things he steals and creates "thieves tools" with them. Here are some of the 3D models of some of these tools!

"Standard blue string." One of his staples. Can lift quite a bit but has the chance to break after a bit too much force.

"Toothpick Crowbar" Pocket's classic tool. This bad boy can open up most smaller objects in a jiffy. Y'know, as long as it isn't too heavy. It's a toothpick so they tend to break easily...

"Screw Hammer" Pocket's bigger weapon. Some houses are home to really nice screws and Pocket found himself a nice looking eyebolt. After some fiddling, he managed to combine it with a standard screw to make a hammer! He really only pulls this out for big jobs.

"The... Drill?" Pocket's Last Resort. A combination of some things he has been messing with in his free time. Although he carries the parts within the compartments of his magical dust bunny hood, they aren't really suited to do anything except potentially resemble a hand drill he saw once. Despite it's size, it is hard to say if it would be able to do its job.

It is made with a leftover tuna can, some string, wood, toothpick parts, a cork an other metal bits and pieces.

And those are the important models for the film! I will try to keep my weekly posts but with the deadline approaching, it's hard to say...

Until next time! :D

[doodlemammoth]

JUNIOR RESEARCH PROJECT PROGRESS UPDATE

Hey, remember the other posts I mentioned? Whelp, you're gonna have to wait cause it's RESEARCH UPDATE TIME!

My research project was on "acting in animation" which involves studying a few books and films and applying that knowledge to my sketches in order to get more believable characters.

The schedule has been going like this:

Week 1: Reading about the general information (Essentials of Acting, Acting Basics, etc.)

Week 2: More general acting knowledge (knowing your audience, the format your using, the medium, etc.)

Week 3: Character motivation and their design (reading about what really creates good acting and how there character design plays into it.

Week 4: Going more into the character section. Applying some of that knowledge and possibly reading some more of different design books.

Right now, we are on week 4. We have indeed read everything and taken notes. However, I do need to get some sketches of some acting practice, either as just general sketches or quick 3D in SFM. (Although, I have been thinking about what I have learned as I have been working on my film.)

Next week is Movement, in which case we work on actually just doing some quick animation tests. We will most likely look at Aaron Blaise's lesson that my professor has shown me.

And that is my progress report. It's a bit short but even though we have some reading to do for this week, we are still on track! We just need to keep at it and we should be good.

See ya! >:]

[doodlemammoth]

MID SEMESTER UPDATE

I'M ALIVE!!!!! AND MY HEARING IS BACK!!! (mostly.)

The fever dream that was Spring Break is over and I can finally hear again so now I can actually focus a bit more.

But despite this, I did manage to get all of the keys planted for my film, Pocket Thief. I might have to tweak a few things but we'll save that for after I get feedback on it. The animatic, with super super rough audio, is down below!

Not only that, but I also have some style frames, character designs (albeit a bit rough) AND pictures of the 3D models used! All of that will be in another post to keep this one from being too long.

Other than that, the next few weeks are going to be CRANKIN TIME as I get the animation done for this film. It probably won't be rendered until later but I will dedicate my very best into making sure the animation is there!

More posts coming up! See ya next time! :D

[doodlemammoth]

UPDATE 3/12/2024

Hello once more. :D

This is more of a reminder post than an update, since I am getting everything ready for presentations after Spring Break!

I already have everything timed out and all the camera movements (well, most of them.) planned for the film. Now it's all about keys baby! Since Pocket and the Human character are the only Grease Pencil elements in the film, it shouldn't take as long to do keys.

The overall task is to form quality animation. We can worry about making it combine nicely with the 3D later.

That being said, the plan for this week is to get keys down so I can form a nicer looking animatic, and get it implemented with rough audio. If I can get that, we should be all set.

Since I already have everything set in stone to work, it should be easy to spend the rest of the week getting these cranked out! I just have to be determined and focused, which has been... quite difficult due to some hearing issues... It's getting better but I can't focus as well as I normally can. But I can get past that!

Anyways, I will update once more next week, when I have everything set for the presentation. It will most likely (hopefully) be ready by then.

Until then, see ya next time! >:]

[doodlemammoth]

Update 3/4/2024.

Hello!

Not much to post this week. Mainly just getting things prepared to start animating. I just have a couple more things before I get started.

Storyboarding is done, but I need to clean it up so it can be ready for the mid semester presentation! I also plan on doing a TON of animating this week and the next so be prepared for a lot of progress soon.

The only thing that's troubling me is the main environment, the cabinet itself. I just can't seem to get the model to work how I want it to... You think it would be easy, as it should be just cubes with holes but I think I need a good lesson in topology. It's probably the thing I know the least about when it comes to Blender, which sucks considering this animation has a lot of modeled assets... I do plan to learn though but I might need some help first... hmm...

Anyway, that's really all there is for last week. Like I said, I will make a lot more progress in the coming weeks.

See ya!

[doodlemammoth]

Update: A more timely schedule

Hello! Just wanted to give an update on things.

I want to start posting a bit more in order to keep things a bit more documented and hopefully keep me on track. So I am going to try and make a blog post every week in order to do so! (Not every post will have an animation though. That would be a lot.)

I also forgot to mention this on my last post but even though I made the vending machine and animation, I modeled the vending machine off of a tutorial from lacruzo! It actually was a great way to practice modeling for my project and to see how Grease Pencil interacts with Blender's 3D aspects. Overall, a great tutorial and a great way to learn a bit about Blender. Check it out on YouTube if you are interested.

Lastly, in terms of progress on the film, it has been a bit rough. Turns out I am still figuring out how to decide on story beads quickly so I ended up taking WAY too long on storyboarding. I even had to redo a lot of it over the weekend...

I managed to FINALLY get to a place I wanted though. It feels a lot more concise and manageable now so I happy with it! I'll probably have to make it look nicer but I do have it timed out properly now and have now started on modeling the scene.

To end this week's post, here is the model I made of Pocket's cup elevator that he jumps into at the beginning in the film (without the fancy illustrative shader.)

See you later!

[doodlemammoth]

Hello once again. Back at it again with another upload, this time about INTERNSHIPS!

I could not even fathom putting all of the information I gained from Eric Bravo's "How to get an Animation Internship," as it would've been way too long. (Lots of notes. Annotations and such.)

So, I just picked something I thought would be fun. I read a section that mentioned the internship perks at different companies. Dreamworks had free food and movie giveaways but Nickelodeon had just a soda machine (and free cereal). Although it probably meant a "soda dispenser," the idea of a company's perk being just a high quality vending machine was just really funny to me so I HAD to animate a short highlighting the Nick vending machine in all its glory.

It also allowed me to mess with modeling and shaders, which is perfect practice for my film!

See you all next time. :D

[doodlemammoth]

Hello. Hi. Welcome. You new here? Well, what are the odds, so am I!

Alrighty, so Tumblr decided to not want to work and deleted my entire post so let us try this again.

To anyone listening, I would like to introduce my film for Junior Year, Pocket Thief. It's a story about a little fox creature named "Pocket" who wants to steal "THE TOME OF MAGICAL FOOD SECRETS!" (Cookbook).

When I first drafted him up, I wanted something mystical, like the Picori from Minish Cap but also something potentially animal and gremlin like. So I made him a fox goblin hybrid thing...

It didn't turn out so well...

So, after some advice from my classmates on getting a bit more specific, I went the fox route and based him off of the smallest fox in the world! (Taking liberties with his size of course. The lad is as small as an egg.)

So, I will continue to improve on the character and get him ready for his "small" adventure that he is going to embark on.

(I also have a turnaround drawn but that will be in a separate post.)

See ya later!

[doodlemammoth]

"Hey, Spencer, can you think of an animated family tree that starts from someone who inspires you?"

Well... it's with the bees now. DR. BEES!

Overall, a neat quick animation to start off the semester. A good way to rub off that rusty Blender Grease Pencil engine. Hope to do it again soon, possibly experimenting with some 33333333 DDDDDDDD WOOOOOOOOOAH!