Simulated Client Project: DONE.

Not quite as I imagined it, but I suppose it will do.

An Illustration of Digital Piracy from Ian Milliken on Vimeo.

Balls.

I've just lost a days work. GREAT! All the animation I have done today which I have been saving, is, undoubtedly, corrupt. Which puts me back to 10 o'clock this morning. This combination of losing my work and the daunting prospect that I would spend another day re-doing the whole thing means yet more changes to my storyboard. A couple of days ago I decided to take out the 'kidnapping' sequence from my scene so I could spend more time on improving the animation I already had. Now I think I'm going to have to scrap the 'murder' part too (which is what I have been animating today).

Animating in Wav207

I'm about 2 hours in to blocking animation for the Piracy project, nothing complex, just blocking. My computer at home can just about handle Word without crashing, so it's definitely a no-go for animating. So I'm in wav207, and these computers don't seem to like it either. Maya has crashed 12 times in two hours, it's really beginning to annoy me. I want a computer that works!

In better news, I figured out how to switch from FK to IK on the Moom rig.

More Moom

I have been playing with both versions 3 and 4 of the Moom rig to see whether it is actually beneficial to switch to the older rig. It isn't. At least not for me. Despite v4's IK/FK arm situation, the facial controls are a thousand times better than its predecessor, and it is generally a lot easier to use and generate good animation with. Here are some test renders of a similar pose with the different rigs, they took the same time but the v4 pose is a lot more interesting.

Moom v4

Moom v3

Moom Issue

Every project has some kind of unforeseen issue pop up at some point (or at least it seems so for me) and I've just hit my first one. I have been using the Moom rig as my character, and after finishing the props for him I have noticed something about the rig. The arms aren't both FK or IK, they're one of each! It doesn't seem so bad however I can't stand using one of each, I know that when it comes to actually animating properly it's going to piss me off rotten. I have been looking around on the web to see if there is anyway to combat the issue, but I haven't found anything.

So, I'm downgrading. I'm still using a Moom rig, but it is an older version which doesn't have all the lovely capabilities of the newer rig. However both arms use IK's.

A Week... Not Wasted *UPDATE*

It seems like a waste to delete any post I actually thought about a decent amount, hence this UPDATE. I found out today that the deadline for this project is 28/10/10, not the 25th - which is good enough to convince me to revert back to my other idea, with some possible cuts from the action. Why? Although the new 'President of the World' idea was ok, on the storyboard there was nowhere near the amount of freedom in animation that there is with the original idea.

Bender on Anti Piracy

Just happened to stumble across this, and it seems relevant to the current project. I would use this to brainstorm an awesome idea from, however I already have one :(

A Week... Not Wasted

So after a week of developing idea's for the Piracy Project, picking one and storyboarding it as well as recording sound, the weekend gave me a chance to take a step back and look at exactly how much I planned to achieve with the idea, and the time I would need to allocate. When I drew up the storyboard I knew it would have to be refined straight away, however for me to have the time to complete it to a level I think is acceptable, it would need to be trimmed down a fair amount which might make the narrative unclear, and that's never good.

Luckily I do have another idea with a similar message that I would like to take to the storyboard:

President of the World

The President is standing at a podium, the scene fades in from black (a muffled crowd noise also dying down), like at a press conference. The president then steps down from the podium and walks across through a door and sits at a desk with a computer. The camera pans with him. The screen switches to the view of the character, he downloads a song and clicks play. The camera then goes back to the default profile shot, the President turns to it and exclaims "Whaaaaaat?? Everybody's doing it."

The message portrayed is that 'Everybody IS doing it", even people that, in their profession, speak against it. I could exagerrate how hypocritical these figures are by instead of having a fictional 'President of the World' the character could be a spokesperson for the RIAA.

I could go even further with this and at the start of the scene have the character (if sticking with the RIAA spokesperson) finishing off a speech on just how bad Digital Piracy is, but really going over the top - after all it is them that tagged the act as piracy.

Simulated Client Project: Storyboard (Animatic)

This is a very rough draft of how I want the action and sound to fit together. I have noticed a few things I would like to change already. This is literally a quick mock up, the sound will be much tidier with the animated content.

Simulated Client Project: Proposal (II)

So here's my plan of action for my proposal:

Dialogue

(Narrator):

“(1)This is Moom, is one of the most terrifying pirates ever to have walked the earth. (2)He is infamous for looting. (3)Kidnapping. (4)And of course, murder. (5)But what happens when we take him out of his natural environment and put him into the modern age? (6)It seems Moom doesn't agree that digital piracy is worthy of it's title. (8A)And if anyone should know, it's him.”

(Moom):

“(7)That ain't piracy! (8B)That. Ain't. Piracy!”

Action

(1): Moom is sitting on a crate, he slowly gets up and stretches out into a 't' shape then snaps back into an idle position, he looks tired and slowly comes out of a yawn. Jack appears on the right of the screen beginning his walk across; Mooms eyes dart to his position immediately and he is suddenly very awake and aware.

(2): As Jack walks past, Moom snatches the money sack off of his belt. He turns it upside down to empty it, only to reveal it has nothing inside and is initially wide jawed with excitement at what he will find. In a delayed reaction, he pouts in frustration and his shoulders raise (like in a sulk). Jack notices that his bag has been taken and pivots (from the waist) to face Moom, he flings out his hands as if to question what he is doing. As he turns, Mooms eyes dart back at him.

(3): Moom, still holding onto the bag, flings it over Jacks head but must step forward with his left foot to do so. As it goes over his head jack begins to flail his limbs and Moom steps back (left foot) and takes Jack into a headlock position trying to steady him. He withdraws his dagger from his belt and plants it into Jacks head.

(4): Moom releases Jack but pushes him forward as he does so. Jack melodramatically throws his arms and legs about, seems to regain balance just in front of the camera and then 'full on stacks it', shaking the camera when he hits the ground. Meanwhile Moom brushes off his hands and stands in a triumphant stance.

(5): A desk with a computer on it literally throws itself into shot to the left of Moom. He half cowers and half withdraws his sword, then hesitantly puts it back, looks around then leans over to the computer to start interacting with it.

[Computer Screen] The mouse moves over to a download link, it is clicked and a

save box comes up. Save is clicked, there is a slight delay and then the file opens.

Play is clicked.

(6): Moom leans back away from the computer and shakes his head in disbelief, frowning. Then suddenly with explosive energy he kicks the computer off of the desk, spins to face the camera and withdraws his sword.

(7): Holding his arms out and looking upright he exclaims “That ain't piracy!”.

(8): Moom pivots (at the waist) and swings back round having pulled out a bottle of rum. He begins to drink in a downing fashion, stops to exclaim again, then continues to drink.

Piracy Project: Proposal (I)

I have decided to take a light hearted approach to the project; the brief says to illustrate digital piracy, so I'm illustrating it from your average Joe's point of view, which is that it really isn't that bad. How can I come to that assumption? Well I know a lot of people, and they know a lot of people and so forth, and within this ever expanding circle of people the general view of digital piracy IS that it isn't that bad.

And now my reasoning is established, here is the message I am choosing to put across:

'Digitial Piracy does not always deserve the title it is given, especially when considering Piracy was once to pillage, loot, kill, kidnap etc.'