Pip Low Res

Monster Hand Dance Filming

I filmed through a few takes of the dance scene with the monsters hand and Pip, the filming wasn't all that successful. I have exported a clip of the scene of Pips dancing at half speed as it is basically impossible to perform the dance with my hand at normal pace.

This works fine however I now know I need to be very carful and try make the movements with my hand as evenly paced, flowing and not jittery as all as the jitteriness is high accentuated when the footage is speed back up to match back into the scene.

I would like to animated the hand for the dance sequence now instead of filming it so I can be a lot more specific with the movement but I don't think I will have enough time, I plan on re-shooting the hand again and seeing how it goes from there.

Although the filming was useful to see this problems arise I need to re-film anyway as I filmed my right for co-ordination (i'm right handed) however the thumb is on the wrong side as this should be the monsters left hand performing the dance.

I was running the 4 best takes along side each other to grab the best movement for each action and plan on animating a quick morph in between the shots when needed.

Monster fix ups & More Strings

After getting some advice from Jack I've fixed up and smoothed out the Monsters body animation and eyes for shot 6, its looking a lot better I'm fairly happy with it. I've also now completed the string animation for shot 5 with the exceptionof a few touch ups.

Animating the Monsters Body & More Strings

I got some more of the monsters body animated for shot 6. It still need more work but is coming along well. I like the flow of the body and I think I will put a moving hold on any stationary positions as I think it gives of a predatory feel, constantly surrounding and keeping an eye on its prey.

Also I did some more of the string animation for shot 5, I'm not sure if it needs a touch up or two, I'll come back to it to check. Doign a large batch of the string animation at once seems to be the way to go as I can get into the feel for where the strings should be and ideas for different types of movement seem to come to mind easier.

Roughing out Monster for Shot 6

The monsters form seems to be developing with shoulders helping to show weight.

Giving Pip something to stand on

I thought about getting a texture and running it back in perspective to the horizon with a gradient fade to emulate something along the lines of ground, however when I was doing the DVD covers with the spotlight on Pip I liked the look of that and gave it a try.

 I think it works well and it is also adds to the theatrical theme of the animation. The two options I have is the light coming from above out of screen or the monster hand.

Light originating from out of screen

Light originating from the monster hand

Half way through Shot 5 (strings)

More string animation, I'm just off half way through shot 5. I would have been further ahead but spent about 5 hours exploring/attempting to animated 2 seconds of one of the string actions and ending up scraping it in the end. It's annoying having spent so much time on it but oh well.

I changed my mind again about how far zoomed out shot 5 will be, taking on board Jacks input I went back to the original composition.

There's one string snap in the shot that I'm not sure about but I'll leave it settle for now and come back for a fresh look to see what I think, it happens at 0.55 seconds.