The Pantomime Project

The first project we worked on this month was The Pantomime. The objective was the animate Bugsy to undergo a change of emotion.

We were given a host of events that could happen and cause a change of emotion. This is what I chose:

You are impatiently waiting on the bus and are excited or relieved to see it arrive, only to have it whiz right by. You must walk 3 consecutive steps in scene.

I did some pre-pro on this, acting out the scene and trying out various ways to execute it. At first it was awkward to act it out but I found that I paid off a whole lot, especially when I started the blocking. My personal reference gave me what to do and left little to my imagination, which sped up my work process.



Now in this first pass of the blocking, I am missing a tremendous amount. (The ground plane, my possible props, etc) I was using this first lab to feel out the scene, actions and other things that I thought might be vital to the project.

In the second pass, I imported the rest of the scene and worked more on strengthening my poses. I adjusted the camera and began working on positioning the props properly.

The third and fourth passes show more progress with the actions I am giving Bugsy.

working in these passes, I am still in stepped mode because this gives me an opportunity to see what is missing in the main poses, anticipations, overlaps, etc.
I removed some unnecessary props and change the camera some more to get better silhouette and staging.
THIRD PASS:

FOURTH PASS:

The last video is what I turned in for the final.

I am not pleased with my final result, but I saw the progress I made. There is so much I could have done on the final to make it a stronger piece. I plan to fix these things in my own time and have it the way it should be.

This was a very fun project. I learned so much that I did not understand before, especially about the essence of timing and spacing, moving holds, blinks, overlap, contra-posture and strong poses.

It reinforced my knowledge of the Basic Walk in animation and made me learn to trust my instincts a little better.

I constantly need critiques and guidance, so I will get more and more as long as I animate.