Live Action Footage Shoot

The studio decided to recorded live footage to use as reference for our animation. We needed two types, one for 2D and one for 3D.

2D Footage-

As show in our 2D animation tests on an earlier post, we have taken live footage - rendered out the sequence as a Tiff Sequence - Edited the sequence down to be every 4th/8th/12th frame (depending on the complexity of the action). This shorter sequence then gets drawn over by the team to create our animated sequence. The sequence is not fully rotoscoped, as we draw our own character over the top of the footage, but it gives the animation a stylized look and we can ensure that our 2D animation is conveying the action we want it too. The actors (class mates) who helped us by performing the sequences for us have asked that we don't publish the footage but Danny had permitted the following sequence of shots. This is the shot where the widow sits on the 'Whoopee Cushion' in Scene 2.

3D Footage-

As our animation requires us to convey a lot of emotion from our two main characters we decided to also film Barnabas and Benjamin's actions too. This footage will be used during our animating period as reference for poses and facial expressions and also the length of time for actions. Thanks to Tutor Phil for play Barnabas for us while Polydoodle member Sammy played Benjamin. Again, out of respect for our actor we won't post the filmed footage of Phil but PolyDoodler Sammy has no such luck. 

These photos were taken for reference for posing the characters in Maya.

And a short video of a few of Benjamin's Ref shots with a bonus shot at the end of a funeral guests reaction to a frog for Scene 5.