Extended Practise: Kingdom of Masks Inbetweening Progress

Extended Practise
Kingdom of Masks Inbetweening Progress

• This week:
• I worked on the inbetweens for Scene 9 of Khoa and Amy's project
• What went well:
• I had started inbetweening this shot, until I realised that the camera movement had not been added yet. Khoa wanted me to experiment with the easing of the camera movement, so it starts slow and increases in speed as it becomes closer to the character. Here is my first attempt:

Camera Zoom Test 1

• I, then, made some adjustments to speed this up further:

Camera Zoom Test 2

• To make the positioning of the character match the storyboard, I made the camera come out further, to then place the Mask Maker on the edge of the water. Importing the background allowed me to position him correctly, before I continued inbetweening. I found that the camera stutters slightly here, but I decided to inbetween him before making further adjustments.

Camera Zoom with Background

• I tried a different method of inbetweening for this scene, which was to between each body part at a time, in specific sections. Therefore, I started with his head and arms, then his body, then left his cape until last. This allowed me to focus on individual actions, without getting confused as to how each part is moving.
• I asked Emily how she intended his arms to move and she told me that he raises his hands first, before moving them up to his head (rather than her keyframe being apart of one motion to his head, it's two separate actions). I kept this in mind when inbetweening.
• I additionally made use of easing and smear frames, which is something I think I have improved a lot on through animating on this project. I didn't have the best understanding of them before, whereas now I think about them more and how I could apply them.
• Here are the final inbetweens:

• What could be improved:
• I think that the motion where his right hand comes up to his head is a little bit awkward and could be timed a little better. I was attempting to make the hands move in separate motions, to make the movement more interesting (rather than in sync) and I could have timed that a little better.
• When I showed a few peers for feedback, some noted that the character could exaggerate the movement more, such as lowering his head further as he holds his head, to demonstrate the intense fear and pain he feels. As I was following the keyframes, I couldn't add exaggerated movement like this, but it's something I will consider if I can in future scenes.
• Next week:
• I will be inbetweening Scenes 8 and 22!