Negotiated Study Two: Heart Growth

Having done a few test animations I decided that it was about time that I started with the actual animation. So I started at the beginning where the heart and veins grow and then the heart starts beating. 

This is the result..

So to start the growth of the heart I decided to start off with a representation of a cell and to then make it divide as it would in the womb where the embryo grows. I was very happy with this effect, although I do feel that at one point where the heart is almost visible there aren't enough frames, and so the movement is way too quick. I may have to add in some extra frames. With the heart growth sequence I didn't really plan it out, instead I made it up as I went along and I think that that was my downfall. 

The growth of the arteries and veins where pretty simple and straight forward and I was very happy with the result of this. And finally the growth of the blood and the beating of the heart came next, in which I was really happy between the smooth transition of the two. I was going to do it like I had in the animatic where the blood formed within the heart and then got pumped round as more blood was made but this would have taken me far too long. So I found a simpler and shorter solution that I felt worked really well.

Negotiated Study Two: Improved Breathing

I've managed to correct the breathing for the lungs so that they no longer jump. This mistake meant that some time was wasted improving it, which I'm not very happy about but I didn't have much choice! I also painted the frames so that I wouldn't have to return to this part of the animation (non digitally anyway)

This is a video with the improved movement and painted. 

I'm really happy with the result of this and is exactly how I imagined it to be. I will later be taking these frames and putting them with the heart so that the audience will be able to see them both in motion together as they would be in anyone's chest.

Negotiated Study Two: Colour Tests

I've been experimenting with how I will render my animation, I've come up with three different designs.

This is the first, where I painted the frames with watercolour paints

I was very happy with this, especially when I put all the frames together to make a quick test film, it felt like the heart was much more alive than when there wasn't any colour at all. The test animation...

I then decided to paint a frame digitally to see what effect I would get from that. I wasn't very happy with the outcome and it took way to long to do. 

So I revisited the watercolour frames that I had done and remember a tutor saying about maybe inverting the image. To get the paint to stay blue I had to change the hue to orange-yellow first and then inverted the image. I was really pleased with this, not only was it visually interesting but it also gave the feel of an Xray, which I loved. And because its dark it also could suggest the feeling of being inside the body. 

I then made a test animation to make sure that it looked ok when in motion.

I'm really happy with the outcome of this and will definitely be using it as the style for the final aimation

Negotiated Study Two: Test Animations

I've made a rough animation of the clot scene (The scene where plaque breaks off from the inside of the artery and the blood forms a clot around it causing a blockage, leading to the heart attack). It's a little jumpy and I need to create more frames as I feel it needs to be slowed down quite a bit but I feel that the overall movement is right.

I've also made another test animation for the lungs but here you can see a large portion of them rather than an extreme close up. I made the 4th - 5th frame wrong without knowing until I put it together on here and because of this the rest of the frames are wrong. This is a very timely error for me, especially as each frame took an average of 2 hours each. I will also be adding a frame inbetween each of these frames as I feel that it moves too fast to get an idea of the pacing I would like to achieve I have done 6 frames a second. Again overall the movement is how I would like it to be.

This video shows the error where you can see that the image jumps around.

And for this one I have left out the 1st 2nd and 3rd frames so you can have a clear idea of how it's meant to be

Negotiated Study Two: Animatic

Last night I received my nearly finished soundtrack, made by the brilliantly multi-talented Chris Lacey. If you haven't already go and check out his blog at http://christopherlacey.blogspot.co.uk

So I decided to put the cut down animatic to the soundtrack to get a rough idea as to how it will feel, although the visuals and soundtrack do match together quite well when I animate the final thing they will be much tighter together.

I'm more than pleased with the soundtrack, it's a massive improvement on the one I made as not only does it feel more current but it sets the mood much better, making it more likely for the audience to be drawn in. It also helps the journey that the audience are being taken on flow much more smoothly and the different sounds don't sound disjointed like they did in mine. Overall I'm very pleased that Chris agreed to create this soundtrack for me, it gives me much more inspiration on how I will be animating the visuals. 

I can't wait to hear the finished product!

Negotiated Study Two: Lungs and Heart Test Animation

These are two test animations that I have done, one for the lungs and the other for the heart. I'm really happy with the outcome with both of them, especially the heart. 

I will be creating more test animations for all of the organs to know how they will move when creating the final animation. The animatic didn't allow me to do this as the movement was too blocky and was very rough.

The Lungs

The Heart

Negotiated Study Two: Improved Animatic and Storyboard

Since completing my animatic I had had another look at it and cut it down. I also changed the storyboard to match the animatic. I managed to cut the animatic down to 3 and a half minutes which is a massive improvement. Before it was a little bit over 5 minutes! Here they are.