Post 26 - 30/05/10

This will most likely be my final post on this blog tonight.

I have successfully completed Scene# 3, marking the completion on all my scenes in this project.
As of right now, all that is left is the compilation of this project which I will be returning tomorrow to help with.

I faced a lot of issues and stress with this project, but at the same time, I know I've grown with it, learning much more about the program itself, and gaining much more confidence in myself, and my ability to use it.

I started this project barely understanding symbols and tweening, but now I know many hot keys by heart and understand much more of the program, like keying through lip-syncs and setting up eye masks.

It may have been rough, and I may have been in a foul mood for a lot of it, but looking back on it as a finished work, I'm glad for the experience.

I'm glad I've grown.

~Alyssa

Post 25 - 29/05/10

Today I came in after hours to continue my Fairy A and Fairy B turns.

I was unable to come in last night because there was a riot outside of my apartment, and the police came and I was too scared to leave. :( I'm completely serious.

I completed Fairy B's turn cycle, and all I have left is Fairy A's turn and keying out the steps.

I won't have enough time to finish that tonight, so I'll be back in tom morrow night.

I'm unsure if that will leave enough time for editing it, but hopefully I can contact some one to finish the last part so it will be able to be edited in on time.

Post 24 - 28/05/10

Today I completed most work on Scene 3.

I still have to come in after hours to fully complete the Scene.

As of this point I have to do turn around animations for Fairy A and Fairy B.

I also have to key out their walks, but I'm still dealing with the issue of not literally not having enough time for the characters to walk across the screen, so I am unsure how to proceed on that issue.

Post 23 - 27/05/10

I continued my work on Scene 2 today, going through a list of revisions.

I brought in all the colour models as well as the background/foreground file.
Scene 2 is now complete! Hurrah!

(This is a scene of the finished Scene)

Now I have to resume my work on Scene 3.

I have to make new walk-cycles for Fairy A, Fairy B and Fairy C, but all the colour models have been brought into the scene.

I'm also waiting for the background file to bring it. It doesn't seem to be on the common right now, but I think it's almost done.

(Here is my current progress.)

Post 22 - 26/05/10

Work continued on Scene 2 today.

I feel as though I have a much better knowledge of working withing symbols, and because of that I was able to finish the bulk of the work today.

There were a few issues with the scene, such as Donald's walk gliding, and lip-syncing.

I have yet to fix these issues, but they are small, and not easily noticed, so I think I will focus on completing Scene 3 from now on, as finishing my second Scene is more important than fine tuning the first Scene.

Post 21 - 25/05/10

I've halted my work on Scene 3 to begin work on Scene 2 which uses the Fairy Dance Cycle.

I decided to do this because I only need to animate Donald.

This would consist of a walk-in and lip sync.

Most of his talk is done with him facing away (towards the Fairies.)

Though keying is still an issue, I don't know if I'll be able to any sort of syncing.

Though I do have Donald's walk in cycle completed, it would now just be a matter of making keying work and I could have that Scene finished.

And even though I have Donald's walk cycle completed, it seems to be working incorrectly when I go to use it in the actual scene.

It's in a symbol, though it doesn't act like a symbol, meaning it won't cycle through the time line like it should, and I'm unsure why. (the other characters on the screen cycle properly)

Again, I wonder if this is due to the character build itself, as I still cannot key through faces.

In fact, instead of staying on a single face through the entire walk cycle, instead it loops itself through different expressions (as seen below) and I'm unable to stop it.

Post 20 - 24/05/10

Today was Victoria Day, so I was unsure about classes.

I was absent from early work hours regardless, (I sent out an email) but it seems like there wasn't any one in the PC lab today anyways.

I went in myself later to continue my work on Scene 3.
I've completed Donald's idle stand/lead walk. Now I just have to make the forward Fairy walk cycles.

I'm still having tweening and keying issues so I decided I try using a different computer and placing the Flash Scripts folder in the proper directory hoping that might help the issue.
It's still the same for me as it was before. I'm able to key hands, but not expressions.
It has me wondering if it's actually just issues with the character build (Donald) since I'm still able to key Fairy A, Fairy B and Fairy C.

I'm not sure how to even check to see if it really is the character build or not.

Post 19 - 21/05/10

Continued animation on Scene 3 today.

Completed all 3 Fairy walk cycles. (Fairy A, Fairy B and Fairy C.)

I've started working on Donald's walk cycle, where the fairies are leading him by his hand.

I find this walk cycle looks much more natural than the other walk cycles I've completed so far and hope to go back an improve the first 3.

We've also run into an error with CS4 that has made the script we have work incorrectly.
With out this we are unable to key through face and hand poses which slows animation even more, and completely halts the lip-sync process.

I hope this problem will be taken care of, I have no idea why this happened on several computers(though not all of them) and seems to effect each of them different.

Pictured below is an Onion Skin of part of Donald's walk cycle.

Post 18 - 20/05/10

Rough/Animation has started.

I am working on Scene 2 and 3. Though I am not working on the Fairy Dance sequence used in Scene 2.

I have been having issues with getting the tweens to work properly. This seems to be common among our group. We've been met with little success in that aspect.

Instead of being able to rely on tweening to do some of the smoother arm and leg movements we've had to key it all out ourselves, which is proving to take up much more time than intended.

I also can't seem to make the walk cycles tween from one position on the work area to another, so hopefully I can have someone in the group solve this issue.



EDIT: Corrected size of work area to fix the field guide.

Post 17 - 19/05/10

I've fixed the hand issue, it was pretty simple, I was just over-thinking it. (Opps)

Anyways, Now I have all 3 of the Fairy Models complete.
After I set them to full body Symbols I can finally begin to animate my scenes. (Scene 1 and Scene 2)

All Fairies are now in their own Full Body Symbol, with all pivot points corrected to their proper position.

Pictured below are the final product. They may still be subject to corrections.

Post 16 - 18/05/10

Today I continued my work editing Fairy A.

As of now I have finished all the Lip-Syncs and Eye Blink cycles for Fairy A.
(Front, 3/4 Front and Side Views)

Layering issues have been corrected on all rotations with the exception on the Back View, which I am in the process of completing.

The hind Arm and Leg/Foot have been added to the Side View of Fairy A, it was missing previously.

The Hands file has been completed, and once I finish the final View on Fairy A, I will be taking adding the hands to all 3 of the Fairy files.
(Fairy A, Fairy B and Fairy C.)

UPDATE:

I came back after hours to make up for the work period I had missed earlier in the day and completed the entire Rotation of Fairy A.

Now Fairy A, Fairy B and Fairy C all have the hand files in their own proper layer.

I'm having issues with getting the hands to Translate horizontally, so I'm leaving them as they are for now, until I can ask for help moving them tomorrow.

(Pictured below)

Post 15 - 15/05/10

I Originally I thought I was just editing the legs, but upon further review I see that I need to reconstruct a lot of the character build besides the legs.

-Need to correct the eyes so they resemble that of Fairy B and Fairy C more.
-Front View corrections Finished.

-Need to do eye blinks and lip-syncs on all rotations.
-Front Finished(Both Eye Blinks and Lip-Sync)
-3/4 Front Finished(Both Eye Blinks and Lip-Sync)

-Need to do layering corrections.

Generally I will be taking pieces from Fairy B and C that I can reuse for Fairy A.

I also was informed that I need to do corrections on the Fool, but I'll be working on completing Fairy A first.

This picture details what I've accomplished today, with grey being my corrections, and white/yellow being the un-edited work.

Post 14 - 14/05/10

Began work on Fairy A.

Was not able to convert Flash CS4 file int0 a Flash 8 file. I have to work on this file from the School computers.

I will be working on correcting the legs of Fairy A.

(Pictured Below: The file un-edited )

(Please note that I wasn't able to post this blog of Friday's work until Monday.)

Post 13 - 13/05/10

Completed revisions on both Fairy B and Fairy C.

This included arm and leg layering issues. Also added both back arm and leg symbols (Upper and lower arm, upper and lower leg/feet) to Fairy B and Fairy C.

Poses where both legs and arms are visible are now possible, as seen in Fairy B. (Pictured)
I will be starting corrections on Rob's Fairy A after I convert it into a Flash 8 cocompatible file.

Chose Scenes 3 and 4 to begin working on.

Post 12 - 12/05/10

Went over and learned the process of character animation.

Practiced with pre-animated files and experimented animating the files as well.

Started character animation.

Post 11 - 11/05/10

Finished off-white fill in both Fairy B and Fairy C.

Corrected eye closing keys to proper lid close.

Fixed minor jaw-sync issues.

Corrected symbol layering in both Fairy B and Fairy C bodies.

Deleted any extra lines and touched up connecting points.

Redrew the nose of Fairy C.

Finished both Fairy B and Fairy C Lip-Sync tests.

Post 10 - 10/05/10

Continued to fill in Fairy B and Fairy C.

Adding touch-ups to an non-connecting lines visible.

Added forgotten eyebrow movements on Fairy C.

Post 9 - 07/05/10

Touched up Lip Sync rotations for both Fairy B and Fairy C.

Went through more revisions.

Started to fill in characters with off-white to check layering.

Starting Lip Sync Test with Fairy B.

Post 8 - 06/05/10

Finished touching up the Lip-Sync on Fairy C.

Corrected Symbol issues on both Fairy B and Fairy C.

Put Jaw and Pupils into separate symbols.

Continued to go through provided revision sheet, correcting issues as I come to them
Working on correcting knee placement as well as applying white fill.

Finished Fairy B and Fairy C knee corrections.

Finished Fairy B Side view Lip Sync.
Starting Fairy C.

Revision sheet near completed.

Added eyebrow expressions.

Post 7 - 05/05/10

Worked from home to complete Fairy C Lip-Sync.

- Front View Completed
- 3/4 Front View Completed

Side View on both Fairy B and C have yet to be started.
Waiting for the Side View Sync to be completed and approved.

Post 6 - 04/05/10

Completed Secondary revisions on Fairy B.
All that is currently left on Fairy B is the Side View Lip Sync and Final Revisions.

Started Fairy C and completed the rotation.
Eye Over-Lay completed for Fairy C.

Going to start on Fairy C Lip Sync.

Post 5 - 03/05/10

Finished all eye over-lays.

-Front View
-3/4 Front View
-Side View

Finished Front and 3/4 Front View lip-sync as according to the sync file.
Waiting for the Sync File for Side View of the rotation to continue.