This week we continued to add some detail to the original robotic arm. And learned how to quickly name the model for easy binding of the bones. I also made the upper arm of the robot arm.As well as learning to make hydraulic rods, this technique can be used in many ways！
The shoulder part of the upper arm
In this week we worked on the articulation of the wrist and the sketching of the robot arm, for which I searched for many reference images.
I have referred to the structure of a mechanical prosthesis and found that the design of the robotic arm conforms to the musculature of the human upper arm, with particular emphasis on the position of the joints.
We also animated the fingers holding the ball, first assigning hierarchical relationships to the fingers and then creating different movements of the five fingers by adjusting the movement curves.
and here are my preliminary designs for the robot arm. I tried to use what I learned to make the small arm of a robotic arm. I want to make a robot arm that is not too over the top and there is a lot of room for refinement in the current model. :）
After directing a new version of the split shot, I made the following adjustments in this version
Firstly, the overall speed has been reduced so that each key shot stays for 1-2s longer.
Changed the multi-distance shots in the first act from pushing close to the camera to rotating shots. Maintaining the character in the top right visual centre, first having the trees in the scene obscure the main character, then slowly changing the camera angle to bring the main character out.
Secondly I noticed that the split shot had to be timed to take into account the continuity of the action, with two different angles for the same action shot.
Then I optimised the shot, for example, in this scene, the character is repositioned to the third of the frame, with the whole body in the visual centre.
Finally I sketched the design of the monster character, inspired by Nuo-myeon, which has a dragon like mask with a red and green colour scheme, the story takes place in the New Year and the dragon is a representative of the zodiac, so I designed the character’s head as a Nuo-myeon dragon mask.
This week I created a 3D split preview of the film，and there are some tweaks from the previous week’s static 3D subplot.
Compared to static storyboards, dynamic split-screening focuses more on the movement of the camera, the timing of pushing the camera closer and further away, how the camera follows the character’s movement, etc. Here are some of the important points I learned about split-screen design during the production process.
Crossing the axis
In this shot the girl’s character appears on the left side, after which the shot keeps her on the left and the monster on the right side of the girl. The camera also stays to the right of both characters
Movement curve
The movement of the lantern is designed so that the glowing lantern moves in an S-shaped curve and the lantern is the only warm glowing object in a cool colour scheme.
The characters are always on the left side of the camera in order not to overstep the axis, for example in this shot the little girl appears from the left side of the camera when chasing the lantern
The first scene, in which the girl chases the lantern, is shown alone in the woods in a distant advancing shot to give context.
The girl’s lantern flies away and the girl makes a wish
The lantern is blown by a strong wind and is about to fall
Girl following the lantern and run into a cave.
Coming inside the cave, the huge monster looks down on her
The girl is terrified, but the monster gently fixes the lantern
As the lanterns are released, the camera follows them into the sky, looking down to see the warmth of the light on their happy faces.
The sky is full of lanterns and theirs rises slowly. (End)
I ended up picking one of the stories to create a 3D storyboard.(Read in top-to-bottom order)
The forest：The forest is in cool colours, a cold winter’s night when a little girl flies a lantern alone.
The cave：
The entrance to the cave is designed in the shape of a monster’s mouth and the protagonist, a little girl, runs the cave after the hole in the wall, which leads to the monster’s home.
The monster’s room: The walls of the room are covered with various masks. The roof is hung with lanterns and is a room with warm tones.
2.Set up the camera after building the scene:
In the design process I applied the principles of split-screen design that I had learned in class, placing the main characters and important objects in the visual centre，and used various shots in conjunction with the rhythm of the plot, such as medium close shot, medium shot, full-length shot.
Last step, I layout of all individual shots on the same page:)
I conceived the third story, which was a reference to traditional martial arts films, where two warriors meet and fight, with one of them eventually winning. The rhythm of the fight between the two characters can be expressed by the distance between the characters and their movements, and when they get closer to each other the rhythm will be faster. It was interesting to see how the characters moved in the subplot.
Design of scenes：
The scene model：
and modelof scenes：