Independent Practice – Final Major Project: Bubble and Squeak Environment 3D Animation Experiment 1

This post is about an idea I had while doing some Bubble and Squeak Sketches which was why don’t I try creating as an experiment the interior or at least the setting of Paws and Prints for the narrative that I am working on. So loaded up Google Sketchup and started to draw out the setting for this narrative, I will admit that I had quite the bit of trouble with Bubble and Squeaks Tank and the stand it sits on due to me miss judging the height of the stand and the window proportioning the windows. I managed to fix that though, it was easy to manipulate the shapes sizes once they are a solid 3D Mass and I looked more closely at the height reference that is provided to you by the software. Next time I will need to look more into how I am manipulating the sizes of the 3D and 2D objects by look at the comparison more closely. Another problem that occurred while I was working on the set was the tap since this software is quite tricky to use when trying to make curved objects, but I managed to find a way around that problem by basing the tap on a more modern design.

I am overall happy with the outcome of this experiment when I was finished, I have manged to not only create a 3D version of my planned setting or in this case a close enough example but also that it might be a nice way to go for when I finally decide how I am going to the story of Bubble and Squeaks latest adventure to the world. Now that this has been a success I am going to see in another experiment if I can utilise image with another form of software later on, but that will be discussed like I said in another post. I admit that this method does create some interesting prospects for me, it depends on how I chose to utilise this method, for example I could decide to go down the road of use this in a 3D setting and animation although this might make the project a bit trickier and it doesn’t alight with my original aims even if they have been tweaked a few times since they were created, since my ideas have changed or evolved since their creation or certain aspects have.

Independent Practice – Final Major Project: Bubble and Squeak Narrative Ideas Final Ideas 2

Here is my second narrative idea for my Bubble and Squeak Project:

The episode starts like usual but this time we see Bubbles sleeping while been stuck to the wall of the tank and Squeaks is running on his wheel for a bit before stopping to wake up Bubbles. The two then began to talk for a while and then go ever to the water feeder, only to find it jammed so the two start to try to figure a way to remove the block. First Bubbles tries to use his eyes to pull out the block only to fall much to his disappointment, so Squeaks takes over and in his attempt tries to use his teeth to naw away at the block only to fail himself. Bubbles tries again this time trying to use his own ability to stick to any surface to grab hold of the object in an attempt to pry it loose, this plan also fails and try their final plan which is Squeak scratching at object but in sted of prying it loose he wears it away with his constant scratching and they two are able to drink water again.

Independent Practice – Final Major Project: Google Web Designer 2

This next post is when I was focusing on the pen tool and it’s use in Google Web Designer and how may be this can help me in the future:

After watching this video the pen too can do several different things, while these things are all shape based they are each unique in their own way:

Shape Point Manipulation: When the pen tool is in use click anywhere on the available document to form a point of the shape that you want to create, then move along the document and click to create another point. Once this is done a line should form between these points, this is the starting point of the shape that you want to create, now move along the page and create another point and again in doing so a new line has formed (The line will only form between the current point and the most recent point). Now you have two choices you can either create another point and line or you can click the first point to create a simple shape such as a triangle or you can continue and make the most bizarre shape possible as long as you remember to connected the points to the start.

Line Manipulation: Line Manipulation can be done in two ways one been that instead of just clicking to create a shape point, hold down the left click and pull slightly to create a line and then let go, you have a line. From here you can grab any part of the line (Except the Middle and ending points) and pull them to bend the line forming a curved line, this can be done with with a line you have just made or a pre-existing shape. (From here you can also use the point manipulation to create more lien to manipulate and make a big curved shape).

Alt – Left Click: When a line has been created by Line Manipulation, by pressing the Alt key and left clicking one of the line points on the end of the line you can rotate on side of the line. (Please note that the liens stay asymmetrical with each other.)

Ctrl Z and Y: These key controls can be used to erase or undo a mistake that you have made while using the line tool. Ctrl Z deletes the mistake and Ctrl Y undo them.

3D Capabilities: By clicking the 3D rotate tool, the line manipulation can be used from all angles to create seamless 3D shapes.This can also be used to create a new path on a new plane.

Colour Manipulation: Allow manipulation of line colour and fill of shapes.

 

Independent Practice – Final Major Project: Google Web Designer 1

This post will focus on my study these videos about how to use Google Web Design and then how I managed to recreate the result:

I followed the steps of this video allowing me on Google Web Design to create a digital banner. The banner was formed by me using several different drawing tool such as the shape tool and the pen tool. Unfortunately I don’t know how to upload my banner beginners test at the moment.

Independent Practice – Final Major Project: Squeak Idea’s 2

Here are some more design idea’s for Squeak’s redesign done out of pen:

This first image is again me attempting to recreate the shape of the mouse from my previous attempts, unfortunately this attempt isn’t the best at all, I was unsuccessful in capturing the essence of the mouse. I decided that maybe it wasn’t the best way to go with a realistic mouse for Squeak so I will go for a cartoonist styled anthropomorphic mouse. My first attempts at this are the three the top two images and the bottom one. The top two were more focused on using the shapes again to capture the humor of the character that I can actually picture. Personally I believe the designs are or at least the heads of the mice are begin to look more mouse like the more I actually draw. This time I used several images of mice to help me understand the physical appearances and properties of mice to a some what accurate degree.

This image belongs to Canberra Pest Control

As you can see I have used the image of the mouse that I found online as a reference for drawing this page of drawings, mainly for the facial proportioning of the character. Some of facial experiments for Squeak’s were successful recreations of a mouse face to a certain degree the only difference from the original image is that the eyes are slightly bigger and it is a sketch that is drawn in my own style. The only negative with these sketches is the fully body shots look more like random sketches. I will need to try to work more on this, maybe get some more images for me to study and sketch out. I will need to focus more on various mouse images to help understand the correct proportioning, size and shapes of Squeak and then be able to transfer this to paper in a correct method.

This next image was a an attempt to put my character in certain situations to help me understand and utilise the anatomy of a mouse successfully to that situation. Hence why the lumpy drawing of the mouse drinking from the water dispenser is on the page, I drew this drawing to show how Squeak would react to drinking from a water dispenser as well as throwing in a different angle to the sketch to see how that would effect not only the character but also give us the audience a better understanding of the characters appearance and personality.  Two other sketches were also attempts at putting Squeak in certain situations to not only breath life into him but also show how he would react to these situations.

This next page of sketches focused on again working with Squeak’s interaction with the environment or prop again. The first sketch was a slight success in the sense that I managed to capture the mouses body structure and movement from the first image of a mouse that I have found and placed in the blog. The rest of the sketches on this page were experiments with Squeak moving or waving at the audience.

This image belongs to IFLScience

This next image the sketches were more experiments to see if I could again successfully recreate how a mouse moves a stands using the images that I have gathered for study. My main focus in this image was again how a mouse stands and sits since this is key to the my actual animation as it is how the character acts to certain situations.

This image of sketches was for facial proportioning, scale and shape as well as practicing of body positioning and hand sizes and positions as well.

Independent Practice – Final Major Project: Animation Technology Research 4

This blog post will focus on the software called Google Web Design, this software was designed to be used for several different art based jobs, while the name does indeed indicate that it’s sole purpose is based on Web Design it isn’t actually just for that.

The software has a wide range of options that allow the user to manipulate various items/layers within their project. These features can allow the user to develop and create various still images or animated shorts, which is something that I am looking for with my project. One of the features includes the ability to construct a 360 Degree animation generator, which is treated like a cub net on the software for so long, allowing the user to place the desired designs on the appropriate sides before reassembling the cube to create a working artificial 3D animation that can be rotated and viewed at from different angles.

I chose this video because it displays this feature in full effect.

This software can also be used to produced standard 2D animation, these animations can often be a standard 2D screen one or a animated banner that is often used for advertising on websites such as the Daily Mail and Ebay. These banner involve the designer creating a background either in a 3D or 2D format and then placing another image onto as another layer and then they can animate said layer how they wish either via manual commands or by programming the animation via coding.

I think this is one of the best options for me to go with my bubble and Squeak animation because not only is the software free but like i stated previously this software has a wide range of features and options for various uses which makes it perfectly suitable for this project.

Independent Practice – Final Major Project: Narrative Idea Inspiration:

This blog post is to give the examples that have inspired my narrative ideas:

1. Tom and Jerry
2. Indiana Jones
3. Spongebob Squarepants
4. Halloween
5. Mission Impossible

Tom and Jerry:

Tom and Jerry was one of the original major inspirations for the original project when I developed it last year and again it is one of the main inspirations for the first narrative idea. The idea of the pet shop flooding came from one of the classic Tom and Jerry episodes called Mice Follies.

Where Jerry and his nephew complete flood Tom’s home before freezing by messing around with the fridge turning the house into a massive ice rink, leading to tones of high jinx between Tom, Jerry and his nephew. I found this episode inspiring due to the fact that while the idea is used quite a bit it would be suitable for the pets in pet shop to flood their home by accident when playing with each other and in doing so, the humour from both the actions of the pets and the environment would be entertaining for the target audience.

Indiana Jones:

Indian Jones was the main inspiration for the second episode, the clip below is the main inspiration.

The main idea for this snake infested idea came from Indy quoting “I HATE SNAKES!!!” When ever he sees them and I though that the possibility of having snakes in a pet shop these days is actually quite high and I though why not have said snakes escape and course panic across the pet shop.

Independent Practice – Final Major Project: Narrative Idea 5

Here is the final idea for my Bubble and Squeak Animation:

This episode opens with a massive change to the pet shop from the previous versions, that I have created and posted. The change is that Bubble and Squeak have been separated from each other and immediately the audience begins to worry and question what has happened to these characters. Bubble and Squeak look at each other in worry as they realise that they can’t see each other any more without the Shopkeeper noticing that they have vanished from either of their enclosures. Squeak then looks around hoping to find a way to get back to his friend, as Squeak looks around he notices lots of items that have left in the place of where his and Bubbles environments where originally kept by the shopkeeper when he began to set up a new environment for a new pet. Once Squeak looks at the items for a while before a light bulb appears above his head indicating that he has had an idea and he indicates to Bubbles that he has to reach him. Squeak attempts to sign what his plan is to Bubbles in an attempt to not alert the shopkeeper about what they are planning. Unfortunately Bubble’s doesn’t understand all of Squeak’s random hand gestures causing Squeaks to sigh in annoyance before moves over to his cages gate and attempts to unlock his cages lock without drawing attention to himself. Eventually Squeak manages to unlock his cage and leaps down to the ground and begins to hide behind the items on the floor. Squeak makes his way across the room still using the items to hide in a mission impossible kind of style narrowly avoiding been caught by the gaze of the shop owner and then quickly scales Bubbles tank before leaping into and joining his friend.

While I like this story idea it might be a bit long and doesn’t seem to work that well unlike the halloween one that I developed but it still does draw in the target audience with it’s comedy moments such as the sign languages.

Independent Practice – Final Major Project: Narrative Idea 4

Here is the forth idea for the Bubble and Squeak Animation:

This story starts differently from the previous narratives that I have developed for this project. This story starts by seeing an empty cage and fish tank, which of course throws the audience of since no characters are visible at the time. As the camera looks around for the characters, they start to hear noises such as Bubbles bubbling sound or Squeak well squeaking leading to the camera moving in the direction where the sounds are originating from, only to see nothing again. This continues for several more times before the audience starts to see a physical appearance of the characters such as Squeak’s tail and the mouth of Bubbles, this not only helps easy the annoyance of not been able to see the characters but it also should make the audience laugh because they begin to realise that the characters are playing with their audience and are essentially breaking the fourth wall. Eventually we will start to see more and more of the characters physical appearance, until it suddenly stops earning the confusion of the audience in the process and it stays like this for several more seconds before both characters appear wearing halloween masks. More specifically Bubbles is wearing a ghost mask and Squeak a pumpkin mask, this is to not only make the audience jump but also laugh after their initial scare from these two beloved characters.

I did this to simulate what it would be like for the audience to see either out of the shopkeepers or customers point of view when they are looking at all the pets when they are in their tanks. I also chose to do the mask like ending because it is nearly halloween and I though that I might take some inspiration form this one day holiday by trick or treat my audience in the process and earn a laugh in the process from the scare .

Independent Practice – Final Major Project: Narrative Idea 1

Theses next five blogs will focus on ideas for a possible Bubble and Squeak episode in the future for my final major project.

The episode starts like normal for Bubble and Squeak spending time together in their home the local pet shop, as the two continue to talk and play together they fail to notice that they have accidentally caught the tap for Bubble’s tank causing it to eventually over flow and flood the pet shop in the process leading to the water escaping the building and washing everything that was inside of the shop out onto the street including Bubble and Squeak as well as several other pets that were kept in the shop. Once the shop and the pets have been completely washed out, Bubble and Squeak look at the shop in shock to see tones of water coming out of the window before looking back and forth between the shop and each other.

I like this idea for my animated episode of Bubble and Squeak due to the fact that while the idea is a classic, it is also one of the best as it takes one of the most possible scenarios as well as one of the worst cases that this characters that they could get into. In doing so, I have created a narrative that utilizes the spot light not only on the main characters but also helps show their own idiocy/comedic value and this help make the audience laugh in the process.