Progress Report and Research Pictures

Hi,

Well, it's not going well at the moment. I have spent ages doing the paint-weighting and it still doesn't work right. Time is etching away, and I can't get the models to stop crumpling up when they move. I am so fed up. I just want to start animating, I can't be bovered with this. I don't know how to correct it. What am I going to do?

These are pictures from Tarzan 2 I found on the internet. They sort of reminded me of Cornelius and Pocahontas.

New Research

I have spent many hours on Youtube finding new research. These are taken from a gorilla video I found at

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=AlrwW8xpfV8

The pictures of baby gorillas give a good indication of the proportions of Pocahontas' design but mostly this video was examined very closely to see how gorilla's moved. Key pictures were taken in the poses. Gorillas tend to walk flat-footed on their back legs, and their shoulders rotate forwards depending on which arm is outstretched. They usually only have one-foot of the ground at a time.




These are pictures from Tarzan pencil sketches, as seen on the Tarzan DVD. Here the animators were task with taking a gorilla action and transposing that into Tarzan. This is very similar to what I have to do with Pocahontas.

Not only is the Nightmare before Christmas a Stop-motion classic, but Sally's facial construction is not too dissimilar to the designs I am coming up with for Pocahontas. Sally is also very quiet and knowing in the film, similar to Pocahontas' character description. Examining her design and how she is constructed may help me with modelling Pocahontas later on.

Research from previous Post

Hi, these are pictures I would have put up in the previous post, but for some strange reason, Google blogger that day wouldn't upload images.

Most of these images are from Disney's Tarzan, a perfect example of gorilla animation. I can get a lot of understanding about how to draw an animate gorillas from this film. Also the film gives a good inspiration for Pocahontas, because I want her to move like a gorilla, and this is a problem the animator's solved for this film, and quite successfully I might add.

Look at the power of the gorilla in this drawing. This is what I need to capture for Cornelius.


Ah, Pocahontas' other inspiration. Lilo's design is so cute and appealing, I can't help but be inspired by it. In the film Lilo and Stitch, they used the round designs of the world, to create a view of the world, as if it was seen by a child. This might be a nice angle to take, to accent London Zoo's sense of childlike wonderment and discovery.

Research

Recently I have bought this Character Design book by Tom Bancroft. In it he states the first step to good character design is to create the basic shapes from the character descriptions and do lots of research into what you want to draw.

So the first thing I did was create the basic shapes below. For Cornelius the description states he is civilised and sensible, so he is probably very restrained and proud. If you look at silver back mountain gorillas (I chose a mountain gorilla because they have darker and furrier coats), they are very powerful. However, it also states that he is middle aged, so I thought it might be a bit funny if he had got a bit fat and bald in his old age.

For Pocahontas, she's about seven and more relaxed. She therefore probably takes her time, doesn't overexert herself. Big Point here, she wants to be a gorilla. In my mind, if she wants to be a gorilla, maybe that could be shown by allowing her to move like a gorilla. I am going to experiment with making her arms a bit longer and more gorilla like.

There is a lot of research coming up so sorry if it is a bit much.

When I decided to go this route, the first thing I decided to do was research up gorillas. Adult male gorillas a saddle of silver-hair appears on their backs. This hair is really short whilst their arm hair is really long. They reach about 5-6 ft in height, have an arm span of about 7ft 6in and weigh approximately 450-500lbs.

(These images were obtained from wikipedia)
Gorillas move around by Knuckle walking where they walk around on all fours with the weight resting on the Intermediate Phalanges. I have a diagram here to explain.
I also decided as part of my research to look up animations. I felt that Disney's Tarzan was my best bet for gorilla animation. Glen Keene's animation of Tarzan in that film was so cool and Young Tarzan will form a good basis for Pocahontas Billams. The Claymation style wanted in the brief I believe is more of a Plasticine feel gotten through the texturing stage, rather than the character design stage. Claymation doesn't mean you have to have the Aardman mouth. These Images come from either Disney's Tarzan Special Collector's Edition book or http://theartofglenkeane.blogspot.com/2006/05/tarzan.html.

I have also got some scans of drawings by Andreas Deja of Lilo, obtained from the book Lilo and Stitch: Collected stories from the film's creators. Lilo has that relaxed feeling required for Pocahontas and she is just the cutest little girl in an animated film.