Cool Walk with Hi-5ing Snake

Here is the bit with the cool walk and the hi-5 with the snake. Remus just needs bits adding and it all coloured.

Some vids i forgot to post

Here are some videos that I forgot to post.

My Bits so far

I'm not going to have enough time to do the last bit with the sandwich gag in time for my hand-in but I fully intend on finishing. I worked too hard on it to not!

Any way, here are my bits so far. Some have no backgrounds or props missing but that will be fixed.



Missing from this is Remus' tail, pupils, collar, colour and the background. There is a tiny bit missing from this too. If you look at the end he has his paw up, well that extends and hi-5's a snakes tail in the tank in front of him. He then turns towards the right side of the camera and walks off.





This just has the wrong background and needs the proper zoom in footage. Oh and the girl's hand appearing and picking the butty up!





Remus is missing his tail, pupils, collar and colour in parts of this bit. The girl is missing some of her colour, blinks and some extra frames to tidy her movement up. This is the last scene and is missing the bit with the keys and the butty bit. The butty bit will be missing from my hand-in as I previously mentioned but I'm hoping to finish the key bit tomorrow. The background of this bit is also wrong, its not meant to be in b/w, not sure why I did that. Its also meant to zoom in closer as he runs across the desk at the beginning, solving the issue of him being so small but still fitting all my stuff in.


Its going to be a long day tomorrow, possibly a night too. Wish I had one more day, would be so much easier. My own fault though, I should of spent more time on it when I got my extension. I took it too easy as I took quite a while to recover from my awful attacks and then was scared they'd come back and then got drawing block! Not good. I am happier with what I've got now though so that's something. I just hope I get it all in one piece, that works and that I can write to a disc.

2 Small Bits = 1 Bigger Bit

Well, here is the last posts video joined with the next bit. You will also see at the end is Remus sliding across desk because of the owner pushing him away. There is also colour here and there to get an idea of what colours things will be.

Its rather annoying that its taken me forever to do this bit and its only 16 seconds long! Grrr Argghhhh!

Look, Climb up, Little Walk, Meow

Well, this is what I've done from coming home instead of doing the rest of the Maggot Run (Gutted about it by the way! Really wanted to do it all. Annoys me that everyone else got to do the rest of the treasure hunt on great biking roads, having loads of fun while I'm stuck indoors doing work.)

Any way, you can probably guess what bit this is for. I made the first bit a bit spooky with a kind of exorcist feel with the stiff, straight look up and down. Thought it would be something a bit different from how I've done the rest of the animation. I also thought I'd pop in a blink.

Oh and sorry for no videos while I was making it and only showing you it all done. Just got into it and forgot to export any, even forgot to do progress saves. Lucky I'm happy with the final thing.

Is it just me or does he look cuter in this bit. Maybe its just because I actually added the pupil in this one. Yeah, that would make sense.

Changed Girl and Cat Slightly.

Due to my silly mistake of doing the cat first for this bit I have changed them both slightly. I've also coloured the last few frames of the cat as a test.

Fingers and a Bit of Colour and Tidy

Ok, I've added fingers and tided it a bit. I've also fixed the sandwich and added a bit of colour. She is now ready for colour although if I have time I will add a few more frames like I said I would earlier. As it is I think it works ok as most of the focus is on Remus.

Remus isn't very noticeable at the moment because he has no colour and needs some sorting as I changed how the arm will be positioned. Really I should have done the girl first. I've been putting her off though as I prefer animating animals. Silly really.

Any way, As you can see. Its really coming together :)

Girl with Remus

This bit of the girl is really coming together. Just need to sort the fingers and blinking now. I also need to add a few more frames so it flows better. Oh and of course make the background colour and add a keyboard.

I made her head bigger in this update, I think she looks more correct in her proportions now.

Girl Blocking with Remus Animation

This is the footage shown in the last post but I have added the Remus animation. I will need to change the size of the background as Remus' first bit slightly cut off. What happens is, the camera starts at a wide shot and then slowly zooms in as Remus jumps closer to the girl.

Remus' next bit is sliding across the desk after she pushes him with her arm.

Girl Blocking Outline Animation

Here is my blocking animation for my girls part with background. As you can see its just a rough body outline based on what I recorded of myself and Andy. I forgot to add a keyboard Oops! So need to add that at some point.

Meow, Run up and Rub

Just need to add the tail and pupil now... well and colour.

Reference Videos

Here are some videos of my carer, Andy acting out a bit of my animation for me to use as reference. I love refernce videos, it pick up little human actions that if done by memory would be missed.

Remus got curious about what was going on and kept joining in though LOL. He will go in front of the camera when I don't want him too!

Here is another update of my cat rubbing on the girl. Took a lot longer than I expected to work this out and get it done! It just needs a little bit of tidying and the tail added into the rest of the frames. The next bit is she extends her arm and slides him along the desk using her fore arm.
That's going to have to wait though as I'm working on the girl today.

Worked out how head could go!

Took a lot of messing and tries but I think I've worked out a way to get the head to rub on the arm and then move around it but still look like its rubbing and moving with the body. I've also added some more and put the tail in the last few frames.

Sitting, Get Up, Run and Rub on Owner

Here is what I've been working on the last few days, all put together. Really annoys me that its taken me so long to just do this much!

Rub on Owner

I've had a bad day trying to animate. My heads not been in the right place so drawing and thinking of transitions was really difficult. Any way, here is today's progress. I know theres no head. Due to my problems today I got stuck trying to work out how it would go past the arm, I'll work it out tomorrow when I'll hopefully be thinking right.

Oh and the person is meant to be still. I was just using it as a reference for where my girl will roughly be. It also looks like he's doing this off the desk but the girl will be in a slight slouch so really you need to ignore the straightness of the person. She will actually be sitting slighty sideways so Remus will be rubbing her arm and then slightly along her side.
I also noticed I deleted a frame by accident so theres a slight jump near the beginning.

Next he lifts his back rubbing against the girl, as he's lowering his back, the girl gets sick of it and pushes him along the desk with the side of her arm. I'm still thinking how the cat will move along the desk while being pushed along. I think it means another test that will annoy Remus.



I didn't really like how long and slow the walk at the beginning is as he is leaping before this so here is a version with the beginning cut down and changed.

Cat Scene 3 - Animation mixed with Storyboard

This is to show what I have done so far for this scene and what I have left to do. I'm hoping I will get it done in time but time is running out :(

Oh the angles are off because I decided to make the angle different so the desk is straighter. So things won't match up in the right place in this. I think you get the idea though.

Sitting Meowing, Get Up and go to Owner 3

Here is a bit more of what I've done. Remus pounced and ran at me while I was doing it and he seemed to just stop and walk so suddenly that I thought I had to have that in mine. I don't know if he's just odd and can do that but well, I saw it so it happened.

The next bit is, he will turn his head and rub himself against the owners arm to get her attention, she is busy so pushes him back along the desk. I've done quite a bit today actually. Quite happy with myself :D

Sitting Meowing, Get Up and go to Owner 2

I've made more progress in this bit today. Hopefully I will have most of it if not all done by tonight.

Sitting Meowing, Get Up and go to Owner

This is the bit I've been working on today. So far I am at the sitting and getting up stage. It did take most of the morning to picture it in my head after watching various YouTube videos of cats. I think I got the getting up right, it is a relativly quick move though so I guess its not a big problem if its a bit wrong.

I've noticed that his fringe looks wrong on the first frame so I will go back and fix that at some point.

Some Fish Videos

Here are some Fish videos used as reference.

No Tail!

I just noticed his tail is missing! I forgot about that. Will add that in now or in the morning, it is getting a bit late.

Cool Cat Walk Finished!

It's taken an awful 2 days to work this nightmare out but I have finally done it! 80 drawings, 149 frames! I think thats not bad. Oh and just for fun I gave him a little jig onto the screen, I thought it was fun first appearance for him :) Sadly, it's not very noticable, seemed like it was longer when I drew it :(

Now I just need to put the tanks in the background and draw the bit where he turns his head back and sees the snake and Hi-5's him. Although because I am running out of time I am just going to have him walk past the tanks. If I have time at the end I will add the Hi-5 bit.

Another Reference Video

This is a really good reference video with different types of walks. The first one was the kind of thing I was thinking of for the cool cat walk just with a bit more of a gangster walk in it.

Reference Videos

I just realised I never posted the link to the reference videos I found to help me with animating a fish, my girl and cat.

http://www.youtube.com/user/moogyxo#p/u

Cool Cat Walk body

Here is what I've done so far today. Bit annoyed that I overslept as wanted to get this done today, just means I will be up late tonight instead.

As you can see I've kind of made his walk into a bit of dance with his back legs doing a double take when he puts one of them down. I'm hoping it will look right when it's done as at the moment I'm not too sure. It does look like hes dancing to a beat. I was imagining how people who think they're cool whistle and walk in time to it or walk in time to music there listening to. I was thinking maybe Remus could be whistling or humming but that might go a bit too far for what I wanted from him. I think I still stuck to my idea of giving him a slightly anthropomorphic walk here as I've never seen a cat walk like that!

Cool Cat Walk Skeleton and body

Here is a bit more progress on this walk. I know its odd but I always prefer to start at the end so this is the last bit of the skeleton, then the skeleton with my character drawn over and then just the character. Maybe I do it backward because of my dyslexia LOL.

Oh I know he has no tail yet, I put that in last as it is easier to make it flow better once the rest of the body has been animated.

Cool Cat Walk Skeleton

Here is my first attempt at the cool walk. It is in a skeleton look as it's quicker to work out and fix. I know it looks funny with the big head but it will look wrong with the skeleton legs and head the actual shape, although it may be a little too big. I can fix that when I draw the body though.

It is taking a while to work it out and Remus isn't appreciating me making him stand and lift his legs in funny ways. It is really helpful having him here and behaving so well for me to do it.


The video repeats it 3 times as it didn't always play with 1 showing of it. Maybe it was because it was only 3 seconds long.

70 years of Disney YouTube Video

This is a lovely video that tributes Disney's animated features over 70 years. I thought I would post this as it was Disney that made me fall in love with animation and one of the reasons I want to be an animator. It would be a dream come true if I got to work for them one day!

Casper Animation with 2 kittens

I found this animation of Casper the ghost. In it he rescues two kittens and they become friends but they become a handful so he finds them a home. Only thing is the kittens don't want to leave Casper and find a way to get back to him.

It's a nice animation and I've always liked Casper. The kittens had very basic anthropomorphism so were very kitten like but thats what works well with this animation.

Cat cool walk based on

I thoght long and hard about where I should get inspiration for a cool cat walk and I came up with the Dodger from Oliver and Company. I know he is a dog but he is a quadraped and all the other dogs think he's cool and during the song 'Why should I worry' He really comes across as cool so Dodger is my inspiration for the first scene of my animation :)



If you look at this video at 1.28 in you will see his 'cool' walk. He sort of bobs as he walks and has his eyes closed. He also holds for a split second longer when he lifts a leg fully up. I think I will try doing the same or something similar at least.

The Jungle Book

I thought it was about time that I posted the bit from my dissertation about 'The Jungle Book' and what I learned from looking at the differences between the three versions by Kipling, Peet and Disney. It is a long post but I hope that it will help myself and others when they come to creating their own animation based on a book or when making an animation with anthromophic characters.


I have chosen Rudard Kipling’s, ‘The Jungle Book’ against Disney’s animated version to see how they are different and why. This is to see how someone would create an animation based on a book and what he or she should look and avoid.

The reason I chose, ‘The Jungle Book’ is because it is a good example of anthropomorphism and has two characters that are cats, Bajeerah and Shere Khan. I also loved the film as a child so I was interested to see what the differences are and why Disney chose to do so.

The Rudyard Kipling story, ‘The Jungle Book’, is actually part of a collection of stories about Mowgli and his friends. I had never read the story before doing this paper but had seen the Disney film so I was really surprised to find out just how different the two are.

'No one can say at this late date, but the finished Jungle Book, according to animator Eric Goldberg, “bears very little resemblance to Rudyard Kipling’s original, but I don’t think that’s what Walt wanted.”'
(http://bezalel.secured.co.il/zope/home/he/1209439536/1211516902)

For instance, the beginning of each story where Mowgli is found and rescued by the wolves it shows the different ways Kipling, Peet and Disney took it. Kipling wrote that Shere Khan attacks a camp of woodcutters and during this Mowgli wanders off and enters the wolves’ cave. Shere Khan comes to kill Mowgli but the mother wolf bravely protects him.

Peet did not seem to think this had enough drama and tension so gave this scene more action to thrill the audience. Peet had Mowgli carried off by a river clinging to a log; Bagheera tries to catch him but fails. The wolves watch him head for the edge of a waterfall when Mother Wolf saves him just as he goes over.

Personally I liked Kipling’s version and found it was an interesting start to the story although Peet’s version did have a lot of excitement, possibly too much for an opening sequence; I am sure it would have grabbed the audience though!

As you probably know Disney simplified Peet’s version and simply used some amazing paintings of a wrecked canoe with Mowgli inside. Bagheera then carries Mowgli to Mother Wolf for her to care for him.

There are actually three versions of ‘The Jungle Book’, Kipling’s, Disney’s and Peet’s. This is because Disney and Peet had a falling out over the film. Disney did not like how Peet was turning the film dark and sinister; he wanted to mainly focus on the characters and entertainment with the story coming last, which explains the poor plotline that barely exists!

‘Disney's insistence on fun and character also overrode what he discomfortingly called "the icky-sticky story stuff," meaning most of Kipling's dark, smart story elements got trounced in favor of singing, dancing, and slapstick.’
(Online Newspaper - http://blogtown.portlandmercury.com/2007/10/jazz_in_the_jungle_or_if_you_d.php)

As they could not reach an agreement, the two of them fell out and Peet left the studio and Clemmons took over. It is really a sad ending as they had been friends for years and never got to make up, as Disney died of Cancer towards the end of production.

The greatest change from the book has to be the actual storyline, the journey from the jungle to the man village. This storyline that Peet created was what Disney and the story team turned to when they had difficulties after he left. Kipling did have Mowgli go back to the man village but he went back and forth from jungle, the idea of him going and staying at the village was a completely new idea by Peet and Disney.

One change that really surprised me was that Baloo and Bagheera’s personalities had almost been swapped. Baloo was sleepy and bossy to Mowgli and was a proud teacher, who taught Mowgli the law of the jungle and the secret words of the animals. Kipling’s Baloo was in every way like the serious teachers you had at school although he was still caring like Bagheera in the film. Bagheera was more of the joker in the book although he did still have some sensibility about him.

(Figure *** - http://blogtown.portlandmercury.com/2007/10/jazz_in_the_jungle_or_if_you_d.php)

Peet decided to make Baloo a lazy, easy-going bear but it was not until Phil Harris was cast as Baloo that they really knew what they had. Harris really made Baloo who he is and actually got Disney and their team out of the problem they had with Baloo who was originally destined to be a cameo part.

‘Phil Harris’s performance added sincerity in a colorful character that gave new interest to everything he did, but, most important, this bear suddenly had great warmth, something the picture needed.’
(Thomas and Johnston,1997,p.80)

All three versions do have a similarity; they all included the scene of Mowgli being kidnapped by the ‘Bandar-log’, Kipling’s name for the monkeys. In Kipling’s book, the monkey’s pretend to be men but without a law or a leader. They kidnap Mowgli so he can teach them to be men and to weave sticks so they can make shelters. Peet wanted to pretty much stick to the way Kipling had created the ‘Bandar-log’ but by kidnapping Mowgli to teach them how to rebuild their city and to teach them the secret to mans ‘red flower’, fire. Peet wanted to bring slapstick comedy in to this scene, as did Disney so they created an entertaining and funny sequence of Baloo and Bagheera coming to save Mowgli from the monkeys and King Louie. In Kipling’s, Kaa was a friend and mentor of Mowgli’s and came to help too!

Peet also made the story more like Kipling’s later in his version of the film but Disney did not approve of where the story was going so it was dropped. Peet had planned for Mowgli to return to the man village and be adopted by a woman called Messua, who is believed to be Mowgli’s mother. He stays in the village learning to be a man but is plagued with difficulties because of a hunter called Baldeo who thinks Mowgli is a sorcerer and a man wolf.

During the monkey scene Peet had included a bit about there being treasure under the monkey’s city and Baldeo, the hunter finds out about this and forces Mowgli to show him where it is. Once they arrive, Mowgli distracts Baldeo as he sees Shere Khan coming who eventually kills Baldeo. Mowgli then uses Baldeo’s gun to kill Shere Khan. Mowgli is then a hero to the people of the village and the animals of the jungle and decides to live in the village but visit the jungle as he pleases. As you can see this is an exciting version of the story but due to the darkness of it Disney dropped it as his film was aimed at adults, and children. He also wanted to stick to the plan of Baloo being responsible for returning Mowgli to the village and to concentrate more on the characters, something I do not understand his reasoning for. Yes, characters are important but so is the story. If Peet’s version was made less sinister then I believe ‘The Jungle Book’ would have been even better and I am sure it would have more fans, especially today where fans look back and admit to preferring Disney’s more story based films such as ‘The Lion King’, ‘Beauty and the Beast’ and ‘101 Dalmations’. I believe it was mainly the catchy songs such as ‘The Bare Necessities’ that saved ‘The Jungle Book’ and made it successful.

Due to dropping Peet’s ending and him leaving, Disney and his team were stuck for an ending but Disney urged the story team to not look at Kipling’s book and to just concentrate on personality and entertainment. Disney however did not take his own advice and used the book to get ideas. He finally got his inspiration for an ending from two passages; one from the end of ‘The Jungle Book’ and the other from ‘The Second Jungle Book’. These passages are shown below.

‘So Mowgli went away and hunted with the four cubs in the jungle from that day on. But he was not always alone, because, years afterward, he became a man and married.’
Tiger! Tiger! In The Jungle Book. Page 107.

‘Mowgli was going to answer when a girl in a white cloth came down some path that led from the outskirts of the village. Gray Brother dropped out of sight at once, and Mowgli backed noiselessly into a field of high-springing crops. He could almost have touched her with his hand when the warm, green stalks closed before his face and he disappeared like a ghost. The girl screamed, for she thought she had seen a spirit, and then she gave a deep sigh. Mowgli parted the stalks with his hands and watched her till she was out of sight.’
The Second Jungle Book. Page 155.

After finding this all out I watched the film again and it is fascinating to see how much of Peet’s original work was used and inspired from. Even though Disney broke it down to the very basics it was still taught you the differences between man and animal and we should get along and be friends even if it was a basic story it was still a highly entertaining, musical journey.

From this I have learned that if you truly believe in something that you should follow it as you may be like Disney, who stood up for what he believed in and made a film that became a great success but due to people not liking the poor storyline; I have learned that you should always listen to people’s advice even if you do not take it. Also, that you should have great characters and give them time for your audience to fall in love with and be entertained by but to also have a good story. Catchy and entertaining songs also seem to be a popular way of making an audience fall in love with a film, although I already knew this from my love of ‘The Lion King’ songs. One of the most vital things I have learned though is that anthropomorphism is something that Disney uses to bring their animals to life. It makes you love the characters even more, as you can understand them, feel for them and be brought into their world; an animal kingdom filled with love, friendship and fantasy.