Chosen story for previs: swipe left
Initial storyboards were hand-drawn, then scanned and put together in the PS as the sequence of events. This was presented for the weekly review and updated accordingly as per George’s feedback.
– George suggested that story should come to the end of the cycle, with the closing scene, of the character waking up from the dream. This is to justify all the abstractions incorporated into the scene of the animation, such as the character being chased by the swiping left finger, which is dreamlike and not real. So, the scene 12 was copied over to the end.
– Abstraction comes into play while recreating the famous painting of Narcissus. George encouraged me to enhance these aesthetics, such as the body of water surrounding the bed, while the character is looking at his own reflection (scene 13).
– Another suggestion, is to apply a transition to white, between scenes 30 and 31, as the character escapes of the
Previs feedback
- Do not overuse camera movement! Each camera movement serves a purpose, this needs to be justified. It’s more than okey to use static shots.
2. Be sure to maintain symmetry when zooming in and out.
The above shot seems clunky, in the way that symmetry vanishes as the camera zooms out, check the image below.
3. POSING: Be more articulated when defining the actions of the character at the specific shots. Character at this point does not need to be animated, however, their poses must clearly articulate what they get up to in the scenes that are presented.
4. RULE OF THIRDS: be sure to use the rule of thirds to justified your composition.
5. Show off your director skills. The camera movement shall be justified. The following shots were proposed, however as suggested by George, theirs no need to cut between these shots. After the character falls through his own reflection on the mobile screen into the underground world, it makes sense to follow that and deliver a camera movement that follow the arc-like trajectory, approaching the camera from the top, and zooming into it, the flower now displayed don’t the phone, which should then be used for the dip black transition to another shot.
Georege pointed that no rotation should be used while zooming, as well as that the phone should be facing in portrait mode, not a landscape.
Maya process
- In the PS, I created the transparent png with the rule of third (green) and the red guides for symmetry.
- Added this transparent png as per the image plane onto the designated camera.
- Adjusted the depth of the image plane, so it’s an the very front.
- Use the rule_of_thirds layer as the reference, so it doe not get in the way while clicking on another object within the scene.