"Monkey's Uncle" - Set Design 01

my original plan was to overlay the 3d animation over my 2d photoshopped treebranch but while I've been blocking in the animation and trying to get all my key poses working and ive repeatedly been running into the question: how can i do all the acting i want to do within this one fixed camera frame and it still feel dynamic and full of life?

one idea was to pick a number of fixed camera frames and hand-paint them so i can get some variation of camera frame while maintaining the 2d element but then i would run the risk of the background just being distracting and taking away from the action. but as i sat down to work on the problem again after arriving home from work where i'd spent 8 hours building photoreal polygon trees (a pandanus and a frangipani) i figured i could probably build the darned thing in 3d and solve all the problems in one go; i would be able to pick and choose my camera movements to show off the animation with all the added flexibility of being able to edit and rig movements to the tree's limbs.. Now we're talking!!

Seeing as i'd already been animating the monkey to a blocked out mesh that matched my original 2d tree plate (seen below) i had to proceed from that without changing the relevant parts of the tree too much till i came to a design that i could sign off on.

I think a great design solution is one that makes me unable to return to the original design because the new solution is so simple and strong that it seems the only good idea in retrospect..

So this is the basic design of the centre stage of this piece.. its cartoony feel allows me not to feel too compromised by the change from the original idea, and it also gives the short a super strong design edge that has been lacking in alot of my previous pieces.. (im still not sure what to do with rest but im definately happy with the tree).

see you soon!

"Monkey's Uncle" - Movement Research

Just a small note, i thought you guys would like to see one of the more embarrasing stages of the animation process, where sometimes you have to try to work out exactly what you want to do with the movement in your scenes. these images are for a bit where the monkey is monkey dancing:

These next ones are to help with a bit where the monkey recovers from his backflip, that i needed to pantomime in order to get right:

If youre curious: i filmed myself with my wife's Canon Powershot G9 with the Disney's "Monkey's Uncle" playing in the background, when i got all the footage i needed, i brought the files onto my computer and analysed them back in slomotion and extracted the necessary frames for reference using Media Player Classic (great for that purpose).

I guess we all know who the real monkey is :) As i hit the "publish post" button im fervently hoping that i dont live to regret this post..

"Monkey' Uncle" - Premise and Storyboard

I got the idea for Monkey's Uncle from the desire to animate something with full bodied uninhibited movement. The rest came from listening to one of the abscure but funny songs off one of the disney soundtrack cd's my wife owns also called Monkey's Uncle. The song brings to mind austin powers dancing and beach-boyish guitar riffs so it really got me thinking "what if i actually animate a monkey doing monkey stuff to this song?"

Round about the same time I was trawling the pages at highend3d when i came across this lovely monkey rig (Monkey 1.0.0) with a fresh look and completely unrealistic proportions so as i started picturing what kind of environment such a funny creature would live in and i realised that if it was going to be anything it had to be something with a soft handpainted feel. the next logical step was to actually sketch and paint up something appropriate for the job. after about 6 minutes (at work when everyone else was on a lunch break) i had something i really liked that i could imagine my monkey scene to take place in:

The next step was to actually put some of my motion ideas down on paper, and after unsuccessfully storyboarding a sequence at my desk at home i found i had much better success in different places around the house and within an hour i had this (roughly drawn) sequence from which i could move forward:

On a strictly technical note, the piece is being animated in Maya 8.5, the final output resolution will be 1024 x 576 pixels and the piece will be 41 seconds (1075 frames at 25 fps). The monkey rig will be keyframe animated with IK and FK but unfortunately neither Wade Ryer (the monkey's creator) nor i thought to add Maya Character Sets to the rig so i am having to finish it predominantly the hard way.

Anyhow, i project that the piece will be finished soon so hopefully i will be able to share the finished clip in the next few days! hope everyone is having a great day!