I think I have finally decided to stick with the title Caged for Project Enzo (will feel quite strange not using project Enzo to refer to the film anymore). However you may be wondering why "Caged"?

-Enzo is a slave
-Cage has a connection to birds
-bird himself is trapped in the mines
-The Overlord is also caged within the mechanical forms and insecurity
-Sticks to the one word title I like to give my animations

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Having finished all development on my characters I began animating last week. I uploaded a work in progress showing the playblasts of the animation I had created on the first day(environments are blocked out):


Caged _ work in progress 1 from Ravi Maheru on Vimeo.

I have made slight tweaks to the animation such as the bird's tail being pushed completely back to streamline the bird whilst it flies. This was simply corrected by adjusting the set driven keys.

Since uploading this video I have animated the first 30 seconds (up until the point where the Overlords startle Enzo, who proceeds to hide Bird in his hands). If there ever was an adrenaline rush in animation, this is the time in production where I have that as I'm having alot of fun animating.

From what I have so far, I really believe that this will be my best film yet, although it means tons of 24 hour days. goodbye sleep...

Also, you may have noticed new music in the work in progress above, thats thanks to Joe Cruickshank, the composer of the film who I have worked with in the past (created the music for Sentry). This will ensure that the music and animation are perfectly in sync. It's a great feeling when the project is updated with new music specifically created for it. I cannot wait to have the finished piece so you can enjoy the animation and the soundtrack.

Biolord of Dance!

With skinning complete for each character I now move on to blend shapes.



"How you doing?"

 Seeing as the Biolord doesnt get much spotlight time in the film he was given a brief moment to be on camera and he chose to "dance":

BioLord of Dance! from Ravi Maheru on Vimeo.

........ahem...back to work...

Skinning

I'm actually quite surprised how fast I'm progressing through the skinning process for my characters. The last time I had attempted skinning was this time last year on a character test in my free time but I had spent a good 2-3 weeks on the skinning on and off. I'm now getting the skinning of a character finished in a day.

(No more "aghhhhhhh" for me.)  me messing about with the joints whilst skinning the "BioLord"

Progress Report - Project Enzo

The past few weeks have been quite busy and I've made a lot of progress in my film. Here are some quick render tests of my characters who are textured and rigged up:



The characters with textures and bump maps applied



I have also uploaded a new version of my animatic, having scrapped the montage styled time skip in favour of a smaller scene showing Enzo and Bird walking past a map before they are spotted on camera. The reasoning behind this was to make the story clear and remove unnecessary parts from the storyline.

I'm also starting to lean closer to the title of "Caged". I have had this in mind for a while but it didn't feel right at the time. However, I have another reason for this title as it not only represents Bird and Enzo but also the overlords being caged within their own insecurity (which is why they rely on their mechanical forms).