Embedded Files
"THE MASK" PERFORMED BY TOM
"THE MASK" PERFORMED BY TOM
FINAL ANIMATED SEQUENCE
THE_MASK_BY_TOM_FINAL.mp4PROJECT IDEA
So, for my Initial Storyline and basic concept for the animation... I will be animating and re-creating a scene from the movie "The Mask" featuring Jim Carrey as the main character. The scene I will be re-creating is the moment that Jim becomes the "The Mask" character and begins to run wild in his small apartment complex building. The sequence features Jim putting on the mask, and then being transformed into the character. So, basically I will be starting the animation at the point that shows Jim already in the form of the Mask, and looking directly into the camera, in a snappy smoking jacket, he yells, "Sssssmokin'!"This is where the sequence will begin, though from here, he races over to a mirror where he will be talking to himself in a cocky matter, before heading out the door into the main segment of the sequence, the hallway scene. The nature of this entire scene consists of a chaotic energy, coming from Jim which I am wanting to translate back into my chosen rig... this being Tom. My reasoning for choosing Tom as the one to re-enact these movements and facial expressions is because of his ability to stretch, squash and be manipulated into the same poses and body mechanics that are displayed by Jim Carrey as the Mask.
Background concerning the mask is that he is a highly energetic maniac, with heaps of crazy exaggerated movements, facial expressions and scenes that make him just that more iconic. Tom, from tom and Jerry, also a very iconic cartoon character, also displays a lot of dynamic movement and exaggeration throughout his movements in the old cartoons. The way both of these characters work so perfectly for this scene is in a few ways... most importantly, Jim Carrey playing Stanley Ipkiss in the movie... has a huge passion and love for cartoons, therefore rein acting a lot of those exaggerated movements when he becomes "The Mask". Tom, being a cartoon figure, is perfect for re-creating all of these movements and displaying a great amount of Jim Carrey's facial movement, so when people are watching this.. they will realize that yes in fact... Tom is acting out a scene from the iconic movie, "The Mask".
TOM RIG
I wanted to experiment with Dynamic Movement this Trimester, and I thought... hmm, a character that bends, and twists, one that is already iconic for dynamic movement and expressions... so naturally I chose Tom from Tom and Jerry!
ORIGINAL INSPIRED CLIP
BLOCKING
This is the blocked view for the animation. This process is all about using the reference for our animation, and applying it into the blocking stage. This is the most crucial part to an animation. Going through and blocking all the poses out for the animation and allowing myself to see where the key movements for the character are going to sit throughout the animation. This is really handy for seeing a brief overview of movement, and at times, yes it may seem that the animation looks blocky, but this is the entire point and objective, is to just get the main movement placed with animation so we can see how it is going to progress into the splining stages.
SPLINING
Going in, and adding more keyframes in between your stepped keys, to feed maya more information for when you eventually take the tangents to a stepped view.
From here what we want to do is ensure that the animation is performing better in a Splined view and there is 0!! mushiness occurring, and from here, head straight into each control on the rig, and cleaning up the splined tangents, making sure to smooth things out, and then further delete any unnecessary frames within the animation etc.
LINK TO SPLINED ANIM BELOW
Splined_Tom_V3.mp4POLISH
I have been going into my library of Tom performances, and picking out little parts of the animated segments to apply into my own animation, in parts where I feel there is a lack of consistency and flow with the overall characterization of Tom, and rather too much Jim Carrey shining through. So going through, chopping up the animation into different segments to then transition into my Premiere Pro file, cut together, and export as an image sequence for MAYA, has been really helpful in allowing for myself to see where I can fit more of Tom, into this crazy exaggerated sequence of wacky characters.
Splined_Tom_V5.mp4Report abuse