Final animation

WWF Save the Rhinos from Emma Rowsell on Vimeo.

soundtrack

The music used for my updated WWF Save the Rhinos animation:

(Sourced from Audio Network and Free Sound)

Predator by Terry Devine-King

Dangerous Moments by George Van Dyk / Jon Isbell

Ice Age by Neil Williams / Miles Bould / Sarah Ozelle / Rupert Pfaff

Updating animation

Feedback:

- Make gunshot louder in the poacher scene to make it more clear why the rhino is blacking out.

- Fade to black after the opening shot, as it cuts straight to a new scene which does not make sense.

- Cut the opening shot before he turns his head back and then hold that frame a little longer.

- Redo the camera for the scene where the helicopter comes into screen.

- Slow down the black out scene.

Production Diary

Major Project: WWF Rhino

Production Diary

Week 1:             17^th September

Researching for WWF campaign ‘Stop illegal Wildlife trade’

Came up with two initial ideas to focus on.

Research on environment- Savannah grasslands, gathering secondary images to get familiar with colours and different compositions within the landscape

Research Rhinos- life drawing on rhinos (Woburn Safari Park), primary source photographs and motion research

Week 2:             24^th September

Decided on developing rhino point of view idea.

25/09 - Made clay rhino head to help with drawing reference and also to imagine rhino perspective

27/09 – Lecture on narrative. Improve the narrative by adding in a twist- the story at the moment is too predictable

Research on moving rhinos to safer locations

29/09 – first rough storyboard

30/09- made 3d rhino model

Week 3:             1^st October

02/10 – feedback on storyboard- the rhino cam needs to build more tension and fear; could do this by introducing different environment and convey rhino is living in constant fear.

04/10 – Feedback- Do camera tests for rhino perspective, don’t focus on making the horn good now.

06/10 – Second storyboard

07/10 – Feedback on storyboard-

Character designs

Week 4:             8^th October

10/10 – Third Storyboard

11/10 – feedback on storyboard

13/10 – environment designs

Week 5:             15^th October

15/10 - Camera tests in Maya for rhino perspective

18/10 - Final storyboard

Week 6:             22^nd October

22/10 - 1^st Presentation:

-       Animatic

-       Character and background designs

25/10 – feedback on animatic

Week 7:             29^th October

29/10 - Rhino character rigged

02/11 – Texturing character tests

Week 8:             5^th November

08/11 – finish environment concepts

10/11 – motion research and colour palettes

11/11 – render character in motion

Week 10:             12^th November

2nd Presentation:

-       Full animated example of characters motion

-       References (actors, motion research)

-       Environment concept

-       Colour palettes

-       Character textures

-       Character designs and models (rigged not textured)

13/11 - environment tests

14/11 - rough layout environments 3D

15/11 - film rotoscope footage

16/11 – create shot breakdown (see below)

Week 11:             19^th November

Start animating

25/11 - rotoscope scene 3

Week 12:             26^th November

26/11 – Helicopter scene 4

27/11 – scene 1 animation

29/11 – scene 2 animation

02/12 – dead rhino image

Week 13:             3^rd December

03/12 – scene 5 waking up + rhinos grazing

05/12 – rotoscope walk

06/12 – scene 3 rhino pass out

Week 14:             10^th December

10/12 – scene 3 rhino looking for helicopter- helicopter comes into frame

12/12 – rotoscope WWF worker

Week 15:            17^th December

17/12 – put shadows in scenes

19/12 – lighting in scenes

20/12 – put animation together

21/12 – put in soundtrack and sound effects

23/12 – Animation completed

Scenes and environments animation break down:

SCENE ONE:

Environment 1

Rhino looking around, hears noise

SCENE TWO:

Environment 2

P.O.V walking through environment, looking at dead rhino

SCENE THREE:

Environment 1 (slightly changed)

P.O.V hears helicopter noise, looks up

Turns around

Poachers pointing gun (rotoscope)

Turns again

Starts to run off, starts to pass out

Poacher walk

SCENE FOUR:

Sky environment

Helicopter carrying rhino

SCENE FIVE:

Environment 3

WWF worker kneeling beside rhino (rotoscope)

Rhino waking up

Other rhino grazing around character

wwf animation final

Soundtrack

I do not own copyrights to the soundtrack. Below is the track I used for my animation.

Rotoscoping

Shot the footage using video camera and tripod.
Footage included:
- 3 'poacher' stances
- 'poacher' walk
- WWF worker

I have never attempted rotoscoping before so a lot of was trial and error. After trying various methods, After Effects rotoscope brush proved to be the most accurate. I rotoscoped over the footage and changed the levels to black to create a silhouette figure. 

Would have worked a lot easier if I used green screen or one coloured background and floor. At least I  now know for future reference!

Below is the rotoscoped footage:

environment01 walk through

environment 04 walk through

Helicopter

Reference images to how rhinos get transported in the wild

Helicopter Design:

(Blades will be added when animating)

Dead Rhino

Posed my rhino character and then altered the picture to create the 'dead rhino' picture below.

Environment 02 walkthrough

Rhino movement

Environments Layout

Screen shots of blocking out the composition/layout of the environments 

Environment

Colour Palette exploration:

Final Colour Palette:

Previously I had planned for 7 environments but I have decided to cut out some of the environments and reuse the existing ones. This will give me more time to put in extra details to the 3 remaining environments. 

Below are the UVs for the environments:

Environment 01

Environment 02

Environment 03

Environment planning

Character Tests

Animatic feedback

3 shot > rhino's perspective should have something trigger that point of view. (Cause and effect)- could hear gun shot or twig snap?

5 - 6 shot > needs a transition

Helicopter lift rhino shot > really emphasise this shot… have him swinging as helicopter rises up

CUT OUT other helicopter shot (too distant- takes the viewer away from rhino)

Last shot > Have him closer to the other rhinos - signifies he is happy and safe

Animatic

Character

Above are the UV textures I created for the rhino character