mime test

This took a surprising amount of time to create even though its just make 14 seconds worth of video.

butcher test

This is just a test. I was messing about with the butcher model and thought id render the results.

butcher 360

butcher 360

Some of the extreme techniques used to texture the head 3

A lot of advanced texturing techniques were used to get the result for the mimes face.
In the big red circle is the many different layers required to texture the model, and note that all these layers and techniques used are only for the mimes face and so the rest of the head and body took different methods which were also very time consuming.

Some of the extreme techniques used to texture the head 2

As you can see a lot of different properties had to be used to get the desired effect

Some of the extreme techniques used to texture the head 1

Unfortunately nothing is ever simple or straight forward, and trying to texture the mimes head was no different. it took ages to get right and required a lot of trial and error which was very time consuming. below is a montage of some of the different textures used to create the final effect. I have labeled the images so click to enlarge to views the titles.

Marcel Marceau

Marcel Marceau is without a doubt the most famous of mimes.

mimes

theses are just some images of mimes that i found on the internet.

Butcher

Iv managed to finish the modeling and texturing for my market butcher.

the next stage will be to create bones for it and also to rig it.

i also need to create weight maps the butcher as this will help when animating the character.

mime

Iv managed to finish the modeling and texturing for my mime.

the next stage will be to create bones for it and also to rig it.

i also need to create weight maps the mime as this will help when animating the character.

The story

I have kept the plot for the animation very simple. The idea involves a permanent mime, meaning a mime which never likes to break character as being a mime is what he is and is his life style. So the story starts as this main character, the mime, approaches a butcher van in the market square to buy some meat. As he never likes to break character he asks the butcher for two chickens by only using gestures as i mime does. How ever it turns out to be a more complicated and frustrating process as the butcher decides to have a bit of fun and attempts the confuse the situation a win over more money. The butcher immediately understands that the mime requires two chickens but instead interprets back five chickens, two cows and seven ducks. The mime desperately shakes his head and hands to say that, what the butcher said is incorrect. So again he animates him self and shows that he only requires two chickens. This time however the butcher becomes a bit rude and leads the mime to believe that he understands the mimes order so puts up to fingers and says "so you want to chickens" the mimes face lights up as he finally thinks he'll get his chickens. But the butcher adds a ridiculous thrusting motion to the sentence which infuriated the mime causing him to shout out. The mime realizes that he is caught speaking on camera and so pleads to the butcher to keep it quiet. Knowing that he has the upper hand the butcher bribes the mime into purchasing extra goods.

Using this story should allow some very interesting scenarios and camera angles also it is a story that is told using a lot of visual movements and so does not rely solely on audio to help bring it to life.

This will be a very complicated animation technically and will be very time consuming as the movements have to be believable also this animation relies a lot on facial expressions which are always difficult to make convincing. But hopefully the animation will turn out as I visualize it in my head even though the time frame in which to produce such an animation is very short.

The setting

The scene will take place in the center of the market and the mobile butcher stall will be similar to the ones in the original image posts.

market trader

The second character to my second animation idea is the market trader.
the trader is a butcher like the ones from my local town market.

The characteristics should resemble the ones shown in the video. In appearance the butcher will be bigger and more intimidating he will have a headset and load speaker as they did.

Animation idea 2

The new idea will involve two new characters which i feel will be more interesting. the first of the new characters is a mime the reasons why i chose to use a mime is because a feel it will be both interesting to try an animated a mime trying to do an everyday normal tasks like buying goods from a market stall all without using any speech. Animating this character should also be challenging as the character has to communicate by only using expressive gestures and hand signals.

brief story overview

The short animation story involved a prisoner who had escaped out of prison and so was on the run

As the prisoner ran for his freedom he noticed a dark alleyway which he entered for cover. deep into the alleyway was a small market store labeled back market.

The market stall owner was a wacky gypsy trader which would try to scam the unfortunate individuals which stumble into his territory.

animation idea 1

My first idea for the short animation involved two unique characters. A typical rough escaped prisoner which would be the consumer and a wacky gypsy which would be the dealer.