Film location.

I have decided to shoot the backing footage in the Citystop on Manners St. I chose this store as the set up of the store works well for my animation. It has a line of fridges with a set of shelves opposite it that has chip packets on it. The store owner agreed to let me film there so I got all the shots I need. I should be able to start the playblast now.

Tip roll move

This is how I plan to have my character move longer distances quickly by tipping back and rolling along.

Nip up animations

Below are the images of my characters nip up animation for when he jumps up off of the exploded burger ring packet.

Flip animations

Started doing some of the flip animations as my character will be doing a few of these in the clip. I'm finding that getting the motion looking "human like" isn't too hard it just takes a while as I need quite a few keyframes. As you will notice the beginning of the flip cycle is the same as the head nudge.

Door nudge animation

Below are some action shots of the animation where my character opens a door with his head.

Expressions

I started doing some blend shapes for the expressions of my character. I also have started trying to get a plastic shader working though it's not looking good enough yet so I will look up some tutorials for that. Below are the expressions I have done so far.

First Rigging

My first attempt at at rigging. The symmetrical shape of my character makes the skeleton a pretty simple spine. However I'm going to have to play around with the weight painting so that he bends how I picture a bottle would if he was alive.

Maya Model

Storyboard

The scene starts in a small dairy. There is no one in the store except for the shopkeeper who is sitting down behind the counter. The focus moves to a drinks fridge on the edge of the store and in particular to a shelf with different coloured Rascalade drinks on it. One of the drinks (hereto referred to as Yellow, also the colour of his contents) shiftily opens his eyes and looks left to right checking the coast is clear.

He then proceeds to nudge the door open with his head and jump over to a shelf near him as he is in the corner of the store.

He pushes a bag of chips onto the floor and then does a flip jump down onto them bursting open the bag, breaking his fall as he sniggers to himself. The shopkeeper hears this and starts to head over to check it out.

Yellow quickly rolls under a nearby shelf where he opens his top and squirts some drink out onto the floor in front of him.

He sniggers to himself again and watches in anticipation as the shopkeeper draws closer. The shopkeeper suddenly slips on some blue liquid a few metres away and yellow has a look of absolute shock on his face as he sees this.

He then spots Blue (a blue bottle of Rascalade) rolling on the floor laughing under a shelf near the fallen shopkeeper. Yellow gives Blue the “evils” as Blue pokes his tongue out. The
scene fades out.

We then fade back in to the fridge where Blue and Yellow are trying to prank each other with a red drink in between them. They both go still and quiet as they here footsteps approaching. The door opens and light floods in with a human shadow draped over them. A hand draws close to Yellow and a couple beads of “sweat” drip from him as he shakes slightly in fear.

As the han touches Yellow it repulses at the wet feeling of the sweat and it grabs the red drink in between them and closes the door. Yellow breathes a sigh of relief and then gets an idea as Blue is laughing at him. A thought bubble appears above his head as he in visions Blue being taken by the hand screaming as he leaves. He is then drunk and tossed to the floor dead as all his lifeforce has been emptied.

 When the footsteps start again the bottles go quiet and still except for Yellow who jumps out in front of Blue. He sprays the shelf in front of him with drink and then nudges his way behind Blue just as the door opens. Yellow pushes Blue forward slightly with his head and Blue begins to slide forward on the drink sprayed earlier. He rotates around so his faces is towards the other bottles as this happens and when the hand grabs him a look of utter terror grips his face as he is taken away. The door closes and we end with a shot of Yellow sniggering to himself.

Orthographic

Motions and Expressions

 Yellow can bend and flip to move short distances. For longer travel he tips slightly and rotates to scoot along at a decent pace. He can also squeeze himself to spray his contents when needed.

I really wanted to show how the label is misshaped by his emotions to enhance the forms of his face.

Concepts

The first concept is that the character on the label is in control of the bottle instead of the bottle itself. He can put his hand through the label to push it out to the real world.

The second concept is the bottle itself morphs to form the face of the character. He can bend and alter his form to get around and interact with his environment.

The last concept uses the shapes on the label to form the face of the character. He moves in the same way as the second concept.

I have decided to go with the second one as it can work with my storyline better than the others and has a 3D form to its face.

Character Background

The character of my animation is a bottle of Rascalade (dubbed Yellow after the colour of his contents). He is a prankster and is not content with a life of just wait ing in his fridge to be bought like all the other bottles. He likes to make a mess of the store and jump around generally causing carnage to the store around him. He is extremely competitive and will do anything to make sure he is causing chaos as this brings him much joy. We see this when a rival bottle of Rascalade (dubbed Blue) is introduced as he steals a prank. Yellow does not deal with this well and will show a lot of resentment towards Blue. He also has a resentment towards the shopkeeper as he is (in the eyes of Yellow) keeping him prisoner in the shop and trying to sell him to a would be murderer. He is absolutely terrified of the idea of being sold because being drunk means the end of his life and his pranks.

Blue is quite similar to Yellow except that he just pranks in order to annoy Yellow for his own satisfaction. This is could be compared to a younger sibling annoying his older brother. He is not as competitive as Yellow which comes out to be his downfall.

Location

The scene will be set in a small dairy. Namely at a corridor next to some fridges where the Rascalade drink bottle lives.

All of the shelves provide areas for the bottle to hide in as he gets up to his mischievous deeds. They also block the view of the shopkeeper so he doesn't know what is happening.

The fridge is where a lot of the animation takes place and is the home of the bottle. I wanted fridges like these as they are the type you generally buy drinks from.

Script

Here is the script that I have decided to go with;

The scene starts in a small dairy. There is no one in the store except for the shopkeeper who is sitting down behind the counter. The focus moves to a drinks fridge on the edge of the store and in particular to a shelf with different coloured Rascalade drinks on it. One of the drinks (hereto referred to as Yellow, also the colour of his contents) shiftily opens his eyes and looks left to right checking the coast is clear. He then proceeds to nudge the door open with his head and jump over to a shelf near him as he is in the corner of the store. He pushes a bag of chips onto the floor and then does a flip jump down onto them bursting open the bag, breaking his fall as he sniggers to himself. The shopkeeper hears this and starts to head over to check it out. Yellow quickly rolls under a nearby shelf where he opens his top and squirts some drink out onto the floor in front of him. He sniggers to himself again and watches in anticipation as the shopkeeper draws closer. The shopkeeper suddenly slips on some blue liquid a few metres away and yellow has a look of absolute shock on his face as he sees this. He then spots Blue (a blue bottle of Rascalade) rolling on the floor laughing under a shelf near the fallen shopkeeper. Yellow gives Blue the “evils” as Blue pokes his tongue out. The
scene fades out.

We then fade back in to the fridge where Blue and Yellow are trying to prank each other with a red drink in between them. They both go still and quiet as they here footsteps approaching. The door opens and light floods in with a human shadow draped over them. A hand draws close to Yellow and a couple beads of “sweat” drip from him as he shakes slightly in fear. As the han touches Yellow it repulses at the wet feeling of the sweat and it grabs the red drink in between them and closes the door. Yellow breathes a sigh of relief and then gets an idea as Blue is laughing at him. A thought bubble appears above his head as he in visions Blue being taken by the hand screaming as he leaves. He is then drunk and tossed to the floor dead as all his lifeforce has been emptied.

When the footsteps start again the bottles go quiet and still except for Yellow who jumps out in front of Blue. He sprays the shelf in front of him with drink and then nudges his way behind Blue just as the door opens. Yellow pushes Blue forward slightly with his head and Blue begins to slide forward on the drink sprayed earlier. He rotates around so his faces is towards the other bottles as this happens and when the hand grabs him a look of utter terror grips his face as he is taken away. The door closes and we end with a shot of Yellow sniggering to himself.