SPHIN the SPHEDISH PHISH

One year ago I cre­ated an ani­ma­tion club for my stu­dents called 8FramesIn.  The pur­pose was to add addi­tional ani­ma­tion oppor­tu­ni­ties to an all to short ani­ma­tion cur­ricu­lum.  See­ing as one semes­ter of ani­ma­tion is not much time in devel­op­ing skill sets, I felt that by pro­vid­ing extra projects for stu­dents to ani­mate it would help to fur­ther their knowl­edge and expe­ri­ence as ani­ma­tors.   This projects is a result of my efforts to strengthen an under devel­oped program.

CONCEPT: Sphin the Sphedish Phish has been placed on sale.  As hard he he tries he still can­not man­age to get pur­chased.  A young girl with her mother comes into the shop to pick out her first pet fish.  She wants Spin of course but the mother is hes­i­tant. She tells her daugh­ter that she is not sure about Sphin being  a good choice because of his price and asks if she thinks he can do any tricks.  Sphin hears this and wants to empress the lit­tle girl. So, he spins around and jumps up and out of the tank.  The mother points out another fish to the lit­tle girl.  He is dis­ap­pointed as she is pulled away.

STAGE: The set­ting is a mod­ern pet store. The stage is set in fish tank. Mother and daugh­ter are behind the camera. The story is illus­trated by Sphin’s reac­tion to the dialogue.

OBJECTIVE: This exer­cise is designed to give the stu­dent an oppor­tu­nity to cre­ate per­son­al­ity within a char­ac­ter that can­not be deformed.  Facial expres­sions are not pos­si­ble.  No arms and legs are avail­able to emote expres­sion with.  There­fore, the stu­dent must focus on body posi­tion and change in tim­ing to cre­ate a sense of life.

ANIMATION:

SOUND: A rough cut of the dia­logue has been writ­ten for the block in.  Once the dia­logue is final­ized the ani­ma­tion will be pol­ished and matched with the track for rendering.

VFX: N-Particles were used to cre­ate bub­bles and other small par­ti­cles of food that float about the tank.

CONCLUSION: I have placed 8FramesIn on hold for the time being as I am trans­fer­ring the rest of it’s con­tents to this blog.  I will be con­tin­u­ing to develop 8FramesIn and all of it’s learn­ing expe­ri­ences into a class­room of my own.

So, If you are inter­ested in learn­ing how to ani­mate in maya feel free to con­tact me and I will keep you up to date as things develop!  Spread the word.

Craig Bow­man