Caution Guy
For my 3D animation independent study, I decided to make an animation that tells a story without having dialogue. I thought of the idea of the guy on the caution signs going through the warning and that his job is to get photos of him doing it. I liked the idea a decided to make some storyboards and flesh out the story more. For this animation, I primarily worked on animating rather than modeling everything. I learned how to rig characters and make controls for the characters for animation. I also did some After Effect animations as well, for when the electricity goes off, Caution guy. I wanted to go for an old Pixar short type animation for the style. I had enjoyed watching the Pixar shorts as a kid, and I wanted to make an Animation that could bring back those types of animation.
This project was not only meant to improve my skills in animation, but also in storytelling. I had to go through some iterations to get to the final project, but I think it was a great story. There are some things I need to improve with my animations and make them move a lot smoother, but I have improved a lot when it comes to animation, and I am going to continue to improve.
Process
First Draft
When coming up with my animation, I wanted to make some storyboards to plan out what I had to animate and find/make audio for. I went through two drafts; the first one, I wanted to be about a guy suffering through these different scenarios as a cautionary video on what not to do. It was like a purgatory, where he goes through this multiple times, and every time the video restarts he goes through it again. After I showed it to some friends, the story seemed more sad. So I wanted to make another storyboard with a somewhat upbeat ending that kept all the different scenarios. I also wanted to get rid of the voiceover because I thought it didn’t add anything to the story.
Second Draft
In my second draft, I came up with the idea that he is doing this as a job but still keeping the premise of him feeling everything he goes through and contemplating if he should continue this career. I have a room between scenarios to have a place for him to consider if he should continue and to show the audience the process he goes through for each scene. I also show the exit so people know that he is choosing to go into the room. I also showed in the end the reason he is doing this is for his family, when he looks at the family photo.
Models
I had to learn how to rig a 3D character for the Caution Guy when building the models. My instructor helped show me how to make points throughout the character's limbs and set up controllers to make animating Caution Guy easier. I then did a test animation to understand how the limbs move and to have a walk cycle for him. After that, I modeled the different scenes, including the hallway and the various scenario rooms. The scenario rooms were easy enough to make, and I only had to make a few changes for the different scenarios. I made two iterations of the hallway. The first one was too dark, and you couldn't see the exit sign at that camera angle. In the second iteration, I made the walls brighter to light the scene more and moved the Exit next to the other door so the audience could see every scene. My first thought was to have the Exit the focus of the scene and have it more in the background, but after talking with other people about it, I realized that it is better for the audience always to see it and wonder why Caution Guy doesn't just go through the Exit.
