Ninja Turtles Process & Shot Progressions

Overview

These shots with the Ninja Turtles presented a unique opportunity for us to practice working in a team environment, animating with storyboards, and using a mock version of Shotgrid. Overall the purpose was to introduce us to how a studio pipeline works.

"Ninja In"

Although the staging for this particular shot is simple, it was a good opportunity to play with some camera perspective, along with some fun interactions between Leo and his chair to really pull it all together.

Shot Progression

This shot ended up staying fairly consistent once out of the layout stage, which was great as it really allowed me to move forward quickly and polish it up without worrying about any significant changes in the animation. Although I initially went with the posing from the boards, it was suggested that I try out some other poses while shooting reference, and these ones ended up being the most fun to work with.

Layout - Storyboards

Luckily this shot was more of a cut-away so it was not heavily reliant on hookups, but my other assigned shot much later in the sequence needed to be hooked up and the beginning and end.

Playing around with snappier timing and some more cartoony facial expressions was a ton of fun, and also quite the departure from my other work previously. This definitely felt like where some things started to 'click' for me.

"I'm Sorry"

This second shot ended up presenting a bit of a challenge in regards to the camera work. Although it's not particularly complicated, getting the camera rig set up to facilitate that quick punch out ended up contributing quite a lot to how the scene was done.

Shot Progression

Much like the previous shot, I was once again tasked to work from storyboards. This time around though, there was a need to adjust the staging and acting to keep it consistent with the rest of the sequence. Those changes ended up being a blessing in disguise though, as they ended up making room for some fun pieces of animation and acting.

Layout - Storyboards

Exercising communication with other team members was a huge factor of working on this second shot. Due to the nature of wanting to maintain consistency throughout the entire sequence, we had lines of communication to the people who held our surrounding shots, and often ended up sharing pieces of information and poses back and fourth to ensure proper hookups

Overall this project was hugely important for introducing us to some of the concepts of a studio pipeline, and was undoubtedly one of the most impactful assignments that I completed during my time at Centre for Arts and Technology.