So today (And the last few days) I have been working (very slowly) on a very important scene in the film where Cliff falls down.. a cliff... Well a dirt hill.
In reality a dirt hill/cliff would not stand up like a giant cliff, but this is my fantasy world so i can do what i like.
I've produced another shot of Cliff running. This shot/background reveals a little bit of what is to come. Although these images are very subtle i hoping if viewers watch the film a second time they may notice these things.
Cliff slips up on some mud, there is a water pud on the dirt path earlier on.
When he is running there is a slight cliff edge near by.
I am reusing the same distant background over and over again as a green field. Resizing it, colouring it and sometimes blurring it. This makes production much quicker and easier to work on.
That will teach kids not to run around!
I decided to make the slip quite a surprise, and very fast paced. As i believe this works better for 'surprise' and possibly a bit of comedy.
You will notice the bottom shot has a cliff edge type drawing on the bottom half. This was to make it connect with the next shot, a dirt cliff. Else, i was told, it looked like it was falling out of a tree.
Fall with animatic below
Today i animate Tam calling out and Cliff rolling down the dirt hill and stopping.
Tam calling out involved some simple arm motion and short lipsync.
As the background was blurred behind her, as only she is in focus I thought it would be interesting if, when she ran off the background came back into focus. My video camera does this occasionally, i thought it might connect it with live action a bit more. As there is not any handheld camera work in this film I need a way to connect with the audience as a camera man.
I thought it might add live action connection with the animation.
You will be able to see this in the final film production.
I animated the rolling down the hill frame by frame, as well as the cloud of dust at the bottom.
This roll was not as hard as i expected or as complicated. It only took two goes for me to be happy with the result.
I'd also animated Little Howard doing a similar thing in my commerical freelance work so was excited for this scene.
I had a lot of trouble with this background, i am still not happy with it but it will have to do. I suppose it could have been worse.
After this follows a close up of Cliff rubbing his head (Injury) and looking up to the sky. This was all animated frame by frame.
It is easy to fill in the inbetweens whilst listening to music, gets me through the boring drawings. And I do not like keyframes because they are the ones that stand out. They have to be just right! But the idea of them is genius.
- Nathan Viney
Cliff and the End of the Rainbow Production Blog
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