COVID Dystopia: Animating the Monkey Scrum

Posted on by Thor


I animated four monkeys in the monkey scrum yesterday. There will be three more monkeys in front of this grouping and one monkey further down the aisle. All the animation I did yesterday was quite contained so that the leaping monkey is the action that should catch an audience’s eye.

The animation that remains is more complex since the monkeys will be walking or shifting their weight forward. There are so many layers now that the Callipeg program is struggling to play them all back. I might have to merge layers as I add more animation to keep the scene from freezing up. I should copy the scene today and work on the copy just in case the program does indeed fail.

Last night Pam helped in making plans for the trip to Berlin. We also wrote the festival organizer to see if he has advice about the best places to stay. With a six hour time difference I think I will be teaching virtual art classes until 2AM from Germany. I have to double check the schedule against the flight times and screening times of the festival. COVID Dystopia screens in the 6PM time slot on Sunday February 11, 2024 at the Babylon Theater. On the day before, screenings start at 6PM through about 10PM. Then there is a mixer for directors and producers at the Griffin, an “American Style” bar.

Pam and I watched a Rick Steves youTube video about Berlin to get a feel for what else to see in the historic city. My father fought in Germany at the end of WWII. He would have wanted to push into the city but he was tasked with cleaning out the resistance in the industrial Ruhr Pocked West of the city. I know which cities he fought in and would like to follow that route someday, but that will have to be another trip. Pam and I will be flying about 24 yours to be in Berlin for about 48 hours. It is quite a whirl wind but it is a once in a lifeline opportunity.

The Germans seem to appreciate COVID Dystopia‘s macabre outlook on the worlds failed response to a virulent virus.

COVID Dystopia: Animating the Monkey Scrum

Posted on by Thor

Most of my effort went into animating the monkey who leaps, reaches but falls short of the prize.The arm reaching was the challenge. I wanted the reach to happen quickly and then slow down as the monkey dropped back to the floor.  The lower half of the monkeys is hidden by the mass of monkeys all around him, so that mace the job much easier.

With that finished, I added a simply movement to one of the monkeys in the scrum. There is another group of four monkeys in front of this mass, so part of this animation sill be hidden. All together I have nine more monkeys to animate. The movements for each should be much more subtle than the leap I just finished animating.

Animation for all the monkey tails is already done, but I will import that at the end. I am hoping that today will be another two monkey day.

COVID Dystopia: Official Selection at the Berlin Short Film Festival

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COVID Dystopia is an official selection at the Berlin Short Film Festival. Pam and I ordered new passports and they came back surprisingly fast. My film will screen on February 11, 2024 at the 6PM screening slot. The Babylon Theater is located at Rosa-Luxemburg-Straße 30, Berlin, Germany. Today we will make plans for plane flights and an air B&B inn Berlin. I found a nice place within walking distance of the theater but we aren’t sure of flight times yet. These international festivals don’t give much time for making plans.

I am of course curious about the films in my screening block. I found a couple on youTube. One was an interview in German about stereotypes associated with Germans. The other, also in German I gave up on. I will not watch any others, I would rather see them on the big screen.

There is one social event where film makers can mix and mingle. It is being held at an “American Style” bar. The place is a hole in the wall dive with graffiti on the facade. It is quite a walk from the theater. There is quite a bit of large graffiti in the neighborhood reminiscent of the days of the Berlin Wall.

This screening should be quite an adventure. I know a minimal amount of German after studying it in high school. I really never got past counting to ten however and all that conjugation stuff threw me for a loop.

COVID Dystopia: Shot 8 Baby Monkey Animated

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I finished animating the baby monkey yesterday in Callipeg. The toilet paper animation could be imported from the previous version of the scene. That strand of toilet paper used to wave in place, so I had to animate it moving as the hand rises. I also had to rotate a bit so it has some weight and drops with gravity.

I have about a dozen more monkeys to animate since they are fighting in a scrum below the baby monkey. I am teaching virtual art classes for eight hours today, so I likely will not finish any animation. My hope is to just get the key poses done on one of the monkeys.

The two foreground monkeys are just a held cell. However I animated the gun being raised. The two foreground monkeys disappear out of the shot rather fast since the camera pushes in towards the baby monkey.

I am animating on a flat version of the background but the final plan is to add depth to the store aisle. Rather than exporting all the monkeys on a single layer I will export then on separate layers so they can be stacked back in space in After Effects. I already have the camera move in place so the new animation will just have to replace the still layers I already have done.

COVID Dystopia: Shot 8 Start Animation

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Today I am starting animation on the monkeys fighting over toilet paper. Animation of the toilet paper waving in the breeze and tails is already done. I imported the tail animation from the previous version of the scene and now realize it is blurry. I will need to redraw the tails to sharpen up the lines.

I will start the animation with the baby monkey holding the toilet paper. The hands, feet and head will be held cells but I will go in and fully animate the arms and body. The plan is to have the monkey leaning forward and then rear back when another monkey leaps for the toilet paper. This is a very short scene at just over one second and it has the camera zooming in. I might calm down the zoom if the animation turns out well.

There is a lot of scribbling and cross hatching in the monkey’s fur. I am debating if I will replicate this texture throughout the animation or simplify it. Since there are about a dozen monkeys I will be working on this scene for days.

COVID Dystopia Shot 8

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With Shot 6, The Screaming Monkey, I did go in and add animation of the mouth opening as it screams. The added animation did help the scene.

In this shot the tails are animated along with the strand of toilet paper and the hand of the reaching monkey bends at the wrist. I think I am going to go in  and fully animate the crowd of monkeys scrabbling for the TP. I suspect that adding ZOE Depth to the background could also help the scene.

Fully animating this scene will be a real challenge so it will be sharing the animation as it is done.

COVID Dystopia: Shot 6

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Shot 6 of COVID Dystopia is of a surreal view of a sports bar. I went to South Carolina to help my sister celebrate her 80th birthday. My other brothers and sister wanted to meet a t a sports bar before we went to the celebration. The sports bear we were supposed to meet at was super crowded, although I noticed there was plenty of outdoor seating which would have been my preference. We met instead at a small restaurant across the parking lot of the strip mall.

My brother claimed I looked like Darth Vader as I approached the entry in my long winter trench coat and N-95 mask. If I could find an n-95 mask that looked like Darth Vader’s mask I would wear it. Family seem to think I am crazy for taking precautions while I think everyone else is crazy for pretending that the pandemic has ended. This second indoor dining spot was empty except my family crowed around one table. The space had no HEPA filtration system to keep costumers safe. I ordered a coke and took a few sips by slipping up my mask. I know this wasn’t ideal but the risk benefit had to be measured. Most people have abandoned all COVID precautions and I am just learning what layered risks I am willing to take.

The previous day I taught a virtual art class from a Starbucks because the trailer I was staying in had horrible WiFi. Over two hours I sipped an iced coffee while teaching the class. Starbucks was crowded when the class started but emptied out by the time the class ended. I was seated near the entry door which kept blowing open which I liked. I was a cold breeze but at least fresh air was circulating.

Seeing this shot as a still, I am noticing that some of the breath and spatter seems out of place. I will check the scene again and check the breath layer of placement and scale. I might separate each breath into its own layer so each can be scaled from a center which would be at the person’s mouth.

COVID Dystopia: Shot 5

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This shot was distracting since the paint crawled too much in the shirt of the guy who turns toward the camera. I calmed down the shirt by distorting a held cell for the shirt so the paint remained completely solid.This shot feels complete as it is. I could animate the laughing girls and the guys girlfriend but all that extra motion might distract from focusing on the guy.

I think I should leave this whole first sequence of shots as is. I like that only an individual moves in each and the rest of the horror is frozen in time. I like that one guy is picking his nose and a girl is cupping her hand over her mouth like a mask. People will not have time to see theses subtleties but at least I know they are there.

These opening shots in COVID Dystopia will stay as they are.

COVID Dystopia: Shot 4

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Thee clapping animation in this shot works well. I am going to add animation it might be to turn the rhino heads closest to the clapping guy. My concern in adding this animation is that the paint on the rhino heads might swim a bit and become distracting. It would make sense for the rhinos to turn to look at the sound of clapping hands. They would be unable to clap themselves, so they would be curious.

If you are confused by the rhino reference, it is based on an absurdist play by Eugene Ionesco. It was turned into a movie starring Gene Wilder. To me, the COVID infected are the rhinos who want to see everyone infected.

I am on the fence with this shot from COVID Dystopia. I might play with animating a rhino head turn with my online animation student.

COVID Dystopia: Shot 3

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I tried animating the black sheep several time in this scene, but ultimately that wasn’t needed once a depth map was applied. I added a depth map to the black sheep alone and composited it separately using a green screen. By tracking the camera from left to right some depth was added to the black sheep. The effect is subtle but I feel it works.

I could add some extra movement to the breath and or spatter using fractal noise to distort it. This is one of the earliest shots I set up and if I add that fractal noise movement I will need to adjust the shots around this one.

The flock of sheep have some depth because of the camera move and the fact that there are 4 rows of sheep going back in space. I could animate some ears twitching and or heads moving subtly, but I don’t think it is needed. I am keeping this shot as it is.

All the shots in COVID Dystopia once had this quiet and subtle depth. I am always balancing animation that is needed versus animation that would be overkill.