I remade my Showreel into an infograph for better presentation, and a bit of experience to it.
Ahwet Afflatus Feature
It’s finally here! The screening of Ahwet Afflatus. All thanks to the people who supported me in putting this animation together, and high hopes for more to come.
Ahwet Afflatus Programs Screenshots
Upon the completion of my film “Ahmet Afflatus”, I liked to share a few screenshots of the programs used to bring the animation together.
(TVPaint was used for the British and Zagreb styles, where it was unique for classic hand-drawn animating)
(Adobe Flash CS6 was used for the rest of animating, it was a huge asset regarding compositing and giving supports for the 3D steps)
(Autodesk Maya was useful for building the background, the environment of the shop with the textures and lighting, as well as animating the Main Character’s head)
(Finally, Adobe After Effects CS6 helped a lot with interacting 2D and 3D together, and adding minor yet believable visual effects to most of the shots)
The months and hard work spent in creating this film were hectic but very much worth it, and I would like to go on making projects like this in the future and hopefully make them even better.
British Animation Boiling Effect
For the British animation styles, I developed them using the program TVPaint for its digital support in basic hand drawn animation. The first 2 tests shown below are of a single image redrawn and recoloured (with a water colour brush effect) at least 4 times, and played in a loop. Most clips that required movement, such as the third image below, were normally drawn with key movements and in-betweening, yet basic colouring was repeated to enhance the character’s boiling effect style.
The exporting of the tests had to be more professional however to give high quality, for that they were done into PNG image sequences but individually for layering and better play with composting; for example, the lines were on one export, the colour another. The sequence were added together then using Photoshop
*The Line sequence was exported in Palette format because it had no support with RGB via PNG, but on Photoshop, I used the functions, Invert, Select – Colour Range, and Threshold to fix it.
Cartoon Elements
For most of the characters with the cartoonish styles, such as Western, UPA and Zagreb, I had to design some enhancer elements according to the script, such as smoke for the hookah clips, and a clip where one character splashes water to the other, followed by a ricochet escape cycle.
To do those, I used references from classic cartoons such as Tom and Jerry, Road Runner and Wild E. Coyote, and The Pink Panther show, and traced them using Adobe Flash. The results are as shown below…
Aimi Shikou (Development Test)
I’ve been working experimentally on the movements of the belly dancer. What is left for me is to add shades close to that of anime on the character. Animation done using adobe Flash.
Although the tracing is completely different and body composition seems unrealistic, that is due to the style of Japanese animation.
New Practical Details for “Ahmet Afflatus”
The production for the animation began with a few experimental tests. For Sty’s facial expressions and animation, I had to take it differently after realising that dealing with it in 2D would be inappropriate, so I devised a solution of animating Sty’s head in 3D using Maya.
First by doing the animation on Flash, in this form:
Then exporting it as an image sequence, then importing the sequence into Maya as a material on a polygonal sphere, and finally render the shape into a toon shade to make it look more 2D and hand drawn. This was the result:
Beside the head and expression test, a walk cycle test was developed. I wanted Sty to represent the steps of character development itself, therefore making his movements realistic and simple, more adjustments might be possible in further development.
Scenes 5 to 6 in the storyboard were a beginners/easy sequence worth taking after completing Sty’s walking cycle, it was also necessary to test Jack’s animation and movement. What is missing is adding smoke effects coming out of Jack’s mouth, and possibly some lights in the background of the shop.
The last test was Anubis’s walk cycle. I matched his walking with that of Felix the Cat, to manage breathing his style to life and putting a believable gesture to his character for the audience’s views.
Ahwet Afflatus Digital Artwork
Latest Artwork for Ahwet Afflatus
Decided Title for MA Film
‘Ahwet‘ means ‘Coffee Shop’ in Arabic, this word was given to inform that this short takes place at an Arabian place. ‘Afflatus‘ is a term that refers to inspiration or a gathering of ideas in one place, and the symbol of inspiration is commonly a lightbulb, which is the symbol for the shop as shown in the poster. The word ‘Afflatus‘ is also close to the name ‘Afflaton’ which is Plato’s name in Arabic, so it is referred to as a name because most Coffee Shops in Egypt are called after a given name.
The title was named as a Coffee Shop because this is where the story takes place, to support the idea of our protagonist going there to find his inspiration and image, and to depict it as the place where ideas, stories and styles gather for entertainment.
MA Practical First Production
First Post-production for MA practical, with sound effects from “Kyutwo”
Mohamed Hammad 