Strange Weather We're Having - CK

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I went about doing this project by starting with a backdrop, looking for sounds I could use, and then making IKs from there. I had taken several pictures myself last week of the fall colors in my neighborhood, so I grabbed a few of those, decided on one I liked, and used it. I adjusted the color threshold down about 50%, because otherwise it was too muddled. I then did a little searching through the Flash sound library, but nothing really seemed to catch my ear. I had briefly flirted with the Helicopter sound and having an escaped prisoner run around the street, but it seemed like more work than it was worth.

Using the free sound links from the project instructions, I found a 7 second rain sound, and an umbrella opening. I figured I could use those somehow, and then I got an idea for a humorous scenario. Thus was born the poor guy who tries to be proactive, but gets soaked instead.

His IK is just a bunch of body part symbols I boned together, nothing fancy. I was surprised not to have to use the Binding Tool, but then he doesn't move around all that much. His legs have bones, I just wasn't sure what to do with the armature. My shape IK is the plant; I did something like this for my midterm project, and to be honest, I spent the vast majority of my time on my man. The plant was an afterthought; I wasn't really sure what sort of simple shape I could insert into my animation, so I went with that (rainy days have wind sometimes, right?).

I didn't really do anything with the umbrella sound, but for the rain, I shortened it up, changed the fade to a sort of "downpour" once the umbrella is opened, and changed the compression. I had to set it higher than I expected to get the more subtle dynamics of the audio to come through, but it still knocked off a chunk of the original size.

I like the vector graphic, if only because a poorly drawn animated man standing on a real street would somehow look less weird than in front of this sort of painted backdrop.