I'm really happy with how my pitch went today. I feel I had carried out enough research and initial sketches to accurately inform my audience where I was planning to go with my project. On the whole I received good comments and people seemed to be happy with my intentions, though I was told to be wary of how I show the aging of the characters. If it's not made obvious that the characters have aged, the animation may be quite confusing. I shall have to consider this when it comes to storyboarding.
Sometime last week I payed a visit to some students over at Leeds College of Music, to chat with those who may be interested in collaborating with us animation lot. I found this to be incredibly useful, as I knew I wanted to get someone to do my music and sound for me, but didn't quite know how to go about getting in contact with people.
At the gathering, I managed to chat with a handful of students, all of whom seemed interested in working with me once I had shown them my showreel, and pitched them my idea for my final film. I truly felt like a professional handing out my business card at the end of our discussions, and it's made me incredibly excited to collaborate.
I have since had a few of the music students email me to show me some of their work, and I have told them that I shall keep them posted with any progress made on the project in terms of concept work and storyboarding. Then it will be a matter of deciding who to work with.
I wasn't 100% on my story, but I knew for definite that I was going to involve young Maressa and me as characters, so I began sketching from old photographs...
Initial Character Sketches
...Then I realised, I hate character design. I love drawing people, but the second I have to come up with characters and visualise them in a space and from different angles, I struggle. I'm an animator; I want to make things move.
So, I have recruited Wing to work on my character design. I asked her if she was up for it - because she has a drawing style that I was somewhat aiming for with my own designs, and because I have worked well with her in the past - and she said she was happy to take on the job. I have since sent her a collection of old family photographs and we have sat down and discussed my idea and what it is I am after with the designs. I also set a rough deadline for her to work to; I'm not particularly in a hurry to have these completed as my main focus is nailing my story right now, so I said I'd like to have them done by the time we get back after Christmas break. Which I thought was reasonable.
I'm very excited to now be collaborating, and I can't wait to see what Wing comes up with.
For a long time now I've wanted to create an animation that is almost a tribute to my Mum. I didn't want it to be overly dark or upsetting, but I did want it to be either based on her, or something for her. I've never had the opportunity to do something like this before, as I've never had the time nor the experience, so I thought Extended Practice was a good opportunity to finally do this. It would be a passion project that I'd enjoy working on, but also would be suitable (potentially) to send off to animation festivals.
The idea that I couldn't stop thinking about was making an animation based on a memory I have of me and my sister as young children. We were out playing with our kites not long after my mum's passing, and I suggested to my sister that we should "let all the string out so we could get the kite high enough for her to climb back down."
At first I was thinking of developing this into a story. My idea was:
- Maressa (younger sister) is feeling down
- I come to comfort her, and suggest that we go out with the kites
- We are playing with the kites
- Eventually we manage to fly the kites and let out all the string
- Potential for the kites to fly higher than clouds, reveals sunny weather
- Ends with us both happy, either still playing with the kites/walking home/sat in the field
I as fond of the idea, as it didn't focus too much on sadness, instead it implied loss and focused more on the relationship I had with Maressa. Though I did decide to take this in a different direction as I thought the story was quite... lacking? I think I had made it better in my head because I knew what it was based on and wanted it to work. Instead I am going to focus entirely on the two of us flying kites, and create a montage of attempts at making them fly.
We've finally finished, and I couldn't be happier with the outcome. I think it looks very professional with the addition of the logos and ident, which only enhances our animation. All of our hard work and efforts have definitely paid off and I think it definitely shows in our final piece. Considering how smoothly this whole process has been I would happily work with OWL again.
Since the beginning of the project, we have called our group OWL, because of how our initials could be arranged. As a little extra work for ourselves (because who doesn't appreciate more work?) we thought it would be a nice touch to incorporate an owl into our animation. Wing has drawn out initial frames of an owl flying, and we have assigned one another frames to draw over however we want. The only restriction we had was that each frame had to be drawn in pencil, so that it was consistent with the rest of our animation.
My Owl Frames
OWL Ident
Though it was not entirely necessary, I think this little loop was a nice touch and a much more interesting way to introduce who we are. If we ever worked together again it could easily be something we re-used too.
The past few days have been a doodle for me, and I feel like I have been slacking off but in reality I'm just out of jobs to do. I've asked Oscar if there is anything in post I could help with, but he has assured myself and wing that we have done enough work on production and that he is happy to take on editing alone.
I have been there to offer help with decision making with post, but for the most part I've just let Oscar do his thing, and I'm really pleased with how he has carried out post-production. I think there is a few things that could be revisited - for instance, the bus sound effect seems to be a bit too loud for me - but on the whole I think the animation looks great. I like how well the water colour works with the pencil animation, and I don't think there is too much of a style differentiation, so the scenes flow really nicely.
Post-Production Progress
We thought the animation was lacking when it was accompanied by just the narration (which we have since re-recorded), so we decided to add the odd sound effect to help aid the story. This was a great improvement, but we still thought there was something missing. Oscar had the idea to record himself drawing/scribbling with a pencil, and have this be the sound effect of our line transitions. The idea was so simple, yet I think it is just the icing on the cake. It helps convey the hand drawn element we were hoping for, and it helps to fill in the silences without being over-powering.
As I was craving for something to do, I took on the job of animating the titles. Once we had decided on a name for our animation, I was able to get started. I thought it would be a good idea to have the text transition into the frame in a similar fashion to the other line transitions in the animation.
Title Transition
I'm happy with how this looks, and I like that it is consistent with the rest of the animation. I also think it works well as a title sequence as it is the first thing you see, and it sets the scene for what the rest of the piece is going to look like.
Today was the day of our final critique, and even though the rest of the class seems to be stressing out beyond belief, I was actually feeling okay with the progress me and my group had made. Oscar had slotted in our animated scenes into our animatic to show to the rest of the class for feedback, and the general response was that they liked where we were heading with our animation. Sara pointed out that the shot framing of the 'stamp scene' and the 'posting scene' involving the baby might be too similar, and that it might be a good idea to change this slightly so the cut isn't too jarring. However there was no background on either of the scenes so it was hard to get a sense of the camera angle, and when I tested the scenes previously with the backgrounds in place, I personally didn't have an issue with how the scenes cut. I think if this was something we were wanting to change it would have to be a consideration for another time, as there isn't enough time now to re-draw a scene, as deadline is approaching and we still have post-production to do. Other than this we didn't receive any other comments on how we could improve, so we are taking this as a sign to continue to plodding on with production.
Animatic With Slotted Footage
When we got together after the crit to discuss what our next line of action was, we realised that a lot of footage had been missed out from the animatic clip we showed as our work was not visible to Oscar on our shared Google Drive folder when he came to put the video together. We soon discovered that we don't have much left to do at all, and we think we could easily be finished by the end of the week. All we have to do is re-record sound, colour the odd scene, put them all together and add titles. This has made me feel much better about my current position with my work, as I feel like I can relax a bit more now, knowing that my workload isn't as big as what I thought it was.
Animated Background Test
As I was able to finish all my animating within good time, this meant I could revisit some of the backgrounds. It was suggested before that I make the baby move as the stamp is being placed on him, but I left this until the end as it wasn't particularly a necessity. Martin suggested to me in the crit that I could help enhance the comical factor of this story by having the baby looking shocked as the stamp is being placed on him. I thought this was a good idea, but didn't just want to do this as I thought it would be inconsistent with the rest of the scene. Instead, I did animate the baby crying and squirming, but had him stop doing so once the stamp was placed to make it look like he was shocked.
I'm glad that I was able to find the time to revisit this scene as I think the addition of an animated background is a great improvement. I am unsure whether the baby pauses for too long at the beginning though, so I shall ask Wing and Oscar about their opinions to see whether I need to add in more frames at the start. Besides from this, I am now finished with drawing, and can now help out with post-production and any other tweaks that need to be carried out.
Today I finished the final second of my section of the animating, and once I had scanned it in I was able to put together all of my scenes. I'm really pleased with how its looking so far, and think it will look great once it is edited and placed alongside our audio and the rest of my group's work.
All Unedited Scenes
I've actually surprised myself at how quickly I've managed to animate my scenes. The last time I did traditional animation, I remember taking a lot longer to draw out my frames and work out the keyframes, so I definitely think I've improved since then. I'm much more confident now with my line making, and I think it would benefit any future drawn animations if I animated traditionally, or at least drew out keyframes in this way so I'm not tempted to cut corners like I usually do when animating in Photoshop.
So far with the line transitions that I have animated, they have all originated from one point and lasted for 18 frames. However, for this scene I thought that the subject was too large to cover in this way, so I made the transition start from three separate points.
Baby Transition
At first I was worried that this would look inconsistent, but I continued with it as it didn't take too long to draw out. I think it looks fine. The lines move in a similar fashion to how they have been moving before, and I think it looks consistent for this reason and because the easing on the lines is similar too.
Whilst I have been animating, I have been referring to our animatic to make sure that each scene will line up once they are put altogether, but for this particular scene I found it really difficult to do so. There was a lot going on and everything seemed to more so quickly in the animatic, and it didn't follow our decided 18 frame transition rate. So what I decided to do for this scene is to animate each individual section separately, so that we can decide on how long certain frames should be held for when they're scanned in. For instance, I started with the belly forming, then the introduction of the boy and then the change in his expression.
Belly and Boy Scene
In this test I have played around with holding on certain frames to make the sequence flow nicely. The frames seem to make a lot more sense to me now that I have been able to layer them up digitally, and on the whole I like how it looks, though I'm not too happy with the transition of the boy at the end. He moves out of frame as the camera follows the colours upwards, which I tried to draw traditionally. I may have to revisit this part of the animation depending on how quickly we want the colour to rise up/the camera to move, and it will either be a case of drawing more in-betweens, or creating a camera movement digitally in After Effects to match the transition of the colours' movements. I think this will be easier than drawing more in-betweens - especially as the colour will be drawn/created digitally - but it's a case of whether creating the camera movement this way will be consistent with the style we are aiming for.
Just like before, I wanted to collect reference material that I could work from whilst animating the posting scene, but there was nowhere online that featured someone pushing a baby into a postbox, funnily enough. This meant I had to improvise and use a bike helmet and a stool.
Reference Video
Although it wasn't exactly what I was hoping for, the reference video was a massive help again, as I could look at how the arms extended and rotated as the baby was lifted into the 'post box'.
Posting Scene
Again, I'm happy with how the animation has turned out. I made the boy come in slowly as he was lifting the child and then leave the frame quicker, to try to help show that the baby had weight. I also like the overlapping action of the baby's limbs as it falls into the postbox, which I exaggerated to emphasize the humor in this story.
Whilst I was drawing the boy, it seemed to me that his arms grew and I was afraid that this was going to be an issue when I scanned in the frames. Now that I have put them together, they don't actually seem to grow at all, which is a bonus.
Just like before, there still needs to be some editing carried out to make sure that the background doesn't show through the characters, but again, I shall revisit this once my other scenes are complete.
In our last meeting we had divided up the storyboard between the three of us, myself and Wing having three storyboard pages each out of the seven, as Oscar is going to take charge of post-production, or at least the majority of it. Because we were happy with how the work load had been divided, and because there were no immediate issues that were pointed out to us in our second interim critique, I could get started.
Stamp Scene
I chose to work on the stamp scene first as I thought this was going to be the hardest to draw, and it would have been nice to get it out of the way. To get started, I took a quick recording of myself extending my arm past the camera and placing down a square piece of paper on the table, so I could use it as reference. I found this extremely useful as it helped me to get the perspective right on the arm, and it allowed me to see how the arm would 'get smaller' as it got further away from the camera.
Using my reference as a guide, I marked out the path that the stamp was going to take on a frame that had a 16x9 frame marked out, and from there I was able to work out timings and draw out my keyframes. In the past, I've never really done this, instead I tended to mark out the timings and just animated straight-ahead. I found this process to be much easier and it is going to be something I continue to do; I don't know why I didn't do it before as this method allowed for me to add the necessary amount of in-betweens and it helped to keep volume consistent.
I'm really happy with the start that I have made. I think the hand movements are smooth and I like that the easing helps create the illusion that the hand is getting further away. The background still needs to be animated, and it needs to be edited so that it doesn't show through the arm and components that lie on top of it, but I shall do this at a later date once my other scenes are completed as I figure this to be more important.
For my project report, I could have simply uploaded my art boards to Issuu to create a publication, but I wanted to try and make my work look more professional by changing the layout and style so that it was more suited for a book. I also wanted my project report to include more information about my development and progress, and I didn't feel that my boards were designed in a way that would allow me to add this extra information.
I ended up making new content for the books, and went for a subtle design to keep the publication looking clean and professional. As I didn't want two different briefs to sit next to each other on a double page spread, it meant that my final outcomes would be sat on their own across a double page. I was unsure whether I wanted them to be aligned in the center of the two pages, or have a blank page with my simple decor design on it to break up the briefs.
Center Aligned Images
In the end, I opted for having them sit on just the one page, as I preferred how it looks. I then battled with whether I wanted this blank page to be white or purple. I went for purple as I thought it seemed less empty than the white, and I thought it broke up the different briefs nicely.
I'm happy that I chose to redo the art for the book rather than using my previous boards, as I am very happy with how my work now looks as a publication.
For this crit, we had the chance to present everything that we had done for responsive, both for individual practice and collaborative, but this time there was more of a focus on how we presented our work, rather than the content. I've never really made art boards before, only presented work on the college's templates, so I decided to keep my art board design simple and clean.
Individual Brief One - Boards for Scream Street
Individual Brief Two - Boards for LoopdeLoop LOL
Individual Brief Three - Boards for LoopdeLoop SISTERS
I tried to keep the style consistent throughout my boards, and the only thing I changed was the colour of the boarder and the logo that I featured accordingly. The majority of the feedback I got was in favour of the way I had presented my work, though I did get a conflicting comment that dislikes the use of colour in the boarder.
Feedback on Individual Practice
As the majority of people liked the way I presented my boards, I think I'm going to keep the style I have chosen, though I may revise the comments I include. I may write a little bit more about my process and what the brief was about.
Feedback on Collaborative
Unfortunately, we didn't have any boards to present as Tyler wasn't able to get them printed in time for the crit, but I had presented our 'final' animation on one of the computers which we were able to get feedback on. Again, the comments suggested that people liked the animation, though there seemed to be concern with the way we had displayed the disclaimer at the end. It was suggested that we consider the size and the font. Other than that there were no suggestions for improvement, so after I have revisited the text I think we will be good to submit!
Tyler's Art Board and Email Confirmation of Our Submission
Update: I have since updated the text at the end of the animation, and submitted our animation to YCN, along with Tyler's art board that he prepared for final crit. It didn't say anywhere on the brief that we needed to provide an art board, but it did allow for supporting work if it was labelled appropriately in our submission folder, so I thought it couldn't hurt to send it off too.
There weren't many people that turned up for the 'audition' of our narrator, but it was nice to see that Tyler had come along to help out with recording. As there was two of us it made it easier to get across what it was we were looking for, and we found that Max was able to voice the story the way we wanted, which was enthusiastically. We did have to do some re-shoots as some words were mispronounced, but I'm certainly happy with the audio now. I did have to do some editing to the animation as the timing was slightly out, but at most it was only the addition of a couple of frames so it wasn't that much of a pain. This has definitely made me realise the importance of nailing the audio early, so you don't have to go back and add frames or remove them.
At our last critique I had asked Tyler to make crucial components such as hay bales for Jack to poke at with his pitchfork and 'information bubbles' to display the proteins of the cows, as well as any other components he would like to add to our scenes. He did just this and I was able to improve one or two of our scenes, and export the final takes of the animation, and slot them into one Premiere file. To begin with I was a little bit worried at how late Tyler had left it to get the components to me as I wanted to assign a bit of time to prepare for final crit and post-production, but I had managed to slot in the new additions and animate them quicker than expected, so everything worked out well in the end.
Once this was done we were able to get started with post, which I also took charge of. When we were in the sound booth, Tyler recorded himself making noises that could be used for both the Giant and Jack. I don't know how serious he was about using these noises in the final cut, but I played around with them and I liked how they brought the characters more life so I decided to keep them. I used Audition to change the speed and pitch of the audio to make Tyler's voice deeper so that it was more suitable for the Giant. I similarly did the same for one of Max's 'moos' for the cow at the end, and I think it genuinely sounds like a cow, which is great. I'm still none the wiser on how to use Audition, and I think it would be worth spending some time to get to know the program, as I have been able to create some good sound effects with basic knowledge, so I can only imagine the things I'd be able to do if I knew what I was doing.
For the remainder of the audio, I searched for some ambient sounds online, and found some that were royalty free and didn't require crediting. I lowered the volume of the tracks so that they didn't overpower the narration and sound effects, and even though they are only subtle, I think they have greatly improved the animation. It really gives you a sense of space and makes you feel as though you're out on the farm.
Finished Animation?
Myself and Tyler would be happy to submit the animation now as we both feel there's nothing else left to add, but have decided to wait until after the final crit - that Tyler is going to make art boards for, considering I took charge of post - to see if anyone has any suggestions of improvement, considering we will have a week to make additional changes.
...Well, I say they're completed, but I've still got a few tweaks here and there do, but as a whole I'm really pleased with how the animation is looking. The timings of the visuals seem to fit nicely with the audio, which we are planning to get re-recorded hopefully sometime next week. I asked a bunch of my friends if they'd be willing and also posted on our LCA Animation Facebook group to see if any one was interested. I got a few responses, so I'm going to allow all that applied to record a couple of takes so me and Tyler can choose the voice that is most suited for the animation.
All Clips
As it is I that knows the people who are 'going to audition', I will be the one who will book out the sound booth and get everyone together to record, though I have given Tyler the option of coming along to help out/hear the recordings first hand. I think it would be beneficial if he comes along, as it means we can make a decision quickly and can move onto editing the audio rather than having to meet up to discuss the options we have, which will definitely be more time consuming.
There has been lots of progress made on this project in the last few days. Tyler finished the remaining character components which allowed me to continue with animating and return to scenes that required a character slotting into them. I was able to get a few new scenes worked on in time for our peer review that we had yesterday, and I slotted these into our animatic, which we put on display alongside some art boards showing some animation stills.
Progress up to Now
Peer Feedback
The feedback we got wasn't necessarily constructive, as it only really pointed out how well animated it was and how cute the characters were, which I can only assume means people like our work and think we're doing well. I must point out that the comment about the voice actor's talent was made by the voice actress herself, and we're actually considering re-recording the voice, sadly. We're looking for someone who sounds more enthusiastic to make the overall aesthetic of the animation more cheerful. We also discussed sound design briefly, and having sat through a talk with Jan Meinema I can say that this is practically a MUST. By using subtle sounds (for example, cockerels, tractors and animals) we can really help set the scene, and make it obvious of the space that the characters are in. So if it comes to re-recording our narration, we shall have to consider the pauses we can put into the script to allow for sound effects to come through.
Prior to the peer review, I was hoping to talk to Tyler about work load as I was beginning to struggle juggling my time, and was feeling a bit overwhelmed with how much animating I had to do on my own. Now having the critique and putting all the completed (or nearly completed) scenes together, I feel much better as there's not too much left to do animating wise. He has offered to take some of the animating, but considering it would be better for us to keep the settings and positions of the characters consistent throughout the scenes, it only makes sense for me to power through with the rest of the animating. If Tyler was to take some of the work load, I would have to send him ALL my components and project files to keep the consistency which would be impractical considering the file sizes. Also, by the time I will have sat down with him to teach him how to use some of the tools I could have got the animation finished myself. If Tyler was wanting to learn how to animate in this way I would have been happy to do this, but we both think it's best to try to get the animation finished in good time so we can concentrate on post-production and get the entry submitted.
As Tyler isn't going to be taking any of the animating responsibilities, he is going to make the finishing components that I can slot into scenes; Things such as bowls, information bubbles, fences, hay bails. I also pointed out to Tyler what Mike had suggested to me, which was to try and add more depth. In some scenes we had some depth with how the kitchen had been designed for instance, and having buildings on angles, but a lot of the components felt very flat. Now, I'm not massively concerned about this as we were aiming for a paper cut look anyway, and I think this only emphases this, but I suggested that if we wanted to try and work on this, some cows could be drawn up from different angles, such as the front and back rather than just seeing them from side-on. I have left this decision up to Tyler as I would be happy with either outcome, and it makes no difference to me work load wise, as I still have to slot some cows into our existing compositions.
As there is not a great deal I can animate without Tyler's finished character components, I thought it would be best to make a start on the scenes that don't require characters, and the first scene that came to mind was the planting of the beans. To get started, I drew the hole in Photoshop - which I had to go back and redraw at a larger size as it was too pixelated when I zoomed in on it in After Effects - and then imported this, and the beans that Tyler had provided, into the project I had made previously for the beanstalk scene.
Animating the beans was rather straight-forward as it is something that I have tackled before, but it was getting them to appear as though they were landing in the hole that was the issue. I couldn't bring the hole forward as the beans would disappear behind it, and if I brought the grass forward the hole would no longer be visible at all. I figured the best solution would be to mask the beans so that they sat nicely in the hole. This worked well, but I wanted to see whether there would be a quick way of masking the beans, rather than having to adjust the mask path for every frame. The closest I got to not having to do this was creating a tracking matte but the issue with masking in this way meant that the bean's colour and opacity was altered, which is not what I wanted. So in the end I had to animate frame by frame, but I found that if I alt-clicked the mask I had drawn I could move the whole mask rather than individual points, which meant I could simple rotate and move the mask so it lined up perfectly with the hole every time.
Alt-Clicked Mask
The next thing I addressed was the texture of the beanstalk. In our last meeting it was suggested to us that the beanstalk might look better if the grain of the leaf texture was vertical rather than horizontal, to help create the illusion that it was growing upwards. This was a quick fix and I very much agree with this feedback as I definitely prefer how it looks. I also adjusted the levels of the layers in After Effects as I could only do this frame by frame in Photoshop, in hopes that this would make the beanstalk stand out more from the green background, and I think there is a definite improvement.
My next step was to extend the beanstalk so that I could create a camera pan up it, leading to the A2 Milk Farm. I thought this would be a simple process, but I realised that enlarging the canvas size in the original Photoshop document, altered the size of the layers in the After Effects project, so I had to go back and re-position everything as I couldn't undo the save. This was a relatively large inconvenience but now I know to avoid doing this in the future, and to make new components in new files.
Progress With The Bean Scene
I'm really pleased with how far I have come today with this scene, and I don't think it's far off being finished. I think the camera movement could do with some easing in as it seems to move to fast too quickly, and the clouds could potentially do with some looking at, perhaps giving drop shadow to the odd one to give them more of a definitive shape.
When I showed Tyler he said that "it looked cool", so I'm taking that as a go-ahead to continue working in the way that I am, but when I next meet up with him I shall ask him his opinion on my ideas for improvement.
Today I have been working on rigging characters that Tyler has recently completed, in After Effects. I was able to drop the Mother character into my first scene test and scale her according, to see what the composition would now look like with her in it.
Scene One Test
To make sure the timings were correct with our animatic, I imported the audio into the project file so that I could animate the Mother accordingly. I think it works well, but I would like to hold the last pose for a little bit longer before it changes scene, just so it doesn't seem to cut too abruptly. I also think it would also be worth revisiting Jack's arm for this scene. The motion of him waving looks fine, but his arm doesn't rest naturally when he is walking and standing still.
In our last meeting, it was mentioned that it might be nice to adjust the colour scheme of the kitchen as it seems to dull in comparison to our other scenes. I did just that today, and I also tried out different textures to make the setting more interesting and consistent with the rest of our tests.
New Kitchen Environment
Test Animation
I imported the scene into After Effects to see how well it could be composed as 3D layers, and also to adjust the proportions of the chairs in comparison to the table. Once I was happy with this, I added the Mother to the composition to see how she would sit at the table. I realised that because of the way the 3D layers were positioned, I could either only have her hands on top of the table or below it. To get around this, I made the character 2D and duplicated the table layer, one of which was positioned above the character's arms. When her hand moved above the edge of the duplicated layer, I changed its opacity to 0%, so it appeared as though she was moving her hand from under the table and resting on it. The only issue with working in this way is when I make any camera movements - because she is a 2D layer - she will not move with the rest of the scene and instead will stay where she is. I will need to either come up with a solution to this problem, or simply reconsider using camera movements in this scene, and I will decide upon this when I am able to import Jack into the scene.
Tyler managed to finalise one of his character designs, which allowed me to get started on testing how they were going to be animated in After Effects. The first style I tested was making the separate layers into a hierarchy, and setting the keyframes for each movement I made. For the second test I tried using the puppet plug-in.
Test One - Layer Hierarchy
Test Two - Puppet Tool
I watched a series of YouTube videos about the plug-in and how to use it as I had no idea; The only reason why I knew it existed is because Oscar had been using it for one of his recent projects, and I thought it could be a good feature to test for my own work. The process itself was relatively easy to do, but I don't think it worked particularly well in this test and I think this is down to the components being on separate layers. I think if this technique was to work well, the different parts of the arm would have to be drawn on one layer, rather than being broken up into several (hand, forearm, shoulder).
I showed the tests to Tyler and explained that if we liked the style of the second test we could easily re-draw/model the character design, but we decided that we prefer the first test anyway. I think it's more fitting to the paper cut out style that we were striving for. So for in the future we are going to have to consider how the components of the character are going to move, and make sure that the edges are rounded/neat so that when they are animated there will be no gaps or 'ugly' edges.
Scene Look Test
I decided to create a look test, considering I have not yet had the chance to so with a character. I really like how it's coming along and the overall aesthetic, and how the character sits nicely in the environment. These tests have made me really eager to get started with animating.
I very quickly tested some different textures as it was suggested in our meeting, and I think I prefer it to my original tests. I like how the textures makes the shapes more interesting and this way gives the subjects more realism.
Texture Test
My next step with this project was to carry out a test animation of how the beanstalk would sprout of the ground. I completed some initial sketches before I got started so I knew how it was going to look like and how it was going to form, and once I had a good idea of what I was after, I did a quick sketchy animation in Photoshop.
Beanstalk Designs
Beanstalk Animation Test
I was really pleased with how it formed, and when I showed Tyler he thought it was very nice movement, so I went ahead and coloured in the frames in a similar style to how I had created other components. Once I had done this I experimented with textures once again, as the colours on their own feel too plain now I have seen what other works have looked like with texture.
Beanstalk Coloured Animation With Texture Test
Carrying out this test animation has made me really excited to get started with the rest of the production. I shall see what Tyler thinks of my work, and see what he has to offer in terms of final character designs and hopefully we can make a start soon.
Once again, myself and Tyler met up to discuss our progress and what we have come up with. I showed him the tests that I had been working on over the past few days and suggested that it would be much quicker to simply add a paper texture to a digital drawing rather than making paper cuts and scanning them in. He was very much on board with this idea, and even took it one step further and suggested that we could even explore different materials/textures for different components. I really like this idea and I have been assigned to do some tests to see whether this is what we want to go with.
Tyler also showed me his character designs, and we decided on elements that we both liked within the variety he had (even though I loved them all) so that he could go away and refine the designs and turn them into digital versions, considering we have now decided to work digitally. Not only do we think that this method will be much quicker and simpler than trying to experiment with paper, but we think it will be easier to work together digitally whilst being in separate rooms/locations.
We also tweaked some of the shots I had sketched in my thumb nailed storyboard, and we are now in a position where we are both happy with the story and direction. Now all that we need to do is find someone suitable to narrate our story, and we shall be able to make an animatic so we can ultimately work out timings and begin animating once pre-production is complete.
Now that our plan of action is clearer, we are both much more comfortable and confident that we can get the work done, and I'm excited to see how we continue to work together.
Today was the day of our first critique, and I think I speak for everyone in our group when I say I'm happy with how it went. We presented our slides - that I had put together prior - showing our progress so far, and everyone seemed pleased with how much testing we had done and where we were heading with our project.
Presentation Slides
The main concern was our sound. Obviously we weren't going to use our voices for the final cut and we had just used them so we could time our animatic, but it was stressed that we should try to reach out to voice actors to get a good quality narration, as a sub-standard voice may detract from how beautiful our visuals have potential to be. We have since decided that we are going to aim to get our recording done by the end of next week, and in the mean time we are also going to continue to do testing before we start animating.
Now that we have a list of clear aims to get our animation finished we have been able to plan out the rest of our schedule, with me and Wing taking the majority of the traditional animating, and Oscar taking charge on adding colour. I am much more comfortable now that we have a clearer plan of what needs to be done, and I feel like we are headed very much in the right direction.
It was only when I finished my animation tests in After Effects that I got the idea to add a paper texture straight to the original Photoshop file. I saved a few paper textures from Google images and laid them behind the layers I wanted to give the texture. I then changed the drawing layer to 'Multiply' so the texture showed through. This was such a simple answer to 'how do we get a digital drawing to look like it was made out of paper', that I can't believe I hadn't thought of it before. Especially because I'm doing a similar thing for my Applied project at the moment.
Paper Texture Test
I definitely think this has been the most beneficial test I have done so far, and was so quick and easy to do. This method also allows for greater creative control than adding Fractal Noise for instance, as we can simply choose images/create images as subtle or detailed as we want, meaning we can also create a much wider range of styles.
I thought it would be a good idea to create some quick animation tests to see how the paper style animation would look like in After Effects. I quickly made up a scene in Photoshop, consisting of one of the barn designs - which I had tried altering the colour of to make it represent the company's logo - and some fields.
Changing the Colour
Test One - Plain
For the first test, I simply made the components into 3D layers and made up the scene in after effects. I then animated a simple camera pan to see how the scene could work. I quite like how 'clean' it looks, and definitely would be happy to stick to this simple style. If we were going to go ahead and make an animation in this style, I would obviously have to reconsider the size of the original layers as some of the grass layers look pixelated due to being re-sized. It might even be worth creating some vector layers in Illustrator so this issue can be avoided, especially for some of the easier shapes.
Test Two - Fractal Noise
The second test shows how the pan will look if Fractal Noise is applied to the composition. I'm still unsure about whether I prefer this added texture; I like that it feels more like paper, but not sure whether I'd chose this over the cleanness of the first test. I shall discuss this with Tyler when we next meet up.
Test Three - Lighting
Test Four - Radial Shadows
I revisited creating shadows using lights. Though I like how I can more easily control where the shadow appears, I don't like that it makes the composition dull in colour, though if I increase the intensity of the light, it begins to shine too brightly on the layers which looks even worse. So I tried a different way of creating the shadows. This time I looked at creating them using the Radial Shadow effect, and very much preferred these results. I was able to easily change the light source position, and the distance and properties of the shadows, but still retained the brightness of the original layers. I think if we go for any shadows, it should be in this way.
I wanted to carry out some quick tests with after effects to see whether I could make the digital drawings look more like paper cut outs. To do this, I coloured my first kitchen design in Photoshop, making sure that each of the room's components were on separate layers. Once I had got them in the right position in a composition in After Effects, I experimented with the effect 'Fractal Noise'.
Original Drawing
Fractal Noise Test
I quite like this effect and think it could be a good alternative to scanning in paper components to achieve a realistic paper texture. This method would also mean that we could make quick adjustments to the shapes in Photoshop if we needed to, which would save us time and money (won't have to keep buying paper). We will be able to change the subtlety of the effect too, and choose which components we want to have this texture; Here I gave the background components of the kitchen Fractal Noise as I wanted the dining table and chairs - the main focus of this scene - stand out.
AE Light Casting Shadows Test
AE Drop Shadow Effect Test
I also experimented briefly with shadows. In my first test I created a light layer, and set the foreground components to cast shadows. In the second test, I simply added a drop shadow effect to each of the components and experimented with the direction and softness of the shadow. I'm not sure what I think of these tests. I quite like that it makes the subjects stand out from the background, almost like they have simply been placed over a 2D backdrop, but I'm not sure whether this is the look we are aiming for. If this is something we want to pursue, I think I prefer the drop shadows to the lighting, as this method doesn't make the rest of the scene duller, yet retains their original colours.
Here is a quick test I carried out, looking at how colour could be introduced into the animation. I made a few watercolour drops in Photoshop using some brushes I was experimenting with and imported them into After Effects and used masks to make them appear on the 'page'.
Watercolour Test
When we last met up as a group we talked about wanting to carry out transition tests, both digitally and traditionally to see what medium we wanted to go with. I produced a very quick transition test of our first scene to see how the lines could potentially form the subject, in the case the pregnant lady's belly.
Transition Plan
Traditional Transition Test
When we discussed our progress with Martin and Sara, Martin told us about how he had animated his transitions over the course of 16 frames when working at 24fps, and kept this consistent throughout his work. We decided to test this with our own transitions, and that is what I have done here. The lines form the Mother's stomach 16 frames into the animation. The hands are then animated on 2s. Personally, I thought this seemed a bit too quick, but Oscar and Wing thought this could be down to how quickly the animation ends, and that it will look fine when more of the story is animated afterwards.
I personally thought this test went well, and I like the look of the fine-liner against the digitally made 'watercolour paper'. It was also a nice change from animating digitally and if further tests go well I would love to return to this method. We shall discuss this on Monday's critique and see what others have to say about what we have got so far.
So far I have been able to make a start on the designs for the farmhouse and the kitchen interior, the Giant's barn and the A2 Milk containers.
Barn Designs
I started off with the barn design. I made sure to keep the designs quite simple and only add splashes of detail, so that if we came to make them in paper it would be easy to cut out and reproduce. I also tried to keep the amount of colours to a minimum so that we wouldn't have to invest in lots of different shades of paper. It only occurred to me after I had finished that it might have been a nice idea to have parts of the barn in the A2 Milk logo colours, but the colours are something that can easily be adjusted if we decide on it.
Farmhouse Designs
When I was designing the farmhouses, I tried to avoid using purple colours/tones so that it would be easier to differentiate between the normal farm and the A2 Milk farm. I also avoided testing greens as I figured the land surround the house would be mostly green and I wanted the house to stand out. Again, the colours are negotiable and we will be able to decide what style we want to go for when we carry out testing.
Kitchen Design
Before our meeting, I managed to produce a line drawing of a potential kitchen. We thought it looked too detailed, but thinking about it, when reproduced in block colours I don't think it shall be a big contrast to the rest of our designs. There is also a chance that we won't need to see the kitchen from any other angle other than head-on, and if so we could spend more time on this background as we shall only need to make it the one time. Again, this can be confirmed when we discuss the thumbnails that I produced, but in the mean time I shall continue designing kitchens so we have a variety to choose from.
A2 Milk Containers
I very quickly considered the milk containers that could be used throughout the animation. They could potentially be on the table at the end of the animation when Jack finds he can drink their milk.
