Extended Practice: Creating a Live Action Video

As I was going to need a lot of reference material to animate my film, I thought it would be best to record a Live Action Video. For authenticity, I got my sisters together to help me film the footage, and recorded each scene from my animatic a number of times, so I could be more selective with which takes worked the best.

Kites: Live Action Video

I thought the LAV was a good idea, not just for reference, but it gave me a better understanding of the timing of the animation. In order to make the video, I slotted in the selected/edited scenes into my animatic, and I found that the LAV and the animatic were similar in length, meaning that I had been accurate in the timings of my animatic to begin with.

The LAV - despite the acting being absolutely terrible in every way, which was made well aware to me in our 'presenting animatics' critique - was a big help to me. It allowed me to feel more confident with the shot framing and the story of the film, as it was a better indicator of how the scenes flowed and how the characters moved. I shall be referring back to this intently rather than my animatic, as I shall study the movements when it comes to animating, and these are also my preferred timings.

I have since been in contact with my music group to inform them about the LAV, and told them that they should work with these timings when producing any demos/music.