ba3bkmcollaboration

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BA3b Production Team Collaboration - Animation:

This is the final animation of the desert scene for my group’s film. I felt that my original pre-visualisation of this scene was lacking dynamic animation, especially for Norman. I decided to make Norman turn around and face the camera, and then make the house sink whilst he is turned away from it, as I felt that this make the scene more humorous, and allowed Norman to move around more. I also changed his reaction of the house being destroyed, making him surprised at the sinking house, rather than raise his arms up and lower them slowly in time with the house. After receiving feedback on my scene, I made the house sink at an angle, as it was suggested to me that by making the house’s movement asymmetrical, it would make it clearer to the audience that the house is sinking. Additionally, I added a ‘DANGER! SINKHOLE” sign to visually indicate to the audience how the house will be demolished before it occurs. This improved my scene a lot, and made it more entertaining and gave Norman more opportunity to show his character.

This is my last scene to be added to my group’s animation. We have received the music files from the local college, and we are all very impressed with the music scores they have produced for our film. I was very pleased that I decided to ask for an original score, as it allowed me to improve my writing and networking skills; I wrote a brief as well to explain our film further, and the type of music we wanted, and I felt that each student had created a different piece of music that was appropriate for our film. We were unable to use every music piece - though we found it difficult to choose between them - however we used as many as possible where appropriate in our film. We chose the pieces of music we felt communicated Norman’s emotions, as well as music that referenced sci-fi sounds/music.

My group and I found out that the reason the pen and character model would cause Maya to crash was due to history being left on both models. When I create animations in the future, I should check that the models have had their history cleared before I begin animating, as this will help me to avoid having issues with the models in the animation process later on.

[ba3bkmcollaboration]

BA3b Production Team Collaboration - Animation:

This is the final animation for my introduction scene. I am pleased with this scene, especially the secondary animation on Norman’s nose and tie, as these give Norman’s movement realism. I also like the environmental asset animations, such as the bricks rolling after the sign falls down on the house, the pen animations, and the movement of the clipboard, as I found it difficult to make the animation of the clipboard in Norman’s hand realistic, though I feel that the final animation for this is appealing and convincing.

I have added a glow effect to the scene so that it is clear that the pen is causing Norman to transport to a new dimension. I added a blue and white glow to the pen to make it clear to the audience that the pen has unusual properties. I edited the effects using After Effects, using the rotobrush and masking tools to select the pen, and edit the glow affect to it.

[ba3bkmcollaboration]

BA3b Production Team Collaboration - Animation:

This is the rendered animation for my pantomime/theatre scene. I found it difficult to animate Norman falling over, as I had to find the core point that he would pivot from. I found out that this was Norman’s waist/hips. I animated the key movement here first, then animated the the rest of the model so that Norman’s movement had follow-through action in his chest and head, which made his fall more convincing. I am pleased with this piece of dynamic animation, however I found it challenging to make sure that none of Norman’s clothes collided - this occurred mostly with his coat and his shirt - however I did manage to fix these errors in my animated scene.

I also responded to feedback for my scene, and edited the position of the camera so that Norman’s hand looks more natural as he looks at the pen close-up.

Like my introduction scene, I have added a glow effect to my pantomime/theatre scene. I have used the same colours and effects to ensure that there is consistency between these scenes. I am pleased with the effects I have created for my animations, though I feel that the effects I have created for this scene is 

[ba3bkmcollaboration]

BA3b Production Team Collaboration - Visual Research:

I researched various job salaries for some of the major roles for our animated film, so that I could create a budget list that would tell my group and I how much our film would cost roughly to make.

Director -  Minimum ~ $30,000 = £23,619

Animation Careers Review (2019) Animation Director - Career Profile [Online] Available from: https://www.animationcareerreview.com/articles/animation-director-career-profile [Accessed: 14/5/19]

Producer - Minimum ~ £18,000

Prospects (2019) Producer [Online] Available from: https://www.prospects.ac.uk/job-profiles/television-film-video-producer [Accessed: 14/5/19]

3D Modelling Artist - ~£25,000

Payscale (2019) 3D Artist [Online] Available from: https://www.payscale.com/research/UK/Job=3d_Artist/Salary [Accessed: 14/5/19]

Sound Designer - ~$51,000 = £40,152

Payscale (2019) Sound Designer [Online] Available from: https://www.payscale.com/research/US/Job=Sound_Designer/Salary [Accessed: 14/5/19]

Musician - ~$40,000 = £31,492

Payscale (2019) Musician or Singer [Online] Available from: https://www.payscale.com/research/US/Job=Musician_or_Singer/Salary [Accessed: 14/5/19]

Voice-Over/ Voice Actor/Actress - ~$39 per hour = £30.70 per hour

Payscale (2019) Voice-Over Talent [Online] Available from: https://www.payscale.com/research/US/Job=Voice-Over_Talent/Hourly_Rate [Accessed: 14/5/19]

R&D (Research & Development) - The cost of R&D varies, one source suggests ~$7,500 = £5,904, whilst another suggests that it is an additional expense. Due to our project focusing on research, experimentation and development, I have listed the R&D as £10 per day.

cdn2 (No Date) How Much Does An R&D Study Cost? [Online] Available from: http://cdn2.hubspot.net/hub/23880/file-2363311048-pdf/How_Much_Does_An_RD_Study_Cost-1.pdf?__hssc=135015022.17.1421936067418&__hstc=135015022.c3622cbd031c6e62e12840c5d3d95007.1417464519960.1421866476618.1421936067418.40&hsCtaTracking=fd5cf471-e084-4e28-bb52-2a3ad3978f35%7Cfcb3fc59-2b30-43e8-a7eb-f1fd5281e7ef&t=1457719511376 [Accessed: 14/5/19]

Investopedia (2019) Research and Development (R&D) [Online] Available from: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/r/research-and-development-expenses.asp [Accessed: 14/5/19]

For my group’s budget list, I will reduce these salaries to fit a junior/beginner rate, and will calculate roughly how much our film would cost to make, including the key production team roles, such as producer, animator, designer, and sound artist.

I also looked at additional expenses, such as softwares that we would use, to find out how much these would cost, so that I could add them to our total budget list.

Additional Expenses:

Autodesk Maya - ~ £1,000

Autodesk (2019) Maya [Online] Available from: https://www.autodesk.com/products/maya/overview# [Accessed: 14/5/19]

Adobe Software - ~ £600

Adobe (2019) Adobe UK [Online] Available from: https://www.adobe.com/uk/ [Accessed: 14/5/19]

Render Farm - there are varying prices for render farms, but one source suggests ~£80 per render, so I will round this to £80 per day.

RealSpace (2019) 3D Render Farm [Online] Available from: https://www.realspace3d.com/resources/3d-rendering-pricing-guide/ [Accessed: 14/5/19]

From this research, I can see that to create my group’s final film, it would cost us around £12,000. This is quite expensive for the short film we are creating, however I can see that the software affects the overall cost of the project. As my group and I have had multiple roles for this project, I have listed most of the job roles we had between us. I have calculated how much these jobs would make, and have reduced them slightly to suit a junior wage, as this would likely be what we would earn at a beginner-level job in the creative industry.

BA3b Production Team Collaboration - Visual Research:

I have researched 80s sci-fi posters to generate ideas for a poster design for our animated film. I have created a rough design of a poster to help my group and I decide what we would like on our final poster. 

This is our final poster for our film. I like how the poster utilises a warm colour palette, and uses black and white to draw the eye to the titles and credits on the poster.

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BA3b Production Team Collaboration - Visual Research:

I researched some montages to see how my group and I could edit our scenes alongside music, and how we can make our scenes feel consistent to each other, but varied enough that they feel like a montage.

[1] I looked at the film The Plank to see how a montage between two characters can be made interesting.  In this video, the character’s actions tell the story. The camera is also framed to show the action, so that the audience knows where to focus on in the shot. Whilst dialogue is used, it is used less at the beginning, which shows that visual storytelling is important for establishing scenes.

For my group’s animation, using less dialogue will be important, as most of the story comes from the visuals, notably the house being destroyed. We can also use music instead of dialogue, or use less dialogue to allow the visuals to reveal the story.

[1] The Plank (1967) [Video Online] Available from: https://youtu.be/NW9sr1KMoqI?t=264 [Accessed: 28/4/19]

[2] I also looked at the montage scene from Up to see how a montage with no dialogue can use visual imagery to tell a story to the audience. I also wanted to see how a montage is effective in an animated format. This video also includes the animatic of the scene, which is interesting to see as it shows how the concept and final animation differ. Both characters are often either in the centre of the frame, or at opposite ends, which help to show motion in the frame and fill the frame respectively. Objects are also used as transitions to new scenes, which are also sometimes match cuts, such as the tie scenes. This suggests that objects can be used to also to link scenes together, but also to tell a story.

When creating my animated scenes, I should consider how objects can emphasise storytelling, and how using less or no dialogue can allow the audience to focus on the details within the scene. As our scenes need to be consistent, we will use the same transition screen, and will link our scenes by using the same camera shot of the house for the beginning and end of each scene.

[2] Up (2009) [Video Online] Available from: https://youtu.be/XoyZmu0IOKc [Accessed: 16/5/19]

[3]  I also looked at the famous montage scene from Rocky to see how music can emphasise emotion in a montage. In this clip, there are some sound effects, however, they are used sparingly, which makes them more intense when they are used. We also see frequent closeups on the character, as well as full shots of the character to emphasise the character’s emotions and the challenges he faces as he trains. The character’s posing is also good, which makes the scenes more intense when they are close up.

For my scenes, I should consider using close up shots when I want to exaggerate Norman’s expressions and actions, as this will make the action more intense and dynamic.

[3] Rocky (1976)  Rocky (8/10) Movie CLIP - Training Montage (1976) HD [Video Online] Available from: https://youtu.be/_YYmfM2TfUA [Accessed: 16/5/19]

From my research, it could be suggested that montages focus on a character(s) personal experiences. Our film focuses on the location Norman visits and Norman’s reaction to them, so we should focus on making Norman’s reactions clear in our film, and especially in the montage scene, so that the audience will be able to empathise with him more. We should also carefully consider how music will affect the montage scene, and whether we should use sound in the montage scenes, as this may affect the appeal of the scenes. As well as this, strong character posing will also affect the success of our film. Norman’s poses should be strong when expressing dynamic actions and expressions, and should be more reserved when he is idle, as this will contrast well between the different actions.

[ba3bkmcollaboration]

BA3b Production Team Collaboration - Development:

This is the final version of the pantomime/theatre scene for my group’s project. I am pleased with the cinematography of this scene, and I think that by framing the house from a further distance makes the scene stronger. I moved the camera closer when the house is the focus point, as I wanted to draw attention to it so that the audience will know that this object is important.

I also added a close up of Norman’s hand clicking the pen at the end, as suggested to me in my pre-visulisation animatic. I think that this makes the scene stronger, and allows the audience to feel closer to the character, as the camera has brought the audience closer to Norman, both physically and in an empathetic way.

I have decided to add a glow effect to make Norman’s entrance and exit from the scene more dynamic. My group and I discussed about adding a glow effect to each scene, however we felt that it was not necessary to do this for every scene, and instead decided to only include glow effects for both the introduction scene and the pantomime/theatre scene, as this will visually indicate to the audience that the pen causes Norman to travel through dimensions, and by having a eye-catching effect for this, it will allow me to improve my scene to benefit my group’s story.

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BA3b Production Team Collaboration - Development:

I parent constrained the pen to Norman’s hand for this animation, as I found it difficult to match the pen’s position to Norman’s hand in the intro animation. I was also unable to parent the pen to the hand in that animation, as the Norman model was a reference, and so the controller curves could not be edited in any way (apart from keyframing). For this animation, I exported the model and copied it into a new scene with the environment from the intro scene. I was then able to parent the pen to the hand, which will make animating the pen in the scene easier.

I have found that the pen does slow the scene considerably, which sometimes crashes Maya. This was also an issue in the introduction scene, however after checking the settings I was unable to find a solution to the issue. I can hide the pen on a layer to make the program crash less, and I have also done this for the character model when I am able to.

[ba3bkmcollaboration]

BA3b Production Team Collaboration - Development:

This is an animation test of Norman falling over. I wanted Norman to fall down the first time he transports to a new dimension, as it is unexpected, and it also allows me to practice dynamic character animation in my project, as I would like to be a character animator, which I am promoting in my personal portfolio project, I would like to use this animation when complete in my portfolio and showreel, as I think that it is a good example of a dynamic character animation.

I used myself as reference to attempt to create a realistic fall. I thought about where Norman’s hands would be as he falls, and how Norman would react to suddenly falling with a feeling of surprise and shock. I am pleased with this animation, as the timing of Norman’s fall looks natural. I still need to finish refining this animation, however I am pleased with it at this stage.

[ba3bkmcollaboration]

BA3b Production Team Collaboration - Development:

I have been creating the stepped animation for the pantomime/theatre scene for my group’s animation project.

I have utilised some of the video references we created for our various scenes for this animation, as I wanted to see how I can make the animation reflect real actions. I will create a comparison video between my animated scene and the video reference in my experimental reel to be able to reflect on my ability to animate from reference, and how I have adapted my own style to the animation.

[ba3bkmcollaboration]

BA3b Production Team Collaboration - Visual Research:

I have researched anime to understand how exaggerated expressions can emphasise emotion in animation.

This video shows how camera framing and use of colour also affect the emotion in a scene. The strong lines and colour palette on more intense shots makes them vibrant and eye-catching to the audience.

When animating my scenes, I should try to animate my character’s expressions so that they are exaggerated when appropriate. By doing this, I will be able to make my scenes emphasise Norman’s emotions more when appropriate. This will be most effective in my pantomime scene, as Norman has a range of different emotions in this scene, so it will be beneficial to me if I emphasise the extreme emotions Norman has, as this will create variation in the different expressions, and will allow me to practice the timing of expressions in my character animation.

Nichijou (2011) Nichijou - Yukko goes to a coffee shop [Video Online] Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcQFBdLNvZU [Accessed: 27/4/19]

[ba3bkmcollaboration]

BA3b Production Team Collaboration - Visual Research:

I researched examples of repetition in film to see how my group and I can make the dimension hopping to different locations interesting for Norman. As our scenes follow a similar story, and the only changing factors are Norman and the style of house that is destroyed, we want our scenes to feel familiar, but also be different so that the story is interesting.

[1] I researched Groundhog Day (1993) to see how the main character reacts to repeating the same day. As Norman will be reacting to his house being destroyed, he will react in different ways to the same incident. In the video above, the main character walks slowly with confusion to the events that are the same as the previous day. I think that Norman’s reaction would be similar, especially in the pantomime scene, as this will be the first time Norman has been transported to a new dimension, and he will be surprised and confused by this.

[1] Groundhog Day (1993) Groundhog Day... Again - Groundhog Day (2/8) Movie CLIP (1993) HD [Video Online] Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQCG2AwzTxA [Accessed: 16/5/19]

[2] Another example of repetition in film is in Edge of Tomorrow, where the main character comes back to life until he has fulfilled his purpose. In this scene, the main character is punished for failing his training, making him ‘restart’ his life again. This is an interesting use of repetition as it allows the audience to see how the character makes mistakes, and how he overcomes them. We can also see how many times he fails, which makes him an empathetic character to audiences.

When creating our animation, we should consider how Norman’s failures in finding an destroyed house can be made different for each location. By having a consistency of repetition, in this case, Norman’s house being destroyed, we keep our story consistent. However, we will need to ensure that each scene is varied enough so that our film remains appealing throughout.

[2] Edge of Tomorrow (2014) Edge of tomorrow (2014) - Training [1080p] [Video Online] Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drH0qdRXKUo [Accessed: 16/5/19]

From this research, I can see that repetition is appropriate in film when the character responds to the repetition in some way. For our film, Norman should react to each scene in a different way, as this will ensure that our scenes vary, but still maintain the consistent element of Norman’s house being destroyed. We should also ensure that Norman’s reactions change with each house that is destroyed, so that his personality develops more with each new dimension. This will make the audience feel empathy for Norman, as he will be able to express more emotion throughout the film.

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BA3b Production Team Collaboration - Visual Research:

I researched how to create a glow effect in After Effects so that I could create a glow effect for the pen device for my scenes. We decided to add a glow effect after deciding that the intro scene needed visual effects to show the audience that the pen causes the dimensional travel. We thought that this would make the scenes more consistent.

This video suggests two methods to create a glow effect in After Effects: using the rotobrush tool and masking tools, and using the pen and masking tools. I will experiment with both of these tools to see which is most effective in creating the glow effect I want for my scenes. I will also need to make these effects consistent, so I will use the same colour palettes and similar settings to create the glow effect for the pen.

Surfaced Studio (2013) How To Make Things Glow in Adobe After Effects [Video Online] Available from: https://youtu.be/VB-MKEjao3s [Accessed: 24/4/19]

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BA3b Production Team Collaboration - Development:

This is the final animation for the intro scene for my group’s animation.

As we wanted our transition scenes to be consistent, we decided to make the endings of each scene have some consistency as well. We decided that we would make Norman hover off the ground slightly when he clicks the pen, so that when he lands in the new dimension, he lands on the ground from falling slightly above it. For this, I adapted my scene so that when Norman clicks the pen, he hovers above the ground for a second before disappearing. We decided as a group that Norman should fall over the first time he arrives in a new dimension, to show that when Norman clicks the pen he is slightly above the ground, and to make our scenes more diverse.

[ba3bkmcollaboration]

BA3b Production Team Collaboration - Development:

I have been improving my animated scene to utilise more of the 12 principles of animation. As I would like to include this animation as part of my showreel, I wanted to express a good use of animation principles to showcase my skills.

I have been refining the animation from my stepped animation, as I am confident with the keyframes I have created. I wanted my spline animation to show fluidity in Norman’s actions, so I focused on creating strong secondary animation to make Norman’s movements look more realistic and appealing. I still need to refine areas, such as preventing the tie from moving into the shirt, and I want to adjust the movement of Norman more so that it looks natural. I also would like to give Norman more expressions, as we wanted to make our character have exaggerated expressions similar to anime/Japanese animation.

I encountered issues whilst animating the pen whilst Norman was holding it; as I could not make the pen move with Norman’s hand, I have had to manually animate it, which meant that when Norman’s hand was in certain positions, I needed to adjust the pen to be seen clearly. I decided to add another close-up shot of Norman’s hand, so that the text on the pen could be read clearly (in case the text is difficult to read when it is on the ground in a previous shot). Norman now moves his fingers out of the way to read the text on the pen, which I feel adds more personality to the character. Moreover, the cinematography of this shot makes the scene easier to understand; the scene is now clearer, and this will communicate to the audience visually that the pen is important to the story. We are also closer to the object in this shot, so this will also help the audience to empathise more with the character, as we are seeing the pen from his point of view. I will continue to refine my animation to improve areas of it, was I would like my animation to be as fluid and appealing as possible.

[ba3bkmcollaboration]

BA3b Production Team Collaboration - Development:

These are various assets I have made for my introduction scene. Steffan has made the Norman model, and Josh has made most of the environment models. Mathew has made the Dimension Ink text, as well as the logo. We wanted the logo to look appealing and reference sci-fi science facility logos, so we decided to make the ‘o’ an ink blot to reflect the film’s name. I have created the sign for the Dimension Ink logo to appear, as well as the textures that appear on them. I also modelled the clipboard, and the paper document that appears in the final film. I revisited the paper document as we needed to update the render of the house with the final version, as the previous version used an older model of the houses. As I wanted the scene as consistent as possible, I changed this. I think that the change was necessary, as without it the comparison at the beginning between the render on the document, and the destroyed house would look inconsistent.

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BA3b Production Team Collaboration - Development:

As each of our scenes require Norman to transport from one dimension to the next, we decided that using a glow or bright light would allow Norman to travel in an interesting way, rather than simply disappear. We decided that the light would come from the pen, as this is the travelling device, and would therefore make more sense to start that light at this point. I experimented with different lights, however I found that none of the lights created the effect of the pen giving off light. I also tried using a sphere that I attempted to illuminate, however I was unable to make this work effectively either. I used spot lights, point lights, area lights and ambient lights. The ambient light was the most effective, however it illuminated the whole scene, rather than the one object, and this was not the effect I wanted for the scene. 

I found a tutorial that demonstrates creating a glow effect on both a static and moving object in After Effects, so I will attempt to create a glow/light effect in the post-production stage of our project. Adding additional elements After Effects will also help me to keep my animation consistent with the rest of the group’s work, as some of my group’s work is also using assets created in After Effects, so this will add more consistency to the animation style and effects. I will need to ensure that my effects match the rest of my group, as this may look disorientating, or the art styles may clash if I create effects that are too different from the rest of the group’s work. As our animation style is cartoony, I will need to ensure that my effects have a cartoony look to them to ensure that the effects are an appropriate style to match with our animation as well.

[ba3bkmcollaboration]

BA3b Production Team Collaboration - Development:

I have animated the pen manually to match the hand’s movement. As I was unable to parent the pen to the hand, I have matched the animation of the pen to the hand as closely as possible to look as though the pen is moving with his hand. When I create the pantomime scene, I will try a different method of bringing the assets into the scene to see if I can parent the pen to the hand, as this will make it easier for me to animate the hand and the pen together.