digitalmediadesign1styear

[digitalmediadesign1styear]

After further editing, I finally finished the showreel. I'll admit that the end of the showreel isn't as well done as the first half, especially the credits showing my details which I think might be a little long but I wasn't sure what else I would insert into the showreel which I would consider good enough for people to see.

[digitalmediadesign1styear]

After a bit of deliberating on how I would edit the showreel, I was finally able to have an idea of the editing style. I used transitions when showcasing different works and used simple text fly-in animations in PremierePro. In one particular scene, I took the opportunity to make a zoom-screen transition as well. Then I synced up the beats to the transitions and when I showed it to my tutor he thought it was quite good. Now I just have a little bit of music left although I'm not sure what else I could insert into the timeline.

[digitalmediadesign1styear]

CV Revision

After a bit of rewriting of my CV, I graded it in 360 again and finally got it to be in green. The main problems on the CV are some inconsistencies with some spelling and some repeated phrases which prevent me from going higher right now.

[digitalmediadesign1styear]

Degree Project Evaluation

As the Degree Project reaches its final stage, I take a look back at my initial ideas and the prospectus and reflect on what I have achieved in this time. As I have demonstrated in previous posts and the prospectus, the artefact acts as a spoof or a sort of parody of the popular anthology series “The Twilight Zone” with also some elements from a show I grew up with “Ultra Q”. The themes of the artefact sort of revolve around the depleting mental health of the main character, the main plot and themes are a reference to a specific episode from “The Twilight Zone” mainly “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet”. While the plot and setting of my artefact are different, the key points like the themes and also the usage of “supernatural elements” are based on it. Some plot points are also directly inspired by the episode, with other characters not believing the main character’s rambling and the ending. In the prospectus, I mentioned the “kaiju” or giant monster element which I would implement into the artefact but isn’t as realized as I expected it to be. While some of it is still present in the final piece, it is more like an easter egg at this point. Another element from “Ultra Q” I have lifted from is its intro sequence, which I have done by creating a main visual of the project and editing in Premiere Pro. I would say that the main difference between the themes of my artefact and the other media inspired by it is the pacing of the plot. Even with about 5-6 minutes of the whole piece, I think the pacing of my plot does move pretty quickly when compared to the Twilight Zone episode. Also, I think my plot does sort of rely on background information and speculation which while hinted in the final artefact does sort of get lost within the main plot. Also, while mentioning the plot, the dialogue of the characters in my artefact is sort of ‘cheesy’, more specifically the main character’s dialogue. While the dialogue being ‘cheesy’ and non-sensical is in relation to the plot, I think the way he approaches other characters with his monologue and the topics he brings up is silly. However as I thought about it, I think the silliness and ‘cheesy’ factor of the piece can bring a sort of charm’ to the piece. This charm is further enhanced by the voice recordings of the characters, which while not voice recorded in a proper recording studio like I planned in the prospectus was generated by using an AI voice generator called ElevenLabs. While the voice lines generated are surprisingly life-like, the tone of the voices doesn’t quite fit with the emotions of the characters in specific scenes. If I could I would have recorded the voice lines instead of using AI voices but because of some scheduling issues with the students from sound design, I wasn’t able to do it. Moving forward, if I were to make more pieces like this, that’s one thing I would like to improve.

            Looking back at it now, this concept could have been done in live-action form instead of animation. So, I thought it would be interesting to wonder why I chose to do 3D animation instead of live-action. One the main reasons I can think of is because I was more familiar in working in 3D animation by the time I wrote the prospectus and wanted to expand on it. Although my work doesn’t really reflect it that much. I think animation allows more freedom in the media it creates. Animation allows for more wacky situations and expressive freedom, despite my work being more grounded in realism I would say. 

            Going into a bit of the production aspect, one thing that comes to mind I didn’t really manage to achieve in the artefact is the texturing. Most of the assets in my artefact all had just a flat colour as their texture, and while I did do some texturing work, the textures weren’t made by myself. Instead, I used a blender add-on called Poliigon where I used some of their textures after I subscribed for their service. Also, I did use some of their models in the office scene but most of the models in the overall environment were made by me. If there was one thing I did improve compared to my previous works is the character expressions and movement. The characters in my artefact actually have legs as compared to my previous works, and they all have facial expressions as compared to the emotionless eyes of my previous characters. When it comes to the facial animations, I went with a different solution. At first, I sculpted out the eyes of the main character in blender as well for the prototype. However, as the project progressed, I decided to give the characters 2D facial animations instead. I created the faces in Photoshop using some references from some anime-like styles and exported them as PDFs which I then used as textures for the faces using planes. Looking back, I gave some of the characters quite extreme expressions, especially when it comes to the effects like the surprised face and sweat. The facial expressions were also quite exaggerated, mostly when present on side characters. The main character had the least emotive facial emotions in context to the plot so I exaggerated his eyes by adding shading underneath them to signify he has a tired expression. I would say the overall visual of the piece has improved compared to my last pieces with my attempts at better lighting and the utilization of another engine, I won’t say it necessarily reaches a ‘professional’ level though. Ironically, I stated in the prospectus that I chose 3D over 2D because it allows for better atmosphere and lighting but the characters have a mix of 3D and 2D in it. While I think the 2D faces on the characters don’t look too bad, if viewed from other angles like a side view it can look a little odd, since the faces aren’t stuck on the surface of the faces. In regards to the character movements, some of it was done through Mixamo’s character rigger by importing my characters but I did also modify the bones to get into poses and positions I wanted. There were also some movements that I rigged myself. 

            In terms of sound design, I already mentioned the voice lines but initially I wanted to create a more Twilight Zone like soundscape which uses orchestral instruments and other elements in something like FL studio but since the overall animation of the scenes took up quite a bit of time, I resorted to using simpler methods of producing background tracks for the piece. Instead of the more mysterious and unsettling vibe of some Twilight Zone music, the music I created had more of a vhs horror like feel to it. I used Groovepad which is a beat maker app which is quite simple to utilize. Also, some of the sound effects in the artefact were also from Epidemic Sound, with a subscription to their service as well.

            I would also like to mention the camera shots which was mostly done through the cameras in blender. After exporting and editing in blender, I reworked some shots to be closer and which ones to scrap with advice from my tutor. A few of the shots included some close-up shots which was a mistake I made during my first year that slipped my mind during the making. A few of the shots were cut and some scenes were also reworked using different camera angles and some continuity issues were also fixed. This aspect is something I’ll be sure to be aware of moving forward. 

            When editing the piece in Premiere, I first exported each individual scene in pngs from Blender. Then I turned the pngs into an image sequence in Premiere and exported it as a video. After I’ve done that for each scene, I brought it into Premiere with the sequence settings in DNX 1080p and 25fps. Initially, I wanted to include a black-and-white filter that would make my artefact look ‘vintage’, but after a tutorial, I decided to remove it as it was quite blurry which loses a lot of the quality of the image sequences.

            The distribution of the artefact will also be the same as what I have done with my previous projects, posting it up on YouTube. Although I was thinking of making it public instead of leaving it on unlisted, unlike my other pieces to build an online presence. Although I don’t think the standard of my work holds up to other animated shorts done by others on YouTube.

            Out of all the projects I have done during my study at UH, I think this project is the most realized in terms of what I have planned in the prospectus. It does not have a lot of scrapped and unused assets unlike my independent project and the narrative mostly stuck throughout the development processes. While I did mention some things that I can improve on, if there was one thing I can improve on is the visuals which might look a little flat and low poly. But with the project being my most ambitious in terms of scope and setting, I think I did an alright job. Maybe sometime down the line, I will release a remaster of the piece with more improvements, but that’s a project for another day. Overall, I did what I set out to achieve and am quite satisfied with the project and my studies at UH.

[digitalmediadesign1styear]

For scene 3 which takes place in the interview room, I of course did stuff like I did with the other scenes, making them talk with keyframes, switching eyes and mouths. For this scene in particular, I added the mascot character's body (minus the legs and tail) and parent it to the head of the boss character. I also made them visible at specific time frames and hid them as well using keyframes.

[digitalmediadesign1styear]

ShowReel Editing

One of the aspects I find more difficult for the submission is the showreel. While the showreel is meant to be a video showcasing some of our work, I wasn't sure what to use and how I would edit the work. First things first, I created the soundtrack for the showreel using an app called groovepad, the style of music is a jazzy beat type of music which my tutor noted is reminiscent of an old TV show he watched. I sped up some of the clips and trimmed down the videos, as the showreel is meant to tempt people to visit the portfolio site to check out the work. I've chosen some of my works from my 1st and 2nd year of study and placed them in the timeline unsure of how to edit them for now.

[digitalmediadesign1styear]

CV, Cover Letter, and Gratitude letter

One of our deliverables for this project also included a CV/resume, cover letter, and gratitude letter. We were taught about the ATS system and how to write a CV that will increase the chances of getting through the applicant system when applying for a job. Without getting into too much detail, our main task is to write an ATS-friendly CV, a cover letter and a gratitude letter. The cover letter and gratitude letter aren't too hard to complete with a ready-written template shown in the tutor's PowerPoint presentation which can be copied (as said by the tutor). The main problem for me was the CV.

When creating the CV, we were told to grade the CV on the UH career website using the 360 function to determine the percentage of our CV. We were told to score at least 95% in the system to determine whether or not our CV was ATS-friendly. However, mine only scored a measly 70% and above with other attempts not being much higher. One of the main problems I had with the CV was that I didn't know what else I could add to the content without exaggerating it. Especially since I didn't have much to write in the work experience section as I have never had experience working in a professional setting. However, after reading the feedback and also looking at some examples from classmates, I now sort of have an idea of how to improve the CV. I'll revise the CV by adding some more sections profiles and interests, I'll also add bullet points to sections for easier reading as well. As for work experience, my friend suggested writing about some experiences in team projects which I thought is a good idea since we've had a few of those, especially during the 2nd year.

[digitalmediadesign1styear]

I kept working on the first scene. I decided to populate the scene with some bystanders using models of side characters and recolouring them, whose purpose is to just walk past the main character and some even take a glance at the main character while walking away. I also applied a texture on the ground and the company building using textures from poliigon. The textures of the other buildings are all flat colours. I then duplicated the buildings and placed them around the area so from certain camera angles, there won't be a missing space. I also positioned cameras at certain angles around the scene.

Textures are available at:

Poliigon. (n.d.). Smooth Finish Plaster Texture, White. [online] Available at: https://www.poliigon.com/texture/smooth-finish-plaster-texture-white/4831 [Accessed 31 March. 2024].

Poliigon. (n.d.). Dumbbell Concrete Paving Texture, Black. [online] Available at: https://www.poliigon.com/texture/dumbbell-concrete-paving-texture-black/7072 [Accessed 31 March. 2024]

[digitalmediadesign1styear]

[digitalmediadesign1styear]

For the boss/president. I once again reused the body of the main character. Like the main character, he wears a two-piece suit but I removed the outer collars and gave him an inner collar like side character 4. I also added a tie and recoloured it along with the whole suit. I gave him the watch that side character 2 wears. Like other side characters, I also gave him a different hairstyle and gave him glasses reused and resized from side character 2. The faces of the boss were a repurpose of the main character's but with a different iris colour and mouth.

[digitalmediadesign1styear]

I kept working on the waiting room scene. Initially, I had the waiting and interview room as a part of the building but I decided to just use the initial layout of the room and left it floating at where the main building was supposed to be. Since the camera will only be inside the room, it won't be obvious that the interview is just floating without a proper main building exterior. I inserted the other side characters I created and rigged them in a talking animation. The duplicate of side character 2 was modified by changing the colours of his pants and shirt (even though it isn't shown). Side character 3 will now be interacting with side character 4 and made it look like they're talking to each other since they won't interact with the main character.

[digitalmediadesign1styear]

Side Character 4 but different colour.

[digitalmediadesign1styear]

To populate the waiting room, I created a fourth side character that will be sitting next to another fodder. Like side character 2, I also removed the collar but kept the two-piece suit style, I also added some collar retail in the inner suit and removed the necktie and changed the colour black. The skin tone was also changed to another shade of peach. The face of this character was reused from a side character as he is just a background character who doesn't talk a whole lot. I also modified the hair and made it a little shorter than most characters.

[digitalmediadesign1styear]

Brand Kit 3

When I started on the website, I thought I had the personal branding kit done. But I somehow missed out or forgot to do a PowerPoint template. With that being said, I started a PowerPoint slide and edited the background of the master page with something I did for the degree project. I also turned up the transparency of the original image so it isn't too distracting. After that added a png of my logo on the first page, I then added a grey box and a white line on the other pages for inserting content.

[digitalmediadesign1styear]

While working on the interview room scene, I imported the model of my side character into the scene. Like the main character, the side character was rigged in Mixamo and then imported into the scene. I also placed a duplicate of the side character on the seat next to the one my main character is going to interact with for reference. I also modified the animation to get the side character to hold a phone, and I also got some custom movements like pointing at himself and a turning head animation.

[digitalmediadesign1styear]

I decided to go back to the mascot character and redesign it. In the post below, the mascot character is obviously a copy of Don Wada from Bandai Namco's Game series Taiko no Tatsujin (the model was recreated by me). So to not thread on potential copyright issues, I decided to change the appearance of my character. While the basic shape of the body is the same, I changed everything else. The face was changed into an XD face which is kind of a meme face. After that, I changed the leg shape to have a flat base instead of the whole round base of the original. Finally, I added a tail behind the character to sort of resemble a kitsune's tail and changed the colour of its body.

[digitalmediadesign1styear]

Like the previous side character on the streets, I modified the body of the main character for another side character. This side character will interact with the main character in the waiting room scene. I modified the suit of the main character by removing the collar and necktie, effectively turning it into a one-piece clothing instead of the inner shirt and jacket style of the main character, I also gave the suit a pocket. While not super noticeable, I also changed the hairstyle of the character to look 'neat' even though the hair of my main character doesn't look messy. I also modelled a pair of glasses and put the eyes and mouth on the side character. I also modelled a watch for the character which while he probably won't be interacting with it much, is a side detail I thought would be nice.