ksalanimationpracticepart2

[ksalanimationpracticepart2]

Evaluation

As a result of COVID-19, I had to re-approach the way in which I handled the task due to the fact that I was unable to access the 3D software I required to animate my character, nor did I have sufficient space on my computer at home to easily deal with the possibility of rendering such animation. Therefore, as I was unable to submit a finished animation as originally intended, my alternative was in making an animatic that was able to express what my idea for the finished animation would have potentially been.

Admittedly, this allowed me to evaluate the idea I already had in place and decide whether or not I was able to make a feasible animatic – let alone animation – out of what I had scripted and initially conceptualised. I had found that my original idea – that being the cloud hovering around a family’s home, witnessing all the ways in which they contribute to its constant growth before the opposite effect begins taking place – did not work due to the fact that as I came to look over the script I was preparing, I instead wanted to be addressing the audience directly with the narration in an effort to instruct them on ways in which they could personally reduce their carbon footprint. This is what led to what I consider to be a compromise on that idea, with the narrator now able to directly address a child character on-screen, who sees the Carbon Footprint Cloud hovering just above him. I had decided to keep the element of the cloud shrinking once witnessing the boy doing acts that help reduce carbon footprint, however. I had also removed the idea of the cloud reverting to an infantile form of itself upon shrinking so much as I didn’t think it was well-suited for the direction I was now taking the piece in.

A majority of the process I would say was script driven. I had not developed any storyboards for the piece due to the fact that I simply favoured a written approach to conceptualising what I wanted to be happening in the animation/animatic. Additionally, I had found it to be quite easy to think of how to structure everything based on whatever the narration was as if I was complimenting the message being conveyed by the narrator with a visualisation of what they were saying. However, I would also admit that it did mean that it was initially hard to think of an actual context for the visuals without having had illustrated potential ideas with storyboards, which would be something I would consider doing alongside a script in the future where appropriate.

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The animatic.

[ksalanimationpracticepart2]

Audio Editing

I had recorded myself reciting the final draft of my script before editing it here in Audacity. Using the software I had managed to slightly remove some of the background noise as well as seamlessly remove and replace an instance of stumbling.

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Notes and the Script

Very early on in the process, I had decided that I wanted to approach this task with a script-driven perspective, as I wanted the inclusion of a narrator and it made more sense to me to work based on whatever I intended on having the narrator say.

I wrote all drafts of the script in the same document alongside some basic notes I had made on the highlights on the issue of carbon footprint that I wanted to consider implementing in the script. 

It was also during this process that I had realized that my original concept of the CFC peering in on a family home would not be compatible with the direction I was going with in the script, having taken on a more direct manner for the narrator to be taking. Therefore, I morphed my idea into the narrator addressing an on-screen child character that would have the CFC appear and allow the narrator to tell him of ways to reduce his carbon footprint.

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Carbon Footprint Cloud - Baby Form Modelling Progress

Screenshots of the various stages in modelling the CFC’s baby form intended for the very end of the animation piece.

Similar to the regular form, the baby form was created using spheres placed closer together and filled in using the FormSoft, Smooth and Inflat tool.

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Carbon Footprint Cloud - Modelling Progress

Screenshots of various stages in modelling the CFC.

Due to the basic shape of the character, he was made using multiple spheres combined using the Inflat, FormSoft and Smooth tools.

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Carbon Footprint Cloud - Character Design

This is my collection of sketches for the Carbon Footprint Cloud - which I tended to abbreviate as CFC for convenience purposes.

My intention with the CFC was that he would be a mixed-media character; that is to say, his main body would be CGI, whilst his eyes would be applied on top of his form in 2D.

Also considered for this character was a pair of arms, potentially to add to his eyes to make him appear more expressive (I had played around with puffy arms directly from his body as well as human-like arms which I personally preferred).

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Initial Thoughts and Ideas

When beginning to think about what I was going to do for this assignment, I had bullet-pointed some of my earliest thoughts during the first week of the term and ended up running with the topic of carbon footprint; I primarily wanted to steer away from an animal-related issue and focus on something I could aim at children in such a way where they could be addressed with suggestions to improve their own world.

The character I had in mind was a cloud meant to act as an embodiment of all of the emissions of greenhouse gases that - in my initial concept - would linger around a house as it witnessed a family adding to it significantly before shrinking upon the sight of them making an effort to reduce their carbon footprint.