mi4012andrewvanicek

[mi4012andrewvanicek]

Setting the scene - Narcos Mexico

By mixing bird view environment shots and close shots I think that director wanted to show how beautiful, but unfortunately dangerous place Mexico is. The first close shots are on the kidnapped person they feel very intensive, because of how quick they change and how shaking camera is. They make brilliant dramatic effect. You can notice when music starts to intensify the quick shots and bird views of the city changes into the street view and camera is more calm focusing the characters. The silence between all characters immerse the viewer about the serious situation between the characters. 

[mi4012andrewvanicek]

Ondrej Vanicek Evaulation Essay

In the second semester, we had a task to build our animation project based on one of the Heterotopia principles. I chose one where the build is disturbing the environment and metro station as a building does a really great job in that. I loved the idea of an underground city with a high density of pedestrians a busy place where nothing is really the same every day as posters and advertisements and people changing there very frequently. I played with many ideas on how to build a story around this place. One of the ideas was based on people that travel by the metro every day and I would observe the things they do on a daily basis while waiting for a train to arrive. The second idea was about capturing a contrast between surface and metro station and how the place itself changes over time from new to a ruined building. For the final animation, I chose the second idea, because I liked more the contrast, between the surface and underground and how the place fades away in time. My animatics are stylized to a soviet era. Although soviet stations looked completely different, by making the station industrial themed, it immerse the feeling of the heavily used place. I was inspired by my homeland, where there are plenty of ruined industrial buildings with a lot of tools and old machines, that says a story about buildings past. This mindset goes hand in hand with the soviet setting as well which is also a thing of the past nowadays, but it was once a "great nation". I am also a huge fan of Metro 2033 by Dimitry Glukhovsky. The artworks from the game based on the novel were made by 4A Games Studio also greatly inspired me. It was interesting to see various artists portray the same idea. I was thinking, what I would do differently and how their work fits into the context of heterotopia.I liked how they captured the post-apocalyptic theme. What amuses me is that the game has a post-apocalyptic metro where stations are beacons of peace and the surface is the wild toxic and hazardous place. It is kind of opposite to my rendition of heterotopia.

For this work, I intended to build on my knowledge I gained in the first semester. I think that I improved research and mood board development. I surveyed a general structure of the metro stations around the world as well as the historical and geographical context where I intended to put my story in.During the development of my project, many key features which I intended to use in animatics were successful, but some of them were altered or completely scrapped. When I was creating the storyboard, I was deeply thinking about the camera. I played with different angles and movements, close-ups, and open-ups transitions between still shots and I was also exploring how to properly move the camera in the environment. I was looking into how to catch properly the atmosphere of the place. One of the things I am really happy about is the transition between the surface and the underground. This sequence was inspired by typical cartoon movement between floors or different layers in the cutscenes. The Simpsons did that kind of transition really often in their beginnings. I also like how I chose the pencil draw style for this project. I think it deepens the immersive feeling of the past. I was inspired by black and white television. I have been exploring the past regime by watching old tv reports from Czechoslovakia from 1960 – 1970 on YouTube. It was interesting to see how the environment looked like back then and how this same environment looks nowadays. It was also interesting how people were living, which public transports people used, like for example metro stations and these videos were also useful for me as a great minor mood board and infinite well of references.

However, not everything went so perfect as I wanted to. What I could do better was the sequence when time changes during the story as the train stop by and leave the station, time fades a little bit.

I could do more train stops to show time jumps more obviously or improve it by having more close shots similar to one with a poster that changes over time. From things that were completely scrapped, I could also show more of the surface at the end of the animation. It would be interesting to see the busy surface. I have only referenced this with sounds. What did not make it at all to the final animation is a catastrophic scenario in the metro tunnels where the monster with tentacles rises from an unknown dimension and devastated the tunnels and station and made the people leave the whole place. I realized that this was far fetched scenario and I replaced it with the slightly different one. In the final story, the way how the place was destroyed was changed from monster to biohazard caused by humans itself and I think this is the better option as it added greatly on the realism of the whole story.

For sound, I kept it simple. On the surface, you could hear birds and wind, oppose to the underground where you could here an electric machine sounds, human voices and general noise of the city. But how time passes in the animation the busy sound of metro station turns to the deep blank hollow space with echoes in the background and dripping water. Basically, the sides flip, and the busy part is above at the end of the animation. It was very important for me to capture the contrast between the surface and underground, the difference between the current time and prospering past. I think that adding sound in this context suits well to the theme of the whole project.

While creating the animatics I learned and improved a lot of valuable skills. I tried to build on and improve the skills I learned in semester one. My drawings got significantly improved. I feel more confident about my sketches in terms of composition, details, and shading. However, I still need to improve the lighting in my drawings. In terms of research, my skills have significantly improved.

I have looked into things like the technical, historical, and geographical context of the theme I explored things beyond the actual theme of the metro station and I aimed to put together little details that suit a theme and improves the work overall and I think that this work went really well. I also learned while creating a storyboard that moving camera is actually easier than drawing the storyboard frame by frame and moving objects would be added in AE as moving props. It saved me a lot of time which I could use to polish my project. I did not have any technical issues that I couldn't solve on this project. Feedback from the tutors and also friends and family helped me, as critique and different ideas improved final animatics. I enjoyed exploring the different ideas, talking about it between tutors and friends to figure out the one that works best for my project talking about it made progress much easier and more enjoyable. These improvements in a workflow I made, will carry on to my future projects. Creating a realistic environment and exploring the history of the place was a great experience that sets a stable foundation for future projects very well. But there is still space for improvement. What I will focus on more in the future is digital art. I started learning with a drawing tablet and I cannot wait to try my next storyboard with it. It will also help me to better understand the colors as I do not use colors very often in my creations and that is still something I would like to improve. My experience with After Effects got slightly improved from the first semester however there is still room for improvement. The course exceeded my expectations. I am looking forward to getting more experienced in animation and create better and wilder things in the future. I am especially looking forward to character design and character-driven animations as well as creating dynamic and action scenes in the future.

[mi4012andrewvanicek]

[mi4012andrewvanicek]

Longshot artwork

[mi4012andrewvanicek]

I was inspired by this video in order to better understand the setting for my project.

[mi4012andrewvanicek]

The story is set in the 1970′s in Soviet Era. Metro is main transport for working people. All changed when workers built new tunnel as they accidentaly turned on a mysterious portal and monsters coming which destroyed the whole place. I wanted to show a difference between surface and underground and how place changed over time and build a tension just with simple shots to show what danger lies within.

[mi4012andrewvanicek]

Heterotopia visualisation. I aim to set my heterotopia in soviet era. I think by setting it in socialistic era I will create failed scary utopian athmosphere, which Soviet regime definitely was. My idea for animation is shots of empty long time not used metro station with flashbacks to the time when it was heavily used and with environment tell a story what could happen there. As a background I used New York metro station and added some russian speaking boards, posters and murals. I used New York metro station because in Moscow or Kiev there is no rustic industrial type of underground as I needed. So the location is completely made out and having American metro in Socialistic theme does not make sense unless my setting is era after cold war in scenario where soviets would control the world... That would be horrible... :D I also faded it in blue just a little bit, I think perfect sense as blue light is sort of artificial and suits a theme. I am thinking about colorizing my animation but I am not decided yet.

[mi4012andrewvanicek]

[mi4012andrewvanicek]

[mi4012andrewvanicek]

Photoshop Excersise - Layering

I was not happy with previous outcome so I remade my landscape into this mountain themed land. It is inspired by Tolkien’s Middle-Earth. This is how I believe Eregion could look like. (Land where all rings were forged). I choosed shades of brown because it is the area where mountains begin, but there is not enough height for snow. This area have still some vegetation, but I did not made it enough bright as it is too cold there. I think came much better then previous one as I used 4 main colours and I added trees and made enough variety so it does not feel same all the time.

[mi4012andrewvanicek]

Excersise 2 - Photoshop Layering

After long time, I decided to use graphic tablet and learn more about it. I made a sketch in my sketchbook first so I could replicate it in Photoshop. I proceeded from front to back so I drew trees first, then cliff with a rock and waterfall and last mountain in the back. I decided so, because it felt natural for me. I am quite happy how it went for the first time in a while and even back in high school I did not used tablet that much so I think I have outdone myself. Deffinitely needs improvements in shading and colourization and tablet drawing skills. I will deffinitely look for that in the future. 

[mi4012andrewvanicek]

The second theme for my heterotopia i choosed Metro Station. I find it a very interesting place. It is a place where is high density of people. Trains are moving in the tunnels. Every station is same or similiar and only by map on each station, you know exactly where you are. When you go up on surface you feel wind again. It is like going from another world. 

[mi4012andrewvanicek]

Concept art of heterotopia shipwreck.

[mi4012andrewvanicek]

[mi4012andrewvanicek]

[mi4012andrewvanicek]

I used these images for reference for composition as well as our own heterotopia model. It helped me to understand of structure of the ship as well as how it lies on the ocean floor after collision.

[mi4012andrewvanicek]

For creating my storyboard I was greatly inspired by shipwreck diving videos more than anything else. I focused to mimic slow calm shots that creates tension and mystery around the shipwreck.