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FINAL MOVIE

I'm super proud of my final production. I feel as if I communicated my messages clearly and gave a story to remember. I am excited and looking forward to showing the world what I've made, and to help promote a cause millions of people can relate to.

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MALFUNCTIONS AND TROUBLESHOOTING

After a productive, positive and exciting time finalising most of my short film, my laptop decided to break down, 4 weeks before hand in. It was then out of commission for 2 weeks whilst I troubleshooted, got it looked at and then deciding to fix it myself.

Whilst trying to fix it, I ran several hardware tests. I decided. to transfer all of my files over onto a computer on the university campus, but annoyingly forgot to transfer a few crucial files, such as around 20 seconds of lip-sync, and multiple edited audio files.

This meant I then had to redo a whole bunch of clips, including the one displayed above. However, I used my initiative to go above what I had previously created, and used it to my advantage to add small easter eggs and more details to tie it in to what was to come later in the film. In this example, it includes the addition of another antagonist-esque character looming behind our main character, completely oblivious.

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EFFECTS AND TIMELINES

As you can see in the following screenshots, I had a lot of video files arranged, some duplicated to double the screen time and some cut down as I miscalculated time frames. As well as these clips In order, some clips were then further edited using Adobe Premieres effects and effect controls. Some effects displayed here include a small journey of sound increase and decrease to allow for room for speech and other effects. All of these small pieces make sure to bring an extra layer of intensity, professionalism and drama to each specific audio clip.

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COLLECTING ALL ANIMATION FILES

As I slowly worked through each scene, some separately and some all over the place, I began to collect each scene in a folder ready to be implemented into Adobe Premiere. I collected almost 70 different clips. I took breaks from certain scenes and worked on others in the meantime. This meant that video files just kept growing and growing!

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STOP MOTION CHARACTER

After multiple attempts and plenty of cross referencing between digital and physical modelling, I would up with my finished puppet.

I have modeled a torso as all my footage will be shot from the chest and up, so there was no need for a bottom half, as the wire at the bottom will be stuck into a piece of wood to ensure no extra movement. I will then take the finished piece into tv paint where I will add blinking motions and mouth movements onto of the finished product.

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WORKING AND COLLECTING AUDIO!

For the next crucial part of the process, I began sourcing Audio through my voice actors, and through free foley and audio effect sites. The main site I used was https://freesound.org !

I gathered my two close friends, who already have chemistry in order to communicate a conversation between two really close friends, which I feel worked very well!

In image 3, I show the effects I applied to a singular piece of audio, adjusting the gain and adding distortion.

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SCREENSHOTS FROM WORKING ANIMATION FRAMES

I started mainly animating non speech or less audio based files such as reactions, greetings and small movements.

In these screenshots you can see a collection of frames from one reaction sequence, with the same continuous colour palette but with different emotions.

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STICKY NOTE STORYBOARDING

As part of our module, we new taught by guest lecturer Lizzy Oxby. A BAFTA winning animator, director and storyboard artist, we were given insider knowledge on how to work in the industry and handy tips and tricks.

One of the tips given to the class were to initially plan your storyboard on sticky notes! This meant that you could edit the order, arrangement and annotate on each frame with ease. Doing as such allowed me to rethink my sequences super broadly and rearrange, cut and splice some scenes.

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ANIMATION SEQUENCE (PRE RENDERED)

In this scene, my intention with the backgrounds is to depict a shadowy distorted fog - but with the background as it stands, I have created a dark shadowy shade to the corners of the frame, that I will then take into after effects to swirl, distort and twist into a more looming presence that should hopefully create the suspect vibe you get while having a bad dream.

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FIRST COMPLETED SCENE WITH BACKGROUND

Whilst on holiday over Christmas, I spent time perfecting the backgrounds (I decided to add a slight noisy grain to my images in order to attract more to the main character who is bold and bright.

I also decided to use yellow colours on the protagonists clothes - not just because it is my favourite colour, but also because it can represent many different emotions: Indifference, Warnings, caution, or the opposed being sunlight, warmth and brightness.

I am confident in the sizing of the character in terms of the background objects. I feel like they are proportionate and fully developed with my style, as well as realistically positioned and built.

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FINAL ANIMATIC

Finished, with refined character design and speech, I have worked out the precise timings of my final animatic, taking into consideration the time elapsed between end credit and introductory sequence.

I am super impressed with my latest and final storyboard and corresponding sequence as it is a lot more intricate then any first attempt.

This animatic features a more credible end sequence than the confusing end sequence previously demonstrated, which leaves a lot up to the audiences interpretation and doesn't (in my opinion as the director) show the true aspect of what is going on,

In the newest end sequence, the character begins to hallucinate, looking around to see their best friend and surrounding bar-goers slowly morph into the distorted shapes we see before us, enhancing the connotation that they are under the influence and the whole experience they attempt to escape leads them right back to where they began.

I am super excited to delve into production following Christmas and the beginning of trimester 2.

[paigedoesanimation]

FIRST DRAFT ANIMATIC

My frames have been edited as necessary guidance from my professors and classmates, I have created a finalised animatic - annoyingly, some edits have dark transparent backgrounds due to being edited later on in save files, but that can be easily changed. I am happy with my animatic and can, as a result, work from this animatic on premier to add sound and atmosphere.

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COMPLETING MY ANIMATIC WITH FINALISED DECISIONS AFTER 121 TUTORIALS

Following the notes given and critique received from my lecturers and fellow students, I took individual frames from the storyboard and compiled them together on TV Paint - my next challenge would then be to work on timings and stretching out specific frames - as well as adding in edits if needed.

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ANIMATION TEST 4

My final animation test before resuming character development is this quick walk cycle for the mid film scene in which they travel to the club.

I am reasonably happy with this however it is slightly jumpy and the legs seem to extend further out then realistic walk cycles seen via rotoscoping - So I will aim to explore using that technique further on,

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ANIMATION TEST 3

This test is around my exploration of the cat character in the beginning. My aim is to capture the fur style and movement in a way that also deems acceptable alongside my chosen style. In future, I know now that hatching to create shadow is not the best idea, as it creates a dark feature only seen in my antagonist.

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ANIMATION TEST 2

This time, my scene with Gee is testing out the new technique of 0 dark lines. Although I am satisfied with the style, it needs more frame changes to increase the fluidity, as well as adding in a few new key frames.

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ANIMATION TEST 1

This was created slightly before I decided to redo my art style, however I am super pleased with this experiment as it flows nicely and is relatively smooth. However, some frames just need some slight alteration due to the thinness of character in the final few scenes.