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[renherh]

In phase sixth, according to the Gantt chart, I need to finish all the animations, including the renders, to be completed by August 3. I finished it without incident, but it was four days later than expected.

Because I thought the compositing should be quick and I just needed to insert them, but because my storyline was a bit complicated and the number of sequence frames was higher than usual, the first half of the animation took me three days to composite. But this didn't affect my progress, later on, I left myself Contingency time, thus, the animation is now fully completed.

[renherh]

Self-learning: In the hand-drawn section, I learned more specifically about dog characters and practiced some poses related to walking, getting down, sitting, and playing. I then practiced the dog walking cycle animation, as I have rarely animated animal themes before, so I researched some information and observed the habits and characteristics of dogs.

In the storyboard section, I learned how to articulate the storyline more clearly, for example, by using more movement when the character is explaining something rather than just standing there talking. Then, when conveying information to the audience in the animation, I could not rely too much on words but could use supporting characters and objects that were connected to the characters to convey the storyline. Finally, about character action, an action can be divided into several stages rather than being shown in one shot, first, the action, the anticipation, and next the action take place, thus, I thought to use this method when I showed the part where the police arrest the driver.

I recreated the subplot and deleted some shots to more clearly convey the spatial coherence, as I had a lot of non-compliance with the 180 degree rule, which I corrected in post for my animation after the video tutorial. 180 degree rule means imagining a straight line connecting the two characters in a dialogue scene between them.

For the animation part, I learned some new skills about After Effects to present the animation better. Firstly, Function Fade, which is a function that allows a transition between two images so that the animation's ending is more natural, rather than switching quickly to the next image, which gives a very stiff feeling.

Then Camera Move, as my animation had a big scene where the driver had to deliver the dog, so I needed to move the frame around, I used the camera function in the software so it could adjust not only the camera movement but also the size of the shot.

About Sequence Layers, this function automatically arranges the frames of the animation sequence. This feature will save me a lot of time.

About new Composition, this is a feature that allows me to consolidate all the images into one in After Effects, as I have a lot of images to insert when animating, but sometimes when reviewing my work I need to go back and find the exact scene image and animation cycle, this feature helps to consolidate them into one, similar to a folder, and then on top of that I can use this "composite" to animate directly, for example by stretching the timeline to clip animation, and It can also find animated scenes quickly.

Finally, I learned a few things about 3D Max, such as building props for scenes and characters, including some object textures. As I am not sure if I will be working in 3D in the future, I wanted to learn some basics to develop my animation in the future.

[renherh]

About the creative decisions of my animation: first of all the plot of my animation is ultimately based on real news events, to strengthen and promote the power of animal protection so that more people do not consume it blindly. Then there are four main characters in my animation, the seller, the two thieves, and the lorry driver. I used grey tops and blue trousers for the seller's clothes and red for the belt. For the "thieves", I decided to make the first thief in brown clothes look like a homeless man with a long beard. The second thief was also drawn in a more rugged style, wearing a sports suit. The aim was to create contrast and set up the plot for the rest of the story.

The driver I initially set out to wear a blue suit and then a somewhat pot-bellied image of an older man, but the driver's clothes duplicated the color of the policeman's clothes and I eventually decided to use a red suit. For the scene, I used a more vintage style for the seller's bedroom, and then the colors were a combination of earthy yellow, red and brown. In the large scene where the driver is arrested, I drew this scene in a somewhat rustic style as the driver needs to be transported for several days and the route is generally remote, so I drew some bends and grass. The colors are in yellow tones.

The dogs’ style is Chibi, I have made their heads bigger than their bodies so that they can be more adorable. For the colors, I chose white, yellow, and grey, and because the background of my scene is dark, I used some bright colors to set off the dogs. The opening scene of the animation was designed to reflect the theme, with a dog and a box, then the dog lifts the box with its nose, and eventually, the name of the animation appears. For the animation sounds, I added a piece of music for the first half of the animation and then mixed in some sounds of furniture moving and a thief appearing. For the second half of the animation, I added some ambient sounds of the city, as I didn't think a voiceover with music would go well with this part of the delivery, so I just added some car sounds and computer mouse movement sounds.

For the news, my initial idea was to add some live news sounds and then edit them, but they were too noisy and I decided to record them myself and tune them with a tuner. Regarding the main character putting the dog in the box for delivery, my original idea for this part was that the seller touched the dog and puts it in the box. But to make it clearer to the audience that the seller is a bad guy, I decided that the seller picked up the dog and throw it into the box, and I added the sound of the dog expressing some distress in this part.

[renherh]

This fifth stage, according to the Gantt Chart plan I need to finish all the animations by August 3rd, this is the animation I have half composited, I haven't added the sound yet but it is ready to watch, this time the rendering took longer than I expected, probably because the previous plot was a bit complicated so the time was tight. There is still one important plot left in the story to finish.

For the reporter broadcast part, I initially wanted to get a friend of mine, but for now, I'm going to dub it myself and then use the sound modifier software to adjust it to finish it.

[renherh]

This fourth stage. My Gantt chart project was to have all the sequence frames hand drawn by August 1st and I finished it without a hitch. This part of the schedule was a little tight, as my animation sounds also needed to be completed within this time frame.

There were two important points for my story, the first being the 'thief stealing the dog' part and the other being the 'thief' stopping the car. So by the time I finished the first 'point', I was more than halfway through my schedule and I sped up the second part of the story so that it wouldn't affect my progress.

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This is a picture I drew about dog news. This picture is my reference based on the live news that was released and I drew it.

The first picture is the scene of the truck delivering the box, which I saw from the video at the time and it impressed me so much that I drew the episode.

The second is a news image of my design. This image was to be placed on the news in the animation, so I thought there should be a poster-like image to show the beginning.

For this image, I combined a screenshot of the trade order with a screenshot of the dog being injured and bolded the font.

[renherh]

This is the beginning of my animation. For this part, I drew a dog and a gift box to match the theme. As the name of the animation is about a box, I put a gift box in the beginning, and then the dog lifts it with his nose to show rescue. I decided to use a yellow background as the colors in the later parts of the animation are also darker tones, like earthy yellows and brown.

The dog I decided to show in white, highlights the theme. For the font, I chose a handwriting-like style, as some of my animated scenes show some brush strokes, so I thought a handwritten font would be more appropriate.

[renherh]

The third stage, according to the Gantt Chart plan was to find the sounds for the animation by the 13th of July and this was completed. The animation used a lot of dubbing and initially I had been looking for a piece of music to go with the animation, but then I realized that the ambient sounds were more appropriate for the animation than some of the lighter music.

I chose several ambient voices, and then, in that basic, I voices of the storyline, such as the barking of the dog, the pulling of the chair, and the news voices.

I also adjusted the volume of these sounds, as some parts needed the ambient sounds to be lower and some parts needed the walking sounds to be louder. Therefore, I adjust them in Adobe Effects. I searched for a site with various sound resources to download, so, they don't have a clear release date.

Here is a reference to my sound:

www.tukuppt.com. (n.d.). Clothes Rubbing Ripping Folding Undressing Organizing Sound Effect Material download_mp3 format_panda Office. [online] Available at: https://www.tukuppt.com/muban/ljwneyzm.html [Accessed 11 Aug. 2022].

www.tukuppt.com. (n.d.). Crisp Keyboard Sound Effects download_mp3 format_panda Office. [online] Available at: https://www.tukuppt.com/muban/qmnnvxmg.html [Accessed 11 Aug. 2022].

www.tukuppt.com. (n.d.). Dog Barking Dog Sound Effects download_wav format_panda Office. [online] Available at: https://www.tukuppt.com/muban/lnyzmvpe.html [Accessed 11 Aug. 2022].

www.tukuppt.com. (n.d.). In Shock Backwards Breath Sound Effect Clip download_mp3 format_panda Office. [online] Available at: https://www.tukuppt.com/muban/oakpxpvn.html [Accessed 11 Aug. 2022].

www.tukuppt.com. (n.d.). People Walking on Grass Sound Effect Clip download_mp3 format_panda Office. [online] Available at: https://www.tukuppt.com/muban/qgamdgvz.html [Accessed 11 Aug. 2022].

www.tukuppt.com. (n.d.). Road Car Urban Environment Sound Effects download_mp3 format_panda Office. [online] Available at: https://www.tukuppt.com/muban/lvvmabwm.html [Accessed 11 Aug. 2022].

www.tukuppt.com. (n.d.). Several Dogs Barking Noisily Sound Effect Footage download_mp3 format_panda Office. [online] Available at: https://www.tukuppt.com/muban/lbppagpw.html [Accessed 11 Aug. 2022].

www.tukuppt.com. (n.d.). Sitting on a Wooden Chair Sound Effect Clip download_wav format_panda Office. [online] Available at: https://www.tukuppt.com/muban/ldrgmyog.html [Accessed 11 Aug. 2022].

www.tukuppt.com. (n.d.). Tense and Orderly News Opening Sound Effect Material download_mp3 format_panda Office. [online] Available at: https://www.tukuppt.com/muban/qwporwjg.html [Accessed 11 Aug. 2022].

www.tukuppt.com. (n.d.). The Thief Sneaks into the House Soundtrack Material download_mp3 Format Background Music _pandas Office. [online] Available at: https://www.tukuppt.com/muban/qpeerejz.html [Accessed 11 Aug. 2022].

www.tukuppt.com. (n.d.). Walking Footsteps Sound Effect Footage download_mp3 format_panda Office. [online] Available at: https://www.tukuppt.com/muban/lpepzbmn.html [Accessed 11 Aug. 2022].

[renherh]

This my second stage,on my Gantt chart, I need to have all the animated scenes and characters painted, including coloring, by 10 July. I completed this without any problems and in the meantime I changed the colors of the main character's clothes as I found that the colors I had chosen earlier clashed a little with the background and didn't match.

I also made changes to the colors of the police officers' clothes and then gave some refinements to some of the main scenes, such as the addition of shadows. Initially, I wanted to remove the lines, but it didn't work well, so I did outline some scenes.

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Adobe Effects‘ New Composition and Sequence Layers: This time the animation is longer, so the sequence frame of the animation will be more than before, and it will be very time-consuming when I insert one by one, so I learned two new skills of Adobe Effect.

The first is New Composition, which can be used when many sequence frames cannot be found, and I can compress them directly into one and rename them so that when I look back at the animation, I can quickly find where they are.

The second is Sequence Layers. This function can automatically help me arrange the sequence frames because sometimes I move one by one, and there will be gaps between the sequence frames. The gap means that the two shots are not connected, but this function can automatically help me arrange them, and it is also very time-saving when I insert animations.

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Adobe Effects Camera Move: For this animation, I had a large scene, and then I needed to move the camera to show the car driving forward in this scene. Therefore, I learned how to use the camera function to move the shot around, although I could have used the up and down 'move' function in the software to do this, I thought the camera function would be more natural than just moving it around.

First I needed to turn on the 3D switch in the scene, then create a new camera, and finally open the camera function bar, which has options to adjust the position and focal length, so I just needed to select the adjustment parameters to adjust the camera change.

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To show my animation better, I learned some details of drawing dog skeleton and limbs, the picture above is some of my exercises, through these exercises, I found out that a dog skeleton can be divided into two parts, a middle body skeleton, and limb skeleton, middle body skeleton consists of trunk bone and skull, limb skeleton includes front and hind limbs. Also, the shape of the skull varies for dogs, with some having long heads and others being very wide.

For the use of line, I think when I draw fearful dogs, the line can feel harder so that it shows the tension in the dog's body, and then the tail drops or is caught between the legs. When drawing them happy, the lines can be lighter and not too hard.

[renherh]

For Adobe Effects, I have learned some new skills, firstly the function Fade, as I find that when animating, the transition from one frame to another is a bit quick, I don't get this feeling when editing, and when I review my animation, the frames switch too quickly, leaving no time for the viewer to reflect and it feels a bit fragmented, so I use Fade is a feature that gives it a buffer when the scene is coming to an end, like a slow fade rather than an instant switch.

I need to click on "Effects & Presets" at the bottom right and search for "fade" to find "Fade In+Out - frames". The fade in and out can be set to a sustained number of frames, I chose the default of 13 and the image has a very natural transition.

[renherh]

Through reading this book, I learned that the different order of images can make different meanings to the story, including the fact that the same images, put into different scenes, can give different feelings. It is written that tilted images can create tension. For more important events, more action and shots are needed to show the events leading up to them.

The book showed me that an action can be divided into several stages rather than being shown in one shot, first, the action, the anticipation, next the action takes place, then the reaction takes place, and finally the aftermath. So, I thought use this method when I showed the part where the police arrest the driver.

Reference：

Glebas, F. (2009). Directing the Story: Professional Storytelling and Storyboarding Techniques for Live Action and Animation. [online] Routledge & CRC Press. Available at: https://www.routledge.com/Directing-the-Story-Professional-Storytelling-and-Storyboarding-Techniques/Glebas/p/book/9780240810768 [Accessed 10 Aug. 2022].

[renherh]

Through reading the book, I learned that when storyboarding and animating, one should not rely too much on words to transmit information to the audience, but rather use images to convey, for example, the buildings around the main character, or some supporting characters that have a connection to the main character. Then for the sequential presentation of shots, it is usually necessary to say the reason before the result, so that events can be linked more naturally.

At the same time, each character has his or her different characterization of what is happening, during which the audience can also get a clearer picture of each character's personality traits.

Reference:

Glebas, F. (2009). Directing the Story: Professional Storytelling and Storyboarding Techniques for Live Action and Animation. [online] Routledge & CRC Press. Available at: https://www.routledge.com/Directing-the-Story-Professional-Storytelling-and-Storyboarding-Techniques/Glebas/p/book/9780240810768 [Accessed 10 Aug. 2022].

[renherh]

Storyboarding is very important, it is the basis of animation, so I read some reference material for some study. And went to correct some of the wrong knowledge I had made before. For example, when the protagonist sees something, he is afraid of, how should he show to the camera that he is afraid of that thing, for example, tracks, something that has happened before can give hints to the protagonist so that the audience will follow the camera and guess.

But I have to be careful that when I show the story on camera, rather than just talking, I should express the subject through the action so that it is more vivid and the audience understands more clearly what is happening in the shot. So in my animation, I should use more of the language of movement to express the animation and give them personality rather than just a person talking.

Reference:

Glebas, F. (2009). Directing the Story: Professional Storytelling and Storyboarding Techniques for Live Action and Animation. [online] Routledge & CRC Press. Available at: https://www.routledge.com/Directing-the-Story-Professional-Storytelling-and-Storyboarding-Techniques/Glebas/p/book/9780240810768 [Accessed 10 Aug. 2022].

[renherh]

For the main character and driver delivery here, I decided it was the seller pushing a trolley out. My initial idea was for the seller to walk out with several boxes in his arms, but I didn't think that would make it clear that he was there to make a delivery to the driver. Also, realistically, dogs are supposed to move around in crates, so it wouldn't be practical for him to walk out with a lot of crates in his arms.

I designed a trolley so that it would also fit with the reality of the seller's situation. For this session I only changed the color of the driver's clothes in case he clashed with the color of the police outfit, the seller's clothes did not change.