#thebigups

[eleanorlinderba2b]

This is what I have managed to produce for the end water movement. I am pleased with how this has turned out and I really enjoy how the water spray looks as it splashes around the place. All that is left to do with this shot now is to animate the water at the beginning and if there’s time add smoke to the fire and add the details to the firemens jacket but for the time being this isn’t my main priority.

[gimmetinnitus]

The @jeune_carl tshirt is real #thebigups #pile #carlostshirt (at Sunnyvale)

[eleanorlinderba2b]

yeet no.3

[eleanorlinderba2b]

I analysed this excerpt to figure out a way of creating smoke in the big up apocalypse shot.

[eleanorlinderba2b]

This is my first pass at Max’s intro scene. I would love to add more expressive body movements to Max but as a group we decided that he wasn’t a pretty bog standard person with little personality and additionally I��m trying to plough through all of my animations before deadline, so anything too elaborate would be difficult to achieve at a high standard. I would like to work on this a little more though and see if I can come up with any better movements.

[eleanorlinderba2b]

I tried to find a very average/homemade news reporter video to help me create Max’s intro scene and this is what I found.

[eleanorlinderba2b]

Physics schmysics

Physics are once again proving to be a very difficult element of the Big Up, unsurprisingly as this is what the whole film is based upon. It has been difficult to even try and test how things would look with a lack of gravity because finding the resources is quite the challenge. We have been watching videos of people swimming underwater as our main point of reference as we found that no gravity chambers were too weightless for what we're going for.

However, in shots like this, even those don't help us because of the niche scenario so we've basically had to research ways in which such items normally move and imagine how they would look in a situation like this. It's pretty challenging but great for experimenting at the same time. This is how I currently feel about this shot below.

I will continue to expand on what the others have suggested in the chat and will update them with any progress I make and ask for their feedback. It's good to have honest feedback from them in times like this as we are able to help each other figure out issues in situations like this.

[eleanorlinderba2b]

need water, fire and jacket + helmet deets

[eleanorlinderba2b]

Amy’s lip sync suggestion is based upon this video which I really enjoy. I think that inbetweening the lips where needed will give the animation a cartoony look, which is what we’re going for anyway. This will be because the lips will look kind of bouncy and springy. Amy has come up with a basic toolkit for the mouths of the characters for the big up which I think work well. The toolkit is a basic overview of what the mouths should look like and we should each change them accordingly for our own lip sync sections. 

[eleanorlinderba2b]

I took these photos of Amy to use as reference for the fireman that grabs onto the pipe as it goes up into the air.

[eleanorlinderba2b]

Sound w/Phil

Today we had a meeting with Phil in the sound studio to discuss the sound which we have already and how he thinks we should improve it, as well as discuss any questions that we have. The session was really helpful and Phil had some great suggestions for us. These were as follows;

Love Letter’s

having actual reverb on the first line of the poem introducing the train station to make it sound like an actual train announcement.

Have some ambient noise inside the train station, as well as adding a sound of a train pulling up to the station.  

Add some church bells to the morning skyline.

some birds flapping away during the sentence ‘stucco and red brick’ 

some geese squawking for Wensum Park.

adding fireworks at the end.

Fin has been trying to avoid adding diegetic noise because he thought we wouldn’t be able to do it well enough to match the film. However, after this session with Phil we all agree that the ambient noise kind of rounds off the whole experience and is a really nice addition on top of everything as long as we keep it low. These will be our next steps forward for sound on Norwich Love Letter.

The Big Up

a better VHS cut noise is needed to replace the one which we have at the minute. It’s more of a wobble than a static screech noise.

during the montage sequence at the beginning there should be ambient noise, quieter than the music but still there.

 add a velcro noise to the toupee guy.

add lots of reverb to the nun.

possibly circus noises to the juggler.

wind noise for the zoom out at the end.

These are again, all good suggestions and I think they’d be a great addition to the big up. I think sound will play a big part in rounding up the humour so we have to get it right. I am looking forward to hearing these sounds added in by Liam.

[eleanorlinderba2b]

Collaboration - Week Two summary

The Big Up

I managed to make a lot of progress this week with the character designs and turnarounds for the Big Up. I completed a total of 4 turnaround sheets for the main cast/those which have the most movement. The more drawings I created the more confidence I gained which then enabled me to pick up the pace. I tried to make the drawings as accurate as I could by using the standard guideline procedure. Overall, I am happy with how they have turned out and I enjoyed the process of creating them. I received positive responses from the rest of the group, with Liam’s feedback being that I should turn them into animated turnarounds, something which I am happy to create. These would look great in the experimentation reel, as well as my own personal showreel. I animated two of these characters in after effects using the shots I had drawn in photoshop; I used the flip tool to create the full 360 turn on the side and ¾ perspectives. I could not do this to the characters which weren’t completely symmetrical therefore I will have to draw out the opposite sides to them in photoshop to create the full turnaround.

I also had a go at experimenting with background style again this week. This was mainly based on the background style which we have already created and backgrounds from the animated show Steven Universe. The reason I chose this show is because of the nice textures and colour palettes which it uses which I thought would work well in this project too. I received positive feedback for my experimentation from Amy, Cat and Fin which is encouraging; however I am unsure whether what I created was too niche and in my own style that the others will not be able to replicate it. This would mean that the backgrounds could become dependent on me, which would become impossible alongside being the character designer too, so we may end up following through with what we already have.

As for overall group progress, we are on the right tracks. At the end of the week we attempted a first pass at voice recordings. We were all getting involved in the sound studio, and giving feedback and directing others where needed to create the desired sounds and voice recordings. Liam will now be able to take this away and start to experiment with it in time for the presentation. This is alongside the now completed storyboard and script. Our next steps forward are to turn this into a fully functioning animatic. My own personal goals are to carry on producing character designs and animated turnarounds. I would like to have a go at producing some animation tests in the near future too.

Norwich Love Letter

At the end of this week Fin and I got together to discuss characters. Even though little progress was made we now have a clearer vision of our next steps for the characters in the animation. At the end of our meet up we decided that the next steps which I should take as a character designer is to create a basic design document that the others can follow when they’re creating characters within their scenes. This will be much easier than me designing every single unimportant character in every scene. Fin also discussed how I should have a go at animation tests, which would mean designing characters within their scene rather than doing it beforehand in photoshop. Therefore this week I will attempt to do some animation tests; one being the old lady coming out of thorns and the other being the birdhouse/grosvenor shot. In addition to this I will have a go at creating the character design doc. I am happy we had this discussion because it has put things into perspective and I have a clearer idea of our next steps as a group.

[eleanorlinderba2b]

eeeeeee

Bin Man - animated turnaround. Created using the designs I created in Photoshop and imported into After Effects.

These would be a great addition to my showreel.

[eleanorlinderba2b]

Doggo development

Here’s my first attempts at the dog design sheet. I tried to create the personality of the dogs in my drawings and suggest how they would be placed in the scene that they’re in. For example, how Timothy appears to be floating around. I really enjoyed creating these because of their cute aesthetic and fun personalities. I am looking forward to creating the other good boys.

[eleanorlinderba2b]

Poster dev

[eleanorlinderba2b]

Fin’s compositing day with his sidekicks Amy and I