Title sequence group project final

The final version edited and compiled by Noah Serafin (additional animation credit to the former, Jessica Wright, and Zoe Early). Full production report below.

The title sequence project was a rather challenging prospect since the beginning, as being grouped together with people I didn’t know was slightly difficult to adjust to. I took the initiative in setting up the group chat to help everyone introduce themselves (Noah Serafin, Jessica Wright and Zoe Early) and organise meetups. Although our group had a slow start, we decided fairly quickly early on that we would be choosing the “Yesterday’s Tomorrow” task as everyone agreed it would the most interesting to do. Although our group consisted of 2D students, there was some debate as to whether we were going to implement stop motion and/or live-action segments.

Getting the people in the group to decide on who would be doing what for the first few weeks was difficult as one of our members was absent for personal issues in a few group meetings, although it didn’t put any major detriment to the project as a whole. We also set up Google drives to make access to our work easier. I can say that our group managed to get along fairly well and didn’t have that many disagreements on how to do the project.

Our group got a fully realised idea of what we were going to do around midway through the project after I created a rough animatic to show how the sequence would play out. We had each contributed ideas in rough draft before this and I attempted to compile their ideas as well as mine to create the basis of the sequence. There were points during the making of the project where we debated using colour or black and white for the whole sequence.

After a few group meetings, we were able to conclude on how to split the workload and decided who would do what. Everyone had a clear idea of what they were supposed to do, and this made it easy for everyone to concentrate and focus on their segments. I decided to do more of the animated 2D segments and design the intertitle borders as I believed this was what I was most comfortable with to produce. Everyone else also managed to be in a position where they would be comfortable with what they were producing for the project. Editing and sound in particular was handled nicely by Noah as we were all confident he could do it right.

In conclusion, the title sequence project was certainly a challenge at the start but over time became easier to get into once everyone settled on who was going to do what. Luckily for us, this was a simple matter. I learned a lot from this project, as I went into it thinking I wouldn’t be able to get much work done due to miscommunication with unknowns. Providing a clear explanation through animatic helped clear these doubts and problems. If I could change anything about the project, I would put more detail into the animated sections, as I believe at least my sections could use have used more colour, lighting and detail. If anything else I’d say I managed to bulk up my team-building and communication skills.

Title sequence group project (time machine segment)

The time machine segment I animated based on the original book cover (below).

Title sequence group project (war of the worlds segment)

The war of the worlds segment I animated based on the original book cover (below).

Title sequence group project intertitle frame

For the intertitles I decided to design the frames. I went with an early 20th century silent film style for the borders to match the setting of our project.

Title sequence group project rough animatic

The completed rough animatic to give a clearer idea of how the title sequence will look.

Title sequence group project early idea board

For the experimental group project we chose to do "Yesterday's Tomorrow". Along with the rest of the group I decided to create an idea board to present so people have a better idea of what kind of sequence may be plausible to create while considering everyone's capabilities.

Experimental project (self portrait)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CQhpIz45G0

Completed experimental project. Full production report below.

When deciding how to start the experimental project, I laid out ideas on how to proceed with the narrative before deciding on how to animate it. I decided to focus on making the animation be more experimental than the narrative. This choice was made as I believed a simpler narrative would be easier to follow so that the audience may be given more time to understand the context behind the way my experimental project was animated.

I originally had trouble deciding on how to make the animation more experimental and came up with the idea of animating using water. The original idea was to use a tub of water as the background while a clear pane is set on top of it. A syringe would be used to apply drops of water on the surface of the clear pane to create characters and movement to tell the narrative. After some testing, I concluded that this method of experimental animation was not viable as it made the narrative too incomprehensible and was a rather difficult method of animation and storytelling.

While researching new methods of animation I decided to base the majority of the animation on a pendulum swing. As this was one of the first animation exercises I did in the first semester, I thought it would flow well into an experimental animation about a self portrait. The rest of the self portrait would be done in a 2D animation done in TVPaint. This method of animation and storytelling was also a more effective method of animation in terms of clarity and time.

I decided the story for the self portrait would be a retelling of key moments from my adolescence. When I began working on the animation, it became difficult to tell which character was me due to the ranging hairstyles. I decided to make it clear that I would be on the left side of the shot throughout the majority of the animation by establishing early on through my caricature constantly on the left side of the shot.

The pendulum swing was also supposed to be reminiscent of the swing of a grandfather clock as an analogy for the passage of time. Around 40 seconds in up to the point where I reach university, I planned for the pendulum to stop and transition into stop motion film. I decided to use 2 pence coins to sprawl onto the last frame of the 2D animation that I printed out, as I originally used a 2 pence coin to simulate the pendulum swing. The movements of the coins were supposed to simulate a circling motion similar to how a plane would travel around the world. This was meant to represent the transition from Malaysia to the United Kingdom. The ending shot was planned to include a stop motion shot of my hand shifting the coin into a pendulum swing in order to make the point as clear as possible at the very end.

In conclusion, the experimental project has allowed me to find new ways of animating through trial and error. Looking at other people’s experimental animation also helped me widen my perspective on what can be done with animation.

Sound project

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOsoiZV5tf8

Completed sound project. Full production report below.

I started the sound project by choosing the “How to cope with Death” animated clip because it looked like something more interesting to create foley for. Before recording any sounds I decided to go over the clip several times and take notes on what types of interesting sounds I could use for the animation. When planning for sounds I also considered what types of sounds I could use that wouldn't be used in a naturalistic or conventional way. The idea was to use sounds that would be used purely as a stylistic choice, like using a sharp, scraping sound for the drawing of a scythe, even if it wouldn’t produce a sound like that in real life.

Recording sounds caused no major issues other than obtaining specific sounds needed that couldn’t be faithfully recreated. This included monster growls and roars needed for the skeletal being/death. Other difficult sounds to replicate were different glass breaking sounds as there were no disposable glass objects present during foley recording. Loud crashing noises were also difficult to recreate due to the low amount of large objects that could be dropped. It was also difficult getting the noise of sparks going off from the broken television just right, as well as the ensuing fire. I was also unsure about whether there was any need for the old woman to have any voice acting in terms of grunts and screeches.

The editing process was slightly complicated, as several of the sound clips needed to be edited to fit with everything else. Some audio clips were too soft or too loud when placed in sequence as certain sounds that needed more emphasis would be drowned out by louder unnecessary sounds. It was also difficult to find a copyright free soundtrack to place in the background that worked well as with the action in terms of beat and rhythm, as even the slightest change from the animation takes away the immersion. Distorting the audio for the skeletal being’s sounds recorded from a friend was the most challenging part, as the audio needed to be timed just right in sync with the animation while also requiring a sense of danger and creepiness. As mentioned earlier, I found that taking liberties with the audio and not following exactly which audio should go with which shot made the video clip more audibly entertaining. For example, using scythe swiping noises instead of the actual recorded jumps makes the jumping shots from the animation clip a lot more entertaining.

In conclusion, the sound project helped widen my view on how recording foley for animations or for any piece of media can be interesting albeit slightly complicated work. Seeing and experiencing all the effort that goes into foley recording allowed me to better appreciate and have a better understanding on the importance of sound in film and how crucial it can be to the point where the smallest error could ruin an entire piece. Editing the sound also helped me gain a better understanding of the sound editing programs that I will be using in the future.

3D background shot

 No texture render

 Fully textured render

 Wire frame

Wire frame (showing object placement and composition of shot)

The 3D background shot was one of the more difficult projects throughout this semester, as I wasn't as capable in 3D modelling and texturing. After researching and planning out what kind of structures I could place in my shot, the modelling process was challenging a first but got easier as I went along. The most difficult part for me was definitely the texturing process as it took a while to learn how to properly do UV mapping, etc. There were several times where I changed he shot composition as well in order to get the shot just right.

2D lip sync (cleanup of Euan Friel's animation)

Euan Friel's rough lip sync animation (keyframes)

Inbetweens, cleanup and colouing added by me

Cleanup and colouring of Euan Friel's lip sync animation (and the original rough animation not done by me). I also added some lighting to make the characters seem more like 3 dimensional objects. An animation swipe was also added to make the movement of the fist more seamless.

2D rough lip sync

Rough lip sync with completed key frames and a few inbetweens. I made use of hand motions to make the character's dialogue more lively.

2D background shot final

The completed background shot.

2D background shot with colour and corrections

The first coloured version (above) did not quite reach the level of realism I was aiming for, as it looked too saturated and bright. The green and foliage also were't the exact right tone of colour and looked too stylised. There was also a lack of proper contrast and shadows to convey depth.

The final coloured version (below) shows significant changes from the first version. Key changes include the darker, blue tone of the back forest. There was also now a consistent tone of a drab, almost rainy atmosphere the first version didn't have. The improved tone of the foliage and grass also helped bring this atmosphere out better. The water was also given more detail to make it less clear.

2D background shot layout

I took inspiration from the backgrounds of various shots from Garden of Words and incorporated key parts (foliage, bridge, gazebo, water, etc.) to the shot.

2D background shot artist inspiration

I chose the naturalistic and photorealistic style of Makoto Shinkai's backgrounds that he makes for his films. I was mainly influenced by his film Garden of Words, as I thought the film's backgrounds perfectly encapsulated what kind of background shot I wanted to make. I also chose this artist because of how impressed I was with the visuals of his film.

2D background shot references

I researched several images of Japanese parks for the mood board in order to gain a better understanding of how the panning shot would be laid out.

2D playground scene final

Final version with cleanup, colouring and sound effects.

2D Playground scene animatic

As the animatic shows, the scene may be confusing on the first watch, and may require multiple viewings in order to notice all the details. I don't consider this to be a negative thing for this scene, as it is very easy to repeat over and over again due to its length. I also used different colours to tell apart the different characters.

2D Playground scene character sheet and storyboard thumbails

I started making a character sheet to lay out what kind of characters I could fit into an 8-10 second scene. I decided to go with simple caricatures i.e. nerd, bully, teacher, etc. While considering how the scene would play out I decided to make the whole scene a single still shot. This was inspired by the style of Birdbox studio films. While taking this into consideration, I decided to make the character design simplistic akin to stick figures. The style I ended up going with was a character style inspired by Cyanide and Happiness comics and animations, as it also matched the dark comedy tone I was going for.

When planning the story, I wanted to make sure as many characters would interact in some way with each other or the environment, though a few exceptions could be made to make the scene less confusing. This idea also goes well with a single still shot in order to keep all the action as contained as possible.