The completed rough animatic to give a clearer idea of how the title sequence will look.
Tuesday, 11 April 2017
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)
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
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.
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