Budgeting

As producer I should have been involved with budgetting and working out the costing. For the first film we subsidised the actress for her travel as she was a friend of Tom's, and on the second we each paid for our train fare to get to the location. There wasn't much to consider and pay for, however in industry this would be taken far more seriously and a whole plan would be set out.

The budget is basically outlining how much the film is actually going to cost. There usually is a budget in pre-production, production and post-production. It's a complicated yet thorough plan, making sure everything is covered from payment of the production crew to insurance and any over-run costs.

The image below is an example of a budget top sheet. The top sheet gives a summary of the overall budget, from this it will then break down the cost for each department and give a total. When it comes to creating future films and if I am involved with the producer role again, I may draw up a budget sheet if there are substantial costs involved.

Media Specificity

Before the word 'media' came about it was referred to as medium. Medium is a material or technical means of artistic expression whereas media is the communication of devices and channels of communication used to reach mass audiences. Medium specificity is all about the artist being able to bring out the qualities that are unique to the work of art.

Marshall McLuhan explains that it is not the content, it is the carrier that creates meaning. Depending on what medium you choose can give a completely different meaning to your creation. Which is similar to what John Lassester once said: "Never in the history of cinema has a medium entertained an audience. It's what you do with the medium" It's basically saying that whatever you create from the medium makes it what it is. You cannot just rely on the medium to be the best that it can be, it's the story, the visual effects, the production.

As soon as technology became advanced enough, they have become memory extensions for everyone, photography, tv, computers. Electronic mass media has collapsed the space and time barriers in the form of human communication. It now allows people to interact with others on a live and global scale. Media can now extend what we can do. Previously we would have been hindered by certain technologies, but now it's almost limitless. The combinations of media are becoming more frequent, animation and comics relate to one another as comics themselves are set out like storyboards. We are in the age of digital media where you now see disciplines merging with one another, take film and animation for example, before digital technology came about they stayed separate; yet now they have combined to create CGI.

Animation you could say, isn't medium specific as it can be created with any medium whether it be on paper, film, computer, either way you will still obtain an animation out of it, something that contains time and motion. However it could be classed as media specific in this modern day as most of the time it is published digitally, which is the same as film and even games. Though games are either on disc or online so there is some slight difference, but either way you have to play them on some sort of platform, so maybe it is media specific. It has got to the stage now where technology is still progressing, yet the forms of media are not drastically changing so everything has their own set place/media form.

Swing of Change

Swing of Change from Swing of Change on Vimeo.

The animation of the character is what I really like about this piece. All of his movements are so well considered and animated; so natural, so life-like, each movement flows to the next seamlessly. You can tell that a lot of time and effort has gone into making this animation, and there would have definitely been a lot of reference used to achieve this fluid motions. The part where 'Harry' (the main character) gets dragged about by the trumpet gives a real sense that he has no control over his actions, that the trumpet is alive and pulling him in different directions. To make it look as if he isn't in control is really well done as you get an idea of the force and power behind this trumpet.

The video below shows the main stages from concept art to set design and rigging the actual characters. I really can't wait to start rigging and animating a bipedal character, I know it's not going to be straight forward but I think at some point when I'm not too busy with other course modules I make look into it just briefly to get an idea of what is involved. The reason I want to do animation is to bring something to life, to give it personality, emotion and movement so I'm looking forward to learning how to do this properly. The video also shows part of the facial animation, how they created it, reminds me of the Faceware technology I saw at BAF Game back in November. It has the same controls and seems to be used in the same way. Whether or not it is Faceware I'm not sure but it could be a possibilty.


Work in progress "Swing of Change" from Swing of Change on Vimeo.

Producers

The producer has a big role to play in any film. They are the ones that keep everyone organised and keep everything on track and to the deadlines. When I went to Bradford Animation Festival, I went to a talk by Mainframe - a vfx company. Their producer Emma Phillips was there and explained that it is always best to schedule, make sure that you know what you're doing and when. Create a project development document, something that breaks down what needs doing and is easily understood. Organisation is key.

Along with this however, the producer must have a thorough understanding of the copyright laws. With our films, I made sure that the music we used were all free from copyright so we wouldn't have any legality issues. The best way to go about things is to always assume someone, somewhere owns the material you want to use within your project, so always research into it to find out exactly who owns what.

When shooting on location we had to wear reflective jackets in order to be seen from any distance and make people aware of your presence. Normally if filming with firearms, replica uniforms, any emergency vehicles or filming near any banks or major public areas it is best to inform the police of your intentions. Luckily as our locations were out of the way and involved none of these props all we had to worry about was any health and safety issues. Normally the producer would write up a risk assessment, detailing any risks and what can be done to avoid them, as we were just a crew of 4 and the location wasn't too high risk, we just talked about the risks and didn't put it into a formal document. Obviously if it was a larger project and on a major location the risk assessment would need to be done with no exceptions.

The major issue we came across was on our second film, the weather stopped us from filming exactly what we wanted. Producers should normally check the 5-day weather forecast to see if any problems will occur and if anything have a back up plan. I had been keeping an eye out for the weather, however due to time constraints we just did the best we could and filmed some shots and finished the rest off on another day and location as a back up plan.

I really enjoyed producing and it has even made me consider it as a possible career path. I will definitely expand my knowledge of producing and famous producers more to see how they got into the industry.

Layout of Scene

This is the layout of what my scene will roughly look like, I drew it out to get a basic idea of how many tracks I would need and the area of the planes. With the drawing as well, I can also roughly work out how long the train might take to get around the whole track, taking into consideration that the animation has to be at least 30 seconds long.

Here's the Maya model of the environment, there is no sky as this will be put in place in After Effects once everything has been completed and rendered out. I have placed different sized cacti about to add more to the scenery, if I have time I may put some rocks or maybe even a desert skull you would normally see in movies that contain deserts. Obviously if I did this I would have to keep it simple to coincide with the Brio theme. I'm not sure whether these will be my final colours, they might need some adjusting once I put the lighting rig in, however I know that they will be kept to plain colours to relate to the train design.

Sectors and Services

Who does what?

The industry sector is an area of economy with related products and services and is broken down into sub categories:

The primary sector - extraction and harvesting of natural resources
The secondary sector - processing, manufacturing and construction
The tertiary sector - knowledge, education, finance, services

These are then broken down further to show who owns what,

1st sector - public, supported by tax payers e.g NHS, it is government run
2nd sector - private, privately owned and usually run for profit
3rd sector - voluntary, charities, community owned businesses, non profit e.g RSPCA, NSPCC

TSO's - these are third sector organisations, voluntary, professional or self-help groups. They are independent from the government and are value driven.

Any creative careers are within the service industries. Creative England is a company that was recently set up in Yorkshire to support the creative arts. They get given a budget by the government and then distribute it out to worthy projects that are up and coming. The Creative Coalition Campaign protect jobs and make sure that the right people are doing the right jobs and are getting paid appropriately for it. Even though the government isn't big on the creative arts right now and are putting more of the funding into the sciences there are still some organisations that keep an eye and uphold the standards.

Lighting Task

To get used to lighting, we were given a 3 point lighting task to do in Maya. You need a key, fill and edge light. The key light is the main one that lights most of the subject, the fill as the name suggests, fills out the shadow and the edge light highlights the edge of the subject, giving more definition.

It is pretty straight forward to set up, it's just mainly trial and error to get it in the desirable position and to achieve the light set you want. As it is computer generated and not real world you can tell Maya to turn on and off certain shadows or any reflections. In the real world you don't have this luxury, you just have to work with what you've got.

With my animation, I will have to have shadows and the lighting will have to replicate a sunny day, yet when it gets to the canyon, it has to be quite dark and gloomy to show the depth of it. I will start off with the 3 point lighting and just work from there really, trail and error and see where I get to.

Key Light

Fill Light

Edge Light

3 Point Light Rig

The final render turned out alright, mainly because it was just following what we had been told. I think it might take me awhile longer to get to grips with it and to understand what it is I want to achieve / how I want things to be lit. There are a few technical aspects I need to remember, turning off specular if not in a real world situation, too many highlight dots. Also picking out which lights will affect what. With light linking you are able to specify, for this one I turned off the fill and edge light on the ground plane - this ensured that no extra light would spill off onto it as otherwise it looks too false.

Producing / Directing - My Contribution

Throughout this film module I initially took the role as producer as I thought I would be good at organising everything out and getting people in place to do what they needed. I did enjoy it as being organised is in my nature, I also helped out with the researching stage, pitching ideas and gathering references from other videos and sources. I know that I can source things quite easily, but it was definitely useful to get other peoples opinions and ideas and to branch out to see what else I could find that would help during the film.

When it came to storyboarding we all chipped in with giving ideas and helping Lija work out how the shots should be composed and what would be the best camera angles to do. With filming, I ended up filling out the director role without even realising. I helped by giving specific directions to the actress (more so in the second half of the first film) to choreograph it more and to give it some structure. Again everyone chipped in too, it was a group collaboration. Two heads (or more in this case) are better than one.

As a group we constantly got feedback from one another. Giving and receiving any relevant ideas, I ended up setting up a Facebook group for our film group. It was easier to keep track off all the ideas and feedback and it was a place where we knew we could get hold of one another at some point, especially during the Christmas holidays. It proved really useful and was used a lot so I think if another group project comes along I will have to do the same again.

Below is our final film for the first poem, 'Define Me' - I'm impressed with what we actually managed to achieve and it was a huge learning curve for me. I have enjoyed the experience of working in a group and collaborating on ideas, I initially came on this course to study animation, however film has opened my eyes a bit more to different styles and how to appreciate the process, cinematography and the principle roles in film making.


Define Me from Thomas Bone on Vimeo.

Temps Mort

Temps Mort from Temps Mort on Vimeo.

When I found this animation I thought it was quite similar to the one Sarah had posted on her blog, The Lady and The Reaper. They both revolve around the idea of the Grim Reaper not being able to get his own way, yet its interesting to see how they differ from each other. With the same subject many ideas can come out of it, some may be similar, some may be drastically different.

What I like about Temps Mort is their interpretation of the Grim Reaper, it is not the conventional sort you would normally picture which makes it more interesting. He seems quite stern and menacing with his blank expressionless face and cold coloured skin. They have portrayed him with substance rather than just a black cloak and bones, however if you watch The Lady and The Reaper, the reaper seems to have more expression and personality than this one. It may be due to the fact that this is the way they wanted to portray him, however I find that it lacks a bit, I prefer something with more character, more exaggeration in its movements and expressions.

But yes it is a nice animation with a different take on a well known character. The style of the characters and their environment all work well together, nothing is drastically different from one another which makes it all fit. What I do like quite a bit though is the credits, how along with the names, there are shots of what happened after the end scene and some close ups of some certain objects. It gives some closure to the short without dragging it out too much. It also keeps you engaged through the credits as if there was nothing there, you wouldn't bother paying attention so this is a good way to keep viewers watching if there is something at the end that you want them to watch.

The Incredibles

There is one scene in particular from The Incredibles which until now I hadn't even thought of referencing. I had completely forgotten about how the above scene shows the RV landing down onto the road and the actions that follow it. My train is almost doing the same action of landing down from quite a height. They rev the car in order for it to gain speed and traction once it hits the road and due to the speed at which they are travelling, the hit the ground with some great force and the RV swerves left and right as they try and take back control of the vehicle.

With my train I need to think about the speed in which it is travelling, the more speed, the longer it is going to take to slow down so I may need to review my animation and adjust this. I originally thought that the train would be constrained to the tracks, however after seeing this I think I can make my train bounce a bit more as it hits the ground, just to add a bit more exaggeration and to show the speed and height at which it was travelling at.

Dumbo - Casey Junior

As my animation is based on a train, I wanted to get some reference of other animations and see how other people go about animating it. I originally was going to look at Thomas the Tank Engine, however when I saw it I found that the trains were very static, it was only really the faces that showed expression and animation. What I had in mind was for the train to have more life and emotion, which is what Casey Junior in Dumbo shows. The above video is a compilation of all the train scenes in Dumbo. You can tell instantly that the train has a life of its own, its own personality, the train itself can't talk, however sounds/words are suggested by the whistle of its pipe. The way the train sets off is really exaggerated, really trying to pull away as best as it can with all the other carriages attached to it. Just in that short section there are lots of principles of animation shown, squash and stretch, anticipation, exaggeration, follow through and overlapping action.

With my animation I have included squash and stretch and anticipation to add character to my train. I think I may do this also (squash and stretch) with the cacti in my environment to give them some life, have them bobbing up and down as the train passes by. I have got some follow through and overlaiing action in the way of when the train hits back down on the tracks, it tilts and swerves and takes awhile to steady itself back along the tracks.

At the beginning of my animation, I wanted the train to ease in, build up the momentum slowly as it sets of and then gains speed. However as it is set to a motion path it has a constant speed so I am unable to do this unless I set 2 motion paths, changing how long each one will take. If not I will demonstrate this when the train shoots off across the canyon, as in this case the pistons will start spinning at quite some speed and the train will follow through by speeding off.

Little and Large Animatic

I've put together an animatic from my storyboard to show the rough timings of each shot and how it will progress from one to another. I have also put some possible sound on top of it to give an idea of what the atmosphere will be like. The main soundtrack I have got from Soundtrack Pro, I like this one as it is quite upbeat and when I first heard it I thought instantly of my train travelling along all happy through the desert.

I am going to source some piston sounds so I can drop that in the background subtlety - most probably from the BBC sound library we have at uni. I also need to find some other tracks as the first track wouldn't fit the whole animation as when the train comes to the canyon, there needs to be a drastic change in tempo and also when it flies over the canyon. For now though, I have just dropped the sound levels and will probably add other sound effects on top to give the piece more suspense and atmosphere. I know at the minute that the animatic is just under 30 seconds which is the minimum the animation has to be, however when it comes to placing cameras and animating them there are some shots that will be longer and I think I will have a few close up of the pistons moving so this will increase the time more.

UV Map / Piston Constraint Test

There was only one part of my train that needed UV mapping and that was the back part of it with the decoration. As it wasn't a straight forward shape, I had to create planar maps from cameras selecting the faces I wanted e.g. top, bottom, side etc. The end result being like the first image, once I had created the design in Photoshop I then saved it out so I could place it onto my train in Maya. It's turned out really well, to begin with I had no idea how I would go about UV mapping it, I tried unfolding the shape, however this didn't work when it came to putting the image back onto the model. When you know how to go about getting the UVs it doesn't seem too hard. I mentioned previously that I was either thinking about possibly putting texture onto my cactus, however I tried it with just a basic colour and think it works fine, especially when comparing it to my train as it is all just block colour, any texture might over do it and not fight in with the whole style of the piece. 

I finally sorted out the pistons for my train. Once I got shown how to do it I thought it would be pretty simple to recreate, yet I came across so many problems. It's never as simple as it looks, it will always take a few tries to get it how you want it to be. I had a load of issues with the pistons not lining up properly, not moving at all, or one part moving and the other motionless. With these mistakes, I did understand the process more and afterwards knew where I went wrong and I know in future what to do. Always make sure the pivots are in the correct place - where you want things to rotate from, any components are correctly named otherwise things can get mixed up with one another.

After all of that, the finished motion is below. I'm happy that I was able to create this, in future I think I will look more into constraints to see what else they can be used for and if they'll help my animating in anyway.

Title Sequences - Catch Me If You Can

As I mentioned in my previous blog, this title sequence has always stood out to me.

Catch Me if You Can sets the scene with an airport and the titles appear, emerging from the ground which in turn creates more of a background for the scene itself. Kuntzel and Deygas said "how many people talk about a possible Saul Bass influence in the title sequence..."When you look at their style you can see how people have got to this conclusion. The work is very graphical and instead of using digital technology they used the process of stamps which is something that occurs throughout the film. As the film is set during the 1960's the use of stamps fits the style and era more than a digital production would. The background itself is quite simple to coincide with the simplicity of the characters on screen. The composition for the shots have been well thought out and planned, for example in one part there is a lift and the camera moves up with it, each shot flows into one another seamlessly. 

The music helps the title sequence to move along, yet it also delivers the right emotion and sets you up for the style of film that it'll be and the era it is set in. It starts off quite mysterious and kicks in with more of a beat to show something is going on. The tempo changes 3/4 of the way through to give a sense of urgency, however it soon changes once again to a more calmer tone. When you think it will settle in one place, it changes instantly which suggests that the scene and atmosphere is fast paced and hardly calm at all.

The combination of the colours, the technique and music all work together in harmony. When you think of a film you should also think of the title sequence as this is more than likely the first thing you will see on screen. The title sequence also has to fit in with the general style and storyline of the film itself. There is no use putting something completely irrelevant. Once the title sequence ends and moves to the film, the two need to flow together and not disjoint the two sections.

It's interesting to see how digital media is not always used, there are still traditional techniques that are being used, maybe not as much but they are there and if done right, they can produce something like this.

Norwegian Wood

Norwegian Wood was originally a book by Haruki Murakami and it recently got turned into a screen adaptation. When I first watched this film I was immediately drawn the how thought out and well done the shots were, because of this we are going to reference them for our second film. The images below are some stills from the film and they just reflect what we have in mind and would love to achieve. I got the stills from this website.

Each still is so beautifully shot, taking into consideration the lighting and the surrounding area. The depth of field varies between shots which break them up so your focus isn't on one thing constantly. The composition has been thought about really well too, the subject is to one side of the screen as to not make them the centre of attention. You are able to absorb the background along with the character and appreciate them in their surroundings. Though we would love to do some shots like this, it would all depend on the weather. Our initial plan was to film at Ilkley Moor, however due to the severe weather conditions on Sunday we were not able to get much done and nothing like we had planned. Because of this we are having to finish off the rest of our film at Hyde Park in Leeds , it isn't ideal but it's plan B. We have all come to realise that weather plays a big part and if you don't pick the right day things can go off course so you should always have a back up plan.

We will make the most of Hyde Park and still try and capture some shots that are similar to the ones below. It's not the end of the world it's just one of those things you have to adapt to.

A History of Type

Due to the fact that I had to film this day, I was not able to attend the lecture. I did however borrow Ryan's notes to get a jist of what it was about as the powerpoint itself was just examples of different type.

The age of print commenced in 1450 and since then there have been many categories which define certain types of font. Old Style or humanist, was created to mimic human handwriting which would therefore make it easier to read. Transitional type face lie in between Old Style and Modern, they have the most widespread fonts in our society today such as Times New Roman and Baskerville. The Modern (Didone) typeface came about during the late 18th Century, the most common being Bondoni. Slab Serif is a type of Serif typeface which is distinguished by its thick blocked lines, because of those characteristics, they are mainly used in headlines and advertisements. 

Different fonts can communicate different ideas and create a difference in impact that it will have compared to another. We look at font without really taking any notice of the meaning behind the choice, whether it was a conscious decision or just because it was default. For an advertisement you would want something strong and bold that would capture you eye, something elegant and more calligraphy styled would not jump out at you enough, it would take longer for you to establish what it says.

In relation to digitial film, games and animation you could look at how type is established during the title sequences. There are some companies or specific people who work entirely on opening sequences, I found this PODCAST explaining what title sequences are all about and a brief background to whats involved. The people who created this are purely title designers, Gareth Smith and Jenny Lee, who created the titles for 'Juno' and 'Up in the Air' for example. Art of the Title is a website that is mentioned in that podcast which curates title design. The site itself is quite interesting as it explains the process behind a range of many famous title sequences and interviews with the people who created them.

There are two aspects that come with title sequences,

1. A list of names of crew, actors, anyone who is associated with the film itself - almost like a legal document that is being presented to tell you who has done what. 
2. They can establish the storyline of the film before it has even began and set the whole tone and atmosphere for at least the first shot that would be to follow.

However there are specifics that come into this about how certain names have to be a certain size in relation to everyone else. Yes it is a creative job however with anything there are restrictions. An interesting topic that was bought up was how title sequence designers have more of a longevity than commercial type designers as they tend to only last a couple of weeks at the most. Whereas film design, it stays with the film for all its time, you have to think about will the design of that sequence stand up in 20 years time? Also what comes with that is it needs to support the film itself, the title sequence is the first thing someone will see of the film. It has to be good, memorable even, otherwise films can become forgotten with poor sequences. In my mind, the one title sequence that has always stood out for me is 'Catch Me If You Can' and as a task I will be writing a short summary of this sequence in my next blog.

Canyon Test

I tested out the animation for the canyon scene previously and found an alternate way for the train to land than I had originally planned. I went back to the same scene to add in the tracks and some basic colour to give it a bit more depth. I also played around with more of the trains landing. When it hits the tracks I previously had it just skid side to side, this worked, however now that I had put the tracks in place I obviously could not have it skid as much or else the wheels would cut into the tracks. To over come this problem I decided to try having the train tilt side to side yet still skid, just not as much. By doing this it adds a bit more action to the train and more characteristic. I think it looks alright for a quick test, I will probably use this in my final animation but just have to modify parts and tighten the movements up a bit.

Final Storyboard - Little and Large

Ok so here's my final storyboard for 'Little and Large'. I have added colour to show roughly what will be used in the final animation and to show the setting more. I have had some more ideas about camera angles so I have added them into the notes below the relevant scene. For example having close ups of the wheels to show the gradual build up of speed from the pistons. By doing this I think it will make it more interesting and break up some of the shots more. I just have to watch the length of each shot and make sure my whole animation does not go over 45 seconds.

Train Tracks Final

I tried drawing out the train tracks for myself and modelling from there, yes they looked nice however as I have mentioned before when it came to putting the train along them, the wheels would cut into the tracks. It may look like a simple curve, however when you think about it Brio must have been so precise in their measurements to get a 6 wheeled vehicle to move round it with no problems. Because of this I will have to model from images I can find of Brio tracks from the internet, like the one below.

I modelled from the brio images and it was a lot easier for the train to go round it. There are some parts where the wheel cuts in but I don't think there is much I can do about it, hopefully if I place the camera in the right places and don't do too many close ups of the wheels and tracks it shouldn't be noticeable at all. With the basic shapes I can then duplicate it several times to create the layout of the tracks.

Test Animation 2

After producing a few test animations, I decided to test out one of my scenes where the train will jump across the canyon. Once I had modeled my canyon, I imported it into the train scene and began to animate. As I had already used deformers for some of the train, I decided to use them again to show the train leaning forward over the canyon. For this I used a flare deformer and adjusted the boundaries to give me the shape I wanted.

It took me awhile to get the animation how I wanted it, but I think that now I know what I'm doing I will be able to replicate it again in very little time. I produced two different versions of the scene, variations of how the train travels over the canyon. After getting some opinions I think that the second one works the best and it actually looks better too.






That scene is the one that has the most animation so I'm happy that I know what I will be doing for that. I just now need to model the rest of the environment and get the train moving along the tracks correctly. I also have been taught how to constrain the pistons on my train by my tutor, so I will hopefully try that for myself soon and see how it turns out.

Rango

It took my awhile, but I finally got round to watching Rango. To begin with I didn't really take much interest in the film when it first came out, but now after watching I wish I did. Normally it's the narrative which gets my attention, however with this film I found I was really drawn into the texturing of each character. Normally I am far more interested in the actual animation itself, but I couldn't take my eyes away from how life-like these textures were.

I found myself wanting to find out how these textures were done after watching the film so I did a bit of research and this is what I found. At ILM (Industrial Light & Magic) viewpainters paint texture maps, in total they painted 37 buildings, 1,000 props, 28,000 set dressing objects - rocks, pebbles, grass, cactus. 130 characters. That is pretty amazing considering they did it in two and a half years. For Rango himself, they used ZBrush displacement to produce bump maps and scales for his skin. They had 120 different effects maps and 20 colour maps. The whole thing would have been so complex and time consuming, that 2 1/2 years doesn't seem enough, especially when you compare it to Pixar. Pixar normally take around 5 years from story to the final film, so for ILM to produce something as detailed as this is pretty incredible. I admit that to me their story was lacking a bit, I wasn't engaged in it too much and it seemed pretty predictable, however they made up with it with their characters and all the textures they produced.

Before this film came along I was never too bothered about textures, but after seeing this I would love to try and get better when I come to texture my models too. Obviously it would takes years to become skilled in this area and you would need the specific resources and software to help you along, but it shows that it is possible to achieve something so life-like and detailed.

Psyop

I have come across Psyop a couple of times recently and found their pieces really engaging and quite beautiful. They are a design, animation and visual effects company based in New York and L.A. Psyop are probably most recognisable for their Twinings Tea and the ING Direct adverts, both of those differ from each other quite greatly however they tell a story, you are drawn into them.

There are two in particular which I myself really like. The first one tells a story through a storybook, it's not the first time this has been done but Psyop have executed it really well. I love the composition of each shot and how the music, the voice of the storyteller and the turning of each page all flow seamlessly into one another. The colour palette they have used is quite clever as it matches the pages that you would find in a book, all the small things add together and at the time they may seem insignificant, however when the final piece is shown it makes a huge difference. As the colours are quiet minimalistic and neutral, it gives the piece a relaxed tone.



JP Morgan Chase – Change from Psyop on Vimeo.

The second one I really like for the artwork shown HERE. The characters themselves are really quite stunning and the artwork that backs it up is breathtaking. They have used other references to determine the characters poses - as shown by the dog in the link above. I like observing the animations for each character, no two are the same, they each are to their own with their own personalities. I find things like this really inspiring, it makes me want to get to that stage one day. As I want to pursue a career in animation I think it's important to observe the ways other people animate and to see their work ethic. From this you can get an idea of what needs to be done to be successful in your career or produce something that you really are proud of.


FedEx "Forest" from Psyop on Vimeo.

Laws of Motion

Laws of Motion | a short film by Lindsay Gilmour from Lindsay Gilmour on Vimeo.

I found this short animation on Vimeo and thought it was really clever. Instead of just writing about it, Lindsay Gilmour has created a short animation demonstrating the laws of motion. Something that is visual tends be more memorable than just something that is written.

I like how she has given the two objects such character, the way that they are influence their actions and also their reactions. Just because it is educational doesn't mean it has to be boring, she has incorporated some comedy into it which makes it far more interesting and I've found that I've watched it several times now. By showing what each law of motion is through animation you are able to understand it more. I will find this quite useful as with any animation, these laws will apply, my train will have to keep moving up until the point where it stops itself. I will have to bear in mind that gravity does take place so in order for my train to make the big jump across the canyon it will need a gain considerable speed and have a big enough 'run up' to the gap.

Train Tracks

So theses are the stages of how I modelled the train tracks. As I said in the previous post I need to work on them a bit more as they do not fit the train quite right when it moves. Because the train is a solid object and there are no joints in between it, the tracks themselves need to be wider to accomodate the train.

I have had to create the joiner piece of the track separately in order for them to match up to each other perfectly. With this, I can them import it into any other scene file and carry on modelling from there. I find importing a really useful thing, it allows me to check my models against others to see if I'm on the right tracks. Another thing I have found to do is create layers, just like in Photoshop you are then able to make specific things visible or have them turned off. This allows you to concentrate on one particular area without having too much on screen.

So far I've had a lot of problems, not necessarily with the actual model itself but more of the fact that the train can't line up on the tracks properly without cutting into them. The above image (top track) shows how much wider the it needs to be when going round a corner. The original tracks look more attractive and are more like the real thing, however it is just not practical, unless of course I had a massive curve but then I think it will be too big. If I decide to have a curve I will need to go back and re-model the other tracks - it shouldn't take too long now that I know what I'm doing.

Test Animations

Having modelled most of my train I decided to test out some animations. I need to be able to show some of the principles of animation, the ones I had in mind were: squash and stretch, easing in and out, and anticipation.

The image below shows what I plan to animate. The squash and stretch will be used to animate specific parts of my train to give it more substance and life. To go about this I will try using the squash deformer and set key frames in the appropriate places.

The video above just shows a quick test I did using the deformer. It works okay, but I will have to see how it looks when it moves along the tracks as it may or may not work as well. I also modelled some of the tracks in which my train will travel along. I drew them out by hand and used image planes to model them from. I thought it would turn out well and the final models looked really good, however when it came to putting my train onto the tracks and have it travel along it didn't work very well.

I found that some of the curved tracks I created we're too sharp and this resulted in the train cutting into the track. I managed to get it to work on a 'wavy' track as seen below. For this I set up a motion path for it to follow. This is a much quicker way than animating it by hand, however the downside to this is that you don't have the same control over it. I think I will have to experiment with it more to see what happens.




The plan now is to sort out the whole track and come up with an overhead plan so I can then model the final thing. I will also need to model the cacti and the canyon before my environment is complete. Another thing I will have to look in to is texturing, whether I will paint them in Photoshop or find some free textures.

Guest Speaker - Andy Peers

For this weeks lecture we had a visiting speaker, Andy Peers who worked for Love Enterprise. He spoke about how it was important to have your own values and to let those values guide you in your work. At this stage in life you don't really have a clear set of values that you work by, without recognising it you will never know. Andy got us to write down a few values we thought we would work by and it turns out that the first ones that came to my mind were, honesty, dedication and loyalty. To be honest values may be all well and good, however I found it hard to really get my head around some of the questions he asked us. It was almost like he was putting us in a future setting and wanted us to decide right away within 30 seconds with what we would do say 'if we could change one thing about the world and how would be go about it within our specific field of study'.

What grabbed my interest more was the fact that he went on to talk about how important it is to recognise your own potential, but yet again to know your limitations. By knowing this you are able to push yourself to your full potential, without straining yourself too far and getting stressed with not being able to achieve something. Everything takes dedication and commitment, if you're going to do something, do it really well. I found this as almost a motivational push, to try even harder on my course. Growing up I have always been told to do the best I can and never give up and hopefully one day that will pull off.

Another thing Andy mentioned was about networking, you need to grab the person's attention, you need a statement to draw people in. That got me thinking a lot about if I ever go to a networking event, what would I say? When I went to BAF and met the Pixar animator Andy Schmidt, I got really nervous trying to ask him the simplest question. I definitely need to build up my courage when it comes to talking to people within the industry, I just never know what to say when starting a conversation. I guess I just have to bear in mind that they are all just ordinary people like myself and they may have once been in a similar position to me.

I have found this lecture quite helpful, maybe not exactly in the way of values, but more in the sense that I need to really push myself. I think I also will try and start emailing some animators and see if they have any advice or tips for a student like myself; and try and contact some of the people I met at ThoughtBubble in Leeds as some were doing quite interesting work.

Evaluations

Evaluations - we all know what they are and we all have written quite a few up to this point. At first sight of this lecture I was slightly confused as to how this would help me in any way as I have written quite a few evaluations throughout school and college and never really had any problems with them. However amongst the things that I already knew, there were a few points that were new to me and I had not really thought about before.

When writing and evaluation you should try and not use these phrases:

• I think I made good progress...
• Pleased with my work...
• I worked hard...

As I think back to all my previous evaluations, more times than one I have realised I've used these phrases. They may have been suitable at the time, however at degree level, the wording and the context of those phrases seem quite basic and not adequate enough for what you're wanting to evaluate.

Another way of evaluating is measuring yourself against the best, against professionals. This may seem a bit ambitious, however no-one is expecting you to be exactly like them. I think for me it would be more about the process and comparing the outcome to theirs using the same technique.

Trieste

This is another example of how music and films work together in harmony. For this film, each shot is in synchronization with the music and its beats. By the looks of things I think the shots would have been edited to fit the music. Sometimes its the other way round, but in this instance I think it works really well, it gives the film a beat and a rhythm to go by. Again it shows you need a relevant and coherent piece of music that will work with the film.

For me I quite enjoy the contrast between the fast beat music and the long shots, it gives you time to process things. If it were to have quick cuts through the whole film it would be too much, you would not be able to take all the information in.

I have been looking for some pieces, mainly on Soundtrack Pro at the minute. I have come across a couple which could work, they have a delicate and calm feel to them, however I cannot really do anything yet until we get the storyboard properly sorted out so we know what each shot will be like. I can get an idea at this stage of what to look for, but apart from that it's hard to do much else.



Trieste from Andrija Kovač on Vimeo.

Memory Tree

So after looking at some inspiration for our next film, I thought I would check out something that is contrastingly different to the ones I've already seen. I came across the video below and there are major differences to the ones I have already comes across.

It's quite interesting to see what makes things different from one another. With this video even with a similar subject with the scenery and the model, the way it has been edited and the music on top of it drastically changes the mood of the whole piece. With the short clips and the sudden cuts between them, it gives the piece a powerful feel to it, this is also emphasised by the music and the colour grading of each shot. The timing of the music is essential as each beat is met with a cut to the next shot - we will have to bear this in mind when it comes to adding music to each of our films. Without the right track it can completely throw the whole meaning and feel of the film off.

Even though it doesn't give off a calm and tranquil atmosphere, the shots themselves are still really attractive. They have been composed really well and put together in a way that makes them work consecutively.


memory tree: Canon 5D, 50mm 1.2 from Mike Kobal on Vimeo.

Carrot or Corriander - Research / Inspiration

But We Emerge from Scott Foley on Vimeo.

This is a really lovely video I found on Vimeo, like the other. Again this has some really well considered shots with colour correction added in post production. What's different about this one is that instead of just music over the top, there is also a voice over. This could be a possibility for us, by reciting the poem over the top when its done. However the only problem with this is that as we want the film to be really tranquil and calm, the poem I don't think will come across as that, the wording of it wouldn't fit quite right I don't think. So if we wanted to do this we would have to pick out certain lines and try and see if it works. If it doesn't it's not the end of the world, we would just have some corresponding music with it.

The shots themselves are quite simple not much movement with the camera, most are actually just stationary. It would make life a lot easier as when editing the first film, Tom found that there was a lot of camera movement when following the actress and it didn't work as we planned. The way around that problem would be to either use a glide cam or to have stationary shots.

2nd Poem - Carrot or Corriander

As our first film is in its editing stage, me and Lija have decided to crack on with the second poem, trying to come up with some basic ideas and find some inspiration to relate to it. The poem that we have chosen is by Ayesha Hussain.

'carrot or corriander me love, with a buttered bun?'
on the cushioned grass we lay once,
the damp patch wet my bum; I watched as he
lay down a soft white linen sheet
his mouth curled into an 'O' as he spoke
and the moment felt wry, as if the damp
clogged up my throat, yet
he spoke silkily, softly
so solemn despite the cool wet wind

The initial ideas we thought about were a possible montage of serene shots as the poem itself comes across as quite calm and peaceful. You get the idea that the people in the poem do not have a care in the world about their surroundings, only to each other. Something that seems quite similar to this is the Heinz Soup Advert. There image below suggests that even though it is really cold and a miserable day, the man is not bothered by any of it because of his soup and its warmth it brings.

The video below is something I found on Vimeo with just searching 'field'. I really love the cinematography in this and this may be a route in which we pursue during our next film. Lija has produced a blog about another video by Camille Marotte HERE. The music for this piece is really stunning. I've come to realise that without music films, games or animations would not hold up well enough. The music can add more emotion to a piece than what is already viewable on screen. When done right it can open up so many doors. As our next film will have a calm feel to it, we will need to find an appropriate track to fit it well. The music we choose needs to emphasise the tranquility of the film.


.:Coquelicot from Camille Marotte on Vimeo.

Sound Recording

Today we decided to record our sound for our first film. We had a quick induction to show us how to set up and export our files once recorded. Lija helped me out seeing as I was doing the voice over. We wanted a strong voice but without it being too overpowering so I thought I would give it a go and see how it would turn out. The voice over will be in the second half of the film dictating certain lines of the poem. We did a couple of takes of each line to make sure we had enough sound to work with and this would enable us to edit it further if needs be. When it comes to the film the sound will also be alongside some other sounds/music so hopefully it won't sound too out of place.

Little and Large - Storyboard

So for my animation module I have to create a 30-45 second animation based on the title 'Little and Large'. I finally got round to drawing up my storyboard to show what will take place during my animation. At the moment it is still rough and I'm planning to go over each shot in colour to give a better sense of what the scene will actually entail.

Basically what is happening is that there is a train, going along its tracks happy as can be, however it comes to a sudden halt when it reaches almost a dead end with the track being broken to reveal a canyon. It backs up the track frightened and not knowing what to do, however it builds up the courage to try and go for it and shoots down the track and over the canyon. To show that it's little and large, on one shot the camera will zoom out to show how small the train is in comparison to the large gap of the canyon.

I have tried to keep everything simple at this stage, not only for my benefit but more for the fact that because of the style of the train, a simple environment is more suited for it. When you look up Brio, everything is all child friendly and is created using simple shapes and colours. I have set my train in the desert because of the canyon. As there are no Brio cacti to reference from, I looked at Brio trees to get the basic idea and went from there.

As I have mentioned above on the design sheet, I will need to experiment with how I want my cacti to look. Will I want them to be textured like a real cactus? or will I just want to keep with the basic colours. If I were to texture it properly, I run the risk of it being too life like and not fitting in well with the train, however I think I want to give it some texture to make it a bit more substantial. To get around this I may have to come up with a basic texture rather than over complicating it.

Film Animatic

To get an idea of roughly how long each shot will be and how long in total our film will last, I created an animatic using the drawings from the storyboard Lija created. It was quite hard to work out how long each shot would take, so it was only an estimate from what I could imagine. Our video can be up to 2 minutes, so with the timings I got, we have plenty of time to spare. I know that when it does come to editing the footage there will probably extra, so with this timing it will give us a bit of leeway to work around.

I used After Effects and placed each image into the composition, adjusting each to the right timing. It was pretty straight forward, with no complications, however I think I will also add some sound on top to give it a bit more substance as right now it is a bit slow paced. When it comes to the final video we will be having sound in the form of foley using the sound booths at uni and possibly the use of the BBC sound library which we have access to on our course.

Define Me? - Film Planning

We have now settled on our final idea of what our film is to be about. Lija has drawn up the storyboards which you can find HERE. She has done a really good job of accurately showing what we want to achieve and by having this it will not only help us follow it through; but help the actress we have to understand what she needs to do.

As we are planning to film outside for part of the film I have drawn up like an aerial view of what will happen, this is just to outline where the actress will be moving and where the specific actions will take place. It breaks the storyboard down a bit more and can make some areas more clear to understand.

When filming outside, we will need extra people to play the parts of the passers by and also some other people to help us handle the set itself e.g. sectioning off the certain area we will be filming in, to stop the general public walking through.

For the inside part of the film, we have booked out the photography studio at our uni as we need a white space. Most things have been organised for the filming, just the few loose ends e.g. filming equipment, extra people to help - but that shouldn't be too much of a problem to sort out once we get back to uni.

Bouncing ball / Truck motion path

I produced these animations quite a few weeks ago, it just took me awhile to finalise them, changing them a bit here and there. Carrying on from the basic animations, I then had to animate another ball drop, but this time with 2 different weighted balls. It took me awhile to get it how I thought it should look like, this was mainly because I found it hard to be able to concentrate on just the one ball, I wasn't able to make one of them invisible for the time being. I did the best I could and then edited the key points further using the graph editor. (Top image - heavier ball, left. Bottom image - lighter ball, right)

When I first started on Maya I followed a tutorial to make a simple truck, now with this model I then had to animate it along a motion path. Motion paths are quick and easy ways to animate something along a specific route; however the downside to this is that you don't have as much control as with manually animating it. The only problem that I came across with this was the fact that when I first did it my truck ended up going backwards. In the end I was told that all I had to do was change one of the axis within the motion path window.