LAUAN504 (2)

Final Animation 

This is the final animation: 

The positives of this short film is: 

• As a group, we managed to complete the finished animation. This is a positive to me because a few days ago I thought we would be handing in a half-finished animation. 
• I think we was true to what we wanted to document and always kept both sides of the story in. 
• The animation looks visually pleasing and moves from frame to frame smoothly along with the audio. 

What could of gone better: 

• If we had more time I think we could of added more detail and took more care when adding the colour.
• I would be more tough on deadlines as a director because people in the group not showing me work and then telling me they have not done it has set us behind. 
• For the finished animation I tried to explain to Natalie before the hand in that the pieces of animations that she did were not correct. She went on to explain that it was too late to change it now, so I agreed to try and fit it in. Unfortunately, the scene with the stars fading to black could not be slotted in because I had told her that I had done the eye fade and it was the stars that needed to be faded. I told her to check the timetable and animatic but she still did not complete this scene right so I re-did the scene myself so it would look correct.  
• As well as that scene, the building morphing into the deer was incorrect. It was wrong because it was more of a shrink than a morphe. To make it fair on her, I added this scene into the animation. 
• Lastly, the tears on the hand could not be put in because that clip was only meant to be three seconds long. Unfortunately, she had done this scene seven seconds long. As well as the length, she had put fingers on the character and Briony did not add fingers onto the character design sheets. If she handed this to me before I would of explained that it needed changing. She said she would rather leave it like that. The reason I did not ask her to redo it was because everyone had a fair deadline and she had missed the deadline twice before this; therefore I made the decision not to put it in the final film as it was too late.   

LAUAN504

Roughs 

After easter I asked everyone for a preview of the work they had done. Unfortunately, we had only managed to do the roughs. Natalie did not hand any work to me at all and told me it was because she had a broken computer charger. I took this into consideration but also explained to her that she should of told me beforehand. 

After speaking to Dotty we realised that we would not complete the animation with how long it was. So me, Briony, and Natalie made the decision to cut the animation and audio down. This allowed us to be a be able to spilt the work up fairly and so we would get it done in time. To keep track of what we had left to do, I created a new timetable and asked everyone to highlight when they had finished their scenes.  

I set a deadline for all the work to be done.

These are my roughs for the animation:

This is the animation that I coloured for Briony:

LAUAN504, Weekly 10 (part 3)

Week Ten (Part Three)

This was the last pitch that we had to do as a group to receive feedback from the group. Briony designed the pitch however, me and Gabby added our information into the pitch. This feedback was for the pre-production work that we should have done so far in the module.  After the first pitch we got the feedback of asking the teachers whether it was acceptable to include drugs. After speaking to the teachers we decided that it would be clearer and less messy if we was to do it based solely on alcohol. We decided on only the alcohol because if the universities knew or found out that their  students were taking drugs then the student has the possibility of getting kicked out. 

We decided this before we asked the questions so this did not affect the audio in anyway. From this pitch we stuck with many many pre-production stuff we had already completed such as, storyboards, animatic, character designs and backgrounds. As a group we decided that we would use only one background. We decided this because we wanted the background to be simple as the animation is very abstract and bright; this background would make the animation stand-out. Now we had finished the pre-production and unfortunately we were a little bit behind, we had easter to animate.    

Old Background 

Final Background 

Natalie through all of this section was not present. She did not edit the voice clips like she was supposed to. As well as that she had the job of doing some interviews, researching and practicing styles for the group to look at to chose what style we would do the animation in. Natalie did not edit the presentation even though it was on google drive and I know all these points above stressed the group out as we was waiting for her to finish her parts so we could move on with the animation. Although I could not turn up to the presentation due to family issues, I still ask Natalie why she did not turn up to support the rest of the group and she did not answer. 

LAUAN504, Weekly 10 (part 2)

Week Ten (Part Two)

Me, Briony, and Gabbi completed two interviews each and then cut and put together a completed audio for the animatic. Natalie did not complete any interviews or handed me any audio-clips of proof that she had done it. When I tried to talk to her about it she kept making up excuses and saying she was going to interview a doctor. When she did not complete this by a certain date, I got in touch with her and told her that we was going to move on with the audio and start putting it together. Natalie then failed to turn up to these sessions. Not only did she miss putting the audio together but she also missed the session in the afternoon where, as a group, we discussed what the script was going to be.

Gabbi was in charge of the storyboards and animatic. She would complete this by the end of the week but could only start it once I finished the script. In the script, we have twelve scenes in total. Divided between the four of us, this meant we all had three animations to animate each. I gave the deadline for this to be finished over easter. The script has been put into my visual journal.

LAUAN504, Weekly 10

Week Ten

For the pitch, me and Briony put it together and made the presentation. We were all there on the day to present our idea. 










The feedback we got from this pitch was: 

• Need to start interviewing students. 
• Write questions up before the interviews so we know what we are gonna ask, to get more effective answers. 
• Change the tone and speed of the audio clips to emphasis someone being drunk.   
• Use the illusions effectively, otherwise it could end up looking distorted.
• Loud and clear voices when presenting.
• Everyone had a fair amount of lines.  

After gaining this feedback as a group we decided to put this into action. We started by sitting down and figuring out what questions we wanted to ask in out interviews. We decided to use the 'power of three' as this is most effective when you want answers to be straight to the point. The final questions we went for were: 

• Has alcohol affected your studies in anyway?
• Are you aware of the dangers of alcohol?
• In your opinion, how much is too much alcohol? 

As well as sorting out the questions, we also needed to consider consent forms. This was something for us to consider because the topic may be personal. To avoid any individual being upset that we used their voice or story, we would need them to sign a consent from to give us permission to use their stories and so they themselves understand what it is for.  Briony competed the consent forms and information forms: 

LAUAN504, Weekly 9

Week 9 

As a group we had a week to start researching our topic and put together a pitch that we would present to the class and teachers to receive feedback and get the idea for our short film approved. I set everyone the task of researching documentaries to gain ideas on how we would show our answers when documenting a students life based alcohol and drugs. 

I started my research by watching the documentary, 'Audrie and Daisy' on Netflix. It tells a story of two teenager girls that got drunk and were sexually assaulted at parties while they were passed out. This was interesting for me to watch because not only did this topic relate to the topic that we was doing for our short film, put the film also consists of animated parts throughout the shorts. The animated parts in this film is for the boys when they speak about their side of the story. They have been disguised by using the rotoscoping process because this allows them to freely speak about a touchy subject without having their identities revealed. 

This was useful for me to take into consideration because the subject we are doing can be very private to some individuals and they may not want they identities revealed. This is a good example of how this can be done.   

LAUAN504, Weekly 8

Week Eight

My group for the documentary animation was: Gabbi, Briony and Natalie. We started this task by brain storming topics we would be interested in blogging about. We started with four basic topics such as, science, history, technology, aesthetic and politics. We did this because it would be easier to narrow the ideas down to one if we was to spilt it into categories.

I decided to think about what type of documentary I would want to watch myself and a topic I could relate to. Thats when I came up with the idea of doing a documentary about a students life. Not only are we surrounded by students, but as students ourselves we already have access to information and the knowledge of what a students life is like.

Our final question that we would be investigating for this short film was: Does alcohol and drugs affect a students life?

LAUAN504, Weekly 7

Tuesday-(26/02/19)

Week Seven 

To get an idea on how to go about the live action scene we started to research different methods that we could explore. We remembered a task we did in first year for a module that involved pixilation and decided that this was something we would like to test out as we think this would be the most effective. I started by researching on 'Youtube' how we could portray the actions, I found these clips to view: 

I researched and looked into this advert because this gave me ideas on how we can use pixilation in our animation short. As well as a moving body done in pixilation they also move objects using this method as well. This gave me and my group the inspiration to do a pixilation piece for our advert as we know it was doable and can be very effect when used in a the correct way. For me this advert made the viewing more intriguing and as a group we did not stop watching until the very end.

As well as looking at pixilation done in an advertisement I also decided to explore the idea of how creative we could get while using this method. I think this short film shows that if pulled off in an effective way then being creative with pixilation can have a powerful effect. Even tho the objects being used is not normally what would you expect to be used for certain actions, as a viewer you are able to understand what these objects were being considered as. This is powerful as it gets the viewer thinking and is very satisfying to watch because of how well it is portrayed.

LAUAN504, Weekly 6 (Part Two)

Saturday-(23/02/19)

Week 6 (part two)

These are my finished photo frame animations:

What I would change about this animation is giving the characters a slight movement and add some spare tomatoes in the back to make it appear like a party. I think giving the characters a slight movement and adding extra tomatoes would help set the tone for the scene as it would come across as more of a party. As well as this, it would give the characters more of a personality and make it more relatable for the viewer by adding more animation into this sequence.

LAUAN504, Week 7 (Part Two)

Thursday-(28/02/19)

Week Seven (Part Two)

This was our first practice for the live action part of our advertisement:

We was unsatisfied with the live-action method as we thought this was not exciting enough to put into our advert. This live-action shot does not show the difference between the world in the bottle and the world outside the bottle clear enough. We wanted the advert to be more creative and for it to stand-out to an audience.

After looking at the short pixilation we put together we realised that if we was going to use this method we would need to add more frames to make the movement slower and softer. We decided to use this method as we thought it was more exciting to see as a viewer than just a normal live-action shot. We wanted to keep the advert as an animation but still show the difference between the two worlds; the world in the bottle and outside the bottle. To add extra detail we will change the shot of the live action to a close-up so the viewer is unable to see the bottle lid; there will also be another shot showing the ketchup being squirted from the bottle onto the hot dog as this had to be shot in a normal live-action piece. 

LAUAN504, Weekly 6

Tuesday-(26/02/19)

Weekly Six 

After creating mood boards for the designs of my background, I carried on this method because the research helped me in putting together my designs. As part of the storyline to show Heinz's 150 years of tomato ketchup, we decided to show this through photo frames. Every party that the tomatoes have had other the years and photograph is taken and hung up on the fireplace. To show the different decades we decided to use hats that people would of worn during that time. I used Pinterest to find images of the hats and than collaged them. After designing a hat for the tomatoes, I placed the final images on the mood board to show how I got my inspiration:

1870 DESIGN. 

1900 DESIGN.

1930 DESIGN.

1960 DESIGN. 

1990 DESIGN. 

LAUAN504, Weekly 5

Wednesday-(20/02/19)

Week Five 

This is the first background completed for the short film/advertisement. These mood board shows the stages I took in creating this scene and why I added certain colours and details. Doing this mood board helped my development, as I was able to see through group discussion I was able to adapt the background and change  the design to fit it to the purpose of the advertisement.  This demonstrates how I used my research to create the background the group wanted for the short film. However, if I was to re-do the background I would learn the Maya software so my perspectives are spot on and to help me when creating these backgrounds as a guide.  

                                                                                                     

Using mood boards to track my progress has helped me with this project to move forward with my work as I am able to pick out my strengths and weaknesses. By writing about what I need in each section I was able to use this a guide to improve my drawings and my writing skills as I became more comfortable writing about my work explaining why I chose certain designs for the finished piece.

I did a mood mood consisting of four backgrounds as these designs were simply and there was no approach in improving any of these in anyway.








                                                                                   

LAUAN504, Weekly 1

01/01/2019- Friday 

Week One 

The colour palette 

Working in teams of three, the class was told to read the competition briefs on EStudio. After independently picking the briefs that we was individually most interested in doing, we had time to talk to our peers around the room and put ourselves into groups; as well as choosing a peer based around similar briefs, we also talked about what each individual would bring to the project. The group I was formed into decided to focus on the Heinz brief. 

After the groups were formed we got set the first group task of the module. The task was called, 'Life's a Pitch'. In two weeks time we would be pitching our ideas for the brief to the class for feedback. The pitch needs to be professional almost like the group was pitching it to a client, and straight to the point as the pitch was only three minutes each for each group. 

As a group we are expected to pitch an idea, demonstrate a rough storyboard so the storyline could be visualised, the roles each person would have towards the brief, and to show that the group have an understanding of what the brief was asking you to do.

LAUAN504, Weekly 4

Tuesday-(19/02/19)

Week Four 

As our storyline got stronger and once the storyboards were completed: we came up with the idea of having the action inside of the bottle animated and any action outside the bottle to be live action. This would be affective for our advert as the viewer would be able to visually understand what action is inside the bottle and what is outside without having a voiceover. 

To get a visual view on how Heinz itself would go about doing the live action I started to look at the 'Heinz Tomato Ketchup Fiery Chilli' advert: 

This advert taught me the most about what message Heinz wants to send to their customers because the only time you see the ketchup bottle throughout the whole video clip, is at the end. The advert has people using the ketchup bottle however, it is not visible. This send the message to viewer that people already know who the brand is without even having to see the bottle itself. They want their viewers to be aware that Heinz is used in every family home and the viewer does not even have to see the brand logo to know what ketchup the people in the advert are using proving that the company is used, loved and trust-worthy. 

LAUAN504, Weekly 3 (part two)

Friday - (15/02/19)

Week Three (Part Two)

To get an idea about what Heinz expected out of their adverts or what they have used in their adverts before, I started to research advertisement done by the company. I first came across the Heinz Australia advert: 

This advert caught my eye because it is one of their animated short films where as, I have normally seen love action advertisements. It is a story of a man named Geoff and his love for making baked beans perfect serving for everyone in his family. At the end of the advertisement it shows four different sized tins that have the perfect amount for each person. Such as, 'The One', 'The One for Two', 'The One for All', and 'The Lil' One'. This demonstrated to me that although this is not to do with tomato ketchup; that Heinz's brand aim to: 'Do the common thing uncommonly well brings success'. This gives me an idea about how to show 150 years of Heinz by portraying their brand true to their word and show their love for their products through showing the great value of the tomato ketchup. 

LAUAN504, Weekly 3

13/02/19- Wednesday 

Week Three 

Week three the group focused on refining the story so we could start the pre-production. What went well this week was finding the solution to our storyline so I could start the background designs. We changed the storyline by taking out the characters that did not make sense such as, 'Grandpa Tomato' and the 'Girl Tomato'. Instead we would have the main tomato looking at pictures set on a fireplace of old photos taken at the parties throughout the year. When the main tomato goes to his own party, he heads for the waterslide. As he goes through the waterslide, it pans out to an live action shot of someone tapping a ketchup bottle. 

What didn't go well this week was the groups time-management. From the feedback we got in our class feedback tutorials, we were all told individually that we need to start thinking about speeding up the process so we meet the deadlines for the brief. 
To improve and move on with my work for the next week I will start experimenting with colour and line within my backgrounds. I am going to start by researching different animated backgrounds and trying them out. As well as exploring different styles, I will watch animated and live action advertisement. 

LAUAN504, Weekly 2

30/01/19- Wednesday 

Week Two 

My slide in the Pitch

After the two weeks of the employability workshops, it was time to pitch to the class for 'Life's a Pitch'. What went well in the pitch was receiving the feedback so we could refine the parts in the storyline we were not sure about. My part in the presentation was talking about the backgrounds and demonstrating my ideas for the final pieces through my rough sketches. 

The feedback the group got was based on the complications to do with having an old tomato in our storyline; for the customers buying the tomato sauce, having an old tomato in the animation may put them off of buying the product. 

What didn't go well was the presentation itself. As a group we did not check the presentation before presenting and because it was done on 'Google Docs' it came up on the board overlapping. As well as the presentation itself, the group needed to speak up when presenting so everyone could hear resulting in our group looking unprepared when pitching in a professional matter. 

For the next time I pitch I will make sure I give myself enough time to put my slide together to make it more aesthetically appealing and easier to follow. I will also communicate with my team so the pitch is more effective in a professional environment.   

lauan503research-2

2D Animation

For this module, I am working with 2D digital animation. There are many strengths and weaknesses to the different techniques used when working with 2D digital animation, compared to the techniques used in traditional 2D hand-drawn animation:  

The strengths of 2D digital animation are:

• Once an image or drawing is created it can be stored away onto a memory stick and reused at any point. This means that the image does not have to be redrawn to be re-used and will result in saving valuable time. 

• No need for the use of paper as the software on the computer can create the main key frames and you can easily flip back and forth between each frame. As well as this, you are able to play the sequence without having to take an image of each individual frame to see the final shot. 

•  2D digital animation also allows you to add more detail into your drawings such as, special effects like fire or the movement of water. 

The negatives of 2D digital animation are: 

• The price of the software could be a problem if you are unable to afford it. As well as, not being able to afford it there are many rules when showing your work after using certain software. Where as, in traditional 2D animation there is not many rules you have to stick to because of the software. 

• The program used to create the animation can have limitations that you would not have in the design if it was hand-drawn.     

 
The strengths of 2D traditional animation are :

•  If the image was hand-drawn on paper then it is less likely for you to ‘lose’ the work. Where as, digital animation comes with the risk that you could possibly lose all the work you have done forever, if it is not backed up effectively.    

The weaknesses of 2D traditional animation are:

• It takes a lot of time to complete an animation drawn my hand. Resulting in the animation costing more money to make.    

Figure 1

Figure 2

lauan503research-1

2D Animation

2D animation is the art of drawing a movement either drawn by hand, on computer or the combination of both. Many people in history have had an impact on how 2D animation has grown throughout the years. Many creations such as, the Zoetrope and the discovery of hand-drawn animation may be the reasons that 2D animation still ‘exists’ today.

For example, 2D animation was said to have started when William Horner created a device that he called the ‘Zoetrope’. The Zoetrope was created by William Horner around 1867. The device is a wheel that is made of a drum and an axis. On the inside of the drum is images containing, step-by-step drawings that can be seen through little slits on the outside looking in, creating that appearance of moving images for the audience when spun. When the drum is spun this device shows a clear picture of each frame drawn. These would of been drawn one after the other clearly demonstrating the illusion of a motion-sequence.

(Pepple Studios, William Horner: The History of animation.Accessed 2/12/2018 https://www.pebblestudios.co.uk/2017/07/29/william-horner-the-history-of-animation/)

As well as the invention of the Zoetrope, 2D animation has changed over many years and moved onto hand-drawn animations. Hand-drawn animations allows the animator to flip back and forth between the pages to check the sequence of the movements. Along with this new process ‘Disney’ used storyboards and script writing to help aid their animators when drawing the animations by hand. An online source explains how hand-drawn animation works and why is was so effective for Disney at the time. The use of a pencil and paper meant that the animator could easily flip back and forth between the drawings to check the sequence of the movements without having to use a Zoetrope.

(Ryan Nothard, Blog-post, 2D Animation, Snow White and Techniques Research. Accessed 2/12/2018, https://kcimgdryannothard.wordpress.com/2017/05/26/2d-animation-snow-white-and-techniques-research/ )

 

lauan503talk-1

Talk This Way 

Talk this way was a study task set by the teachers. I started by picking a voice note to use for my lip sync, I chose number ten. By looking at the reference given to us by the teacher called the, 'Preston Blair Phoneme Library' I created my own lip style to fit with the reference as this would help me with the vocal breakdown with the mouth shapes. Once the simple mouth shapes were completed I created a folder with the sound and lip designs so I could opened them up into After Effects.

I used the dope sheet given to us and filled in the letter of the mouth shapes for each each sound when playing the voice note. The dope sheet helped me to plan what mouth shapes I would need when making certain sound with your mouth, so when I came to slotting them into after effects I didn't have to guess which mouth shapes would be used for each sound. As well as knowing the mouth shapes, using the dope sheet would be effective when slotting them into the sound because the sheet would tell me what mouth shape is needed and where, when the sound is played.

To conclude with this study task, I really enjoyed making this short animation as I learned a lot about reference and how using reference is a good tool when needing some inspiration. And it is a good tool to use when struggling to imagine it yourself. By practicing using the dope sheet, I hope to learn what mouth shapes make what sounds resulting in a more effective lip sync.

lauan503weekly- 10th week

Week 10 

When all my animation was complete, the rest of my group still had some animation. As I had free time I got set the task of putting together the 'art book' for the pre-production of the animation.  I started by collecting all the design art boards and putting them in the order that the pre-production moved in.  This ordered started with the script and storyboards, moving onto the character design sheets, and the pre-production finished with the background design sheets. After placing the script, storyboards, and all of the design sheets in order; I kept the theme of the green background for the majority of the slides however, in the more plain slides I added the background designs used in the animation, in the background of the art-book. I put some of the background sheets behind to make the art-book more colourful and eye-catching. I wanted the design to be eye-catching so the viewer would be drawn to the booklet and would know that this was the pre-production booklet for 'Gone with the Wind'.