Evaluation OUAN505

This module was an interesting one. I put off most of the work I had to do since I had so many other animations to work on and I didn't have time to focus on a 5 month long project. I also had enough time to do that since I was tasked with the Production and Post Production of the project. It gave me ample time to do what I needed to without having to become anxious over whether or not I would finish the animation. The only thing I really had to focus with early on was collaborating with my friend on getting a BGM track for the animation, and maybe getting a voice actor to do some narration for it. In the end neither of those ventures ended up producing anything, but I still plan to work with both of those people on a different project. I chalk this one up to some bad communication and planning on both ends.
In terms of production, I had an easy enough time finishing my scenes on time. Each scene brought with it a different challenge and I feel as though I succeeded in each adequately enough. In terms of intercommunication with my team however, I feel as though that left me wanting. I felt as though instead of collaborating with one of my partners, he instead tried to command me to do work and he scolded me when I was taking breaks. Not exactly the best situation to be in but I tried to deal with it maturely enough. I wish there was more of an equal feeling among my partners but that didn't seem to be happening. My other partner was good in terms of teamwork, he gave me good advice and helped me along with some critiques of what I was doing. So it wasn't all bad, but like I said it left me wanting.
I feel like I needed to do some more in terms of Post production. The stuff I dealt with ended up failing halfway through the project so I wish I could have worked more on the post production end of things, but my partner took over some and handled it very well in my opinion.
Overall I would say that this project went on a lot better than my previous partnered project. For one my partners actually got their work done on time, so that was a big plus. I'm not stuck with a half done animation by the end of the module. I don't know whether or not ill be putting these scenes into my showreel but I'm considering it. I like a lot of my other work much more and although Ive warmed up to the idea of an environmental animation, I'm still not sure if I want it to represent my work as a whole. Overall I would say I enjoyed the work in this project but not any more or less than any of my other projects. If you asked me whether or not I would do it differently if I had a second chance, I would probably do some things different, but I like what I did for this and It's good enough to that I can feel proud about what I got done.

Animation Post-Production Pt.8

We all decided to use the Epic Mountain song Into the Wild for our audio track on the animation. Joe contacted them for licensing and got permission to do such and I think the song mixes with the narration very well. to listen to it you can go here:
https://soundcloud.com/epicmountain/sets/direct-music-licencing/s-xWkPQ

Along with that we also decided on what font to use. Although it was the last decision we made I think that the font we used worked very well with our animation the font itself was ADAM from DaFont made by Adam Free. On the website it says that it's free for personal use, so if we wanted to use the font in a commercial setting we would need permission to do such. Since this is a school project however and no such permission is needed we decided to go ahead and use it since it worked so well with our animations aesthetic. We finished the titling and the sound three days before the due date. I'm glad I'm going to be able to enjoy my weekend for once.

Animation Production Pt.8

This is the last and final scene I had to do before I was done with my scenes for this project. It was a scene of a forest fire, which I thought was simple enough to do. I didn't know what I was getting into though. Getting the scene together was easy enough, the hard part was putting in the animated fire everywhere. I had to first cut out all the fire pieces from the vector trace they were made from. Then I had to import them to after effects and put each of them in their own composition. I needed them to be animated so I put each frame down and I realised that it only lasted 8 frames.

I used this technique to make the pre-comp repeat itself after the animation was done. Once I got done with that I had to duplicate each of them, and then change the frame they started on for each of them so I wouldn't have the flames all repeating at the same time. I moved them in and out of the trees, and added a noise effect onto them to make them look like paper. I'm now finished with all the rest of my scenes for this project.

Animation Production Pt.7

 This next shot I had to make was about the logging industry. I needed to show how the logging industry can help attribute to the causes of deforestation. I needed a log so I put in a vector trace into photoshop, since no one decided to laser cut a log for an asset. I wanted it to look realistic so I put in rings on the log and bark on the sides of it. Then I imported it into After effects and got to work on the scene. Luckily I had enough assets to make a chopped forest scene and thats what I put together first.

Then I added the logs by fade in over time so It looked like more and more were piling up as time went on. This scene was done as successfully as I it could have without real paper cut logs being used I think.

Animation Post-Production Pt.7

My friend told me today that he won't be able to get the music done in time for the turn in date. Apparently his computer has been crashing repeatedly whenever he tries to open any of his music software. I'm really bummed that I wasn't able to work with him for this project considering he's my friend but I hope I'll be able to do a project with him sometime in the near future. He told me he's going to work on getting a new computer so he'll be able to work again. I might get him to help me one a project over the summer if I can.

Animation Production Pt.6

I was told that the scene for this was supposed to be a shot of the four pre-comps I did breaking apart into the next shot. I wanted a break from that so I decided to use the earth shot from the beginning of the animation and break it into 4 pieces. I did the other scene just for good measure but I didn't want the scenes to feel like they were repeating. This scene was simple enough to make since joe made the scene in photoshop so I could just chop it up any way I wanted. I just edited the photoshop file and imported the pieces of the earth into after effects. I also decided to make my own space background for the stars. I used a custom brush to make the actual stars and through adding and erasing I managed to get it looking the way I wanted. After that I put in an overlay of colour to the stars of light red and blue. I imported all this into after effects and put the scene together. I don't know if it will be used in the final animation but I like how it looks.

Animation Production Pt.5

 I finished the rest of the forest biomes and pre-comped them into a larger Composition. Callum asked for me to make them come in from all sides and into the frame simultaneously. This part was as simple as moving solids around in After effects. After that was the hard part. I had to sync all the pre-comps together and have them all changing colour at the same time. So I went into each pre-comp and slid the key frames around until they were all starting and ending together. It wasn't difficult so much as it was tasking.

Then I had to sync up all the video with an audio bit for the Outro. I shortened the composition to 15 seconds and had to re-slide all the key frames in place. The end turned out alright.

Animation Post-Production Pt.6

We still haven't figured out a typeface for our animation. But Joe and Callum have figured out a backup plan if my friend doesn't finish the song in time, he told me he would figure out whether or not he will be able to do it by Wednesday of this week so I'll wait and see if he gets it done. Otherwise there hasn't been much going on in terms of post production. Me and Joe have started to put scenes together for the final cut and its been going well.

Animation Production Pt.4

 I've finished the Alpine forest today. I used the same method as I did the first one, but with different assets for it. I had trouble figuring out the placement of the trees, as well as how they would stand out from each other. I used key light to take off some edges that I didn't manage to get when I cut out the images in photoshop back in february. Apart from that it was pretty easy. I made the sky a different colour from the other one just so that they don't blend together.

The only other problem I had was the hue change aspect of the scene. I had to somehow turn these white trees brown and I was having the hardest time doing it. I ended up changing the brightness down so that they looked burnt which I thought was a nice effect.

Animation Production Pt.3

I've started working on the Outro scene since i haven't gotten some of the cutouts i need to finish the first scene. In this scene I was supposed to make 4 different forests, slide them together into the same frame then make them all die out. I just finished the first scene I need for this. I basically did the same thing I did for my last scene, but in a 2D way instead of making it into a parallax shot.



I'm planning to make 4 different types of climates for this scene, just so that they don't all look the same. Im thinking of making two deciduous forests, an alpine forest and a taiga forest.

Animation Production Pt.2

Ive finished the first part of the first scene, and I've started working on the next few parts of it. Initially Callum wanted me to make each of the parts of the scene slide out of view so it looks like paper craft, but Martin said that it took too long for each piece to go out of frame. So instead he's making me do this page turn effect on after effects. This is what it looks like.

 I personally don't like this effect, since it reminds me of a Microsoft movie maker scene changer effect. It just looks really cheesy to me. I wanted to do straight cuts, but apparently its already been decided for me so i'm basically forced to do it. I won't like it but It's easy enough to make it happen. I'd still prefer a straight cut to another scene though.

Animation Post-Production Pt.5

I've kept in contact with my musician friend from Chicago and he's been having some trouble finding ample time to record out his audio for our project. I told him our deadline and sent him some updated scenes from our project to try and see if that will help. I have faith that he'll get the work done in time but just in case I told Joe and Callum to start looking into some royalty free music just for backup in case it doesn't work out. Apart from that there aren't many updates, Joe told me we have time to figure out the typeface for our project and that it won't take long. I have history as a Graphic designer so I might be overstating the importance of the font type but I still feel as though its important to the overall aesthetic of our animation.

Responsive - Summative Evaluation

This entire module was a ride from start to finish. At the beginning I had little or no idea on what briefs I should undertake, who I was going to work with for the collaborative portion, or what it was going to be like. Safe to say I'm fully aware of what I need and how its affected me over the module. While finishing this module, I am aware that technically I am one substantial brief short. I have two half finished briefs, but one of them I missed the deadline for and the other stopped updating before I could finish the last 4 I needed before the deadline.
Apart from that, My other three briefs went as smoothly as they possibly could. I was originally planning to start work on my Responsive briefs all the way back in December. I was going to be getting a cintiq for christmas so I could work over in Chicago during winter break. However, my parents ended up buying the thing 3 months too late. I got it come springtime, and I was able to work on it over spring break, but I would have liked to relax that time instead of rushing to finish a brief that I needed to finish by the end of March.
 The first brief I actually tried to do after winter break was the Gold Panda Illustration and Cartoon Competition. I never actually finished the brief I was working on, but for some reason I am proud with the ones I did finish. The work I put into them was good, and I learned some useful skills while doing them as well. After I didn't meet the deadline I was still keen on doing them. So much so that I managed to finish another Illustration for the brief even after the deadline was over.
During February I ran into some more trouble. I worked on two briefs during that month, one I finished and the other was the second one that was half done by the end. The first one was loop de loop, a bi-monthly looping animation competition. The subject that was up on the website was for the word "tumble". Originally I didn't know that the deadline would be in March, so I was rushing up until the end of February to finish it. I did manage to by the end of February, which meant I was a month early for submission. Might I add, a submission that never came. I'm still waiting on the day that they announce the submission date, since they're changing websites and they've closed down their older one.
During the months of February and March I worked on a weekly illustration brief online called Onform. For this one I had to save an image that was uploaded weekly to the Onform website and draw over the shape they made and make it into an illustration of some kind. Everything was going smoothly up until the time where the person uploading the images stopped right after I finished the 4th one. They haven't uploaded since, and that is the main and only reason I never finished this brief. The module itself was fun enough, and let me experiment with new ways to digitally illustrate, but I really wanted to finish eight or nine and was only able to get half of that done.
During all of this I was also working on a Collaborative brief. This was D&AD's Desperados Brief. Everything in this brief probably went the best it could have in comparison to the others. I finished my animated portion of it well in advance as well as an illustrated portion that I wanted to get done. I actually had partners I could rely on for this brief so it's nice that I could work like that for once this year.
The last and final brief I did was called Do it in Ten, a monthly animation contest made by the people at Show me the Animation. They give you a word and you need to make a ten second animation based on it. The month I worked on it they had the word Transition. I knew that I was going to be going back to Chicago for spring break and I figured I might as well do a rotoscope of me going from Leeds to Chicago. I had never done a rotoscope animation before and I was keen on doing one, so this seemed like the perfect opportunity. I will say that It went better than I could have expected, I finished the brief a day early and on spring break that means more free time for myself.
Overall this module was pretty chaotic but I managed to get it done in time and I hope that everything I worked on is enough for me to pass.

Project Report

Powered by Issuu

Publish for Free

Individual Briefs

Collaborative Brief - Boards

Responsive - Doitinten - Transition

‘Do it In Ten’ is Show Me The Animation’s monthly animation challenge. They gave me a theme to go with, which is Transition. Immediately when I heard the word I thought of how many flights back and forth from America. Maybe it will have something to do with that.

I've roughed out a storyboard for the animation. I want to try and make the transitions in the animation really smooth, since this months theme is "Transition". I want to have It start out with me in a cab driving to the airport. I turn and open the door, get out and I'm in an air plane flying to Chicago. I put up my bag and it turns into the trunk door on a car and I'm in Chicago. I might have to change it up if its too ambitious. Im going to be working on this over spring break while in Chicago so I'm going to try and film some footage so I can rotor scope it and hopefully finish it before the turn in date.

I managed to get it done a day before the turn in deadline. I wasn't able to get the transitions I wanted, instead I decided to use blinking to transfer the scenes to different parts of the trip. I also added a scene in at the end, where basically the viewers "face" hits a pillow.

This is the final piece.

Responsive - Collaborative - Desperados D&AD

I finished out all of my project and my partners have done their parts as well. This is the boards that we're going to turn in along with the ident.

Responsive - Collaborative - Desperados D&AD

I made the video. It turned out to be 15 seconds long, which is longer than I expected. The added time was due to the feeling that the sound was too cramped, so I lengthened it out so it would sound better. I made the bottle out of 5 different layers to make it look transparent and like it has depth to it, which my instructors didn't seem to like. I also layered up a bunch of other stuff and made copies of the entire setting with the lights turned off. Here's how it turned out:

Responsive - Collaborative - Desperados D&AD

An update on the Ping pong ball portion of the project. I've mocked up the final design on Maya. I got a design from Daniel that I thought went great on a ping pong ball. I asked my classmates "Would you buy a set of beers if they sold you this ping pong ball along with it?" and all of them pretty much said that they would. I tried making the ball in two different ways, through a quad sphere and a regular sphere made out of two halves. In the end I went with the regular sphere since the texture binding around it was much better. It also gave it a distinct "lip" that I think a lot of ping pong balls tend to have. As you can see I went through three different sizes before I finally got the size right. But I'm pleased with how it turned out.

Responsive - Collaborative - Desperados D&AD

I decided that I was going to create the Ident through a process I like to call a "digital collage".  Its not going to have much action in it, just a few lighting effects. I want the sound in the ident to be what carries the message across. Im going to have a Desperados bottle on a barrel under a lightbulb in an empty room. You hear flies going through the room, then the lightbulb shining on the desperados bottle breaks. After that, the desperados bottle glows in a neon colour and you start to hear a party going on in the background. It's going to be fairly short, 5-10 seconds should do it.

Responsive - Collaborative - Desperados D&AD

A breakthough came in with the ping pong portion of the project.

I decided to use the logo on this bottle cap for the design for the desperados ping pong ball. I cut out the logo and used photoshops 3-d tool to superimpose it onto a sphere.

I want to make the final product on maya, preferrably with a bigger logo and maybe something that ties it in with the new brand design Daniel is working on.

Responsive - Collaborative - Desperados D&AD

We roughed out what we're going to do and who's going to be doing what. I'm going to be working on an Ident for Desperados as well as a design for some ping pong balls to be sold along with the beer, with the desperado's logo on it. Daniel will be working on a design package for a new kind of Desperados product to be sold for a limited time, Desperado's "Fuego". Amelia, The graphic design student will be working on a website for the product. I hope we'll be able to finish it by turn in.

Responsive - Collaborative - Desperados D&AD

Me and the illustration student, Daniel have been working together to get an idea together. We've been brainstorming by looking at the current design schemes for Desperados as a brand. I figure since Desperados wants the project to show how desperados can "bring the party" we could use a sort of neon theme and maybe some other stuff, like making the packaging into a game somehow.
 We also talked about how some other brands of beer have advertised their products and wondered if we could draw any inspiration out of that. Overall I'd say we had a really good brainstorming session and I hope that this workflow continues further into the project.

Responsive - Collaborative - Desperados D&AD

I knew that I wanted to work on this brief from the beginning, and I had a list of potential ones as well. But since the instructors said that this was going to be a competitive brief, no one decided to do that one. Which ends up leaving the competition in the hands of other schools. I'm going to be working with an illustration student and a graphic design student. Hopefully this project will go better than my last one in terms of partner dependability.

Animation Pre-Production Pt.5

They've done another storyboard and animatic this time and extended it to last the full length of the actual video. Joe and Callum have also re-recorded several audio files because the ones they recorded before weren't very clear. The new animatic isn't coloured so its a little bit more confusing but its much better than the old one since it clearly times out everything. Which will make it a lot easier to use as a reference for when I'm making the animation.
This is what the final animatic will look like.

Animation Post-Production Pt.4

I've talked to my classmates about using some common Typefaces throughout the course of the animation. I feel like it will help pull the animation together, and help make it seem more professional. I know that we're going to need at most three, one for a titles, one for header text and one for body text, and we need to make them all look like they go together. Either that or use less than that. Its also going to need to look good inside the animation as well, so that's something to consider as well.

Responsive - Onform Pt.1

Im going to be doing another brief. This one requires me to draw and image based around a random shape and publish it onto a blog. My instructor told me to do 8-9 of them to be able to call this brief "done". I will update this as it goes along.

I got my first shape today.  It's this.

I sketched out a few images of what I wanted this shape to turn into. The idea mostly centred around scarves, and I picked the one I liked the most out of the three.

Here they are in all their glory.
The large one is the one I went with.

I got the second shape a today, it looks like this:

First impression i got was that it looked like a head and chest. Lets see where I go with that.










This is what I ended up getting. I like the way it looks mostly. Hopefully I keep getting better with these.








I got the third shape today. It looks like this:


I haven't figured out what I want this to be yet. Ill see if I can't figure it out.

The first image I made was the image of the two people kissing. I thought the lines were too thick on that one so I tried making another image. The second one I made was some mushrooms on trees. I like this one much more and I'm going to enter this one and see if it goes up.

I just got the nest image and it looks like this:
At first glance it looks like the top half of a skull but I want to think more and see if any more images surface.

I came up with a few images for this one but the main image is the one that got put up so I'm going to talk about that one.

The first time I drew this I wanted to try out a new technique for texture on the eyes, nose, and tongue. I went to a classmate and asked what he thought and he wasn't fond of it so I went with his suggestions and ended up with the bottom image. I think the new image has more fidelity than the other but I still prefer my first one over the other. I guess its fine though, I still got it up on the page so it doesn't matter to me that much.