Creative Compositing - Proposal and Tests

Test this week

After we had learnt how to use the green screen I thought about whether or not I could use it for my project. I hadn't quite figured out how I would do the camera sequence and so I though I could test it out using the green screen.

This is the green screen footage I shot. I will use a section of this for my test.
https://vimeo.com/157725651

Test using the green screen footage and adding it too the test I did last week:
https://vimeo.com/157577014

I know for next time that I need to take the footage from a different angle so you can see the camera screen better and also to make sure there is light shining on the camera so you can see it better. Next time I will make sure I do this.
I also have noticed when you look through the camera the size of the image changes on the screen and in my test I have not done this and so I need to look at how to create this.



My Proposal:

My project will start off with someone looking like they are about to take a picture of a church. As they pan up the church the camera will cut to the screen on the camera where gargoyles will start to appear and move. In shock the camera will then drop to reveal that they are not present unless you are looking through the camera.

Inspiration

For my project I will be creating a 15-30 second film about looking through a camera and then seeing creatures move. I got inspiration for my piece from Guilherme Marcondes's animations as they use live action with animation over the top.
http://www.guilherme.tv/caveirao

I also took inspiration from Elton John - Wonderful Crazy Night Album Advert
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntRQBy415M8

I like how through the advert you were looking through a pair of glass and then could see the animation appear and I wanted to do something similar in my project. 

Breakdown

Background - My background will be stormy clouds, that will move. I will creating this by filming clouds (approximately 5 mins) and then speeding them up slightly to create the effect. I will also have to change the colour of them to black and white to get the stormy, miserable, dark affect.

Still Image - This will be the picture of St Peter's Church in Wolverhampton city center. I will be taking these pictures myself and the changing the colour of it to match the style. I have already taken some stills of the church which i have put on earlier posts. I did this to test angles of the church.

Live Action - My live action will be me holding a camera and moving it up towards the top of the church. I will do this on green screen. I have tested this on a different post. 

Animation - My last layer will be my animation layer which will be when it looks at the camera screen and then gargoyles will start to appear and move. I will be using TVpaint for this and then compiling it in After effects. I want to animation to look like animation on purpose and not to blend in with the rest of the composition as i feel it will stand out better and as they aren't real I felt doing it like this would be better.

There are Sketches of the types of gargoyles I would like to use in the animation on another blog post.

This is quick storyboard I did to help me see what would happen. The camera will look up, the gargoyles will appear and then the camera will come down to reveal no gargoyles.


Next Step:

What I need to look at next is lighting and where the light will be coming from and then this will give my piece more depth because at the moment it is very flat.
I also need to start to animated the gargoyle/ gargoyles and decide what they will do.

3D Production - Week 5 - Facial Animation and Animation Layers

“The Eyes are the window to your soul” Shakespeare

So if the eyes are dead the soul is dead, mastering the eyes in animation will add so much humanity to your character.

Doll Face http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zl6hNj1uOkY (3D mixed with live action)

The link below shows the latest technology for games and how they are animating character to be more lifelike by using motion capture. It is really fascinating to see how they have done this. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZY7RYCsE9KQ

https://vimeo.com/64639747  Lydia animation on v4.20 of the rig

Test animation on 3Lateral FACS based rig with contextual shapes.

To get the best facial expressions and emotions you need to plan and make sure to notice things that people do when they react to certain things. Then try and capture that into the animation. The easiest way to do it is to plan and look at the reference footage and thumbnails.

Blinking Tutorial: https://vimeo.com/50135405

Blinking guidelines:

· Keep eyes closed for at least 2 frames

· Top lid come down 80%, bottom lids come up by 20 %.

· Eyes role up slightly when we blink.

· Other things move round the eyes. (Eyebrows, cheeks etc.)

· Often close slow and open faster (slow in fast out)

Eye Darts:

Consider what makes us change the direction of our eyes and the impact it has on the person watching us. I need to make sure I focus on the eyes.

Working with animation layers, man push box with different layers for various body parts: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFfyCUV7nz8

Class tasks

As a class we got into pairs, one would react to certain things (ask them to remember something, imagine something, think of something they love, think of something they hate) and the other would write notes on what they did.

Remembering something- looking down, eye darts – side to side, staring

Imagine something – looking up, eye darts, slight smile

Love – smile and eye quint (smiling with whole face), looking up

Hate – eyebrow twitch, eyes darting – up and down, lots of blinking.

Our next task and Homework was to think of a phone call reaction without talking. Reacting to something someone is saying on the phone. I will blog this on a separate post.

Critical and Contextual Issues - Week 5 - Tutorial

This week we had a tutorial with Russ to discuss the our plans for our essays (which I have posted on a previous post).

The feedback I got was good, he liked my title and the way I had structured it and what interested to see what statistics I would find and what information about the specific women I would find.

I am very happy with how it went and I feel confident now to start drafting my essay.

My Essay Intro 

This essay will aim to discuss the animation industry and how women’s roles have changed over the years. Exploring how the change in times and how society viewed women all those years ago will allow me to see how it affected what roles women were given in the industry.

Looking at and comparing different women working in the industry will also give me a better understanding of this element to my essay, including relevant case studies that will back up my findings. The focus on women who worked in the animation companies and not women who were freelance animators will be vital to the relevance of this essay. An example is Lotte Reiniger who worked for herself and was a big name in the female world. 

This essay will also compare how their roles have evolved between then and now, such as the contrast between back then, where they could only paint and outline cells, to now where it could be argued that they are seen as equals. It will also discuss whether or not the social norms of the time and idealisms had an impact on the roles women could have, as well as discussing the differences in times and whether it has changed significantly or only slightly and why this is.  

^Above is my essay introduction. I have reworded certain areas to include what my I had written in my plan and I feel it makes a lot more sense now.

3D Production - Idea for 11 Second Club

For my lip sync I am choosing an old 11 second club clip, I have chosen 'Ready to Party' I liked this one the most as you can do a lot of different things with it. It is fun and I wanted to push myself with my 3D.

This is the one which won - http://www.11secondclub.com/competitions/january15/winner

I also liked:

http://www.11secondclub.com/competitions/january15/entry/q4XFU1 - it was funny and exaggerated which I like

http://www.11secondclub.com/competitions/january15/entry/uNC3xK - I like the idea of it being in an office and its like a Friday afternoon, it is relatable.


The clip is from the movie Bridesmaids

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZR7ZVF8AixY

words-
I'm excited, and I feel relaxed, and I'm ready... to party... with the best of them..." 

Reference Compilation:

For my reference I wanted to try out different things, being over the top to just sitting there. I also wanted different people to do and so I ask a group of classmates to perform for me. Each person thought of different things and it was good to see what everyone would do with it. I liked parts from many different ones and it will be hard to chose the final one.

https://vimeo.com/157425369

Critical and Contextual Issues - My Break Down of Essay

How have Women's Roles in the Animation Industry changed over the years?

Introduction -

• What the essay will be about
• What I will be comparing in my essay

Chapter 1 -

• I will look into the social norms of women's work roles in the 1930/40's - I was going to chose the 1950's but I wanted to see when women did not have many jobs. (How men didn't like them working with or for them; if they got married they would leave work; expected to look after the house and kids)

compare against

• Social norms today  (still a struggle of equal rights today in some jobs but it is a lot different from back then.)

Chapter 2 -

• Look specifically into the animation industry
• how women's roles have changed (from painted cells - animating)
• look into 1 company maybe (Disney)
• get statistics
• look at whether the social norms from chapter 1 affected this
• when did it change for women

Chapter 3 -

1. Looking at specific women:

• Bianca Majolie - first woman hired for story department for Pinocchio
• Retta Scott - first woman to animate for Disney - 'Bambi' - The dog chase scene
• Marry Blair
• Dorris Collins

to name a few I could look at

Summary -

I will summarise what I have spoken about in the rest of the essay and discuss how far the role has changed, whether it still has more to change.

Note -

I was going to discuss Lotte Reiniger but she was one of very few women who were animating wthout any trouble and where doing it themselves. For this essay I wanted to concentrate on the women sruggling in the big animation companies.

I am happy with my plan and I think it lays out clearly what I want to achieve for each section. I also think it flows nicely together and the structure is good. in the next couple of weeks I will start writing my first draft.

Creative Compsiting - Week 4 - Keylight and Travelling Matte

In this weeks lesson we took our green screen footage from the other week and took it into After Effects to practice masking and learn how to remove the chroma key. We used travelling mask as well as it meant we could get rid of anything that was left like a green light when the chroma key was removed.  

Once the mask has been done frame by frame we have to use the keylight to get rid of the green screen background. You go to effects and then keying and using the colour picker select the green background and it will then get rid of it. The mask is only useful when the chroma key does not work or look okay once the green has been removed. Sometimes only taking the chroma key out will work. The software can only work with the materials you have, so if the material are not good quality, the result wont be good quality.

Green screen work:

Green screen video 1 - https://vimeo.com/158001108

Green screen video 2 - https://vimeo.com/158001110

End result -

https://vimeo.com/158002113

For this task I used a travelling mask as without it there was a green light around Bethany I also added a feather effect to the edges of the mask to ensure it did not look weird either. I then put the background and added a lightning affect to shoot out of her hand. I found the mask to be very effective as it made sure ther was no green still and although it took a long time the quality of my work looked better.

This is a list of youtube videos i have found useful: 

Mask tracking - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ylvg5IOZrQg

Animating masks - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StCBpTIwOFE

Critical and Contextual Issues - Week 4 - Metaphorical Messages in Animation

Metaphorical message can also be seen as persuasive animation. Where the animation are made to tempt people into doing things or buying things through the use of cartoons and animations. They are also used to hide messages about political issues using cartoons which are seen as childlike to hide these messages. (Propaganda, Social Stereotypes, Subversion)

Example - The Trojan Horse - It's a metaphor and is an image with a message inside of it, which is what metaphorical animations have.

We began by looking at the banned eleven

#	Title	Year	Director	Production
1.	Hittin' the Trail for Hallelujah Land	1931	Rudolf Ising	Merrie Melodies
2.	Sunday Go to Meetin' Time	1936, 1944 (reissue)	Friz Freleng	Merrie Melodies
3.	Clean Pastures	1937	Friz Freleng	Merrie Melodies
4.	Uncle Tom's Bungalow	1937	Tex Avery	Merrie Melodies
5.	Jungle Jitters	1938	Friz Freleng	Merrie Melodies
6.	The Isle of Pingo Pongo	1938, 1944 (reissue)	Tex Avery	Merrie Melodies
7.	All This and Rabbit Stew	1941	Tex Avery	Merrie Melodies
8.	Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs	1943	Robert Clampett	Merrie Melodies
9.	Tin Pan Alley Cats	1943	Robert Clampett	Merrie Melodies
10.	Angel Puss	1944	Chuck Jones	Looney Tunes
11.	Goldilocks and the Jivin' Bears	1944, 1951 (reissue)	Friz Freleng	Merrie Melodies

The "Censored Eleven" is a group of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons that were withheld from syndication by United Artists (UA) in 1968. They decided to pull these eleven cartoons from broadcast because the use of ethnic stereotypes in the cartoons were deemed too offensive for contemporary audiences.

An example of a Propaganda film is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzH1iaKVsBM the use of the hidden meaning with a cartoon character that is well know is used to persuade and affect peoples decisions and even convey a message that would be too realistic and heavy if chosen to be shown in real life film.


We then went on to look at Animations made to persuade: Public Information, Political Context and Alternative Messages. They are used to communicate across masses of the population not just one person.


Public Information Films

Public information films used ‘deadpan imagery’ in order to talk about difficult ideas in a way that would be easier to follow. Characters were used as the ‘voice’ of the government to get messages across.

An example of a company who created Public Information films is Halas and Batchelor who worked for the British Ministry of Information on Public films. They understood that everything would changed and nothing would last forever.

'New Towns' by Halas and Batchelor where designed to convey the hopes of the future people had. They showed how relocating from the Cities would benefit the country and everyone else and it worked as 29 new towns were built.

Charley in New town - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ophEYd4A-Q

Animations were not just used to relocate people they were also used for health issues.

Modern Guide to Health - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQS3112aQjk

Charley Says was a series of episode created to teach kids about the dangers of certain things that would of been too serious if not shown in a cartoon way. This shows us how persuasive animation is used for good reasons. The use of the child makes the cartoon more watchable for the audience.

Don't talk to Strangers - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3FnCiRpdQ4

The next animation was used to show people what to do when there was a threat of nuclear war. 

Protect and Survive - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6677Eppc-sk

The next one is a new advert that does the same thing as the above animation, it is used to persuade people and give public information. This shows us how these animations are still relevant to use today. 

The Chokeables - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtbUB1XPW_o