Animation Production - Week 9 - Final Film

This week I continued to work on the final, but it was a slow week as I concentrated more time on my project for a client and so I could not get as much as I wanted done for this week.

5-week 8 Final Film from Summer Davies-Newton on Vimeo.

Feedback -

To keep going and making the changes from the feedback of previous weeks.

I also continued to work on my evaluation ready for the draft next week.

Animation Production - Week 8 - Final Film Progress

This week I have been focusing on the memories section, taking on the feedback from last week, I also added the title sequence.

Below is the what I have so far for the blocking of the animation. I added a title sequence with the title of the film. Finally deciding on a title is great I can see the film coming more and more together each week, even if I am still making a lot of changes and struggling on certain sections.

I also changed the memory section from the feedback from last week, but I still have a lot more to go with making that scene better.

4 - week 7 final film from Summer Davies-Newton on Vimeo.


Feedback

Make better transitions between the memories, maybe adding in bubbles, going around her.

Tentacle - make it into a motif so add another scene to make it look more obvious to the audience that the tentacle is the bad guy and the depression that is trying to take her. This is something I have wanted from the beginning and I think it's a good idea to add another scene of it.

I need to look at Ryan Woodward again as inspiration and his work is really flowly and smooth and is what I want my animation to be like.

I feel I am struggling quite a bit on the memory section, but I hope working at it each week with the rest of the animation, it will hopefully click and look right.


Class - Press Kits and Evaluation. 

This week we looked at press kits and having all the different parts of the kit together to make sending out to festivals easier. I found this extremely useful, although I don't think I will be looking into it until after the deadline, when I have more time and everything is finished.

We also discussed the evaluation we have to write and to be careful not to describe what we did throughout the project but to actually say: how we felt, what we have learnt and what we would do differently.
The deadline for first draft is in the next couple of weeks so I will be starting to work on this.

Animation Production - Week 7 - Final Film Progress

Style

From the feedback last time they wanted me to push my style and make it more like the inspiration pictures I had.

I wanted to mess around with different ways of doing it and below is what I cam up with, I don't like the more blocky coloured ones as I feel they make her too solid and I want her to be portrayed as someone who is translucent and sketchy almost not there because of her depression and I feel the last one that is more sketchy is what I am more going for.

Taking the last style I like I went on to play around with the colour and lines. When I am animating I want the lines to be constantly moving.

Style with the black more dominant -

Style with the white more dominant -

Final Style

Below is the a combination of the the white and black and I have asked a few people they also prefer this one. I like that she has an outline but is sketchy and transparent and so doesn't have a full form. Which is because of her depression.

Blinking/ Memories section

This week I have been trying to keyframe the rest of the film and so looked at videos of how the film industry did blinks and the different ways to do it.

The first video is an okay way to do it but i feel the eye doesn't open enough and the last video is better as it has the haziness of opening your eyes and not really being able to see in detail what is there. Which is more to what I want in my film. Ignoring what the last video is about.







I have been struggling with this section a lot as I have had different feedback on it and I don't feel it flows as well as the beginning of the film.

After speaking with Emily she suggested just getting on and starting to animate. I have been having troubles with the ending of my film and not liking it and feel if I can get the beginning sorted, the ending will come and I will be able to change it.


Feet Section -

I started with the feet section as I knew I could get this done this week and I could go from there. I have outlined it black as it was quite messy with the sketchy version and was hard to see. I really like the feet tilts that were suggestion from last times feedback and think they make her more human.

Emily suggested adding a shadow to the feet as the angle is slightly awkward at times. I haven't managed to do this, this week but I will for next week.

scene 1 - 5 - black outline from Summer Davies-Newton on Vimeo.


Title - 

I have also started to think about the title of my film and have a few suggestions which I will bring to the class on Monday and see what people think about them as well as talking to my mum about it.

The Suggestions are:

• Woman
• Water
• Creature
• Falling
• Floating
• Memories
• Bubbles
• Drowning
• Submerged
• Engulfed
• Immersed
• Descent 
• Fading
• Isolated 
• Sinking 

At the moment my favourite is 'Sinking'  but I will get opinions first and definitely speak to my mum about it.

After talking with my mum we have both decided on the title 'Sinking'. My mum felt that it best summed up how she feels and it stood out for me from the very beginning. I am happy I finally have a name.

Swapping Films - 

By the end of the week both Bethany and I were getting stuck with our films and were struggling to see past what we had already done. So we decided to swap films.

I helped time and fix up drawing of her film and she helped with an ending and different shots on my film. This really helped to see our films differently as we needed fresh eyes and it really worked to re-motivate ourselves.

optional ending from Summer Davies-Newton on Vimeo.

Above is an ending that Bethany thought of and fits with some of the ideas I was having about the ending during the week. It feels better than the volcano scene I had originally done for this section and I feel happier already that it flows better.


Film So Far - 

After Bethany's help I started to put it all together to see how it looked and added the music and voice over.

It is a bit longer than the original animatic but because I have silent parts in the voice over it is okay as I can still adjust them and have the speaking in the right places.

I am a lot happier with the dirstion it is going in now as a felt the volcano scene in the animatic seemed random, out of place and some what childish, which is not how I wanted my film to look like.

Although Emily says about animating parts and then fitting them together and not to worry about the structure of it too much, I realise I personally don't really work like that. In some cases it is okay but I felt more panicked by not knowing what I wanted as the ending and I'm glad I have one now.
Key framing - all - with music from Summer Davies-Newton on Vimeo.

I still have a lot more to do, but I hope to just keep carrying on and next week I hope to have quite a bit of animating done.

Feedback - 

'Sinking' as the title is liked by class and Emily and Sam.

Sam suggested watching a Sarah Cox '3 ways to go' to look at how she does a person in water as I need to look at gravity underwater and how weight and being floaty is underwater.

Maybe instead of her hitting the floor to have her be in a state in between floating. Or when she hits the floor to have sand and dust come up and that will help with the transition to the next shot. I was going to add the sand and dust effects closer to the end so I will keep this in mind.

With the memories section I have still to work on that and make it how I want it to be. I want it more a s tripy state of confusion and some what horror as she is reliving her past trauma. With the army boots Emily suggested putting blocks on the feet with laces to look like it is waying her down and maybe have her dragging her feet.

I am a lot happier as to how the film is progressing and can see it coming along now. I will continue to work on the memories section and then hopefully have more animated for next week.

Animation Production - Week 4, 5 and 6 - Final Film

For week 4 and 5 I put my final film to the side and concentrated on getting the work placement animation out of the way and try and get as much as I can done for that.

I managed to get most of the key framing done for and I am happy to have taken the time to get it done as I feel if I hadn't I would not of got as much done.

For week 6 a few of us went to Ireland to visit different animation studios. It was my first time flying and so i was a bit nervous at first, but it was only a short journey and was super cool and the views were amazing. It was an awesome few days and I learnt a lot from the different studios and how they worked. It has really helped me to see what I would like to do when I finish University and what kind of studio I would like to go into.

We visited Cartoon Saloon http://www.cartoonsaloon.ie/ - The studio was really friendly and family orientated. There was a lot of opportunities for internships and to produce your own work and progress. They mainly use TVPaint and Moho. I could see myself working here.

We then visited Boulder Media http://www.bouldermedia.tv/ - The studio was the most energetic out of the three and was a really friendly environment. They mainly use ToonBoom and After Effects. We got to speak to at least one person from each department, which was great to see the steps they take and what they do. I really liked the background department and concept department.

Lastly we visited Brown Bag http://www.brownbagfilms.com/ - The studio focused more on 3D animations which is something I don't really see myself doing as I don't have the confidence for it but I was really interested in the Storyboard department and could see myself working there.

I am really glad and thankful for going on the trip, it has really helped to inspire me and make me less nervous for when I leave University.

I hope to have a lot done for next week in regards to my final film as I have put the work placement to the side now. I really hope I can catch up and have a lot of my keyframming done so I can start to inbetween.

Animation Production - Week 3 - Final Film Progress

Style/ tests

For the past couple of weeks I have been looking at style and what my final film will look like. I know I have previously done this in the pre production but after feedback from Sam and Ross about having the black and white less defined and making it flow between the two colours I have decided to do some other style concepts.

Images off Pinterest:

I really like the use of the sketchy styles and the use of both the colours and feel I can just changed the dominant colour. I hope to be able to make the colours flow between the two and so will be testing this out next.

New Character Concepts:

From the above, I started to look at my own character and how it would look.

I liked the test above that I did and so I decided to go back to the original Character turn around and change them. I still liked the proportion of her and so was just changing the style. 

I have also decided that she will no longer have eyes as she doesn't need them and they don't add anything to her. She can get across all of the emotion just through her body language. 

I prefer he without the thick line as she is kind of faded out. I think the colour of the black and the white looks good and is better having both.

I next went on to test how the colours would move from one to the other, it is not fully animated but it gives a good idea. I really like the flow between the colours and feel it will work well in the animation.
turn around style test from Summer Davies-Newton on Vimeo.

Below is some more Research I collected from the sea life center but was at my parents and I have only recently been able to get it off them. I think this will really help with the bubble and the water and how the tentacle will move. Next I want to start testing the tentacle movement.

sea life centre 2 from Summer Davies-Newton on Vimeo.

Key Framing - 

Scene 1 - feet 


scene 1 - 1 from Summer Davies-Newton on Vimeo.

For scene one i wanted to have the toes move and show she is a real person. For my reference footage I didn't ask Bethany to move her toes but as she stood she did it naturally to balance herself and this is what I want to recreate in this scene.


Scene 2 - Title 

I have missed out scene 2 as it is the title sequence and I haven't figured out the title to my animation yet and how it will come onto the screen.


Scene 3 - Going into bubble - 

In scene 3 it is the female figure jumping into the bubble and falling over. This reminded me of the human hamster balls and how people fall over in them.



These have helped to understand the balance or non balance that people have and will help me with the scene, although the fall in my scene wont be as bad as this.

I then went on to look at people jumping into water. Here are some of the links to videos I have found that were usefull for the jumping into the bubble scene:

http://www.123rf.com/footage_35420148_middle-aged-man-jumping-into-the-water-underwater-shot.html
https://www.videoblocks.com/video/young-man-jumping-into-water-underwater-shot-ripples-active-athletic-adventure-tropical-beach-cliffs-blue-abyss-splash-vacation-holiday-beach-gopro-hd-ilaary9/


As I am going scene by scene I changing parts and changing shots to make them more interesting and dynamic and found it very useful to do it this way.


scene 3 - 1 from Summer Davies-Newton on Vimeo.

I wanted to make this scene more interesting and flow from the other scene of her stepping off the edge. So I decided to have it close up with lots of bubbles. It then cuts to her being in the bubble and stumbling.

Scene 4 - going to light in the bubble -



scene 4 - 1 from Summer Davies-Newton on Vimeo.

For this scene i wanted to mach sure that it looked like she was floating to the top of the body of water and you could see the light coming through the top.

Scene 5 - Tentacle reach -



scene 5 - 1 from Summer Davies-Newton on Vimeo.

Scene five is where the tentacle is reaching out, I think it flows well but I still to look at my research I took from the sea life center to make sure it looks like a real tentacle and acts in a similar way.

Scene 6 - Being pulled down - 



scene 6 - 1 from Summer Davies-Newton on Vimeo.


Combined key framing so far - 



key frame test - half - 1 from Summer Davies-Newton on Vimeo.



I am currently slightly behind the schedule that I made as when I made it I wasn't on the Sumo project and now that I am on it I am going to adjust some of the schedule. I hope that the other project wont affect this and hope to be caught up by next week.


Life Drawing - 

At life drawing this week I was trying to draw the model from different angels and positions, I feel these lessons are really helping me to work on my proportions and I see myself progressing each time I go.
I used pencil, pen and colour pencils on the above drawings.

 I changed my wall by my computer 

Aldo this week I updated my wall space adding my character turn around, concept art and life drawing. I think updating it was a good idea as it made me feel happy about the way the project is going and how the film is coming along. 

Feedback - 

The feedback I got was to push the style of the character more like the reference images I had gathered. I also needed to add more of a toe wiggle or foot movement to the beginning of the film to make her more human like and relatable to the audience. 

I really need to decide on a Title for my final as well. 



Class - Foley Sound

In class this week we discussed Foley sound. Throughout my years at university I have learnt a lot about foley sound and so this was more of a catch up on the knowledge I already knew.
I was really good to have a quick run through of using the sound booth again as I had forgotten from last semester.
I have thought a lot about the sound that I want in my film, I want to make sure I don't add too much as I don't want to take away from the voice over but I think the feel will definitely come across to the audience with certain sound effects. Like in the beginning the feet tapping on the floor walking up to the edge.

Animation Production - Week 2 - Final Film Progress

This week I was not in the lesson as I had been to a meeting for the Other project I am on.

I have been key framing and will continue to until next week, which is when I hope to have all or most of it done by. I will not post any progress for this until I have key framed all or most of it together.

I have been doing the key frame scene by scene and so far it has helped a lot to have it all laid out and organised.

So far I feel confident that the Schedule I have made will be kept and I will be able to finish my project.

Animation Production - Week 1 - Introduction

This module is a carry on from last semester as we will be carrying on developing our own work.

As I am making a final film I know will start the process of creating the film and expanding from the animatic. I hope in the next couple of weeks to have a better understanding of what the animation will look like and will have started to key frame. 

This module is split 85 % for the production work and 15% for a evaluative report.

I am pretty happy with where I got to last semester and now it is just for me to get on with finishing the film. 

Over the two weeks (marking period)

For the first week I started to make a production schedule to help organise myself and see how to split everything up.

I split up the animatic into scenes and smaller chunks, as I find it easier to deal with smaller parts. I then colour coded the different things I would need to do. 

green: key framing

orange: in-betweening

purple: clean up

blue: colouring

I then had a couple of weeks for finishing touches and making sure everything is finished.

It looks pretty scary with everything I need to do, but I have tried to make everything manageable as possible.

I was then called onto another project and so had to catch up and did not manage to get as much done as I would of liked. Now that I am caught up though I will be key framing for the first two weeks.