Preston Blair

I Don't know if I will need to do a walk cycle yet, but I found this and thought it would make animating Moom so much easier, look how excitingly he could enter the room. The mastermind behind this sheet is Disney original, Preston Blair who is most famous for his sequence Red Hot Riding Hood.


I think Tex Avery often get's the majority of credit when it comes to animation sequences like these, but today we aren't looking at the wolf character, but the dancing female. I think there's a lot I can take forward from this to put into Moom, because essentially her dance routine although a bit more sexual, shows that of the female figure, so maybe I can learn something to make it look sassier and more female. I think it's interesting that this character has a very nonchalent attitude until she gets angry. She also does alot of wiggling, and her hips and shoulder make frequent circular movements in a figure of eight. This is something that would probably make my Moom look very feminine and is something that I shall try not to forget. I also think a fascinating characteristic they've given this female character is how she hangs her head whenever she flutters her eyebrows, so I looked into who influenced this character because I wasn't sure if Jessica Rabbit was around at this time, but she came after, but they were both inspired by the actress Rita Hayworth.



I think it's really interesting to compare a performance by Rita Hayworth to the actual animated character because there are definitely similarities and differences, the hips and shoulders definitely rotate and move a lot like the Red Hot Riding Hood, but not as extremely. I also think she seem a lot happier in herself. Rita Hayworth smiles a lot in a way that says she doesn't care, whereas the cartoon character in comparison is very sexualised and doesn't seem so carefree and secure in herself.

Things to take forward, keep Moom Feminine with wiggles, Remember this walk cycle sheet for future means.

http://minyos.its.rmit.edu.au/aim/a_notes/walk_reference_01.html

Paperman

One of the biggest limitations with 3D CG animation is if you love the feeling of a hand crafted traditional animation, often it can be quite painful to leave the drawings at the character design stage to then make in 3D, because they change. The shapes become more perfect and the quality of line more regulated. one film which overcame this, is paperman. Which created 3D modelled and animated characters but then drew on top of them to soften there look, and embrace the new technologies with the old. This film also pushed boundaries, with how most mainstream 3DCG animated films are bright colours that appeal to children, other than frankenweenie, which was stop motion none have been done in black and white. This film just wanted to be all sorts of controversial.



From this short video below which gives you an insight to the making of, to me it looks like doing the hand drawn stuff on top of the computer modelling, looks painstaking long to do. Surely they could just create a feature to make it easier to imprint your style onto the animation. In my head there's a voice going they did it's called textures, but they never look as good as you want them to when you're making it yourself. I feel like the only way it'll go to be handcrafted is if animation evolves the Oculus Rift faster, and then this will just open so many doors for animators to get their own style into their work.

Dope Sheets and Lip Synching

I was amazed at how long it took me to do these dope sheets, I don't think I realised how many words were in the lyrics until this point.  When Lip synching, I started off following the dope sheet exactly but I thought the beginning two lines were a bit too fast, so I roughly lip synched the beginning and end of each word and only if it was a dragged out did I put some frames in the middle of the word. I enjoyed doing the facial animation more than the body animation, I think this was because there was less controllers and less to think about so you could focus more on the specific face controllers, where as because there's so many on the body it's a bit overwhelming.

The use of 3D animation in the Health Industry

Above is a video of an MRI scan. Now I appreciate this isn't technically animation, is formed a moving image and therefore has paved the way for technology in the health industry. I don't think, well I can't find any form of animation that's used to diagnose illnesses because it's just not advanced enough to react to a patient being there and then. All animation takes a lot of time to make. This is the limitation. But studies have shown that students who are studying medicine learn better with the aid of 3DCG animation.

Interactive 3DCG materials have positive effects on medical education when properly integrated into conventional education. In particular, our results suggest that interactive 3DCG is more efficient than textbooks alone in medical education and can motivate students to understand complex anatomical structures.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3626131/

Here's one video that shows how anatomical charts can be dissected and have certain organs or nerves or even bones, so you can see further into the body without cutting the body up. With microscopic image processing, the colours are changed, brightness altered and a few other tweaks, but to me, I wouldn't class this as animation more a rotoscoping of what is already there.




This final video is what I think of when I consider 3DCG animation in the Health Sector. This is how students learn when it's visible. Often as well when you're talking about things on such a small scale like in microbiology, you often can visualise a working nerves or white blood cells and there antibodies so I think it does just help clarify the complicated stuff. As well with the use of ipad's and modern tablets you can make them interactive and have the names and be able to click bits and slow them down which is helping us gain a new era of doctors through a new medium of learning. Some people just aren't made to take things in via a textbook but they are good with there hands and perfectly capable at the job but need help seeing it first to process. This is going to mean a new era in education and maybe we will get some more doctors out of it and more lives will be helped in the process and it'll be a brighter future people. This isn't a limitation this is the future with this technology.

Alarm

From South Korean studio Mesai, Alarm is a fantastically constructed CG 3D animation. Slightly long at just over eight minutes this short film pushes the limits of what CG animation is capable of with its precision for detail. Just from the initial camera shot you can tell that it's going to be more sophisticated than your average short animated feature.

There's three main thing's that make this short more sophisticated:

The camera shots, without fail every single shot in this animation has points on the thirds, either verticle and horizontal. This instantly make the piece look more professional. I also really like how at the start the depth of field is played around with to make it seem more dream like just before he's woken up, I also think it really emphasises the individually modelled objects and gives them there own focal point to be appreciated by the viewer. This is also how they show off the toaster and the gun a bit later in the short.

The immeasurable attention to detail on the modelling. For example the main one that blew my mind was the stereo. The thing is it hasn't just been textured to look that good, every detail has been carved and modelled, including the company name on the top left embossed into the stereo, and all the grooves on the dial which disappear when you zoom out, and don't even get me started on the mobile that too is fantastic. Even the toaster says Mesai on. Which is great but even more inspiring to me because they are such mundane objects with so many fiddly bits, it still would of worked without all the detail but makes his surroundings look more photorealistic.

The lighting at the start makes it quite dreamy and I think theres some really masterful lighting techniques used later on in this animation, to cause certain dials and buttons to have large amounts of reflection on them. And in particular on the phone and the gun at times there are perfect rays of sunlight which make them seem more powerful.

The key feature of this animation however that makes it overall successful is how the narrative is based upon something so simple, a boy getting up with an annoying alarm, yet it's made very effective by these key details. If there are any comments that I would make that would improve this piece, those are, at times this narrative is too long, and has some seriously long pauses. Especially when it all goes black that seems to stay black for a long time, I also think that the character could of done with more work to make him to the same standard as the other modelled components. I think he looks like a mainstream CG animation character and that puts me off. But I know to a lot of people they wouldn't agree, and of course this is me only being super nit picky, I think it's an amazing piece of work for two people to create, it's a shame that they haven't done anything since. Korea is mainly famous for inbetweens of the big shows, it'd be amazing to see some more things like this come out of that country.

Minions

Minions. The character from Despicable Me that took the world by storm so much so they got there own feature film coming out this summer.

But what is about the character that look like pills, and all look super similar that made them act so differently and bring amusement to the nation? Well it could be the fact that their language sounds like norwegians on helium.


Or it could be that these cuties are so adorable through their naivety on life and curious personalities that overreact to everything new that brings out the child in every audience member who remembers what it was like to first have balloons, and to dress up and be silly and enjoy it before it gets old.

The simplicity of the animation that expresses these emotions is actually really refreshing, these characters may squash and stretch a little, but they don't really change shape. All the emotion is done through, their eyes and eyelids and there mouths, and stubby legs and arms. They waddle like penguins, which makes them even cuter. I really like how when they are all depressed in the arctic, they lean to one side all stooped and have really low upper eyelids like they can't bothered and there voices seem to be an octave lower.

I really like this shot where, the three minions are each expressing a different emotion and there's a little lead up to each with a description of how they are feeling about the journey ahead. Pride has a stooped back an head held high and eyelids squinting into the distance as if trying to prepare himself for the road ahead. For hunger the minion looks around to find food as if trying to scope up where the next morsel will come from and clutches his belly and then he's really happy when he finds a banana in his pocket. Where as the frightened minion is very similar to that of the sad ones in the rest of the arctic.

Another thing that I thinks great about these characters is how we don't need to understand there language to appreciate the dialogue because the actions and imagery is so clear. Maybe a future version of the module could deal a performance in an alien language, to really explore the acting and imagery of animation.

After Effects Workshop

Commercial Slight - the bit at a start of a commercial worth lots of money if you can do one.


It's important to be organised with folders to maintain older versions of production in case something goes wrong or you are asked to make changes.


Google an image of a wheeled object, make the background transparent.


Cut out all the wheels.


Bring in the photo shop file to after effects.


Import as a composition.


Bring the car body and wheels into the timeline.


Rename the layers.


Click on the wheel layer then the shape tool to draw an elipse to mask the wheel.


Use rulers to snap the mask to the centre of the wheel.


Feather the edge of the mask to make it look smoother (we also filled in some of the body behind the wheel in case there were any gaps when it spins round.


Right click in the panel the layers are in and select new, null object.


Snap the null object to the wheel then parent through the wheel.


Then create another null object and parent it to the car body.


Highlight all the layers and precompose the object.


Then create a new composition and draw the precomposed object into it and sale down.


Make a new null object to transform the wheeled object across the screen.


How to export:
Select play range when exporting (before) (B, mark in, N, mark out.)


O loops mark in/out playback section.


if it's a video for your blog just throw it into adobe media encoder (H264)
and use the render selection in Lossless for highest quality.

Job, Joris and Marieke

Job, Joris and Marieke, live and work in the Netherlands producing a wide range of work both for entertainment and also for commissions. The first grabbed my attention with their short film Mute which I'm pretty sure was at Aesthetica Film Festival 2013 but was also at Bradford Animation Festival 2014 where it made the entire screen laugh. It's such a creative narrative, one that so unique, which is humorous but also slightly dark in the ways people find to open their mouths.




I think the character design of this short is immaculately done. In a way that makes it more comedic than dark because the characters don't seem imposing, they look like little happy eggs in, what could almost be described as a playmobil-esque universe. This whole style of the animation highlights the comedy of the narrative, because the colours, and bold shapes all make it less imposing, and therefore I feel like we, the viewer, could empathise with it more.




What I also found really interesting about this studio, is how a lot of the character design aspects have been recycled in their work. I don't know whether this was a auteurist executive decision, or simply because it saved them time and money, but I think it is an interesting decision. Mainly because it hasn't altered their success, in the slightest, when it comes to winning awards for there shorts. For example the commission above is for the 2015 Tour de France and is already a vimeo Staff Pick and the trailer below is a for an oscar nominee film. I think that says a great deal about this studio's achievements and how they are doing well. With their peculiar animation 3d CG style they taken the industry by storm and are doing really well and I personally put that down to the storytelling. These narratives are so innovative, you know there genius when you wish that you'd written them. Simple yet so effective. I think everyone who want's to tell good stories wishes they written these simple ones so effectively.

To me the style of animation and self produced music is just a massive bonus. Enjoy the trailer for their latest animation. It strikes me as being a cartoon Bridget Jones, but I have higher expectations.



www.jobjorisenmarieke.nl

The Passion of Joan Arc

Directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer, The Passion of Joan of Arc has been critically acclaimed as one of the top ten best silent films (by the Guardain at least see bottom of this post). I decided after looking at Rita Hayworth and having been told by several people they were looking into Charlie Chaplin to watch this female to see a female silent movie star. Everyone knows females are portrayed differently on screen.

Renee Maria Falconetti moves the audience with this performance. She jerks a tear onto their faces, with one sweeping glare that mesmerise the history of cinema. In a film made up entirely of Medium and Close Ups, detail becomes crucial. Every single muscle in the face becomes analysed. When it's no longer about the big actions but the little actions you appreciate the details a lot more.

Falconetti (as she is always called) made only this single movie. "It may be the finest performance ever recorded on film,” wrote Pauline Kael. She was an actress in Paris when she was seen on the stage of a little boulevard theater by Carl Theodor Dreyer (1889-1968), the Dane who was one of the greatest early directors. It was a light comedy, he recalled, but there was something in her face that struck him: "There was a soul behind that facade.” He did screen tests without makeup, and found what he sought, a woman who embodied simplicity, character and suffering.

http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-the-passion-of-joan-of-arc-1928

I really enjoyed reading this quote about the screen tests, theres nothing I love more than having more knowledge about something I've just watched. To understand the ins and outs of it and to appreciate the problem people had making it and how they overcame them. And with this film there is a lot of background knowledge about the sets and the editing. But today I'll just focus on the acting. She's come from the stage and hasn't been chosen for her looks but her tone and emotion and how she can convey suffering. Because what 19 year old has suffered like Joan of Arc did?

For me what I find most interesting, is how this film doesn't rely on the narrative even though it's telling a historical background of someone everyone should know about. Instead it's more of a work of art. The close ups are less like film pieces but more like key frames in an animation. It's very rare does a shot have more than a handful of emotions in it, so I bet the editing of this required serious organisation, especially because all the film would of had to of been cut by hand. This is more like a piece of craft work in the film history.

You can see how films like this inspired Dali and surrealists and all those who became auteurs like Michelangelo Antonini. There's definitely a signature from the director on this film. Each shot is beautifully framed with interest yet simplicity highlighting the emotions.

I think this film would go hand in hand with study task 3, with the over exaggeration of each emotion. Obviously without any happiness, just severe melancholy. Although it's quite long I enjoyed this film, but I imagine it would have a greater impact in a cinema, I don't think it's one to watch in a small box. If you want to understand, anger, sadness, suffering, brooding, then I recommend this film.



http://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2013/nov/22/top-10-silent-movies-films

YCN

The Problems I aim to solve are...
Design a perfume, with scent idea's packaging and bottling.
Create a campaign to promote this idea with pitch boards

In order to solve these problems I will...
As they don't know where to begin with their designs and want something really on trend I'll research what's already out their and how that is being promotoed successfully and transfer this across.

I will be aiming to communicate...
A project full of contemporary work.
With an edge of creativity but a bit of simplicity
The message is that if you buy it you will be as cool as the product

To an audience of
Trendy - those who are fashion conscious, care what brand they wear.
Majority are white middle/upper class women who also shop in Hobbs/LK Bennet/Joule/Jigsaw.
Aspiring professionals who have a higher amount of disposable income but aren't tied down to a family.

Poetry in Animation

After looking at To This Day, I decided to look at some more poem's in animation, to try get a better feel of performance because I thought these might be more inspiring and an approach not everyone else is taking.



Unlike To this Day the main feature of this animation that works really well and impresses me the most, is the way it slickly transitions in between each scene. I really like the performance of the poem, doesn't distract from the animation. I think the animation has some other great qualities that might of been lost if it had an overdone performance. For example all the noise, and chattering of the images hoil they so irregularly boil take up quite a lot of concentration to watch, I also think this is added to by the impurity of the quality of line in the drawings and therefore the quiet performance which is understated and melancholy works really well with this particular animation.

I however don't feel that the performance itself is fantastic, the diction of some of the words isn't always clear, and it's a bit monotonous, so at one point I did actually stop listening to the words and just watched the pictures. So even though the performance isn't great I think it works with the animation but overall it is just average.





I really enjoyed the quality of line of this short animation, mixed with the different layers and textures of paper, i think this proved a simple yet effective animation, and I think it doesn't draw away from the narrative of the poem, because I think that's the most important thing, is about grief and the loss of this Grandad. I think the most important feature of this animation is how the animation aren't obviously linked to the imagery of the words and innovative ways of not just portraying what was being said but something slightly related is used. I really like the dropping of the crumbs of the cracker and then it turning into bread crumbs for the duck. I think that rhythm and poeticness of the animation really emphasises the words it doesn't detract from them.

I think the performance of the actual poem is quite melancholy which fits the tone of the narrative, but I think it could have been more effective and emotive with darker pauses, and a darker tone of voice. I think it was quite averagely performed and I think I would of rather seen this poem over performed to make it more emotive and resonate more with the viewer, because I think this animation could be quite forgetful without the strong performance that To This Day had.





I think this performance is the most interesting of the ones I've commented on so far. This animation clearly is more about the narration, and the imagery is just an add on, that is often quite busy but you don't really take it in because the viewer takes in the performance. I think that's how you know it's a successful performance. Besides having a really interesting voice, you can tell the speaker is drawlling certain words to be extra long to fit the beat of the poem. Another thing that makes it successful is how the volume changes quite frequently which makes your brain react to the performance and keeps you more engaged in the sounds rather than the imagery.

Another feature that makes this performance more interesting than the others is how the pace is really fast, if you want to find out what happens to this guy, you know you'll find out soon because of how fast he is telling the story. It's interesting how he repeats things, as if just in case you missed them you still get the gist of what's happening.




 I think the poems in animation I have looked at so far have all been pretty serious, so I thought I would include this bazaar one as well, which I guess would be comedic. There's a very emotive performance given by the speaker, but the sound effects are quite over the top. But this does match the over the top gore that's in the animation. I think my biggest problem with it is the main character, although he is technically a fantastic puppet and brought to life really successful there just isn't any appeal for him. I think he's confused as to whether he's good or bad as a character and therefore the viewer feels confused about the character and becomes indifferent to him and so it makes the whole performance really surreal. I think if I was going for a creepy performance I might reference some of the poses this character is in as key frames.

To This Day Project

I decided to look at this short animation of a spoken word artist's poem, because of the way it's performed. This module requires a performance and I think it provides, inspiration and a new way of thinking about the project to look at work like this. Even though the actual animation itself is delivered through a style which follows that of the narration, I think this makes it a less successful animation but perfect to analyse the performance.

I think it's super incredible how emotive Shane Koyczan's voice is the entire way through, it never falters and it really makes the viewer empathise with his poem. I think another thing to take from his performance is how his volume alters regularly. When he's sad he get's quieter a bit raspier, but when he feels angered, he chooses to emphasise words by saying them a bit louder. There is also a noticeable rhythm in the way he gives the performance, that which matches the viewers heartbeat. There is also a way in which Shane Koyczan timely inserts pauses into his delivery of the performance which creates a lot of drama and adds a lot of tension. Another way he adds drama to his performance is by speeding up the pace, as if things are spiralling out of control, it creates a similar sort of effect.

I think another feature that makes it a really successful performance is his dictation of each word, it's very clear and precise. I never actually realised how many elements go into the quality of a performance through it's vocals. I think these are all factors that I should look at in all animations I make. And I should probably look at some more performances.

I think overall the animation is a collaborative effort and so although I don't particularly like the transitions so many people helped made this project, that it's not about being a great animation it's about the message it provides which would be half as successful without that guy's performance of it. I think it's really moving and something that I hope has helped someone at least once, because schools a tough place to get through and we need more messages like this in this world.

If you like this please share it, because you might help make that one difference.

http://www.tothisdayproject.com/

Ohh Deer Cushion Competition

The Brief:

"It's that time of year again, our annual pillow fight is upon us! We're looking of course for cushion designs to add to our collection."

Our cushions are stocked by lots of leading brands in the UK and we sell a lot direct to lovely customers through our website, they're one of the products people think of when they think Ohh Deer.


We test how popular your products are by putting them in the public domain. You can increase your ranking by getting your posts liked, tweeted and pinned (+ some other activity which you will see within your account) your entries will go on sale as soon as they're approved - you will get 20% of the profit (not the sale price) from each cushion, sales are heavily weighted and will dramatically boost your ranking.


The top ranking posts for the day will be visible at the top of the competition page, on the homepage and could be featured in our newsletters. You can submit a maximum of 4 designs (we're keen to see what your range might look like, so use the spaces wisely!)

How we pick our winners: designs will need to fit within the brand well, it'll need to be contemporary and have been shared by purchased by our audience."




Specifications:

All artwork submitted must be in JPEGformat.

The dimensions of your file must be 5315px x 5315px

Uploads close on the 15 November 2014.

------

What problem is the brief setting?

They would like a new cushion design.

What does the brief require?

The brief requires a 5315px x 5315 px image, that fits into the brand of a design for a cushion.

Who will benefit?

Those who buy the cushions, and Ohh deer will make money from those extra ones on sale, as the majority of friends and family are likely to buy the competitors entries, so they will have a spike of sales.

Who is the audience?

Family and friends, and those who shop on Ohh Deer.

What are you expected to communicate to them?

A cushion design to go in any room.

How will that message/idea/concept be delivered?

Through any medium but must be submitted onto the website to be printed onto a cushion cover.

Why I chose to enter this competition:

I chose to enter this competition to get me warmed up for this module as a practice run for a more serious competition.

Research

To start off with I looked into what kind of cushion the company already sell:

I realised with the research that animals and puns are what's on trend with this company.

Design Idea's

I did a few rough sketches of ideas for cushions. I went with the idea of Minnie and cuddle time because that is the one that is closest to my heart. I think they are all relatively kitsch idea's that would suit the company.

Finished Design:

I think my design wasn't very successful overall. The font is pretty abysmal. I'm glad I've done this though because it's made me realise how important font is. I also think that the technique I used probably wasn't the best. I started off with a watercolour painting of minnie. And then I drew on top of this scanned in. I've never really drawn on the computer properly before, but I treated myself to a bamboo tablet so I really wanted to try it out. I think it's safe to say I'll just keep it for sketching for now. Maybe I'll try again later in the year with more knowledge.

I decided to only enter one design to this competition because I spent more time than I ought to on this design and I realised that this competition was a popularity contest over anything else and the only way for the design to go up in ranking was for friends and family to buy the cushion. I think that this is quite difficult because they are actually more expensive than they should be and it's like they are exploiting those upcoming designers by getting their friends and family to buy into it, even though they always stick with the same illustrators.

Studio Task 4&5

To start off with we had to fill out a simple dope sheet outlining the key frames for the lip syncing, I found this really entertaining, but also quite frustrating because I inserted the clip to Maya and it was really difficult to differentiate the sound from the music behind the quote. I think when I record mine I'll insert the sound clip I record for it before it's got any sound effects and then put in the sound effects afterwards. I also learnt that doing this is easier if you do it when Moom isn't moving so then the heads in one place, so I think I'll do this before giving Moom movement.

I also used this image as reference for some of the noises. I think I got carried away a bit with the facial features but I did just want everything to be over the top. Here's what the lip syncing looked like in stepped frames.

As I got this done quite quick I also decided to add movement because I thought it would be good practice. Here's the finished result.



I learnt from this that sometimes simple is better and more effective and I think that's where I went wrong in my crit animated Moom. So I think it will be good to take this forward into production. I really enjoyed this studio task and I now can't wait to get on with production. We don't have another session for a fortnight so I think for a fortnight the few things I would like to get done are:

- Record final sound performance.
- Dope sheet for sound performance
- Lip syncing for sound performance.
- Modelling objects and background? If time.
- Improve storyboard for exact final movements
I also need to blog the interim crit and respond to the feedback first.

Revised Schedule

So I have re photocopied my schedule as I know have my christmas hours from work. And Honestly they aren't as bad as I thought they would be so that's great. It does make it a lot easier because now I can see when I have time to do my work. I have however noticed that at this stage at the end of november I really aren't going to have much free time so I think to make up for this I'm going to miss a day of BAF and come into uni to do work and I'm also going to make a conscious effort to stay behind when I am in. I feel a lot more organised than last year and I think my project management for this module is going really well. Which is really good because I really really want to keep up to date on my work so that hopefully over christmas I'll have time to make my own character in Maya, because I really think this is a core skill we should be learning and even though I've got to grips with the software, I'm still not massively keen but I think it will really improve my skills, and then hopefully I can translate my dance routine over to that character as well. We will have to see with responsive though as to how much work I have to do.

Studio Task 4 & 5 Briefing

Firstly animating stepped in Maya and How to apply constraints.

Settings and preference, animation, defaults in tangent - linear, default out tangent - stepped. This means the movements won’t move into each frame. This means you can do the key frames and then you can neaten it up in the graph editor and look at the movement.

To control joint size go to display and you can close them up

To attatch an object, created a locator, name the locator, you need to make sure the movement of the joint, i.e. hat to head joint, if you put the locator parented to the joint then it will disappear when you turn the skeleton visibility off. So when constraining this needs to be the other way round. Go to constraint then to parent open up the options, make sure maintain offset is ticked. Make sure all translate and rotate is one. 

You can parent the hat to the locator but then it will always be stuck to the head. But it’s better to use constraints, so then you can move it to other locators. 

Studio Task Briefing

What a Dope

A dope sheet is an organisational tool. A simple chart that will help your production. Select one sound sample that are available study it and then generate a dope sheet to break down the main sounds.

Do not edit the audio track. 

phonemes - mouth action to vocals.

Next create lip synced animation with Moom using the dope sheet.

To add music to the maya file, go to file import.

Make sure you use your own dope sheet for your own vocals.

Responsive 13th November

Why have you chosen the brief?

This brief is open ended and not specifically animation related so I think having an animation background will make my entry stand out. I also really like the brand Whistles.

What do I want to get out of the brief?

Work for portfolio, an opportunity to practice pitching and presenting in a professional way.

What do you need to produce in relation to the brief?

Branding ideas for perfume, scent ideas, promotional ideas, ideas of partners, etc.

What do you want to produce?

Pitch Boards / Animatics / Illustrations / Potential Branding

What things can’t you forget about? 

-Logo must not be altered.

-deadline non-moveable

Any brief that you do for this module answer these four questions.

Brief Analysis

Identify the five most important words:

concept, campaign, first Whistles scent

Identify the five most important considerations.

• Needs to be a concept and a campaign.
• Needs to be beautiful, luxurious and contemporary
• Brand Awareness
• Specifications on Design layout, including specs on logo input etc etc
• Target Market.

In relation to the brief five related products?

clothing

bottles

a magazine editorial with a sample,

smelly bath bombs

room diffuser.

Identify 5 Related Places

the shop

a bedroom

posh restaurant

the street

gallery/bar

Then we took these four questions and applied them to someone else’s brief. I got syfy here are my answers:

Buy Syfy Brand, Imagine Greater

• focus idea on the brand rather than individual programs
• aim for impact and surprise
• include syfy logo follow specs
• recreate the brand
• encapsulate the fact that they are the ultimate fans of syfy.

TV, Ipad, Phone, Computer, Books

Living Room, On the Train, In bed, Comic Con’s, At the dining Room table.

We then received our brief back and here’s what the other person came up with as answers

Clothes, elegant, purposeful, contemporary, confident

• brand positioning
• brand mission
• brand strategies
• potential brand partners
• the actual scent

Candles, air freshener, body spray, make up, hair products

Pharmacy, department store, bedroom, public, purse

You can identify from this exercise where you might see things differently to others, this means different elements jump out at you.

Group Discussion

Look at similarities, write down and identify two columns, the benefits of identifying the similarities, what are the problems with that.

Similarities

+

More people on the same wavelength so collaboration could be easier

Another similar opinion validates yours

More likely to be understood, relatable, less of a risky project (Could this be a negative if it doesn’t stand out?)

Reassuring, gives you confidence in the idea

Possibility to explore common themes and generate ideas

A clarity, the brief has been well written

-

Other people entering that competition brief may have similar responses, could this lead to them making similar work?

Maybe the outcome is more obvious - less room to innovate new ideas.

Less diversity

Both missed something?

Is you brief so well written will everyones solutions be the same? 

Is it super vague? How will you address this? If you're recognising a problem can that be an opportunity? Isn't there a thin line between a negative and a positive? Are there other things more appropriate to crit five things by, professions etc.? 

My brief is very vague but I think as long as you adhere to all the logo and product and aesthetic specifications I think it will be greatly accepted.

You will get professional feedback on this, and normally feedback says the work is really good, but didn't hit the target audience. Who is that group of people that your work is supposed to impress.

1. Who is the audience? INTENDED

Intelligent, Independent, Discerning Women. Aware, Selective, Confident Men. The consumers of Whistles.

2. In your opinion who should the audience be? ACTUAL

People with money who care about what label they wear but buy relaxed yet elegant clothes. Stand out from the crowd without being too individual.

3. Who could the audience be? POTENTIAL

Aspiring professionals who want to own a piece of the brand that can't actually afford the clothes.

I am choosing the actual audience with the principles of the actual audience because it is more specific for my to base my ideas upon, and guaranteed to pull in money because its the customers that already by their. 

What does the audience do? They get up in the morning and what do they do? 

Get dressed in whistles clothes?! They are well dressed shop at waitrose 'cos they have lots of money and they are cultured and go to the theater and latest films etc. This should help to form an effective solution. What else do they buy? The latest technology, other designer clothes, probably designer perfume. They have expensive taste. What do they want to be? STYLISH! Look good, smell good. They want to be the ultimate consumer and buy into all the latest stuff. What is it you can do in your creative solution to draw this response?

INFORMED ANALYSIS

I actually went to the Whistles shop the other day to scope up and ask the staff what there customers are like:

ANSWER:

Middle class white people varying in ages, but even then a lot of the older generation are very trendy and the youngs are, wide range. Also shop at Hobbs, Karen Millen. 

For the Next Session, Complete worksheet, Project Proposal. In a specific way, no vagueness.
In addition to that now look at contextual references, of your initial ideas, what else is out there, that relates to your proposal? You will be pitching your proposal.

Interim Crit Feedback

I was quite anxious about this crit because I didn't feel like I'd done enough work for it, but it all went okay and I got some really positive feedback. From it I learnt about Stepped Curves and the importance of Block and Key Frames which would have improved my experiment vastly.

I was also told that if I wanted to go with the sassier reference footage then I needed to look at some sassy characters like Gru below to see how they move. The actions are a lot more understated but there's a lot more movement in the little details like the shoulders and hips.







Ideas for the Modelling include raining Money, Moom in Heels, maybe a clothes rack?

I'm not sure I like the idea of a clothes rack but I really like the Heels. I think this is something I will definitely do.

Sebastien's Voodoo

A 3D Computer Generated animation, that surprised me a lot more than I thought it would. There's something about it that has the qualities of a traditionally crafted animation. I don't know whether it's because the Voodoo Dolls look handmade or whether because it's in a craft workshop, but I think the texture's on the voodoo doll character's really add to this feeling.

Some of the background textures in the workshop look like they would fit into an older Game. After watching his Joaquin Baldwin's showreel there's a lot of his animations that have a similar feel to this.



I think it's important to put this showreel into context and say it is from 2007, and software has come on so much since then. You can see the improvement from this showreel to his short feature Sebastien's Voodoo made in 2009. And how amazing these character's for that year.

I think the biggest thing to recognise with these character's is that actually they are just like a sack but there brought to life so well, you empathise with them being strung up and you feel real emotion for the one who saves the others by harming himself in effect harming the creator. I think it makes it really powerful and improves the narrative dramatically when you can believe that these characters are living things with feelings.

So what is it that makes the viewer empathise with them? I think it boils down to a selection of little details that work together to make the Voodoo Dolls come to life. For example the bit where the little one stabs his hand to save the other Voodoo Doll, is successful firstly because of the breathing. On it own this might look over exaggerated, but is why it works so well in this feature, because we have other things to look at, such as the way the eyes frown. I also think all the tension is built up from the wriggling and trembling shakes that are really minor details but combined become really powerful.

I think looking at characters like these can really improve Moom, because these are basic characters and Moom's a basic character so there's a lot of similarities. So it should be easy to work on getting Moom have several little details that combine into a powerful performance.



Whilst researching Joaquin Baldwin I came across this video, which I thought was really interesting, aimed at people wanting to get into the animation industry. Although I didn't think it taught me anything I don't already know about the industry, I think it would be really useful for someone less informed. I also thought it was really refreshing to hear their background stories. I would of probably preferred more information on their backgrounds.


 

Joaquin Baldwin is also an amazing photographer, and although he hasn't posted any more recent animations, his photography page is regularly updated so I've included that at the bottom. The way compositions are made with powerful lighting and effective placements of shapes, I definitely think there would be a career for him in cinematography. The links at the bottom of this blog.

http://www.pixelnitrate.com/
https://plus.google.com/photos/+JoaquinBaldwin/albums/5630099283377172417

Reference Footage with More Sass

So here is my reference footage with more Sass. I'm not really sure what to make of it so I think this will be the biggest thing I ask about in the interim crit tomorrow.

Take 3 Reference Footage

So I'm starting with showing Take 3, because the first crops some of my legs off and during the second, I stall and forget one of the lines. However I was really really pleased with this take. I thought it was great happy vibe because this girls got/can get everything she wants.

However Annabeth watched it and asked what emotion I was aiming for. She really enjoyed the strong movements because they will be easier to reference if they are stronger, but wondered what this Character would work like if it was more evil and sassier.

At first I didn't like the idea I felt like it was good to keep her happy and nicer. But actually I think it would be a stronger animation if she was sassier. Therefore I've decided to record it again but with more sass.

Responsive seminar 30th October

Responsive.

Ten personal outcomes to get out of responsive

Ten group Outcomes

Ten Seminar Group Outcomes

Ten Reasons Competition briefs are useful

None of these have anything to do with your style of work they are all to do with external factors and being in the industry externally of university.

What’s expected from fred:

A range of research methods.

Generation of idea and shit.

More self initiated ideas.

Exercising project management.

Don’t choose briefs that are all the same, you need a range of work to do well in this module.

If you want a placement find briefs which offer a placement.

BLOG EVERYTHING!!

Constant and thorough.

Approach brief strategically and in an informed manner. Brief analysis. Brief Management. Project review and documentation. Presentation. Roles and responsibilities in relation to individual practice.

Morrisons Brief:

What problem is the brief setting?

Create a new innovative for shoppers (busy families) to shop in morrisons. Give them a creative reason too?

What does the brief require?

The brief requires a pitch of a new way of shopping with great boards and ideas.

What is the brief trying to achieve?

Combine new technologies and the younger generation to shop in there supermarket.

Always check the terms of conditions

For the next session take the three briefs analyse the three of them. Choose a YCN brief you are happy to work on for the next couple of months.

Respond to set a questions to work out whether that brief is appropriate.

http://www.ycn.org/awards/ycn-student-awards/2014-15-ycn-student-awards/briefs/whistles

My Chosen Brief to cover in the next Sessions: 

What’s the problem?
The are dull and boring and don't know how to promote a new product or who to begin with designing it.

Whats it require?
A visual concept.

Whats it trying to achieve?
Sell perfume and ultimately make the company money through it, in a elegant manner

Who will benefit?
Them and their customers.

Who is the audience?

The Whistles Woman:
Intelligent, independent, discerning.
She wants clothes that cater to all parts of her purposeful life. She values design and service – she wants to feel elegant and relaxed in her clothes.
The Whistles Man:
Aware, selective, confident.
He values contemporary design with modern utility. He wants to shop from an edited collection that feels considered and versatile, combining understated looks with refined styling; produced to be relevant for work and leisure in the knowledge that what separates those worlds is becoming less defined. 

What are you expected to communicate to them?
Branding ideas for perfume, scent ideas, promotional ideas, ideas of partners, etc.

How will that message/idea/concept be delivered?
Pitch Boards / Animatics / Illustrations / Potential Branding

Performance Workshop

Acting for Animation

“Animators should focus on the acting…make the characters think and act..start with the body first, next focus on the eyes, and last focus on the mouth. When reviewing reels we look at the acting first.” John Lasseter

Think about the body and movement as telling the story. You should be able to understand the mood and emotion of a character without sound. 

Think about the twelve principles of animation your character need appeal think about the silhouettes of the character, exaggerate the emotions. Play!

“Big hero six” Disney walk into a room test. Look how these characters are made so individual by walking into a room differently, each one has a different personality made apparent by the way they open the door walk in and sit down at a table.

Actor analysis, a lot of disney films looks at analysis silent films and there movement. Chaplin, Keaton, Harold Lloyd. These are what proceeded the larger studios. Exaggeration = over reaction. The key thing is that theres no dialogue but we all get a sense of what the character is thinking, their motivation behind there actions. 

Jacques Tati, 1950’s silent gags. 

It’s not about your technical abilities, it’s about the kinesthetics, you need to embody the hats of a film maker, actor puppeteer to embody and inhibit your character.

www.awn.com/mag/issue4.12/4.12pages/lieffacting.php3

Research into more sophisticated camera angles to inspire storyboards

Master Shots 2nd Edition

So I got given this amazing book as a little present, and I thought this is fantastic, this is going to be able to inspire my storyboard skills for this module. Well I'm heavily disappointed because most of the shots involve the interaction of multiple characters and obviously this is all about us and an individual performance. So I've been through the book twice and picked out a couple of shots I think look professional and could work for this module.

Shot 2.1 Travel with subject

I can see this shot really emphasising the movement if the camera moves in time with Moom. It means him and all his accessories will stay in detail. And you can give the impression of other being there without having them on screen. For example the book suggest that this shot is most effective in chase scenes. 

Now I chose this shot 8.3, Change of Direction, because even though the example used is with another person coming in and 'stealing' the screen time I think actually if you had Moom dancing or moving in one direction then moving into another if the camera moved it could give a different perspective of the movement and this could make it more interesting for the audience. I also thought it followed on from 2.1 because the two shots could be combined.

Then the final shot I saw that i thought could be really useful for this project is one where Moom could lunge at the camera to really emphasise the lyrics.

Because this book wasn't as helpful as I thought it was going to be for this module, I decided to also just include these on this blog just to show that I am looking for inspiration and I'm not just going into my storyboard without any idea about shots and composition. I think seeing as there isn't much in Moom that's our design we need to put a lot of work into making sure the animation is perfect, and it'd help if we had the best shots to show that off. Even if the character was our design it'd still be worthwhile doing to show it off in the best light possible.

http://www.mediaknowall.com/camangles.html





There's a lot of movement in this camera angle and although I think this is a bit extreme. In Maya it's something you can really play with and it doesn't matter if you get it wrong because it's not like your wasting actors time it's all good development of your own time.



Breakfast in Paris from Breakfast in Paris on Vimeo.

I really like the consideration in this animation that's gone on into all the different angles. From low down to make someone look badder and bigger and scarier. I think the height of the camera is something I need to think about to make it not look flat.

Studio Task 2: Animation Skills

Another fundamental function of Maya is to animate 3D models. The toolset for animation, like the modelling toolset, is very comprehensive and always expanding but once again, there are a few more commonly used tools in the set and it is the aim of this task is begin to develop your understanding of these animation tools and their functionality.

There are five sections to this task.....

1: Turntable -


Using the object we modelled in Maya we then created a turntable from this. This was the most difficult task for me because I couldn't get my head around rendering an image sequence.

2: Pendulum -




Right so I had a little play with the pendulum because it's the one I did first so it was really interesting to see the graph editor effects. I don't think any of them are perfect, I think the most interesting one is the first one that accelerates, even thought the last one is closest to being right, I think the first one has more interesting movement and could be a really heavy pendulum and therefore I like it best.

3: Overlapping Action -


For the overlapping action, It honestly took me several observations of the before and after of this action to see what actually difference it made. And I can see it makes the movement more free and less structured and posed. I actually didn't find it as difficult as I thought I would but the process was heavily walk through'd with Matt. I think it would be difficult to apply this to another object for this reason. But at least I'm starting to gain the basic knowledge.

4: Bouncy Balls -



So I may have got mixed up with which one was a squashy ball and which one was hard, but I renamed them so that they aren't the wrong way round. I found it really easy to manipulate the graph editor once I'd been shown the buttons on the interface. I think it just takes a lot of time to get used to the interface there's always more panels to be introduced to. I think it's difficult for me because once I know what I need to know I don't dedicate time to experiment with the rest of it.

5: Anticipation -



Now I don't think this movement is by any means nearly good enough for the animation but that's why we need to play with Moom in tasks like this to get the movement more elegant. The anticipation is there but I think that this action is very fast and I just couldn't fathom how to slow the stretching at the start down because the graph editor was just so complex.

I think even though this module is all about animating I think my strengths are in Modelling and I actually really want to make myself in a model so I think I'm going to try do that after the crit. I know it makes a lot more work for myself but I think I'd benfit more from it and at least then I'll feel like I'll be able to say, look I did give Maya a fair chance I don't actually hate it and I am actually compatible with it.