Day 43: Finish Line

Our group finished our animation for Rave Live!

We completed all the pieces of animation we needed to do, I put it all together using After Effects and Final Cut, and then Emma added the music. We have two versions of our animation. One with Tom Ritchie's Dialogue, Music, and Matt's sound effects. The other version only has Tom's dialogue and music.

Emma surprised us all when she told us she bought (royalty free) music from a site called Audio Network. It's a music and sound effects library where you can buy licensed tracks. she bought several tracks, and the one we liked the most was one called "Miami Beach". We felt so guilty letting her buy tracks with her money. We offer to pay her back but she was having none of it. That is the music you can hear in both versions if the animation.

Day 36: Gathering for Showreel

I decided on getting work together for my showreel. I'm not sure if my work is good enough for a showreel. I've been looking at a few and some are just amazing.

Day 32: Formative Assessment

I felt fairly confident about our work as a group. We had gotten to the stage where I was editing the whole thing together but of course the formative wasn't about the how far our broadcast pieces was coming along. It was about how far our blogs are coming along. It being the most important. I noticed I had made little or no reference towards my Showreel. I need to get on top of that. Jared knew how self critical of myself I could be and filled my out my Formative sheet for me. Apparently I'm doing 'good', but good just isn't good enough.

Day 20 - 24: Animating

Day 16 - 18: "Doomsday is around the corner..."

We didn't get as much work done as I'd expected due to lectures, E & E and Contextual Studies. However the highlight of this week is mostly definitely our voice over, performed by fellow classmate Tom Ritchie. He did an excellent job on the voice over and has a real talent for voice acting. I looked at my watch this morning and noticed the date said 9th which made me come to the realisation that we only have 13 days left to hand this in to Rave Live. Doomsday is around the corner and I'd totally forgotten. We decided to start animating...

P.S. I can't upload audio on blogger, so you'll wait till the animation is done.

Production: But That's Not All

I sent these piece to my teammate via Facebook and I asked the to choose out the three what colour scheme would work. My idea was to make give it a "glamourous" look. I wanted to use special colours...

Colours with meaning like Purple and violet are considered to be royalty colours. I also used gold for the font. But it was a bit too strong.

So I watered it down a bit and this is what my group chose.

Day 15: Showreels

Didn't get much work done on the Advert animation. Our tutor had a lesson planned for us today. We had to look for good showreels via the internet in groups of two and then say 3 good things and one bad thing about the showreel. We did that from 10:30 until lunch time then after lunch he showed us examples of work that would not be presentable in a showreel.

Today, I noticed that it's easy for riggers, animators, modelers, UV mappers to make cool showreels but what if you're just a 2D storyboard artist. What do I show? Pictures on each frame?

Day 11 - 14: The Animatic

Easter Weekend. So no college till tuesday. I've been working on the animatic for our 30 second animation. I used the storyboard drawn by Michelle & Emma to construct our very rough animatic. I cropped out each panel and made that a new file. I ended up with 28 frames. Which I thought was good because each storyboard frame could represent one second of animation. And give us 2 seconds to spare for whatever wanted. Oh, how wrong I was.

While editing, I've realised that we may need more time. No more than ten seconds though. The file is too big to upload on Blogger but I'll find a way to shrink it's MB.

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I managed to upload it to youtube and embed it.

Day 9: So Tired...

My aim for today was to get some scenes of our animatic done. Although Emma said we could make our animatic next week, I really wanted to impress my team mates by doing it in a day. Oh, how wrong I was. I worked from 8am to 8pm and now I'm too tired to even write my journal entry. To even start the animatic I had to design the main character (a 17 year-old boy), which took ages because I was using illustrator. Like an idiot.

To be continued...

Too tired.

Pre-production: Animatic scenes

These were just tests... I wanted to know what would be the best editing software. After effects is a awesome visual editing software but the sound of it could give us some problems. However Premiere Pro's sound is perfect where the visuals aren't that great.

I was a little worried about this, the speed and closeness of the colours could affect people who suffer from epileptic fits. We have a friend who suffers from it and we all agreed we didn't want to take that risk. so I'm changing it.

Pre-Production: More Concepts

Words, phrases and props to be used in my animatic.

In the background, Emma wants coloured lines to spin. That's the easy part but I need to figure out how to bend the lines. Who do I know that can help?

I don't know what our name for him is yet but we already decided he was a seventeen year-old teenage boy, who is somewhat unpopular (especially with the ladies)... So the box we're selling is he way to try and be cool.

The box can be used to cover any spots, pimples or even ugliness.

The box is a great mode of transport.

Great dance partner.

Day 8: The Pitcher and the Batter

We had to pitch our idea today in front of the class. Surprisingly I wasn't nervous (that much) because I had a lot of confidence in our project, so there was no way they could shoot down our idea. Emma did most of the talking and she did it marvelously. We had good feedback so I was more them please.

Emma, Michelle and myself took the Storyboards we'd worked on over the weekend and pretty much combined the best bits from the three and made it one. I'm pleased with the outcome. Our sound guy also came in today and checked out what we had. So after finishing the storyboard, our goal now is the animatic. I want to finish it by thursday so that when Sarah from Rave Live comes in, she'll have a greater idea of what we want.

So I'm going to do some work now...

Adios!

Pre-Production: Storyboard

From panel 1 to 6 we see our character walking into shot. He is called by the narrator saying "Hey you!" The character looks towards the screen with a puzzled expression. He is also asked if he's "tired of being a spotty, greasy, nerd" in which words appear and hit him in the face.

Narrator says "well I've got the product for you" and a picture of a comes down and crushes

him. Our first shot is of him wearing a box on his head to cover spots.

From 1 -3 is of our character using the box for transport but is not too impressed by how fast its going. From 4- 6 is a disco scene in which he is trying to impress some girls with his dance moves in a box.

Character gives his grandma a present which ends up being a box. That when she opens that box another box would in that box. We skip to the same character using the box as an umbrella. Next we have a box being used as a games console...

We're using the cliche line that is used in every ad, "BUT THAT'S NOT ALL!!" We show a Box on a plinth spinning slowing like you'd find in car adverts and television shopping.

A homeless man popped in the box as the free gift when you buy a cardboard box.

Storyboard by Michelle and Emma

Day 5 - 7: Storyboarding

All I did was look for more ads and more animations we can take inspiration from. This weekend was pretty boring in terms of doing work. Added to my research entry below.

Sorry.

Threw some work on some paper and I had the nerve to call it a storyboard. I was given the Hobo as theme of my storyboard.

Pre Production: Script

Introducing the Main Character

Teenager walks into shot.

Narrator – Hey you!

Yeah you! Are you tired of being a SPOTTY, GREASY, NERD? Want to be popular?

Impress all your friends.

Box Spinning Background

Narrator – We'll I've got a product for you!!!

Narrator – Subtlety hide all your spots and blemishes

Narrator – Ideal for transport (Road Scene)

Narrator – Great for a night on the town

Narrator – The perfect presents for your loved ones

Narrator – Keep your head dry

Almost completely waterproof (Umbrella scene)

Narrator – Share the fun with your friends (Xbox Scene)

Narrator – BUT THAT'S NOT ALL!!

Narrator – When you buy our box at the super low price of £19.99, you get a hobo absolutely free. Bringing your total to 199.99 plus postage and packaging. Call 0800 999 881 999 119 7253. Calls cost £100 a min.

[Box may not be able to do all the things mentioned in advertisement]

Day 4: Scary Essays!

Didn't do much work today. We had lectures from Contextual Studies' teacher Freddie Gaffney. His lectures are always a delight to listen to. A ten-minute one from PPD and some BA (3rd year) students pitched their idea to us for recruitment. So a busy day. Michelle and Emma liked my grandma design but I don't really want them to go with it though. I think they can do miles better. I wanted to put some textures on the clothes (in Photoshop) but it wasn't working out for me, I ma need to get some help with that. I'll ask the Caldow twins, they should know.

Pre-Production: Concept Work

We were all given characters to design, this is what I came out with. Mine was the grandmother. It was fairly easy, I had pictured her in my head already, it was getting on paper that was the hard part. I wasn't sure what style we were going for because we are all very different artists.

I tried different eyes for the face, the amount of wrinkles to use and the shape of the face.

Day 3: Concept Art

Today was a hard day. I felt really weird, it's like everything annoyed me today. Perhaps it's that time of the month and Aunt Erma came to visit, ha ha. Anyway, the day started with me reading a text from Emma (dated yesterday evening) that said I should come up with some uses for two more products. On my commute to College I thought of some funny uses for our advertisement and luckily they were good ones. Part of the morning was spent looking at more ads that could inspire us and the rest of the morning was spent doing concept art. However, everything I put out felt rubbish especially when I looked at my teammates' work. They draw so well and so fast, I think I'm jealous. I'm the weakest link - Goodbye. Every time they ask me a question or what my input is I stupidly get tongue-tied and look like a greater fool. So I tried not to talk too much today, I didn't want to sound idiotic. Maybe I should write a script for myself tomorrow, would that work, LOL?

It's a short entry today, I have to do some concept art of the grandmother...

So I'm off.

And I don't think we've got a reply from the Sound designers yet.

Day 2: Thinking of Ideas

Phew! What a day, eh? Today me, Emma and Michelle tried to think of some ideas for our group project. Ideas were thrown around like Pigeon on a train, Vending machine taking your money or Wedding gone wrong. However, we came to the conclusion of doing an advertisement in Flash. We chose an advertisement because our limit was 30 seconds and the only things that are presented in 30 seconds and done fairly well are adverts. We also liked the idea that in between people's work on the Rave live channel our little spoof ad could play along like a real ad.

After a lecture that never happened, we headed back to the classroom where Emma and I started to develop on our idea of advertising. We looked at real ads/fake ads and dissected them, checking out what made adverts do the thing they do - Sell. The results of our search are below.

We then needed a product to sell. We came up with the most insane products and changed their uses. I had a lot fun doing that - just to make up random wacky gags - I laughed a bit too much. According to what Emma learnt at the Pixar Lecture when trying to come up with gags, we have to come up with a character and put in a weird situation, which is exactly what we were doing.

I'm tired now, So I'll be off.

Before I forget, we're now trying to get in touch with a sound designer. I suggested the sound designer that we used in the previous project, who did an excellent job on our piece, and Emma e-mailed him.

Research: Advertisement

I never used to like researching until now, it was so fun just looking for either spoof or real adverts with humour that could influence our work...

Snuggie - is real product that is the fusion of a jumper and a blanket. We love the corniness of the advertisement.

Ren & Stimpy - Log - Log is one that was mentioned several times. It's a spoof ad for a kid's toy

Phineas & Ferb - Brick - Brick is exactly the same idea.

Farmville

Mafia Wars

Cafe World

Cillit Gun

Miller Lite

Cyanide & Happiness Book - I think a lot of our animation is based upon this piece.

Power Thrist

Human iPod

Friend Face

ShamWooHoo

Shamwow

Shake Weight

Billy Mays Top Ten

Schedule

Pre-Production

Production

Post-Production

Research: Animations

Awesome animations. Some of the best if I don't say so myself...

Nightmare City

Nightmare City: Catastrophe

Mr Boomba: Episode 1 2 3 4 5 6

The Man Who Could Sit Anywhere

Draw With Me

Hugh

Madagascar, Carnet De Voyage

Les Ventres

Adventure Time!

Little Foot

The Last of the Dashkin

Madness Combat

Animator Vs Animation

The End of the World

Walk in the Woods

Day 1: Back to School

After a nice two weeks of rest and relaxation, it's nice to get back into the classroom. Today was the first day back - actually, yesterday was the first day back but I totally forgot, so I went today. It was nice to meet up with friends and have a few laughs. Spring break was pretty boring.

Jared, my tutor, introduced us to the new project by explaining the brief to us (as seen in first entry). I liked the sound of helping with the Rave live idents, considering that I've worked on idents before and I'm a keen graphic designer and illustrator. I could see myself playing around with the Rave live idents in after effects or Flash (in a 2D format). However, organisers of Rave live said the logos had to be in 3D. Sad-face. I'm not all too confident in using 3D animating software and the encounters I've had with Maya haven't been very pleasant, so I want to stay clear of Maya this term.

The other options were to join a BA (3rd year)group and help them with their final project but the only jobs they had to offer were UV mapping, texturing and animating. Or get a external client which if I did get one, they would want it in 3D. Luckily for me there was a secret option to make a 30 second piece for Rave live. Also I was lucky to get Michelle and Emma in my group. How intimidating is that? They are so good and so talented at animation I fear I may fall behind in their awesomeness. Our job for tonight is to get some research...

So I'm off to go do that.

The Code: Assessment Criteria

A1: Have a critical understanding of the range of techniques and skills underpinning animation workflows as they apply to broadcast media.

B1: The ability to initiate a team animation project, and realise it independently, to broadcast standards.

C1: Critically locate their work in terms of its creative and artistic merits in relation to contemporary animation practice and the broadcast media.

D1: Consistently apply animation skills and techniques appropriate to the standard expected for an entrant to professional animation or visualisation

E1: The ability to analyse, evaluate, and improve team performance while working within that team.

Individual Reflective Journal
Evidence of critical reflection on the creative and artistic merits of their work in relation to contemporary practice. (A1, C1)
Evidence of critical reflection on team dynamics and performance. (E1)

Showreel
Evidence of creative presentation and promotion of students

Introduction: The Project Brief

This unit builds directly on the Industry Exercises 1 and Industry Exercises 2 units, allowing students to use their portfolio of animation skills to develop finished broadcast animation pieces (in small teams) to be shown during Rave on Air, and to generate an individual show-reel to promote those skills to employers. Students also develop more advanced planning and organisational skills necessary to manage team productions.

This unit has the potential to allow inter-faculty collaboration through the use of animation to promote the work of other courses in the creation of animated advertisements for Rave on Air (product design for example). Intra-faculty collaboration is also possible through the use of other disciplines such as post production and sound design that naturally complement the animation industry. These collaborations will be negotiated on a per team basis.

Aims of the Unit

To enable students to initiate, plan, and complete complex team projects.
To enable students to work to broadcast standards of quality.
To provide experience of establishing and developing team project schedules and tracking progress towards project completion.
To enable students to demonstrate and promote the range and quality of their animation skills through the production of a show-reel.

The emphasis for this brief is upon fitness for broadcast purposes, if you read the learning outcomes and assessment criteria that follow this section then you will see that one of the main areas for your assessment is upon how well you meet technical parameters to enable your work to be broadcast.

You will be required to work in small teams, ideally, two, or three people per team.

You will be required to submit three pieces of work for assessment.

An individual reflective journal (Blog)
An individual interactive DVD showreel
A group film fit for broadcast

Journal
This should focus on your plans for this project, your brief, your project schedule, and your performance as a team member. These can be supplemented by a group journal to help communication with team members, but the primary concern is your individual reflective account. These should be hosted on Blogspot, or Wordpress and the URLs submitted to your tutor.

Showreel
Your showreel will take the form of a menu driven interactive DVD where users will be able to select which of your work they view. You will be expected to assemble a reel that demonstrates the breadth of your capability, and the diversity of your style as an animator. As such, you may use work from any point in your studies, or from outside your time at college. You may also consider generating new work this term to supplement perceived gaps in your portfolio. The main drivers for assessment here are NOT the quality of the individual pieces of work, but the way in which you choose to present them and to promote yourself…

Movie
This is where the majority of your effort will be directed for this project. You will have to choose a team first of all, ideally a small one of two or three individuals. Then you will have to negotiate a brief for your project. There are three main ways that you can fulfill this part of the brief, but all will depend upon you having a real client, and it is up to YOU to get information from your client to define your brief. This information should include a list of deliverable items, and a set of deadlines.

Way 1
Work as a junior on a BA film project.
Identify the film you want to work on, agree a role, agree deliverables, and then deliver them. It will not be possible to do much in the way of concept or modeling work for these films given the advanced state of their development, but it should be possible to do large amounts of UV mapping and texturing, lighting, rigging and animating.

Way 2
Work towards Rave Live.
This will involve you either working towards doing one of the six channel idents, in which case you will have to contact the graphics students responsible, or towards generating programme content in which case you will have to contact broadcast content creation students to find out their requirements. Be aware that work will need to be ready much in advance of May 19th, so it should be viable within a reduced time frame. Remember the panic that you had at the end of last term? That is a luxury that you do not have this term. It would probably be a good idea to attend all possible meetings about Rave Live, such as the one this Friday (26th) read your email, and look for posters…

The 3rd Way
Find an external client.
You may source a client for your project beyond the confines of college. The same conditions apply, you will negotiate a brief, and whatever work you produce must be produced in a form that is technically suitable for broadcast purposes. Other than that, the subject matter or content are entirely down to you and your client. This is possibly the most challenging of the three ways you can fulfill this project…