LAUAN 503 - Character and Narrative Week 8

Week eight hosted the final crit, which everything considered, went well. We were praised on our completed visual style which had finally become through this week. I received really positive feed back on my backgrounds too. Our areas of improvement are mostly just continuing and finishing the animation, as obviously we still have much more to do.
Personally I made good progress this week, completing the backgrounds and their ambient animation was a win as it brought the atmospheres to life. Starting to plug things into After Effects this week was also exciting, developing my skills in this software has been another positive. Seeing the images come to life is always really exciting! Overall a good week of forward motion with the project.

Work completed this week:

Over Christmas:

-Complete scenes
-Compile scenes into final animation
-Write summary
-Create production booklet

LAUAN 503 - Character and Narrative Week 7

Week seven has been a successful week. I completed about half of the backgrounds which was quite a large task as there are numerous different locations to consider, design and colour. We were aiming for a lineless style for the backgrounds which I have never practiced before so I found that challenging. Also selecting colours, lighting and drawing things I don't know how to draw slowed down the process too. For example, I've never drawn the inside of a spaceship. Admittedly I think technically I am lacking in digital drawing skills, which mean I have to put in longer hour to complete tasks. Nonetheless, the backgrounds I have completed received good feedback in the crit and the process of creating them has taught me and improved my personal technical ability.

WWW- Animated roughs are nearly complete, backgrounds almost finished, forward momentum on the project is good, good completed backgrounds, learnt new digital drawing techniques.
EBI- Work faster, still someway behind where would be ideal to be.

Some backgrounds from this week:

LAUAN 503 - Character and Narrative Week 6

Week six has been an exciting week as our animation began to move. Gabbi and Rhys began roughing the animations which so far look super effective. All three of us shot reference video to aid the process. The feed back from the Friday presentation was surprisingly positive- after big set backs that we experienced after changing the story and so being behind it was a real positive this week to receive some good feedback.
However, my personal progress on the project this week has been limited as I took the beginning of the week to complete the backlog of tasks that had built up. Due to this I only completed a few backgrounds this week. On the flip side, I will now have more available time to complete backgrounds and assets for AE and begin to animate.

One of the completed assets - the spaceship:

LAUAN 503 Study Task 3 - Research- Post 2

Aesthetic limitations of 2D Animation 

Working only in two planes can have some limitations. J.K Riki posts the idea that 2D to the viewer seems less relatable, when we quotes ''simply that 3D animation is more real'' (J.K Riki, 2015). Riki notes an interesting point, considering that animation is clearly not real life. It is a limitation of the medium then that perhaps the viewer is too disassociated with the visual to connect to the story or narrative. This relates to another limitation of 2D that perhaps Riki was touching on: that 2D can sometimes seem boring. Without that extra plane or the tactile qualities of stop motion, 2D can be less dynamic and visually satisfying, which arguably is true for the production process but too for the viewer. The popularity of 3D feature films compared to 2D in industry currently is a reflection of this. For example, the 2018 Oscars with three of the five nominated films for 'Best Animated Feature' were CGI, hinting towards the decline in its practice and favourability.

Quote source:

• https://www.animatorisland.com/why-should-2d-animation-be-abandoned-part-2-plus-why-not/?v=79cba1185463

LAUAN 503 Study Task 3 - Research- Post 1

Production Benefits of 2D Animation 

2D animation had an enormity of benefits. One of these is its simplicity in production and viewing, especially when compared to a medium such as 3D. Stephani Belota builds on this point and incorporates the topic of advertising when he notes ''...a clean design is often more effective in advertising, because it more clearly coneys the advertiser's message to the viewer''(Belota, 2015). As Belota noted, 2D is especially useful when time is not abundant and the story has to be communicated quickly and efficiently. Efficiency also translates over into production as there are fewer and more simple steps involved in producing a 2D animation. 

Quote source:

• https://ezinearticles.com/?Benefits-of-2D-Animation&id=9065542

LAUAN 503 Character and Narrative - Casting Workshop Four

In our final session of casting, we began by demolding our silicon two park mold from last session. This worked very well. There were no bubbles in the silion, the textures and shapes had been molded perfectly, there was some flashing as to be expected but cleaning up the cast was an easy task. Next, we painted the first layer of silicon onto each side of our molds. This was to accurately capture all the textures and shape in the mold as today's thicker sillion mix wouldn't do so itself. We then made a wire armature to run the inside of our mold and after mixing the thicker silicon, we then poured and pressed armature in and taped the mold together.

Demolding:
Demolding the silion was a success. Due to the shape of the mold and its extremely thin tips, the wire has moved slightly out of place and through the shape of the mold, which with practice would not happen again. However once more, the silicon was well mixed, there were no bubbles and after cutting down the flashing the cast was a success.

Summary :
I really enjoyed the casting work shops, the skills and mediums we have learned and experimented with are so translatable. I will almost definitely be returning to practice and utilise the facilities and skills we've been taught. Overall the casts and molds I have made have worked well, demonstrating that I understand and learned the processes.

LAUAN 503 Character and Narrative - Casting Workshop Three

Workshop three was not such a renowned success. Firstly, while demolding our two part mold, mine broke into aprox five pieces. However, this was to be expected as unknowingly I chose quite a fiddle object. The mold was still usable. After scraping the cray of to be recycled and soft soaping our molds, I taped mine back together for the wax mold.
On one hand my mold did work, the wax was contained very well and I demolded it at the right time as the wax had completely set. However, on the other hand, due to undercuts in my mold, demolding the wax was totally unsuccessful. It broke twice. Nonetheless, wax is a very brittle substance to work with and with such a fiddly mold, it was almost to be expected.
Next we learned about the ratio of silion to the bonding agent (1.1/10), mixed thoroughly and poured into our mold to set for next session. 

 

LAUAN 503 Character and Narrative - Casting Workshop Two

In our second casting workshop we began by de-molding the first half of our mold from the previous session. This involved scraping the clay of to be recycled and sanding down the edges of the plaster. We also repeated this process for the silicon skin mold. Once complete we glazed both molds with soft soap, which makes the final demolding much easier. After at least five coats, I poured the second part of the plaster mold onto the first.
I finished the texture plate by layering the silicon up by painting it on. This method was super simple and really effective. I also experimented with painting a wire armature into another silicon skin to create a skin that would hold a shape.
Today's session was a huge success, I was able to work quickly and learned fast. My texture plate was of good quality and I really enjoyed all the processes.

 

 

LAUAN 503 Character and Narrative - Week 5

Week five has been quite intense. I have been putting long hours into this project to catch up but as of yet, we are still behind. On Friday evening I completed the visual for the animatic. This was a huge win as during this week we changed the story twice. This meant that about half of the storyboards and animatic had to be reconstructed. As a result, after Fridays presentations I felt a huge loss of confidence in the animation. The beginning of next week, all being well, we should be ready to animate- aprox 26 seconds each.
WWW- the extensive story development has meant that the story and character are much more cohesive, the animatic visuals are complete, made one background which got some great feed back in the presentation.
EBI- Create background layouts ASAP is essential as they will be necessary to animate certain sections, catching up next week too would be great, working more quickly as a team is very necessary.

Animatic -without sound :

Background:

LAUAN 503 Character and Narrative - Week 4

Friday's presentation revealed that the character design and storyboards were still incomplete (Rhys and Gabbi's roles). This set us further back as a group. Due to MAF, I was away from working until Friday, which too proved an issue. Without my forward motion the group seemed to have stopped working on the project- which was disappointing. However, on returning on Friday we made some good progress. The character design is almost complete and the storyboards were complete but due to development on the story, they will have to be updated. I completed the animatic with all the available storyboards and included place holder sounds.
Next, my task will be to update the animatic with the new story inclusions, designate sections for us each to animate, start on the background lay outs and colouring and book a sound booth for sound design.

Due to the group being unproductive I have now found myself with more work to complete. I took the animatic into my own hands as I was expecting it to be well underway/ complete on my return from MAF. Personally, I will now have to work twice as hard to get back on task.

WWW- Productively used available time, moving forwards at a good pace, animatic looking promising, completed storyboards are great
EBI- Catch up on work, find time to do backgrounds, come together more as a group and work faster and more efficiently.

Animatic So Far:

LAUAN 503 Character and Narrative - Week 3

This week development continued. I began with logos, exploring space imagery and using secondary imagery for inspiration. The concept out comes of this exercise were really nice and will be reproached further down the line. Also, after being inspired on hearing that Disney produced 50 'ice castles' for Frozen, I undertook the self set task of drawing 50 rockets, 10 houses and filling an A2 page of development background layouts. This exercise was very useful and the design and final layout definitely became more refined. However it didn't necessarily take the project any closer to completion. By the end of the week the storyboards were roughed but incomplete, the character design was incomplete and the animatic was nonexistent. This left our group slightly behind target.

WWW- Good practice and development of style, storyboards exist, admin and organisation good on my behalf.

EBI- Pace is quite slow, slightly behind as a group, lacking drive and speed of working as a team.

Concept space logos designed this week:

LAUAN 503 Character and Narrative - Casting Workshop One

In our first casting workshop, of four, we learned the first steps of making a two part mould out of clay. This involved pressing an object into the clay to submerge exactly half. After building walls around the mould, we then mixed and poured in the plaster.
We also learned about texture plates. This involved making a textured pallet by scoring into the clay as we wished. This process could be really useful for making textures not only for puppets but for floors, walls, props etc for stopmotion.

LAUAN 503 Character And Narrative - Inspirations

This Weeks Inspirations 31/10/18

• Cinematography and Title Sequences

-Alfred Hitchcock

-Steven Spielberg 

-Clint Eastwood and western films 

-Film Noir and German Expressionism

-Catch Me If You Can

-Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

• Reading

-Earnest Hemmingway 

-Setting Up Your Shots: Great Camera Moves Every Filmmaker Should Know - Jeremy Vineyard

• Online

-http://www.watchthetitles.com/

-http://www.artofthetitle.com/

-https://www.youtube.com/user/everyframeapainting

LAUAN 503 Character and Narrative - Week 2

Week two has been a successful week. I wrote the script which brought the story into life. Rhys and Gabbi's work on the character design has also meant that the vision is becoming clearer. Over all the team seems happy with directions and division of labour.
I've personally been working on the background and world art for the animation. I'm particularly interested in perusing this role within industry so was more than happy take on this task . After numerous mood boards, sketches and digital paintings we settled on doing a 1950's adventure poster-kind of style concept.

Concept Art This Week:

WWW- Team working well together, good division of labour, good ideas, the script is good too (never written a script before), initial ideas for concept art are really interesting and original, story is concise and malleable. Also I completed a time plan for us, so organisation is also went well this week. 

EBI- Feel that personally I could have produced more visuals this week, could have made designed more rockets and space backgrounds.  - However, it only took three to settle on a theme/style so perhaps quality over quantity. 

Also : MAYA

-We also covered compositing, shadows and colouring on maya aided by After Effects. I found this extremely complicated and hard to grasp, however still managed to export. 

Inspirations this week:

- Steven Universe Art & Origins by Chris McDonnell and Rebecca Sugar 

-Awaking Beauty :The Art of Eyvind Earle by Ioan Szasz 

LAUAN 503 Character and Narrative - Week 1

Firstly, we individually rolled story dice in order to construct a narrative. My story dice rolled 1) an astronaut on the moon with a little flag 2)a satellite dish 3) a box. I constructed a story about a female astronaut who forgot to take her flag to the moon which was the chosen narrative in my group- I was made director off the back of that. After brainstorming ideas about style, character, medium and who will perform each role, we individually created primary research.
Decisions reached so far:

• Gabbi & Rhys' Roles : begin researching and designing character as an adult and a child on art boards
• My Role : background research and design, script 
• All : research and design the rocket, space logo and potentially a satellite
• Mediums : mix of digital 2D -AE, PS, TV Paint 

Decisions to develop:

• Storyboard
• Character design
• Sound/ music
• Style - this is the main one as we all have very different existing styles, meeting somewhere halfway or perhaps trying something completely new may be a feasible idea.

WWW- Good flow of ideas as a group, good sharing of roles, good initial research and ideas

EBI- Possibly work a bit faster as a group, push research further into initial sketches and small moving ideas.

MAYA

This week we also learned how to make pendulums on Maya. Overall, familiarising myself with the work space again was very useful and the final pendulum worked nicely too. This practice focused on easing and over lapping action.

WWW- familiarised myself, pendulum accurate, gained more confidence with software

EBI- Pushed the pendulum further and explored more of the principles of animation such as secondary motion. 

LAUAN 404 - Presenting and Preparing Work

I found presenting my work fairly easy. It wasn't challenging to speak publicly, justify creative decisions and take on board constructive criticism. Generally most the the feed back was very positive. This was actually very useful to me as I was finding that I was becoming overly self critical of my work, so this boost of confidence was well received.

Strengths identified in my work from the presentation were:
- The cut out technique works well
-Style and uniqueness of the backgrounds
-Walk cycle process video is strong, the secondary motion in the ears works well in adding appeal and charm
-Lineless style works well and should be explored further

Improvements to be made were:
- Sounds, some were missing and miss timed, specifically the dramatic music bit.
-Walk cycle against the background flickers (as identified in the walk cycle post)

LAUAN 404 - Animatic

Overall I think my animatic accurately displays the story through correct timing, shot framing and sound. On the flip side I feel there were many factors I neglected. For example, I definitely could have drawn characters more accurately. I think I didn't consider enough the movement in each shot, whether camera/character. This means that when making the animation more time consuming decisions and mistakes were made. Nonetheless, the learning experience through creating the storyboards and animatic was profound. I had never done this before and definitely think it is one of my weaker areas.

WWW- clear depiction of story, good timing
EBI- camera shots could have been more interesting, characters movement and background design should have been considered more.

Animatic 

LAUAN 404 - 2D Walk Cycle

Overall I think my 2D walk cycle was a success. I manged to move Valda in a lanky spaghetti kind of way, which is how I imagined her. This walk cycle did take a while to make (about three days) however, as my first ever 2D walk cycle, this is forgivable. Using Ollie Johnston's references proved very helpful- in a way it was hard to deviate from it because it's so good(!). In future I will experiment with real life references. By rendering at each stage I was able to make a short clip of the process of constructing the walk cycle.

WWW- weight, length and consistency. Appeal in character is upheld through ears and floppy socks.
EBI- could have payed more attention to the hands (hands are my biggest weakness)

2D Walk Cycle Process Video

I also put my walk cycle into motion against a potential background for my animation. Although the footage is quite flickery it is a good example of the potential visual style of my animation. 

LAUAN 404 - Stop Motion

Our stop motion puppets were made of a wire armature, a layer of foam and bandaging and finally a layer of plastercine. I really enjoyed making my puppet and despite some downfalls, I generally made a pretty good one. She was mostly in the correct proportion, despite arms that were a bit long and a neck that was too short. Animating with the puppet was also mostly a success. She was easy to moved and despite being quite tall, wasn't too heavy either.

WWW- She had character and appeal, was very similar to sketches, well made.
EBI-  Movement could be improved. Texture, proportions and symmetry of character could have been better. Plastercine slightly ripped under her dress which could also be improved.

(First go at walk cycle)

LAUAN 404 - Maya 3

Learning how to make walk cycles on Maya was very useful. Importing a reference image into Maya made the process easier and more achievable. In this short clip on the WIP, one stance is missing so the movement appears quite jittery. Despite this, the learning in today's session was profound.

WWW- Existing poses are accurate and movement is distinguishable and clear.
EBI- Movement could be made much more fluid using graph editor, hands and hips need to move more accurately.

LAUAN 404 - Maya 2

After practising modelling and learning how to move a rigged character, we then learned how to keyframe and animated on Maya. This involved learning how to use the timeline and graph editor to add easing into the movement. Learning how to time blast was a useful tool.

WWW- Explored and grasped the concept of key framing and motion paths within Maya
EBI- Could have pushed the bouncing sphere further, added easing to enhance weight and lifelike qualities.

LAUAN 404 - Maya 1

In our first Maya session we learned how to navigate around the interface and began learning how to model from a reference. This involved using the bevel, extrude and mesh loop tools. My final outcome is pretty basic, lit with an Arnold light. the proportions are off and some edges need to be smooths however, as a first attempt is totally acceptable. 

Study Task 

Our task was to model another simple object; I chose to model a bottle of glue. Although the object was simple, it was still far too complex for my very limited modelling abilities. However with perseverance and some help I managed to create the shape.

WWW- Learned more tools, became more familiar with software.
EBI- Need to be more aware of what is achievable in the given time frame.

LAUAN 404 - Character Backgrounds and Secondary Characters (4)

After having refined the story and storyboards I realised that an antagonist was much more necessity than a secondary character- so I pulled the ghost out of the line up.
Conceptually I thought it would be interesting to have an antagonist who represented climate change, global warming etc, that destroyed the landscape/nature that Valda was trying to save- but also something that seemed visually ominous. Creating a shadowy character captured this ominous mood and could also resembles a dusty cloud of pollution.

WWW- characters and story has been refined and made much clearer.
EBI- Clean up drawings and line work

LAUAN 404 - Character Design (5)

After redrawing Valda a number of times I became more familiar with her shape and anatomy. Therefore it was a good idea to redo her dynamic poses. Personally this new board was a break through as this is definitely one of my weak point. So to produce a good character poses board was quite a personal win.

WWW- poses are much more consistent, more interesting and drawn better, hold much more expression and appeal
EBI -may explore a new silhouette as the existing one isn't as strong.

LAUAN 404 - Character Background and Secondary Characters (3)

This is my first character line up. I may alter some details of the characters, such as colour and shading. However the size of my characters will remain the same. 

LAUAN 404 - Character Background and Secondary Characters (2)

Originally I imagined Valda's setting to be a high school but on second thought I realised I could create a more unique setting. I took inspiration from Adventure Time and Lord of the Rings and began designing a new world. On beginning to do so I noticed that a whole world is not necessary so I shrunk it down to one section. An imaginary world is much less limiting creatively.

Next I thought if she lives by the sea she could have a sea creature friend, which might be fun and unique. I began to explore a more gestural and expressive method for the background art which i think would work really well in a comic book. I also approached some more unusual characters for her friends, beginning with a ghost and an orca.

LAUAN 404 - Character Design 4

This is my (almost) final turn around for Valda, which will be used for the model making. I intend to go back in and tidy up some of the proportions- I'm aware her head is too big and far back in the side angle, arms are too long in the 3/4 and I'd also like her legs to be longer in general as I imagine her to be kind of lanky and move in slightly floppy spaghetti way. Despite tweaking the proportions, this is Valda's final costume and character design.


WWW - Colours, appeal, shape, costume
EBI - I may possibly further develop my character's face as I feel that it needs to be more simple- in order for it to work in the Beano. I'd like to change her eyes to be more easily repeatable. Further develop logo.

LAUAN 404 - Character Design 3

Once I had the initial ideas solidified about Valda I then began on some facial expressions and poses to see how she would move. I first put her in a kind of gym outfit, in running with the high school theme. However, my background concept developed away from this idea and thus I redesigned some costume ideas for her- trying to keep the 60's theme in mind. I also touched some ideas for her logo.

-Dynamic Poses and Facial Expressions 

WWW- good variation in poses to demonstrate full character movement, good demonstration of expression and volume of body, good colour scheme.

EBI - could have done side angle expressions, solidity of drawings. 

-Costume Design Ideas

WWW - diversity of colour, simplicity, more original ideas

EBI - more detail, explore different garment options eg trousers 

LAUAN 404 - Character Design 2

I decided to change Valda's animal from a rabbit to a fox. As I am aiming her at teenage girls I thought a fox would have more appeal as stereo typically they're more wily, smart and cunning where as rabbits are cute and soft. Originally I thought the ears on a rabbit could be another fun form to illustrate expression, this way I can still do so. I'd like my Valda to have a tougher persona so I thought a fox was more fitting. I chose a colour palate directly from a fox reference.

- Initial digital sketches of fox idea. 

LAUAN 404 - Character Background and Secondary Characters (1)

Here I began initial sketches and colour ideas for Valda's friends. I imagined her in a high school environment as I'm aiming for a teenage target audience. However the high school setting has been quite over used so I may think of a more creative and unusual setting for her.
As for her friends, I firstly went for some typical high school stereotypes - the cool kid, the goth and the popular girl.
WWW- character design style, good base point for development, appeal
EBI- more detail, more unique character ideas

LAUAN 404 - Character Design 1

Initial design for VALDA

I chose Valda because she is the oldest and most outdated of the available characters. I also liked her slightly older audience and surrounding story as a kind of mystic super hero- keeps options quite open as to where to take her. 

Initial T Pose: 

-I wanted her to have ears to make her more expressive. Also the Beano hasn't had an animal-human character yet so this could be a fun twist. 

-Initially I depicted her as a rabbit but feel that she too girly and soft- I wanted her to be a bit more of a tough, sister, role model type character.

-Practically also, if I stood her ears up she'd be too tall. 

LAUAN 403 Task 13 - Apply The 12

Character poses - Berty the Golden Retreiver 

Character Turn Around - Berty the Golden Retriever  

Storyboard 1/2

Storyboard 2/2

Final Animation

For our final task we had to show case what we have learned in a short 'action and reaction' animation. My simple characters are golden retriever, Berty and a jelly. The story boards and character turn around are vastly better than in previous tasks, however consistency of shape could still be touched upon. 

WWW- Accurately captured the majority of the 12 rules, pushed myself to produce more detail and length. Good use of colour, pattern, composition, narrative, staging. Probably my strongest piece of work so far. 

EBI- Expectation management very poor. Animation was three times the required time length. Definitely my biggest area for improvement. Could also improve sounds which do seem a bit disjointed at points. 

LAUAN 403 Task 12 - Secondary Motion

Secondary motion describes an action that is of second importance to the main narrative action. For example, in the case of my short clip, the water moving as the paddle goes in. This augmentation task was super fun and really enjoyable.

WWW - Fun narrative, good demonstration of secondary action, thought about angles and camera movement. Timing and composition also work well.

EBI - Could have thought about frame rate more as film is slightly flickery. Could add sound or more detail.