Doodle Dump

I've forgotten to upload some of some personal drawings I've done over the last couple of weeks. I'm so used to only posting uni work that my mind completely blanked my other stuff. The premise behind these were that I wanted to practice and improve on my lack of Photoshop skills. Honestly, I am extremely chuffed with these and hope you enjoy them too! :)

Sweet Tooth - Test Shot

Yesterday we had a screening so that each film could show how much work had been done so far. We showed our animatic, complete with sound effects and music. No one had seen the complete animatic so far, so we were extremely excited to show all three year groups and the tutors and see their reactions. And they reacted how we hoped, they all laughed when they were supposed to and it was great to see that our hard work wasn't to waste.

We're not going to use the music in this animatic, it was just to show what type of music we wanted. It's incredible how well it was timed (particularly the metal/rock song), it was purely by accident, it's a shame we can't use the track though.

We also showed our test shot that myself and Grayling (the Producer) worked on. It took the the two of us 4 days to do everything, which ain't too shabby. It was good to show us how the pipeline would work. Anyway, have a gander! :)

Sweet Tooth Animation Practice

Some more animations I did that are loosely based on scenes from the animatic, I just wanted to animate some facial expressions and animate, basically. They're definitely not finished, one day I hope to come back to them but I was needed for more important business - the ultimate test shot. Enjoy! :)

More Cake

Treating you to another cake jump. This particular jump is a scene taken from the animatic, bear in mind it is very rough.

Cakes, Cakes And Cakes

I have been busy dealing with with cakes, unfortunately not real ones. To start I did a few cake concepts and then turned to animation.

 

Since Sweet Tooth is being made in TVPaint, a program I have never used before I thought I would do a few random, yet still valid, animations as practice. A cake jump, and a croissant that walks like a gorilla. 

In conclusion, I love TVPaint.

Restorative Justice, Again -_-

It wasn't over yet, but it is now.

Some changes needed to be made to the film, script and animation-wise. We have been struggling with the script since the beginning, as writing is not our forte. And I also had to change the arm on one of the silhouettes because it looked phallic.

Annoyingly we were given the wrong dates for the changes to be made by, so instead of a month to do this it was drastically reduced to only 4 days. And due to other commitments our group of five was decreased to me and one other person. Because of long, very long, hour days over those 4 days we finished it.

We even managed to get Dawn French to do the voice over, which is pretty cool :) Unfortunately I can't put the final version of the film on here as it has been nominated for an award. When I can I happily will.

Sweet Struggles

Because of the late go ahead on Sweet Tooth, we are about 4 weeks behind. Which is very precious production time! As the majority of second years have pledged themselves to other films already, we have ended up with the smallest crew.

Luis Cook, our animator in residence, came down to have a look at the films progress so far one week after Sweet Tooth got through. And from what I gathered, I don't think he understood or knew how far behind we were and that we only had a week to prepare for his meeting.

Although the meeting was a tad savage, we needed to hear what needed to be done and were given good advice in the process.

Sweet Tooth - trust, it can and will be done!

Sweet Tooth - Booyah!

After much deliberation with the tutors, the film that I really wanted to get through but didn't, has been put through which I am immensely happy about!

The film is called Sweet Tooth, and I'm the head animator.

Sweet Tooth is about a small Parisian bakery where the cakes inside come alive and take revenge on their human tormentors.

 

Picture credit to: Elisabeth Horne (the Director)

Bring on the workload.

Bookish Creatures

The film I am working on has asked they crew to try and create some creatures that are inspired by books. And by that I mean the actual shapes of books. 

So I decided to try and create a snake like creature and took inspiration from a Cobra and a Venus Fly Trap and used open books to get the shape. The directors also wanted a creature based off an Arthropleura, which is a prehistoric centipede. I struggled a bit with this one because I couldn't find a way to make the books work with the body of the creature as it didn't really capture a centipede body. So I tried another one and decided to do a mixture of the first draft of the centipede and the cobra creature, and I'm much happier with it.

 

3rd Year Films

We have been officially told which films from the pitches have been given the go ahead, and unfortunately the one film I was really rooting for didn't make it. 

However I have put my name down for a film that did get through and I'm happy to help on any other film that requires any help, provided it's something I can do of course.

Collaboration Project - Finished

We finished the project in the short time allotted, despite the majority of the workload being put onto the animation students. Which is a bit unfair as we're not getting marked on this project but the TV students are.

We decided to go in the style of The Snowman (1978), and the animation students (3 of us in the group) chose a country each and did the drawings required for them. This then meant that there was a mix match of styles, but not too jarring when you watch the animatic. The TV students were in charge of sound.

In the end we came 2nd place and won a £30 Amazon voucher to share between the group which was nice.

Here it is!

Collaboration Project

We have been introduced to a new project that involves 2nd year TV students, where we have to create an animatic of an advert for a John Lewis style company.

The fake company is called Benjamin Cook and the advert has to be Christmas themed. It has to be 60 seconds long and be able to be shortened down to 30 seconds. And it has to be done in 3/4 days.

Fun. Right now I want to focus on my dissertation. Alas, I'll have to wait until next week.

The Dreaded Pitches

Yesterday was the day.

The pitches were split into into two groups. One group was pitching short film ideas, the other to pitch skill sets. I was in the latter group.

It was extremely nerve wracking. Granted I didn't have to speak as much as the people pitching film ideas but still, I was terrified. I've never been a fan of public humiliation speaking. It took place at The Poly in Falmouth, which is like a theatre/cinema. We had to stand up on the stage in front of an industry panel, our tutors and the whole of the Animation course.

I feel like my pitch went okay. I mean, I think I spoke loud enough and not too fast. Honestly, I'm just glad it's over.

And here is the showreel I used to show my skill set, enjoy!

Third Year is Here

My last year has officially started.

The studio has been renovated into three separate studios, due to an influx of first years. Fingers crossed there will be enough computers when deadlines hit.

We shall see.

Final Restorative Justice Film - Balance

Here is our final film and we managed to get it finished before deadline!

Now time to reflect. Personally if we could change anything about the film I would have really liked to have seen more colour and followed our moodboard, perhaps doing a more minimalized version of Shepard Fairey’s work. We decided against adding colours in the end because the whole idea about our film is that the figures are indistinguishable and by adding colours to them the audience could accidentally be looking for some sort of symbolism that isn’t there. Also, we were using After Effects and Flash to animate but looking back on the process it would have gone more smoothly if we just animated it all in Flash.

Overall the experience was a little stressful but I am proud of our group for getting it done in a week and I am happy with the film. I have learnt that it helps to be upfront with people and tell them exactly what needs to be done. It’s better to be clear than be left getting an unfinished shot. And to always be in contact with your group because anything can happen. There are a few glitches in the film that need to be fixed but due to time they cannot be fixed before deadline but they can be done after but I think the film did come out how we wanted it to.

VFX Shots 01 and 02 and Breakdown

Shot 01 Jekyll and Hyde/Hemlock Grove

In the end the shot is not as clean or sharp as I would have liked it, however there are similarities to the Hemlock Grove ad and I feel like I have managed to put across my intention for this shot. If I had more time I would have liked to have done a version with brighter colours and more emotions. I used a tutorial that I found online that saved me because I had no idea how to start it and it is exactly what I wanted my shot to look like, which can be found here.

Shot 02 Boom 

If I had more time I would have liked to have done more animation, rather than just a word it would have been exciting to see what a sentence or short paragraph would turn out. Despite its length I am happy with it, I just wish I could have done more to it.

Breakdown
Here is a video showing how all the shots have been put together.

Crew Work Final

Here is my final showreel of the work I have for the crew project this semester. I really would have liked to have done more but I just got overwhelmed with work and I had problems with the software licensing as only ten computers could use Toonboom. This was also the first time that I have used Toonboom and I gave myself a day to learn the basics so I could animate the next day. I picked it up pretty quickly and didn't have many issues with it 'animation wise'.

VFX 'Loving You' Finished Shot

After helping build the room I worked out that there would be seven out of 8 shots that needed to be worked on. Two were green screens, one where the reflection of a mirror is flipped upside down and the rest were clean ups to get rid of cracks in the ceiling, walls and floor from the build. The shots I worked on were the clean ups of getting rid of the cracks and the upside down reflection. I also fixed the shadows on the edited greenscreen shots so the model fit slightly better in the upside down room.

I enjoyed working on Alex's film and I cannot wait to see the finished project. I have definitely learnt some new lessons working on these three shots, especially what to avoid when working with a green screen. In general I am content with what I have made with this project.

RJ Final Animatic

This is oursixth and final animatic made by Elisabeth. After being told to make changes every time we showed our new one, this was the one. Slightly worrying now that we only have a week and a half until deadline to get it finished but it WILL get done on time! Positive thinking!

VFX 'Loving You' On Set - Day Two

Today was filming day on set. Holly and I booked out two portable greenscreens and set it up waiting for it to be used. A few tweaks were made and added to the room this morning. It was so interesting to see what happens on these sort of things; the lighting and camera set up and how professional it all was. 

Here director Alex is giving directions to the model on how to walk through the room.

Holly and me did have trouble with the greenscreen as no matter what we did there were shadows and wrinkles. Eventually there was nothing we could do but hope that when we come to do the edit the shots they would be okay and fixable. 

It was a really good experience being on set and being a part of it watching it all come together.

VFX 'Loving You' On Set - Day One

Today I was on set where my collaboration shot was going to be filmed. They started the build of the set yesterday, but unfortunately I couldn't make it until today. Basically Alex started with an empty studio and when I walked in this morning a room was partially created and it looked really cool. I helped by painting a few skirting boards and putting up the rest of the walls. There was a little bit of stress in the air as all the building had to be finished to day because tomorrow would be spent all day filming and the hardest part was to put the ceiling on. We only had until 16:30 until the studio closed but it was done. A few small things still had to be done but that can be fixed tomorrow morning. It was a nice change from being cooped up in the studio staring at a computer.

RJ Test Animation

Since our first animatic we have had to make a few changes. Our new idea still has the same principle but we've taken out Lady Justice and focused more on the victim and offenders feelings and what they go through. We wanted to go for morphing transitions from one shot to the other. So I did a quick test animation in After Effects to see if I could do it. I'm pretty happy with it as it looks how I imagined it. I watched an interesting tutorial to help me the blobs moving along a motion path.

 

VFX 'Loving You' Storyboard

I got sent a storyboard and a concept board of the collaboration shot I am working on, which is helpful to see how and what green screen we would have to use. He did mention some more shots that he wanted to include but they were not in the storyboard, which is fine as he told me where they were going to go anyway and it doesn't really affect me as he is going to have to edit it all together anyway.

VFX Collaboration Shot 'Loving You'

An update for the collaboration shot which is now called 'Loving You'. Alex sent us some moodboards on how the room is going to look as he wants to build the room from scratch. The room aesthetic isn't relevant to me but it's nice to get a feel for what he wants to go for. The main inspiration was from an episode of MythBusters, where they glued objects to the ceiling and people were still walking around in the room.

VFX Storyboards

Here are the storyboards for two of my shots for my VFX project.

Shot 01 - Split Personality

I decided I wanted to try and imitate the Hemlock Grove advert, so I based my storyboard to the part in the advert that applies to me.

Shot 02 - Typography 

This is a rough board on how I want my shot to look. I'm not sure about the colour scheme, I might change my mind.I want to do a mix of Maya and After Effects. The word will be made and animated in Maya and then imported into After Effects to add a background and any final touches. 

Shot 03 - Collaboration

My classmate found a student who needed post production students to help on his project and I was invited to join. The student studies Fashion Photography and for his project he is making two films and I am working on one of them.

Basically the idea behind this film is that a couple has recently broken up and the woman is walking around a living room in a house she used to live in with her partner. As she looks around there will be cut shots where the room is upside down and she is on the floor. The break up has literally turned her world around. Alex wants the audience to feel uncomfortable but not enough to put them off. 

My classmate and I will be working on turning the room around.

 

New VFX Project

The post production people were given a new project that consisted of us doing three shots and one having to be a collaboration with people outside our year. So far I have been trying to figure out what to do for my two shots and I have come up with an idea. My first shot I am basing on split personality as my theme. Here is my moodboard. While I was researching images I came across a television series called Hemlock Grove, more specifically the Netflix advert for it. I really liked how it looked and made a decision that I would use Hemlock Grove as my main inspiration.

 My second shot I wanted to do some kinetic typography, kind of similar to how musical artists release music videos on youtube but more stylized I guess. From putting this together I definitely want to make it colourful so it will contrast with my first shot. At this point I'm not too sure what sort of style I want to go for, if possible I would like to do a combination of different elements from each image.

Restorative Justice Animatic

Here is our animatic for the project, this was created by Elisabeth.
We wanted to use Lady Justice as the mediator between the victim and the offender and show how they feel and how the Restorative Justice Process helps them.

 

Restorative Justice Project

This project is a live brief from RJ Working, who promote, co-ordinate and deliver Restorative Justice Processes in Cornwall. We have to group up and make a short film that will explain this process to the public. The aim is to create a film that puts our ideas across in a graphic visual way.

Me and two other people in my class grouped up because we had a similar idea and below is the style we want in our film. We want to keep to a minimum of three colours and our characters to be silhouettes and if they were to have facial features, it would only be hinted it at.

VFX Project, BIG POST

It has been a while, and have been so busy putting everything together that I haven't been able to upload my process on here so I thought I would do a big post. I do have to say that I was very nervous to start this project because I didn't feel confident enough to use the programs that I would eventually have to use.

Moodboard
This shows the overall look that I am trying to go for, which is having someone interacting with a digital 3D object. I also wanted the outcome to have a certain style to it. The examples of that are the bottom three images. I wanted to have that curve/fish eye like lens in my scene. The first two images are from a music video, Passing Out Pieces by Mac DeMarco. It’s very stylized with its over saturated colours and homemade feel. The bottom right image is a still from Cloverfield and that’s there because that movie was made to look like it was filmed through a camcorder.

Storyboard

This is a very rough outline of how I wanted this shot to go down.

As you can see in the final finished shot I changed a few things from the storyboard. First off, the angle. When I filmed with the camera straight on the person and watched it back, it was boring and looked deliberate. It didn’t look ‘homemade’. I changed the shape of the object from a sphere to a more interesting shape. This was because I didn’t really have the time to animate the sphere coming apart in Maya. I did try a few techniques involving particle dynamics in Maya, but I couldn’t get it to work how I wanted it to and it didn’t look right. So by changing the animation to mostly rotation I had to change the shape to make it more obvious. 

Final Shot

Looking at the finished clip one thing that could have helped to make it look real would have been to add a shadow to the person’s hands from the object. Although I was anxious to start this project once I got into it I found myself really liking it and I learnt a lot of new things in the process.

Breakdown
As you can see I got a bit carried away with the colours and effects but it gets the point across and you can see how I did the shot.

Crew Work Showreel thus far

Crew Work

It's been a while since my last post so this will be a big one. Part of my module is that we get to work on the current third years films and at the moment I am working on a film called Rabbit Life. I have been asked to do some walk cycles for some of the characters. Unfortunately I have either been too busy or forgot to upload them on here as I have done them, so I will upload all of the cycles I have done so far now.

The first one is a character named Monty and he has a confident walk. I did struggle with doing a front angle cycle as I haven't done that before but I was pleased with how these turned out.






This next one was an accident as I downloaded the wrong character turnaround, but I thought I'd upload it anyway as I liked how it turned out and it was good practice. This is Lady Dog. I had a little trouble with animating her chest and dress but I think it looks okay.




Now this is the character I was supposed to do, Doggy. The words to describe his walk are slow, slouchy and stoner. I was asked to do a back angle as well and that was new for me. I had an attempt at it and for the first time I don't think it's too bad. I really liked working on all of these cycles and looking forward to working on some more shots for this film.