Live Brief- Cinema City

 

Week 1- Friday

Initial Response

For this brief we were asked to make an advertisement for the courses Cinema City has to offer to the general public.

After being briefed we met up for coffee and discussed our first ideas. 

We discussed the idea of breaking the script given to us by Cinema City (with details of the courses offered. The Group's initial response to the brief  (creating a 30 second animation) was to have multiple characters from different film genres saying the lines of the script given. We discussed how we could make this transition smoothly from genre to genre while also still linking to cinema city

We wanted to make the script as fun and engaging as possible with some potential comedic elements to keep the view interested while putting across all the information.

We thought that this could extend the target audience and inspire the viewer to get involved in some of the courses the Client provide

I chose to look into the idea of Rom-Com's for my section so I wanted to to focus on beautiful and striking women (as you would see in a Rom-Com) to get into the mindset of the character.

For a second approach we thought about linking the idea to a classroom setting but were unsure how we would make this idea work at this point.

Basic Script and breakdown of Brief

We made notes on how we could breakdown the script evenly so we could give each person a genre to work on.

I took the Rom-Com Section and thought it would be fun to play around with the 'norms' of this genre. I wanted my character to be a beautiful woman, like someone you would see on the red carpet. I also thought it would be interesting to have her reject the man (Bond character) to add a factor of comedy.

Looking into Actresses/Red Carpets

Character Design:

I am happiest with this portrait.

Week 1 Overview:

Mood: Going Strong

So far I am very happy with the idea we have come up with and am feeling good about the character analysis and designs I am doing. I am really enjoying looking into portraiture and feel it is making me a stronger artist.

Week 2

Character Design for 'Rom-Com' Character.

I decided to go down a less realistic approach to fit in with the groups aesthetic for this piece and focused on making my character fulfilling unrealistic goals of beauty. 

Idea one:

Basic Story Board

More Detailed Storyboard

In this storyboard, you see my character strut into Peter's last frame (James Bond. He goes in for a cheeky kiss and she pushed his face away (breaking the stereotypical James Bond suave persona. This is when Eli's Character (the monster - Horror themed) and the Bond character runs away. Mine looks embarrassed by him and leaves.

Idea 2

For this basic storyboard shows my character in a classroom setting. She's chewing glue, blows a bubble and looks to the side and see the monster character. she looks shocked and then scoots her seat to the side.

Client Feedback:

'Thanks for sending the treatments through, really good ideas. My preferred one is Treatment 1, as I think this will work better visually with marketing. Take a look at the genres and see if there's a way of making them more relevant to our courses or to Cinema  City's film programme (although Bond is a good reference!). Examples of popular courses are:

• Our Cinema Cities strand (exploring a city through film): New York, Tokyo, Paris etc
• Beginner's Guide to Film Studies evening courses
• Directors; Woody Allen, David Lynch, the Coen Brothers', Martin Scorsese etc
• Genres: Film Noir, French New Wave, German Expressionism etc'

To get an idea of the colour scheme we could use for our work, we had a look at how Cinema City advertise themselves.

They use a lot of greys, white, black and teal, this could be something we incorporate into our aesthetic.

Week 2 Overview:

Mood: Feeling Ok

I think I have made a good amount of progress this week

Week 3:

We decided this week that it would be much effective to work in cut outs than in 2D animation.


Voice Over Tests:

A video showing the style of our animation.

Client Feedback:

Milly Hirst, Client

Hi Group F,

Looking good! I really like the animation style and I'm glad you're using it all the way through so it's nice and consistent. Will the green background also be continuous? It's a nice colour but I'd go for something a bit lighter if possible.

Two things- I'm not sure how necessary the punch in the face is, you could just cut away at going in for a kiss. I'm also wondering whether you could also do something with the logo at the end, maybe even a similar cut out version that moves in some way- it only has to retain the look of the original so you can have fun with it?

Week 3-4 Overview:

Mood: Unwell and Unproductive

This week I didn't achieve much for the live brief, I spent most of this week in bed or concentrating on the Sword and the Stone Brief. I wish I had achieved more for this project this week.
However, I feel that the group is pulling together and we have started to create a nice smooth, aesthetically pleasing animation

Week 5 Overview:

Mood: Oh Dear

I am not happy with the animation I created for my section with cutouts. I don't think my part worked effectively. However I feel that if I experiment more with paper cutouts I could create some work I like in the future.

FROM THIS POINT ONWARDS!

Week 6- onwards

To help me get into the mindset of working with paper in animation I have looked in to artists who worked with collage.

Henri Matisse

Richard Hamilton

I decided this week that doing my original idea in after effect would be far too challenging for me as I am not particularly good at using that particular software. This lead me to consider a much more simple alternative.

New Idea

This new idea is much more simple. It shows the end of the 'bond' part on a cinema screen, being watched by a couple who then go in for a kiss and the screen becoming panned in the next part of the sequence.

A background scene I didn't like. I was too dark and the cinema design wasn't obvious enough.

I started making assets for this piece in Adobe Photoshop to export into After Effects.

Honestly, I found this whole process very difficult but found help from my fellow student very useful. I probably wouldn't have been able to achieve the effect I wanted with their help.

With their help I continued to make the assets for the piece.

My final animation in After Effects.

I am very happy that I decided to simplify my idea. I think that it was much more effective than what I had previously and ended up transitioning into the others work much better than expected.

Final Video with Audio

The editing for my part in particular was quite difficult but Heather and I cracked on with it for a while on premiere pro until we were happy with what it looked like.

Project Overview

Altogether I am surprised to find that i am actually very happy with my final piece. Considering my lack of ability when it comes to After Effects and how much it worried me when we were asked by the client to do the whole piece using it, I feel that it could have been a lot worse. I definitely struggled with this project more then the Sword and the Stone as I feel much more comfortable working in stop motion. However, doing this project has made me want to work harder to learn to use software that I have found tricky before and has generally made me a better animator.

Sword and the Stone

WEEK 1:

Original Character Design.

For this project, I already knew wanted to work in stop motion. With this in mind, the first character design I created was designed from a puppet making standpoint. I wanted to experiment with interesting materials and make a character unlike something I had animated before.

The puppet I made in first year was made quite successfully, however I wanted to create something much larger in comparison as I had struggled to create a walk cycle with said puppet (because of it's shorter limbs and body)

I wanted to work on a character visually non-human but had human characteristics. This made me consider the idea of a Sasquatch.

Looking up on 'Big Foot'

A quick description of Big Foot

'Bigfoot (also known as Sasquatch) is a mythological simian,^[2] ape, or hominid-like creature that is said to inhabit forests, mainly in the Pacific Northwest. In American folklore, Bigfoot is usually described as a large, hairy, bipedal humanoid. Bigfoot is described as a large, hairy, muscular, bipedal ape-like creature, roughly 2–3 metres (6 ft 7 in–9 ft 10 in) covered in hair described as black, dark brown, or dark reddish.^[7][10]

Individuals claiming to have seen Bigfoot described large eyes, a pronounced brow ridge, and a large, low-set forehead; the top of the head has been described as rounded and crested, similar to the sagittal crest of the male gorilla, with a strong, unpleasant smell.^[11] The enormous footprints for which it is named are claimed to be as large as 24 inches (60 cm) long and 8 inches (20 cm) wide.^[10] Some footprint casts have also contained claw marks, making it likely that they came from known animals, such as bears, which have five toes and claws.^[12][13] Proponents claim that Bigfoot is omnivorous and mainly nocturnal.^[14]'

The Big Lez Show

After researching into the Legend of Bigfoot further, I wanted to see how artists have interpreted  and explored Big Foot as a character.  I am already a huge fan of the Big Lez Show, a Youtube Series in which many Sasquatch characters are depicted. In this show they are shown to be very chilled out, taking on some human aspects eg Drug use and voice etc. However, in other ways they show very inhuman qualities such as their lack of care for whats going on around them, living life on their own terms.

The Sasquatch characters care free and chilled out nature is also shown in the way they move in this animation. They are very slow and small in their movements. I feel that the laid back nature and also the slow and steady way they walk could be something i interpret within my own work and would be interested in looking in to later.

Their colour palettes are very naturalistic and earthy, focusing on light and dark browns and greys.

Big Foot Documentary National Geographic Documentary

Character Design: Sasquatch

First design of the character.

In this first design, I decided to go for a very cartoon based drawing style. I wanted to put across the basic storyline for the character.

Storyline:

In this story the Sasquatch character is a lonely creature who wants to fit in to society. Fir this purpose he has obtained the book 'How to Fit in and Make Pals'. In said book it gives the instruction to 'change up your style'. This leads the Sasquatch to go into his nearest retailer and purchase a pair of skinny jeans. The Sword and Stone brief would be fulfilled in his inability to put these trousers on.

Second design of the character. This time I decided to look into a more realistic approach to his design, looking solidly at the facial features.




The Group Project.

Group:

Helena Lewis (Me)
Megan Rosaire
Heather Snowdon
Eli Collyer
Emily James
Peter Connors

After having a meeting (and coffee) we decided to concentrate on making two puppets for this animation. Eli and Emily both had witch character which could be combined to make something really cool with both features combined. This mixed with Megan's rag doll type character would make a really creepy character, fitting in with the 'halloween' theme we agreed upon for this project.

Original character design by Megan

Original character design by Emily

Original Character design by Eli.

Heather's Sasquatch in a space suit design

A design of 'Space Sass': a combination and Heather (astronaut) and my own design.

 New Witch Design One:

Eli then designed this version of the character combining the features of earlier designs. 

Witch Design Two:

A slightly modified design of the witch.
After a group meeting, we decided that it needed a more defined waist and a slight change in material to look more rag doll-esque. We also decided that the stripes were too overbearing so we decided to put them only on the legs.

Week 1 Overview:

Mood: Everything is running smoothly (off to a good start)

We have worked really well as a group this week and come up with some great designs for the beginning of the project. I am very happy with everyone I am working with!

Week 2:

Feedback on Animatic:

We found from this feedback that we had slightly misunderstood the brief which lead us to rethink our initial idea for project. (More about that later). We also found that our story was not as clear as we had hoped, after this we had a meeting as a group and spoke about it and it seemed that the group agreed with this feedback. We were also unaware that we each had to create our own puppet, all having a go at pulling the sword out of the stone. This lead us to stick with the simpler 'Witch' theme which brings us to:

THE WITCH INITIATION

In this idea  there are witched from all areas of the globe coming to pull the broom out of the pumpkin in order to achieve their witch initiation. each one trying and failing.

I decided to pursue the idea of making a Witch in a French theme.
I thought the best way of going about this was to look into old and new french fashion and come up with a design for a puppet based on the research i found.

CHARACTER RESEARCH

FRENCH FASHION: Older/Vintage

I really liked the coat designs from this period in fashion, I may base the cape of my witch design on this period.

French Fashion Catwalk:

Chanel Catwalk

Dior Catwalk

French Fashion Casual:

Outfit Designs for Puppet:

These are some idea for the outfit of choice for my puppet. I like the idea of sticking to an stereotypical French stripe but also want to incorporate the more flowing and feminine areas of French fashion into her design.

Pale and pastel colours are often used in French fashion and I think that could stand out nicely against the harsh black and white stripes.

I also want to make her a traditional beret but a witch hat twist. I think making it droop at the back instead of standing up will make it work with a beret type design.

Week 2 Overview:

Mood: We saved it!

At the start of the week we had to rapidly come up with a new idea but managed to think of something even better than our first ideas - as is the way most of the time. Everyones ideas were really great and came together perfectly concisely.

Week 3:

Character Design: French Witch

A more realistic sketch of my puppet design- based on my little sister.

Although I wanted her to look cute and stylish, I still wanted to have a feeling of creepiness in her design- she is a witch after all. Because of this I decided to make her skin yellow and give her pointed ears and a 'stitched' effect on the mouth. (A nod back into the rag doll design we created earlier as I really liked that aesthetic of that design.) I also made her hair an unnatural red colour (I may also make her hair out of wool) to make her seem more doll like.

I also wanted her to look tall and thin like a model. This was a reference to the research I did in French Fashion.

Second Pass 

Fabric Gathering

This is basic design for the armature so I know how long the limbs and body would be for this character.
I went out of my way to make it considerably bigger than my puppet in first year.

Puppet Making 

Basic Armature- Monday

Armature covered and basic character design starting- Tuesday/Wednesday

Week 3 Overview:

Mood: Incredibly unwell- send help.

I have had quite a productive couple of days starting making the puppet. I managed to get quite far with my puppet before developing a massive chest infection and missed a couple days of uni. Off to the doctors I go!

Week 4:

This is a direct comparison to the original design- so far so good!

I am glad I decided to pursue to knee high sock design idea. It looks pretty cute and honestly covered some less neat parts of the puppet.

I am really happy with how I made the hands for this puppet. The use of 'gloves' made the hand much easier to cover and fit in with the French fashion concept.

Week 5 Overview:

Mood: I cannot breath, I think I am dying.

This week I was beyond unwell and was bedridden for most of the week (Lots of film analysis - yay!) I haven't progressed too far with the puppet this week, however I managed to get the feet and hands  made to a standard I am happy with. Parts of the puppet are not as neat as I feel they could have been but I assure you a considerable amount of effort has been put in.

Week  6:

Witch before head was clayed, painted and hair put on.

I made her head out a polystyrene ball, made features out of milliput and then covered it in air hardening clay so I could paint on top.

Witch Puppet compared to first year puppet. The height is so much better and I am happy with it.

Week 6 Overview:

Mood: It is complete and I still can't breath.

Walk Cycle Test

Before filming my pass I did a couple of animation tests. To keep in theme of the French fashion element of my puppet, I thought it would be interesting to make her walk as if she were on a cat walk. I wanted her to appear very confident and almost snobby upon first entry. Before filming I looked into some videos and pictures of catwalk type walk cycles and attempted to break it down myself. I had a feeling that my characters cape (which is attached to her arms) would create some interesting secondary movement in the walk cycle.

Week 7 & 8:

Props:

Eli did some quick sketched of broom designs. We decided to go with option 1 as it was the most simple and effective. 

The Stalk drying

Me with a hand full of twigs for the broom end.

Liquid Latex mix

Little Pumpkin head and my concentration face in the background.

Final Prop!

This week is all about prop making!

On Monday, myself and a couple of the group members turned up to the Puppet Making session with Barry to start making props for filming. Barry helped us to create the wooden stalk part of the broom and we bought a (ridiculously expensive - £10!) wooden ball from Thornes to sand down and make into the base (pumpkin) for the broom to go into. Heather painted the ball in my kitchen while I worked on other parts for the set and painted a face on the pumpkin to go with the Halloween theme.

We had to wait for the stalk to dry over night as is had been made out of modelling wire and liquid latex. So on Tuesday Peter and Heather finished off the broom and drilled hole in the ball.

This is the lighting positioning that we ended up going with for our final filming. Heather created this lovely sheet so everyone was on the same page about where props are etc as we are all finishing our puppets and filming at different times. This makes sure that everything was consistent for editing purposes

Filming 

Today I spent nine hours in the stop motion room trying out different techniques, filming my final piece and helping my group to film their sections. We all worked really well together and gave each other a lot of helpful advice and feedback while animating. I really appreciated their opinions (and their company) and managed to create a piece I am very happy with.

.

Turn Around

Here is a looped turn around of my puppet in lighting. I really like the shadows cast by the ambient lighting in this video

I really like some parts of her design and how she was made, however, there are some things I would change:

Good:

• I really like how I designed and made the hands, it allowed me to do some really interesting things with the puppet while filming. The tugging scene was made much easier and it meant that I could have her letting go of the broom as she feel to create a really nice effect.
• This is first time I've made a puppet with hair, and honestly I was quite worried about it as I have heard some horror stories from other animation students who have tried it before. However I was surprised to find that I really like how I did the hair for my puppet, it was much successful than I thought it would be.
• A lot of the emphasis on the design of this puppet was around clothing and this is (again) the first time I have made clothes for a puppet. I really enjoyed the process of making them and put in a lot of delicate details (including both netting and a petticoat as well the cape being attached to the arms of the puppet.

Bad:

• I found with the cape that although I went to a lot of effort to make it a certain way for an interesting effect, I didn't make them evident enough in way I animated the puppet. I wish I had put more emphasis on the cape in her walk and shown other interesting elements of her design more clearly in the final animation.
• I found that the length of her legs made it different to know where the knee with meant to be when animating. I also think the fabric I used on the legs and arms was not secured tightly enough and could have been much neater. I wish I had spent a longer time on these details.
• The way I made the face was not as effective as I was expecting. If I was to made this puppet I would carve into the polystyrene ball to create more of a contoured chin and jaw instead of just sticking with a round head.

Test Shots

These are some test shots I did of my puppet before filming, some of the posing isn't perfect but I found this really useful when it came to starting the animation.

Time Lapse

Here is a time lapse video of my filming my first and second attempt at my character walk cycle.
I found that when I first got into the studio I was a little rusty which is evident from my first walk cycle (shown below) I think my second attempt was much stronger and gave a sense of character to my puppet.

Here are some edits I did on Adobe Premiere Pro:

Piece: Unedited

Here is the piece completely unedited. Filmed on 12.5 fps.  When I edit, I want to put more emphasis on walk and slow parts down. I think this will show the extra little details I put in to show her cute character.

When filming I chose to make her grab the broom in two different shots so I could choose which was  more effective during editing.

Walk Cycle Failure:

I wasn't happy with this walk cycle. It was the first thing I animated when I got into the stop motion studio after doing key frames. I didn't shoot enough frames and it makes her walk look very jumper. i knew I could do better once I and warmed up and gave it a second attempt.

Second Attempt Wide Shot Edit 1:

In this edit, I slowed down all of the frames, putting emphasis on the heaviness of her steps. However I wanted her character to appear quite light footed so I chose to do another edit on this walk.

I also cropped the bottom of the of the frame as the edge of the paper was in shot.

I chose to make her long in long strides with a lot of arm movement to show elegance. I feel that is portrayed more in this edit. However with the second edit (below) the walk comes across more childish and excitable, which I actually ended up preferring as it fit her personality better.

Wide Shot Edit 2:

I prefer this edit, the quick walk makes her seem quite child like, almost like she's running in to get her turn. It also meant I could more emphasis on her slowing to a stop in front of the pumpkin.

Why I chose this shot:

I chose to do a wide shot as it allows the watcher to get to know the character upon first entrance. It also fits in with the 'initiation' part of this piece where the character are meant to be on stage and watched by an audience.

Close up Edit 1:

I felt that this edit made her movements look quite rough when i was trying to get over the idea of playfulness. I wanted it to seem like she was skipping from one foot to the other to get a better look at the broom.

Close up Edit 2:

In this edit I put much more emphasis on her head. I held the frame longer as she moves around to see the broom. i think this gives a nice weighted affect to the head. I also much prefer the fast grab in this edit.

Why I chose this shot:

I wanted to show her looking at the broom inquisitively in this shot. I like this shot a lot because it allows her to step around the broom in order to get a better look at it. I also like that this shot makes her seem bigger and the broom seem smaller. It took quite a long time to set this shot up. I had to move the camera much closer to the set. I am really glad I attended the stop motion setup tutorial with Sam at the start of this project as I would have been incredibly confused about what to do.

Mid Shot Edit Failure:

This is actually the second edit I did of this shot. I was experimenting with editing to see if a could an extra bounce in the broom when she pulled it. It ended up just looking really jumpy and rough instead though. Oh well, a lesson learnt for another time and another project.

Mid Shot Edit Final:

In this edit, I extended the frames of her pulling on the broom to express her weight and she uses her weight to yank it out. I also made her faint much slower than it would actually be in real life for comedic affect and to show how weak she is. I also lengthened the frame of her hand at the end. I made it so that her hand closes into a fist in the air as she falls out of shot.

Why I chose to do this shot:

I wanted to end my piece on a mid shot as I thought it would be interesting to to see the character fall out of shot. I thought this would be more effective than showing her whole body and i am really happy with the effect it created, especially when put with Megan's piece which starts with her character pull mine out of scene in a wide shot. I think this create a great comedic element to my work and I really happy with it.

I did a minor change to this scene last minute after my review with Jon. My character was originally going to put little to know effort in pulling the broom and then fainting from the "effort", however I feel that this is closer to the brief and also generally works better in the piece.

Edit: No Sound 

Here are all the final shots put together from my favourite edits.
I think they work really nicely together.

Edit: Sound Added. Take 1

Sounds Added:

Foot steps

'night time' Sounds for effect

Creaky door (For broom)

a high pitched sigh.

Edit Sound Added. Take 2

In this edit I matched up every single foot step with her feet hitting the floor and I think it is much more effective. I think that the sound file I chose oh high pitched footsteps makes her seem quite dainty and light which is the effect I wanted.
I also took the effort of giving the broom two individual sounds for when its pulled and left go of as I felt this was much more effective.