Stockport college briefs Pop up and Reverse evalutation

These last two weeks have been chaotic! There has been so many jobs to do on different projects it has been hard to keep track of what i am doing. However i have quite enjoyed working with the whole of the moving image team as i feel we are all very close. I believe we have worked well together and everyone has managed to get involved and we have all equally pulled our weight.

At the beginning of the project when we had both briefs we sat down together and discussed what needed doing on each idea. We all went away and had a go at all 6 ideas to get a feel for them all before we had to make a decision on which projects to focus in on. I found it very difficult and time consuming to try and juggle all 6 projects and i believe that's how we all felt so we decided to cut 2 of them out (POSH and Lexus toy car). This made it slightly easier for us all but then we thought we should split ourselves in to specific projects that we would be best at or we would enjoy the most. I decided that i wanted to work on both of the Stockport college briefs as i believed i would be more useful.

Reverse (Ricks Idea)
I really enjoyed working with this idea and as a team i think we worked well together, Rick Purbrick being the director and Craig Johnson being the producer. I thought they were both great to work with as they made sure everyone was kept up to date and that everyone knew what had to be done. I didn't have a specific job on this project i just got involved with everything that had to be done like ideas, idea development and production (filming and taking the still images). I feel this is a more suitable role for me as i don't believe my personality is strong enough to direct a group of people, i wouldn't be able to make huge decisions and my organisation skills are fairly poor. Although working in a group really motivated me to persist as i didn't want to let other people down and i think that's why on a whole everyone worked so hard. I feel that with this project most of my efforts went into the idea development part of the projects as i thought i was most helpful there! My filming skills and editing weren't as good as some of the other members of the group so i feel that i did a good amount in the ideas development process that was fairly useful.

Pop Up (John, Tom and John's initial idea)
This was by far my favorite out of the two and i feel more of my efforts in this project went towards the page ideas and final production. As the idea was pretty much set in stone when we began to work on it there was only a few other jobs before production that needed doing. Tom, Jack and John already had an idea of what they wanted to be on the pages such as courses and information so me and Sarah went around the college to the relevant places and took still images of things we could include on the pages (These helped Tom to create style frames for each page).
Also i did a few page designs for a few of the pages like Beauty theorpy, travel and tourism and sports and i'm glad that some of my ideas were good enough to be included in the final style frames. While this was going on John began building all the different components for the pages out of card which was hugely time consuming but by far he was the best for this job! Eventually when everything was made for the page we were going to produce for the final deadline (Mechanics) John and i started off the stop motion tests. This is where most of my contribution came in as this is why i joined this group to lend a hand at the production which under direction i think i am better at. We did 1 test but it was very empty and wasn't at all what we thought it would look like so i went back to my sketchbook and tried to figure out what we needed to make it more interesting. I did a few storyboards while John put together the images to make the sequence. This then led to the second test of the day where we added a spinning sign and all of a sudden it made a huge difference because there was always an element of movement. Finally the page looked more alive!! We were pleased with the movement on the page but we seriously needed to consider what was going to go on in the background so that you didn't just see the desk and wall. The day after with some help from Rick we managed to place green cloth in the background to use as a green screen so we could make it more visually pleasing in post production! We did one more test after this was done and it look significantly better even just with the block green colour as a background it looked more interesting!

Project evaluation - Competition Brief

This brief has been one of the most difficult projects for me as i couldn't find a decent idea and stick with it! It has been a constant struggle for the past couple of months to keep the momentum going however it has been a great experience for finding a good working method for me in future projects and hopefully the 3rd year.

At the beginning of the project i struggled for about 3 weeks to think of ideas and by this time people were in production! However the fact i was sat in front of the mac constantly wasn't helping ... it was almost like i was scared of testing! I also found it hard to express my ideas to the class and to the tutors as i lack a lot of self confidence and i was afraid of being put down. However as the project progressed i began to test loads of different scenarios for a final piece and it started to become easier for me to progress. Even though my ideas were developing the methods i used such as stop motion animation (drawing on the window) weren't working so it kind of felt i was going around in circles. I tried to resolve this by 'cheating' and editing the lines all in post production but that wasn't any good either. So i thought a change of idea would be a better decision. I continued to change ideas again and again and it felt as if i would never find a successful idea. I think i was trying to hard to make an amazing technical piece the ideas behind them were horrendous! So i went back to the start and made something very obvious and clear and i think it work fairly well.

The final piece didn't turn out too great in the end but to be honest after the huge struggle i didn't think it would be a master piece, the clips are overly repeated (which is very obvious) and the music is ok but gets annoying after watching the animation to many times!

This new method of working where i start testing early in the project i think works well for me and it has definitely impacted on the following projects especially the channel ident brief. I think although this project has been a bit of a flop i think it has been the most beneficial since i have finally found the way i work the best. I want to continue this way of working through the 3rd year and hopefully progress nicely.

Project Evaluation - Channel Ident

Overall i think this project has been my most successful. I managed to think of a decent idea at the beginning of the project and started development and production on time. This is very unusual for me however i feel that the competition brief before this one has hugely impacted on the fact this project has be fairly successful.

I really enjoyed this project but again i think that's due to the fact i like what i have created. I especially enjoyed working in Maya although i had loads and loads of tutor help however if i had chosen to work in a different programme i wouldn't have built up some extra skills on modelling and animating in 3D. I have continued to look at modelling in Maya in my spare time to make sure i don't forget how to use it and try and improve my skills so eventually i won't need much help! Overall i think the ident looks good however i think it could have done with a few more tweaks, like with the legs as they seem to twist and bend in the air. I spent ages trying to correct them i even asked Matt Geeling and Steve to help me and we still couldn't do it properly but for a first attempt at Maya i am very proud. It also got a great response at my portfolio visit so that's always a bonus!

After i finished the frog i had to look at the splash and i tried everything and i couldn't make it blend in or look professional so i decided not to use that idea. I think it would of been nicer if i could of got my head around this but i think the fade in looked a lot cleaner than what i was trying to do.

Sound is very important in the final piece so i wanted to get it right. I used the ambient sound of other frogs croaking in the background to give it a rainforest type feel which i think works extremely well. I then needed a sound for when the frog hits the water aka the splash and it took me hours and hours to try and find quite a delicate splash sound like something tiny and streamline hitting the water. I attempted to record this myself but i was unsuccessful at that as well as i couldn't find the right object to drop into the bath to make the right sound. So in the end i went for a stock sound that i think fits ok but is not as good as i think it could be.

So in conclusion i think this has been by far my most favorite project although i was helped a lot by Rick i feel that i have learnt so much about Maya and animating in 3D. It is a very satisfying feeling to show people and tell people that you have made a 3D animation because it is very rare outside of our moving image course (for students to use). If i had more time on the project i would of liked to have made more idents like the hippo and giraffe animatics because i think a series of idents with the white background idea would of been lovely.

Sonic Animatic 2

This is a rough animatic without sound (because it wouldn't export with sound!!!). It is just under 30 seconds long which i think is appropriate for a short promotional video to celebrate sonic's 20th birthday. However this doesn't show how the piece will end. At the end of a sonic game text comes across the screen to tell you that sonic has passed a certain level so i want to bring on in stop motion animation 'Sonic has passed 20 years' ? I also need a tagline to appear underneath that or maybe before .... actually yes before the text appears.

Hippo/Giraffe

I wanted to make some more quick animatics to show more of my ideas. Both animatics will have white backgrounds like my final ident however the 'giraffe' sequence will also have white leaves with a slight shadow so you can tell what they are.

Sonic Animatic

This is the first animatic i have produced it is simply an animatic of the footage i already have. Obviously my piece will be much longer but most likely well under 30 seconds. I need to produce another animatic so that i can get a better feeling of what the piece will look like and add the actually footage in.

I like the speed and pace of this clip as well, i don't think it is too fast but i need a lot more going on maybe some more camera angles?

WOW

I was looking at my friends blog (she studies fashion) and i found this amazing Ralph Lauren promotion. It is a projected 4D piece to promote their new fragrances. It blew me away and if you were actually there i bet it was bloody fantastic.

Portfolio Visit

I went to my first portfolio visit today, i went to see a free lancer named Derek Linsley. He was kind enough to invite me to his house so that i could show him some of my work and he could show me some of his. I was very nervous about going up to his house as he said his 12 year old son was going to be there and he wanted me to give his son some advise on art, design and animation! When i got there he had got out a load of different advertising leaflets that he sends out to different companies. They all had different pictures of what his work looked like. There was one in particular that i found really interesting, it was a still from an animation he had done where a milk float drives across a dull landscape turning everything it passes into a more beautiful scene and brings things to life. He did mention to me that he is not the animator himself he works with various companies as the director (he has the ideas and gets involved with companies to bring them to life). He also gave me a tour of his house and showed me some of his graphics work and photography for catalogues like littles woods. After he showed me all this amazing work it was eventually time to show him mine. I made up a short showreel that had my scratch films, rotascoping and my 3D frog. He was really intrigued with how i made the frog so i showed him my development within my sketchbook like my drawings and screen shots and he was very impressed!! I think he appreciated it a fair bit because he hasn't touched upon that much 3D animation he was fascinated that the frog was made starting with just a cube! He also mentioned not to become too focused on a particular area of work at this moment in time he said to get out there and get involved in all sorts of things and try everything and then maybe figure out what you want to focus on. Derek never focus on one particular part of the design world however he has always been in creative control and directing all of his ideas never anyone else's. He also mentioned that if i need any more advise or any guidence i can contact him when ever i like so he gave me his mobile number and email address so i think he will be really helpful to me in the future.

Splash test

I have been going crazy trying to make this splash work ... this is one of the first tests i did. It is a stop motion test i did in photoshop simply just erasing sections to look like it is being revealed in behind a splash. However it looks very amateur and i don't like it at all ... i need to look at a splash again in more detail to get a more realistic feel.

This was my second test where i used the same technique however it still looks terrible i might have to just fade in the type after the frog jumps in to make it appear more professional and just add sound effects to the piece to portray the splash.

Lexus Target Audience

I had a brief look at the target audience for Lexus as i thought i didn't want to come up with an idea and it was completely irrelevant to their particular market.
This is what i found out:
Aged 45+
Wealthy
I saw that the word 'Luxury' use a lot so the customer wants good quality and outstanding performance
Male (more than female)
Business man
Wants the latest technology (Hybrid)

Hybrid/Initial Thoughts

Hybrid - My understanding so far of the word Hybrid in its simplest form is two things working/coming together.
For example:
Car - petrol and electric
Animals - offspring created from cross breeding
Mythology - two creatures in one like a mermaid

After leaving The Neighborhood i couldn't get their dancer idea out of my head and the use of 2 elements of some sort such as:
Ink and Water
Lovers
Birds
Natural and Man Made

One thought - while i was in wales i saw two butterflies fluttering together almost like dancing together and i thought that they could be a visual representation however they are both of the same species unless there was a white butterfly to connote the electric and black butterfly to connote the petrol?