Group Discussion 17/04/2012

Today we had a group discussion about our progress since the 2 weeks off for Easter. To be honest I hadn't used my time that well over Easter to really crack on I spent too much time lingering over the aesthetics of a tree that the rest of the project fell away from me! So we discussed the narrative today and I know what I want to be shown but I need to find a way to explain this to the audience, examiner and Rick in a simple way so this still needs to be nailed. I also explained to the group that I have been rotoscoping individual sections of the animation then putting them all together in post production for example rotoscoping trees then adding the character in after. Reflecting on this approach I don't feel it is working for me as the different elements look out of place, they don't work together. So I have taken Ricks advice of putting together the videos/images then spitting them out as an image sequence and rotoscoping the whole thing together. This is how I approached my feel good animation and it worked really well and fitted together smoothly and successfully. After we talked about the narrative Rick mentioned how the music would fit with it and how the visuals will help express the music, so we discussed ways in which I could portray the music changes. Sarah mentioned an idea of the character running towards colour, as if he was chasing it but it was fading way, this could be shown by adding elements of colour to the trees and background and as the character approaches them it would have faded away. Or I could add colour to the background when the music changes pace adding a visual emphasis on it which I think could work quite well.

So here is the plan (to be done by Thursday 19th for tutorial):

• Get the shots needed filmed and edited together
• Add the trees and scenery to the shots to make sure everything is rotoscope as one
• Do a small test of the back ground with colour in as the music changed (10 second test at 12 fps)
• Do the test without colour