1st year (2nd Semester)
Assignment: Animated Narratives
SHORT ANIMATION FILM PROJECT-
On week 17 we were assigned to a project to create a 15-30sec 3D animation short and the theme was, 'Big & Small'.
My team consist of Sarah, Sian, Daisey and Bethany.
For a better understanding of working towards a short animation film, the book called, ' The Complete Digital Animation Course' by Andy Wyatt was an amazing book to get me started on which area to begin.
Pre-production-
Ideas/Characters: Mindmap
After a long discussion between the members, these are the main ideas that intrigue us:
1. Walkie Talkie- A walkie talkie who envies a speaker, as they want to be loud and heard as well. 2. Perspective & Shadows- Daisey mentioned an idea about an object is not as what it is seen e.g. an object looks small but in a change of perspective they are actually larger than you thought, like an optical illusion.
After thinking about how to approach this idea, I came up with the idea of incorporating shadows into the scene. Their response was great so we decided to stay with that idea. We didn't have a fixed idea, therefore, we decided to think it over the weekend, stay in touch with 'Slack' and then meet up later.
Next week-
During our meet up, Sarah had an idea of the character being a music box. We then began creating concept ideas surrounding it. After discussing, we decided to have two music boxes, a mechanical hole punch music box and a ballerina one. Both of them can make music (sing) but the mechanical one can not dance like the ballerina one. He desires to dance with her but he can't but then the shadows come to illustrate that feeling. I was very content with the storyline as it combines both of our previous ideas together. The walkie talkie, wanting to be someone their not and the idea of shadows, to represent the characters from a different perspective.
Influences: Disney & Pixar style of work, Wes Anderson use of techniques & colours
Using this storyline we each created a storyboard.
Storyboard: My interpretation of the storyline
After a long discussion, we were not satisfied with how the story was going, especially after looking at our storyboards. We then decided we wanted to have a different approach since the one we had was too cliche for a romance storyline.
Presentation 1- Below is a link to our slides:
Rethinking our idea-
Sarah discussed our situation with her friends and came up with another idea. The idea surrounds our idea of the music box but the story goes on where he is sick of playing the same old song through the hole punch music sheet to the point where he tears his own paper. He then starts punching holes into different materials with different sounds (e.g. rock, pop etc.) until he finds the perfect one.
The moral of this story is just because you're good at something doesn't mean you're happy. You should stop for a moment and try new things because you don't know what is out there waiting for you.
What we want the audience to leave with the feeling of content and to be motivated to do something for themselves.
Later on the week, we had a group discussion to talk over our ideas and we decided to discard the idea of the ballerina and shadows go with Sarah's friend idea. Bethany then thought of a great title called, 'Change of tune' and we loved it since goes well with the story.
While we were building up the draft storyboard we thought we need drive/reason to why the music box gets tired with his own music. For that reason, we included a jukebox character where he gets jealous over that he doesn't have a big range of music he could play. We also decided to have it set in the 60s in either a music shop or antique shop.
Sian and Daisey then suggested that the music box should play around with the designs/hole punches he leaves on the paper. This will be in close up shots until the end where it finally zooms out and reveals a big reveal. This will keep the audience in suspense until the end. It shows that not only that he's a music box but he is also an artist. This adds another meaning of how we should not perceive people in a certain type before knowing them.
Sian also put forward the idea of synesthesia- visualize music in an art form and Daisey thought we could maybe make it come alive.
Storyboard:
We then each individually create our storyboards based on the information we discussed above.
Below is my take to the story:
Additional meanings:
Someone who has it all (Jukebox). Instead of waiting, create it. Materials (notes/tissue) symbolises your family and friends, who are always by your side.
Group Draft (Maggie, Sarah, Bethany):
My Clean version:
Once we finished our storyboards we met up together to make the final decision. What we did was that we had all our storyboards out then we decided on the best areas of each shot to make one whole storyboard, which worked successfully.
Planning out the shots together with the whole group:
After having the shots sorted out we divide it each shot equally to each member for the animatic.
Below shows our final storyboard:
(put together by Sian Boyle)
Some changes and trivial ideas:
-ditched the jukebox idea
-situated in Switzerland (where music box was invented)
-set around 2002 (when dubstep was first introduced)
-the setting is in a music room (not fixed)
Concept Art:
My concept art:
I've kept my design more realistic to my taste and also added some gold engravings to make it look more interesting and distinguishable from other music boxes. I've also demonstrated the punch holes on different materials from around the room. As of right now we still haven't decided on what the big picture would be.
After taking everyone's designs consideration into account. We voted and decided to go with Sian's character design
-Simplistic style & colours -expressive eyes (was one reason why we loved the design)
Shot List:
Here I've created a shot-list in a typical format for my group:
Animatic:
My shots: gif.
Below is the full animatic with with everyones shots put together:
Presentation 2- Below is a link to our slides:
For our feedback on our animatic, they thought that it was a good start but they suggest we should add some passage of time, to express the idea of the music box getting sick of playing the same old song more clearly.
For that reason, we put together an animatic draft:
Link:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xXWtldWZoVY7n_rLXkhgDSTxgQw8oUDj/view?usp=sharing
New animatic:
My shots: gif.
Below is the link to the full animatic with all the shots put together:
3D previs:
Here I've designed a basic 3D setting based on the animatic we had so far- the red lines indicate the direction the character moves from
Advice one on one
Organisation/Schedule:
I knew we would create a time schedule for project film to ensure we can get it to finish on time. After the one on one studies advice, Henry also suggests we should have some sort of timetable to get things to move faster and helped us to get the idea of how to allocate the jobs.
Animation:
Role relocated to each member:
During the advice session, Alec gave us some notes on how we might change our schedule etc. As shown in the link to the PDF that I had created:
After taking it into consideration, we've divided like this:
Modelling:
Sarah- cupboard, shelves/books etc. , carpet, clock, walls
Sian- music box, board, floor, table, piggy bank/ notes/coins
Maggie- Spider webs
Rigging: Sian
UV unwrap: Maggie
Texturing: Bethany
Animating/ lighting: Daisey
Sound: Team
Editing/rendering: Team
Production-
My role: UV Map (unwrap model)
After Sian and Sarah finished the models, I've begun unwrapping them for Bethany to texture them.
cupboard, music box, setting
As shown in the 3rd image I combine two files together, for that reason I kept it out of the 0-1 square. I also put the poster's UV map in a separate square so we can access it easier as we design the image for it.
Presentation 3- Below is a link to our slides:
The work we have done so far was well received. They were enthused with the story and that made us ensured that we were going in the right direction.
Spider webs
The next role I took on was creating the spider webs that will appear during the scene where showing the passage of time. First I tried a spider web generator, developed by highend3d. However, I didn't find it as suitable for me as I found it hard to handle, therefore, instead, I took a screenshot of it and drew on top of it and sent that image into the aistandardsurface shader and it worked successfully. It was a nice touch to the overall animation.
Web generator (highend3D):
Didn't like that was too fragile to work with so instead redrew them and applied them as a material (alpha map):
Demonstration with the objects:
Applying it to the real scene:
Hidden Easter egg
For the 5 poster's on the pin board we thought it would be a bit of fun, if we design a concept each in relating to the music box like a hidden Easter egg. After agreeing with each other, I've put some thought into and decided to go with a Tv Series called, 'Game of Thrones'. Since I'm quite a fan of the show and it's their last ever season this year, I thought it would be nice to honour it.
My poster:
A render example that I've created to show how everyone's poster might look like when they all come together:
Sound
As shown below I've divided the music genre for each scene for my group. I've decided to have rock and classical next to each other to give off a comedic feel.
Not fixed idea of how we might place the music
Below is a link to an example/draft of how I would place each music/sound for each scene:
I've combined some of the already selected music from 3D previs chose by Sian since I feel like it suits the scene very well and I couldn't find a better replacement. As for the other music I looked up the genre first then tried to find a very exaggerated one to clearly express its genre. For the music box sound /music conveniently Sian owns a music box so we went with that. I've shown it this video to my group and they thought it was great but there are some areas we might need to change/adjust along the way.
Music by Youtube beta free use music & sound effect.
Final Flim:
Reflective post:
After finishing this module, I've learnt a lot along the way from friends, people around me and online. I've improved a lot since I've started this year. I've gained a lot more knowledge and understanding of basic principles and the way the programs worked. Therefore, for that reason for my next project I know I would have fewer problems to face. This project was a great start for me in animation. I have now familiarized how to create a professional film from scrap and the presentations have increased my confidence. I’ve worked well with team members. We were able to freely express our ideas/thoughts and be able to understand each other easily. I know I've still have a lot of things to improve on but I feel more confident now.
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