TITLE
While I was researching animation techniques to use in my film I came across this video by, 'kdsketch' going through a method called, 'Boiling Line' effect.
At the time I wasn't sure what to do for my title. I knew I wanted something simple since there is already a lot going on in the film. Then this boiling technique came across my head again and I thought it will be a nice touch to use this technique for my title. It connects well with my anxiety scene where there is a lot of tension going on. This subtle boiling movement could foreshadow this.
Method:
From the video, I watched, to create this effect you need to draw over a specific drawing a few times in a row. Depending on how strong you want it to shake if you want less movement the closer the replicated drawings need to stay close to the original drawing lines and vice-versa.
Process:
First of all, I used the text box provided in Toon Boom. After looking through all of the fonts I decided to use a font called, 'Consolas'.
Then creating a layer on top, I started to draw over the font text 6 times then duplicated a few times and adjust the spacing as I wanted it to move slower.
Below is the finished title is done in this Boiling line effect:
EDITING
I don't remember where I heard this from but a great tip I learnt on editing the duration for a viewer to read the message on screen is that they are able to read it 3 times in a row.
I used tip particular for the title, the alarm shot and the sticky note on the fridge.
Time skip sofa scene:
Feedback: During our last week final feedback Alec mention to try making the character fade into each other to emphasise the time skip.
Below is the old version:
In order to achieve this effect I used Premiere pro. The effect I used is called, 'Film Dissolve' transition. Rather than a 'fade in' using the effect 'dissolve' gives a better transition in my opinion.
One of the problems was that I couldn't place the effect between the cuts of each action so I layered them above instead which give the same effect. This was probably because of the low frame rate. I also add the background on the bottom layer so the room wont disappear.
Final clip with the dissolve transitions:
While editing I also adjusted the speed of some frames as it was difficult to measure the timing when I have 5 separate files of scenes.
SOUND
One of my favourite part of the process- sound. Where everything comes more into life.
As mention before in my pre-production this is a list of sounds I need to look for:
First of all, to be more time efficient I like to search online for free non-copyright sources. A great reliable site that I like to find sound effects is called, 'Freesound'. As for music I went to YouTube free no attributed music. All the SFX are under the licensed under the Creative Commons 0 License which are non-copyrighted.
First hand:
Using my recorder I took some sounds of the plate placing on the table, moving the notepad to the side, movement on the sofa and so on.
Link to Music/sfx files:
When editing the sounds in Premiere pro I make sure to use the denoise effect to to cancel out the unwanted background noise when I recording the sounds so its more clear and professional.
Example on how I edit the sound effects in:
Laptop scene
For this scene all the sounds are all my own recordings. Since I record moving the notes and pen separately I was able to obtain clearer sounds for each object. As shown below I layered them above each other since they are moved around the same time.
Also when adjusting the audio I would play short animated films on YouTube to match the loudness of the audio assuring you can hear it well.
Video with the sfx only:
I'm quite pleased that it work better than I thought.
FINAL FILM:
Note: If compare to my animatic you can tell I cut out some scene which felt unnecessary to the story such as the screech of the fork on the plate. This also help me to bring down the timing. Its much easier to see if the scenes fit in with the film once I got majority of it done.
A example:
Deleted scene: fork screech on the plate
This shot was clashing with the biting fork shot. It felt unnecessary to add it in so I took it out and this made the biting fork shot lot stronger when it has all the attention to it.
MANAGEMENT:
Spreadsheet of my schedule.
I never used Trello as much as I have for this year. It was convenient to store my references materials whenever I need them again for the blog. which also helped me from uncluttering my favourites bar in my web browser. Any notes, feedback or extra stuff I need to add to my film would be noted down to keep me in the right direction.
Showing my work to others:
SELF REFLECTION
Now coming to end. I'm pleased with the outcome. I think I did well with managing everything on my own (also with some support from the tutors and friends). I've grown a lot as a 2D animator. I've learnt a new software Toon Boom Harmony which was one of my goals when starting this project and became very independent. The last time I did a 2d animation which was on Adobe Animate in my A-levels. Comparing to that previous film the overall quality has improved immensely such as the line art, lighting, principles of animation and so on. Of course, there are always some improvements in my film that need to be considered such as the fluidly, lighting and perspectives which I found challenging. However, one of the things I learnt during this process is that if it's hard it means your learning.
If I were to improve my process I would've spent more time on creating a shorter length film so I can put more of my energy and time into specific scenes. Also during the process of animating I realise I could've created a sheet full of different angles of the head. This could've been less time consuming figuring out the angles when animating as I found it difficult at first.
Due to the covid situation, there have been restrictions coming into the campus. Due to the risk of travelling especially living with a big family. Sadly I spend all my time creating this film in the safety of my house. However, that extra time that travelling would've taken I used that for completing my film which was great. Also having the access to online communication made it easier to connect with my friends/classmates. Overall I am satisfied with my outcomes.