6DM015 & 6DM022: Experimentation for pre-production

These images and clip show my experimentation that was fundamental to gain the right outcomes for the film pre-production package and show how these developments can help move the project forward. This includes animation tests in how the character would move, making initial designs for setting and environments, previous concept art that tested how I experimented with colour and seeing what can be improved aswell as sketches that were useful for designing the characters and structuring better concept art especially with the help of life drawings to create the poses I want for particular characters. The concept tests also help with experimenting with shadow and lighting.

6DM015: Production schedule update, animatic, rough soundtrack

Pre-production	week 1	week 2	week 3	week 4	week 5	week 6	week 7
Research
Synopsis and treatment
storyboarding
Character Development
Animatic
Setting design
Concept Art
Sound effects and music
colour script

Pre-production	week 8	week 9	week 10	christmas week 1	xmas week 2	week 11	week 12
Research
Synopsis and treatment
storyboarding
Character Development
Animatic
Setting design
Concept Art
Sound effects and music
colour script

Animatic:
This video shows the direction I want to take this production through in terms of setting up scenes, camera angles and a rough soundtrack that would suit the mood I want this film in. From given feedback, the only changes I would need to make overall is changing the timing as the scenes are too quick in terms of shooting off from one action to another in a second and also experiment with the 'Mother' character as the design isn't as produced well as the boy and ghouls. The music contribution was called Insidious edited in Adobe premiere pro but is very rough and is mainly a place holder until I gain more ideas on music but in the end I might consider mixing this track with other music ideas. Overall my fellow peers and lecturers liked how the idea has moved forward and how it has improved to become something potentially good to present in a showreel.

Vimeo: 'The Prey' Animatic

The next step to take this project forward is continue designing the colour presentation, sort the narrative structure as some scenes could be cut out to flow the pacing better and begin animating scenes to the short film to get a head start aswell as animating test runs of what the characters would move and interact with the scene setup. This in turn would help structure the narrative better if some action needed changing since my film will have no dialogue and rely on character traits and body language to describe the emotion of the film.

6DM022: Utilizing Genre in Animation.

In this post is an attached document of the essay I conducted through this module. What it talks about is the way genre works in literature, films, etc and how they are created in the best possible way to be recognized with references of how known people like Alfred Hitchcock or composers would conduct these methods.
Utilizing Genre in Animation by Matthew Danks
word count: 4046

6DM016: week 12 (12th January 2016) final product, feedback and personal reflection

This blog post shows the final edit of the promotion including the sound effects, digital effects and music. As me and Andrew finished clean up as he felt some parts of the animation was abit messy, editing was put together by Andrew and as we were gaining each other's opinion on if we were happy with the final product we decided to experiment with trying this animation out with different music tracks collected when researching the project. When we presented the final product to our peers, lecturer and marketing, Emily mantel suggested as we showed her another audio track on the animation is to have a multiple clips of the same animation but with different music to get everyone else's opinion in what works best.

Below shows the first version with the original sound we played with for contribute to the animation.

Here also is the link to video on vimeo: https://vimeo.com/151421420

Music Credits:

Metronomix -
Metronomix by CSoul (c) 2011 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. ccmixter.org/files/CSoul/33157 Ft: spinningmerkeba,Jeris,morusque
-Sound Effects:
Recorded by Mike Koenig (soundbible.com) License: Attribution 3.0
andre.rocha.nascimento (freesound.org/people/andre.rocha.nascimento/sounds/51460/)
Goldy-sama (freesound.org/people/Goldy-sama/sounds/4239/)

the second version: https://vimeo.com/151421421

Music Credits
Urbana-Metronica (wooh-yeah mix) - dig.ccmixter.org/files/jlbrock44/33345
Urbana-Metronica (wooh-yeah mix) by spinningmerkaba (c) 2011 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. ccmixter.org/files/jlbrock44/33345 Ft: Morusque, Jeris, CSoul, Alex Beroza

-Sound Effects:
Recorded by Mike Koenig (soundbible.com) License: Attribution 3.0
andre.rocha.nascimento (freesound.org/people/andre.rocha.nascimento/sounds/51460/)
Goldy-sama (freesound.org/people/Goldy-sama/sounds/4239/)

The third version: https://vimeo.com/151421422

Music Credits
New York City (Instrumental)New York City (Instrumental) by spinningmerkaba (c) 2011 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. ccmixter.org/files/jlbrock44/30389
-Sound Effects:
Recorded by Mike Koenig (soundbible.com) License: Attribution 3.0
andre.rocha.nascimento (freesound.org/people/andre.rocha.nascimento/sounds/51460/)
Goldy-sama (freesound.org/people/Goldy-sama/sounds/4239/)

To give it a different concept, Andrew decided to base on when experiencing animation, there are always obstacles in the way given the letters and things that pull back like lack of skill or you always have to develop more to get better but in the end your always able to push forward.

From the given feedback, marketing and our fellow peers loved how it links back to the research and Wolverhampton brief. Marketing felt it's a big change to the previous presentation as they've said it has improved in terms of colour use as they would recognise it straight away from the use of Wolverhampton's two main colours and they've acknowledged that it would be something they would use for marketing purposes. As we shows the three clips, majority of the room decided that the second one with the track urbana metronica was the best. But some felt the third added tension to the animation.

Aswell as positive feedback, the only two things they would like us to change after the module if we revisited this was change certain sound effects as they felt it was out of place and some of the lettering in the end credits would need changing to have all words look the same.

For my personal favourite, the second soundtrack fit better with the animation and sound effects and Andrew's is the third clip.

As a personal reflection, I feel happy with the overall product as we were able to work together for a long period of time than the last time we worked together, being able to gain additional and useful feedback to improve the professional manner of this product to aim at Wolverhampton clients and also being able to formulate a plan to get both of us to take on different job roles and contribute an even amount of work towards the final edit.

6DM016: week 11 & 12 (4th-12th January 2016) scene clean up

As we came back from the Christmas break me and Andrew compromised on what we will do for fit the schedule and keep on track with deadlines. What we did was take on job roles to create the finished project on time as I did the animating in TV paint whilst Andrew continued with editing the music, sound effects and digital effects in Adobe After Effects and Premiere Pro especially when creating the Wolverhampton trademark for the beginning and ending credits. Also as I was cleaning up and creating extra scenes for the animation to fit the original storyboard I sent him across rough copies of each animation to see how it would look when editing together the sound track aswell as seeing what can be improved to create more exaggeration, change of movement and increase better pacing to the overall outcome.

What I did for extra scenes is add the jump down hole sequence and the zoom out scene where the viewer would see the full word 'animation'. I also cleaned up the main two scenes where they animate the letters in terms of changing some frames if the anatomy is wrong, adding outline to creature, blending the shade better and adding extra effects like shadows to make sure each part of the animation doesn't feel out of place.

Below is the scene where the characters interacts with the first five letters of 'animation'.

The second scene shows the characters interacting with the last four letters of 'animation'.

Below shows the extra scenes for the beginning and ending of the promotion with lineart, colour and clean up before editing digital effects behind the drawings.

professional project: (christmas week 1 & 2: 20th december 2015 -2nd january 2016) schedule and creating line art, colour for characters

Over the Christmas period as I was animating the 2nd scene to the animation whilst my team partner Andrew Taylor clean up mine, I focused on creating the final drawing outline to what the character would look like based on design work we envisioned for the character aswell as add a particular but simply warm and cold colour scheme before making the clean up.

Below shows the second scene with clean outlines of what the anatomy would look like for character based on design work. One of my main thought processes I had to come up with when taking on this task is to skip animating the face as I felt it doesn't have a purpose to the promotion as I wanted the body language to express the emotion in this character and acknowledge to the viewers that these traits can make animation look fun as reflected from client feedback.

The second exported clip show the use of colour with inclusion of shading to make him standout in front of the purple background, letters and creature chasing him when he's interacting with the letters.

Below is the schedule that me and Andrew planned to envision what needs to be done in terms of creating a professional project and linking it back to the requirements of the client brief.

professional project	week 1	week 2	week 3	week 4	week 5
Ideas based on Wolverhampton client
research
mind map
storyboarding
animatic
concept art and designing
2D animation on TV paint
clean up
editing with sound and digital effects

professional project	week 6	week 7	week 8	week 9	week 10
Ideas based on Wolverhampton client
research
mind map
storyboarding
animatic
concept art and designing
2D animation on TV paint
clean up
editing with sound and digital effects

professional project	Christmas week 1	xmas week 2	week 11	week 12
Ideas based on Wolverhampton client
research
mind map
storyboarding
animatic
concept art and designing
2D animation on TV paint
clean up
editing with sound and digital effects

6DM022: Essay Structure

This post shows the updated structure I used to remind me what points to write in the essay.

Essay structure

Title: Utilizing genre in Animation

Introduction

This will have a description on what I will undertake and discuss in my argument how to create the perfect elements to get the full package of the genre that I would go into for film and other mediums.

Paragraph 1:

What is genre? What does it mean in animation? References

·         Adaptation of material or elements of certain material and finding the right source that would appeal to the target audience. Examples and references

·         Explain how genre is research in production schedules including what drives the story and adapting literature. Examples and references

Paragraph 2

Which genre you are using or referring to? Examples & References

·         Describe what horror is and what makes it recognizable in the film industry. Examples and reference. Establish the rules of what horror should involve to entertain the audience in the right manner

·         What is silent film Describe how certain rhythm can produce the vibe and tone for the story especially when producing the best to take effect on the audience examples and reference

·         Explain the choices of using horror and presenting it through non-dialogue language with focus on music to describe the tension of the story. (website references)

·         Linking how silent techniques can advance horror to another level.  Example psycho 

Paragraph 3

How are you using genre in your work? Why this one? References

·         Why do people love to do these form of film making and how it influences the way I do work. Tropes

·         How it has helped the starting point of entertaining the audience and liking the characters with help of music mickey mouse

·         Describe how the music would help establish the pacing of the film and improve the dynamics of each scene.

·         Describe what audio is going to be used e.g. character noises to musical tracks  (The music that helps with presenting the feel, vibe and tension of the outcome which can include the sense of chill and discomfort that envisions people to think that there might be something around the corner.)

Conclusion:

Linking back all the sections topics into the introduction to summarize what I am justifying in this essay.

Below also shows the extra books I used to research this essay: