The Final Deadline - May 11th 2013

It is now the Saturday before the final deadline for my final major project, everything is ready to submit and I am feeling very calm and satisfied with what I am submitting. There will of course be more work to come, just polishing and perhaps re-doing a few sequences now that my animation skills have developed, but my film is in a complete state and which is what I wanted to submit. 

There have been a few exporting issues with frame size;

I have created all my film in the size 1050 x 576, which is correct, but I need to make sure that when placing them all together in Premiere the Sequence must be the correct settings!! Big Thank you to Stan and Charlie there!

Using After Effect was great, it went very smoothly and everything has been edited to a nice professional level. It is a shame that you can not add sound in here that easily, as it's a much more polished software. 

Another thing I wanted to blog a little about before submission was a scene where I used the skills I learnt at Happy Hour (work placement) to animated the shade lines on my character. I'm really happy with how it turned, and maybe before the Grad show I will add this shadow techniques to the last sequence.

So, I am here at the finish line, and all is well. 

My 1500 word critical analysis details the things I would change if I could back, and my successes as well as my problems.

'The Purple Lake' Online Production Log

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'The Purple Lake' 

Online Production Log Book

11/05/13

Rough Cut Critique

We have now had the Rough Cut presentation at 2 weeks to go till deadline!

Some issues were brought up that were a tad disheartening, regarding the loneliness of the character. However, after re-thinking and talking to a lot of people (peers, tutors, friends etc) I have made several changes to the Edit. I knew that I needed help with my edit, especially with my timing of shots,  but those problems have been ironed out now making a lot of difference.

It had also been suggested to me by one tutor that I needed to get rid of the close up shots... this was something that was a key aspect of my film in my very first treatment - far away, high shots. I felt that these were a key artistic choice to make her seem small, insignificant and alone. The close ups had been a previous request that I had added, and I find it funny that once again, my original idea was the best one. 

Now with a week left I am adding in 5 new scenes, 2 of which are stills, and 4 of which require new backgrounds. Lucky I work fast!! So far I have completed 1 of the additional animated scenes, 1 still and 3 of the backgrounds. I think I'll get it done. 

Another thing I have been working on since I last blogged was the dreaded 'Panoramic' Lighthouse stairs scene. 

I am really happy with this background but it was a difficult one to do!!

Here is a still from the Lighthouse beam rotating, I must say I am very taken with the sequence, as is everyone I show!

And here is my shot list now :) 

So, with only 3 more scenes to animated, I am feeling really good about getting this film completed to a high standard for the deadline! :) 

Debs

Production: Update

Greetings!

I have returned from the dark place that is the Dissertation deadline. But I am hurtling towards the finish line of my film. 

Here is my Shot List, up to date with all the animated scenes, backgrounds and scenes that I have completed. I only have 6 scenes left to animate, and 3 backgrounds left to digitally draw. I have 4 weeks left until the deadline and I am confident that I will complete my film to a high standard. The main things that remain are editing after effects such as mist and panning. 

Review

On review of the animation from my previous scenes 1-4, I have pinpointed some animated sequences, mainly those including the boat, that need to be changed and tweaked a little. I have already made a few changes to a few of my scenes, including the still below in Scene 4, to add a more intimate moment after she sends up her light. 

Backgrounds

The backgrounds are coming along really nicely and I am very happy with them all. I have kept them consistent with elements such as opacity and colouring. I especially tried to keep continuity by referring to a previous background of the lighthouse walls when drawing the bricks again at a different angle.

 Animation

I really feel like my animation has come a long way and improved a lot since the start of my film. However, this does not mean that I am unhappy with the scenes I animated first... I feel that the level of animation has been consistent throughout, that being said there are a few shots involving the boat that I would like to go back and change, providing time allows me to do so. 

Below is every frame of a shot, I thought it was interesting to see how much the space is used...

As I said above I am very happy with how my animation has progressed, especially animation of elemental forces. At the beginning of the project I often had to stop and think about the movement, but now it sort of comes naturally to me... Although I still like to refer to some of these model sheets of Pocahontas for inspiration. 

So in conclusion,

my film is very much on track for completion, leaving me time to really play around with editing and after effects.

It is also important that I stay on schedule as I hope to be involved in many other projects, mainly Leviathan ( http://sunkenbells.blogspot.co.uk/ ) by the awesome Sam Coleman. 

I will be more posty on here from now on as I'll be reviewing all of the post production mishaps I will undoubtedly have!

Peace out.

Dissertation :(

Soooooooooooooooooooooo,

I've stepped back from all the fun that animating is, and have admirably faced my dissertation and the looming deadline tied with it.

March 13th.

So, I have so far completed Scene 1, shot 1, 2, 3 and 4 of 5. So it so almost done, and I've composited it into Premiere Pro just to see how it plays together, and I'm very excited to see it play through!!!

But yes, this is why there will be a lack of pretty uploads in the coming few weeks. 

Boo.

:(

Scene 1 shot 1

This is the scene I've been working on for the last two days, I must say I'm extremely happy with how it's turned out and I've had some great feedback from my peers.

I had to really sit and think about the timing in this scene, as this is a long scene in which I need to emphasise the importance on the lilies. Also it was confusing for the compositing side of things because of the pan in the scene.

I'm really starting to see my animation skills developing as scenes become easier and easier to animate!! 

So Mam and Dad, this was the scene that I was getting annoyed with on the phone :) 

Production Starts!

Production has started!! 

So far I have been trying to get all of my backgrounds ready, painted and the detail added for the animation. I knew that I would have to create the backgrounds first and then animate within them... because they were hand painted, it would be impossible to make changes if something was not in the right place.

It has been going really well and I'm very pleased with the ones I have completed at this point. 

Below I have posted the painted ones before any detail is added, so that you can see the difference and my working method!

The above two painting were for long shots, where there needed to be some panning, and were somewhat of an experiment. They worked very well oppose to me trying to measure and tape together two pieces of canvas paper, that then bunched and crinkled out of line...

And then some scenes with their digital details!

As you can see I'm being quite picky, and making sure that each background is perfect! The top one is the final... I'm glad that I'm not being lazy and making these perfect :)