Acting Tests

Over this weekend I have got stuck into some quick animation tests for my character and her boat. I must say that I hadn't realised how difficult it was to animate a boat... keeping it's structure and angle is hard, but I think I'm getting to grips with it.

 

*I feel that I should make a little model of my character so that I can use it to visualze angles easier - plus it would be super fun*

 

 

The above test was my playing around with moving the layers within a painted photoshop image and using some of the simulation effects. Obviously I used the snow effect and I must say that it brings a whole other dimension to the scene and I am thrilled with how it looks. I will definately be using these effects in the final film.

 

 

 

I conducted this test just of the girl, in her boat, her blowing and boat rocking, just for a feasibility study... and it's a good job I did so as I have now found that it it very hard to keep my lines flowing together and to get smooth animation with this design, which is what I wanted... I need her to be subtle, and the boiling does not create that illusion. I may have to go back to the drawing board in reference to her decoration, but I'm really happy with her overall shape and design. Maybe just plain colour and texture?

 

 

Here is another test but more challenging, she is sat in her boat, when she sees something in the distance (a hint of other life perhaps?) and she jumps up and scrambles to the edge of her boat to peer out. I wanted to focus on her acting here and getting her to project an appealing nature, and I also wanted to focus on her weight in the boat, I feel that I have done both of these things very well and will keep this standard of animation for the film. While concentrating on the actual action I have left out her detail... and I think I like it better...

 

 

The final test I have is from another angle and Im looking at the water on the boat, colour contrasting and some more acting. She's looking around, soaking in her surroundings and enjoying the breeze.. I think this reads well and with the music combined would make for a very sweet scene.

 

*I do think I need to go back to her design

*I need to review my action storybaords

*Do some animation tests of her running from her boat

 

After feedback tomorrow I may change my direction of what I'm doing now... and I need to make sure that I'm really engaged and in on time this week as it's my Birthday next week end ^_^ (a.k.a - No work is being done)

 

Adios.

 

 

 

 

 

 



Week 6 {end}

It's the end of Week 6, and I must admit it has not been the most productive...

However, I have done some more research and started a new storyboard that explores the action in each of the girls scenes and shows where all my background concepts sit in the film.

 

I have been thinking that maybe I don't need to stay so away from her in my scenes... I do like the idea that it projects her loneliness and the feeling of observing her journey rather than interacting in it... but I think that the audience needs to connect with the character more than I originally thought... and I fear that my film maybe also be just too 'action-less' if she is constantly far away. I will explore this further after getting the feedback of my class!

 

Some of the research images i've collected that have influenced many scenes greatly are beautiful pictures of nature where I am suggested camera angles, colour and composition. When drawing out these two Story Boards I was thinking about composition, the flow of the film, peaks and slopes in the story/mood/emotions, her struggles, her personality, the music and colour... everything really, but especially her actions, or lack of.

 

My next steps will be to develop these story baords further, with more colour indication, and maybe review while thinking about the seasons. I will also need to explore the ideas for the opening scene and camera movement.

 

I have started a girl animation test, that I will do a few of and think about the plausability of my scenes and designs.

Also, this internet article on AOL has given me tonnes of insperation.
http://travel.aol.co.uk/2012/01/03/the-worlds-strangest-places/?icid=maing-grid7%7Cuk%7Cdl5%7Csec1_lnk3%26pLid%3D134506#photo-11

 

Another weekend then!

 



Week 6

It is the Monday of Week 6! I presented my 20 images this morning and got some really good feedback;

 

• Maybe I don't need to always have her on a body of water? Maybe sometimes it can be a bit magical? (eg boat going through sand, water etc)
• Her hair portraying some of her emotions and how she is feeling is a good idea.
• My backgrounds are coming along well, however, I need to make sure that the way they are composed is beautiful as well as the actual painting and details... also the placement of the girl within each scene is important.
• I mentioned my bird idea replacing the light at the end and being present throughout the film... and they forcefully objected to that... so they said that I'd need to re-think the transitions... and that maybe I could use an element of the previous scene to link over and lay into the next, giving a fluid and beautiful transition! I really loved this idea although it may be hard and I'd really have to plan my scenes... which I need to do anyway, but you know!

 

I was also told of an advert that might be interesting to draw from, a twining advert for tea, the colours are beautiful and the soft look is just what I'm going for;

 

 

Today while I had the attention of the lovely Alex Gillespie, I asked him to show me a little compositing on After Effects, that I was thrilled to bits about!! But it would not upload unfortunately... However I now know how to pan and make it snow :)

 

• So, my next steps and plans for this week are;
• Start my industry Report
• Try scenes with a heavy light and dark shadow contrast, where she moves in and out fo the shadow
• A scene with a rainbow, the scenes Ive collected research for
• A scene with a dandilion and maybe work out a few transition animations
• Plan out a colour transition page with girl studies to show opposing colours and complimentary colours
• An animation test of the girl properly moving
• Aaaaaaaand a new storyboard where the girl has actions in everyother scene, maybe ever 3 or 4

SO! Let the week commence! :D

 

ps. I have started thinking about tieing all my scenes together geographically, and so started following this guys website;

http://kienlam.net/around-the-world

 

 



20 Images

  So for week 6 I have to compile together 20 images to present that will communicate my film to my fellow classmates and tutors. During Week 5 I worked hard to produce those 20 images of different scenes, camera angles and After Effects-effects, to try and show how my film will flow.

 

 

I know I would like to use geographical location to show that she is travelling around the world, and not just anywhere and everywhere, although Animation does give me the freedom to do this... I know I also need to use colour, weather and the seasons to show the passing of time (this is where I can have some serious fun with colour) and also a little character performace to help the audience to connect with her on her quest.

 

At the beginning of this week I was given some brushes by an animation graduate that would help me immensley with my concept and background painting in Photoshop;

 

 

 

Above is what I got from my first attempt with playing around with them, and this is probably my most favourite piece of concept art so far!

 

But I plowed on and produced a few more scenes, some had more time taken on them than others... some were just to show the range of weathers/colours/moos etc.

 

 

 

I was really happy with some of these, not only the ones that took a few hours, but also the ones I bashed out quickly... they all help me to form ideas about what I want and don't want in the film anyhow! I'm particularly pleased with the studies of my girl character... I really needed to pin her and her little boat down, which I know feel I have done! Note the last image where I've painted a scene with an After Effects simulation in mind... I think this works quite nicely!

 

Looking down this row of images, I am reminded of how I wanted the film to flow in the order of the colour spectrum... I still feel that this would be beautiful... however... would transitions from contrasting colour to contrasting colour not be more dynamic?

Hmm...

 

I had also toyed with the idea of changing the light for a spectral/spirit in the shape of a bird? I thought that if she has this kind of guardian bird in every scene, either following her or sat somewhere in the scenery, then it is the bird that she offers up it would all tie in together nicely and would make a nice transition through the frames. Here is some research and some deisgn ideas;

 

 

 

 

 

 

Week 5

It is the Monday of Week 5, and I've presented my new changes to the story, design and over all rhythem of my film. They were received well and my class mates gave me some really good advice on how to loosen up and generate some more stunning and varied backgrounds as I keep getting dragged down in the construction of them.

 When I'd been looking at my reference concept art pieces, I'd been trying to translate them to a realistic language, but really, I'd forgotten that I don't need to do that in my film, they can be fanciful! And by jove they are going to be!

We also discussed in this lecture if our films offered passive or active viewing... I believe that in the same way that 'Father and Daughter' is ACTIVE viewing, that mine is also active viewing in the way that the film does not spoon feed the story to the audience, they have to interpret what they are seeing and form their own conclusions. Discussing whether or not my film had an immersive story/style was quite interesting, as I really want to push the feeling of observing the girl, and her character seeming very alone on her own journey. However, this means that it would be more difficult to make the audience relate to the girl character... her animation style and the little interactions that she has with her surrounding will help with this I think. If in scenes she is stood upright, looking around her and engaging with her search, and in other scenes (probably rainy miserable ones) she'll just be slumped in her boat.

We also discussed plot types, and I thought that mine was most like 'The Quest'. The conflict in my film would either be time or loneliness, the apocolypse ultimately... but time is the only thing that we would be able to see her battle with visually.

The most important thing right now I feel, to get me designing a wide range of backgrounds would be to let loose, and also to really think about all the opportunities and post production tricks that I can add to make the film dynamic. I could use backgrounds moving past a static character, a peep hole to her floating perhaps? Pans, dollys, multi-perspective pans and different perspectives, where she's really close, far away, viewed from within a tree, I still seem to be in a bit of a rut though... hopefully I'll get out of that soon... I have a huge to-do list that needs doing and background designs are pretty high on that list!

I placed the backgrounds I'd already produced on my texture and liked the difference...

You'll need to click them bigger to see on here but it does give it the nice hand made quality I want in my film... I have on my list to experiment by painting/pastelling a background and then seeing how animating on it goes... because producing them actually by hand does look and lot nicer and come easier to me...

Oh well, let's see what the week brings!!



Background Concepts

  This week I started experimenting with colour, brushes, tone, composition and background painting...

From the rough thumbnails and photographs of real natural beauties I have painted a snowy forest and the northern lights. The Northern Lights scene can locate our character on our planet for the audience, and the snow forest can either show the progression of time or travelling far north. I am really happy with these pieces and know that I'd like to develop these scenes for my final film!

I need to start working in the right composition and thinking about pans and layers. I have been talking to Alex who said he would show me some tricks in After Effects and since that I've successfully made my snow scene have flurries of snow in front. I have found some effects that kind of wanted to design scenes for just so that I could use them... but I need to make sure that my scenes are dynamic for the audience.

Some Thoughts ...

  I was shown a film by Bryony (Newport Graduate) called Little Boat on Vimeo, 

http://vimeo.com/22894261

it's about a little boat getting wrecked through all weathers, and we're taken through each scene with the boat as our focal point. The film uses sound really well to help create some tense, sad and almost comical moments, also the use of silent is prominent. 

I like how the backgrounds move past the boat, not the boat moving along a background but I don't that I could get the high aspect, far away, observer kind of shots that I'm looking for in my film. However, the portrayal of the weather is interesting in this film... I can't tell if it's CG or digital 2D... maybe a mixture! 

This is something I hope to look into in my film, 2D painting over a CG environment and camera path... I spoke to Cambell about it and he said it's really easy... so maybe I'll use it for a short simple sequence. 

The above scene led me to thinking about how I present rain...

I love the colours and baroness of this scene... something I'd like to work with.

I toyed momentarily with the idea of birds, or a bird attack/friend in my film... but I feel that may snub the feeling of isolation maybe? 

This scene was silent and was a fantastic representation of a rip rolling storm... very intense and simplistic. 

Loads of other films and people are giving me cause to think these days...

Next steps are to draw up another quick story board, a few more background perspective designs, and I need to think about colour/environment and weather.

I also need to re-think my girl design, and maybe her colour... I don't think I'd like her to be so completely black even in light scenes... however she will be block with no detail... just colour....

Hmmm.