LAST BLOG b4 dedline omg

I finished the film which is good. I didn't let my team down which is good. I was educated for the first time the other day about tv safe areas. This is a scary concept for me as I always thought that whatever I made would automatically fit wherever. It prompted me to look back over the film and consider whereabouts the content might be cut off for those poor bastards with 4:3 tvs in this modern day and age. Regardless, it made me certain that I MUST consider the TV safe area in future. The more I learn about camerawork the more difficult I find it.

Anyway, my animated uni logo looks tight as heck:

COMPIN

I've been compin' this final animash!

I'm really pleased with how this looks. Kate's sets are bare peng and I'm glad she suggested this to begin with as it lends the film an absolutely distinct visual style. I would definitely go for someithing like this again and it's broadened the variety of work in my portfolio.

Finishing da animashun

I've been winding down with animation on this project. I'm glad I got the more nuanced or labour intensive shots out of the way first, allowing me to burn through the rest quite quickly. I don't regret animating the film on threes as I believe the animation is dynamic enough that it isn't uncomfortable to watch. It's also allowed me to meet the deadline.

Currently, hand-drawn animation is my strongest suite and I've done better at adapting to Andrew's character designs than I have previously, hopefully proving myself to be adaptable. In fact, this year has greatly improved the breadth of animation styles I've employed.

However, I want to further explore whether I'm over-animating some shots. Cutting on character movement keeps up pace, but in earlier versions of shots I've left very little room for stillness. Sometimes less animation is more, but I'm inherently prone to exaggerate my characters and keep their movement stretching on through every frame of the shot. This can lead to a scene seeming to lack breathing space. I've amended this to a degree as I've progressed, but I still feel as though the film's pacing could be improved upon, and a factor of this is the animation.

Colour Grade

Colour grading the backgrounds was easier than I expected it would be. In many cases, adding a little saturation to bring out stronger shadows and colours worked fine. I'm really happy with how they look now, especially the indoor shots. On the outdoor shots, I added a little green tint to the Sossidge Cafe side of the screen to emphasise the grossness compared to the Gloop Cafe.

Gross, innit. Here are some before and after shots

Above is pre grade and below is post grade. Added some greeeen tint and brightened the image, making it look a little crisper

Brightened the image











My concern is that since the outdoor sets were lit very differently to the indoor sets (and exported at a different quality) there will be some dichotomy between the way they both turn out. I want interior shots and exterior to look as though they're in the same universe. In future, I must keep my lighting consistent but for a first attempt I think they have come out well.

Reviewing Gloop Cafe - all my script revisions

I've started making my production booklet for Gloop Cafe, which has given me a good opportunity to review this project from the beginning. I'm looking back at all my pre-production work. What's stuck out at me significantly is the amount of revisions and rewrites I've gone through. Seven script drafts, four storyboard drafts and three animatic drafts got me to this point, which is far more amending than many of my coursemates have done. On one hand, the fact that I started on pre-production very early was for this exact reason - I wanted to have wiggle room and the ability to change things early on when I received feedback from my peers.

However, I really struggled to clarify the story and message of this film until late into February, when I was making large changes to the animatic at the last minute. I need to be more concise, and my biggest worry about the film is that I've tried to cram too much into too little time - still. The film could really stand to be a couple of minutes longer. For me, the takeaway is clarity. Clarity of plot, clarity in shot framing and pacing, clarity in animation. These are all things I must improve upon.

I really started making good strides with this film when I was forced to consider the essential element of it, which was Sossidge Cafe angry at Gloop Cafe for using sausage in their recipe. Once I consolidated this, I removed the relationship in the film and put more effort into writing the build-up for the fight scene.

In future, when I make a short film I will first consider the CORE theme and write around that, always going back to it if I am unsure whether something fits or not.

Live Brief 4 - Video Mapping in Lille

I had a mad time in Lille on my second excursion out there. I really enjoy it because it's a chance to do something different with animation, it looks diverse on my reel and I work with people I don't ordinarily work with. I'm pleased with the end result but next year I could push it further in terms of spectacle and originality. Looking back, some elements of my animation this year were resemblant of last year's, such as the music I chose and how I used parts of the opera house to project onto. I'd love to go back next year, register as a PROFESH and be BOLDER in my ideas. I worry that I may fail to be as adaptable as certain other animators.

Filming the rest of the sets

There's a clear distinction in quality between the shooting of the outdoor sets (the street) and that of the indoor sets (gloop and sossidge cafe). This is due to my increased understanding of how a camera works, how DRAGONFRAME works and the fact that rather than exporting JPEGS, I now export images as high quality .tiffs. Now I look back I wish I could re-shoot the street sets, but I am feeling more confident than before with a camera. I need to get better at taking my time with photography and considering staging more carefully, as certain shots looked rather amateur before I brought them into Photoshop and retouch them. My tutor was quick to point out the askew angles.

I'm going to take all the images and footage into Premiere and grade them, but I've been putting it off probably out of fear of stepping out of my comfort zone. Having Kate as a second voice while shooting offered an incredibly useful perspective. She picked up on stuff I missed.

Will require a hefty grade

Back on the old final film horse

I haven't blogged in bloody AAGES. I'll do a few posts to get back up to speed.

Finishing Durex was good. I'm happy with it. I had put my final film to the side for a little while as a result, though. The main challenges I face now are finishing it and making sure I keep in close contact with my team, especially my sound designer and composer who I don't see so often. It's helpful that they're so readily available but it's my SWORN duty to finish this film and win 15 oscars, including best hair and make up and best live action short film.

The weeklies have proven incredibly useful. When I approached the class, they contradicted my tutor's advice and stated that they liked the name "Gloop Cafe". I've been focus testing it and I think I shall keep it. The character animation has been largely well received. I'm not worried about that because I feel I am rather good at charac anim at this point. The big thing will be compositing and grading and all that horrendous rubbish.

My concern, still, is how it will be received. Since my course mates have seen this animation loads over the past months, they get the plot easily but I need to know how someone who's never seen the film feels about it.

Still, I'm in too deep to make any changes now. Best to plough on. I'm especially excited to see how it goes with music and sound.

Durex is DONE! Reflection

I am happy with this project. At the last minute I opted not to submit three posters for the sake of it, but instead just two good ones at the recommendation of my tutor. I'm glad I did this as I am now proud to show the whole submission and don't have to justify the poorer quality of the third. Sorry, Jenny Dosh or whatever your name was.

She DEAD

What I learned:

• Again, quality always beats quantity
• I should have done this faster
• Composite more organised-ly you fool
• Artivive is a great tool
• When I push my boundaries and try new stuff, I have fun and add diversity to my reeeel.
• Collabbin with Illustration students offers new perspective.

The last one is especially true. I've done two collabs with Illustration this year and they've both taken me down unusual avenues with look, media and tone. I'd gladly do more of it. 

Artivive is rad and I'd certainly try it again. The 3D space is incredibly intuitive. Next time I'd like to use more 3D, though.

Durex is done! Compositing

The last two days have been a nightmare of compositing, as I fell into that old trap of having to name my files 'final', 'final final' and so on and so forth. It left my desktop looking like the aftermath of some horrific battle, with half formed .mp4s and .psds littered randomly and chaotically across my screen. Were I to open one of the Premiere projects now, I would be greeted with a sea of RED indicating that my files are all missing presumed dead, and I would probably never be able to recover them.

I prayed that there wouldn't be a blackout or a crash. As the work becomes more intense, my faith in technology wanes. I've already written off one memory stick this year due to breakage, and Google Drive went down about a week ago. How will I preserve my digital files when technology inevitably fails altogether? And what will my time and work have meant? I suppose the only option is to hope someone appreciates my films in the moment.

It made me think of my final film, and how much MORE prepared I will have to be for it. I have a 50 gig hard drive in my side table at home. I think I will clear it, organise it and rely on it, as Gloop Cafe will be a hefty comp job.

I should be more prepared.

GLOOP CAFE - Tutorial and Update

I met Dotty today and went over the animatic and animation in minute detail. She had recommendations of things I could change. Writing them here so I don't forget them.

1) Add more build up to the fight and make it as clear as possible. Add more sausage and gloop to every aspect of the fight. Keep it SIMPLE.

2) Make more use of the dog. The dog will resonate with the common man.

3) Change the TITLE because it makes no sense to call it "Gloop Cafe" when both cafés are equally important.

4) More CHAOS, more people to help build up the fight. Don't lose momentum.

5) Add credits over still backgrounds.

6) Fix a few frames of pacing here and there.

Today I will revisit the animatic a final time to add these extra details and frames. At this point I know it's important to keep tweaking to achieve a more polished film, but it's frustrating to go back to it. Such is life. The further into the film I get, the harder it is to tweak. Something I'm learning to overcome with this film is my tendency to be incredibly protective of my ideas. I came up with a strong base idea but had I done it my way from the start, it wouldn't have been effectively executed in the 2 minute runtime limit.

I have to keep the animation to the animatic TO the FRAME for the sake of the sound designer and composer. I'm happy with the film so far 

Live Brief 3 - DUREX. Carrying on

I've been continuing to animate Durex the last couple of days. Yesterday I made a flurry of condoms in After Effects to act as a transition between the scene and the logo. I've made two, one of which will pop out of the poster as a 3d layer.

I've also hastily animated the third poster with a character named Jenny Dosh. It fits with the style, although it isn't my finest animation. An ad campaign with three posters is far better than one with two. Great things are in threes.

In retrospect, more pre-production would've been useful here. Establishing the characters further and testing more ideas beyond just our initial concept. I pitched a couple of things but we chose the first one. I should have drawn more in depth character designs and focussed more extensively on world building to keep it consistent. I think that the concept and energy of the animation are appealing enough to make audiences overlook those inconsistencies, but as always there's room to improve.

On Friday, we colour

Live Brief 3 - Durex - Animating

Following a recommendation from my tutor, I watched the opening credits of "THE FORBIDDEN KINGDOM for inspiration. It had a dynamic, 3D style which would look sick when applied to the mind-bending forces of AUGMENTED REALITY.

Look at that DEPTH OF field! Imagine that dynamism applied to a picture of somebody offering you a condom.

LIKE this

I've also been COLOURIN hard. I'm happy with how it looks. Otherwise, the project isn't as organised as it possibly could be. We don't have a gantt chart or anything but we just work on it knowing that it will be done when it's done.

There will be 3 interactive posters. Adrian Frisbee's morning routine, Wonky Nigel's routine and a third one. Still need to think of the third one

Gloop Café - Lighting Test

We did a few lighting tests for the exterior background of Gloop Café today, which I didn't enjoy because it was very difficult working out lighting, aperture and all that stuff. However, I feel more confident about shooting it tomorrow, ready to animate over.

Keeping the lighting bright and consistent was the biggest challenge. The session also yielded new feedback into our set design, with the recommendation from our tutor that we stick a blue screen in the back and model simple cardboard building silhouettes, to add context. This is a sound plan. I'm excited to have it shot to begin animating.

Live Brief 3 - Durex - Animatics

Here's the Wonky Nigel animatic. It's formatted to A5 as the physical poster will be A2. I'm enjoying making this so far and I get on with my collaborator. This year I'm focussing on keeping my cool and I think I'm succeeding, but who knows what tomorrow will bring.

And HEEERE'S THE Dave Frisbee animatic. We want to make them short and snappy, mostly for the sake of effort and time but also to accommodate for the atrocious attention span of my generation (i'm probably just as guilty)

By catering to ever shortening attention spans, are we making the art more accessible or are we perpetuating a problem that affects our ability to empathise and engage with things?

Live Brief 3 - Durex - Characters and Rough Storyboard

Designed some more refined characters. These people will be hellbent on obtaining a condom in the morning. It's their favourite thing to do.

Here I wanted to return a little to my classical style and incorporate my usual energetic animation. My worry with the characters is that I want to keep them playful and colourful without it seeming patronising and childish to 18-24 yr olds.

Dave Frisbee changed his name to Adrian Frisbee, to sound less like a middle aged Yorkshireman and more like someone the YOOF can relate to.

Wonky Nigel's style has been updated since I drew this, so he looks like he could inhabit the same universe as Adrian Frisbee. He still has the flower on his head, though. Someone suggested I change his name to 'Flower Head Jim' but this suggestion was met largely with vitriol and hatred from my coursemates.

Shmick Spence needs the most work. I'm not really sure what to do with her so might redesign her a little. In a weekly crit, the rest of the class thought her name made no sense. 
To me it makes perfect sense. Her name is Spence and she's pretty shmick.

A brilliantly composited styleframe demonstrating how the AUGMENTED REALITY will look.

The ORIGINAL Dave Frisbee rough storyboard

The ORIGINAL Wonky Nigel Rough Storyboard

Live Brief 2 - Hostelworld Comp and FINITO

I have finished Hostelworld!

We got 3 gifs and a final tv spot which has been really well received so far.

Coloured in tvpaint.

I'm incredibly pleased with how this turned out. It was nice to work on something a little different.

Were I to repeat the task, I'd emphasise the depressingness of the man's life at the start of the commercial. Luckily, I think sound goes a long way towards building a good atmos. It was our course leader's recommendation that we make a lot of the sounds with our mouths, and I think it gels well with the look.

Animatic done (again)

Now it's REALLY done. I've made some changes in time for this week's presentation and the feedback was more positive. I've stripped the story down to it's PUREST purest form.

TWO cafés, both alike in dignity

What a BARGAIN

Sausage? With GLoop??? It's ungodly

Cross - cafe tensions rise

With deadly consequences

The folly of man is revealed

I'm done with it. It's going to be incredible. I'm glad I've changed it so much because it's taught me a lot about what people respond to and how to tweak things, but it's been a painful process.

I'm looking forward to taking it forward. I'm going to spend some time with my character designer next to ensure that the Gloop Cafe clientele and the Sossidge Diner clientele look distinct

Live Brief 5 - Wetherspoons

I recently made some work for the large pub chain Wetherspoons, who were requesting illustrations to boost team morale.

I thought it would be cool to be featured in the Wetherspoons gallery so I entered. The conditions of the contest specified that I could only enter my work after having a few pints, and that I was only to create the work using Wetherspoons branded crayons that are handed out for free with the children's menus.

This is me working on the design

And this was the final design which I submitted. In future I must be more experimental with my character design. This brief opened my eyes to the potential of cheap crayons as a creative tool. The medium is the message, after all.

Live Brief 3 - Durex

I'm collaborating with another illustration student on a Durex ad campaign in AUGMENTED REALITY.

We're going to use ARTIVIVE, an intuitive app that means even luddites like me can produce mind-bending AUGMENTED REALITY

We threw a few ideas around. A video game where you played a condom, flicking STDS away from a helpless person.

We considered animating a horde of cartoon diseases, but since the campaign is aimed towards 18 to 24 year olds and is meant to promote carrying a condom out of habit, as one would brush their teeth, we thought it best to illustrate that point with three case studies. People who always carry a condom.

INSERT FIRST DRAFTS

Live Brief 2 - Hostelworld animation

Armed with my collaborator's sketchbook of fantastic and bizarre creatures, I spent the last week animating with charcoal and fineliner. It's quite liberating animating from Simon's designs as I don't have to do any roughs, or consider the dimensions or consistency of the characters.

I've managed to churn out the animation quickly while Simon does backgrounds. It feels good to deviate from my regular style.

While I work on this and my other live brief, I have put the final film on the backburner. I oversee the building of the sets.

Some snippets of our organistion process. We deviated from these slightly