Post - Production: Editing

When it came to post-production, I felt confident that it wouldn't be too difficult because I already had my up to date animatic with all of the relevant sounds and key frames in there. However I was prepared to have to do some re-arranging and playing about with sounds in order to make things sound as good as possible!

I found working on post to be a slight challenge because I don't use Adobe premiere frequently, therefore I usually need to re-familiarise myself with it briefly, but then after that everything was fine!

LIP SYNC

When it came to animating the lip sync for the two lines needed, I found myself having to improvise. I had done all line work so far in Animate CC, and it came to the scenes with the lip sync, I decided to animate the body language first. However when I came to importing the audio into Animate CC, there was a problem. For some reason, the sound just was not playing in Animate , and since I didn't have a huge amount of time to spare, I decided I would get through it quicker if I chose to animate the lip sync in Photoshop instead.


Resolution to this:

I did this by rendering out the mouthless character animation as a PNG sequence, and then with in photoshop I imported the sound and animated the lips from there. This actually turned out to be so much easier and quicker than I had expected! I wouldn't normally go about that in this way, however for this circumstance I'm glad I did.

Phonemes

Although the character that speaks has a very small mouth, I still felt it necessary to create some phoneme reference in order to make the animating easier. This definitely helped! 

Emily's Plague: Collaboration - Part 2

As well as creating character designs for Emma's Plague Doctors, she also asked me to create some head angle references for the character she had already designed. This was something I was happy  to do, because not only would it not take up too much time, but it was also a time for me to experience drawing 360 angles of a character designed by somebody else, which was challenging.

Outcome

After giving these back to Emma she was very pleased with the result & said that they really helped with her animating, especially since before hand she was struggling slightly with the different angles.

Emily's Plague: Collaboration - Part 1

Alongside my own project I was asked by Emma if I would be willing to get involved with hers. She needed me to character design for the Plague Doctors. There were to be three of them, however she wanted them to all look exactly the same except for height, so I was able to just create one main design.

After much discussion and sharing mood-boards & ideas with one another, I decided to first get a turnaround sheet complete so that Emma had it there ready for when she came to animating the characters.

At this point, Emma was not looking for coloured versions because she had not yet settled on colour palettes, so I made sure to at least give her this line work to have as reference. 

Later on down the line, I also produced some reference sketches that were relevant with the context of the animation, so that it made animating these characters some what easier. 

Outcome 

This was a really enjoyable job to have, because it was once again another opportunity for me to focus purely on character design. I saw this as a time for me to try and develop my portfolio further as well as get involved in another project. This is a character unlike many of the others I have previously designed, so I found this to be a challenge, but I took a lot away from it! 

Study Task 5 - Press Pack

As part of the submission for this film, I was required to create a selection promotional artefacts.

Poster:

I decided to keep the design for my poster quite simple, asI didn't want to over do it, so I took one of the most relevant still from the animation and used that, as well as using the final title design for it. I used a black background because at the end of the film, everything fades out to black for hr title, so I wanted to keep it consistent with this.

Synopsis:

This short film based within a lucid dream, is set in a world of false reality. As the dreamer gradually takes in the fragmented world around her & realises she is asleep, she does not question the inconsistencies around her. She finds herself in a lonely ice cream shop, in the presence of some odd and familiar faces. However after a short while, it becomes apparent that keeping control of your own mind can be trickier than you think.

Trailer:

For the trailer, I decided to keep it quite short as my film all together is only 2 minuets. I took a selection of some of the most relevant and strange scenes and put them together. I also used one of the final tracks that was given to me by the musician I was collaborating with, because this is the track I also planned on using for the credits. 

4 x Stills

For the 4 stills I decided t use 2 still from the film itself and 2 examples of concept work, because I wanted to show some of the development that was made through these images. 

Biography 

The Eldrige Egg: Collaboration Part 2

After establishing the look of the character, I began creating the relevant turnaround sheets. I began by focusing on the character's body without clothes, because this would not only make it easier for the sculptor, but it would also allow me to work from the body upward when drawing the clothing.

This also meant I would have to draw each sheet out fully three times, as I would already have the base to work from! 

Night Gown

Explorer

Once these had been signed off my Callum and Hayley, I then added colour. They said this wasn't essential, however in regards to colour reference to them & portfolio work for me, I thought it worth the extra time!

I then provided animated versions of these turn arounds as a way of providing more reference . I found getting involved with this project was really rewarding, but also challenging at the same time. I had never produced character designs for a stop-motion animation before, so there was a lot more to think about in terms of the character's sustainability. 

It was then really exciting to see this character be created in 3D and placed with in his environment! This character was also very unlike a lot of my previous designs, so I feel it will add some diversity to my reel!

The Eldrige Egg - Collaboration Part 1

Whilst working on my final film, I was asked by one of piers if I would be willing to get involved with their project, to produce character design for a stop-motion animation. This is something that I was really happy to help with, because not only would it give me the opportunity to get involved with another project, but it would also give me the chance to create more work that would go well in my portfolio!

Getting Started

To begin with, Callum and I sat down together and went through the narrative of the story, and we established the character he wanted designing. He wanted the character to be an elderly, sophisticated man, between the ages of 65-70, with a love for exploring. The character needed two outfits, a nightgown and an explorer wear. Since this character was going to be modelled in clay, I also thought it best to establish his body shape with out clothes, as a way of potentially making things easier for the character modeller. 

After further discussion with Callum & Hayley, it was decided that the character looked more appropriate with a larger, rounder middle, as this made him look slightly older & also added more appeal. It was also stressed by Callum, the importance of giving him quite a thick neck, to avoid problems when sculpting the character. After this I moved on to producing some initial sketches which I then passed onto him to review. 

Both Callum and Hayley seemed pleased with the progress so far, and this put me in a position where I was able to think about working on turnarounds. 

"We'll be together" Collaboration

For Greta's final film, she wanted to produce an dance music video with a mix of animation & live action. After us chatting about this for a while, Greta asked if I would be willing to be her dancer. I was very much up for this because not only was it an opportunity to keep dancing along side my animation work, but it was also a break from animating & I loved the idea of getting involved in a project in a different way for a change!

Although I was animating or drawing, I still felt like I was getting a lot out of this, because I was still getting the chance to be creative and collaborate, but in a different way. I was also really looking forward to seeing the final animation put together!

Changes in sequence

When I was mid-way through the animation of the project, I decided to make a slightly change. In my animatic, there was an original scene where the girl that appears with in the dream says "I'm sorry" as a response to being asked if she was real. When this line is said, the character is in the centre of the shot, however I decided to make a slight change after being further influenced by dreams I had been having that week.

Instead of the character visible when she  says this line, I decided to combine it with following far out shot of the room, because i felt it would make the line seem more mysterious if it could suddenly be heard out of the blue. However, it would still be clear that this line was from this character, because it would then cute back to her.

Original sequence: 

Colour

After being advised by numerous piers that it would be better to not add a wobble to the backgrounds, this meant I was then able to focus fully on the characters, once the backgrounds had been drawn. When it came to adding colour to the characters, I knew I could not achieve the aesthetic I wanted in Animate CC. Therefore I decided to render out my finished scenes as PNG files, which then allowed me to colour them with in photoshop, where I could create the shading aesthetic I wanted!

I found it easier to create the shading and blending that I wanted in photoshop. Although I may have been able to do this in Animate, I was not fully familiar with all of the brushes in this piece of software and really wanted to crack on, so felt it best to colour in the software I was the most comfortable in.

The task of colouring my frames was in itself a very enjoyable and quite therapeutic one. Also the fact that I already had my backgrounds done, meant that I was able to see exactly how the colours of the characters would work with the environments around them.

Because I planned on creating shading and blending on the characters, I knew I needed a colour sheet to use as reference, to avoid the shots looking inconsistent. Therefore I went ahead and created a sheet of colour swatches, which covered blocks & shades.

Complete Still: 

Study Task 4: Final Crit

A week before deadline, it was time to present my animation, At this stage, it was not 100% complete. For this crit, I had managed to get all the animating done, and some of the colour. However, after presenting this, I felt confident that I could get most, if not all of it finished in this last week.

Feedback
After presenting my work in progress, I left this crit with a clear understanding of what I needed to get done.

1. Get the colouring done
2. Ensure that I utilise my post-production time well, to ensure the sound design works well with the final animation.
3. Ensure I have the end credits sorted

Sound Design - end credits

After speaking to Will again, he sent more samples my way for a potential credits track. The examples I listened to seemed slightly too up beat for this animation, and it would have also caused too big of a juxtaposition in tempo when going from the animation o the credits. Therefore I asked him if he was also able to send me some exampled with less drums in them. Over this project I had been sent a lot of different tracks by Will, so I felt confident that we would succeed in finding one that would work for the end credits!

I also had the potential idea of using either the same track from the animation, either alone of with a mix of static, muffled noise. I decided jut to see how things went with the new tracks I was receiving from Will, and I would then after another week make the final decision.

Outcome
Since Will was very relaxed and happy for me to use or not use any of his tracks, I didn't feel pressure to know exactly which track would be used for the end credits at this point. This was definitely a good thing, because it meant I didn't need to rush to make that decision weeks in advance. This also meant that I could potentially experiment with more than one track and see which fitted the role best.

CROSSING OFF PANELS!

As I was getting further through with animating, I had the very satisfying reward of being able to cross of the panels that had been animated. This was not only beneficial for mentality's sake, but also because it allowed me to visually see what I had left to animate. 

Also, because I was dipping in and out of animation and drawing backgrounds at the same time, it also meant I knew exactly what background I needed to crack on with next. I wanted the backgrounds there for when I was animating, because I needed to reference! 

Second Crit Feedback

When it came to the second crit, I was much further along than I had been previously, which I flet good about. However this once again was an opportunity for me to be given feedback on what I had to show so far. This time around, there were two main things that were brought to my attention.

The first of which was the backgrounds. I explained to my peers and tutors that I intended to give the backgrounds some noise in order to make them slightly mobile, however it seemed to be a popular opinion that I kept the background as they were, since the characters had a wobble too. Many people felt this could result in being too much for the audience to take in.

The second, was my walk cycle at the start. It was suggested to me that the walk cycle needed a bit more personality and that I should consider adding in some extra frames, to make it look more unique.

Outcome

After this crit, I was slightly relieved that so many people suggested I leave the backgrounds as they were, because the could potentially save me a lot of time. However I decided to wait until post production, and then see if I had enough time left to play around with this some more. In regards to the walk cycle, I took on board the advice that was given to me, and decided that I would come back and make correction to this segment when I was a bit further down the line with animating, because I was in fear of spending too long on one small segment when I had the rest of the film to animate. But I was adamant thatI would come back to it.

Background development - Wobble wobble

Since I had previously decided to give my backgrounds some added noise in After Effects to create a gentle wobble, I knew I needed to become familiar with how to go about doing this. A friend showed me an example of the look that could be achieved on one of my backgrounds by adding "turbulent noise" and the result was exactly the kind of thing I had been imagining. So I went on to note down each stage of how to do it, because it was a much longer process than I had expected!

This was so that I could then move on to do this without having to constantly look up tutorials or get help. 

Something else I needed to be sure of, was that the colour aesthetic for the character & the background would work well together. In order to check that there would be no unexpected clashes in colour, I did a test by placing the lead character with in one of the key environments.

This test enabled me to see what exactly needed changing. Since this test was done at an earlier stage, the background used was not the final background, however the colours were all the same. 

Outcome

After playing about with this, two things were brought to my attention. One, was that I could potentially make the colouring for the character slightly more intense, if the background were to be as pale as the one above. Also, it reminded me the importance of beginning the characters' colorings from block fills, and then working up with shadow from there, in order to keep consistency! 

Another things that was reassuring, was that the order in which I was working through production, meant that I could be adding colour to the characters with the completed backgrounds behind, allowing me to see straight away if something needed changing. 

Presentation of work so far - 09/03/17

After getting into the swing of production, it was soon time to present my progress that had so far been made. For this presentation I added in the animation I had done, to my animatic. At this stage, I had around 20 seconds of uncoloured animation to show, which I was happy about, because I felt as though I was making good progress!

Feedback

After showing the work I had so far, I came away from this presentation with a clear idea of what I needed to do. Aside from the obvious fact of simply continuing on with the animation, I had two specific things to think about:

- music 

- background perspective 

I was encouraged to think about the possibility of making the gentle music in the background slightly muffled, to suggest it may be coming from a broken radio. I really liked this idea and this is something I decided to keep in mind for post-production. 

It was also brought to my attention that the perspective of the counter in one of my environment drawings was not quite right, so I spent some time after the presentation putting this right. 

This crit was incredibly useful, because it allowed me to hear thoughts & areas for improvement that I hadn't thought of, which is the good thing about getting work in progress looked at by fresh eyes. 

Becoming familiar with Animate CC

After deciding to use a new piece of software to create this animation, I knew I needed to begin production sooner rather than later. I decided to use Animate CC for two reasons, 1. because it appears to be very popular for animation studios, 2. because I decided it was time to step out of my comfort zone as an animator, because up until this point I was becoming too comfortable with Photoshop.

I began by watching tutorials and simply playing about, in order to get into the flow of using it. This payed off pretty quickly, as I was able to begin animating quite soon after this!

Benefits of Using Animate

After I was in the process of animating, I realised that Animate was in lots of ways much better for 2D animation, the main reason was because my line work was being smoothed out. This prevented me from spending ages on perfecting everything. This saved me a lot of time, and allowed me to work at a much swifter space than previously. 

Soundtrack Development

Through out the development of this animation, Will and I decided that he would provide me with one subtle track for the background & one similar yet more full track for the end credits. Over the course of the pre-production stage, he sent me developments he had made & I was frequently providing him with design work, because he wanted the developments to help fuel his ideas for sound. 

Recording Dialogue

After realising that my friend who studies acting in London was unable to make it to Leeds, I decided to get some other animator's involved , especially since I had used two of these individuals for voice acting in on a previous project.

In terms of dialogue, there needed to be three separate voices: the dreamer, the policeman & the girl.  All of which only have one line, apart from the dreamer, who has two main lines as well as reaction sounds. I decided to use Max for the role of the policeman, Lauren for the dreamer & Emma for the girl.

How it went

The process of recording the audio was quite easy, because I left the voice actors to play about with the lines & approach them in different ways. This then left me with lots of samples to choose from, which was very beneficial because it didn't mean that I had to commit to one particular line out of many.

Animatic

After my storyboard panels were complete, I was able to edit them together accordingly to produce the animatic. I also then was able to edit in the line work I had animated so far. 

I also edited in the sound, however at this stage I was aware that it could still need to be altered.

Background Development - change in direciton

Bird's Eye View

Through out this animation, there will be three main environments, because they will be frequently changing. In order to get a clear understanding of the layout, I decided to produce a bird's eye view of each background. This is because there will be lot of different shots of each room, so I needed to have reference on what would be visible where, and to keep it consistent. 

After deciding to create the backgrounds digitally, I got cracking. I really loved the idea of giving the backgrounds a bubbling effect. The way I was originally going to go about this, was to draw each background out twice. However, after making a list of the necessary backgrounds needed, it didn't seem logical to spend double the time on backgrounds. 

Change in method

In order to save time, but to also achieve the same outcome,  I decided to create one of each background, and to then add a wobble in After Effects, because the visual outcome of this is basically the same as what I was going for. 

So far, at this point I had only created about half of the backgrounds needed. Instead of getting all of them done before I began animating, I decided to be progressing on both at the same time, to ensure I didn't fall behind. 

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                              5.

                               

                               6.

Reasons for colour schemes chosen

When I think back to the dream this animation is based on, I remember quite vividly that there was a lot of daylight streaming into the ice-cream shop, and there was a lot of purple! So I knew that it would be vital to incorporate some clear rays of sunlight coming in, but this is something I decided to go back and add in later on in the process. 

Storyboards

Below is my final set of storyboards for this project, I decided to keep it pretty simple because the purpose of this was to simply highlight what is happening, and to then inform my animatic.

At this stage, the titles and credits are not included in the storyboard, because I know I want to do something a bit more creative with that. However I do know that the title will appear on it's own at the start & the credits will be shown independently after the animation has come to an end.