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