Final Edits

On Monday, the finishing touches were added to the overall final edit of the claymation advert and the 2d promotion animation. Last week I typed up 2 questionnaires to hand out to our focus group for our audience feedback needed to make a good evaluation over the whole unit and project.

Some of the narrative from the script had not been recorded so we had to get that done on monday so that we could add it onto the edit for finish to get it ready to show our focus group. Once we have added music to our 2d animation and both of the animations have been completed and assessed by our audience feedback focus groups we can begin our evaluations and make the changes necessary to satisfy our audience in order for it to be at the best standards it can be.

Editing

Today all of the footage was uploaded onto the mac and I created a folder for the Final Cut Pro document to save in to. It was very quick to put together because the clips were separate and I just had to refer to the storyboard for the order of them. Once this was complete, we searched on Soundtrack Pro for extra sound effects along with the ones we had recorded ourselves. Then we had a problem. We couldn't find our voiceovers. So, we had to get a voice recorder and re record the narrative from the script! It turned out to be fine because some of the narrative needed tweeking to match the pace of the edit.

Filming

Back after half term and ready to go! We had a tight schedule in which all of the filming had to be completed. The sets were clamped in place as were the props and anything else that would move. Lighting was then set up and had to be adjusted so that the wallpaper in the set wasn't showing shadows from the creases. We needed to get all of the shots from one camera angle done at the same time, it didn't matter about being in order with the script and storyboard because that comes together in the editing process. Professional companies like Aardman have to use this technique so that lighting and prop positions in each shot aren't affected or look any different. We had to work up to these professional standards on order for our animation to met the criteria of the task and just for the animation to appear much cleaner and smoother and much more enjoyable to watch.
In the making of the Nytol advert which was by the company Aardman they used a similar box set to the one we used. Although theirs were a bit bigger in size and this did turn out to be a slight problem for us but we resulted in cutting up the box of our set to get a better camera angle.
We also tried out our storyboard and script by acting it out ourselves and filming it. This is a technique that Aardman used when making Nytol as it helps to give a good idea of the timing and it helped us to adjust the narrative for it to fit in each frame.

The set:

Sets

Last day before half term and we were hard at work trying to get all of the preparation complete for the first day back, ready to go straight into filming our animation. The sets had to be complete and we printed out the props, wallpaper and flooring. We wanted it to look pretty realistic so it would look quite cool with the style of the character in plasticine. One of my group booked in the studio time so we had two solid days of filming so that nothing had to be moved and affect anything such as lighting and the positions of the camera shots which would ruin our grade and not show to be producing at professional standards. Looking forward to filming!

Preparing Our Presentation

Today we had to type up our proposal that we done on Monday into a presentation on Keynote. We each had to produce three slides each from the paragraphs we has each contributed into the pitch document. With each slide I summarised each point with a short bullet point and typed up in more detail what I would elaborate on in the presenter notes at the bottom. These will appear once I print out the slides for when we have to present next Wednesday. I included graphics to make the presentation look more interesting and images that illustrate the points on each slide.

Work Proposal

Today we had to type up our proposal for our group animation. In my group the criteria was divided into three sections and we had to type up a paragraph of around 400 words each. In my paragraph I had to discuss and explain about our story outline and the concept of our entire advert. I went into detail on why we chose the idea we come up with and the management of the project. I went on to talk about our deadlines and how we hope to achieve our work by the deadlines from the production schedule.

Although it really necessary yet, we have started to think about our focus group for which we would present our final advert to an audience and receive feedback from for information for our evaluation where I would say where I could improve and what was well received in the advert. I hope to upload my advert onto this blog and direct people here for them to comment and give me their feedback.

Cut Out Animation

This is our group practise animation using the cut out technique. The dress is cut out from a magazine. I found this quite funny to be honest! Even if I do say so myself...