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...

Storyboards

Today in class our group task was to complete our storyboards for both the 3D animation advert and the 2D animation advert. Last week we wrote up the script so it was easy to see from that what had to be drawn out. I was assigned the main role of storyboarding. I am a confident drawer so I was happy to do it. I started off writing out the shot types for each key frame along with a short description and noting down the dialog that would be said at that shot. This then made it easy for me to have a clear understanding of what the shot had to look like and anyone who read the storyboard could see easily how the advert would run. The group I am working with now are very easy to get along with and contribute lots of creative ideas. This makes our work a lot of fun and we are able to achieve our objectives pretty quickly and with quality and detail. Now that our storyboards are complete next week we hope to start creating our sets using cardboard boxes with the set designs drawn up last week, and our character 'Jerry' will also be in the making.

Experimenting

Each week in my media class, we have had a few hours to try out different techniques with animation. I previously had experience with stop motion animation but I am new to claymation and cut out animation. With Jess I made a clay character of Keith Lemon right down to the ginger tash and we had a laugh making him wave and blink with stop motion software on the mac.

I have also tried out cut out animation using a paper mannequin and a dress cut out from a magazine. In my unit group we will be using both of these techniques in our production.

Pre Production

Last week, in our animation groups, we started our pre-production for our 3D animation unit. I was assigned the role to draw up the plan for our set design.

For me, the most important aspect of a production is the planning and preparing because it helps me create a clear idea of what we are meant to be doing and allows for a smooth production.

At first, I felt that pre-production wasn't that important because something always ended up changing or not going right. However, I learnt that this can then be analysed in my evaluation and if proper planning was in place, contingency plans would prevent any issues and provide a back up solutions for problems that may arise.

My Flash Example

This is one of my Flash animation examples I made for my portfolio and also showed to the class. It consists of about 6 layers. The clouds are on separate layers each, the sun is animated and also on a separate layer and the background, flower and silhouette are different layers. It took me quite a few hours to draw our every movement for the walk and designing the added layers! I don't think the quality has come out very well on the video...

Starting Up

Today in college I was spoke to by my college tutor to consider and create a blog to showcase my work and write a diary blog about my units and daily tasks.
I should be off to Uni in September to Hertfordshire doing 3D Games Art (BA) and I suppose this would be a great way to start off a website for myself.
In class today, I was in my group for my animation unit and had to create a questionnaire of 10 questions to ask 15 people for our target audience research. I usually don't like being hassled myself in the street by people wanting to ask a few questions so I was a bit hesitate about doing so myself, but just like all of my other units I completed last year I got on with it and students around college are pleasant enough to oblige.
In the afternoon, after we had completed our questionnaires over a long lunch, we had a Flash tutorial from our technician Brendan. I had already become quite familiar with the program Flash because I had to create a few examples for my portfolio for my interview at Hertfordshire and so I had the opportunity to help other students in my class and try something a bit more advanced. I really enjoy playing around with Flash and I also got to show the class a few of my examples.
Next week maybe I can try something a bit different. I will also need to type up my questionnaire in an evaluation.