Storyboard and Animatics

Everything is seen through the first persons eye.
I came up with a story to go with the storyboard since it made it feel more dramatic when being read along with looking at the images or watching the animatic.
For my animation, I would like to use diabetic sound from within the surroundings, such as breathing, the wind blowing, leaves rustling. Some non diabetic sound such as tension building music can be a possibility for me to use since it will make the situation more tense and dramatic.

Different angles to the street is shown as the person walks, averting their eyes and looking around. All the streets are empty and the wind is blowing strongly, loud and clear. This causes the trees to make sounds and form shadows and shapes.
This only a trick of the mind.
The rustling of leaves cause shadows to form. Shadows with faces.
Chains hanging from trees rattle in the direction of the blowing wind as we see bared, empty places.
This only a trick of the mind, right?
The place seems to be closing in and getting bigger; or are you getting smaller?
Faces start to appear in the walls, appearing and disappearing.
You finally see people, but they seem to be whispering to each other while their faces are turned away from you. They turn around only to look like the asme faces that were appearing in the walls.
The sky has changed colour and there's almost no light around you. The oxygen escapes as everything closes in on you and the voices seem to get louder.
You aren't were you went.
This is not a trick of the mind.

Idea generation

My experience at my visit deemed to be rather interesting and slightly uncomfortable, therefore I decided to work upon that idea.

I want to make an animation showing my experience and how the visit felt to me.
To make this a challenge for myself I decided to create my animation through a first person point of view. This would make the audience engage more and cause them to feel it as though they're experiencing what I did.
I would like the scenes to be seen through the persons eyes, therefore I'd like to create the motion of walking my moving the scene/camera up and down. Blinking would be too much and can annoy the audience so I'm going to leave that out.

Incorporating the unease I felt at Cleveland Street would be fun but to make the story more interesting I'd have to exaggerate a bit.

When beginning the project I had intentionally wanted to visit Whitechapel, London because of it's history with Jack the Rippers murders. However upon my almost haunted experience at Cleveland Street I did some research on the most haunted places in London; that turned out to be Berkeley Square. In one particular house in the area, it's known that many people who've lived there have died and such.
This bit of information is useful because it can help with inspiring my animation and could possibly create some link between the areas.

Cleveland Street

On the previous day, we were blindfolded, spun around a few times and were told to place a pin on the map. I stuck the pin far on the North side of Cleveland Street [84 Cleveland St London Borough of Camden, London, UK - being the approximate address].

To begin with, I though the street was strangely empty and it almost felt like I was a spy by the way I was taking pictures.

However, that quickly changed when I felt like if there was a spy and it was most definitely not me.

Considering it was a street just off Tottenham Court Road, it was far too quite, even during the lunch hours. It was completely silent and almost creepy. There was not one soul around however all the shops were left open, with no one working in a single shop. When I would stumble across a person or two, they'd whisper to each other instead of talking.

To say I was uncomfortable or creeped out would be a huge understatement.
White vans and doors like that are not creepy at all....

It did not feel like a street right off Tottenham Court Road at all. It was far too quiet and eery looking. A completely secluded street with the signs of a person or two and only one car that moved.

Another cold day in the damp weather caused me to really indulge in the cold that had formed the day bore, yay.

Location speed drawing

Project 6
Title: You Are Here.

For our final short project we were split into specialised groups, such as: animators, film makers, television show makers ect.

To begin the project we were introduced to our theme through being shown a few animated shorts similar to the theme given. A few words that came to my mind when thinking of this theme were: urban, buildings, city; mostly because when I though of where I was I immediately thought of London and it being a city capital.

We were introduced a new way of getting inspiration. This required us to go out and about with a sketchbook and drawing material in our hand and drawing what we saw all while walking. Walking around the Thames, as fun as it sounds, isn't completely exciting.
I found this to be quite a challenge because drawing accurately while walking is a difficult task that requires balance and a lot of focus, which would mean I could trip over something or hurt myself in some way, during the walk, if I wasn't carefully distributing attention between my book and the path. It didn't help that it was an extremely cold and windy day although the sun way out. The cold and my lack of warm clothing wasn't a good match and caused me to get very very sick.

Initially I was very interested in more creepy looking, damaged and broken areas. Because we were walking around a place under construction, there was quite a bit of mess around which I thought looked really cool and made for an interesting trip.

On the complete opposite end of the enjoyment scale, I did find a lot of interesting things to look at while walking around the river. Items such as tyres and drift wood managed to entertain my friend and I very much. Enough that we got so into looking around and taking the view in that we got left behind and pretty long. This caused our imagination to go wild and think of us getting lost forever and searching for ways to survive. Suddenly the tyres and drift wood sounded very handily to start a new life by the Thames.
There was plenty to live off of scattered across the sand. We managed to find dry wood that we could use to make fire, fruit that we could eat when hungry, a blanket that we could use to keep warm at night, a tyre and rope that could make a swim under a bridge.
It didn't stop there.
We found many places under brides that looked like amazing theme park rides, obviously aided by huge pipes we spotted that could be used as slides for the theme park we would build which would help us earn money in our new life.

I particularly found the following image very interesting and equally disturbing. It was somewhat scary to find something like this randomly, especially because there we're no other people around my friend and I for a long while and we were in a very tight seclude area.

Libertas

"Libertas" meaning freedom in Latin.

Freedom in death.
For this animation I used a tablet to create it and though it was a very useful tool as it allowed me to be free to draw in any style I wanted without having to worry to much. Although it was slightly difficult to get a hang of at first but when getting used to it, it was something I enjoyed using very much. It also made the animation process far more easier compared to my previous methods and this enabled me to make a longer animation.

To make it seem more professional made and commercially able, I worked with the 9:16 widescreen ration. Along with this I learnt about what format professionals use on Premier Pro that enables high quality sound and high definition video playback quality.
I had intentionally planned to exporting it in the regular format I use, which would be MP4. However every time I tried exporting it in any format I knew about, it would never render properly and come out either really small or pixilated. Not wanted my hard work to not be presented properly I went into some research for professional exporting of film and that would be H.264. This allowed my animation to be exported as MP4 while being 1080p HD which I was extremely pleased with because no detail was missed in the playback.

Properly rendering and exporting a film is something I can proudly say I can handle, however the computer glitches come with the package.

A particular scene in the film contains some symbolism along with foreshadowing through the mise en scene. As Deloris walks by, we see some books and objects scattered across the floor.
The rope and scissors laying on the ground foreshadow what will be happening; Deloris hanging herself.
There's a few imaged scattered across the ground, one of which is an image of the Wings of Freedom a symbol seen in an anime called Attack on Titan. These obviously symbolise freedom, and although no one can actually see it, unless closely studying, I did it for some personal enjoyment so I can connect with my work a little more and enjoy the making process by throwing in a few jokes for myself and the people I tell. I find this to be helpful for me as it gets me to engage with my work and enjoy the making process. It also encourages me to finish my work so I can see if anyone sees what I did.
In the centre most part of the scene three books have been stacked on top of each other. Along the spine I've written down some titles that clearly foreshadow what the theme of the animation is and what Deloris intends to do.
The book at the bottom is called To be Free. The thin book in the middle is called A sight into the Afterlife. These show that Deloris has done her research and seriously intends to commit suicide.
The book right at the top, written in the biggest font is titled Libertas. During my research I though it'd be interesting to use a few Latin words in my animation since the afterlife is very closely connected to religion and Christianity. So, finding the word freedom in Latin would be very symbolic and a thing only a few people would be able to understand.
This drove me to title my animation as Libertas because it connected to the theme of the film and it's content

Character and Scene

Freedom in death.
This is the story I choose to go with since I decided it would make for a more exciting story. I also asked people which story they preferred and this one received the most votes, closely followed by prison story.

But how would one know they'll be free, or at peace, after they die? No one's actually died and lived to tell the tale. For all we know, there could be another stage after death [like in video games]; and what if it's more difficult than the stage we're in now?

Is there actually freedom in death?

I named my female protagonist Deloris and though to make her look like someone unhealthy; someone who looks like they've been through a lot are are ready to give up on life. I decided a sickly looking girl would be someone more people can relate to to such a situation.

A girl is also usually not a typical main character in a film and I would like to challenge that norm and make my protagonist a teenage female girl.

I also practiced drawing a few scenes on paper before trying to draw it digitally.
For this project I decided to use a tablet to draw, this was a very helpful tool as it allowed me the freedom to draw however I want- once I got the hang of it.

Since my theme is rather morbid I though it'd be fitting to have a messy and sketchy art style for my animation.

Storyboards: Freedom and Liberty

What is Freedom?

Project 5
Title: Freedom and Liberty.

As an initial bit of research I asked some people what they thought freedom meant to them to them. I got examples such as "dead",  "the ability to be yourself around your friends, family, privately and online", "doing whatever you want, whenever you want".

These terms got me to question what I though freedom meant to me.

A few of particular themes that stuck out to me were death, government and freedom?
Death:
Is death even the last stage?
- People think of death as freedom but no one has actually died and lived to tell the tale.
- Death or the afterlife could be the second stage and an even harder stage.

Government:
What do we actually know about the world and current affairs.
- The government is known to keep secrets from the public, so what do we even know about being free?
- A person does wrong and gets into prison; the person outside says "hah! At least I'm free". In reality the free person is just following rules set by the government and the person in prison choose to do otherwise and was thrown into prison for not doing what they're meant to. The person who's really free is the one in prison.

Freedom?:
Does freedom even exist?
- we're trapped inside a world where freedom supposedly exists. Everyone says this while being encased inside a planet.
- Restricted to movement/travelling.
- Conspiracy; has man even been to space?

Resident Evil & Orange is the new Black

For the outcome of this project I was extremely proud. Although it isn't finished I am very proud of managing to create come 3D animation and I'm glad that when I was getting critiqued about it everyone seemed to like it too. I found it to be very time consuming to construct the buildings however the animation process was very quick and easy to do so it wasn't too bad. Besides, I enjoyed the process of constructing the buildings so I wasn't all too upset by how long it took.

Getting the perfect movement for the animation was rather difficult because of the possible jagged movements and incorrect angles, so I had to experiment a few times before finally choosing the best one for the final film.


Though we were encouraged to use Flash for this since it would be easier for us, I preferred using Premier Pro and put together the film on that. To create the whole film I used four main programmes; Google Sketchup, Premier Pro, Photoshop and After Effects.
After Effects turned out to be a bit of a struggle because the keyframe feature wasn't correctly working and this meant I couldn't animate a small sequence properly. However it looked just as effective and fitting for this opening with or without the animation so I kept it in.
The editing on Photoshop required a lot of work but this helped me gain a lot of knowledge and skill as well as made a successful outcome that looked effective and matched the theme of the film. As the maker of the film I thought it was very important to have a special title for his name, therefore a separate credit to W.S.Anderson's in the sequence was added.

The sound track choice is the theme song in the film, by Marilyn Manson, titled Main Title Theme. It was best fitting with the opening sequence as it is from the soundtrack of the film and it also matched the 3D animation style and it's overall technical aspect.

To finish this film, I think it'll be best to remove all the film clips and keep the animation since it currently looks more like a trailer than an opening title sequence. Although I think the eye opening clip at the end is very well fitting for the opening sequence of the film and a very effective and captivating closing for the title sequence.

Storyboards: Title Sequences

After finalising what films and TV shows we'd like to work on we decided to work on two storyboards each. I choose the Thriller genre film Resident Evil and the Spaghetti Western genre film The Good the bad the ugly.

I knew I preferred resident Evil more so I paid more attention to making a more exciting opening sequence for this. It also required more technical abilities and gave me the chance to learn more due to the films science fiction nature.

The good the bad the ugly was an older film and would mean I could make a simpler title sequence which is something I didn't want to do because it wouldn't be a big enough challenge to tackle.

Recently I've taken an interest to 3D animation and at this stage I think it would be fitting to try and make some, especially since I've applied to 3D animation degree courses for university.
However I have no experience in using Maya and 3D animating programmes, so I chose to work with a programme I'm confident in using; Google Sketchup, which is a professional architectural software. Conveniently, Resident Evil has many architectural aspects and animated sequences  since it is a film based on a video game, so this programme seemed very well fitting.

Partner Work

At this point I though it'd be wise to me to experience working in a group or pair. So I decided to team us with fellow classmate and animator; Summer Scott.

Having two different styles and knowledge levels deemed useful. I was able to help and teach her how to use different programmes such as Premier Pro. Summer being the stronger artist was able to help me draw in proportion and such.
I found that working with a partner was more enjoyable and convenient since you didn't have to find a way to solve all your problems without someone to help and teach you.

Title Sequences

Project 4
Title: Title Sequences.

Getting back from Christmas break we were immediately thrown into a new project, because interview season was coming up, we were encouraged to do as much as possible without stalling.

We were given five genre options:

• Television Drama
• Thriller
• Spaghetti Western
• News and Affair
• Bollywood

From this we were to pick four genres, make pick a film/show for each and make four storyboards. After this we were to pick two of the four and make two final storyboards; this would then lead us to making two final title sequences.

I made a list of films and shows that I could consider for my project.

• Television Drama

- Orange is the new black
- Sherlock Holmes
- Game of Thrones

• News and Affair

- Mock the week
- BBC
- CNN

• Thriller

- Resident Evil
- Shutter Island
- The Machinist

• Spaghetti Western

- The Great Silence
- The good the bad and the ugly
- Days of Vengence

Divorce

I was very glad with the outcome of this project since it was my first time doing a digital piece. Because I didn't have a tablet and had no experience of using one I decided to draw on an iPad and Photoshop. I was also new to using colour along with working digitally. This was a fun experience and very knowledgable, I particularly found it extremely rewarding because it turned out looking like cartoons you'd see on TV, obviously not as high quality and well done, but for a first try it has a lot of good technique.

To make this seem more professional I woke with the widescreen film and TV ratio of 9:16.

Although I didn't get to finish the final piece's story, I would like to complete it and add sound.

Storyboard: Divorce

Upon stumbling on a post about butterflies and their ability to have a deformity that enables them to be both male and female. It's literally half male and fame, split right in the middle causing it to have two different wings. The term for this is bilateral gynandromorph butterfly.

I though the idea of marriage and divorce would be more effectively shown through a butterfly.

A caterpillar crawling along on it's way until it spots a flower and with a butterfly perched on top of it.  It jumps up and into the flower as in encloses the butterfly and caterpillar inside.
The flower then opens revealing a bilateral gynandromorph butterfly fluttering away. This is the existing butterfly and the caterpillar joining as one. The butterfly is faced with a crossroad leading to three different paths; two shady areas on either side and one brightly coloured are going ahead. The butterfly then splits in two and the colour drains out, creating two small white butterflies flying in different directions.

Caterpillars and Butterflies

Going along with the idea of growing up, marriage and divorce I though a caterpillar turning into a butterfly would be most best fitting.

I decided that the character design should be simple, this gave me a chance to look at the facial expression of the caterpillar, the flowers I could make and the different types of butterflies.

Even though I knew I wouldn't need to create the transformation of the caterpillar into butterfly, I though it would be appropriate to study that transformation so I'm well informed about my area of study and can answer questions about such things if asked.

I had a talk with one of the tutors and she suggested I look at the different types of caterpillars and what kind of butterflies they grown into. This is an important bit of research especially because butterfly enthusiasts could possibly watch the film and they could be very critical.

Therefore I looked a few butterflies of different colours that I found beautiful and different caterpillars alike and studied them. This helped me gain knowledge and gave me an insight to real professional research put into films/animation so they appear more realistic and less offensive to people with different interests.

Getting Inspired

"Metamorphosis" meaning; a change of the form or nature of a thing or person into a completely different one.
(in an insect or amphibian) the process of transformation from an immature form to an adult form in two or more distinct stages.

What could I possibly do?
Again I made a mind map to help myself put all my thoughts together. Since I didn't have a very clear idea of the word metamorphosis, I decided to simply type in in google images and see what I found. I picked three pictures that I though could help me and made small mind maps around it with words that I thought when looking at the images. Through this I put all my thoughts together and thought of the idea of growing up and marriage and divorce.

Trip to Brighton

Project 3

Title: Metamorphosis.

 

 

Three words that come to my mind: weird, exciting, fantasy.