Fridge time

Started on my first bit of actual animation last week (despite having about 16 backgrounds still to complete (or start...)

Here's a still from earlier on in the week

Hint of red

Although I love the idea of keeping a mostly black-and-white colour pallette (though the supermarket scenes have some muted yellows/oranges in), the first scene is looking a bit too bland. I experimented with adding a hint of red and really love the effect. New background for shot 5 done too.

Rotoscope test

Here is a test I did of the rotocsope technique. I chose a woman running as I thought a fast movement would be best to test. I like the smoothness and fluidity of it which I feel contrasts nicely with the hand-made feel of the rest of the background. I need to check with my tutor about the appropriateness of rotoscoping as otherwise I will still shoot video footage but will use it for second-hand reference rather than exact rotoscoping.


 

Things to sort:
 - White card looks too stark, add more papery bumpy texture
- I've lightened some darker objects but some still look a bit too black, change these
- (need to fill in shelves obviously)
- change the colour of her top as it's too similar to newspaper
- change hair colour?

Supermarket setting style

Have been struggling with getting the supermarket right but I changed the angle of some shots to make it lower angle and this seems to work better. Have made things on the shelves more separate and defined objects so it looks more detailed.


old

new(er)

Recent stills

These are ones that I have worked on since January (as all previous work had been completed before Christmas for an earlier hand in of pre-production work. Here I'm looking at using newspaper as a prominent texture, mixed up with plain card and fabrics...

Too much blue...

Good background, look at layout/ mis-en-scene though

Okay background though looks grimy, odd connotations?

Pattern too big and dwarfs the scene and confuses viewer, could try it smalller and darker?

This one looks nice though perhaps gives impression of it being nighttime?

Original felt idea, I like how it looks more homemade and cosy but will this fit with other scenes?

This pattern works well, need to look at having something behind table, like above maybe as it looks a bit bare?

Pretty but doesn't really work.

Interesting faded grey texture, potentially could work

Bit too girly maybe...

Also been looking at 'fake' light i.e. using masks to create paler, yellow light 'beams' without having a proper light there and I think I will use this technique for my final film as it progresses. I've decided the ones that look and work the best are smaller repeated patterns which are dark in colour so I will look at more of these to come up with the final background texture. I also need to bear in mind that all the backgrounds (approx 30) need to be linked in some way so as to seem consistent throughout the film.
I'm thinking of having the backgrounds in black and white / grayscale to tie in with the newspaper and then have the characters in colour... this would be a way of linking the backgrounds.

Other possible links

- consistent colour
- consistent pattern e.g floral
- consistent secondary texture e.g. different patterns laid over the top of a woolly fabric each time

Initial styled test shots

Here are a few test shots looking at style and technique and might look a bit like the final thing...



Lots of newspaper layers...this looks too confusing but like the idea of having newspaper as a prominent layer... relates to media coverage (lack of?) and can use real life trafficking articles

NOTE: FIND RELEVANT NEWSPAPER ARTICLES



Using a mask to create a character made of a texture, over the top of another texture. No shadow but maybe it needs one. Like the floral print but need to find own version or scan one :)

Initial style ideas and tests

Here are some initial styled stills looking at the use of texture and technique in AE.

 Too dark and not enough colour, but light looks mysterious

 Too sickly looking, sideboard up or get rid of it behind chair?

 Like how the chair and table look closer up and everything else is pushed back.

 Need to look at facial features as the eyebrows look like eyes... what features to use?

Stuff on shelves doesn't look as effective when recessed behind the newspaper. Lighting is good though

Animatic

Here's the working animatic (in lower resolution):

Storyboards

Here are the finished working storyboards for my film:

Influences

Here I've collected some of my main influences for this project all of which I really love and text is taken from my interim report on reference materials and pre-production work:


'Robes of War' (2008), is an emotive depiction of the devastating effects of war on a woman. The serious topic and use of metamorphosis and symbolism are aspects I want to include in my film. Although the style is more abstract than my intended film, I am keen to portray the traffickers in similar smeary, fluid way to show how they manipulate and escape people and the law. There is no dialogue or foleys in the film, just dramatic music to convey the pace and emotion and I think this works really effectively. The music here is my main reason for this influence as my film will have no (or extremely little) dialogue and dramatic music, although I am also hoping to include foleys.



ROBES OF WAR from National Film Board of Canada on Vimeo.

I decided to utilise material textures for my film to echo the themes of consumerism, for example using food or clothing textures. My main reference example is 'The Thomas Beale Cipher' (2010) which uses an interesting 2D paper-like effect technique. Particularly I like the way the textures move subtly within the character – the character moves over the top of the texture rather than ‘with’ it, so there is constantly something moving within the frame. I am going to employ this technique in my piece. Although lots of different textures are used the colour palette is consistent and seems mysterious which ties all the scenes together well. I also like the fluid animation style which was done using rotoscoping. I would like to get a similar fluid motion in my film but I think I will use video footage to reference rather than complete rotoscoping.

The Thomas Beale Cipher from Andrew S Allen on Vimeo.

'The Dog who was a Cat Inside' (2002) is a story about a dog who has an uncooperative cat 'living' inside him and it relates how they deal with each other through gentle humour. It can be interpreted as relating to friendships and even self-worth and I think it deals with these sensitive issues cleverly and sympathetically. Here the characters are truly flat 2D, so much so that when the turn to the side they 'disappear'. The backgrounds are also highly stylised and created as 2D boxes in a 3D space. Interesting camera angles show these off well and this is something I may utilise in my film. 

The Dog Who Was A Cat Inside from Trunk Animation on Vimeo.

Pixar's 'Day and Night' (2010) has an interesting technique, where the story is told within the two textures of the two main characters; so the characters are the background as well as themselves. The character texture changes depending on the mini-story being told and the characters move over the top of their individual texture. 2D is used for the character outlines and the inside scenes have been rendered in 3D. Although initially I found the concept a bit confusing because it's so unusual, it is very effective at getting across the different emotions of the characters, especially when matched so well to the backgrounds.

Day & Night by Pixar 2010 from Tapua on Vimeo.

I've decided that this year I will try to add more to this blog but mostly it will be to do with my third year uni film, since I've not got time to do much else!
My Final Major Project is a short 2-3min 2D animation and this module counts for a third of my degree classification (SCARY!).

Centred on an ordinary woman who is targeted by a human trafficker whilst visiting the supermarket, the film looks at the illegal human trafficking trade and how it affects ordinary people's lives. Here's a rough overview which was taken from my written feasibility report which we did at the start of the year. It has changed and evolved a bit from this but the main concept and style is pretty similar.

'Absence' (working title) is a short, serious 2D animation set in the present day city. It uses muted colours and paper-like textures to portray the haunting notion of modern day slavery.

The film begins with the main character going to make cereal for breakfast but realising she has no milk. She decides to go to the supermarket.

She browses the aisles and casually searches for other products to buy. As well as the supermarket products the viewer also sees a host of bedraggled, sketchy figures tucked into the shelves but the main character is oblivious. They look sad and frightened - some are hiding and some are trying to escape.

Alongside this there are other more powerful-looking, surreal characters, the traffickers, who appear like real people to the main character, but the viewer sees them flicker and distort to surreal and more scary looking creatures. They are eagerly searching through the bedraggled figures looking for their perfect purchase. Some of the figures get beaten and some get dragged away by the traffickers.

One particular trafficker is getting frustrated because they cannot find someone to meet their requirements. Their anger increases until they spot the main character and decide she is exactly what they want. They must have her.

Suddenly panic ensues as the main character realises she is being targeted and  desperately tries to escape his grasp, fleeing from him in fear. She sees the exit and runs towards it.

The final scene shows a new day at the supermarket and new people shopping, again oblivious to the bedraggled figures. As they search the aisles the viewer spots the main character tucked in between the products and realises she didn't escape after all.

The aim of the animation is to raise awareness of human trafficking by relating it to consumer items being bought and sold, hence the supermarket setting and (attempted) use of metaphors. I want to convey the fact that it can happen to anyone, and is happening in the UK not just in ‘other countries’.

Here's the very initial sketch storyboard (which doesn't look great but fingers crossed it will become clearer :) )

Paper cut out style animation

Here's some pre-production work and stills from a test shot I did for a proposed paper cut out style animation, created using AE.

Kitchen scene finished game element

This is the finished game element of the candle snuffer section of the project. The user must first navigate the kitchen to find the candle snuffer. Once found the user is led to a page which will contain in depth factual information and a 360' rotating photographic image.

Movie C

Stylised Walk Cycle with character overlay - Sneak

Here I tried to demonstrate someone sneaking, as if they were trying to avoid being seen and doing something mischievious. I used the basic puppet and After Effects to create an initial cycle and then when I was happy I did a character overlay on top using Photoshop. I then imported the .jpeg sequence back into After Effects and rendered it out with a table. I used videos from youtube for inspiration.
I included pauses in the cycle to slow down the movement and stretched one cycle to just over 2 seconds rather than the 1 second in the other cycles. This was to make the movement seem more calculated and careful.
Basic puppet sneak cycle which I drew over:

 

Sneak walk cycle

59 individual layers used as the basis for the sneak cycle

Finished sneak cycle with simple background





Muybridge animal rotoscope

Part of assignment was to rotoscope some Muybridge images to create an animation.
It was really interesting to see how much the cat stretched and squashed during the leaps so I tried to use the colours to emphasise this.

Run cycle using puppet

This is the run cycle I submitted using the same puppet and After Effects again.

The majority of frames were hand-created, there is very little AE in-betweening as I feel this makes for a  more realistic movement.

Walk cycle using puppet

Walk cycle using a puppet in After Effects. This was a lot easier than hand drawing each frame but did not allow as much freedom and flexibility of the limbs - neck and foot movement especially. Overall I'm very pleased with the movement though perhaps the strides are quite wide.

Rendered out as Quicktime movie.

Hand-drawn walk cycle test 1

First version of walk cycle which I completed over the weekend. Its made up of 25 individual frames with frame 1 and 25 being identical copies so that it can be looped when finished. Needs some sorting out in the crossover stage as the frames are a bit jumpy I feel.

This cycle along with three other interpretations is due on 28th Feb eek. Must keep going.

UPDATE:

The walk cycle when I 'finished' it. In the end I decided to submit the puppeted walk cycle over this hand-drawn one (only one was allowed) as though I spent a lot (a lot) of time on this I just couldn't get it to look smooth enough and jitter-free for my liking. For a first attempt I am sort of proud of it but it shows how much more practice I need...