Production update 04/05/2012
Just a quick update to record progress so far! All of the completed scenes have been assembled and passed on to Sam, who's cracking on with the editing process.
Scenes 01 and 21 were not submitted to us so they will not be appearing in the final animation. We've spoken to Andy and he said it would be best just to replace any missing elements with the corresponding sections from the animatic.
Whilst that's underway, Jazzy and I are going to crack on with the treatment and DVD designs. We're shooting to burn the DVD on Wednesday and hopefully drop off the treatment for printing as well — not entirely sure how long it will take, so we want to allow at least a couple of days to ensure it gets done on time!
We're well ahead so far guys, keep up the pace! Next meeting in G01 at 10am on Monday 07/05 to discuss progress from here. This next week will mostly be all the jolly exciting paperwork stuff — portfolios and sketchbooks and the like. We'll establish exactly what we need from everybody come Wednesday when the disc is burned and finished.
Any further questions just let me know.
Keep it up everyone!
Alex
Showing posts with label recap. Show all posts
Showing posts with label recap. Show all posts
Friday, 4 May 2012
Friday, 23 March 2012
Progress report: 22/03/2012
Good morning everyone, fairly productive week so far, just figured I'd update you on the progress of things. The good news is we're almost ready to begin animating! I've almost got all the crows we need to start ready; I still need to tweak a few, but fortunately seeing as the majority of the crow's scenes are the ones I'm animating I can easily continue to work on them over Easter. The big priority for us at the moment are the scarecrow puppets and finishing off the backgrounds.
Andy has said that he'd like for all groups to have completed 20 seconds of animation by the end of this week. This is quite a tricky one; we're working with puppets, so it's going to be difficult for us to get 20 seconds of character animation until they're complete! I think, though, that we should just make a start animating using whatever we've got. Even if the majority is just zooms and pans on the backgrounds - we could then just drop the characters on top and animate them when complete. It would be good to get those scenes out of the way early so we can focus 100% on the character animation, which is of course the most important part in all this.
Having said that, like I said I've got a lot of crows done - I can probably start animating the crow's walk cycle (when she's looking for the scarecrow) this weekend. Jazzy and I met up yesterday to discuss the running cycle for the crow's "freak out and run away" scene, and I think I can probably have that completed in time for the weekend if Jazzy wanted to have a go at that.
Jae has also sent us all a copy of the puppet for the second scene (brilliant timing!) which you'll find in your UCA inboxes, so again, there's something Jazzy can make a start with!
As you may have seen yesterday Sam already animated one of his scenes - the aftermath of the crash. He did a brilliant job with it and it's so amazing to see it in full colour - all that's missing is the torn up hang glider from the background, which we can easily add by editing the PSD file when we've decided on the colour scheme. :]
I'm going to have the timetable for the individual scenes drawn up by Monday so we can all see what we're doing and how long we have. The other thing I've been doing is compiling a big project folder for the final animation to help keep us organised. It will have individual folders (clearly labelled) for each component of the animation (puppets, backgrounds, etc) and also contain the individual After Effects files for each scene from the animatic, so you'll be able to check your timings and see exactly how each shot was put together. Hopefully this will give you a headstart when it comes to animating your puppets. It will also enable us to keep everything in one place, so when we transfer files to each other we know that everything will work exactly as it should.
I'll also type up a little "help" file that shows you the exact composition and export settings we need to use as well as explain where everything is within the folder.
We've got very loose plans to begin sound recording this weekend. When we meet on Monday, bring in anything you've managed to animate so far and I'll drop it all on top of the animatic so we can see how everything's working!
Happy trails!
Alex
Andy has said that he'd like for all groups to have completed 20 seconds of animation by the end of this week. This is quite a tricky one; we're working with puppets, so it's going to be difficult for us to get 20 seconds of character animation until they're complete! I think, though, that we should just make a start animating using whatever we've got. Even if the majority is just zooms and pans on the backgrounds - we could then just drop the characters on top and animate them when complete. It would be good to get those scenes out of the way early so we can focus 100% on the character animation, which is of course the most important part in all this.
Having said that, like I said I've got a lot of crows done - I can probably start animating the crow's walk cycle (when she's looking for the scarecrow) this weekend. Jazzy and I met up yesterday to discuss the running cycle for the crow's "freak out and run away" scene, and I think I can probably have that completed in time for the weekend if Jazzy wanted to have a go at that.
Jae has also sent us all a copy of the puppet for the second scene (brilliant timing!) which you'll find in your UCA inboxes, so again, there's something Jazzy can make a start with!
As you may have seen yesterday Sam already animated one of his scenes - the aftermath of the crash. He did a brilliant job with it and it's so amazing to see it in full colour - all that's missing is the torn up hang glider from the background, which we can easily add by editing the PSD file when we've decided on the colour scheme. :]
I'm going to have the timetable for the individual scenes drawn up by Monday so we can all see what we're doing and how long we have. The other thing I've been doing is compiling a big project folder for the final animation to help keep us organised. It will have individual folders (clearly labelled) for each component of the animation (puppets, backgrounds, etc) and also contain the individual After Effects files for each scene from the animatic, so you'll be able to check your timings and see exactly how each shot was put together. Hopefully this will give you a headstart when it comes to animating your puppets. It will also enable us to keep everything in one place, so when we transfer files to each other we know that everything will work exactly as it should.
I'll also type up a little "help" file that shows you the exact composition and export settings we need to use as well as explain where everything is within the folder.
We've got very loose plans to begin sound recording this weekend. When we meet on Monday, bring in anything you've managed to animate so far and I'll drop it all on top of the animatic so we can see how everything's working!
Happy trails!
Alex
Tuesday, 20 March 2012
Progress report: 19/03/2012
Following on from Jazzy's post yesterday evening, I'm typing up another quick recap of everything we've covered over the past week or so. It's a big'un, so please hang tight!
Progress report 19/03/2012
Progress report 19/03/2012
- Attended sound workshops last week. Inducted into the sound studio and introduced to the roland recorders. After workshops we decided it would definitely be best to record as much of the sounds ourselves as possible. Anything we're unable to record ourselves, we can resort to stock effects.
- We pretty much have a finalised rough cut of our soundtrack at this stage! Sam, it's worth bearing in mind that as animation progresses we might find we need additional sound effects to accompany additional movement — for example, when the crow freaks out and runs away — as she jumps into the air her wings will flap so we might need something for that. Don't worry... it won't be much, I promise...!
- We met on Friday to discuss concerns over the scarecrow colour designs. Jae, over the weekend, put together a number of alternate colour schemes and we were able to reach a compromise yesterday. Hopefully everybody is happy now and we can begin puppet production! :]
- Jazzy finalising hang glider design and we discussed colour/shape options. She's going to do a couple of versions of the selected favourites and see how they work alongside the scarecrow and background in terms of colour.
- Alex working on crow puppets — should have first versions of all puppets complete by the end of the week, ready for testing and refinement.
- Scenes divided up for production.
We've got just two weeks left before Easter, guys, and we need to start animating next week to give us time to identify any problems. This means that we need to have enough puppets for us to at least begin animating our designated scenes — any remaining puppets can be worked on whilst Jazzy, Sam and I get started animating :)
Homework
- Jae — begin producing scarecrow puppets. We need to have enough by Monday next week for us to at least begin animating our designated scenes — any remaining puppets can be worked on whilst Jazzy, Sam and I get started animating :) (Sorry, I know I repeat myself!)
- Alex — produce individual animation timetable detailing the length of each shot and who's working on it. Carry on with crow puppets — do some more tests, etc.
- Jazzy — carry on with the hang glider. Meet up with Alex to work together on the puppet for the crow's run cycle.
- Sam — start recording sound this week, ideally — it's best to start as early as possible so we've got more time to sort out problems and so you're not having to juggle it on top of animating!
I think that's all for now. It's crunch time, everybody... let's make the most of these next 2 weeks...!
Wednesday, 7 March 2012
Progress report: 5/03 — 7/03
Morning everyone. This report spans the past few days as it seems like we've covered quite a lot in a relatively short space of time. You all know what you're doing (I hope!) but just as a record:
Progress report: 5/03 — 7/03
On Monday we all met to discuss concerns we'd had over work distribution. It became quickly apparent that Sam had nothing to do after completing the model sheets, and Jae was taking responsibility for two major roles — sound design and puppet creation. These are two jobs that really needed to be happening at the same time and trying to juggle both would have placed unfair demands on Jae's time. In light of this, we've re-jiggled some of the production roles and Sam will now be taking on sound design and editing duties.
We looked over some animation tests that Jae did of the first scene and agreed that the scarecrow's run cycle would be better suited to a hand drawn frame-by-frame technique instead of a puppet, which would have been difficult to animate convincingly. Because of this, we decided it would be better to create the puppets for the rest of the animation and come back to the run cycle last. This would allow us to start animating straight away, rather than waiting for the first scene to be completed, and leave us time at the end to focus entirely on getting the run cycle right.
The animatic has been continuously tweaked on an ongoing basis over the course of the week and is approaching what could loosely be described as "completion." In all honesty I think it's going to be something we're constantly refining right up until the end but it's pretty much all together now, and we're generally pretty happy with all of the timings!
Sam's been slogging away at the sound and has put together some very nice first drafts for us using a variety of stock sound effects. Working alongside with sound in mind we've been able to better refine the timings to accomodate the sound requirements of each shot. We've met to discuss further options, share resources and generally give feedback. Again, it's one of those things that's in progress right up 'til the end.
Background production is going well and Jazzy has been handing over the files to Jae so she is able to sketch out some rough puppets for us to test on Thursday morning.
Homework
Sam — continue with sound development. Sound workshops are next week, so we'd like to have a fairly solid idea of what sounds we're going to need so that we can ask relevant questions and figure out the best ways to get the sounds that we need. Carry on uploading any edits you make regularly and we'll be sure to give you plenty of feedback :]
Jae — some rough puppets for Thursday so we can start testing them out and seeing how they move! They don't need to be coloured or anything, little sketches split into layers for us to muck around with on After Effects are fine. Aim to get to the scene where he comes over the hill with the hang glider! We can give you more specific advice on Thursday once we see how they're moving :]
Alex — same as Jae, get some puppets for the crow done for Thursday morning. Look mainly at her walking sequence and the flight to the scarecrow's arm at the end — fairly tricky scenes that are going to need a lot of consideration so it would be good to get a head start.
Jazzy — carry on as you are with the backgrounds. If you can bring 'em in on Thursday we'll take a look and see how you're doing!
NEXT MEETING THURSDAY IN G01 AT 10AM (before the lecture)
Any problems, let me know :D
Keep it up everyone!
Alex
Progress report: 5/03 — 7/03
On Monday we all met to discuss concerns we'd had over work distribution. It became quickly apparent that Sam had nothing to do after completing the model sheets, and Jae was taking responsibility for two major roles — sound design and puppet creation. These are two jobs that really needed to be happening at the same time and trying to juggle both would have placed unfair demands on Jae's time. In light of this, we've re-jiggled some of the production roles and Sam will now be taking on sound design and editing duties.
We looked over some animation tests that Jae did of the first scene and agreed that the scarecrow's run cycle would be better suited to a hand drawn frame-by-frame technique instead of a puppet, which would have been difficult to animate convincingly. Because of this, we decided it would be better to create the puppets for the rest of the animation and come back to the run cycle last. This would allow us to start animating straight away, rather than waiting for the first scene to be completed, and leave us time at the end to focus entirely on getting the run cycle right.
The animatic has been continuously tweaked on an ongoing basis over the course of the week and is approaching what could loosely be described as "completion." In all honesty I think it's going to be something we're constantly refining right up until the end but it's pretty much all together now, and we're generally pretty happy with all of the timings!
Sam's been slogging away at the sound and has put together some very nice first drafts for us using a variety of stock sound effects. Working alongside with sound in mind we've been able to better refine the timings to accomodate the sound requirements of each shot. We've met to discuss further options, share resources and generally give feedback. Again, it's one of those things that's in progress right up 'til the end.
Background production is going well and Jazzy has been handing over the files to Jae so she is able to sketch out some rough puppets for us to test on Thursday morning.
Homework
Sam — continue with sound development. Sound workshops are next week, so we'd like to have a fairly solid idea of what sounds we're going to need so that we can ask relevant questions and figure out the best ways to get the sounds that we need. Carry on uploading any edits you make regularly and we'll be sure to give you plenty of feedback :]
Jae — some rough puppets for Thursday so we can start testing them out and seeing how they move! They don't need to be coloured or anything, little sketches split into layers for us to muck around with on After Effects are fine. Aim to get to the scene where he comes over the hill with the hang glider! We can give you more specific advice on Thursday once we see how they're moving :]
Alex — same as Jae, get some puppets for the crow done for Thursday morning. Look mainly at her walking sequence and the flight to the scarecrow's arm at the end — fairly tricky scenes that are going to need a lot of consideration so it would be good to get a head start.
Jazzy — carry on as you are with the backgrounds. If you can bring 'em in on Thursday we'll take a look and see how you're doing!
NEXT MEETING THURSDAY IN G01 AT 10AM (before the lecture)
Any problems, let me know :D
Keep it up everyone!
Alex
Monday, 20 February 2012
Progress report: 20/02/2012
Hi guys,
Fantastic work today guys - massive thanks to you all for making today such a success. Thanks to you all we're now a few days ahead of schedule - but unfortunately that doesn't mean we can take it easy ;]
Just to recap today and remind you all of the homework:
Progress report 20/02/2012
Fantastic work today guys - massive thanks to you all for making today such a success. Thanks to you all we're now a few days ahead of schedule - but unfortunately that doesn't mean we can take it easy ;]
Just to recap today and remind you all of the homework:
Progress report 20/02/2012
- Camera blocking and storyboarding completed. Tutorial with Ron suggested reference for the hang glider scene - the "crop duster" scene from North by Northwest. Jazzy posted it on the blog earlier today, so be sure to have a look at that!
- Massive progress with the character designs, which are now pretty much finalised. Brilliant work from both Sam and Jae - thanks to you both we have some very fun and unique characters that open up a lot of potential for some really fun movements. All we need to do is decide on a colour scheme for the scarecrow and we can start looking at making some model sheets and even building puppets by next week.
- Jazzy and Alex to work on animatics - ideally aim to have this completed by Monday 27th.
- Alex to slap together a quick animatic from storyboard images to check the timing/flow, and to help Jae make decisions regarding sound effects.
- Meeting on Wednesday 22nd to review character designs and begin model sheet production. Further discussion regarding progress from this point. Puppet building to be discussed.
Homework
Jae & Sam – For Wednesday 22nd: Come up with some colour schemes for the scarecrow and practice drawing the characters in different poses. Use the storyboard as reference and re-create some of those key poses.
Alex – For Wednesday 22nd: Rough storyboard animatic to check timing/flow. Amend production schedule and timetable. Consider puppet design responsibilities/allocation. Assist with animatic/character design production where necessary.
Jae & Sam – For Wednesday 22nd: Come up with some colour schemes for the scarecrow and practice drawing the characters in different poses. Use the storyboard as reference and re-create some of those key poses.
Alex – For Wednesday 22nd: Rough storyboard animatic to check timing/flow. Amend production schedule and timetable. Consider puppet design responsibilities/allocation. Assist with animatic/character design production where necessary.
Jazzy – Start moving animatic using refined storyboard images (aim for completion by Monday 27th)
Please let me help with something!! I don't feel I have much to do! :P
I'll be posting up the new production schedule after Wednesday once we've discussed how we're going to divide up the puppet design responsibilities. I'll also put a lot of great reference images and videos for everybody to use for drawing and animating the characters.
'Til Wednesday, good luck and happy trails
Alex
Please let me help with something!! I don't feel I have much to do! :P
I'll be posting up the new production schedule after Wednesday once we've discussed how we're going to divide up the puppet design responsibilities. I'll also put a lot of great reference images and videos for everybody to use for drawing and animating the characters.
'Til Wednesday, good luck and happy trails
Alex
Tuesday, 14 February 2012
Progress report - 14/02/2012
Great work from everybody today guys, thanks again for all your contributions - hope your brains aren't too fried! Thanks to Jazzy for posting up the script so far - it's here for your reference so try and look over it during the next few days and make notes of anything you'd like to add, change or mention. Remember that we're aiming to get the first draft completed by Friday, which means we need to get an idea for a solid ending!
I'll be posting the rough thumbnails we used to develop the script a little later so you can see them as reference. I'll also post up the videos we looked at earlier!
Just to recap our progress today and remind you all of our homework:
Progress report 14/02/2012
Keep a beady eye on this blog as I'll endeavour to post up a rough version of the production schedule tomorrow evening for you all to look at before we meet on Thursday. This will give you time to look it over and make note of anything you want to mention.
In the meantime, keep cracking! I'd also like to remind you all of the importance of the blog in this unit - and in general! I'd like to see you all uploading stuff at least once or twice a week if you can - it's a really valuable part of evaluating your ideas as well as getting feedback from everybody else even when we're not in a meeting or in class. Sorry to sound like a tutor! :) Let's see you guys uploading your character designs and notes so far! Then we can assemble them onto a separate page for easy access.
See you all Thursday!
Alex
I'll be posting the rough thumbnails we used to develop the script a little later so you can see them as reference. I'll also post up the videos we looked at earlier!
Just to recap our progress today and remind you all of our homework:
Progress report 14/02/2012
- Talked about blocking and camera scripts. Managed to complete 2/3rds of the rough draft of the script - all it needs is an ending, then we can look at refining it slightly and starting to break it down into shots, ready for storyboarding. Andy made a post on myUCA earlier today advising that we should aim to have the animatics ready by the end of next week (24th February.) This is something we'll need to discuss ASAP - it's certainly possible, but it will means that we'll probably need to make compromises and come up with something solid for the script a little earlier than we'd anticipated. It's worth remembering that the animatic can change if it's not working, so it's probably best not to be too precious over the scripts and storyboards at this point.
- Discussed character design and established direction for each character. Some great designs from everybody and lots of great ideas came from it. To recap:
Keep the scarecrow's eyes visible. Think about using his hat in his facial expressions - the angle of the brim can be used like eyebrows!
Experiment with the idea of expressing the history of his conflict with the crow - stray feathers or twigs or leaves stuck in his clothes/hair?
Jack Skellington would be a great reference for the body structure, with a big round head and stick-thin body. What other characters are tall and skinny? How do they move? Experiment with the idea of his arms - what are they made of? How can we emphasize his clumsiness? Perhaps his arms are twigs - one is shorter than the other, or he has leaves sticking out of his elbows.
The crow design came together really nicely today. Sam made lots of great notes to work from - try keeping the rosy cheeks and slightly rounded beak. Have a look at Jewel from Rio for some ideas. The two characters are very similar, but we can tell which one's a girl. How have the designers made her different from Rio? What makes her look like a girl? - Alex to work on the production schedule. Ideally, we need to see this by the end of next week. A rough version will be created in time for our meeting on Thursday where we can discuss it further.
Keep a beady eye on this blog as I'll endeavour to post up a rough version of the production schedule tomorrow evening for you all to look at before we meet on Thursday. This will give you time to look it over and make note of anything you want to mention.
In the meantime, keep cracking! I'd also like to remind you all of the importance of the blog in this unit - and in general! I'd like to see you all uploading stuff at least once or twice a week if you can - it's a really valuable part of evaluating your ideas as well as getting feedback from everybody else even when we're not in a meeting or in class. Sorry to sound like a tutor! :) Let's see you guys uploading your character designs and notes so far! Then we can assemble them onto a separate page for easy access.
See you all Thursday!
Alex
Wednesday, 8 February 2012
Recap of first meeting (part 1)
As promised, here's a brief overview of the first meeting (for reference). Please amend this or let me know if I've missed anything out! :]
Animation meeting 08/02/2012
We discussed overall production timescale. Obviously without knowing the length of the animation, the media/techniques and the amount of animation we can reasonably produce per week it's impossible to set anything specific yet, but generally we should look to begin animating or producing tests by week 5 or 6 (Monday 19th March). If we aim to have the animation (plus all post-production) completed by the 1st May this gives us about 7 weeks of animation time, allowing us extra time to assemble the portfolios/DVD cases and fix anything that goes catastrophically wrong!
Here's a link to the unit timetable on myUCA that outlines basic project structure: Unit timetable
There's also this time management timetable that I think could be very useful in deciding our production schedule and working days. Obviously we can adapt it to fit in with lessons and personal arrangements, but have a look at it in the meantime and let me know if you have any ideas! Here's the link!
Again, this is just an initial ballpark figure. It could change drastically in the coming weeks once we've got a better grasp on the scope of the project. Alex needs to liaise with the group in the coming weeks to determine exact tasks to be set and develop a finalised production timetable with feasible deadlines. We talked about the possibility of having a visual timetable/checklist with icon-coded columns to show progress of each task so everyone can keep track of how the project is progressing and we can more easily identify areas of difficulty.
Jazzy will be writing a recap of the production roles and media discussion we had, so look forward to that in within the next couple of days :] May I also suggest posting up some of your pitch/production artwork and an overview of the story to the blog, for easy access/reference?
In the meantime, homework for this week is to do some independent research, character designs and story development. Remember the personality of the scarecrow and have that influence your designs - think not only of facial expression but body language and structure! There's a fantastic book in the library called Pencils to Pixels and it's a one-stop-shop guide to literally everything you could ever want to know about animating - it has an entire chapter on character design that might be helpful to have a look at! If you can think of any titles for the film, jot them down as well :]
We'll be meeting on Tuesday again (time to be arranged) to look at everybody's ideas and designs. We'll be combining elements from each to help us produce the first draft of the script. Jae and Sam both had some fantastic ideas and suggestions right from the get go, so we're really looking forward to seeing what you come up with! Thanks again guys for such a great first meeting, I'm really excited to be working with you and I can only hope I'm able to help do justice to this project.
If you have any questions, suggestions or just want to yell at me for being too bossy, please let me know!
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