Extended Practice- Study task 1- Extended Brief-Time Management

Time Management

Time management is always something that I struggle with at the end of a project. I never realise how long each stage will take.

My real shock this year was how long, not just scenes take, but setting scenes up would take. I found myself taking between 20 minutes to an hour to set up certain shots each time. This really ate into the day and how long it took for each scene to be animated.

This is defiantly something to improve upon in the future. Yet in the industry the timing is never so tight, but I can go into it knowing that setting up can take longer than it can to film so I will learn next time to add this into my time schedule.

Another thing to add to my timing would be puppet repairs, this really took a long time to fix, especially their hands and arms as they broke often but since they were used in ever scene this was to be expected. It just took more time than I realised to glue, re-make and work around these issues.

Extended Practice- Study task 1- Extended Brief- Additional scenes changed or Improved

Additional scenes changed or Improved

These are all of the scenes that either weren't up to scratch or were filmed wrong.

This scene left too much of a gap from when she got down the stairs to where she was stood, therefore I was told about the rule of 'breaking the line of action', something I had not been told about before. This meant I could try to not repeat this in the future.

This was a scene filmed early on and is going from the father to daughter to introduce her and where she is, I love the scene but it just isn't filmed well enough due to focus jittering and flickering.

Here the daughter is giving the clock to her father, but her eyes look too dead so the scene by the end look a bit intense.

This was an annoying issue, if you look closely a hair can be seen appearing on the desk. I had not realised when filming so I then had to go through and edit it out of every frame.

This was a filmed section that I was going to use to look at the shop, but it looked very out of place within the animation as everything was jittery and stop-motion, this is why it looked so odd.

This was my last updated clip for a crit in front of peers. This let me see what I had done as well as what the music was like with the clip. Even though I had to quickly add music myself, it showed how amazingly well it went with the animation overall.

Extended Practice- Study task 1- Extended Brief- Street Designs

Street Designs

These are the street designs. It has been very frustrating to have not been able to complete these as it would have added to the animation but this is where they are at at the moment.

Extended Practice- Study task 1- Extended Brief- Further Props and Set-up Images

Further Props and Set-up Images

These are further images of props, and setting up of the actual set within university. As it is so large, larger than the door. Everything must be set up within the room. 

After setting up where I want everything to go, I needed to make sure it wouldn't move. I then painfully had to blue tac everything down. When their are over 60 or more pops alone, this took time but will greatly benefit how the animation will look.

I had to wait to put items like the banister together, as well as the light fittings as they wouldn't survive transport without breaking.

 This is the final image of what the assembled set looks like. I placed all the furniture and props to flow with the shape of the set. I have also pulled some of the items out so it isn't as pushed back. Their is a blank space in the centre but that will not be seen due to camera placements.

Extended Practice- Study task 1- Extended Brief- Issues and scene tests

Issues and scene tests

Animating really isn't a stage of this process that I enjoy. I thought it would be better as it is a story I came up with and developed, but it is just as hard and therefore is taking more and more time to get scenes correct.

Other issues & solutions have been:

• Puppet hands breaking- Glued the fingers with super glue so they cant pop out more than they have.
• Puppets eyebrows and eye lids wont stay put- Put eyebrows on spikes so they are attached, eye lids attached using Vaseline
• Images look a bit weird- trying to do panning scenes for more movement
• Scenes haven't gained the correct look- re-shot scenes where possible till happier with the result 
• Daughter cannot stand too well- Tied down when possible/ using rig and not too many shots where bending down
• Some shots have been changed to better show set, puppet and movements

These are some of the test shots I have not been happy with

This was the first behind scene, the flicker in the background was a bit too much to fix as I didn't know how to set up the camera and the desk moves a bit too much when he moves.

These two scenes were just to pan around when he was working but look too bumpy as the rig set up cannot move slowly enough even with small movements

These are the same, looked good when playing back on Dragon Frame but when looking again, both are just too clumsy.

This is a scene from where the dad was looking to see the neighbour next door but he looks too angry and moves too fast and wrong so the emotions are hard to pick up on.

Extended Practice- Study task 1- Extended Brief- Festivals for Graduation Short Film

Festivals for Graduation Short Film 

I hope to be able to add my graduation film to festivals once complete to show people my work and what I could accomplish under strict time schedules, some festivals have already past, so over the next year I hope to enter the film to:

• Aesthetica Short Film Festival
• Manchester Animation Festival
• Animaze- Montreal Animation Festival
• Animex International Festival of Animation and Computer Games
• Bradford Animation Festival

These are not the only festival. I am in a good position with my film as there are no voices, therefore no language barriers. This keeps my animation open to a wider crowd and could send it to more places because of this.

Extended Practice- Study task 1- Extended Brief- Music Student Ideas

Extended Brief- 

Music Student Ideas

These are some of the sound ideas that the music student Cameron has come up with. They are some of the scene changes and the sounds that could go with them. The first being the happy scenes, then the sad, then a jealousy scene. These all give me an indication as to  what his ideas are for the animation and what I could expect from the overall piece.

I absolutely love how these sound and the happy melody is exactly what I was looking for so this really helps me to see my animation with sounds and how it could end up looking with sounds to aid the emotions.

Extended Practice- Study task 1- Extended Brief- Animation Timings & Extended Storyboard

Animation Timings & Extended Storyboard 

These are the extended finalised storyboards for the animation. After the initial one, it just didn't show enough detail so this was to show just that. It was also so I could look at camera angles and shot framing.

This was a quick Premier video I put together to send to the music student I am working with so He as well as I could see what it will look like and how long each scene could be.

Extended Practice- Study task 1- Extended Brief- Prop Building & Process

Extended Brief- 

Prop Building & Process

Here are some examples of the props I have been building for the Emporium and how they were made, as their are a lot, i made some, like books in bulk batches, and for more original pieces like a Telescope, I spent more time building the finished item. 

Originally the shop was going to be a clock shop, this is why I have still stuck to this in a way and decided to make clocks, some out of foam board for the larger faces, and buttons can be used for the smaller clock faces to create a range of different shapes, sizes and colours for variation. 

This was my process of making the telescope was very interesting. My step-dad is a plumber who hoards bits and bobs so this was fun becuase he gave me full range of boxes of random plumbing bits he has acquired. This is what I used to make this prop. This created an amazing telescope as the colours and shapes were perfect for the effect. So this was one of the more creative ideas for items within the shop that I am very proud to have made.

Here is an image showing the plastic end of the telescope and how all of the pieces fit together so it stands and looks like old fashioned star gazing equipment.

As the shop is an 'Emporium', I have found plants and weeds from outside to add to bottles that will look like preserved items in oil to look different and show how the characters collect random items including herbology and medical looking items.

These all created a colourful and interesting item for the shop to hold on its many shelves and units. 

These also added to the wonder of the items that can look preserved and interesting for the audience to see.

Books also play a large role in this shop as there are many book shelves and units that the books live on and must be filled in order for the shop to look lived in and like an old messy shop. This is why I will be making about 60 books overall, these are very simple ones out of cardboard, but I will be sewing some to look real on the binding, as well as sewing some pages together to create actual tiny books the daughter can read.

By the door there is a umbrella stand filled with different umbrellas, vintage and more normal ones like this one. This was the original test and was made by making a ring of card and pleating it all along before getting it into position on a piece of wire. Then it can be glued and pulled round to gain the spiral look that umbrellas have. Then all they needed was some flare, like handles, ties and the classic spike at the bottom.

This is something for the dads desk, it is a pocket watch made from two buttons glued together and a clock face added. It was very fiddly and is extremely small so took time to get right. This is an important prop as pocket watches help set the era further as this is when they were used most.

When looking at the set ideas, to add more colour, another plant was needed. This time I am going for a handing basket style climber plant, this will cascade down one of the units to make the set fuller, more alive and more importantly less brown as it was getting very one-tone.

Adding the leaves one at a time to this bent form was a lot harder than the other plant I made for COP. It was very fiddly again and if knocked even a little, the leaves were prone to falling off. Even though this took time the end result looks good so I was happy with the overall aesthetic. As you can see from the images below the pot was changed half way through to also gain a better look for the shape.

As the shop has lots of books I needed to make many and I wanted some of them to have actual pages so they were real and showed how the daughter could be reading them. I also wanted other elements to the shop like mail and old scrolls, this is to show the diversity of the shop.

I started by staining the pages with tea for an aged look. Then after cutting many pages to the same size, threaded them together to create a book with opening pages.

This is one of the more tattered completed books.

This is some of the mail. This includes scrolls, envelopes, wax sealed papers and bound books. 

I also wanted some old globes as props around the set. These can add detail as well as an old look as these were more popular in Victorian and Edwardian times.

I've added an anchor point that are used to spin the globes before adding them to stands.

Without pictures the walls would be bare so I have made about 8 pictures for the walls to make is fuller, as well as bulking it out with clocks.

For the china cabinet, I needed to make an array of china in different colours, and designs. The gold really works well with the white porcelain look, as well as catching the light well.

As the shop needed lots of clocks as this is his passion, I made a standing clock that adds colour and detail to counteract the brown of the units.