We started by comping together all of our current progress in order to show it for our feedback session. I am hoping we get some feedback on the colours so that we can adjust them before the Wednesday deadline.
The feedback we received was that generally everything is looking great and that we need to have an exported MP4 file for Wednesday. So until them we only need to decide on a final colour design for the wave elements and then it will be finished. Below is the current final design for the animation presented on top of the Nippets background.
Prior to our weekly feedback session, I last minute took on some more animated props for people that were struggling with their workloads. I still wanted to leave them the ice cream prop because I feel like they will do a better job of animating it than me.
Feedback:
Props: Ball working nicely, nice bounce however, adjust timing to squash on impact, delay the bending of the kite, likes that the kite goes different direction, add additional frame in the middle. Octopus tentacles more fluid and waved. starfish good.
For Monday, have a work in progress Comp to present to Nicky. Try to have everything clean and coloured for Monday.
During our weekly feedback call I was given a lot of feedback on the animation of the props, this is actually very helpful to me and will help me make improvements. I am feeling confident about finishing the animation, clean up and colour for next Monday even with the additional props that I have taken on. I firstly want to incorporate the feedback into the roughs so that I can contact Nicky to ask for additional feedback before starting on the clean up and colouring.
I ended up sending Nicky the updated version and then we scheduled a call for feedback. Nicky suggested that I start with breaking the arms into basic shapes to get the volume and motion correct and then draw in the waves on top. When I draw the waves onto the arms I should start by following the curve of the previous frames until they split. Other than that she was happy with the other alterations that I made. I then started on the clean up and the colouring of the elements including the letters. I used our design image as reference for the colours I should be using.
This week started with our meeting with Nicky where she gave us feedback. firstly Christina presented her sketches on the blink flag with the updated colour scheme and addition of a diver. We expressed our concerns about adding people into the design and she said to come up with some more ideas that we feel more confident about. She also suggested An appropriate timeline in which to decide on a finished concept and to have the line art completed.
Feedback: Experiment with different hues for the blink to make it pop more whilst still using the outline colour for the sea. Maybe do smaller people swimming through the seaweed, play with the scale of them. By Wednesday or Thursday at the latest have a locked in design chosen. By next Monday have the line art mostly finished
Personally, I am not too worried about getting the line art done on time because the beach balls’ line art is pretty much already done and therefore I am available to assist on other sections. Also having been the one to create the animatic, I feel experienced in the motion and it is not that complicated or time consuming. I did allocate myself the position of creating a spreadsheet detailing each element’s allocation and progress for this project.
I also spent some more time experimenting with adding people into the design, I tried to be more carefree and less protective of the design already created. The Nippets style when it comes to people is very simple and minimalistic and so it’s difficult to portray these people at different scales doing different actions whilst replicating the style. I am then able to present these designs to my group during our scheduled meeting in a couple days time so that we choose the most effective ones. I’m feeling a lot better about this design as the people feel equally spaced without taking away or overwhelming the current design.
We decided that we wanted to keep the idea of someone swimming through the logo and that we also wanted to add-in a mermaid which we decided should be positioned on the letter D. Overall, I felt like my group was quite hesitant to add in additional people as they worried it would be too much, but I ended up liking the design that I created. After deciding on our final design, we also allocated elements of the animation to each individual in order for us to complete the line art for next Monday. I was given beach ball and the kite so that they stay in sync. I created these on Toon Boom. Here is the final line art for my section.
We started this week with our weekly meeting with Nicola for feedback. she strongly advised that as a group we designate one person to create an animatic to present on Thursday. She felt as if we were rushing through pre production and already starting to animate, which we was however it was primarily because this didn’t feel like something that needed an animatic as we had already identified the points of motion. She also addressed concern that the elements would not loop seamlessly if they were created by us individually, however we discussed this prior that the loop would be two seconds maximum but I understand what she means. After the call we then got together as a group to discuss the feedback and decided that because of the other team time restraints, I would be the one to create the animatic (which I’m glad that I get to contribute more). We also discussed which design for the logo we favoured the most so that we could present one idea going forward.
all of our team members submitted their current contributions to the shared group file for me to access to build the animatic. This allowed me to seamlessly combine all the elements into one file. I’ve created two versions one which presents our ideas at the current stage and one that fits the restraints of an animatic more. This way I can show our team what we have already created and have an asset ready for our presentation. I did all of this in Toon Boom which some of us were working on different software so I imported their work is image sequence instead which worked fine. I then made minor adjustments to some of the movements and designs to better fit the changes that we have made.
Whilst making the animatic I frequently updated my team members with the progress and to ask for feedback so that I could make sure it was as accurate to everyone’s vision. Once it was finished, I exported and shared it in the files for the presentation. we also decided that we would have a group call shortly before the presentation on Thursday to practise what we were going to present and then receive our feedback from nicola.
Feedback:
Make sure line width and colour stays consistent.
Change green outline to the dark blue that’s featured in the image, if it doesn’t work then he is happy to stick to the green.
Likes that the motion encapsulates the essence of the game as there’s a lot going on and you always see something new.
If possible add people.
I ended up returning to the original concept image to identify the underwater outline colours and colour picked them to share with my team.
I then started generating some ideas for how we can incorporate people into our design which is hard because I quite like our design and also because the scale of a human is hard to achieve with the scale we have set out with the size of the animals. It’s also difficult because our reference image for summer actually doesn’t feature any people. But I just wanted to present this as an idea especially if this is something that comes up in our next meeting with Nicky.
Today we got our brief from Blink Industries, and in all honestly from the presentation I was anticipating us having to pitch a game idea rather than animate a logo. The brief is on one hand quite restrictive and precise in what we can and can’t do but knowing because of the mid project review I think it’s best to take a risk and go bigger and then refine it down after receiving feedback. I started by researching into the company and the game that we are designing for, this also involved me playing the demo for the game to get first hand experience.
Then I started generating ideas based on the different seasons, I tried to do many variations as the first ideas are usually the least unique. Personally, I tried to not have a bias towards one season as I like a challenge and then it shows which season I have the most ideas for. Some seasons were harder than others to create ideas for. Doing this mind map did make me realise the limitations of the brief as to whether the logo must always be in frame or be visible at all times as the hardest thing to do was think of ideas that could seamlessly loop.
Because we are working in teams for this project and I wasn’t there to join a group in person, I decided to email and reach out to my potential teammate to confirm that they are still happy to form a group because the other person who was meant to be in our group joined another team. I know that I am not available later this week and so it would be best to make a start on this project now before our progress tutorial next Tuesday.
I started by filling out our Production Template with the relevant information, I can see how this can be useful when working as a team to know everyone’s availability and tasks. When looking at what everyone else in my team had already done, I noticed that were focusing on the design and colours of the logo and less about the motion and so I decided to continue focusing on that aspect individually. I then started to draft animate some mock ups of the motion of the logo to present to my team.
As a team we decided to have a call to discuss our ideas, how we wanted to divide the workload and who should focus on what aspect. We agreed that we liked the current logo design and our aspects of movement. We then decided what we wanted to achieve by the midpoint review next week. We wanted to have the roughs of each element completed so that we can show what the design will look like without committing too much in case we have to change things. I started by mapping out the timing for the bouncing ball. Given that it needs to loop in two seconds there’s not much room to play with the timings of up and down, plus the letters underneath will need to add the squash to which is for someone else to do but I will remind them.
Then I added a rough beachball design to the bounce template and added some rotation to the ball. and this is what I will be contributing to the group as this is the rough done.
After our internal presentation, I wanted to work on implementing the feedback I received in order to solidify my idea for my next presentation. After taking a break from this project I had some time to reflect and have since felt that I have lost clarity in my ideas especially in the visual feel of the pieces. Therefore, I wanted to return to experimenting with different ideas that reflect the theme and new feedback. I went back and reread the original creative conscience brief and decided that I wanted to balance my original idea of showing the severity with also providing positive ways to help combat these realities; which is more aligned with the brief of identifying an issue and providing a way to improve it or raise awareness of it.
I then wanted to create a detailed outline of each video idea and back it up with research on each real event that inspires it, as well as the resources available that provide ways to prevent them. So, I spent some time reading news articles, timelines and official statements from each of the case studies and found out the impact it had on people and the environment as well as how they could have been prevented or reduced the severity.
I then revised my presentation PowerPoint to reflect the changes I have made and the feedback I have been given. We have been given 10 minutes maximum to present our ideas, but I am not worried about that restraint as I like to give short, precise presentations because you have to use your time wisely and not waste it for yourself and others.
Then I can get feedback on this more solidified positive concept. I feel like I can better picture what it is I would like to create now and I think it will be more impactful on the audience as it has a call to action to make a change. I am more confident in this idea and my ability to execute it. My next steps afterwards would be to start storyboarding the two videos.
During the winter break I finally had time to go visit some museums and exhibitions in London that I had been intending to visit. I started off visiting the Museum of Brands, which I had been introduced to when I did graphic design in college but hadn’t had the opportunity to visit. I didn’t realise how much animation history related items were in their collection, and it was fun to find them. Such as Zoetrope’s, Magic lanterns, paper peepshows as well as popular IP Felix the cat and Mickey Mouse. I do think it is a great source of inspiration when it comes to style and design and seeing how it has changed throughout the years.
I also went to the Wes Anderson: The Archives exhibition at the Design Museum, which is one of my favourite museums to visit especially when they have exhibitions on. I haven’t seen as many Wes Anderson films as I would like to have seen but I am more familiar with his works utilising stop motion and so I was looking forward to seeing some of the props and armatures. He is well known for his famous miniature models which I got to see a couple such as the Grand Budapest Hotel and the Asteroid City Train.
This week started with my 1-1 with Isobel Stenhouse where she gave me some tips for what to include in my presentation on Monday such as including my development work and what inspired my designs. The rest of the week I continued creating my turnarounds for my presentations. Then I combined everything together to create my presentation, the hardest part is that it’s meant to be only 4 minutes so I had choose what I wanted to include.
On Monday we had our presentation and it was great getting to see everyone else’s work especially the environmental people as I haven’t seen what they have been doing the entire time. I want to continue to develop my character turnarounds including animating them turning so that I can put them on Social Media. After, I also want to add some of my outcomes to my portfolio by putting them on my website.
In order to create my pitch, I had to first create a proposed project timeline that laid out the different aspects of productions and their associated expected duration. I looked at examples online to get an example of what to include and how to composite it. I used an Excel template which I customised for this project as this was my first time doing this and I wasn’t sure what to use.
Then I finished creating my Pitch Deck by following the template we were given. This feedback will be helpful for refining my pitch presentation as well as for developing my ideas as this project progresses.
Only do 3 if they’re all equally strong otherwise do less
Look at specific local UK case studies (tumbridge wells)
Have 3 fully detailed ideas for feedback before storyboarding them
Align myself with organisations such as the fire brigade
Do more character based so that people can see it happening to themselves and people they know
Make it set modern day to create urgency as people will put it off if they imagine it to be a future issue
Idea 1 What if you woke up tomorrow and insert location was blank
Flooded / on fire / drought no water
Potential idea first person perspective
Allow more time for colouring in the schedule
Sound design make scratch track and have the sound designer come in earlier on the schedule
Change resolution to be vertical
This was a good opportunity and I felt like I received some very useful feedback it was also great that some of my peers contributed with feedback and ideas as it shows that this is something that other people are interested in. My next steps would be to refine my pitch presentation ready for creative conscience, continue my research and to start generating ideas.
In this weeks session I received feedback to include 3/4 view poses for both my characters and my props as well as making the poses less stiff and more dynamic. When drawing out my poses I should include the under structure to help with the anatomy of the characters.
I started by creating my final prop sheets including a full turnaround with 3/4 views. I added a Christmas themed border and titles to the sheets to make all of the pieces feel cohesive and polished when finished. I wanted to keep the annotations because they are useful to give context of what the design is, how it is constructed, and how it should look.
I then started creating an expression sheet for the characters to accompany their character poses, I tried to focus on expressing the key aspects and traits of their personalities though their facial expressions. I feel this also gives the viewer a good introduction to the characters and a better understanding of who they are internally. I also tried to do them from different angles.
