Context of Practise 2: Working on Practical Feedback

Context of Practise 2

Working on Practical Feedback

• This week, I began redrafting my essay, alongside working on my new proposal from my feedback. I will still be producing a video talking about the "Making of" process, which will be written based upon my formal essay, however I will be making a "mock up" video, rather than a cinemagraph. I think this will fit the research a bit better.
• Here is the feedback I received after the first walk cycle:

• Based on my feedback, which said to create a series of further animations for Ozwald, I finished the walk cycle, produced a jump animation and will be making a simple attack animation for the video. I have also started on making the background, which was advised to be fully lined. I also need to brighten them and compose them a little better, so I'll be focusing on that.
• I also finalised my research document for COP2, which can be viewed below.

Walk Cycle

Jump and Fall

COP 2 Research Document

Character and Narrative: Keyframes and Colour

Character and Narrative

Keyframes and Colour

• This Week:
• I finalised the scenes I needed to keyframe and also spoke to Rachel about getting all of the other keyframes done. I also began the colouring process this week!
• What Went Well:
• I managed to get my keyframes completed and throughout the process I continued to improve on my consistency with the frames. I was also able to time the coconut fall well, despite not being sure how it would crack and split when it fell. Using the "bouncing ball" references and timing, I was able to create the impact.
• What Could Be Better:
• We ran into a problem, which was that the TVPaint at University was not the professional version and therefore, we couldn't utilise the Inlay Texture effect in TVPaint. This was going to be used to add a texture to Teddy's shell. 
• We will continue to try and find a way around this, however we may have to just stick with the paper texture in After Effects, as we may be short of time.
• I noticed the last shot, that Teddy's cheek spots disappear, so I need to add those in to post into the drive.
• Next Week:
• Mark will be working on the final betweens, whilst we colour each scene! We can then get onto exporting the files in the last week.

Context of Practise 2: Developing a Character 2

Context of Practise 2

Developing a Character 2

• After my research playing both Hollow Knight, INSIDE and Ori and the Blind Forest, I decided to make a walk cycle test, with Ozwald, taking notes of the animation styles used for the protagonists of all three games.
• Before I produced the walks, I also needed a finalised lantern design, which I developed here:
• My walk cycle uses elements from Hollow Knights' animation style and from INSIDE. The walk was simple, to fit with the light and small character. I also added a tail flick and lantern swing, to add interest and a feeling of life in his walk.

Walk Cycle Test

Walk Cycle and Turn Test

Attack Roughs

Context of Practise 2: Developing the Main Body

Context of Practise 2

Developing the Essay Main Body

• In my sketchbook, I created a detailed overview of how I would go about writing the main body of the essay, joining and triangulating my ideas together. Once I had finished writing my first draft of the essay, I would then be able to go back, read through my ideas and then add more sources if needed to triangulate my ideas.
• I received some feedback on the Introduction and possible areas to then go on to explore:

• I, then, produced more thumbnails for possible cinema-graphs and game visual mock-ups, however a lot of my focus was on producing a quick walk cycle which reflects the simple style I had been analysing between all of my case studies.
• When exploring more thumbnails for cinema-graphs, I found some more sources I could add to my essay, which are the books Color and Light by James Gurney, specifically the section on using blur effects. The other book I explored was Digital Encounters by Aylish Wood. Despite that I couldn't find much on sentient beings, I found a lot of useful sources on narrative and aesthetic, to reference in my essay.

More Thumbnail Tests and Environments

Character and Narrative: Study Task 2 - Improvements

Character and Narrative

Study Task 2 Improvements

• In order to improve my work done for Study Task 2, which was the lip-sync animation in After Effects, I decided to spend more work animating a character in TVPaint and then added the lip-sync in After-Effects, if the frames/sounds repeated.
• I used the same Dope Sheet, however, changed the appearance of the mouth shapes, with some of the frames are 1.5 and 2.5 etc. as in-betweens of the mouth shapes.
• In addition to this, I changed the characters' design slightly, with the red eye and metal enhancement around the eye, just as a small homage to the source of the sound clip, from  Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). 
• One improvement I could make, would be to temove the additional head bounce when he says "anything," as it's a little bit too expressive for the voice speaking. I found it difficult to add expression to a very flat voice, so the first part of the lipsync works well, but I would remove the head bounce next time.

Here is the first lipsync

Here is the improved one:

Character and Narrative: More Keyframes and Animated VFX

Character and Narrative

More Keyframes and Animated VFX

• This week: 
• I worked on trying to get the keyframes done for more scenes, so that Afnan can continue inbetweening them. I also did come test drawings in my sketchbook, for one of the scenes I was going to key-frame next.
• What went well: 
• I found that I was getting better at keeping consistent with the style for Teddy and the smoothness of the linework. When working on Scene 6.5, I had a look at Elemental Magic, Volume II: The Technique of Special Effects Animation by Joseph Gilland, to understand how fire can be animated with 2D techniques. I also looked at a series of references, such as the scene in The Lion King, where the final battle takes place and the land is in flames. I also looked at YouTube tutorials on animating explosions and bursts of fire. These all helped me to try to understand 2D VFX.

• What could be better: 
• I need to improve on my timing a little bit, especially with just teaching myself the VFX side of animation. Some parts could have been a bit slower, to allow the viewer to exaggerate the effects more.
• Next week: 
• I will be continuing finishing key-framing my final scene, then start the colouring process.

Context of Practise 2: Environment Analysis and Design

Context of Practise 2

Environment Analysis and Design

• When approaching my research into the environment design of my case studies and how this aesthetic affects the atmosphere of a game, my main source of research was from playing the games and analysing them. However, I looked a lot into the concept art of the games and how the environment design was impacted by this. The concept artist, Simon Kopp, who worked on Ori and the Blind Forest, created a series of environment assets which could be duplicated in game. I decided to use this idea myself, looking at plants and possible assets amongst the environment.

My Concepts:

• After watching "The Animation Process of Ori and the Blind Forest" on YouTube, I found that a lot of their environments were inspired by Studio Ghibli. I researched the style, looking at the art book, "The Art of Miyazaki's Spirited Away (Studio Ghibli Library)." I tried to recreate the painting-like style and found that I did prefer the lined style of backgrounds, which are used in Hollow Knight. I did, however, use the light and particle effects I had learnt watching INSIDE and the colour choices I had investigated, when I researched semiotics.

The first initial painting test:

I, then, produced a series of colour variation tests, looking at mood and atmosphere, in relation to the time of day and colour palette chosen.

Character and Narrative: Keyframing and Mock Cover

Character and Narrative

Key-framing Scene 3 and Mock Cover

• What I did: 
• This week I also began key-framing scene three of the group animation. 
• What went well: 
• Learning from my mistakes from the first scene framing, I was more consistent in shape and in the line-work, by taking time to look back at the turnaround for reference or redrawing frames if I needed to!
• I sent the work in progress to the group and they told me to continue with what I was doing, therefore starting work key-framing the next scene.
• I additionally produced a "mock cover art" for the animation, using one of my background concepts. Overall, the concept worked well and I looked at a variety of cover-art online, for childrens' animated shows, such as Steven Universe and Gravity Falls and they incorporate a lot of the final style into this. 
• What could be better: 
• Unfortunately, we had not produced a logo/title card for the animation yet, so Rachel said she'd like to try create one!
• What I need to do next time: 
• Produce the key-frames for the next scene I am assigned to!

Scene Three Key-frames:

Mock-Up Cover Art

Character and Narrative: Keyframing

Character and Narrative

Production: Key-Frames Week One

• This week:
• Rachel created a second spreadsheet on the Gantt Chart document, which is a scene and shot breakdown. We added to it, gradually, when we met together as a group to look over it. It looks at timing and roles for each scene.
• I started key-framing my first scene, in TV Paint!
• What went well was:
• Our teamwork and communication was commented on during my Formative Feedback. Additionally, keeping on top of work, documenting and critically analysing the entire process.
• Next time:
• I need to be more consistent in my key-frame process. I am still a bit rusty from not doing it for a while, and I need to be more consistent in the line work so that it's easier for Afnan and Mark to in-between.
• I need to look at using references of turtles to help with the movements!
• For the rest of this week I will be working on the second set of key-frames and developing a slideshow for the weekly presentations.

The first scene:

Here is our scene list for organisation:

Context of Practise 2: Sentient Enemies

Context of Practise 2

Sentient Enemies

• Following the seminar on Sentient beings and my research playing Ori and the Blind Forest and Hollow Knight, I found that a lot of the enemies in the game are either much larger in scale compared to the protagonist, or have some form of sentience among the environments of the world. Therefore, I decided to create some concepts for enemies which could be found in the world, based upon this idea.

I then took several enemies and coloured them digitally, using Hollow Knight and Ori and the Blind Forest as reference. The sections of the game I analysed are here:

Kuro at the top of the Ginso Tree (Ori and the Blind Forest):
 
 https://oriandtheblindforest.fandom.com/wiki/Kuro?file=GinsoTreeKuro.png

The Green Beast, located in The Queens Gardens (Hollow Knight):

https://hollowknight.fandom.com/wiki/Queen%27s_Gardens?file=Screenshot_HK_Queen%27s_Gardens_07.png

My coloured enemy designs:

Character and Narrative: Background Development

Character and Narrative

Background Development

• This week, as part of our production work, we decided to fully finalise the backgrounds, before starting any animation work. Based upon the research we had done before on background design, we decided on a final aesthetic, where I would be lining the backgrounds. This would then be passed onto Mark and Rachel, who would be colouring the backgrounds, to make the process quicker and easier, dividing the work between us.
• I think that I was able to use Afnans' 3D renders of the backgrounds effectively, whilst adding additional detail to the line work. I think that I could improve my lining process by practising better technique, using my whole arm instead of my wrist. This would allow for smoother and more confident lines.
• Here are two examples and a link to the folder with my lined backgrounds in:

Here is the link to the folder: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1mQ8vjN5IzQ8Rx8V9qynDFB_1uSQU3Sod

Context of Practise 2: Study Task 7

Context of Practise 2

Study Task 7 - Developing a Rationale

• So far I have created a series of concepts for my practical ideas, based upon the research I have done into exploring creating atmosphere through use of aesthetic. Most of the research I have conducted has been primary source, through playing 2D and 2.5D video games in order to analyse and understand their visual aesthetic. I made notes when playing Hollow Knight, and triangulated this information with the book, 'Animation in Context' by Mark Collington, which explains the use of semiotics in animation and the moods it can illustrate and my own visual response.
• The notes are here:

• I will continue this type of analysis for my essay, cross-comparing the three games I had chosen as case studies. I would like to additionally create a plan for developing and comparing sources, to make the essay writing process easier.
• Using the template provided, I created a small plan with how I shall further research my project:

Context of Practise 2: Character Analysis and Development

Context of Practise 2

Character Analysis and Development

• In order to analyse the aesthetic of characters in my three chosen case studies, Hollow Knight, Ori and the Blind Forest and INSIDE, I decided to try drawing their protagonists and attempt to analyse their visual style, triangulating this with research I had already done.

• With this further visual analysis, I could then develop the characters for my mock-up world, in a similar aesthetic and develop a finalised protagonist design! I decided to take the thick line-work style, use large heads, large eyes, make the character small, with a bright colour separating the top half and lower half of their body, like the Boy protagonist from INSIDE.

• The main visual aesthetic of Ozwald, was to incorporate narrative into his character design. I did this by making his silhouette shape and his colours resemble the lantern he carries with him on his adventure. I chose to use bright, complementary colours, which will also visually contrast the backgrounds, which will consist of greens, purples and reds.
• Here are the first digital mock-ups for this:

• I didn't feel this reflected my research well, as the line-style is not thicker, the characters body is too long and I felt it strayed away from my initial designs. Therefore, I simplified his design further and was happy with the turnaround and model sheet I then produced for him.
• I will be writing about this process in my essay, in the section talking about the analysis of characters in my case studies.

Context of Practise 2: Study Task 6

Context of Practise 2

Study Task 6 - Planning a Practical

• I initially struggled to generate ideas for my practical work, relating to my research question. However, once I had a brief narrative planned and experimented with characters, I found that I was able to explore both my research and practical ideas more fluidly. 
• Here is a document of my planned proposal for the practical outcome:

• Based on the initial research I had done for the essay, I was able to develop a series of character designs and some environments I could possibly develop for my cinemagraph idea. Here are some of the initial starting ideas I produced:

• I decided to base my character designs on the simple style used for the characters in Hollow Knight. The solid line style, use of colour, contrast and the simplicity of emotions would fit well amongst a busy, detailed environment. Blogger, Dimas, T. states that, "Visual beauty is even more beautiful if it serves the story you're telling," which fits the premises of my ideas and exploration in this module.