Applied Animation: Competition - Animation Tests and Editing

Applied Animation

Animation Tests and Editing

• This week:
• I key-framed and semi-inbetweened the animation of the monkey-bug shopping with their child, in Brighton.
• What went well:
• We decided, from last week, that we will be keeping to the insect-designs and not making them "older," as we had already done this experimentation in the beginning, by making the Beetle more pointed and the narrative and colours helps us to portray the target audience.
• I was able to stay on-model from the character sheet, whilst adding squash and stretch and emotion to make the character more life-like.
• Additionally, I was able to over-come a lot of issues I'd had with my first test with the Ant in their car to Leeds, as I struggled keeping the body consistent, however I found a method which worked better for this animation, which was first animating the silhouette and then adding the facial expressions on a separate layer. This allowed me to then see the onion skin for the face and the earphones.
• Furthermore, I produced some tests exploring what the animation could look like in a vertical format. I found this document here, which helped with ratios and understanding formatting in Out of Home campaigns:

• What could be improved:
• As this was a test, the animation isn't as smooth as I would like it to be, and I think that the narrative and idea for this story is a bit weaker than the other two. Despite this, the narrative still targets 25+ with this idea of taking care of children, having to go shopping and not having time for yourself.
• I think that the opening view of the supermarket needs an additional establishing shot on Brighton Pier or somewhere similar, to demonstrate that this is in Brighton. I will add this to the storyboards, for the final submission to represent this.
• Next week:
• Ill be starting in-betweens on the Beetle Commute in London and working on any improvements that need to be changed.

Silhouette Test:

Final Test:

Here are the vertical tests, with cropped video:

Professional Practise 2: Competition (CDC)

Professional Practise 2

Character Design Challenge: February Entry

• This months' theme for the Character Design Challenge was Carnival of Brazil!
• Initially I wanted to try designing a costume, however I decided to keep to the creature design ideas as a consistent theme in my work. Therefore, I explored different species and creatures that would be found in Brazil. The Brazilian Wandering Spider caught my interest, as it is quite a contrast to the bright colours and fun associated with carnivals, therefore would make an interesting design.

The design I came up with is here:

Here is a screenshot, evidencing my entry:

Professional Practise 2: Target Audience and Studio Logo Design

Professional Practise 2

Target Audience and Studio Logo Design

• For Studio Brief 3, creating our own Animation Studio, I decided to work with Emily, Harry and Kathryn, as we all had shared interests in 2D Digital Animation. This was also a chance for me to work with different people.
• We have decided to produce a series of assets, designs, websites and branding, as a team, and together came up with the name "Bobcat Studios" - as it was easy to remember, featured an animal, which could make for interesting logo designs and appealed to us all.
• Our target audience will be predominantly younger teens (11-16 years), however we would be open to projects with slightly more mature themes, such as mild violence, as long as it isn't over 18 years.
• As part of my role in the team, I needed to design branding colours, the logo and provide concepts, backgrounds and 2D Animation for any project we decide to take on-board.

Here is the research I conducted on target and appealing to specific audiences:

Here is the logo design process and an animated logo test I made for the studio:

Applied Animation: Competition - Feedback and Improvements

Applied Animation

Improvements and Cropping

• This week:
• I created some storyboards for our developed idea and testing a crop of the animation, from a portrait view (for other OOH Campaigns).
• Adapted some of the designs of the characters.
• What went well:
• The storyboards I produced show that the narrative and camera shots are able to be reproduced successfully in a portrait orientation. I additionally added the "bubble" idea to these boards, as this developed as a juxtaposition of the blue social media bubbles. 
• The portrait boards don't need any camera movement, as it will be too distracting. The narrative allows them to be further simplified.
• I produced more designs of the characters, specifically the beetle, to make them more angular, therefore appeal more to older audiences.
• What could be improved:
• Despite the storyboards showing the cropping, this needs to be tested further with the backgrounds in Photoshop.
• Next week:
• Once these improvements have been finalised, we can get back on track with animating again.

Cropped Storyboards:

Possible Final Turnaround for Billie Beetle:

Applied Animation: Competition - Feedback

Applied Animation

Feedback and Back to the Brief

• This week:
• I finished key-framing the Leeds Commute animation and we received feedback on our designs and approach to the brief.
• Based on the feedback, I did some further research on the 25+ Age Demographic.
• What went well:
• Using the animatic I produced for the Leeds Commute, I key-framed the full scene, in detail, to make the in-betweening easier for Laura. I also went back over the silhouette to make sure no edges were wobbly, as I found this difficult to keep consistent.
• After receiving feedback on our characters and concept, we were told to make some slight changes to make it appeal more to 25+ demographic. I did this by exploring the character designs we have and making them more angular. This also included removing the pom-poms from the monkey-bugs' tail and antennae.
• In order to properly reflect on the demographic, I carried out some research based upon Audibles previous campaigns and articles online about marketing tools and age demographics. This is the research I found:

• This research can also help when creating our campaign pack and explaining decisions in choosing animation and the specific style.
• What Could be Improved:
• The style of the backgrounds need to also looked at and adapted to fit the demographic, however I believe that the narrative of each of the characters following adult roles and the editing of the characters, will aid in appealing to the 25+ demographic. Despite this, an exploration of the background can still be done.
• Mock-Ups need to be produced to see how the animation would fit in a portrait ad-campaign.
• Next week:
• I will be improving the character designs, the backgrounds and working on the animation for the Train Commute in London. 

Character Exploration:

Ant Animatic:

Key Frame Animation:

Applied Animation: Competition - Further Backgrounds

Applied Animation

Further Backgrounds

• This week:
• I produced a series of background concepts for the Supermarket Scene, which is located in Brighton.
• I tried to incorporate this city more into the environments, by having the small "Easter Egg" saying "Beach Supplies!", as we decided as a group to allow most of the scenes to be used in multiple cities.
• What went well:
• I created a variety of props and concepts to fit with the insect world we decided to focus on, which made it easier to design the rendered versions of the backgrounds.
• Using the Maya renders, I was able to more efficiently produce a final background, without having to worry much about perspective. This allowed more time to be spent on the colour and textures of the backgrounds.
• I was able to use the Audible colour palette provided more effectively, as I had already had practise using it for the train backgrounds.
• What could be improved:
• I think that more detail could have been added into the environments, using the concepts I had, however I wasn't sure whether too much detail would distract from the characters. This is something I could have explored.
• More exploration could have been done to incorporate the city more, such as maybe an establishing shot outside of the building, or a shot showing the beach and Brighton Pier.
• Next week:
• I will be starting the key-frames of the animation and working on any further feedback.

Professional Practise 2: SWOT Analysis and Marketing

Professional Practise 2

SWOT Analysis and Marketing Notes

• This week we had a seminar about marketing and then had to fill out a sheet about our strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.
• Here are my notes as an overview:

• As for the SWOT analysis, as an overview, I created this final sheet, combining both peer review and my own personal thoughts about myself:

• One thing that I need to work on the most is my confidence in showing my work to other people and confidence in myself, which will come with time and networking more with others. This can also be getting better at taking criticism and spending more time learning the skills that I need for possible roles in the future. 

Professional Practise 2: Social Media

Professional Practise 2

So Pro - Social Media

• My current social media can be divided into Personal and Professional accounts. I have one personal Instagram account and Facebook account. My professional accounts are all branded as Faye Scribbles:
• Instagram - @faye_scribbles
• Used mainly for posting art and work in progress pieces!

• Twitter - @faye_scribbles
• This is cross-linked with Instagram, so art goes between the two. I use Twitter more for interacting with artists in the community and discussions.

• YouTube - Faye Scribbles
• Used for speedpaints and animations, but is more inactive than Instagram and Twitter.
• With a side YouTube account for fandom based content, which is Faye Scribbles Warriors.
• I additionally have my LinkedIn Account, which is Alisha Little, making it the most predominant cross between my personal and professional lives.
• My focus needs to be expanded more to animation in each of my professional accounts and I need to interact more on Instagram with other artists in the community. My YouTube could be discontinued, however I like to keep things organised and just post speed-art and work in progress videos there, to link to from Twitter and Instagram.
• As a plan of focus for the future, I'd like to make a plan to post more regularly. This would be only on a Friday night every week, as a lot of my time is dedicated to University work.

Applied Animation: Competition - Character Model Sheets

Applied Animation

Character Model Sheets and Tests

• This week:
• I produced model sheets for the final character ideas, to help develop the style and understand the movements of the characters, in a lineless style.
• I also produced some tests to try decide how the characters will fit into the background.
• What went well:
• I finalised all three model sheets, in the lineless style we have decided to do, with a variety of poses and some movements which they will be seen doing in the animation. They are fluid and keep consistent with the turnarounds and overall style.
• I also produced an additional mock-up of a character in one of the refined backgrounds, to test how we can make them stand out, whilst keeping to Audibles' colour scheme. One idea that worked well was adding an outer glow to the main character, which can be applied to an entire layer in the timeline all at once, making it easier than drawing a white line on each frame. This would be more inconsistent this way, also.
• I additionally refined the background with the seat, to keep to the same style.
• What could be improved:
• The characters and backgrounds need to be experimented with more and tested to make sure the character feels a part of the environment, but also visually stands out. We will be doing more tests with other backgrounds.
• Further tests need to be done to make sure that the backgrounds work with the animatics and if they move, how we would go about doing this.
• Next week:
• I will be finalising the backgrounds and finishing pre-production work.

Model Sheets:

Background Test:

Refined seat:

Applied Animation: Competition - Background Concepts

Applied Animation

Backgrounds and Background Concepts

• This week:
• I started working on the backgrounds, based upon our initial concepts and produced an animatic for the Leeds Commute storyboard
• What went well:
• I experimented a lot with how the backgrounds should look, as it was extremely difficult with such a limited palette and making sure the characters don't blend in with it. Therefore, before finalising the backgrounds, I made some quick concepts:

• I additionally made the animatic for the Leeds Commute narrative, which I found fun and easy to time, because of the storyboards. I was able to almost key-frame it, so that will make the animation process easier.
• What could be improved:
• After receiving feedback from the group, one thing that was noted was making the background a bit more refined and less rough. So, I went back over the background I had produced originally and refined it more, then created the seat view, which I will also be refining.
• Adding some buildings off in the distance in the background, so I added very faint shapes of buildings.
• Next week:
• I'll be finishing the backgrounds, for the final narrative, which is the Brighton/Monkey creature narrative (Storyboard 3). 
• Refining the backgrounds for the train commute.

Here is the initial background I produced, before feedback:

Here is the more refined version:

Seat view I'll be refining for next week:

Professional Practise 2: Contracts and Invoicing

Professional Practise 2

Contracts and Invoicing

• This week I needed to calculate what could be my daily rates. At the moment, whilst living at home, my yearly needs are considerably lower than those who are living away from home, therefore I needed to think about my worth as an artist and what my rates could be in the future, based upon other factors, such as:
• The average salary for a Junior position in Digital Art is £25,000 per year, meaning a daily rate of around £68 per day (not including holidays or breaks). So, £96 per day, for just weekdays.
• I also need to take costs for software and hardware into consideration. As it's £20 per month for the single Adobe apps and hardware, such as new computers, monitors and tablets could be up to £1,000 per year, if you upgraded regularly.
• As of now, my daily rate would only be £12 per day, if I just included weekdays. I could collect this for just weekend work for 5 hours, at a rate of £60, however this would still be considerably low, if were to work freelance in the future.
• Therefore, I would set my daily rate to that of a junior position, as my fee would mainly come from number of hours worked and price of resources, from my current position, with an addition of £2-3 per day for cost of resources. An additional 30% would cover the professional skills, savings and costs for days off. This comes to around £128 per day. This would be calculated and changed to a higher rate, when living costs are higher.
• Here is the Contracts and Invoice lecture notes:

And here is my Contract Agreement and Invoice:

• In order to research both, I had a look at contracts other artist I have commissioned had done and the way they lay out invoices. I wanted to make my invoice sheet simple and editable in a Google Document.

Applied Animation: Competition - Pitch and Feedback

Applied Animation

Pitch and Feedback

• Based on the Pitch Feedback:
• We decided to make it easier to identify the branding between each campaign, by keeping to a bug and insect theme for the entire campaign. 
• This theme illustrates the idea of a busy and bustling life and the character using Audible can then escape from this. It is focused on a more mindfulness aspect.
• In addition to this, we need to find ways to incorporate the cities we've chosen as part of the environments and narrative, such as for London, using iconography like Big Ben.
• We will be improving on this idea, by finalising character turnarounds and coming up with more concepts to fit the insect and bug theme.
• Here are the concepts and turnarounds I finalised for this idea:

Professional Practise 2: Competition

Professional Practise 2

Character Design Challenge: January Entry

• I joined the Character Design Challenge group on Facebook, so I could submit character design entries each month! This month, the theme was Cormorant Fisherman, so I decided to design a creature based on this idea.
• Unfortunately I only had a day to try and come up with something for this months' entry, so I think next time I'll spend more time on the designing process.

The design I came up with is here:

And here is the Facebook Post, evidencing my submission:

Applied Animation: Competition - Storyboard

Applied Animation - Competition Brief

Developing a Storyboard

• This week:
• Using drafts of a storyboard and the script written by Laura, I produced a short, digital storyboard
• What went well:
• The storyboard follows the script well and demonstrates the narrative in a simple and readable manner.
• I included camera movements, but also tried to keep within a 10-15 second time window for each scene, which was difficult! Thankfully, cutting out some unwanted shots and adjusting some of the ideas in the draft stages made it easier to produce a digital storyboard
• Would could be better:
• As it is short, some of the scenes could be fleshed out a little bit, showing more detail about what will be happening in each shot. However, I thought this would be more useful in an animatic.
• To make sure the perspective is kept accurate, we may have to use Maya to render some scenes to draw over the top of, to save some time.
• For the rest of this week and next week I will be working on character concepts and environment concepts to help flesh out the visuals of our ideas, whilst still referring to the Audible Brief

Initial Storyboard:

Digital Storyboard:

Applied Animation: Competition - 3D Backgrounds

Applied Animation

3D Backgrounds

• This week:
• I struggled to produce concept art because some of the perspectives and complex shapes, such as the car was difficult to draw.
• What went well:
• Using Maya, I produced a series of 3D concept work, to aid in my background and concept art. I create a scene for each storyboard.
• Not only did this allow me to develop my skills in 3D work, but was also helpful in perspective and design of environments.
• I used YouTube tutorials to help in the creation of the car and a series of reference photos. One YouTube tutorial I found useful was a walkthrough of creating a stylised model of a car.

• What could be improved:
• I could create more variety and exploration of styles and concepts. Once the idea and overall theme has been established I can then explore this.
• I need to find a way to use the colour palette, Audible has provided, creatively and to experiment to see if the characters work with this.

Here are some 3D renders: