Applied Animation: Documentary - Final Animation

Applied Animation

Final Animated Documentary

• This week:
• We completed the final documentary film!
• What went well:
• Overall, I believe we worked really well to organise ourselves as a group, we bounced off each others ideas, understood each others' feedback really well. I would love to work with both Joseph and Caitlin again, as I found they work very professionally and keep to deadlines really well.
• I learnt so much this module, through Toon Boom Harmony, using more references, learning more about VFX animation. I really enjoyed the Visual Development stages of pre-production, such as exploring styles, producing some backgrounds, coming up with visual ideas. 
• I additionally worked a lot on my timing and consistency with animation, by using more keyframes, to help with inbetweening. I enjoyed the colour process in Toon Boom and will continue to do this in the future!
• Furthermore, I learnt a lot about After Effects compositing and improved my skills in using the software more efficiently.
• What could be improved:
• My composing of shots, and consistency with characters needs improvement. I also need to learn more with Toon Boom, which will come with using it more and exploring YouTube tutorials.
• Despite working a lot on my timing for animation, I think it still needs work. A lot of the shapes and spacing needs improvement and the animation could be smoother.
• Furthermore, I'd like to improve directing more in the future, as I learnt a lot about myself and I think I would like to do it again, next year.

Here is the final animation:

Applied Animation: Documentary - Credits and Press Pack

Applied Animation

Credits, Press Pack and Art Of Book

• This week:
• We finalised the press pack and worked on creating some additions to the credits, to make them more appealing.
• What went well:
• My initial designs for the credits, were small thumbnails of each character, as a sketchy silhouette. I initially tried a textured, paint splatter look for each character. Then, explored the possibility of a sketchy gif.

 First possible concepts to use:

Preferred Sketchy loops for Credits:

• In addition to this, we added a border to the credits, which I designed, after multiple attempts. We liked my final design, because it looked like an embroidered pattern and made the visuals almost seem tapestry-like.
• Here are the designs:

• Furthermore, we completed the Press-Pack and put together an Art-Book for the full project. We wanted to express the level of effort and detail we had put into this research.
• Here is both the Press-Pack and Art-Book:

Press Pack:

Art Book:

• What could be improved:
• The press pack could be further improved, with a title page for the full animation and more technical specifications for sound, running time, etc. 
• The border could have included the Nordic names of characters appear in the side, when they come on-screen, which would be a nice small detail. As we don't have a lot of time, it was kept to a simple side border.
• Next week:
• The animation will be finalised, ready for submission and festival entry.

Applied Animation: Study Task 4 - Evaluate

Applied Animation

Study Task 4 - Evaluate

• Overall, my animation and technical skills have improved the most within this module, such as in my 2D VFX work and character design skills.
• In the future, I need to work on my research skills more and provide more exploration of ideas and concepts going forward. This can consist of making more test animations, looking are more possible ideas and making time to have more visual development in the pre-production stages.
• Here is my full evaluation:

Applied Animation: Documentary - Jormungandr Post-Production

Applied Animation

Jormungandr After Effects Compositing and VFX

• This week:
• I worked on the post-production work for the documentary. Using After Effects I composited and edited Jormungandrs' scenes and created my own ways of making VFX in After Effects.
• What went well:
• With a lot of experimentation and learning After-Effects through just working on this editing, I was able to add a lot to the current animated scenes, with fog, rain, particle effects and light rays. One of the first effects I added was light rain, using CC Particle World. I was able to experiment with particle world to create ripples of droplets on the surface of the water, by changing the particle type to Bubbles, adjusting the birth and death rates of the particles and the position in which they start. 

Ripple and Rain Effects

• I had to adjust the rain position and water ripples, for the shot from above, to remain consistent between shots. This was done through just adjusting the angle at which the rain is viewed from. 
• I found that the easiest way to create fog was creating a solid object, adding a mask, adjusting the feather of the mask and then adding noise. The fog was then copied and pasted, pre-composed to create multiple layers.

Adding fog layers

• In addition to this, lights were a large part of final composition, such as Light Rays, which illustrate the serpent blocking out the light slightly and light rays as he comes down to circle the Earth. 

Light Rays

Light Rays 2

Final VFX, ready for Joseph to put together in Premiere:

• What could be improved:
• Overall, I think that the shots flow together quite well. I think there could be some pacing issues however, as though it moves too quickly. This is partly due to having to keep to a time limit/guide with the animation, when we made the animatic and storyboards. If we'd have known the timing could be extended further, we would have been able to pace the scenes much better.
• There were issues with the water/wave transition before Jormungandr comes down to circle the Earth and I think that I would plan out the transition or test it more, next time, to make sure it would work well. I had to do quite a bit of post-editing for that part to make it work.
• I think the layout could be improved in the future, also. This could be done through making more thumbnails and tests, to really make the audience understand perspective and sense of scale. This is something Ill look at in future projects.
• Next week:
• I will be putting together everything ready for submission.
• Next week:

Applied Animation: Documentary - Fenrir Scene and Additional Scene with Hel

Applied Animation

Fenrir Scene and Additional Scene with Hel

• This week:
• I took the work for a close-up scene of Fenrir, from Joseph and reused the spirits from the Hel scene I worked on last week, for an additional scene, as she walks towards the gates.
• What went well:
• I needed to do some research for the close-up shot of Fenrirs' paw and the chains, as I needed to understand more anatomical parts of the paw and how he could go about flexing his toes - as dogs are unable to actually "unsheathe" their claws. I found this diagram to help me explain this:

• I realised this would be difficult to do with just puppet animation, as we had planned, so I decided to use a mix of both puppet and frame-by-frame animation, to illustrate Fenrir lifting his paw and flexing his toes. The added dust shift under his paw is an additional small detail, similar to the breath steam and added snow. These small details really make the character feel apart of the world and interacting with the environment.

• Secondly, I also re-used the Spirit assets for another scene with Hel, to save both time and keep the shots consistent. All I needed to do was re-key the animation and puppet movement and time it to Hel walking to the gates, which is animated by Joseph.

• What could be improved:
• The new scene with Hel and the reused spirit animation could be further improved, with glow effects, making the spirits more opaque and additional VFX in post-editing. Joseph will be working on the post-production for Hels' scenes, so he will be the one to make those changes. 
• I noticed some shakiness with the shadows on Fenrirs' leg, which I hadn't noticed before. This is just a small error on my part, when I was animating the shadows. Next time, Ill make sure to use the pencil line method, before filling in the shadows on each frame. The shot could also be further improved in post, with added snow-fall and some colour adjustments, to fit better with the narration.
• Next week:
• I will be working on Jormungandrs' compositing in After Effects.

Applied Animation: Documentary - Transitions

Applied Animation

Creating Transitions

• This week:
• Im working on the post-production for the documentary.
• What went well:
• In order to create a snow transition for Fenrir, I animated a snow-swipe in Toon Boom Harmony, which just swipes across the screen. I wasn't able to use many references for this, so I had to experiment a bit with the movement. I was able to create one that could be edited further:

• This, however, needed further improvement. It needed to work with the snow-fall that would already be in the scene and transition smoothly. Once I took it into After-Effects and used the Particle World effects, I created a realistic-looking snowfall. 

• Using a mask, and creating a snow-fall with the Particle World effects, it broke up the swipe more, to make it look more like snow. Once I added an additional layer of lighter snow-fall, it would transition much better between shots.

The Final Snow-Swipe Transition:

• What could be improved:
• Although it works well, I could have found a way to use a reference or looked for more inspiration to help me animate the snow swipe. The final composition could have been put together better if the original animation worked well. This is something I can remember for next time.
• For the rest of this week:
• I will be working on the VFX and compositing for Jormungandr.

Applied Animation: Documentary - Minor Animation Additions

Applied Animation

Additional Animations

• This week:
• I worked on a test for Odins' crows animation, a small transition and started the animation for Hel.
• What went well:
• I used a reference of a crow gliding and hovering to help with the animation for the crow gliding over Odins' head. I found that when a crow is adjusting its' position when hovering, they don't perform a full wing flap, to just adjust themselves in the air. I tried to demonstrate this in the animation.
• The line-work and colouring was quite consistent, when I lined it and made improvements.

First test:

Final render:

• Then I worked on Hels' spirits shot. The spirits animation proved the most difficult, as I wasn't initially sure how to key the souls of the dead circling her. I had an idea to use the puppet tools that Toon Boom Harmony has, to keep the movement consistent. This was more successful than my initial attempts at lining it frame by frame. I made a "sprite" for the soul animation and then duplicated it, and key-framed the animation.
• Caitlin animated Hel sitting and the background was made by Joseph, then I contributed to this scene with the movement of the souls. Here is the work in progress of this, so far and a screenshot of the keyframes from Toon Boom.

 How I keyed and timed each spirit in Toon Boom Harmony

Final export

• What could be improved:
• The movements of the crow could be made more consistent. Sometimes the wing movement seems a bit odd, despite using a reference, which could be due to the angle at which the crow is positioned and the reference I used. Next time I use a reference, especially for this kind of movement, I will use a reference from a similar camera angle to what I want the movement to be.
• For Hels' animation, the souls need to be slightly adjusted, as some movements are a bit broken because some errors with the keyframes, in Toon Boom. This is a quick fix, as I can go into the software and make some small changes. They also need to be re-exported on a green background, to be keyed out in Adobe After Effects.
• Next week:
• I will be exporting most scenes ready for post-production work.