Extended Practise: Final Film Script and Storyboarding

 Extended Practise - Final Film
Script Drafts and Rough Storyboarding

• This week:
• I made notes and edits on Stacey's drafted script and started creating rough thumbnails for the storyboard.
• What went well:
• I think that the script Stacey produced works really well, despite that it was quite tricky and new for her to write a comedy. I understood that a lot of the comedy aspect will come in with the visuals, so the script works well to establish the narrative cues. 
• I found it great that I could go over the script and make notes here and there as to how this could be shown visually, however this is something I will also discuss with my group. Through the process of making a rough storyboard, also, I can establish parts that may need to be cut out or adjusted for the final storyboards.
• Here is the script, with my notes on:

• The quickness of the storyboard with post-it notes really helps the narrative process, as I can move around shots or change things as I go. I always start the process this way. It allows me to also talk with Stacey about changes and Reid, who will be helping out on the storyboard process. 
• Here are my rough thumbnails:

• What could be improved:
• The rough thumbnails are very rough at the moment and don't properly establish shot types or specific movements, as this will need to be considered when developed.
• I forgot to use a 16:9 ratio, as these were the only post-it notes I had (which are square). I need to draw a line or use a 16:9 ratio post-it notes, for next time I make rough thumbnails.
• There seems to be too much at the moment, especially if I want to keep the animation under one minute. I will need to make cuts to some of the story, which I will be discussing with Stacey and Reid and getting their opinions on what could work best and what could be cut.
• Next week:
• I will be talking with the group about their ideas so far, fleshing out the storyboard and working on character concepts.

Extended Practise: Final Film Idea Exploration

 Extended Practise - Final Film
Final Film Idea Exploration

• This week:
• I started exploring ideas for my final film, looking at script ideas and character concepts.
• What went well:
• I started to explore a variety of concepts and ideas, after speaking with Mike about what route I could take with my idea. Initially, I wanted to create a short film which had three different stories, about animals with ironic fears. I decided to extend this idea further, by focusing on one character and fleshing out the story more. I chose to explore the bird being afraid of heights idea, as I think this had the most potential for a short story.
• For my group, I created a Google Slides presentation, to add concepts and ideas, to help in the visual style. We also explored possible story ideas in a Google Hangouts meeting, where we discussed the possibility of the bird being a Robin, a Crow, or a Goose, or a Magpie character. These were further explored in the slides.

• In the slides we also looked at possible music ideas and inspiration for character personality. This was all a part of the idea generation process, which helped Stacey understand the potential for the narrative.
• Mike recommended the artist Matt Sewell, as he has a book of bird illustrations, called "Our Garden Bird". This proved very useful in exploring style and concepts. I particularly like his "Early Bird" illustrations, as I think the style is quite simple and cute.

• I also explored some initial concepts for the bird design, which I believed showed a lot of personality and character:

• What could be improved:
• We need to establish the characters' personality and appearance, which will make concept work much easier. It will also allow us to understand how the narrative will work, if the character is established.
• This leads onto the initial concepts I made - they may not fit the personality or style we decide to go for, therefore I will be exploring more ideas once the story has been written by Stacey. 
• I need to consider the length of the animation, as I still want this to be a minute long, things may need to be adjusted and cut to fit this.
• Next week:
• I will be looking over the script and starting rough thumbnails for the story.

Extended Practise: Giffgaff brief - Improvements and Inbetweening

Extended Practise
giffgaff Brief - Improvements and Inbetweening

• This week:
• I made improvements to the animation from last week and continued inbetweening.
• What went well:
• I was able to make the improvements from last week, such as adding the head turn to the first shot and extending the looping fall animation, whilst removing the final shot. 
• The first shot, where she turns her head to look away from the monitor and glance at her desk removes a lot of stiffness from the animation and makes the movement feel more realistic and fluid.
• I additionally finished inbetweening the full animation and added the notes flying out from the envelope, which makes it easier for audiences to understand that it is filled with cash. 

• I showed this to Joseph and several others to get some feedback, which they responded that they liked the fluidness of the animation and felt that the linework was clean. Joseph added that he thought the package should turn into, or "pop" into, the return package with money, so I made this change and it worked much better.
• Here is the improvement:

• What could be improved:
• I think that the turn in the air that she does could be more fluid or pushed a little more, such as doing multiple turns before balancing herself. This would add a bit more realism to the movement, possibly by using more reference of sky-divers or people parachuting.
• Despite being fluid and exaggerated, some of the body parts and expressions go quite off-model. This is something I have noted before, which will come more with practise. I did believe I kept close to the model sheet with this, but there is still room for improvement. 
• When she lands in the chair, the impact could be exaggerated more, by adding a squashed frame of both her and the chair. I decided to keep it less exaggerated, to show a more elegant fall into the chair.
• Next week:
• Joseph will be helping with colouring and editing will then begin!

Extended Practise: Giffgaff Brief - Keyframing

 Extended Practise
Giffgaff Brief - Keyframing

• This week:
• I began the keyframes for the full 20 second TV spot for the giffgaff brief.
• What went well:
• As my animatic had fleshed out a lot of the movements, I found it easier to keyframe over this. 
• I used a mixture of straight ahead and pose-to-pose animation, for the first shot, as I found this easier to do, whereas for the part where the character is falling, it was better to animate the poses, so when I between this, I can get the timing right.
• I attempted to be more malleable with the model sheet, which proved to work well here, as I could push poses and expressions, to exaggerate them more. 
• After reading over the brief guidelines and looking at my visual exploration, I opted to use a vector brush, which is dense and smooth - as opposed to a textured one. I believed that this fit better with giffgaff's image and also has a bolder, graphic-like aesthetic, which fits the visual better.
• Here is the animation I have produced so far:

• I believe that the falling animation loop works well so far. I was able to make the fabric wobble enough to look like she's falling in the air, whilst also keeping the shape and values consistent. I still need to continue this, but this can be further developed next week.
• What could be improved:
• I found that the first shot, where she glances around at her desk needs to be extended slightly, to show her head turning from the computer monitor. This was something Joseph also pointed out, as he would be developing the backgrounds for me. I will add a short head turn next week, when I come to improve and between the animation.
• Furthermore, I found that the final shot of her looking at the envelope didn't fit well with the style of animation, nor the overall story. I have decided I will cut this shot out, to extend the other shots, which will allow for more time for audiences to process what's happening.
• Next week:
• I will be inbetweening the animation and working on improvements.

Context of Practise 3: Video Exploration and Analysis

 Context of Practise 3
Video Exploration and Analysis

• This week:
• After finishing the line-tests for each of the characters, I wanted to create an analysis, which would work alongside my essay.
• What went well:
• After completing the animated tests, I created a survey, asking audiences about what they perceived each characters' personality was, based upon their model sheets, turnarounds and final character animations. I additionally asked how easy they found it to figure out. 
• Overwhelming the responses were very positive. 93% of responses were able to identify Sal's anxious personality in the animated tests, in comparison to only 60% being able to identify it, just from her model sheet. 
• 79% of responses agreed that the animated tests showed more personality than the model sheets and all responses demonstrated that the acting within the animations showed their personalities.
• Here is a link to the survey:

https://forms.gle/EEgk5cNgqHdqYzdW8

• Here is the final survey:

• In addition to this, I created a short video explaining how my research and findings came together, what I had focused on for the character animations and finally what I had learnt from this.
• I believe that my skills in acting in animation have improved and developed significantly, which can be taken into my extended practise module. This is because I have a better understanding of getting into character and the process of acting in animation.
• Here is the quick analysis video:

• What could be improved:
• Some improvements I could make going forwards is understanding more about the positioning of characters and camera movement, which can be worked upon during Extended Practise.
• I had previously mentioned I would like to also improve my knowledge of Toon Boom Harmony and how I can improve my work further with fluid motion.
• Next week:
• I will be finalising the essay ready for submission.

Context of Practise 3: Berties' Line Tests

Context of Practise 3
Berties' Line Tests

• This week:
• I created a series of rough line tests for each of the characters to explore their personalities through body language.
• What went well:
• I created a scenario where the character hears a glass shatter off-screen and then reacts to it according to their personalities. I thought that this would be a fun and interesting way to demonstrate this.
• The first roughs I created allowed me to understand his body movement and effectively plan out the way he will react. I contacted artist and animator, Amelia Bothe on Instagram, about her process with animating. She isn't professionally trained in animation, but is self-taught and frequently animates at low frame-rates, yet is able to achieve well-timed and acted results. Here is her advice, after contacting her:

• I followed the process for animating Bertie, similarly to how she described - planning out the keyframes and betweening them, deciding whether they need more frames or work well for the acting that way. I found that this method really helped me to focus on the acting of the characters, rather than creating a very fluid, but non-believable motion.
• I started this process with Bertie:

• I think that I was able to capture his personality really well with this first test, so I went ahead and lined his facial expressions and movements.
• In my body language explorations, I explained that I wanted the focus to be on his expressions and chest movement, so this was my focus here when animating him. I did struggle at first to get into character, however, after keyframing him, I found inbetweening easier to do.

• I, then, animated the body. I think the 12 Principles and acting were applied really well here, as you can feel the squash and stretch of his body as he puffs out his chest and leans back. This is something I wanted to achieve for this motion, to emphasise the chest-puff body language and his head going backwards, to look down a little bit at the camera.
• I also believe that the eye movement and expressions work really well to demonstrate his grumpiness and arrogance. The flicker of the pupil, as he looks to the right and also the raising of the eyebrow demonstrates this. I was also proud of the arcing motion of the eye-roll.

• To add a level of professionalism to the animation, I coloured, shaded and added a background. The glass shatter sound-effect was also added in the post-production.

• What could be improved:
• Overall, whilst the acting works well for his character, I think I could have animated more to show his personality. This could be through another test, or using the tests to animate his full body. I did decide to use focus on the upper half of the body, to keep myself focused when animating, but next time I think I would try a full body movement, or with Sal or Mimo try a full body animation.
• Despite the lower frame-rate to allow me to focus on the acting, I think it could have benefitted a lot from making it smoother. This is especially noticeable when he walks off camera, as the body isn't fully betweened. Next time, such as for Extended Practise, I will keep this in mind!
• Next time:
• Ill be finishing and colouring line tests for Sal and Mimo.