#Ax3002

[erwilson-uclan]

Completed Film

Cerberus has been completed, with camera movement, visual effects, sound and voice effects, music, and re-composition of some scenes to make them last longer or shorter.

I edited the camera movement, sfx, music, and vfx in my editing software, sourcing sound effects from freesound.org. I sourced my music from https://www.fesliyanstudios.com/ and made sure I was using it correctly according to the site’s terms. I found vfx from free-to-use YouTube videos and used my editing skills to eliminate the green screen, layering effects to make them more visible and realistic.

I was originally concerned about how the music would turn out, as I have little experience mixing tracks for a longer film such as Cerberus. However I found that the music tracks I chose flowed very well; and after some peer review, I decided that the music was good and worked with the scenes effectively.

I remembered Mario’s demonstrations with sfx and vfx when he showed us the making of his film, the Ticket Master, and used techniques inspired by his work to create realistic and life-like sound effects. Layering garden sounds, having multiple storm tracks, etc. I think this method improved my sfx skills a lot, and makes the film more believable and immersive.

Overall, I am very proud of my film. It is my best piece of animation work to date, and I am so happy that the months of work and edits have resulted in a film looking better than I ever could have imagined.

Watch Cerberus on Vimeo here: https://vimeo.com/707946943

#cerberus #major project #ax3002

[hopefulbagelboi]

Designing a showreel

Also includes a reflection at the bottom!

One glaring issue I knew I was going to have with this showreel was, well, I don't have any material for it. Eh, that's not strictly true, I have made animations during my three years at uni but none of them I liked or thought much of, and the grades they had received proved that they were not that great. I didn't want to advertise myself using some of my worst work and, feeling confident at the time, I wanted to make brand new animations with my new skills and sudden passion for the project.

Since I could animate anything I wanted I planned on using characters from games that I enjoy and just putting them in funny situations. There would be some of my original characters such as 'watercolour cats' and various bio-mechanical monsters.

The general plot of the showreel was going to flow from one scene to another with the watercolour cats being the visual bridge between scenes, since the collection of game characters doing funny things wouldn't typically fit together well in one flowing scene so this way the cats act as a bridge, as if they're travelling across the world and seeing lots of strange people.

Plot timeline:

Watercolour cats are sat by a river, they begin to travel and hop across buildings in the rain, leaving golden footprints as they go. They look down and see a pokemon battle between game characters Ghetsis and Black. Ghetsis is a horrible person as always and decides to cheat the battle by casting a cursed spell like the evil wizard man he is. Inspired by these two posts:

(^ Not my art btw)

Moving on from that the cats would travel through the clouds to another destination where they would spot a nest of bio-mechanical creatures, even some robot sky whales, and observe them for a little while before ending up on a strange planet with a large factory on it. They'll see an astronaut exploring with their speedy robot dog. When the cats move on they encounter several pokemon villains having trouble with their respective legendaries. Maybe I'll throw some dragons in their too.

I did want the title to have a strange creature using a human as a horse and the human shoots a laser from their mouth which engraves the title on the screen (this was inspired by an old anime scene which I saw whilst listening to music but I can't seem to find it). The ending of my showreel was going to have a 3D animated dragon burn my contact details into stone, because dragons are cool.

So what happened?

Anyway, since I clearly didn't do all that stuff because I can't draw or animate well, I decided to do the heinous act of scraping some of my old animation work together an editing it all to some music (I picked the pokemon sword 'boutique' theme because by watching my showreel you're technically shopping around for my abilities'). I had so little work to show that I had to did up old COLLEGE projects and shove those on the timeline too, further showing off my lack of skill.

Reflection.

After three years at uni and thousands of pounds later the one thing I learned whilst here was that animation is not for me :) and I will not be going into the industry looking for an animation job. Editing and sound design, perhaps, but not animation of any kind. Hence why my showreel didn't really matter to me, I will not be using it nor needing it. I enjoy animating in small bits, doing tiny personal animation projects that don't take themselves too seriously, not big commercial animations that whole teams have to work on.

At this point I'm rather sick of animation and education in general. What could I do better? Take a break from education for a few years and maybe come back to animation and drawing once I've taken time to practice my skills whilst not under pressure. I burnt out after second year and clearly I'm not bouncing back, hence the mess that has been my third year work, so time to step away from all of this and maybe take a new career direction.

My showreel can be seen below, which also gives away my identity but oh well. As you can see it's not that great but I want to put this course to bed once and for all and I have no passion or will power to refine my work any further.

#AX3002 #Showreel

[cgoodin]

Stephen Wiltshire

Stephen is an artist who was diagnosed with Autism in the 1970′s. His parents had helped him enroll to a special school where he can build his future. When he was young, his first words were “pencil” and “paper”. When he was given those things, his life as an artist began.

His first drawing was a classroom field trip. Stephen possesses the ability to absorb vast complicated cities and transfer them to paper. As his ability grew, he earned the title of human camera. He has the ability to draw complex and realistic things from memory.

To me, his artwork is extraordinary. It makes me understand why he got the name human camera.

When I did research on Stephen, I was mainly researching artists who have autism. I needed to know if people with autism, just like Stephen and me, have a positive future.

#Research #references #Stephen Wiltshire #autism #national autism society #Artist #art and design #AX3002 #Semester 2 #2020 #Animation #Uclan

[petersanimation]

AX3002- Bible Research “The art of Spiderman into the Spider verse“

Next as part of my bible research I looked into the “The art of the Spiderman into the Spiderverse” while this isn’t a game bible and is instead a film I thought it would be worth doing a look into considering that I own the book along with the previous two and it will give me an insight to how a films bible is done.

Again the first thing I focused on was how the book starts with its contents page and introduction with the concepts page using a large full page illustration of the main character. The introduction to this book however used alot more writting than the previous two I had looked into  expain the thoughts and goals of the film. The next page talks more about the visual style as the film used a new style of animation which hadn’t been done before.

The next thing that comes after the introduction is more illustations showint the enviroments of the film but also attempts to esablish the tone of the film but looking at these illustrations you get a clear sence of the world and the characters.

This book did use a different layout to the previous books which would split it to characters then enviroments this book shows the character using a final render front and back with some concepts as well as a full mood board for most characters and well as some other poses of the character showing off their personality. The book presents its enviroments with the characters it relates to like Mile’s house after showing Miles and his family and the facility in the film before showing the page for Gwen.

This book did suprisingly give me some ideas for how I could present some pages of my book as I like the idea of enviroments being presented with the character they belong to though I would have to make some time to do those drawings if I wanted to present it like that.

#ax3002 #gamenarrative

[himynamesmick]

yee hawwww next clip

#3min #AX3002

[apieceofmindblog]

AX3002 - Personal Project: Building on top of Feedback

For Week 16, I received several critiques from my tutors and before the big presentations coming up I wanted to get this more villainous side of COVID on there and actually sell the audience on the fact that COVID in this film is the villain and not my friends.

Original Edit for Context:

Building a Bastard

The takeaway that Mario had from his initial viewing that he felt sorry for COVID. I made him feel sorry about a deadly disease and that's not good at all. So, I had to think of ways to make COVID a lot more dislikeable and what way to make you hate a character more than have them harm people that can't defend themselves!

Scene 1: Targeting the Innocent

Instead of just bothering no one and casually hanging out. COVID is raiding a child's bag and infecting all the items he finds within, all the while wearing a huge smile!

It felt important to show the ways of which you can get COVID and that COVID would be doing these disgusting acts to people's personal belongings in order to infect them.

Also, to show that COVID is still a threat, it is still a danger and it is still taking lives. My original animatic didn't stress that at all, giving the appearance that at this point now COVID is no longer a threat which just isn't true.

And to top it off, after infecting the innocent, he does a little gremlin laugh before he retreats into the bushes. Thus, when it comes time to give him the beatdown, the viewer doesn't feel sorry for him.

Again, when Mario told me this, it made so much sense and everything lined up perfectly!

Scene 2: The Brawl at the Bar

More of the same here, to be honest. The change was to COVID infecting some drinks left unattended. Another scummy thing some people sometimes do and it fit into the scene I already had made pretty comfortably.

Scene 4: COVID's Demise

As discussed in the previous post, the gun felt too hardcore and conveyed a very dangerous message. So, when breaking down the door, COVID just seethes in anger and attacks Jake to infect him!

Once again, tying back into COVID being a disease and instead of using a deadly weapon it just uses it's deadly ability! Which helps me segue into my next point.

Removing the More Mature Elements

Mario brought up another good point in private and that was if this film will be able to be shown at the Degree Show and if it would be appropriate for children. Which it wasn't. It had swearing, guns, violence and crude humour. To clean some of this up, I've removed the King's Arse with it's replacement being The Royal Rump.

With the removal of arses and one gun, I decided that the gym scene also needed a more "friendly" slapsticky sort of replacement. It was a bit sudden and dark and I think if one mature element goes, they might as well all go so all can view.

The swearing also needed to go, it was me injecting a bit of my madness in there, but at the end of the day it was really unnecessary and I think going for a slightly more PG tone actually improved the final product at the end of the day! Please take a look!

Conclusion

A little bit of advice goes a long way in the end and I think the critiques really helped shape my project into something greater. Even though it needed changing, piecing it together and seeing this take shape through all of this project has been really enjoyable and it's good to have gotten my groove back with this project!

#ax3002 #lockdown #Youtube

[jakesmachine]

AX3002 - Personal Project: Building on top of Feedback

For Week 16, I received several critiques from my tutors and before the big presentations coming up I wanted to get this more villainous side of COVID on there and actually sell the audience on the fact that COVID in this film is the villain and not my friends.

Original Edit for Context:

Building a Bastard

The takeaway that Mario had from his initial viewing that he felt sorry for COVID. I made him feel sorry about a deadly disease and that's not good at all. So, I had to think of ways to make COVID a lot more dislikeable and what way to make you hate a character more than have them harm people that can't defend themselves!

Scene 1: Targeting a Child

Instead of just bothering no one and casually hanging out. COVID is raiding a child's bag and infecting all the items he finds within, all the while wearing a huge smile!

It felt important to show the ways of which you can get COVID and that COVID would be doing these disgusting acts to people's personal belongings in order to infect them.

Also, to show that COVID is still a threat, it is still a danger and it is still taking lives. My original animatic didn't stress that at all, giving the appearance that at this point now COVID is no longer a threat which just isn't true.

And to top it off, after infecting the innocent, he does a little gremlin laugh before he retreats into the bushes. Thus, when it comes time to give him the beatdown, the viewer doesn't feel sorry for him.

Again, when Mario told me this, it made so much sense and everything lined up perfectly!

Scene 2: The Brawl at the Bar

More of the same here, to be honest. The change was to COVID infecting some drinks left unattended. Another scummy thing some people sometimes do and it fit into the scene I already had made pretty comfortably.

Scene 4: COVID's Demise

As discussed in the previous post, the gun felt too hardcore and conveyed a very dangerous message. So, when breaking down the door, COVID just seethes in anger and attacks Jake to infect him!

Once again, tying back into COVID being a disease and instead of using a deadly weapon it just uses it's deadly ability! Which helps me segue into my next point.

Removing the More Mature Elements

Mario brought up another good point in private and that was if this film will be able to be shown at the Degree Show and if it would be appropriate for children. Which it wasn't. It had swearing, guns, violence and crude humour. To clean some of this up, I've removed the King's Arse with it's replacement being The Royal Rump.

The swearing also needed to go, it was me injecting a bit of my madness in there, but at the end of the day it was really unnecessary and I think going for a slightly more PG tone actually improved the final product at the end of the day! Please take a look!

Conclusion

A little bit of advice goes a long way in the end and I think the critiques really helped shape my project into something greater. Even though it needed changing, piecing it together and seeing this take shape through all of this project has been really enjoyable and it's good to have gotten my groove back with this project!

#ax3002 #film #Youtube

[illumistrated3]

Clip Studio Paint EX is a great program which is incredibly versatile and allows the user to use both Vector and Bitmap styles simultaneously on a timeline very similar to flash.

Along with that it has a brilliant feature which allows the user to manipulate a 3D model however you like within the scene to help them keep proportions for human characters, you can even import custom 3D models and poses to allow your drawings to stay more accurate relative to the models.

I absolutely love this program and its many tools that have been added to by the community to create the ultimate program for my 2D digital drawing needs.  

#2D #research #AX3002

[maggievillustration]

Milestone deadline 2

Did I achieve my goals?

Yes and No. I achieved my tv series goal, I was able to get it finished before the deadline on Thursday. I also managed to get some voices recorded for my characters. 

However, I did not achieve my goal to finish my 11 pages of my graphic novel and animation. I think I didn’t achieve my goal honestly because of poor time management. I didn't give it as much attention as I should have. This will change because I have finished my tv series now and will have two whole weeks during Easter to catch up.  

For the animation I have mentioned I am considering on doing around a minute and a half or more if I can because I am worried about time and want to produce a really good quality film and graphic novel. I have been looking at the software Motion Artist which I am so happy I was able to download today thanks to the help of Kelly. I think it will be very useful for my film. I am currently watching some tutorials on it to better understand it then work on some tests and animation over Easter. 

http://my.smithmicro.com/motionartist-motion-comic-tutorial.html 

#AX3002 #Graphicnovel #tvseriesopening

[erwilson-uclan]

Blog Conclusion

This post concludes the last three years of work on the BA Hons Animation course at UCLan. I cannot be more grateful to Mario, Pete, Steve and Mark for being there each step of the way, and I’d like to thank my friends and classmates for inspiring me with their progress and ambition. The last 3 years have truly been the best, and I am excited to see what the future holds after graduation.

I have created multiple pieces of work, all of which I am incredibly proud of. My progress from first-year to now is astounding, I never thought I could do it. Cerberus is a great film to finish on - the story portrays change, endings, and future possibilities, and I feel this will be the case with my degree. I have experienced change during my course, with covid and life changes occurring throughout the years. And while my time at university is coming to an end, I very much doubt it will be the last time I see my classmates or my tutors. I would love to continue working with Mario and the university, as they have changed my life for the better and given me opportunities I never thought possible.

I may occasionally update this blog with future updates, so feel free to stay following :)

Here’s to the future. Thank you for taking the time to read.

#ax3002 #cerberus #major project

[gigianimationsblog97-blog]

Poster Design #1

Here is rough draft for my poster which I have made for my film, I have been looking at the research and seeing how I can implicate my notes into the design process that I have thought about, I feel like that this design is good but I feel that it should have something more into the design,i.e. more people, a referee, a tagline for the film etc. the top and bottom header I have used to try and design them as if it was a comic book, and used my goalkeeper shirt as the design to help split up the poster and make the focus on the image and action shot of the poster 

#poster #ax3002

[cgoodin]

Jill Thompson

An American comic illustrator who is also a stage, film and television writer. She is married to a man who is also a comic book writer.

From looking on her work, Jill has worked on these images using pencil first. Then used water colour paint to colour in the characters. The lighting applied to the painted drawings looks realistic and shows how the characters would look in our world.

Jill has this beautiful technique of creating scenes in a story using her method of water painting. On this image, it is mostly black and white but with a slight red on one of the characters. It makes me think of a watery atmosphere that has filled the environment of the drawn and painted image.

Jill has worked on Scary godmother. The art of the front cover looks to have been done with water coloured paint. I am not really fond of this art poster of Scary Godmother, but I believe that the poster could have been improved. The background and the characters look like they were done in ruff sketching. The lining looks blurry and the colours of the night sky feels like a foggy atmosphere coating down over my view.

#Jill Thompson #Research #References #wonder woman #scary godmother #x men #water colour art #Graphic novel #AX3002 #Semester 2 #2020 #Animation #Uclan

[petersanimation]

AX3002- All Animation to date 26/03/2020 - Mario Feedback

Today I had I one-on-one with Mario and disscussed my work over a video call on Teams unfortanly Idon’t have a mic I can use with my computer so I had to text in chat to reply but overall I think this went well.

Idle Cycles - Mario said he thinks timing is a big thing with these animations and need to be adjusted to be quicker noticable the “Scarf Grab” which is suppose to show Rogue remanising about some who was close to him though the process to getting to the grab was too slow.

Another Idle critisiom Mario had was the check computer and has said that the character should bring up both arms at once instead of one at a time. This told me that the character wasn’t looking at the computer long enough for this to get across. While I could make the animation longer I think it would be best to go straight into the computer instead.

Walk, Jogging, Jumps, steakth walks Mario thought looked good the next  critiziom Mario had was mainly with the cover cycles though not so much with the actual animation but with the pose of the character as the character has the same pose for all the cover cycles and the arms remain in the same place too often. Which I can agree with and I do like the suggestion of using his hand to balance himself on the cover as I think I could bring the other arm round to be ready for an attack/ defence position.

As for the Drone Mario like the animations for this character though did give me some suggestions as to how to add some touches to the character to make it more appealing and alive.

There was also the suggestion of adding some effect to the characters which I  would like to do for a glow around Rogues eyes and the Drones eyes.

Overall I’m happy with how the session went eventhough it was abit differcult to communicate I am happy that Mario liked the animation presented and thought the marjority are good.

Next though he would like to see these animations in Unreal in an enviorment while I’ve got most of the current process done and programed I will be building a simulation for the player to perform my actions in.

#ax3002 #gamenarrative

[himynamesmick]

oh boy here we go

#3min #AX3002

[anotheranimationblog]

Here’s the background I made for my graphic novel, I can change the angles, soften the colours and reuse it for different scenes which will cut down a lot of time on redrawing each background.

#ax3002 #practicalproject