ecyojang

[ecyojang]

Animatic FINAL PASS

Here is my final edit of the animatic:

Overall, I’m pretty happy with the final production, my main issue with it is the timing turned out pretty fast at some points due to me trying to keep to the original 30 seconds it was meant to be. I really struggled with keeping the time as I wasn’t sure what parts I could take out due to the story not coming across clear without all the parts. In the future, I would definitely practice my ability to condense stories as this will be an important skill to have going into the industry and meeting certain client needs. 

I would also practice more focusin on the intent of the production, in this case it was the batteries but I dont think I conveyed that well enough, something like closer shots or something would have made it clearer. Looking back on it now I wish I had done that.

I also ran out of time to really perfect this assessment due to my Study Tour cutting my semester a bit short. I had to rush to finish this one and am a bit disappointed about that. While the look and overall product was satisfactory, I know I could have done better with the timing and editing. However, I hope you enjoy this animatic!

[ecyojang]

New Storyboards & Sound FX

Going off of my list and notes that I had made earlier, I proceeded to draw the extra boards that were needed to communicate the story a bit better. Most of the added shots were in betweeners of the existing shots. I made sure that it was clear what was going on in the story. My only concern at this stage was time as I knew id run over with the amount of boards I had. 

However, I was happy with the status of the story and I felt like I had narrowed it down and couldnt get rid of anything else without it getting a bit confusing. If I had more time then I would have also tried out more camera movements and angles as I dont have much variety.

NEW BOARDS WITH IN BETWEENERS

Link to Storyboards FOR CLEARER/BIGGER BOARDS: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1lmNF_o4uKTs4ZEzkjLh6tFNIb7G4c3F1

SOUND

I then proceeded to find sounds for my boards once I had put everything together in Premiere Pro. Going off of my original Bart Bacharach reference from the first Assessment, I searched for Royalty Free Jazz music as I felt it was the most similar. I originally found this song and intended to use it..only to find that it cost to use. However it was a good representation of Bart Bacharachs sounds.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=I0gPJrtRHds

Unfortunately I couldnt pay and therefore went to this website for all my sounds, including a loop of jazz music:

https://freesound.org/

Some sounds that I used included: footsteps, jazz music, campfire souns, man gasp, night sounds, tree rustling, thuds

All these sounds definitely helped bring my animatic to life and it was exciting to see it all come together. I then put everything together and created my final animatic.

[ecyojang]

Animatic FIRST PASS

For the first animatic, I put together my final storyboards from the previous assessment and edited them together in Premiere Pro. It’s a rough cut so timing is a bit quick and not that accurate. 

But from this cut, I was able to see what worked and what was not communicated well. Some main things that I wanted to add was more characterization of the main character (the man), highlighting his clumsiness and emotions a bit better. Another element to fix was adding some more frames for more clarity and also adding a bit more creativity with my camera movements in order to make the overall animatic a bit more interesting. Other than that, I’m pretty happy with the animatic but am excited to add these fixes in order for a better final.

I made a list of notes to fix and add as I watched the first pass numerous times below.

To Do:

Next I will proceed to create new thumbnails (if necessary) and storyboards for the next pass of the animatic. 

Note: I’m hoping at this stage that the next one will be my final one as I am a bit strict for time this semester due to going on a Paris Study Tour on the 29th May. I am on track with time and hope to push out a great final that I am proud of in the end. 

[ecyojang]

Assessment Two

Adding to the previous Assessment, this second part will include improving the existing storyboards and creating them into a final animatic.

TO DO:

1. Produce and develop an animatic of approximately 30 seconds that illustrates the narrative arc of a given script. 

2. Provide the initial sketches made as you developed the animatic.

3. Be sure to use appropriate conventions of cinematic devices as well as visual language for animation and live action productions in this project. 

4. The entire development process, from thumbnails to roughs, has to be documented on your blog with brief reflections on the evolving vision and overall result. (Formative and summative).

Overview

Production, development and pre-visualization of a short 30-second sequence and the designs: you will produce a storyboard and an animatic that illustrates the narrative arc of a specified scene, by employing conventions of cinematic devices and visual language for animation and live action productions.

The entire development process, from thumbnails to roughs, has to be documented on your blog with brief reflections on the evolving vision and overall result. (Formative and summative).

Summary

Demonstrating a good comprehension of cinematic conventions you will reveal the drama that is ‘locked’ inside the text of the script you are tasked to storyboard.

This exercise demonstrates an emerging command of visual language for the purpose of helping directors ‘see’ movies before the commencement of production. While the production of detailed artwork is not the objective of this exercise, well-executed work that shows meticulous planning will be viewed more favourably.

Considerations and Practicalities

Is good camera language demonstrated in this exercise?

Does the story flow well?

Does the music or audio track support your images well enough to enhance the narrative?]

Blog [Is this updated frequently to reflect your growing practice?]

Assessment criteria

Storyboard                                                    __/20

Animatic                                                        __/20  

Blog                                                               __/20

[ecyojang]

Assessment One

All of the submission for Assessment One will be found below this post. Thread goes from Bottom to Top! Enjoy :)

[ecyojang]

Storyboards

LINK TO GOOGLEDRIVE FOR BIGGER/CLEARER IMAGES: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1HOihduCD0MIjx4MfKmD1Wqrekg_JEY6d

I finally started on the storyboards and mainly went off my thumbnails and pretty much just created larger, clearer and prettier boards of off those ones. I was pretty happy with the outcome as I think i was able to clearly communicate the story in my own way. Again, my only concern was that I wasn't able to play around with camera angles and therefore didn't have much variety there which is something that I have the chance to work on in the next part of this unit.

I also took away Shot 10 in the thumbnails and script as I felt that it was now unnecessary with the new shots I had added in the thumbnails. Also with the end segment where the man runs into the scene in despair after the aliens disappear, I noticed the bad continuity as the log was on the side rather than the front of the stereo. However I really like the look of him coming in from the bottom or bottom right of the screen so i think I’ll work something out to make that flow better in the next assessment as well. 

I’m excited to learn what i can fix in this to make it better and then create it into an animatic with sounds. Overall, I was happy to practice the process of pre-production again. I would work to manage my time better in order to go through more roughs and passes in order to finalise everything into something that I am 100% happy with. 

[ecyojang]

3 Column Script

Before advancing onto storyboards, I created a three column script just to make sure I knew what was happening in each shot and the rough duration of it. This assisted me with progressing into storyboards as i had everything planned and all I had to do was go off of this script and the thumbnails in order to bring everything together.

[ecyojang]

Thumbnails

For more clarity (FINAL THUMBNAILS): https://drive.google.com/open?id=1HtJ3ACbQJfSgxBGbo3txUxYUbmPKw17-

Knowing the look of my characters and environment now, I progressed into doing some rough thumbnails for the story. Reading the script, I already knew how certain parts of it were going to be framed in my head so I was able to get this first rough done pretty quickly. Overall I was pretty happy with it however my only concern was the lack of camera movement and the overall length of it now that it was laid out in front of me.

FIRST PASS THUMBNAILS

With these concerns and feeling rather confident, I took it into class to get some feedback. 

John was able to help me with my worries and offered me a few ideas to improve my boards. Firstly, we realised that I wasn't really introducing the aliens quite clearly in regards to their motivation and reason for appearing. So I changed board 9 into one where the audience is able to see the curiosity and motivation behind their appearance. John also advised me to utilise hands in order to show better emotion within my characters so I proceeded to position the mans hands strategically in certain shots in order to evoke more emotion such as eagerness, shock and despair. 

I also added in some pans to spice up the overall camera movement as there wasn't much to begin with. With this feedback, I was able to create my second pass of thumbnails which I ended up making my final version. While I was happy with it, I mainly made it my final due to time as I had been dropping behind in this unit. I wanted to play around a bit more with camera angles but failed to do so, so I will make an effort to change and edit it a bit more int he second assessment before finalising the animatic.

These are my final thumbnails, be sure to check out to google drive if you wish to the larger and clearer image.

SECOND PASS THUMBNAILS (FINAL)

[ecyojang]

Rough Character & Environment Concept Art

Before progressing into thumbnails, I proceeded to create some concept art and character designs with the previous research I had done. 

With the main character, the man, I went off some main characteristics and formed a few looks that I had in mind. The description of “clumsy” and “awkward” made me incorporate messy hair and freckles into all of my looks. However I found that most of my looks made his look very young. Therefore I added a little bit of facial hair on the chin which aged his face a bit more. I also made the decision to add a bandaid on the side of his face to highlight his clumsiness in his appearance. 

The clothes I made simple and baggy, kind of an attempt at finding clothes that were suitable for his hike into the forest.

I then proceeded to create looks for the simple props such as the stereo and batteries. These didn't take long as I mainly just went off the images that I had found in the previous thread.

As for the aliens, I had already had a look in mind from the moment I had read the script which can be seen in my research in the previous thread as well where most of the looks are quite similar. Finishing it now, I see that my aliens more similarly represent monsters rather than an extraterrestrial being but I’m happy with the look as it still represents something unearthly. Additionally, i didn't want my aliens to come across as intimidating due to the fun nature of this advertisement and i wanted the one big eye as to show emotion and curiosity better within them in an innocent manner.

Finally, I created a simple rough concept art for the overall environment in order to just get a better idea of my setting and how I would frame the story around this one area. Overall I’m super happy with the outcome of the characters and environment and was glad I solidified these ideas in order to move onto the next steps of production confidently.

[ecyojang]

Character & Environment Development

As I work as someone who needed a clear idea of visuals, I figured that I would need to have a pretty solid idea on my characters and environment before creating certain camera movements and shots.

The man in the script was described as “clumsy” and “awkward”. When I read this there were a numerous amount of characters that popped into my hear, I have included images of them down below, I also had an image in my head to do a slightly lanky, curly haired boy but will most likely develop it more when I start drawing him. 

The aliens were characters that would be entertaining to draw, I wanted them to come across as funny and entertaining looking rather than scary or intimidating. I liked the skinny one eyed look rather than the classic green, beady eyed alien but again would definitely develop this further on but these were the main looks I was leaning towards:

The script stated “pine tree” forest so I proceeded to research them even though I already knew the look, I just wanted to be sure. The setting seemed easy enough, it would just be a matter of making the clearing nice and natural rather than a perfect round oval of trees.

I then moved on to props, there weren’t many and the main one that I was focused on was the portable stereo. I gathered images that I liked the look of the most and will develop on the look using these references throughout the process. It was also interesting to note that the stereos almost resembled the head of an alien so I though I could maybe play on that a bit as well.

[ecyojang]

Script

Out of all the scripts that were offered to us, I had narrowed it down to three: the two alien scipts for EVOLTA and the YONEX fish one as these were the ones that seemed the most fun and expressive to do. I eventually chose to do the second alien script. 

I copy and pasted the script into a separate document before importing it into sketchbook in order to make some notes on it and see what I could visualise when I read it in more depth for the first time. 

I made notes on what kind of shots some parts could be and made numerous visual notes for character looks and certain shots that i didn’t want to lose in my head for the thumbnailing process. 

With camera language, I already have previous knowledge with this from film but in order to refresh my memory, I referenced this image to make sure I was correct with my camera grammar.

Camera Position/Movement Refresher:

SCRIPT (no notes): 

Product: Evolta Batteries

Time: 30 sec

Title: Aliens Part 2 ALT VERSION (Boombox)

Music: Suspenseful.

SCRIPT (notes):

Once I had gone through and done this, I had a pretty rough idea on what the final outcome would look with certain camera shots and angles running through my head. 

I also researched some Burt Bacharach’s songs to get a good idea of their sound as I only knew one of their songs. I referenced this YouTube video for some better knowledge:

With this, I proceeded to research on character and environment development in order to solidify the visual designs before moving onto thumbnailing. 

[ecyojang]

Assessment One

Thumbnails & Storyboards

For Assessment One, we are required to choose a script out of the ones given to us and form thumbnails and storyboards from it, displaying knowledge of storytelling in relation to camera shots/angles and design. 

Summary:

Using a wide variety of image sizes [i.e. CU/CS, MS, LS, etc.,] you will endeavour to convey the drama that is situated within the narrative text you are tasked to storyboard.

This exercise helps one understand camera grammar and the practicalities involved in previsualization. You are the first opportunity to ‘see’ the story. While the production of detailed artwork is not the objective of this exercise, well-executed work will be viewed more favourably.

Considerations and Practicalities

Camera Framing [what is the distance between the camera and subject?]

Camera Angle [how is the camera positioned in relating to the subject?]

Camera Movement [Is the camera making any particular movement?]

Combined Camera and Subject Movement [Are they both moving?

Assessment criteria

Comprehension of Camera Grammar                               ___ /10

Design Skills                                                                     ___ /10

Use of Visual Language and Storytelling Conventions    ___ /20