Group Project Production Diary
TB1
Week 1 12
TB2
Week 1 -5
My pitch for Group Project TB1 was based off a childhood memory of
playing the game Floor is Lava. I felt like this was something everyone
could possibly relate to, as we all have memories of playing games with
friends as children.
My presentation for the group project was short and concise, as I didnt
want everything to be read from the presentation itself. At first I was very
nervous, and looking back it did feel like I rushed the presentation,
however I feel like the important ideas and concepts were put across to
class.
I looked into artists such as Karl Hadrika and Gobelins as I loved the
incorporation of both 3D and 2D and their style of drawings.
I feel that my concept arts and
sketches informed the class of
the style of drawing that I was
going for, and the overall colour
scheme based off my ideas, and
that the target audience would
be aimed towards children.
If I could present my ideas
again, I would do more research
into more alternative styles and
storylines, as I felt like I stuck
with styles that I felt safe with.
Overall, I am glad that my idea
was chosen as one of the
projects. I feel that being the
director and group leader would
allow me to expand my skills
and take on a leadership role
and it also allows me to handle the overall flow of a project and making
sure everyone gets their jobs and roles done in time for the deadline. I am
looking forward to the ideas my group has to offer for this project and how
the final outcome will turn out.
We were asked to clarify the art direction. We created several mood
boards to help with the art direction. After getting feedback from my
original storyboard, as a group we decided that instead of layering 3D and
2D together we would separate them, so the first and end section would
be done completely in 3D whilst the middle section would be drawn
completely in 2D. We started to divide up the roles, Ellie and Julia, who
have chosen 2D for their options this year, would focus on the Fantasy
section which was to be done in 2D, whilst Amanda, Warren, and I would
focus on the Reality section to be done in 3D. We thought this would be
the best as we would be able to take what we have learnt in our classes,
2D or 3D, and use them for group project.
I really enjoyed creating the character mood boards, as it opened a whole
new world of potential designs for this project. We felt that it was best if
everyone did a mood board so we could come together a pick out the
designs we liked the most.
I also created mood boards for the living room, because I was going to
create the living room for the 3D section, therefore I used Pinterest and
Google to find living room designs as inspiration for our living room we
would create.
We also thought it could be an idea to have a garden where the two
children would be playing in when the floor turns to lava, so I also
created another mood board for climbing frames. However that idea was
eventually pushed aside because we had a time limit of 1 minute, and
that would mean we would have to animate the children moving from the
living room to the garden, also it was not a significant or important change
to make, as the storyline would be just the same if they stayed in the
living room.
We then worked on working out the designs for the two characters Anna
and Olivia. As it is aimed towards children we decided to go with a childlike cartoon style.
These
were my first two initial drawings for the two characters. The shortened
bodies and the large eyes, make the characters look younger. However
after getting feedback from the group, we felt like the style of drawing
may be slightly difficult for the people doing 3D to copy. However we all
agreed on the style and outfits the characters were wearing, as the dress
made Anna look more girly and cute, whereas Olivias t-shirt and jeans
made her have a hint of a tomboy character.
The other members of the group also did some rough character designs,
and Ellie did the designs for the character of the Dragon. I feel at this
point I took on more of a directors role, as they would ask my advice on
their designs and which styles I thought would be better for each
character and so on.
After getting good feedback from the group and Meg and Colin, we felt
that the character designs could still be developed further.
At this point in time we started to draft out the storyboard. Ellie and Julia
were the two main people to be drafting out this storyboard using the
Wacom tablets. Since a member of the group was rather slow at drawing
out the storyboard, it was decided that I would help with the 2D section
instead of doing 3D which was what I originally planned. I feel like the
decision to change from 3D to 2D was a difficult decision but it was one
that would benefit the group, as we realised that the fantasy section for
the 2D is an important part of the whole thing.
We split up the thumbnail storyboard between us, and I drew out the
ending section for the storyboard. Ellie and Julia were the two main people
to be drafting out this storyboard using the Wacom tablets. Since a
member of the group was rather slow at drawing out the storyboard, it
was decided that I would help with the 2D section instead of doing 3D
which was what I originally planned, and the other person would help out
with the 3D section such as modelling or UV unwrapping. I feel like the
decision to change from 3D to 2D was a difficult decision but it was one
that would benefit the group, as we realised that the fantasy section for
the 2D is an important part of the whole thing.
Ellie, Amanda, Julia, and I scripted out the story.
I played a role in writing out the script for both versions 1 and 2.
Version 1
After writing the first version of the script, we went on to make some
minor changes to the script that would help enhance the story and make it
more engaging to the audience.
Script Version 2
In the
second version, we made it clearer whose point of view it would be in, and
we felt like the second script was much clearer for us to follow along.
These are other drawings of potential character designs. I wanted them to
be easy to draw and to model, so therefore I gave them two small dots for
eyes, but I kept in mind the characteristics of each character, and tried to
design their clothing to express their personalities.
I also drew an expression sheet of the characters feeling nervous or
happy. Again I tried to experiment with different colours and styles.
From the script that we wrote previously we drew out the storyboard.
Again I was allocated the task to draft out the ending section for the
storyboard.
Ending
Animatic
Version 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRyqAb3gFNE&feature=youtu.be
For the start of my ending section for the animatic, we felt that there
should be a close up of the hand to make it very dramatic when the
character Anna is falling back onto the cushions. Therefore I went back to
refine my drawings to add in the close up of the hand, also because of the
timing and our time limit, we decided to cut out the ending shot of the
living room where they get up and play, this is because originally the point
of adding that shot in was to show the aftermath of them playing,
however we could still do the same thing but possibly scatter the pillows
around the shot where Anna gets up to show that they have been playing,
and have the camera zoom out from the window. This ending is much
better than the first version, because it would also mean less animation
for the people doing 3D so they would not have to create a walk or run
cycle of the characters around the living room.
Ending Animatic Final
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1dDj6TIBeE&feature=youtu.be
The living room concept art for the 3D section also had to be done, as the
people doing 3D needed to know the colour scheme and the overall
design and how the living room should look.
I drew out some sketches of potential furniture for the living room. The
colour scheme I found that I liked were very neutral and pastel colours.
I also drew and overview of the living room, and the placement of the
objects. We wrote down the objects we thought should be seen in the
living room. Again the colours used were pastel and neutral. We all agreed
that blue was a good colour for the sofa.
We also thought that having a picture frame in the living room of a
volcano pouring out lava could also be a good idea, as that could have
been the trigger for the two girls to play
I also drew a concept art for the fire place with the lava coming out from
the fire. I included little bubbles of lava to represent that it is hot. I used
bright colours such a bright red, yellows and oranges so it contrasts with
the pastel background.
As the group leader for this project, we still had the concern of the
character design as we had not fully settled on one design. After looking
through the drawings done by the other members in the group, we settled
on a design that would suit both 3D and 2D.
These two character designs were the ones that the whole group agreed
on, as the character of Olivia was slightly taller than the character of
Anna, the clothing expressed their personalities and the colour scheme
was simple. The socks we decided were going to be block colours instead
of patterned as originally planned, because we wanted to focus more on
the animation, and if we had time later, we would add in the patterns for
the socks.
Turn table sheets of characters.
The only problem we had with the characters was redrawing out the eye
shape. We changed the eyes to two black dots, to make it easier for those
of us doing 2D, and I feel like the outcome for this looks much better than
it would have with the original concept art for this character.
Although I was not doing the 3D section for the project anymore, I still helped out
by colouring in the UV textures for Anna and Olivia, using the character design
colours that I had drawn before.
I also did a few concept art for the background, the bridge and the lava using
one of the key frames that another member of the group already drew. The
reason for doing this was to see how we wanted the backgrounds and the objects
in the scene to be like. I did three different versions that are each slightly
different to experiment with the overall affect.
Version 1
Version 2
Version 3
Ellie drew out
most of the
key frames
for the fantasy section which is drawn in 2D using Flash, and we decided to split
it between Julia, Ellie, and myself. I got the middle section for the Fantasy
section, where the girls run over the bridge, and they see the dragon for the first
time. Although the key frames were good, after going over it with Meg, we
realised that there were some problems with the camera angles, so I went over
them and changed the camera angles.
The bridge was one of the main problems in this section, because we wanted it
to look like it was scary, so I drew the bridge slightly dipped down, which gives
the scene more depth to make it look more intimidating and for it to look like
how a child would perceive it.
The other scene that needed re doing was the scene when Anna gets off the
bridge and Olivia is waiting for her on the other side. This particular scene looked
a bit flat on screen and there was not much depth, so it was advised that I bring
Olivia forward and slightly change the angle of how they are standing to give the
scene more depth.
To help me with the bridge and the angle, I went online to look at different
pictures of rope bridges.
I then started on drawing out the key frames for my section, however I found
that drawing out the key frames for the scene where the girls are crossing over
the bridge was particularly hard as the way they are angle made it hard to draw
the walk cycle.
There was not
much to change
on this section,
but I had to move
the two
characters to fit
the rule of thirds,
as this would
make it more
appealing to the
eye of the
audience, so
therefore I moved
it slightly to the
left.
I also looked into sounds that we could use for the post production. I feel that
sound is an important part of any animation and really brings the whole thing
together.
I found different sounds for both the Fantasy and the Reality section that could
possibly be used. I tried to find different varities of each thing, such as several
different sounds for Lava, Fire, and Rain, so when it comes to adding the sound
to our animation, we have several choices that we could use. However I still felt
that the sounds that I found online may not be the most suitable or what we
were looking for each particular scene, but I feel like we could easily overcome
this issues by playing with the pitch or the audio in premier.
After
doing the in-betweens, we felt that in some the character stood too still in
some frames so I added more in-betweens for these frames to make Olivia
looks really happy.
When doing the in-betweens I got some members to act out the poses in
front of me as a reference.
As I was originally going to work on the 3D section of the project, I found
that it took a bit of time for me to get back into the swing of drawing the
in-betweens, and figure out the characters poses. As I was drawing the
characters, I kept checking back to my concept art to make the drawings
as similar as possible. During the time I was drawing my frames, I needed
to check up on the people doing 3D, and gave them advice on the best
colours and lighting for each of their scenes.
The character of the Dragon is one we were not too sure on. However one
member of our group had drawn out the concept art for the dragon, and
as a group we felt like her drawings really captured the menace but also
the childlike drawing of what a child would imagine a dragon to be like.
But since my section and another persons section both had the Dragon
included in it, I left the Dragon to the last to animate, as we wanted the
Dragon to be as similar as possible.
After finishing the in-betweens for the Dragon, we had to decide on the
colour scheme for the Dragon. Since there is a toy dragon in the 3D
section at the beginning of the scene, we wanted the colours to be
different but similar. As the toy dragon was a blue colour in the scene, we
looked through the concept art of the previous Dragons the other person
had drawn before and decided on the grey dragon with green/blue scales
as it was the most similar to the toy dragon, and we wanted the audience
to be able to link the two together.
After finishing all the in-betweens I moved straight onto colouring and
cleaning up the scene. This part I did not realise was possibly the most
difficult, as previously my drawings were done very roughly and I had to
make sure that the lines were as consistent as the possibly could be.
Originally I was going to create the Lava effect using After Effects, so I
used a green screen behind my animation that I was eventually going to
key out. However I found that by just using the background without the
Lava layer and importing the picture to Flash and then layering the
different lava layers on top of the background layer would be much
quicker and easier.
My part of the Fantasy section without the backgrounds:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSkeHYnrXlg&feature=youtu.be
My part of Fantasy section with backgrounds (done by Ellie):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RESv98rq9e0&feature=youtu.be
