Applied Animation: Completing my Animation

In order to finish off my animation in time for submission, all that I needed to do was add the titles and the sounds, which was pretty straight forward and hassle free.

I started with the titles, as I decided I wanted to add them in, in After Effects, as I wanted to animate the main title. It took me quite a while to figure out the style I wanted to go for, as I obviously wanted it to be sympathetic to the story. In the end I decided to go for a font that was as close to the font used on the books as I possibly could, but I ended up actually finding the exact font and using that instead.

When placing the assets into After Effects I had trouble with the resolution, which I had learned from the final crit that some of my assets were a really low resolution for some reason, so I decided to place the assets back into the composition and this seemed to solve the problem (however this didn't work for the turtle). I am really happy with the overall style and theme of the titles and I feel that they work really well with the overall aesthetic and tone of the animation.

Next was obviously the sound, which I found really easy to add in using Premiere and I had no hassle whatsoever. However, I wasn't happy. I didn't have enough natural sound to fill in the spaces that had no sounds, so the whole animation was filled with these little bursts of sound rather than a continuous flow of sounds. At this point I was really disappointed because sounds were something that I didn't really have time to experiment with after I encountered my problem so close to the deadline. There isn't much I can do in order to collect a soundtrack to place in the background before submission so I will have to make do with what I have.

Having said that however, I did manage to put together a single animation with an example of a soundtrack that could possibly work with the animation. But I do feel that the music is too overpowering. Despite this though it does show that the animation works a lot better with an added soundtrack. 

 

After realising this, I have decided to collaborate with my dad (he's a musician) to create a soundtrack to go with the animation in time for the final exhibition in case I decide to place this on my showreel. Overall, I am disappointed that I didn't keep on top of my time management and that I didn't prepare for problems such as I encountered, but it has taught me to create multiple back ups of my work and to never work from the original file. 

Applied Animation: Reflection

Throughout this module I feel that this is the module in which I have made the most progress in terms of using what I have learnt throughout the year and applying that knowledge to create an animation that demonstrates how much I have learnt and developed overall.

Reflecting upon my experiences throughout the module, I feel that I have excelled most in my use of After Effects as a tool for animating. This was my first project in which I used After Effects as a primary animating tool rather than Photoshop and I have managed to use it effectively and efficiently. This isn’t to say that I haven’t continued to use other software such as Photoshop and Premiere, but rather I have managed to successfully use a range of software in a professional manner to achieve my goal.

Not only have I have developed my skills within familiar software, but I have also developed a range of new skills in 3D animation, which I thoroughly enjoyed learning. In particular, I feel that I did quite well with Maya and I managed to demonstrate a high level of quality with my new skills. This has encouraged me to continue using the programme and push myself to learn it in more detail, as I really enjoyed using it. However, I don’t feel that I did so well in the modelling task and I found the model making to be quite frustrating and difficult at times. Yet, I did enjoy having a physical outcome to work with and I feel that I would benefit from trying this again at some point in the future.

Despite this being a really good module for me in terms of development and progress, I did encounter a problem with losing my work towards the end of the project, which caused a reduction in the quality and professionalism in my work. However, reflecting upon how I handled the problem, I feel that I solved it really well and created a good solution in the very short time frame that I had. In order to prevent this from occurring in the future, I need to create multiple back-ups of my work to fall back on and I also need to avoid working from the original file, as this is what caused me to lose so much work.

Reflecting upon my time management, I must admit that I feel this has been one of my most managed projects until I encountered my problem. Up until that point I was on track and I had managed to keep up with my own timetable, which is something I have always struggled with.

Overall, I have made a lot of progress and development within this module, particularly my technical skills and my problem solving skills. I’ve also learnt how to deal with stress in an effective way in order to prevent it from affecting my workflow. By far this has been my best project for personal growth and I am really pleased with all of the progress I have made.

Applied Animation: Final Crit

Today I had my final crit and although I had worked really hard to get my animation completed for this, I did't managed to get the sound or all of the titles into the animation, which I was really disappointed about because it effected the way that my peers saw my animation and what they understood about it.

Despite this however, I did receive some good feedback on my use of rotoscoping and layers in After Effects and I was praised on how well I had managed to get the work done in such a short period of time. This isn't to say that there weren't plenty of improvements to make however. The main issue with the animation is the end scene. After watching the animation over again, it appears that the last scene runs too quickly and it takes the humour out of the gag at the end, which for me is an important part of the sequence, as it introduces the element of humour that is present within the book. If I have enough time after I have completed the animation and added all the sounds, I will go in and add a few more frames to the last scene and extend it in order to make it clearer. It was also pointed out that the character's face doesn't ever change expression throughout the animation. This was due to me losing half of my work and not having enough time to animate the facial features. But I do agree that it takes something away from the animation and I would have really liked to have animated the facial features, but these things don't always go to plan. A final point was made about the resolution of some of my assets. I'm not quite sure why some of the assets are a lower resolution than the others and I'm not quite sure why this has happened, as I have created all of my assets in the same resolution. However, if I have time once I have completed my animation I will definitely look into it and try to solve it, as I feel that it will help to increase the quality of my animation.

Overall, I am really pleased with the feedback I have received today and I feel proud of my animation despite all the trouble I have had with it.

Applied Animation: Rotoscoping Part 3 - Rendering the Frames

Because I lost the frames I had rendered for this section of the animation I was feeling a lot of pressure to get them finished to the best of my ability in the 7 days I had remaining before final crit. This meant that I had to think of ways to work 'smart', I recycled walk sequences, copied faces and focused less on the details within the drawings.

Whilst this allowed me to complete the frames just on time, I have noticed a reduction in the quality of the drawings as I watch the clip over. I say it's awful, the quality isn't the worst, but it's something that makes me unhappy and makes me disappointed in my animation. However, it's also something that I couldn't solve easily or quickly so I've had to make the best of a bad situation.

Despite this however, it has given me an insight into how resourceful I can be under pressure and how I can overcome problems that at first seem almost impossible to solve. With all of this aside, I do feel that I have done a good job at rendering these frames and I have managed to keep the style consistent throughout. I've also managed to loop the walk cycles effectively and place the different composition together nicely to create a pretty smooth piece of animation.

Overall, I am pleased with how well I have pulled through on this task in such a short amount of time.

Applied Animation: Environment Concepts - Sheepsridge

This was the final and most complicated back plate of them all and looking back on it, I wish I had done this earlier in the project, as it would have made it a lot easier in the end, as I would have got the most complicated thing out of the way, reducing stress and making me feel like I was in a more comfortable position. It also might have meant that this wasn't the back plate that got corrupted. However, this wasn't the case and it has taught me that I should plan my time more effectively in the future.

Despite the fact that I had lost the original back plate I had designed for the town, it also gave me the chance to create a more refined version, one that fitted better with the overall aesthetic of the animation and one that didn't take me quite as long to complete, as I learnt from creating the previous one, which bits weren't necessary and which could be created in a much simpler way.

Overall, I am really pleased with my final outcome and I feel that it reflects the tone and style of the book quite well. I also feel that it fits with the rest of the animation really well. I can finally add it to my composition and finish the rest of my animation.

Applied Animation: Animating Through the Hourglass

Shifting back to After Effects, I began to animate the section of the animation in which the camera zooms into the hourglass to begin its journey through the different settings of the story. I found this task quite simple and I had no trouble with animating the camera how I wanted it.

At this point, I thought it would be a good idea to start placing all of my separate clips I had created into my final animation composition to get a feel for how the animation was running. Again, I did this in After Effects.

After watching this clip a few times over, I am feeling pretty pleased with it considering the circumstances. I feel that the camera moves well through the space and the transition from the static background to the moving scenes also works really well. At this point I am happy to leave this as it is and focus on completing the remaining animation.

Applied Animation: Choosing the Hourglass

Because this part of the animation will only be on screen for a second I decided that it would be easy enough to animate without rotoscoping. Whilst this is all true, I do feel that there is a lot of boiling going on within this small section of animation and some of the animation is quite jumpy, as the bones don't stay in the same position or the same shape i any of the frames.

However, I don't feel that this will be too much of a problem, as the lighting within that particular environment wont be that great, as it is simply lit by one single flaming torch. So I've decided to leave it as it is, as I don't feel that I have enough to time to make it perfect, but if I were to have more time it would definitely be something that I'd go back to and improve upon.

Applied Animation: Rotoscoping Part 2 - Nothing but Disaster

For the second half of the animation I needed to actually animate how you should animate and there was quite a lot of it to do so, to save time (as I was struggling a little with time management at this point) I decided to rotoscope the majority of the animation. Everything was going great and I had completed the entire animated section of the animation I'd even rendered (coloured in) all of the frames. However, this victory was short lived, as when I came to save and create a back up of the world the file decided to corrupt leaving me with over 200 frames to render all over again and a few frames to rotoscope again. At the same time, the back plate I had designed to be used as Sheepsridge also corrupted leaving me with even more work to re-do as I had no earlier version of this file to hand.

At this point there was nothing I could do and I only have a week before final crit. I will try my best to complete as much of the work as possible, in order to give the best possible impression of what the remaining animation is to look like. In future I will remember to save earlier versions of files and to create back ups that aren't on an external hard drive or USB, as this will give me more safe guards in case things go wrong again.

Applied Animation: Animating the Space Bit

Continuing to work in After Effects I decided to animate the part where the camera zooms into a space cloud in which the Great A'Tuin is in and onto the discworld, as I thought I might as well get it out of the way whilst I have the time and I'm working in After Effects.

At first I found this task quite difficult at first, as I was having a lot of trouble with the camera and I couldn't get the key frames to work in the way I wanted them too. So I took a break and started from scratch with it. Whilst I managed to get the camera to work how I wanted it to, I have noticed that there is a small jump at the end when the camera finishes zooming into the Great A'Tuin. I'm not sure why it does this, as there is no key frame or anything that's causing this problem, so I'm not sure how to fix this.

However, I do plan on creating a fade at the end of this zoom to help it transition into the next scene a lot smoother, so it may be okay as it is. We will have to see.

Applied Animation: Animating the Ramtops and the Grassy Country

This part of the animation was a lot more stressful than it should have been simply because I made the ridiculously stupid mistake of trying to animate each layer separately rather than simply animating a camera in After Effects, which I ended up doing once Mat had pointed it out to me that it would 10 times easier. After my initial frustration, I began to use After Effects more efficiently and I found that the process was extremely simple and what was taking me hours was now taking me just minutes to achieve. With this realisation in mind, I was able to successfully animate the pan shot that travels through the Ramtops and the Grassy County.

Although I did get frustrated with this at first I found that I really like the outcome of this clip and I feel that it will work well with the rest of my animation. In order to finish it I simply need to end the pan to reach Sheepsridge (the town). I really need to get cracking with it.

Applied Animation: Rotoscoping Part 1

Within my animation, I am having elements that will require me to animate some movement and in order to make it easier for myself and help me keep on track and have effective time management, I have decided that I will be rotoscoping these elements. I also feel that rotoscoping these elements will help me to create smooth flowing motions in less time than it would take if I were to do it traditionally, giving me more time to focus on back plates and creating the right aesthetic for my animation.

To get started I began with the longest section of movement I'll be doing, which is the start of the animation where Death walks through his Hall of Hourglasses. After researching how to place a video into Photoshop to rotoscope from (because I'm new to this and couldn't figure it out at all) I found the whole process to be quite simple and straight forward. However, I did forget to draw in the hand the first time round, which has made things more complicated for myself, because I am now going to have to go back and draw in the hands. I also need to fill in the head for a few of the first frames, as the head is cut off for the first second of my reference video.

Rotoscoping test one.

After completing the first cycle of the walk, I repeated the cycle in After Effects to create an entire sequence. I feel that the test worked extremely well and I am really pleased with how smoothly the cycle loops. Considering this is my first attempt at using the rotoscoping technique, I feel that I have done a good job at using the technique to my advantage and I am pleased with my own progress. 

With the test being successful, I went back into the original Photoshop file and added the elements that I had left out (because I don't think these things through), rendered all the frames and ran the test again. I managed to get the second test to run just as smooth as the first and was really pleased with my progress. However, I realised that the cycle was a tad too long for my final animation so I simply reduced the amount of times I repeated the cycle, which solved my problem. 

From here I then went back into the original file and added a mask to the flame of the torch to create a halo of light surrounding the torch and a small area of the room to give it the sense that the only light source was that torch. Overall I am really pleased with this sequence and I feel that it is my best piece of animation so far. 

Applied Animation: Working on Perspectives

Whilst I was working on other parts of the animation I realised that I would need more than one perspective of the Hall of Hourglasses so I decided that it was probably a good time to design this, as I would be needing it really, really soon. So after thinking about where the camera would be and how I wanted the shot to appear, I came up with this. It was pretty simple to do and I'm pleased that I was able to get this out of the way pretty quickly, as I have quite a lot of work left to do.

Applied Animation: Rendering the Hall of Hourlgasses

So I finally got around to rendering the Hall of Hourglasses (I know it's been a long time coming). I must admit I made the mistake of putting this off for as long as possible because I thought that it was going to take too long and honestly, the idea of copying and pasting so many hourglasses was quite daunting. However, once I got started I realised that I had acquired enough skills in Photoshop to make the task quite painless.

Once I had completed one side of the room I simply copied and pasted the finished half and flipped it to complete the room. I feel that this back plate fits in nicely with the rest of the animation and I really like the way I have managed to capture the sense of vastness within the room too.

Applied Animation: Choosing the Font

As well as sounds I've also been thinking of the style of text I want to use within my animation for the opening credits and the main title. After thinking about for it a while, I've decided that I want to create my own text that has a similar style to the text found on the original cover of the book.

By doing this, I feel that it will fit nicely with the mood and tone of the book really well and it will also fit nicely with my animation.

Applied Animation: Choosing Sounds

For my animation I've decided that I'd like to have atmospheric sounds more than an actual song. This is because I feel that it would help to tell the story better and that it would also help to portray the mood and tone of the book a little better. The sounds would occur at significant intervals of the animation such as when Death is riding his horse through town to meet Mort.

Once I've applied all of these sounds and I still feel that it doesn't quite portray the mood and tone fully, I'll apply a song/ some music that I feel is sympathetic to the book but as an underlying sound rather than the main focus.

Applied Animation: The Great A'Tuin

To be placed the centre of the 'space bit' within my animation there is a turtle that holds 4 elephants on its back, which support the Discworld (the name of the world the story is set in). Because I am zooming through this scene I have to had to create this bizarre visual, which wasn't easy.

Out of all the elements I thought I'd start with the largest, the turtle, to try and get it out the way to and help me set the style and aesthetic of the whole composition. As I started out I thought that it was going great and that I'd got lucky, because it seemed very easy to do and I wasn't having any trouble at all. That was until I came to add texture to the shell of the turtle. Once I reached this point, I realsied that the colours weren't appropriate for the mood, style and context of the whole animation, nor did it fit with the notion that this turtle was floating through space.
As usual, I got really frustrated and fed up with the Great A'Tuin after spending so long colouring it in, in the wrong colours. So I gave up for the day and decided to think on it for a while and return to it in the morning.

The not so great Great A'Tuin

However, me being me, I had a burst of inspiration just before bed and ended up staying up quite late experimenting with colours on a small section of the turtles shell until I found a colour I was happy with. And I did. And that small section of the shell looked great, I really liked the texture I had managed to achieve and I felt that the colours were more sensitive to the mood and tone of the book I am trying to animate. However, I had done it in the most painstakingly time consuming way I could possibly think of and I then had to spend the whole day finishing the turtle off.

Complete Great A'Tuin

Although it took me a long time I do feel that it will fit in better with the rest of my animation and it also helps to portray the mood and tone of the book better than the brightly coloured turtle. The colours and style also help it to fit into the scene better, as the colours don't clash with the colours in the space environment and the turtle doesn't look like it belongs under water.

The elephants were a lot more difficult than the turtle to do, which surprised me a little, as I had already figured out the style I was working in. However, it was actually the style that made it really difficult for me to get started with the elephants because when I first started off with them, they looked like they belonged in a Scooby-Doo cartoon rather than with this turtle. 

Which again frustrated me a lot because I just wanted to get this section of the animation done, as I had already spent two days working on it. Plus I still had the world itself to design and draw (by this point I was ready to pull my hair out).
However, I stuck to it and I am really pleased with the outcome. I feel that both elements work really well together and I am happy with the overall style and aesthetic of the composition. Once I had completed this I then designed the Discworld. This was very straight forward and it took me a matter of minutes to complete, as I was aware of the style and aesthetic that I had to use in order ot make it work.

Thinking of how I am going to animate these elements in After Effects, I started to think about whether I wanted them to be on separate layers or not. At first I decided that I would without really thinking about it, but then I realised that I wouldn't be separating the elephants from Great A'Tuin, as they were all on the same level, so I made it easier for myself and kept them as one layer rather than multiple layers.

Applied Animation: Environment Concepts - The Grassy Country

Again, I wanted this scene to lead on from the previous one (the mountain scene), so I continued to work in the larger composition setting to make it possible to pan throughout the scene. Also, similarly to the mountain scene the 'grassy country' didn't need designing like the Hall of Hourglasses did, as it is made up of simply hills and a house.

Looking back at my mood board that I created for this environment I was able to create a series of layers that represented hills leading off from the mountain range in the same style as my mountains, which I was relieved about because at that point I did feel as though I was falling behind a little on my work and I was really worried that this environment would take me forever but I was able to get the initial drawing done surprisingly quick.

Initial drawing.

Then came the tricky part, the house. From previous experience I knew that I wasn't that great at drawing buildings at all and I was a little worried about drawing this part, as I thought I wouldn't be able to get it right and then I'd end up getting worked up about it and then I'd feel stressed, which is never good. However, I did manage to create that I was actually really happy with eventually. I feel that it fits in nicely with the style of the back plate and I'm happy with the overall aesthetic of the little hill house. 

Hill House

At this point I actually thought I was finished and I began to open up After Effects and the mountain scene before I realised that I hadn't added in any clouds that would be trailing off from the mountains. So I added in some small clouds that I would be able to animate later in After Effects. Once I'd added the clouds however, it made the rest of the sky look really boring and empty. I didn't necessarily want to add anymore clouds, as I was using them to create a storm scene so for now I haven't added any to the other side, but if I decide that I want some later on I have made it so I can easily add them to the composition without making it difficult for myself. So what to do instead of clouds? I decided to add some variation of colour to the sky using the same textured brush as I did for the mountains and hills. 

Clouds

Texture and colour variation

I really like how this has made the sky a lot more interesting without drawing attention away from the focus of the environment. Overall, I am really pleased with this back plate and I feel that it ready to be animated.