Animatic

I have tweaked a few frames as a result of the feedback from the last few weeks, the only major change being the frame in which my character get angry to the point he screams. For this frame I have now included more of his body as beforehand you could only see his face. I have also increased the volume of the background casino music, thanks to feedback from my other course mates. Here is my final animatic. Enjoy!!

Project Update

After having a few problems regarding sound, my animatic is finished and will posted up soon. It was a lot harder to create than I thought, it definitely wasn't my favourite part of the project however it need to be done and to be fair I did learn a lot from it. In particularly I found the technique of making objects within the animatic move really adds an immersive element to the animatic. Now that this is completed I think that is everything complete within the project. I will double check everything and refine anything I think isn't up to standard then I will be ready to hand in for good, this evening!

5 Second Animation

After a lot of work drawing and colouring each frame, I have created what would be the last five seconds on my animation. This is the point where the character is spurred on with an applause in the background whilst he hugs both the rabbit and the horse. I've finished the animation in the style I would produce the final in if I were to do it fully. I'm pleased with the result and I think the sound is simple but work effectively. Here it is, so happy I've finished it. Enjoy!!

Short written treatment feedback

After some feedback from other students and my lecturer, I have been informed my original short written treatment is far too long and precise. Therefore I need to make it more concise and less specific. My original short treatment is:

'Rolls dice onto table, the crowd watch. Tension builds as the dice keeps spinning until it eventually lands. Crowd sighs with disappointment. No matter how many times the dice is rolled the number doesn't show. Lucky charms are used in ridiculous ways to improve the chances. Still no luck.
Back is turned, all hope is lost. Charms lay on floor. Walks away but in the distance, on the floor the dice lays there number showing, but will never be known.'

This is far too long and detailed so I thought the best way to shorten it would be to look over my animatic and take the main points from it, but have gender ambiguity so I can be interpreted however the reader wants. The result of this is my new short written treatment:

'Gambler wanting a prize, needs some luck. Helping hand from creatures and no giving up until success is achieved.'

I feel the gambler aspect needs to be mentioned and also the animals need a mention too. Apart from this I have kept it as vague as I feel comfortable with, without having it make no sense. 

Abstract Treatment Analysis

Throughout this project I have been making creative decision to lead towards the end result, however one of the biggest variations is the fact my abstract treatment differs as the project continued. My initial abstract treatment was: Choice, Regret, Punish. 

Aspects of the treatment have influenced my piece however the storyline definitely doesn't follow these three words. The 'choice' element remains as the character chooses to gamble, chooses to play and chooses to continue playing until it drives him insane. 'Regret' plays a minor part as the character regrets beginning the onslaught of bad luck he experiences. 'Punish' doesn't play a part in my project, therefore if I were to rewrite my abstract treatment it would be: Gamble, Regret, Win.

Storyboard

After lots of little refinements and narrative alterations I have finally produced my storyboard for my animation based on 'Fate'. The initial ending was for the character never to realise he had rolled the correct number and win. After consulting with one of my teachers, we decided to make it a happy ending with some over the top humour. Therefore the ending now involves the character dancing with a horse and a rabbit. There have also been a few alteration considering camera angles just to give my animatic a more dynamic feel. The storyboard has been annotated and coloured, all its missing is the scene duration, this will completed for the final hand but for now these times are being altered during the production of the animatic. I am pleased with the overall storyboard, I just hope I can convey the humour I want to in the upcoming animatic. The animatic has been showed to the class and I'm currently taking onboard the feedback given and I am currently adjusting the foley sounds and including more movements in it. Anyway here is the storyboard as it currently stands, there may be some minor tweaks before the hand in.

Coloured storyboard frames

To allow you to see the style in which I would animate the sequence, I have coloured a few frames taken from the storyboard. I'm happy with the result. I'm still debating which part of the sequence to animate fully. I need to make sure it's interesting enough for the viewers.

I am still recording sounds for my animatic, as  in some of the previous sounds I recorded you can hear my watch ticking, so that's set me back a little bit, nevertheless it's coming along nicely.

Sound recording

Well I wasn't expecting to find sound recording so difficult, I spent a a few hours in town trying to record some background crowds but I was overwhelmed with how much sounds the microphone picked up. I went into the studios at uni and managed to isolate myself so I could get some good footstep noises, felt like a fool doing it but the result wasn't too bad. I think I'm going to ask certain shops to allow me record some interior noises. In an ideal world if I could go into a casino and record the interior noises that would be ideal for my animatic. I have also asked my flatmates to hopefully provide some grunting noises and some other general foley to help out. I think I will end up using a little bit of online sourced sounds but as long as I have a few sounds I have recorded myself, the overall animatic will be successful.

Animatic Audio Lessons

Being taught about sound effects for an animatic has made me realise just how much difference sound can make. Even just walking down the street I have never realised theres so much going on. Also practicing with the microphone has made me realise that background noise can drive me up the wall. Nevertheless sound editing is fun but now I know a lot of effort needs to be put in to produce a realistic and effective result. Lets see how things go.

Character Sheet

Managed to finally sort out my final character sheet. I've drawn him from four angles to give a 3D perspective.

Sounds

Starting to think about sounds for the animatic. I need to convey emotions and environment through them. As environments go I need to find background noises for a casino interior. If I refer back to my treatment it may help me out. I need dice to record and also need to somehow figure out how to record animals celebrating. This is going to be fun. 

Storyboard Feedback

Just had some positive feedback for my rough storyboard, although there are a few tweaks that need to made. Predominantly on the ending, as currently the character leaves without knowing he has won. But as I want the story to be funny I am changing the ending so that the animals celebrate, he realises and all the characters celebrate together. I'd like it to be a happy ending. As the overall message is the classic 'if at first you don't succeed, try, try again".

Stop Motion Potential Character

Thought I would play about with some plasticine and had a go at making my characters face. Just wanted to see what he would look like if I were to make the animation in a stop motion technique.

 This is the result. After asking people's opinion the overall feedback is that people prefer the colour and eye of the left hand face but the mouth of the other face.
I think thats a fair result and wouldn't take too much adapting to improve it.

Final Character Design

I decided to develop the shape, and use a simple face design as I think it represent the age of the character I want. He is designed to look like a big, successful business man who is wealthy and well dressed.

I am going to develop this further by drawing side angles to give a three dimension perception of the character.

Character Development

I have narrowed my character design to these two basic design which I am going to develop further.

Very very rough storyboard

This is my really rough storyboard for my animation, it' all sketched out in pencil and has no durations or annotations yet. As the character is still undecided the shapes are quite vague.  Basically the story involves the character aiming for the number six. After many attempts using various lucky charms eventually he gets it. But he's already given up and turned away.

Feedback from group

After presenting my rough storyboard to my class, I have now got some really good ideas to improve it. I'm going to make the humour elements even more ironic and stupid as I think it will make it funnier. Overall the opinions of my group were possitive, so now I'm happier about it all! 

Very rough Character Designs

These are my very rough original character designs I created on paper a while ago. I have experimented with a few hair styles as the the character's head will be the main focus within the animation. The body may not be shown as a whole, nevertheless I am designing a full character. Next I will draw up a few ideas on the computer and then focus on drawing them at different angles to create a 3D body.

Rough Environment

I have used the colours from my environment inspiration piece and have quickly sketched up a very rough blocky composition of how my environment may look form a certain angle. As you can see the dice stand out when the surroundings are very dark. I will shortly be posting up some rough character designs.

Environment Inspirations

What I have done here is use three of the most inspirational images from my original moodboard, placed them on the left and have then used them as a basis to collect more images to help me with my environment designs. I have collected images which will help me create a suitable environment for my character. I didn't want to use stereotypical brightly lit casinos I wanted to use slightly darker colours as I believe it will create a classy environment. As you can see I have then drawn out some of the key colours which I want to use for my environment. I want to keep the overall colour scheme quite dark as I want it to contrast greatly with the white dice I will be animating within the story.

Inspirations

Rather random but I watched Dreamwork's 'Road to Eldorado' the other day and there's a scene at the start when the characters use loaded dice and no matter what the opposition try to do they can't change the result of the roll. Its this sort of humour I want to have in my piece because it simple and funny.

Thoughts

Starting to think my character won't need legs as the shots I'm imagining don't show the bottom half of the character's body. I'm thinking of having the bottom half of the shots being a table and the crowd surrounding it being silhouettes with eyes standing out. Il storyboard ideas and see how it plays out. 

Long Written Treatment for idea.

Rolls dice onto table, the crowd watch. Tension builds as the dice keeps spinning until it eventually lands. Crowd sighs with disappointment. No matter how many times the dice is rolled the number doesn't show. Lucky charms are used in ridiculous ways to improve the chances. Still no luck.
          Back is turned, all hope is lost. Charms lay on floor. Walks away but in the distance, on the floor the dice lays there number showing, but will never be known.

I'm leaving this to interpretation as i'm still not sure on gender or type of character I'm going to have. Also I am leaving the environment open to interpretation too.

More ideas

Just thought that I could use ideas from my original moodboard and have the character using every lucky charm he could think to help get the number he wants on the dice. Perhaps rubbing the dice against a horseshoe or having a four leaf clover in his pocket etc. I'm trying to think of the motivation the character has to get this specific number. Maybe some sort of casino environment would make sense.

More ideas

Here are a quick few sentences I wrote down last night whilst thinking of potential storylines.

Character continuously rolls dice for a certain number and only gets completely opposite one each time. Cant change fate. Then I thought the number the character is looking for may not be on the dice in the first place. Possibly looking for a 7 on one dice. All just ideas i'm having.

First character sketches

Just thought I'd sketch a few eye and facial expressions of my potential character. I have also drawn a dice from several angles to make me consider which form of animation to do my final piece in. Whether it be 3D or 2D drawn animation.

Idea Development

Starting to get some ideas now, firstly I was thinking of having a character choosing a path with the roll of a dice, then having the character punished for choosing the wrong path. I then thought I could make my short animation quite funny. To do that I was thinking I could have my character wanting something, but fate wouldn't allow it. I do think I will stick to human characters and have them predominantly using eyes to express their emotions swell as their body language. Whether or not il have more than one character I don't know.

Idea Development

I'm definitely going to go with the fate of gambling, perhaps having a dice that directs the course of the character's life. Yet the problem I'm having is whether the character be an abstract interpretation of a human or whether to think out the box and have an animal as the protagonist. Tough decision. I will post up some character designs soon to help me decide.

Further Ideas

I'm thinking of which direction to go, I am definitely going to stick with my original moodboard because I prefer the colours and I thinking my idea will have something to do gambling and the images on that moodboard link to casino games.

Written Treatment

This is my three word written treatment, it outlines the narrative of my animation but is open to interpretation as it can lead to a variety of ideas.

Choice. Regret. Punish.

Colour and Texture Analysis

I have explored to textures used within both mood boards and created a colour palette for each to see which one I prefer. The contrasting mood board has a far more warm and Autumnal colour range compared to the cold colours used in the original mood board.

Contrasting Moodboard

This is my contrasting Moodboard, I have tried to collect images with contrasting colours but the subject of the images still relate to 'Fate'.

Moodboard

By getting images from all over the internet I have have created this moodboard to show the different directions I could go, that still relate to my original word. My favourite image is definitely the depiction of time where the clock turns into sand. It's simple and powerful.

Mood board ideas

Finally getting some ideas to contribute to a moodboard, thanks to the words I came up with in the mind map. So there will be a moodboard posted up within the next day. This should help me with refining my ideas and help come up with a colour scheme. 

Mind Map

After a group discussion at Uni, I made this mind map of words that link to "Fate" in some way, this should help me get some ideas flowing.

Initial Research

So first things first, I thought the best thing to do was to research the word "Fate"as no immediate ideas came to mind when I first heard the word. A quick internet search informed me that fate is essentially defined as a power that somehow predetermines the course of life events and is inevitable and cannot be avoided.
 My first thoughts were that I could come up with some sort of narrative whereby a character tries its best to avoid something but no matter what, the event still take place. Obviously this is a very vague idea initially.

My Assignment Brief for my third year in Animation

Hey, so this is my first blog so forgive me if it isn't as smooth as others you've read. This blog has been set up to share all my thoughts, processes and ideas for this particular Animation module. The brief itself is to create a concept package for a conceptual short Animation based on the word "Fate", it will conclude with a shot from a section of the proposed idea. Not going to lie the word "Fate" didn't immediately strike me as a word that related to much personally. Nevertheless I will be posting all the ideas and thoughts and processes I have over the coming weeks up until Christmas.