Well, back after a good week break (that, I have to admit, I desperately needed) and I've got my new brief.
It's the best brief in the world.
AD108 covers 3D character animation, which has long been a subject of interest for me. A while back I began to learn basic modelling, rigging and animating in Blender. Since I started college I haven't had much time for it, but I've been trying to brush back up on that as well as practice in Cinema 4D. It's crazy how different the two programmes are, considering they both do pretty much the same thing. Though admittedly I haven't read about any Blender equivalent to Cinema 4D's NURBS (and also, what does that even mean? A nurb? )
But I'm feeling motivated and quite excited to get back into the meat of it, though I might tweak my character design a bit (I never actually liked it... but it ticked the boxes for the module).
Another good thing is that I passed my two previous modules! Actually came as a BIG surprise because I was almost entirely certain I'd failed, and miserably at that. But hey, I must have done something right!
What's even more surprising is not only did I pass, I passed better than any pass I've achieved previously. So what I thought were my two weakest modules actually turned out to be my two strongest... it's a strange world.
Oh, speaking of which, I think I might have come up with a much easier and more time efficient method of combining the two halves of my ident. Before the problem was that I was animating in Adobe Photoshop on a decent sized canvas. (Bare in mind I'm not the best when it comes to animating in Photoshop). I'd have this big canvas, then, and one run of the Granny's arm animation is almost 60 frames/layers. The cat, if I remember right, was between 40 and 50 frames/layers. As you can see on my last post, the Granny does her motion about 6 times. So 6x60 is 360. 360 frames for the Granny plus the approximate of 40 for the cat's single run, 400 layers. Then consider whatever final touches, like extra E4s or leaves falling (these could be keyframed for position change but rotation would have to be done manually, so let's say an extra 30 layers for all of them)... we're looking at 430 layers on a whatsit-by-3000 pixel canvas.
Wouldn't be a problem if I was using something like Final Cut (if I were any good at using Final Cut...) but in Adobe Photoshop it just becomes much more difficult. Now, two options.
1) Continue in Adobe Photoshop, weathering the struggles of my poor tiny computer, and chip away at it
2) Struggle with Final Cut Pro (Hey, it can be tricky you know!) which would get the job done but I'm not awfully experienced with...
But first, I'm actually going to try something that, if it works, will let me combine the two halves with minimum effort and super quick. Basically I've been trying to learn how to use Adobe Premiere and its chroma key effect. I'm going to remove the background from the Granny and the Cat, replace it with a strong green or so, render, record at max quality with Fraps, go into Adobe Premiere and chroma key them back onto the original background and together.
It might not work. It might be a trainwreck. But if it does work it'll save a lot of time and effort and lag. I'll just have to give it a go and see what I can come up with. And also, I can't forget to put the sound in.
Either way, I'll probably repost the final once I've puzzled out the best way to go about doing it.
Related AGAIN is that I got to see everyone elses' idents too, and my, they're fantastic. You guys better upload them soon so I can oogle at their animated brilliance again, okay?
What else... oh yes, we watched a lovely little film called 'Cat Shit One', where two rabbit soldiers take on a base filled with enemy camels to rescue hostages. It was actually really, really good, if bizarre, and I enjoyed it thoroughly. War films usually aren't for me, but thanks to quirky writing and cute character design I got really invested in the two protagonists really quickly, and the animation was brilliant.
Oddly, though, I could tell by looking at it that it was Japanese in origin. I think there's a particular style in Japanese animations that involves character expressions, lip movements (like the shapes that the mouth makes, even if the English speech is synched well) and the camera angles. I felt like I was having flashbacks to the idealized style of Final Fantasy Advent Children all the way through.
Japanese animations seem to keep mouth movement to a minimum; characters often seem as though they should be opening their mouths wider and making more distorted expressions but don't. The same is true for the facial expressions in general; any distortion is very minimal. A lot of the expressions of the characters seem to be created using the movements of the eyes instead.
Unfortunately, Youtube doesn't seem to have an good quality clip from Final Fantasy Advent Children, but here's a decent example of what I mean. In the first 20 seconds of this clip, watch Cloud, the blonde man with spiky hair who's being addressed. Watch his eyes. Though his face hardly ever changes, his eyes are used to express his emotions instead. He goes from quiet anger to uncertainty to fear to annoyance in 20 seconds. And most of his face barely moves.
This was the sort of thing that happened in Cat Shit One. The faces of the characters were quite still, but the eyes told you what they were feeling.
Camera angles is a bit harder to go into, and in Cat Shit One the oddly recognizably Japanese use of camera angles was mixed together with more standardized war camera angles (yep, over the shoulder shots and the like frequent war films), but they were there. I think the general difference is American or English films tend to make dialogue between two characters easy to keep track of, often simply having the camera flick back and forth between the characters (and the characters do not invade and move around each others' shots) while Japanese animations are a little more dynamic with how the characters actually speak to each other and don't follow the speaking character quite as obviously. Like I said though, it's hard to explain, and there's no set-in-stone formula or overriding rule of 'American cameras are like this, Japanese cameras are like that'... it just felt Japanese.
Overall, though, it really worked for me. The lip synching left a bit to be desired but it wasn't hugely distracting, and the story was told well with good pacing. Thumbs up! If you get the chance to watch it, I'd recommend giving it a look in.
Well, I think that's all the blabbering I have to do today.
Monday, 14 March 2011
Saturday, 5 March 2011
E4 Ident - Two Halves
Okay, I promised myself I'd post sometime yesterday but I ended up sleeping for most of yesterday (I didn't sleep at all through Thursday night, I was trying to push to finish the thing but... gah, the speed at which I work is nothing short of pathetic). So, today, I'm finally updating. Go me!
Though I didn't -quite- manage to outright finish my Ident, I did complete most of the animation for it, which, as usual, I didn't make an easy task for myself (yes, my Granny DID have to move in 1s and have almost 60 frames for one movement of her arm. It was completely necessary!) - but, in the end, I'm reasonably pleased with what I have. I just wish I could have combined everything into one truly final piece before the deadline. And when I've recuperated from the terrible effects of deadline week, I will finish it. For myself mostly... I'm one of those 'start a billion projects all at the same time and never finish them' type people and believe me, I'm going to change that. It already drives me crazy when I can't bring a close to my personal projects, it becomes extra frustrating when the habit spills over onto my college projects as well.
But enough of that, here's the first part of my animation. Please bare in mind how this is intended to work; the Granny version of the animation is the required length of 10 seconds. The Cat version would be intergrated into this, not added on, so the final thing would be exactly 10 seconds long, as the brief specified. The Cat is part of the Granny animation, the Granny isn't a part of the Cat animation. If that makes any sense.
The Granny Version:
Okay, here we go. The Granny was intended to be the main focus of the animation, though she is the most boring aspect of it. My original intention was for her to be hand-drawn in each and every frame but I decided not to - both for time constraints and so that she would feel extra static; the less interesting movement to be observed from her body, the more attention you pay to the part that IS moving - her arm. If you're watching her arm, you naturally follow the arm to the walking stick. And from there, the bright colours of the E4 logo itself should catch your eyes, making you aware of it. But it's not in your face, which is a complaint I had with a few idents I looked at. I preferred, largely, idents that made you aware of the E4 logo but didn't feel the need to shove it so close to your face you felt like it was going to bang you on the nose. So that's what I tried to do.
Problem with this is that it is, at the end of the day, boring. So when I was drawing the storyboards I added in a little bit of randomness to try and inject a little offhanded humour into it, and hopefully something a tad unexpected. And that's below:
So down falls the cat and the lawnmower. The cat itself was generally taken from the old 'old lady trying to get Tiddles the cat out of the tree' sort of idea, the lawnmower was added for an element of the randomness and unexpected entrance I was after. Besides this, I wanted there to be this sense that there's this woman, and she's prodding at this E4 'apple', and there's odd stuff going on around her but she's so absorbed in the E4 that she doesn't notice anything at all. The final animation would have had quite a loud crashing sound effect when it fell down and a loud engine roar as it moved, just to drill in the point.
Well, I hope anyone reading liked this anyway. It was fun, but tiring, and I think this project (and the module running along with it) have been my weakest yet. Still so much room for improvement. But, looking at the bright side, each module I've done the final animation gets closer and closer to being finished. My first animation was barely there at all, my second was halfway done, this one very close to completion. The next one will be finished by the deadline! ...Geez, my time management is awful.
Though I didn't -quite- manage to outright finish my Ident, I did complete most of the animation for it, which, as usual, I didn't make an easy task for myself (yes, my Granny DID have to move in 1s and have almost 60 frames for one movement of her arm. It was completely necessary!) - but, in the end, I'm reasonably pleased with what I have. I just wish I could have combined everything into one truly final piece before the deadline. And when I've recuperated from the terrible effects of deadline week, I will finish it. For myself mostly... I'm one of those 'start a billion projects all at the same time and never finish them' type people and believe me, I'm going to change that. It already drives me crazy when I can't bring a close to my personal projects, it becomes extra frustrating when the habit spills over onto my college projects as well.
But enough of that, here's the first part of my animation. Please bare in mind how this is intended to work; the Granny version of the animation is the required length of 10 seconds. The Cat version would be intergrated into this, not added on, so the final thing would be exactly 10 seconds long, as the brief specified. The Cat is part of the Granny animation, the Granny isn't a part of the Cat animation. If that makes any sense.
The Granny Version:
Okay, here we go. The Granny was intended to be the main focus of the animation, though she is the most boring aspect of it. My original intention was for her to be hand-drawn in each and every frame but I decided not to - both for time constraints and so that she would feel extra static; the less interesting movement to be observed from her body, the more attention you pay to the part that IS moving - her arm. If you're watching her arm, you naturally follow the arm to the walking stick. And from there, the bright colours of the E4 logo itself should catch your eyes, making you aware of it. But it's not in your face, which is a complaint I had with a few idents I looked at. I preferred, largely, idents that made you aware of the E4 logo but didn't feel the need to shove it so close to your face you felt like it was going to bang you on the nose. So that's what I tried to do.
Problem with this is that it is, at the end of the day, boring. So when I was drawing the storyboards I added in a little bit of randomness to try and inject a little offhanded humour into it, and hopefully something a tad unexpected. And that's below:
So down falls the cat and the lawnmower. The cat itself was generally taken from the old 'old lady trying to get Tiddles the cat out of the tree' sort of idea, the lawnmower was added for an element of the randomness and unexpected entrance I was after. Besides this, I wanted there to be this sense that there's this woman, and she's prodding at this E4 'apple', and there's odd stuff going on around her but she's so absorbed in the E4 that she doesn't notice anything at all. The final animation would have had quite a loud crashing sound effect when it fell down and a loud engine roar as it moved, just to drill in the point.
Well, I hope anyone reading liked this anyway. It was fun, but tiring, and I think this project (and the module running along with it) have been my weakest yet. Still so much room for improvement. But, looking at the bright side, each module I've done the final animation gets closer and closer to being finished. My first animation was barely there at all, my second was halfway done, this one very close to completion. The next one will be finished by the deadline! ...Geez, my time management is awful.
Tuesday, 1 March 2011
Deadline Woes
Well, it's that time again. Or at least, it's almost that time again. We have our work due for this Friday, and, truth be told, I have more than I can manage.
At this point it's quite obvious that there's no way I can pass both modules, so I've been thinking that my best bet is to pick one -the biggest one- and just focus on that. It improves my chance of passing that one but pretty much assures that I'll fail the other, but at least I'll have one clean and clear out of the way. I can, I believe, resit the second module, and since it's the smaller one it should be more managable running alongside my next modules. It's not in concrete yet but I really see no other way - it's a choice of do I want to tackle four modules at once, or three?
I do wholeheartedly blame myself, though. It was me who put myself into this situation. Though events that have transpired recently have had me stressing for a week and then mourning for another, I should have just bitten the bullet and got on with things rather than just sit around in self pity. Everyone else seemed to just manage to get on, but no...
Well, that's the state of play.
Taking all things into consideration, I'll be focusing entirely on AD109 and pretty much ignoring AD102, so my week is as follows:
Monday - Worked partially on AD102 and AD109, have since decided to give priority to AD109 (unless, of course, Dave comes along and clips me about the head for making such a stupid decision)
Tuesday - Focus on finalisation and neat presentation of all research - Ident research, Ident style/visual references
Wednesday - The Ident itself should be finished by the end of Wednesday, early Thurday at the latest, giving me time to evaluate. Storyboard and concept visuals should take a backseat, but I would like them to be coloured and presented today, if not
Thurday - Storyboards and concept visuals should be fully presented by the end of Thursday at latest; evaluation of animation complete
Friday - Tidying up, any final presentation and file sorting done, then hand in.
It's gonna be a busy, busy week.
At this point it's quite obvious that there's no way I can pass both modules, so I've been thinking that my best bet is to pick one -the biggest one- and just focus on that. It improves my chance of passing that one but pretty much assures that I'll fail the other, but at least I'll have one clean and clear out of the way. I can, I believe, resit the second module, and since it's the smaller one it should be more managable running alongside my next modules. It's not in concrete yet but I really see no other way - it's a choice of do I want to tackle four modules at once, or three?
I do wholeheartedly blame myself, though. It was me who put myself into this situation. Though events that have transpired recently have had me stressing for a week and then mourning for another, I should have just bitten the bullet and got on with things rather than just sit around in self pity. Everyone else seemed to just manage to get on, but no...
Well, that's the state of play.
Taking all things into consideration, I'll be focusing entirely on AD109 and pretty much ignoring AD102, so my week is as follows:
Monday - Worked partially on AD102 and AD109, have since decided to give priority to AD109 (unless, of course, Dave comes along and clips me about the head for making such a stupid decision)
Tuesday - Focus on finalisation and neat presentation of all research - Ident research, Ident style/visual references
Wednesday - The Ident itself should be finished by the end of Wednesday, early Thurday at the latest, giving me time to evaluate. Storyboard and concept visuals should take a backseat, but I would like them to be coloured and presented today, if not
Thurday - Storyboards and concept visuals should be fully presented by the end of Thursday at latest; evaluation of animation complete
Friday - Tidying up, any final presentation and file sorting done, then hand in.
It's gonna be a busy, busy week.
Monday, 14 February 2011
No True Update
Because of personal reasons I haven't been able to achieve much today.
My jobs for the rest of the week are as follows:
Tuesday: - Catch up on missed modelling
Wednesday: - have a line test for my ident readied
Thursday: -So on
Friday: - And so forth
My jobs for the rest of the week are as follows:
Tuesday: - Catch up on missed modelling
Wednesday: - have a line test for my ident readied
Thursday: -So on
Friday: - And so forth
Monday, 7 February 2011
More of the E-Sting Thing
Work's continuing on developing concepts for our ident/E-Stings/whatever I should actually be calling them. I have a presentation tommorrow on my concepts which would be fine if... I had all of the concepts.
I'm quite sure the minimum is 3 ideas and so far I only have two, which I'll run over after a brief whingefest about how I keep coming up with ideas - it's not that I can't think of things, it's that I'm extremely picky about concepts and 98% of what I come up with is absolute rubbish. I just feel like there's this slight, slight little chance of me coming up with something halfway workable but I have to wade through all these random very dull ideas I've just pulled out of nowhere in desperation. So it really takes me a while to decide on things like this... I'll get there eventually. Brief enough of a whinge? Good stuff.
Moving swiftly on, my first concept.
It sort of popped out of a very unimaginative idea (packed with unimaginative messages of course) where there would be a dusty TV, something would happen, E4 logo pops up, suddenly the TV is dusted off and becomes funky or whatever. Dull? You bet'cha. But it sort of evolved into what I think would be a mildly decent idea with dust bunnies (yeah, those lumps of dust, but they would be cutout into little bunny shapes and it would all be very cute and that) which carry out an E4 logo and start praying to it or something. I was originally going to have them do a little Indian dance around it but I thought it might be a tad offensive. People can be sensitive about their culture after all... another variation would be where they'd put the E4 logo down and admire it a bit, then someone would pass the camera with a hoover in the background behind them, causing them to flee and leave the E4 behind. I thought perhaps this way I could make something a bit cute and pleasant to watch without being overtly obvious about the E4 thing (if you look back a post, I complained profusely about having logos shoved down my throat!).
The second idea I had which is probably my current favourite would be one of those clips where you think something is going to happen, and you anticipate it, but nothing ever does. There was one advert in particular I can remember where there was a cup in a gutter. Nothing happened, but at the end it said something like 'See? You will watch anything'. I've tried to find it again but because I don't actually know what it was there for it's been difficult. If anyone knows where to find this one, please let me know, because I'd like to take another look at it! But I find clips that use this sort of anti-climactic approach to be effective partially because of their contrast with everything else you see (because seriously, who wants television to be clogged with clips in which nothing happens?) and they're also bizarrely humourous. I don't even know what makes them funny, they just invert expectations so nonchalantly I can't help but love them.
So before I waffle on for even longer, the idea was to have an old lady standing under some apple trees - the apples, however, are E4 logos - and she's got her walking stick and she's trying to prod a particular E4 logo out of the tree. Occassionally other E4 logos just plop down from the other trees of their own accord, but she ignores them and just keeps happily prodding away at this same E4 logo. While I was considering having some other odd things fall out of the trees over the 10 seconds, the basic idea is that nothing happens. I'm oddly attached to this idea for some reason.
I'm going to have to come up with more concepts; I might try for a more abstracted third idea so that I'm getting a good balance of concepts, but I'll see. Priority is my presentation, though, everything else can wait until I've done that. Speak of the devil, I'll get back to my work on that right now.
I'm quite sure the minimum is 3 ideas and so far I only have two, which I'll run over after a brief whingefest about how I keep coming up with ideas - it's not that I can't think of things, it's that I'm extremely picky about concepts and 98% of what I come up with is absolute rubbish. I just feel like there's this slight, slight little chance of me coming up with something halfway workable but I have to wade through all these random very dull ideas I've just pulled out of nowhere in desperation. So it really takes me a while to decide on things like this... I'll get there eventually. Brief enough of a whinge? Good stuff.
Moving swiftly on, my first concept.
It sort of popped out of a very unimaginative idea (packed with unimaginative messages of course) where there would be a dusty TV, something would happen, E4 logo pops up, suddenly the TV is dusted off and becomes funky or whatever. Dull? You bet'cha. But it sort of evolved into what I think would be a mildly decent idea with dust bunnies (yeah, those lumps of dust, but they would be cutout into little bunny shapes and it would all be very cute and that) which carry out an E4 logo and start praying to it or something. I was originally going to have them do a little Indian dance around it but I thought it might be a tad offensive. People can be sensitive about their culture after all... another variation would be where they'd put the E4 logo down and admire it a bit, then someone would pass the camera with a hoover in the background behind them, causing them to flee and leave the E4 behind. I thought perhaps this way I could make something a bit cute and pleasant to watch without being overtly obvious about the E4 thing (if you look back a post, I complained profusely about having logos shoved down my throat!).
The second idea I had which is probably my current favourite would be one of those clips where you think something is going to happen, and you anticipate it, but nothing ever does. There was one advert in particular I can remember where there was a cup in a gutter. Nothing happened, but at the end it said something like 'See? You will watch anything'. I've tried to find it again but because I don't actually know what it was there for it's been difficult. If anyone knows where to find this one, please let me know, because I'd like to take another look at it! But I find clips that use this sort of anti-climactic approach to be effective partially because of their contrast with everything else you see (because seriously, who wants television to be clogged with clips in which nothing happens?) and they're also bizarrely humourous. I don't even know what makes them funny, they just invert expectations so nonchalantly I can't help but love them.
So before I waffle on for even longer, the idea was to have an old lady standing under some apple trees - the apples, however, are E4 logos - and she's got her walking stick and she's trying to prod a particular E4 logo out of the tree. Occassionally other E4 logos just plop down from the other trees of their own accord, but she ignores them and just keeps happily prodding away at this same E4 logo. While I was considering having some other odd things fall out of the trees over the 10 seconds, the basic idea is that nothing happens. I'm oddly attached to this idea for some reason.
I'm going to have to come up with more concepts; I might try for a more abstracted third idea so that I'm getting a good balance of concepts, but I'll see. Priority is my presentation, though, everything else can wait until I've done that. Speak of the devil, I'll get back to my work on that right now.
Saturday, 5 February 2011
A Very Late Update (Complete with Excuses) - E-Stings
Well hello! Once again, a late update. This time I have excuses though - the bane of all computer users, the terrible Random Viruses That Popped Out of Nowhere. Though I've managed to save my computer from such a terror (I just wouldn't be able to go through another issue like last year where my computer exploded) I've been quite paranoid of the Macs used in college, because I think the viruses came from one of them. I had noticed that my memory stick had started to behave strangely; it has a small light that flashes red when information is being accessed which usually stops a few seconds after a file is loaded or saved. But when plugged into one of the Macs it began to flash non-stop and wouldn't eject. Eventually I just pulled it out and thought nothing of it, but my antivirus software later detected the viruses that I had almost transferred to my work PC.
So I ended up having to essentially delete all the data that had been transferred recently and replace the memory stick entirely (a bit over-the-top perhaps, but it's cheaper to replace the stick than to replace the computer, and I've had enough with broken-down computers. Some viruses are hugely destructive).
But now that everything's been taken care of, things should get back on track fairly quickly.
We're now looking at idents, specifically E4-themed idents. So I've trawled through Youtube and Vimeo, but it was the actual E4 site that provided these gems:
'Dirty Pidgeon' by Brunommf, 2009
This first E-Sting I like because of its use of pixellation (can't go wrong with that) but moreso because of its use of texture. If you watch the background there's a huge variation of shapes and textures - rusted corrogated iron, pipes, bricks, plywood, roof tiles, etc - that is directly contrasted with the images in the picture frame, which are fairly plain. Similarly, colours are contrasted in a similar manner - the bright greens and purples of the images in the picture frame and the duller tones of its background really help to make the animation's style feel collaged and interesting. Unlike some of the idents I've looked at, this is an example of it being fairly unclear about its purpose until the end, but is interesting enough with its mixed visual style that the audience is very likely to watch until the E4 logo is unveiled.
'Punch!' by thedmc, 2009
This second ident I like firstly because of its very basic, almost juvenile humour; it plays with the childish game of making someone else hit themselves with their own hand (and then ask then why they're hitting themselves) which is oddly very funny here. Though I'm not entirely sure why (perhaps its the sound for the person's voice - they sound very confused) it still really works for me and is good for a giggle. It looks like very simple cutout animation using photographs - real enough to make it more humerous (oh, we just love the suffering of fellow humans, don't we?) and yet cartoony enough to escape any possibility of being labelled inappropriate.
'Addicted to Light' by RDColey, 2009
This ident for E4 I find intensely cute (it's the voices that do it, bless them) and it's very good at making the audience aware of it being for E4 from start to finish without being too forceful about it. The most obvious use of the logo is in the lightbulb element, but the moths are also made of two E4 logos. When they fly into the bulb I believe they say 'E...E... E-E-E4.... E4' in what is possibly the cutest way ever. It's rare that an ident manages to reuse and reuse the logo in practically all of its assets without seeming either overtly obvious (to the point of it insulting your intelligence) or just generally trying too hard, but this one does it with a lot of tact which I thought was nice about it.
'A Ride of Some Sort...' by GeeTeeEff, 2009
Another one of my favourites (though I must admit a bias for traditional 2D animation) is this ident. It's interesting as the concept is unusual but the style isn't too unusual - which actually makes it stand out, oddly enough. Most idents either use 3D animation or much more abstract use of traditional animation if they use it (which is rare in and of itself), so using 2D for this ident really works for me. It's humourous, too - though the boy on the E4 ride looks like he's having a pretty horriffic time initially, he actually loves the ride (takes another penny out for it) which keeps it pretty tame as well. The use of colour vs. greyscale is a fairly easy way to draw the viewer's eye to the E4 logo as well. Overall, it's a classy and well animated little ident that isn't trying too hard - and amongst the hordes of idents that though well made feel like they are trying a bit too hard to drill the E4 into the viewer's heads, this one seems very charming.
'Recursive Culture' by Cyriak, 2009
As far as I can tell this ident is one of the most recent winners of the E-Stings competition. It's a highly creative affair and feels very collagey (is that even a word?), using what looks like a bit of live action, a bit of photomanipulation and a it of cutout animation (particularly the spider-robot creature) in what I think is a 3D environment. It's effectiveness is in how incredibly strange it is; you can't help but want to watch it several times over to try and figure out what exactly is going on and where each bit of building is coming from. What I said for the last few idents, as well, holds true for this one. Though the spider-robot starts popping E4 logos out of its pincer it never has to shoot the logo right into the viewer's face which always earns points with me. (Viewers aren't stupid. They don't need to have logos so close it hits their noses!)
I think I'm going to take a lead from a lot of the idents here where they're not overtly obvious about what they're trying to show you. I really do prefer the low-key approach. I prefer the logo to be visible, not huge, but involved in the activity going on in the ident rather than just have a semi-related animation play and then have the E4 logo just appear afterwards (sometimes, if done badly, it just seems random and tacked on). I particularly like 'A Ride of Some Sort...' for being brave and less abstract than some of the others (though to be fair, I do like the creativity in the abstracted idents too), so I think I may try for something quite simple and not too busy - and yes, perhaps a bit more predictably styled - than some idents initially and see where I go to from there.
So I ended up having to essentially delete all the data that had been transferred recently and replace the memory stick entirely (a bit over-the-top perhaps, but it's cheaper to replace the stick than to replace the computer, and I've had enough with broken-down computers. Some viruses are hugely destructive).
But now that everything's been taken care of, things should get back on track fairly quickly.
We're now looking at idents, specifically E4-themed idents. So I've trawled through Youtube and Vimeo, but it was the actual E4 site that provided these gems:
'Dirty Pidgeon' by Brunommf, 2009
This first E-Sting I like because of its use of pixellation (can't go wrong with that) but moreso because of its use of texture. If you watch the background there's a huge variation of shapes and textures - rusted corrogated iron, pipes, bricks, plywood, roof tiles, etc - that is directly contrasted with the images in the picture frame, which are fairly plain. Similarly, colours are contrasted in a similar manner - the bright greens and purples of the images in the picture frame and the duller tones of its background really help to make the animation's style feel collaged and interesting. Unlike some of the idents I've looked at, this is an example of it being fairly unclear about its purpose until the end, but is interesting enough with its mixed visual style that the audience is very likely to watch until the E4 logo is unveiled.
'Punch!' by thedmc, 2009
This second ident I like firstly because of its very basic, almost juvenile humour; it plays with the childish game of making someone else hit themselves with their own hand (and then ask then why they're hitting themselves) which is oddly very funny here. Though I'm not entirely sure why (perhaps its the sound for the person's voice - they sound very confused) it still really works for me and is good for a giggle. It looks like very simple cutout animation using photographs - real enough to make it more humerous (oh, we just love the suffering of fellow humans, don't we?) and yet cartoony enough to escape any possibility of being labelled inappropriate.
'Addicted to Light' by RDColey, 2009
This ident for E4 I find intensely cute (it's the voices that do it, bless them) and it's very good at making the audience aware of it being for E4 from start to finish without being too forceful about it. The most obvious use of the logo is in the lightbulb element, but the moths are also made of two E4 logos. When they fly into the bulb I believe they say 'E...E... E-E-E4.... E4' in what is possibly the cutest way ever. It's rare that an ident manages to reuse and reuse the logo in practically all of its assets without seeming either overtly obvious (to the point of it insulting your intelligence) or just generally trying too hard, but this one does it with a lot of tact which I thought was nice about it.
'A Ride of Some Sort...' by GeeTeeEff, 2009
Another one of my favourites (though I must admit a bias for traditional 2D animation) is this ident. It's interesting as the concept is unusual but the style isn't too unusual - which actually makes it stand out, oddly enough. Most idents either use 3D animation or much more abstract use of traditional animation if they use it (which is rare in and of itself), so using 2D for this ident really works for me. It's humourous, too - though the boy on the E4 ride looks like he's having a pretty horriffic time initially, he actually loves the ride (takes another penny out for it) which keeps it pretty tame as well. The use of colour vs. greyscale is a fairly easy way to draw the viewer's eye to the E4 logo as well. Overall, it's a classy and well animated little ident that isn't trying too hard - and amongst the hordes of idents that though well made feel like they are trying a bit too hard to drill the E4 into the viewer's heads, this one seems very charming.
'Recursive Culture' by Cyriak, 2009
As far as I can tell this ident is one of the most recent winners of the E-Stings competition. It's a highly creative affair and feels very collagey (is that even a word?), using what looks like a bit of live action, a bit of photomanipulation and a it of cutout animation (particularly the spider-robot creature) in what I think is a 3D environment. It's effectiveness is in how incredibly strange it is; you can't help but want to watch it several times over to try and figure out what exactly is going on and where each bit of building is coming from. What I said for the last few idents, as well, holds true for this one. Though the spider-robot starts popping E4 logos out of its pincer it never has to shoot the logo right into the viewer's face which always earns points with me. (Viewers aren't stupid. They don't need to have logos so close it hits their noses!)
I think I'm going to take a lead from a lot of the idents here where they're not overtly obvious about what they're trying to show you. I really do prefer the low-key approach. I prefer the logo to be visible, not huge, but involved in the activity going on in the ident rather than just have a semi-related animation play and then have the E4 logo just appear afterwards (sometimes, if done badly, it just seems random and tacked on). I particularly like 'A Ride of Some Sort...' for being brave and less abstract than some of the others (though to be fair, I do like the creativity in the abstracted idents too), so I think I may try for something quite simple and not too busy - and yes, perhaps a bit more predictably styled - than some idents initially and see where I go to from there.
Tuesday, 11 January 2011
A Very Late Update; Animation/Sound Design Deadline
I realized that over the last few weeks updates to my blog had come to a standstill, and it's mostly because of the deadline for both my animation and the sound design accompanying it fast approaching (14th of Jan). I have just under a working week now, and though I'm seriously concerned as to whether I'm going to get this beast finished, all I can really do is make sure I cover as many of the learning requirements as possible.
The animation itself has been shortened. In the animatic I made, the Eagle would give Ratatosk a rock which he would throw at Nidhogg, then in retaliation Nidhogg would give Ratatosk a rock to throw at the Eagle. Upon having a stone thrown at it, the Eagle then gives Ratatosk a second rock to throw at Nidhogg, and the second time around Nidhogg retaliates by hurling a boulder (reason No. 53 for Why You Don't Mess With a Dragon). However in the animation I've decided to cut out the second phase of rock-throwing entirely. Now, The Eagle gives Ratatosk a rock to throw at Nidhogg, and Nidhogg has a quick revenge when he up and hurls his boulder immediately.
With that taken into consideration, I'm probably almost halfway through. The areas that are currently more or less finished are
-The opening scene; camera pans through a forest following wisps, zooms in on a sleeping Nidhogg and then pans up the Yggdrasil tree to reveal the Eagle and Ratatosk sitting up in the branches, looking down. -- I've ran into issues with animating the characters in this scene in Cinema 4D, as they are separate planes from their background and when they move, Cinema 4D automatically resizes the images to fit in their plane. Which means the characters just won't stay still or in proportion. Wobble wobble. I think I can fix this if I recreate the images with their own background plane in Adobe Photoshop, but I'm going to look into fixes in Cinema 4D before I resort to that. I'm anticipating the same problems with a lot of my other scenes, so it's important that I find a fix quickly.
-Ratatosk is given a rock; a scene I made entirely in Adobe Photoshop because the angle is impossible in the main Cinema 4D scene model. It shows Ratatosk sitting, and he flicks his ear back towards the viewer; the Eagle's foot, acting as a hand, extends from behind the camera to hand Ratatosk a stone. Since the characters and their backgrounds aren't seperated, I don't see myself running into any problems when it comes to rendering this scene.
-Ratatosk throws the rock; he jumps down to the base beside the sleeping Nidhogg and hurls the stone; Nidhogg glares at him so he points upwards towards the Eagle. I was considering also having a shot of the Eagle laughing, to make it clearer to the viewer what Ratatosk means when he's pointing (the Eagle is the baddie and not him) but since it's not hugely important to the story I'll see if I have time to slot it in at the end of the week.
Scenes that are still in progress are as follows:
-Nidhogg picks up the boulder; Because of the differences in the scene layout between the animatic and the final, this shot is both more tricky and less tricky at the same time. Good news is that falling water is much easier to animate than crumbling earth, but it's slightly less obvious than the original version (which is one of the reasons I inserted the boulder into the scene where it originally was not there).
-Rat gets splatted; Nidhogg tries to hand the boulder to Ratatosk, but ends up squishing him. I haven't focused on this scene too much because, depending on how things go, I might snip it entirely.
-Nidhogg throws the boulder; Subject to constant resketching because an upward shot of a dragon throwing a giant rock is tricky to make look right. Luckily it's a quick shot though. Less drawings!
-Eagle gets splatted; Not started quite yet, but it shouldn't be too hard because of the speed the character moves at.
-Nid and Ratatosk settle; Because it's more or less a reverse of the opening scene, except this time with Ratatosk sitting beside Nidhogg, I don't see any problems.
So completion is roughly 4/8, so half way there. I can't be sure whether I'll be able to finish this, and I have to remember not to forget about the sound design.
Plan for this week:
-Monday: Already passed, I finished two scenes (Rat receiving and throwing rock)
-Tuesday: Make sure all the necessary scenes have their animation finalized, if possible begin on lining and colouring as many as possible.
-Wednesday: Ensure sound design is complete; all sounds collected and all research adequately presented. If I finish early, continue with animation work.
-Thursday: Render scenes, apply final edits and ensure all paperwork is absolutely finished
-Friday: Any final preparations before hand in
It's not going to finish itself. Wish me luck!
The animation itself has been shortened. In the animatic I made, the Eagle would give Ratatosk a rock which he would throw at Nidhogg, then in retaliation Nidhogg would give Ratatosk a rock to throw at the Eagle. Upon having a stone thrown at it, the Eagle then gives Ratatosk a second rock to throw at Nidhogg, and the second time around Nidhogg retaliates by hurling a boulder (reason No. 53 for Why You Don't Mess With a Dragon). However in the animation I've decided to cut out the second phase of rock-throwing entirely. Now, The Eagle gives Ratatosk a rock to throw at Nidhogg, and Nidhogg has a quick revenge when he up and hurls his boulder immediately.
With that taken into consideration, I'm probably almost halfway through. The areas that are currently more or less finished are
-The opening scene; camera pans through a forest following wisps, zooms in on a sleeping Nidhogg and then pans up the Yggdrasil tree to reveal the Eagle and Ratatosk sitting up in the branches, looking down. -- I've ran into issues with animating the characters in this scene in Cinema 4D, as they are separate planes from their background and when they move, Cinema 4D automatically resizes the images to fit in their plane. Which means the characters just won't stay still or in proportion. Wobble wobble. I think I can fix this if I recreate the images with their own background plane in Adobe Photoshop, but I'm going to look into fixes in Cinema 4D before I resort to that. I'm anticipating the same problems with a lot of my other scenes, so it's important that I find a fix quickly.
-Ratatosk is given a rock; a scene I made entirely in Adobe Photoshop because the angle is impossible in the main Cinema 4D scene model. It shows Ratatosk sitting, and he flicks his ear back towards the viewer; the Eagle's foot, acting as a hand, extends from behind the camera to hand Ratatosk a stone. Since the characters and their backgrounds aren't seperated, I don't see myself running into any problems when it comes to rendering this scene.
-Ratatosk throws the rock; he jumps down to the base beside the sleeping Nidhogg and hurls the stone; Nidhogg glares at him so he points upwards towards the Eagle. I was considering also having a shot of the Eagle laughing, to make it clearer to the viewer what Ratatosk means when he's pointing (the Eagle is the baddie and not him) but since it's not hugely important to the story I'll see if I have time to slot it in at the end of the week.
Scenes that are still in progress are as follows:
-Nidhogg picks up the boulder; Because of the differences in the scene layout between the animatic and the final, this shot is both more tricky and less tricky at the same time. Good news is that falling water is much easier to animate than crumbling earth, but it's slightly less obvious than the original version (which is one of the reasons I inserted the boulder into the scene where it originally was not there).
-Rat gets splatted; Nidhogg tries to hand the boulder to Ratatosk, but ends up squishing him. I haven't focused on this scene too much because, depending on how things go, I might snip it entirely.
-Nidhogg throws the boulder; Subject to constant resketching because an upward shot of a dragon throwing a giant rock is tricky to make look right. Luckily it's a quick shot though. Less drawings!
-Eagle gets splatted; Not started quite yet, but it shouldn't be too hard because of the speed the character moves at.
-Nid and Ratatosk settle; Because it's more or less a reverse of the opening scene, except this time with Ratatosk sitting beside Nidhogg, I don't see any problems.
So completion is roughly 4/8, so half way there. I can't be sure whether I'll be able to finish this, and I have to remember not to forget about the sound design.
Plan for this week:
-Monday: Already passed, I finished two scenes (Rat receiving and throwing rock)
-Tuesday: Make sure all the necessary scenes have their animation finalized, if possible begin on lining and colouring as many as possible.
-Wednesday: Ensure sound design is complete; all sounds collected and all research adequately presented. If I finish early, continue with animation work.
-Thursday: Render scenes, apply final edits and ensure all paperwork is absolutely finished
-Friday: Any final preparations before hand in
It's not going to finish itself. Wish me luck!
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