Production time!

My animation folder is finally done! Now to move on to the tricky stuff.. I've written a production plan so I don't lose track of time

Week 1 (Mon 14^th October – Sun 20^th October)

 

-          Make all graphic items in library

-          Create Title Sequence

-          Create Pause/Play/Skip buttons

-          Start Production Log

 

Week 2 (Mon 21^st October – Sun 27^th October)

 

-          Shots 2-4

 

Week 3 (Mon 28^th October – Sun 3^rd November) (Half Term)

 

-          Shots 5 – 7

-          Check House Style is working, make any changes

-          Start final report discussing the production

-          Find Sound effects

 

Week 4 (Mon 4^th November – Sun 10^th November)

 

-          Shots 8 - 10

 

Week 5 (Mon 11^th November – Sun 17^th November)

 

-          Shots 11-13

 

Week 6 (Mon 18^th November - Sun 24^th November)

 

-          Final Shot

-          Credit Sequence

-          Add Sound effects

 

Week 7 (Mon 25^th November - Sun 1^st December)

 

-          Final Changes

-          Write about animation effectiveness

 

Thatcher - Deconstructing Newspaper covers

I have to analyse some different newspaper covers about the death of Margaret Thatcher, and looking at the amount of different opinions and media techniques used, this is going to be an interesting one.

Image taken from: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/amid-the-tributes-to-margaret-thatcher-cheers-and-jeers/story-e6frg6so-1226616236137#mm-premium

I have made notes on four different papers and will be analyzing them in closer detail before I write my assignment. Maggie definitely had a way of dividing a nation, I'm going to have to bare this in mind when going into more depth. 

Title Sequence and the blurring tool in Flash

Today in class we practiced doing a title sequence. We practiced using key frames and frames to make our name and a Title fade in and out on screen.

I need to think about my title sequence, and how it will tie in to the following scenes. For me it is not necessary that I use the text tool to write the title sequence, I think it might be nice to hand draw it. Especially as this is a cartoon, it will tie in with the rest of the animation.

We then learnt to take a photographic image from the internet and convert it to a bitmap, this means we could use it in our animation as a background. We then played with tinting to edit the photo. 

 

We talked about the importance of backgrounds, I need to make a list of backgrounds I want to use in my final animation, and then add this to my final list of things I need.

 

We then worked on using different layers with different movie clips within them, and blurring them at different levels to create a sense of depth in the shot.

 

 

 

This is going to be important when it comes to making my animation as I really want to use depth of field effectively.

 

We then learnt how to use a mask layer to hide something in a shot behind it. We took the example of the ladder and boat in the Pixar short “Le Luna” where the ladder appears from behind the boat.

  

The finished effect looked like this

 

 

I need to draw my storyboards for my final animation.

 

“Whatever the length or style of film being considered, however, it is a fundamental requirement of the process that the animators fully understand what they are seeking to achieve with each scene from the get-go.” (White, 2012)

This quote shows the importance of the storyboarding process and emphasises the relevance of understanding each part of my animation and knowing what scenes I will need to make, before I begin the production.

House Style

In my previous lesson I learnt that most animations and cartoons have what is referred to as ‘House Style’. This means there are a set of standards they follow when creating something that makes it recognisable as their own. For example, when anyone sees a yellow character they automatically associate it with the Simpsons. I want to look into a couple of different conventions of some different animations and see what stands out for each.

The Simpsons

            

-          Yellow characters

-          Certain drawing style, same as Futurama (see below)

-          Unique text font used

-          Facial and body shapes/details unique to Groenings work

Futurama

                

-          Same creator as the Simpsons – similarities in style of drawing and character features

-          Set in space, fantasy style

-          Special font used

South Park

-          Unique animation style – paper cut out look

-          Characters body shapes and facial features

-          Background setting style

The Flintstones

-          Special drawing style

-          Character body shape and facial features

-          Clothing and background setting

-          Unique text font

-          Caveman theme

From the cartoons I have looked into I can see a core theme running through them all, they all have a text font used for the title that is unique and stands out. They all have a certain drawing style, and their characters all have different body shapes and features. I think this is really obvious when you look in particular at the Simpsons and Futurama, because they have similar drawing styles and character features. This is because they have the same creator, Matt Groening. These elements would be considered his House Style. I know that I need to take this into account when creating my animation, as continuity is important, if all my different drawings look a different style the animation will not gel nicely. I’m going to remember this when drawing my backgrounds and later when making the final product.

Tablet Drawing: my coffee cup

Today I drew a simple example of what my character might look like using the drawing tablet straight into flash, I need to practice using it more often if I am going to be using it in my final animation. To draw it I took a photo of a coffee cup so I could get an idea of the basic shape I needed to do.

Tablet drawing

I have been struggling with moving my timeline around, and remembering which frame to use when I want to change or keep something on the screen for longer. I must remember that a key frame is what you use when you want something different to happen, and a frame is what you use to make something stay still.

We also practiced using the drawing tablets to trace over a picture. We did this by importing a picture of a character into the library and dropping it into one layer. We then draw over the main lines in another layer, before deleting the first. I chose a picture of my favourite studio Gihbli character, Totoro. Below is the finished result

Flash - Music and Sound Timing

Today I learnt how to drop a mp3 piece of music into flash, and how to time pictures on a screen to match the sound. I chose to use the song “Hold On” by SBTRKT, and thought I could do a simple animation of notes appearing as each of the notes in the song played. Each picture as it appears to the notes, must be in a different key frame. This showed me the importance of timing, and I will use this in particular when timing the sound effects in my animation. Here are some screenshots of my timing animation. 

I need to remember that a sound goes onto a key frame, and that if I am going to use a background audio over the top of my animation I want it to stream. I must start to really consider timing and sound with my animation. If I use a number of sound effects, a good website to get them is www.flashkit.com.