Monthly Archives: January 2022

Week 3: Experimental Animation

Posted on by
Reply

Abstract art has been a concept that many artist explored since they started to question anything about space, colour or form and as soon as the potential to manipulate images was available, artists transformed their ideas into movements often they used this experimentation to go against the most traditional art forms. Artists in the early 1900’s from the avant grade movement worked with line, form, movement and rhythm as well as colour and light.

Animation is a technical medium and experimental works such as these remain central to the development of Animation itself since they are fuelled by technological advancements which will always happen and continue to motivate independent and ground-breaking work.

There are different aspect to explore when talking about and identify experimental films such as the approaches used, the concepts and models employed so it might be hard to categorise and define them: we need to understand which is the historical context where the experimental film is developed as well as determine the individual motivations and priorities of the artists (if it is commercial is not necessarily experimental).

An experimental film de-constructs the traditional cannons of films, so the term abstraction become very important. Abstraction does not aim to depict an object but composed with the focus on internal structure and form, is usually emotionally detached or distanced form something and also does not relate to concrete objects but expresses something that can only be appreciated intellectually. There are a number of abreaction to explore, for example there is a formative abstraction. A formative abstraction considers the formal aspects of film, image and manipulates its fundamentals such as line, colour, light, form space, texture, sound, dynamic, movement, sound. It usually combines two or every one of those aspects. The artist’s involvement is essentially investigative and may not have a predetermined outcome but must be grounded in the intellectual pursuit of applying a theory or initial objective.

There are some elements that may help when analysing and implementing Formal Experimental Animation:

  • Categorisation– genre and sub-genre, what is the work background, settings, mood, theme or topic, how does it comment? Does it fit or is it unique?
  • Form and Function- interpreting its meaning and relating it to the format, or presentational mode such as “what are the artist objectives, limitations…”
  • Process– the techniques, materials and technologies applied within the work and the relationships between message and medium, (Does process, technique or tool become the message?)
  • Formal Elements– use of space, composition, light & colour, movement, rhythm, timing, pacing, transition and audio relationships.( does his work investigate these or other formal elements?)

Is there a film that you know that classify as experimental animation?

Following the screenings consider an animated work you feel represents Formative Abstraction that meets the above criteria and provide a short explanation of how this is evidenced in the work.

Author/Artist Paul Jeffrey Sharits was a visual artist, best known for his work in experimental, or avant-garde filmmaking, particularly what became known as the structural film movement, an experimental film movement prominent in the United States in the 1960s.

“Dots 1 & 2”

Categorisation– An experimental film featuring a hypnotic illusion using two black-and-white sets of dots.

Form and Function- “Dots 1 & 2” relies entirely on a single gimmick used to create a fairly basic exercise, and a flicker effects, dabble in total abstraction. The imagery in this approximately forty-second exercise indeed relies its entire illusion on optical effects, yet in a more compelling and original way, this seems to be intended as more hypnotic.

Process and Formal Elements– “Dots 1 & 2” is titled as such because the short features two different sets of dots: white dots on a black background, and black dots on a white background. Both sets are combined in one of those complicated optical illusions (it is real since it was made on filmstock) as they merge and grow bigger, overlapping in a never-ending loop. 

Some examples of Formative Abstraction

Norman McLaren explains how he makes synthetic sound on film. With an oscilloscope he first demonstrates what familiar sounds look like on the screen; next, how sound shapes up on a film’s sound track; and then what synthetic sounds sound like when drawn directly on film.

Norman McLaren worked primarily on sound and image and worked directly in film. He used in this specific film bipacking. In cinematography, bipacking, or a bipack, is the process of loading two reels of film into a camera, so that they both pass through the camera gate together. Boogie Doodle is an artistic collaboration between renowned pianist Albert Ammons and animator Norman McLaren: they made the image moving according to the sound trying to express what the sound looks like. There is no predefined meaning anyone can apply their own sense to it.

Hans Richter was a painter in this experimental animation is looking at space a surface of a canvas, he explore the connection between screen and depth and how you can create illustrations through depth of the screen. Pioneering Dada work, Filmstudie was an early attempt to combine Dadaist aesthetics and abstraction. Made in 1926 Richter’s film presents the viewer with a disorientating collage of uncanny false eyeballs, distorted faces and abstract forms (none of these themes is treated constantly). It’s similar to Man Ray’s work in its ballet of motion which combines a playful tension between figurative and abstract forms, both in negative and positive exposure. FILMSTUDIE is essentially a transitional work of mixed styles. A number of devices drawing attention to the technical specificity of photography (multiple exposures and negative images) are also included and enter into a successful fusion with the remaining elements.

This experimental film is composed from squares, rectangles and other straight-edged forms animated in overlapping, kinetic compositions. The shapes in this film are not solid colors, but graduated tones, and the development of each sequence is built around asymmetrical compositions that break the frame into harmonious sections. The result is dynamic, active: the moving shapes suggest the rapid movement of machinery, pistons. Then in the middle of the film there is a shift towards a bifurcation of the frame and oscillating patterns that rotate around this central axis, before a return to the asymmetry of the machine-like motions.

This experimental film explored sound in image. An optical Poem is an abstract piece of stop-motion history, was made in 1938 by German-born Oskar Fischinger, an avant-garde animator, filmmaker and painter following the music is Franz Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2.  Oskar Fischinger’s work is all about dancing geometric shapes and abstract forms spinning around a flat featureless background. Circles pop, sway and dart across the screen, all in time to Franz Liszt’s 2nd Hungarian Rhapsody. This is, of course, well before the days of digital. While it might be relatively simple to manipulate a shape in a computer, Fischinger’s technique was decidedly more low tech. Using bits of paper and fishing line, he individually photographed each frame, somehow doing it all in sync with Liszt’s composition. 

Len lye was fundamental in the way we look at animation now. In Kaleidoscope Lye animated stencilled cigarette shapes and is said to have experimented with cutting out some of the shapes so that the light of the projector hit the screen directly. He developed a number of stencils such as a yin-yang, a diamond shape, a wheel, a star to complement his hand-painted images. The way these shapes spun and rolled across the screen anticipated the movements of his later kinetic sculptures. Inspired by the primitive imagery of South Sea island art and film’s power to present dance ritual and music, Lye’s experimental – and often revolutionary – camera-less techniques attracted the attention of John Grierson and Alberto Cavalcanti of the General Post Office Film Unit in London, which sponsored Colour Box and other films. This advert can be considered as an example of how experimental animations can also be commercial. 3 techniques stencilling (putting things on the film and after he painted it sung sprays, inks on those stencils), paint or ink onto the film and scratching and scraping (putting ink on the film and after scraped it).

A progression of this work, where he progressed these techniques with live action is this experimental film sponsored by imperial airways:

In this film he filmed live action film and after he stencilled on top of that and he was commissioned by the GPO (general post office) film unit. The GPO Film Unit was a subdivision of the UK General Post Office. The unit was established in 1933, taking on responsibilities of the Empire Marketing Board Film Unit. Headed by John Grierson, it was set up to produce sponsored documentary films mainly related to the activities of the GPO. 

Here is another ‘drawn on film’ abstract animation British film short. “Trade Tattoo” is a promotional short made by Len Lye in 1937 for the GPO. (‘General Post Office’). The film utilises live action footage, composited so that it blends in and out of Lye’s abstract animation.

Len Lyn was a very important practitioner in experimental film, he was head of the industry at that time

Stan Brakhage was one of the classic experimental animators since he was never sponsored by anyone and he never attempted to please an audience. He produced a series of film which explored elements of nature onto the film: he would place plants on a film and after another film on top of them and he would after print everything together.

A “found foliage” film composed of insects, leaves, and other detritus sandwiched between two strips of perforated tape.

He never used sound in his films because it emplaces a narrative on the image: by taking the sound off you can take the formal aspects of the images right to the viewers. However he did incorporated music on this film:

In this case also music is experimental, is very difficult to watch, discord, disharmony and this is the very intention of the artist.

John Hales Whitney, Sr. was an American animator, composer and inventor, widely considered to be one of the fathers of computer animation. He studied painting, and travelled in England before World War II. James completed seven short films over four decades and collaborated with his brother John for some of his film work. James Whitney’s LAPIS (1966) is a classic work of abstract cinema, a 10-minute animation that took three years to create using primitive computer equipment. In this piece smaller circles oscillate in and out in an array of colors resembling a kaleidoscope while being accompanied with Indian sitar music.He basically used an analog computer developed by his brother John – based on a gear-driven WWII surplus ballistics computer – to move many layers of hand-painted cels, frame-by-frame.

Everyone of these pieces is sensory is not about a narrative or characters. When watching an experimental film us as audience have to engage, figuring out what it is about bringing our interpretation into it, making us aware of something. However there must be a good reason behind the idea of the artist for experimental films, having intellectual reasons to do it, and references to.

Sound and image are very related and are major areas for experimentation and allow us to discuss which role sound has and the impact of it on image.

Week 2: Unity workshop

Posted on by
Reply

Unity is a cross-platform game engine. You would not normally model within this environment, you can animate using it, however maya is more specialised for it. This workshop was useful to understand the assets management which would be useful also for the Collaborative project since we are going to use models and animation from maya and export them into unity for VR.

I first created a new project

Game tab

Play Mode is one of Unity’s core features. It allows you to run your project directly inside the Editor, via the Play button in the Toolbar.

only one camera in the scene (turning off the main camera)

How to import animated assets into Unity from Maya:

  • Export the selected model as an fbx files which can contain data such as animations, 3D mashes and materials.
  • Drag and drop them into the assets folder: in the inspector tab the animation ,if there is any, can be played.
  • To play it in Game mode – drag and drop the animation property on the object in the hierarchy tab
Model properties in Unity
Animator tab to edit animations
Animation tab to play the animation on a timeline
When double clicking the animation in the animator tab the window on the left would appear where you can loop the animation and after clicking apply Loop animation are useful in games for continuous action repeated in the background; when clicking on the animation in the animator tab just once the window on the right would appear where you can speed up or slow down or reverse your animation

Create an empty game object and drag and drop the model imported under it: in this way you can scale the model by scaling the game object, the parent, and not affecting the animation properties.

When you have multiple animation properties for the same model if dragging and dropping them on the same object in the outliner they can be played in a sequence.

In unity also complex model an animation can be added with the same process.

An important aspects to take in consideration is that film, animations, follows the director vision so assets are framed and audiences are led to watch them through that frame (objects are being defined relative to the frame (directing audience attention). In games, however, objects are relative to the audience.

Week 2: Rokoko workshop

Posted on by
Reply

This week we looked into combining the MoCap data we collected in week 1 with Human IK rigs on Maya.

In a new Maya scene I imported the first take of the MoCap data which will bring in the skeleton with the movements and actions of the animation recorded in the studio with the mobcap suit that the person wore

In the time editor I have imported the animation of the motion capture as a clip by selecting the hips of the rig. With the time editor you can easily import different motion capture animation clips and combine them together.

Before adding the second clip I had to identify the skeleton in maya as an human IK to attach the rig to the character.

I have created a character definition where I have put every correspondent joint in each part of the rig of the character in the viewport.

Once the pairing is done and each joint turned to green, I have added one rig. If I want it to be bound to the skeleton you need to put the rig we matched and identified before in Maya before as a source for the character in order for it to follow the animation.

I after went back to the time editor to further edit the animation: you can trim the clip, make it move faster or slower just like in a video editor.

You can even add a second animation clip to merge them together as long as they are applied to the same MoCap skeleton we have imported.

In order to match the two animations you can align the animations form the clips using the “matching options” in the Relocator menu. By selecting the initial mobcap skeleton, I used the location of the right foot to be matched with the location of the right foot of the second clip matching the last moment of the location of the first clip to the first moment of the location of the second clip.

This is the outcome:

By grabbing on elf the clips and dragging it on top of the other clip it would merge them seemingly making the transition smoother.

After I have created a new character definition with the same character but with no controls doing the same thing I did with the mobcap skeleton but applying it to a new rig.

the definition of the character works better when there is a typos, so I have aligned the arms of the character.

I after matched the rig of the character rig just like I did for the mobcap rig. I also created a control rig for the IK and if I added the character 1 rig as a source the mobcap animation is going to be applied to this new rig.

I after baked the motion caption onto the rig of the character so that I am not bound anymore to the character 1 skeleton and I was able after to edit the animation from the mobcap in a different layer to adjust it. Baking is a term that is used widely in the 3D community. It is a term that can be applied to many different processes. What it generally means is, freezing and recording the result of a computer process. It is used in everything from animations, to simulations, to texturing 3d models and much more. Baking a simulation allows you to generate a single animation curve for an object whose actions are being provided by simulation rather than by keys and animation curves (keysets).

The controls from the baked animation are now in a new animation layer to be edited to start clean.

On the other hand, in order to identify a rig that is more complicated the process to add the mobcap animation onto it (adding finger animation for instance or facial expressions). In particular this rig is not identified in Maya as Human IK. As for the previous rig I first identified it positioning it as a typos aligning the arms.

I after created a new character definition selecting the rig and identifying the skeleton.

I then created a custom rig mapping selecting the controls and applying after the animation onto it as well, mapping for your character to source animation streaming from MotionBuilder or from a local HumanIK character within Maya

Week 2: Project meeting

Posted on by
Reply

During this weekly meeting we sort out many aspects about our project:

  • The Animation dynamics: We are going to have specific action for the seagulls, however when they are not doing any specific actions they would still be making some sort of saucing (just like characters in game do)
  • The script and the game should be 5 minutes long
  • Players would play the game as if they were birds: with wings instead of hands and paws instead of legs; these are not going to be animated since the player to move in the scene would use a “teleport” that would bring him or her directly to the next environment.
  • How the models scaling and animation in Maya are adaptable to Unity environment: for animations we are going to have single files where the seagulls are going to do simple actions (e.g. jump, side to side) and after we are going to import them individually in Maya; regarding the scaling, it won’t be a problem if the models are too big since through Unity is going to be easy to adjust them in the right size.
  • We finalised the first version of the script and comment it altogether so we could start the storyboard.
  • I have showed the model of the first seagulls that I have created and they suggested me some changes I could apply such as the wings looking more like a human hand with feathers functioning as fingers since the seagulls are going to grab objects in the story.
  • Tilt Brush: Tilt Brush is a room-scale 3D-painting virtual-reality application which we thought we may use to create our storyboards directly in the VR space – I have also tried it out since one the team member brought along the VR equipment to have an idea on how it works.
  • We also established the next tasks to work on until next meeting:

I am going to be focusing on the storyboard based on the script, doing a research in comedy genre in games according to the project brief, since it might be useful for the overall tone of the VR game. I am also going to make the adjustment and finalise the first seagull model and create the second seagull model as well as some props models also according to the script. After the seagulls models are done I will try to rig them.

Week 2: Script, Storyboard and Animation Testing

Posted on by
Reply

Environment Design

Since we started working on the script for some sketch ideas for the Seagulls interactions I thought it might be a good idea to create some designs where this comedy sketches are set in order to make it easier to model the environment props and scenes firstly which may help the Previs stage. The first design is based upon a dialogue the two seagulls have in the rear part of a restaurant where they have a dinner just like it happens in the Disney movie “Lady and the Tramp”: we thought that it might be a funny situation and it would fit perfectly with the comedy genre on which this project is an adaptation of. The design inspired by Brighton’s pier is also an idea for a setting; we thought that there could be an interactive moment with the person playing in the virtual reality environment where one of the seagulls would steal an ice-cream from him/her and the second seagull would apologise for him saying that when he is hungry he becomes cranky (Brighton seaside is a well known spot where seagulls tend to steal food from tourist and locals).

Story Script






Idea Generation for VR Collaborative 





Environment changes to city





*At the bin outside Italian restaurant, there is a table filled with oddities and piece of trash such as pizza crush and crushed coke cans * 










*The two Seagulls get to the rear part of the restaurant where they find an Italian set dining table *





Seagull two “Don’t say I never think about you”





Seagull one “how you set up the table?”





Seagull two “A couple of raccoons owed me a favour”





*Lady and the tramp situation-like where they end up eating the same spaghetti noodle and there is an embarrassing moment*





. Seagulls mistaking modern art for trash. 










Seagull one “I’ve never seen garbage set up so well”





Seagull two “But this is the latest installation by one of the most prominent artists of the moment”





Seagull one “It still looks like garbage to me”





Seagulls aiming on humans with a point system





Seagull one “Last year I almost got the second place in the Seagull Shooter Championship I would have arrived first, but a sudden gust of wind saved my last victim”





Seagull two “Don’t be discouraged, this year there will be more calm wind”










These sketches are some ideas we could use to set our narrative and create funny moments for the player to witness: these sketches are based on the comedy created by Joshua Barkman in his comics: we took cliches of seagulls (seagulls stealing food, seagulls eating garbage, seagulls pooping on people) and turn them into comedy sketches. As you can see from the script above we first describe the context in which the sketch is going to take place and after there is the dialogue , which will after be the speech bubble displayed in the VR environment.





Animation Testing with reference videos





For the animation, since it would not be displayed as a normal 3D animation (no videos start to end) but in a virtual environment and there would not be no voice over nor lip-sync, the way we plan it varies from what we are normally used to and we should adapt the animation to our needs. In our first meeting we decided the way the sketch are going to be represented and  we are going to use speech bubbles just like it happens in comics, so that it would be already clear that we are referring to a comedy sketch, The seagulls would move similarly to how they move in real life in a “jerky” way.













With an a rig that we found online I tried to animate it trying to recreate some movement that the seagulls themselves would do in the VR; in this case I did a walk cycle followed by the seagull looking directly to the camera, which would be the player, from very close.





Characters Models










In order to animate the seagulls model in Maya I have created a character model sheet to have a reference for the character. Here follow few screenshots from the modeling process in Maya:





I first used a simple polygon and tried to make it match with the model sheet I hd previously drawn which depicted seagull 1 first in profile view and also front view with his wing spread out.




















After having created the main body using the side view of the character, I after used the front view reference image and adjusted the model to it adding the legs too; I also started model the wing using another polygon shape following again the reference image.















I also extruded the faces at the end of the legs to create the paws using the study I carried on seagulls: they have webbed feet with three fingers pointing out at the edges.










Using a diamond shape I used the vertices to create the beak of the seagull: I have separated the top from the bottom in order to be able to animate the open and closed mouth after.















I after created the eyes socket to position two spheres (one small and one bigger) to use as the Seagull’s eyes: I assigned them a blin material and after I selected few faces of the sphere and make them darker to simulate the eye pupils.










I finally assigned to the different body parts a colour and rendered a picture in Maya using a directional light to show it to my team members.






					

		
		
	


				
					
	

		

						
Week 2: Camera sequencer and ubercam

			
						

				Posted on   by  			

			
						

				Reply			

					


				

			

The Camera Sequencer gives you tools to layout and manage camera shots, then produce rendered movie footage of the animation in your scene. You can start to layout shots in Maya, using different cameras angles and movements and in the camera sequencer window editor chance order of the shots and even export them together using an ubercam which will function as one camera incorporating all the cameras you have worked with so far. The editor resembles the one of After effects or any video editing software from the Adobe suite. Even for large scenes, you can produce movie clips to achieve real-time playback.















In the camera sequencer editor you can create the shots, assign them a camera and decide which frames to include in the shot too.










After I have experimented with the scene provided to us by the teacher, I came up with a very simple idea of representing a crowd marching in the mountains and created some cinematic shots to explore the tool in Maya.








The march





Overall I think that this is a very interesting tool that might come in handy when producing the Previs for our project directly in Maya, especially for visualise the transitions there are going to be between one environment and the next within the narration in the Virtual Reality space.

					

		
		
	


				
					
	

		

						
Week 2: Camera lenses and how they can be used in the projects

			
						

				Posted on   by  			

			
						

				Reply			

					


				

			

This week lecture covered camera movements and composition: after analysing the theory I will be trying to apply this knowledge to the VR immersive project I am part of.





Just as it happened for a good book and a mesmerising painting, films have their unspoken language too, they communicate with a visual language which is used by directors to plan their movies, since from how a camera is placed it can tell a particular story. there is a “Shot Dialogue” since the most basic unit of a film is a shot. Each shot can mean something on their own. 





Composition in storytelling





Composing an image is an incredible process that concerns where we place our subjects of interest and why they are positioned there through a simple shot we are able to tell a story and convey emotions: composition is a technique that can infuse meaning as well as visual splendour. It has the ability to attract audience attention the important thing is what should they be looking at, and how to you get them to look at it.





visual devices to highlight keys subjects





These elements above all contribute to make your composition better express and convey the desired message. In order to highlight an action, a movement or even a character creating a frame within a frame may be an efficient expedition: using lines in perspective that converge to a point where usually the character is placed; to help the composition not only windows or doors can create a frame every object can serve as one.





The control that a director can have on a scene can be categorised into artificial (the control of the aesthetic and where we should be looking) and primal (where power dynamics lies- what subject holds more weight in the narrative at that moment in time in reference to other people or environments)





“The size of an object in the frame should equal its importance in the story at that moment.”
Alfred Hitchcock





Composition does not have to be focusing on the one shot it can be a cumulative effort whose meanings emerge over the course of a film: just like in the narrative it can witness some evolvement and development taking different directions and intentions. However in order to achieve a better composition in a scene filling the frames with elements is not compulsory: even the lack of props or characters can convey meaning by reducing the amount on screen the director can create unique moods, less can be more. 





When the camera frames a scene it make different moments either to follow the actors on the screen or to showcase a frame. Movements and Composition should be working hand in hand since when the camera is not static the lines and composition details of a frame may vary altering the overall meaning and power of it. They also help enhance one another showing an element at fist and then panning to reveal other elements.





Overall composition should carry meaning displaying emotions not only visual appeal.





Composing Movement





Akira Kurosawa implemented the movement in his film composition at his advance: he used natural movements of the elements, for example showcasing rain or fire that may reflects the characters state of mind, he also made use of group movements with which you can enhance emotion having crowds movements since it “feels bigger”. Regarding its use of the movement of the individual every characters has certain movements that make them distinctive to the eyes of the audience, this movements are also exaggerated e.g. when a character is sad and ashamed it stands down. He is also famous for his fluid camera moves: each movement created and narrated a story having a beginning a middle and an ending in it. He also has this characteristics of editing using cuts on movements and they would end up appearing to be very subtle almost invisible.





He understood that is the visual stimulation that hits the audience and that this various movements should “cooperate” with each other to create compelling compositions.





How David Fincher Hijacks Your Eyes





David Fincher visual style in his film is very distinctive this also depends the way he uses camera movements: the camera matches exactly the velocity of the moving character in the frame, what this moments achieve is to lock the audience in into the behaviour of the character: he makes you enter in his reality. Behaviour holds a very important role in this process since it can tell a lot about a character and its personality and feelings, in order to create an emotional bridge between what the character feels and make it accessible to the audience. Is not a coincidence that the word “emotion” itself carries “motion” in it since emotion express themselves physically.





What is Cinematography?





Cinematography comprehends how directors show an action within a scene: is all about communicating with the viewer. Even though





cinema is a language and like language you must learn how to speaks all the elements that are part of cinema.





Cuts & Transitions





Cuts and transitions are an important and dynamic aspect of editing in a film production process. The most basic edit that you can do is the cut going to one shot to another. But the are may other cut types: the cutting action- cutting to one scene to another when the subject is still in motion; the cut away- cutting to an insert shot of something and then back; the cross cutting- where two scenes are intercut to establish continuity; the match cut- that uses elements of one scene in the transition to the next scene; the fade in and out- when one scene closes with the image disappearing (fade-out), then transitioning into the next scene, which slowly comes into view (fade-in); the smash cut- abrupt transitions; the l-cut- in which the audio from preceding scene overlaps the picture from the following scene.





Which ever cut, transition or editing you may choose is when and how you use them to tell your story.





How can this be applied to the immersive project using VR?





So considering everything stated above, camera movements, editing and cinematography in general are an essential part in cinema and in particular in films. Our project consists in a person taking part in the Virtual Reality environment and witnessing a narrative involving two seagulls talking to each other (even with the player) and probably even having an acting role in it. I think that cinematography rules and notions cannot be applied in the “traditional way” since everything would be seen in variable perspective of the player, however these notions can be applied to the Previs stage to better visualise the development of the narrative and the positioning of the various characters, props and environments in the VR environment. In this regard the camera movement, even if in this case is employed slightly differently, can have a “common ground” which is attract the audience or, in this case, the player: the player must be included in the narrative, not just in an interactive way but also visually. For example we decided that the dialogues between the seagulls are going to be displayed using speech bubbles to resemble the comic style of which this project is an adaptation of but also to clearly show to the viewer what the seagulls are saying. Moreover, in the same way dynamic and movement is important to achieve a better composition, the dynamics in which the actions will take place in the VR will have an important role. Even though we are not producing a short film or video material but an immersive experience instead, there are going to be some sort or “transitions” between one comic sketch and the next where the player would have the possibility, by doing some action, to change scene along with the characters in the virtual reality environment. 

					

		
		
	


				
					
	

		

						
Week 1: Storyboard and Staging

			
						

				Posted on   by  			

			
						

				Reply			

					


				

			






Storyboarding takes place in the initial stages of a Design process/Project Setting in the Industry where initial ideas are developed. The design process in the Industry follows a specific pipeline and meetings with clients are regularly scheduled to update them on the progress made on the project.





Storyboard 





In the storyboard may aspects are considered and it is a crucial phase of the project initial ideas. Things such as overall style, the quantity of characters, the environments or even camera angles are decided and considered. 





When considering style in a storyboard there could be made choices such as using cartoons or humanoids, to simulate the real world or having an anime environment style even if is going to be a 2D or 3D animation and how the law of physics are applied. However even if the storyboard determines the overall style, the style does not determine the logic of an animation.





In order to work efficiently while creating a storyboard is better working following a hierarchy of elements present within the scene. Time is another important aspect of storyboarding since it can also determine how many frames or how detail you want to show off for a singular action. A possible approach may be the pose to pose where every action and frame are showed.





If there are are dynamic designs this aspect can boost the appeal of the entire stage so storyboarding can help determine the amount of appeal on your stage. Proportion may be useful since it can give emotion and characteristics. Audience is easy to be drawn towards shapes and colours rather that specific details. Storyboards don’t have to be too complicated, good achievements can be obtained with simplicity too: form follows function and function follows forms.





Staging





Staging is one of the 12 principles of animation, when talking about staging we are referring to camera angle and position, timing, acting or even settings. Camera has a role in staging since that it controls the presentation and viewpoint. Different distance and angle of a camera position will have different outcome based on what you wanted to communicate from the protagonist. Screen Space is also an important element to take in consideration since it is where the attention is directed in the scene. Camera distance may also determine different meanings: for characters you can use a code up for facial expression and fa r shot for body gesture; for buildings close ups are used for details and to see properties while far shots for more overall book like a city skyscraper. The camera is not supposed to be positioned away from what is supposed to be focused on unless there is a reason for it. The camera viewpoint must be switched on what you are showing. 





Contrast and focal point





Our attention will change if there are distinct difference of colours, animation, scale, size, lighting: we need to consider what to put in the stage, work out the balance and make sure it delivers what you want to show.





Timing: pausing





Sometimes delaying allows audience to absorb and digest what is happening so pausing, slow-paced camera shift are elements to not be discarded.





Acting 





Characters’ act and pose will be important to tell the story or the moment: with the correct angle of posing and camera, even stripping all the details and colours, good characteristics can still understand in silhouette shade.





Setting: emotions, characteristic and themes





Every colour indicates a certain state of mind, so they must be used wisely to convey emotions in the scene. Settings and props must reflect the state of mind of the characters they should align with him or her, however over detailing can obscure what’s happening taking out balance to the background. Well planned storyboards will allow you to understand what is needed to be included in the project, what should be prioritised, what is not and how much time you should spend on each element.










After the lecture we were given a chance to create a storyboard for two possible ideas to use and develop as two 3D animation projects for this module. Our professor gave us some guidelines to use to plan them.





Project 1 idea





Intro





Name of the project: Cats’ secret life 





What is it?: a short animation film





Narrative 





What is the story?: the animation short is going to showcase some habits that a cat does when is home alone without his or her owners with an ironic tone.





What is the event?: the sort is going to start with the owner leaving the house and after there will be showed three actions where the cat would do things he is not supposed to do.





Storyboard:




















Project 2 idea





Intro





Name of the project:  Fisherman





What is it?: a short animation film





Narrative





What is the story?: A not-so-lucky fisherman is out fishing on his boat, and suddenly something take the bait he is using to fish and he struggles to pick it up because it seems extremely heavy, however it turns out to be a very small fish and he feels disappointed in the end.





What is the event?: A fisherman fishing on his boat trying to catch a big fish, or at leat some fish since he has not been so lucky so far.





Storyboard:















Narrative arc





These are some notes on the lecture we had about story arc in term 1:







Week 5: Story Arc and Character types







to develop the story for these two project I have followed a narrative arc for the path that the story itself follows providing a clear beginning, middle, and end of the story.





Every story has a beginning, middle, and end, with the middle typically taking up a longer period of time than the beginning or the end. Every narrative arc has key points, traditional stories have key plot sections and points that map nicely onto this arc:





  1. Exposition: which introduces the setting, the character and the problems they face. For the “fisherman” project this would be the first few frames where he is out fishing and he is sad because he has not caught any fish yet. for the “cats’ secret life” project the owner of the cat leaves the house and the cat stop pretending to be asleep and shows that he has a plan from his expression.
  2. Rising action: moves the plot forward by showing characters fighting against their problems. For the “Fisherman” project the fisherman realises that something catches the bait and he put so much effort to catch it and do not loose it. In the “cats’ secret life” project the cats is showed in a series of actions that he is not supposed to do but the owner is not at home so he is free.
  3. Climax: tensest moment of the crisis; it describes the moment when the characters face a crisis that controls the rest of the plot. For the “Fisherman” project the fisherman finally catches the catches the fish and falls on the boat. In the “cats’ secret life” project the owner comes back home.
  4. Falling action: which moves the plot from the climax towards an ending. For the “Fisherman” project the fisherman sadly realises that he has only caught  a very small fish. In the “cats’ secret life” project the cat realises that the cat is back home and is surprised.
  5. Resolution: brings the story to stability by showing the final results of the climax. For the “Fisherman” project the fisherman leaves the fish free in the water disappointed. In the “cats’ secret life” project the cats goes back pretending he is asleep before the owner notices that he has doing things he should’ve done.






					

		
		
	


				
					
	

		

						
Week 1: Concept and Animation Research

			
						

				Posted on   by  			

			
						

				Reply			

					


				

			

Characters Mood Board 





In this moodboard I have created I picked films and comics that might be reliable to get some inspiration for our project since they all involve anthropomorphic birds with emotions and expressions proper of human beings. They are the following:





American Goldfinch and the character inspired from it in Angry birds





  • Angry birds: it previously was a video game which was then adapted into a film and a tv series. The most inspiring aspect is that they took inspiration for their character designs from existing birds using their features to exaggerate and amply them into they cartoon adaptation. The Yellow Angry Bird, for instance, is an American Goldfinch.  In the game, it’s special ability is to have sudden short bursts of speed.  
  • Finding nemo, in this Disney movie, they are portrayed as greedy, single-minded eating machines who only shout one word: “Mine!”. Seagulls briefly appears also in the prequel “Finding Dory”. Similar to the seagulls in the film, seagulls in real life are also known for being a very opportunistic bird that will approach people trying to obtain their food in urban locations. They can also be aggressive when trying to obtain food, so in some places feeding these birds is not only discouraged, but also illegal. This is an aspect we wanted to add income of the comedy sketches we are writing to include in the narrative. The seagulls’ design is based on Feathers McGraw, the antagonist penguin from the Wallace and Gromit short “The Wrong Trousers”.
  • Rio, in this film the main character Blu is a completely domesticated – and flightless – bird who has lived his entire life indoors, so he has strongly human features and behaviour and his knowledge over what humans study comes to help in a few scenes to help solve problems he encounters; since he has never lived with other birds his movements can be an inspiration for our Animation process considering they would be more “human like”.
  • Spies in disguise, in both this film and Rio the Character designer Sang Jun Lee worked in these two projects here he contributed in the character design process for the birds, so conducting a research over his work would be very useful. The three other pigeons which don’t talk differently from the character dabbed by Will Smith represent different aspects of pigeons: as the Directors say themselves “Crazy Eyes is like that gnarly pigeon that you see in the city eating garbage (which can be inspirational for one of ours Seagull characters). Lovey is those cuddly ones that you see huddled up on the top of rooftops and Fanboy is the one that you see always following somebody else so they each represent a type of pigeon.” This process was very useful in order to differentiate them from the human character trapped in the pigeon body. Crazy Eyes is distinguished by his unfocused green and blue eye which is a feature that may work for one of our seagulls the childlike looking one.
  • Joshua Barkman comics of seagulls; obviously I have also include the comics on which this project is based on which is “False knees” I especially gathered these sketches including seagulls since their will be useful to generate some ideas for sketches that we are going to write for the narrative; what is useful is the dynamic of this jokes: there is always a clever seagull talking to a more clumsy seagull and the difference between them is what create the comedy and make people laugh, which is what we want to achieve.  





Environment Moodboard





We wanted to include in the storyline both seaside and city environments since that nowadays seagulls can be easily found in both. Brighton is the ideal place to set our narrative: it has the seaside side where it can be difficult to eat in peace since you always have to be on alert because a seagull may appear from nowhere and steal you food (idea for a sketch) and it also has the city environment where is easy to find them peaking from the garbage (starting from this I thought that a funny idea may be to create a sketch where they have a “Lady and the Tramp” kind of situation where they have a dinner outside of a restaurant eating some garbage from that same restaurant and ending up find themselves slurping up the same long noodle for instance.





Next step was starting working on the characters design and concepts to use to after model the seagulls to include in the virtual reality environment. I started by using some real life reference pictures and carrying out a study of the main pictures of this intriguing animals. As I noted in this picture beneath, I have noticed that they tend to a have a quite flat head, their neck is quite thick, their eyes are small and mean and kind of soulless (ready to attack), their beak is sharp, they have grey wings and a big body which can be stylised into a half circle when I draw its structure I even noticed that on their body they don’t have very defined feathers; the legs are characterised by very pronounced knees and thin legs.










So starting from real life I started to stylise and draw some characters ideas using the outcome of my observation and their “normal” actions and expressions. I also included some sketches involving some expression that I may take in consideration for the final characters.




















I After tried to create a more precise characterisation for our main two characters based also on “false knees” seagulls personalities and the outcome of the moodboard as well as the study on features proper of seagulls:










He is characterised by a really flat head and his distinctive feature is his eyes which are unfocused and of different dimensions, he has a slightly bigger body and paws.










This second seagull on the other hand, has a more “pointy” head (pointing out the fact that he has a brain, smaller body and paws and his eyes are more expressive and “active”.










I thought it might be useful to create an expressions concept for both seagulls since eyes and eyebrows are essential to interpret characters feeling and better understand and defining their personality as well.





Comedy genre





The comedy genre humorously exaggerates the situation, the language, action, and characters. Comedies observe the deficiencies, frustrations of life, providing fun and a momentary escape from day-to-day life. Comedy is a performance of light and humorous character with a happy or cheerful ending which may also lead the audience to reflect on serious life matters. Just like Joshua Barkman does in his comics, by taking every day circumstances for the animals we see around us in urban areas, like raccoons, rabbits, and various species of birds, and applies absurdly humorous conversations or thoughts adding a degree of seriousness to them but using comedy lighten them. 





Comedies usually come in two general formats: comedian-led (with well-timed gags, jokes, or sketches), which resembles more with Joshua Barkman’s comics, and situation-comedies that are told within a narrative.





Even though comedy is aimed for making people laugh another aspect of it is to make people reflect and has a degree of seriousness in it as if the division between them becomes blurred. Humour can be considered as a copying mechanism a way to express serious subjects but with the excuse of keeping it light.





Comedy Duos





“I think the thing that people love about double acts is it reminds them of their two best mates down the pub, or the relationship they have with their best mate,” Dominic Wood.





A comic duo in theatre and cinema indicates two actors where they comedy act relies on their asymmetric relationship (meaning they look different from the way they look to the way they act) which is intended to stress their differences in a grotesque way. They do tend to have some common features: they usually have the same age and they share the same ethnicity and profession, however their sketch usually highlights their differences especially referred to their personalities.





In cases of comedy duos one of the two comedians (once the leading comedian) impersonates the strong, volitional figure, and is depicted as a serious, reasonable and totally reliable person, while the other (usually the shoulder) is painted as a often rude figure, unintelligent or coarse, however funny and comical to excess for the hesitancy and embarrassment shown within the gag or sketch staged. The comic actor who plays the ‘serious’ role within the couple, must not necessarily be devoid of a sense of humour. In fact, often the laughter is aroused by the reply of this actor to a joke provided by the shoulder.





  • Lauren and Hardy





One of the earliest duos to find success, Laurel and Hardy were a study in contrasts in many ways. They began working as a duo on-screen so early their first films were all silent shorts. However, their career carried on for decades, delighting fans of slapstick humour and helping to bring the comedy duo as a concept to the big screen. They made more than 100 comedies together, with Laurel playing the bumbling and innocent foil to the pompous Hardy.










  • Totò e Peppino





They were one of the most well known Italian comedy duos in one of their films “Totò, Peppino e i fuorilegge” (1956) they even pay a tribute to Lauren and Hardy since its plot follows the one from Lauren and Hardy’s film “Sons of the desert” (1933). They were two actors from Naples when they were making movies together in the duo Totò was the lead and Peppino the shoulder: Totò had a really expressive range of facial movements and Peppino had a face of good-natured person.










  • Lillo e Greg 





Lillo and Greg are one of the most loved and talented contemporary comedy couples in Italy: an irresistible duo that for years has held the bar on TV, at the cinema, in music and on radio. Greg shoulder Lillo has the leading role. However the two roles in this case are not the traditional ones because the comical aspect of Lillo is very accentuated his role as a victim. 










  • Shrek and Donkey





In Animation this Comic duo is one of the most famous among the animation movies: Shrek being the hero is grumpy and hot-tempered, but is also caring and brave and Donkey has some annoying traits, flightiness and occasional cowardliness, however he is a good-natured, golden-hearted, sweet, and euphoric character. He is a deeply caring and loyal friend who will stick by his best friends side and be supportive of them through thick and thin, especially Shrek. What makes them work so good together is they very different personalities but also the fact that they are both outcasts at first.






					

		
		
	


				
					
	

		

						
Week 1: First Group Meeting

			
						

				Posted on   by  			

			
						

				Reply			

					


				

			






This week we had our first meeting as a group, where we established our role within the projects and the concept behind it. We first confronted the two briefs from both courses (MA 3D Computer Animation and MA Virtual Reality) and we shared some ideas on the narrative of the project since we know that it should be structured as an immersive group media prototype based on an adaptation of a cartoon which in our case would be the comic “False knees” by Joshua Barkman. We after agreed before our next week weekly meeting we should research into the comedic genre and will argue how this genre reflects in our adaptation through the characters, storytelling, content, design, technique and style. The author often features creatures found in Ontario, such as squirrels, birds, racoons, however we are going to include in the virtual reality environment some Seagulls since they are notoriously considered to be as an aggressive species of birds and many animations are featuring them, moreover the author has made some comic sketches we could use to get some inspiration create our own sketches and puns.





Us from the MA 3D Computer Animation will work on both the characters, the seagulls, and environment concept, development, modeling, rigging and texturing and the members from the Virtual Reality course will work on the development of the virtual reality environment first concentrating on the script writing in Unity showing us also how it would work (we planned a session were they would show us how to “move” within this environment to to get a better understanding on how to include the 3D models in it. We are all included in the research of the comedic genre. I think that the collaboration within this two fields can be very interesting and that all together we can archive something innovative and original.





I will try to find some examples of previous animations including seagulls or birds in general to get inspiration from as well as reading some comedy sketches from the author itself so that I can create a mood-board out of it. We agreed that the narrative should include two main seagulls with distinctive personalities since that in comedy genre a “duet” dynamics is really functional such as the famous comedic duo of Laurel and Hardy where Laurel would play the clumsy, childlike friend to Hardy’s pompous bully features. The person playing and having the control in the virtual reality environment word be living the experience in first person impersonating an actual bird witnessing the puns next to the other birds at their same levels.





Esme and I tried to think of some narrative coming up with the script involving the two birds in different environments: we thought of some plot set in the city of Brighton since we can the seaside and the pier settings as well as the city one were in the last few years has been largely populated  by seagulls. We are also going to create some storyboards and animations out of it to better visualise our Animation Process. We thought that also some PreVis animation and scene settings planning may help for the visualisation process and to see how it would work within the environment of VR. 





In our meeting we agreed on sharing all our ideas on a platform to get the update from everyone’s development which is Miro a digital whiteboard that makes it easy to collaborate with others. The software allows you to create notes and designs, move things around, and communicate through embedded video calls or online chats.





https://miro.com/app/board/uXjVOTsXnB8=/?invite_link_id=529926724090





Miro Whiteboard





Esme and I, since we are from the same course and will work on similar tasks for this project, we thought it might be useful to have a pallet page to share our progress.





https://padlet.com/esmeduncan99/kc04ozilhwg9bs8q