RESEARCH

Before coming into this project I had done some researching into animation and production before. I had researched a little about the history of animation, this included things such as how Disney used a layered deice to create each different ground of their older animations before moving onto newer techniques. I had also been looking into the techniques of animation, the biggest part being the 12 principles which I can notice how much of an insight it is has given me into a good animation. To pre-learn about production we actually did practical tasks, I both practiced animating on paper and also practiced with the programmes I was using, doing masking and tracking. This gave me a head start on how programmes work but also how to make an animated character have more of a personality with simple tricks. This can be seen on Task 1.

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When looking at audio before this project I first looked at terminology within audio, learning the difference between the specific audio language, for example non-diegetic and diegetic sound, the difference being one being heard in the film world and one being heard only after post-production to the audience's ears. I then looked into how sound design can help tell a story, learning the power that sound can tell a story without any visuals and also the power of silence, making every sound that can be heard important. Before studying sound, I didn't realise it's importance within a film and how much we actually rely on it. This research taught the importance of sound from the most dramatic tension builds, to the faint ambience that makes a room feel alive.

To experiment with this new knowledge I took a few of my favourite shows/ films and chose scenes to analyse the sound from, depicting what the sound does alone before I even look into the visual side of the film. There appeared to be a lot more going on then I could have thought. Even after looking into just the opening main theme of The Mandalorian and thinking about what this portrays on a timeline alone, I felt the importance of sound design sinking in.

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When researching for something similar to this again I think it would be beneficial after having learnt the main body of sound design and animation, to look at videos and examples of how already created soundtracks or animations have been improved by a professional team. I find videos and things like that very useful as it not only means I look into my work thinking bout the next big step up but I am able to see how a change will effect my film and I can take improvements that have been made in the videos and see if that same improvement could be applicable to my character. If I were to do this again I would have done this and I would also practicing creating and exaggerating my character design and soundtracks first so I could play around with the workflow.

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With regards to 2D animation to improve my current film, I would want to learn how to better rig a 2D character. Although I was able to get my character to move in a cartoony way using the puppet pin tool, deform and the rotation tools I wasn't completely satisfied with how he was moving. I found it difficult creating a frame with the puppet pins in where he would have actually had bones, and many of his limbs were very flimsy and I couldn't manage to get them in a position I wanted without bending them unrealistically. I feel this would get better the more I use the puppet pin tool, however I would like to see if there is a more complex method that may produce a more stable rig for my animated character.

 

In terms of audio I would next like to learn more about foley. After doing this for my first time within my room and home garden, I have become increasingly fascinated with the use of it for a much wider range of sounds. I had stuck to the basic footsteps, breath and door sound effects that I need for my film but struggled to find the right timing for on the Freesound website. However when using downloaded effects, I did come across a few times being unable to find the sound I wanted online. I had to do a lot of cutting for the echoed sounds of the footsteps to get it right. I also remember needing certain sounds such as a certain swing into a punch or punch effect that I cold not find. I would like to learn more about foley and how people use different objects as this could greatly benefit my future films, making it more realistic but also somewhat easier to piece together.

 

PLANNING + PREPARATION

A lot of planning and preparation went into planning for this film. First of all I had to actually plan what my narrative story was going to be. Considering the briefing was a chase scene and of the setting we were recording in, I wanted a reason for the chase to be happening. This is when I decided the animated character would be sneaking into the other characters office. This smoothly led onto the character design. I from here knew what my character would be doing so decided he needed to be sneaky. This gave me an idea of the personality. I also knew that I wanted to push my limits and really test myself with the first animation and not just be having my character running away so this led me to decide in giving it flying abilities to see how difficult this was to animate and give me other possible options. After I had my character planned out I created a shot list, looking at all the different types of shots in movies and what each one represents. I storyboarded this using the story boarder app which was useful as I could very clearly visualise what each shot was going to look like, even if I did have to make a few adjustments. After this came my audio plan, I split each type of sound into categories and wrote out what I would need for each. These category's included foley, sound FX etc. After that I then created my character in photoshop and split him into layers so I could import him into photoshop. I then decided after I had learnt what turnarounds are, to create 8 different angles of my character which I also split into layers and placed into photoshop. This meant I had a very clear idea and was ready to go into filming, editing and animating.

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The most useful part of preparation for me was deciding the shot choses and making the storyboard. When thinking about filming some shots, at first I thought I could just go into it unplanned however when I got to filming having the storyboard with the shots on saying what was happening was very helpful as actually going out with a camera and not having that, I would've been unsure where to start. This way I could change things when recording easier as I could see all he other shots and I could keep checking that everything was there that was necessary. 

 

The one thing I found difficult about planning was designing my character. Although I quite quickly had an idea of what I actually wanted I found it difficult altering and editing my character to make him more interesting. We looked into quite a few videos regarding character design and I went through a few small changes when following the guide saying what makes an interesting memorable character however found it difficult deciding to make any big changes however I feel I should've experimented more now with that. During preparation, I found doing the first draft selection for my audio difficult. This is because it took me a while to get used to what each of the words actually meant in each column. I also did struggle with visualising how the audio would work over the film as there were not any visuals to look at and compare it to, Nevertheless this audio plan did come in handy later down the line but I did struggle with it at first. 

 

Next time I would definitely pay more attention to actually planning my shots as when I did it this time it was quite rushed and I didn't properly think about the camera angles, when coming round to filming I realised a lot of places I had placed the camera in the 3D space was unrealistic and unachievable. As much as this was an easy fix, it did mean the amount of shots I was filming got messed up. Another thing I would do in the planning stage is go and take photos and pictures of where I actually am going to be filming. This is because I didn't properly know the area so assumed I knew what was in my filming space. For example, I didn't investigate what was actually in the corridor and realised it wasn't exactly how I imagined it. Also I came to realise when filming that the doors opened differently and also there was no clock on the wall like I though there was. Next time I would pay more attention to detail so I don't have to make as many surprise adjustments in production.

 

FILMING + EDITING

The thing I think went the best when filming my live-action was the shot compositions. I was very happy with how a lot of my shots joined together and showed a wide range of both the bigger picture and finer details. After learning about different shots, I wanted to experiment with using the rule of thirds, the 180 rule, high and low ground etc etc. I feel like I did this quite well and was able to look at the last shot I had done and see what would fit best next in the sequence.

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The most challenging aspect of filming for me was actually working with the camera properly for the first time. I spent a long time before starting to film playing around with the camera settings, trying to figure out the best way to use the focus and the zoom and also the best brightness settings to have it on. We had a struggle trying to figure out what was best for each of the settings and I was unable to experiment with most of features. This caused problems in my last few shots I recorded where the exposure was too high so I had to fix this in post.

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Next time when filming I would look a lot more into the camera settings as I feel like this could have massively improved all my shot recordings. I would spend more time setting up each shot as I did rush filming a little bit this time round, this meant some shots had little problems which needed to be fixed in post. For example one shot of the window was moving as the tripod wasn't completely straight which meant this shot was cut instead of doing the tracking. I would also think more into what shots I film first, so which shots are most similar to one another as I spent a long time moving the camera around when there may have been a more efficent way to film rather than in chronological order. 

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I was most proud of the flow of my sequence after taking the clips and editing them together. After visually starting to put together my film I liked how all the shots joined together smoothly. My intention was to create a continually flowing scene where one shot leads on from the other with little/ no gap between them. I think this went especially well in the first few scenes where the wide range of shot choices gives lots of detail about the scene and what is going on. 

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The most challenging aspect of editing was trying to improve the quality of the final few shots. I wasn't sure how to correct the exposure on the video as I haven't had to edit the quality of videos in Premiere before so I didn't really know what controls and effects I should have been using. I also did struggle a fair amount with editing the scenes where my live action character is running down the stairs. This may be due to lack of preparation as I had many shots of the stairs and tried several video combinations before I settled on the one I wanted. 

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Next time when editing I would research about exposure correction instead of just jumping into the effects first, as although my scene does look better than when first recorded it has come out appearing darker and less pigmented which wasn't my aim when trying to correct this. Another thing I would do when editing is make sure my shots are more organised. My workflow here was to upload all my shots at the same time and go from there, dragging them in when necessary whereas this meant I spent a lot of time flicking up and down my timeline trying to find the right shots for what I needed. If I had imported them bit by bit I feel this would have made it a lot easier to edit.
 

ANIMATION + COMPOSITING

In terms of animation I feel the use of turnarounds was one thing that worked well. These created more diversity and without them I would have been unable to animate lots of scenes or had to drastically edit my scenes. Overall I think it was the details of my animation that stood out to me. For example I decided to try and add detail to my animation by keyframing the scale of his body so it got bigger and smaller to resemble him breathing. Also making his tail move in each scene or making his still limbs move a little to give the impression of a live character. Furthermore I feel the animations got better as I got more and more to grips with the puppet pin tool as I was discovering new things to do to improve my animation.

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The most challenging animation for me was getting the main frame of the pose realistic. With the smaller details it was a lot easier to get a good position as it had less pin points to rearrange. When trying to animate bigger limbs such as the arms, tail and mainly the legs I had encountered more problems. I found that a lot more pins and starch pins were needed to create the effect of a leg or wing etc. I struggled to deform the limbs without them bending back into one another and overlapping on its self. One shot I particularly struggled with was the second shot of my animated character moving across the wall, I struggled making the leg bend in a realistic way. In that shot you can see that I have had to bend the birds leg a lot to get it in the somewhat right place for the movement I was hoping for.

 

Next time when animating I would want to try experimenting with character animator in adobe cc. I get to mess around with this briefly when practicing tracking and liked the layout and the workflow that it presented however ended up doing it in after effects. However next time using after effects I would want to try and get my character to be able to turn. I would have to do this by using more than one turnaround in a shot which I didn't know how to do in this case. I would like to do this so that I can have my character looking behind him etc. If I were to do anything differently it would have been experimenting with how I can use the different turnarounds.

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One thing I do feel went quite well with regards to compositing for my film was putting the clock that I had modelled in Maya onto the wall. Although I was unable to properly render out my Maya model I think giving my render I could do a black background and putting it in worked quite well. Once in after effects I was able to use the 3D layer tool to change the geometry and angle it in a way that looked like it was on the wall. I also played around with the brightness and lighting effect on the wall to make the snip darker as well as the clock face etc. For my first time putting a modelled asset into a live file I am quite happy with it. 

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The part of compositing I found the most challenging was rendering out my Maya files to get them into after effects. I was unable to render out the window smash and clock I had modelled and animated in Maya. This meant I had to change my plan a few times. I therefore had to learn after effects to do VFX. This was challenging as it is my first time using after effects to do a realistic effect. I struggled mostly with getting the texture of the solid right, as I didn't want it so transparent so that you could not see the glass shards however so that it does have the transparency of glass. I feel like the final project appears too blue in comparison to the sky outside of the window. 

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If I were to go back and do anything differently I would create better shadows on my animated character as some of the shadows were not realistic to the surface that they were being reflected onto. I would also add a shadow to the clock on the wall as this is unrealistic to what it would be like in real life. This would help it seem as if it is actually hanging on the wall. I would also have made the solid of the window bigger and allow for space for glass to fall to the ground to make this a more realistic effect. I would have to figure a way to make a bigger solid and make a solid within that for the window which in the bigger solid I could have more glass falling to the ground, the would give a bigger connection between the real world and the VFX world.

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AUDIO

One thing I thought went particularly well was my first attempt at foley. I was able to used concrete, a carpet and the back of a rug to create realistic sounds that match with the visuals on my film. With regards to the audio I am most pleased with my ability to make it sound realistic, including my foley. I think the sounds I chose for the ambience matched well and also when adding the effects of the door handle turning, clock ticking and the sound of clothes rubbing as the characters move. The attention to detail with regards to realistic audio was helpful into making the audio feel like it was recorded the same time the film was being recorded. 

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The most challenging part for my when editing and producing audio was finding the correct sounds for the animated character. This is because I was unsure as to what style I wanted for my character. I had use the foley I recorded of clothing against a hard surface for when he was moving along the wall however didn't see fit to include realistic movements for other things he was doing. I was able to find cartoony sound effects and cut them up and edit them for when he jumps out the window and liked this style but struggled to see what and where other sound effects would fit with this character. I ended up using some realistic sounds for him which now after looking over don't feel completely appropriate. I struggled as I couldn't find on Freesound what I had thought of in my head and wasn't sure how to make these sounds from foley so had to stick with what I could find.

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If I were to go back and do this differently, I would record some foley in the space I actually recorded in, as I did struggle getting the right footsteps for running down the staircase as I couldn't recreate this at home. I would also pre search for a lot more of the sounds I'll be using  in the film. I did this for a few of the more major sounds and added them to a file and found that very useful for when I actually came to edit as I had a good idea of what I needed next and wasn't trying to match the sound too much. I would also when it comes to giving sound to my animated, be more experimental with the sounds I'm using. I was trying to hard to make this realistic this time round and feel it could've been better if the animated character had it's own bold style.

OVERALL

Looking at the first film I have made, I am most pleased with the shot choices and the overall flow of my film. I think I have a good range of compositions to give my audience a better idea of the bigger picture in my scene. This has given me many new ideas of shots I would want to try out in the future and what makes up an interesting shot list in a movie. However I am also quite pleased with how elements of my audio turned out. I feel there are certain parts of my film which have quite good audio and after doing it once I can see the power of layering up the audio to make it more realistic as there is always more than one sound going through at any given time. Although some parts need improving I am happy with how the details from the footsteps to the clothing movement worked out. I also had a good time doing my first piece of foley. 

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The aspect I found most challenging of all was actually doing the animation of my character I had made in Photoshop. After figuring out how to access the layers in photoshop I was faced with the task of rigging them

with the puppet pin tool and making them move in a somewhat believable way. I really struggled with getting used to the workflow of animating each scene and had great difficultly with bending the legs too much to an unrealistic standard. The animation did not come out as well as I would have hoped but for the struggle I had I am somewhat happy with the outcome. Another problem I faced was rendering in Maya, something that I wasted a lot of time on which I will be trying to figure out for the future.

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On the next project I want to spend more time focusing on the VFX aspect. In this project I spent a lot of time focusing on animating as it was a new skill I was greatly struggling with. I feel like the VFX didn't get much attention payed and therefore lacked in being realistic. Therefore that will be a focus of mine in upcoming projects as I would like to get better at this. I will also in future like to record more foley as I think it made my project sound more realistic and believable then with sound I had found that wasn't made for this scene. I would also use more camera movement, as in this film there were a lot of static shots, however the shots that did have movement with purpose felt effective and as you were more present in the scene. 

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