Process and Production: 27th February - 5th March 2017

I continued with more and more animating. Shot 7 is another that took longer than I anticipated. The movements in it weren't too complex but I just kept adding inbetweens because I wasn't happy with the timing of each move. 

The lip syncing at the end of this shot was much more challenging than the previous shot. I was tweaking the timings of each letter to try and get it to look right. I found myself saying 'cha.. champagne' over and over to myself to try and deduce what shapes the mouth made. In the end I am actually really happy with how this shot has ended up. I think the movements are well flowing and expressive. I think that I could use more overlapping action with the hair. I think the first shot I did involved a lot but then I have been forgetting to add much in since. I do like the way it works in this shot but I am going to have to keep in mind to exaggerate it more in later shots. 

This week I also did my pixilation animation. See pixilation blog post.

I then started work on the last two main shots of the man. Shot 9 and 11. Since I feel that I am running short on time, I am going to prioritise getting the linework of each shot completed so that I will at least have a basic version of every shot if I do happen to run out of time. I rendered the audio reference for the remaining shots and set them up in Animate documents to start. Shot 9 is quite a simple one. Once his jaw drops to the table there is no more movement throughout that shot. Also, I don't really want to create many inbetweens for this shot since I want his movement to be quite shocking and sudden. I want it to really forcefully slam onto the table. I can then add some reinforcing action by means of cutlery bouncing and the camera shaking.

Shot 11 will be relatively simple as well with him only having very quick frantic head turns until he flies off the back of the chair. I still filmed a reference video to be able to capture the panic on his face but I don't intend many inbetweens and I'm imagining  doing the fall using smears to communicate the speed. 

Process and Production: Pixilation

Pixilation is the technique of stop motion animating live actors. It creates a very strange looking animation which drifts into the uncanny valley, since the people are moving so unnaturally. Some well known uses of this are Peter Gabriel's 'Sledgehammer' music video. This combined live action pixilation with stop motion in a very impressive way. In this instance, pixilation was used as a way to include Gabriel in with the animated elements. 

When thinking of an idea for the pixilation study task, I knew I wanted to have something that took advantage of the use of pixilation, by doing things that couldn’t be done normally. The first thing that came to mind was to have two people fighting so that I could have one fly down the corridor after being punched. I planned to make it somewhat comical and exaggerated.

I am somewhat happy with this animation, though I think that not all of the actions turned out looking as good as I’d previously hoped. I think that some of the movements don’t look as expressive as I wanted. Also with the ‘flying’ punch at the end, we opted to just have Chloe sliding along the floor instead because it was easier for her to do. My original idea was to take pictures as just jumped down the corridor to have the illusion of flight. I also think that the movements were too drastic and don't make it feel as smooth as it could.

Process and Production: Research 3: Hybrid Animation

Hybrid animation is a term given to animation mixed with live action footage. This technique is one of my personal favourites. This is due to the contrast in the visuals that I just find incredibly interesting. It is a 4th wall breaking experience since we obviously know that the animated segments are drawn but then the live action side of it interacts as if it were real inside their world. 

The first version of this technique being used was in the 1900 film, 'The Enchanted Drawing' in which James Stuart Blackton draws a cartoon character who then comes to life on the paper. This technique evolved and was used in many different ways like putting a live action person into an animated world in 'Alice Comedies' and then putting animated characters into a live action world in 'Out of the Inkwell' and many others.

Properly compositing animated character in with live action footage is probably most well known from 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit'. This film was incredibly innovative and ambitious, but what I think is even more interesting and what adds to this experience even more, is how the story actually acknowledges the presence of these cartoons and makes that contrast part of the story and humour. 

This same principle is now used in the majority of live action blockbusters with the use of CGI, but the difference here is that most of the time this is made to look part of the world. We aren't supposed to notice the difference. I think this is a great technique and one that I personally find really interesting and opens many possibilities. 

Process and Production: 20th - 26th February 2017

I continued animating again after finishing shot 2, I moved to shot 4. This is where the man looks shocked and accidentally drops the ring while trying to catch it. 

The first half of this shot was going well. I believe that I used anticipation in a good way with him squashing down before bouncing up in shock. I'm happy with the expression and exaggeration of his face. The part that I struggled with however, was the second half of this shot. I continuously struggled to achieve a look of the arms moving up in an attempt to catch the ring that looked believable. I couldn't get anything to look right. The keys that I did just look unnatural.

I tried using reference footage but I was still finding it really hard to draw. I've decided I will come back to this particular shot since it is just frustrating me and I've spent too long trying to do this one already.

So I moved onto shot 5. This was one that I was quite excited to do and actually turned out better than I was expecting. I knew that I wanted to use some dynamic camera movements in this animation and this is the main one that shows this. I envisioned this being a very interesting slow motion shot. I created the ring spinning inside a symbol so that I could then rotate that outside to create an even more dynamic and natural spin. I used a simple circle stroke to create the ring as I could then squash it to create the angles I needed while keeping the line weight consistent. I only had to create half of this turn and then I copied and reversed these frames and tweaked the diamond to be on the other side as if it was going round the back. 

Then came some frame by frame lip syncing. To make this easier, I mapped out the timings of each phonetic sound on my labels layer corresponding to the audio. It was then as simple as drawing the mouth shapes and inbetweening them as I did for every other part. This turned out much better than I expected and when it plays out, I feel that it works well in sync with the audio.

The next shot I will be starting is shot 7 where my character tries to act casual as his girlfriend arrives at the table, this shot will involve more lip syncing and I think that the method I used here of mapping out the sounds with a label layer works very well and I will do this again in the upcoming shots. 

Process and Production: 13th - 19th February 2017

This week I got onto actually animating. I finished off the 1st shot quite quickly as it wasn't very complex and didn't require much animating with it being an establishing shot. So I then made a start on the second shot. This, again, wasn't a very complex one as the first half is just a still shot with a focus shift. The second half however was done with more frame by frame movement. I want to make sure that this whole animation is consistently made with smooth, flowing animation. 

In this shot, all he is doing is very slightly turning his head and looking up, but I wanted to make it a little more exaggerated than that. I wanted it too have the same feeling of fluidity as the Looney Tunes animation has, so I made the face drag behind slowly before catching up with the rest of the motion. This is only subtle because it is only a small movement and I didn't want to overdo it and lessen the more exaggerated shots later in the animation. The hair and the eyes do give this effect. The hair follows through with the motion of the head just as I intended (as to why I designed him this way). The eyes also have a subtle smear in them to sell the effect of them darting back up. 

I feel incredibly happy with how this shot turned out. I have used more frames than I usually would for such a basic movement but I feel that it really pays off. With the motion created from this movement, I feel that my later shots will hopefully make a much bigger impact just like the Looney Tunes style I am using as influence. 

My plan going forwards is to just animate all of the shots of the man and then go back through and do the shots of the woman. This is because they are all at the same angle and with just the same character so it will be an easier workflow, keep me focused on each character at a time and keep the style more consistent. 

I also recieved a bit more feedback on my first shot. It was suggested that I add some ambient animation to the silhouettes in the restaurant to make the room feel more alive. I could also add a waiter walking past. This is something that I do think will really help this shot a lot, but it depends on time. I think that since I am being very ambitious with the animation of the main two characters, I need to make sure I get them finished first before adding any extra bits and pieces. If I do have time I will make sure to go back and add stuff like this.

Process and Production: Research 2: Tex Avery

Someone that I really admire a great deal when it comes to animation and visual comedy is Tex Avery. Avery was one of the main leading directors of the Looney Tunes and a very influential animator from the golden age. He was a major part of creating and/or popularising and developing characters such as Porky Pig, Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and Droopy. 

His use of exaggeration was incredible as he took it to a new level that no one had really done before. He stretched his characters further than anyone would think to try. He had some really great ideas of how to convey emotions in very comical and visually interesting ways. By expressing the characters in such an absurd way it added a extra shock value to the moment, often catching the audience off guard, hence making them laugh. 

This example shows how he communicated a moment of extreme shock. Instead of just widening the eyes and opening the mouth, he made this characters limbs detach and fly off the body for a moment as the whole character hovers in the air. 

He wanted to make cartoons that could appeal to adults as well as children. There was something for everyone in his films. He frequently broke the 4th wall with his characters addressing the audience directly or popping up in the credits. This made the characters seems more real and was a very new and interesting use of them. 

Process and Production: 6th - 12th February 2017

Unfortunately due to train delays, I missed the crit session itself, however I did show people my animatic later on and got some good feedback.

I received quite a few positive comments about how the establishing shot and the ambient sounds set the scene quite well and the expressions being funny. 

The main thing I was told could be improved was making the moment when he hints to the champagne a bit clearer. This can be easily fixed by just swapping the audio for a take where 'champagne' is a bit clearer while still carrying the nervous voice. This also comes to my audio mixing which I haven't done properly yet. So from this feedback I can work on making the moment a bit clearer to understand.

After this I got to work in creating the background for the opening and final shots. I knew that I wanted to do a bit more of a detailed background this time, but I also liked the idea of making it somewhat sketchy and textured.

I looked at backgrounds from many classic animations, focusing mainly on the painted style ones. I really love the contrast of background to characters, especially when black outlines are not used on the backgrounds. This creates a great difference between what we should be focusing on. 

I built the background in a way that would let me easily create a subtle 3D perspective effect. I'm incredibly happy with how this effect turned out. I exported 5 separate .png images to work with in creating this effect. The 1st was the backing wall and decorations followed by the 3 layers of tables and then a light bloom effect coming from the lights on the roof. Each of these was animated enlarging slightly more than the last to create the effect that the camera was moving through them. I then also added a subtle blur to sell the depth of field. 

In Adobe Animate, each of these layers were made into their own symbols so that I could go into them and animate anything inside. So for example, I went into these symbols to add the main character and silhouettes while keeping the movement and depth of field consistent. These images are also linked with photoshop so that I can always go back and edit the colours or textures. I will also have to make a variant of this scene towards the end where I can animate the chair falling backwards onto the floor.

This week we also got briefed the pixilation task. I have only done pixilation a few times before so I'm quite excited to do this. I want to really use the medium to my advantage by creating something that couldn't be done normally. I had an idea for animating someone punching someone and them sliding all the way down the hallway and slamming into a wall. I will keep thinking up ideas before I eventually create it as I think I need to make a bigger start on the main task before I can do anything else.