1/12/17

This week was making the final finishing touches to my modules.

For DGA 210 it was a matter of finishing off the final shots for Shelterbox. I had trouble with my longest assigned shot because it involved Shelterbox running in and out of the shot and our paralax wasn't long enough to make it look convincing. To save some time for editing, I had him bounce out of the shot instead, which looked a lot better than the run out I had attempted without a moving background, but it still felt silly. If I am given a similar task in the future I will make sure to come to the background artist immediately if I feel that a paralax needs to be made longer. At the same time I will also implement changes discussed in feedback sessions a lot sooner to avoid problems like these in the future. I also put together my showreels for Shelterbox and Heroes Wanted.

For DGA 220 I worked on my first paragraph about the history of open source. There wasn't a lot of information on where it all started, unfortunately, but it seemed widely embraced that it started around the 1960s when computers started to become more commonplace among scientists. I also incorporated the history of one of my case study programs, Blender, to show how open source had shaped its production.

For DGA 230 I finally finished my proof-of-concept shot. It took me a long time but I learned a lot about different source alphas in TV Paint, something I didn't have much experience with before now, and I managed to incorporate that into my shot with the white line art inside the green clouds. I feel accomplished at the consistency of the shot because it is something that I struggle with in a lot of my animation tests and I feel that it came out pretty well. I'm pleased with how my shot turned out. Before exporting I also improved my background for the proof of concept after some constructive criticism from Imogen over how I was crosshatching the environment.

24/11/17

For DGA 210 I finished off two of my shots this week, the first being the family glancing between each other, and the second being the simple end shot of the Shelterbox logo. The shots were fairly easy to do so it gave me more time to focus on continuing shot 3, the longest shot I was assigned. This one has been a challenge to complete since the decision was made to have Shelterbox run back out of the shot again at the end, so I need to re-animate the entire run cycle.

For DGA 220 I finalised my essay outline. I decided to focus on the advantages of open source software, as it is what I believe in, and I found many benefits that outweigh the risks. However, I did first and foremost explain the functions of various open source software, how they impact on the animation industry and what the purpose of them are. All I need to do now is the write up.

For DGA 230 I finished a piece of concept art for Alienation. My goal was to capture the intense and gloomy atmosphere and tone of the film, so I made use of shadows and framing to create the right mood. I was proud of how the piece came out, but I experimented with both textured brushes and flats. In the end the flats were more true to the chosen artist style.

17/11/17

For DGA 210 I listened through the new narration that had been recorded by a friend of Rebecca's. The 1940's style narrator works amazingly well for the humorous atmosphere we were trying to create for our advert so I feel that this is a success and we've decided to use this recording in our final edit. We've also settled on using the soundtrack for The Incredibles as our scratch track since we don't have time this late into the module to record an original score. On my own I've also been assigned two more shots and have been making the finishing touches to shot 3.

For DGA 220 I have spent this week researching my topic. I've also used this week recording with Katy for our presentation on open source software. We finished our scripts and set aside a time for recording, and it took a few hours but we've officially recorded all of the audio we need for our presentation. We decided that Katy is going to edit the audio together and I'm going to create the presentation and export it.

For DGA 230 I'm behind with concept work so I've spent this week designing a background for my proof of concept, finishing off the character turnarounds for the mom and dad, and also doing rough sketches for a concept piece. This week I also keyframed my proof of concept shot. I've decided that I'm going to animate the pivotal moment where the mother falls to her knees to rescue a picture from a photo frame, and the alien is going to leave her, representing the moment where the children (and also the audience) realise that she isn't possessed by an alien, but is actually just feeling lonely and struggling to adjust to her old life. I think the visual symbolism will look really good animated in our chosen artist's style, and also it is the most emotionally impacting moment of the film and I wanted to demonstrate how the minimalistic style will still be able to portray that sadness.

10/11/17

For DGA 210 this week I worked more on shot 3 and also checked up on everyone in our group to see how shots were progressing. As director me and Gabby have made it our responsibilities to regularly check in with the rest of the group so that we can give constructive criticism where it's required. This way we can also catch errors early on and correct them to avoid more problems further down the line. I feel that being given this role has helped me improve on my time management and leadership skills, and has given me more confidence to speak up to others when I feel there can be improvements made.

For DGA 220 I continued to do research and worked on finishing my scripted sections for the presentation. Me and Katy assigned each other different sections to cover and we shared our research in order to fill our sections with information. I think that it went pretty well and I'm almost done writing mine up, ready for recording next week.

For DGA 230 this week I drew up some character concepts for the mom character. These included some poses and character expressions, although it's limited due to the simple designs of character faces, in keeping in line with our chosen artist. Not as much focus was put into pre-production this week as I was prioritising other modules this week.

3/11/17

In DGA 210 this week things have been very busy since I have been in betweening a key shot for Heroes Wanted. In the end I was unable to complete the shot by the deadline because I made a mistake when reading the timing charts which I wasn't sure how to fix. I feel bad for letting the team down but the animatic was still approved and the film wasn't cut so I still have an opportunity to fix the shot later on.

For DGA 220 I did some more research and decided which animation programs I was going to primarily focus on for my essay. I also teamed up with Katy for the presentation, and we've decided to make our focus on open source and how it impacts not only the animation industry but the global programming community online too. I think this will be a really interesting topic to cover because the idea of sharing and growing together as a community intrigues me and I want to see how it will impact the future of the industry.

For DGA 230 this week I created a character turnaround for the dad in Alienation. I feel that he turned out better than the mom turnaround and that his body looks more dynamic.

27/10/17

20/10/17