O.k, so a lot of my time at the beginning of the week was taken up by research which I will blog about in the next few days. For now I will focus on my development for my animation.
After deciding on my logo and presenting it to the class I realised, as did other people in the class that my logo bears a resemblance to a some what abstract form of origami.
Using this as a starting point, I brainstormed and came up with a few Ideas. Some were more harder to realise than others especially when it would have included time consuming 3D work that would require weeks of work.
From what I had left I found one idea that I liked the most. the basis for this was:
- an abstract form being created step by step in a stop motion fashion. I had two ways of doing this, including my hands, or not including my hands. I decided that I would doing it without my hands to give it a more organic feel.
-once this was created my hands would come in and splatter this shape.
- once I splatter/squash my shape I would wipe my hand away and my logo would be left
(- For a while i thought that then I could, using my hands and my logo on the paper, crack it in half and my text would fall out like an egg and yoke. I found that this as well as everything else would be too much to fit in 10 seconds)
I then storyboarded this idea:
I then turned these storyboards in to animatics to try and get an idea of timing:
I found this quite helpful but i couldnt really understand how I wanted it all to work together timing and look wise so I decided I would create some mock-ups.
The first one was quick, just to give me an idea of what i wanted it to look like:
I then decided to do a full draft run through. I really like how this turned out and I think it further backs up my idea that doing the whole 'breaking egg' thing wont work because I think timing looks just right the way it is.
for now I'm going to continue doing a few more practice runs and experiments then I will move on to the real thing.
to start off the new year we were giving our brief: IDENTITY. From this brief came two parts; creating our own logo by researching ourselves and creating a 10 second animation to introduce our logo.
PART 1:
Starting off with this part of the brief we were required to research, not only the world but ourselves. From my time taking pictures around the city a lot of type and logos stood out to me, the most prolific being the 'creative limerick logo'. I'm not entirely sure why but I really like the simplicity of it as well the colour scheme of the logo.
I then needed to research myself and i created a short mind map listing what I think to be my main characteristics and traits. the main points i came up with were:
- I am a very simplistic person i.e I'm not overcomplicated. not plain but more so straightforward, i don't like to stand out, I just get on with what I am doing.
- I don't like to be too outspoken/ in your face
- I have two parts of my life, my earlier life in England and my more recent life in Ireland.
- I have interests in:
- sport
- graffiti
- art
- I want to go in to the 3D side of animation
- I like being technical and working things out.
From this I deduced that that I should have a logo that reflects myself, mainly the simplicity of myself. then I began to brainstorm :
During my brainstorm I decided to try out using just J.B as the main focus of my logo, I did this as i felt this is a very simple way of communicating my logo.
I also tried out a couple of logotypes which involved straight lines in simplistic forms such as triangles. I like the way these worked within my logo's as it represents straightforwardness of myself especially in the way I work as I tend to like to work in a linear fashion ( going from A to B to C etc. rather than jumping from one place to a completely different place) Shapes like this are also very technical and precise like myself.
I began to build upon these ideas as well as looking at involving graffiti somewhere along the way. Through my progression from this i did some looking at 3D forms, I began to like this idea even more as it represents my ambition to be a 3D artist as well as all the other things. I liked the way the form could represent all my ideas in an abstract shape, At this point J.B was no longer the centre of my logo.
more development took place and I was eventually left with 3 logos I had whittled down from all of my ideas:
From these 3 i chose the abstract form as best to represent me as a person and an artist. I then developed this with many ideas, the main one was trying to incorporate the two parts of my life mentioned above. Throughout my experimentation I was left with one logo that stood out , this one:
to summarise this logo it is:
- simple, not overcomplicated like myself
- comprised of two halves - 2 halves of life ( could also be 2 sides of brain: technical and fun)
- 3D - where i want to be in industry
- technical/linear - like me/ my thought process
- two colours:
- blue = professional side/serious/minimal
- red = more playful, representative of my younger years as well asa the fact that I also
Following the animatic creation, I began to render out all of the high quality, 1080p renders that I now decided would be perfect for our intro. I also had all of the correct timings so it was just a matter or waiting (which was a long time). After that and throughout last week I was given the remaining pieces of puzzle. Basically, all the drawings and rotoscoped animation I needed to create the entire intro. With these pieces of footage I keyed out and deleted the backgrounds and arranged them on virtual pages using tea-stained paper we created in the first couple of weeks which I would move around in a smaller composition in After Effects to create the illusion of camera movement over a page.
I then took the 3D renders into Premiere Pro to arrange them in accordance to the rougher renders I had in the animatic.
To create the transitions between book and the museum I then took the created pages and the beginning or end of one of the 3D animations depending on what it was for and put in the correct transition we had storyboarded in the time already allocated. Each time I brought in the sequence from Premiere Pro into AE so I had the right markers in place for timings.
Following this I added the text created by Clodagh for the producer and director credits and used the font 'Trajan Pro' for the actor's/actress' names. These were very time consuming as I had to do alot of keyframing to track the pages and movements of the text in accordance with the footage. Now though, looking back I should have used the text when I was creating the pages as I would have taken a considerably less amount of time than it has.
At this stage the introduction is almost finished, all it requires is a little bit of fine tuning and colour correction and it should be ready to go tomorrow.
Here are some screen shots of the editing in progress:
Opening shot: book opening, created all in Cinema 4D
shot of text interacting within the book
High quality 3D render with colour correction applied
O.k, so now within the project its time to map everything out. We have a storyboard and were recommended to do a draft version of our final project to the music we picked ( vox humana ). So, towards the end of the week I began to introduce camera animation to get a feel of the kind of shots we want, mainly sweeping and zoom shots of the busts. This took a while to get used to as I tried to figure out how long each shot should be compared to the overall time of the intro. I hav decided anywhere between two and five seconds is o.k, depending on the importance of the character. There will also be quick cuts so not all of a shot may be used.
So, following this I rendered out low quality versions to use in the mock-up of our intro. This is really helpful as it shows me little things wrong with the modelling of the scene. These things shall be changed for the final product.
I then brought these clips into premiere pro as well as pictures I have taken of the storyboard. From there I looking at the music, its beats etc... to see where i can fit all these pieces and to give a sense of timing for the real thing. In all the balance between notebook and museum if fairly even with some shots having time priority to others. It will also be a fairly short intro, roughly1 minute, 5 seconds.
Alright so continuing on from last weeks decision to use marble busts I have been working during the beginning of this week on creating all five busts and the museum using Mudbox and Cinema 4D combined. I have a free reference images as well as images I have done myself to try and get a feel for what the museum should look like, after all what would the artefacts be without a proper display? so really this requires as much time as everything else. At the end of last week I had begun work on one type of museum. Now, after looking at more images I have a better direction to go in.
I also have 3 of the 5 busts complete ( though a bit of refining will need to be done before the end ) which I will use to create short animation to give the other members of the group something to work on when creating the sketch book.
here are the busts as they stand now, taking up to a few hours each:
i know the likeness isn't great right now but i hope to modify them before the final production. Also the sculptor may not have been able to create life-like pieces.
here are some primary images of the museum:
this is the older version
this is the updated, newer version
I hope to begin animating these at latest, monday next week.
We have chosen to represent the film gladiator using busts reminiscent of the time to portray the main characters in an heroic style. We will combine this with the writings and drawings of a sketch book from a sculptor at the time. We want to create a slow and atmospheric feel to the sequence.
Technique and approach:
For the busts we will use 3D modelling software, both Mudbox and Cinema. We will animate these with as series of sweeping, dramatic shots. We will create the sketchbook using use ink and watercolour for the drawing and animations which be created using stop motion, and calligraphy for the writings. We will merge these together along with old paper made using teabags in Photoshop.
We will cut and wipe between the two using After Effects.
MoodBoard:
1. Leather bound book with engravings which we hope our book at the end of the sequence will resemble.
2. Another example of the book. This is the style we want for the interior of it.
3. This is the style of bust we have modelled ours on using similar poses and textures.
4. This is a similar image to what we want to start off the sequence with.
5. This is a more detailed image of the bust similar to those that we want to create. The orange tint to the marble matches our colour scheme.
6. this is an arrangement similar to the one we want for the busts in our project.
7-9. The images by Rodin found in his sketchbooks are along the kind of style we want to create in ours.
10. This is an experimental mock-up of our roman museum.
11.The outro. to Sherlock Holmes boasts the same colour scheme and a similar style to what we want in our intro.
Music:
the music we have chosen for it is calm, atmospheric and anthemic produced using orchestral instruments. It has a good flow and should work well with the overall feel of the sequence.
Sequence:
Shot 1:
slightly oblique shot of an old book sitting on a table.angle narrows and book opens. a page with a drawing of an old museum opens and the camera slowly zooms towards it.
Shot 2:
The drawing becomes the modelled, realistic museum portrayed while the page disappears (fades) around it. a slow zoom continues.
Shot 3:
The camera slowly pans towards the left till it reaches a head-on view of Maximus (Russell Crowe).
It stops briefly then continues until it shows the right hand side of the bust.
Shot 4:
A drawing forms around the sculpture , it then turns into part of the image whilst a page from the sketchbook forms.
Shot 5:
Page flips, animated scenes of maximus fighting and praying form with small analytical sketches scattered around the rest of the page.
Shot 6:
A stream of red ink runs down the page and falls off the edge of the book. This drop falls, hits off of a bust and scatters to reveal old Ceasars bust.
Shot 7:
Camera looks up towards the statue at an oblique lower angle. It slowly moves up until it is level with the centre of his face.
Shot 8:
Another drop of ink falls from this scene as it melts and splashes as it hits another page.
Shot 9:
An animation of him speaking to Maximus appears from the ink. Page flips to a drawing of the king.
Shot 10:
A page peals/falls out of the book. It flows downwards and flies past the screen, covering it. The page leaves the scene and the bust of Lucilla is revealed.
Shot 11:
A head on shot slowly zooms in and focuses on her brooch.
Shot 12:
The brooch turns into a drawing whilst a page builds up around it.
Shot 13:
Key scenes become animated and analytical drawings appear on the next couple of pages.
Shot 14:
A page turns over and reveals a zoomed in part of Juba. Slowly it zooms out so the camera is looking up towards him.
Shot 15:
A drop of ink hits the bust and runs down it until it drips off and splashes on the camera. The camera zooms out of the black fill which is some typography.
Shot 16:
Images and animations of Juba occur on the next couple of pages.
Shot 17:
The page burns out from the bottom right corner to reveal a poorly lit bust of commodus at the back of the museum.
Shot 18:
The lighting increases as smoke enters the screen from the bottom and fills the screen.
Shot 19:
Smoke clears to reveal the last page with an animation of him with his thumb down.
Shot 20:
Book closes to reveal the word 'Gladiator' on the originally blank cover.
For the next part of the project we shall be creating a sculptors notebook, this is drawn from the idea of creating busts of the main characters. Within this notebook will be animations, sketches and typography relating to the film bringing in the names of the studios, directors etc... The animations will possibly be rotoscoped from movements and actions me and jack make then done in a style similar to that of Auguste Rodin's sketch books using watercolour and ink.
I have taken references from many of his works to use as an influence when creating these sketches.
Smaller, simpler images will also features throughout the book.
We have already created old-looking paper which we will use as a basis for drawing onto.
this is an image i found that has roughly the same style we are trying to acheive
Following on from yesterdays blog I have some more pictures of the research that took place last week/ early this week involving ink experiments, clay modelling and charcoal.
With the ink we wanted to see how it spreads on/in different mediums such as paper and water. We also chose different amounts of liquid to see how if interacts with it.
This week we decided that we should use busts of the main characters to give them and introduction. Initially we have made them from modelling clay and we'll try to translate these onto the computer in the programme 'mud'.
After easter we were given a new brief: to create a film title sequence. From a given list of films me and my two assigned teammates Jack Browne and Clodagh Cahill, chose to do the film Gladiator by Ridley Scott. The reason we chose this was because we thought it had alot to offer with lots of textures such as the sand of the arenas, the rust of the warriors armour and the mud of the battlefield. As well as this there is also the abundance of ancient roman artefacts which can be incorporated into the sequence.
With this as a base we each through up ideas as to what we could do in the 'experimentation fortnight' where we are allowed to experiment as much as possible with new materials to use in our final production.
From this we gathered materials. This was mainly between me and Jack where we got things such as ink, spray paint, rusted metal, glass and sandpaper etc.. then we decided to do some experiment, some of the main things we did included making old tapestry-like paper using teabags and rust which will become maps of rome, and experimenting with ink drops in water. Jack also built a cardboard house which we burnt in reflection to Maximus' house being burnt in the film. Throughout this week I was mainly in charge of documenting everything we did through film and ink although some has to be redone using blue screens as these initial ideas were only very rough.
Following on from this week and a tutorial with one of our tutors, we agreed that although we shouldn't have a storyboard, we should have an inclining into what role our experiments will have within the sequence. So, we came up with one of the main portions of the animation which was character introduction where we will have each of the main characters as a bust such as the ones featured throughout the film. It is unknown yet how we will definitely do it but we are experimenting with modelling clay with a view to making them on a 3D modelling software.
we will look later on in the week as to what else will happen within the sequence and how to introduce the fire/maps as well as the names of the directors etc...
here are some of the videos of what we have done so far:
I will upload more experiments tomorrow when I have them off my memory card
So, i stumbled across this today and i find it really interesting as it charts the progress and work-load needed to create such a small part of this film
After alot of experimentation and plenty of humming and hawing I decided that my animation would go down a fairly abstract line. Following the mountain formation and the change in skyline I thought that I would look at the idea of the mountain becoming a face, swallowing up the sky, and exhaling it as a square which would once again sit in the middle of the composition.
I did this then added music and sound effects which I think fit well into the piece and create a smooth, laid back feeling.
overall I am happy with the outcome, and here it is:
So for my contexual research into this project I decided to look into the realm of silhouette animation as my project focuses on silhouettes of shapes/forms against a coloured background. I also drew a little inspiration from other accomplished designers who took on this project.
here are some of the most interesting pieces I came across:
Fresh into animation me and my roommate decided to jump straight into watching animated movies and researching al things animation so we decided to rent out Irish-made film 'The Secret Of Kells'.
To be honest the story is not my cup of tea but I did like the flow of the film and how it related well to a time in the past.
I did like the animation style alot and I found it unique amongst films these days where the majority of feature animation films are very realistic 3-D generated characters. In this film the basis is hand drawn imagery drawn over in graphic software, maybe Photoshop. I am also a big fan of the simplicity of the characters where there is little shading and alot of block colours. These contrast well against the complicated drawn backgrounds which may last a whole scene without change, which saves time for the animators of this.
The soundtrack was also something I enjoyed and I felt it complimented the whole film giving it a feel of the times and settings that this film was aimed for.
I found this video based on the making of the film from one of the designers that worked on it which I found interesting:
The brief: start with a black square, end with a black square, 10 seconds long, what happens is up to you.
So, after brainstorming this brief I came up with an initial idea of have my square, dissolving it and having it transform into an abstract shape which gradually reforms the box.
However after trying to make this piece I found that it was very boring and without an actual story line.
So, I began to experiment, just basically playing around within after with what I already had, the dissolving block. Eventually I noticed that the pile of pieces resembled that of a mini mountain range which led me to think of the idea that there is another world within the box itself. I then transformed the shape so it became alot bigger and added a sky changing from day to night with a sun appearing and disappearing. And this is where I am now ( here are a few screenshots).
Brainstorming will lead me to the conclusion because this beginning was never actually set out in stone and only thought up on the spot. stay tuned for my thoughts on the ending.
So, for the next three years I will be an animation student and the prospect of learning new techniques and honing a skill set that will equip me with the knowledge to aid me for the rest of my life is something I really look forward to.
Already I have a relatively intermediate knowledge of Adobe programmes, Photoshop, Illustrator and After effects aswell as Maxon's Cinema 4D which I can't wait to build on.
