Creating Final Film ArtBook and Poster

Now we have finished our final film, i have been spending time putting together the art book for it. We have included the script, character designs, background and colour design, sounds, animation process shots and more. We decided to use the below shot of the exorcist standing in front of the house as the cover, which i think works very well and looks quite striking. We have also made a few poster ideas for the film, which i am also pleased with.

Enter bedroom finished shot

I have now finished the final lines, colour and editing on my final shot for my final film. It is below. 

What went well :

• I think the masks used to bring the soft light of the yellow into the room works well
• i think the door movement looks good
• i think it is overall a very atmospheric and good tension building shot
• i like the shadow of the priest

What could be improved

• perhaps there could be more movement of the priest actually opening the door
• the mask for the shadow clips in some parts

Tweaking final film backgrounds

In preparation for hand in, i have been making some final adjustments to the backgrounds for our final film. There were a few places we noticed mistakes with the backgrounds and we wanted to correct them to make the film look as consistent as possible. For example i tweaked the bg below because we noticed that the bedroom looked much bigger in a previous shot so the walls on either side of the bed wouldnt be visible here. I took these out and also added a shadow under the bed after getting some feedback to do this in the final crit. I think this was good advice as it does look less flat after adding this. 

Recording sounds for Final Film

We recently booked out the university's sound booth to record the sounds for our final film. Below is a picture of a few of the implements we used; we used celery for the snapping and breaking of bones, a heavy book to drop and hit for sounds of the fight shot. The paper plates were useful for ripping noises and the flutter of the paper bill in the final shot. We also used loose objects like coins and pens to rustle around for general clatter, and rubber gloves for slapping noises. We used our voices for some of the character noises such as gasps and screams during the fight. Seeing our final film with the noises added in i think they work well, although there were still some noises we will need to find online. 

Final crit feedback

This week we presented what we have of our final films so far at the final crit. Our film was well received, but there was also some helpful constructive criticism which we have taken on board and have started to tweak the film accordingly. If we dont have time to make all the changes before hand in, we will continue to work after this to get them all done.
Final crit comments

• in doorbell shot, finger extends further after he moves his hand back- this was one of my shots so i will be fixing this as soon as possible. I didnt notice this mistake until it was pointed out to me
• Background details- during fight scene and inside the house the backgrounds sometimes lack detail - i have begun fixing this by adding shadow to certain places in the backgrounds, such as under the bed, which i think has benefited the look of the backgrounds already. I will be fixing other minor things in the backgrounds in the days before hand in. 

Shot final lines and colouring

Here are two more shots which i have finished recently. I think i have been working quite efficiently to get one shot a days final lines and colouring done over the easter break. 

What i think went well:

• I think there is consistency between the animation in mine and Olivers shots and they work well together
• I think my attempt at a smear works well in the shot with the mother and the priest. 
• With colour i think the characters sit well in the backgrounds and feel it brings the animation to life

What could be improved:

• in the daughter reaction shot, the blanket lines are a bit jittery and move around more as it was hard to keep this the exact same in different frames. I am going to fix this for the final film
• her hands also clip with the blanket a bit, which again i plan on fixing for the final film
• the motion of the mother stepping forward could be more clear, i would like to tweak the planting of her feet for the final cut

Heinz D&AD submission

We have now submitted our Heinz animation to D&AD. It was very stressful to get this finished in time and to be honest i am glad its over. I did enjoy the project and learnt a lot from it, but as i wasnt focus on the areas i want to specialise in, i was eager to move on. To colour my part of the animation, i exported the video into photoshop. However, i didnt change the frame rate from 29 to 12, which caused me massive problems and took ages to colour and draw the final lines of each frame. I will now know for future to check im on the right framerate when i export into photoshop.

Finished commission

I have now finished the commission i received for a 'candyland' themed piece of art for the clients daughter. I am really pleased with the result of this and the client has also expressed their happiness with the final result. In the end the client decided to go with the light pink line colour that i think works better than the darker one and compliments the other colours.

what went well:

-i think the composition works well

-i like how the colours i have chosen work together

-i like the details in the piece

-i am pleased with the quality of the linework

what could be improved:

-i think the trees in the bg of the forest could be improved, perhaps with a less harsh line at their base

-the picnic blanket is not flat enough for the angle

-there could be more detail in the background of the piece

15 second horror backgrounds

As another live brief, i have been doing the backgrounds for Olivers second 15 second horror brief. I planned to do an entire animation for this brief by myself, but i ended up going off the idea i came up with, and also thought i would rather practice my background skills than animate more, as this is what i am specialising in. Oli gave me rough layouts for what he wanted from the backgrounds and i have been working on making them more painterly than i normally do.
What i think went well:
-I think the compostion works well
-i think i have achieved a more realistic look than i usually do, which is what i wanted
-i think the grass texture works well
- i think the noise and haze i added to the later versions works well
-my blending skills have gotten much better, e.g the sky gradient

what could be improved
-id like to add more sense of depth to the image and make the road seem longer and go into he distance more
-i would like to achieve more texture in my grass painting
-i think i could work on the colours in the painting to capture the time of day the scene is better e.g very early morning

Final film - shot cleanup

I have begun to do clean up and colour the shots which i have animated for our final film. It is really good to see them coming together and looking more finished.

What went well:

-I think they fit in with the purple coloured backgrounds when they are coloured, this is something i was concerned about in case the colours clashed

-i think i completed them in good time

What could be improved:

-i think my line work could be smoother in some places, this is something i will work on improving in future shots

Candyland commission progress

I have drawn out the rough line art for the commission i have received from a client. I have been emailing my progress to the client as i work, taking whatever feedback they give me and changing the art accordingly. I changed the position of the gingerbread from the centre to the right hand side and made the forest further back in the distance, which i feel dramatically improves the composition of the piece. I am really pleased with how the piece is looking so far.

Final film shot - rough animation

I have done the rough animation for this simple scene of the daughter reacting to the fight between priest and her mother.

What went well:

-i like the timing

-i think her reaction looks good

what could be improved

-more exaggerated motion

-blink could look smoother

Commission live brief

For one of my live briefs I will be doing a live brief for a client who was referred to me through a family member. They wanted to commission a digital piece of artwork for their daughters bedroom. After talking with them, they made it clear that they were open to my ideas and that i would have free reign with the idea. I came up with a few ideas and they advised me as to what kind of thing both they and their daughter would like. They knew they wanted a landscape painting done with a fantasy feel to it, but were open to my ideas about what would look good. A few of the ideas were sceneries with castles, fairytale landscapes and forests. When i suggested the idea of a forest made from sweets, like the candy forest from the fairytale 'Hansel and Gretel', the client and her daughter were very enthusiastic about going forward with this idea. I then came up with some rough layouts and the client told me which one they would prefer. They also gave me a timeframe of 3 weeks to get it done, which i felt is a good amount of time to get it done along with working on my main extended practice project. Below are some of the very rough layouts i drew up to show the client before they decided they wanted a candyland themed one.

Extended practice shot 8

I have been working on the rough animation for one of the sots for our final film. 

What i think went well:

- I like the movement and the follow through of the mother pulling the priest toward her

-this is the first time ive tried to use smears in my animating and i like the effect

-i think the timing works well

What could be improved:

-i need to tidy up some bits of the smear

-i need to add the priests briefcase

-could be more exaggeration in motions

Heinz live brief- Final animation

I have finished my shot of the Heinz live brief animation. I didnt find this so much challenging as it was time consuming, but i am quite happy with the result.

What went well;

-I think some of the movements look quite fluid and nice

-i think i stuck to the character designs well

-i like how the eating animaiton turned out

What could be improved;

-some of the movements i think are still too jerky and robotic

-some movements are too fast

-line work could be smoother and needs improvement

Heinz live brief - editing backgrounds

I have been editing the backgrounds/sets kate made for the Heinz live brief. We felt this was necessary so the 2D characters fit into the scene better and dont look too out of place. 

What i think went well;

-I think my additions make the backgrounds look more interesting

-i think my additions will help the characters to tie in with the backgrounds more

- i think the additions fit the eras that each shot takes place in well

-i think the colours complement the rest of the backgrounds

What could be improved;

-i would have liked to add more detail and objects in the scene

-i would have liked to edit the perspective of some of the objects in the scenes

Heinz live brief - defined lines

This week i have been focusing on refining the animation i have done for my part of the heinz brief. I now have to bring it into photoshop to do clean up and colour it.

What i think went well; 

• I think i have stuck to the character designs well
• i like the hand movements of the little girl
• I like the movement of the mother lifting the sauce

What could be improved;

• The movement of the eating needs to be improved and slowed down
• I think the movements could be more fluid of the mothers arms
• I think the movements of the face is a bit too jerky

More backgrounds

Here are more backgrounds i have done for our final film. I am happy with my progress and think i am finishing all the backgrounds quickly and to a standard which i am happy with. I think the colours are effective to create a scene for a horror story to take place in. I am more pleased with some of the backgrounds than others.

what went well:

-i like the details of the bedroom background

-i think the door looks imposing which is what i went for

-the bus background works well witht he yellow lighting

what could be improved

-I am not as happy with the bedroom background as the others, i think it could look more cartoonish which would be in keeping with the other backgrounds, however we needed this size and composition. 

Heinz Brief

Below is some really rough animation for my shot of the heinz brief. It still needs a lot added to it, particularly the little girls movements. Overall i am happy with how the mums movements look so far, however this will need some cleaning up too, particularly when her arm comes down at the start i think. 

Rough animation

Below is some of the rough animation i have been working on for our final film. I think in particular the lightning animation i did went well and i am quite pleased with how this shot looks in general. I added a flash of white in the sky and also added a blur filter to the lightning which i think made it look much better. This has been the first time ive animated in a while so i am pleased with the results, although it did take a while to get back into it. I would like to add maybe one more frame to the finger pushing the door bell as i think it snaps to a different shape a bit too much. 

Finished Loop de Loop

Here is my finished loop de loop for the prompt 'pig.' I enjoyed animating this and using the skills i have learned in motion design, as this is something i want to focus on the future. I spent alot of time makign sure everything loops, and overall i am very pleased with how its turned out, particularly the fire movement. I might add some smoke effects if i have time. I think there are  a few things that could be added to make the scene look more interesting, but for my first project using after effects i am very pleased.

More backgrounds

Below are some more backgrounds i have been working on for our final film. I think the lighting and colours work well and like the composition of the doorbell shot. I think i could improve the bus background as the perspective seems slightly off to me, and i may add some more details to make it look more interesting. 

Loop de Loop

I will be animating the illustration i created below for this months 'pig' loop de loop. I will be using what i have learned from my motion design course to do this. I am happy with the illustration and think it is quite atmospheric and will be interesting to look at when animated.

15 second horror film

This week i have been working on my film for the 15 second horror film live brief :https://15secondhorror.ca/ I have been developing the backgrounds which are below. I think the boring look of the lift will make the corridor background look more interesting and contrast when the doors open.

Motion Graphics practice

For a while i have been interested in learning about motion design in after effects. I have been following an online course that introduced me to motion graphics, in the hopes i will be able to learn enough to do the next loopdeloop brief in after effects. Below is the outcome of the course, which i am very pleased with, as i have always found after effects quite intimidating. Below this i have animated some work i did in illustrator a while ago, which i am also very happy with. I learned a lot through doing these exercises and feel more confident about doing motion design in the future.

11 second club background

During independent study i have also done this background for Carlas 11 second club live brief. I am happy with the perspective of the lockers and the colour palette and think the simple style works well and fits in with the characters Carla designed.

Background progress

I have been making progress with the backgrounds for our exorcist animation. I have been sticking to a limited colour palette of pink hues, which i think is interesting looking and creates a certain mood for the backgrounds. I have enjoyed adding details to the bedroom below and think the progress ive made has been very productive.

Background digital painting practice

This week i have been working on sketching out ideas for the house that the exorcism will take place in. I painted the scooby doo background below, which i felt helped me get a feel for painting in that style and i think turned out very striking. I then took this knowledge and drew my own house, based off research of different typical american looking houses i had done. I tried painting these houses as i had done when copying the scooby doo backgrounds, and playing around with changing the colours in hue and saturation settings. I wanted to have strongly contrasting colours and lighting, and was quite happy with this result. I then sketched out another house, this time skewing the bottom to make it look imposing, and used flat colours to paint it. I really like the simple effect the flat colours have, and i think this is the style we will use for all of the backgrounds in the animation.

Background research

I have been researching background styles that we might want ours to look like. Below are some initial ideas that we liked the look of. I would like to incorporate strong, perhaps contrasting colours in my backgrounds.




I also really like the look of the backgrounds from the Scooby Doo series, id like to replicate their dark and striking shadows and flat colours. I am currently doing some test paintings to see how i can achieve this look.

Thumbnail sketching

Today oliver and i revised our script as we realised it would be way too long. We had to cut out alot of scenes and story build out and reduce it to only the very last scene. We then went about thumbnail sketching, which was helpful to agree how shots would be laid out, and so i would know rougly how to arrange the backgrounds.

Statement of Intent

During the course of the extended practice module i intend to develop my specialist area of

backgrounds and environment design, while also working on my animation skills.I will be working in

a group with Oli, who will be the director and script writer, while i do all the backgrounds and concept

art. We will both be sharing the animation between us. I would also like to produce concept art or

illustrations for some live briefs, and improve my 2d animation skills. I would like to experiment

with colour and maybe use limited colour palettes for the backgrounds of

our final film, and experiment with a more cartoonish style than i usually go for. I would also particularly

like to improve my motion graphics skills in after effects, as i feel this would be very beneficial for leaving

university and improve my employability. I intend to improve my portfolio and create some dynamic

animation in our final animation and through live briefs, such as loop de loop and 11 second club, but

my primary focus is on improving my drawing, digital painting and composition skills in order to create

environmental concept art and background design to a high standard. I will be searching for live briefs

which fall under this environment design category so i can improve in this area, and also looking for

live briefs specifically for motion design so i can practice my after effects animating. If i cant find any,

i will be completing live briefs such as loopDeLoop using after effects animation. I also intend

to work in a group with other members of the class to complete a live brief, perhaps a YCN

or D&AD brief. I am excited to improve my animating skills both working as an individual and

as part of a group, and in the hopes of securing a job sometime after ive finished university.

Animating Background characters

I have began animating the background characters for the fight scenes between maynard and blackbeard. I have never used the paper cut out style of animation before, and although I found it difficult to get used to at first, once i got used to it i really enjoyed it. The main challenge was getting in enough variation of movements, and if i had more time id like to go through the animation again and add more details, such as more movement in the head/arms of the characters.
*Unfortunately my background characters were not able to be used in the final animation due to a problem with rendering and an error the file caused. At this point in time we dont have time to fix this and re render the entire animation so we will have to leave them out, however i intend to fix this for the screening and for my own use after handin. I am disappointed but still got experience with paper cut out animation i wouldnt have otherwise had because of this.

Finished bgs

Below are the finished backgrounds i have produced for our groups animation on blackbeard. I am really pleased with how these have turned out and this week has mainly been adding detail and refining the backgrounds. Seeing them in the animation i think they look really well and match the design of the characters that weve gone with. 

Backgrounds

Below is the background ive done that will be used for most of the water in our final animation. Im very pleased with the look of the water ive achieved here, and after weve applied a ripple effect to it on after effects i think it will look very good.
Ive also planned out the layout for the background of colonial Virginia which will be displayed when Spotswood is introduced in the animation. I have included some illustrations i found which gave me a good idea of what an american colonial town would have looked like at the time, which i then based my layout off.