My E4 Esting.

                     



My final project of the year was to create an E4 “Esting” for the E4 competition, in which I was to make a short (10 second) animation. At first I was at a complete loss for what to do, as I was given the choice of using almost any medium to create this short film. I eventually chose to concentrate more on live action, mainly because it was one of the styles of animation I hadn't had an in-depth go at yet. I chose to do my film in the style of a Charlie Chaplin silent film, where I dressed myself up as a mime and painted the E4 logo sped up, but also making it look like I had done it in real time. I spent only half an hour shooting footage, as I had space an scene set up prior to the shooting, and about two days full on animating and editing it. I struggled with one thing in particular, which was using Adobe After Effects to edit some of my film. I had the film split into about 3 pieces, which made it a lot easier to animate individual pieces. I learned quite a few new skills in this project, one of which as working with a green screen. At the start of my animation, I have actually used a green screen behind me when I pop up and smile, I think this turned out extremely well as even the little hairs and small pieces of fluff on my clothing turned out well and weren't cut off or blurred out. I also learned process of editing a film to make it look like a silent film, where there would be jumpy parts in the film as well as editing the sound of an old camera into the film under the music, just to give it that vintage effect. This was one of my favourite projects to do this year, as it was mostly hands on and I got to paint my face, making actual fun out of the project. It was the project that I was completely excited about from start to finish and I am overjoyed with how my final, 10 second animation turned out!

Week 3: Post-Production.

Once I had completed filming all of my animation, I then began to start editing it all 

together. I started this process by adding both of my video files to Adobe After-Effects,

 and once I added them to the program, they both appeared on the time line, 

ready to edit.

Once I started to edit my film, there were a few problems I had encounters with, one of

 them being my body sticking out of the designated “White zone,” created on the set of 

my film. To combat this issue, I created a mask layer, and went through the animation, 

frame by frame, and moved the mask layer’s points according to where I went over the

 white zone, adding a key frame to every change.

Once I had completed the white zone problem, I played through the film to ensure that all

 of the mask were in the correct places. I found that the “feather,” effect on the mask, 

worked well because of the smoother edges, making the mask edges much less obvious.

 I also lowered the masks opacity slightly so that the edges of the mask would meet the 

edge of the film smoothly and would not show any mistakes.

After I had edited that part of film, I moved onto the introductory part of my film, which

 involved me being filmed in front of a green screen. I opened this video in After-Effects

 and began to edit out the “green,” by changing its colour from the "green screen" panel, to orange, and then managed to change the orange to white, blending it in with the background.

Once I had the film in the correct order and put together, I then went onto editing my film.

 To do this I opened up the film in Final Cut Pro and began to cut it up into individual 

segments. This then made it easier for me to see which parts I could edit first, and the 

first piece I began to edit was the longest part which happened to be me painting the

 large E4 logo.

Once I had used the tools in Final Cut Pro to speed up the selected piece of film, by

 about 200%, I then moved the three pieces apart from each other and began to edit the

 final piece of the film which was focusing on the E4 logo beginning to drip. I had to edit a

 few pieces of film out of it, because there was about three seconds worth of unwanted film

 where I was unsure how to stop the constant photo taking. This made the film run much

 more smoothly, and gave me the opportunity to edit in frames that I will in order to make

 this animation look more like a silent film.

To do this I opened up a document in Photoshop with the requirements of “web and devices,”

and began to draw out the frame that I will apply to my whole film. I changed the frame size 

at the top and bottom so that the frame was even, and coloured the entire frame black to 

match the ones that would be seen in most generic silent films.

I then opened up Adobe Illustrator and began to draw out the designs for the frame which I 

put into my film. I looked through a number of silent films and found that the frames of the

 films usually consisted of swirled and floral patterns, the kinds usually found on old fashioned

 mirrors. The design I went for was a swirl and tear drop look, and I tried numerous ways to 

draw out this image, including making my own style of paintbrush, and using the pen tool. 

I ended up using the paint tool, and edited the lines to make them much smoother and more

flowing, which in the end, worked out very well in my opinion. I then changed the size of the

 “tear drops” in order to make them the correct size for the Photoshop document.

I then chose the swirl pattern to go on both the top and bottom of the frame, which I got as 

central as I could, and added them as smart objects before putting them in their places for 

definite.

I put the images on a new layer and filled in the colour of the shapes to make them stand 

out fully against the black background. I did experiment with colour, where I used a mix of

 greys and even some pastel colours, before realising that pastel colours would not make

 much of a difference since the film is in black and white.

Once I have the swirls placed correctly onto the border, I started to place the tear drop 

shapes onto the new layer on my Photoshop file. I wasn’t quite sure where about I would 

put them to begin with, as I originally wanted them on the left and right sides, stretched 

apart like the swirls were, but I eventually decided on placing them at the corners of the 

border, and I feel this makes the frame look more ornate and like an antique rather than 

something more modern. Once I had completed the look of my frame for the animation, I 

saved it as a file to use for web and video purposes, and uploaded it into Final Cut Pro and 

stretched it across the time line, so that it would last throughout the entire film.

I then went on to make a take frame, where dialogue is displayed to show what the characters

 are saying in silent films. I began by making a canvas the size of what would be the space in 

the middle of the ornate frame I made, and then chose and old, but legible style text to use

 as the written dialogue. I feel as though this worked out very well as I asked numerous

 people as well as tutors and they thought it looked rather authentic, I also added two 

tear drop shapes around the words to exaggerate and pronounce the words more.

After I had all of the elements of my film put together in the time line, I went on to edit 

the visual part of my film by using a variety of the settings available on the Final Cut Pro

 program. I chose to edit the blur settings so that the picture was blurred slightly, making

 it look slightly older and less HD than it is.

Here it shows the final adjustments that I made, visually, I added some visual effects, such

 as the Gaussian Blur which is what made the film so blurred and old fashioned. I also added

 the “Bad Film,” filter, which helped me make most of my changes to my film. I increased 

the saturate amount, scratches, hairs, and dust ever so slightly, which gave the great old 

fashioned Victorian film effect, which turned my film into the exact thing I had envisioned. 

I also ended up increasing the jitter Amount as well, which gave the film its jumpy and edgy 

feel.

Once I had taken the appropriate measures to ensure my film looked as authentic as I could, I went on to “colour correct” the E4 logo in my film so that the colour would remain in the logo whilst everything else was in black and white. To do this I went to the “3 Way Colour Correct” option on the menu in Final Cut Pro, and made sure that the saturation and Lumo were not selected, and opened up the range of colours that I still wanted to be visible throughout the video, I chose anywhere between lilac and violet, as the E4 logo is somewhere between those two colours and this made the E4 logo retain it’s colour throughout the film.

I then went on to add some sounds onto my film, I obtained these sounds through the means

 of the sound program named “Logic Pro,” found on the computers in the Music and Theatre

 building, so there would not be any legal issues.

The sounds I added included that of an old school film projector, which links in with the editing

 I did of my film. This sound is very authentic, and even has the click sound at the start of it to 

signify the projector being turned on, this works very well with my film because there is a 

slight jitter at the beginning of the film. I was also searching for some form of Photoplay music,

 usually found in silent films which comes with a full orchestra, however I could not find a 

sample of music without copyright issues, so I went in search of simple piano music. And to

 my luck I found quite a few samples of piano music from all ends of the spectrum, from 

western style bar music, to chilling and spooky samples. I ended up choosing a simple and 

echoing piece. I feel as though this music sample is most effective because it isn’t so busy 

that it takes away attention from what’s going on in the film, and does the opposite by 

exaggerating the movements and happenings in the film.

    This was one of my favourite projects to do this year, as it was mostly hands on and I got 

to paint my face, making actual fun out of the project. It was the project that I was completely excited about from start to finish and I am overjoyed with how my final, 10 second animation

 turned out!

Week 2: Production.

At the beginning of week 2 I went straight into work and began filming myself, all mimed up, painting the E4 logo onto the board. To do this, I set a camera on a tripod at an appropriate distance and set it up with the computer program named Dragon Stop Motion. This camera was set up on a “Time-Lapse,” mode and was instructed to take a high resolution photograph every second. And as fast and efficient as this program is, it did require me to do the process rather slow so that the camera could catch almost every move I did.

I found that whilst painting the logo onto the board, time was going past rather quickly. I found that I would need about 250 frames to make this animation last about 10 seconds so I slowed down massively on my painting speed. I also added water to some splashes of paint in order to help make the paint run, but still maintain a thickness that would make it easier for the paint to drip and be caught by the camera.

When it came near the end of my recording time, I had made a number of drips using the paint, which had been caught by the camera and then will be viewed in real time, which I think is very effective! The state of the paint, I feel, looked good, as it stood out against the white paper well and almost looked 3D. And I feel that when I edit this piece and turn it into black and white, it will look very effective. I chose paint that was the perfect shade of purple to advertise the E4 logo, and I also found that after I have filmed this piece, I can use the colour correct tool in after effects to bring back this exact shade of purple once I have turned the film black and white.

After I had finished painting the giant E4 logo, I began to let the paint drip and waited until the paint had fully ran, not so much that it would ruin the painting, but create an awesome effect when sped up.  Once this had been completed I went on to creating my entrance to the film; I decided to give manual stop motion a try and shoot the images, one by one, by myself. However, I found that the footage was far too jumpy and incoherent because of the mix of me having to concentrate on taking the photographs and keeping my facial expression the same. Because of this I chose to shoot the film through the “Time-Lapse,” tool on Dragon Stop Motion.

I started making my Time-Lapsed video with me on the floor, and as I did with the time-lapsed painting video, I restricted myself from moving too fast in order to keep the video at a slower speed, otherwise the audience would not be able to see what is actually happening in the video.

As the video went on I maintained a constant slow speed and I think this worked so well because it made me look rather sinister, as I wasn’t smiling or showing any emotion. It even showed me blinking, and this being captured on stop motion makes me look rather doll-like and synthetic.

When it came to me making eye contact with the camera, I slowed down much more and waited until the third shot before I made any movement. This had a great effect on the film as it makes my emotions and movements much more clear and easy to read. The only downside I found was that it does make me look rather sinister, hopefully not sinister enough to actually scare anyone though.

I also found through shooting this part of my film, that having done my makeup at least 5-6 times prior to shooting my film, I had perfected the look and thought it looked rather successful throughout the film! When I looked over the film I did see that it was slightly jumpy, with me moving from side to side every so often, however I think this would work well in my film because the style of the film is set to be jumpy and sharp because of the supposed “age” of the film.

Week 1: Pre-Production

Week 1: Pre-Production.

After giving my pitch on my ideas regarding the Estings advertisement, I began to collect materials I would need in order to make my film successful. As I plan on dressing up for my animation, I concentrated straight away on finding face-paints, as I thought they would be the hardest to come across.

I bought one brand of pure black face paint for £3.99 and have used this brand before so I knew it wouldn’t cause havoc to my sensitive skin. The other two were donated to me via friends, the dish of white face paint is a base coat, which will turn flaky and come off easily, the white face-paint in the bottle is similar to make up primer, and will keep my face from peeling.

I then went onto collect a varied amount of brushes, from thick wallpaper brushes to fine silky ones, I tested these out to see which would help create the finest edge. I found that a medium sized bush and a very large brush both had very good line and texture, but as the film was going to be shot from a slight distance, and I black and white, it wouldn’t make too much of a difference. I did, however, choose both of the brushes to use, the large one for doing the majority of the painting and the medium sized one to fill in where the large brush could not.

I went to numerous hardware and home-ware stores both in Berwick and Newcastle in order to find a painting suit that I could wear during the filming of my animation. I wanted to use this piece of clothing because it gives the impression that the character has been given an actual job and not just wandering around painting walls. I finally found a “One Size Fits All,” deal and although it could be mistaken for a forensic suit, I feel it does the job well. I also took to the charity shops in search of a black and white striped top similar to the apparel of a Bohemian mime, but at the same time, not wanting to look like an escaped convict. In the end I chose not to wear the suit as it looks too modern, and a black and white top plus black trousers and braces is the typical get up of a mime that I finally decided on.

Once I had completed my task of finding materials, I went on to test out the face paints I had purchased in order to see which one looked most successful. I first tried out the style of the White Face Clown, using a soaked and squeezed sponge, I put the white face paint all over my face to which I then added the primer in order to keep the ace paint as smooth as it can be. I then used my black face paint and a thin paintbrush to draw large marks under my eyes, as well as large eyebrows giving off the look of mischievousness and curiosity. Although I find this style very effective, I think it would be too scary for younger viewers to watch, as the face is rather menacing and wouldn’t appeal to children, or even adults!

I then went on to Paint my face in the style of the Bohemian Mime. I found this task a little bit more enjoyable, as the Bohemian era was partly known for its wide variety of vibrant colours and sparkling jewelry. I applied the white face paint and primer as I had done for the White Face Clown, to make my face white but not shiny. I then went on to use the black face paint to go over my whitened eyebrows, eyelids and to add a stripe going over my right eye. I added two small dots on either side of my eyes to make them appear more doll-like and less scary. I feel as though this style works a lot better than the White Face Clown as it is much more toned down and not as terrifying, however I do feel that there isn’t a vast amount going on, on my face. I then decided to try and kind of morph between the two. This resulted in a much more defined and obvious look.

This is the image of the two kinds of faces put together, I felt that this style was a lot more successful, mainly because of the fact that it isn’t considered as scary as the White Face. I also think that the black lined lips work very well instead of a constant smile, because emotion can still be shown and the black will exaggerate that particular emotion. Having stripes over both eyes, I feel, is more effective as well because of the delicate lines going over my eyes, creating more of a pattern and abstract-ness than the White Face Clown. One thing I would change about this would be the eyebrows, as I think they are too ordinary and not animatedly bug, like most mimes’. I would also add mascara to this style, because as you can see in the photo, my eyelashes have turned white from the face paint. To this I would also add more liner around my eyes to make them more defined.

Once I had the design and style of my costume and face-up planned. I moved onto the actual pre-production of my set, which began with me obtaining a very, very large frame! This frame is about 6ft by 3ft and is large enough to fit the image of the E4 logo onto it. I felt as though this frame would be simple enough to film, and would need a white background to make it look like part of the room. 

Time Plan for Estings Animation.

Production Timetable;

In this project I had three weeks to decide on, produce, edit and finalize a 10 second Esting for the E4 company Channel. I chose to focus on collecting materials: 

• Monday the 15th was spent collecting objects that I could obtain from home, such as pencils, pens, paint brushes and erasers. 
• Tuesday the 16th was spent in class sketching up makeup ideas for my clown/mime character, and the afternoon of tuesday I spent collecting face paints that I would need in order to make myself into a mime.
• Wednesday the 17th was spent discussing with my tutor, where in the studio i could film my animation, as it was a silent film it would not require anyone to be silent or disrupt anyone. I also chose a very large frame piece to do the logo on.
• Thursday the 18th was spent in college printing out a range of sizes of the E4 logo onto a piece of acetate which i could project onto the frame I chose. 
• On Friday the 19th I used an overhead projector, in order to shine the logo onto the frame and then drawing around the logo in order to create a stencil for when it came to me filming my piece.
• On Saturday the 20th and Sunday the 21st, I spent the day at home updating my blog with all the work i had done and keeping a word document of step by step processes which i use as documentation.
• Monday the 22nd was spent in college all day, filming my animation. I used a space near the white board in the class where it would not interrupt anyone or stop them working.
• On Tuesday the 23rd i began to edit my film together, and the first program I used was Adobe After Effects, which was my first time using the software.
• Wednesday the 24th was spent in college, rendering my film out of Adobe After Effects in order to compress it into a film ready to be edited in Final Cut Pro.
• Thursday the 25th was spent in college, beginning to edit my film onto Final Cut Pro. My work included cutting down the 14 second film into about 8 seconds and beginning to add and take away colour.
• Friday the 26th was spent in college, collecting sounds and noises that I can use in my film, I did this in the Musical and Theatre Building at college.
• Saturday the 27th and Sunday the 28th, I spent the day at home updating my blog with all the work i had done and keeping a word document of step by step processes which i use as documentation.
• Monday the 29th was spent in college, finishing up any final pieces of my animation and putting it onto a disk to be marked. This process took the whole day.
• Tuesday the 30th was spent in college, adding pieces to my documentation and adding more to my research file, I also brought in work from the previous project to be handed in at the same time.
• Wednesday the 1st will be spent at home finalizing my book work and printing out any work left over. I will also evaluate my existing work from this and the previous projects.
• Thursday the 2nd will be spent in college putting all of my work into folders and preparing them for hand in the next day (if not handed in that day.)
• Friday the 3rd - HAND IN DAY!

Estings Finalists 2011.

Super Hit Combo! - Andrew Baxter.

This video was submitted and used as one of the finalists in the 2011 Estings competition for the channel E4. I feel as though this animation was particularly successful and has a rightful place as a finalist because of the level of skill and commitment it must have taken to make this animation. As far as I can tell, this animation has been purely hand drawn, with fast and action filled movements, as well as backgrounds of a city scape which has had to have been manipulated in order to show the angles of the buildings in many different views. There isn't a particular colour scheme in this animation, as it is pretty simple, using red and blue, plus the obvious purple for the advertising of E4.

E4 Comb - Erddin Llwyd.

This video was submitted and used as one of the finalists in the 2011 Estings competition for the channel E4. I feel as though this video would have been considered for the final because of the humour that is implied with it. The video itself doesn't necesserily make much sense, as it is just a fixed camera showing the E4 logo come to life, dip itself into a pot of hair gel, and slick the males hair into the shape of a "4," which in itself is one of those things where it's so random that it doesn't need to make sense the be funny. Even though the video itself is majorly simplistic, it is obvious that the video has had a vast amount of effort put into it. It looks as though the video has been set up with random materials and instruments with the intention to do a live action shot, however the E4 logo is the part that does all the moving,. It looks as though it has been computer generated and moved via an animation program, and the scenery has been made purple to fit the E4 colour scheme, which makes it look rather effective.

E4 Man - Tim McCourt.

This video was submitted and used as one of the finalists in the 2011 Estings competition for the channel E4. I feel as though this video would have been thought of as a finalist because of the way it has been designed. there seems to have been a lot more thought put into the production and the idea behind the advert. The E4 logo has been used as a marketing product, what appears to be a hair styling solution used by a black male surrounded by women, insinuating that it is what makes him attractive and what lures in the females. There also is the element of speech in this advert, where the females characters are singing along with the music, this shows that there has to have been more consideration put into the timing and style of the animation.

My Kingdom for a Horse - Benjamin Howell.

This video was handed in to E4 and was chosen as one of the many finalists in the 2011 Estings compe-tition for the channel E4.                 I feel as though this video was chosen as

one of the finalists because of the surprise and hilarious aspects that the animation holds. It doesn't make any sense at all, what the animation is about, although it's set in a kind of medieval realm, with  a knight riding on a horse. However, the aspect that steals the show would most definitely be the song which the horse faced man is singing, it makes no sense what so ever, but is catchy as well as hilarious. These two aspects put together add up to make the extremely entertaining but well thought out animation.

Super Fuel - Oinionterror.

This video was handed in as  a comp- etition entry for the 2011 Estings project for the Channel, E4. I feel as though this video was chosen as one of the finalists for a few reasons. This animation is completely 3D, which makes it different from the majority of entries I've seen for the Estings competition. The animation storyline is also very very clever in the sense that the creator has used something cute and sad, rather than funny, to get the viewers attention. The little tea cup is the main character, who tries to dunk a biscuit in his head full of tea, to eat. However, when he opens his mouth the tea falls out, and when he jumps back in shock, the biscuit splats on the floor, this then makes up the E4 logo with the spilt tea. A very clever idea!