Project 3: Week 7 - Filming my Animations.

 Filming my Animations. 

After having a bit of trouble with time when trying to film my animation with cinema 4D, I ended up giving After effects a go to see if it would fair any better. And truth be told I wish I had used this in the first place!

I found that using After Effects was just as complicated if you haven't used it before, but once I got the basic grasp of using the layers and merging folders together I absolutely loved using it. I found that my artwork could be seen more clearly and could be fully appreciated without me having to put in artificial lighting in the backgrounds.



I also found that using After Effects was a lot like Photoshop, as I should have sooner since their made by the same company. But using the camera tool was completely different and I think suited me much better, as all I needed to do was alter the image and record that movement as a keyframe on the timeline, instead of having to actually whop out a camera tool. 
I could also go back and edit mistakes easily, take out any random points I had made, or adjust any assets more easily in a 2 dimensional space and a 3 dimensional one. 
This is the set up of my second scene. I found that the colour scheme can be appreciated more in this set up and all of the colours, as well as the assets works really well this way.

Northumberland National Park Competition/ Evaluation.

Northumberland National Park. 

Whilst getting on with my animated short, I was also brought the opportunity to work on a character which would be used in signs and adverts for the Northumberland National Park. This competition was soon ending so I chose to take a few days off the animated short and concentrate on creating this piece ready for the deadline. 

The rules of this competition were that the character has to be a young child, possibly between the ages 5 - 10. I went for around the age of about 7 or 8, as the character would most likely be more independent at that age. 

The character also had to look confident and trust-worthy, as well as outdoors-y and rather adventurous. And I took these rules and put them into characteristics of the drawing. One example of this is her stance, she doesn't have too much of a stereotypically feminine posture, other than her feet turning inwards slightly.

Evaluation.

Creating this piece was a small challenge for me, as well as being something I really enjoyed doing! I took into account my last piece and how airbrushed I thought it was, and decided to go against that completely in this piece. I played around with brushes until I found a thick and contrasting brush setting which allowed me to blend and mould colours together rather than blurring them and taking away any texture. I also really enjoyed the fact I was drawing a little girl rather than a grown woman for a change, as this lead me onto research how a child’s bone structure is on their face, as a lot of children’s faces simply LOOK round and actually aren’t. I also feel as though I chose a rather contrasting colour scheme this time, as opposed to my last piece of personal work, and I think, especially on her face, those colours work really well. I'm rather pleased with how this character turned out, as I don't really focus on drawing children and had to take into account almost everything when I was drawing her. Everything from eye shape, to face shape, to teeth, hair ... everything! But I'm pleased she doesn't look too feminine, and hasn't really been assigned a strong gender role, as this makes her approachable by all ages and genders, and won't appeal to one side more than the other. 

When evaluating this piece, I found a few strengths and weaknesses in my work that I should bring to attention: One of my main strengths in this piece was most definitely my colour and shading, as I felt those aspects were a lot stronger this time around, and they worked well together as both an all-round image and in their individual pieces.  One weakness I found with this image is that although it was to be submitted with just a simple white background, I feel as though I could have done more to this version to make her fit in slightly better with the background, either by just adding a shadow around her feet or back just to make her feel a part of the piece. In the future I think I’ll take this point into consideration when thinking that my image is finished when it may well not be! Even if just adding a shadow, or a source of light could make a big difference to the whole outcome. 

Project 3: Creating my characters and assets for Scene 1.

Creating assets for Scene 1.

I started off this part of the project by creating the most prominent part of the scene: The forest. I knew that I wanted a black background to give off the full potential of the colour scheme that i have applied to this animation, so the trees I have chosen to do are all rather vibrant against a black background. I've also taken into account the fact that these trees themselves need to show depth of the scene and so I have made them slightly darker, the further back they go. 

From my initial plans you can see I have still kept as much detail in the trees as I can, this is to ensure that the animation looks the highest quality I can make it, and gives off a rather professional look to it. 

I have also added spiky looking flicks at the end of these trees, and the reason for this is because I'm aware that these trees wouldn't look at good if they we

I also made some little bits and pieces to go in my forest, as I felt it would just be a bit boring and repetitive if there were JUST trees. 

Storyboards/ Explanation/ Evaluation.

Creating and finalising my Storyboards;

 My storyboards depict the travels of a small Raccoon named Archie, who goes on an adventure to find the delicious pie, who's enticing scent makes Archie go against his better judgement, and goes exploring in search of the source of the smell. 




He begins by going to find his close friend Lola, a fawn, who is confined to the "daytime" forest, and tries to encourage her to join him on his travels. And against their better judgement, they travel into the nocturnal forest alone together. 
During their journey, a set of thorns catch onto the skin of Lola, who, as a "daytime animal" will react badly to that.



As they continue their journey, the camera focuses more on Archie, where he begins to hear strange noises. After a while he turns around to address Lola, when he's met with a gruesome sight;
Lola has become putrid and disfigured, a reaction cause by the catch of thorns.
It is then ambiguous as to what happens to Archie and Lola, as the camera pans up towards the top of the trees, where "The End" title appears. This leaves an open ending and plenty of options for the audience.

Evaluation.
 Over all I am rather pleased with how my storyboards have turned out. I completed these storyboards straight away digitally, and that is something I haven't tried before, as usually I have sketches them out by hand first. I did come into some problems whilst creating these storyboards, mainly because of the size of the panels, and my inability to let myself draw something small and less detailed than it needs to be. I did overcome these issues however, especially with the trees in the forest. I was able to make them look rather detailed but maintain a decent size to them as well. I am particularly pleased with the colour scheme I chose for this animation too, as it is out of my usually comfort zone with keeping things simple and rather plain looking, as well as my lack of outline on the scenery, which is something I have never attempted...ever!
So over all I'm happy with the out-come of this part of my project, although I think if I have time, I will create a slightly higher quality version of them, just to make them more professional looking.