Presentation of Ideas - 'Project Ideya'

So this week we had the opportunity to present our idea to the class. We've decided to stick with 'the creators' idea as we feel that it appeals to both mine and Liam's passion for 2D Animation

We pitched our concept to the entire class and the feedback was generally positive. However, the whole point of this presentation process is to gather information and suggestions from our peers and mentors on how we can make the idea better. Some doubts were voiced and to be fair we really should of thought of these concerns before we went up and presented... it literally must've just slipped our minds.

The synopsis of our piece; it's all about artist's ideas coming into reality. People's thoughts and dreams materialising all around them. These ideas are visually represented in 2D Animation (although we're also open to having some 3D in there as well but we simply do not have the skills to implement it our selves) and using the Visual Effects techniques that we will be learning throughout the next 7 weeks we will have a live action background and the 2D characters can interact with the real world (kinda like how it's done in Space Jam/Roger Rabbit)

Liam and I are both predominantly 2D Animators, we can use 3D techniques but we knew for this vision we needed 2D. The problem that neither of us seemed to realise is that 2D Animation is arduous and takes a lot of hard graft. Also, our mentor reminded us of the fact that 2D Animation requires expert skills that if done in an amateur fashion, can look really unprofessional and it's not the sort of thing you'd want to put on your showreel. But, however, this isn't news to me and Im prepared to take that chance. I've been doing 2D Animation for a while now and although I wasn't thinking about these issues at the time, I am more than certainly aware of them. Im speaking from experience, and it has taught me that; it's not about the final product with things like this, it's more about the journey you took to get to the end (and the grade, that's pretty important as well :/) and what you truly LEARNT that counts. So, we're gonna do it!    

 

NUKE Practise and User Interface

For our third session we were introduced to the Post Production programme NUKE. Generally, we were inducted to the User Interface and we played around with the different basic tools and nodes. We did some basic Colour Grading and Upscaling but nothing I didn't know how to do before. I have actually had the benefit of using NUKE before so I am pretty familiar with the layout, but, it was very reassuring to have a run-down with an industry professional. I find NUKE extremely useful, way more resourceful than ADOBE After Effects, and there's lots of room for experimentation. I very much look forward to the upcoming software tutorials that Jazz will be presenting.   

Music and Sound

Just a quick update; this is certainly likely to change but while I was working on some designs and concepts I was simultaneously listening to music tracks that I thought would fit the mood and atmosphere of our idea, and, infact, I've found the perfect piece...

This music is from a Video Game called NIGHTS. It's all about Dreams and Nightmares and is very whimsical and fantasy-driven, which are the themes we want to explore/evoke in our piece so I'd say it's a pretty perfect match. Now I just need to run this one by Liam :/ 

Initial Ideas and Concepts

So for this unit we are to engage with Post Production techniques and Visual Effect workflows that are utilised professionally in the Animation Industry. As the eight weeks go on, we are to reflect on our individual lessons and self-manage our own project where we will apply what we have learnt. This blog is a reflective journal of the ANI14203 Unit, Post Production and Visual Effects. As such, this is where I will be doing all of my critical analysis of my work and also reflect on the stuff that I have learnt and show visually (with images and screen caps) how my work has progressed.

Initially, we were briefed on the project and what was expected of us. After this, it was suggested that we jot down some ideas and concepts for what we wanted our final film to be. I found it difficult to get back to working on just paper with just a pencil, but to be honest it was very refreshing too. I designed some rough characters and ideas that maybe I won't even end up using them but it was good practise to get the ideas flowing. During this time, we were taught about the importance of narrative and filmic language/cinematography, and that we should implement these techniques into our final films. It's important to note that despite the fact we do not know what our film is going to look like at this stage it's vital that we consider the way it is going to tell the audience a story. This is something that we all learned previously in other units and this is the perfect opportunity to apply what we have learned from our previous mistakes.

After learning about filmic language we started to identify our individual specialisms. However, I found that it was quite difficult to identify my specialty even though I've done this course before, and this was only exemplified by the rest of the class who, more or less, felt the same way. It became less a question of WHAT our specialisms were, but instead WHAT WE'D LIKE to specialise in. So, after deciding that (I've chosen to focus on 2D Character Animation and After Effects/Nuke Compositing) we started to form groups. I am in a group with Liam, a fellow classmate who had plenty of ideas of his own and we're still not certain which one we should go for. 

Discussing ideas with other creative people has always been fun, but it does have it's problems. For instance, no body wants their idea to be scrapped... and by the same token no one wants someone else to be forced to work on their idea if that person doesn't want to. It's a bit of a catch 22, so to speak. But, however, I had this same problem last year and I knew to avoid it I'd have to change my attitude/approach. So, when me and Liam were discussing ideas we decided to go with his second idea as the first one seemed a little too ambitious. 

Our idea, in a nut shell, is to merge 2D Animation with Live-action in the vein of Roger Rabbit or Space Jam. It shows four students working in a creative environment sitting down and thinking of some ideas. As they ponder, their thoughts visually come to life above their heads and interact with eachother. It's a simple but effective idea, one that enables us to try new compositing techniques in Nuke and After Effects but it's also firmly grounded in what we both love... 2D Animation. 

Now, it's important to note that this idea is not final, it's just what we're going with for now. But, it does allow us to expand and apply what we are going to learn aptly and resourcefully, so to be honest Im personally going to fight for this one because I am extremely excited about the concept! 

Rough Storyboard of Initial Idea