Creative Futures: Pro Practitioner: Client Project WOW Animation Changes

My Women of the World Project is almost complete but I have to make several changes as it didn’t tick the boxes for this course in order to pass my final year. These changes were pointed out to me by one of tutors Sally who said that the animation is within the video are good but I need to introduce another way of showing which women is which instead of just allowing the target audience to guess of just the animation and sounds that they produce. Sally suggested that I make information pages within the animation to replace the portraits that I was originally using to introduce the famous women of hull. These information pages consist of two pictures of the Women showing them doing what made them famous or at least what was associated with them. The information pages also included there names in a colour based on what they had done and a short description about their life. 

This made the animation not only look a lot more appealing to eye but also made it look a lot more professional as well compared to the previous versions of the animation as each introduction of the famous women of Hull, where it was just a portrait in black and white and a basic font in colours of the city of culture logo. Which back then, now that I think about it made it not only hard to read but also quite bland and not very professional and this wouldn’t have made it easy for me to find someone who would be willing to take my project and present it publicly. The next thing that I was told by Sally is that since I had got rid of my original introductions for each women and replaced them with these much more effective ones I should also change the opening page and animate it.

This opening Introduction page made a huge difference to the whole animation like the individual introduction pages for each women from Hull also adds something to the animation an makes it look not only a more like an educational documentary animation but also much more professional than the previous version which personally (as I have look at it recently) very childish. There a lots of difference between the new intro and the old one, for example the original opening consisted of two different frames (You could say), the first been a bland title sequence that used the colours of the city of culture logo for the background and opening title (Which was in a very generic and universally used font). It didn’t really catch the attention of the target audience, the only thing that sort of made it unique was the colour scheme and even then it wasn’t really my own creation and felt wrong to use it. The next frames of this sequence was the portraits of the famous women of Hull in the middle lined up in an organised manner, which was the only eye catching thing about this set of frames but it was still rather bland and basic. See above for the two original frames sequences for the opening.

The corrections made to introduction can be seen in the image above the previous paragraph. I had made a complete overhaul of the introduction of this animation with slight guidance from Sally my tutor, who told me to be a bit more creative with the images of the women and the opening. So I found  new images of the famous women of hull placed them in photo shop that was set to the size of the Adobe Animate/Flash standard frame size and began to cut and places the images in a unique way before giving it a colourful introduction title and a box with the names of the women I had chosen in order with the background faint allowing the audience to see it. This title and opening not only draws the attention of the target audience in with it’s unique appearance but it also shows the women of hull really well and doesn’t make the project looking boring or over informative.

Their was one problem when I transferred these new introductions and openings to the Adobe Animate/Flash which was that the file refused originally to be transferred over in fragment without having a massive white background with them so each layer would unintentionally cover the previous one,w hen I needed the blank parts of each frame to be invisible. I eventually found a way around this problem but it took along time and a lot head scratching, to be honest I actually discovered how I did to get each other from Photoshop to Animate/Flash by accident. But once I knew how it was a piece of cake to transfer each layer over as it’s own in Anime/Flash and animate them to work allowing each women photo and name to appear in order in the introduction of the animation.

I transferred the sound files over to the Adobe Audition, this allowed me to manipulate sound files to the effects I desired such as speeding up my mouse squeaking file to make it sound like Squeak was getting angry or lower the audio levels.

Independent Practice – Final Major Project: Bubble and Squeak Environment 3D Animation Experiment 1

This post is about an idea I had while doing some Bubble and Squeak Sketches which was why don’t I try creating as an experiment the interior or at least the setting of Paws and Prints for the narrative that I am working on. So loaded up Google Sketchup and started to draw out the setting for this narrative, I will admit that I had quite the bit of trouble with Bubble and Squeaks Tank and the stand it sits on due to me miss judging the height of the stand and the window proportioning the windows. I managed to fix that though, it was easy to manipulate the shapes sizes once they are a solid 3D Mass and I looked more closely at the height reference that is provided to you by the software. Next time I will need to look more into how I am manipulating the sizes of the 3D and 2D objects by look at the comparison more closely. Another problem that occurred while I was working on the set was the tap since this software is quite tricky to use when trying to make curved objects, but I managed to find a way around that problem by basing the tap on a more modern design.

I am overall happy with the outcome of this experiment when I was finished, I have manged to not only create a 3D version of my planned setting or in this case a close enough example but also that it might be a nice way to go for when I finally decide how I am going to the story of Bubble and Squeaks latest adventure to the world. Now that this has been a success I am going to see in another experiment if I can utilise image with another form of software later on, but that will be discussed like I said in another post. I admit that this method does create some interesting prospects for me, it depends on how I chose to utilise this method, for example I could decide to go down the road of use this in a 3D setting and animation although this might make the project a bit trickier and it doesn’t alight with my original aims even if they have been tweaked a few times since they were created, since my ideas have changed or evolved since their creation or certain aspects have.

Independent Practice – Final Major Project: Google Web Designer 2

This next post is when I was focusing on the pen tool and it’s use in Google Web Designer and how may be this can help me in the future:

After watching this video the pen too can do several different things, while these things are all shape based they are each unique in their own way:

Shape Point Manipulation: When the pen tool is in use click anywhere on the available document to form a point of the shape that you want to create, then move along the document and click to create another point. Once this is done a line should form between these points, this is the starting point of the shape that you want to create, now move along the page and create another point and again in doing so a new line has formed (The line will only form between the current point and the most recent point). Now you have two choices you can either create another point and line or you can click the first point to create a simple shape such as a triangle or you can continue and make the most bizarre shape possible as long as you remember to connected the points to the start.

Line Manipulation: Line Manipulation can be done in two ways one been that instead of just clicking to create a shape point, hold down the left click and pull slightly to create a line and then let go, you have a line. From here you can grab any part of the line (Except the Middle and ending points) and pull them to bend the line forming a curved line, this can be done with with a line you have just made or a pre-existing shape. (From here you can also use the point manipulation to create more lien to manipulate and make a big curved shape).

Alt – Left Click: When a line has been created by Line Manipulation, by pressing the Alt key and left clicking one of the line points on the end of the line you can rotate on side of the line. (Please note that the liens stay asymmetrical with each other.)

Ctrl Z and Y: These key controls can be used to erase or undo a mistake that you have made while using the line tool. Ctrl Z deletes the mistake and Ctrl Y undo them.

3D Capabilities: By clicking the 3D rotate tool, the line manipulation can be used from all angles to create seamless 3D shapes.This can also be used to create a new path on a new plane.

Colour Manipulation: Allow manipulation of line colour and fill of shapes.

 

Narrative Structure – Non Fiction Animation: Bullying: The Life of a Victim: Animation Test 3

Here is the next animation test, which shows I made the corrections to the mistakes from the previous animation:

As you can see I have corrected the previous mistakes with the bed, the breathing doesn’t make the sheets poof up like a massive balloon anymore in fact, I have managed to make the move of the bed sheet look so natural now. The only down side with this animation test is that the animation is a bit slow and the lines on some of the cels are too thick so they need shrinking down before the next test.

Narrative Structure: Non Fiction: Bullying: The Life of a Victim: Animation Victim Emotion Test

Here one of my first animation tests for the bullying animations:

I did this animation just to test how the characters would react to certain events even if you can’t see it. I originally did this so I knew what sort of face the characters would pull when I put them in a certain event within the animation, so that I made it easier for me later on.

Narrative Structure – Non Fiction: Bullying: The Life of a Victim: Storyboard 3

I altered this Storyboard with sticky notes to show the corrections to the animations story:

As you can see most of my alterations have been done by sticky notes to save time from doing another story board. Most of the altercations are actually just to cover gaps within the animation such as the walk home near the end of the animation e.g. trying to avoid the bullies. The other moments are corrections such as angles of the camera and enlarging certain scene so they are easier to understand.

Narrative Structure: Non Fiction – Bullying: The Life of a Victim: Storyboard 2

Here is the second storyboard for the Bullying Animation:

As you can see I have altered the Storyboard by making it shorter by removing the clocks and placing them in their respective sections, as well as altering the perspective in some of the shots and trying to show the character movement better. While the drawing style is somewhat rough it gives the bully story line an emotive feel to it due to the fact that sometimes  the neat drawings make it look like it is a good moment for the victim while the rough drawings make it look like the bad moments.

Narrative Structure: Non Fiction – Bullying: The Life of a Victim: Storyboard 1

Here is the first Storyboard for the Bullying Animation:

This Storyboard for the Bullying Animation, I admit isn’t the best especially with some of the perspective but it still gets the story of the animation across. The acting of the characters is somewhat robotic but it still gets the point across e.g. the victim walking to school or the mom hugging her son at the very end. Need to shorten down the storyboard as well it is too long due to the clocks I have paced within each Storyboard to show the time change.

Narrative Structure – Non Fiction: Bullying: The Life of a Victim: Bully Final Design

Here is the final Design for the Bully:

I chose this final design because it is the favorite out of all of the design and development idea that I have created for this project according to the target audience that I have asked about it. Many stated that the colour of his jumper gives the link that the bully goes to the same school as the victim, many also stated that he looks like an average student with the clothes he wear apart from the obvious factors such as the tears in them and his clothing which apparently show that he is indeed a bully and has a bad nature due to this. I personally have to agree many of his features indicate that he is of both these factors and after many trials and errors such as the waist sizing and shape I have managed to successfully display this.

Narrative Structure – Non Fiction: Bullying: The Life of a Victim: Bully Colour Scheme

Here are the various colour schemes for the Bully:

The colour schemes here are attempts to make the bully blend in with the rest of the characters within the animation, so that it makes it look like they are an ordinary person. The colour scheme of the character was also developed to also show the bully nature in the character. The first character colour scheme for his hoodie utilities a blue colour one that is quite similar to the Victim’s shirt colour, the reason for this was to display his link to the victim as well as to indicate that he goes to the same school as him. The stain admittedly on his hoodie was a mistake but when I saw it on this colour scheme, I realized it could be used to hint his bullying nature along with the torn segments of his clothing. The colour of the hair was chosen due to the fact that it revealed his dark but instituter natuire to the audience as well as myself and the colour of his trousers did the same.

The next colour scheme was admittedly not my best none of the colours seemed to match his  personality or character. The only reason I could come up with for his white hoodie apart from it been aesthetically pleasing to the eye is that the white is used to how what little innocence he actually has left to the audience. The final colour scheme was voted the favorite because of the link to the victim via his hoodie colour again but also his red hair which represents his anger and hatred towards the victim. It was stated that I did this as an early warning to help indicate that the bully is who and is coming because red means danger.