The Last Hurdle

We have start to edit our sting now. we are using a program called final cut pro. I have used final cut pro in my college course so I know how to use it. Me and Aron edited it as Ben has been off for two weeks as during the Easter holidays he broke his toes. So being a man down we made sure Ben had finished the layouts and we had to do the editing without him. Editing went well, the only problem that we had was the door scene. my Flash trial ran out during the holiday so i couldn't finish all my animation. It was only 3 second worth of animation but it was very difficult. i managed to finish is and edit all together.
I enjoyed editing it all together and since we got our animation all done with sometime to spear, we could experiment with different effect and sounds. Final cut pro is great for adding effects on to any sort of film, and i think being able to use this program well helped a lot. We used an effect called "Soft edges" to give it an old film look and i added a colour called "sepia" to the film to also make it looked aged. this given the sting an aged look.

Aaron Found a sound track on You tube that was from an old German silent movie. we imported the song and it went really well with the animation we left it in. i found a simple click sound for the light to be switched on. After we added all the music and effects we exported it all in to quick time. overall i think we did very well. We could have done with Ben being here for the last two weeks but thats to the program Drop box (the program i mentioned in my last blog) was a big help as all the work we needed we could get it from that site. This has been a good experience too as it has made me learn what my strong points are and what my weak points are. I feel that i need to practice my animation more as i think i struggled with it in this project. My strong points i think are my drawing and character design and i also really enjoyed editing this piece.
Our sting is now complete. I will hand it in on Friday 13th May and see what our tutors think to it.

Thanks for reading
Chelsea

Flash

This is a still from one of the scenes i am working on. I drew and animated the funny monster guy and Ben did they layout. I am pretty happy with this scene, i think I animated it well. I feel much happier about animating today, I guess just need to practice more so i feel more confident about animating. Aaron has done well animating as well. I saw the first scene he did and i told him to make it look smoother so the animation flows. Ben's layouts are good, you can tell he enjoys doing landscape's and buildings by what he draws in his layouts. I have only told him to edit a few parts such as making the people more 3D and make the buildings stand out more. I also told him to stick to brown and gray colours when colouring his layouts in. This is just so it goes with the animation and the colours of the characters don't fade in to the background, i wanted them stand out against the background. 

Our Progress is going really well, we are just getting on with the last layouts and animation. Easter is coming up soon and we wont see each other over this time period. I have created an Easter schedule so we can keep up with what we need to do and what is done. when we have done the task we can tick it off.
this is our easter schedule:

Easter schedule:

Shot 1: Aaron – (man waving) improve it make it look smoother.

 Shot 2: Chelsea – (close up of man) improve and colour

 Shot 3: Aaron – (little man in distance) move him back a little and make him smaller

 Shot 4: Chelsea – (close up of little man) done

Shot 5: Aaron – (running scene) add pattern to mans legs and improve on the little mans running and make him legs thinner.

 Shot 6: Chelsea – (getting through the door) needs matching up with Aarons run scene!

 Shot 7: Chelsea – (the click) needs doing! Maybe animate it to sound effect!

 Shot 8: Chelsea – (standing in closet) done just need a flu buzzing around the lampshade! Need bens layout for that!

 Shot 9: Chelsea – (“no need to run” righting) just make the righting move a little bit smoother

 Shot 10: Chelsea – (Leaflet through the door) need to make the leaflet move like paper. It looks a bit boring and still. Also need to add texture to the leaflet

Bens schedule:

Shot 1: nearly done just need to add more attention to where the character will be standing. Make the building less bright and blend in the colours a bit then I think that will be done.

 Shot 2:  make the building a duller colour and blend in the colours more.

 Shot 3:  needs colouring in. the people need to look more real.

 Shot 4:  needs colouring in

 Shot 5 and 6: this scene is the running one so we need 2 more shots that fit on to the shot you have created. They need drawing and colouring in.

 Shot 7: NO LAYOUT NEEDED

Shot 8:  the closet scene needs doing. Make sure you add the shelves and the light.

Shot 9: NO LAYOUT NEEDED

 Shot 10: create the close up of the door and the floor. Look at the last scene on drop box for the idea.

 Try and do as much as possible over the next two weeks. When we come back as a group we will look at what you have done and start piecing it together.

Since we wont see each other over easter we used a website called Drop Box which allows us to drop our flash files and our layout files in to one place so we can all have access to them and look at them. it is a very useful site especially if a person is off sick or misses a lesson.  It is very useful and its free.

DropBox link

Our Journey So Far

We are all getting our head down and starting organising what we need from each person and by when. Being director i have resposiblitys to make sure my team are on time and doing the work. sometimes i feel really bossy and mean but i  mean well. i want my team to get to a comftoble persition so we dont rush towards the last week as more people will be in the studio nearer the deadline resulting in not enough work space and istractions. i also want my team to be able to have a brake during esther rather than having to work the full to weeks just to get this done. I do enjoy beeing director i just don't like beeing bossy but i think its the best way to be to make people get things done. So far we have started animating the first few scenes and i am getting Ben to draft the layouts before colouring them so we can discuss what needs to change and what can stay. Ben has been very reliable so far, he has produced very nice pieces of work which i am proud off. Aaron's animation is improving, and he is getting better with every scene. sometimes we disagree with what looks good but we always come to an agreement at some point. I feel, although my directing skills are good(ish), my animation is not. i struggled with some scenes and i jumped the gun a bit with animating first without planning, which is a bad move. you should always plan your animation before you do it. I realized my mistake but i still find it hard, this project is helping me learn my strengths and weakness. I'm good at designing and ideas but not very good at animation! something i should improve.

Animatic

This is one still from my storyboard. This is the most important part of the sting as this is like the punch line to our joke. With this sting i am trying to find my own style and create something original. I am also posting my you-tube link to my animatic. This is what i showed to the class:

 Click Here For Animatic

It has no sound as an animatic is basically and animated storyboard that gets the idea across ruffly. When i have finished editing the sting i will put music and sound effect to go with my sting. this is something we need to think about when nearer the time.

Ketchup Catchup

Since i am Director of this animation i wanted to make sure that my group understand what we are aiming for. i searched on the Internet for images and animation films to give them some idea what style we are looking for. My characters are very "Tim Burton style" and i need to keep that all the way through the animation. i need to keep that style going! i also wonted the animation to be cut out so i showed them this lovly short film so they can look at the movements so they understand the style more. Ben is doing the Layouts for our animation and so far he is keeping to the dark style but to help him with more ideas i showed him art from Coraline. a lovely animated film.
Research is golden!

 The short film i showed my group:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTdzCAGH3lU

 Coraline art:
http://www.burstofbeaden.com/

The Start of something good..

As you know i am currently working on a sting for the NSS to win a competiton!. We have done quite a bit over these few days and we still have a long way to go. Three of us, including me, are working on this project. We have to treat this like any other animation getting made, so that means everyone of us have essigned jobs that we must complete.
The Fist member of our team is Ben. he shows an interest in background art and architecture. he's skilled at Photo shop and has great imagination. Who else could be better to do the layouts for this animation.
Second on our team is Aaron. Aaron and i have similar tastes and styles, and he is also talented at animation plus he can draw my characters pretty well. This is why i have put him in charge of animation.
Then last but not least is me. i have been given the directing role in this project. It involves good organization skills! i also do some animation and drawing characters ready for animation.

we have our roles sorted out now its time to work and get this project up and away