Animatic

Still not 100% sure of what to do for my final major project film - for the time being I have put together an animatic made up of the storyboard frames along with the soundtrack, here it is.....

....oh it doesn't want to load at the moment. I'll try again in the morning.

I have also completed an interview edit which you can find here. 

Working on an animation for exhibition project currently too. I am taking the Snap-Dragon as a character to walk along a time-line of  a thousand years in Norwich, walking past significant buildings and their time period.  

I'm Back

Well, been a while since the last post - been a very busy and  odd time for many reasons I shan't go in to; sufice to say personal life went haywire and college work took a back seat for a little while. Right, 2 projects ahead and this is the progress so far....

Self Negotiated final project- still undecided as to stick with the plan fror 'A very old Man' adaptation or go with plan B which is making a really nice music video for one of 3 bands I have the opportunity to produce one for. I may go with a video for a band I play in, Vanilla Pod as this weekend we record new tracks. I have many ideas for stop motion possibilities with the band (who are very up for these ideas and willing) Hopefully in breaks between recording I can make some test animations with them. I'd like to blue screen the band in the shoe factory and also have someone to film parts of the video which I will be in. It's still undecided as to which direction to go with this, I need to choose bloody soon. The external assessor told me I was too ambitious with my "Old Man' plan as it will take an age to complete. However, I do have the soundtrack to this written and recorded by Olga from The Toy Dolls which was a right scoop really. and would be a shame not to use this. I am confused.

This animation for exhibition project has me wanting to either project a 30 second piece onto the side of an historic building in Norwich. Thoughts go with the castle, Cow Tower or pieces of the old city wall in the Cathedral Close. I also had an idea yesterday whilst having a tour of the castle to go down the Tim Hunkin route and make a 'ride' this being a re-make of the Snap Dragon which resides in the keep, to make one of these that a child can sit in, with a animated tour of the journey this took through medieval Norwich. Would be brilliant also to have the 'ride' move and sway as it walks. Maybe 'too ambitious' again, but an idea none-the-less. Lots to do there. I would like to incorporate a woodcut style to this.

I have completed some private work for the Student Pocket Guide website. Check it out, I did the bits with Danny Dyer on the TV and also edited an interview with him too. Was a mission as the client was very particular with his needs, but all in all a good experience, check it out here

see you 

Crab !

Very Old Man

Web desgin out of the way now, was enjoyable and the presentations today were good. So, met Suzie and had a tutorial, showed her the storyboard I put together and there's a few inconsistencies which I need to iron out, for now it's o.k. assessment-wise. Also she pointed me in the direction of relevant work to research, 'Peter and The Wolf', 'Harpya' adn 'Ubu'. I aim to bulid the wings (at least) for the Angel puppet over the Easter break and if that's possible I can then move onto the rest. There's a fair amount of pre-production left to do before I can start with my final film. Never a moment without anything to do!

End in sight

Currently getting together the evaluations for my web-design elective and my sound project. I tidied up the final mix this evening and am very happy with the results. Gathered all the materials needed or all he relevant portfolios and starting to plan for the looming presentations. Have to complete the story board for 'A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings' and before I can do that I need to finalise the character design. Also I have to edit the animation I filmed a couple of weeks ago. Still a fair bit to do but there's an end in sight.
Just stumbled upon a piece of information on the internet -apparently R.E.M.'s video for their biggest hit 'Losing My Religion' has a character in it that's an old man with enormous wings inspired by Marquez's story. Here's R.E.M.'s video

Sound Design

Here's the near enough final sound for 'The Wooden Leg' Since getting this home and not listening to it through the mega-wattage of the sound room and little computer speakers instead - I have noticed a few things need to be brought up more in the mix which I'll sort out on Monday. Also there's a couple of timing issues with footsteps and a couple of other things to sort out. Anyway, here it is......

Getting there

Catalogue of success with all projects yesterday -

managed to find out the problem why 3 out of the 5 movies didn't work, due to them being corrupt files with no sound. I had to dig into my archives and import the videos again from my Dv camera. However I experience the same problem with a video that was previously working-it disappeared, but after re-locating it to another layer, it worked again. It doesn't make any sense, but will be content that they all work (2 videos have a little pixelation which pisses me of, but will go with those for the time being) So the site is FINISHED! But not online yet which is the next step.

A couple of evening ago, John gave me a guided tour around all that is Logic and after my initial computer crashing problems, last night I made more headway to the point of near completion. Tom advised me on a couple of things which was really handy to get another point of view. The computer was still crashing all over the place, but my frustration with it was kept at bay with the progress I made. We had part presentations of our work so far and everyone's stuff is great and very varied. Mine went down well, causing a few laughs which made me chuffed as I intended to try and add comedic elements to the clip via the soundtrack. Actually during the group tutorial I sussed out the website problems. Maybe a little rude to tap away on a different project whilst discussing another, but you've got to get it in when you can! Strike while the iron is hot and so on with the sayings and so forth.

Whilst waiting for the MA sound room to become available I was mucking about with my crab animation in After Effects and literally stumbled upon the colour key effect (maybe this is obvious to some, but not to me !) So, I managed to line up the animation with a seaside background. I experimented with obvious scenes where you can totally see it's animation and real film, but also not-so-obvious blends worked well. Here's one of the tests  below

Also been experimenting with making feathers solid (to make some enormous wings for the old man puppet) I tried varnishing a few, but they turn out sickly yellow and look crap (amazingly enough) so will  try other methods over the Easter holidays. Also a little further with the new improved story board, but that need quite alot of attention over the next few days, along with the character design. Last night I spent a few hours collecting the work I have done for this project research-wise for inclusion in the portfolio.