Completing our Animation!

Unfortunately, trying to complete the animation before the deadline was a tough process as we began to run out of time towards the end. As my team mates were busy completing the final drawings and editing the PhotoShop files in After Effects, it only made sense that I would write the report as my team mates each had a heavy workload.

I divided the report into sections, which included the introduction, stating what we wanted to achieve and a conclusion: Stating what challenges we faced, the things we are most proud of and things we'd have given more time/resources to if given the chance, followed by a sum-up conclusion.

I also wrote my individual report about my own role, as did my team mates on each of their roles.

On completing the animation, we had to render each of the 6 After effects projects and put it altogether in Premier Pro.

The next step was to upload the animation to YouTube.

The Completed Narration

I wrote the narration for our piece based on Sean's Storyboards, Darragh's script and Alex's drawings. 

The narration informs the viewer about the events leading up to the rising and the events that happened on Easter Monday right up until the end of the rising. The narration also gives a detailed account of emotions and atmosphere, which is kind of an abstract element to the narration. 

Panel One: On Easter Monday 24th April 1916, a group of Irish rebels and Volunteers marched up

O’Connells street in Dublin. This was to be the Irish fight for Independence from British rule.

The rising was set to take place at an earlier date, as the IRB arranged with Germany for arms to be delivered before the 21st. However this ship was seized by the British navy. Rain lashed as the Irish marched forward with worry and anxiety on their faces knowing full-well they were marching towards certain doom. Civilians gazed at the soldiers portraying a 

variety of mixed emotions. Tension was palpable between those who agreed with the rising and those who were against the concept. 

Panel 2: 

 
Just after noon, the Irish rebels stormed the GPO which caused complete pandemonium. 

Their aim was to take over such important points in Dublin. Padgraig Pearse, one of the 

rebellion leaders, set foot outside producing a proclamation and bellowing its contents to an 

increasingly exasperated crowd. Many of the crowd grew aggressive, hurling taunts at the leaders and their surrounding guards.  Panel 3: Chaos broke out when shots were fired by several Irish soldiers at British soldiers in the 

vicinity of Dublin Castle. The rebels aim was to take over Dublin Castle, as it was the heart of 

British Rule in Ireland. On this day, the castle was defended by raw recruits. If the rebels had

 known about this, they could have taken Dublin Castle over with ease.  Panel 4: 

 However, this did not prevent the British from defending the Irish attack.  The Irish

were still out-gunned and out-numbered by the British. They also had easy access to reinforcements.The British fought back hard, driving the Irish away from the castle by shutting the gates and

firing at them. As a result, the Irish failed to capture Dublin Castle.    Panel 5: Horrific scenes continued on the streets. Gunshots and explosions boomed throughout the city. The city center was in ruins. The rebel positions were completely surrounded and many civilians had been 

brutally killed. Irish rebels were continuously being captured by the British. The rebels knew they were being defeated. In order to put an end to this tragic battle and to save the lives of his fellow people, Padraig Pearse surrendered unconditionally.    Panel 6: The Rising was an immediate failure. The leaders of the rising were captured one by one by 

the British. Rebels were executed publicly. People watched in shock and horror as British soldiers aimed their guns at the leaders.With their faces covered, and their hands bound, they each waited anxiously for their turn to die. The British soldiers collectively pulled their triggers. The rebel leader’s fate was sealed...

Artwork Update     

I have underestimated the time it would take to complete my segment of the project. This is primarily due to my other project work, which takes up a great deal of my time (I'm not good at coding :( )

Anyway, here are some updated artworks.

<--Slide 3
Initial Combat Scene

  










          




                                                                           Slide 4  --->                                                            (WIP)   
                                                                Overwhelming Odds

April 14th 


Last week, we were tasked with creating some sort of animation test or at least some sort of showcase of what we want the animation to look like. I got the JPG versions of the drawings off Alex because, sending PSD files over the internet is next to impossible due to file size. Next I imported the necessary audio and graphic files into after effects and began to work on a test animation, a very short one. As I had already researched how to make a raining effect in after effects, I implemented it into the animation. Next I began experimenting with panning around the scene, it looked horrible without a mask, even with one it is way too jarring and disconcerting for it to be implemented. So I decided to use the hold frame interpolation to hold each frame until it cut to the next aspect of the drawing. 

I am happy enough with how the animation will turn out, but I need to start thinking about how to implement a 3D aspect to the whole animation. As I said earlier, we were not able to send the original PSD files over the internet so I had to make do with the drawings without their intended layering.

Here is the video test animation, with  audio sound effects.

Artwork Update

<- Introduction Slide 1














                                   Slide 2
                            Padraig Pearse 
                       addressing the crowd

Uploading the first two finished slides for our animation. Currently close to finishing the third.
I am definitely behind schedule due to mounting pressure from various assignments, but I will certainly have everything complete by this time next week, if not earlier.
                                       

Font ideas for opening sequence and credits

For the animation itself we plan to create a captivating intro and a good outro in response to the tone of our animation and story line. Correct visuals need to be taken in order for this to happen. Below I have compiled a selection of fonts I believe will work with our animation piece the fonts on display represent the the themes and context of the animation piece. I chose these fonts in perticular as the were not too outrageous with their celtic and irish designs but maintained those themes in a modern type way, The intro and outro will be a short animated composition as well as fonts will utilise colors and motion to once again fit in well with our animation piece.

April 6th



Now that we have come back from our Easter break, we are all very excited to proceed with the animation and approach the final stages of our timeline. As Alex is still putting the finishing touches on his drawings and artwork, the rest of us will meet up to discuss how we will approach the next stage. The plan is that once we have all the drawings needed for the animation, we will immediately start importing the files into a comprehensive after effects project. We will then gather the necessary audio files and import them as well. We will also need to start recording a narration for the animation as we will have the script for an actor. (either someone outside the college or one of us)

In terms of our presentation before Easter, I felt that we did alright. But I felt that we got confused in some parts when we were trying to articulate how we want the animation to be. This is probably due to miscommunication and not practicing the presentation enough. This will not be the case for the final presentation. Also alot of the other groups had animatics to showcase but unfortunately as our project is quite complicated, we did not have all the necessary assets for an animatic.