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.

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.  

March 13th Sunday

Now that I have written the actual script, the team has begun gathering all of the resources that we need for the animation such as audio. Alex has a clear direction of what the animation is going to look like and the certain aspects or elements that he has to include in each frame to tell the story.

We decided for this past week that we would focus on the presentation foremost. We are all doing our own little parts over this weekend as we found it impossible to meet up due to our opposing schedules. We also had a team meeting on friday so that we knew exactly how the presentation would go and even did a little bit of practice.

Unfortunately, I didn't make the last tutorial with our tutor but luckily I had the script written so my team could easily fill her in on what we were doing.

Friday March 4th

From our last tutorial with Maria, we have really started to get a sense of what this piece is going to be like. From writing a rough draft of a script, I've realized it is definitely possible to achieve what we want to make the style that we want to make it. We have been meeting up weekly to discuss each element of the animation but the tutorials really help with ironing details out. It is good to communicate all of our ideas together, and foremost, it's very important to keep everyone in the loop of every step of the way.

My main priority is writing a coherent and engaging script. I must write it for the presentation and I have to make sure that it is written in the correct format. Also I have to make sure that that the rest of my team will be able to understand the points that I'm getting.

Also I believe, we have to write a treatment for the presentation as well which is basically to ask yourself, why are you doing this, where will it be disseminated to, and a brief outline or pitch of what the animation is going to be.  

March 2nd


In order for me to start writing the script for the piece, I first wanted to research how to write an engaging and interesting narrative because we don't want to bore people with this animation. Script writing isn't as simple as just writing the story down, I have to capture the scene in it's entirety also I have to give someone who doesn't really understand the story, an idea of exactly the kind of piece that we want. As this is a draft of the script, I won't be adhering to strict script writing rules like format but I will have to explain key details like; camera movement, character dialogue, transitions, scene heading and sub headers. This simple diagram explains the format of a script.



I also wanted to research good script writing practices and I came up with five simple rules for writing an engaging script

1) Establish and maintain a clear voice
This essentially means that when you are writing a character's dialogue, you need to make sure that when you are, you are speaking like that character would speak, you are doing as that character would do, etc.
2) Speak in Vernacular
Characters should speak how they speak in real life, or as close to it as possible, they should speak casually and the dialogue shouldn't feel forced.


3) Give stage directions

When writing scripts, it is important to write down what the character is doing physically, to write down their emotion, stance, etc.


4) Show don't tell

Make the script as simple as possible, let the dialogue narrate the story instead of focusing on describing everything in detail, it's not a novel.


5) Leave them hanging

At the end of each scene, you wanna pull the audience in, create some sort of tension, leave on a cliff hanger, so that the audience wants to actually see the outcome.

March 1st 2016

After our last meeting, we have a better understanding of what our animation is going to be. We have figured out the tone of the piece, we have researched narration techniques and possible narrators. We have given examples of the kind of style we want the artistic direction to take. We have an idea of exactly the kind of platforms that we will be releasing our piece.

For this week, we were tasked with each of us finding a particular animation style that we like and to explain why we like that style and to explain why it would work for our piece. I have chosen the animation styles of a videogame called "Infamous".





 This game uses a very stylish approach to how it conveys the cutscenes. As the game is supposed to have a serious, gritty tone, so too does it's cutscenes. It really gives the player an understanding of exactly the kind of game they will be playing. The cutscenes make use of a comic book art style but the style still feels alive and dynamic. In some panels, it's almost like the character are breaking through constraints like the frames of the panel or even proportion. 



This week, I'm going to begin work on a draft of a script, seeing as sean has done a draft story- board, I will be able to work off all the research and what he has so far.

February 24th

After we all went away and did our own separate research, we had to decide on the demographic that we would hope to hit and also the particular tone that we wanted to have for the animation. 

Demographic

We decided that we didn't want to exclude anyone from watching this animation so our demographic is for people from all walks of life, culture, religion. In order for it to hit these audiences, we need to make sure that the animation won't contain any controversial material or material that people of certain ethnicities would deem hurtful. But in particular, we are aiming for an age group between 17-35. This demographic because, alot of people in this age group would be students, young and used to the particular narrative style we are going for which is more kind of action and dramatised orientated.


Tone

We decided that we wanted to go for a dramatic tone, not necessarily historically accurate but something that will engage audiences and keep them entertained. A more serious piece would not have this kind of effect and we also wanted to have fun with this animation. We felt that we would be constrained if we were confined by historical accuracy. We want to tell a little backstory of the events without giving the audience an over-saturation of information.


Dissemination

We are hoping to expose this piece to as many audiences as possible. Taking a look at the key demographics, we would want to upload the video to youtube as research shows that many people among the age group that we are targeting have youtube accounts and regularly subscribe, of course with this medium, we would have to be very careful of third party material such as music or other images. We also hope to showcase the piece on viemeo because Vimeo is used alot these days for showcasing short films and has quite a large market for these kinds of of pieces. We will also individually share the piece on facebook amongst our friends and families. 

February 18th 2016

We had our first tutorial with our class coordinator and we were each given a certain amount of tasks and research to complete for the next tutorial. We were told to not really start making anything until we had the whole thing researched, exactly what kind of style we are going for, the different techniques we could use to pull off that style, etc. The main focus was to figure out our target demographic and what kind of tone we want to set for the piece. 

As I am the co. animator, I decided to research different techniques that we could avail of in programs such as after effects and photoshop. Luckily for me, there are so many tutorial videos for these kinds of techniques, I was looking at one in particular which borrows some elements from adobe flash which we might need to take into consideration: 

Elemental Animation 016 How to Animate Rain

I also wanted to look at some animations that use the certain style that we are trying to go for. I really like these animation sequences, even though it doesn't seem like that much is going on, the animations still feel fluid and dynamic.

February 9th 2016

This is a blog platform used to document the process of creating the project for our media project 2 module. We will updating this on a weekly basis and will outline the steps and milestones that we need to achieve for the upcoming week, as well as the ideas and designs that we have decided on in class. 

Today, we got the brief for the project we must complete by week 6, so we decided a few things today.

• The media of the project
• The roles of the members of the team
• What we are doing for next week
• The software we will be using
• The general outline of the project
• Our deliverables and what we need

We have decided that we will be doing an action/dramatic animation piece for this project. The theme of the project is the 1916 rising and is open to interpretation. Our plan is to have the piece quite serious and tense using animation elements from both still imagery and using software such as after effects to give the piece a dynamic feel. The animation is going to be four minutes long and will use a combination of audio and visual to tell the story building up to the rising. We plan on using narration and sound effects to tell the story.

The team roles are as followed:

Alex - Lead Animator

Darragh - Co. Animator, Script Writer

Sean - Co.  Animator, Research
Dianne - Co. Animator, narration concept

We have also decided on a list of deliverables and we actually need to achieve to make the animation

• Need to research the history of the rising
• Need to write a script
• Need to draw storyboards
• Need to mind map
• Need to draw concept art
• Need to write shot list
• Need to document the process in Blog
• Need to research art styles for animation
• Need to hold meetings every week to see where each team member is

For Next Week's Class

In order to start getting a sense of the story, we need to start planning the research. So Sean is going to head up that aspect by researching the events of the rising, then I (Darragh) will be able to write a script for the piece. Alex will be experimenting with concept art  and trying to decide on the style. I will also do a bit of concept art as will be amalgamating the two styles into one consistent piece. I will also be in charge of this week's breakdown of the blog.