Aside from writing up that contract that my partner and I will have to sign this Thursday, I quickly did up some mindmaps as usual to better the absorb the information on both the module brief and the brief and my partner and I chose (Because there is quite a bit of information to take in from both despite how straight forward it all sounds at first).
As well as a little mindmap listing down various references and inspiration we can use for what we intend to create in response to the brief. From there, I will put together at least 1-2 moodboards that we can refer to when we develop the tone and art style of the animation.
Overview for Module Brief
Overview for Chosen Brief
Brainstorming
During the first session, we were already pretty set on creating a stop motion piece (As it would be less time consuming as compared to doing a hand drawn piece, also, this would give us the opportunity to use the Dragonframe software we were introduced to quite awhile back), but I did list down other types of animation methods to show that we have considered other options. The same went for what topic we should primarily focus on based on the WWF report, especially since there was so many information provided in there.
In the meantime, my partner will be properly dissecting the WWF report to extract more helpful information that we could focus on for the design response. And hopefully by this week's session, we will be able to confirm our idea and start storyboarding.
For this year's final module, we are to either work individually or in groups of three in creating an animated documentary based around the theme of Food (You probably figure that out from the previous title blog post). This will technically be our first professional piece (Various supporting items will also be designed to go along with it, such as packaging, posters, etc.), that will be showcased to an audience for proper feedback.
The tone of the documentary can vary, it can either be serious and dark, or more light hearted and fun. Either way, I am thankful that we are once again given a pretty open theme to work with. What we definitely must consider is the amount of research that will go into our topic as well as least justify our reasons for choosing it in the first place.
I felt that I had a pretty productive first session with my group mates today (Or should I say yesterday), aside from throwing out a number of really interesting ideas during our discussion after we had absorbed the morning briefing (Because there seriously was a lot to take in), we were also able to choose one idea that we could all agree to happily work on on before class ended for the day. The good thing was that all three of us were actually pretty in sync with one another when it came to what we wanted to work on (Souls be resonating yo), and I suppose that's why the first part of our project went by so smoothly.
While I normally tend to make a GANTT chart a the very start of each project, I suppose it would make more sense to make one after our pitch on the 27th of February, where I can better figure out how the work will be divided between us during the Production stage.
Overview
Brainstorming Part 1
This first mind map takes various options into consideration, while we were pretty set on doing something light hearted and appealing, we did still take into consideration more serious options. We also definitely looked back on the examples shown to us during the briefing, as well as revised over the definition of what a documentary is meant to be. We also listed several target audiences before deciding which will be the most suitable one to aim this animation at.
Part 2
Part 2 gets a little more specific, once we all agreed on a particular style of animation, we started listing out various ideas that can be presented in such a tone and would actually fit a set of key words that we threw together (Eg, cute, pretty, fun, etc.). At the same time, we all listed a bunch of visual references we could refer to when we commence developing the concepts for our animation.
Part 3
We finally decided to go with an animation centring around various desserts, aside from of course being visually appealing, we felt that it would be an enjoyable and interesting subject matter to research into (We are most definitely sure that this would be of interest to our target audience as well). Considering the short duration for this animation, we had to narrow it down to European desserts, but because of that, we considered the idea of this becoming a potential series (Desserts from around the world, and maybe in breakfast, lunch and dinner might be included) in the future.
I will be putting together some visual mood boards (From the examples listed in the third mind map) over the weekend to share with my teammates. I will also be picking ten european desserts to share with them, and from there we will pick out some of the more interesting ones to focus on for this animation. If I still have time before then, maybe I will try to sketch out some concepts if possible.
So before moving onto executing the designs themselves, as usual, I quickly did up some mind maps to better absorb the brief's information as well as well as brainstorm on some design ideas and what techniques should be used for the cushions themselves. The questions presented in the study task briefs have already been answered in a previous post.
While I had somewhat of a rough idea on what I could dish out over the next few days, I still thought it would help to do a little brainstorm on what styles, colour palettes and mediums I could and/or should use, whilst I definitely should go with something I am familiar enough with that will allow me to create works in a decent amount of time, I always wish to see what types of designs appeal exactly to the masses on this site.
I do notice that a number of works submitted in by others are based around existing works (AKA, fan art), something that I had asked about from a classmate of mine when I had first heard about the competition. And so another thing to consider is whether I should take the easier way and do the same, or attempt to create more original works to showcase in my portfolio? A large part of me believes that it would be safer and more challenging and worthwhile to work on more original pieces (I can after all get fan art works done for Redbubble whenever I want), as I am also uncertain about the copyrights when it comes to the former choice.
While I was getting some mindmapping done for my main brief, I figured that I might as well get some done for this brief too, thankfully it was a lot less stressful as compared to the other brief I had chosen and was in a weird way, a sort of break from my main one. All the information presented in the two mindmaps below are pretty straightforward, and it was easy figuring out what direction I wanted to take during the brainstorming one.
Overview
Brainstorming
Choices are a little more limited in terms of style as this is still clearly aimed at kids, despite how the brief attempts to make it sound like they are targeting this at the parents and gift givers, but thankfully abstract was never really my thing to begin with (Though a lot of abstract and conceptual works really do have the most amazing colour usages...).
So, I found a few more references while I was working on that story board awhile back:
Jackie Chan's music video for the mandarin and cantonese versions of this song proved to be useful and incredibly entertaining to watch over and over as I quickly sketched down some ideas on what poses and moves to use. I was thankful that some parts of his performance was shown in slow motion (And not so thankful but still appreciative of the sped up bits), and I obviously needed more real life reference (Though I swear that someone mentioned Youtube having a slow motion feature for their videos).
Donatello
So... finding gifs of Donatello actually fighting was a lot harder than I thought (I know they are out there, it's just searching through the right tags and getting this stupid internet connection to work...), but here's what I was able to collect in such a short period of time: 1987 and 2003
It is also necessary to get references of the handler being idle with the weapon in hand or carrying out other mundane activities instead of simply fighting with it all the time (Especially if I decide to animate that last part of my animation where Moom drops the halberd and cowers in the corner), and so the simpler animations done for the older series are just as helpful.
Yay! I could refer to not just one, but two characters in these gifs!
Nickelodeon
I DEFINITELY have to refer to this version when it comes to references, seeing that it is a 3D animation itself (That I have yet to write a research post on…) while is of course applicable to this module project, it takes full advantage of its mechanics and is able to show off far more intricate movements as compared to the older series. While the animation is considerably realistic in this show, they do exaggerate a little now and then to enhance the intensity of the fight scenes.
Basic strikes with lots of shoulder and knee movements.
I tried that with my own mop… didn't go well at all.
Nice little splatter effect there to show how hard the strike is.
Notable distortion seen here.
What is particularly notable about the animation are the blur effects done for most of their actions (This is also seen with the other turtles when they handle their weapons), I wonder if it will be possible to recreate that effect in Maya? It will definitely emphasise on the confidence and skill of the character.
Really nice perspective shot here.
And I'm just going to put this one here… for reasons.
So as I mentioned awhile back, I have gathered quite a few references that I can refer to for the animation, so first off let's start with the animation the song originated from:
"Mulan" to this day remains one of Disney's funniest animated films, it had a wide variety of songs that were all really enjoyable, and perhaps one of its most memorable ones (Aside from "Reflection") is "I'll Make a Man Out of You", featuring a humorous but rather inspiring and heartwarming training montage involving Mulan and the other soldiers who were initially antagonistic towards her, another fun fact is that Jackie Chan had performed the Cantonese and Mandarin versions of this song (Crap, I wish I knew where my Chinese album is now…).
Obviously I won't be copying the scene down to the last detail, I will most definitely be creating a more original choreography for mine, and besides, the verse I had chosen does not show much of the bo staff. I only wish to refer to the scenes where they are still learning how to use it, instead of immediately going for skilful spins and swings… Come to think of it, I suppose this could be of some use too (I know, I know it's a Disney sequel, but it was still pretty hilarious):
And whilst browsing through Tumblr as usual, I was fortunate enough to chance upon these gifs… though I fear that they might be a little too complex to animate (Or maybe this is because, perhaps I might be able to create some simpler moves out of them (Also that's a really pretty blue bo staff he got there~).
While I am planning to keep things simple (Because who know how many times I'm going to mess up over the next few weeks), I saw no harm in looking up more advanced moves, perhaps I might be confident in the next few weeks and will be able to insert them in (Because I was initially planning to go with this sort of tone if I was to animate a more awesome looking weapon demonstration, I mean look at that adorable ending)!
The first thing that came to my mind when it came to searching up references (Aside from the original animation of course) are the incredibly useful weapon demonstrations featured in the "Soul Calibur" games (I wish they had done the same with the "Tekken" games, though I suppose there are tons of reference videos for hand to hand combat without weapons). While once again a little too complex, if we are required to use some camera movements in our animation, I will have these videos to refer to!
The weapon is actually handled wrongly here (Due to some modding done on the recorder's part for entertainment purposes, a fighting style based around the Dao (Chinese sword) was inserted instead), but I felt that her moves are still plausible enough for the staff, and so kept it as part of my references.
Obviously I should refer to this one more as he is actually using a staff, and not a halberd (But I don't really care much for you Kilik…), but honestly their movements aren't all that different from one another, there are only a few tiny alterations made between their fighting styles.
I was going to search for some references of "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle's" Donatello (Any incarnation is fine, though I suppose the 80s and 90s versions once again have more simplified moves as they were in 2D and well, the present one is done in 3D… so they will surely all prove to be helpful to me), maybe I will post them up in a future post, but for now, I'm going to do some quick study sketches from what I was able to gather together from these ones.
And so Shark Fighter has been scrapped for several reasons, one, I don't like the idea of shark abuse, even if it's on a toy one, and two, I wasn't feeling the song as much as compared to the other two. It was nice doodling out these cute little shark designs though, and maybe I might try to model one of them as practice in the future, the surfboard one especially brings back so many memories of Las Vegas (The good ones that is), great, now I gotta try and find the two my sister and I own once I head back during Christmas break.
I felt that I'll Make a Man Out of You will give me the best opportunities in terms of the animation, as complicated as animating a weapon demonstration might seem, I believe I have enough references for it (Particularly for the spinning bit, I mean I tried doing it with a mop last night and that proved to be a dumb idea). I am also deciding over whether I should model a proper weapon or a joke one, like a broom or brush, which would actually fit Moom so much better to me. Though I don't think I'm confident enough in creating realistic enough movements for the broom once I start animating, and, it is pretty sad missing out on the opportunity to model a cool looking weapon… ahhh choices...
As much as I adore Five O' Clock World, I find it rather dull animating a wall clock, and while it probably won't be that much a of a problem moving the hands as the character moves along as he carries out various activities throughout the animation… Moom actually won't be interacting directly with it, and so the prop is deemed rather pointless.
And so yes, in conclusion, I have decided to go with Mulan's I'll Make a Man Out of You, it will be a challenge to animate and a very entertaining song for Moom to perform to, so entertaining that I shouldn't even alter and ruin the original tone of the song at all.
So apparently choosing a song for this assignment turned out to be a lot tougher than I expected it to be, I pretty much discarded most of the choices I wrote down in the last mind map and ended up spending an entire evening looking through new songs on my iTunes. Aside from considering the difficulty of the performance and what would be the most suitable prop to go a long with it, I had to see how long these verses would last, and so recorded the duration for each of them. After the basic modelling session yesterday, I was able to narrow my choices down to 3 (OR 2 EVEN), as the props for the other songs would probably be too time consuming to create and animate: Shark Fighter by The Aquabats (An inflatable shark) Shark Fighter, toughest man in the sea! Shark Fighter, with his wavy blonde hair flowing so freely... I initially pictured Moom following along to the lyrics like some form of narration, trying to appear all brave and mighty as he punches an inflatable shark… before running his hand over his bald head in confusion at the last line of the song. As for the prop, I'm sure I will be able to model a cartoony, simply looking inflatable shark with beady black eyes for use, that can remain stationary throughout the animation. I might also add more verses in if I can/have to: I'm a shark fighter, I fight sharks I fight 'em in the water 'cuz that's where they are When I smell blood, I come running Then I put them in a shark cage
'Cuz my life, to hunt down the creature I despise Is full of danger Whose eyes - those dead black marbles they call eyes - This rhyme tells the story of the... I'll Make a Man Out of You sung by Donny Osmond (Bo Staff) Tranquil as a forest But a fire within Once you find your center you are sure to win You're a spineless, pale pathetic lot And you haven't got a clue Somehow I'll make a man Much like the scene in Mulan, I pictured Moom doing a basic weapon demonstration of sorts with the Bo Staff (I'm still wondering over whether I can even animate him twirling it) and swinging it around, before dropping it and curling into a corner upon being yelled at near the end. A staff might seem way too simple a prop to model, but little details can be added in, such as the textures, bandages, etc, or I could even add a blade at the end and change it to a halberd! Five O'Clock World by the Vogues (Clock, and Possibly a Bed) Up every mornin' just to keep a job I gotta fight my way through the husslin' mob Sounds of the city poundin' in my brain While another day goes down the drain
But it's a five o'clock world when the whistle blows No one owns a piece of my time And there's a five o'clock me inside my clothes Thinkin' that the world looks fine, yeah Holiday, yeah… The animation for this song would be inspired by the Walt Disney short "A Cowboy Needs a Horse", where the subject is practically suspended in mid air throughout, but is still able to interact with numerous objects regardless. Alike to that, Moom would be floating about, practically flying out of bed when he wakes up, before practically walking through midair as he tries getting through a husslin' mob (Which can pretty much just be a blob). Once I mess around with Moom some more, I just might be able to finalise my decision on what song I want.
And now for the Studio Brief…
While we continue to familiarize ourselves with Autodesk Maya, over the next few months until the end of this module on January, our main assignment is to choose a verse or chorus from a song of our choice, that we are to then confirm with our lecturer. Once that is done, we can then commence further dissection of the lyrics to create a performance which can be interpreted through the provided Maya character… Moom. While we can't create a model from scratch (Because that would take ages I believe… thooooough we could probably try to make one during our free time, EXTRA CREDIT), we have to create a prop for it to use in the animation, which should help us a little in figuring out what song we should choose (I suppose it can't be anything too complicated (But it can't be too simple either) or anything that involves more than one character). We have to use our own voices when recording the dialogue for the character, whilst we can alter it a little, we can't make it so that it completely unrecognizable (Which reminds me… an up and coming voice actor once said that effects are to enhance one's voice, NOT create). So it's finally time I checked out that lovely little recording booth with some friends and have some fun! Anyway, as usual, I carried out the same steps as I slowly begin getting things to order whilst also generating some ideas...
Brief Outline for Studio Brief
Unfortunately, I am one of those people who don't actually listen to the lyrics of a song, unless I decide to learn the song for a performance. Though we don't actually have to follow the song's original tone, if we are creative enough, we can instead give it a complete makeover, perhaps do a complete contrast to the lyrics. (For e.g., Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head can be done in a Death Metal style instead for a more hilarious and dynamic effect) In the meantime, I listed down a number of songs to pick from, and quickly posted up the list here before I end up adding in more and making things worse (Which is happening right now), if I'm still stuck on choosing, I might quickly do up a second mind map:
There wasn't much time given for this final assignment, so I am afraid I didn't get a chance to explore all the themes that were available in this assignment (Aside from the mind maps in the earlier post). I couldn't get much sketching done either, so I figured it was best to pick out one of the more outstanding ideas I had written down awhile back and quickly get to animating as I only have a week left.
Fear stood out to me the most, and not often do I get to work on something more horror-based (Even though I am quite a fan of that genre), and as the duration is pretty short, I feel that this if my chance to have some fun in animating something short, sweet, and gory.
I still have to try my best to keep it as simple as possible as this is practically my first major animation assignment (No, really).
Assignment Outline
Sketches
The idea is pretty much based on a nightmare I had a couple of weeks back, about a family that have horribly mutated and a girl that was hiding away from them in a tiny cabinet as they devoured something right on top of it (And to me that was the scariest part, they were eating cake, and blood was splattering everywhere). Obviously I can't animate the entire thing for this assignment so I separated it into several areas, as well as sketched out some more obvious types of fears/phobias (Darkness, clowns, dolls, etc.). In terms of this depiction of fear however (Aside from the obvious physical manifestation of a terrifying monster) for the top sketches, I feel that it depicts the fear of the unknown as well as the fear of being negatively judged and mistreated by others (Hence the cruel laughter), be it peers or one of your siblings.
I would also consider this to be fitting of the Happiness theme.
My choice was quickly confirmed with my lecturer so the next thing was to sketch out key points to make the animation process a little easier, instead of simply diving right into it, even if it is a short animation. I decided to do it digitally as it would be faster (I won't have to waste time scanning in frames one by one) and perhaps cleaner, as the brief mentioned to keep the animation as simple as possible, I decided to at least settle with a simpler coloring style, black and white with red for the gore.
Continuing from that insightful introduction, we are required to create our very own pixilation animation that should consist of at least a minute's worth of frames, we are to pick from three provided relationships (Predator-Prey, Host-Parasite and Parent-Child) in the brief and explore one of them through our animation.
Below are some mind maps and sketches to familiarize myself with the three relationships and how they can be conveyed in a variety of ways, as well as a concept storyboard I did for one of my scrapped ideas:
Predator-Prey Relationships
Parent-Child Relationships
Host-Parasite Relationships
Sketches for all three relationships
Scrapped Idea for Parent-Child Pixilation
Stay tuned for more progress as well as which relationship I decide to choose for my project!
