The Making of Project #2

I am absolutely gutted that we didn't manage to finish our project in time for the brief deadline, however I feel as though the making of video to go along with it, is in many ways an improvement upon my previous making of video, greatly due to the feedback which I was given on my first. Below is a link to what we managed to finish of the animation itself, the blank segments being the areas of the animation which were incomplete.

https://vimeo.com/208079127

Below is a link to the making of video to go along with this product, where I evaluate the piece and go over my development process.

https://vimeo.com/210791500

I feel as though this making of video is a lot more efficient, as a common complaint about my previous making of video was in regards to the middle segment, where the voice over is paused whilst music plays and a run through of my animation process is shown, as many thought it was lacking when compared to the rest of the video, I gathered criticism such as this -

"Include a voice over throughout"

"Try to lead the viewers into what they're seeing, sometimes its hard to comprehend when so much is happening in a short amount of time"

So in order to prevent this from becoming an issue with this new making of, I provided a voice over for the animation process in the same manor that I did with the rest of the making of, and made sure the stretch out the length of this particular segment so that my very complex method of animating is easier to explain and portray. I am very pleased that I was given this feedback, as without it I would have likely stayed to the same format as in my first, and the altered segment I personally feel is a huge improvement on the first, and hopefully explains my process a lot better. I kept the rest of video in the same format due to its positive reception, and I feel it works equally as well this time around. We used a colour scheme and style reminiscent of the source material which we were focused on, same as I did in my previous making of.

However there are a number of issues which I have with this new edition which were absent from my previous video. For one, due to communication issues I was not able to gather voice recordings from my partner, and therefore wasn't able to include her thoughts on the project and a more in-depth look into her process, which makes the video feel more personal than it should for a group project, so in order to prevent this on my following project, I will make sure I will have a more efficient form of contact for my partner/s. Another aspect that I feel let down the video, was the fact that as what I have done in this project is so similar to my previous project, I felt as though I was repeating myself several times in the original script, so a lot of information was cut in fear of it feeling the same as my last one, so without watching both, my main inspirations and some of my process is lacking from the commentary on my new making of video, in order to prevent this on my next project, I will ensure that I pick a project which is different from my previous two, thus allowing me to create a new and hopefully interesting making of video. 

As there is a lot of similar source material, there is a lot of ways in which I can extend this project, however as I have done something similar in my past two making ofs, I would prefer to experiment with something new.

Posing with the 'Buckid' rig in Maya

In order to get used to the rig which I will be using for my Maya animations for this module, I practiced a few key poses with 'Buckid', trying to communicate as much emotion into this simple rig as possible, which was mainly accomplished via curves and arcs of the characters' stance, and the extent of open and closed postures.

This was a 'shocked' or 'devastated' pose. I had Buckid learn back, clenching his head, as if he was chucking his head back in shock or devastation.

This was a 'sad' pose. I saw this as a pose which would likely come after the previous pose, therefore would  be good for pose-to-pose. I felt as though the arch of the character as well as the dangling arms and head really help to communicate this emotion.

I wasn't focused on a particular emotion here, I was instead imitating a stance from a video game character which I like, which I feel work out relatively well.

This is another pose imitating a video game character.

I was not pleased with the outcome of this one, the intention was to make Buckid seem as though he was shielding himself via his hands in a scared or afraid manor. However a more closed, clenched and protective stance would have helped to communicate this expression more effectively, instead this just looks as though he is pushing an object.

This is another pose imitating a video game character. I really like this one due to the cartoony and exaggerated pose which translate well into Buckid.

This was not based off of anything in particular, and instead is a reference to my previous stop motion animation.

Playing around with this rig came through very naturally to me, perhaps to my preference to digital media, and I feel as though I have been successfully able to create several decent poses and am anticipating on working with Buckid further.

Stand Up, Sit Down - Stop Motion

Above is the primary reference material which I utilised for the making of my first armature animation. I made sure that the subject in the video emphasises each movement so that the become more clear when interpreting them into animation. The subject was meant to look as though he is watching a plane fly by and stands up to get a better view. I produced a bar sheet from this reference material.

Bar Sheet Scan

https://vimeo.com/207766286

This is the result of my first ever stop motion with an armature, which was assisted by the primary research above. I found trying to subtly moving the parts of the armature between key frames to be very sensitive and therefore difficult to correctly position, however I feel as though I will get used to this in time. For my first time, I am actually impressed with how it has turned out, the movements at the start are relatively smooth and realistic. I am disappointed about the middle of the animation however, as there is an obvious jump in the animation from where the armature tumbled over, meaning I had to reset it in the same position in the previous frame, utilising the very helpful 'onion skinning' feature. I find this spoils the animation, and seems to create an unintentional 'follow through' effect as the hand is raised,  which is too exaggerated and jumpy to be effective or realistic. The hand movement itself was improvised as I went in to the stop motion room, as I felt the intention behind the movement wouldn't be as clear when the exact actions from the video were translated into animation. I feel as though after the pause, the animations quality increases again, however if I were to redo this (or any other similar animation) again, there are several things which I would change; I would make sure the armature is balanced at all times to prevent it from falling over, I would improve on my bar sheet design, and finally I would act out the reference material myself, so that I can portray the movement exactly how I desire it.

Update on my 'Making of' project #2

For this making of project, I am paired with another student on my course, Chelsea. We have very different styles in terms of drawings and animation, which may cause some issues, but also could make some very interesting outcomes if we use our different abilities together effectively. This may also push the both of us into areas that are out of our comfort zone, allowing us to experiment with new techniques and mediums.

Chelsea's notes

These are the notes that the two of use produced after our first discussion. We decided that we definitely wanted to produce a 2D animation, but we wanted to make an animation for an excising audio product which lacks any visuals of any sort, which is the same as what I did with my previous making of project, therefore hopefully improving upon the skills that I established within that project, and with the introduction of Chelsea's skillset, hopefully develop some new skills. We both set off after this discussion to find an audio file to animate over. These are the suggestions that I came up with.

https://youtu.be/j8PNuc6heyw

Being a fan of the BBC TV series 'The League of Gentlemen', this is the one that I was very keen on doing, however I understand how it's not everyone's sense of humour, so I wanted to make sure Chelsea enjoyed it. I thought that we could animate a character each, therefore utilising both of our styles and skills, I think our contrasting styles would work well together, and her style fits the dark undertone to the piece.

https://youtu.be/8xoG0Xv3vs0

I just like this song. We could shorten the audio and create a music video for this or another song, I just thought we could do a lot with this one in terms of narrative and style.

https://youtu.be/qeKvJenyKeo

This is a voiceacting showreel for a YouTuber I like. I think we could have a lot of freedom with this one in terms of character design.

https://youtu.be/kxnwHn0OhVQ

This is made by the same people who made the audio for my original making of project, therefore it would save us a lot of time in terms of character design and that, but I wanted Chelsea to have more of a part in the planning stage, and as the character designs and styles were already made, I will probably leave this one as I was considering doing this one in my own time anyway.

In the end we both decided upon my first suggestion, League of Gentlemen - Missed Your Train Mate? 

We both thought it was funny, which I am glad about as I really had my heart set on that particular piece. Inspired by a recent Simpsons couch gag, where Homer Simpson, a digital 2D character, interacts with paper-cutout, stop motion characters resembling the South Park characters, we thought our two vastly different styles could work well together if we both animated a character each. The Simpsons clip is linked bellow.

For context, 'The League of Gentlemen' is a BBC comedy which started out as a radio series, where three actors, Steve Pemberton, Reece Shearsmith and Mark Gatiss portray every barmy character in a fictional town known as 'Royston Vaysey' (formally Spent).

The League of Gentlemen

Chelsea thought my cleaner style would be better suited towards the uni graduate character, and her more creepy style would be more suited towards the murderer, so I got to work designing that character, along with a 3D turnaround. As many of the characters from the radio broadcast version of 'The League of Gentlemen' are also portrayed in the later released TV adaption, the character I was going to animate from this audio clip was also a character in the TV series, he was known as 'Benjamin', so I based my design on him.

Benjamin, as he appeared in 'The League of Gentlemen', portrayed by Reece Shearsmith

'Benjamin' 3D turnaround

After another discussion of Chelsea, we decided to scrap the idea of having us both animate a character each, as due to the feedback from others who were told our idea, we thought that the two contrasting styles would be too distracting for the audience, especially during the aspects of the piece where the two characters had to physically interact with eachother. We instead decided that I would animate both characters, and Chelsea would instead spend her focus on designing the settings and backgrounds, due to her liking of background design. During this meeting, Chelsea also managed to get a rough story board done, so that I could start animating from them.

Page one of rough storyboards

Page two of rough storyboards

I then got to work animating the other character. Unlike Benjamin, this character didn't appear in the TV adaption, therefore I had no material to base the design on. This gave me a lot of freedom which I was pleased with, however I still decided to base it off the actor that portrayed him, 'Mark Gatiss', but stylise him in a way which suits his character in this short sketch.

Mark Gatiss, one of the three 'League of Gentlemen'

'Nutcase' 3D turnaround

Chelsea has since sent me her rough sketches of most of the backgrounds required for the animation, which will help me greatly when positioning and framing the characters for the animation.

I think our project is going well so far, and I am anticipating how our final product will look.

Feedback from initial 'Making of' project 

The feedback from my making of project was generally well received from my coursemates, though there were some aspects of the video that were criticized by some individuals, which will definitely be taking into account during the production of my second making of project, here is an image of all the feedback that I received - 

From these notes, I can conclude that it is the middle segment of the video that is lacking in terms of quality in comparison to the rest of the video, and I agree with this. The reason that I included it was because I felt the video would become boring if I narrated the whole thing, and also exceed the time limit, so I decided to have a musical break where I quickly went through my unique animation process. However this was part of the problem, as it was said to be too quick at times with too much happening on screen, therefore making it hard for the audience to take it all in. To resolve this in my next making of, I will chose a different method of recording the process to make it more comprehend-able, or narrate the video throughout. There are other minor complaints about the piece which I will also take into account. People seemed to like the way I included my influences and the way in which I shown and talked about them, so I will continue to do so in future similar projects. 

I think part of the success of my making of video comes from how proud I was with my actual animation, as I had never produced a full-length animation from the ground up before, so I was very pleased with my outcome, and thus I shown this pride through my making of video. The animation itself has since been well received by Peep Show fans, gaining 1200 + likes on the Facebook, and 100 + comments, the overwhelming majority of which are positive, which gives me great confidence for the second making of project.