503 - Character 2

After KK's formative feedback session with Mike, we decided to have a session focusing completely on finalising the character. We started by discussing the body, where I communicated that we should still go for the thicker body type. I showed Ceylin and KK examples of the shape design I had in mind on the character pinterest board: 

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/xxxonetacion/voyeur/

They then went off to explore this design. While they were doing this, I wanted to explore the face:

When showing these to the group, we settled on the bottom right design. I like the smaller face as it moves away from the Disney big-eye look, and the hair is modern yet not too extreme.

(KAHENYA'S WORK)

We then settled on this body design. I feel the shape language works with the head, and it's an easily posable character.

I then added the head to the body and added arms, to give the final look of the character (leftmost drawing). I think this works really well for what Nikki looked like in my mind. 

I then drew the basic shapes/forms of her to enable everyone to understand exactly what she looks like, as well as for animating to retain volumes. Originally, we had discussed me doing the turnarounds - which is why I have a front, back and half of a side view here - however halfway through KK took over as he had already done them as part of his clothes experimentation. 

Despite this being a bit of a waste of time on my end, I think it was ok as I was still able to help him with the turnarounds as well as illustrate these forms clearly. Also, KK had trouble with how the hair worked, so I did a hair turnaround as well.

From here, KK will be finishing the turnarounds, and Ceylin will be doing the expression and pose sheets while I start painting the background to prepare for the vertical slice.  

503 - Formative Feedback

 These are the notes from the formative feedback session I had with Mat:

• My blog is very thorough but also wordy - I should break it down into bullet points and refine it if I find it is taking me too long
• I need to show my moodboards used, as well as identify my inspiration and how ideas are generated more
• He likes the sound design switching when the creep blinks
• He recommended me to check out Feroce, for both the visual style and the content of the film 
• He also recommended the intro scene of Wild at Heart for the cold brutality  and excessiveness of it
• In particular, the way the sound goes from dry thuds to wetter spludge noises really adds to how visceral the scene is
• It is ok that the animation is over 2 minutes as the animation is quite limited
• The placeholder sounsd in animatic are fine, but need refinement for final film
• He can imagine the visual style being very flat with lots of layering and parallax
• For the scene with the closet door opening, I didn't know whether to rotoscope a 3D reference, or use the 3D animation but with painted texturing. Mat said that the 3D reference was probably a better idea

501 - Study Task 3 - Reading and Understanding Texts

As my research question promotes a more investigative response, this task is slightly less applicable in terms of analysing the themes as the book I chose - "Elemental Magic: The Art of Special Effects Animation" - is full of content that relates to my question. I therefore only looked at chapters 1 and 2 for the time being, as these are more general and help to build my fundamental understanding of effects animation as a whole. I made a note of the page numbers of the different elements to look at in more detail when I get onto those sections.

 

I found this very useful as it allowed me to think of how to structure my project a bit more, and gave me some more practical ideas. Here are my research notes:

The author, Joseph Gilland (ex-Disney lead fx animator) started this book by talking about how there is a lack of content out there for fx animators wanting to learn about the "classical" approach - referring to frame by frame animation that stressed the fundamentals over any technical skill. Despite this being very interesting, I don't think it relates to my new question anymore.

The next concepts he talked about that were relevant were how important fundamentals are despite the medium, as without them you can be technically proficient but lack the energy and emotion behind the animation, which leaves it falling flat and unappealing. I could back this up and expand on it later on in my project with a practical example using digital rendering and comparing it to the frame by frame version.

This then led to the concept of energy as a fundamental that is essential to appealing drawings and capturing effects. The idea is that all your lines should take into consideration the energy and flow of the effect, so even if there are many many details, they still make sense. I can use this in the general fundamentals section of my project, and do lots of drawings trying to capture this energy that he talks about.

The next concept/fundamental he talked about was the idea of avoiding symmetry, repetition and parallel lines in your drawings, as these decrease the appeal. Examples of this were used in the book, comparing a "wrong" drawing to one that applied those techniques, and it was very clear which one was more appealing. I can do something similar in my project.

Overall, this book contains a wealth of information that I can use directly in my project, as well as expand on for practical outcomes and for a source of triangulation.

501 - Project Outline

To properly structure my ideas and help narrow down my research, I created a projct outline that bullet points what exact points I will be talking about/doing and in what order. This will help massively with both my research process and my actual writing stage, also allowing me to write as I research.

The next steps for me are to go through my sources getting the relevant information for each section, and then start writing/doing my practical.

I am hesitant to start my practical till I get some feedback however, but I can start by doing the few fx animations using the little knowledge I currently have. Technically I can't start writing and learning till I've done them, therefore this is the logical next step.

501 - Sources

 During my development I've been gathering sources as I go along, as well as artists and studios that feature 2D fx animation a lot. Most of these sources are either examples of fx animation or tutorials on fx animation, which is good for the investigative part of my project, but doesn't feature much discussion. I should highlight the films I want to use as examples, and then try and find reviews on them to get another viewpoint to build that weak side of my research. Here's the document with a list of my sources thus far, bearing in mind I will be Harvard Referencing them properly in my actual document:

My next steps are to go through them properly, highlighting key information or at least in what way that source can be used in my written response.

501 - Idea Development

 After changing my question a bit, I developed it and made a rough plan for what I could include in the project specifically:

This is a good start and has helped me to simplify and structure the idea a bit more. The next steps are for me to do more research and source gathering in order to create a project outline, as well as settle on what exactly I should do for my practical.

501 - Study Task 4 - Writing an Introduction

 I started this task before realising I needed to change my question. Here is the original, outdated version:

Reviewing the introduction for this question, I see how I would have had trouble with both the writing and practical response. It would have been harder to find relevant sources, and the practical would have been only at one section, rather than throughout the project.

I re-wrote the draft introduction to fit with my new question:

Part of the lecture on how to write essays included the tip of writing the introduction towards the end, as it is one of the hardest parts of the project to write, therefore I am going to take that advice and just use this draft for the time being, going back and editing it after writing the bulk of my investigation. 

I think for the time being it is okay, as it outlines the purpose of my project as well as what exactly I will be investigating. 

501 - Study Task 2 - Writing a Research Question

My initial proposed question was: Is the Art of Hand Drawn 2D FX Animation Dying Out? 

The practical response to this being some fx animations applying principles of good fx animation to show why fx animation shouldn't die out.

The reason for this topic was mainly due to my desire to investigate and explore 2D fx animation, using COP as a way to practice and learn about it more, and I proposed this question based on 2 articles from ex-disney animator Joseph Gilland, talking about his concern for the direction of 2D fx animation.

Upon further research, I realised this question wasn't viable. Firstly, other than those 2 articles, there was no discussion about the state of fx animation, (mainly talking about state of 2D animation in general). Secondly, as I started finding more and more resources and artists whos specialise in 2D fx, I realised that the answer for the question was simply - no, it is not dying out. The artists I found all demonstrated and some talked about/taught the principles Gilland was mentioning that was lacking in today's industry. In addition to this, there are many films out nowadays with plenty of 2D fx, as well as lots of tv shows and studio animations.

There was no discussion or even many talking points with this question, and to be honest I was losing interest in it, however I still wanted to talk about 2D fx. 

The aspect that drew me to this genereal theme was the fact that I could learn about it, so I decided to change my question and make it more investigative rather than academic, focusing on that Aesthetics theme. My new question is:

What makes hand drawn 2D FX Animation Appealing?

Most of my research has been finding information about how to improve fx skills, so it's not so major a change that I have to start again. Furthermore, it opens up much more talking points, and allows for a much more practical project.

I was initially concerned about making it into an investigation, as I wasn't sure that was ok for COP, however seeing an exemplar example that was very investigative, and also talking to Ben, I realised it could still work. Rather than my triangulation coming from multiple sources of people talking, it can come from a mix of analysis, tutorials and my own practicals. For example, I could look at one person's opinion of how to make appealing fire, then study references to see if real life feature those aspects. Then, I can look at popular films to see if those techniques are applied in practice and if they were well-received, and finally I can then apply those techniques to my own work, and even get opinions from others about it. This gives multiple different viewpoints on one point.

Furthermore, this question allows my practical to be throughout the whole investigation rather than just at one point (which is what the previous question would have been like).

501 - Study Task 6 - Planning a practical

Here is my practical proposal for this project:

I intend to investigate a range of principles for 2D, hand drawn effects animation in order to understand and demonstrate what makes it appealing and generally successful. Hidden behind the flashiness of the visuals, there are many aspects that are to be considered and studied in fx animation. These include the fundamentals of effects design - shape, spacing and timing - as well as more specific techniques for different natural elements - the ones I’ll be looking at being: fire, water, smoke and lightning. To demonstrate how important the theory is, I will animate a short clip of each element with my current knowledge, before moving on to study these fundamentals and use that knowledge learnt from various sources of practicing animators to then apply it and create a series of short elemental 2D GIFs, roughs only. Throughout this, I will aid my research and practice via studies of existing fx animation, as well as reference footage.

In addition to investigating the fundamentals, I will be looking at the importance of colour and of style for appeal. Within these sections, I will clean up the animation from the fire and the smoke scene respectively, and create several versions in which the colour will change for the fire (both in terms of hue, value and saturation), and the style will change for the smoke. I will then create a questionnaire to see how people thought these changes affected the appeal of the fx. Part of the style section will include an artificially generated smoke effect in after effects, as well as rotoscoped smoke from reference. This will allow me to both compare style and the type of 2D animation used.

The end result will look like a series of 2D animations (including rough animations as well as more polished colour ones) and drawings dotted throughout my project at the relevant sections.

503 - Creep's Hand Explorations

As KK and Ceylin work on Nikki, I worked on the Creep's hand design. I wasn't sure whether to have the creep have chunky large hands, or very skeletal thin ones, so I tried both:

I quite like both these designs, but I think I prefer the skinnier version as it seems more like the hand of a creep. I will draw both these designs into a frame of the short, and then see which one Ceylin and KK likes better.

503 - Initial Character Sketches

Ceylin was having trouble with the character design, so I helped out by doing some intial character face sketches:

The main aspect I was trying to communicate with these initial sketches was the plain, innocent aesthetic. I was focusing a lot on what the hair and face shape would be like with these, and found the fringe and bob worked very well, as well as long straight hair. For face shapes, I think either a long oval face or a squat rounded face works best.

As a group, we decided to spend some time on the character together by drawing live on MagmaStudio. This is the document from it:

(My drawings in top right red box)

We did a lot of iterations together, but we settled on the design with the red arrow pointing at it, and the one to the left of that. I liked both of these, but preferred the one to the left, as she looked plainer and less likely to go psychotic. Ceylin made a good point about how we still needed her to be slightly pretty as she needs to appeal to the Creep, so we decided to go with that design but make her prettier.

I then left Kahenyha and Ceylin to develop this further. 

 

503 - Closet Scene Test

As Mike previously brought up how long and boring the closet scene was, I decided to do a quick test to help get what's in my head down visually, as well as to find out a workflow for compositing. Here's the test of the scene:

I definitely don't think this scene will feel too long, and currently I think it needs to increase in length a bit to allow for better storytelling with the sound. It was quite a challenge figuring out the best way to do this due to the different camera movements as well as the shaky effect. I made sure to make the background very big, and did 3 different versions based on the lighting on the other side of the door. I then started by timing when the lighting should change, and after that was done I did the camera movements. 

A problem I had last year when compositing and using a shaky effect, was that if you work across several comps then the image is cropped based on the composition size, therefore if possible I wanted to keep everything in one comp. I also decided to use a camera rather than keyframing the background's scale, as this would allow to edit the shaky effect separately to the camera movements. The camera was fairly simple to do, but the shaky effect was challenging for 2 reasons:

• To use a camera, I needed to set the layers to 3D. This meant that a z position coordinate was added in to the BG layer, therefore when I applied a wiggle expression, it would alter it's z position as well which I didn't want. To overcome this, I first tried using this expression:
• w = wiggle(2,50);
  [w[0],w[1],value[2]]
• I wanted to keyframe the amount of shakiness as well, rather than just having it a set amount throughout. To do this I had to create a null layer and use a slider. The problem with this is that it wouldn't link to the above expression.

To overcome these problems, I split the position keyframes and added an expression to only the x and y ones. Then I could link them individually to the one slider, and use that slider to control both. This ended up working and gave me a lot of control over the shakiness of the image.

I think overall it worked out really well and the effect is pretty convincing. When I properly paint the BG, I think it will quite good and won't detract from the rest of the film. One concern I have is with the layout however, as this scene transitions into the next when the closet door opens, revealing the rest of the Girl's room. This, in combination with the lighting is going to be quite tricky to plan.

Here are the sources I used to help me with this scene:

https://creativecow.net/forums/thread/wiggle-xy-but-not-z/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAF1x1J1GAc&ab_channel=AdobeMasters

503 - Animatic 3

We had a feedback session with Mike, where we went through the animatic. Here's the feedback:

• In the shot with the creep on the Girl's balcony, the angle should be brought down lower, as before it looks like the Creep was too high up
• The timing of the cupboard scene is way too long
• To fix this, there needs to be more movement in that shot, which can be done by:
• Having the clothes move and rustle a bit as the Creep moves
• Have him react to the sound more. Moving forward/turning as if he's trying to peer into the room more to get a better look at what's happening
• The end should cut sooner after the head turn
• Mike thought we were breaking the 180 rule at the film's first cut, but that was due to the drawing's being unclear. To remedy this, I need to add the balconies to the creep's side

That feedback session was very rushed, so I wanted to go through the animatic in more detail on the Friday. I made those small changes, and then talked through it in person with Mike. Here's the notes I got from that discussion:

• The lower angle is much better, but we both thought that the girl should be placed on the rightmost third of the screen, as this is more visually appealing, adds to the creepiness by making the peering elemtent clearer, and it also removes the difficult perspective from the rest of the street.
• When the Girl is on top of the victim stabbing away, that action should be very exaggerated and dramatic, where she really pulls the knife backwards. This gives it more force and makes it more visually interesting
• There could be more sounds of the Creep in the closet, such as clothes rustling when he moves or him knocking things over
• To show how the Girl knows the Creep is in the closet (in addition to the noises he makes), there could be a damp patch on the floor next to the balcony windows
• For the head turn at the end, the two possibilites are having it be slow or quick. I initially liked the slow one better as it would look creepier, however having the Creep react to it would be awkward. Instead, we ended up deciding on having a quick head turn, followed by a 2 second stare before cutting to black. This would make it more dramatic while still allowing the audience to see the Girl's crazed face.
• I was also very unsure of the section where the Creep watches the girl stab away at the end, as that whole scene is very long and the lack of movement from the Creep feels awkward. Mike suggested cutting to a close up for when the Girl licks her fingers, as this will make that action even more unsettling. This also breaks up the scene and makes it less boring. 

I edited the animatic according to the feedback, and tweaked a few extra bits:

I think this definitely works better, and makes that end scene much less awkward. I think the timings will probably change when it comes to actually animating, but this gives a good idea of roughly how it will look. The close up not only breaks up the awkwardness, but it also shows more about the creep's character, and it definitely makes the licking bit creepier.