Showcase log Continued/ project update

So... brief update... that's us pretty much done with the promotional showreel, just need the sound added by cam and John. This should be complete by next monday (or tuesday by the latest.) We don't have a lot of up to 1 min clips for the main showreel, but we still have some time left to get this sorted out.

I will be painting my table and mdf, next thursday, and the base black base coat has already been applied. Apart from that I just have my poster, mounted development boards, and CD cover to finish, I'm wanting to try and work on this once I have the animation and dissertation sorted, or at least nearly sorted. :-D

I will be spending all of next week working on finishing my compete draft for the dissertation after I have completed the last of my animation which still should be finished by sunday night.

Final promo intro & outro

This the final intro for the promo showreel, it's very simple, but works within the colour scheme.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dW7LO3smlPQ



This link shows the final outro clip

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXYfiy8ZS_s

Promo Showreel update

Today Dave, Chris, and myself had a meeting to discuss the promo showreel further. I now have the final font used for the logo, and the final robot poses. I have to stick to the original colour of the robot within the Intro, so will need to change that tonight. Dave wants me to take the lightning away, which I do agree is not needed now, as it wont go with the colour theme. I'm also going to change the colour of the swirls to compliment the colour theme on the robot, and plan to add a glow.

The outro is nearly complete, the fly through text works, I just need to change the font to the logo font, and create a glow on the logo at the end. We aim to finish the promo showreel complete with sound by next monday, so I need to make sure I get the intro and outro finished by tomorrow. It means that I won't beable to work on my animation tonight, but I will be pleased to be on way to finishing the promo showreel.

Project Log Continued

Schedule: Week 15:

25/04/2011: Finish rendering out old man sequence 5 and old man sequence 6

26/04/2011: Showreel meeting (12 noon)/ work on promo showreel Intro and outro (deadline - wednesday 27th)

27/04/2011: showcase class meeting/ start final animation sequence (bully)

28/04/2011: Continue work on final animation sequence

29/04/2011: Continue work on final animation sequence

30/04/2011: Finish final animation sequence/ start to render out

01/05/2011: Finish rendering out sequence/ Start to put final piece together

02/05/2011: Finsh final piece - Narration and audio

BeatBullying Charity

recent video featuring the charity on Daybreak:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=cNGthLN3o1c#at=68

This charity would be a really great platform to advertise my animation once it is complete. They are commited to trying to raise awareness of what the effects of bullying can do to children and young adults. I have sent an email out explaining what my project is, and what my target market is. so hopefully I will get some feedback.. :D I'm currently waiting on a reply.

BeatBullying Website:

http://www.beatbullying.org/

Project update/ showreel update

I'm now at the stage of having 1 and a half mins ready for the animation. I think encorporating the static images and short sequences really do make an impact, and I'm so glad that I made the decision to have a mixture of the too. I will post an update of it soon. I aim to get the animation complete by the end of next week at the latest, so I can get feedback.

The one min clip for next weeks deadline is complete. I just had a few tweaks to make, and I'm quite happy with it. Here is a trial of when the animation section is introduced for the promo showreel.. I'm sent it to Dave for feedback. It's very simple, but there is something fun about it, and I think it could work well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLNLjXcQ2Js

As for the dissertation, I have research structured to insert into chapter 4.0 and 5.0, but I'm going to focus in on my animation, so I can focus my time on the dissertation after the animation is complete, and submit a complete dissertation for feedback to Robin very soon.

I'm also trying to find out how my advertisment could be targeted at the NHS, looking at if docters surgeries would perhaps even show it in their waiting rooms. this will be part of my project results, or conclusion chapter. I have emailed organisations respect me and BeatBullying.

Animation Test: Main Showreel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4frKJ_-NOxw

Things to tweak:

Camera transitions
to many cuts within the static images (apart from the toilet scene)

These are all things that can be changed quite easily, will sort this out tonight, so it will be suitable for the main showreel hand in.

Meeting with Robin

Our meeting today was going over the dissertation, and I'm going in the right direction. The character performance chapter is well on way to being complete, just a couple of references need to be taken out, and cited within the text more.

Over the next two weeks Robin wants me to send a completed draft of all chapters. I will fill in my results section after completing my animation, but the chapters I will focus on now are:

Character empathy within social advertising

The Project

Disscussion

Robin's feedback from my animation so far is to watch out for the camera transitions. I'm awaiting feedback from John on what I have so far.

The learning contracts will be signed in our next meeting, along with showing my mounted boards which will feature in the showcase.

Project Log Continued

Week 14:

18/04/11 - Meeting with Robin, and Finish old man sequence 3

19/04/11 - Start old man sequence 4/ work on dissertation chapter 4.0

20/04/11 - Showreel meeting/ hand in 3 sec clip for promo showreel/ showcase class meeting/ send John all my animation progress so far.

21/04/11 - Continue old man sequence 4/ Continue dissertation - chapter 5.0

22/04/11 - Send Robin more dissertation work/ finish old man sequence 4

23/04/11 - Start Old man sequence 5

Project & Dissertation Update

brief update -

Dissertation abstract, intro, character performance, and case study chapters are now complete and updated.

Learning contracts for both the dissertation and honours project have been updated, and Robin is happy with them.

3 second final clip is ready and rendered for the promotional showreel. I'm quite pleased with the result.

I've not had as much time to work on the animation sequences with making changes to my dissertation, but the files are all seperated into sections, and ready to go.

Wednesday: Continue with old man sequence 2

Thursday: Work on dissertation chapter 4.0 - Character empathy within social advertisements:

The History of social advertisement campaigns
Social advertisement methods
Examples of social advertisements
Emotion within anti Bullying Campaigns
Character performance within anti bullying campaigns

Friday: Finish old man sequence 2

Screenshot updates: The Bar and the jail cell (bully: old man)

All environments have been tweaked in terms of lighting etc, and the bar scene is and Jail cell are looking a lot better... these are just a couple of screen shots that show the progression. (the bar scene will be in black & white along with the other flashback images.) The anti - bullying campaign is really taking shape now, and I also spent today working on updates for the intro and character performance chapters of my dissertation.

Jaime (old man) Sequence 1

This was intended to be a test... and I found when I rendered it last night, there was issues with the depth map shadows... but I managed to fix it today, and it's looking so much better. When it comes to animating the other scenes with Jaime (old man) I shouldn't have this problem. (go to youtube link)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vyni0VETKPo

Log Update Continued

Schedule: Week 13:

09/04/2011: Dissertation work: Intro, character performance, Case study chapter

10/04/2011 - 12/04/2011: Continue with animation: Jaime old man sequence 2

13/04/2011: Showreel Meeting/class

14/04/2011: Continue Animation: Jaime old man sequence 2/ send to John for feedback

15/04/2011: send dissertation updates to Robin

Blendshape Test: Henry

This is a quick test using blendshapes that were already created for another character model. It only took me 5 mins... but tests like this provide practice to consider facial elements for my characters, considering character performance, thinking about what works, and doesn't work.

Promo Showreel: Intro Test

Managed to find an image of the robot in a set pose which was intended as a placeholder until I get the 3D version... but I actualy like the style of this one.. will see what feedback I get. I think it's simple.. but effective. (go to youtube link)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62Z_OBIxlpE

Showcase Log Continued/project update

This is a test for the promo showreel outro. I don't have the final logo yet, but think that the blue glow works well. (go to youtube link)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=da-SG9KYwFE

I also have the intro to finish, and the introduction to the animation category to work on. I have another week or so to get those finished, and I'm currently waiting on an image of the robot pose to test with the intro.

So now I'm going to continue work on old man sequence number 1 of my animation.
Over the weekend, I'm going to work on my dissertation. I'm aiming to have it all finished ready for feedback by the 8th of may.

Advertisement Methods: Character Empathy Vs Shock Tactics

Character empathy VS Shock tactic methods within advertisement messages:

These examples of advertisements all have empathy and (or) shock tactic elements within them. Which method works best? The conclusion that I'm coming to is that, perhaps a mixture of both methods work. Does the audience pay more attension to an advertisement that invloves a character that they care about? More often or not, the audience wants a character that they can relate to from their own experiences. I feel that advertisments make more of an impact if animators allow them to get to know the character within the short period of time.

Meeting with Robin

Today's meeting was pretty much going through my dissertation structure again. I have more changes to make, but I have a much clearer view of what to include within the main theme of the dissertation which is character empathy, and how this is generated. While this is something that I was always aware of, I now understand why there is no need to discuss anything about the actual medium, or media character performance is created within. I can always touch on this stuff, but not in any great detail. All I need to focus on, is the character performance with whatever I'm looking at. The medium, whether it be game, animation, or live action does not apply to my research. While I found this hard to process, it does mean that I will keep the main research areas focused and refined.

So I have now made changes to my dissertation structure again, and sent it to Robin for feedback. Then I intend to revise everything I have in the intro and character performance chapters, and make sure that I only include references that refer to the creation of character emapthy, and performance, and take out the stuff which is not relevent to my research.

Robin also likes the 3D animatic, and the way I intennd to create the final piece. So all I can do now is continue what I'm doing, and send anything I finish straight away for feedback to either Robin or John.

For the next meeting, I'm going to condense my pixar/tim burton case study, because there is still stuff there thats not relevent, like my discussion on emotion within visual style, narrative, and character design. There only needs to be 3 core elements, instead of 5. Character Expression, Caracter Empathy, and character performance.

Spend a little more time looking for references such as more social advertisements on youtube. (king of the road for eg - hedgehog animation about telling children to look before crossing the road)

Look at the shock tactic social advertisments, compared to subtle empathetic character performance.

Make further changes to the intro, and character performance chapters.

And finally, have at least one animation test, for the 1st old man sequence

Robin Agrees this is more than enough to keep me busy for the next couple of weeks.
Even though there is just a little over 4 weeks left till the project submission hand in, I'm quite confident about whats to be finished, and how I intend to finish my final animation. Even though it's going to be a really stressful time, I still feel excited that the end is almost in sight.

Project Log Continued

Upcoming schedule:

week 12:

3/04/2011: Work on dissertation. intro and Lit review from feedback, Finish Pixar/Tim Burton case study

04/04/2011: Meeting with Robin/ Continue work on aniamtion - old man sequence 1

05/04/2011: Showreel meeting with Chris and Dave - time (tbc)

06/04/2011: Showreel meeting 12 pm - Showcase class meeting 1pm

07/04/2011: Continue work on old man sequence

08/04/2011: Work on dissertation chapter: final case study

showcase log continued

I'm now going to be helping Dave and Chris with animating introduction sequences for each section of the showreel, Game, Animation etc, using after effects. I will also be involved in creating camera animation for the 3D robot made by Andy from the graphics team, which is almost finished (yay! :D)

We have brainstormed ideas for what could happen for each sequence.. like have a pac man like character reveal the word game, and sound waves to showcase audio, and a film strip to showcase film etc. I have a meeting with Chris and Dave next tuesday to start work on this, and help put together the promotional showreel.

Meeting with John

The meeting today with john was very useful in terms of talking about my 3D animatic. He is pleased with the progress, and it's now juat a case of aligning the audio more with the visuals. He would also like me to include another tiny bit of audio at the beginning just explaining that this is Jaime's story. I'm also going to take of "course out of the narration", when talking about the toilet scene, so it's not a case of the audience thinking.. of course what? I don't no what you mean. He agrees that I should make the black and white image scenes static, and thinks it will work really well. I just have to make sure there are not as many cuts, apart from the toilet scene. I'm also going to make sure that I make the bullys cell, look more like a cell, just by adding some bared windows, or the illusion of light.

So now I will be moving on to the actual animation, as there are no more stages left to work on. This is very scary, but very exciting.. as I can see that the end is really starting to draw near... and I still think I can pull this anti bullying campaign off. Today was the last meeting with John apart from maybe meeting up before the showcase, but he has advised me to email him all animation tests leading up to that point.