Posters Overview

These are the daily project that I drew one poster everyday. I started from December 2016 and end in May 2017. Within 6 months, my drawing technique does not have a big improvement or any obvious differences. 

Final magazine completion

Improvement 

This is my final magazine style essay. I have double checked the grammar via Grammarly and corrected all the mistakes in the past. 

If I have more time, I would focus on the layout because it looks too simple. I would like to make it more interesting by adding a background colour or other layout. 

2nd draft editing

I added some sentences that relates to the animation to conclude the essay. 

Moving into modern media, overly exaggerated body language found a storytelling home in animation. Early cartoons such as Steam Boat Willy, the characters’ body language and the program’s music were the only storytelling element. 

Feedback from Johnny

Johnny has gave me some feedback on the layout and the essay content. 

• avoid of pixilate images and put figure 1.2.3 to indicate the illustrations.
• relate the body language to animation, how does animator use body language and how is it effect to the character
•  put the page number so viewer can easily read it
• use italic font on the name of the book or article title when referencing the resource.  

Final Making of Video and Self-Evaluation

Storyboard

I made a storyboard to pre-visualizing the making of video. It also helps me and my team member know which footage to use. 

Final Making of Video 

Improvement and self-evaluation 

Here is our final making of video. I spent a lot of time on this making of video and I felt satisfy with quality and background music. 

However, if I have more time to do it, I would like to do few more experiments and make the pixilation video content more interesting. As you see the final project we filmed here was too short and lack of attractive. I would like to film the actor lay on the ground and use some props to manipulate the scene.  

The group making of has enhanced my storytelling skills and documentary techniques as my main job was documenting the behind scenes. It also enhanced my problem solving skills as lack of facilities, we had to compromise to the circumstances, which film in the stop motion room in order to make a good production with better quality. 

After experiencing the group making of , I realized there are so many skills I should learn such as acting. When I acted in the scene, my movement was stiff and unnatural.  I am less capable in the acting whereas Daniel did a good job. In the future, I will read more books that relates to acting and try my best to enhance my performance skills. 

Final pixilation video

To finish off the pixilation video, I have to choose the appropriate song as the background music. I was think to pick something peaceful and relaxing genres as they are my usual style, I used these kinds of genre in the past making of. However, it does not fit in group making of, because the majority of our videos are rapids and fast motion, it would be much better with rap or Hip-pop music. 

Final Pixilation Video

 

Editing Final Pixilation video

Finally we come to the stage of post-production. Today, Our task is to edit the video together and Daniel was going to record the voice over.

As we render the video, we noticed that there are 11 photos missing without reasons. This has caused a serious issue to us as the video can not complete. 

However, we still going to use them by cut out the missing part and put into separate video footage. 

Second try_Maya_Buckid Run and Jump_ Tangent editor

• This is second try with Buckid run and jump. This time, I took James's advice that work on the graphic editor to adjust the movement.
• From the graphic editor, I spot the reason of Buckid floated in the air. The line gone up gradually but then became flat and parallel at some points, this indicated that the object has been paused and stop moving. That's why the Buckid floated in the air.

• To solve this problem, I adjusts the inappropriate curves and deleted some unnecessary tangents. Now, the Buckid runs a lot more smoother than first experiment. 
• This experiment has made me to understand the importance of graphic editor and made me enhanced more skills as well.

I also learned how to enhance the video quality. The screenshot below shows the setting I should used to show the best video quality. 

Irritating insect 2

I did irritating insect again.
It looks much better compare to last one; the movement is smoother but still jerky. However the there is a story and the anticipation is clearer as well.
The only thing that I dissatisfy is that when the armature turned around, he feet was sliding, there should have some appropriate steps to show movement,but what I did was rotate the ankle and foots straight away. 
If I have more time, I will solve this problem and make him look more irritated. 

Pixilation Experiment in StopMotion Room

The problem We had from the last experiment is that the camera was not good enough, the position has been moved and the photos are caper too. Therefore, we decided to move into stop motion room because there is stop motion programme and we can use lighting and onion skin to improve the frames.

Here is a video https://vimeo.com/8734025  that inspired me to do something extremely simple but interesting. 

Today, We plan to do some little stories about eating and drinking coffee here. The position was fine, but we met a new problem, which is my facial expression could not match because I kept laughing during the film. Today's actor experience made me realise that be an actor is not as easy as it looks. However, Daniel did a very good job as he stayed calm and steady during the whole filming process and acted very well. I am glad that each member in my group has different skills and did a great corporation.  For instance, Daniel's always eager to act and Jungtong prefers to be a man behind the scene, operate the camera and editing. Our final pixilation video might not be great but I have been enjoying the filming process a lot, the experience also enhanced my leader skills and a better understanding of working in part of a group. 

InDesign Layout Planning

I have read some film magazines in the library and it inspired me of making my own layout plan.

Here are few simple examples that indicate myself where to put the images, quotes and text etc. 

Research of Actions and body movement 

Inborn Actions

Inborn Actions are primitive and instinctive. When we are born, our body already has information, mainly instinctive, that we use without knowing how or why. When a baby boy is born, he is brought to his mother’s breast to feed. The baby doesn’t know what is food, what is a mother, or even what are humans. He doesn’t have sight yet, but he knows that he has to suckle the breast to get food and live. Almost all baby actions are Inborn Actions. If you take, for example, a baby that is born blind and deaf, he/she will still laugh and smile even though the baby never saw or heard a smile.

Discovered Actions

Discovered Actions are developed as we discover our body and our environment. For example, when we cross our arms it helps to keep our body warm, can rest our arms or even protect us. Everywhere in the world people cross their arms, not always the same way, but for the same reasons. To salute, people show their palm, putting their defense down to show no threat to the people they are saluting to. A big part of human sexuality is also discovery.

Reference :

http://www.cgchannel.com/2010/06/tutorial-posing-and-body-language-part-1/ 

Magazine layout

Today, we have talked about layout of the magazine and some In Design skills.
I have learnt some basic knowledge with grids and columns. 

I decided to use three column grids to layout the essay, as one of the principle KISS (keep it simple, stupid), I think three columns can present the text easier than other style of grids.

Irritating insect_1

This is fist try of irritating insects. It was very difficult to manipulate.
The walk seems wired and when the armature tried to blow away the insect, the movement was too quick to see.
the good thing is that I have completed the entire story although it's satisfied.
next time, I will hold more frame to show the drama and observation scene, I will also focus on the feet when the armature attempted to swat the insect.

Planning of irritating insect

The video above is a reference that helps with animate the armature. I have chosen irritating insects as final stop motion exercise and I recorded myself as the references. 

Barsheet 

Experiement_Daily Life

On Monday, We started filming pixilation movie- Daily Life. I and Daniel brought some props and  Jung brought a decent camera from a friend. Everything was ready to go!

As the previous planning, Dannie was the actor, Jung was responsible for filming and I was the director that obligated to conduct the scene and problem-solving. 

Everything went well except the camera. Because of Jung's camera was too old, it paused for ages every ten minutes. What's more, the SD card also did not own enough storage for us to store the photos. Therefore, We had to constantly clean the SD card to ensure we have enough storage. This had resulted in a bad aftereffect that the post-production footage was wobbled, because of camera moved during the filming and actor did not stand in the accurate spot. The final movie looked deficient. I was dissatisfied with this consequence. 

We spent the whole day on filming, but obviously, the result was dissatisfied. From this experiment, we learned the following lessons:

• We need a professional camera and a good SD card, ensure it won't be an encumbrance

• We need to install the onion skin. It is a very useful feature that let us see a ghostly image of previous captured frame over the live video stream from the camera. It will help us to see exactly where the actor was standing previously at any time. 

• Last but not least, we have to think some interesting content. As Kristin advised, the purpose of the pixilation video is a surreal look at our real world. The laws of physics and the real world no longer apply since we're using animation, but since our environment and characters are real places it puts a unique twist on filmmaking.

Next time, I will consider setting the scene in Stop motion room; there has full equipment.

Stop Motion Experiment

We did another experiment that related to the food. This idea is inspired by Jan Svankmajer.

We transferred the skills from Animation 102 - the armature exercise to this making of module. The skills- timing and spacing has incorporated in here very well. 

Experiment of magician tricks video

I have done a vine mageic video about mouse changing.  This is to experiment with how to make a vine magic video. It was not that easy as I thought, because of the moving position, audiences can easily spot the differences. 

Research of Body Language

Here are some animation books that I found in the library. There might have relate information about body language.

• Animated Performance
• Acting for Animators
• The Illusion of Disney Life

I found one book has a useful information in a particular chapter: Movement and body language. In the <Acting for Animators> , it interprets how the acting influent the animators and how have they been using in the industry. 

In addition, I found some interesting paragraphs that can be used as a quotation in the essay. For instance, 'Movement is almost always a result of thinking and emotion, and a character animator really should have a strong understanding of the connections.' This quote not only can support my point of importance of body language that have made int he body of the essay, but also indicate to the reader that I have read and understand the research that is relevant to the topic.

Body Language by Allan Pease

How To Tell Lies Successfully 

In the book, Allan Pease has analysis the common gesture people would do when they are lying. The difficulty with lying is that the subconscious mind acts automatically and independently of our verbal lie, so our body language gives us away.

 This is why people who rarely tell lies are easily caught, regardless of how convincing they may sound. The moment they begin to lie, the body sends out contradictory signals, and these give us our feeling that they are not telling the truth. 

During the lie, the subconscious mind sends out nervous energy that appears as a gesture that can contradict what the person said. 

Some people whose jobs involve lying, such as politicians, lawyers, actors and television announcers, have refined their body gestures to the point where it is difficult to ‘see’ the lie, and people fall for it, hook, line and sinker. They refine their gestures in one of two ways. First, they practise what ‘feel’ like the right gestures when they tell the lie, but this is only successful when they have practised telling numerous lies over long periods of time. 

Second, they can eliminate most gestures so that they do’ not use any positive or negative gestures while lying, but this is also very difficult to do. 

Maya_Buckdid Walk

Gibbs Reflective Cycle

• This is final Buckid walk on Maya.
• I felt it is slightly better than first time because I used blocks to measure the distance between toe and heel.
• This time, I used side view when keyframe the buckid and it helps me to set out the accurate posture.
• I should focus on the four postures next time e.g. contact, down, passing and up.

Maya Sneak

Gibbs Reflective Cycle

• This is the final sneak I have done on the Maya.
• It was difficult to operate the feet and pelvis but as the progress went along, the Buckid went better and better.
• There was one problem during the practice, the right foot did not fully landed on the ground, which resulted into a weird sneak.
• Apart from floated foot, I also noticed that the balance and weight were not fully expressed. As we sneak forward, the pelvis should have inclined one side, as the weight is fully focus on one foot. Therefore, I rotated the pelvis at the same direction as the foot with weight on. It would give a better understanding of the balance and weight expression. 
• If the problem rise again, I would look at some reference video in order to simulate the movement. 

Idea generation

We come up with two ideas. 
First one is Dinner Date. A boy will date the girl in the restaurant but he has no money. However, he got a magic bag and anything can be taken from there. The story will depict how is boy going to avoid of spending money by appearing the stuff from his magic bag.

With this idea, there are some pros and cons:
Pros

• simple location, only need a table
• interesting story line

Cons

•  too many shots such as close up, wild shot, over the shoulder...
• need more than one camera to film
• need lots of props such as rose, folks, plates...

Here is the storyboard of the Dinner Date, I have not finished it yet.

My second story is Daily Life. It will only be one shot of person stand in front of the wall, pretending he is walking. We will depict person from get up in the morning, change the pyjamas, have breakfast, travel to the uni, greeting to the peers and so on.                

Pros 

• only need one camera
• simple and easy location set
• we do not have to walk round

Cons

• need a lot of props
• hard to set the props in the air
• boring story 

After I have discussed with Juntong and Daniel, we analysis the advantages and disadvantages of two ideas, We initially agreed to use second idea 'Daily Life'. 

push and Pull

 Barsheet 

Gibbs Reflective Cycle 

• This is the first try of push and pulls exercise. I did not use any reference sources because I just want to give it a try.
• I think it is not that bad, at least you can see the purpose of the armature's trying to push the thing. 
• The good thing about this experience is that I have gained more understanding of dynamic, but still have to work on timing; it needs more hold while pushing the door, to show the struggles.
• I could add more frames to make the situation better, as well as more movements.
• If the problem rises again, I would repeat the frames in order to extend the timing.  

Push and Pull Second try 

• There is a obvious improvement in second try. However, I could add more body language to enhance the interests such as use shoulder to push the wall or slide the feet to show the dynamic. 

Research about Pixelation

Research of Pixelation Videos

This is a very interesting animated stop motion video. The director depicts a woman's daily life on the bed through one camera angle. I like how the things move through the room, it seems very smooth and fluently. However, I won't do this kind film because there are too many props and this is a big project.

I like this game idea, the boy was playing video games but been dragging into the TV by an unknown tentacle. Then become a game character and fight on his own. It could be an interesting point to start with, but it would be difficult for us to find a wide ground and we could not set the camera above the scene. 

Making of video 

http://www.wsj.com/video/how-vine-star-zack-king-makes-video-magic-digits/B382EADD-CA38-45BD-967D-F08B023911A6.html

This is an interview video of Vine star Zach King's magic video. Zach King is an American Vine star, a filmmaker and YouTube personality based in Los Angeles. He is most known for his video digital sleight of hand.

I have some ideas that inspired from his video. we can do T-Shirt changing when crashing on others. It seems easy as long as we catch the precise moment and edit together. We can also film the several scenes such as:

• throw the apple up and drop the melon down
• T-Shirt changing when crashing on others
• get in the room without open the door

We will do the experiments over the Ester holiday to see how it works. 

Schedule 

I have made a schedule for the team to ensure everyone's clear about what they have to achieve every week. This diagram has clearly explained the every week's task and hopefully, we will get the project done as we planned here. 

Three Step Walk 3

Gibbs Relective Cyle

This is third walk cycle I have done
It looks a lot better than last two but still odd
Especially the arms, they waved unevenly and messed up the walk.
I always aware that arms also wiggling like a pendulum, but my arms do not have any principle at all. 
Next time, I will focus on the arm movement as well, in order to make a better armature walk. 

Making of video editing

Me and Alice edited all the footage together today. We had putted all the images and video clips in sequences first, then applied video transition effects between two clips, make the video runs smoothly and naturally.  

Video editing took less time than we thought. Then we turned on the background music, Alice downloaded the theme song of Corpse Bride and intended to use it as background music. She will also record the voice over, explain the process of this project. I had written the script to her so she could voice over my part as well. 

Here is is the link to mine and Alice's Making of video 

https://vimeo.com/208205042

I am really satisfied with our final making of video, especially love Alice's voice over, as it explained our process clearly and successfully. Nonetheless, there are two elements I think we could improve if we have more time. Firstly, the video is too short that does not meet the requirement 3-5 minutes. The beginning where the moodpboard and idea maps were too quick for audiences to read. We should have make it a bit slower. Secondly, the video of the graveyard was shaking too much, make viewers feel dizzy. It wasn't easy to shot the graveyard with hand hold camera, that's why it shakes so much. However, we will make it better next time. 

Final composite

Here is the final composite of the project. We intended to put the puppet in front of green screen, so we can composite in the after effect a bit easier. However, we did not find any green background, so we only used the photography that we already took in the stop motion room, it still works very well. I cleaned up the extra background around the puppet and imported into the background. In addition, I also used the tint and colour correction to adjust the tone of the puppet so it looks match to the background.

Walk cycle barsheet and reference video

This will be the reference video for my stop motion exercise.I had reduce the speed so viewers can see the movement of the feet clearly. 

As I observed the video above, I noticed that the average time of each step is around 2 seconds. Therefore,  the total armature video will take 8 seconds that include 2 seconds hold.

Reality is always crueler than planning. When I started animate the armature, the timing is too quick and it felt so wrong. There are several faults in the video, firstly, timing. The armature walked too fast, which completely different from my barsheet. Secondly, the distance between toe and heel is not right as well. Thirdly, the staging is horrible as the viewer can not see the waving arms at all. 

The walk still looks very odd but slightly better this time. When left foot step forward, the other foot seemed slide backward, which look like Micheal Jackson's dancing step.  I don't know the reason yet but I will do more practice to get a better walk cycle later. I am happy with my progress as first time I did a terrible video without timing and spacing, but this time, I'm getting improving.

Puppet Making

Alice had completed the basic puppet in last few weeks and it looks fantastic. I love the shape of the body, she's very skinny but characteristically. We decided to paint together, to make the puppet more real. 

I really like her hair as the red colour made her more recognizable. We got this idea from a television program character (I don't know the name of her), it inspired us of creating a strongly feature of a character, so audiences can remember it easily. 

We intended to paint her dress in brown but it did not work well, because she looked bloody and violent, which is not what we aimed for. Therefore, we painted blue over the brown and it looked slightly better. Although we are not satisfy with the dress, but we got some experience of puppet making and basic colour theory.