Giving Feedback

Because I suck at working after effects xD Taylor had me look over the shots she's been working on to give feedback. I'm better with giving feedback to be honest ...Any who, here's a typed out version of what I wrote down for her.

Shot 2 -Lighting on Hamish is very bright once he's about halfway across the screen. The lighting needs to be dulled down. If the light was to be strong on Hamish then I feel like a shadow should be cast on the couch as he walks past.

Shot 3 - More orange -would contrast better with the blue. Perhaps face in of mirror world a bit later also. Hold the image of the real worlds door so the audience can take it in. Hold for about 1 and a half seconds.

Shot 5 - Lessen glow on Hamish (it's a tad too strong).

Shot 6 - Skin colour too light? Her lips shift over towards the end of the animation. Newspaper may need a blue tint (a little bit - bounce light of blue coloured environment). Again, the mirror world needs to be more orange.

Shot 7 - Lessen glow on Hamish as well as in the mirror world.

Shot 8 - Lighting on Hamish is really nice! Lessen glow just a tad.

Shot 9.1

Today, I worked on shot 9.1 where the actor drops his head down and Elizabeth looks sympathetic towards him.
There was a list of things to change that Taylor wrote up being:

-Background images of both the real world and mirror world to be updated.
-Update the animation of Elizabeth (As clean up is finished for this shot).
-Framing
-Add newspaper (plus overlays etc)
-Adjust bottom right corner of glow to mirror

I have completed all of these things, but will continue to play around with the newspaper overlays and colour. Taylor has been helping me as I'm pre bad on after effects. The glow on the actor is rather subtle, but even too clearly see it - don't want it to be too bright. The mirror might be a bit too white in terms of lighting. We are originally going for an orange kind of light emitting from the mirror. I'm not too sure on how to do this, but I'll give it my best.
The window light still needs to be played around with, it's way too dark. This would be done in Maya.

On to Compositing

I'm done with animating and will be moving on to helping Patrick and Taylor with the compositing. At the moment Taylor is sorting out the shots as EVERYTHING was compiled into one file which was around 80gbs :O She has written notes for each shot on what needs to be done to them. Once she's sorted out and compressed shot footage, she will hand me some shots to tidy up :) I'm not that great on after effects, but I will try my best!!!!

Clean Up

I finished the shot I was cleaning on Tuesday (internet wasn't working that day, so I'm posting this now). I've not very happy with it as there are lots of minor things that could be done. But as they are minor, I'm not going to fuss over them too much. I'll hand the shot over to Joseph and hopefully he can tweak it a bit - mainly the left hand.
I really should've noticed these things earlier...
- The elbows went from pointy to curved and back to pointy.
- The left hand and pointer finger are inconsistent in terms of shape as well as movement.
- Her eyes shift a bit, but isn't toooo noticeable. I did adjust the last few frames as the eyes were sliding down the face a bit.
- The eye lid crease moves a bit oddly as the lengths are all a tiny bit different.

Quick Update

I haven't been able to make many blog posts since the last post. The internet keeps disconnecting at home and work was getting in the way a bit. On Tuesday, I started cleaning up a shot (inbetweening) Taylor had cleaned up the keys as well as filled out the rough inbetweens. It was easy to clean up as her roughs were pretty clean. I didn't realize how slow I am at clean up though -.- It's been a while since I last did a 2D animation. I have one more frame to clean up as well as a few faces to fill in as I'm very particular with faces for clean up. .I'll definitely have this done by the end of Monday then I'll hand it over to Joseph, Gabby or Raven to colour. Taylor and I are going to finish animating and move on to helping Patrick compositing for the final!! For people that are carrying on with clean up, I'll give them a hand if they need help and also check on them to see how they're going :)

Today at the meeting, I suggested that we make the newspaper a tiny bit transparent, or something along those lines as there's absolutely no light coming through it. Paper is generally see through (depends on the paper), and with the light coming through the mirror world, we'd need to see some coming through the newspaper. It'd also make it look a bit glowy as it falls from the vanity unit (with the light coming through the newspaper from the light within the vanity unit.

June 3rd Feedback

Group Feedback
- Show shaking when the earthquake occurs
-Silhouette of Elizabeth needs to be more clear
- Lights flickering/ things falling off the piano
- Slight zoom on the vanity unit when the earthquake occurs
- Show what he's sitting on. Establishing shot of vanity unit with chair in the shot.
- Depth of field for background - not in complete focus
- Tie the light in the mirror more into the real world (Shine on actor slightly)
- Need newspaper clipping and photo on the mirror
- Adjust position of actor in side on shoot -too low
- Put animation in animatic - adjust positioning correctly for shots with white background in animation just change to multiply so piano is visible.

I'm hoping we can still add the image of the sunset/sunrise. This will add depth to the story and the relationship

For the title, Taylor and I reckon it should just be simple text. We want the viewer to know what the title is straight away. perhaps we could just have simple text of 'AFTERSHOCK' on the screen. The door slams shut and the text shakes (like in an earthquake) Also rather than the title fading away, it could dissolve/ crumble away (Like rubble in an earthquake).

Animating Update!

On Monday, I forgot my usb and left it at home. I couldn't work on two shots that I had started, so instead I've been inbetweening a shot that Taylor has done. I don't have flash/ animate at home, so i could'nt do any work yesterday at home. Although saying this doing the inbetweens didn't take long. i finished the inbetweens today and started working on the flow of the shirt for that shot. I passed it on to Taylor so she can work on the shirt looking flowy.
Today I started on shot 9 which is Elizabeth showing sympathy towards her husband when he lowers his head. I've got the movement and facial expressions down. I may need to add more inbetweens though :)

NOPE

Ok, so I'm listening to a sad song from an anime called Angel Beats (don't watch it you will cry rivers). One of the characters are in a wheel chair and I had  A HORRIBLE BUT GRAND THOUGHT THAT IS TOO LATE.
Instead of Elizabeth sitting at a piano chair..she'd sit in a wheelchair D;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tm7Xf9818FM&index=4&list=RDzIFV8UUs1-c

https://gargarstegosaurus.wordpress.com/2010/06/15/thoughts-on-angel-beats-1-11/

Two ideas

I've been quite caught up this week with the formative game pitch presentations, but I did manage to start animating a shot on Monday.

The shot is of Elizabeth playing piano and turning towards her husband smiling and turning back to the piano.
I tried 2 different actions for this shot and showed my team mates. They liked the more exaggerated version, but our tutor recommended the more subtle movement as it suits the character better. I understood that, but wanted to show the character being more excited or happy to see her husband.

These are the ending shots for both versions that I tried. First one being the more exciting reaction and the second image being more subtle. I like the first one a lot, but I know that the second image suits the character and the feeling we want to show for the scene - being sad.
I will continue with the subtle version as it suits better :)

Animatic Feedback

Joseph updated the animatic this weekend. He put some background rendered shots of our environment to better tie in the scene as well as new footage. It's looking really good!
But there are a few picky things that I've pointed out. Sometimes it takes me a while to notice these things - I really should've looked at the animatic more as he's been working on it. I've been talking to him on FB about it and I'll share my points through this blog post.

Just small things include the audio 'No, not again!' wasn't synced to the video. Also adding the music in would be a good idea, as we now have our music. It wont need to be matched up perfectly, but as I said, we have the music. Might as well chuck it in.
Also playing with the lighting on the actor would be good, as it doesn't match up with the environment.

For the newspaper falling down, I recommended having like 2 shots of the newspaper falling (which can easily be done in photoshop) just to show the viewer that the newspaper is actually falling. Because at the moment it isn't showing that it's falling down or really even moved.

Regarding the shots, there are two shots that aren't quite right to me.
-In shot 2, the actor is running his fingers through his hair and this action doesn't seem in character to me. I mean if I was depressed about losing my partner, I couldn't care less about my hair.

-And shot 4, he's looking at the paper in his hands the whole time, not paying any attention to Elizabeth. Like why would he pay more attention to the paper than his deceased wife? He's pretty lucky to be able to see her when she's not physically there. Priorities man. So I suggested having him 'look at Elizabeth' until he sits down then he can glance at the papers then back to his wife. I mean putting myself in his shoes, I wouldn't pay any attention to work, food... anything! I'd focus on the wife. He was her world, it makes sense.

Reshooting these would be a good idea :)

(BTW Hamish, your doing a great job! I'm just nit picking),

Rough Animating

FINALLY, we've started rough animating. I started shot 6 where Elizabeth is playing the piano and she turns to her husband and turns back to the piano. It's really rough and is only construction. It looks... not nice, BUT our main focus at the moment is to get the movement across then go back to the hair and clothes. I'm not too sure about the second key/image, maybe it's because there's no face as it looks a bit creepy. The tilt might be a bit too much.
There are only 2 keys so far for this shot, but I don't think we really need anymore..

Animation Planning

Taylor and I went over the animation plans. We only have 6 shots of animation which isn't much at all. We don't even have much action, but we will focus on the main movement of Elizabeth first, then go over the hair and clothes after. Some shots don't have much action, so we have made a system where we show the easy, medium and a bit more difficult shots to animate. This way the people in our team can say what shots they're most comfortable animating.
At the moment Taylor is drawing up some frames of Elizabeth's construction to work off as guide being side on and 3/4. This way the rough animators in our group wont go astray where she'd keep moving slightly around the screen. (Hopefully this DOES help!!)

Music

Unfortunately Holly cannot compose a score for us, as she is a very busy. BUT this is ok as we have found an alternative. Only Joseph and Gabby have heard it and they really like it. The others need to listen to it soon.

I like the constant flow of the first minute where there are no up or down parts to it. Although between around 1.25-2.30 there are some nice changes to the flow. These will work well with the 'up' parts of the scene (I hope this makes sense, I'm sure there's a word what I'm trying to explain...)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YRICEt7XiY

Coffee Table Re-Texture

My tutor suggested making the coffee table more grungy as the other furniture items are quite run down. I went over the textures in photoshop to make a more grunge like and it does look a lot better in terms of the rest of the furniture.

Prep for Animating

TAYLOR AND PHOENIX ANIMATION NOTES

SO we need to plan out our rough animation for our scene...

Elizabeth is pre much playing the piano as the husband is talking to her. Her arms are gently moving as she plays the piano
She turns her head slightly towards him and nods and smiles gently while still playing the piano. She turns her head back, concentrating on playing the piano while listening to her husband. Once the rumbling begins, she stops playing and turns towards him with a look of realization. She puts her left hand out to stop the husband while her right arm is resting on her lap. Puts both hands up to her heart and has a loving and reassuring smile. She puts her left hand out again towards her husband.

Her hair would move slowly as if under water. (Not at a consistent timed movement. We can afford to leave some inbetweens out as it would give as an almost random movement to the hair).
Very flowy and gentle. Any loose clothing would also move slightly. Obviously blinking from time to time.

References:
http://rebloggy.com/post/disney-submission-the-little-mermaid-ariel-disney-gif-reaction-gif-ariel-gif-the/78322512164
http://www.fanpop.com/clubs/the-little-mermaid/images/35279051/title/ariel-gifs-fanart

Title & Credits Ideas

So like our group totally forgot about the title sequence and end credits D: Our producer, Joseph said that he'd do that credits and I had a pre neat idea.
We can have a shot of the vanity unit to the left of the screen with the credits rolling up the wall next to the mirror. Our actor Hamish would be walking around the room (reflected in the mirror) , but it would be blurred as we don't want the focus on the contents of the mirror but on the credits. It would be quite boring if the credits were rolling on a still frame. Having the lighting change slightly throughout the credits rolling would be quite nice too. For example going from blue light to a pale orange. Even the credits slowly changing colour from blue to orange (might be a bit weird though as credits are generally one colour).

Our tutor suggested having the credits show up in a newspaper article which would be quite nice too. Rather than rolling they can flash (obviously softly).

BTW we have a gnarly as title for our story. Patrick came up with it. our story is called 'AFTERSHOCK' I really like this name as it refers to the aftershock of the earthquake, what and who it has effected as well as the aftershock of the male characters life - being without his wife.

Regarding the title card, we have a few ideas. I tend to find it quite neat when text is embedded into the scene rather than floating on the screen. One idea was to have the word AFTERSHOCK be carved into the corner of the vanity unit table. A truck would drive past causing the vanity unit to slightly shake, showing 'aftershock' physically.
Another idea that Patrick and I collaborated on is the word AFTERSHOCK to show in the shadows on the floor and it will disappear when the door is closed when the husband arrives. With this idea the door could slam shut causing the apartment to shake slightly and the word AFTERSHOCK will be shaken also and disappear slowly after. I'm not sure if the title for this idea would be shown as darker than the shadow or lighter as a sort of light source. I will try both ideas anyway.
Taylor suggested having a newspaper article having the title of AFTERSHOCK also which would be nice in comparison to the newspaper clipping in the scene.

IDEA FOR ENDING CREDITS (come back to near end ish of term)
In terms of a light source during the rolling credits, having a soft candle light flickering on the wall would be super nice.
In the mirror we would show our actor (blurry) walk out of screen and we would hear him light a match. Then a soft candle light would come on, flickering on the wall as the credits roll.
Obviously the light from the match would also shine on the wall, so it could shine on the wall when the title AFTERSHOCK appears as it would be a brighter and a harsher light. Then when the candle is lit, the credits continue.

Bookshelf Changed to blue books

My tutor suggested to change the books to one shade as it was too colourful beforehand. So I changed the books to a range of blues and purples. I reckon it looks a lot better and not super busy. It will also suit the mood and main colour theme, being blue, of the apartment and emotion for the story.

Vanity Unit Props

I put simple lamberts on the vanity unit objects as they aren't as important as the vanity unit itself. They aren't important props, but they add detail and depth to the scene.
I'm not sure what to do with the magazine stack yet...pretty tempted to chuck a G Dragon magazine cover photo just for Keat HAHA but yeah, might not be suitable, we'll see.

Coffee Table textured

Coffee Table texturing complete! Yay!
I used the same texture as the shelves in the bookshelf, but I darkened the colour by recommendation by Taylor. It turned out really nice and was easy to texture :)

Image Planes done

Quickly put together the framed sunset and images of the polaroid photo and newspaper clipping into maya. Tomorrow morning before the meeting, we're hoping to have the scene set up (even if it's not complete) just so we as the group as well as the tutors can see how it will look close to finished. Patrick will be putting everything together in the scene, while Taylor and I carry on working with the objects in the scene. The bookshelf and vanity unit are almost complete. I will start texturing the coffee table once that is ready which will hopefully be done tomorrow.

I took the photo at Muriwai beach in the holidays and showed the group and got thumbs up all round. The sizing of each image isn't quite right, but that will be sorted out later on :)