Evaluation of AF201

All in all this unit has been a blast. As I have previously mentioned I had never used After Effects to create an animation made entirely out of still assets and I have definitely learnt a lot about how to do that successfully. I feel as though I have learnt a lot about typography, Illustrator and Cinema 4D as well. 

I have also learnt that limitations are sometimes a good thing. Limiting the movement of the machine, the character's screen time and the movement of the camera made for a very elegant, sophisticated soft feel that works really well with the message I was trying to get across and with the brief.

The brief specifies that you need to not have an accusing or threatening tone to your animation and I feel the combination of the voice over and style makes for an animation that straddles the line between serious and informal very well. I also think the graphic I created for the end really encapsulates that as well. It is impactful and eye catching, with quite a serious message yet it is friendly, soft, cartoony and playful. That was my overall goal with this animation and I feel as though I achieved it well!

Typography Re-think

After exporting, watching and analysing my final animation the typography bothered me. There wasn't enough weight, impact or eye grabbing attention to the font face or colours. Also if you watch the animation the way the text draws the eye along with the movement and various song effects really confuse the viewer. There appears to be too many things happening at once all in different places and that is quite disorientating. 

Watch the end of the animation here:

You can see it is cluttered and the typography is nowhere near as impactful. I said from the start I wanted to have a calligraphic typeface accompanied by a serif or sans serif type face as the two compliment each other nicely and make a really aesthetically pleasing pair. So I went into Illustrator  with the aim to create a graphic to place at the end and here is what I came up with:

I really like this. The class had a problem with the "TURN IT OFF" font (Mesquite Std.) as they thought it came a bit out of the blue and didn't really fit. To compensate for this I gave it grounding with somewhat of a carnival background. I think this creates a little world of it's own around the typography and makes it so that it just works by itself. I also separated the tagline at the top from the image so I could fade that in by itself and then add the rest of the graphic to it.

This along with some other very minor tweaks that aren't worth going into all culminated to create this. This is the final export of the final version of my animation:

Everything works together beautifully and the end graphic along with the slight restructuring and timing of the clips works really nicely to create a final image and bookend to the video that works all together really well and is something I am definitely proud of!

Crit & Changes

This is the animation I showed for class crit. I am happy with how it came out hover, it was not completely finished. Almost all the details were there it just needed some polish and refinement. Some of it I saw and some the group pointed out.

Change #1: Typography

The main thing that the group pointed out was the text. They weren't sure of it. They thought it was a bit out of the blue and flamboyant in a design that didn't really encapsulate any of those elements in such a brash fashion before hand. It seemed somewhat isolated too and half way between two points. I agree with that it is a little garish however, it was meant to be eye catching. None the less I set about changing the typography and the positioning to create something a little more modern and sleek to fit with the design. This is what I came up with:

These screenshots are in sequential order of how the typography changes through time in both colour and position. I thought that this looked really nice. It was clean, slick, sophisticated and modern. It does lack punch and weight however.

Change #2: Seating

The next aspect raised by the teacher was the inclusion of a chair and character. This is something I was contemplating before but was unsure as to whether it would be a wise venture. However, I gave it a go. I again turned to Turbosquid for a model of a chair which I textured to be leather and then created some assets for a character to be seated upon the chair:

The Chair:

The Character:

The Final Product:

I think it all looks far better and gives infinitely more grounding to the beginning portion and end of the animation as a whole. I am very glad I incorporated the chair.

Change #3: The Intro

I again changed what is played on the TV during the intro as I thought someone getting their arm bitten into and spewing blood isn't what would be deemed acceptable on prime time TV. I instead again added grounding by creating a fake music channel and putting one of my guitar covers I post to YouTube (yes I make guitar covers on YouTube in my spare time) into it and I think it works a lot better:

Change #4: Miscellaneous 

This isn't so much a big change as it is little tweaks. I made the money fly in faster so that it looked more realistic, sped parts up, moved audio around the usual perfectionist things I end every project with really!

And here is the new and improved version:

I am really happy with this and I think the addition of the sofa and the few other minor tweaks really bring it together as a whole.

Animating

This is the first time I have created an entire animation out of still images. It was a challenge but a lot of fun. I used Adobe Illustrator and Cinema 4D to create the assets then After Effects to composite and animate them. (The reason I changed from Flash to Illustrator is that I changed the idea from an animated character to a box and I thought that Illustrator was a much better fit for creating that art style.) I used the majority of After Effect's standard tools to create movement. Mainly I used  position, scale, rotation, pan-behind, opacity, masking, duplication, colour curves etc. It was good limiting myself to these tools and not going over the top and using extravagant designs.

A lot of the animation is quite simplistic and straight forward which I think really goes hand in hand with the art style which is very minimalistic and clean itself. Nothing is to elaborate and there is a discernible look and feel to the colours and shapes used.

I really liked the process of animating still images there is still a lot of play that you have, it isn't as limiting as you first think. I am able to create a really nice, controlled, clean animation and rotoscoping/masking in general is almost a completely painless experience!

Changes to the Animatic

Above is my animatic which was shown during my pitch. I am very pleased with how it came out and I thought it illustrated well the idea that I had at the time. However, there were some changes that needed doing to it. Here I will address those changes.

Change #1: The Character

The first and most glaring change was the main concept of the character. As discussed in the previous post I was going to change that from a character to a machine. And so I did. These are some of the frames I had before of the character:

They were too innocent and cute. I instead traded them out for the idea of a machine. I wanted the machine to be simplistic. A few intricacies and hidden easter eggs but for the most part be simplistic. This was to make it easier to see and understand as sometimes it would be at a distance from the camera/viewer. I wanted to keep it straight forward. This is what I ended up creating:

As you can see it a very simplistic, minimalistic design that borrows from flat design (the latest craze of designing for the web right now). Although it is simplistic though I still added areas for intricacy and flair to take place. Smoke will protrude from the chimney, paper will print from the right hand slot, the lever will move, glowing text will write across the little screen in the bottom left and a light will flash on the siren in the top right.

Change #2: The TV

This wasn't mentioned in the pitch but was something I was meaning to change. The TV I created for the animatic was a very simplistic design that was just two cubes textured differently. It was too basic for my liking and was immediately obvious it was a TV. I changed it slightly adding more cubes and changing some of the texture. It went from this:

To this: (Ignore the lamp, I'm getting to that!)

I think it's a much more naturalistic looking TV that not only is more aesthetically pleasing but also more instantaneously recognisable as a TV. You can also see the subtle darkening I did to the scene as a whole. This was a stylistic choice again not brought up in the pitch but I thought had a more sophisticated, suave look to it.

Change #3: The Lamp

Yes you've already seen it but heres where I get to explain it! For this all I wanted to do was create more of a sense of depth. For this I wanted an object that would sit in the background behind the TV. I could then use Cinema 4D's relatively recent and stunningly beautiful depth of field renderer to create a physical camera and blur it on the closer shots:

Source: http://greyscalegorilla.com/blog/tutorials/how-to-use-the-new-depth-of-field-in-cinema-4d-r13/

Source: http://greyscalegorilla.com/blog/tutorials/how-to-use-the-new-depth-of-field-in-cinema-4d-r13/

Both of these images are rendered straight from Cinema 4D without going through any external dog renderers like Frischluft etc. If you know anything about 3D or moving images that is seriously impressive. Anyway! I knew Cinema 4D had the power to create depth I just needed a model of something in the background to work from. For this I used Turbosquid:

Source: www.turbosquid.com

This is a online store where people can buy and submit 3D models to work in a wide array of (if not all) 3D rendering programs. Originally I didn't know what to look for. I knew I wanted some kind of furniture but I wasn't sure what exactly. A desk maybe? A chair? After some brainstorming I found the lamp you have just seen. I really liked the shape of it as the legs would create some really interesting and aesthetically pleasing bokeh. I could also use it to add to the storyline as the TV could power up the lamp adding more weight to the "not only wastes energy" line.

I got it off the site, pulled it into cinema, positioned and textured it, set the cameras up at f/1.0 and captured the images and here are some before and afters:

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

You can see a big difference in the images in that there is a far better sense of depth and realism. I am really happy with how this came out!

Change #4: The Intro

This is a very minor change again not picked up on in the pitch but something I felt needed changing. The opening video the character is watching is one I made over the summer. It is a little animation I made in Flash. The only shot I had long enough to include (that didn't contain profane language or gore) didn't make much sense and was a little intense and abrupt. I changed it to a short film I made a year or two ago about zombies as there's more of a story and it is a little more grounded (which sounds strange but I think is true).

Pitch

The pitch went off, almost, without a hitch! Everything I detailed was looked upon favourably by the class. It was a great time to justify my choices. Everything is under scrutiny and there needs to be a good reason behind every choice from font to sound design. I felt as though I justified everything to a good extent and every choice seemed to be applicable and make sense.

There was however, one detail that the class highlighted. That was the character in my animation. The class, and the teacher, thought that the character was too innocent and happy. You feel sorry for and empathise with the character who is advocating the exact opposite of the adverts intention. There were a few solutions to this I had immediately thought of. The first was to make him look more evil with a cape, top hat, monocle, cane, moustache etc. I also thought of giving him a voice and dialogue to express evil intent. However, Both of those option I think were too complicated and time consuming. Lip syncing and complicated re-drawing are something that is difficult and I think in the time constraints my time would be better used changing the subject somewhat and focussing on another design or storyline.

I then came up with a machine. A faceless box that would be doing wrong and then be shut off by the TV turning off.

In Search of Music

This project needs a soundtrack. There are a few different ideas floating around in my head for what will be on the soundtrack in terms of music at the moment. Most of them happy, upbeat and acoustic. I don't want to conform really to a stereotypical happy, upbeat and acoustic song over the advert. We've heard it all before and it I want inject a little excitement and difference into my advert with an exciting, interesting soundtrack.

Gustavo Santaolalla:

Source: http://www.isfmf.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Gustavo-Santaolalla.jpg

This man, originally born in Argentina now living in America, is quite an abstract and experimental composer. His music is often constructed using relatively unheard of instruments or regular instruments played in unusual ways. I think his music is astounding; it is chaotic, unstable, beauty. He recently recorded the soundtrack to the popular video game "The Last Of Us". His work on that game was mind blowing and brought him to my attention. Here's one of my favourites of his:

His music is usually quite mellow and downbeat. It is often in a minor key and has a sad, serious feeling attached to it. This wouldn't suit some of the ideas in my head but could suit others. He has a lot of music and I have only recently began listening to his songs and so am not entirely sure if there is one to fit perfectly at this point however, I would love to include some of his work in my advert as it has such a strong impact and resonance I think would add weight alongside having a more lasting impact on the viewer.

I would love to include his work in some capacity as I think it is really original and doesn't go with the stereotypical advert music we've all heard 1,000,000,000 times in every advert ever. It breaks the mould and will add memorability. Think of the Lloyds TSB adverts and the advert for We Buy Any Car dot com. The soundtrack to those adverts make them stick in our minds and create a lot of the charm. This makes me really want to incorporate Gustavo's work however, if it doesn't fit or gel correctly then I'm not going to shoe horn it in.

Honourable Mentions:

The Stereotypes:

The Drums:

Kimbra:

Excision Downlink:

These songs are all varied and out there and different and yet I think they would all work with the ideas in my head however, they are quite specific. Once I have finalised an idea and style I will finalise the song also.

The Method

I have a few ideas floating about now. I am struggling to focus in on one and pin it down to a specific theme or style. I think what will help is deciding a method for animation. The two ideas for this I am considering at the moment are Flash and Cinema 4D. Obviously I wouldn't only use Flash or Cinema 4D however, they would be a pivotal piece of software and would dictate the style massively. And also I would only use the program to create the assets and do a little bit of animation. The majority of the movement and animation will be done using After Effects.

Cinema 4D:

This is a really, really powerful program used to animate films such as Ice Age and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, along with countless cinematic movie title sequences. It allows users to create and edit 3D objects. You can then apply complicated animation techniques and transformation principles. It deals with lighting and reflections in a very professional and convincing manor along with shadows, sub-surface scattering and even physics simulations. You can create anything from photo real images to completely over exaggerated cartoony simplified images. Here are some example images and renders from Cinema 4D that detail both:

Source: http://www.maxon.net/uploads/pics/StarringRole_cloudy2cs_03.jpg

Source: http://www.maxon.net/uploads/pics/1313_IP02_V04_TH_03.jpg

Source: http://www.maxon.net/uploads/pics/3rdparty_11.jpg

Source: http://greyscalegorilla.com/blog/store/hdri-studio-pack/

As you can see you can render truly beautiful imagery. Whether simple or more complex it doesn't matter the lighting, reflections and the like will (providing you put the time and effort into it) all come out beautifully and make a very polished and pretty final image. It is an amazing tool with infinite possibilities. You do not have to go down the photo real route with the program and I probably will not.  I envision through my use of the program either a far more simplistic rendering or or just fewer details. Perhaps a simple representations of objects being realistically lighted would create some interesting juxtaposition and cause interest. They will scale in, revolve and scale out to add visual significance/interest to add attention to a point. I think that I can successfully achieve this as I have already had copious practice in Cinema 4D and After Effects which gives me confidence in my abilities and allows me to create quite a vivid vision of what I can create.

This is an example of the type of animation I am looking to create using this program:

I don't wish to recreate the lettering and other such things more the look, feel and voice over style. Professional and reassuring yet calm and chatty. I think that the graphical style that the 3D images and the graphical style is really simplistic and geometric enough to be turned into letters yet it has underlying detail and precision. I think this is a great juxtaposition of simplicity and attention to detail and something I wish to emulate if possible.

Flash:

Flash is a great program for animation. I would go down a more light-hearted, humorous route with this art style. It is very cartoony and light-hearted in nature. I draw inspiration from sites like YouTube and Newgrounds for my use of Flash. It is a very exaggerated hyper real look that I pursue. I could obviously dial it down if my idea so required however, I would have to see where my ideas lead me. With Flash I would probably look to create a far more animated and alive story line with more movement and life. This would lend itself well to the advert but it may look very amateur and unsuitable. Cinema 4D and the like I think lend themselves more to the style of advert and the overarching message however, there are successful examples that state quite the opposite. Here are some examples of creations birthed through the use of Flash:

Source: http://art.ngfiles.com/images/80/cloudeater_cloudy-s-flash-drawings.jpg

Source: http://meta.filesmelt.com/downloader.php?file=Face8.png

Source: http://static.giantbomb.com/uploads/original/18/181336/2482223-egoraptor-149870.png

So as you can see the artwork that I draw inspiration from in Flash is very cartoony however, it is graphically accomplished. My favourite part of the Flash drawing style is the shading from the last image. Very blocky lines and fills where there should be shadow in a darker shade (but only slightly) to the tone it is shadowing is a very appealing technique I think. It deals with shadows in a very cartoony manor yet it looks great and if anything makes the figure or object look more natural. Flash is incredibly time consuming to animate however, I will only be doing the minimal amount possible of animation in Flash itself. I will be doing the majority of the animation and tweaks in After Effects as the brief dictates. 

Here is an example of (what I believe to be) Flash animation that is very successful and what I would hope model my animation off:

This is a hugely popular animation in YouTube promoting safety around trains. It is a really colourful, playful, fun animation that has a great graphical style and tons of humour. It is partly the song and partly the animation, they go so well together. The animation itself is smooth, simple and basic. This is a fine example of a little goes a long way. The animations that are on display are simple tweens and pose to pose animation. If I want to go down the Flash route then I think I will try to emulate this style very closely.

Techniques

I have lightly dabbled with animation before and as such I have picked up on a few techniques already. I found them on the internet and found them very helpful with the animations I have attempted in the past.

Phonemes:

These are basically mouth shapes. This is very helpful for animating speech. In animation it is essential to record any speech before attempting to animate a scene. The speech is key to the feel, timing and technical aspects of the scene. If you animate before hand and make the actor try to speak along with the speed you have already determined it will be awful. As such, you record the speech then go in to animate. The easiest way to make it look realistic is with phonemes. These are basically pre-drawn mouth shapes. They are drawn representations of the shape the mouth makes when certain common sounds of speech are produced, for example A, E, O, TH, L those kinds of things. The idea is you make enough shapes to cover all your bases (and to be thorough draw them at multiple angles) then you can just drop them in your scene when they are requires. Here is an example of phonemes:

(Source: http://faucgutier8.wordpress.com/2012/07/09/pa1/)

As you can see you don't need to draw many to be effective and they save an enormous amount of time in the long run. In flash in particular you can model your character then draw each mouth shape out in turn on separate keyframes. Then just place each phoneme in it's own symbol. You can then listen to the audio track in flash and when you hear a certain sound just drag in the corresponding mouth shape to the correct place on the face (for which you can use crosses and other similar markers to ensure each mouth is in the exact same spot each time). It is a very helpful and realistic tool. You can even create elaborate transitions if you wish to although that can be quite time consuming and isn't really required for simple animations. Simply placing the shapes one after another with no transition will suffice.

Onion Skinning:

Onion skinning is essential in hand drawn animation. It is used to see a reference for the previous frame(s). It is essential for movement and can even help in the placement of phonemes. It has been used for years from when everything was drawn by hand through to the modern day with there being a dedicated onion skin feature built into the timeline in Flash. This is an example of what onion skinning looks like:

(Source: http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flash/articles/design_character_pt1.html)

This shows onion skinning in a very simple way. Animation is done using frames. You draw a sequence of images that could say, progress through a movement and then layer them one after the other and play them back at speed. Onion skinning allows you to see the previous frames without them being editable (or getting in the way). You can then see where the object was in the last frame and draw the next frame in a more natural position than using mere guess work. Getting to grips with the feature and learning how to use it effectively is utterly essential when dealing with any kind of motion.

Boiling:

This is a lesser known and lesser used feature in animation at a beginner level. It is the image jittering and moving slightly frame to frame. The outline of a character doesn't stay rock solid it instead moves and jumps around. This looks unnatural however, it is still used in some circles. Technological advances make it possible to eliminate boiling yet people go out of their way to include it. It all stems from when animators used to have to hand draw every single frame in the animation. No matter how good any given artist/animator is, it is impossible to exactly copy the previous frame. To get each line exactly where the last line lay. These subtle discrepancies in the drawings frame to frame cause the lines to look as though they are moving slightly throughout the video. This is known as boiling (because it looks as though the image is boiling and bubbling slightly).

Now the real way to achieve this effect is massively time consuming as you need to draw out each frame independently and one after the other. And in a 24fps video that can take a while. There is a cheat you can use on Flash that looks like quite realistic boiling but takes a fraction of the time. when you draw characters and key features you merely make them into a symbol. After that in the symbol view for the image you create a second frame in the timeline and make it a keyframe, then in the second frame select everything and smooth it using the smooth feature on the tool panel. This smooths all the lines and softens the edges creating a subtle movement in all the lines. Now when you place the symbol in a timeline with more than two frames it will loop the two subtly different frames over and over creating the illusion that the outline has been re-drawn through every frame. This is considered a cheat and is looked down upon by the more professional animators who still draw every frame. For beginner animators however, it is a godsend and a pretty effective/convincing feature to have in your toolset.

Principles of Animation

There are many principles of animation that have been used and perfected over the years to help make animated imagery more natural and believable. The majority of the principles are to make the imagery more fluid and less rigid. This is one of the main things that stands out as glaringly unnatural, the movement of the characters and the world they inhabit. Weight and momentum are two things that plague animators in all mediums and has done for years. It is infamous within the industry and can separate a piece from being good or exceptional. It is obvious in films like Transformers and Pacific Rim. Everything has weight and reacts effectively. It is a trait that is essential when dealing with anything that is meant to be photo real or composited in amongst live action footage. Below I will detail a few of the principles for more simplistic animation that I think will appeal to me and the style of design I want to try and create.

Squash & Stretch:

This is to do with movement and weight. When something moves it will thin out and create the idea of stretching due to motion. Also when things come to a sudden stop they will squash into a narrower shape to exaggerate the idea of stopping suddenly. This is used because it is very difficult to accurately draw what would happen to a real person if similar forces were applied. It would be exceptionally time consuming and very, very difficult. It is easier to cross over into the extreme and exaggerate it. This can be used to comic effect or used to a slightly lesser extent to merely make the object appear more natural and breath life into it.

Staging:

This is the act of positioning characters and objects in a way that makes sense. It is near identical to "blocking". This is a principle in the film and theatre industry. This is where you position the actors on stage and almost choreograph where they will be at each moment and beat. This creates a predictable pattern for the cameras or audience to follow and is very important. It also helps the actors to anticipate certain actions and keep themselves in a good position. It can also be used past the mere function to imply moods or importance within the characters. It is used to make sure characters face the camera/audience when required and, particularly in film and animation where there can be multiple cuts and changes in perspective, keep the camera in a reliable position that the audience can recognise and understand.

Followthrough & Overlapping Action:

These are two fairly similar principles. Both are to create more realistic and natural movement. Followthrough action is similar to the squash and stretch technique detailed earlier. It is where a certain part of the body carries on moving even after the character has stopped. For example hair sways after the character has finished turning their head. A dress flows forward after the character has finished running. It ensures that it looks as though there is gravity and dynamism to the scene and again helps to breath life into the characters and their surroundings. It can also be used to an exaggerated extent to create a comic effect. This is visible in films by "egoraptor"on YouTube whereby characters body parts flail around crazily giving the impression that the character has limited control over his body. Overlapping is similar and means that multiple actions are taking place at once. For example an arm moves for longer than a head. This again creates a more natural and imperfect animation that looks less mathematical and formulaic. It creates a more human character and helps to make sure that theres always something to look at and motion to the scene/character and the audience is not just watching a static drawn image.

Arcs:

This is again a principle to do with weight. Most natural objects tend to move in an arched trajectory. If something is thrown or becomes airborne without lift it will fall back down. This gives the scene gravity and a sense of grounded realism. It is quite a simple, self explanatory rule that basically means that nothing in the scene defies gravity or becomes glaringly obvious as broken or unnatural.

Exaggeration:

This is similar to other principles previously discussed however, this is (surprisingly) more subtle. It is more to do with facial animation and other such subtleties. realistic and plain animation looks dull and lifeless in animation. The extent of exaggeration can vary depending on what look and feel the animator is going for. It can merely exaggerate a facial expression to make it more recognisable to the audience or it can massively morph the face into a completely unnatural expression for comic effect.

Secondary Action:

This is very similar to the idea of overlapping action. It is adding other forms of animation into the scene. A curtain blowing in the wind perhaps or a fan rotating. Anything at all into the background. This gives the scene in it's entirety life and depth. Nothing is notably static and lifeless there are subtle hints to other occurrences. This is quite important and usually forgotten where animators will just draw a static background but when done well it can be immensely powerful and can even be used to tell other miniature stories or tell side gags.

These are just a few of, in my view, the most important principles at the level of animation I am to be attempting. They all help to just breath life into the scene and engage the audience. Most of them appeal to character animation and frame by frame/stop motion animation however, I feel they are applicable to a wider array of animation types.

AF201 - The Brief

Our first project in the second year of the course is to create an animation. The message to be conveyed is one of change. We have been asked to create an informative animation dealing with the subject of climate change. We need to create a short 20-30 second piece which advises people on possible alternative methods of dealing with day to day struggles that will in turn positively effect the climate. Alternative means of transport, alternative places to buy food, alternative ways of buying new objects and of disposing of old objects.

We have to focus in on one of the previously mentioned aspects then produce an animation to convey any information we feel necessary. The animation must also be accompanied by a soundtrack. This can contain music, a voice over and sound effects. The piece must not be condescending or accusing but instead a gentle offering of information. 

We also need to research design principles and take note of them. We should then implement them in our animation.