Evaluation wip

Video link ;   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVFT2cpixg8

Our group animation is finally complete!

The animation, involving personified beer glasses and objects centres on exploiting these typical drink traits into parts of their characters.

The process of the animation has been long and arduous. As the animation has gone on for so long and without much direct consistent direction, it was even harder.

My group consists myself, and 3 others.

The scenes/animation parts i did are these parts;

• The scene layouts of the first, 2nd and 4th scene with the Guiness + Beer.
• I animated/hand drew each frame of the Beer's facial expressions.
• I animated the cocktail in the beer/Guiness scene.
• I placed all the objects within those scenes mentioned involving the Beer/Guiness.
• I drew up most of the original storyboard for the project.
• I drew most of the concept art/expression work for the characters.
• I did the prototyped animations for the project.

The main problem with this group animation was the lack of communication. Whilst when we first began the project, we were all on-board and eager, that motivation soon dwindled. Most of the story and animation substance was established in the first 2 weeks of the project starting. It was initially decided that the animation would consist of the beer and Guinness, starting off as the final animation does. They would get drunk and become drunk themselves. The Beer would eventually come across a cocktail, as he does in the final, and then a Fly which annoys him to no end, eventually drowning inside the glass. The fly is then drunk in a transition. Then the beer, now drunk considerably, would hallucinate a robot which drives him nuts. This would cause him to fall off the beer counter and smash, similarly to how the final animation ends.

As i said, the motivation dwindled by certain members of the group. We have a Facebook group for communication, but for most of the time, i was the only one who communicated effectively or initiated most of the conversation. I was therefore not particularly pleased to be doing most of the work. I constantly prompted and asked for some members to start something, but it took a very long while for anything to be done.

I felt that one member in particular held the group back the most, as instead of following the tide and flow of the group, that person became a dam instead, which left the water log of ideas to overflow, break the banks and become the animation it is now, without much plan to stick to. It soon came to the fact that now the other two characters were having their own animated instance.

Feedback from the group was lacklustre, and so we only had my own concepts to go on from. There was this ever present 'void' within the project, where it felt all i said fell into it, and so, there came a point, only a few weeks away from deadline where i made my move and initiated the first scene of the animation, deviating from the storyboard to produce something we could go on from, the first scene you see. However, because i was essentially tackling this all myself, i had to drop the fly scene, because i simply couldn't do all this workload along with my other projects.

Eventually some work was done, in which two members of the group recorded the background for the animation, footage of the bar to use.

It seems that the ever present deadline, that soon leered a lot closer, was the final kick for them to start, although one in particular continued to moan.  The creation of the animation has been cut very close - borderline hours before the deadline. Something which simply could have been avoided if certain individuals got into gear and had acted when i had.

The actual animation itself however, i am pleased with what i had produced to contribute to it. I have never done such a long, hand drawn flash animation before, so it was a great learning curve and experience for me to produce one. It took a great deal of time, and the reference to the storyboard was incredibly helpful in key-framing the animation and knowing when to do what. In case i needed to change anything either, combined with my prior knowledge to Flash, i was able to set up and produce the animation in a way that if i wanted to change anything, i could swap things very easily. I made sure to symbol certain parts of the animation for easy substitution, such as the bodies of the glasses and characters. This was especially helpful later on - when we decided to change the cartoon drawn glasses to real-life glasses. This meant that i didn't have to individually change each and every single frame of the animation.

Unfortunately, I'd assume to my own haste, i didn't alter the resolution of the canvas i would animate to. It was far too late to change this when i started the animation. If i had to change it, i would have had to resize each frame. If i did change the canvas size for another scene it would have meant that the scenes would not have been consistent, one at a higher resolution and quality than the other. For this reason, i kept the resolution the same.

Despite this, i am still incredibly happy with the outcome of the animation as, as i had said, not only was it a challenge, but the actual smooth sailing of the animation is great. The Beer's expressions flow very well due to the amount of consistency in frames.

Because of this, i still remain happy with my contribution to the film and the quality of it i have produced.

Making the Beer Animation

Decided to give the Glasses a stroke of outline.

As you can see in the first image instance, the objects are less defined. 

I later removed the expressions for the Guiness, as James is doing that character now.

James drawing the expressions [and animating] of the Guiness.

Beer Animation Prep

Adrian and James recorded the footage needed for the background of the animation. This is too add a strange, abstract, depth to the animation. The accompanying audio will make it more believable and immediately settle the setting to the audience after only a few moments. Though it is dark, the appearances of the glasses and the ambience will ensure the environment is understood, even if it is too dark.

Here i had applied it during the early making of my scenes for the animation. 

Change of moustache due to feedback.

We have now substituted the glasses for real, photographed glasses.

Beer Concept art 2

Cocktail body.

Beer expression 'feel.'

Fly.

Trying to nail down how the Guiness should look.

Different body try outs and colours.

Beer Concept art

  

 

 

The Beer will have a Darker Black outline. 'Angrier' looking features. A uni brow?

 

Rough Storyboard

2 Beers one bar

Synopsis: Two bar-la   den drinks bump into one another, starting off an unusual string of ‘guy talks’.

Scene 1 –

“The Scene begins at a bar. The setting is lively, we can assume a Friday night or Saturday night out atmosphere. The camera points ‘side on’, showing us the bar top where drinks go. We can see behind the bar counter however, perhaps on the occasion seeing the bar staff pass and get drinks for customers. The background is a ‘live’ or actual filming of this bar location. The sound emitted from the film or sound recorded separate from an Omni directional microphone. The background can be slightly blurred for the illusion of depth, as the focus is on the drinks in the foreground which come into view on the bar top.”

The scene fades in form black

We can see a bar, the foreground of the bar top is blurred though.

The hustle and bustle of the bar sound persists as the blur shifts to the background, with the foreground coming more into focus.

Two drinks are served on the bar, one is a Guinness, our calmer and collected, sensible guy drink. The other is a typical beer, angry, quick to make the wrong judgement and easily swayed by drink.

These two drinks come from opposite sides of the bar [from off screen] and bump into one another.

Beer: [Immediately gets angry, turning quick]

[The Beer and Guinness squabble in a bit of an incoherent tone, with some words understandable, and others gibberish. The beer is louder than the Guinness who shrinks away from the Beer.]

Beer: [Leers over the Guinness, bubbles are bubbling inside him, a bit of froth, angry]

Eventually the two beers steer away from each other, facing the other way.

The Beer remains passive aggressive, but the Guinness looks back a bit, noticing this.

The two remain apart

[Some time passes]

Scene 2

 

A female cocktail arrives on scene from the right, leading from off-screen.

Guinness: [The Guinness looks up and is taken by surprise, jaw agape as a fine looking drink swoons past]

Guinness: [His eyes follow her as does his body, as she passes by, heading towards the Beer]

[The cocktail continues swooning by, taking the Beer by surprise as well]

Beer: [The anger on the Beers face fades quick, becoming a very keen primal interest in the cocktail]

[The cocktail does a little shake [wiggle of its hourglass hips], and exits off screen]

Beer: [He turns around to the Guinness and whistles, tilting himself to the cocktail who has just exited, raising his eyebrows.]

[The mood seems to lighten for the two, who gesture with little incomprehensible words and expression of their interest in the Cocktail, as they suddenly have a platform of interest they both share.]

[Suddenly an arm takes hold of the Beer’s handle, pulling him off-screen]

The Guinness beer looks surprised and scared as the Beer is taken off. But he gets taken too.

Scene 3

Eventually they are both placed back on the bar. The beer is significantly drunk out of than the Guinness. Because of this the Beer is a bit more cheery than the Guinness as the more they are drunk out of, the more drunk they actually become.

They seem to be getting along more now. They ‘chat’ for a moment, until a fly comes into the scene.

This ‘fly’ is my character, who buzzes around, specifically tormenting the Beer who begins to get frustrated again.

Beer: His eyes follow the fly as he begins to get frustrated with it.

Beer: He shakes himself a little, trying to get the fly to stop coming near him.

The fly seems to target him purposely, landing on him.

Beer: He pulls a very sour and annoyed face, pausing for a moment.

Guinness: He tries to reason with the beer, telling him to calm down when –

The fly blows a raspberry, taunting the Beer.

Beer: Almost immediately the Beer furiously rages, swinging itself everywhere, beer spills and he froths and bubbles.

The camera is pretty erratic on his movements, and shows the Guinness’s shocked face as beer spills onto him a bit.

Beer: After some time the fly drowns in the beer, to which he stops and smiles smugly in triumph. The fly drowns to the bottom of his glass, his eyes following it.

Guinness: He looks very surprised, unsure. He asks if the Beer is ok, who continues to grin and his eyebrows raise.

The drinks get picked up again..

 

Scene 4

The drinks return to the scene, with the Beer glass significantly more drunk than the Guinness. The fly in the drink is also gone as well, indicating that the guy ate the fly as well accidently. When the Beer returns, he is tipsy and hiccupping bubbles inside himself.  The Guinness is a bit more lighted, but nowhere near the state of the Beer.

Guinness: He is concerned for the Beer, due to his state of being.

Beer: He acts all fine when he is clearly drunk, slow and sluggish. He laughs and droops in expression whilst he’s expressing himself. He tips this way and that.

The Beer begins to hallucinate.

He suddenly sees a little robot come along and start cleaning up the spillages on the bar. He goes wide eyed, clearly following this robot. Yet the Guinness is unaware of its existence.

Guinness: He is very concerned now, edging closer.

Beer: He keeps seeing if the Guinness can see it. He keeps trying to prove its there, following it with his eyes. He gets a bit freaked whenever it comes near him. The robot reacts to the Beer, and the Beer is a bit drunkenly wary of it.

Guinness: He is quite weirded out by Beer’s behaviour, edging back when he starts reacting strangely to the robot he cannot perceive.

Beer: He jitters, getting progressively worse. Until he turns away from the Guinness.

Guinness: After a pause he begins to approach Beer, asking if he’s ok.

Beer: He turns erratically to the Guinness.

Suddenly he begins to hallucinate that the Guinness is some weird looking other character [Kelvin’s character].

Beer: He jumps back, panicking. He keeps going back.

Beer:  He ‘bumps’ into the robot.

Beer: He turns erratically between the two.

Guinness: He is acting very bewildered to Beer’s reaction to him, unaware he’s hallucinating.

Beer turns to ‘run’ and ends up slipping on his own spillage.

He falls over, rolling along the bar. His entire drink spills on the side.

Beer tumbles of the bar, off screen.

We hear a very audible smashing sound.

Guinness: He flinches and peers over the bar.

The screen fades to black.

Character Traits

[These  posts were originally Hosted at my Word Press blog, but due to them being a bit muddled and lacking less clarity, i have moved them here to segregate them to only this course. If need be, you can see the originals here; https://charlottezxz.wordpress.com/2014/10/19/my-group-idea/
I have removed some form there and instead i am placing them here.]

DESI 1085 – Character traits

We all know of iconic characters such as Mickey mouse and his fellow companions such as Donald duck, Goofy and Pluto and it’s highly probable that just from a mere shadow or silhouette of those characters, we’d be able to identify them right away due to their deliberate and distinctive traits. To employ deliberate, unique traits into characters gives them their own ‘key’ to identify them with, visual clues! From the big rounded ears of Mickey Mouse, to the rounded beer-can head of the Homer Simpson. Of course, these are just the visual clues and the body language, dialogue and sounds all also come into effect as identifiers – but for now, let’s focus on the visual clues.

How do you tell who a character is?

What does a character like Asterix have going for him? How would we know who he is if we blotted all colour – leaving only a silhouette? His small stature helps convey it, but its the winged appendages on his warrior helmet which really stand out. The big shoes and the very simplistic and cartoony hands too. But its the head shape and wings which really convey Asterix – they also even move and flap to match his expressions.

Disney have always been very good at exaggerating features and Morph here form Treasure Planet is no different. What distinguishes Morph? For a start, the gluttonous and jelly like body does. It bubbles and ‘Morphs’ as he does into a strange, bubbly ghost shape. He almost always conveys a puppy like expression, with tiny stubby hands and several floating jelly bits. Oh and don’t forget the big cute eyes.

To any anime fan out there, i’d guarantee the majority of you or them, would identify Luffy here right away. The main character of the most popular anime in Japan, One Piece, Luffy is a star among st the genre. Identifiable from his iconic straw-hat upon his jet black wavering hair and let’s not forget the simplistic clothing of sandals, tunic and shorts. And his body proportions are in a different shape, a kind of thinly slim and ‘rubbery’ shape.

In the world of games, i’d also say this guy, Sonic, is one of the most iconic video game mascots alongside the likes of Pac-man, Mario and others. Dating back to the retro age, he sports the iconic big white gloved hands and big shoes. But he is also an identifiable animal – a hedgehog – with an identifiable colour of blue.  He has a very simplistic design, with the three back quills forming the most recognizable part of him, just like Asterix’s winged appendages did for him.

From the four examples above – all from different mediums, although, some of them cross over, such as Sonic having a cartoon, each main character has his or her own visual clues or assets which are unique only to them. Each character has their own colour palette unique only to them to which no other character will have. Of course, the creator or artists style and sense of design will influence a character’s design even more, meaning  that characters can often be identified by their creator through the style and presentation of them.