Film Studies and Cinematography : Final Project

Week 7 - Week 14 : 14 Oct 2022 - 4 Dec 2022

Tan Yi Yun 0345559
Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media
Final Project/ 30 seconds short animation 
INSTRUCTIONS

FINAL PROJECT : 20s Animation Teaser

We are tasked to produce a 20s animation teaser using the story we have proposed in Project 1. 

The scenes I have selected are :
Scene 1 (dough and oven)
Scene 2 (dough in universe)
Scene 3 (cat chasing rat)
Scene 4 (walking in forest)

Animatics
Animatic Version 1, Week 9 (27/10/2022)
Animatic Version 2 with sound, Week 9 (27/10/2022)
Tie-down animation (Scene 1 and 2)

I animated using Adobe Animate. During the process of animating, I sent in my work to both lecturers to check if they approve the motion and camera movements. I ended up exceeding 20 seconds with 2 scenes. Due to the time limitation, I removed Scene 2 (dough in universe) and focused more on completing Scene 1. Although I already hit the minimum requirement with only two scenes, I promised to work on the last scene because it is one of the most important and beautiful scene of the story. (hopefully!)

Final scenes :
Scene 1 - Dough and oven
Scene 2 - Cat chasing rat
Scene 3 - Walking in the forest (to be confirmed)
Scene 1 + 2, Week 14 (29/11/2022)

After getting feedback from lecturers, I made some necessary adjustments to ensure the flow of the animation is alright. 
Figure 1.1, Increase the speed of the tongue, Week 14 (1/12/2022)

Different from my animatics, I added some extra shots in Scene 1. The yawning of the dough, the evil laugh of the oven, and the shivering dough are the extras that aim to capture more expressions from the characters because this is one of the requirements by the lecturer in Animation Fundamentals. 

Figure 1.2, Animating in Adobe Animate, Week 14 (1/12/2022)

There were ups and downs during the animating process, but I am glad that I managed to get through it.
Amended Scene 1 + 2, Week 14 (1/12/2022)

Tie-down animation (Scene 3)
I have animated this walk cycle in the Project 2 of Animation Fundamentals. I have made some adjustments according to the feedback. 
Amended walk cycle (in two), Week 14 (1/12/2022)

Finally, I managed to animate this very scene of my animation teaser. 
Figure 1.3, Animating in Adobe Animate, Week 14 (6/12/2022)
Scene 3 (plants growing), Week 14 (6/12/2022)
Colouring
This is another tiring process -- when you can't celebrate after you have done the animation because you have over 600 frames yet to colour. I searched for some tutorials to colour 2D animation on YouTube and found a couple of ways to do it. The method I used is to export the PNG sequences from Adobe Animate into Photoshop. Then, I noticed the layers are in a reverse format. Thanks to Photoshop, I can invert them by going to Layer/ Arrange/ Reverse. 
Figure 1.4, Colouring process, Week 15 (8/12/2022)
Figure 1.5, Colouring process, Week 15 (6/12/2022)

Figure 1.6, Colouring process, Week 15 (7/12/2022)

Figure 1.7, Colouring process, Week 15 (7/12/2022)


Post-production in After Effects
I downloaded the lens flare footage from YouTube and changed the blending mode to "Add" in the last scene. I also applied the parallax effect I have learnt in class in the walk cycle scene.
Figure 1.8, Lens flare footage at the end of the animation, Week 15 (8/12/2022)
Figure 1.9, Parallax effect in After Effects, Week 15 (8/12/2022)
Besides, to make the transition smoother, I added fast box blur effect (horizontal) to create a wiping effect from right to left. 
Figure 2.1, Fast Box Blur effect (horizontal), Week 15 (8/12/2022)
Here is the animation compilation without sound.
Full animation without sound, Week 15 (9/12/2022)

Sound Effects
Finally, the animation is not completed without sound effects. I exported the video and added sound effects in Adobe Premiere Pro.
Figure 2.2, 32 downloaded videos (sound effects), Week 15 (9/12/2022)

I have added layers of sound effects in Adobe Premiere Pro. Thanks to the free resources in YouTube! 
Figure 2.3, Adding sound effects, Week 15 (9/12/2022)

Final Submission
Click here to view the linked module : Animation Fundamentals
FEEDBACK

Week 9 :

Scene 1 can exaggerate the color of Scene 2 the last frame, the character can be moving in different directions (S shape), and the planets can be moving in different direction too. Scene 3 can be shorter (maximum 4 seconds). Discuss with Animation Fundamental's lecturer to see what is the minimum keyframe to animate animal run cycle. Can start planning on the color scheme. Good work. 

Week 11 :

The composition of Scene 1 can be improved. The walking cycle in Scene 4 is good, looks cheerful. 

Week 12 :

Seems like you are making the full scene (Scene 1) for your final project. But it is good because instead of some flash shots of different scene, you have some sort of storyline presented in the teaser. Can see the improvements from last week. 

The script is the description of the surrounding, the characters' action and dialogue. So, there are some scripts that are not suitable, which need to be changed to be more descriptive on the actions.

Week 14 :

The part when you show the oven sticks out its tongue can be more dramatic. Make the tongue much bigger and almost cover the whole screen. The continuity of the oven's tongue and the path of the race track is good, which is unable to achieve in filming. 
REFLECTION

Finally, I managed to finish the animation by Week 15! This is the second most tedious assignment (after dissertation) which took me weeks to animate. Since this is a joined project with another module, sometimes both lecturers has different feedback and make me hesitate. After communicating with both lecturers, I came up with my own versions that I think works the best and successfully gained the approval from both lecturers. I would like to thank Mr. Martin and Mr. Kamal who give me useful advice and feedback throughout the journey. I realized I always came up with new ideas during the animating process. Initially, I thought I can animate 4 different scenes in 20 seconds (like what I showed in the animatics). At the end, I added extra scenes like fatigue (yawning), confused and shocking because Mr. Kamal would like to see more facial expressions in this final project. I ended up with a 35-second animation (785 frames + 32 sound effects + 4 sick days) across 4 softwares (Animate, Photoshop, After Effects and Premiere Pro). I think animating in Adobe Animate has its pros and cons but I really don't like its brush and eraser. If it is a vector-based animation, Animate would be a good choice to animate using pen tool and line tool. But my preference is to reserve the originality of the line strokes when drawing frame by frame, in which I have tried hard to present in my animation teaser. I like the exaggeration of expressions and actions that can be done in animation. All in all, this project is meaningful for me, and maybe my future.