Final Crit

This morning we had a screening of everybody's final films/concept work (or at least what everybody has so far). Most of us unfortunately haven't been able to finish the final piece for the deadline next week, however what everybody has produced so far is great! This is what I submitted:



Overall I'm happy with how the animation is turning out; most of the movements I've made look good, apart from a few pauses (particularly at 9, 20, and 25) look stiff. My next priority will be adding in a few extra frames to these pauses to continue the movement, which should make it flow better (like an actual dance should)

The crit itself didn't take very long - we sat through everybody's films in one go and then wrote down feedback to each other on assigned sheets of paper. Overall the feedback for my work was good, what everybody generally thought was that what I have is good so far and they can't wait to see it finished. This has been encouraging and motivating, but no specific feedback about any particular part of my work was stated.

After showing this video to my tutors and giving them the chance to think about it, we have agreed that I should have 30 seconds of animation done by the 6th May; this is a reasonable amount to produce to give a taster of how the finished animation will look/run, as well as compiling this onto my reference video to demonstrate how the rest of the routine will fit into my film.

My tutors said I should submit ready for the deadline:

• Just the reference videos
• Just the animation
• Both elements combined

Music Update

After receiving three responses from the Leeds College of Music with interest in participating in this project, I narrowed it down to one person, Hugo Hardy, based on the music he sent me:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/37154594/Animation%20Track%20Edit2.mp3

Initially he sent 5 samples when he first heard about the project, since he was enthusiastic with his ideas. This suggested that he would be keen to work with me and efficient in composing music for me.

Though this connection hasn't been established for long, he has still managed to compose a 2 minute piece for me! There's room for improvement (which he is aware of) but I have decided to give him until the start of June to edit it and make sure it's a piece of work he's happy with, since I only just contacted him a week ago.

I wanted to set a reasonable deadline for him, and to make sure all elements of my film fit together to a high standard, rather than rushing him into creating a piece for me even though it's not his fault.

The music also needs to fit to my animation, so he needs the footage from me in regular updates to so that he can continually edit the audio as I make the animation.

He seems to be professional and passionate about his music, so I have been happy to collaborate with him so far. Sometimes he takes a while to respond to my emails, however I am giving him some leeway for now since he's also a university student with his own work to do.

I'm excited to see where this collaboration goes, and I look forward to hearing the final results next to my animation.

Animation Continued

This part of the film was surprisingly enjoyable to animate; After using key frames to establish where he will be moving, I proceeded to fill out the in-betweens. I wanted his lean back to have a big impact, but as I was animating it I discovered that it's the woman's trail that would provide the biggest impact - so after the initial test I added more circles around him, and I think overall it looks a lot better.

Making the trail guide him in his movement to the floor was inspired by Cara Lambert (who suggested it to me) and it makes the two characters feel more connected - like he's being influenced by her (which is exactly what I wanted to go for!)

Next I need to make the movement at the end when he's on the floor look less stiff - so I will go over this and add in more frames, exaggerating that movement slightly more.

Starting My Animation

It's finally time to start animating! After months of preparation it's finally time to get cracking on with making my film a reality. For the first scene I:

• Added a gradient on the background to create a horizon line - gives the characters a ground and space to move in, so they audience can see where they are.
• Created an intro scene where they are together and separate, to establish the story and lead into the dance routine smoothly.

At first I kept the male stood still as she disappeared off, however I felt that he was gravitated to the left, so instead made him step forward into the centre of the screen, so the audience can see the space around him (showing how alone he is) and give the scene more motion. At a later date I will edit this further, since I think the movement on the man is slightly stiff in places, however for now I am happy to use this as a starting point to animate the routine.

Scheduling

From the start of this module I decided to try not to set a strict, direct schedule for myself, since I wanted the flexibility to have extra time on certain parts if needed (and I can never keep to schedules).

Despite this I wrote on my statement of intent that I'd be starting my final animation on March 7th; it was a bit ambitious of me to say a specific date to start the film, and this project hasn't gone as I imagined it had... Since it was the start of March when students from the Northern School of Contemporary Dance contacted me.

This has set me back about a month behind in production - since I had to arrange a date I could meet That Ribeiro Company and record the dance, as well as edit it and my first reference together, and develop the visual style of the film further.

I'm ultimately glad I gave myself this extra time to organise my film, since I feel a lot more confident in starting animating now that I know roughly how it's going to play out. However this error in judgement on my part in time management suggests I'm not the best project manager in the world...

Next time I just need to set more realistic time frames to work to.

Drawing Practice - Stylising the Animation

Now that I've started getting used to drawing these poses, I felt more confident about trying stylise the overall look of the film.

Some of the heads look small - particularly on the male - but overall I think I can work with this style (with some practice). One problem I might encounter during the animation process is how to draw the hands and feet, since I haven't given these characters any, I will have to animate it slightly differently to the references. However this shouldn't be too much of a problem and it will give me the opportunity to come up with a creative solution to animate them.

Music

I'm a bit late in organising this aspect of my animation, however I thought the best way to take on this project would be to establish the routine first, and allow the musician to compose a piece of music for me whilst I animate, rather than waiting for the music to be finished to then give to the dancers.

With just under a month left until the module deadline, I'm hoping there's enough time for them to get it finished... Instead I have decided I'd like to give them until just before the exhibition date on 13th June to have music finished for it, since it's not essential for me to have the music to animate with.

The music That Ribiero Company used to choreograph their routine for me is my main inspiration for what emotion and tempo I want out of the music for my short film. The mixture of piano, violin and vocals is good, it gets across the emotions of the song without being overbearing with the vocals, allowing you to enjoy the instruments; something along these lines would be the right level of emotion to portray the story behind the animation, without taking the attention away from it. Hopefully the musician I collaborate with can create something that will work really well with my animation.



My best bet to find an efficient worker is from Leeds College of Music, since they apparently reply pretty much straight away and as students they can hopefully find benefits in collaborating on this project as well.

As a back up plan I could ask permission to use Bon Iver's song, since it's copyrighted, and it would work well enough with my piece. Ideally an original piece would be a lot more beneficial to get the musicians name recognised, as well as making my film more memorable as a stand alone piece, however if I can't find a musician in time, as long as I have some form of music to accompany my animation then it will all work out.

More Background Tests

After reviewing my work so far, I think the backgrounds I had originally done were too dull and dark for my animation, and whilst practicing drawing over the top of one it was pretty much a block colour, which was quite off putting and boring to look at.

I decided to revise them and try out more brushes with a slightly lighter blue. I like these results a lot better, since it's a lighter colour I'm using they look a lot brighter than my previous choices. I particularly like the last 3 images since they are more faded, so it won't take the attention away from the animation, and it should hopefully suit a lot more colours.

The Final Background