Project Management

Week 01

FMP Briefing - Identify the learning outcomes

Tutorial with Dan (10/1/2017)

FMP Idea : My first time to cook / Masak - masak

A children illustration book - freedom to create anything, only need draft / storyline, illustrations to be submitted for competition in February

Narrative concept pieces ideas - 30secs - 1 minutes showing the important story in the book/storyline

( come up with 3 differents ideas)

Note down the ideas, generates scene, back story for character / environment
Sketches, thumbnails, lots of ideas, visual

Research on kids cooking shows/ books/ recipes/ design - that appeal children

Questioning myself.

What do children thinks about their first time to cook? - excited or afraid?
What drive the character? A companion, assurance
Who is he/she? - Age , background stories. Who is the character with?
Storyline - come up with storyline with different twist
How do I create the visual? (related to the example I show, stylised)

Start by research - videos , books

*MasterChef Junior

*SortedFood

Next - try visualise as much ideas as i can.

Layout designs, props, characters, lights

Outcome for the week :

Research on books visual - found out that the age group for the visual is actually younger (3-7 years old)

*Backstory for how does a kitchen looks like inform the audience the setting of the

1 kitchen layout : some props,

Girl character background and stories

Boy character background and stories

Scenarios / story moments

Different point of views / perspective

Week 02

Tutorial with Sanjay (17/1/2017)

Research - more styles (informing choice)

Finalize the number of outputs (complete polished piece) - include sketches, improvement,

Theme of your FMP - genre (cute, fun, adventurous) - Will come up with different storyline

Analyse the composition, colours, form

Organizing the blog

Analogy - comparison ? What is the mother doing and how the child is doing it. (TWIST)

*For next week - what is your PPR aim?

Tutorial with Dan (17/1/2017)

A quick discuss from the previous week with the work I had done so far.

Getting into details Idea

Only one character

Nail down the storyboards before the workshops

Animation test by week 5 to see how is the visual working with animation

Aim for next 2 week :

3 storyboards (Realistically)

Animation test (Realistically)

At least 3 storyboards of possible story line

Blocking out the scene - lights (BW)

Form - how do I visualize with the style I want to achieve.

Pose to pose

Week 03

Workshop with Jane Hankin (24 & 25 January 2017)

Tips and workshops' notes.

Ways of seeing - learning to see from different perspective. An apple can be anything else.
Storyteller - as a story teller, always question yourself, how you choose to make that happen? What makes it different from other? What is the message of your story.
GET IN LATE, GET OUT EARLY - story development. This really help to bring audience straight into the point and leaving mystery.
TRY AGAIN, FAIL AGAIN, FAIL BETTER - you will just improve if you keep trying and keep failing.
Character Development - Always takes something away from the character that is matter to him/her. Let the audience feels the truthful characteristic, believable. (Disney) Rightness comes to your own true
Always ask WHAT IF?
Tiny little observation makes a huge different. Common place but precise language.

We had a quick workshop activities to come up with a story just by observing the surrounding.

Outcome from the workshops is really helpful for an animator to think about writing the script for the story.

It will reflects and helps the story and character development, leaving audience want to see more.

During the second days of workshop:

White and yellow ochre sand. Wind brushes through my hair. Sand sticks on my palm. My legs sank into the sand.

"I need your hand sis! Woohoo! What a sight!"

Unripe papaya hanging on the trees. Very calm man made fish pond. Frog jump into the pond.

"Let's slide down and do it again."

Someone is spying on us from far.

Sharing the ideas with class and getting critiques help.

I came out a script after Jane workshop and I could see I change the way of starting a storyboards.

Workshop with Bianca (30 January 2017)

Tips and workshops' notes.

Freelance, accept or not?

Good for CV?
Is it good for getting contacts and connection?
Financially support?
Personal satisfaction?
Great for portfolio?

Storyboards

Story Arc
Start with Black and white, don't worry about the details, thumbnails is really important than details at this point.
Positioning, composition
Type of shots - dutch angle, straight front, extreme wide shot
Always flip canvas to check if it looks right in both side
Screen direction and position.

Feedback session with Bianca

She suggest some of the shot should be take out where it is not necessary, facial expression, composition, camera shot.

Details on how the process is going on during the cooking experience. This will be the struggles of your story. THE CORE

Outcome from previous week :

1 story script - Workshops with Jane Hankin

1 storyboard - Feedbacks from Bianca

1 illustration - Colour test

Tutorial with Dan (1/2/2017)

Discussed on the storyboard. Make it simple and tight. Don't overload the story with information.

In Next 2 weeks:

* Tidy up storyboards - sound artist

* Animatic

* 3 different character designs - character sheet, expression, story moment, quick line of action, staging, rule of third, key expression

*Colour Script - study the colour

*Biography for the character

*Think about technical and time 2.5D / 3D? 2D

Week 04

Take out the POV shot, it is not necessary in the story

Establishing shot,

Slow camera track, straight cut into the window.

These transition shot is telling information which is good

Focus on the relationship between the mum and the child. For me I feel the story elements her is the relationship between the mum and the child.

Give a nice ending of the story. Your story is sweet and simple.

** Comments made by Bianca Ansems

The panel is not necessary, the audience will understand the POV. Think about staging, composition.

Week 05

Week 06 (Enhancement Week)

Week 07

Outcome from this week :

2 character poses sheet.

Keep working on storyboards and animatic.

After the Sound Design lecture, I approached the sound students and talk to them regarding my projects.

I had emailed from Chris saying that he would like to work on my project.

Outcome from this week :

Storyboard & animatic finished and sent to Chris (sound student)

2 piece of expression sheets

3 monster design for Reece

Set of character design for Ed's ending credit sequence.

It is pretty productive week for me during enhancement week.

I had meeting with Edward to create his ending tittle sequence. I had no chance to finish it according to my schedule but it was a no dateline project but ideally finish over March.

As for Tide Travellers, I planned to work on either the storyboards, concepts art or character design. I did not manage do start it as I used the time for my FMP instead.

Tutorial with Dan (21/2/2017)

Discussed on the animatic and character designs.

Aim next week

* A new animatic

* Photo reference of myself for facial expression

* Storyboards for Tide Travellers

Collaboration

Jake's concept

Ryan's concept

Ed's finished character

Tide Travellers' concepts

Outcome from this week :

Updated animatic and character design.

Jake's concepts completed

I definitely left out Tide Travellers and Ed's credit sequence this week.

I focused on my own FMP and classmates' concept art as it is important for them at this stage.

Pipeline and workflow (WORKSHOP NOTES)

*Speed up practice

*Know what to name files and where to save them

*Keep exactly where files are when needed and how to find them

*Keep track of files

*Organised production into smaller steps

Character Pipeline

Modelling - Blocking, Topology
Texturing - UV Wrap
Rigging
Animation

Design your own pipeline

Your team:

concept/ storyboard artist

modeler

texture artist

rigger

lighting artist

compositor

edit/animatic

etc

**think about client, pre-viz, any changes, finance**

Project Structure

Project Info
Research
Pre-Viz
Work files
External
Dailies/Weeklies
Deliverable

Shared it to anyone who only need it.

Referencing - important to keep updating

create link to assets
updates when a new version is published
makes your workflow modular
version control for each discipline
everyone works from the same file
industry proven pipeline

Tutorial with Dan (28/2/2017)

Discussed on the animatic camera shots and character designs characteristics.

Aim next week

* An updated animatic

*Revised character

Collaboration

Ryan's concept

Outcome from this week :

Updated animatic and character design.

Ryan's concepts completed

I have to plan out my workflow for coming week as formative in 2 weeks time.

For formative : Aim for polished animatic, approved character design, environment blockout

Progression during and after Easter.

Before Easter, I updated a more realistic working timeline to work towards the final submission on 31st May 2017, 1pm.

Things had to be done during Easter so that I can come back and work on it until the end.

Week 08

Week 09

According to the plan, I had only manage to finish character design, 3D environment paint over, Environment colours.

I updated my colour script later on based on the feedback from industry professional.

Tutorial sessions:

18/4/17

Dan:

Character design finalised (4 and 7)
24 hours finish mother design.
Bedroom looks great with colour
Kitchen design good contrast with design of characters.
Feedback from a concept and production designer
Has designed backgrounds based on angles of the camera.
Worked from a pre-viz made by jake. Excellent reference. (Suggest putting a rig in to test movement and framing)

Animation:

Photoshop going shot by shot. To start today!

Outcome from this week :

Colour Script

Previz

Bedroom Colours

9/5/17

Dan:

Bedroom colour confirmed with a blue tone.
Kitchen colour also confirmed (Great to see changes from colour script)
Full previz was shown which allowed for some shot changes. Add some more shots of camera in front of the characters.
Needs a close up of child and mother when gift is exchanged.
Speed up the cooking shots.
Sound artist (Chris Murray)
Aiming to do a hundred frames a day with colour (24 shots in total)

This week onwards :

Focusing on only animation as the environment black plates are all ready.

Struggles:

Need more time for in between, some details of props to be added.

16/5/2017 - 2 Weeks left

Really just focusing on animation - 14 shots left.

Report writing as it goes
Blog is up to date until date

**what to be worry about

- some missed out blog section

- to label or not to label

- video breakdown

- FINAL ANIMATION

In conclusion, I am not able to finish my animation. Instead, I replaced some of the shot with still and some of them with line animation. The sound is not able to be deliver on time as well because it is too late for the design student to book the studio to add the folley.

Communication between Sound and Music Student had been good so far. It is my problem for not able to finish my animation on time to get sound and music ready for submission.

At this point, I will just be able to deliver a complete version of animation for the Degree Show.