Week14

Just been trying to get all my other subjects out of the way, however Hania was able to come up with this first experiment at a soundtrack, I really like the theme that carries throughout it. It's not timed to the animatic obviously, but it's good to get the visuals at the same time as the music none the less.

Week 13

We had our end of semester presentations this week where we had to show everything we had done up to this point. The assessors were Andi and the Head of the new Games Department. We were asked to have a number of items for this presentation: an animatic, production schedule and budget, scratch sound etc. I had most of this prepared the week before and had been using the last couple of weeks to get some test animation done.

I think the class did well; the films seem to be of a very high quality and all very different. It was good to see how everyone was progressing and it was all the more encouraging to have my presentation as prepared as possible.
I believe I did well over the semester; I’ve been able to keep to my schedule without letting my other subjects suffer. So presenting to the class was fairly easy, with plenty to show. I’m under the assumption that I did well as the only criticism I received were with the background style (which I’m happy to play around with) and the more difficult piece of advice to take, which was to think of changing the title from “yliad deef” to something else. So far this is the only person who hasn’t liked the title, so I’m still considering changing it or not, I’ll wait till I get more feedback from family, friends and peers before I start thinking of a new title.

Week 12

This week was pretty hectic getting other assignments in, but I still managed to complete a rough explosion test and a rough run cycle for my fish which proved much more difficult than I thought.

Week 11

I met with Hania, my composer for coffee and to discuss the soundtrack for my film. I showed her my test animations, layouts and latest animatic and asked for her opinion. She told me that she is excited to be working on the project with me, and because I realise she is very talented I want to give her the opportunity to come up with the score with very little influence from me. I know very little about music so I would only get in the way. I want the score to be original, so I didn’t want to put a soundtrack on my animatic and ask her to come up with a similar sound. Also because I am working solo, I’ve taken a few of her ideas on as far as timing. The only thing I asked was that there be a theme to the music that comes in significantly during the title and credits, and that she realises where the music needs to build up. Everything else I’ve left up to her, and I can’t wait to hear it. I gave her a 30 second piece of the animatic to come up with some experiments. I also worked on getting my background layout painted. Because there is only one setting and essentially only one background, I want it to look as impressive as possible.

Week 10

This week I experimented with some special effects in Adobe After Effects CS3. I managed to get a fairly good test of a fire with smoke, a lightning test and an effect that looks like light through the water’s surface. I still need to play around some more as it looks a little too realistic at the moment, but it’s a good start.

Week9

I got my mark back for last week’s presentation and I am very pleased with the distinction. The only criticism was in the lack of background layouts. It was very useful to learn where I should be concentrating however, and although I’ve been on track as far as animation and my storyboarding, my layouts have been neglected.
I spent this week completing a rough test animation for my fish throwing a hot ember.

Week 8

We had our second presentation this week, by which time se were required to have a finalised script, a rough schedule and budget and a well-established set of pre production designs. I have completed my second animatic so I’m pretty well underway. The groups still seem to be finding themselves and so not much was really presented this week, but it was still good to see where everyone was. It’s always a good way to encourage me to keep working on my own stuff.
I believe I did well in the presentation; my animatic receiving a round of applause was very encouraging.

Week 7

The script has been finalised after many a meeting with Andi and Mark. I’m very happy with the story as it stands. Andi’s advice to give the fish a motivation was very helpful. The story’s being about a fish’s desire for a hot meal is a much more solid situation.
I have also met with Mark to discuss my latest animatic. His advice was very helpful and we managed to bring the film from approximately 5 minutes long, to just over 2 minutes. I have now started my second animatic, which I hope to have completed by the presentations next week.