Interim Crit

Today we had the interim crit. Callum and I presented our pre-production work to our peers and tutors and got some really good feedback. The first thing we were suggested to take a look at Paddington Bear and its solutions to mixed media. So I did that-

And it is really interesting how they made only the main character real and the rest is just cut outs and it works really well because it highlights the main character.

Another suggestion we had was to play around with the bullies surroundings or how we make him look scary, for instance all of the background students avoid sitting next to him. But I thought that would not work because we already have a limited space in the shots so it would make it hart to do that without making it look like the two characters are alone in the classroom. Another piece of advice we were given was to be careful with clothing and the uniforms because if the clothes are below the waist we might have trouble animating it. We were also told that we can cut off the thighs off the characters to spare some time because they are only going to be sitting behind desks, so there is no need for modelling legs. Another point we were given was to draw in the eyebrows of the bully in the post production along with the expressions, and it makes sense because it gives us a bit more freedom to play around with them. And we were asked if we had considered the head explosion- how it is going to happen and how to animate it, and we actually have discussed that in the past- just cut the head off in the next frame and draw in the explosion later. And it is going to be more of pop than an explosion anyway, Matt suggested we looked into Scanners-

And it is brilliant because it is something that we are going for, the anticipation, the music intensifying and then POP! 

Another thing we talked about was the paper bag idea Callum had in the early stages of character design, we ditched that idea too quickly, apparently, because people thought it looked quite original. So we decided to make the background students with paper bags on their heads. We were then asked about the audio and we have actually had a conversation about it earlier deciding to just voice over grunts and noises our selves. Another piece of feedback we got was to experiment with the messaging and instead of the phone closeups make text bubbles next to the character so the audience can see the characters reaction. Sort of like here-

So that was most of the feedback we got, and I found the crit session very beneficial and we are definitely going to make some tweaks and changes based on this.

The Message: Storyboard and Animatic

Once again Callum and I divided up the workload, I took up story-boarding and he did the animatic. So I started off by making a rough storyboard with posted notes. I tried to keep it as simple as possible, because there really is no need for elaborate shot framing and camera angles so most of the action is going to be happening in the same shot: the camera is going to slightly move to one side or another, focusing on the foreground or the background, which ever is relevant at that moment. So basically just manipulating the depth of field. The first thing that we considered might pose a problem would be the background characters/students. But we immediately agreed they would just be 2d cut outs, as well as the teacher in the begging, when trying to establish that the action is taking place in a classroom and that the wimp is a good student listening to the teacher, sitting in the front row. We agreed on making the classroom in Maya just as 2d plains like walls and ceiling, and as for the characters just make 3d models with blank faces and leave the expressions for post production.

 
Then I went through the storyboard with Callum and he suggested to take out the first two frames because it might bet better to just start with no establishing shot, and it would start with the nerd immediately. But apart from that, he seemed to like it so I proceeded in refining the storyboard. And here is the end result-

Afterwards I handed this to Callum and he made this lovely animatic-

So far so good!

The Message: Character Design

So Callum (my partner) and I divided up the character design, I took up the bully and he volunteered to do the wimp. After the lecture about character design I took on board some of the points that were covered, which I wrote about in my previous blog post, for instance, the square, angular shapes make the character look more masculine. Following the stereotype of the bully he is not very smart, so I thought a square head among characters with round heads would indicate that the school has not shaped him like other students, and a strong physical build like broad shoulders and huge hands. Also I considered making the bully bigger in proportion of other things, like the phone or his table. Since the bully is supposed to be intimidating Callum proposed his eyes would be hidden under huge eyebrows, which would indicate this sort  of scary seriousness. I drew up a few sketches in the begging while discussing with Callum our character designs together-

 However I needed to take it further so I have also looked into some photos of monkeys, because I wanted the bully to have a posture of a monkey for obvious reasons.

It is easy to spot which ones are the skeletons of monkeys and which are of human, it is because monkeys have shorter legs and longer arms, their posture is more arched forwards, and because of the hunched shoulders the neck shortens. So I applied the same logic to the bully character 

We also considered the uniform for the characters, and we both decided that the bully is not going to be wearing a jacket to make him look a bit sloppy, as well as his shirt not being tucked in properly, and looser tie.

 And in these sketches I started thinking about the geometry, and how the character looks in a T pose, also trying to put his body proportions into place and start thinking in 3d terms. After that I took a look at some animators solutions for facial expressions and practiced some myself-

Character and short story design

So we went through the key points in how to design a character and a short story. So let's start with character design. Like any other kind of design, it is important to keep it simple. When you are designing a character, you know you've reached the goal when there is nothing more to add, but nothing could be taken away from it at the same time. Picking shapes for the character is very important as well, for instance round shaped characters project cuteness, trust, friendliness

                                                         

Whereas square like characters seem masculine and in some cases logical, pedantic,
 
This also reminded me about how Chris Sasaki stressed how important it is to research as well as build the world around the character, so the character does not fall out of context.
In order to make your character relateable it's important to have a back story, why and how the character is the way it is, what kind of flaws it has and such, it has to help tell the story. Which leads to the other thing we learned- short story design, storytelling tools and key elements.
First we were introduced to the key elements to short story design, which are:
Character driven
Flawed character
Urgent goal
Interaction with other Characters/Props
Twist in Character's Surprising (yet coherent) Reaction
And then the storytelling tools:
Introduce the main character and urgent goal immediately
Play on conventions\
Props and setting
Sound Design
Simplicity
Story loop, twist, gag
And then we viewed some animations and ticked of which tools and key elements are used in it for instance-

This short has a flawed character, interaction with other characters and props, play on conventions, sound design, urgent goal, and it has a gag in the end. And both the character and situation is very relatable for everyone because more or less everyone has been in his shoes (being tested).

(this is how I look while using Maya)

All in all it was a very beneficial lecture because it gave me a lot of ideas for my own character design.

The Message *boopidy boop*

When I read the message I immediately imagine someone dramatically receiving a note, with intense music and a detailed close up, the character unfolding the note and revealing the so called message to be something useless like "You stink". So that's what we went for. My partner had a brilliant idea of making it within the lines of cyber bullying, since it is a very relevant topic these days, it seemed like the way to go, and the the idea of messaging back and forth would give some ground for the gags we want, like voicing the phones ringtone and making it angrier every time the victim receives a message. The action takes place within a school classroom during a lesson, where the two characters (the victim and the bully) can interact not only through messaging, but in real life as well. A lot of close ups to the characters reactions and weird sounds, all inspired by psychicpebbles work, like Dragonzball P and Hellbenders. Since we want to take a cartoony approach style wise, Callum proposed we use the same technique as used in The Backwater Gospel- 2d drawn layers and textures applied on a 3d body

This technique seems perfect for us as we want to play with character expressions a bit more than our 3d animating abilities allow us to. Something like this-

Telling Tales- Let's get this started!

So we were recently briefed on our first project this academic year, and unfortunately- we have to work with Maya. Don't get me wrong, I think it's really important to be as flexible as possible when it comes to ways of animating, but Maya is a real headache for me. So we were told that we need to produce a 3d character model and a 3d animation and *plot twist* we have to work in pairs. I haven't had a chance to work in a team yet, and assuming professional animation requires a team of animators, this experience will really come in handy. I'm really happy with the partner I paired up with because we both have a certain aesthetic tendencies about our practice and so far we seem to be on the same page about everything, so it's exciting to see what we can create. We were given a list of titles to choose from for the animation- my partner and I had a quick brainstorm and decided to go with The Message because from all the ideas we had, this one seemed the most appealing to play with. It did not take long until we agreed upon the approach we will take- a humorous one. To be a bit more specific, something like this-

Why?

Because why not