Narrative: Credits

Narrative: Making Of... Love Birds

The Making of...LOVE BIRDS

Narrative: DVD Cover Designs

Narrative: Disk Artwork Design

Narrative: Textures For Factory Floor Idea

In response to Gemma's progress on environment post, I think that having the walls and floor all the same colour is a bit too much and doesn't feel as dynamic and interesting as it could be. Here some examples of textures that I personally, think would look better on the floor - like rough concrete or an old rusting metallic surface. Then we could just have the walls, lighting getting gradually a more romantic tone.

 

 Also Will and I thought the machinery could be a bit more reflective but rusty as everything looks like it has a similar texture at the minute. Like the examples shown below:

 

Narrative: Modelling & Testing Prop (Origami Bird)

Narrative: Modelling & Testing Prop (Paper Plane)

First Will made me a basic paper plane for me to base the computer plane model on, I then created and tested the paper plane prop that will be used in our animation.

Narrative: Updated Slide Design

Scarlett suggested that I add the origami bird as it is does play quite an important role in the animation, so I've done that. She also mentioned about adding colour but I've decided to keep it black and white as I don't want too much distraction from the information.

Narrative: Presentation Slide Design

 

Here's the design I made to go on the background of our 'Making Of' presentation, I just left it cute and simple.

 

Here's some example slides:

 

 

Narrative: Rough Facial Expressions For Characters

Just a few ideas for what some of their facial expressions might be like throughout the animation. Need some more designs for each and refinement.

Narrative: Starting To Lay Out UV's For Boy's Head

I was asked to help with laying out the UV's for the characters, and started with the boy's head, I needed to learn more about UV mapping anyway so was happy to give it a go! I started by following the tutorial for UV mapping the head but came across problems when trying to unfold the model. It was modelled by Will and there was some more complicated areas, but after a lot of playing around with settings / etc, Alan managed to find the problem and delete some extra vertices hidden inside the model. It still refused to unfold so we had to cut the model up into smaller sections so it was more manageable for Maya to deal with. I think it was unfolding really slowly because the head was quite big at the back and the insides of the ears had some complicated geometry. We got there in the end!

Narrative: Starting To Fill Scene

I've added some 'Warehouse/Factory' style boxes to the scene, to make it look less dull and empty. We will still add more factory associated items soon and sort out the lighting.

Narrative: Basic Environment Blocking & Pre-Viz Start

Narrative: Prop Design, Origami Crane Orthographics

Narrative: Environment Design

My Rough Factory Design

With Will's Characters

Another One With Will's Character Designs

I made a rough idea for our environment but still needs a lot of refining such as having the paper shredder and 'rejections' lever / trap door etc..  but think we should stick with the straight-on fixed camera throughout. I think the conveyor belt design I have here will be 3D modelled, along with the characters and then maybe we will just have a painted 2D background to suggest the rest of the factory world and keep focus on what's happening in the foreground. I've added a couple of Will's character designs in here as these were my favourite ones and I wanted to see how they would fit in with the factory space. Although I can't quite decide which I prefer at the moment, it's all work in progress!

Narrative: Environment Influence Map (Factory)

 

I like these three images in particular to inspire our environment. Images 1 and 2 have the straight-on view of the conveyor belt whereas the third one it at a slight angle. Although I like the fun and simplicity of the first one, I really think the colours of 2 and 3 would really work for our animation.

Narrative: Post-Tutorial Feedback, Story Timeline / Breakdown

So after our tutorial with Alan on Tuesday we have finally come up with an idea that would work for our animated short.

 

So basically we are planning on having a fixed camera and the animation starts with a boy working alone in a card factory.

 

        0sec

•  A girl enters.
• The boy looks at her and smiles but she doesn't see him.
•  They start to take alternate glances at each other.
• 10sec
• He tries to send her a love card along the conveyer belt but as it approaches her, her mind becomes focused on something else and it goes by without her seeing.
• 20sec
•  He then sends a card with music but by the time it gets to her, the music has died so she rejects it.
• 30sec
•  He then tries a paper plane but it tragically lands in the paper shredder.
• 40sec
•  She opens the window next to her.
•  In his final attempt to get her attention, he makes an origami bird and sends it to her.
•  When she sees it, she doesn't reject it but picks it up, intrigued.
• 50sec
•  A gentle push of air makes the bird flutter a little then a more forceful gale comes along and carries the bird back to the boy, her eyes following the bird with curiosity and then she realizes...
• 60sec
• END

Narrative: Research + Investigation Into Environment Design

After Gemma had posted this on our group blog earlier, I thought I would share it further on here so the full development process of our animation is clear on both the group blog and individual blog. So after Scarlett spoke with Phil about our project we had a change of plan and have now decided that the animation will be set in a greetings card factory. Gemma had found this video on YouTube which takes you through the process of what would take place in a real world card printing factory and you can see how all the machines would work. Here's the video and I think It's going to be really helpful when it comes to modelling and animating our scene.

Figure 1:  Xerox iGen4

Figure 2:  UV Coater

Narrative: Post-Tutorial Feedback

So today we came to realise we all had some usable element  from all of our ideas but we just weren't fully there. Alan gave us a few ideas to push us along in the right direction and gave us some material to look at. As the character is working in a factory day in, day out, same routine etc... he is sort of, 'becoming the factory' and blending in with this robotic style of work so Alan mentioned ex-student Molly Bolder's 'Proportion' which is based on depression/anxiety which could link in with our idea (see below).


He also mentioned the film Mary and Max for us to watch as Max's character is similar to what we aim for our character to be, so we will be definitely be watching that soon for inspiration. 
 I really like the idea of the animation starting off with no visual but just the repetitive sound of our character in the factory process; either stamping something down or screwing something onto something else. So first the audience are curious but then cuts in to show the monotonous and dull space of what is going on. By the end of the animation, his actions will portray something contradicting his depressing factory environment and his initial boring routine, make light of his situation.
As a group we are now going start finalising the narrative and making some rough character designs. 

Narrative - Group Project, Initial Ideas...

For the narrative project I was grouped with Scarlett and Gemma. We haven't managed to speak to each other much in person but across social networks we have put a few ideas here and there. At the briefing, we found out that our animation will be based upon the quote "Actions speak louder than words" and it will take place "In the Factory". My first thoughts being that it can be about love as this is what the quote is most commonly known for, and the factory part just made me think of scrap metal parts and machines that can come alive like humans, similar to that in Beauty and the Beast, but more 'Steam-punk'. So a quick animated short that is like the product of 'Paperman meets Wall-e'.

We have also decided on the name of 'Cogworks Studios' for our group as we have a Factory theme for our animation and we are working together (like cogworks or cogwheels would). Here is my first design for a logo...