Animation Planning

I am making a trailer for my animation. It will be stop motion of lego. It will be like The Lego Movie trailer. It will be a comedy but have action/adventure. 

I have chosen to do stop motion with lego because I feel that my story can be seen more clear and I can more of a detail background and add more detail in than I could with rotoscoping etc due to there only having a limited amount of time to create a 2 minute sequence. Also I like the way stop-motion with lego looks, it looks more like a film and lego movies tend to be comedy. It is a family film as it is suitable for all ages and has humor for all ages to understand. 

Storyline: 

Two police officers are best friends who live together, work together and even go to the toilet together. Bob and Fred are both idiotic and clumsy and very simple men. You wonder how they became police men because they are terrible at their job. The big storyline of the film is they get put on their final warning at work otherwise they are fired and get one last chance to prove they are worth being police officers. Their chance is to capture The Thrillinator who has escape from prison. In the trailer many scenes are shown such as: 

-Beginning- Starts of introducing them in their apartment, in bed, alarms goes off, both raise from bed smiling. They both try to get though the door at the same time getting stuck, tries again, stuck again. Cuts to them both sitting on the toilet next to each other, Bob ask's Fred for some toilet roll. 

-Driving to work, listening to a typical girly song singing to it. Bob parks up but hits the car infront. Fred "Oh no, not again Bob!" Bob "Sorry" reverses car back into the car behind them "Opps" awkward giggle. Both get out of car leaving a smashed up car behind. 

-Office scene with boss telling them they only have one chance left, introduces The Thrillinator, a girly girl appears "hello there" waving and smiling. 

-When driving looking for The Thrillinator they make a wrong turn and go onto a beach. They look at each other and try to take their clothes off, bob "dude they won't come of". Fred is on the floor in half "Yeah I know, I pulled too hard". 

-Still on the beach when working things out with the teens, Bob get's shot, he blames it on Fred who has no idea what Bob is going on about. A storm trooper comes into the scene and giggles awkwardly "Oh sorry wrong film", walks off but comes back with a "Hi mum" sign. Fred kicks him off. 

-Walking in the street, tells off lady for walking too fast, stops her and questions her. Fast car drives past (The Thrillinator is driving) and cheers it on saying it's "awesome!". 

Bunny Mini Animation

Jumping Over Ball GIF

I did this by first importing the jump sequence into Flash, I then inserted a blank keyframe on every frame by clicking on 'ctrl' and a box will appear where I clicked 'Insert blank keyframe'. After this I dragged each stage of the jumping onto each keyframe.

To have the ball added I made a new layer from the layer button on the left bottom of the box. On the first frame I made a ball and added out of the white paper box. Finally clicking 'ctrl' on the last frame, I clicked 'motion tween' and dragged the ball to the other side of the white box. Flash will automatically do the movement for you. There I have my GIF!

Target Audience

Name: Ben

Age: 15

Gender: Male

Average Day: Ben goes to Secondary School and is currently taking his GCSE such as pe sports, science, media. Ben has fun with his friends, messes around.

Hobbies/Interests: Enjoys comedies and adventure. Does a lot of sports, running and rugby. 

Spending Power: Has a part-time job delivering newspapers  

Typical Media Consumption Per Day: 2-3 hours watching films or tv series such as South Park which has rude comedy, also adventure on the weekends and school nights. During the weekend he goes out with his friends but comes home and plays on his playstation or watching tv. 

Legal And Ethical In My Animation

Schedule And Budget

I got my resources from this:

Process of storyboard for Adventure Time:

Links to other process:
-South Park
http://www.getharvest.com/blog/2011/11/teams-at-work-creating-a-south-park-episode-in-6-days/
-Peppa Pig
http://www.kidzcoolit.com/reviews/the-brains-behind-peppa-pig-phil-davis-neville-astley-and-mark-baker-answer-some-kidz-random-questions.php
-The Simpsons
http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/newsid_6260000/newsid_6262500/6262584.stm

-Frozen

Voice Actors For My Character

Storyboard of Main Scene

Expressions

Front View of Character Tommy

Doodle Sheet

Design and Target Audience

Regulatory Bodies- BBFC

The BBFC stands for British Board of Film Classification. BBFC is a non-governmental organisation which is funded by the film industry. They are in charge of the national classification and censorship of films within the UK. It is based in London and the only income is from the work they do such as the running time of a film. The BBFC's finances are administered by the Council of Management. The current Council membership is Graham Lee, Steve Jaggs, Sonita Alleyne, Maggie Carver, Joanne Shaw and Jonathan Teckham. Patrick Swaffer is the President of BBFC

and has two Vice Presidents who are Alison Hastings and Gerard Lemos who together makes sure the classification of  a film works under the Video Recordings Act 1984. There is many people who are part of the management team such as the director who is David Cooke. The director makes executive decisions on behalf of the Presidents and Vice Presidents. He also ensures the carrying out of the policy and management of the BBFC is right and handles relations with the industry, the public etc.

In deciding what certificate rating to give a film it is to protect children from watching unsuitable films/scenes. The BBFC rate films an age which they feel is suitable going by the classification guidelines which are: http://www.bbfc.co.uk/sites/default/files/attachments/BBFC%20Classification%20Guidelines%202014_6.pdf

The process of rating is for a senior examiner and a examiner to watch the film all the way though and to note down any issues such  as discuimination, drugs, horror, dangerous, language, nudity, sex and violence. Depending on how much content of each or any of the issues following the classification guidelines they decide on what rating. However an examiner has to get comfimation from an senior examiner who sometimes in difficult situation may have to contact the presidents to have a final decision on the rating. The legal considerations of BBFC are:

·         Human Rights Act 1988

·         The Licensing Act 2003

·          The Video Recordings Act 1984

·          The Obscene Publications Act 1959 & 1964

·          Criminal Justice and  Immigration Act 2008

·         The Protection of Children 1978

·         The sexual Offences Act 2003

·         The Public Order Act 1986

·         The Cinematograph Films (Animals) Act 1937

·         The Animal Welfare Act 2006

·         The Tobacco Advertising Act and Promotion Act 2002

For the film Coraline it was rated PG. BBFC found there was a creepiness atmosphere thought the film with the buttons as eyes and the boy being a body of rats. However there were many parts of the film which didn’t make it so scary with the comedy, dancing mice strange amusing neighbours. Also with Caroline she was presented as brave and manages to get herself out of tricky situations and mot only herself but her real parents too. But the reason why it was not a U is due to some of the scares being from people/places such as their parents and their home. However throughout the film it was reassuring a happy ending.

 

Ideas Feedback

 Here is my feedback sheet with my three ideas for my animation. The feedback was really helpful, for example with my second idea, my feedback is busy so I will cut down a little to make it more simplier and easy to follow. I got feedback of unrealistic twice which I was happy about because that is my aim to create a animation that is unrealistic.

With all my feedback I have decided I am going to do my third idea because I got good feed back like 'out of the ordinary'. I also like my third idea the most out of all because I find the story more interesting.

30 Rock

History of GIF'S

GIF's have many strengths and weaknesses such as:
Strengths
-Solid colour images
-Enjoyable
-Images with irregular boundaries'
-Short but lasts forever
-Makes photograph look alive
-Images needing transparency
-Plays automatically
-Animation

Weaknesses
-Limited colour depth
-Animated image can large

Pamela Reed and Matthew Rader do GIF's in fashion and have created many GIF's such as:

1. Pink



This GIF is taking fashion to another level, making it more fun and entertaining to see. I really like with Pink is that they made two photos move and join up as one picture. Also it is simple but makes a big statement with the contrasting colours of pink.

2. Dubstep Dinosaurs


I really like Dubstep Dinosaurs because music is added to the GIF so it isn't just silent which makes it more engaging to watch. Also it is very different from other GIF's with having the dinosaurs heads and costumes. This is making fashion even more fun and entertaining.

3. Green



Green is rather like Pink but what I like about this GIF that Pink doesn't have is the animated grass and flowers. I like that it gives a nature background going with the name Green.

I think GIF's are photos of the future. They bring any photo to life and can bring back many memories for someone. I feel it makes photography more fun and interesting. Even moving the littlest of things in a photo can make a massive impact on it. I think it would be great if GIF's were able to be created on phones so even the littlest photographs of daily things can bring back memories.

Shapes in Character Design

Character Design

"Character design is the combination of physical traits and (narrative)."

Narrative/ storyline defines personality, gives context (genre, location, setting) therefore has to feed into look and design of the character. The face is the primary channel to express emotion (a reason for the many large headed characters!). A lot can be said with posture and body languages. This allows for personality traits to be identifiable in silhouette.

Solarski states how a character carries their physical weight can tell us about their personality, which body part they can lead with is important. For example Solarski thinks a hero who leads with their chest is strong. such as: Super Man

 If a character leads with their pelvis they are laid back/lazy.  Such as: Goofy

If a character leads with their head they are intelligent.  Such as Shaggy

Finally knees represents cowardly. Such as Timmy

Cuddy states power and dominance reduces around expanding power. For example making the character small leading to weakness taking less space up. In contrast to a big character taking up big space.

Cartoon Character Analysis

Animation Products Research

Film: The Lego Movie

 

The Lego Movie was released in 2014. It was written by Kevin Hageman and Phil Lord. It has three directors whom are also Phil Lord but also Chris Miller and Chris Mckay. The producers are Dan Lin and Seanne Winslow. But The Lego movie was distributed by Warner Bros who are situated in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California in the United States. Warner Bros have made many fils such as Harry Potter, Gravity. 300, A New York Winter Tale, Blue Jasmine, The Hobbit, Godzilla, We're The Millers and many more. The target audience for The Lego Movie is family because it has humour in for all ages. The animation style is stop motion and computer animated. The purpose of the animation is comedy. I like many things about The Lego Movie such as the humour in it having jokes for all ages in it. I also like how the film is not too complicated and is easy to follow. I also love the catchy song that is personally made for The Lego Movie:

 

 

 

Short Film:  Lifted

 



 

Lifted is a short film that was released in Laemmle's Colorado Theater on September 11. It was created by Pixar who is based in Emeryville, California. Lifted was nominated as Best Animated Short Film Oscar. Pixar have made many short films such as Tin Toy and Red's Dream. Lifted was directed and written by Gary Rydstrom. To create this animation Jiggle was used which allowed animators to move every part of the body of a character making them more realistic. The target audience for Lifted is family having humour for all ages. The purpose of the short film is a comedy. I really liked this short film because of the humour in it and having the aliens just like humans taking a driving test, the alien is taking an adduction test. I also like the graphics in it as they are more realistic and the characters move/flow better.

 

TV Series:  Star Wars: Clone Wars

 

 

 

Star Wars: Clone Wars TV series first was released in  2008 by Warner Bros who as said before for The Lego Movie is at Hollywood, Los Angeles, California in the United States. Warner Bros have made many TV series such as The Big Bang Theory, Mom, The Tomorrow People, Arrow and many more. Dave Filoni directed Clone Wars. The animation style is After Effects. Target audience is children/teenagers. Purpose of the animation to bridge the gap between The Star Wars films 2&3. I like Clone Wars because the graphics are very well done and each character is done in detail as the series have progressed the graphics get better and better. I also like that it has some humour at times.

 

Web Series: AfterWorld

 

AfterWorld was published on youtube February 28, 2007. It was created by Brent V. Friedman & Michael DeCourcey and directed by Stand Rogow. They have only made AfterWorld of what I know. AfterWorld is an computer-animated web series. The target audience is young adults+. The purpose of the web series is to entertain and make people think of what could happen in the future. I liked this series because I think it has a good story line to it and also the graphics are very good, like gameplay. However I felt like the animation needed to move abit more or have more pictures to help the story flow/move better.

 

Music: Daft Punk- Give Life Back to Music

 

Daft Punk- Give Life Back to Music was realised in 2013. Daft Punk is managed by Pedro Winter who is the head of Ed Banger Records. Ed Banger Records is a French electronic music record label. They are the owners of Justice, Sebastian and many more. The animated style is Anime. The target audience is teenagers+. The purpose of the animation was to entertain and tell a story of the music. I like this music video because the music video tells a story and isn't what normal music videos have where the person is just standing there singing. It makes it more realistic and easier to get into the song and understand it better.

 

Advert: Welcome to Another World

 

 

 

 

 

This advert won 'Best TV Commercial of the Year'. It was released in 2013 and was produced by Mulla Productions and was directed by Eli Sverdlov. It is After Effects animation and the purpose was to tell a story of the wedding and also to advertise the product. The target audience is adults. I think it is a really good advert because the animation is really realistic and also made the advert original and I liked the way the animation is hidden within the advert and not all of it being animation.

Animated Bear Walking On The Beach

I made this walking bear on the beach by:

1. Opened up the bear file on After Effects, then double clicking on the file to create a composition
2. Click 'ctrl' on the bear file and click on 'composition settings' which a box will appear. I made sure the frame rate was '23.976' and the duration was '0:00:05:00' and then clicked 'ok'
3. I made sure the looping arrow was clicked which looks like this:

4. I then anchor point each layer, starting with front arm and attach it to the body (shortcut 'ctrl y')

5. Then I parented the body parts to the body using the pick whip tool but I left the legs.

6. On the body frame I key frame on frame 0, 8 and 16 having the body stay in its original position, then on frame 4 I move the body up a bit and copy and paste this key frame onto frame 12 so it is the same as it moves each time.

7. Still being on the body click rotation key frame and on frame 0 and I moved it forward a small angle then copy and paste the key frame at frame 8 and 16

8. Using the same rotation tool on frame 4 and 12 I move the body backwards to a small angle

9. To make everything run smoother I clicked on a key frame using clicking 'Ctrl' back clicking, then on the options I cocked 'key frames assistant' then 'easy ease' repeating this for all key frames.

10. I then clicked on the front arm, changed the rotation on frames 0 and 16 having the arm back then on frame 8 having the arm forward. Also repeating step 9 

11. I then repeated step 10 for the right arm but made each frame the opposite direction than the front arm. For example when the front arm was forward, the back arm would be back. 

12. Clicking on the legs, I pin pointed them three times where the joints would be to be able to make the legs move and bend like a leg would

13. Clicking on puppet (shoutcut, double clicking p) you are able to move the pin points around allowing the leg to move like it is walking. 

14. Like with the arms moving the legs at a small angle back and forward in opposite directions to each other which looks like the bear is walking! 

15. Then finding a beach background I imported it and dragged it onto the com position, key framing it as I moved it along each time as the bear walked making the walking more realistic. 

16. Then there you have a walking bear on the beach! 

AE Animation

Here is a egg character I created. I did this by firstly going into photoshop where this will pop up, change the settings as shown in the screenshot 

2. I made a new layer and created the body of the character, making a new layer for each part of the body. the final finish will look like: 

3. I then save it and go onto after effects where I import it and double click for the sequence to make a composite. 

4. To move the whole body with the arms etc, I click on 

5. You can control the body by attaching all the body parts by clicking this:

That symbol is calling the pick whip, which having all the body parts highlighted, dragged the pick whip to the body. This allows all the body parts to move when the body moves. 

6. Where you can see rotation you move the scale around to move your character around. Clicking the stop watch with each movement. 

My Animation Of Me Dancing

I created animation of me dancing by using rotoscope. I did this by:
                             1. Firstly importing footage of me dancing into photoshop, by clicking file-import-video frames to layers. Like this:

2. A screen will come up like this: 

I then ticked the limit to every box and replaced the 2 with a 4: 

3. Photoshop will already have split the footage up in frames, with this I start by making a layer and making sure you are clicked on frame 1, I started to outline in black of my body and face. 

4. After I did my outline I started to colour in and then completed my first movement of the dance. 

Here is the first frame. 

Here is when I completed my three frames. 

5. After I did this, I went to 'save for web'.