knew footage


Here's what some of the footage I shot. As you can see it's a low down a jerky shot . I am pleased to sdee that using the skateboard paid off. You can also see a couple of elements from the storyboard, like the dog walking past the camera. This took wuite a few takes as it wasn't easy to get the dog to walk the past the camera as it did. I had to use a treat to tempt it past. I think the lighting in the room is bright and works well with the piece itself. I think the dog is cute and will interest the younger ages of the audience.

There's now another problem though, that is that the scene is too long, I only included half of it in this movie and thats 35 seconds ( the adverts only supposed to be 45 seconds long) and this exluded the intro and the logo at the end.

Solution...

Me and Ash came up with the bright idea of speding the scene up and then slowing it down at relevant bits (eg when the sensors are shown for instance: the dog, the human interaction etcet).

Time remapping

I've researched into an effect called time remapping, this you can do in after effects. I'l be back soon with an time remapped version, so you can know how I get on.

:]

Story board

Please click to enlarge and read the text ! :]

N knew view... NXT research

Here's a game that both me and Ash have recently enjoyed. We found this particular theme in the game rather inspiring. The fact that using a computer - your character can slow time right down and analyze each enemy. We think that this would be a good effect to base our project around. We've decided now that in are advert, the robot will build itself up and then you will go into a first person view from the robot itself in a family environment. This will fit well with the brief, as we will be able to show its interactive capabilities as it goes round the room. It will see/feel things and process them as it goes through the room, and that of course is one of the main specifications of the brief. I will post the knew storyboard up tomorrow.

Mood board

Here's just a run through of imagery that will may be used as inspiration.

A knew direction-

Due to poor time management and the limited availability of the Lego product we weren't able to prepare a polished piece. With this in mind me and my partner have decided to come up with a knew idea. I decided it would be better for us to have piece which doesn't show the product itself moving. I think it would be better to see things through its own eyes. In many adverts that I see , they try and almost hide the imperfections of there product, and this is something were hoping to achieve.

Good tutorial site,

This site looks really interesting, it is devoted souly to helping students create motion graphics in After Effects. Espeecially as it shows you contemperory themes, such as the day After tomorrow effect and effects similar to adverts, like illustrations following people and such.

Click here to see a tutorial. :]

Heres a video about animating Bruce Lee's statments its simple but nice, I'l try it when I get some free time, but at least it's here for referencing.

Story board/how we'll construct it.

Here's an overview of are storyboard.

Scene 1

This will be the scene where the title is shown, as we want people to know its a LEgo product . LEGO' s a famous brand and should catch peoples attenion. The NXT part of the text shall build itself into shape, with the "Mindstorms" text just behind it. We are thinking of using stock frame animation for this part of the advert , for the HD camera can capture sharp imagery.

Scene 2 (the 4 sensory shots)


This shall be the overview of the robot , we shall add different effects to each sensor , for example a lens flare on the sight sensor, a rippling in the touch sensor etc.. The effects will be made in After Effects along with the majority of the feature.
We may have a white background behind the robot, though we aren't sure.

Scene 3

The software, this will be a short scene, maybe of the disc being inserted into a hard drive (this is so the viewer knows what it comes with. The child that features will put this into his hard drive and him and his dad will play with the sofware for a short time.


Scene 4

Programming the machine manually . This scene involves the kid programming the mainframe, maybe going through its different types of connectivity, this is to show off its many different functions such as Bluetooth and adjustable presets.

Scene 5

This scene shows the robot being created and adjusted. We will do this by slowing turning it (each two degrees taking a shot), removing pieces and then reversing the frames. Then we will have the child playing with it after each creation.


Scene 6

The Logo comes back on again and thats a wrap.

The music

My partner DJ Ash Haven has already started work on the backing track for this piece, its a smooth electronic tune that should blend in niecely with the product, we are thinking of using some of the sounds the NXT makes in the actual track. The music shall enter subtly during the first scene, just after the logo has formed itself, it will slowly build up in speed and complexity, before it makes its slow descent at the end.

Voice Over,

THe voice over hasn't been finalised in are minds yet, we were thinking about doing a informative American voice , but we're not too sure if it will fit in with the advert itself. We shall have to finish some scenes and see what works with the Imagery

NXT Development

Well, in order to evaluate our current group work myself and Ed have decided to summarize or work by writing this post together, hence why i Ash am writing in Ed's blog! Hello! We have decided that during the 45 seconds we have, we need to show all the features that the NXT robot has and how they can be used by various age groups. There is a lot to cover with the NXT simply because of its advanced user input abilities are based on software that incorporates elements of modern robotics and also program ability that results in a fully customizable tool. To show what this means for the buyer in an advertisement style we feel that if we cover as much of its features as we can during the time we have, and also show the product being used in the hands of a target consumer we can achieve the kind of advert which educates about the product.


So, we can achieve this by including the following things in our footage:

+A description of the main features of the product. In this case this means the various sensors that are on the robot. They are the backbone of the robots usability.
-Optical Sensor *Allows the robot to sense movement of objects and thus use the programmed responses the user inputs. This needs to be explained and also needs to be evidenced of how this adds to the robots full uses
-Voice Sensor *Allows the robot to detect sound and respond appropriately again, The same is true for the:
-Light Sensor - This allows the robot to follows lines along the floor
-Touch Sensor

These will all be covered in the first portion of the ident. Each sensor will be animated to show its function and a description in both text and voice will be given of the features and what they do. We will make the images of these sensors quite high res, as we believe this will show them along with the processing unit as the real core components of the product. After all the rest of it is simply lego! This means we need to put across that the possibilities of customization are so massive because under the Lego brand it can be modified with new lego parts and thus any type of personal activity robot or creation can be achieved.!

Now for the next part of the ident! We need to show the processing unit YAH! This is the nucleus of our robot. All the main components plug directly into this and obviously this means the unit is responsible for product to pc communication with its usb port. At the bottom of the unit are the 4 main 'limb' (if you like) ports that allow for the maneuverability of the product! So well show all this by first showing the unit in a hand for clear definition of its scale and looks. Then well show footage of people plugging the unit into a pc and how the software can be installed onto windows or mac and is user friendly.\


With these parts covered its time to show the robot in action! Well be asking one of Ed's cousin to play the part of teen consumer and target audience. Hell be shown in different environments constructing the robot and using its key features while experiencing pure ecstasy from the sheer bliss that can be achieved from the awesome heart stopping NXT SERIES! (slight joke)
Ed's cousin will probably be shown sitting down and hopefully in a homely environment we've not to show true application of the product.

After this well show all the units together clearly and using stop start style shooting, well show the various parts being put together in various ways, making sure to incorporate all the different parts such as wheels, and all the nuts and bolts that can be constructed in different ways. Our idea is to get the product to maybe rotate as it is constructed/deconstructed which will give a challenging but fast and flowing looking montage of images.

That about coveres it till the end of the ident! But i must mention there will be relevant logos shown both at the start and end of the ident which will be animated to show the lego style parts. Also to get everything covered decided to narrate over the advert in an 'infomercial' style, well be using a relvant voice for this as well as a backing track, produced to sound robotic and futuristic!



Ed + Ash

Lego NXT Graphics

Please click to Enlarge.



I've been working on trying to produce some text to accomplify my movie, when I uploaded these to blogger it changed the colour (probably because I didn't correct the colour settings in Photoshop or illustrator). I was thinking that I could create text out of the pieces of lego so that it matched upt with the product. The Logo's at the top look pretty silly, the colours don't mach up, tough the logo at the bottom of the image looks quite niece I think. I still need to work more on this logo though as it still isn't clear what the writing says, It would probably aid the piece incorporate the Mindstorms part of the sentence. I may still scan in the actually pieces, but first I'l see how far I can get with this.

Lego Mindstorms graphics ideas

I've been thinking about the graphics, which that I'm going to use in the Lego advert. I came across this picture of all this pieces from the an older lego kit and it gave me an idea. I thought I could create text or a logo from these pieces if aligned corectly. I'm going to try and make some logo's in illustrator and photoshop first, but if they don't work I may well try scanning in the actual pieces and creating a logo out of them.

Lego stop motion

The last blog I made looked at variations of Lego models that you can create of the Mindstorms kit. My partner came up with the idea of building a Lego piece bit by bit using stock frame animation, so that create thmeselves in front of the camera. I was thinking it may be a good idea to show the toys diversity by showing quite a few different creation being built up piece by piece. Below is a representation of the effect we could use. Though the piece below is rather dull, I think we could get past this by making it much quicker, brighter and exciting. With music that corresponds more with the actual creation itself.

Lego Mindstorms Creations

One of the ideas that I've been thinking of is creating multiple versions of the toy eg, cars , turntables and .... well I'm not to sure what else to at the moment. This is partly because I don't really know everything that you can do with it, hence forth I shall research into it, I've recently come across a honey pot of creation ideas on Youtube, here's a few of them and my thoughts on wether knew ideas that they bring :

The Gramophone/Phonograph.



This is a video that I'm quite fond of, a record player. I think the sound quality on this player is pretty poor, though this piece really shows the versatility of the product. I think it could be used in the advert to maybe, intertwine with the sound.

Remote Control Robot.



I think this kind of robot would be a good one to include you'd think it would appeal to kids that liked remote control cars and older kids that are more interested in the mechanics of the machines.

The Cat Toy



I think this model would appeal to children and adults, although I'd guess that its the type of thing an adult help a child make and then the child would get the most enjoyment out of playing with it.

Research Lego advert

Here's a look at a recent existing Indiana Jones advert for Lego. The age group this is amed at is a bit younger then the age group for my advert. I just looked at this to get an idea of the style the cooperation used.

As you can see the advert is very bold and uses quick action to engross the children. The bright music has been put there to make it more exciting.
One key thing to note is that the Lego logo is featured at the beggining and end of the advert, this should be something I Include in my advert. Also the lego writing itself is distorted at the end and references the product. I think I could ust this in the advert to make it look more professional.
I think the music in my advert shouldn't really be as vibrant as this because the toy itself isn't about fast action. The toy's capabillities are based on reaction and movement, so I Don't think it would be wise to include a soundtrack that jitters with it. It would be better to make one that hums along and just provides a niece relaxing backing to the showcase of the product.

Lego Mindstorm NXT Product research/target audiance

Since I've chosen this as my subject, I thought I'd have a look at the product itself.
I've had a look at the site and gathered that the packages are about £150 and are aimed at people from 10 years upwards. The product itself is very variable, it let can let you create humanoid, vehicle and animal robots that react to yourself and environmental elements such as light sound and objects using ulra-sonic waves. Some of the robots themselves can be created in half an hour.
The price of the product itself suggests that the advert will have to really grip the audience and show off the product in a golden light. Speed should reflected in the advert I think as this is a big selling point (robots can be made in half an hour!!).
Aspects such as the sensors themselves should be shown off. Some sites say its for ages 10 and over though , I personaly think that the main pepople buying or using these products would be boys aged from 11-16. So the advert should really have a bright modern theme, maybe use electric colors and such.

The advert must be 45 seconds long. So that sould be enough to show off its ablitys as long as has a quick pace.

The knew brief.

For this knew project we have been asked to choose from an array of briefs. In doing so we'll specify which area that we'd like to concentrate on, "moving image" or "interactive". I have chosen to do the Lego Mindstorm NXT brief. This is one of the Moving image brief. I chose this as I can include aspects of production that I'm interested in like flash animation, after effects animation moving image and special effects . The next step now is to do some research on lego itself and the adverts.

Final Movie. Positives and negatives

Here's a youtube video of my FInal piece, I'll explain developments as I go on.



H

First of all you may notice there's a white border around it. I placed this in as it makes the piece look more complete. It seems to work well with the style. I thinks it makes it look more polished.

The First Scene

This I had to play with alot, to make sure the voice sinked with his mouth, I think this worked well eventually. This scene reminds me particulary of the old sci fi films I looked up in my research.

The second scene

This was done using shapes that I created in Illustrator at first they looked a bit bland so I added glows to them, earth itself was was quite tricky to get to work.
I lik how I faded the first scene into the second as it seems to make it flow more and make the narration seem more prominent. The Space craft was edited along a path and made smaller as it went along to earth, to give the illusion it was traveling.
The stars shrink and grow repeatedly to give the illusion that they're buzzing with light. I did this by making one of them do the action and then using it as a parent to the other layers.

he third scene

This is where the alien takes the camera, at first it didn't look much like an Alien, just a guy with a scarf over his face. So I had to key in some alien eyes which were black speres with a motion blur. I had to do this frame by frame and make sure they moved with his head, I seemed to get it quite right, this is a timely procedure. I like the way this scene looks, but I think the Alien could look more alien, but I'd need more time for this. I think it lives up to the slapstick nature of Sci fi in general like what I researched.


The last scene

Again in this scene I had to key in the eye, but it takes time which I've been running out of. So the eye seems to jerk a bit unnecessarily which I'm not to pleased with. I created a shape layer in the Tv to manipulate the area. I shrunk the first seen of the announcer to fit the TV and then flicked it to the sci fi channel logo as the remote was raised to highest point, this was so that it would look more realistic. Maybe I should of included an effect as the alien changed the channel. I don't think the timing is just right there could be more emphasis on the sci-fi logo , maybe it should of been made much larger.

The Music

I was rather pleased with the synth soundtrack which I created, I like how it builds up and winds down slowly, I made sure it fit the scene changes (the tempo corresponding). The voice over could be bettered though as its quite un-clear in parts , I like the voice and microphone effect though. I started the track with a light piano and then slowly introduced the basey middle part, which slowly faded to the light part again. I was pleased with how I compressed the soundtrack to 20 seconds, as there is quite rich. I had to tamper with the timing of the instruments to get match it up to the sequence.

Project effects development

Sci Fi ident techniques.

Here is an example of the effect that I should be using in my movie. I learnt how to do a key light effect on a movie of a person standing in front of a green screen. The green screen should be tight and brightly lit so that it doesn't interrupt with the person in the forefront. The person in front of the green screen shouldn't bet lit up very much, unsless you need to capture detail on his face, non the less there should be a good contrast between him and the Green screen. Ok so after you have filmed the shot you capture it in Final Cut Pro then you open up the movie files in After Effects In After Effects you drag the files into a knew composition (of which you have adjusted the settings to your specifications).

You open up the movie frame and make a mask around the area which you want to alter (in this case the moving person), then find I found key light in the effects pallete. When selected it you use the color picker to pick out the green that you want deleting. After you select the green edit the gain and it should all vanish leaving your man in the forefront.



I then made it ultra bright, added a glow and used a tool that softened the edges.

This is the style I will use for my ident, its just what I had in mind, as you can see from my animatic .

Sci-Fi animatic animatic

Sci Fi channel animatic.



Here's an animation of the piece I hope to create in after effects. You can see how it links back to my research with the old fashioned voice over and the vintage alien space-ship sequence. The voice over was recorded by me in the programme Garage Band , this allowed me to have a megaphone effect, though this could sound better I think if I recoreded it in the bathroom where there's a natural echo(this I will do for the Final version). I think this kind of style would indulge the Sci-Fi channel fans as its quite light hearted, stands out and is slightly paying homage to the old Sci-Fi movies in an styalised way. The humor to is a link to the old Sci-Fi films where, they seem to laugh at themselves.I may also add a soundtrack to it as it sounds a bit bland at the moment.

My story board

Here's my Ident story board.






I've just presented a storyboard for my Ident. People seemed OK with my idea although they wondered if it would fit in the time period. There is a lot happening in this animation, but it will have a comic style edge to it so the pace should be quick. So now its up to me to do an animatic and see if I can fit it all in well.

Past Sci Fi channel Idents

Sci Fi channel Idents/adverts



I thought I'd have a look at some previous Idents from the Sci Fi channel. Something very noticeable is the emphasis they seem to have on special effects. Though my Ident is for a more old school program so i don't thing it will need such an emphasis on special effects. I think my Ident will be based more on being graphical pleasing and sleek. So it will still have a modern edge that should captivate the modern audience. Another thing that seems to be very very prevalent in the Sci Fi channel Idents/adverts is that blue colour that surrounds the text in the Sci Fi logo. I aim to incoorperate this colour into my Ident, I think I willuse it heavily so that it defines its place, on the Sci-Fi channel.



One thing I've also noticed is that voice overs are not always completely necessary, I may consider not using one and just using music to create the atmosphere.

An Ident For Sci Fi Channel Romania

This Romanian Ident is rather interesting in itself. Its very different to the other Sci Fi channel ads , it has a tranquil feel to it, this shows to me that there's room for variation when creating for this firm. This makes it more likly that my Ident will be accepted by the audiences.

Visual Research. Techniques -Silhouettes

Silhouettes

I mentioned the other day that I'd like to possibley use silloutes in my ident. This apple ad is a good example of the kind of imagery I'd like to use.



Though in my film I'd like to use maybe just black and white, to keep true to the old fashioned theme I will be using. The main aspect of this ad that I' like to incorporate is the moving/expanding icons that interact with the figures and change the viewers perspective. I think these kind of things could look really good for lasers and ships. I could make some things in illustrator and then animate them in after effects.Or film people in front of a green screen, then delete the background and change the colour settings.

Old Japanese , Sci-Fi.- Idea development & Considerations.

Here's a clip for a light hearted Japanese Sci-Fi/horror from 1966 called "Gammara".



The film shares most of its attributes with "Godzilla". A big monster terrorizes the city until it falls asleep, resides or dies. These films seem rather boring to look at now, thought at the time they utilized the best special effects around at the time to captivate the audience. As I look through more and more of these adverts I seem to see very similar things for example they all seem incorporate people screaming (especially women), maybe in my ident I should include this.

The music in this film is quite light hearted at the beginning then gloomy when the Beast strikes (to create tension). This may effect I'l use. At the moment I'm thinking about using moving silhouettes of various well known characters/aliens/spaceships and dramatic music for the ident.

Again the text in this advert very similar to "Invasion of the Body Snatchers". Vintage bold metaphoric texts seem to be important an important attribute to these sci-fi movies . So it will probably be something I look to impose heavily in my ident.

Comedy in Sci-Fi



There's definitely a comedy attribute to this , the voice over been so over dramatic and the funky music at the start. I may well have a quite comedic tone to my advert as old sci-fi should probably be viewed slightly less seriously then modern sci-fi. Though sci-fi often does have touches of comedy in built regardless on the seriousness of the situation . For example Star Wars has had comedy moments all the way through the series. As well as Star-Trek and many other famous sci-fi features.

Ident Research- Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

It is time to start researching old movies(50's) . First up "Invasion of the Body Snatchers".



Look! You fools! You’re in danger! Can’t you see? They’re after you! They’re after all of us! Our wives…our children…they’re here already! You’re next!—Dr. Miles Bennell


This is an advert for above titled film. It came out on the 5 February 1956. Directed by Don Siegel (who also directed "Dirty Harry" and "Escape from Alcatraz"- Quite a good range of iconic films then. In this advert he uses the madness of the main character (Miles Bennell) to try and capture the viewers attention. The shouting and the loud brass instruments are used here to grab the attention of the viewer. Maybe in my soundtrack I should have a mix of old and knew music. For instance as the sequence is old fashioned clips are in view-an old sound track. Then when the Sci Fi channel logo comes up- knew eerie music.
The graphics in this are also something to take note of, the text is very of its time this is something I should look at finding and utilising for it makes the piece seem much more authentic. It should make it stand out to the viewers aswell.

The Plot.

The plot is something I must consider to. The 1950's was very post war. Invasion of the Body Snatchers is based on the fear created by it. The fact that death had been everywhere and could come out of no where(the atomic bomb) . Something that people hadn't really had to deal with before the war.I'd like to base Ident on something political to. I'm going to have to deside whether I should base it on a knew matter or an old one. It may be interesting to create an old fashioned film based on knew events.

Ident- My choice, audience considerations and research plans.

After watching invasion of the bodysnatchers, I've decided to do the Ident for the Sci-Fi channel. The brief sates to create a live action/composite for a brand new UFO series to be aired on the Sci Fi channel. alot of people may jump marketing a knew age Sci Fi series but I'd like to put a twist on it. I'd like to create my Ident for a new Sci Fi series that is almost a spoof of old Sci Fi films. This would be good to do for its something a knew age audience may like as its quite different. To make it more appealing to them I'l probably have to make the Ident have some comedy values . I think it would make it more compatible with the audience as it isn't something you could imagine people wanting to take it serious.

Here are the specifications of the Sci Fi Ident;

*Develop, Design and create a live action/composited ident for UFO.
*Must contain a live action sequence.
*Must contain some form of compositing, either Typographic or Visual effects.
*Must contain the Sci FI channel logo and copy - Weekdays at 8pm.

It also states that the people that choose this brief should consider the audience and maybe research into the channel itself. Which I have done, I've found that they do mostly promote knew series and films but still have done and are showing old Sci Fi, so with that in mind I think it will be good to come up with something slightly different a mix of both.
Th e brief also says consider budget, I'm going to go with quite a medium budget, so that I can create my special effects well in Black and White. I think people would enjoy seeing effects this for in the 50's and 60's (the period I'm trying to recreate) they were very limited in that respect. They had to use mood and music more than flash imagery.

The audience I'm going for is older people and the kind of hardcore Sci Fi fans. So the ident may have a kind of Niche feel to it.

Next I'm going to look at some at some old films and there adverts to see what kind of tactics they use to interest the audience . I'l have a look at the most memorable for if my ident can be compatible with them, the people that loved those films should love my piece.

The first Ident that came to mind.

Olympics 2008.

China.




This is a great Ident. It captures the viewers attention with its lush colors and invigorating sound track. The characters are bright, bold and agile, it grabs your attention from the start as its so different and so lively. I was really surprised when I saw it on T.V.

This video is a good example of what an ident should be. An Ident should grab the viewers attention and make them excited about the subject of the advert. It should get your attention and make you stare at it until you find out what its about.

I've learnt from this video that bold and and vivid colors can grab your attention from the start. Though if it the Ident I create is to do with horror then it may not be a good idea (although you could use bright colors and screeches at times to good effect). Characters can be a good way of grabbing peoples attention and making them stick with it, As you gain an emotional bond with them- you want to see what happens. Characters in the kids Ident would be a necessity.
Music is deffinately very important, it helps emphasize the tone and mood of the Ident. In this piece it's comparatively slow with dramatic vocals which helps create an epic start, then the pace and action comes in and its fast and energetic.

A bit more on the creators and there inspiration for this piece.-

This video has given me allot to think about. If you were guessing- yes it the art is a product of Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett (the people behind the gorillaz). The music score was created by Albarn and some CHinese musicians. The animations based on a classic 16th century Novel, where a Monk makes a pilgrimage, followed by disciples and a Monkey.

For the childrens TV Ident it would be good to re-invent an old story like they have done here.The story is relevant to the Olympics too as it is like a Journey and this Year its in China (steeped in tradition). The re-invention of an old story adds a good basis and source to the piece I think. It makes it more relevant.





More info here ;

* http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/olympics/monkey/7507054.stm

* http://monkeyjourneytothewest.com/the-opera/characters/monkey/

Knew Term/Knew Brief.

Hi.

The latest brief asks (in fewer words)- to create a 20 second Ident for either a channel one of the following:

* A channel four horror season called "FEAR".

* "POP TRASH" - A music strand for VH1.

* "UFO" An Ident for the SciFi Channel.

* A Children's Sunday Morning Show called "CUSTARD"

At the moment, It's hard to choose which. An Ident (in this context) is a sequence of moving/still images and text that promotes its subject. Animation can also be incorporated. The main software for this brief will be Adobe After Effects. This is a program which specializes in combining moving image with text and adding visual effects to filmed material. The matter of which channel to create it for should be resolved after I've looked at existing Idents and the software itself.

One other thing that shall need to be considered is the specifications that have been set for each channel. There are guide to do with logos and text usage for each channel, to keep the identity of the firm intact.

Evaluation PPD


For this brief we had to present a piece which showed are development through the course and are main interests. This Flash presentation was adopted for this is the program that I feel I have a lot of ability in, and hence symbolises the interactive media area I’d like to specialise in next year (another criteria from the brief). The piece doesn’t show all of the projects set this year but highlights my most favourable of them, I chose to make it click and talk. This backs up again the area of study I’d like to go into as its quite interactive. Though in retrospect I feel I could of made it more interactive by giving it more of a menu system and each piece a bit more of individuality (eg more animations cued when clicked in various areas).
Time and planning should have been better, this project was handed in late which also made it coincide more with Video deadline so more time could have been spent , making it a bit more diverse and longer. So time management would be something I’d of liked to improve, as has been the case on too many projects this year, this is something that will have to be greatly improved upon next year if I am to maximise my potential.
I was pleased with the images I made in Photoshop and then put into Flash, I think they work well to create a theme and symbolize what I’ve being doing through-out the year.
I think transferring files to Flash is a valuable method in creating visually pleasing pieces for Flash generated images look rather poor.
To make the presentation more effective I could of incorporated sound, I didn’t do this partially because I planned to talk through most of It , though in retrospect little sound effects would have been useful as it just adds to the richness of the piece and grabs the audiences attention more.
The layout of the presentation works well , it starts of with my blog and critical studies, the two less graphical aspects of my presentation and then goes into the more arty things , it ends purposely with a view to the future , I think this is the corerect place to put it as the middle is like an overview and the end is what is gong to come next.
I kept a them of consistency throughout with by using the same text , sliding text and imagery which stops the piece being too plain.
Overall I think this piece meets the criteria of the brief but instead of showing lots of actual pieces of work, it shows moving imagery of them I think it may have been better if I could of embedded some more types of media(movies) to show variation amongst my work .

The end scene

This scene seems a bit randomly placed, though we thought we would leave the audiance in some confusion as to whats happening in the film for it is an advert. The last scene seems to changed direction as he wakes up in a dark room drawn to his PC. We used a first person shot again, this highlights its importance. The clever thing that we did with this was starting with the shutter closed, then opening it slowly whilst filming, this creates a shape like to eyelid opening.

The being sick scene

In this scene we used a first person shot of Ash being sick so that viewer almost feels it. We did this so that the audience would sympathies with the main characters pain. We also used a first person shot to show his hand overflowing with the black liquid . This was inspired by the ring as its kind of random and paranormal. There's another shot thats pretty directly inspired by the ring of the TV flicking . This was too to create a surreal atmosphere, though we think it may of been to typical and over-used , we still decided to use it as it seems to fit.

The pil cuboard scene 2

This scene shows the Ash going to take the pills again, but this time the mirror is cracked, this was done to show things had taken a turn for the worst. Just a symbol like the glitch in the matrix when he see's the same black cat twice.

The woods scene

The scene before suggests that he was on his way to work, but then he wakes up in the middle of no-where ( the woods) . The camera then goes into first person mode to show his dazed and confused state. We think we'l put a blur on this to show the way that the main character is seeing things.

scene 3 house exit

This scene involoves the main character leaving the house. We decided to use a distant shot that follows him round as he turns out the gate. Some good distressed acting here as he hits his head. We may want to slow it down , as we'd like the movie to appear fragmatic like his mental state.

Scene 2 pillz

we decide that the character took some pills so that the viewer would wonder if thats why he was disturbed. It zooms it flicks his hands as he pours them in . This is so there's clarity about what he is doing and so you can see the volume. We may well edit it so the pills come out in colour , like the girls in Schindlers list as we think it would add to the strange atmosphere of the film. It also highlights a focal point of the movie.

Scene 1 Wake up

Scene 1 Wake up

We decided for that camera should zoom in on Ashes face, then flick back to a wide shot of the room as he wakes and lights a cig. The beds a mess and he's asleep on a show, this was done to show he had a rough night. He lights up a cig, (which wasn't in the storyboard, but we used it to add a bit of character and show that he's a bit stressed)

Scene 3

Scene 3 development and analysis

These secene I realised that I had to bring it too a close pretty early, (my storyboard has about 10 different scenes) though I decided I'd rather make the piece shorter and well produced (niece characters and animation) rather then having 10 rushed scenes. So the story had to be shrunk too, basically now at the end you just decide who wins and that character wins the race. This may not be very complex but it still makes the outcome your choice, just in the simplest way.



Above is the final scene, a race among the water edge, as you can see it starts of blank and then the boards come up with the questions, who would you like to win?, the tortoise? or the Hare? . I like the way the three boards slide up though if I did it again I would of made them change as your mouse rolls over them.




Above are the questions, here it stops giving the user a choice, they decide whats going to happen next. That interactivity for ya.





If you click the tortoise , the tortoise wins and if you click the Hare the Hare aceraltes past and wins. I did this by making the buttons link to the apropriate poit in the timeline using action scripting. If the turtle was clicked it would just play and the turtle would acelerate ahead , win and then a message comes saying the turtle won! (with music I made on the piano , a Japanese sounding celebratory piece). When the turtle won message comes up it has a stop action so it stays there. If you clicked the Hare it would jump to a point further on in the timeline (missing out the turtle vicory)and getting to the frames where the Hare wins, then like the turtle victory it stops and music is played.
I think the music suits the ending of the piece as it seems like relief/happiness music. I thought it would go correspond with the users mood, for his character had won the race.
I created movement , similar to how I did in scene 2 , though this time the background moves aswell as the characters , so it almost looks your looking through a camera following them. The finish Line comes in at an angle and moves slightly diagnoly down , this makes it look like the animals are on a slant, I was pleased with this again for it gives you a good feel for perspective. I think the running scene is well paced, one thing I could well of used was some speeding music, I also think that the warter should of been moving, but I ran out of time!




This is the Hare that's running , I animated him as a symbol, I gave him moving arms , eyes and ears, so that he looks realistic and charismatic, I think its worked well, his posture and arm speed contrasts with the turtle's slow scrunched up , struggling image. This adds a bit of humour which is important to attract children-I could of done with a bit of this.



This is the turtle, you can see he isn't a natural sprinter by his eyes and jittering posture, I made his eyes shut and his mouth pant to show his struggle, this works well for his character. His eyes ocasionly open to see where he's going, these factors make it all the more funny when he wins.

When I expand this I'd like to put panting sounds in and running noises , these would make the environment seem alot realistic though overall I was pleased with this scene.

Story Board

Click to enlarge.


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This is the storyboard for mine and Ash's movie. It involves a guy waking up , hallucinating as eats his breakfast. He then goes outside and coughs up a load of black vile liquid .The main character then goes back inside, gets changed and makes his way to what seems to be work (as he's smartly dressed) , but somehow he wakes up in the middle of the woods. The camera then flicks to a first-person shot of the main guy looking around dazed and confused , we hope to add a glow as though the light is blinding him . The next scene again is him waking up in the same state and it runs through the same scenes again with edits of paranormal activity which the main character can't comprehend . This movie is more of an advertisement for a story about a guy who seems to be slowly losing his mind. KSlightly in the fashion of Jackobs ladder , were thinking of using effects to in black and white , like those from the ring I think this would be a good tool to add more suspense and add more atmosphere to the film. We are thinking of creating synth based soundtrack ,like that from the "Escape from LA" advert I researched. I think that music adds allot of tension to the story , a kind of brooding menace in the background.

shooting ideas- the blair which project

This film was shot in a unique first person camera, by use of the camera. I think it gives the viewer an insight into the main roles perceptions, which help you know there feelings. This device could be used in some parts of are film, I think it would be good to shoot some parts in the woods, so that there's more diversity , and woods can be made into a rather mysterious place . We'd like to use some first person shooting ourselves to vary the shots and surprise the audiance.

Research - Black and White effects the ring

I know this is a bit overdone, but I think for a horror film with quite a low budget these kind of effects are perfect to add fear and suspense into a film. Me and Ash are already thinking of shooting the film in Black and White , though that will depend on how it looks when we've shot it.

Movie Research - Groundhog Day

I know this isn't exactly a horror film, more a comedy . But I like the idea of the character waking up and replaying the day. I think you could make it work in a horror film. We may well make the main character wake up multiple times but have a slightly different day each time he does. The variation helps keep the attention of the viewer as the main character reacts from these knew things differently.



There's an ad for it , the reason I keep showing ads is for they sum up what the film is about best.

Jackobs Ladder Research

I watched this film the other night and it gave me a few ideas about mine and Ashes movie. Its basicaly about a guy who feels psychological after effects from the Vietnam war. This is portrayed by hallucinations and physical trauma's , me and Ash thought that these would be good themes for are film. We'd like to be dealing with a characters who's mentaly and physically traumatized ( sounds weird though most horror films are weird)

Sene 2

Scene Analysis




Here is the Hare and Turtle at the starting blocks, I was really pleased with the way this scene moves, the sun in the background swirls round and the Hare and Tortoise brace themselves before you click on them and off they run.



You can see from the picture above, a sign comes up and tells you what is happening like a cominc narrative, like that Japanese site I looked at. The Hare and toroise then run along a path which I created going to the end of the road-the tortoise falls behind.



The Rabbit, Turtle and Sun were a animated graphic symbols ( basically you can create symbols seperatley that move independantly in the main feature) I made his arms, ears and legs on seperate layers so that I could move each ibody part at the same time easily without confusing them amongdt each other. I think his ear twiching is good for the his charisma as is the turtles yo yo neck which portrays his sloping posture, these elements give the characters life that kids will empathise with.



The sun in this is the only thing not hand-drawn, but I think its dim colours and fluid motion works well in the scene. The suns rays spin round which gives it life , it sits behind the mountains which gives the scene a 3-D aspect. This was inspired by a sun on the game okami.

Scene 1

Here's some snaps of my first scene



In this pic (click it) you can see that the tortoise is sat on a tree stump reading , I made it look 3- D by making the background tree slightly dimmer, I think the tortoise looks quite appealing to kids, veryt un threatning and dosile! I made this scen a front shot so that you can see his face, get to know him. The music starts after the firast click on this scene, its a type of Japanese piano, theres something about this shot to which is slightly comicy , this is the borders (like the website I looked at) it has a kind of brush stroke border which I think makes it look quite compact and neat. The turtle also blinks twice at the begining which makes him look realistic.



At this part the rabbit comes in and then the tortoise turns and looks at him as he speaks , then turns away and answers him as he reads the paper. This corresponds to the text which slides up on the right -m "Rabbit came and asked the tortoise for a race" then "The tortoise said "Yes Tonorrow now go away". The turtle doesn't look at the Hare to portray his grumpiness at being distirbed. I would of liked to add some Bee's that I created flying in the background , but time didn't allocate it. I think this page shows the influence I studied earler , its quite layered , has a 3-D dimension due to the trees and main features size and placement.

After the first sign goes up it pauses and waitts for you to click the tortoise before it moves on , the hint suggests that you do this, I'm hoping people see it as an obvious thing to do!

One thing I realised is that the Rabbit shouldn't be called a rabbit for he is a Hare!!! but I've no time to change it, too busy with the next scene!

Interactive media brief art research

Research, of which I'm very inspired by.

For the story I'm doing, I figured that I'd have to create a maneuverable art style, these artist here are going to be my main influences, this is because I find there styles visualy diverse and iconic. For me they seem to teem with charisma and charisma is what I think all people like to see in characters and artrwork, charisma draws you to the art (like it will to the characters I create). It may well be empathy that I need to create with my characters, I think I can do this for I'v practised similar styles before. The characters can be created by hand and then scanned, imported to photoshop ,saved as a PNG ( to keep the file size small enough for photoshop to manage and be accersible in illustrator.

Here's the art.

First of all Hokusai





You can see from these pictures , Hokusai had a great sense of perspective and characterization. On the rabbits the way the rabbits seem to lay on different layers I think is great , it looks they've been down to there most influencial elements, this is something I intent to do with my characters. The coloured picture is niece too , again it has a kind of layered qaulity which I think I could achieve.


Next artist : Yoji Shinkawa



This is the "Metal Gear Solid" concept artist, I chose to look at this for tI like the qaulity of line in his pieces, he seems to carve out his characters with a free flowing finess. The the thing apart from his skill that gives his art such rapid detail is the "Brush Pen" this is a refillable Brush which takes ink, this makes it really handy as you can practise with it anywhere (if you hadn't guessed I recently acquired a Brush Pen for the brief) - I'v been practising. Some of my sketches with it are at the bottom. I'v tried to capture character and shape like Yoji , Hokusai and me.

Next up : Okami (the traditonal manga video game)



This is a game you may (should) of seen before , its a game based on traditional manga like Hokusai and Hiroshige, the charactersation is slightly "kidified " manga but some of hokusai's work looks just like it. You can see why I'm being inspired by it, for this work is beautifully vibrant and shining with character that many age groups could apprecitate (kids and adults can apreciate it) and this is something I would like to make possible. Each animal is transformed wonderfully to a brush pen sketch and animates as you move it, I think this looks good, I will have a go at a similar technique.

To follow: A Japanese interactive comic site.



This is a snap of an interactive comic site in Japan (the link I got seems to freeze when I repaste it), though if you click it you will see that it is layered and has a good 3-D element , each layer of the backgrounds move independant and the story corresponds as you click things. This seems like a good technique that I could base my animation on, not the art but the movement style, the way that if you click moving items they correspond.

Last but definitely not least : Edward Kastin- my art.



Here they are, this is a good example of how my charactes will look, you can see that I'v taken alot from the art above, I've mixed Hokusai with Shinkawa and Okami to create a cut version that should appeal to kids.

Flash Effect

Here's an effect created in flash (I think), It's just some grass which grows randomy as you click, you can also manouver it round, to look at it from different angles. This would be a good effect to use to display work maybe. It would be sweet to have work in a trather 3-D gallery.

Another niece flash site.

This site has a rather niece style. Rather futuristic, you can navigate by clicking the headings at the home page, or by clicking to the side of the screen. This moves the as though your looking through the eyes of a person turning on the spot. Its a rather niece touch, gives the viewer a good relationship with the site. WIndows come down on each page which you scroll down. This seems a bit dull comp[ared to the moving mechanism, you'd think sqaure-enix may have made something special for it . Though it is still stylishand functional which is the main thing that counts. The main window effect may be a niece one to use in my piece, I also liked the way the scroll boxes came down.

Flash sites

This is a pretty cool sony flash site for a phone. Its amazingly interactive. The site is set in a comic book style and when you click a heading the scene changes (the scenes are like comic sections), they kind of fly into place. Each heading at the begining links to a knew environment which is pretty damn interactive too. I'd like to use this kind of frame system in my piece I think, it may be good if you could drag the windows around though.

My HARE animation.

Today we learnt how to animate a walking figure, I chose to do a hair. I made the hair quite quickly in illustrator, but gave him simple legs so it would be more possible to animate (with it being my first time at this). I think this knew knowledge will be useful in my final feature for though the artwork may be different, the animation principals will be the same. It will be useful when I do the tortoise running from the Hare ( this is the story I will do, I'm 70% certain). We also learnt how to transform characters and animate things along a time scale.

Horrid Henry , interactive game

Here's a picuture of an inaractive, web - based game. You can tell it is aimed at children of a young age because of the animation style and the aim (to get Horrid Henry into trouble). i find it quite boring myself, though I think a kid would have fun seeing the reaction of the parents when Henry gets on their nerves (though I'd rather just annoy my mum). Any way it shows the kind of environment you can create with flash I think.