WEEK BEGINNING - 25th of March, 2019
WEEK ENDING - 31st of March, 2019
MONDAY - Fantastical Creatures CG Modelling
Original post: https://ncarolannua1b.blogspot.com/2019/03/fantastical-creatures-modelling.html
"This session was a nice introduction to the entire modelling aspect of this unit! And it's a good thing I think that, because we're going to be doing a LOT of it. I'm not looking forward to more of Mudbox though, I wasn't a fan of that. However, my Skollcrabb design doesn't seem like it would involve much sculpting, since it's shell is meant to be smooth without any kind of real divots or cracks. But I'm excited to get started on making Skollcrabb a digital model!"
TUESDAY - Showreel Briefing
Original post: https://ncarolannua1b.blogspot.com/2019/03/showreel-briefing.html
"After this session, I feel I've learnt a lot of valuable tips about showreel making than before. It's made me look back on my showreel I made for university interviews before knowing how to properly make one, and seeing how much room there was to improve. From here, my main course of action is getting my elements together. That includes music, clips, etc. We're going to be editing in Premiere Pro, which I'm already well versed in, so there won't be too big a learning curve."
THURSDAY - Lip-Sync Introduction
Original post: https://ncarolannua1b.blogspot.com/2019/03/lip-sync-introduction.html
"The next step from here is easy: add a mouth. I've got my own pre-defined mouth shapes all ready, I just need to implement them. This session was a nice return to 2D animation for me, and an interesting return to TVPaint! Time away from the program has definitely helped me in coming back to it without any major "grudges"; essentially, forgetting the tricky experiences prior and trying again! Katherine was a huge help, and she seems really professional with TVPaint."
SUMMARY
This week was a nice mix of new things and old things with new techniques!
First off, the Lip-Sync. I'm really loving the lip-sync unit! I realise it's only been one session but I feel more comfortable in this than I have for any other project so far! The return to 2D was, personally, very comforting and it really made me feel like I was in my element again. I definitely feel like I sped right through up to this point, but not in the sense I'm rushing & sacrificing quality, but in that I've been wanting to get back into 2D animation for so long that I really went full on with it.
The Fantastical Creatures work this week was mostly just an introduction to modelling in Maya, so that we can start to consider how we make our creatures. But for me, the biggest development for me in this unit was finishing the Skollcrabb's maquette. It's taught me a LOT in terms of how to work on something that consistently doesn't work; don't force it to work, just start again. It's surprising I hadn't learnt that sooner, but now I know that starting again and failing isn't a bad thing. Eventually, it'll all turn out alright!
Finally there's the showreel. This was more so a briefing on it than anything, so there's not too much to say in terms of a weekly summary of it. I know we're going to be making it in Adobe Premiere Pro; I'm REALLY glad about this. I've been using Premiere Pro since 2016, for personal use as well as my Art Multimedia & Media Studies A-Levels. I feel fairly well versed in both the program and editing in general, so I'm looking forward to working on this showreel.
Showing posts with label Week 14. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Week 14. Show all posts
Sunday, March 31, 2019
Saturday, March 30, 2019
SHOWREEL - BAD SHOWREELS
In contrast to my post about good showreels, this post will be analysing three bad showreels.
First off is the footage being shown. A lot of the clips show very limited animation, and some even linger on shots that feature no movement at all. I feel like choosing shots that had more dynamic animation, or at least had some elements helping to make up for lack of animation, would help. For example, there are clips that show off lip-sync with no audio; they could've had audio to show off their lip-sync skills over the lack of animation in that one scene.
The showreel is very short, coming in to less than 50 seconds. This showreel could afford to be nearly twice it's current length, and the limited time makes the showreel feel like it has wasted potential.
One thing that stuck out to me as well is that three clips from the same project are used, but all three are virtually identical. I knew the context of the scenes as a running gag, but to someone who doesn't, it could be seen as one clip being used three times over to pad space in an already short showreel.
This showreel is a big risk for Collier.
The showreel is dedicated more to being memorable and funny than acting like an actual showreel. They're really banking on the person reviewing the reel having a good sense of humour, and judging their employability on their gut instinct.
Big risk aside, the showreel doesn't do too much to show off Collier's animation skills. All the effort is put into making an animatic for his song, that only a small section of the showreel is actually dedicated to showing his actual work. About 30 seconds of the showreel shows his animation skills, leaving a minute and 10 seconds of the video being, essentially, wasted.
SHOWREEL 1 - BILLY CRINION
(Billy Crinion's 2018 Showreel - credit: Billy Crinion)
This showreel has a number of problems going on with it.First off is the footage being shown. A lot of the clips show very limited animation, and some even linger on shots that feature no movement at all. I feel like choosing shots that had more dynamic animation, or at least had some elements helping to make up for lack of animation, would help. For example, there are clips that show off lip-sync with no audio; they could've had audio to show off their lip-sync skills over the lack of animation in that one scene.
The showreel is very short, coming in to less than 50 seconds. This showreel could afford to be nearly twice it's current length, and the limited time makes the showreel feel like it has wasted potential.
One thing that stuck out to me as well is that three clips from the same project are used, but all three are virtually identical. I knew the context of the scenes as a running gag, but to someone who doesn't, it could be seen as one clip being used three times over to pad space in an already short showreel.
SHOWREEL 2 - ALEX COLLIER
(Alex Collier's aptly titled showreel - credit: Alex Collier)
The showreel is dedicated more to being memorable and funny than acting like an actual showreel. They're really banking on the person reviewing the reel having a good sense of humour, and judging their employability on their gut instinct.
Big risk aside, the showreel doesn't do too much to show off Collier's animation skills. All the effort is put into making an animatic for his song, that only a small section of the showreel is actually dedicated to showing his actual work. About 30 seconds of the showreel shows his animation skills, leaving a minute and 10 seconds of the video being, essentially, wasted.
SHOWREEL 3 - CHIAN CHE CHANG
(Chian Che Chang's 2011 showreel - credit: Chian Che Chang)
According to the description, this was made ironically. However, it still shows off a lot of bad showreel traits, so I reckon it's fair game for analysis either way.
First, there's the titles. While what's actually written is fine (bar the possible misspelling of "showreel"), adding effects to it are ultimately unnecessary (glow, dissolve).
But it gets a lot more... interesting after the titles. The music is a bizarre choice; it seems to be of a choir, singing "Grande Dossologia". It's very loud and overbearing, and seems almost evangelical; not too appropriate for a showreel. It doesn't even last long enough, with the music ending before the video ends, leaving a few seconds of silence.
The rainbow background is an eyesore, and distracts from the work being shown. And the work itself is, objectively, very bad. Forgetting this was made ironically for a minute, the animation on show is glitchy and jerks around a lot, and is all around very unprofessional.
Friday, March 29, 2019
SHOWREEL - GOOD SHOWREELS
In this post, I'm going to be analysing 3 examples of good showreels.
Ter Voorde showcases a lot of positive qualities in terms of animation showreels.
Firstly, the music fits very well with the animations, even reminiscing to some of the projects shown (e.g. Eddsworld and Teen Titans Go!). The music's engaging, but isn't overly distracting; it really works well with the action scene animations ter Voorde shows off.
The editing is good, matching up with key beats of the music at the right time. No clip overstays it's welcome, and no one project has clips repeated more than once.
There are titles where appropriate, and they look professional and clean. The showreel lasts 69 seconds, which is a little under what we've been recommended, but not by too much.
I do have one piece of criticism and that's in his intro and outro title cards. They're plain black with white text, with the outro also including his self portrait and his character Skeff. While it's clean looking and professional, it's not awfully engaging. From other showreels I've seen, the cards often have some kind of personality to them, be it in font or colours or background. But these leave much to be desired.
Zhang's showreel is, in accordance with the showreel outlines we were given, almost perfect.
The lo-fi music fits with their style, which is somewhat melancholic (if that's a way to describe a style). The only dialogue in the music is at the very beginning, playing over the title card.
The cuts are made in time with the music, but not on key beats; they happen just before the beats, each time on a very particular sound. They've also added titles and program icons on top of the footage, with the titles describing their job role in the project. This is a great touch, as it will allow people watching the showreel to know what programs and roles Zhang can fulfill.
The titles are visually pleasing; the blank black / white backgrounds with corresponding text in a handwriting-esque font gives them a lot of personality. I also think adding a small avatar is a nice touch too, and looks especially nice on the intro card over black.
The showreel lasts 88 seconds, which fits perfectly into our recommended duration.
But alike ter Voorde's showreel, I have one piece of criticism, and that's with the music editing. When a clip with dedicated audio for lip-sync came up, the music cuts entirely; I feel like just dipping the audio down would be less jarring than having it disappear completely.
Mutter has a pretty good showreel here!
The rule of leading with your best foot forward is absolutely on show here; while the introductory clip lasts for quite a bit, it shows some absolutely superb animation. It's probably the strongest piece in the showreel, so it was appropriate to lead with it.
One of the best touches Mutter adds is putting his reference footage along with respective animation; it shows his methods, and it shows just how accurately he can recreate a performance.
He has an opening and closing title card, each with relevant information for each. What makes his more interesting than ter Voorde's or Zhang's is how he injects more personality into it. Mutter opts for a textured background, and includes more colours than just black and white. He also has a brand logo included, which is good.
I have constructive criticisms though. Mostly, the music. It's really overbearing, and while it is somewhat fitting for the energetic animations on show, this particular track is too loud and bombastic. There's also the case of the track gaining an internet following in meme culture.
SHOWREEL 1 - PAUL TER VOORDE
(Paul ter Voorde's 2017 Showreel - credit: Paul ter Voorde)
Ter Voorde showcases a lot of positive qualities in terms of animation showreels.
Firstly, the music fits very well with the animations, even reminiscing to some of the projects shown (e.g. Eddsworld and Teen Titans Go!). The music's engaging, but isn't overly distracting; it really works well with the action scene animations ter Voorde shows off.
The editing is good, matching up with key beats of the music at the right time. No clip overstays it's welcome, and no one project has clips repeated more than once.
There are titles where appropriate, and they look professional and clean. The showreel lasts 69 seconds, which is a little under what we've been recommended, but not by too much.
I do have one piece of criticism and that's in his intro and outro title cards. They're plain black with white text, with the outro also including his self portrait and his character Skeff. While it's clean looking and professional, it's not awfully engaging. From other showreels I've seen, the cards often have some kind of personality to them, be it in font or colours or background. But these leave much to be desired.
SHOWREEL 2 - JESSE ZHANG
(Jesse Zhang's 2018 Showreel - credit: Jesse Zhang)
Zhang's showreel is, in accordance with the showreel outlines we were given, almost perfect.
The lo-fi music fits with their style, which is somewhat melancholic (if that's a way to describe a style). The only dialogue in the music is at the very beginning, playing over the title card.
The cuts are made in time with the music, but not on key beats; they happen just before the beats, each time on a very particular sound. They've also added titles and program icons on top of the footage, with the titles describing their job role in the project. This is a great touch, as it will allow people watching the showreel to know what programs and roles Zhang can fulfill.
The titles are visually pleasing; the blank black / white backgrounds with corresponding text in a handwriting-esque font gives them a lot of personality. I also think adding a small avatar is a nice touch too, and looks especially nice on the intro card over black.
The showreel lasts 88 seconds, which fits perfectly into our recommended duration.
But alike ter Voorde's showreel, I have one piece of criticism, and that's with the music editing. When a clip with dedicated audio for lip-sync came up, the music cuts entirely; I feel like just dipping the audio down would be less jarring than having it disappear completely.
SHOWREEL 3 - JOSHUA MUTTER
(Joshua Mutter's 2017 Showreel - credit: Joshua Mutter)
Mutter has a pretty good showreel here!
The rule of leading with your best foot forward is absolutely on show here; while the introductory clip lasts for quite a bit, it shows some absolutely superb animation. It's probably the strongest piece in the showreel, so it was appropriate to lead with it.
One of the best touches Mutter adds is putting his reference footage along with respective animation; it shows his methods, and it shows just how accurately he can recreate a performance.
He has an opening and closing title card, each with relevant information for each. What makes his more interesting than ter Voorde's or Zhang's is how he injects more personality into it. Mutter opts for a textured background, and includes more colours than just black and white. He also has a brand logo included, which is good.
I have constructive criticisms though. Mostly, the music. It's really overbearing, and while it is somewhat fitting for the energetic animations on show, this particular track is too loud and bombastic. There's also the case of the track gaining an internet following in meme culture.
LIP-SYNC - MOUTH MOVEMENTS
This post is an update on the lip-sync animation.
I've added the mouth to my character, matching up relevant mouth shapes to the audio! As mentioned in my previous post, I already have my own preset mouth shapes, which I've used for my own animations. Over time, I've refined it to an easy to use state, where less is more and using a smaller group of mouth shapes looks better than many different mouth shapes.
For example, here's a gif from a video of mine from 2017, The Can.
Every frame, a new mouth was drawn, leading to hundreds of different mouth shapes that, although they flow well, seem a little too organic in how they move into each other. The shapes and general style are fine, but their movements and the amount of shapes doesn't fit with the simpler, cartoony style of everything else.
Compare that to a gif from a 2018 animation, Nerdy and the Line.
In this gif, there's a lot of changes I made. Most notably, the limited number of mouth shapes being used. In total of 7 mouth shapes, 3 of which are just smaller versions of 3 other ones, with the 7th being a closed mouth. This is as a part of a "less is more" method I've been using; when I had mouth shapes for every possible phonic, it made lip-sync look a bit too weird and all over the place, with no cohesion. However, these shapes are similar to each other enough to look good when going from one shape to another.
Relating back to the TVPaint task, both the mouth in Nerdy and the Line and my lip-sync task are held in some kind of collection: for Nerdy it's in an Animate Symbol, and in the TVPaint lip-sync file it's in an Animbrush (again, mentioned in the previous post). I used the same mouth shapes in TVPaint as I did before, using this sheet of my mouth shapes as reference.
Using the Animbrush and a new animation layer, I went through and added mouths on top of my body and face roughs. I used my notes on the timeline as a guide, and matched them up with the relevant mouth shapes. For example, if the audio clip note requires an "A" sound, I would use the mouth shape with "A" assigned to it.
In the end, it came out looking like this!
The next step from here is cleaning up, starting with the chin. I have to make the chin move up and down as the character's mouth moves, something I've never done before. But if it goes well, hopefully it'll be a technique I can bring to my personal projects!
I've added the mouth to my character, matching up relevant mouth shapes to the audio! As mentioned in my previous post, I already have my own preset mouth shapes, which I've used for my own animations. Over time, I've refined it to an easy to use state, where less is more and using a smaller group of mouth shapes looks better than many different mouth shapes.
For example, here's a gif from a video of mine from 2017, The Can.
Every frame, a new mouth was drawn, leading to hundreds of different mouth shapes that, although they flow well, seem a little too organic in how they move into each other. The shapes and general style are fine, but their movements and the amount of shapes doesn't fit with the simpler, cartoony style of everything else.
Compare that to a gif from a 2018 animation, Nerdy and the Line.
In this gif, there's a lot of changes I made. Most notably, the limited number of mouth shapes being used. In total of 7 mouth shapes, 3 of which are just smaller versions of 3 other ones, with the 7th being a closed mouth. This is as a part of a "less is more" method I've been using; when I had mouth shapes for every possible phonic, it made lip-sync look a bit too weird and all over the place, with no cohesion. However, these shapes are similar to each other enough to look good when going from one shape to another.
Relating back to the TVPaint task, both the mouth in Nerdy and the Line and my lip-sync task are held in some kind of collection: for Nerdy it's in an Animate Symbol, and in the TVPaint lip-sync file it's in an Animbrush (again, mentioned in the previous post). I used the same mouth shapes in TVPaint as I did before, using this sheet of my mouth shapes as reference.
Using the Animbrush and a new animation layer, I went through and added mouths on top of my body and face roughs. I used my notes on the timeline as a guide, and matched them up with the relevant mouth shapes. For example, if the audio clip note requires an "A" sound, I would use the mouth shape with "A" assigned to it.
In the end, it came out looking like this!
The next step from here is cleaning up, starting with the chin. I have to make the chin move up and down as the character's mouth moves, something I've never done before. But if it goes well, hopefully it'll be a technique I can bring to my personal projects!
Thursday, March 28, 2019
LIP-SYNC - INTRODUCTION
In this session, we started on our lip-sync project!
Lip-sync in animation is where you make a character's mouth movements match up with what audible dialogue is coming out. By using various different mouth shapes, you can create believable talking animation.
For our lip-sync animation, we would be working in 2D using TVPaint; something I was VERY happy about, seeing as 2D is my preferred animation style and it'd been 4 months since last doing it. Katherine was well versed in TVPaint as well, and given her expertise with the program, she said she'd be able to help out where she can.
The first step was choosing our audio. We were given two audio clips to choose from, one from the movie Hot Fuzz and one from The Tick live action show. I chose the audio from The Tick, in which a character exclaims about a crime lab, how thorough & complicated it is, and how he likes when sidekicks have "ideas [and] theories".
We had a few set rules with the animation:
Katherine also taught us how to make an animbrush to hold all our mouth shapes. An animbrush is similar to a symbol in Flash, they act as containers of sorts to hold lots of different drawings. The animbrush for the mouths would let us go through frame by frame choosing each mouth shape we want and placing it onto the frame.
I started with the first thing I would do with any character performance, which is the body movements. It'd be a pain to start with the mouth, then make the body move, and then go back and readjust all the mouths, when I can just move them as I go with a predefined body. I wasn't too precious with the drawings, I didn't try and make them perfect.
From the audio, I got vibes of the one-shot character Mark Deveraux from Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and based my character's physical performance on them somewhat. The cockiness and the general lack of knowledge regarding crime work may have been the subconscious connection for me.
I finished my body movements relatively quickly, so I decided to move on to the eye movements. I really wanted to get the physical performance down, and getting the more emotive parts of the face done felt more important to the performance aspect.
For this whole animation, I used my cartoony style I've been using since 2013. Over time, it's been tweaked and worked on, mostly out of necessity to work in different mediums (digital illustration, animation, etc.) One of the key changes is the shape of the eyes; where it started out as a circle, the eyes now resemble ovals. I bring this up because having the oval shaped eyes allowed for more extreme and exaggerated eye movements, giving me more room to close eyelids with.
At the end of this session, this is the animation so far:
Lip-sync in animation is where you make a character's mouth movements match up with what audible dialogue is coming out. By using various different mouth shapes, you can create believable talking animation.
This session was headed by Katherine Dallimore, a NUA graduate who now runs the YouTube channel KDSketch, where she uploads storytime videos (in the same style as JaidenAnimations and TheOdd1sOut) and TVPaint tutorials.
(A storytime video uploaded to the KDSketch channel - credit: Katherine Dallimore)
For our lip-sync animation, we would be working in 2D using TVPaint; something I was VERY happy about, seeing as 2D is my preferred animation style and it'd been 4 months since last doing it. Katherine was well versed in TVPaint as well, and given her expertise with the program, she said she'd be able to help out where she can.
The first step was choosing our audio. We were given two audio clips to choose from, one from the movie Hot Fuzz and one from The Tick live action show. I chose the audio from The Tick, in which a character exclaims about a crime lab, how thorough & complicated it is, and how he likes when sidekicks have "ideas [and] theories".
We had a few set rules with the animation:
- Simple character design, as to not be too precious with a very small animation
- Only shoot from the shoulders up, no hand movements or body gestures allowed
- Express only with what you have; shoulders, head and face
- The chin should move as the mouth does
- White background
- No cuts
Katherine also taught us how to make an animbrush to hold all our mouth shapes. An animbrush is similar to a symbol in Flash, they act as containers of sorts to hold lots of different drawings. The animbrush for the mouths would let us go through frame by frame choosing each mouth shape we want and placing it onto the frame.
(The KDSketch tutorial on animbrushes - credit: Katherine Dallimore)
I started with the first thing I would do with any character performance, which is the body movements. It'd be a pain to start with the mouth, then make the body move, and then go back and readjust all the mouths, when I can just move them as I go with a predefined body. I wasn't too precious with the drawings, I didn't try and make them perfect.
From the audio, I got vibes of the one-shot character Mark Deveraux from Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and based my character's physical performance on them somewhat. The cockiness and the general lack of knowledge regarding crime work may have been the subconscious connection for me.
(Deveraux, played by Nathan Fillion, plays a detective on a show protagonists Jake and Rosa enjoy - credit: NBCUniversal)
I finished my body movements relatively quickly, so I decided to move on to the eye movements. I really wanted to get the physical performance down, and getting the more emotive parts of the face done felt more important to the performance aspect.
For this whole animation, I used my cartoony style I've been using since 2013. Over time, it's been tweaked and worked on, mostly out of necessity to work in different mediums (digital illustration, animation, etc.) One of the key changes is the shape of the eyes; where it started out as a circle, the eyes now resemble ovals. I bring this up because having the oval shaped eyes allowed for more extreme and exaggerated eye movements, giving me more room to close eyelids with.
At the end of this session, this is the animation so far:
The next step from here is easy: add a mouth. I've got my own pre-defined mouth shapes all ready, I just need to implement them. This session was a nice return to 2D animation for me, and an interesting return to TVPaint! Time away from the program has definitely helped me in coming back to it without any major "grudges"; essentially, forgetting the tricky experiences prior and trying again! Katherine was a huge help, and she seems really professional with TVPaint.
Tuesday, March 26, 2019
FANTASTICAL CREATURES - FINISHED MAQUETTE
This post is a quick little post showing my finished Skollcrabb maquette!
I took some time out of sessions to work on my third Skollcrabb iteration, but with more thought, patience and time put into it. And I managed to get there!
This iteration was a lot less fiddly, and involved me changing a few things about the character's design. The biggest one is the placement of the legs. This model would become a lot more fragile if I went with my original vision of having the legs at the side. Now, they're placed on the bottom of the Skollcrabb. I also closed the claws in this maquette, just so if the bottom half wouldn't fall off if the claw was open.
I underestimated just how much Super Sculpey I'd need, since I completely forgot I needed to cover the inside of the shell and body as well as the outside. So that made the process a little longer, but ultimately it's worth it for a proper, correct maquette!
I took some time out of sessions to work on my third Skollcrabb iteration, but with more thought, patience and time put into it. And I managed to get there!
This iteration was a lot less fiddly, and involved me changing a few things about the character's design. The biggest one is the placement of the legs. This model would become a lot more fragile if I went with my original vision of having the legs at the side. Now, they're placed on the bottom of the Skollcrabb. I also closed the claws in this maquette, just so if the bottom half wouldn't fall off if the claw was open.
I underestimated just how much Super Sculpey I'd need, since I completely forgot I needed to cover the inside of the shell and body as well as the outside. So that made the process a little longer, but ultimately it's worth it for a proper, correct maquette!
MEDIA ROLES AND RESEARCH - GROUP TUTORIAL PRESENTATION
In today's media roles session, me and my group had a Group Tutorial with Helen. It was essentially just a way to touch base and see how we're getting on. I prepared a small presentation just in case I needed to actually show anything... but didn't end up needing it at all.
So instead of wasting it, I thought it'd be good to post here as a way to show where I am and what my plan of action is.
So instead of wasting it, I thought it'd be good to post here as a way to show where I am and what my plan of action is.
SHOWREEL - BRIEFING
This session, we got our briefing on the Year 1 Showreel project.
With Year 1 wrapping up, we need to put together a showreel showcasing our work from this year. It has to last between 75 and 90 seconds, and include some kind of soundtrack. We'll be using this project to learn more about the post-production stage of media production, e.g. editing. For this, we'll be using Adobe Premiere Pro.
During this session, we went over a few key areas to consider when making the showreel:
These are both examples of good showreels from NUA. They both have fitting, non-distracting music, the editing is tight and, in Pennington's case, matches up really well with the music. They include relevant titles at the beginning and the end, and do a good job of making the showreel entertaining.
We also looked at bad showreels. And by bad, I mean baaaaaaaaaad.
This one stuck out especially. Despite being made ironically (as evidenced by the description), it still shows off all the bad things a showreel can exhibit. The music is loud & overbearing, while also not fitting the style of work at all. The work being put on show is objectively very bad, and shouldn't even be on the table when considering clips for a showreel. The editing is choppy and awkward, with the last few seconds not even having any audio to it. While it was hilarious to watch as a group, nearly crying laughing, it's objectively not a good showreel.
After this session, I feel I've learnt a lot of valuable tips about showreel making than before. It's made me look back on my showreel I made for university interviews before knowing how to properly make one, and seeing how much room there was to improve. From here, my main course of action is getting my elements together. That includes music, clips, etc. We're going to be editing in Premiere Pro, which I'm already well versed in, so there won't be too big a learning curve.
With Year 1 wrapping up, we need to put together a showreel showcasing our work from this year. It has to last between 75 and 90 seconds, and include some kind of soundtrack. We'll be using this project to learn more about the post-production stage of media production, e.g. editing. For this, we'll be using Adobe Premiere Pro.
During this session, we went over a few key areas to consider when making the showreel:
- SOUNDTRACK - Soundtrack should be suitable. The soundtrack should resemble your work and the style of work you do, and not be too distracting. If there are lyrics, which isn't advisory, make sure to double check them for anything that may be unsuitable for a professional showreel. Also consider copyright. You have to be able to legally use the music you put on your showreel; for example, royalty free music from websites like Bensound or Partners in Rhyme are fine, but a piece of the soundtrack to The Dark Knight Rises would not be.
- TITLE CARDS - Ideally, the showreel should have two title cards: one at the beginning to show that it's a showreel (for example, "Noah Carolan: Animation Showreel 2019"), and one at the end with your full necessary details. This includes your areas of work (animator, illustrator, etc.), contact details (email, branded social medias, etc.), and give any necessary credit. In relation to branding, you can also include a logo and a brand name. For example, my branding is "NoahIdeaFilms", so I'll most likely use that in my outro title, along with my real name.
- TITLES - These titles go along with the work you show off. They can be the project's title, the type of animation you were going for, your role in a particular scene, or a combination of them.
- CLIP CONSIDERATION - When putting clips into your showreel, it's always best to start with your strongest foot forward. Put your best work first, don't be afraid to show off a little. It's also important to end strong, so it doesn't feel like a downward slope the entire showreel. Most importantly, don't rely on one clip too much; only use a clip twice, if you absolutely have to.
- EDITING - The general rules for editing the showreel encompasses a few points already discussed. In regards to music, try and edit the clips to the beat, making for a more satisfying watch. If your clip relies on it's own audio, like in a lip-sync test, dip the music audio. Check aspect ratios of clips, and spelling & grammar of titles.
We then looked at a few showreels, some good and some bad.
GOOD SHOWREELS
(Esme Clark's 2017 NUA Showreel)
(Jez Pennington's 2016 NUA Showreel)
These are both examples of good showreels from NUA. They both have fitting, non-distracting music, the editing is tight and, in Pennington's case, matches up really well with the music. They include relevant titles at the beginning and the end, and do a good job of making the showreel entertaining.
We also looked at bad showreels. And by bad, I mean baaaaaaaaaad.
(Chian Che Chang's 2011 Showreel)
This one stuck out especially. Despite being made ironically (as evidenced by the description), it still shows off all the bad things a showreel can exhibit. The music is loud & overbearing, while also not fitting the style of work at all. The work being put on show is objectively very bad, and shouldn't even be on the table when considering clips for a showreel. The editing is choppy and awkward, with the last few seconds not even having any audio to it. While it was hilarious to watch as a group, nearly crying laughing, it's objectively not a good showreel.
After this session, I feel I've learnt a lot of valuable tips about showreel making than before. It's made me look back on my showreel I made for university interviews before knowing how to properly make one, and seeing how much room there was to improve. From here, my main course of action is getting my elements together. That includes music, clips, etc. We're going to be editing in Premiere Pro, which I'm already well versed in, so there won't be too big a learning curve.
Monday, March 25, 2019
FANTASTICAL CREATURES - MODELLING INTRODUCTION
This session was our first on character modelling in Maya, before we start modelling our own chosen Fantastical Creatures.
The task of what we were going to make was fairly simple, it was just going to be an abstract form of a man made from a cube. From there, we'd go on to make slight changes and use new tools.
We started, as mentioned with a cube. We grabbed the top face and extruded upwards twice, so that we ended up with a cuboid, essentially made from three cubes. We kept extruding, re-scaling and cutting faces until we got a very basic man.
From there, we went on to make him a little less basic. Added features to more resemble actual human anatomy made the model seem less blocky, and more like a stylised character. For my guy, I gave him little stumpy feet, more prominent pectorals and a shaped head.
Once we had our blocky man, our next step was smoothing him. By smoothing the character, Maya made the edges more rounded, and made him higher poly (made up of more polygons). In my case, this resulted in a character who looks somewhat decent from the feet up to the neck, and then the head is just an egg. It looks SO much like an egg after the smoothing process.
Once we had our smoothed out model, we started to use tools I've personally not encounted before; the sculpting tools. The toolset is preinstalled into Maya, and allows the user to manipulate surfaces however they want. Things can be pinched, made jagged, cut into, etc., and the changes will stay there.
We messed about with these tools for a bit, just to get to grips with them. In the end, my smoothed out egg man looked like what I've dubbed as "Human Jar Jar Binks", due to it's large billed mouth and eye stalks.
Our final experimentation with sculpting was in a program called Mudbox, another Autodesk package. It's specifically made for sculpting and modelling, with no real functionality outside of that. I found the program less user friendly, and ultimately a lot more tricky to use. I wanted to try and recreate elements of the character Thanos' design, but parts of the model kept getting dragged out and warping where I didn't want them to.
This session was a nice introduction to the entire modelling aspect of this unit! And it's a good thing I think that, because we're going to be doing a LOT of it. I'm not looking forward to more of Mudbox though, I wasn't a fan of that. However, my Skollcrabb design doesn't seem like it would involve much sculpting, since it's shell is meant to be smooth without any kind of real divots or cracks. But I'm excited to get started on making Skollcrabb a digital model!
The task of what we were going to make was fairly simple, it was just going to be an abstract form of a man made from a cube. From there, we'd go on to make slight changes and use new tools.
We started, as mentioned with a cube. We grabbed the top face and extruded upwards twice, so that we ended up with a cuboid, essentially made from three cubes. We kept extruding, re-scaling and cutting faces until we got a very basic man.
From there, we went on to make him a little less basic. Added features to more resemble actual human anatomy made the model seem less blocky, and more like a stylised character. For my guy, I gave him little stumpy feet, more prominent pectorals and a shaped head.
Once we had our blocky man, our next step was smoothing him. By smoothing the character, Maya made the edges more rounded, and made him higher poly (made up of more polygons). In my case, this resulted in a character who looks somewhat decent from the feet up to the neck, and then the head is just an egg. It looks SO much like an egg after the smoothing process.
Once we had our smoothed out model, we started to use tools I've personally not encounted before; the sculpting tools. The toolset is preinstalled into Maya, and allows the user to manipulate surfaces however they want. Things can be pinched, made jagged, cut into, etc., and the changes will stay there.
We messed about with these tools for a bit, just to get to grips with them. In the end, my smoothed out egg man looked like what I've dubbed as "Human Jar Jar Binks", due to it's large billed mouth and eye stalks.
Our final experimentation with sculpting was in a program called Mudbox, another Autodesk package. It's specifically made for sculpting and modelling, with no real functionality outside of that. I found the program less user friendly, and ultimately a lot more tricky to use. I wanted to try and recreate elements of the character Thanos' design, but parts of the model kept getting dragged out and warping where I didn't want them to.
(My Thanos (left) facing Sam's Sonic (right))
This session was a nice introduction to the entire modelling aspect of this unit! And it's a good thing I think that, because we're going to be doing a LOT of it. I'm not looking forward to more of Mudbox though, I wasn't a fan of that. However, my Skollcrabb design doesn't seem like it would involve much sculpting, since it's shell is meant to be smooth without any kind of real divots or cracks. But I'm excited to get started on making Skollcrabb a digital model!
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