Tested dialogue with Claude having no eyes.

Everyone said it wouldn’t work and it doesn’t.

What can I do instead? Not going to get this finished for the deadline so think about this with no time constraints.

Painted and traced dialogue in right colours.

Watercolour paper thing doesn’t look as good as I thought it would, but I still think it has the potential to work this well. Need more of a knowledge of how Toon Boom works for this to be possible, talk to him about it - looks like it’s zoomed in on the watrcolour swatches… is this because of the size of the files (numer of pixels) or because it’s stretching to be able to fill the whole screen if necessary? Colours are a bit strong - would look better waterier and more obviously painted.

Saying that, I do feel that the colour definitely enhances this exercise. Can keep working on it so it speaks as little of computers and as much as of a handmade artefact as possible, but this is a few steps in an interesting direction, use it in the final cut and keep working on this after the deadline.

Paint and trace colour tests.

Used the watercolour palette I made and worked in Toon Boom. Couldn’t make a final decision about colours so spent ages changing things about, but I think this was a really good thing in the long run, because I’ve gone from knowing nothing about Toon Boom to being quite efficient at painting and tracing!

Dialogue cleaned up and unpainted but with no sound.

It’s much better now that I’ve altered the levels.

Should have edited out the numbers in the corners… even though I really like them, I’m sure other people won’t and it probably looks unprofessional. If I have time edit them out.

Tried lots of different photo backgrounds for the alpha channel exercise. Here are the best ones.

I think I’ve got some really good ones! And I think they’re all more effective than the denim one. Denim is improved I think by having manipulated the animation a little to look like it is drawn onto the denim… but other people I’ve asked say it detracts. I like the one on lace, I think it works better in terms of using material, but not quite sure what I’m saying about myself with it? It’s a bit sickly.

Photo backgrounds I think probably work better. Sheep photos are digital, snow photos were taken on film, and I like the less digital feel this gives it - everyone’s alpha channel results that I’ve seen speak of computers - you see them and think that’s been done on a computer. This is really not what I want from my work, which is why I’m shying away from so many of the digital exercises, but using a film photograph helps to reduce this in this exercise.

I think the last example is the best because I’ve made it work well with the photograph - integrated the slope in the photograph so it looks like this is why he’s falling over. Other people like this one best too. So use this one in the final cut.

Emotion Change

Started working on this trying to stay closest to the style of the Door exercise. Claude is drawing then decides he hates it and throws a little tantrum, scribbles it out and throws the paper and pen (not too enthusiastically, should look a little half-hearted).

Sticking with subtle movement, not too exaggerated, but keeping the principles in mind.

Won’t do a cleanup for this exercise - better to focus the time I have left on animating it well and cleaning up the two I have good cleanup ideas for.

Claude’s eyes are wrong:

I agree they’re not really working on a close up as just two dots. Prefer Claude not to have a face at all… I will try him with a mouth and no eyes, but don’t think it will work (and neither do other people). Sinead likes the man’s face - maybe try and make it a bit more like this? Or go back to original year one Claude designs, although even these eyes are a bit cartoony and I’m trying to completely stay away from that feel in this module.

People think they should all be more exaggerated:

I really strongly feel that they shouldn’t. Want them to be subtle, and not give you too much! Extreme exaggeration is one way of doing things… I feel that they are exaggerated enough to look animated rather than rotoscoped - they communicate (in most places, although some little bits are not quite right and everything I’ve made can be worked back into). Other people’s characters are pantomime actors, my character is a screen actor, but I want it to feel like he’s not acting at all. Matthew thinks it looks too real, but real is what I was going for and want to continue going for so I think I’m heading in the right direction although I still haven’t quite found my feet in this module.

Denim doesn’t work:

Tried to be really imaginative by using denim instead of a photograph for alpha channel exercise but it doesn’t really work - some people liked it but ultimately I think the two things alienate each other rather than working together. Try giving in and using a photo. How could I do this in a slightly different way? Also try making it transparent to integrate it with the denim but I think this might detract even further.

Work on perfecting the movement, and refining the character design. If I can’t complete this during the time before the deadline then continue to work on it after the deadline.

Use an alpha channel to add a photo background

To Do:

• Try changing opacity?
• If I have time try putting him on a photo

Piece of dialogue between two characters

Some frames missing…?

To Do:

• Re-scan last scene to get back missing frames
• Clean up all scans in photoshop: levels (batch)
• Make into film again, add sound again, export (aspect ratio).
• Paint and trace using colour palette (decide on colours for each character)
• Add sound, export (aspect ratio).

Trying to open something which refuses to open

To Do

• Like this as it is, leave it be?
• Supposedly adding a puppet tool character to this?

Trying to catch a bus but narrowly missing it.

To Do:

• Clean up scans: levels (batch)

Final Palette in Watercolour. Use careful selections of these on each character in dialogue.

Finished animating the BUS exercise. Had one really good obs film of a dive but the bus went above shot for most of it, and had one really good shot of the bus where it stayed in shot the whole time. Combined them.The bus trajectory was 13 frames shorter so had to work out which parts would be longer if it were a slower throw, inbetween and take frames out. This was really difficult and had to redo it several times but it has ended up looking good.

Have animated the whole thing in pencil with the intention to clean it up in paint, but actually really like how it looks in pencil, so might clean up in pencil just to have one that’s in pencil for contrast. Have used a very iterative approach to this task, not just in accordance with the brief but because I think it has helped make the animation look effective. BUT have done it all at home using Monkey Jam to linetest, which won’t let me export any animation! A lot of the frames don’t exist anymore because I’ve worked over them, so can’t reshoot all the tests (+ would be quite a waste of time) - what can I do about this in future?!

Have changed around which cleanup exercises to do on which exercises. New plan:

• EX1 Door - puppet tool (although I really don’t think this will work well on any of my exercises.
• EX2 Dialogue - paint and trace
• EX3 Bus - photo background
• EX4 Emotion - z depth (don’t think this will work with my style at all either.

Have had a good idea for PAINT AND TRACE - thought this would look naff and not fit my style at all, and have been trying to find a way around it. So bought some watercolour paper and spent a whole day coming up with a really carefully chosen palette in watercolour squares. Scanned in and touched up on photoshop - darkened some, increased saturation on some etc - took some out that didn’t fit, added more etc, and now have a palette I’m really excited about!

Wanted the colours I used to ground my work as really contemporary… so looked a lot at fashion, especially clothing, what colours are really fashionable at the moment. Whilst looking at my own clothes had an idea for PHOTO BACKGROUND exercise. Had been thinking about using newspaper scanned in as the background, but thought lines might get lost. Now have scanned in a load of other textures including some clothes (denim looks particularly good), ribbon which didn’t work that well, carrier bags etc. Quite excited about this too!

Stan lecture - learnt about z depth. Notes to follow.

I enjoyed learning this technique and trying it out but it isn’t something I want to use in my work for this module. It’s too digital-looking - it makes you think of computers not handmade-ness and this would really clash with my work. If I have an abundance of time try applying it to one of my exercises, but only for point-scoring reasons!

SHOT DIALOGUE OBS VIDEO TODAY. Tried loads of different shots including some sort of point of view ones. Think these could work really well. 

SHOOT BUS OBS VIDEO TOMORROW. Decided on a shot - don’t show other character, just Claude on one side of screen running to the other to try and catch the bus. To make it clear it’s a bus have it coming right past the camera towards Claude. Use Ben as Claude because he’s good at diving!

EMOTION. Ideas: watching something on TV and something sad makes him cry, or something seemingly mundane makes him cry… happily walking his tortoise and the tortoise gets run over?… what to do?!