Evaulation

What skills have you developed throughout this module and how effectively have you applied them? 


The skills i have developed has to be After Effects. i had know idea about anything this programme had to offer never used it never even heard of it. Even from doing my 5 silent moves before christmas my skills have developed massively which i sure you can see from the huge difference of quality from silent movies and the top 10 animation. I spent a huge amount of time researching techniques and how far i could push this programme which helped me massively. Another thing i have done is organise my films more i usually shove everything in one film but for this i had networks of folders which helped me organise the abundance of files i had to work with. 

What approaches to/methods of design production have you developed and how have they informed your design development process?

I have lean't much bout animating techniques from sound, camer movement, masks, null objects, applying effects, pace, file organisation, lighting and i went out my way to develop these skills of my own back watching tutorials and researching online. i feel i have applied everything i know into this and my videos get better with time i feel as am constantly learning new things i wanted to apply to my animations. 

What strengths can you identify in your work and how will you capitalize on these?

Strengths has to be software skills i already had a good knowledge on Photoshop and i feel that helped me grasp AfterEffects quickly also. For all my imagery i used Photoshop and i think they are stong and work very well with my animation. Other strengths is commitment i started animating way before most and i set myself goals to finish by and i stuck to them however much sleep i lost and i think my dedication shows on my animations which i am very proud of.  

What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you adress these in the future?

My weaknesses has to be blogging i am a sucker for producing work and leaving blogging to the end and this was not a project which allowed you to do this in time. I may of started animating early and finished all my animations the friday before hand-in but i didn't blog and it was a mammoth task to do it all as its a totally different ball game compared to print. Another weakness was my lack of story boards i didn't develop them i just produced what i had drawn the first time and stuck to it with very little changes.  this is another regret i just get pulled in to doing the fun stuff and leave the rest.

Identify 5 things you would do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from them?

1. I say this every time. blog more i need to seriously change my ways and keep up to date on my blogging and i hate myself for doing this all the time. 
2. Story board more. draw more, just develop in general. 
3. Make todo lists and keep on track with all the tasks and deadlines i am given. 
4. Become more confident with my writing i put it off as long as possible because i am just not comfortable doing it. i just need to spend more time writing up things as it takes me ages but putting it off just makes it harder to catch up.
5. Not take a couple days of 2 days before a deadline for my 21st. despite anticipating this and working my ass of to get animations done there is always a huge amount to blog and write up. 

Attendance: 5

Punctuality: 5

Motivation: 5

Commitment: 4

Quality of work produced: 4 

Quantity of work produced: 2

Contribution to group: N/A

finished videos

Ident 4 Epic Scene

This final ident i used my Epic scene from the title sequence. I absolutely love this scene so i decided it would look pretty sexy as an ident. The inspiration i used was the gears of war game advertisement which uses epic imagery with a really slow song which i really like and it works amazingly despite the nature of the game and the song been totally different. 

I used the lighting effect as i did previously on this scene but witha few differences. i admit i didn't make a story board for this ident as anticipated to just make a composition out of the previous one and use that but i tried this and it really didn't work with the music at all.
I edited so i had a black screen at the start and the end of the film and filled the middle with my imagery. The music wouldn't work with a shaky camera so i had slow movement to give it more interest compared to a still image. tried 2 different parts of the song one with speaking the other just the backing track. i prefer the one without siniging in it, sounds more epic. i love this ident and it was a really strong one to finish on.

Ident 3

Very simple animation which is basically carried by the song. The song is from the Rock'n'Rolla sound track which i basically based my original music from. I edited this song so i would have the main speaking part which i could edit the text to an then the song gets really intense and works much better for an ident than picking 10 seconds of the films.
I used two images of a man with about 10 knives due to the 3rd rule. knives don't run out of ammo. The photos i used are from the film Machete. terrible film but perfect image for what i want to do in the ident. This is the first ident which i have done which has used the shaky camera effect which i used all through my title sequence. This is because it is the first one i have used this i think because it the first on with a sound track. I like the simple ident it just works well with the soundtrack. i changed up the way i introduced the title as i had a bit more time to play with because of the simplicity of the video i had the title pop up firs and after a few seconds the time, date and channel. i really like the way this looks but its only possible if i have enough time to spare.

Evaluation of the first 2 idents.

i am pleased with the production of the first to Idents. I am much happier with the umbrella one over the stilts as i think it has turned out looking much more natural. The one with the stilts feels a bit robotic to me  it doesn't flow as nicely as i had hoped.
I didn't think i would be able to animate these as its very different to what i have produced in my title sequence as i am making objects move rather that still imagery and moving the camera most of the time. I am pleased with the results and getting ever closer to finishing. I plan to get the next towo done tomorrow so it gives to time to document everything i have done.

2nd Ident Animation

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I really like this ident i think its movement it realistic to a point of not sing moving image. photoshopping the zombie to make him look like it has been hit was a simple task but the effect produced was just what i was looking for.

First Ident Animation

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Not fully impressed by this ident what so ever. i really hope i have some time to go back an potentially change the whole thing. my title sequnce was much stronger than what i have produced here so it doesn't reflect my ability to well what so ever. none of the movement is natural, the sound is unprofessional. hopefully they get better from here. not a good starting point at all.

Ident Story Board

Finishing Title Sequence

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My final imagery

This is a really nice image its just to small to cover my page without pixialting sadly. 

Same with time image just to small.

This one is nice and there is a massive range just like it but i want more of a bendy road which i can pan down. 

Perfect. can be cut up into easy sections, nice large image and remote. exactly what i am looking for. 

here i cut the road i up into 2 sections and threshold it. 

Added and attractive women with a gun because every successful Tv show needs one of these just to get the views up. so here is mine. 

Logo

I need to create a logo for my tv programme. I chose to use the same font as i have done throughout my title sequence which is called 'Bebas' i think it works for the style of film i have produced. Bold elongated and easy to read. 

I decided on the name 'The Zombie Virus' as its simple clear and resembles i looked into viruses to come to start a project on zombies. Also it says the zombie virus at the start of the animation when the news is been read out. 

I started to play around with the zirus theme first using some DNA to underline the title. felt it was to big so i made it smaller and i still didn't like how it looked. 

I then went with the zombie hand look. Standard. i like this but i just want some development so i changed my idea even though its not the biggest deal i need to concentrate on my animation.

Next i made a the title out of blood and i really like this effect.

i placed it over the black title. simple and subtle, done deal. this is the one i plan to use. 

I have done it in white incase the black is to dark. thinking of everything today i just want to finish the title sequence so not fafing around today. 

Last Day of Animating

I still have the previous shot of the man in-front of the church to use which will take up about 5 seconds which leaves we with 10 more seconds to animate. never thought i would see the end of this but i'm getting close i can almost taste it.
I will produce one more scene and create my logo to finish the last 10 seconds.



Here is my last story board for the title sequence. Seen as thought the music slows down drastically to finish i will have more of a panning shot of a lonely road with know-one around but one surviour. This shot the disappears and my programme title appears. Simple and mellow is how i plan to finish.

FInal Crit

Animating Epic Scene

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Epic Scene Prep

Basically i plan to use both images of the man in my epic scene and i will use the light flicker like i did in a previous section to achieve this. The man appears from a huge group of zombies and when the light flickers the image of him changes extremely quickly to give to impression of him moving. 

Here is the first shot i will edit in Photoshop. i cut out the zombies and the man. i want the man to be separate from the zombies or the scene wouldn't work how i want it to. 

To do this i used the 'spot healing tool on where the man should be and it was filled it to a standard where it wasn't noticeable if you weren't looking for it basically. I was happy with it so i did the same for the other image. 

Here is the cut outs of the man i plant to use in this scene and i have applied the threshold filer on them both. 

2nd man

Here are all the layers together. i cut out some zombies to put in the foreground also including the 2 layers i already have. 

Very excited to animate this scene i think i will be the best one in my whole sequence. 

Found It!

 I needed an epic scene and i have found it.. I was looking for dramatic bits in zombie movies to try and come up with an idea for what to put as my epic scene when i came across this zombie wallpaper.

So i looked into this perfect image a bit more and found out it is from a film called 'Horde'. This is exactly what i was looking for i mean that is one good looking shot right there. I found another image of the same scene which means i could play around with both in the 5 seconds i have to fill.

Choosing my Next Scene

I have listened to the song which is after what i have just animated an well it getting pretty intense and its build up drops in about 5 seconds. So instead of the scene i had planned to put in which is the man in front of the church i need something a bit more epic to carry me through this next bit. I am really not sure what will fit the bill but just need something epic so it will go with my music.

3rd Day of Animating

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Adding Another Scene

Due to the nature of the song it is still at a really intense part so imagery doesn't last long at all and my next scene is one i would like to keep on for a few more second that the song will let me. to solve this i am introducing a new scene in between.

This scene is nice and simple, all i want to to is have a man who looks like a professional zombie killer his name and then a few zombies in the background. I started the shot with the man coming in from the bottom then when he stops his name swings in on the 'x' axis. The man then shoots to the other side and a few zombies appear on the side the man cam from. The next scene is introduced by the building sweeping in from the right pushing everything else off screen then it carries on as i drew up in my previous story board.

For my professional zombie killer i came across 3 different images which i liked and could use for this scene. 

It was a toss up between the last 2 and ended up going for the 2nd one as he just looks like a serious badass.

the zombie images i got is from the film dawn of the dead i think. I cut out the front 3 zombies and will add then into my sequence. 

Here is what the scene will hopefully look like when i'm finished. 

2nd lot of Imagery

For these next scenes my favourite shot has to be the first one really excited to start animating again now i'm getting more used to the programme i feel ti could possibly try some new effects and techniques for this next section. The images i was able to get where very similar to what i had draw so it is made it nice and easy for me.

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Evaluation of the First Stages of Animation

After my first two days animating i have realised that my current story boards don't last as long as i anticipated. After completing the animation of my first board and been 3 seconds out i may need to place more imagery in my next ones so i fill my time more accurately. i can easily slide scenes into different sections if needs be. I find it difficult to plan the scenes to the music as you don't really get a sense of togetherness with my drawings and the beat of the music despite having key framed the main beats as you never know how it will translate to screen.

2nd Day Animating

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1st Day of After Effects

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Starting 60 second intro

After the crit it was said that i needed to story board to get my videos more exciting and better to watch. 

here is my first one i produced. there is a total of 3 different scenes i plan to put together in this section so i  will first look for imagery and see if these are possible to produce. 

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Editing my song.

using the Queens of the Stone age song i edited it together in After Effects as there wasn't really a 60 second section which would work very well. i have a section of the beginning which i then cut about 20 seconds in and add the most intense part of the track which i would of like to finish on but it doesn't really feel like its going to end it is just more build up. So this was the hardest part of the editing making it go slow at the end. i found a section which will work it was just finding the expect spot i could slot it in. i managed to do this to a point where i was happy with it as it wasn't going to be perfect.

Here is my final product. i added is a zombie news sound effect which i had found which i find work well at the start while the song is slow.

Final Music Choices

This was my final music choice it doesn't have much talking and the mood is eery and very guitar heavy. Eddie helped me find thins song.

Music Choice

From the crit i realised i needed to choose which soundtrack i wanted to have behind my 60 second sequence.

Crit

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