So it's over. Finished. Done. (or at least until next term starts!)
And where are we now? Still as lost?
I'm not so sure. I've come to the conclusion that I adore modelling. Is that CG or Stop Motion? I don't know, why can't it be both?
I'm also enjoying the set/prop/texture side of it too - creating over moving.
Is this really the conclusion I should come to, considering the course title?
And of course, I do LOVE animating... but more than modelling? Is that enough?
Oh dear, I seem to be more confused than when I started!
...head, shoulders, knees and toes
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Oh god... It's time.
I've made a model head. I've made a milliput skull. I've made a wire armature.
Now to put everything together and actually make a whole person - how daunting.
So, to start with I had made a sketch of a character I wanted to try and build. I used this as a template for the initial wire armature - I cut the wire to the correct lengths and then added a milliput torso and pelvis to hold the wire together. After this, to reduce the weight of the model and to rough out the basic contours I also added milliput 'muscles' to the arms and legs.
And this is where my problems began...
Issue 1 - The milliput insisted on crumbling, which lead to difficulty in keeping it smooth.
Issue 2 - The milliput refused to adhere to the wire armature. To combat this I had to add more.
Issue 3 - Because of adding more, this totally altered the intended style of the character from super skinny stylized to verging on failed realism.
I decided to carry on with the project and added skin coloured plastacine over the milliput. However, as the milliput had ended up drying in an awkward shape, the skin didn't look as smooth or as neat as I would have liked.
Also, it became far heavier than I was expecting and I'm not entirely sure why.
The things I need to work on are -
- Sticking to the character design when building a model - I deviated a lot and should really refer back to the sketches more regularly.
- Testing and experimenting with building ideas before performing it on a full model that can't be undone.
- Testing the animatability of the model at many stages as this model became too heavy to animate well.
Time to try again! >_<
I've made a model head. I've made a milliput skull. I've made a wire armature.
Now to put everything together and actually make a whole person - how daunting.
So, to start with I had made a sketch of a character I wanted to try and build. I used this as a template for the initial wire armature - I cut the wire to the correct lengths and then added a milliput torso and pelvis to hold the wire together. After this, to reduce the weight of the model and to rough out the basic contours I also added milliput 'muscles' to the arms and legs.
And this is where my problems began...
Issue 1 - The milliput insisted on crumbling, which lead to difficulty in keeping it smooth.
Issue 2 - The milliput refused to adhere to the wire armature. To combat this I had to add more.
Issue 3 - Because of adding more, this totally altered the intended style of the character from super skinny stylized to verging on failed realism.
I decided to carry on with the project and added skin coloured plastacine over the milliput. However, as the milliput had ended up drying in an awkward shape, the skin didn't look as smooth or as neat as I would have liked.
Also, it became far heavier than I was expecting and I'm not entirely sure why.
The things I need to work on are -
- Sticking to the character design when building a model - I deviated a lot and should really refer back to the sketches more regularly.
- Testing and experimenting with building ideas before performing it on a full model that can't be undone.
- Testing the animatability of the model at many stages as this model became too heavy to animate well.
Time to try again! >_<
...what a cliche
So it's all over, how anti-climatic. There was no last minute rush, no lost files, no errors in file conversion o_O I'm a bit disappointed to be honest :P
The final soundscape film wasn't exactly how I had imagined it - but it went a lot better than I thought it would half way through.
I filmed most visual sequences in the same place, with a black background as a white one seemed to detract from the actual objects being filmed. There were some sequences that were found footage and it was 50/50 in my opinion as to them working. I really liked the explosion at the end but was less pleased with the train sequence - I'd really like to re-film some of it and improve a lot as well. I'm torn as to whether the train sequence should remain as a real train or be a toy on the same black background for continuity.
My main inspirations for this were over the top cliched metaphors and imagery as well as the way the yellow robot from the film 'Flubber' communicates with other characters - through the use of found footage that she downloads and plays alongside her speech.
There are several sequences I wish I had been able to produce and I definitely want to return to this and fix all the issues as if I can make it as I had originally planned, I think it could be a very good piece.
The final soundscape film wasn't exactly how I had imagined it - but it went a lot better than I thought it would half way through.
I filmed most visual sequences in the same place, with a black background as a white one seemed to detract from the actual objects being filmed. There were some sequences that were found footage and it was 50/50 in my opinion as to them working. I really liked the explosion at the end but was less pleased with the train sequence - I'd really like to re-film some of it and improve a lot as well. I'm torn as to whether the train sequence should remain as a real train or be a toy on the same black background for continuity.
My main inspirations for this were over the top cliched metaphors and imagery as well as the way the yellow robot from the film 'Flubber' communicates with other characters - through the use of found footage that she downloads and plays alongside her speech.
There are several sequences I wish I had been able to produce and I definitely want to return to this and fix all the issues as if I can make it as I had originally planned, I think it could be a very good piece.
...time to get messy
Soundscape is rapidly approaching and not enough work has been done. The storyboards are finished, and uploaded. Now to get on with filming, recording and editing!
I've finalised the order that my mini-sequences are going to be edited into, decided where the sounds should be placed and have the prop and location list sorted. All that's left is to actually MAKE the film. I am a bit worried about timing, more so that it's not the correct length for the brief.
I find time planning - as in how long a piece and its sections will last - really difficult. It's why I find timing in animation so hard. I can't see in stages how long a movement or sequence should and will last. I need to work on that - I think that to do so, I should do more trials/tests before committing myself to a FINAL storyboard.
FINAL SOUNDSCAPE!
For research towards the visual side of things, I used http://www.gregology.net/Reference/Sextionary and http://amog.com/lifestyle/sex-euphemisms/ - I found it helpful to have such extensive lists that I could pick and chose from to keep each mini-section in keeping with the rest. This is something I feel I need to work on with my own planning, to come up with a much greater base of initial ideas so I have more scope to edit - rather than picking one idea and sticking with it no matter what.
On the use of sound - In the first year, we had our first real sound-influenced task, and I felt I leant to heavily on imagery and added sound as an afterthought. In the first half of the second year's first term was the soundscape project. Learning from the first sound task, I feel it went too far the other way and was a soundtrack with irrelevant imagery added in for no real reason other than the brief said to.
This Soundscape project I feel has finally shown I have managed to created a product of sound and image working together. For this reason, even if it fails in all other aspects, I am please with how it turned out. Obviously as with all work I can see it's faults and flaws that I would ideally change and improve upon in the future but as far as progression goes, I feel I have definitely got a much better understanding of how to incorporate sound into my films.
