Reflection On The Week (26): Starting Monday 25th March

Week Summary

Reflection on Practice - Spent the start of the week working on the big presentation on Wednesday. That is now the module finished which should hopefully free up more time for the other 2 modules! :D I think the presentation went well. This module has definitely helped me to start researching animation that I'll be specifically working on for Advanced Production.

Advanced Production - This week's supervisor meeting was postponed again, but had a team meeting anyway to discuss everything we need to do, especially as Kirti will be away for 3 weeks from this weekend. So we made sure we all know what we're all working on.

Going Live - Been working on rigging mostly this week for the model I've been working on. Should be able to start animating next week!

Monday 25th Mar
Putting presentation together for Reflection On Practice module.


Tuesday 26th Mar
Supervisor Meeting has been postponed till at least next week. Still had a team meeting though for a catch up:
- 3D animatic - needs to be finished before next supervisor meeting.
- Shot List is done, just needs the environment locations added once the 3D animatic is complete.
- The Production schedule needs to be re-evaluated.
- Flesh out Production Bible, including Prop designs and foliage designs. (dog house, dust bins, rake, football, biscuit, tools by shed, lawn mower, brambles, leaves, plants, trees, stones)
- Human model to go through the list of adjustments, then re-assess before it goes into rigging.
- Example of mouths needed.
- Bird to be modeled next.
- Who models the dog is yet to be decided, will evaluate how production is going and who is working on what, could find someone else to model it for us if we are all too busy?
- Environment continue to be modeled.
- Texturing tests to be started - with the watercolor look of the concept art.
- Sheng has volunteered along with Kirti to work on the Sound effects.
- Need to find someone to do a soundtrack for the film.

Writing out notes and practicing for the presentation tomorrow.

Wednesday 27th Mar
Mock Conference all day. Presented using the PowerPoint I put together. It went well, glad that's one module finished now though, more time to work on the other 2 modules! :D

Baked some cakes to add to our fundraiser raffle prizes tomorrow night :)

Thursday 28th Mar
Had a class meeting to discuss Going Live and the fundraiser tonight. Kieran and I went discussed the rough Shot List which I'll be drawing up for the wall, so we can all keep an eye on how the production is going and what still needs finished.

Done some more rigging for the Going Live model I've been working on.

Iced the cupcakes I made last night for the raffle, then it was time for our class's fundraiser! Was a great night! :)

Weekend
Done some observational drawing: Click here for relevant blog post link

Drew out the Shot Checklist for Going Live:

Finished the rig for my Going Live model. Now onto weight painting. However I came across a problem where my weight painting never stayed how I had just painted it. Researched the problem and found out it was redistributing the weights every time. So the way to fix it is to switch on the padlock in the Paint Weights Tool Box.

Reflection On The Week (25): Starting Monday 17th March

Week Summary

Reflection on Practice - My priority for the first half of the week was finishing the Conference Paper. Now that it has been submitted, I already feel it has freed up time to work on the other modules. Will now be taking my paper and using it to inform and mold my presentation which is next week.

Advanced Production - Done some observational dog sketches, which were for my paper, but as the paper was reflective on practice, they are also helpful for the film project. This also includes the human/dog anthropomorphism sketching exercise.

Going Live - Helped out with the 3D animatic, animating the camera and characters to sort the timing out.
Started rigging the model I was working on. The rigging needs to be finished next week. Animation is also scheduled to begin later next week.

Monday 17th Mar
Presented my work to the External Examiner, talked about what I want to achieve with the Masters course and what I want to do once I graduate.
His advice on animating was to limber up and do simple animation tests before moving on to the final piece of animation.

Meeting with Sharon to look over my Conference Paper.

Group Meeting with the External Examiner. A piece of advice he gave us all was about what to do if there is more than one animator on a project, how to split up the animation jobs. Auditioning for it could be a way to solve this. All the animators could try doing the same shot, and then the group can pick the one that works the best.

Going Live 3D animatic:
Have taken the first shot in the film to block in the action in the animatic and sort out the timing. Talked over what happens in the scene with Kieran, and discussed ideas.

Tuesday 18th Mar
Whilst finishing off my conference paper today I did some extra drawings to include, to relate my research to my own practice.
First was some observational drawing of my dog:

I then did some sketches of someone having their food stolen by a seagull:

I then took the human expressions and applied them to a dog character who has his biscuit stolen by a bird, this was to give the dog more expression and show an example of anthropomorphism:

Wednesday 19th Mar
Started to gathering all work into one place for the Supervisor Meeting with Sharon. Supervisor Meeting rescheduled for next Tuesday.
Had a quick team meeting to discuss what we need to do for next week.

Handed in final conference paper after battling with my printer this morning.

Been working on Shot 1 of the Going Live animatic. Added all the rough animation to the 2nd half to sort out the timing within the limited time frame.

Also had a look and tried a variation on the model for Going Live.

Thursday 20th Mar
Done extra modeling and tweaks to the model I've been working on for Going Live.

Picked up rough environments from team members for 'Tug of Biscuit' 3D environment.

Friday 21st Mar
Started rigging the Going Live model I have been working on.
Dylan was in the studio for 3D support today, so I asked him to check the rig I had started and get some advice, so I can hopefully avoid any problems with the rig as it progresses.

Weekend
Downloaded some free rigs of human and dog characters that I can use in the 3D animatic and also use for early animation tests.
Set up a new computer at home.

Reflection On The Week (24): Starting Monday 10th March

Week Summary

Reflection on Practice - Been working mostly on my Conference Paper this week, including anaylsing my findings from the Focus Group. The paper has been my main priority this week due to the deadline being next week.

Advanced Production - Had a look over how the Shot Lists could be put together to convey as much useful information as possible for the production of the film. A team meeting on Friday was a good chance to look over everything and work out what we all need to work on next. The 3D animatic and animation tests will be my priority.

Going Live - Sang had a look over the model I have been working on for the project and got some advice about rigging it. During a class team meeting on Thursday, worked out what everyone is working on, and I then created a personal production schedule for myself so I know what I'm working on. This also created some deadlines for myself as there are only a few weeks left on production for this project.

Monday 10th Mar
Sent Kirti (Production Manager) example pages from the Shot Lists I created last year. I think a document of this sort will definitely be useful for the team to use as reference for all the information about individual shots and also act as a checklist. On reflection, the 2 documents I produced last year (a Shot Stages and a Shot Description document) would have worked better on the same document, for ease of use, with all the information in the same place. Here's an example I put together today:

Working on my paper today for Reflection on Practice module.

Also finished off some freelance work today.

Tuesday 11th Mar
Working on Conference Paper all day, specifically going through the Focus Group transcript, highlighting and making notes, then typing up the report for a chapter in the final paper.

Wednesday 12th Mar
Individual tutorial with Sharon - go over paper and presentation
As I have a lot I can talk about with the Focus Group Findings, putting that chapter at the beginning of the paper might help. I can then pieces of information from that chapter and discuss them in greater detail within the main body of text, backing up with references and relating to my own practice.

Carried on working on my Conference Paper. Rearranged the structure of the paper based on the feedback from this morning. Also have been finding some references to use from a relevant book.

Thursday 13th Mar
Had a Going Live class meeting this morning. We discussed the overall production schedule and what everyone is working on.
My personal schedule:
Mon 17th Mar - work on the the 3D animatic.
By Fri 21st Mar - Have 3D model for the asset I've been working on done, pass to Kieran to UV-map.
By Mon 24th Mar - Have asset rigged.
By Tue 25th Mar - Have collected all animation refs and have carried out some animation tests.
Tue 25th Mar - Begin animation!

While our class was all together, we quickly discussed the upcoming fundraiser and potential bake sale to raise money for our degree show.

Continued work on my Conference Paper.

Friday 14th Mar
Had a group meeting:

• Looked over the production schedule.
• I suggested that we should collate all of our pre-production work into a Production Bible, PDF doc, this also highlighted areas that need some more work. Included in this collection  of work will be: 

- Character Designs

- Character Expressions

- Concept Art and colours (update with new designs)

- Environment Designs (need some designs sheets for the plants etc in the garden)

- Prop Designs (design sheets needed for these)

- Storyboard

- Script

• Shot List
• 3D Animatic - Next Tuesday scheduled to work on it
• 3D models - Discussed the updates on these
• Texture tests - Would be good to start once some models are finished
• Print off work for the walls in the studio

Went over the shot list with Kirti. Decided it would be useful to print off the storyboard thumbnails. Drew on the sheets to work out where all the camera cuts were in order to figure out how many shots our film has. At the moment the total is 20. Also used a blue pencil to pick out which drawing best represented that shot for using in the Shot List Kirti is putting together:

Sang was in the studio offering some 3D support for Going Live. Showed him the model I have been working on for one of the assets. The topology is looking fine. Talked about how it might be rigged and disguised at the beginning of the film story. Could contort and twist the model at the beginning, and then unravel to show what it actually is in the story.

Weekend
Put together a PowerPoint presentation for a meeting with the External Examiner next Monday.
Continued to work on my Conference Paper.

Reflection On The Week (23): Starting Monday 3rd March

Week Summary

Reflection on Practice - Finished transcribing Focus Group audio. Next I need to read through it again to summarize my findings for paper and presentation. Prepared and presented my practice presentation. Will use the feedback from it to help finalize my presentation. Will now be concentrating on the paper since the hand-in date is before the final presentation.

Advanced Production - The dog design has been finalized. This took more time then planned, but it was important to get it right as it is the main character in the film, and the one I will be working with the most. Reviewed the model Kirti has been working on and explained some adjustments and corrections that the character model needed before it is finalized. Had a meeting with my team at the end of the week to go over what we are all working on next, in preparation for next week.

Going Live - Been carrying on with modelling of one of the assets for the project. Also tested out the modelling with a quick rig to test the geometry. Checked over the models progress with the director and some of the team to gain some feedback and make adjustments.

Monday 3rd Mar
Finished transcribing my focus group audio recording... over 4000 words, 10 pages long... next I have to read through it again and summarize my findings and interesting points that I can use in my paper and presentation.

Also done a bit more modelling to the Going Live asset i'm working on. Put a quick test rig into it to see how well the geometry was moving and creasing. I think it will work well for what we need that asset to do in the film, as it will be one main movement needed.

Helped Sheng again with looking over the dog design. Think it has finally been cracked - it was just that front view that seemed to be causing trouble!

Tuesday 4th Mar
Had a Going Live Team Meeting to check where everyone is in the schedule and and what they are doing in the production.
I might have a look into Paint Effects for the asset I am working on. Also showed the current model and test rig to Kieran and John for some feedback. All the objects are smoothed, in order for the edges to catch the light, therefore I need to move some of the vertical lines in the geometry to fix this. But all the horizontal lines in the geometry will be the same as they are needed to allow the asset to bend properly with the rig.

Been doing more modelling for the Going Live asset.

Working on research work for rest of day.

Wednesday 5th Mar

Practice Presentation - Click for relevant blog post link

Formatted Transcript document.

Had a look over the model for the Owner character which Kirti has been working on. Put together a document detailing adjustments that were needed and explained these to all of the team, to allow for any other thoughts and ideas to be discussed regarding the model.
Character model adjustments document:

Thursday 6th Mar
Spent most of today carrying on with modeling one of the assets for Going Live and updated the Going Live blog with my progress. Next for this asset I need to model something additional to help with it's concept, reveal and role within film. (This would make more sense if I could add details about it on this blog, but will unfortunately will have to wait until the project is complete!)

Friday 7th Mar
IBL workshop in the morning: Click here for relevant blog post link

Put together structure of Paper into a word document and added transcript and abstract to it.

Mini team meeting:
Discussed the bird character's wings. In order to work out exactly what movements the bird needs to do I played through the animatic and broke down the movements. There is only time in the film that the bird will be flapping it's wings a lot is during the tug-of-war scene. Apart from that the bird mainly swoops into and out of shots. We agreed that the bird's wings should move fairly realistically in flight. However it might be good for expression and acting to have the feathers at the end of the wings curl slightly or move like fingers/hands.
Looked up some examples of cartoon bird's and real-life birds animation and flight cycles.
Also mentioned that we still need to put a shot list together, this will help out the organisation of the 3D animatic which will be started next week.

Practice Presentation

Done a practice presentation this morning for the Reflection On Practice module.

'Title' PowerPoint Slide

'Outline' PowerPoint Slide

The feedback was that it was well organised.
All of my images need to be labelled; so as to distinguish what is my own work and what are just reference images.
I only spoke for 7 minutes out of 15. However I know where the gaps are that need to be filled. Mostly in the Practice / Methods section and the Results / Evidence section.
It was good talking about the comparison of dog owners versus non dog owners in the Focus Group findings- will expand on this slightly in final presentation once I have evaluated the findings from my Focus Group more.
I need to watch out for how I talk, instead of saying 'you' in a general term, I need to say 'I' to make the presentation more personalized and reflective on my own practice.
I should also include a definition of 'anthropomorphism' at the start, for anyone that does not know what this word means.

Feedback to everyone: For the final conference, be engaging as the audience and ask questions!

Reflection On The Week (22): Starting Monday 24th February

Week Summary
Think my work has been more balanced this week for each of the modules.

Reflection on Practice - Now that I have done my Focus Group this week, I need to finish the transcription and then read through it again to summarize my findings to include in my paper and presentation.
Also started working out the structure of my paper and presentation, so need to flesh the bullet points out with the information and references.

Advanced Production - This week has mainly be focused on fixing the design of the dog, which needed to be right as it is the main character. I do feel this has been achieved this week and am much happier with it. Also through sorting the dog design out we have also sorted lots of the colours out.

Going Live - Started working on one of the Going Live assets, it is currently in the modelling stage.

Monday 24th Feb
Wrote out my exact Focus Group Protocol for tomorrow to use.
Booked and picked up audio recorder for tomorrow's focus group.
I also participated in someone else's Focus Group today.
Then in the evening I baked cupcakes and jammie dodgers for my focus group tomorrow :)

Tuesday 25th Feb
Focus Group day! It went well and there were some interesting answers to the questions I asked which will definitely help with my paper/presentation.
Handed in the signed consent forms to the office.
Fixed a few things on my Abstract and handed the final one into the office.
Started transcribing my focus group audio recording.
Wrote out bullets points to try and summarize the structure of my paper/presentation.

Wednesday 26th Feb
Had a meeting with Sharon in the morning to discuss my final Abstract and the structure of my paper/presentation. Also went over what will be happening next week with the practice presentations.

Supervisor meeting in the afternoon to look over designs and the 2D animatic: Click here for relevant blog post link

Typed more of Focus Group Transcript.

Thursday 27th Feb
Went along to life drawing in the morning: Click for relevant blog post link

Had a team meeting and looked over different dog breeds to decide what one would be best to base the dog design from. Also looked up the top 10 most owned dogs in the UK. Then Giorgos went and brought back a dog book from the library. Searching through everything from bull dogs, to Labradors, to Scottie Dogs, finally decided upon the Jack Russell terrier. It is short-haired. A small-medium sized dog. Has clean facial features - easy to see expression. Is originally a British dog breed.

We all sat around and sketched dogs and tried to help towards the dog design. These are some sketches I did:

As it was the Masters open day today, a group was in our studio and we showed them our animatic. It was good to see new people viewing our animatic and seeing their reactions to it - good to know they laughed at the right places!

More feathers were added to the Bird character's arms/wings. Also the tail was elongated slightly as it wasn't too noticeable before.

Friday 28th Feb

Did some more dog drawing today, trying to help figure out the dog design now that we now what breed it should be based on. These sketches here include testing out a short-haired terrier overall shape and colouring's:

Trying out different colours with the shape I was happy with, based on real dogs:

This one with added jumpers and dog coats to see what will work the best:

Got feedback from the group and, along with me, the dog with the dark blue jumper and red stripes seems to be the current favourite. Giorgos then pointed out that the colour of the Owners clothes might have to change now that the dog's colours had been sorted. So I tried out so me variations:

I then thought that a dark red cardigan might work better, so I used the original colour concept which Sheng had done to test this out quickly to see how it looked against the environment as well, with all the characters:

Sheng's original environment concept with my added dog design, and dark red cardigan.

Same again but with a dark blue scarf as Giorgos wasn't too sure about the Mustard yellow scarf. The dark blue however makes the owner and dog look too matching.

However myself and Kirti thought the Mustard scarf might work better, so I tried it in the other environment concept that Sheng had created:

Sheng's concept art with the added dark red cardigan to test out.

Weekend
Started modelling one of the Going Live assets.

Reflection On The Week (21): Starting Monday 17th February

Week Summary

Reflection on Practice - Writing the abstract this week has helped me to summarize my research. Some minor edits to it need to be done before the final hand-in next Wednesday. I think also next week, writing out a plan (bullet points etc) for my paper/conference presentation will help to start work towards those and have it clear and focused on what points need researched and presented. I also planned and advertised my Focus group this week for next Tuesday. Found two suitable video clips I can use which fit in with the questions I want to ask the group and will hopefully provide clear but interesting answers.

Advanced Production - Got the storyboards and animatic completely re-edited this week. Had regular team meetings this week as well to get feedback on the storyboard and animatic, also to look over designs and keep reviewing what everyone is working on currently. Designs for the characters and environment need to be finished at the start of next week. Also can start to begin on the 3D animatic, however I might wait till after my focus group/peer review on Tuesday to see what feedback I get for the 2D animatic in case there are any major changes.

Going Live - Looked over everything that is being worked on at the moment and realized that not very much had been done for one of the assets. Therefore I did some research and put together moodboards for this asset then created some concept art work. Will be showing my work to the rest of the class next week to gain feedback in order to move this asset forward into the modelling stage of production.

Monday 17th Feb
Programme Meeting followed by Going Live Team Meeting.

Done lots of new drawings for the storyboard for main film project - Relevant Blog Post Link here
Had the team have a look over them to get feedback, there's just one sequence left to re-draw to make more clear what is going on.
Had a quick team meeting to discuss what we're all working on and what needs to be done for next week, I'll be finishing the animatic this week and also try some colour concepts.

Done some more writing for the Abstract assignment.
Researched visuals which I will be able to use for the Focus Group assignment.

Recorded narration for Kirti's animatic in her research project.

Tuesday 18th Feb
Finished writing out the draft for the Abstract assignment.
Also sourced some visual references for the Focus Group assignment and put together the PowerPoint. I'm keeping the presentation very simple with just 2 video clips to compare to allow sufficient time to develop a good conversation about the subject and not have to many variables.

Wednesday 19th Feb
Abstract Group Crit in the morning. Worked in a team of 3 and read over each others Abstracts. There's a few sentence structures to sort out in my Abstract and a couple of re-wordings. It was interesting to read through others and look at the overall structure. I have tried to follow the structure that is given on the brief, which is to mention the field of study, address the problem, state the methods that will be used to address the problem and how will this benefit the field of study.
Had a quick meeting with Sharon to check over the 2 video clips and questions that I want to ask at my Focus Group, to make sure I had picked 2 clips that contrasted and could provide some answers and discussions to what I wanted to ask.
Booked Animation Seminar Space for next Tuesday from 12-2pm, to have time to set up my focus group for 1pm, with some spare time in case it over-runs.

Finished drawing all the storyboard panels for main film project. Then took the storyboard panels into After Effects to time out the animatic.

Thursday 20th Feb
Life Drawing in the morning. Link to Relevant Blog Post here

Talked over the garden layout for the environment with Sheng. I sketched out the layout of my house and garden to help with what you could normally find in a garden. We discussed that the owner could mainly be busy with chores on the left side of the garden, and the dog's action could mainly be in the right side of the garden. Some flower beds around the outside for the dog to dig holes in and a vegetable patch for the Owner. The neighbour's garden should be right next to this garden in order for the football sequence to make sense.

Editing the animatic together - sorting all the timings:

Also updated the storyboard on Shotbox.

Made an event page and put a post up on the Animators student Facebook page to invite people along to my Focus Group. Created an image for it and am using homemade cake as an incentive :D

Friday 21st Feb

Maya class dynamics in morning with Dylan Gauld - Introduction to 3D dynamics. For 'Tug of Biscuit', we may not be needing any fire or water fountains but it certainly got us thinking about what we can do with dynamics in Maya. Leaves in the garden is certainly what we will be looking into for our film.

Team meeting in the afternoon for Advanced Production:

With the realization that pumpkins don't grow in the ground... D'oh!...We discussed what other activities the owner could be doing each time the dog comes back to her. We looked up other veg/fruit that are harvested in Autumn, but then came to a discussion that she could just be raking leaves in the garden the whole time since it is a short time that passes anyway. Also when the Owner does her mad dash towards the Tug-of-War, she could maybe run through her pile of leaves? Plus after a Maya class in dynamics this morning and a Digital Tutors tutorial I have found on how to create 'wind-blown leaves simulation in Maya using nCloth', we all feel this could be an achievable aspect of our film to do. Counted through the animatic and there are about 5 shots which would need dynamics. However we will still have some pumpkins in a patch in the garden to add some interest to the look of the film, and add to the Autumn-feeling. Any fruits in the garden though will be covered with a net or similar to protect from birds, as then it might seem weird that the birds are hungry when there's fruit and seeds lying around the place. So I will be redrawing a few of the boards to change these things.

We then discussed the dog design and reflecting on the process so far of designing the dog, realized maybe we were having trouble with it because the dog breed had never been decided. At the moment the dog design looks too much like a Bull dog. So we looked through some different dog breeds, such as Labradors, Collies and Terriers, discussed what elements we liked about each of them and what needed amended in the current design. Some of the areas that we discussed I circled on a sketch, the snout made slightly thinner, ears moved forward a bit and be half floppy, more defined shapes in the front leg to determine where joints will go, the body shape needs evened out so he is less broad-shouldered, and a slightly bigger tail so swishes can be easily seen:

We then all went over ideas for the colours of the characters, I thought some purple colours in the characters clothing would look nice and help make them stand out a bit more against the Autumn colours in the garden. We're going to try some colour variations with the dog's jumper, however myself and George wondered if the dog needs a jumper at all or could just have a collar.

I brought up the issue with how will we do the grass in 3D. Would it be just a textured plane, or will there be stands of grass. My concern with this is that we have characters moving on the grass, therefore strands would have to interact with the characters, which sounds like it will be more trouble than its worth. Some testing needs to be done for this.

George also brought up how might it will be possible to do the bird character's wide mouth when it eats the biscuit whole, so we went over a few possibilities. Again these possibilities will need some testing.


Had a think over everything that is being done at the moment for Going Live, then realized that nothing much has been sorted out for one of the assets, spoke to Kieran about it and different ways this asset could be designed, modelled and rigged. So I will be having a look over this at the weekend and creating some artwork and tests for it.

Weekend
Finished editing and redrawing some shots for 'Tug of Biscuit' animatic (Owner now raking leaves for whole film):

Also done some research and concept artwork for one of the assets in the Going Live project.

Reflection On The Week (20): Starting Monday 10th February

Week Summary

Reflection on Practice - Got the ethics forms back, corrected and handed in. There were no corrections for the questions I'm planning to ask at the Focus Group, so at least I know that's all fine; as I have to make sure I'm getting enough of the right kind of information and feedback from the Focus Group, to help with my research and report. Now I just need to actually organize and carry out a Focus Group. The presentation by Mike Press this week has started to get me to think about how I might structure my own presentation, so this is something I have started to plan out, such as what main topics will I talk about. The Abstract draft is something that needs to be finished for next weeks group crit.

Advanced Production - This projects has advanced slightly with the character designs again, and the story, especially after Fridays meeting about the additional storyboard panels. Really need to hit some goals next week with this project, such as designs and animatic finalized.  The animatic also needs to be finished next week in order to be used for Kirti and myself for Focus Groups.

Going Live - This week it was my work for Going Live that took a bit of a backseat. Think I should start some animation tests next week using the references I've gathered. Also may look into some rigging to help out for the characters in this project as they are quite complex.

Monday 10th Feb
Programme Meeting followed by team meeting for Going Live, discussed what stage the project is at and what everyone is working on. I've been gathering animation references for the project.

Tuesday 11th Feb
Stayed at home to work (not well). Re-sent ethics forms for the Focus Group assignment.

Wednesday 12th Feb
Had a motivational presentation about giving presentations by Mike Press. Click here for Relevant blog post link.
Caught up with some blog posts.

Thursday 13th Feb
Had a workshop all morning learning about image-based lighting. I've had this workshop before on the Undergraduate course. The only difference this time was the addition of the fish-eyed lens camera, previously we had only just used the chrome ball, so this was new to learn. I'm not sure if it will be relevant for my main film project, which is an all 3D film which originally I'd thought would just be lit with Maya lights, but maybe some testing with IBL might be interesting to try and see if it creates a better look...

Got my ethics forms sent back for the focus group and amended any corrections.

Friday 14th Feb

Handed in ethics forms for the focus group to the office.

Drew some additional/revised storyboard panels and discussed them with the group in the studio (Kirti and Sheng):

As the owner is now out in the garden she needs to be doing some outdoor jobs suitable for Autumn Winter. In these panels I drew her raking some leaves as the dog asks for another biscuit and the owner throws one for him across the garden. Some other ideas we discussed were cutting leaves, planting in pots, harvesting... then the idea of her trying to pull/dig out a giant pumpkin from the ground for the duration of the film was discussed. When she finally succeeds, this could be the point where she turns round to show Pip and see he is in the tug of war with the bird. I think not only this works well with the story and season, it will also be a good opportunity to do some good animation principles with the human's animation:

I drew an additional board for the dog before he starts digging a hole for his biscuit. I thought he needed to stop and look around suspiciously for the bird, who he knows has already stolen his biscuit from him once. This also helps to explain why he starts to dig a whole for the biscuit:

Drew out the 3rd biscuit scene to include the dog in a tug of war with biscuit and bird in the background, being dragged along by the bird. The owner is in the foreground, unaware of what's going on, raking leaves for example, before she does a double take and notices:

I also discussed the dog design with Sheng and suggested we maybe try the design with more of a natural shape for the back leg, bigger eyes to match the other characters, and a slightly longer snout so it doesn't look as much like a Boxer breed. I drew out some test sketches to illustrate this.
Also we decided that earmuffs for the Owner would work quite well.

Weekend
Camperdown Wildlife sketches Take Two - Click here for link to relevant blog post

Presentations Advice

This morning Mike Press gave us a presentation about how to give a good presentation - it was a good presentation!

I wrote down a lot of notes so here are a selection of some of the useful pieces of advice, so that I can look back here when I begin putting together my own presentation for the Reflection On Practice module:


With nerves comes adrenaline, and some adrenaline is a good thing to have when giving a presentation. Usually the nerves come from a fear of failure, however this can be overcome by practicing and rehearsing your presentation in advance.

Preparation:

• well in advance
• work to a clear structure, write down key points for each theme, 3 main points, with 3 sub-points:

• You are telling a story
• Think of relevant visual references
• Rehearse (again and again and again!)

How long?

• we roughly speak 100 words per minute and speed up by 20% when nervous.
• 15 minutes = roughly 1200-1500 words

Important elements:

• The concept (Create joy and wonder to start off to make it interesting and memorable.)
• Signposting
• Rules of rhetoric - lists of three

The number three rule is used to emphasize and build tension. I found this really interesting as I realized this linked to my Advanced Production film project, which involves the dog getting his biscuit stolen by the bird 3 times. Therefore I was already using this rule as a story telling device, and can see also how it can be used in writing and presentations.

Rehearsing the presentation over and over is essential, in front of mirror, friends & family, record the audio or on video to watch back. For the notes, have them on small pieces of card attached together with a key-ring, in case they are dropped, then they won't become disordered. Highlight key points with a highlighter.

We were also introduced to different softwares other than PowerPoint. However it was noted that the software for the presentation doesn't come first, you do! For the visual look of the presentation, keep it simple.

Reflection On The Week (19): Starting Monday 3rd February

Week Summary

Overall I think my research work took a bit of a stumble this week, but starting to work through the abstract assignment, similar to last semester, has helped to organize the overall focus and structure of my research. Also filling out the ethics forms for the focus group assignment helped me break down what exactly I wanted to find out from my research.

My main project is more on track now I think, and will keep the momentum up with this to finish off the pre-production stage: finalizing character and background designs and completing and re-editing together the animatic.

Produced some character concepts, which included colours and textures, for Going Live. I think my next task should be to start looking at animation references.

Monday 3rd Feb
Programme Meeting - our class needs to start thinking about raising some money for our Degree Show and London trip in August.
Had a team meeting and preparing for supervisor meeting tomorrow.

Tuesday 4th Feb
Supervisor meeting - Link to relevant Blog Post
Research Crisis - felt like I lost my research question and spent some time reviewing my research work and trying to phrase together a question title for the project.

Wednesday 5th Feb
Research module workshops all day. I think has helped me a little to organize my research.

Had a team meeting in the afternoon. I had a look over the Dog's character design with Sheng to make some suggestions and she edited them into the design. The Dog wasn't quite looking young enough, but by adding some curves to the head, mouth and feet, and shortening the body, it instantly looked a lot younger. We also adjusted the dogs jumper to look more like a jumper by removing the back leg sleeves. Then many different sized eyes we tried out. The whole team then had a discussion about what to do with the dog's eyebrows and mouth. Should the dog have teeth is a question that hasn't been decided yet...

To remind each of us what we should all be working on during the next week:

Lilly:

• Storyboard and 2D animatic update, 
• Do sketches of the current dog design posed (to help inform the design)

Sheng:

• Edit and finalize the human character design
• Dog expressions
• Bird designs and concepts

George:

• Colour concepts
• Background Design Concepts and 3D model tests

Kirti:

• Begin 3D modelling a character
• Working on the 2nd animatic for her own research project

Thursday 6th February

Everyone's work was submitted for the first Going Live Milestone.

Belbin workshop - learn about my roles within my team and what I am most suited to. I learned that I am a 'Completer/Finisher', i.e. a perfectionist who will get the job finished and polished, and searches out any errors; although I kind of knew this already about myself. Afterwards my group for the film project sat down and looked over all of our roles and discovered that we cover pretty much all of a production line, so we should have a good working group dynamic.

Friday 7th February

3D workshop in the morning with Jin about Rotoscoping in Nuke. 

Bird character research and drawings.
Completed all the relevant forms for the Focus Group assignment and sent them off.

Weekend
Went to Camperdown Wildlife Centre to boost my observational drawing, since I haven't been able to go to any life drawing classes so far this semester. Relevant Blog Post Link

Research and Reflective Practice Module Day

Today we had two workshops for the Reflection On Practice Module, 'Presenting Your Partner's Research' workshop with Jeanette in the morning; and 'Writing Abstracts' with Sharon and Anna Notaro in the Afternoon.

Last night I hit a slight crisis point where I felt I had lost my research question/focus. I think my confusion began because I was trying to relate my research to/link it to my main project work, as I would like it to help better inform my practice-led work. We also have to carry out a Focus Group or Interview in the very near future, (with ethics and participant consent forms to be handed in asap) and I started to think what do I actually want to find out, and what could I find out from doing a focus group... If I know what I want to find out, maybe this will help me word my question.

All my notes from yesterday - trying to figure out my research...

Started to take notes and references from Paul Wells The Animated Bestiary.  There are some interesting thoughts and theories explored in this book, from anthropomorphism, empathy, crossing the line, and how animals are portrayed in animated film and what they represent on a societal and cultural level.

I took all my notes and confused thoughts to the workshop this morning. I was paired with Fraser, who is researching some similar subject areas to my own research (anthropomorphism). I attempted to explain my current research question, methods of research and possible outcomes to him.

My research is looking at how to create a convincing and believable performance of an animated dog character, by giving the dog human characteristics and emotions which allow the audience to empathize with.
As I have learned from my research last semester, one essential method that contributes towards a convincing and believable character performance is empathy: to empathize with a character is to relate to their feelings and therefore to care for them; this results in an audience that is engrossed for the duration of the film.

Another aspect I would like to investigate is the difference in empathy with dog owners and non-dog owners, is empathy dependent on the audience?  I wondered if dog owners would connect with the character more because they would recognize traits in their own dog(s) and that would be their way to empathizing with the dog character. Are they recognizing behavior and seeing their own dog, consciously or not. If they watch films like 101 Dalmatians and Lady & the Tramp, do they watch it with different eyes compared to when they weren't dog owners. For the non-dog owners, do they empathize more with the human characteristics in the dog character because they aren't as familiar with dog characteristics.

Slight historical context could be explored: how relationship between dog and man have developed throughout history. How have cartoon dogs developed throughout animation history.

Need to explore methods: Dogs can talk or express emotions like humans, therefore we have to constantly work out what they might be thinking. To animate a dog, we need to find a more expressive and clear way to express what a dog will be thinking, in order to communicate a story and character performance to an audience.


I think writing the Abstract is going to further help me to summarize and structure my research.

Reflection On The Week (18): Starting Monday 27th January

Week Summary

Reflection on Practice - Writing a focus group plan this week has helped me to figure out how I might structure and carry one out. Now I just need to actually organize the focus group. Still need to figure out exactly what questions I need to ask in order to find out the answers I need so that I have the right information to use in my final paper. Before I start putting together my list of questions however, I need to finalize my research question, this week I have been trying to do this and next week I should have the final research question.

Advanced Production - Putting the rough storyboard into an animatic has helped to get an overall view of the timing and flow of the film so far. Working on the final storyboards this week, in order to produce a more finished-looking 2D animatic next week.

Going Live - Done some more research and started character concept designs for the main assets of the project. Character concepts will be reviewed next week.

Monday 27th Jan
Very quick Programme Meeting today.

Put our rough storyboard post-its into a timed movie to see what the overall rough timing would be:

When it gets to actual animating the characters, shots always seem to become longer (pauses are added etc) but glad it hasn't turned out too long!

Tuesday 28th Jan

Spent the day writing my Focus Group plan for the Reflection On Practice module.

Wednesday 29th Jan
Jeanette talked to us today about carrying out interviews and focus groups. Our next assignment is plan and carry out an interview or focus group. I think the one that would benefit my research best is the focus group.
A general piece of advice for us was to constantly remind myself about what I want to find out from my research and question, to keep my work focused and relevant.
Under my question write:
The reason for this question is to understand how...
...to best inform me which way is best...

Visited an article on a website called www.unconsciousanimation.com
Tried to use it to help re-word my research question: Click here for relevant blog post link

Thursday 30th Jan
Went to the library today and found a book which is proving useful for my main film project (for the designs of the dog character) and useful for research for the Reflection on Practice module:

Going Live Meeting with Phil:
We are to start producing the assets straight away.
We are to hold off uploading going live work to personal blogs until the project is finished.
All the work could be put into a pdf doc. style bible to make the work presentable.
- Our personal projects may take a hit this semester, try to schedule it into the week, and keep coming together as a team!

Going Live Class Meeting:
Discussed who is working on each thing.
I will be working on some 2D concept sketches for the assets. Will review them with the class next early week.
Keep all the naming of Maya files neat and organised!
Discussed how the models and textures might look.
Also went over the production bible pdf.

Team Meeting:
Decided the storyboards need to be done for Monday, so the 2D animatic can be created then.
Also we are each to look up reference material for moodboards, and we will collate everything together on Monday, as well as a production schedule.

Friday 31st Jan
3D Nuke Tracking Workshop with Jin:
2D Tracking: for rotoscopes/clean plates (to patch)
3D Tracking: used for obtaining a virtual camera (to seamlessly insert CG elements)
Step One: Taking off Lens Distortion!
Then: Rotoscope out reflections, movements etc to clean plate. Then do tracking.

Weekend
Finished drawing out my part of the storyboard for main project. Drew it on an animation app on my iPad which was quick and simple to use. I then took my drawings into a storyboarding program called Shotbox.

How to write a Practice-led Research Question / Focus Groups

I've been working on writing my Focus Group Plan, which led me to really think about what I want to find out through my research?
I've been struggling slightly with how to word my Research Question, change and focus it in from my research question last semester.
On this website called www.unconsciousanimation.com I read an article which helps to breakdown how a practice-led research question can be worded.
These are the notes I took down from it, followed by an example of how my research question could be worded:

I think there's still a little bit of development to go until the question is finalized but this has been very helpful!