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

Camperdown Wildlife Centre - Take 2

Took another trip up to Camperdown Wildlife Centre to do some more observational drawings of the animals there. Observing animals is important for all of my modules this year as I'm planning on animating 2 different types of animals and creatures.

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.