Director's Journal: Tommy's Farm

Animation#27

2007-06-29T19:47:00.000+01:00

update of recently done animatons:
cloud

boy

grass pop up

Animation#26

2007-06-22T20:08:00.000+01:00

cloud to rain morph
rain will morph to grass
not perfect :(

Animation#25

2007-06-20T20:30:00.000+01:00

grass
good!

Blockout_version3

2007-06-15T16:13:00.001+01:00

most updated blockout

Animation#24

2007-06-14T21:07:00.001+01:00

pig anticipation

Animation#23+Director Update

2007-06-13T20:30:00.000+01:00

Moaning:
Especially at this time, everyone's work gets more tensive, i feel i can't get many things done as i expected, coz there are a hundred other things need to be kept an eye on and another hundred problems need to be solved.
I m working extremely long hours right now, but still feeling that nothing has been improved.
I guess this is part of the end-of-year stroke. All i need to do is to stay calm and keep working. coz everyone is stressed, we all go moaning alot, which i just learnt wont do any good. So i guess i have to stay positive and supportive.

Finally scanned in the mum walk whole sequence. long process!
hope it will worth it!

Start Compositing today.
Had huge problem with the images!
Illustrator mass up the sizes of them, they are all in different sizes!
luckly we didnt get alot wrong ones. Fixed them.
Also figure out what went wrong with Illustrator. we had a real panicing moment. hate the stupid thing!

Need to start to build my folders!

Animation#22+Director update

2007-06-12T22:39:00.000+01:00

Animation:
since Sunday, spent many hours on the flower and vein sequence. coz it's on top of the mum animation and mum is looping, so took a lot of energy to put them into right time and place, not to mention that i have to be interrupted by other directing stuff to do.

also the mum walks backwards

Maya:
when we move the maya cow around, the legs and tails go funny. fix it today with Alex's help.

group the leg joints and parent to Master. the extra level on hypergraph gives the legs joints and ik freedom.

the tail follows the same rule. but coz it s a spin Ik with a curve, have to create a deforming lacator (Animate mode, Deform/):
group joints,
group clusters,
create a top curve point (insert, lmb drug along the curve)
Deform/point to curve
parent new groups to Master

Directing:

1, Lui had a good suggestion that whether we could do the flying bg with less drawings.
watched Blu snowman ad, figure out a top secret! when u cant include the bg within one go or being too lazy to animate the bg, tile up to the sky then come back! So we ll create a big master bg then seperate into 3 pieces: profile mountains; sky; topview mountains. they will link to each other geographically. So i dont need to animate the whole bg all along!

2, adjusted Michelle's hand+cow eye sequence. alot shorter. and added a few holding and inbetweens.

3, gave Louise colouring pattern to work on

4, coz the size of the milk machine is hard to work with, i decided to use a duplicated and enlarged machine body with smaller pipes. I m really happy with the pipes animation Lui did.

tomorrow, start compositing. To finish the flying.

Animation#21

2007-06-08T22:47:00.000+01:00

Finally move on to the flying scene! Scary!
mum morphing into boy

boy walking. i did the clothes. but hate it very much!

To do

2007-06-08T08:37:00.000+01:00

2 major Animation:
Flying !!!
Milk Machine scene !!!

Compositing

Final Submissions stuff

Morphing

2007-06-07T00:20:00.000+01:00

visualise 2 morphings (shape/colour):
vein --> cloud --> grass

mountain+grass --> mud

Maya+Animation+Render

2007-06-06T22:39:00.000+01:00

It's been a long day, but i got alot done!
Haven't use Maya for about a year, unbelievable. But it's great to see that i pick it up generally.
Here are the results from today. Basically everything for the 3d cow character.

Rigging
coz we had problem of animating the cow body seperately with the old rig, i rigged it again following the simple-rules idea from Lui.
Added my favourite controllers just for making the animating job easier.

Spin IK on the tail, another my favourite tool.

Animating
Had a few goes on the walk cycle, focusing on the rigid mindless movements.
Played around with different versions.
The idea was combining the animation channels of different body parts from different maya files into one final version. So Trax Editor is the ideal tool!
By the assistant of Maya Help, here is the learning notes:

select the object
open windows/Animation Editors/Trax Editor
in Trax, Create/Character Set from the selected object(s) or part(s)
Create/Clips, List/Load Clips to view and unlinear edit
in Trax, File/Export Clips, save
Open the combination file
select and create Charater Set in Trax Editor
Trax/File/import Clips to Character

Benefit of Trax:
transfer whole set of animation of objects among files.
unlinear Editing
Done point of my way:
can only access Graph Editor of the set object via Trax Editor.
inconvinient to change the timing once clips are imported.
encounter problem when trying to infinity loop the animation.

Two versions of legs

Render (Thanks Matt Beale and Lui for helps)
I want to get a hand drawn look. so tried Maya Vector render, with different colour settings. But i need to work with high poly mesh to get the outline. So tried Toon Shade. much quicker render.
Also changed the basic Lambert setting to get the flat shade.
Changed render background to white for future colouring.

Colouring
samples of some touches in Painter

Update on Resolution!!

2007-06-05T22:47:00.000+01:00

Resolutions gave me alot of trouble and used alot of time within last a few days.
this is an update. 3 major changes:
if all the frames are on 2s, i prefer to scan them as holding only 1 and use 12 fps rate. by this way, it ll be quicker in colouring. But if the animation is mixed with 1s, 2s and 3s frame rate, i ll not recommend;
by exporting psd file from Illustrator, we ll save the process in PS before painting;
instead of saving jpg files with blue screen, we ll use psd files with alpha channel for compositing.

Also to note:
When exporting psd file from Illustrator, make sure to select "Flat Image". this will give less unwanted layers.

I m still concerning about the image size, coz the image sizes seem variously done by different people. also the coloured psds are quite big. So to find out!

Resolution#2
A. Scan - Flipbook

800*800
B&W (adjust threshold/contrast)
A3
If all on 2s, import as 12fps, hold 1.
If having mix of 1s, 2s, 3s, import as 24fps, hold 2.

B. Still Export - Flipbook
Use Default: 768*576, .bmp format
Save in SceneName_bmp_stills Folder.

C. Line Tracing - Illustrator

a.Set Actions:
Object/Line Trace/Detailed Illustration, mode:B&W, Threshold:160, Blur:0.1, amend settings on the righthand side. make sure Strokes is ticked!
b.Batch Actions:
Export as .psd stills. When save, select the "high 300" pixels options.
Save SceneName_lines Folder.

D. colouring - Corel Painter
When open in Painter,will be a few transparent layers.
paint on new layers underneath the lines
erase any un-needed lines
save as .psd, in SceneName_coloured Folder.

E. Alpha Channel - Photoshop
Open in photoshop, delete the canvas layer
merge all the transparent layers
save as .psd in SceneName_ready Folder

Animation#20

2007-06-05T22:42:00.000+01:00

finally done the mum secondary. I have put the most effort on this piece. So this's a happy moment.

Updated drawings on Pig landing

Animation#19

2007-06-04T22:50:00.000+01:00

It has been a really good day!
2 animations were drawn.
The secondary for Mum's running works out well, including: hair, clothes, arms. will do the 2nd half tomorrow.

The pig is finally landed.

Also Louise Dancan will join us for the next 2 weeks on colouring and stuff! Also we have Anja from 1st year on board and is doing some animation.
Tomorrow we ll work with Dan on resolution.
I asked Lui to adjust the Milk Machine rig. should get it tomorrow.

Meeting

2007-05-30T23:58:00.000+01:00

We had a good meeting today. Michelle has arranged the works till Monday. We ll have another one from Tuesday.
We overlooked the schedule to start from the more important tasks. This weekend is every crutial. If it works out well, i ll be much released.
after a long warmup, we are about to explode!

here are the tasks till Monday:

Me

milk machine,animating pipe - Lui needs to email me

pig clean up

pig spinning

work out the bg morphing between mud & cow

Lui

rig and animate the cow

boy falling

slow down the mud with nose

also i just realise the mud wall is in 3s, but his frame rate is 12fps. that means every drawing is holding for 6 frames now. so he needs to draw 1 more inbetween every 2 drawings

Louise

walk cycle and shading

colouring: 3 chicks

colouring Hen

Michelle

grass animating

cloud animating

bus animating

scan hen+cow & give to Louise

Resolution!!!

2007-05-30T23:10:00.000+01:00

Here is the complete bible of the resolutions! Thanks to Lui for doing the technical works

A. Scan - Flipbook

800*800
B&W (adjust threshold/contrast)
A3

B. Still Export - Flipbook
Use Default: 768*576, .bmp format

C. Line Tracing - Illustrator

a.Set Actions:
Object/Line Trace/Detailed Illustration, mode:B&W, Threshold:160, Blur:0.1, amend settings on the righthand side. make sure Strokes is ticked!
b.Batch Actions:
Save in seperate folder. .ai format

D. Change format - Photoshop

when open .ai image, choose open with 300 resolution. (Auto default size:2496*2046}
The image should be lines on transparent bg. Save as .psd, in seperate folder

E. Colouring - Painter

paint on second layer underneath the lines.
colour the canvas green/red
erase any un-needed lines
save as full quality .jpg in seperate folder

Folder system:
under one folder named after the scene and shots (eg. Chicken_bump), we will have 4 folders - bmp stills, ai stills, psd stills, jpg stills

We will colour with the doubled resolution, because the quality will be constantly reduced in After Effect, Premiere and DVD making. Illutrator tracing will give good quality of the outlines and a higher resolution of the image.

Animation#18

2007-05-30T00:21:00.000+01:00

A test for the Flies
need to break the lines into pieces. but at least the 3-frame-boil works

Animation#17+DirectorUpdate

2007-05-29T23:34:00.000+01:00

worms, working on the creep-in

Director update:

Need to meet for re-scheduling
Scanning resolution: Flipbook,800*800,A3,Black&White,768*576. Will start colouring (Louise) tomorrow!
Asked Martin to simplify the music(chicken & pig). it's too scary now.
Asked Louise to give less confidence to her walk cycle. Like it.

Animation#16

2007-05-23T20:34:00.000+01:00

Bus internal drawings, go for no.2:

Start the blind walk of the boy. works ok.
this is the 2nd go. like the last half. need to polish the beginning.

Animation#15+DirectorUpdate

2007-05-22T20:35:00.000+01:00

Director update:

Working on compositing update today
more work needed on Lui's mud scenes, too quick at the mo
worked out the timing of the mud wall with Lui. will duplicate in compositing
Michelle seems have some trouble with cow animation. she took some frames out and we adjusted on Flipbook. works better.
Louise was having tough time of animating the grass. decided to let her move on to passenger walk cycle. will solve the grass properly when we have more time.
need to decide the resolution of the scanning

Animation from yesterday, the cycle.
Need to give more perspective to the left arm.

Mum steps backward, keys

Animation#14

2007-05-18T22:08:00.000+01:00

Mum's Walk cycle
keys:
this is the 2nd version. the 1st version is broken and aweful:{
the perspective is too extreme. would prefer a closer position

more like it! need to change the leg poses, and slow down

inbetweens, like the hand secondary.

to do: clothes 2ndary; hair 2ndary; give leg and arm curves

Animation#13

2007-05-16T20:46:00.000+01:00

Mum's walk cycle:
this is the first animation seen in the boy's mind
what i want to achieve is a subtle introduction leading viewer into the other world. it's openning the "door".
mum changes from caring to confident, also does the boy.

like the rotation. left hand doesnt make any sense! head turn needs slow down.

changes:mum leans forwards,walks back forwards a couple of steps, then turn.
better but left hand and arm need better curves.
head is jumpy, shoulders need better curves.
a few frames of the holding hands need to change.

like it more! i can feel the weight of the drag
changes: rotate the hair
shoulders twist more
left arm curves better
secondary of the clothes. after she steps forward, the clothes will be more calm.
to change -- left elbow should bend more; delay 1 frame of the clothes

Animation#12

2007-05-09T21:17:00.001+01:00

Changed the holding hands+look down keys

Look down+leg raised+body pulled back

Breakdown-Animating to do

2007-05-08T15:59:00.000+01:00

Finally get to update the breakdown.
Meeting tomorrow.

To do:
colour pattern
update Animatic
comic style
animate-flying flying flying!!!

Glance-STORYBOARDS

2007-05-03T04:35:00.000+01:00

Glance-SHOTS

2007-05-03T04:05:00.000+01:00

Jelly Land

Grass

Chicken Pop

Flying

Mud

Spinning

Lost

Barn-Milk Machine

Glance-CHARACTERS

2007-05-03T03:54:00.000+01:00

Tommy

Mum

Chicken

Hen

Cow

Pig

Animation#11+DirectorUpdate

2007-05-03T00:53:00.000+01:00

Redo the flying, boy's POV; it really took a while to get to this look; hard angle!
1st version-the body should change angles when head turns
2nd version-the arm should be bigger when his head turns to right:

3nd version-happy with the arm:

4th version-took long time to decide the angle of mum. the arms are too sustaining, need to give some twist:

Director Update

Asked Louise to give more variety of the huging hands. Works better
Michelle's hands animation only works on one side. adjusted in After effect by pasting the left to the right. will work
Gave Martin the updated animatic to work on music

AnimaticUpdate#3

2007-04-25T22:24:00.000+01:00

Upto the cow's eye
I want to stick on the colours. also I was working with timing. Timing is really a tough issue.

Review#6

2007-04-25T22:17:00.000+01:00

Dan Mentioned the problem we've been discussed about: point of view.
We've struggled whether we should have any 3rd person view in the inner world. But since we can't get away with the final scene when we see the boy falling from 3rd person view, so we decided to have a couple of more 3rd.

But it looks the final view does not confuse Dan. He recognized it as the moment of coming out of the world. So we will keep anything at boy's POV now, apart from the final falling.

The arms should come in earlier to work together with the falling to establish the switch of 2 worlds.

AnimaticUpdate#2

2007-04-23T23:37:00.000+01:00

carry on updating the animatic:
with all the changes
colour concept
better timing

AnimaticUpdate#1

2007-04-19T23:05:00.000+01:00

here is a redo of the beginning animatic.
Yesterday the AE render just went insanely wrong. I spent 2 hours trying different formats but still all renders seem a couple of frames shorter! Tried again today, madly the same!
I really need to find out about it!
anyway, here:

I like the colour of the inner world. the shadow looks ok. i need more old film scretch and light dimming. check film noir.

Hand over music and sound to Martin.
Decide we will see more of the boy in his own world.
outside world will go to comic stripe style.

Review#5 + Storyboard

2007-04-17T21:33:00.000+01:00

Important Notes in filmic order:
--in real world, everyone is in silhouette and dull colour
--boy's action: change for situations: hesitate (bus, cow), uncertainty, happy(chicken). Blind boy's action
--a "Switch Moment" between 2 worlds, on bus (Storyboard)
--after the "Moment", more colour, sound distorted and pre-synced, abstract
--seeing more mum in shots
--use a piece of cloud to change from flying to chicken
--cut off the Blinking shot. it's confusing
--mum also spinning with pig and boy
--mum being taken away by the pig
--hear the noise of machine in freaked cow scene. cow is called up by the machine. the worms are scaried away by the machine
--a "Switch Back" at the end, on bus

"Switch Moment"
Before Storboard:
People on the bus, silhouettes
boy sits; mum stands, in blue silhouette (low shoot from back)
bus driver calls up the farm arrival
boy calls "mum" (introduce relation)
boy reaches his hand to mum
mum catches his hand
they walk towards the door slow (back shot)
boy walks with hestitation
people give their way
boy walks close to the door, mum assists him to get off. we don't see mum's body too much

In Storyboard:
camera zoom in boy's head
inside his head
whole screen changes colour to blue
through boy's POV, the world is coloured generally
mum leads his walk
flowers come out off mum's clothes
he looks down, the veins lift him up
he is up in the air, so is the mum
he looks down at the jelly land
clouds in distance
on piece of cloud comes closer and bigger and occupies the whole screen
after the cloud fades away, the grass revealed

"Switch Back"
Milk tank and 3 arms
3 arms merge into 1
colours fade
camera zoom out
boy embraced by mum sitting on the bus
a garland is on his heads
mid shot of the bus, people in silhouettes passing by

Review#4

2007-04-17T20:25:00.000+01:00

There have been alot of changes going on to the film in a few days.
After the feedback from Dan and our Team Meeting, there are things to say:

I am really glad about the solutions the team came up today. They will be summarised in next post.
I had got my head around to accept the fact that if i want the viewers to enjoy the rest of the film, i should serve them a better solution of what's going on.
About the sound, i will keep the hints idea. Not too much sound driven, but add them in clever places.
The vision will keep as abstract and imaginary. but the logics of the backstory is less abstract at the moment.
About team work, i think i did kept many thought to myself, which are the things are hard for me to explain to the team. So any time when it comes to talk about the basics of the film, everyone will look at me. But i think throughout the production, i am more taking the role to throw out questions and the team work together really well at giving solutions, then when the answers are done, i simply re-think them again. i have nothing to complain about the team, i think we did a brilliant job in the first term. the second term was a bit falling because of the dissertation. Therefore i do believe the film will benefit alot more if we could sit together and work on real productions together more in this term.

Animation#10+Review

2007-04-16T16:44:00.000+01:00

Rough out the beginning sequence with sound:
--"Tommy, are you ready, we are going to the farm today remember?" said the mum.
--"Yes, mum. Can i adopt a little chicken from there, and a piggy, and a cow so i can drink fresh --milk..." said Tommy. Sounds dissolve. (dialogue is discussible)
--noise of footsteps
--noise of openning the door
--noise of a car passing by, and street crowd (all dissolved)

--then they will get on the bus
--noise of the bus, doors open, close, bus departs
--breaths of crowd
--noise of people pushing
Problem: the first wall looks confusing; how we tell it is the mum? (with sound? working?)

Also chat with Mike and Jared.
keep it experimental, but be nice to audience
make people to guess about the internal cause of what they see
Jared mentioned the same thought as mine: if there is a question, people should be able to find the answer by the end. i can leave them thinking, but not confused.
it becomes a sound driven piece, so get the soundtrack done quickly
beginning: sound dissolve (thanks Mike) + image and colour fade in
shall i animate a shot seeing both mum and boy from a 3rd person view?

To do:
Break down the soundtrack
check out "The Conversation" by Francis Coppola
"Daredevil" title sequence, the Brailes merge into texts (thanks Rag)

Self-Review

2007-04-16T13:19:00.000+01:00

I am trying to figure out the reason why everytime of the review, i was asked the foundamental questions about the logics and meanings of the film.

I agree with some of the ideas raised in the recent review:
i should make a better introduction of the boy's blindness. if i introduced a confusion at the beginning, i should answer it by the end.
less emphasis on his partial deaf. if he is not deaf, the film can also work. this will also give me more freedom to use the sound to assist the images.
different scenes are falling apart at the moment. i should link them together, rather than leaving them side by side.

Also there are some thoughts i would like to keep:
i should communicate with the audience more. but i am not connecting the film with the main stream audience, because the film is not for them. It is meant to be artistic and experimental. So i should only use hints (obviously i need to add more) to establish my story. i am not making another film with 3-stage structures and clear development of plots. i want it to be different in aspects of visions and filmic language. this is also the reason i choose to do it in 2d.

Instead of making everything clear from the right beginning, i perfer to raise the viewers' interests to find out more by themselves. i also want every second of the film is interesting to watch on its own.

Here is a list of things to discuss at tomorrow's meeting:
beginning sequence -- home and city
chicken looks
bg -- 2d, in camera angles, morphing between scenes to connect them better
any extra ending to tell the fact
more mum shots in the film. where?
Timetable -- no test, no experiments, everyone needs to negociate with me before do anything.

To Do:
draw a rough storyboard for the beginning sequence
think how to connect scenes better.

Review

2007-04-11T15:54:00.000+01:00

Issues raised on Yesterday's review:

How to tell his disability
Shall i make him blind only?
Not making too much sense
We are not communicating with audience enough

To solve:

Beginning:
Make a transaction between the real world and boy's mind
--fade from blankness (Richie's Idea)
--more linking with mum; mum's face appears when he touches it (but it's not an original idea)
--the boy's own drawing or talking?

To connect between scenes; morphing or making extra plot?
give more treatment to the seperation from mum
less abstract?
change the look of chicken

Sound:
apart from my original idea of using anbient music with morphed noise, i should add more hint in the bg sounds to clearify what is happening, eg: the sounds of the animals

Reason not to use:

a blind stick -- i just think it's too cruel to give the boy a stick. i want the boy to feel like an ordinary boy and has the same freedom
a map of the farm -- i tend not to tell everything in advance. i prefer to make the audience interested in guessing about.

I think the rough blockout makes less sense without the colour and limit in animation. also the idea of the beginning sequence has been changed a lot, but i decided to leave it to the last, so i didn't spend time on updating it.

Blockout#1

2007-04-11T15:25:00.000+01:00

For the last a few days, i was updating the new blockout.
My After Effect is really slow, so it was really hard to work with timing.
Although i slowed down most of the scenes, the timing is still rough.

To Be Composited

2007-04-04T19:33:00.000+01:00

Here is the list of DONE things that can go into the blockout:
Hen animation
chicken animation + farm stills
pig animation
boy flying(part) + farm camera movement
machine -- ask Martin
bus(part)
barn camera movement
cow
ending hands -- ask Louise
city -- ask Lui

I've been working with Lui and Martin today. I'm really happy with the machine texture Martin did and the shape of the farm by Lui. Here are some imgs.

Recently I'm also expecting:
block out -- me
cow texture -- Michelle
farm texture -- Lui
farm animation -- Lui
flying animation -- me
chicken pop -- Michelle
pig rotate -- me

Important things to do ASAP:
2d cow animation
worms animation
mud animation
machine rigging
cow rigging

Animation#9

2007-04-04T19:31:00.000+01:00

Start to draw the flying. Here is the beginning bit. works well but took me quite long today :(

Animation#8

2007-04-03T22:24:00.000+01:00

I use the same model test out the camera views for the pig landing.
I also used a wider camera to get the perspective.
the timing is not even. but never mind, coz the angles are what i want, and i m happy with those.

start to rough out the keys for the boy. First is a loop for the hair and clothes. The clothes need exaggeration.

The flying looks alot less flat this time. doesn't make any scene now thou. I need to adjust the proportion of the body. more extreme perspectives.

Colouring Test

2007-04-01T20:45:00.000+01:00

I did some testing on the colouring.
It is different from the colour script stuff. I am working with Layers of animating frames. Also i want to know how long practically this will take.

First, a scratched old pic effect i learnt today. used it again for the scratching surface below.

Key words for Pig scene: dark, shadowy, dirty, heavy, smelly, but not disgusting
3 layers: the bg is dripping slowly; the pig is moving; the scratch at top layer is flashing.

First version of Colours. It's colourful and busy enough, but some colours don't work together.

Second version of Colours, after getting some suggestions. It looks like in a theatre light. like it in rough.

Animation#7

2007-03-29T15:35:00.000+01:00

I did a rough out of the boy flying. But it looks really flat. So here are 2 Maya renders to assist my 2d animating

a side view

camera view, still quite flat:(

Meeting#5

2007-03-29T15:29:00.000+01:00

Group meeting 27th Tuesday.
Here we came up a list of To Dos during Easter:

10th Apr -- block out -- right in Timing; composit any animation+environment together
animating -- boy flying; finish pig and hen; worms; start the cow
technical -- environment + camera moves in milk machine scene; texture of cow and machine
colouring -- test on pig and chicken

Things To Do to me:

29, 30: render pig frames; test on pig colour
31, 1: work out all the timing
2, 3, 4: block out with Lui
2, 3, 4: use 3D reference to animate boy flying and pig ending
7,8: any minor animating
9: update block out; render block out
10-15: colour test; 3D rigging

Announcement

2007-03-14T23:03:00.000Z

because of the dissertation and some personal issues, this is the third week i haven't do much of the film. Productions hopefully will be back to agenda next week.

Perspective,Perspective

2007-02-24T16:57:00.000Z

Pixar artist Enrico Casarosa . Many drawings in a perspective theme.

Flash!

2007-02-20T21:44:00.000Z

just to mention, i started to learn Flash today! It will be really helpful for doing the animatic and the website later round. It is always full of fun to learn some new stuff!!

Meeting+Animation#6

2007-02-20T18:26:00.000Z

Group Meet:
next 3 weeks - focus on dissertation.
- a small task for everyone - me: work on more detailed timing for #2 animatic; Michelle: learn texturing on maya and test on the cow, also to finish off the chick scene; Louise: test on top view grass and arm holding; Lui: finish off farm and city texturing
- everyone need to send me their works from the week by weekend; i will give feedbacks for them to carry on working in the next week

final week - full time production
- me: to finish off the #2 animatic and the legs dangling animation; Lui: farmland animation; Louise and Michelle: colouring tests

Easter 4 weeks - more animation; website; riggings; environment camera shots

Then here are 2 of the 4 tests i did. in the first one, the rotating works. i need to change the angles of the tile down. we should see more of the side of the square and less of the space of the square.
for the 2nd one, coz the base was wrong in the first place, it looks aweful! the turning is getting there, but i hate the scale of the character. also again, the tile down doesnt work!

2007-02-16T22:44:00.000Z

just read the news that Ryan Larkin passed away on the 14th of February 2007, that is 2 days ago. i was delighted a while ago when seeing his back and so much looking forward to his new film, although knowing that he had to ask for donations on his website to finance himself. right now, thinking of his whole life, it is really a complex feeling. from his last words, one can tell that he is a really tired man who suffered too much from life and he might feel himself is leaving and is willing to just rest. i kind of regreted that i met his works so late. i once mentioned on this blog that some of the styles of the animtion is inspired by him. also to add, i was left in a shock when watching his "Walking" which also inspired me on my film. all of these suddenly have become extremely precious to me. animators and artists who can create whatever they want to create should know to treasure their chance, their time and their talent. to memorialize.

Animation#5

2007-02-13T17:35:00.000Z

Oh, today everything went wrong! nothing can work properly. I did about 3 tests on the landing. This is the one i ok about. Check out.

Make no sense to you, this one? Well, it's the plane he lands on. this is the test on its looks when the camera pans up and rotates right to left. U will not see it in the film. It's an angle guideline for animating the pig. yeah, he stands on top of this plane. but still, i don't think it works properly. i need to try to rotate it around the far back point, as it's like a pivot point.

Found a cool picture could fit perfectly in our film. check her works here

Animation#4

2007-02-07T23:45:00.000Z

some anticipation before the jump. looks abit too dynamic. need to stretch out the leg more. need to fix the eye blinking coz it's too jumpy.

the jump. like the anticipation. i m working on the landing at the moment. need to change the parabola and the curve of the leg on the last frame.

after this, the camera angle will change. so more exciting animation to come!

BTW, thanks Michelle for drawing a really cool portrait of me in a polaroid frame!

Animation#3

2007-02-06T19:01:00.000Z

really happy about the outcomes today. get a lot done!

just need to change the left arm. it stops too suddenly at the end. also need to add some facial expressions.

only the keys. need to slow down the beginning. also to stretch the neck when he knees down.

New Progress

2007-02-05T21:43:00.000Z

Cow model was finished! did some final touch with Matt today. now i need to worry who is going to texture it?
the cow will be multi-coloured in the final scene. but the 2d cow need to be tested on colours and lightings etc.
louise's grass need to be adjusted. new deadline for grass: end of next week.
did more on pig. but still the progress is slow.

Animation#1

2007-01-31T18:51:00.000Z

30-31 Jan
01: keys.

02: right arm doesn't work; need to speed up the sucking

03: arm swing looks odd; need holds after the sucking; hold the backward pose+sink in

04: to redraw the boil of the fr1; to change the eyes; to stretch more the legs

BreakDown#2

2007-01-29T17:17:00.000Z

updated timetable

Timing&Action

2007-01-24T23:17:00.000Z

Timing:

go over the scenes mentally as many time as i can
go over it mentally with a stop watch
add up the time of all scenes to get a sum-up length
change if too long or too short

Remember: the audience come fresh to the film! they see the film once only!
what effects of a scene will be on audience?
intruduction-build up-climax-result

Action:
character has to be moved around by the action of forces on it.
PLUS time for the mental operation of the character.thinking his way through his actions, making decisions, finally moving his body under the influence of his own will power and muscle.
PLUS his influence on surrounding inaimate object.

The pig: he's drunk. Firstly, his mental operation is disturbed by alchole (mud). Then this disturbed mental makes decisions for the boby which is influenced by the alchole at the same time. apart from hiself, there is another force created to influence his actions.

When he moves, he also affects his surroundings. the space (muddy) is stirred, pulled, blowed by his movement/wind created. this is a good idea for 2nd animation.

BreakDown #1

2007-01-24T01:02:00.000Z

Here are all the works! More to come:

Recent Tasks

2007-01-23T18:15:00.000Z

Two inspiring films:

"Mind Game" by Masaaki Yuasa. Refer to paint effect and perspective animation, click here (low quality). For review, see here.

"The Missing Book" by Danas Berznitsky. Refer to his perspective animation. it's the 2nd short in here.

To do

upload scenes Breakdown (tonight)
update Timetable and email to everyone (tonight)
draw keys for pig scene(tonight)

5 studios (tomorrow)
website (tomorrow)
dissertation research (Thur,Fri)
dissertation blog (end of week)

re-draw some of the storyboards for the blockout (next week)

Storyboards_update

2007-01-22T15:40:00.000Z

I think the storyboards say a problem: most of the scenes are head-on angles and plain. A few changes have been made.

chicken shot-add perspective, low-angle. Note: the kid has the sense of space and distance.

pig dancing-add deformation on the body shape, referring to Ryan Larkin's "Street Musique" add extreme perspective movement.

chick mum-add more characteristic to her. she comes out of nowhere,which confused her. she falls off to the ground, gets up slowly, and walks off the screen.
boy's fall sequence-after seeing the machine, he hides behind a cow. the cow looks at him when being picked up by the pipe. one pipe detects him and turns towards him. other pipes follow. he steps back. pipes speed up. closeup of mouth. seeing him fall.

after done the timetable, i realise how many little animations we need to do. so there are some options i choose to do:

for the city scene, as few movements as possible.
cut off the beginning hands movement, instead, use texts with effects.
do a quick test on 3d environment by the end of this week. if it doesn't work, i ll ask Lui to start animate the lands in 2d (not too much, so can be more economical in 2d)

Colouring- for the main character that we want people to look at, we keep the rough outlines and paint underneath. for background, paint all over top, without the details.

Establishment-

From the boy's view: dark eges, see text not image(?)
Start from normal shot. after introducing the fact, the view gets blurry, the sound getting echoing. also to establish that he is partially impaired.

Meeting #1,#2,#3

2007-01-20T17:39:00.000Z

#1: Monday(Louise, Michy, me)
clearify main tasks
individual time and workload.
promotion plans - start to promote our film and degree show. We will have a website of the film linked with individual blogs of all term members. We decide to send out image packages to studios that we would like to approach to. Also to visit in person and send cds to studios again when the film has finished.
#2: Tuesday (Lui, Louise, Michy, me)
timetable

clearify roles
Michy-producer, character animator, colour
me-director, character animator, 3d rigging/animating, colour
Lui-prop animator, compositor, 3d modeling/texturing
Louise-prop animator
Postcard selecting and print test - 4 images in A5 size

#3: Wednesday(Louise, Michy, me)

showed animation samples
reviewed storyboards,great improvement!

PRODUCTION BEGINS!

2007-01-20T16:53:00.000Z

Term2-Main Tasks:

Production-

rough out all the character animation;
produce a reliable blockout timing-wise;
finish modelling and texturing of 3 environments;
test on colouring

Promotion-

Website online
personal blog links
postcard package delivery to studios

ToMoveOn

2006-12-07T14:26:00.000Z

Pitch Comments:
Establishment AGAIN is the main issue we are facing!
Create an identity item for the boy? a stick? no, a stick will bring extra challenge for animating the boy's movement. also i dont want anything will make the boy looks less capable than a normal boy. But i like the idea of introducing some prop (?) to identify him more.

Good comments on character designs.

Good comments on the animation style: old-fashioned-in-a-good-way-and-everything-is-moving style.

No comments on story. Need to find out.

Next step:

Go to the blind school! ask questions, observe kids movement, and be inspired!

Experiment on blind movement. Let's cover our own eyes!

Work out new timetable and workload.

Tests to do:
3d texture
sound with image
layers (coloured)

Animating to start with:
chicken pops
drunk pig
jelly wobbling
bus passengers

AdditionalDesigns

2006-12-07T14:05:00.000Z

More designs by the team that haven't been shown here before. Aren't they amazing!! Ok, time to show off!!

presentation!

2006-12-01T19:07:00.000Z

The rest of the storyboards, and that's the end!
To add quickly, we had a really successful presentation today!
Today is just a great day!
Got some comments that i ll add on later.
I m happy to keep on this journal for the whole production. So when i look back at everything, it ll be so interesting!
Also to mention that Lui did an amazing job for the animatic, Jared loves it! So i want to give him the credit here, because i dont think we remembered to mention it during the pitch. Also in case he didnt get time to add it on his own journal.

Storyboard-Part3

2006-11-29T23:59:00.000Z

Part3

PitchChecklist-FromDan

2006-11-28T20:06:00.000Z

Doing Presentation PowerPoint at the moment.

LO1: A comprehensive understanding of the processes, techniques and working methods involved.

LO2: Delineate the target market for an animation product.

LO3: Generate ideas through concept work.

LO4: Pitch and present ideas confidently to a high standard.

LO5: Planning and schedule of an animation project.

1. A brief description/premise made by the director to remind everyone of the film again or to see if any changes have be made to the original pitch.

2. Early concept work through to finished designs including:
i. Character model sheets.
ii. Character studies
iii. Environmental designs of both interiors and exteriors if both are applicable to your film.
iv. Mood boards and colour scripts.
v. Rough/clean up storyboards

3. A working animatic demonstrating; timing, filmic language and sound. This should show your understanding of the timing of each shot and how effectively it flows as a story, together with, simple and effective filmic language for all three acts to work as a whole. As for the sound, we are not expecting final recordings, just some basic sounds to help support the visauls in the animatic.

4. Everyone needs to participate in the presentation.

5. Anything else of a high standard to support your pitch

NewProgress-Machine

2006-11-27T21:43:00.000Z

New look for the milk machine: monster, opens its mouth to reveal the milk tunk. Thanks to Jim.

3d/2d: to do tests on 3d textures. if not working, we could animate the machine in 3d roughly, then trace over frames in 2d.

No kids anymore, COWs will be picked up by the pipes. They will line up along platforms high up over the machine.

Cows wearing goggles?
Camera behind the boy, sillevette?

Start over again on Animatic :(

CoolAnimation

2006-11-26T18:23:00.000Z

Thanks Beale for the link!

WeeklySummary

2006-11-26T13:36:00.000Z

Storyboarding on going...
uuh, essay, essay, essay...

Bus:
Need to get the movement right
Lui did a test on the handles merged with the internal outline
Michelle did a nice bus character, but i can't fit it in the scene. I have to dump it for now. Shame!

Heart Beat:
Lui did a nice test on heart beating in loop
new idea: wriggling worms along the edges; two heads against each other, creating the shrinking / increasing movement in a frequency of heart beat; blurred when the thuds sound.

Animatic: got the first bit. But the computer was down!! called IT to fix!

Ready for the pitch?

animatic - on going
storyboards - on going
music - roughly done
characters sheets - done
colourscript - roughly done
environments - 1 out of 3 to do
school research - pending

Tests+Boy

2006-11-20T19:40:00.000Z

I know that i m not supposed to post any works from others. But i can't help mentioning it.
This is the first day that i can see more sights for my film being made. Because we had some production works done by Lui! Although they are only tests.
They are:
Frame morphing tests.
Mud splash test. Needs to be speeded up.

Also got a nice piece of ambient music from Martin. This will go with the scene when the boy first arrives the farm. I asked him to slow down the beginning and slowly get to the point of the boy's delightfulness.

Then the boy!

Storyboard-Part2

2006-11-17T19:11:00.000Z

1 essay is in the way. But i did manage to finish some of the StoryBoard.

Storyboard-Part1

2006-11-12T00:35:00.000Z

The filmic for the jelly land was a hard one. I wasnt sure how to pan the camera from the wind to the land then to the aerial shot. I m quite happy about the current looking, the boy sees his feet first, after all the struggling and thought! Thanks to Beale for inspiration.

MikeHirsch

2006-11-12T00:33:00.000Z

Background artist Mike Hirsch reviews on our film:

The logics must work. Is the film always in the boy's point of view? why we can see the boy sometime?
The establishment is very important. How to introduce the condition? The establishment must achieve to persuade the audience having no doubt about the logics all the way through of the film.

-- Shall we go back to the idea of filming a live acting D-B boy and his mum? By doing this, we can immediately tell the backstory of the boy, so we can even have more freedom on the animation.

-- But how to transfer the scene from live action to animation?

--To show the contrast - the boy can't see and hear; but he laughs as a normal boy and clever and curious.

Charlie + Lola (CBeebies animation) kid's imaginary friend
Art - a vehicle of coded feeling/meaning from the artist and will be unlocked by audience through time
Need to have complete control of the mood. pollution-free, clear idea about what u want to say
Composition: tone, contrast, perspective/depth, focus, movement, colour/texture. What do u want people to look at?
3 questions:What am i trying to say? How i say it? Was it worth it?

-- How to make the film interesting to watch but don't lose the meaning of it?

Creation:Collect-Collate-Convey

The school gets back to us!! And some drawings for the boy.

Announcement

2006-11-07T17:41:00.000Z

Finally I've uploaded all the backlog of my journal.
So the blog will be running up to date.
Congratulations to myself!

7,Nov,06-#6Meeting

2006-11-07T17:34:00.000Z

-7 Nov 06-
1. new list of characters to do by this Friday

The blind boy Tommy
Baby chickens - massive feet?
Big chicken; either Hen or Rooster
People on bus
Milk machine - how does the milk go to the machine? Need to think how the cows get the milk in? Through mouth?
Mothers arms
The bus - a bus that has arms and legs! Walking bus

2. possibility of using Flash for the effect of roughness?

Remind me the works of Bu Hua. Love them:

"Cat":http://flash.ent.tom.com/flash_show.php?user=flash_buhua&id=30715 The link is abit slow. Click the interactive "上一个" and "下一个" underneath for more works.

3. dicussed about colour style

Task:
Character/ storyboarding/ colour script

6,Nov,06-AE&Motion

2006-11-07T17:33:00.001Z

-6 Nov 06-
After Effect:
AE can't really morph shapes :(
But it can morph colours on any separated layer.
Effect/Distort, wobbling effect.

"Motioin" software:
Text wobbling
Grass effect

more colourboards:

bigger: http://myspace-442.vo.llnwd.net/01479/24/49/1479649442_l.jpg

So annoying that u cant enlarge the image!! i tried everything...The blog is haunted...

Writing in "Moon"

3,Nov,06-Colourscript

2006-11-07T17:33:00.000Z

-3 Nov 06-
mood boards for the barn scene

Music: "The bells play the band", ambient, by Bell Orchestre http://www.bellorchestre.com/

2,Nov,06-CharacterDesign

2006-11-07T17:32:00.001Z

-02 Nov 06-
Found a brilliant animator to help from 2nd year!! o la!

Quick sketches of characters for the bus crowd. They are designed to be easily transformed into farm animals. So, did you figure out what animals are they?

1,Nov,06-ColourIdeas

2006-11-07T17:32:00.000Z

-1 Nov 06-
Been thinking about colour.

Initially, I thought that the colours the boy can see is abnormal colours. Then, coincidently, i just looked through my old foundation works, randomly. I saw these 2 paintings.
The idea is using cold or warm colours to get the opposit mood of the image. This all about how u treat the conposition (shape, proportion, colour percentage).

cold colours for warm mood

warm colours for cold mood

Here are some samples i found using warm colours for cold / uncomfortable moods.

New idea: for the jelly land, a surrounding environment, an aerial shot. How to cut the shot?

30,Oct,06-Formative/#5Meeting

2006-11-07T17:31:00.001Z

-30 Oct 06-
Our storyboard and colourscript weeks start now.

1. Formative went well today. To improve my work:

Show weekly tasks -- as shown in the journal in green colour. also below a gantt chart showing the weekly tasks for the group and myself
Make sure at the group pitch at the end of the term, all the group members present their own thought of the project
"Core" team is a potential issue. Also i'm worrying about lack of animators next term. So we decided to ask the 2nd years and the graduates for help.

2. Group meeting

Split the works for colourscripts. We will collect everyone's parts and put them together to see whether or not they'll work in next meeting
I decided to draw all the storyboard for a continuous look
asked who's up to animating. Got 3 animators including me

3. I was suggested to join another 3 directors who are also lack of core members to pitch the ideas to each other again. I thought it's not a bad idea. But i m in different situation from them. I will not drop my film no matter what, because it is not only my own film now.

4. Tasks

Draw colourscript for the "Barn" scene (group)
Start to think of the storyboard over again
Finish the storyboard within next 2 weeks
Keep designing the characters (group)
I don't think Kat will have time to design the enviornments, so i either do it, or raise it as group task

29,Oct,06-Concept

2006-11-07T17:31:00.000Z

-29 Oct 06-
2 life drawings testing the rough lines by pen. Inspirations: there are 2 scenes in "Fritz the Cat" inspired me. One is when the crow from the pool gets shoot dead, they use the pool balls rolling into the hole to indicate the tension before his death. Considering i have the similar heart beats, it is a good piece to look at. Another shot is when Fritz is on drugs, the film just simply duplicate the images and layer them with gaps. I thought that looks good.

A city scape i did. The colours work alright. But maybe i need to change the positions of the background buildings.

26,Oct,06-RoughScript

2006-11-07T17:27:00.000Z

-26 Oct 06-
1.Movements of hands. Texts and codes come out of different poses of hands, saying “I’ll go to the farm today, with mum”
2.Texts say “Mum is my ears and eyes”. Shapes of ears and eyes appear on the screen
3.Hands from the 1st scene transform into hands hanging on the handles of a bus. Ears and eyes from 2nd scene become ears and eyes of passengers on the bus. Texts change into bus handles.
4.Crowds jammed in the bus. Objects go beyond the edge of the screen. Facial movement on people's face. When the bus shakes, the faces flash, and transform to animal heads.
5.Snivel of the fat woman pops and explodes the whole screen.
6.Cut scene. Angled city skyscrapers stand on a city map. When bus shakes, the buildings change into farm animals and vehicles.

7.Title sequence finished.
8.Mum holds Tommy's hand. Rattans on mum's clothes come out of the arm and fly. The flower is the symbol of mother throughout the film. Texts say “spring”, “grass”, and “farmland”.
9.Soft lines as breeze and dandelions fly towards the screen, and the wind gently holds him up.
10.The boy's POV. Camera moves gently up and down. The land generally appears in front of him.
11.The whole land is in front of him, without perspective. Jelly like land is wobbling.
12.He feels a bit dizzy in the air. He steadies himself on the grass. The camera settles on the grass.
13.A fluffy rounded chicken pop up from the ground next to his hand. He touches it.
14.Chicken pop corns keep popping up from the land.
15.Chickens are head-butting in the air. Two of them are head-butting into 1 bigger-sized chicken.
16.He giggles about the chickens.
17.Wet smelly mud is split on him. All over the screen
18.Two massive holes sniffle the screen. Warm heat comes out the holes. It's covered by mud.
19.Text:“It's a pig.”
20.The smell of the pig and the mud make him feel disgusted and think about the smell of drunk people. Whole screen is full of melt and dripping mud.
21.He sees the pig is drinking mud from a bottle with his nose. Mud keeps dripping.
22.The pig is drunk so that it can’t walk properly.
23.The pig has to use its wings growing on his head to fly away. Flying pigs are everywhere, also the bottle.
24.The mud generally fills up the screen. He is sinking into soft muddy darkness. Camera pans down.
25.The darkness generally overwhelms him. We start to hear his heart beat. And the edge of the darkness is shaking with more tense along the heart beat. The more lightly coloured centre is shrinking every time of the beats.
26.Shot is flashing between darkness and a opening central area showing a cow's big eye. He accidentally touches the cow's eyes, freaking both of them out.
27.Flashing images, darkness, a freaked out cow, and darkness again
28.Flashing images, a cow's tail
29.Flashing images, flies are diving towards, shooting at him
30.Camera tracks in, the heart beats become the machine engine beats. A giant milk machine with pipes all over
31.Every end of the pipe sucks a kid. The kids are struggling. The pipes are everywhere.
32.One pipe is coming towards him, with sharp teeth inside the end like a mouth. Pipes are lining up sending kids to the milk pool.
33.The pipe end becomes really close. We can see the inside of the mouth wanting to swallow the kid.
34.The internal of the mouth becomes the internal of the boy’s mouth. Zoom out. He is dropping into the milk pool, screaming.
35.When he drops into the pool, he feels comfortable again. The flowers come in from the edge of the screen. The milk pool changes into warmer and softer colour, indicating mum's heart. The machine beats becomes mum's heart beats.
36.The flowers transform into many arms holding a cuddling pose. Text says “mum is here"
37.Then the arms morph back to flowers again. The end

25,Oct,06-#4Meeting

2006-11-05T23:22:00.000Z

-25 Oct 06-
1. Delivered the story to the group. They seem really like it!

2. Showed some more defined samples. I asked the group to try to mimic the style if they can. Here they are: A image i found online called "ghost cat dancing". I like the free lines and shapes. I want the scene with pigs looking like this.
From illustration book "The day i swapped my dad for two goldfish" by Dave McKean. I prefer the rough outlines and the paint effect. Also i like the FRAMING in the composition. This could break the limit of the 16:9 screen proportion.
From the same book. Combination with real textures. Also look at the staging of the main characters with relation with the look-at object.From one of my favourit artists Egon Schiele. Again, brilliant staging. Also i want the thick and filthy paint.

The background design and the texture give a 3d animation the beauty of 2d. I decided to go for 3D for the 3 enviornments so that i can have well developed bgs and camera movements.

3. The list of characters we need to design:
crowd in the bus
chickens
drunk pig
freaked out cow
flies

4. Other stuffs we need to visualise:
the mum flower
the seeds in the air
the wind
the grass
the mud

5. Enviornments to design:
the city
the farm
the milk machine

Tasks:
Design the characters (group)
Design the enviornment (group)
Write a rough script based on thumbnails and send to the group
Test morphing / textures in After Effect (Technician)

24,Oct,06-Thumbnails

2006-11-05T23:18:00.000Z

-24 Oct 06-
Here are my thumbnails. Save for full-sized images.

The story is shorter than the 1st version. I get rid of the ice cream scene and the water puddle scene. It is a shame that we would have the change to animate water impressions and ice cream (coldness). But to be realistic, there are already alot of works. I think I made a right decision.
There is one extra enviornement created where the milk machine sucks the kids.
The story is more interesting to watch now. It is generally changed from being a bit serious to more fun.
The characters have clearer personalities.
Caution: though there are more funny elements in the story, i don't want to lose the arty looking of the film.

New ideas to make the scenes smoothly flow:

People sardine-jamed in the bus, hardly can move. Snivel pops, then the city set appears.
Flowers come out of mum's clothes. The flowers will symbolise mum throughout the film.
One pipe from the milk machine comes really closer. We see the internal of the pipe mouth. Then when the camera zoom out again, it becomes the boy's wild-opened mouth and we see him dropping into the milk tank.

23,Oct,06-Tutorial

2006-11-05T23:16:00.000Z

-23 Oct 06-
We had some really nice tips from today's tutorial. It's time for us to go beyond the brainstormings, and to be more practical.

I have already known what style I want. So instead of asking everyone to do random drawings, we should mimic the style. I need to give copies of the style samples to everyone.
I need to work out the lists of exactly how many characters, acts, enviornments, mood and emotions in the film.
Think about why the boy gets lost if his mum is taking care of him all the time.
Think about the establish shot (we had some ideas already).
How the picture will exactly look like from 1 scene to another.
Go to the school! We'll get inspired. Also observe how the kids move, for the sake of our camera movements.

Also here are the plan-outs, the 2nd version of the story, from Me and Kat. To visualise it more, I'll do a storyboard thumbnails based on this.

They are a bit rough, the thumbnails will make more sense. But many new ideas. They're in Kat's handwriting.

People on the bus change into farm animals when the bus shakes
Jelly like farm land makes the boy dizzy
Chickens pop up from the ground
Chickens head butting each other

The pig has a long nose
The pig drinks mud from the bottle and drunk
The boy sinks into the darkness of the mud
Everytime of the heart beats, he sees a scary image

He touches the eye of the cow, freaking both of them out
Crazy flies dive and shot at him
A massive milk machine sucks kids into the milk tank
The milk tank changes into the heart of mum. The milk is symbolic to mum as well

22,Oct,06-StyleResearch

2006-11-05T22:31:00.000Z

-22 Oct 06-
Key words: Abstract

Excellent enviornment sketches. They mess up with lines, space and perspective. But we can tell that there is an old building around the corner; a road leading upto the hill; the people walking; the church bell freaks out the birds; the speed and the mood. Hopefully, this will work for my city scene.
This is from an album cover. I like the way it plays with the space. For my pig scene, I want the pigs to be everywhere inside the screen. Overwhelming, that is the word!A promotion video for a band, Boom Bip. Abstract. the rettans come out from the centre. I m linking this with the mum's symbol.This could be the monster the boy feels inside the barn?Or even as abstract as this?Got this from the graphic magazine. I like it because it is grass, but it is purple and the texture is like hair. From Psyop Studio. The ad itself is every sweet and cuddly. But I see this frame as quick scary. The greyscaled colour contrast and the proportion give the feeling of nervous, suspicious and isolating.

20,Oct,06-#3Meeting

2006-11-05T19:33:00.000Z

-20 Oct 06-

1. #1 Version of plotpoints:

The boy is at school or home. Mum tells him about the farm trip.
Journey to the farm. show some city scenes (imagined).
1st impression of the farm, the spring weather, the animals.
He had an ice cream, getting excited.
He gets lost in a barn, the scarest moment in his life.
Mum comes. He is released.
A water puddle scene, a happy ending.

2. Sound

I changed the idea of not having any music. Can have music.
But no throughout music!
I want to keep open to ideas.
Apart from the sound effects, maybe we can use some really quiet music to go with the spring scene.
Just be aware that the boy has difficulties with hearing, so we need to do it carefully, not to confuse people.

3. The school visit is next week on the timetable. but because of the mid term, it will probably be postponed.

4. Tasks for next meeting (25th)

Concept for the list of emotions (group)
Concept for the list of the above scenes (group)
#2 version of the storyline ready for the storyboarding starting from week5
music ideas

18,Oct,06-StyleResearch

2006-11-05T19:09:00.000Z

- 18 Oct 06 –
These animations have the certain looks which are relevant to what I m picturing my film. So, have a look, they are juicy!

MTV: Subtle, "FKO". I like the way they use the shadows. The boy' s vision will be full of shadows and dark edges.

Jnan Delcan, "The Dead - Billy Collins Animated Poetry". Another morphing example and it is rough.

LimboGame web. http://www.limbogame.org/ Again, nice shadows.

Michel Gagne, "Sensology" trailer. Abstract animation film, images sync with sound

Psyop, "Archive/coke films/01" at www.psyop.tv/main.php . Oh, I love the letters coming out of the animal!

An annoying goat, haha, wired farm story. It's just for a lol.

17,Oct,06-Concept

2006-11-04T20:36:00.000Z

-17 Oct 06 -

Ideas from Michele, me and Ian.M:

1. The film may be set in SPRING time.

Insects are mating, animals are in love (a pig may fall in love with a sheep or a cow or the farmers dog!?)
Calming season, colourful with flowers and trees in bloom
It' s sunny and dry, debris from trees and dandelion seeds flying through the air.

2. The little boy loves ice cream! When an ice-cream van comes along he gets excited by the music of the van (don’t know how it' ll be if he' s deaf…) we can look for something that he’ll really love…

3. Things appear generally when touching by hands; Things moving; Make-up the rest

MUM Concept

When I think of the abstract image of my mum, I got the mountain shape and greeny colours, maybe because I think she is emotionally strong and energetic. Also there is water image, indicating female, I think. I don't know why I drew snow on the top, maybe since my mum is quite strict to me, haha.

An other impression I have is the image of the lotus fruit. When i was a child, I was alway holding my mum's bare arm while sleeping. And the arm is linked to lotus fruit in Chinese literature. Mum's arm or hand can be very important to the boy too. Maybe it can be linked with sth to the boy as well.

16,Oct,06-#2Meeting

2006-11-04T20:09:00.000Z

-16 Oct 2006-
1. How we' ll introduce the fact about his deaf and blind?

At beginning not end
Should we cast a real boy to act in the film? Maybe he' d have a friend or his mum who would introduce him to the audience – Problem: an extra character, disturbing the film.
Texts coming out of hands – Brail or Moon alphabets written on his palms or in the air
Could starting with the boy drawing his mum, saying she is my eyes and ears

2. How abstract is our film? Will there be a linear story?
Mood plot points: Comfort > unease> comfort / Mothers hug> Looses mother> finds mother

3. Introduce a city scene. Giving the contrast between city and countryside. Camera shakes indicate he' s on the bus / train

4. The mum writes letters on his hands to lead the journey. Animals could form from those words. Mum could be associated y different shapes, colours or objects.

5. Any idea about the sounds?

Can have tones or ambient sounds
Will be amazing to have original soundtracks!
Should there be any speech in the film?

6. What is the film trying to say?

7. Space

What he sees is in one massive space. There are no walls or limits.
No perspective
He can think of 3 dimensional.
Will there be things that may have a larger presence than other things e.g. a dog barking and running around causing a commotion may be larger than a cow eating grass?

8. Vision – colour and shape

Gather samples of different textures to feel them then draw what we feel
Colours of objects/animals change as his emotions change
What' s the colour of things that are familiar to him? Are there comforting / warning colours?
What’s the colour of mum?

9. His Sensations

Touch – texture, shape, temperature
Smell – pleasant, links to other objects
Taste – texture, preference, melt / solid / liquid
Feel – travelling/speed, wind, pain / comfort, hunger / thirst (physical), space/isolation, temperature, emotions, dreams

10. Q’s we may ask children at a school for Blind/deaf

What was your last dream? What' s the temperature, texture and shape u saw?
Do you relate people/ animals to shapes?
What colours do you see, if any…?
what do u feel about ur best friend? ur mum?
have u been in to a farm? if yes, what is the most impressive experience? if not, what do u think about a farm?
Is there anything make u feel scared? how it looks?

Task before Friday:

Drawing (shape / colour) - portrays emotions (excitement-panic-calm)
- Feelings of mum

13,Oct,06-DeafBlindArt

2006-10-26T18:41:00.000+01:00

--13 Oct 06--
Here i upload some of the art works done by DeafBlind people. I think they are incredible.

mesa

good use of tonescleo, an imaginary friendthe smell and warmth of momma's kitchenschool (sense of space)wild leaves in the windturtlewindow to the world

Tasks:

Design Ian's castle
Research on schools
Look at funding
Look at festivals
Create concept / plot
Find a good software for journal
Singapore pitch meeting

10,Oct,06-Style-#1meeting-02

2006-10-24T18:03:00.000+01:00

--10 Oct 06--
Here are some of the images / videos that i found inspiring. The team love them too.

Check these clips out! This kind of bold and up-to-face looking is where i would like to go for the animating style.

The eye

Call of the Wild

Scream (Warning: Very Loud!)

This is the site InsanelyTwisted.com , these guys are amazing!

Also i m looking at the morphing style in films like "The Man with the Beautiful Eyes" ( Animation Now! ). The transformations between scenes are beautiful.

Also to mention the short "Local Dive" (Animation Now!). Love the way they paint the reflections seeing from under the water and the lighting. Shame that no image is found.

Ideas from the #1meeting:
1. Create images from the sound recorded in a farm
2. Collage of all the concepts on the wall to get moods right
3. Change mood – sunny day to into a barn, smell, touches the straw
4. Geometric shapes
5. Other places, other kids? A carer? How they communicate
6. School: ask the kids to draw / write things about the farm

09,Oct,06-#1Meeting-01

2006-10-24T17:29:00.000+01:00

--09 Oct 2006--
Great that my pitch was selected! And I had my team including a producer!
Ok, tomorrow will be the first group meeting. Here is the proposal I m gonna rise.

Welcome
Clarify the story / style
How u feel about it?
Any questions? Any worries?
Ask for opinions
Sort out the time / roles
Artist
Animator
Technical
Structure of the film
2-3 minutes.
2D+3D? Don’t worry about it for the moment.
Open for style / screen shots / plot
What I want to keep are: deaf blind disability; twisted; strong image style
Showing samples
Videos – shadow puppets; local dive; the man with the beautiful eyes
Images
PowerPoint
Setup missions
I want u to feel taking a break from other projects. When u really feel that u want to draw / paint / collage / visualise your emotions / feelings related to this film, just start to do it.
a. concept
b. brainstorming on: what’ll happen / mood / how to transform the scenes / at what point we’ll tell the audience about this disabilities / need an ending. But I don’t want a Hollywood 3 acts structure. I need something experimental.
c. how to build up the sympathy – links to the audience

06,Oct,06-Pitch 02

2006-10-24T13:41:00.000+01:00

--06 Oct 2006--
Here are the concept works i did for the pitch. these are all in the boy s imagination.

wide farm land watergrass cutternaughty pigoff-sized impressions

06,Oct,06-Pitch 01

2006-10-23T17:01:00.000+01:00

--06, Oct, 2006--
The idea pitch was exciting! people asked alot of questions and I feel that they are showing interests.

This is the book that inspire me to touch on the topic of deaf-blind.
I m moved by the passion from a young girl to explore this world and her love to the life.

Articles about Helen Kelller, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Keller

Film about Helen Keller: The Miracle Worker (1962), http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056241/

Anouncement

2006-10-23T14:02:00.000+01:00

FINALLY got the chance to upload everything.
Here are the previous notes on this project.
Will get the internet this week, so hopefully everything will be upon running normally soon.

Inspiration -- think space

2006-07-15T14:54:00.000+01:00

http://media.koreus.com/banner-ads-00031/200509/akoacacere-louis-clichy.wmv

http://www.catsuka.com/videos/files/sfa_freres_nicolas.zip

There are 2 good examples of the usage of space.

Although the first animation apparents as really simple, the clear switches of sets and the panning of camera angles are assumed quite hard to achieve. it might be done by 3D at some point.

Also the second mv has brilliantly maximised the possibilities of a single square space by creating an acrobatic stage.

*Brainstorm*
create a theatre stage in 3d, make it deformable, rotatable
make a play
2 or 3 main characters, some supporting characters (human, animal?) taking charge of changing the sets or doing background dancing etc (2d? too much animation. 3d? lots of modeling and rigging, but copiable)
stationary camera, the character and the set will move instead of camera move to achieve an angle switch
every changes of the sets, the mood, the light, etc will all be in front of the audience, make them observable
look at the Russian Masters Animation DVD, check on the film with a stage set

Inspiration -- Mt Head

2006-07-09T18:25:00.000+01:00

what i like about Mt Head, is first the camera angles. the extreme closeup, the way it chances of sets view, the rotating, etc are really boldly used.

also, the surrealism. not only the surreal of the visions, also the unbelievable feelings it s trying to deliver. the whole thing is just awkward. a typical Japanese way of saying things, which has been done greatly in this one.

and the music, Roukyoku(a form of storytelling, combining narrative and singing) and shamisen(instrument 3 taste strings). This reminds me the brilliant use of Korean folk music in the film Chunhyang (Korea, 2000).

Koji Yamamura's shorts: http://www.jade.dti.ne.jp/~yam/eWT00.html

Inspiration -- Jimmy 02

2006-07-09T18:11:00.000+01:00

great use of colour and space. you can see tense or tell stories from a still image.

Inspiration -- Jimmy 01

2006-07-09T17:15:00.000+01:00

Brainstorm1

-creating a series of characters -- human characters, plus supporting animals or objects

-visualize a quick moment of their internal thought

-surreal visions

-things, objects, people in a twisted place, a twisted time being, a twisted situation. for instance, oversized animals, abnormal actions of them, appearing in a unusual place

-they are linked by some implicit background clue or logics

-stylewise, i like the black and white lookings of jimmy s illustration, with rich textures. also those finelined coloured ones.