final

Final animation: http://midnightheist.deviantart.com/art/Mammoth-animation-143201983.

Portfolio: http://scottgillan.daportfolio.com/

Sounds used: http://www.freesound.org/usersDownloads.php?id=1325190
Textures used: http://www.cgtextures.com



Installation went pretty good, no big dramas. A few chairs + a projector works very well. :)

Update: Got an A+ for this. Yay. :D

I live @ tec now.

So I worked on the animation a whole lot over the past few weeks. Only going home for food or sleep. :P

Did the sound. A combination of my recording plus the rest from freesound.org.
I have contributed my own ambient bird recordings to the site, adding extra resources to their library. Just like the theme of my story! :o

Flash has some further editing options after you import your sounds. For example left/right speakers + fades, with the bonus on seeing the keyframes and keyframe numbers while editing, very helpful.

Finished and tweaked all the animation, including titles and credits.


I'll upload some concept art and such soon. Still have to install it in the gallery space.

sound higlighting conservationist caveman

sound higlighting conservationist caveman

possibly add a bed of bird sounds while caveman is on screen to show he cares for narture.

keyframe vs tweened

rough:
+looks more like caveman style/more organic
+rough inbetweens hardly noticable
+uses WAY less layers = easy to manage project
+more fun

lined:
+easier to modify for length changes
+takes less time
-layer for each moving part

more narrative tips

reinforce the ideas/themes

caveman = conservationist
- hugs a tree
- avoids flowerbed
-
-
spaceship freezes stuff
- leaves
- pond/water
- flowers
- small animal/mole
-
alien doesn't give a shit about squandering resources
- throws cup on ground when he gets out of the ship
- walks on flowerbed
- pees on something

+inbetween, few mammoth, eat as much as he can
+how would you know something frozen is perserved

===

Did more on my storyboard. Basically broke down the more complex scenes into step by step frames. Wrote down the sound effects in each frame/scene as well.

sound effects run through

doubles not noted

visual	onomatopoeia	how to achieve
space ship landing	humm	record fridge
mammoth noises	trumpet	use elephant effects
bird noises	chirp	web
wind noises	shhheeeeeww...	achieve
ambient	garden sounds	record @ gardens
space ship hatch opening	chi	achieve
demon licking lips	thurp	record me
ripping heart out	splurt	achieve
mammoth falling	boom	achieve
demon turning around	swish	achieve
eating heart	apple crunch	eat apple
space ship starting up	furr...fur...	achieve
ice crack	crack	achieve
space ship moving	zoom	achieve
footsteps increasing in volume	thud,thud..	achieve
caveman sigh	sigh	achieve
dragging mammoth	onomatopoeia	achieve
mammoth falling	boom	achieve
sword drawn	ching	achieve
cut into meat	chop	achieve
eating	nom nom nom	achieve
snoring	snore	achieve
caveman waking up	yawn	achieve
moving dead mammoth	squishy sounds	achieve
demon pop up	splurt	achieve
caveman	:o	achieve
caveman	grrr	achieve
spear windup	hurrr	achieve
spear throw	hup	achieve
spear flying	wind	achieve
demon rebound	ding	achieve
caveman	:o	achieve
caveman landing	bruku	achieve
sword drawn	ching	achieve
heavy/loud footsteps	thud,thud...	achieve
caveman rawr	rawr	achieve
sword strikes	ching	achieve
caveman heavy breathing	hur...hur...	achieve
fist clentch	stretch	achieve
demon spin	zhum	achieve
sword breaking	chi	achieve
caveman grunts	humph	achieve
diamond cutting various things	"magical" ching x4	achieve
diamond blade up into frame	urrew	achieve
demon spin	zhumx3	achieve
caveman falls	onomatopoeia	achieve
caveman	arg	achieve
caveman throw	hup	achieve
caveman strain into cave	hup	achieve
into cavemans head	zhung	achieve
out of cavemans head	zhung	achieve
caveman	huh	achieve
caveman	hmmm	achieve
demon with shifty eyes	avade sound effect x2	pen quickly across paper
demon mouth opening	aah	achieve
demon noticing doom from above	huh?	achieve
caveman falling hawk sound	caw!	achieve
impact noise	crunch/boom	achieve
demon struggling	grr	achieve
caveman	grr	achieve
tail moving	wind	achieve
caveman grabbing tail	chung	achieve
caveman getting up	stretch	achieve
bone crack	crack	achieve
rolling metal on ground	onomatopoeia	achieve
caveman licking lips	thurp	achieve

That's a few. Finish later.

more narrative work

I drew thumbnails of the scenes from my animation so I could experiment where to put the "rotting/frozen refridgeration" scene. It works in both places on the two images.

need to show landscape before alien appears..?
+ think about camera staging
+ more organic/dynamic fight scene

Sound research

sounds @ 3:10
Making of Jurassic Park. I watched this when I rented the DVD, and found how they made the sounds of the dinosaurs pretty interesting.
The raptors are made from a piercing dolphin echo combined with a walrus which creates a "scary animal with is also big."
Dilophosaurus = swan calls + hawk + rattlesnake + howler monkey
I shall experiment with the same process to try an create an interesting sound for my alien.



A Bugs Life @ 0:42
I saw this on TV the other day and thought it was interesting how the bird chirps change depending on the perspective.
When the bird is viewed from a human perspective the chirps sound like normal.
But when the bird is viewed from the perspective of an ant, the bird chirps turn into a monstrous dinosaur like roar.


http://www.animefreak.tv/watch/samurai-jack-episode-7-english-dubbed-online-free
This episode of Samurai Jack focuses on the sound when Jack needs to reach a tower guarded by blind archers. The blind archers react to sound only, so Jack blindfolds himself to focus on his sense of sound, rather than relying on his sight.
Some sound effects I noticed:
-bird chirps (different kinds creates more depth)
-wind (blowing into mic)
-rustling leaves (could just use paper for same effect)
-earthquake/tremors
-foot steps
-music/tones/effects complimenting the mood
-fast flying arrows/evading (swish sound) (I have already made this by recording pen across paper)
-fire (could use waving fabric/clothing)
-trickling water
-silence for impact (when Jack puts on blindfold)
-ambient sounds, like birds/wind are cut when other action(or dialogue) is happening (storming the tower)
-sounds slowly layer as jack deciphers them with blindfold on
-musical theme when ever archers are focused on
I never saw how much sound effect variety Samurai Jack had until now. :)

Sound effects and music can compliment the animation, making the important parts stand out for the audience without relying entirely on visual cues.

Prometheus and Bob

I can't believe I forgot about these animations.
It is a clay mation segment of a variety show (called "Kablam" which I used to watch on Saturday afternoons) about a alien teaching a caveman how to do various things, like light a fire or sleep in a hammock.



Just paying attention to the ambient sounds and voice acting.
-river/wind/camera
-birds chirping
-spaceship flying/landing
-footsteps
-crashes
-camera remote
-alien/caveman/monkey/tiger sound effects

Some real nice caveman voice acting.

output size

I should test the output to see how my animation will look. Mainly to see how much detail I need to put into the small things like line weight or stroke style were applicable.
I most likely will get a tv or monitor to display on.

An easy way to test this is to create a vector image, and display it on the spare widescreen via my PS3. That TV would be the largest display possible, so if the images look good on that, I will be fine.

It will also be interesting to see what happens with transparent images. = black

rough room size: 3x4x2.8

animatic test

A rough test to see how troublesome his tail is to animate.
> link <
Easy in free hand, but I also need to animate it with sharp curvy lines to see how much longer that takes.

The characters in the animation in this post look great drawn free hand, contrasting with the sharp backgrounds.

1) animate every frame (similar to rotoscope)

OR

2) draw keyframes and use tweens

I need to do some more tests to see how long it takes to create a nice movement with each method and then compare them to see which looks better.

Tail animation using method 2: > link <
Head animation using method 2: > link <
I needed to put the head/horns on different layers to make it eaiser, so now that I know the best way to do it, it shouldn't take as long the next time.

maximum mood with subtle animating

Nice animation that achieves a nice mood with subtle animating.
The most notable element I saw while watching this, was the sense of depth.
-Slow camera movements through 3D looking space (ex. room)
-Foreground/main/background moving at different speeds for increased depth.

Ways in flash to show depth with flat characters/landscape:
-Foreground/main/background moving at different speeds.
-Layers lighter the further back in space they are.
-Blur filters (possible to gradient blur?)
-Shadows + light.


Shannon helped me to achieve this in photoshop. If I can't find a way to do this in Flash, I will go back to photoshop and try to improve the quality to vector standard.

mammoth concepts

mammoth layers:
-overlap lines
-tusks
-brown gradient
-fur texture

At the moment mammoths take up 4 layers, but I could cut it down to 3 if I combined the brown gradient + fur texture.
As you can see from the bottom right mammoth, the gradients throw off the overlap lines, so i'll test it with flat colour instead of gradients which should solve this.
I have used 4 different shades of the fur texture, but you cannot see it through the brown gradient. I'll need to test this too.


I took out the gradients and replaced them with varied flat colours.


Fur comparisons.
This shows that the texture colour doesn't matter at 10% opacity as much as I thought.
For ease I will use each box of the the second big row as jpgs and import them to the flash library.
This way I same time and not have to duplicate and modify into an extra layer.

using the theme within materials

using every part, no waste

digital practice vs traditional (ex.copy paste/rotate/skew.etc)
reusing/recycling elements
site setup - using canvas/mammoth

demon development

Not sure on which one to use yet.

site location

While looking for a space for site in painting I was directed upstairs to the student area, small rooms each with a window + wall socket. One of the teachers said that they should be availible for site.
The spaces could seat around my target 6 people and I can easily cover the window if needed.

I guess the file will play through a computer/dvd player.
I most likely need to loop the animation, I wonder if there is a way to do this with actionscript/programming.
edit: You cannot achieve infinite loops in actionscript because it crashes the flash player.
So I will have to loop it in the timeline.

edit: After a group crit discussion, I realised that a short loop will be more likely to be watched all the way through, rather than one with long credits.
For example if a person enters the room half way through, and has to wait ages to see the start, they won't stick around.
But if the animation loops quickly, it is much more likely the audience will see the whole animation.

So the casual audience will stay to watch as long as the section they enter upon is is engaging, which I think any part of the caveman/alien interaction will be.
If I saw two radically different characters fighting/taunting/etc, I would want to know why they are doing so.

taking the narrative to (art) school.

theme:
Don't waste resources (use every part of the buffalo)

revised narrative:
caveman is eating mammoth
alien lands and eats mammoth heart while caveman watches
alien goes away
caveman buries carcass in snow to preserve meat
goes to bed
next day he finds mammoth herd decimated and sees alien eating more hearts
motivation for attacking
attacking doesn't work
uses alien's tail against him
caveman kills alien, uses horns/tail for weapons
uses ship for refrigeration, solving the rotting mammoth herd problem (use every part of the buffalo)

= Newer storyboard link here =

-Possibly substitute caveman stabbing alien to simply dodging the tail
-Need to work on how the environment is layed out
-need to show caveman setting up fridge?

landscape tests

Rock colour palette tests. I do like the blue shadows, I might use that colour technique during the night section/s of the narrative.



I might experiment with textures also. Like a grass texture at half opacity so it's not too distracting.


Overlaying the characters onto the environment colours. Testing that the lack of outlines do not make the characters hard to see.


The texture result:

^Looks much better in my opinion. Much more organic. The texture opacity is @ 10% at the moment, I still might scale that back a little more.


^Trying out a material like border.


^Less distracting version. I think the first one looks better, I need to test them both with character animation and location changes.

I also tried out overlaying a 10% opacity material texture over the whole image (like in the freeze frame section of my previous animation), but it just made the grass textures harder to see.

I think I will project the animation, so the material outline mask should make the jagged white outer border invisible.

landscape

Needs to have snow + rocks/mountains + grass/vegetation.
Something like the following:

caveman development

I'm leaning towards #3, but I need to compare it to a sample background.

I also looked for "Ug : Boy Genius Of The Stone Age by Raymond Briggs" @ bil rob library, catalogue says it's in but I couldn't find it.

Caveman head side view concepts:

I'm leaning towards a mix of #4 and #5 because they will be the easiest for the audience to read.

character designs

Early character designs:

To fix:
- flat colour, less outline
- squint test (should be able to see main features from squinting)
- Change nose + mouth to black for clarity
- add feet for caveman
- caveman's arm hair maybe too distracting, scale down the contrast
- find best cloth colour, more like mammoth?
- demon looks better with moveable pupils instead eyes similar to Stitch
- maybe change the tone of the demons arms for clarity

samurai jack "style"

Breaking down Genndy's style of the show into its original sources:
Samurai jack influenced by:
- Lone Wolf and Cub (character development)
- Seven Samurai/Kurosawa films (film style)
- Frank Miller Graphic Novel Ronin (story)

Most notably the animals/character/enviroment designs were influenced by Charles Harper's images.

narrative ending + storyboards

- less mammoths = more justification for attacking demon
Possibly the caveman's prized breeding mammoths, demon kills the male

- demon doesn't "die", just transported to the paradox dimension

- After the final blow, caveman breaths sigh of relief, and pets his last mammoth.

After 3 critiques..

some ideas themes that came up:
- technology wars ("having a bigger stick than the other guy")
- masculine themes (caveman hunter/provider, violence)
- how to display final animation (project onto canvas maybe? Or maybe overlay canvas texture?)
- demon comes across as cute/lovable (bunny), audiences wont necessarily agree w/death
- need more/longer establishing shot/s (put into second scene)
- how many mammoths? more = less likely cavman would care VS less = more reason to attack demon
- original sound effects?
- research "ug raymond briggs"
- + human nature etc
- also similar to medusa (using own power against her)
- fix ending

narrative

Simplified my older storyline as suggested, putting the premise back into caveman times. The flat style with stylized shapes works well with the bare basic mentality of the earliest hunter/gatherer.

-caveman woken up
-sees demon eating sheep/mammoth
-throws spear, no effect
-charges with bone sword, no effect
-uses diamond spear, no effect + is cut
-diamond spear is sliced in two, caveman is amazed
-demon takes meat + walks away
-demon returns, caveman can do nothing but watch
-caveman thinks of ways to beat him, but is foiled by hide+tail
-keeps thinking
-challenges demon
-wrestles + manages to stab demon with own tail
-demon vanishes

timeline

My old dinosaur animation had about 12 scenes, and I did that in about 2-3 weeks = 4 scenes a week.
For this assignment I want a higher quality + sounds. So if I double the quality, it will take double the time, so 1-2 scenes a week = 10-20 scenes total,

I have ten weeks left for this one, so maybe 1-2 per week.

some interesting animations

http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.gobelins.fr%2Fgalerie%2Fanimation%2F&sl=fr&tl=en&hl=en&ie=UTF-8


Monster animation based on Pandora's Box. Great monster design and interesting dynamic betweens characters.


Another based on Fenrir, a norse legend.


Mayan adventure with great shapes, similar to The Incredibles.


Nice use of colour and depth.

Teumessian fox paradox

In Greek mythology, the Teumessian fox (Greek: Αλωπεξ Τευμησιος (Alôpex Teumêsios)) was a gigantic fox that was destined never to be caught. The fox was one of the children of Echidna. It was said that it had been sent by the gods (perhaps Dionysus) to prey upon the children of Thebes as a punishment for some national crime. Creon, the then Regent of Thebes, set Amphitryon the impossible task of destroying this beast. He discovered a perfect solution to the problem by fetching the magical dog Laelaps, who was destined to catch everything it chased. Zeus, faced with an inevitable contradiction in fate turned the pair of beasts into stone. The pair were cast into the stars, and will remain there forever more.

uncatchable fox vs unavoidable dog
similar to..
unstoppable force hits an immovable object

What would happen if this situation arose?
I could translate this to my character by making him have impenetrable skin and a tail that could cut through anything.
The demon character could therefore not be killed by conventional means. The only way would be to cut/stab him with it's own tail, creating a paradox.

demons goal = survival
villagers goal = survival

storyline:
1) demon kills villages for food
2) villages retaliate and discover his impenetrable skin + cut-through-anything tail blade.
3) a villager thinks + discovers the paradox
4) he then stabs the demon with it's own tail, thus creating a paradox which makes the demon cease to exist.

interesting cryptids.

A drop bear (or dropbear) is a non-existent[1] Australian marsupial. Drop bears are commonly said to be unusually large, vicious, carnivorous koalas that inhabit treetops and attack their prey by dropping onto their heads from above.

flash tests

zoom camera test
a quick camera move to see if I need to use after effects. it works well so I don't need to atm.
Refresh page to replay.

cute test
trying to make the demon character more appealing to the audience.

streaking background
used for action shots with fast movement, I made the file as small as possible as well. I may as well attempt to make the final file as small as possible so it takes less to load.

predator stealth effect
used a magnified mask to achieve the predator like effect. Just a test, obviously it will look better when the masked creature is animated, etc. I think it looks great, better than just making the creature completely invisible.

creature artist

Michel Gagné's work is pretty interesting, and his effects are very impressive.


This flash work using silhotette style, similar to that of the Patapon video game. The creatures have very organic movement, my favourite being the "demon head" section. Credits say he didn't animate it though.

This animation shows off some of his great special effects.



His effects are pretty much perfect which will be good reference if I need to do something similar.

I'm still looking for a tutorial on how to animate good looking dust clouds. Same goes with water + fire. Honestly I think I will have to slow down some animation/live action scene, frame by frame too see how each one flows.

battle coerography ideas

Try to create interesting + smart/calculating moves + counters + remember to use the environment.

Creature's goals
protagonist/hero = kill enemy, play + taunt
antagonist/enemy = kill hero

- use fire breath on water as smoke screen
- running claws along sand for smoke screen
- echo + strengthen noises from above when camera is underground
- whiskers pick up vibrations
- eagle spin chicken = shows determination
- triptic + slowdown + increasing close ups

sound underground

When underground, the sounds from above are amplified, many insects use this to hunt.


A spider navigates in the dark by using sound in the ground. Awesome.

Movement/momentum

From looking at movement for the digi-cult, I realised even though all my previous projects used movement, I didn't really focus on it as it wasn't the primary objective. But that shouldn't mean I should overlook movement and momentum.
In my previous dinosaur battle, I overlooked momentum, a critical element in all (if not most) fighting styles/dancing/movement. For example a boxer unleashing a unchallenged barrage of punches would be more effective than the same amount being countered by the other boxer. The increasing momentum would make the attacker more confident as the defender would become increasingly unbalanced, making for an easier target.
This is the same in some parts of the animal kingdom, where a peregrine falcon can break bones of it's prey from diving from the air.


In the second half of the video it shows a goshawk flying through a forest of trees, near the ground, split second timing, at high speed. The animal camera gives you a real feeling of the speed. I could easily do something similar in my animation with a POV shot.
I will have to play around with the frame rate though. I think 24 fps will be enough.

I will definitely experiment with visual ways of depicting mass speed.


Mantis shrimp punches so fast underwater it generates heat and light.
I think I will encorporate this when my character activates super speed, could generate light in the dark, or set the grass on fire as a side effect.

I also saw a video where seals can hunt fish not using sight or sound, but feeling the wake of the fish with its sensitive whiskers.

Saw this in the weekend. The painterly effect plus the blur streaks gives it a real sense of movement on a static page.

ways to portray the earth releasing the beasts

A 24-hour cycle as seen from space


I changed the dates from daily to monthly to fit in with the exact date of the "end of the world": December 21, 2012.

Book research

Film animation: a simplified approach TR 897.5 (sci)
- speed/swish lines help fast action sequences.
- Consider how the behaviour/weight or mass/material/appearance influence character's movement.
- anticipation > action > reaction
- animated objects = simplified, they represent symbols of reality. this behaviour can be observed more quickly than that of live objects. this is why they usually tend to demmand quicker speed.
- 1.Simplicity of shapes for easy recognition. 2.Designs that can be easily manipulated in every possible postion in space. 3.Structures which can be draw with easy speed in case a great number of phases are to be animated
- Storyboard layout: 1.The shapes of the objects which appear in the shot. 2The graphic compostion of shapes and forms, and how this composition is related to the movement of the objects or figures within each shot. 3.The co-ordination of movement starting in one shot so it is in register with movement in another shot.
- story-line > character + design > layouts > storyboard + timing > sound/animating

Setting up your shots TR 850 (sci)
- Excerise: Watch some of your favourite movies for the camera shots + transitions + montage + meanings of these shots
- screen direction. ex. sub faces right when going out to sea, and left when coming back.
- tilted horizon shots can produce interesting diagonals
- 360 adds positive motion + energy to a scene
- POV projectile: camera follows bullet etc
- dark voyeur: pov of bad guy watching prey, usually framed through foliage
- multi-take(shot of same action from different angles) Alteranative to slow motion.

Digital Video Production Cookbook
Not as helpful, as it just explains how to acheive certain effects on film.

Digital Storytelling
Basically explains that SFX cannot carry a movie when it has a weak story.

Understanding Comics 741.5 MCC
Will be helpful with creating the comic style legend in my narrative.



Also edited the width of the blog to make text eaiser to read.