As I knew I definitely wanted to do an animation I thought it would be a good idea to aim all my research in that direction, and not look at 'live action' short films. I began to research different animation studios, and students short films, some animation studios I was already fond of and familiar with their works so finding some good examples was no problem. I watched many short animations and pilots for possible animations too, getting an idea of the general conventions followed, and also looking at how different creators and directors challenge these conventions. It also became apparent to me that student films usually all followed one of two conventions, which was to either be a comedy based film, or to rely on an enigmatic plot made to confuse or question the audience. Another thing I noticed that was already apparent to me, is that not all short animations tell a story as such, some are made for the pure purpose to show off artistic talent and creativity, and it made me think that the real scope of this short film is, I can do whatever I want. I also found this to be true with 'live action' shorts.
Once I felt I had gathered all the information I needed I began planning and thinking about what I might want to do, and more importantly, what I was able to do. I had to remember that I had never done animation before and I needed to think about what I reckon I am capable of doing. I began drafting up an idea of a man being pursued by someone, but I couldn't think of what. Then I started thinking, why is he being chased? In the end I had, man get chased by someone, don't know who, person kills man. I spent a while thinking who could be chasing this guy, and why was he or her doing so. Then this light bulb went off in my head and I figured I'll do the typical enigma storyline. Man being pursued by something. Who? Why is the man being chased? This thing kills the guy. Why? And I figured it would be cool to leave the questions unanswered so the audience is left curious and hopefully wanting more.
I began by producing a storyboard showing character movements and camera angles and movements. Making sure the shots changed regularly as to not dwell on scenes too long as I figured this may make the animation seem boring especially when I was unsure as to how good my animating skills would be. It was during the storyboard stage were I decided to add another bit of confusion. After the boy is killed, a scene is shown of him waking up, getting up or appearing, just to make the audience wonder if he died or if it was a dream or something. I just want to spark as many questions as possible. Once my storyboard was complete I had to produce a storyboard animatic to really portray the shots and angles I had in mind, and to give me an idea as to the length of the final animation.
Now all research and planning was complete it was time to start the real thing. As I knew a lot of my own time needed to go into this project to get it finished in time, and I knew I needed to use better software than our school provides I decided to work mostly from home to produce the animation.
The first thing I did was produce the backgrounds for my animation. I used a program called 'Simply 3D' to do this. I chose to make the backgrounds on a 3D program because it would allow me to easily adjust camera angles around a scene without having to redraw them. It also adds another skill to the list used to make the final thing. As the colours of the textures on simply 3D were not as I wanted, I decided to get the angle I wanted for a particular shot and take a screen shot. Then I would get the image and adjust the colours on Paint Shop Pro 8, colouring in sections and adjusting lighting till I achieved the desired aesthetics.
For the animation I started by producing the basic running animation. I began by drawing rough sketches of one frame, putting a fresh piece of paper over the top, and using a light box to draw the next frame, by having the previous frame behind the new one I was able to keep proportions correct and see how the movement would progress. The process for these rough frames took around one to two hours and I soon realised how tedious the whole process was. Once the rough frames were drawn I would draw over each one, adding things like hair and clothes, and just making it more of a picture than a scribble. Each rough frame needed the details added, and I also needed to make sure things like the hair and eyes were the same from frame to frame, so I had to use the light box to trace and check certain criteria. The whole process was very laborious and I soon became very tired of it all, I would spend whole evenings just producing rough frames, then tracing them over and over again to create just 2 seconds worth of animation. Once the detailed frames were complete I could then trace each frame on a fresh piece of paper using a solid black ink pen. I dubbed these 'inked' images the clean frames. Once complete I would scan in the clean frames and save them in numerical order in their own specifically named folder. I had to make sure I was really organised when doing the animation so that I didn't lose frames or test animations etc. Once all the clean frames were scanned and numbered I would run them through a program called animation shop, this played the frames in sequence at whatever desired frame rate I wanted so that I could see how smooth the animation was. Once satisfied I would open all the frames in Paint Shop Pro 8 and have to individually colour in each one. This is where my special pen comes in. Traditionally in animation these days, the drawings would be completed and scanned, and then CG (computer generated) copies would be made by computer artists. This gives a more solid line for the final animation. But because I am really bad at using vectors on Photoshop, I decided to not do that, and instead I used my trusty pen, that once scanned the line is really solid and it allows use to use the magic wand and the selection goes right up to the line nice and smoothly, so when coloured it looks just as good. I had to make sure the background to each frame was a solid green as I would need to later 'chroma-key' out the background so that I could overlay the character animations on top of the computer generated backgrounds I had produced. This is the same technique used in the production of real movies known as 'green/blue screen'. Once the frames were coloured I'd check the animation with the new coloured frames by running them through Animation shop. If satisfied I'd put the frames in Sony Vegas and render the animation at high quality.
I repeated this whole process for all the animations I produced. Other than using my pen, all the techniques I used were quite traditional, and are used in the production of real media products. Once the animations were complete it was just a case of editing everything together and adding loads of effects to make it look even more professional.
Another process I had to go through was Foley. I never knew how amazing and talented Foley artists actually were. It's an amazing skill and I give massive respect to all Foley artists out there. I recorded so much audio of foot steps running, someone breathing, screaming, all sorts. And to be honest it was all really crap. It wasn't working and I had to think about what I was going to do about it. I listened again and thought the foot steps could be used, and in the end they were all I really used. I felt the lack of real sound added to the enigma that the whole story was about. I recorded some blank sound and used that as background noise, and recorded me harmonising to use in the rewind sequence after the boy had been killed. This was edited relentlessly till it sounded right. I also used a flame noise from a free to download game too.
Producing the animation was one of the most tedious things I have ever done, but at the same time it was very rewarding too. Looking back at it, I'm glad I chose to do an animation and I do like what I have made, but at the same time, now I've done it and learnt so much about animating, short cuts you can take, what looks good, what I'm good at doing and so much more, I really feel like I could produce something a lot better. Maybe go for a simpler storyline, and focus more on the aesthetics.
I also had to produce two ancillary products. I chose to produce a poster advertising my main product, and a magazine review page containing a review of my main product. I didn't choose to do a radio advert for the main reason that my animation didn't include a lot of audio, or at least any recognisable themes as such, and I knew it would seem bland or unappealing. Also designing posters and graphics is more down my street so I felt they were much more suited for me. These tasks were completed by produce a basic drawing, and colouring it in on Paint Shop Pro 8 and making them look fancy. And they are actually my favourite parts of my project as a whole.
My whole media package as a whole doesn't represent any real media products out there, as I feel it is a real media product. The feedback I've received from people viewing my animation and seeing my ancillary tasks is amazing. Everyone likes them and I've received both positive and constructive comments, and all have been well received and taken on board.
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