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1. Production Reflection
Ewan Wild

2. Process – Day 1
The first day of production was very busy. I was
sick for the first day so I already fell behind,
however I wasn’t sure what to start with so I
spent it starting to make the backgrounds and
the different environments. This started with
the trees. I made two different types of tree to
give the background some variety. The first tree
(On the left) I wasn’t happy with, so I remade it.
The rough look with a few spots like leaves just
give it a more full look, so I was happy with the
new one. Next I worked on the clouds. The way
the clouds and trees were made are very similar.
I put a lot of black circles together to make a
black splodge, and then using the same sized
circle but in white, I rubbed most apart from the
edge of it out. When done multiple times, it
creates a nice, fluffy cloud shape as shown at
the bottom. Once I’d done this, I added a couple
more lines onto the inside of the cloud, just to
add a bit more detail to it.

3. Process – Day 2
I then worked on the city I created too. To
make it, I used the outline of different
buildings to create my own. In it you can see
the space needle, as well as the gherkin and
London University. This took a long time to
complete, I spent the whole of day two and
went into day 3 with it. After making a
couple of rows of buildings, I decided that
was enough. Instead I took a couple of the
smaller buildings from each side, made them
even smaller and put them in the
backgrounds. You would only really notice
this if it look closely, otherwise it looks like a
full skyline. This made it look more full and
the repeated buildings are barely noticeable
unless you actively look out for them.

4. Process – Day 3
I did three different things today. I started by
finishing off the city, as shown in the previous
slide, and then went on to make three
different campfires so an animation can be
made for them. They were almost the same
except with the flame in different positions,
which will make it look like it’s moving around.
After I finished this, I started the first walking
cycle. This is a very important part for my
project, as the main character needs to move. I
made nine different positions to make the
movement look even smoother. To keep it
more consistent, I copy and pasted different
body parts for each position, however this did
make it blurry, so it takes longer to finish,
however it will be better quality. My only
worry about the fire is that when I make
movements such as walking, when I slow them
down you will easily be able to distinguish the
three different drawings that the fire created.

5. Process – Day 4 and 5
I then spent the next two finishing off my first and
second walking cycle. In Photoshop when you copy
and paste certain items, they become blurrier. This
happened to me a couple of times when using the
free transform tool so to fix this, I created another
layer where I traced over everything. I could then
delete the layer below it and so the walking cycle
became better quality. After this was done I could
make the second walking cycle quickly out of it. All
that was needed was to duplicate it. I did this and
put it onto a separate document before I flipped
the image horizontally, giving me a different
walking cycle into a different direction. This
process to finish off the walking cycles may seem
like not much, but these take up a lot of time. It
isn’t just a copy and paste job, it requires different
movements for all the different limbs and the
tracing takes time to get right. I do feel like I did it
to the best of my ability though.

6. Process – Day 6
I then needed a break from walking cycles so I
instead worked on some other scenery. I
needed a cliff scene so that’s what I decided to
work on first. This was difficult as making
realistic cracks and scenery without colour is a
real challenge for me. However I do think that I
completed it well as it is clear which parts are
close and far away, and we can see where my
character will be walking.
It was then time to start on my third and final
walking cycle. This was by far the most difficult
thing I’ve done so far in my FMP, perhaps even
the most difficult all year. I started off with a
very rough body shape, a basic idea of how the
cycle will look, and ten I slowly adapted it from
there. Day 2 was only the start, it took much
longer from there.

7. Process – Day 7
Day 7 was definitely less hectic then the last
couple of days have been. I started off with
making the last parts for my trailer, in this case
my take on a moon and sun. To make the Moon’s
craters, I traced a rough outline from an actual
photo of the moon. This just gave my moon
some added realism. The rest of the day was just
to sharpen up everything else I’ve made, make it
look a bit neater. I couldn’t start my stop motion
right away as I didn’t have access to a camera
yet, so I thought I would use my time wisely, and
make what will be my finished product looked
better. This included things like making my city
look better, neaten up some of the joints on my
walking cycles, and add some more to other
backgrounds, like my cliff.

8. Process – Day 8
Day 8 was printing day. Everything I drew on
Photoshop was printed off ready to be animated,
however some wasn’t ready yet, even after printing.
What I had to do after this was cut everything out,
from the big round moon which would take a minute,
to all the different walking cycles. This took a large
chunk out of my day, and made it so I didn’t have as
much time to start my stop motion work, but I still got
it started. I got two scenes done today, the first one
and the last one. This style of animation takes a long
time to do and requires patience so it was quite
difficult and I was doing the same thing for long
periods of time but I got it done. I am however quite
nervous, although it takes a while, I am scared that I
won’t have enough footage when I finish. I am hoping
though that all my extras, such as the movie poster
and the fact that I am making everything from scratch,
including the music, will increase my grade, so I will be
okay.

9. Process – Day 9
Today was the second day of taking photos for
my stop motion piece. I got a couple of scenes
done, such as completing a good walking cycle
in a forest. I also did a close up of the
campfire. To make the smoke for this, I used a
charcoal stick and a paper pencil to smudge it,
which makes a very smoky style , as shown in
the photo. This was what I did for the whole
day, constantly taking photos to get more
footage. I also have tomorrow to get more
footage and then I have to edit it. I’m not sure
if I’ll have a lot of footage by the end of it, but
what I will have I think will be good quality.

10. Process – Day 10
Day 10 was a busy end to the week. In the first half, I
concentrated on finishing off any stop motion areas
that I hadn’t finished yet. In this case it was two more
scenes, one on the cliff face and another where the
title will go at the end of the trailer. These were again
tedious, however needed to be done. It is important
that I get enough footage for a decent trailer so this
was necessary. In the second half of the day I started
editing. As of now it is in the very basic stages on
premier, I haven’t even added all the scenes yet, bur
it is a start. My plan for next lesson will be to add the
more complex editing areas, such as the dissolves,
fixing anything that needs fixing, and then I can
create the music suited to the trailer. This will then be
added and my trailer will be finished.

11. Process – Day 11
Today was very busy as I did the majority of my editing.
I had some ideas of extra areas I could put, just to add
on a bit of time as otherwise it would be too short. This
started with a classic “once upon a time” (it may be a
cliché however it’s a kids film). I added a crumpled
paper effect to the background of this however it was
the wrong size. So I had to go to Photoshop and
increase the image size so I could add it to the start.
After this part was added I got on with other areas. I
purposely made my trailer with the intention of adding
words later for the trailer, so there was a lot of big
empty areas that I had to fill. Each sentence during this
had a cross dissolve added to the start of it, this made
it fade in, rather than just be suddenly added, so it
seemed smoother. I didn’t do this at the start however.
Instead, I added each word individually and when the
time comes, I will play a different note making them
both line up with each other and work together.

12. Process – Day 11
Before
After
Most of the scenes where a transition was needed
involved either a cross dissolve or a film dissolve.
Both are quite similar, I use them to create a
seamless transition that looks natural, where
people barely even notice a transition happened. It
adds a calmer atmosphere too, which is why you
wouldn’t see these dissolves in a traditional action
movie. I also had to fix the lighting for one of the
scenes. When taking the photos, I put on an effect
that made the white and black really stand out,
however for this one particular scene, I forgot to
add the effect. Because of this it came out darker
(as shown on the left). This was, luckily, a quick fix
on Premier. All I had to do was take the scene and
go to colour. From there I could select a ‘look’. After
going through a few of them I found ‘Blue Moon’.
This filter made it look a lot brighter, and fixed what
could potentially have ruined my trailer.

13. Process – Day 12
Day 12 started with finishing off my editing. Although I
want to make the music myself, which I will, I realised
that a piano version of the song “La Vie En Rose”
Would fit in really well, so I added that to the end of it.
I also added a slow fade to black so it’s fully black with
the last few notes, which adds dramatic effect to the
end of it. I wasn’t able to finish making my own music
today though so I concentrated on completing side
projects. In this I made a logo for my film, as many kids
films have (many logos from classic Pixar films have
now become iconic). I was very happy with how this
turned out, and added it to many other side projects. I
started with the album, although as of now it remains
unfinished because I haven’t made the songs yet, so
the track list will be completed in the near future.
Finally, I also added some T-shirt designs. It’s very easy
to invert colours on Photoshop, so I was able to do
designs on both white and black shirts, which gives
people a wider variety of shirts to choose from.

14. Process – Day 13
Today was my last day of production. In this I finished
all my music that is on the album, including the piece
for the trailer. I came into one problems with my song,
but it was fixed easily enough. When it was uploaded
to Soundcloud, it was taken down for copyright. I made
this song myself on Garageband so I wasn’t sure what it
was so I went to the song I supposedly copied, and it
was nothing like it. While mine was a simple piano
piece, this was more electronic, so I don’t know how
this happened. Disputing the claim would take too
long, and I wanted it uploaded so I just uploaded it on
Youtube instead of Soundcloud, where all the other
songs are located. As of now I have not uploaded my
project to Blogger. I will have one last look through all
my work, making sure everything is finished and to my
highest quality. Once I have looked through everything I
can then upload it and get on with making my
evaluation.

15. Process – Day 13.5
Although yesterday I thought I would have my final day of production, I used the first
hour of the day to add the music and fitting it in to my trailer properly. From there, I
exported it and posted it onto Youtube. I then uploaded everything onto my blog,
from the trailer to all the album songs, finishing off my production, and allowing me to
go and start my evaluation.