3. Rode Mic and
Tascam
I will be using a Rode mic and aTascam audio recorder to get the
narration/ voiceover for my video.The reason I am using the Rode
mic instead of just theTascam is because it has better audio and is
easier to directly capture audio. It will also have better audio
sensitivity so will pick up the audio cleaner.Although because of
this I could run into some problems. One of them could be that if
the mic sensitivity is too high it could pick up background noise
and if the sensitivity is too low the audio may sound muffled or too
quiet.To overcome this problem I will do a series of tests at
different sensitivities in a quiet room to find the best audio quality.
I will also try to get 1 on 1 recording sessions although I'm not sure
how many peoples voices I will be using in my project.The reason I
would do 1 on 1 sessions is to minimize the chance of any
background noise being created. I think using these methods it
should work out quite well.
4. Another problem I could encounter is the audio recorder running
out of space or there not being a suitable place for recording.To
overcome these problems I will try to book some sort of music
room as a recording studio so I could get the highest quality audio
and get a quiet room. I would also remove all of the audio
beforehand from theTascam or move it onto a computer to get as
much space cleared as possible. I doubt this will be a problem as I
don’t have too much speech planned for my project.
Overall I think the problems for the recording of my project are
quite easy to overcome and I don’t think I will come into contact
with many problems over the course of audio recording, especially
if I use all the techniques I've been speaking about here.
Rode Mic and
Tascam
5. Photoshop
andAfter
Effects
I will be using Photoshop and After Effects for the animation
stages of my project.The reason I am going to use two pieces of
software is because using just Photoshop wont do the job well
enough or as easily as if I were to use After Effects. For example in
Photoshop if you would like to rotate an image you would have to
use a different layer for every frame of the rotation, whereas in
After Effects no new layers have to be made and it can all be done
in one movement. Some problems that could occur due to the
usage of two different software's could be the size of the screen
being different for each software and also the fluidity of the
animation.This would be because Photoshop generally looks a lot
more jumpy and less smooth that the movements in After Effects.
To overcome this I could only do certain sections that don’t show
as much movement in Photoshop or just do green screened
effects in there to add in After Effects or Premiere. I will also
double check my screen sizes in each software to make sure there
the same size.
6. Illustrator and
Photoshop
Another problem I could encounter in some software's especially
Photoshop and Illustrator is creating the same art style as it’s a lot
harder to draw or create illustrations in Photoshop although it’s
easier to make text and more geometric things. For this reason all
of my characters and most moving segments that have to look
more fluid will drawn frame by frame in illustrator. For example if I
were to draw a simple face it would look a lot cleaner due to the
larger range of brush tools and also the auto smooth line
modification that can be found on Illustrator.
Illustrator: Photoshop:
7. Premiere
I have encountered problems in Premiere before such as the audio
corrupting resulting in me having to re record the whole audio. I
have also had certain clips get corrupted and because I used to just
export the finished result and not save the Photoshop or After
Effects document I had to remake sections. For this reason I will
keep a file with all of the original Photoshop, Illustrator andAfter
effects documents and then another folder for MP4’s and JPG’s.
this way I will be able to re-render videos that may become
corrupt etc. I will also save my Premiere file at different intervals
under different names so if I lose one I can start without losing
much work.
8. Huion H420
Graphics
Tablet
I wasn’t planning on using the graphics tablet until I decided to
revisit it and take some time to get to know it a bit better.
Personally I think that this image turned out better than the other
one where I used a mouse. I picked a face with lots of round edges
so that I could see if the tablet had good control. One problem I
ran into with and even without the graphics tablet is that its hard
to get sharp edges without creating a giant black line or smudge
look.To overcome this problem I could probably create a different
more sharp custom brush although I want my animation to have
most of the characters round anyway as when looking into shape
theory, I found that round means more happy.As the animation
goes on subtle things such as the clouds and or trees will become
more sharp instead of me juristically changing the appearance of
my main character.
9. Computer
I will be using the computer to do all of my work on. I will also be
using this as the main place for all my work to be saved and
stored. Some problems this could cause are, having different
versions of software then the ones I use at home, for example the
Photoshop software versions not being the same. Another
problem that could occur would be the loss or corruption of my
saved work files on this computer.To overcome these problems I
could back up all of my work onto a memory stick or onto the
office online.To overcome the software issue I could try to save
the work I do at home to an older version of the application I am
using so that it will work on the college macs.
11. LineWork,
Brushes and
Colors
Some techniques I will use consist of creating my own custom
brushes to create different effects. For example here are 3
brushes.The top is the standard brush and the second is a custom
brush that I think just gives it a lot more life to the drawing and is
more my personalized style.The third brush would be used for
crating a kids drawing looking style. Some other techniques that I
would probably use is creating the character parts in Illustrator
such as the body, arms and all the moving components on
separate layers, transporting them into Photoshop to add color
and then finally moving them into After Effects as separate layers
so I can move them about. I think it’s a lot easier to add colors in
Photoshop and its also easier to get a larger range of colors.
12. Animation
I have a few techniques prepared for my animation.The main one
is utilizing the fact that in After Effects you can import Photoshop
and Illustrator files which means I could put each limb and feature
that needs to be able to move on a separate layer and then move
them around easily.This is better than when I just used to use
Photoshop because it’s a lot easier to get advanced and smoother
movements although I'm not as confident in After Effects so I will
need to put a few more hours practice into it.
Another technique I will use when animating is using green
screens and removing them in Premiere.This is a good way to
keep the original Photoshop or After Effects files clean and
minimize the layers. It is also a good way of separating characters
from backgrounds which makes creating a scene a lot easier and
clearer. I used this technique in my first year FMP and it worked
quite well and you can’t tell a green screen was used.
16. Art/ Drawing
skills
• One of my strengths is having some
knowledge how to draw human features
which means I will be able to draw my
character a lot of times which is wat I will
need to do to animate properly. It also
means that during the sketching out of
my characters I will be able to draw ides
easier.
• I also think this will help with deciding on
certain color schemes and compositions
of certain scenes and characters. I would
like colors to play a big roll in my project
as from previously researching color
theory and how each color portrays a
different emotion. Another reason I think
this skill will help me because I would use
color theory to help the audience feel a
certain way about a character or location
because I can’t add a lot of context to the
characters and scenes in a few minuets of
animation.
18. Animation
Styles
1)This is an animation style I am familiar with as I used it a little in
my last project and I took inspiration from the cut scenes inCrash
Bandicoot Mind Over Mutant. I think this art and animation styles
looks really good and its very creative and probably hasn’t been
seen before to do the type of work I am creating. For this reason I
think it is a good contestant for the final animation style. Some
strengths of this style are that its unique and looks aesthetically
pleasing.Although on the downside its not as smooth as some of
the other styles, it takes a lot longer to do and its very hard to
create characters and will also be hard to produce lots of
backgrounds and props in this style. It still has a chance but I'm not
sure its personally my first choice for animation style for my FMP.
19. Animation
Styles
2) I decided to experiment with this style in an animation because I
think it looks really good and stylized although I've only ever used
it whilst drawing still images and not doing animation with it. I
think out of all of the animations I did this one turned out the
worst. It is jumpy and the line work isn't very clean and nice to look
at. I can also tell just from making this that animating a whole
scene like this would take ages to complete and the results
wouldn't’t even look that good. Some of the strengths of this style
is that it would probably work well in as a background or static
object but I just don’t think it fits into animation too well.
20. Animation
Styles
¾) I think both of these animation styles both look good and work
very well.The style has been inspired by a series ofYouTube videos
on a channel called “Kurzgesagt - InA Nutshell” . I think this style
worst really well and looks good, but doesn’t take ages to create
characters, backgrounds and objects etc. another reason I think
this style would work is because its already quite well recognized
as a style which goes with educational videos. Meaning it will be
seen as educational quite easily. Some of the strengths of this
style are that its easy to create movable objects using different
layers. It is also quite an overall quick process, quicker than
Photoshop animation and the end result is a lot smoother and just
turns out better overall. For these animations I joined some limbs
together and then used the rotation tool to add movements to
bring the characters to life. I made these characters out of shapes
from Illustrator and added the moving segments onto different
layers.
21. Animation
Style
5) For this animation I downloaded some extra plug-in software
for After Effects called Duik. Duik is a software that allows you to
easily and quickly rig characters to make realistic movements a lot
easier. Unlike the other characters I created a rig for this character.
Some of the strengths of this are that its very easy to do and is a
lot quicker than manually moving each segment to create a
movement.The software is also free and easy to use which is a
plus. Some things that need improving with this method are the
way that the hands and feet move as because they are at the end
point of the rig they don’t rotate with the movement of the arms
or legs.To try and overcome this I will test some movement with a
small white dot at the end disconnected from the hands so that
will be the point of focus and the hands will be able to rotate
around it as well as the arms etc. I also think that if you want to
make a character movement more detailed such as smooth
swaying hair and moving fat it is a lot easier, as you can control the
large movements with the rigged areas and then go back in and
focus on adding small details.
22. Animation
Style
6) After attempting to create an arm where the hand
automatically rotates with the movement I encountered a few
difficulties.The first one was creating a specific rig that looked like
an arm so that it would create an auto rig. I then tried many things
such as a floating invisible dot and even a larger object like the
carrot in this image. Although it just made confused the AI and it
didn’t think it was part of an arm rig anymore so I had to explore
other methods. I found that by using the rotate transform tool on
the actual hand it doesn’t work but if done on the whole arm and
hand rig it only moves the end point which in this case is the hand.
This means ill still have to move the hand automatically and try
my best to match it with the movement and speed of the rest of
the arm.
23. Animation
Style
7) I wanted to have some practice in making some realistic 3D
Head movements. I have never done any type of animation using a
3 dimensional field meaning that I had to watch aYouTube tutorial
on how to make this effect work. After the tutorial it is quite an
easy and quick task to repeat and the outcome looks really good
and works really well. I think the final product would look better if
it has a lot more layers as it would add even more of a 3D effect.
The strengths about this style are that its quick and easy to
execute and looks really good. One of the downsides I suspect will
be trying to apply the head to a moving character either in post in
Premiere or on the model itself inAfter Effects. I am quite sure I
will be using this method in my final piece as it works very well and
is worth the little time it takes to create.
24. Animation
Styles
8) I did this arm a little differently than all of the others as it was all
on one layer. I started off by pinning the top middle and bottom of
the arm.These were the points I wanted the arm to be able to
move at. I then highlighted all 3 of the pin layers and created a arm
rig. I went onto the arm rig settings and removed the stretch
effect to make it more realistic. I think I prefer this result to the
other ways I've been making the arms move so far. Some of the
strengths of this method are the final look I think it looks really
good and is my style of cartoon. It is also easier in the illustrator
stage as I don’t have to create as many layers.
25. What have I
learnt from my
experiments?
Overall I think that I am going to go for the art style with the single
string like arms, the 3D face so movement can be acquired and double
jointed legs for a more realistic movement. As I am planning on not
having the character speak I wont have to make the mouth move too
often so these types of head movements should be perfect. For the
face I am planning on just hiding the layer and replacing it with a
different face. I could also use a green face and green screen different
facial animations and movements on. Overall this is the best example
of what my finished animation style will look like.The head
movement on this clip isn't done very well but it was just an example
of the skills I've learnt over these past few experiments.
I have learnt how to create a rig in After Effects and successfully
create lifelike motion with these rigs. I have also learnt how to make a
3 dimensional workspace which allows me to achieve realistic head
turning and facial movement mechanics. I have also learnt how to
export animated pieces inAfter Effects and learn how to use Duik the
totally new plug-in that I have downloaded to be able to apply rigs to
the characters. If I knew how to do this in my first year FMP the
product would have been up to a much greater standard.
26. Health and
Safety
Due to all of my work being done inside in a computer room or a
recording studio I will be at no real risk of any breaches of health
and safety. Other than equipment errors that wont cause any
threat towards me or others, there is nothing else that could harm
anyone involved in my project.
28. Situation
Due to the outbreak of Covid-19 the Prime Minister has shut down
all colleges and we are currently in isolation.The problems this
causes are the fact I can not access most of my work other than
these PowerPoints. For example I cant access anything that isn’t
on Slide Share such as my After Effects, Illustrator, Photoshop and
Premiere files. It also means I cant get all of the sources I need to
create my FMP such as character models and soundtracks. Since
we are not allowed to leave our homes my farther is working from
home on the PC so this also means my computer usage times are
cut down significantly than if I were still at college or her were still
at work. It also means I cannot find a voice actor to do the
narration for my FMP.
29. Solutions
Since I can access the PowerPoints I will be able to complete all of
the planning for my project. It also means I will be able to submit
at least some work.
SinceAdobe is free for 3 months to students I may be able to
download some of the programmes I need to make the final
product. I will have to make without some due to the space free on
the drive I'm using and how much space my Farther needs for his
work etc. Although I have lost all of the files I have created at
college I will still have access to reference images of the characters
and I have saved the songs I mixed onYouTube so I will just have
to copy and try and re-create them.
As for the fact I cannot leave the house, this does not effect me
too much apart from the time I can use the computer. I will try to
use it on a night time when my farther has finished using it for
work and I will also have access on weekends. I will use one of my
family members to do my narration or I will do it myself if needed.
