2. Contextual Research
• I found the contextual research useful in that it gave me a very strong idea of what works in animation, what is
popular, and why. The chuck Jones research was particularly useful for demonstrating how very simple concepts
and techniques can work so well. I was particularly interested in the idea of making characters motives fairly
simple in a short piece of animation. Chuck Jones focuses on humor but it works equally well in action.
• Ian hurbert was useful especially in terms of the way he manipulates light especially artificial light and creates
gloom. I like the way natural light has little impact upon the settings. His use of slightly garish colour schemes
advertising fast food is interesting too and gave me plenty to think about with my own piece even though I
moved more in the direction of desert landscape similar to the film Dune by David Lynch
• The research around Miyazaki was helpful in giving me that confidence that animation is in large about fulfilling
your own vision and that it can be as strange as you want it to be and that there's actually an audience for
strangeness. It also inspire me to take chances which I feel I have with the montage at the beginning of the
animation
• Perhaps the most useful research was taken from the George Maestri book as it gave me a good understanding
of some of the more general principles of movement and making things look realistic and I was able to adapt
these ideas to any style. It was the most detailed in explaining processes
3. Contextual Research
• In terms of broader animation theory I was happy with what I got out of the Paul Wells book Understanding
Animation (1998) which I refer to a good deal. I was able to borrow this book from the Internet Archive for
free. I had limited funds and many of the recommended books on animation theory that were
recommended online were too expense too purchase and not stocked in the college library so I had to make
do with what I could access for free. Along with providing some interesting case studies on which I referred
to in a product Research the book helped me ground my instincts for what I wished to produce in terms of a
broader theory of animation. What was particularly helpful was section which compared orthodox
animation with experimental animation
• Most of my practical research on how to use blender was done on an adhoc basis but looking at tutorials
online and I have highlighted these in the production experiments section rather than research though they
apply to both. In some ways though I do feel I may have benefitted from a more structured approach to
getting to grips with CGI animation and maybe looked at a book such as The Complete Guide To Blender
Graphics by John M Blain(
4. Proposal
• I do believe that my production met many of the objectives of my initial proposal. I believe that I captured the
essence of my proposal in creating a dystopian science fiction animation. My original intention was to combine
a more industrial landscape of factories with a desert landscape but I didn't have the time to achieve this. I did
though achieve that broken earth effect which was the primary objective. I also met my objective of creating a
poster and a T-shirt. The plot for my proposal did turn out to be overly ambitious once I began creating the
production.
• In terms of having a clear vision of the style and thematics I wished to achieve I believe my proposal was helpful
in structuring my animation. In terms of influencing the ambience of the piece my initial proposal was helpful as
I had a strong inclination that I wanted to produce a jarring product where humanity had become distorted in
some way. It was having this idea at the outset that lead to such decisions as distorting the narration in the
introduction and also the roving camera movement searching over a barren and meaningless landscape.
• The way I structured my proposal in terms of in what order I would do things and the creating an itinerary of
tasks did help me structure my work and my schedule to a degree.
• My main criticism of my proposal is that it wasn't as informed by technical ability at this stage as I would have
liked it to be. Neither was it informed by a clear enough understanding of how long things would take making a
2d animation in blender and adobe animate. My FMP for my first year was in Claymation and even though the
process was painstaking there was less to learn and less technical hitches to consider.
5. Problem Solving and Experiments
When I undertook my problem solving exercises I tried not to pick exercises at random and for the sake of experimentation
alone but to have some idea of what I was going to need to learn and practice for the making of the product itself. In this
sense I wanted my experiments to be goal orientated and to save me time later down the line.
This was only partially achieved as my original plans for the production were a little too ambitious and as it turned out I would
not end up using the experiment with the head exploding on impact. On reflection it may have been more useful to undertake
experiments as my production is evolving and just prior to a bit of the production I am sure I am going to finish.
In terms of trying to for see potential problems on production time, on reflection, it would have been useful if I had set
deadlines for each proposed scene and at the outset. It might have focussed me to set these mini deadlines. Also it may have
been helpful to have both a shorter version and a longer version of the production in mind at the outset. A plan A production
and a plan B if you like. This may have helped me focus on getting to the shorter version initially. Both versions would have had
the sense of an ending.
When looking at issues with power and processing speed I didn't perceive that my computer would be as slow as it was and a
little more research into how to optimise files to increase efficiency and speed may have helped me.
I
6. Pre-Production
• Pre-production
• Due to the length of time it has taken to produce my product it has been difficult to stick to my original ambitions in the pre-
production planning. However the initial proposal has helped guide me throughout. I have had to clip the plot as what can
look like a very short plot on paper can transpire to be a very lengthy process in terms of animation. This became
increasingly obvious when I realised how long it was taking to produce the work.
• This though is all part of the creative process and of working to deadlines. Sometimes you have to find a way to
make things work. I have had to miss out on later developments in the plot and action sequences so have had to
consider points in the plot that would create an adequately dramatic ending and still give off the feeling that the
action made sense and there was some movement.
• One of the things that has been very useful though in the pre-production is considering how I would execute
scenes and thinking about camera angles etc in my 'shot list' section beforehand. Having this idea of how I
wanted things to look helped speed the process up as it gave me an idea of what I was trying achieve.
• One of the most helpful parts of the pre-production was doing around three drafts of the narration before finally settling on
the finished draft. It was helpful to read this aloud and to other people and to get feedback on how it sounded. It was also
useful to time this narration because it then gave me a guide of how long the opening sequence needed to be and what
could be achieved in that space of time in terms of the length of the eventual montage and imagery of the landscape.
7. Pre-production – Character Design
• The idea for how my protagonist was going to look was borne out of the thematics for the
production itself. I wanted a dystopian universe where humanity has been oppressed and
enslaved to the extent where people's very DNA has been manipulated. I wanted to develop the
idea of evolution going backwards but within the same lifetime and humans slowly turning into
animals once they had served their purpose as hybrids perhaps with the idea of forgetting their
subjugation so that they do not revolt. That sort of idea is for a longer piece of work which is
perhaps too complex to realise in a short animation but it is still influenced by how I wished my
character to look. The idea of the main character without the helmet as having tusks and turning
into a giant walrus was motivated by the desire to give my character a feature that would be a
massive burden, something almost cumbersome and in the way hence the idea of the tusks. I
wanted something not to cool, grotesque, but still powerful. My character will have body armour
on through much of the action that hide his tusks and I thought the idea of the tusk may act as a
nice visual reveal at the end with some shock factor for the audience.
8. Research
• In terms of looking at landscape I believe my research was comprehensive and useful drawing from surrealist painting, film,
anime, science fiction art and trailers. It gave me lots of ideas though some would have been harder to implement than
others. I guess eventually I went for a more minimalist approach in terms of landscape with the desert intro but this itself
was a nod in the direction of Dune.
• The interview was useful in terms of giving me the courage to go with something nihilistic as there seemed to be an appetite
either for nihilism or hopefulness or a bit of both. It also helped ground me and give me confidence that plots do not need
to be complex in an animation and dialogue can be kept to a minimum. There were also some useful hints about how
dialogue should be slick if used and to make sure it is not merely a tool of explanation but is entertaining also. Lockdown
provided few opportunities to meet people face to face but given the opportunity again I would have liked to have
interviewed somebody with knowledge of Blender and adopted a more practical interview that was less concerned with
thematic and style but focused more on someone's personal experience of using the software itself and if they had any tips.
My contextual research on Ian Hubert did give me an idea of what can be achieved in Blender at the upper end of the scale.
• The target audience data was mixed in terms of usefulness. The survey was a relatively small sample but that is actually
more manageable when asking open questions designed to elicit more than yes no answers which is partly why I didn't opt
to broach animation forums with my survey. I do understand though that a general rule of research is that the smaller the
pool of respondents the less reliable the data.
• What was more helpful was product research and looking at the films Elysium ad District 9 gave me a good framework
where some of the ideas for my own plot had been used before but in terms of tone what I wished to pull away from
especially in this regard the overly optimistic tone of district 9.
9. Production Evaluation - Montage and opening sequence
• The open sequence is the most complete realisation of what I set out to do in my pre-production planning though not identical to
what I initially proposed. I opted eventually for the desert landscape rather than the factories. I have used the images of what I said
I would in the pre-production planning where I proposed the following "narrated archive footage will appear at low opacity so
as not to overwhelm the scene. The footage will be a succinct way of showing in more detail how the situation came about. There
will be footage of rockets, businessmen and politicians looking powerful or untrust-worthy, military marches and training, arrests,
DNA footage, robots at work and robot design, footage of farming and animals hunting, Animal X rays, global warming, MRI scans,
X rays, Scientists at work, bombs being tested, footage of neurons firing in the brain." This is more or less what happened. I feel that
I have achieved what I set out to achieve in the montage in terms of not just throwing together a series of disparate images but of
having enough repetition in there that it tells a story and there is a unity of theme which is reinforced by the narration but which
also adds some body to the narration itself. The images tell a story of dictatorship and oppression but one that is achieved partially
through mind control and genetic engineering and where the scientific community has become a dark arm of the state as it has in
the past such as in Nazi Germany. In terms of the pitch of it I feel that I have captured the sense that even though the piece is
meant to be a description of a dystopian future by grounding it in images of dark periods in world history (such as with images of
Mussolini) I have hopefully made it relevant to the present conveying the sense that though this is science fiction it isn't just a work
of the imagination but a reworking of history as history itself has its own periods of dystopia. I also wanted to reinforce the sense
that a broken earth could actually happen by using powerful historical images which would hopefully create a greater sense of
tension and fear in the audience. The use of real life historical footage also confirms the fact that this story takes place in the same
reality as real life and I wanted to highlight how much the world has changed since the times depicted in the videos. I blurred the
video clips together with a gaussian style blur which should hopefully give this sequence a feverish tone to show how the world's
history has been lost in time and also I was attempting to convey the idea that time does not move forward but everything that has
happened keeps happening and that there is no progress. However, the desert imagery presents a counterpoint to this idea in that
the cycle has been broken but only through complete devastation. The crowdedness of the opening sequence contrasts well against
the emptiness of the desert of the new world. I think I should have added audio of people talking as background noise to make the
opening seem even more claustrophobic.
10. The Desert
• I believe the combination of the montage and the desert scenery works especially as they both happen at the same time.
It works I feel in achieving the sense that the present and the past are there at the same time and the desert landscape is
the consequence of these events. In not flitting between the montage and the desert but reducing the opacity and
overlaying these sequences over each other it evokes the sense that the past is like a ghost appearing and disappearing
with greater and lesser clarity whereas the desert itself gives us no clues as to what has happened not even a broken
relic. I wanted the desert to stand for nothingness and stand for a symbol of untraceable human history and untraceable
human life – something before and after civilisation and the complete extinction of all things. I feel it stands for the
unknowable and the unseeable along with the end of all things.
• As I have mentioned the roving camera work is influenced a little by the beginning of David Lynch's Lost Highway (1997)
though it is more roving. I believe it captures two things – a sort of almost animal like search like a creature hunting for
prey but also on a more philosophical level the desperate search for meaning and for something to stand out in the
sameness of the desert. This effect is more apparent at the beginning of the sequence when the camera is close to the
ground and moving round the contours of dunes more.
• It is almost like looking at clouds we do begin to see things in the shifting shapes of the sand and it feels like almost an
attempt to create meaning out of nothingness. At other times the camerawork resembles a drone rather than and
animal. I create the effect of a light flashing over the sands at times which hopefully comes across as a signal or a
beacon which is searching for life. This effect is most apparent towards the end when we have a more birds eye view
over the sand and the camera is gliding smoothly. On reflection I could have made this a little more obvious as you have
to look closely to see it.
• Overall I feel contrast between the two styles of camera works well i.e. the more meandering style at the beginning and
the gliding slowly from higher up at then. It offers a bit of variety to the piece and perhaps evokes the sense that the
camera itself is desperately trying to find life by switching between different perspectives. Gaining height also helps
reveal the vast scale of the desert set in a dramatic way.
11. Production Evaluation
• The Rolling Text
• On reflection it is probably too long and tells too many stories at once and I could have
cut the narration about the religious practices. Including this in the narrative was
influenced by my initial desire to have weird religious iconography in the landscape later
in the animation. However, it takes too much explaining for a short animation and
doesn't need explaining as it is not integral to the plot or set up. The rolling text should
just be for the benefit of orientating the audience enough to understand the enough
about the universe they inhabit so that the action that follows makes enough sense and
the actions of the characters makes sense. Sometimes it is difficult to see these things
initially until the whole piece is finished. My original ambition was to have a longer
animation which would have made the opening seem less like it has taken up too much
time as I would have been a smaller percentage of the video. The bit that works best is
the end bit about wandering hybrids roaming round the desert ‘powered by hunger.’ I
could have possibly cut the whole narration down to something that leads into this more
quickly. That is what sets up the fight and orientates the audience to what happens.
• For me the gothic style font I have chosen for the rolling text works. It smacks of pre-
history and the re-emergence of something ancient occurring in the future. I realise the
use of this font is a break with sci fi tradition that may use a font that looks more digital,
colder, and less man made. The font though is meant to have that ancient script look
about it.
12. Narration
• The deliberately distorted narration gives it the flavour that humanity itself has
be distorted as the human voice is often a comfort to us. Distorted is perhaps the
wrong word for the effect as it is actually two voices occurring simultaneously -
one that is clearly human and one that is more machine like and distorted with a
buzzing sound almost like a poor radio signal. The effect of the two voices
occurring simultaneously the human and the inhuman voice links in to the theme
of the piece in that the plot is about humanity being distorted and struggling to
reveal itself and communicate. On reflection If I wanted the flavour of the two
voices competing for ascendency more I would have adjusted the volumes so that
at different times one was higher and one was lower. When I did this it sounded
too disorientating and slightly annoying and obvious so I am happy with it as it is.
• I made a decision for the more human voice to relay the last part of the narrative.
This danger here is that it could be interpreted as an error by the audience and
inconsistent but I did this so the cut off in the narration was less abrupt and
jarring as the change to one voice signals it is coming to an end. It also feels quite
comforting to just hear the human voice at the end at least this I hope is the
effect it will have on the audience. It acts as a reminder for a once less
complicated and distorted humanity.
13. Poster
• In my poster I think that I did a good job of controlling areas of detail and focus. An example of this is when I wanted something
to standout I would have less detail in that area and I would use colours that contrast well against each other. I did this to the hands
to emphasise the protagonist's powerful grip. This poster is an accurate representation what the animation looks like as it uses the
same colour palette and is drawn using the same techniques. I feel as though I did a good job at designing the title text on this
poster. I am particularly proud of the colouring work I did on the title as I made Ii look like the mouth of a Walrus by making the first
and last letters white like teeth and as the letters get more central they become darker to show the depths of the Walrus' mouth.
This walrus mouth design would have been more apparent if my design for the protagonist was included in my animation. Initially
though I did have a plan to reveal he was part Walrus later the animation and I made the poster beforehand. By displaying a man
with tusks in the poster I hoped to get the audience's attention as it is unusual and gives it that monster movie feel like the comic
strip style movie posters from the 1950s. I also copied 1950s posters in that I had the protagonist lunging towards the viewer.
Around that period there were a great deal of posters designed like this particularly in the early days of 3D. I did not want to give
this poster a serious tone as I did with the product and T-shirt design. The main objective of this poster. The main objective of the
poster was to have imagery that would stand out and be seen easily. The title stands out as I designed it to look 3D and the edges
leaning towards the viewer. I wanted the character to look over the top to give the poster some comedic value just like the Revenge
Of The Creature poster.
14. Product Evaluation – T-Shirt and Posters
• My T-shirt design was fairly successful in that it looked very similar to the products it was inspired by. The T-shirt design was
mainly inspired by Punk cassette tape album covers and Death Industrial album covers in that both of these styles use bold
white and white cut outs. There is a lot technology featured in my design which fits in with the Industrial style I was going
for. I tried to make the whole design look like white noise which would be seen on an old TV by over-crowding the image
with detail however I am not sure if it is noticeable. The character on the right with the hole in his head was inspired by the
character designs in the film Tetsuo the Iron Man (1983) and the cover of the album Instrumentalies by Anenzephalia.
Album cover can be seen here: https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a2937921995_10.jpg. I haven't actually listened to this album so I
am not sure if the music matches the tone but I like the design. What I really wanted to borrow from Tetsuo the Iron Man
was the idea of cyborgs made up of outdated technology to reinforce the fact that there is only junk left on earth but
nothing of actual use and to present the characters within the animation as scavengers. I used the imagery of opening a
hole in someone's head to provoke concepts of paranoia, mind control, free will and vulnerability to try to convey the
mindset and emotions of the characters. I also added wires coming out of the man's head to suggest a loss of humanity and
to further reinforce the idea that these characters are designed not to serve themselves, they serve their oppressors. All in
all I am pretty content with this product but I definitely think that my title could be improved as it is very basic. I wanted to
add a blur to the text but it is against Redbubble's guidelines as they would not have been able to print out a blurred image
on a T-shirt. I did some research into the printing process of T-shirts and discovered that the more colours it has, the longer
it will take to manufacture which is one of the reasons why I stuck to black and white. This T-shirt design not very accurate
depiction of the animation itself but helps to capture the themes and tone. I feel the design was a success as it was very
close to what I had envisaged it should look like, the process was simple, and all of the processes worked first time without
any setbacks. However if I was to go back and change anything it would be the font I used for my title as it
is too basic, doesn't stand out enough, and it is not consistent with the look of the rest of
the design.
15. 2D Animation
The 2D animation
The 2D animation works to the extent that provides a nice bridge between the opening
sequence and the 3d animation that follows. The music kicks in during the 3D and I like
the sound of the sword being unsheathed. I think that sets up a sense of anticipation of a
fight brewing along with the fact our character shades his eyes and looks into the
distance. However, it was more time consuming to make than the 3D animation and my
drawing skills are not at a level yet where it looks like I want it to look. For the amount of
footage I’ve got from the amount of effort put in, on reflection I may have got more
scenes produced if I had made a decision sooner to concentrate on the blender
animation. However, I did want to incorporate as many skills as I could whilst doing this
FMP and the 2d was a good learning curve. In some ways the short length of it works
well as it doesn’t clash too much with what follows. I do also like the concept of the
same character being drawn in different styles – it has that sense that the character
occupies two different worlds at the same time even if these are stylistically different
worlds of two different styles of animation. The effect is similar to encountering a
character in a graphic novel and then a film. Audiences quite like to compare characters
represented in different styles. The frame rate is a major problem because it is too high
which means that each frame does not last long enough. A more successful element of
my 2D sequence was the blur I had on the edge of the blade which was a good indication
of the direction the blade is travelling and the amount of force acting on it. There is
perhaps a continuity error when his shelter disappears although hopefully the audience
would just assume he has got out of the shelter.
16. Product Evaluation – The Costumes
• I like the emphasis on body armour and helmets in the product especially the motorbike joust. It serves a
number of purposes in the product. Firstly, it saves time as faces take a long time to create but secondly it
fits in with the dystopian future world where pre history has become jumbled and people have regressed
to this almost medieval world knights coming across each other and engaging in mortal combat and the
bikes are their steeds. It fits in too though with the idea that humanity is struggling to get out and it has
been subjugated and deformed and also that people of somehow lost their soul. When doing my research
reading I was interested by something Paul Wells comments on in his book Understanding Animation
(Wells, 1998) when he is commentating on the use of puppets. ‘’The puppet plays out the complex
tension of being like a human being whilst being non-human in form….. the tension allows the puppet to
operate at the symbolic level’ (Wells, 1998 P61). I believe robots and armour have similar function in that
they also work on a symbolic level. The concept of my animation is that many of the characters are
hybrids between humans and animals and that they are slowly turning into full animals. This won't be
revealed visually as they are in armour. This covering compliments the sense of shame but also opens the
opportunity for their true nature to be revealed. My original plan being to create an image of the
protagonist having his face covering torn off to reveal a part walrus face. This would be a reversal on the
super hero taking his mask off to reveal a human. The effect here is that it usually makes an audience feel
comfortable but in this case what is revealed is only an image that connotes some sort of diminishing
humanity or lost humanity. The seemingly human designs fighting under the cloak of armour are not fully
human at all. I never get to this reveal in my production due to time constraints but hopefully the armour
still has the effect where it keeps us always uncomfortably out of reach of knowing the character or of
seeing into his soul.
17. Product Evaluation - The Joust
• I was running out of time to create a complex fight scene for the production so needed something
that did not have too many complex moves. I came up with the idea of the Joust but on
motorbikes which to be honest I felt more excited about than a prolonged fight and I feel it works
well.
• Sometimes when you have a limited amount of time and when you have to execute something
quickly it forces you to come up with a stronger original idea. I feel happy with this idea of two
motorbikes racing towards each other and feel it provides a dramatic finish to the animation. The
idea of using motorbikes instead of horses is a higher tech version of the joust complimenting the
idea of history repeating itself but in different ways.
18. The Music – Horses Give birth To Flies by Deutsch Nepal
• The music I use in the lead up to the battle compliments this idea of the joust as the track I use
has the sound of horses. It is a great track for a battle and building tension and has that feeling
that there's a storm coming. There is a simulated sound of hooves galloping. It begins with what
sound like something crashing far off but the sound gets steadily closer. This is interspersed with
the horse neighing being close. It gives this sense of interplay between proximity and distance
and that something is coming towards our protagonist and that it has travelled a vast distance.
The neighing of the horse is a far closer sound and works as if the horse of the aggressor is
coming towards our protagonist or that the horse is neighing in fear or readiness as something
approaches. I wanted the motorbikes to seem alive which would add an extra energy, sense of
pain and aggressiveness to the vehicles themselves. It seems as though the sound of hooves is
combined with the engine rumble and that when the motorbike accelerates the horse neighs like
it is getting kicked with spurs. Music changes how we interpret imagery and as the music builds
we get the sense that the combatant isn't just wandering through the desert but he is driving with
purpose and looking for someone. See the following link for the
track https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IQ-bZEwKUs
19. The Battles Scene-Lighting
• I am pleased with the idea of focusing on just one of the combatants
riding through to desert. I chose to spotlight him in the empty
desert landscape as a way of emphasising his loneliness. The
spotlight on him does two things it emphasises the emptiness of the
desert but also the character and evoking the miracle of life kind of
idea but also that we are alone in this world in the existential
sense. The idea is for a contrast between the character and the
desert but not too much. Blue is quite a calm and red is a colour
that indicates strong emotion. There is a blue spot light on Tusk to
reinforce his level headedness and lack of emotion but there is a red
spot light on Bellathon to show his passion for fighting.
20. Production Evaluation
Dialogue
I am happy with the Dialogue and how it sounds. I think the voice acting is pretty good and there is a nice contrast
between the two voice actors especially as they have different accents and one has a far deeper voice than the
other. The tone of the protoagonist is more serious and less playful which is in keeping with how I envisage his
character. It fits with his lines more as he is the one that declares that he doesn't care if he wins or not. It
contrasts nicely I feel with the more playful and humorous adversary.
I feel it is a suitably nihilistic build up to the fight in the sense that they are almost both upbeat about the
prospect at fighting to the death. It borders on humorous here but is not played for laughs. I feel I made the right
decision in going for a shorter dialogue as it is only a very short animation and a long piece of dialogue would be
disruptive to the flow of the piece and take over. Also it is difficult to do really engaging dialogue without a more
sophisticated animation of characters with facial expression, lip sync etc, all of which tends to compliment
dialogue. However, there is more of an acceptance of just basic facial expression during dialogue in animation
than there is in film. Here though I just cut between still images of the characters and even though this does
happen frequently in animation if it went on too long it may cease to be engaging. I use the simple technique of
switching between a close up of either character to indicate who is speaking. The sequence reminds me a bit of
the style of the back and forth interchange between characters in the video game Mortal Combat before
they fight. The dialogue gives me a chance to create some nice close ups of the characters and gives the audience
the chance to take in the style and colour schemes at work with both characters.
21. Production Evaluation – The Battle
• The protagonist comes out on top but in spite of saying he doesn't care if he wins or not. It is
instinct for the protagonist to play to win rather than a conscious desire. However the battle itself
looks almost as much like suicide as it does fighting for your life as they just speed into each other
with no regard for their safety. Once again, I believe this disregard for their lives is in keeping with
the nihilism of the production. I came up with the idea that they would just crash into each other
when I read about the ghost riders in Germany who kill themselves by driving into on-coming
traffic on the Autobahn. I wanted to suggest that the character's motorbikes felt hatred towards
each other by the increasing volume of the sound of engine rumble leading up to the joust.
• After they stop talking I feel the mexican stand off sequence though short works pretty well and I
am happy with the bit where he strums his fingers on the bike. I think that builds anticipation
nicely and is a nice detail. On reflection I could have maybe done more of it and just slowed things
down a little here and maybe cut to the other character and have him also doing something like
strumming his fingers or moving his helmet. I speed the sequence up dramatically and this works
well I feel for building anticipation and acts almost like a countdown as we know at that point
they are about to speed into each other. It's very similar to the final shoot out in the Good The
Bad and The Ugly where it flits slowly at first between three characters faces and then speeds up
dramatically at the end from 04.33 secs on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuUWq7qGSro in
the following YouTube clip cutting from one characters eyes to the other far more quickly. I
decided to focus on the character's eyes as it shows they are staring intensely at each other
waiting the other to make a move. I speed my own cuts up even more rapidly and in a
deliberately exaggerated fashion and I feel it works well in sign posting that something is about to
happen along with the sound effect that kicks in at that point.
22. The Battle Sequence
• I think I got the right amount of different camera angles in as they race towards each other. I have a
close up frontal shot of Tusk, then Bellathon, then Tusk from the side, and Bellathon. There seems to
be a nice symmetry about this sequence of four shots and they are also almost identical in length
which adds to this feeling of symmetry. I attempted to mimic the camera angles from sequences in
samurai films where two characters would run towards each other with swords drawn and the camera
would cut quickly between them. Samurai films will often utilize the quick zoom in camera movement I
use here.
• I then switch to a long birds eye view shot. like the way the birds eye view shot of the two combatants
comes across. It gives the scene that coliseum look but also again with backdrop of the vastness of
desert depicts how this duel is taking place outside of any wider context other than some sort of blood
lust to relieve the boredom and that their death or their survival will go completely unnoticed. On
reflection I could have maybe added dust coming off their tyres to help the audience visualise more the
sense of high speed and also give it that touch of realism. I'm not completely sure whether I got the
speed of the bikes quite right – it could have been faster – that would have been more dramatic but I
wanted to give the viewer time enough to take it in. There is an inconsistency with the speed of my
motorbikes as they will slow down at the end of a shot then when it cuts to the shot the bike will be
travelling at a high speed again.
23. The Collision
• If I had more time I would have considered them both brandishing weapons and maybe Tusk impaling
Bellathon or slicing his head off but this would have taken a long time to animate as I would have had to
model a new object to be their weapon and apply rigging to it. Them just crashing into each other has its
own charm though and is more unexpected in a way to end a joust so I am happy enough with it and how it
looks.
• As they collide I emphasise the collision by dipping to white and I feel this works as does moving to a close
up so that we can see what actually happens. I'm not sure how realistic driving straight over the top of him is
but it looks pretty good and is an original enough death blow (a motorbike wheel in the face). In moving to
the close up we get too see all the bright colours of the bikes and the armor again and we end in a splash of
colour which adds drama to the collision. I also like the sudden contrast in scale in that we go for them being
dots on the and landsscape to in your face just at the point where they crash. This zoom in helps to maintain
the momentum even though in the animation the vehicles slow down but with the zoom the decrease in
speed is not noticeable.
• The sequence in which Bellathon is run over is made using individual images instead of a mp4 animation. I
did it so the motorbike would move more erratically like a wild animal would when it attacks its
prey.
24. • Into The Horizon Shot
• There is no pause after the death blow. No taking in what has just happened just Tusk carrying on
travelling. I feel cutting to the shot of him from the rear works here in the sense that his back is
already turned on the action that has just taken place – it's dramatic to the audience but not to
him and he is heading straight toward what I hope is a menacing black and white sky. This is of
course a play on the classic heading into the sunset shot except it is not a sunset and there is
nothing natural about the sky. The lack of realism is deliberate here and works in that it feels he is
riding off into something unnatural . The white on black feels menacing. It also works in the sense
that as he speeds away he loses his colour and become a black silhouette and just a part of the
landscape he is riding into which swallows him up as I have him disappearing behind the clouds
here. The way he vanishes has a falling off the edge of the world look to it. I tried to use this
image of him being engulfed by the void to show the he has lost all hope and direction in his life. I
wished to present his defeat of Bellathon as negative because in a way he has slain his only
companion and now to his knowledge is the last man live. There is nothing else for him to do now,
no more possibilities, just the desert ahead. He cannot even die a warrior's death in battle and his
soul has become as barren as the world around him.
25. • The Sky Background
• As mentioned in my production reflection I have used speeded up cloud footage but clouds looked at in
high speed don't look like they're behaving in the way we expect clouds to behave. The effect I want is for
the white shapes to only remind us of clouds but not to imitate them and for the sky to behave differently
than the skies we know in reality. The way my background moves is different – unnatural almost like
something burning up. It's also violent in its speed and not gentle like cloud movement. It's a simple effect
but looks like an alien sky I hope. For myself it helps build the drama of the battle - this complete blackness
contrasted with what looks almost like white fire. Because I have not gone for realism here I am able to make
the sky look more unpredictable with the white just flashing here and there and burning up and
disappearing. The feeling I wanted to create is that there is no sense to it –no pattern we can latch on
to. The black also is unnatural – it's not night, there are no stars, once again it just reminds us of night but it
is just impenetrable black. I am borrowing here a little bit from the Fist Of The North Star that I talked of in
my product research but it is not quite the same as the unnatural background there which changes when
the fighting begins and which is used to convey their mental states whilst fighting. In Fist Of The North Star
the background changes when their mental state changes. However in my animation the background does
not change in fight sequences and the landscape remains the same and really is the environment not just an
internalisation.
26. Production Evaluation
• Shorter Version of Animation Without Rolling Text and Narration
• In some ways this version feels smoother and more balanced in terms
of the length of the different scenes. Without the text it would be
difficult for the audience to understand the relevance of the montage
and what I planned for the animation. However, I feel that I get the
music right and The Mantra Of The Lotus Eyed God by Shibbalah
really does compliment the Montage in that the music is sinister and
its almost occult like ceremonial chanting resonates with both power
and reminds me of some sort of religious sacrifice. The images of
people being rounded up of course are what give it this flavour. The
Gods of the Montage are the elite who run society and the army etc. I
prefer this version because in the longer version I feel the audience
are more likely to lose interest before the actual story starts.
27. Peer Feedback
• 1. What shots could I get rid of if I wanted to shorten the length of the animation?
• "The intro sequence could be cut down and it would still have the same effect"
(Watching Full Version)
• "A few of the driving shots could be taken out"
• 2. Is there any points at which the audio mixing could be improvement/ what sound
effects could I add to the animation?
• "There could be more songs and ambience added"
• 3. Were the positions of the characters in the scene conveyed properly?
• "yes I was able to tell where they where"
• 4. What would you add to this product?
• "The text could have been more pixelated. Make the text look more robotic because
it’s a sci-fi"
28. Evaluation – Bibliography
Leone, S; The Good, The Bad and The ugly, (1966) Prozuzioni Europee, United Aritists, Italy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuUWq7qGSro
Lynch, D; Lost Highway, 1997, October Films, Unites States, France.
Lynch, D; Dune; 1984; Universal Pictures, USA.
Tskuamoto, S; Tetsuo The Iron Man (1983) Kaijyu Theatres, Japan.
