creativepossibilitieshs

[creativepossibilitieshs]

Major Study: Presentation

Here is the link to my presesntation slides.

Planning folder:

#major study #Presentation

[creativepossibilitieshs]

Major Study: Evaluation of Major Study project and outcome

Finished product

The finished product is a trailer of my film Mum,CHILL! The film Mum, CHILL! is a 2D animated comedy short based on two mothers that live next door to each other but dont get along. It's about their relationship and how it differs the relationship their children have with each other. It's also about bringing people together through laughter and showing parents how to learn from their children.

When looking at other animated shows and films that are similar to mine I can see how more work definitely needs to be done on my film to get it to that standard. For example, looking at the film Barbra Westchester by indie filmmaker and youtube animator Jonni Phillips, I see a clear resemblence in the simplicity of line work, colour style and general aesthetic. In comparison to my film, they hold a similar standard of completion. This is how i judged whether my film would be successful online, by looking at other animated comedy shorts and seeing whether my film lives up to those standards. My film is HD and runs at 25 frames per second and makes use of animation techniques and styles that are prevalent in todays animation practice in the industry. I used techniques such as boiling, smear frames, metamorphosis and pacing in combination with effects like bluring and blending. I took inspiration from Laura Jane Hodkin with close up shots of characters faces to emphasise on facial expressive comedy and in comparison to her work, I achieved similar results that are just as effective.

Having compared my work against working professionals in the industry, I can see my finished film having a chance at premiering at film festivals and online through YouTube and Vimeo and be used as a portfolio piece to show of my skills as an animation director and secure a career for myself in the animation industry.

Characters

The characters in my film are well thought out, their mannerisms and behaviours were carefully created and were made in consideration of making the audience laugh. The purpose of their behaviour is for the audience to find it funny and relatable. My characters are well presented and look finished and developed. They are coloured with a thin black outline and have their clothes they are always seen wearing much like characters in Family Guy and The Simpsons.

Backgrounds

The backgrouds to my film are simple because I didn't have enough time to make them detailed or show much of the backgrounds or environments off in the film. Looking back at Jonni Philips' work with Barbra Westchester, the backgrounds in her film are very simple with scribble line work and washed over colour. Laura Jane Hodkin also does something similar with her backgrounds and this seems to work without looking bad. I took inspiration from these two artists when doing my own backgrounds as I can see it's something that works without taking up too much time and I find that it doesn't deplete the standard of my film.

Art Style

I went with a simple art style, I wanted to use simple shapes that weren't difficult to draw as I knew with my film being roughly 3 minutes long I'd be drawing the same shapes over and over again. So I chose simplicity over detail and I think most indie filmmakers choose this route because its efficient when it comes to time management.

Group work

Working in a group and having to manage 7 people and my own workload was very challenging and stressful. I learnt very quickly that you cant control everything that happens and sometimes things can go wrong. Looking at Animated films that do really well and win awards in the animation industry through film festivals and so on, the creators of those films never work alone. This project gave me the opportunity to work with others and manage a team, it kept me on my toes with having to problem solve when things went wrong and kept me constantly learning new techniques and methods not only within animation but also within directing.

I was apprehensive to work with others at first as I knew it would be hard work managing people and then trying to explain my vision and allow them to help me create that vision. In hindsight I wish I had made the decision to work with others and outsource animators and sound technicians earlier in the production phase as i think I would have had less problems with time constraints and would have been able to get the entire film finished on time.

In conjunction with the animation industry, I think this aspect of the project has given me the most skills and prepared me as an animation director to now go out into the industry and lead a team of animators. It has equipped me with the confidence and the leadership skills I didn't expect to get at this stage of my practice. I'm very pleased to have had the opportunity to work with others and I believe it has given me the experience I needed to be confident in myself when my professional career starts.

Feedback

I showcased my work to multiple people for feedback. The people working in industry did not know about my project and had no knoweldge of what my film was about before I showed it to them. This was their feedback:

(Filmmaker and professional photographer) Kenny Brown:

“The work itself makes me think more towards tv and film productions (mainly because I don’t watch animations), such as the Royal Family, Rita, Sue, and Bob too, even productions like Happy Valley.”

(Film maker and producer) Ethan Dingley:

"I loved it, and found it to be very relatable, due my previous life experience, and the people I meet every day.

What I like about this animated short is how the situation or story of the film is the relatability of the situation. I think most people my age remember angry mothers and people making a fuss up and down your local street and it incapsulates this scenario quite well.

As for the animation style I'm not sure it reminds me of any of the animated series that I watch, personally I think its quite unique in its own way.

Overall I think its a decent watch for under five minutes. It's always hard to structure a solid narrative or plot under this time but I think the animation is fantastic and could see a potential show developing from this type of art style"

(Producer and animator) Lou Kneath:

"Great short that reflects british comedy well, the story is funny and structured in a way that builds tension and is interesting to watch as each character makes their appearance on screen.

As for improvements; consider creating a short series, that will allow for greater investment in the characters/back story, etc."

FRIENDS & FAMILY

(My Mother) Zaibunnisa Shakil: "Interesting film, very funny. As someone who isn't from the UK but has been here a long time, the characters are very british and it's funny because you see a lot of british people act the way the characters do in the film."

(My older sister) Saira Shakil: "The film was so funny, really good cartoon! Reminds me a little of family guy and other family related cartoon tv shows"

(Long term friend) Luke Bolton: "It made me laugh, I love the donut scene its very comical and the relationships between the neighbours is very relatable"

(Friends mother) Suffena Bolton: "Fantastic work, the characters are very relatable, it's funny when Jojo steps out of her house and shes sighs at the sight of her daughter"

(Long term friend) Megan Clements: “Expressions and voices were really good very creative piece of work”

As for friends and family, some of them knew about the film before watching the finished product and some didn't. Saira Shakil is my oldest sister who didnt know much about the film and only got to see the finished product, she is also Aliyah Alams mother and so was surprised with the finished product.

I'm pleased with the feedback and I find it demonstrates the success of the film. There definitely needs to be improvements to certain aspects of the film such as the sound of some bits of dialogue. The colouring in some parts is only very slightly incomplete which is annoying and the audio is just slightly out of sync which will need to be fixed. Other areas of improvement are finishing the uncoloured sections I took out as it would make the film feel more complete. I also think there could be more lighting and shadow work on some scenes and the credit screen could be improved with the background image being a bit too simple. I also think some more inbetween animation could make the animation smoother in some parts of the film.

References:

Jonni Phillips (2022) Barbra Westchester [Online video] December 18th. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xf46FELFk2g [Accessed: 11/10/2023]

Hodkin, J, L. (2018) Hayley and Joanna. [Online Video] May 9th. Available from: https://vimeo.com/268741150 [Accessed: 11/10/2023]

McFarlane, S. (1999) Family guy. [Online] US: Fox

Lou Kneath (2023)

Kenny Brown (2023)

Ethan Dingley (2023)

Zaibunnisa Shakil (2023)

Saira Shakil (2023)

Luke Bolton (2023)

Suffena Bolton (2023)

Megan Clements (2023)

#major study #substantial post #evaluation

[creativepossibilitieshs]

Major Study: Finished Trailer & List of 3rd Party Materials

The finished artefact is a trailer for the film I set out to make at the start of the module. In comparison to what I had a few weeks ago, I'm impressed with what I've managed to create. I have continously compared my work to animation filmmakers throughout the module, aiming for a finished professional piece of work. When compared with Animators such as Victorial Vincent and Jonni Phillips (Youtube Animators) My work is of a similar standard, textured art work, fine lined sketches and the final trailer is looking clean in presentation. The sound design has been done really well and I'm impressed with all the sound effects and music. I will write a full evaluative post shortly.

List of all 3rd Party Materials:

Voice Actors: Tina Harris (Voices Jojo and Shona) Christian Hayes (Voices Tez) Aliyah Alam (Voices Cat)

Sound Designer & Music Score: Katie Cranmer-Gordon

In-Between Animators: Katie Elizabeth Cooper Iqra Khalid Yasmin Sze Wing Lee

Colour & Lighting artist: Niamh Boorman

Software Used: ToonBoom Harmony Premium Adobe Photoshop Adobe After Effects Adobe Premier Pro Audacity Logic Pro X

You can find the contact information for all collaborators on the talent release contracts in an earlier post.

References:

University of Hertfordshire Logo.[Online] Available from: https://www.herts.ac.uk/brand/brand-toolkit/our-logos [Accessed: 3/10/2023]

Cranmer-Gordon, K. (2023). Mum, CHILL! Full Audio. UK: SoundCloud

Cranmer-Gordon, K. (2023). Music Credits Mum,Chill!. UK: SoundCloud

#major study #Finished Artefact #Finished trailer #Evaluation post #Youtube

[creativepossibilitieshs]

Major Study: Promotional Video

Here is my Promotional Video for Mum, CHILL! I have edited it and added some music with clips of my finished trailer. I think it looks okay although It definitely could be improved. For future I think I will do all the voice recording on my microphone instead of doing half using the cameras Microphone and half using my actual professional microphone. There's not much difference but I think its definitely noticeable. I tried to hide it by bringing all the levels down but it didn't do the best job. It's still good and to a standard of professionalism that I am happy with.

Below are a couple of screenshots of me working on the promotional video:

References:

Music reference: Alwis, N. (2022) Happy Day. Sri Lanka: Pixabay

The University of Hertfordshire Logo.[Online] Available from: https://www.herts.ac.uk/brand/brand-toolkit/our-logos [Accessed: 3/10/2023]

#major study #promotional video #Youtube

[creativepossibilitieshs]

Major Study: Compositing film

I had to edit some of Katie's music score and sound design at the very last minute because things weren't matching up and I had to cut some bits out and stick them in other places to make the bits of the film that fade to black more interesting.

Below are a couple of screenshots of me compositing the film:

I did some camera movements in Premier Pro and some in ToonBoom Harmony. I did them wherever I thought was easiest and then composited the whole film in premier pro before taking it into after effects to add finishing touches.

#major study #Creative process #Reflective post #compositing

[creativepossibilitieshs]

Major Study: Finished sound design & Credits score

I asked Katie Cranmer-Gordon to finalise her work on the sound design for the film and create a short outro music score similar to the intro music for the credits screen. She did exactly what I wanted her to do and in good time.

Here is the finished audio file:

Here is the finished outro music score with credits:

I've really enjoyed working with Katie, shes been a fantastic team member and really shown herself and her skills by working with me on this project. Her work is brilliant and brings the film to life.

References:

Cranmer-Gordon, K. (2023). Mum, CHILL! Full Audio. UK: SoundCloud

Cranmer-Gordon, K. (2023). Music Credits Mum,Chill!. UK: SoundCloud

#major study #Sound design #Outsourced work #Creative process #Reflective post

[creativepossibilitieshs]

Major Study: Talent Release contract

I have finally recieved the talent release contract for Aliyah Alam which I have pasted in image form below.

#major study #Talent release contract

[creativepossibilitieshs]

Major Study: Progress Update - Last minute changes to film | Management of making process #5

Unfortunately due to time constraints I was unable to finish colouring the entire film. Because of this I have decided to make sure I have a finished product that I must cut out the unfinished sections that are not yet coloured and make the film into a trailer instead.

I have been careful not to cut out too much of the film so that it continues to make sense and flow as i had originally planned. It is quite annoying that I cant include those bits of work that are really funny but once I have finished studying I intend on completing those unfinished sections to make the film look it's best before submitting it into film festivals.

I'm still happy with the decision to cut it down and it still works as a film trailer.

#major study #project management #Progress update #Creative process #Reflective post

[creativepossibilitieshs]

Major Study: Font for film

It took a while to decide which font I wanted to use for my film, I searched on adobe fonts for a while until I found the right one.

I still wanted my font to match the theme of my film so I decided since the film starts with Cat (female child character) drawing on the floor, I felt it was a good idea if the font was a chalk type font that looked similar to childrens handwriting.

I couldn't find what I was looking for on adobe fonts so I looked at a site called Font Space which had lots of interesting fonts and in the style I was looking for.

Eventually I found the font DKCoolCrayon and went with that in a baby pink colour for the title of the film and the end credits. I think it matches the aesthetic of the film nicely and looks good.

References:

Font Space (2023) Font Space. [Online] Available at: https://www.fontspace.com/new/fonts [Accessed: 26/09/23]

#major study #development #progress update #reflective post

[creativepossibilitieshs]

Major Study: Sound Design Update

I know that throughout the production phase i didn't document much of what Katie Cranmer-Gordon (the sound designer) did for the project. This is because throughout most of the production phase, Katie didn't have up-to-date visuals of the film to work with so she used the animatic to do her sound tests.

Unfortunately I no longer have those tests as they were lost through communication.

I do have some of the work she did which I have posted below in an updated version of the film so far. In this version she edited the sound of the voices. We discussed having some echo to emphasise how loud the two mums are being when arguing with each other. I think it works and adds to the seriousness of the drama.

After showing my tutor what Katie had been up to my tutor said that maybe getting Tina to re-record the shouted lines would be a good idea since they were very badly distorted and couldnt be fixed by my sound designer. So i reached out to Tina who was happy to re-record the lines and then once Tina sent me the recordings I sent them to Katie (Sound designer} who edited the audio and sent me the below video of her drafted edit.

I think it sounds great and I'm excited to see what the final version sounds like. Theres a good feel for the music, it matches the cheeky comedy tone of the film and the sound effects sound better than the ones i originally recorded. I think Katie has done a fantastic job with the dialogue and music. I have given her some feedback about the echo from shona when shes squared up to jojo and also about the phone video playing after Jojo says 'Wait' towards the end of the film.

#major study #Sound design #creative process #outsourced work #Vimeo

[creativepossibilitieshs]

Major Study: Colouring Process

There was a file that Niamh completed that I had to go through and change some of the colours of the characters because they looked too dark. I changed these and made them brighter because it was inconsistent in colour for that one scene. This was a little frustrating as it took up some time but I found an easy way of getting around it which was to just go to the colour palette used in ToonBoom Harmony and change the colours associated with Skin and clothing. This changed the colours for those parts of the drawings instantly for every frame.

Sometimes colouring was frustrating as usually using the paint bucket tool would just work in an instant, sometimes it wouldnt and I'd have to paint in sections for the face which was time consuming.

Here are some sped up videos of my working process for colouring.

Colouring sections to the film took a long time, I definitely underestimated how much there was to do and thought I'd be able to colour the whole film in time. However, because there was so many sections to the film and they were all scattered around my PC I found it difficult to remember which ones I had coloured and which I hadn't despite doing my best to keep everything organised.

For future, I will definitely have to keep clearly labeled folders in an accessable place on my PC so I know where things are and what has been completed.

#major study #creative process #Documentation #colouring process #reflective post #Vimeo

[creativepossibilitieshs]

Major Study: My Animated Sections

Heana Shakil Section 1: Frames 1671 - 1840

Heana Shakil Section 2: Frames 1841 - 2917

Heana Shakil Section 3: Frames 3331 - 3873

Because I didn't have much time to do these sections they are lacking a little and are a little slower than other parts of the film. This was just because I couldnt spend as long on these sections as I have yet to colour 75% of the film and only a week or so to do it.

I am going to attempt to colour the entire film, I think it's possible to do but it will take lots of late nights and dedication to complete.

Screenshots of my work / Processes:

Below are some screenshots I took whilst working on the above sections. I also used video references of myself acting some of the body action out. Shots such as when Shona tells Jojo to 'go and put some clothes on' and the shot where Jojo says 'come outside and say it to my face'. The reference videos really helped me when I got stuck on how to do things.

I also used inspiration from old Looney Tunes cartoons and did a speed walk animation and animated a blur to emphasise how fast Jojo approaches Shona when she says 'you what?' after being insulted by her. This was mainly because i didnt have time to animate a walk cycle and I found this an effective way of cutting the workload down. I also reffered to Richard Williams' Animators survival kit when I needed help with animating the scene where Shona steps over Tez.

Film so far:

I really think the film is looking great, once it's all coloured and I've had time to edit it after the assessment I think it will make a really strong portfolio piece. I'm excited to see the finished product.

Reference videos of myself:

References:

WB kids (2018) Looney Tunes | Best of Speedy Gonzales | Classic Cartoon Compilation | WB Kids [Online Video] July 27th. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9CPPFQKsIA [Accessed: 27/09/23]

Williams, R. Sutton, I. (2009). The Animators Survival Kit. Expanded Edition. London, UK: Faber & Faber Limited.

#major study #Progress update #project management #Vimeo

[creativepossibilitieshs]

Major Study: Recordings/ Screenshots of students work.

Below I have posted some images and videos of the in-between animators and the colour artists work to show how they did the work.

I found that working with these students as a team helped me learn more about animation, techniques and directing more than I feel I would have learnt if I completed the project on my own. Some of these students had more knowledge about the software we used than i did. They taught me how to use certain tools to make things like clean up easier and helped me understand how to use nodes and the node library.

Niamh Boorman {Colour Artist}:

colouring:

Lighting:

Katie Elizabeth Cooper (In-Between Animator):

Iqra Khalid (In-Between Animator):

Yasmin Sze Wing Lee (In-Between Animator):

These screenshots and videos show how they worked through the key drawings I sent them and how they used the onionskin tool to complete in-between drawings.

#major study #processes and techniques #new learning #Vimeo

[creativepossibilitieshs]

Major Study: Finished poster

This is the finished poster for my film Mum, CHILL! This poster will be used to promote the film, and as a thumbnail for the film when it is released online via Youtube and Vimeo.

I did this poster myself and tried to get the colours to match what Niamh had done for the establishing shot. This was difficult because the poster was created in photoshop and I had no idea how she had done the floor or the lighting so I had to figure out a new way of getting the same result. I managed to do it just fine in the end and quite easily by using blending tools in photoshop. I like this poster as it has all the characters in one image and represents the film really well.

#major study #poster art #dissimination #concept art

[creativepossibilitieshs]

Major study: Forefront post #10 See it. Say it. Sorted.

This fantastic short by Lurdle had my eyes locked to the screen watching carefully. It was incredibly relatable, funny and suspensful to watch. The style of animation was interesting, a mix of 2D and 3D animation and brilliantly put together with some well animated shots which had a good amount of anticipation, squash and stretch and overlapping action. I love the mix of aesthetic, the bright colours, the clear disctintion between 2D and 3D and the effects that has on the film. Making it both realistic in scenario with the place, the setting and then taking it out of that realistic world and making it more imaginative with the 2D animation and the style of drawing and choice of colours. These are the aspects of this animation that make it innovative and at the forefront of the animation industry. This relates to my practice because of the northern aspect of the film, my film also has that as well as the comedic theme and tension building towards that point in the film where Olive (the protagonist) tries to stop what she suspects is happening from happening and it turns out to be nothing. I aspire to have more techniques of animation such as this film does in my own future films and really focus on how those techniques can add to the humour of my films.

Reference:

Lurdle. (2023). See it. Say it. Sorted. [Online video]. June 15th. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3o_pA_MmAxo [Accessed: 27/09/23]

#major study #Forefront post #Major study forefront post #innovative #inspirational #Youtube

[creativepossibilitieshs]

Major Study: Forefront Post #9 - MAY | AI 2D Animated Short Film | 100% Artificial Intelligence

This film blew my mind. I found it weridly creepy yet incredibly impressive. I've known of AI software that is able aid 2D and 3D animation but I have not seen an entire short film created completely from AI. I found it really interesting and I thought the aesthetic worked well with the tone of the film. Ai is now being used more often to create art. I think its important for me as an animation director to be able to utilise tools such as these within my own work. A lot of artists and filmmakers have been reacting negatively to AI, however I think its a great tool and can aid practitioners with their careers. I'm fascinated to see how useful this tool becomes and what it's capable of doing when mixed with human generated animation. What was odd about this film is that its complete computer generated character seemed human and sentient. It's strange to know that the character itself knows it isn't human yet it acts like it is. Overall, I'm very impressed and will be looking into ways of how to use this and incorporate these AI tools into my own work.

Reference:

Carnide, B. (2023). MAY | AI 2D Animated Short Film | 100% Artificial Intelligence. [Online Video]. May 21st. Available from:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4qwiElQZIM. [Accessed: 26/09/23]

#major study #Major study forefront post #Youtube

[creativepossibilitieshs]

Major Study: Poster for film/Concept Art

Below I have posted my process for creating the poster to my film, I used a scene from my animatic for reference and recorded the process through screenshots. I think the poster is a good representation of what happens in the film all in one image. I will be using this to promote my film on social media platforms such as LinkedIn and Instagram.

#major study #progress update #development #poster art #Dissemination