Pre-Production .com



EvaluationRichard Bailey1214985Word Count: 1822Contents TOC \o "1-3" \h \z \u Pre-Production PAGEREF _Toc450535493 \h 3Production PAGEREF _Toc450535494 \h 4Post Production PAGEREF _Toc450535495 \h 5Pre-ProductionAt the start of the year I created two animation ideas which I would later have to decide on which one I would carry on to produce. I had decided that I would create my film in Autodesk Maya as my main skills are in three-dimensional (3D) animation. The names of these animation ideas were Eternal Hunger and Vermiphobia. After feedback I then went onto produce Eternal Hunger. This idea was chosen because it would be more relatable to the audience and it would be easier to follow. This film idea was about an office worker who finishes work and is extremely hungry but there are no shops open and he desperately runs round looking for food following he’s nose. Vermiphobia was about a knight who would find a contract to slay a beast in a cave. Upon arriving he would encounter traps and would hear a loud sound coming from the cave, he would then charge in to face the beast and find out that it was just a worm with a loud speaker. The audience would then watch has the knight shrieks in terror as he has a fear of worms hence the name Vermiphobia. I had originally picked out 2 models in advance before presenting these ideas which I thought would be suitable to the role. However the knight character I had picked out didn’t not have a face so I would have had to show all of he’s emotions through body movement since it would contain allot of action scenes.I then created a storyboard for both of the film ideas, highlighting all the key events that will take place. This helped me to make sure the story of each film would make sense and how each scene would look. However though I could clearly understand the storyboard I believe that if I went more in depth and added colour, it would allow for a perfect visualisation of the world. This would then help me later on in the development of models that will be located in the scene.When it was decided that I would work on Eternal Hunger I was kind of disappointed but also relieved at the same time. I loved both ideas but I knew that Vermiphobia would take allot more time and skill to animate as without facial features, movement and sound design would have to be emphasised on allot more as they would be all the audience would have to experience the main characters emotions after each event. Eternal Hunger would still need allot of work as I would need to create allot more models to till the environment as the character would be residing within a city. This was also a good experience as I won’t always be able to create the animations I want to create and sometimes I may have to make hard decisions and put on hold or cancel projects that I want to create, so it is good practice not to get too attached to things. I first took on the task of creating the environmental models for the set of my film. I created various different types of buildings such as shops, offices and a museum to help the set feel believable and make the world feel alive. I also decided that I would create a park and a connected main road around the set however there would be no vehicles on these roads. I made this decision because I didn’t want the set to feel like it was just a cluster of buildings placed randomly around; with connected roads it helped make everything look as though they had a reason to be placed there. The park would also give the set more colour as I was able to create green grass and lightly coloured benches. I felt as though the creating of the set was of the biggest and key moments in the films creation as if the world does not make sense then the audience will always be asking why, so I took this phase very seriously and gave it allot of time and thought. If the audience is always asking why throughout the whole film then they won’t be paying attention to the story and it will just become an annoyance to watch. I picked out gentle sound file for the film, as it doesn’t really have any action and it is mainly an adventure following the main character on he’s search for food. After creating my first blocking pass for the film it was then decided that the story would benefit greatly by changing the character from an office worker to a homeless man looking for food. This change was suggested by one of the lecturers which I then took on aboard and started to make the necessary changes to my set and to the character. One method I used to modify the character was to change the colour of he’s clothing from a white shirt and black trousers to a dirty brown colour.ProductionA few weeks into the production of the film I encountered a huge problem with the rig I was using in the film, where upon opening the scene the rigs eyes would be closed with no way of opening them. After opening other save files I had created during the production of the film I realised that they all had the same problem. I contacted the creator of the rig as asked him if he would be able to resolve this issue. However after inspecting the rig he could not find a solution to the problem and then suggested that I re-download the rig and restart the animation process. At this point I started to feel as if all hope was lost and would not be able to complete the film if I could not regain the progress that I had made. Which led onto me getting extremely stressed and I didn’t know what to do and how to proceed. I didn’t have the courage to inform my lecturers on what had happened because of how far we were into the year. Eventually I built up the courage to tell them of the situation, where they were able to give me some hope and gave me the offer of working on my portfolio instead of the Eternal Hunger film. This was a huge relief and looking back at the event now, I realise that I should have bit the bullet and informed them as soon as the rig started to develop problems. I also realise that I should have looked into the rig I was using more before committing to using it in a short film. Knowing the rig better would have given me better insight as to what problems I may encounter and the limitations of the rig.I decided that I would create a number of character animations for the new portfolio project that I was working on. This would help me to improve my show reel as I want to become a character animator in the future. It was suggested by the lecturers that I consider using sound files from the character animation competition website the “11 second club”. After looking into the sound files I picked out seven and then chose my favourite three which I would animate to. I then proceeded to find three rigs that I had previously used in past projects for reliability. I started to film myself acting to the first sound file. It would have been best to get someone other than myself to act out these scenes as from someone else’s perspective they may be able to give me ideas that I would not be able to come up with on my own. I am also not the best actor which I need to improve on, as they would help me tremendously when producing personal films in the future. During the animating of the first short film I started to realise how much time it would take to animate all three films in the remaining time that I had left. The first animation consists of two characters one reviewing the others work and then giving him some advice. It took me around two weeks to create the first draft for the animation which I then presented in the lecture. I was then told that the characters movements were too smooth, which I had also noticed as when I’m acting out my scenes I end up trying too hard and it comes out looking fake and forced. I then proceeded to film reference footage within the lecture. I took the opportunity to record multiple footages with all three sound files. I then decided that I would continue to work on my other animations instead of applying the changes to the animation I was working on at that moment. This would help me to at least make sure that I finish all three animations within the remaining time frame. Looking back at this decision now I am glad I decided to continue working on my other films instead of spending too much time trying to perfect one film and not meeting the requirements I had set myself for the project. During the animating of the last film, I had a very limited amount of time left, so I ended up having to rush parts of the animation to meet the deadline. This can be seen during the last few seconds, I will be rectifying this after I hand in my films, so that I can later place them into my show reel. Post ProductionAfter completing all three films I then proceeded to editing them together in a video which I have placed on Vimeo. I believe that if I had planned out the rig that I was going to use in my original film better I would not have encountered such a huge wall and I would have been able to create the film I originally set out to create. However it was a good learning experience to always do as much research as possible before committing to anything, and in future I will test out all rigs I am interested in using to see what they can and can’t do. My time management could also have been better during the production of the film, I had not created a new project schedule for the character animation portfolio project that I was creating, as I was using all the time I had to work on the three animations. However being able to time stamp my progress and see how well I am doing on a board would having provided more stress relief as I would be able to see what I need to do next and how far I had gotten within a certain time frame. This is all information I will be taking with me into the future and applying them into everything I do which will improve my productivity. ................
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