Monday, October 29, 2012

Thursday 10.25.12 Recap

Last Thursday, we've been busy bees; working.

These are the scenes that we've been creating with the animations and their process on the way to becoming cleaned up and coloured.  Everyone had been assigned different scenes as you will see below.


We'll definitely want to be finished with the roughs and start cleaning up and colouring the animations this week.  It's going to be a bit hectic, and do not hesitate to come in during the weekend to work on your animations!

Note: We need the backgrounds to be completed so we can import them into the animations.

If you have any questions about what your tasks are, please look to the Personal Roles list, and if you have any further questions, the heads or director will be most accommodating to assist you.

Keep working.

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Personal Assignments


People have been asking what they need to be doing.  So in case you needed to know, I have fleshed it all out for you.  Please find your name.  If you have any questions, do not hesitate to ask your head or even all mighty Director Emma.


Aaron Lappin

You are a background artist.  Your job is to create the backgrounds.  This includes all the themed rooms.  Such as Facebook, and DeviantArt, etc.  You are also required to create the settings of the hallways, along with the computer lab the girl is working in.

Alexa McDonald

You are an animator.  You’re tasked with creating the rough animations that are very important.  The scenes that you have to work on are scene 9 (she crosses the hallway to the email door) and 11 (the girl runs down the hallway).  Once you are done roughing out these scenes they need to be coloured for the final animation.

Anthony George

You are a character designer and animator.  As of now, your work in character design is pretty much over considering that we have our characters created.  Thank you for that.  If the background artists need assistance, please help them.   As an animator, you’ve been tasked with scenes 4 (troll awakens on the screen) , 5 (the girl is pulled into the internet and awakens in photoshop) , and 6 (she quits photoshop and chases the troll to Facebook).  Once you are done with these scenes, we need you to do clean-up on them as well.

Chay Ruby

You have multiple roles.  You are a character designer, background artist, animator, and work in the branding area of the film.  Your work in character design is finished and you have been very helpful.  As a background artist, we need you to create the backgrounds for the worlds that inhabit the animation, including the computer labs as well as the internet rooms and hallways.  Afterwards, we would need you to help colour in the animations.  You have also been working in branding, which means to create the colour scripts for the scenes that happen in the animation.

Christine Pear

You are the secretary and an animator.  Your job is to take notes regarding each meeting and to assist the director and heads in any way that they need.  You must maintain a weekly recap for everyone on the project in the blog.   You are now working in creating the credits of the project’s piece.  Also, when we near the end of the project, to add colour to the animations.

Cody Scites

You work in story, character designer, and animator.  The works you have contributed in story and character designer have been a help to this project, but those tasks are finished and now you are working on scene 18 (the girl wakes up on the computer screen, draws the good idea on the computer and leaves and we see the good idea) of the animation.  You should be working on this, and once finished, should do the clean up and the colouring of the animations.

Colin Wendt

You are working in branding, as well as in the documentary crew.  In branding, we need you to create the logo, which you have done so, and the colour script for the animation.  Meanwhile, we also need you to take photographs and videos of the crew as they work and at the end help create a making-of video once the project is complete.  Also, near the end, you have also been assigned to possibly make a movie poster for the animation.  You have the last three meeting days to work on that.

Cristina Feret

You were working in story and now you working to create the credits of the animation as well as work on colouring the final animation scenes.  You’re work with the story has been helpful and we thank you for your work.  The last three class periods should be used to colour the animations, until then, please work on the credits.

Elizabeth Gollihue

You are in the documentary crew.  You’re tasked with taking photos and videos of the crew.  Along with that, you must accumulate the footage and help create a making-of documentary with the other members of the crew.

Emma Pennington

You are the director.  You make things happen.  You will assist people who need assisting, such as helping in the animation of your project.  You also task others in what they need to be doing and overall run the show.  You have been assigned scenes 7 (Facebook is the party with the duck face girls), 8 (the girl awkwardly back away from Facebook), 10 (emails explode out of the room onto the girl.  She picks up a paper that says she’s a winner), 12 (She chooses between the hallways and heads down the hallway not leading to Tumblr), and 16 (the girl has a moment with the good idea, but then the shadow looms as the good idea sees the bad idea behind her).

Katie Fuchs

You are an animator.  You’ve been assigned to work on scenes 13 (the new, better idea starts to trail behind the girl), 14 (the girl gets to the next door and the idea is getting bigger.  The girl then opens the door), and 15 (The girl enters the Deviant Art room, she goes through it and finally notices the good idea).  Once you are done with those scenes we need you to help colour.

Lauren Foster

You are a documentary crewmember.  Your job is to take photos and videos of the crew as they work and assemble them, with your crewmembers into the making-of documentary to finish the project.

Niccole Hagelstein

You are the documentary director.  You’re responsible for the documentary crew and making sure they are doing what they need to be doing.  Also note that you are helping the crew in accumulating images and video that will be made into a making-of documentary.  The director and heads may consult you on the progress you and your team have been making within the documentary.

Palmer Pattison

You are the sound/editing man.  You are tasked with creating the sounds for the animation, whether it is duck noises or gasps, etc.   Once we have finished the animation, it is your job to edit it all together and add the finishing touches.

Renée Taylor

You are the head of Editorial.  You maintain the blog, organize meetings, and report to the director.  You have also been assigned to research into festivals, work on the music email (email the person who made the use to check if it's okay to use), watermarks, and do clean up on the animations that have been roughed out and add colour to them.

Sidney Lane

You are a part of the story and character design teams.  You’ve helped create the story and the characters, thank you.  As of now, you have been tasked with a bit of branding and are making the character palettes.  Afterwards, you will help colour the animations.

Tara Nester

You are the head of Art Direction.   You’re in charge of the visual side, unite elements, and report to director when help is needed.  You have also been given scene 1 (typing on the keyboard), 2 (steady walk cycle), 3 (Monitor gestures that its time to leave), and 17 (the bad idea eats the girl) for animating.  Once finished, please work on the clean up of the scenes.

Monday, October 22, 2012

Thursday 10.18.12 Recap

Alright guys, last Thursday, we worked.  Yay!  And we want to keep working!  We'll continue working on our roughs, hopefully finishing some of those so they can be cleaned up.

Everyone should know what they're doing.  If not, you can consult this image.

Next Thursday we'll be having donuts!  So please, everyone donate a dollar to the donuts fund, otherwise none for you.

You guys have been working real hard, and you're awesome for that.

Don't forget to back up all your files to the dropbox!

We'll most likely be having a video reel of what we have accumulated so far along the lines of the animation on Tuesday.

Also, as a heads up, we may be meeting during this upcoming weekend.  It all depends on how much we have done, so just as another remind, keep working! :)

We'll see you tomorrow!

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Scene List

These are the scenes descriptions.  Please check here to know what you are doing for each scene.  Do not hesitate to look at the animatic for reference!

  1. Typing, can be looped twice
  2. Steady walk cycle
  3. Monitor gesture that its time to leave. No dialogue, actions imply words
  4. Troll awakens on the screen
  5. The girl is pulled into the internet and awakens in photoshop
  6. She quits photoshop and chases troll to Facebook
  7. Facebook is the party with the duck face girls.
  8. The girl awkwardly backs away from Facebook
  9. She crosses the hallway to the email room
  10. Emails explode out of the room onto her. She picks up a paper that says she's a winner
  11. The girl runs down the hallway
  12. She chooses between the hallways and heads down the hallway NOT leading to Tumblr
  13. The new, better idea starts to trail behind her
  14. She gets to the next door. The idea is getting bigger. The girl then opens the door.
  15. The girl enters the Deviant Art room, she goes through it and finally notices the good idea.
  16. The girl has a moment with the good idea. But then the shadow looms as the good idea sees the bad idea behind her.
  17. The bad idea eats her.
  18. The girl wakes up on the computer screen, draws the good idea on the computer and leaves. We see the good idea.

Friday, October 12, 2012

Thursday 10.11.12 Recap

On Thursday, we started off showing the group what the rough animatic looked like.  You may see that here.  Animators began playing around with the characters and we produced a little reel of the animations they've created on our YouTube account.  The link to the video is here.

We've put a lot of effort into our group this week.

We've created a logo.

We've created and designed a website.

Made a Youtube account.

And a Facebook Page for those of you who want to see us in a more everyday location.

Also, for those of you interested in who, exactly, are the crew.  We now have a visual for you.  Click here and you'll be able to really get to know our crew members.

And we're hoping for much more.

I just want to remind everyone that we will be meeting next Tuesday at 9AM.  Don't forget!  We'll be continuing working on the rough animation, breaking down the scenes, and hopefully getting a lot of main keys done.  We definitely want to start working on the backgrounds and the colour-scripts so we can tie all the pieces together at the end.

Outside of class, we'd like you to continue practice sketching the final character designs.  Work offline in ToonBoom and save them to our group dropbox account.

Have an awesome weekend with your family!

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Pre-Planning Day

So this week's focus is to lay the ground work for the rest of the project. Yesterday everyone brought in their concepts and I made the final call. Our animatic is also underway, you can see the rough version here.

For the backgrounds, Aaron had the idea of personifying the internet into settings associated with them:
 The story crew played around with a lot of fun internet puns I'm excited about. I'm looking forward to working on these scenes!

Anthony's character concepts: 



 We're going with his troll design for the 'bad idea'.  He will be somewhat ghostly and playful. I'd like to have pixels trail off from his tail as well.  This design captures the deviousness/playfulness I want him to have!

Background Designers:
(Alexa)

(Tara)
 As the main character travels throughout the internet, we'll be needing characters that fit the settings.  I really like the variety going on here! The challenge will be having the designs all unify, something we'll work on tomorrow.

Combining elements I liked from the designs shown to me, I whipped up the final character and her avatar. (Katie's emphasis on the sweatshirt, Anthony's asymmetrical bangs):

Tomorrow is going to be a LOT of fun! It'll be our 'sweatbox' day.  Yes it'll be a lot of work- but don't let the name scare you!  All animators will come in with their assigned character (or chosen if they're doing multiple) and produce a quick, rough gesture (2-4 seconds).  I'm hoping we'll have time to do several, but I understand people may need to get used to the program.

I'll be giving a brief intro to the toonboom and tutorial on breaking down the characters so we have a cohesive style. 

Sunday, October 7, 2012

The Game Plan

Tues. Oct 9th:Preplanning Day
Meet in small groups at 9am (animation, concepts, story, editorial)
I will meet with each group to see progress, answer questions, and help.
Story: you will be pitching ideas to the Head of Art Direction (Tara), and then piecing together the final storyline. We want the best pieces of everyone's work, so the overall project will be awesome!! (Work individually over weekend, use printer paper to rough out ideas) Once the final story is established, divide the scenes among people, each will complete their portion of the animatic. Final presented Tues. (16th). (I'm also willing to take on a scene or two)
Concept: Everyone bring their ideas to the table, characters will be in one group, palette/backgrounds in another. We'll lay out everyone's ideas/ pin to the wall and find the best one. (Whether it be common elements, or something completely new). From here the character designers will produce a model sheet by thursday, so that the animators can begin practicing.

Thurs. Oct 11th: Sweatbox/Work day!! 8 am
Animators will warmup by drawing gestures of each other for about 15-20 minutes. This will be a fun way to loosen up /wake up. We will then proceed to animate 2-4 second rough gestures using the characters provided. I want to see each of your take on their personalities. (I will also be participating). Think ahead as to which character you want to explore/ possible gestures. Even make some sketches before hand. These will be very rough, I think it will also be fun. The goal is to find a style everyone can do so that the final is unified. Outside of class, I'd like you to practice sketching the final character designs, have fun with them. Keep loose and be ready to work next week! (work offline in toonboom and save your file to the dropbox)
Story: Work day, make progress on your scene(s) of the animatic. Whether you want to work in photoshop then import the boards to storyboard pro/iMovie- or work directly in storyboard pro, that's up to you. We will keep them all grayscale for now, then export them all in the same format to be pieced together in aftereffects.
Concept: Most of you are also animators, so just focus on the sweatbox. Feel free to take the model sheets and experiment with color, this would be nice for your next blog post in addition to your animation(s).
*Be sure to backup all work in the dropbox!!*

Tues. Oct 16th: Breakdown/Rough Day 9am
Everyone will view the animatic, then divide the scenes among animators.
(If you dual role- you have first dibs on your own animatic scene)
The goal today is to start breaking down the scenes so that animation will go smoothly.
Start backgrounds/ colorscripts
At the last 20 minutes I'd like to view all of them and have a group crit. (To catch things early/ keep improving)
*Be sure to backup all work in the dropbox!!*

Thurs. Oct 18th: Work Day 8am
Continue developing rough animation. I'd like a majority of keys done today and tweens on their way.
Backgrounds and Colorscripts on their way.
At the last 20 minutes I'd like to view all of them and have a group crit. (To catch things early/ keep improving)
*Be sure to backup all work in the dropbox!!*

Sat. 20-Sun. 21st: We will most likely have to work outside of class. I think it would benefit us to meet over the weekend. There will be a sheet to sign up, so that you can pick a day that works for you to meet. (You can always work outside on your own as well, especially if you can't make a meeting) The directors will be listed on which day they'll be there to help.
*Be sure to backup all work in the dropbox!!*

Tues. Oct 22th: Finish roughs, Start cleaning 9am
We want to finish the roughs today and start cleanup, I realize some scenes may take longer than others.
Before moving on to color, I'd like to view all of them and have a group crit. (To catch things early/ keep improving)
Backgrounds on their way, color script finalized
*Be sure to ba- you get the point*

Thurs. Oct 25th: Cleanup 8am
Animation cleanup/color.
Backgrounds on their way to completion

Sat.27-Sun. 28th:We will most likely have to work outside of class. I think it would benefit us to meet over the weekend. There will be a sheet to sign up, so that you can pick a day that works for you to meet. (You can always work outside on your own as well, especially if you can't make a meeting). The directors will be listed on which day they'll be there to help.

Tues. Oct 30th: Final Editing 9am
final sounds, backgrounds imported, scenes pieced together (after effects), tested on projector
If everything goes as planned this will be an online day as originally scheduled, (with the exception of the directors meeting with the editor).

Nov. 1st: Video day!!
  • Publisher and Documentary/Photographers- you pretty much have creative freedom here, but I'd like you to check in with me or one of the heads each meeting. Don't save everything to the last minute. 
  • Everyone will be busy, so if you find yourself having nothing to do- report to one of the directors. 
  • There will be a 10 minute break at 9:30 each meeting (and more as we see fit). Unless we're ahead on our work I really can't afford to have everyone leave early, please talk to me if something comes up.
I look forward to working with all of you! :)

Thursday, October 4, 2012

Thursday 10.4.12 Recap

After a bit of discussion this morning, we’ve organized the crew into their various assignments.  For more details about jobs, please see the below post.

Regarding the project idea, it is ambitious of us, as a production team, to create a one to two minute animation in four or so weeks.  So, our director, Emma, has hopes to at least create a glorified animatic, but to aim for higher.  It would be particularly keen to have the key story moments finished and animated for a better execution.

Animators, we want you to be familiar with the characters.  So please warm up your animation and we’ll talk later about the final style for the characters.  That way it will sort of have an evolution from beginning sketches, concept, to final design.  For more information about that, we viewed a Tarzan video, click here to view the youtube video.

Also, please take note that while the Design For Media class may be online on Tuesdays, our production will NOT be.  We will plan to meet as a team EVERY tuesday at 9AM!  Don’t forget!

Regards to the story/plot, we would like people to create their own thumbnails for how they imagined the story would progress and on Tuesday (10.9.12) you would pitch your idea to the team and we’ll take the best combinations.

These are the assignments due Tuesday for each department:

Story - thumbnails, prepare to pitch scenes
Character/Animators - play with characters and sketch, sketch, sketch!
Background/Colour - have some concepts, location, and background sketches
Documentary - locate equipment, prepare to document next week
Branding - do some sketches and colour designs
Secretary - kick off blog and facebook

If we need to contact one another between meeting meeting times, all of the blogs are listed on the side of the production blog’s page.  There is also a facebook group for any other needs.

Have a good weekend, and work hard.

Crew List

Director: Emma P.

Heads:
Art Direction: Tara N.
Editorial: Renee T.

Art Direction Crew

Story
Sidney L.
Cody S.
Tara N.
Cristina F.

Visual Development
Character Design: 
Chay R.
Alexa M.
Anthony G.
Cody S.
Sidney L.

Background Artists:
Aaron L.
Anthony G.
Chay R.

Animation:
Alexa M.
Chay R.
Anthony G.
Katie F.
Christine P.

Sound/Editing: Palmer P. 

Editorial Crew

Scribe/Pipeline: 
Christine P.
Renee T.

Branding:
Colin W.
Chay R.

Documentary
Director: Niccole H.
Crew:
Colin W.
Elizabeth G.
Lauren F.
Photographers:
Niccole H.
Elizabeth G.
Lauren F.
Colin W.