Team Meeting Minutes

Team Meeting Minutes

Group Members - James Leader and Jonathon Adebanjo 

Items Discussed:

Meeting 1:
In our first meeting we done a brainstorm of what we want to do for our advert. It was surprisingly hard for us to come up with an idea baring in mind we are graphics and art students. We had a lot in mind so we wrote them down on a mood board and left the meeting for the day so we could go away and think about what would be best in our own time. 

Meeting 2:
In our second meeting we thought of a idea that we were going to proceed with which was using a pokemon scene but one of the characters being a wild animal and the other character being a hunter. We planned to change the image four times so when it gets repeated in a motion it will look like its a normal video clip using stop motion. 

Meeting 3:
By the time Jon came in and we could actually talk about and proceed with creating the animation it was getting abit close to the deadline and to do the idea we originally thought of was going to be much to long to fit in around our work we have to do. So we decided to come up with a much simpler idea that wouldnt take as long. This idea is to use whiteboard and whiteboard markers. We thought that we should create a human face out of animal body parts in order to get the message across that we are all the same humans and animals so why would a humane person want these wild animals to be slaughtered and stolen of their body parts in order to fulfill somebody's rich corrupt lifestyle. 

Risk assessment WWF

Analysis Of Movement

Analysis Of Movement

Near enough all animated adverts will contain a variety of shots. These shots are used to create final animated advert. The different type of shot can determine the mood of your advert for example if an advert consist of a close up shot on someone's face which appears to be unhappy then this would show that the advert is going to fairly sad or emotional rather then if the person was smiling or laughing which would then show the mood of the advert is happy. This shows that you have to make sure you use the correct shot for your advert so that you have the correct mood.

In our case we decided to incorporate stop motion text in order to make the viewer think with a carefully complex question to get you thinking and obviously incorporate whiteboard stop motion as well. 

This is a screenshot of the first part of the animation. The quality isn't that good on here but what it is, is that it has been drawn by pencil many times and put into a really fast clip the the font looks like it is alive. The movement worked really well and i am very happy with the outcome of the effect.

This is a screenshot of the Whiteboard animation clip. Now it isn't the best drawing but because there was animal parts from different animals it was hard to put them all together and look normal. Basically how we made it look like it was moving was by drawing a line and following on the whiteboard marker many of times and taking a photo before we moved on which in the final edit it looks really good because the lines are drawing themselves. 

Annotated Screen Grabs

Annotated Screen Grabs Of Edit

This is the photos of the whiteboard procedure all put next together. This was quite a long process as when the pictures were put onto Final cut express they were 10 seconds long and that was much too long for it to flow. So every picture had to be cut down to half a second in order for the whiteboard clip to flow and make it look like its moving.

This is a screenshot of the live type put into final cut express with the music playing in the background. Very easy procedure as all you have to do is drag it down into the place you want it to be.

This is a screen shot of all the photos that were upload onto final cut express. As you can see there are quite a few of them and you can see the 10 second length of it which was bait of a pain.

This is how i edited the text which is on a program called Live type. The reason you can't see it in the photo is because the colour of the font had to be changed to white in order for it to appear on a black ground. Its a very simple procedure, all you have to do is type in what you want to appear and once that is done, all you have to do is change size, colour and where you want it to be placed. Once that is done you save it and on final cut express you import the file and simply drag it onto the bottom section and it will be ready to play.

This is the Live font effect i used on the text. although you can't see from the picture the text actually moves in a motion that is actually stop motion for the affect of it to look like pencil writing. All you do is add it to the sequence and the text will appear like it.

Visual Effects Editing Guide

Visual effects editing guide

There are many different visual effects that are used in animation films such as Wallace and Gromit. One example could be if one character falls off of something, they would attach the character to a piece of string and slowly move them closer towards the ground. Then the string would be edited or 'Rubbed' out in a program such as Photoshop. Within our animation we didn't use any Visual Effects, due to them not actually being needed as we didn't have any complicated motions with our characters or sets.

Visual effects can be found in a number of different formats such as miniature sets and models, matte paintings, live action effects: actors being placed in front of a green screen or blue screen. In this intro of this work I explained one such animation film that used visual effects, this was Wallace an Gromit. There can be downsides to visual effects due to it sometimes being extremely costly depending on how large the visual effect is. For example using a green screen to shoot an entire scene can be extremely costly in terms of editing programs, computers etc. As aforementioned, in our animation we didn't use any visual effects as they weren't necessary, but this next section is a guide to creating a visual effect could be for one making a character fall from the sky.

Step one (Materials, props and equipment)
Find your characters that you want to use for example lego, collect your materials for your background props etc. Find a clamp like structure that could hover above your animation, the last piece that you would need to create this effect would be string (preferably a ball of string) as this will help you understand the required length much easier. You will also need a camera and a tripod, a camera such as an SLR that takes photos only would be the best. The tripod is essential in order to keep a still shot throughout the animation.

Step two (setting up)
You place the clamp so that it cannot be seen in the shot of your animation, then you shall need to cut your string to the acquired length so that you can lower it each time a photo is taken of the character, you will lower it closer and closer to the ground of the set. Next you shall tie a knot around the lego character securely to hold it in place. The final stage should be to set up your background props however you desire and then move onto the next stage.

Stage three (footage)
The most important part of this stage is deciding where you would like to place you tripod ad camera for your angles. After you have decided your positions then you may start taking photos of the gradual change of the character moving closer and closer to the ground. I would suggest that each time you change the characters movements you take at least 3 photos as this will make the movement look smooth and not too sudden. After you have completed your movement that you wished to create (Once the character has reached the ground)

Stage four (editing)
The first part of this stage will be to located a computer that has an editing program 'Final Cut' found within it. After this you will need to start uploading your images that you have taken by attaching your camera to the usb lead it comes with and plugging it into the computer. Once the images have then been  uploaded to the desktop of your computer, then you highlight the images and drag them into a program called i stop motion, then export the file as a .mov and then import it into final cut. The images will already be in order so that you don't need to sift through them in order to place them into the correct order. You can then save this piece as something recognizable such as (Animation FINAL) as you will need to come back to it.

Stage five (photoshop) 
As you have used string to hold the character in place you will need to rub the string out in order to make it seem the character has actually floated into the shot from the sky. Going back to why its important to use this slr camera, it makes this stage much easier to  rub out the string as it is a photo, when it is filmed footage it is much harder to edit in within photoshop. You will need to place each image into photoshop and click n the rubber image to then start rubbing out the string which will make the character eventually look as if it is floating. You will need to save these images a JPEG, and as before you will need to place it into Istop motion and then import it into your final cut piece. Next you will need to locate the image within this edit and replace them with you new and improved images with no string showing. Once you have watched the animation through you will then see you have created a Visual effect that shows the lego character floating down from the top of the shot all the way down to the floor of the set.

Lighting Task

Lighting Task

Lighting task

When creating Wallace and Gromit animations they use artificial lighting called red head to light up the sets. Black screens are also used which allows the light to reflect off creating the shadows in that specific scene. The term red head camera means that there is a red light attached to the top of the camera, when the camera moves across the scene it continues with the same lighting otherwise the scene will be darker in some places and would make the animation look very unprofessional and the lighting wouldn't be continuous throughout the animation and it would also take away the affect.

Ardman use a variety of effect lighting within there scenes, such as a street lamp, they light these scenes with L.E.D's which stands for light emitting diode's, or they use tiny bulbs linked to a transformer. in some scene they use fibre optics or small torch bulbs. These techniques that ardman use are very effective and are very good at lighting small individual places in an animation for example a house or  car head lamp.

When creating our advert animation we used a interfit tungsten 3200 power lamp.
The reason we chose to use this light was it was an easy and light object to move, the head of the light can be adjusted allowing us to be able to tilt and direct the light in the correct position allowing us to be able to light our set to exactly how we wanted it, the light is very bright meaning it will easily light up our whole set and there would be no need for any other lighting.
Some possible issues that could arise during a lighting set up could be the light over heating, this can be very dangerous as if someone was to touch the light they could burn themselves. We also need to be careful with leads and cables in case anyone was to trip over and cause any injuries. 

Consideration Of Camera

Consideration Of Camera

Because we are doing our stop motion animation using a whiteboard and marker there isn't a wide range of camera angles we can consider. We can only use one which will be a close up of the whole whiteboard. We will have to keep the camera in a steady angle though without any form of movement as it could effectively ruin the whole thing as it will be out of place and quite possibly the light may change. We have considered that the light will change as the filming will take longer than a day so the sun shining through the windows changes all the time so the way we have overcome this is to use a lamp shining straight on the whiteboard whilst the camera is on a tripod taking photos of each stage. What we will have to do is change the size of the drawings we are putting onto the screen in order to make it look like the camera angle is changing etc. 

Although we aren't using a range of camera angles we have still taken it into consideration what type of camera shots are available like the ones below;

EWS (Extreme Wide Shot)
The view is so far from the subject that he isn't even visible. Often used as an establishing shot.

VWS (Very Wide Shot)
The subject is visible (barely), but the emphasis is still on placing him in his environment.

WS (Wide Shot)
The subject takes up the full frame, or at least as much as comfortably possible.
AKA: long shot, full shot.

MS (Mid Shot)
Shows some part of the subject in more detail while still giving an impression of the whole subject.

MCU (Medium Close Up)
Half way between a MS and a CU.

CU (Close Up)
A certain feature or part of the subject takes up the whole frame.

ECU (Extreme Close Up)
The ECU gets right in and shows extreme detail.
Variation: Choker

Cut-In
Shows some (other) part of the subject in detail.

CA (Cutaway)
A shot of something other than the subject.

Two-Shot
A shot of two people, framed similarly to a mid shot.

(OSS) Over-the-Shoulder Shot
Looking from behind a person at the subject.

Noddy Shot
Usually refers to a shot of the interviewer listening and reacting to the subject.

Point-of-View Shot (POV)
Shows a view from the subject's perspective.

Weather Shot
The subject is the weather. Can be used for other purposes, e.g. background for graphics.