Planning

You will now need to take charge of your production. You will now be able to produce detailed planning documents like
mindmaps, moodboards, sketches or storyboards, scripts and shot lists that will help when communicating your ideas
to your intended audience. You should produce a production schedule with milestones and deadlines.

Below is my mind-map detailing my production of my piece

Below is my mind-map detailing my project. As shown it details basic requirements and ideas for my product’s design details.

Below is my first storyboard of my piece

 

 

Post 4 – Experimentation

As I found out from last year’s FMP drawing each frame on paper is a hassle due to the extremely long time it takes to produce each drawing. To circumvent this I researched forms of digital drawing.

Through my research I studied the benefits and drawbacks of two forms of digital drawing.

Method 1: Mouse:

As you can see from the image below the drawing done with a mouse is more shaky than its tablet counterpart. I believe that this is in part due to not being used to the method as while I believe I did the best job I did at the time of drawing I believe I could improve it given enough time and patience. The use of a mouse also led to the lines being a set width lending the piece a more consistent but rather bulky feel. A way to improve on this would be to alter the width of the lines with each stroke to more define the piece.

Method 2: Tablet:

As evident from the image above the tablet version of the drawing is much smoother than it’s mouse counterpart. I believe that this is due to the versatility of the equipment. The fact that the pen was able to alter its thickness depending on the pressure allowed me to create smoother lines. A way to improve this art would be to speed up the process as the way I drew it was rather time consuming.

A possible solution to this would be to draw all the lines on one layer however this would also make it so I would less accurate with erasing them. This could be detrimental to the general quality of the piece however as the lines would be rougher overall and in my opinion not worth the time saved.

Conclusion:

In conclusion I believe I will use the tablet method with multiple layers for lining as it allows me to refine the artwork to a higher degree.

Unit 13 Post 1 – Reflective Journal

Week Commencing 20th March – This week I wrote my proposal and started my research for a second character for my short. The character will most likely act as an opposite to the main character as they will embrace their machine side.

Week Commencing 27th March – This week I created a document regarding the design of the second and third characters within my animatic using Google images. The document details the necessities for both characters as well as a scrapbook of potential design ideas.

Week Commencing 3rd April – This week I researched different styles to animate my animatic.

Unit 13 – proposal

Centre Name & Number	The Sheffield College – 36510
Candidate Name	Thomas Allen
Candidate Number	82836
Pathway
Project Title	Project: Yi
Section 1: Rationale (Approx 150 words)
Over the duration of the last 12 units I have learnt many things to do with the production of films and media. Some things that I have learnt within the course are the methods films are developed and the work that goes into managing a social media campaign or crowdfunding. I have also developed an understanding the work that goes into an animation and the struggles that come with planning an entire project yourself. With the knowledge I have now I can further improve my work, for instance I now understand that I require more working hours to do my animation due to the lengthy process of drawing the images. The reason I have focused on animation is to improve my drawing skills in hopes to someday become a concept artist. I also chose animation as my preferred medium as I am uncomfortable with ordering people around like a usual director does.
Section 2: Project Concept (Approx 200 words)
I intend to create an animatic using a mix of traditional and contemporary animation styles. I came to this idea while listening to the song that I intend to use as a basis for the animation, Project Yi (By ViceTones. See bottom of section.)  and noticed the different instruments and sounds used to create the melody and backing, such as the mix of violins and electronic instruments. This contrast between the old and new is the reasoning behind my mix of different animation styles. Another influence for the idea is content released by Riot Games (the commissioner of the track) In which characters from their game were augmented [See: design-doctuments] To effectively complete this project I will not need many resources from college as most of the equipment I own already. I intend to use the majority of my time drawing the animation as being a solo animator is incredibly tough and during Unit 8 I found how time consuming animation is. I also intend to ask my peers how my work looks at the end of each week. Hopefully by the completion of the project I will have created a worthwhile animation that I can use in my portfolio and perhaps have developed my drawing skills further. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIwtr-VqwcM)
Section 3: Evaluation (Approx 150 words)
I intend to use blog posts to record my decisions using weekly journals to keep track of what I have done. I believe my audience will be people 15 and up and intend to design the piece around what I think will be visually impressive yet still coherent. I will not be working with others as I intend to use flash or draw my designs by hand. This is done to reduce me relying on others as people can be unreliable and might flake out if I need them to do something like act. If, and when, I come across issues I aim to solve them with as little disruption to my work as possible. I will look at a few ways to solve them as I usually take the first option available to me however I understand that this does not always work out. I intend to screen the video to my intended audience and peers and gather their responses in order to analyse how to improve or change my work.
Section 4: Proposed Research Sources and Bibliography (Harvard Format) – this needs to be a separate post

Unit 13 – Research

Below is a PDF showing my process of creating my primary character for my chosen project, the music video.

design-doctuments

My main character is intended to be the protagonist of the piece and is designed to fit into the source material (Riot Games’ Project series of skins for their game League of Legends)

 

Below is the PDF regarding my secondary and tertiary characters as well as the animation styles of my production

Research folder

 

Unit 13 – Contexts & Critical perspectives

Why should my film be made / Why do I want to make my film?

Social issues: I do not intend to have my piece have an overarching social message as I believe that can warp an artist’s ideas and vision. If there was a message to be insinuated from my piece it could be interpreted as a message of

Artistic intent: I believe that this is the main reason I want to make my film, as I want to show off my skills while making something for a song that I enjoy. The song also interests me as it seems to blend traditional and contemporary sounds to create its melody and backing track and as such I hope to use traditional and contemporary animation styles to make the video.

Exploring a certain genre: The film that I intend to produce while doesn’t have a genre such as horror or mystery, will be exploring the genre of music videos in a sci-fi setting, I believe this will be interesting to work on and to watch as while the song I’m using doesn’t have lyrics to work off I believe that I’ll be able to make a worthwhile product out of it.