For these next two scenes, i wanted to capture the villager peering into the dark forest, as the camera passes behind him the monster is revealed, from here the monster jumps out of the forest and is about to eat the villager, the final shot is in slow motion.
The layers are separated in order to spread out in 3d space, I used depth of focus to attract the viewers attention the specific parts of the image,
Finally the monster jups out of the trees, i used motion comic techniques in this part in order to create the illusion of motion, and also the illusion that the scene is in slow motion, i slowly move the arms of the man, and rotate the monster.
For the next scene i wanted to design a path through the forest that the villager would walk through, As the man left the scene the camera would pan back to reveal the monster hidden in the bushes.
I began by creating a concept art for my scene.
My original concept looked pretty good, obviously the colours arent correct in order for the scene to be perceived as night time however i would colour correct afterwards, i needed to create the scene extra wide so that i would be able to slowly pan across the scene in after effects.
I then proceded to neaten and colour correct the image, i am fairly pleased with the image however, unlike my other scenes, parts of this scene are outlined in black, i will eventually edit most of this out, however i feel some of it is necessary as if it did not have a defined outline it would be hard to distinguish the closer parts of the environment to the further parts.
My next stage for this scene was to create a walk cycle, i used another video i captured myself for basic referencing.
This was my result, which i was kind of pleased with, however the colours did not fit with my composition, i ended up editing the colour of the man to be completely black. Upon reviewing the animation it was apparent to me that it wasnt as realistic as i had desired.
I ended up redoing the walk, this time i used a existing walk cycle in order to reference the stages in the walk.
I was much more satisfied with this result, it looks a lot more alike to my character, and i increased the amount of frames so that the walk was slower and looked more realistic.
I also needed to animate the monster turning his head to face the camera, i wanted it to appear that it was watching the villager, and then turns its head to view the audience.
For the forth 5th and 6th scene i wanted them all to be smoothly transitioned together. So far throughout the animation i have not showed the villagers face in order to create suspense. I wanted to create a scene showing the front of the villager, then pan into his serious looking face, giving the viewer a first glimpse at the man.
This was my first try at scene 4, a front shot of the villager, from within the food stall, this is what i planned, however i felt it looked boring and uninteresting. I decided to redo the image and created a new concept art.
I created the image from a kind of fish eye lens view. My idea was that this view is the kind of view a monster might have, and i perceived it to be looking at the man as a monster, as this is what i am trying to trick the audience into believing, however you could also view it as, the man is not the monster as he is being viewed by the eye off the monster.
I am much happier with this image over the initial one, I split the image into separate layers in order to place into 3d space, i also created the eyes in the forest so that they could blink, this allows us to feel like there are unknown things lurking in the forest. from here i will zoom into the mans face, and subtly replace the image with another, a close up of the mans face, this is a technique i had learned in Specialist Study 1, so i will be putting this into practice.
From here i wanted to pan out, and reveal the villager salivating at the sight off all the food, at this stage it is meant to be revealed that this man is not the monster, and just a hungry villager!
This was my plan, i wanted saliva flying out of the screen and tears running from the mouth of the Villager. I then changed my plan and decided to have saliva dribbling out of his mouth, i wanted to create another looped animation like that off my flame loop.
I generally knew what i was going to do for the dribble, however this scene from Dragonball, summed up what i wanted to do.
I also decided to change up my background, i wanted to emphasize that the man is non threatening, and so i transition to a bright blue coloured background, (blue being a trustful colour) I also Incorporated comic styled lines coming from behind the villager. This grouped together with the blue background, just add to emphasize that the man is not the monster that i had previously been talking about
For the transition between this scene and the previous scene (the zoomed up close up off the face) i needed to turn the villagers face too an angle, i originally began by animating 4 frames to turn the characters head.
However upon doing this i was not satisfied with the result. I ended up discovering "Speed Lines". I Ended up attempting this affect and found it to be success full.
For my third scene i planned on having my villager walk up to a stall full with delicious Chinese food!
I looked at a variety of different images in order to gain inspiration and ideas on designing the food stall. As my scene is set long in the past i wanted the stall to be made of wood and so i looked through a variety of Chinese village images and drawings.
One image that instantly came to my mind was the village from the film "Spirited Away", i used this as a base reference when creating my own stall.
I began by constructing my own food stall using images from the internet, and composting them together, i also included my some of my own drawings such as the red roof.
I continued to construct my image, i designed to included some objects that i planned to move in the wind, such as the tree leaves, the lights and the red sign made of cloth.
Next i had to colour correct the image and create my neat version, i also need to create all of the food on the table itself.
I look at a number of cartoon Chinese foods. I mainly looked for cartoon versions of Chinese food, as these would probably be more recognizable to the viewer as Chinese then what i could recreate by looking at genuine food. When i think of Chinese food i think of plenty of colours and lots of variety!
I created each dish of food individually, this allowed me to rearrange the order to create the best look. I also took a lot of time in creating the wood to make it look realistic. As well as the lights and trees that i will leave on separate layers, i also created small tassels at the bottom off the roof that will move with the wind to create more realism.
Scene 2-3 Transition
I want to transition the two scenes together, by cleverly using the leaves flying across the screen as a screen wipe.
To complete the illusion, i will make it so that the very beginning of scene 3 after the transition is still windy like in scene 2, where the leaves are blowing across the screen and the screen is shaky. This should create a cool effect as it will help blend the two scenes together.
This tutorial helped me learn how to use the marking tool in after effects.
Finally i animated the villagers first scene, he walks past the camera and up to the food stall. I used my girlfriend as a video reference when creating the animation.
Line Test
I felt that my line test looked good, however upon neatening up and shading in the animation, it was revealed to me that the walk was very jumpy, i ended up fine tuning the frames many times in order to get a smoother walk.
For my second scene i wanted to transition into it by zooming into scene 1. I wanted the scene to be a close up of the bridge from the first scene, which will also allow me to reveal more of the village from a different angle.
This is my rough drawing, i tried to capture the lighting and the angled shot of the scene correctly, i also attempted to replicate a technique called "Bokeh" which is what happens when a background becomes so blurry that it becomes blobs of light, i feel that bokeh looks its best when light sources are blurred. But im not a camera man so this is all just my opinion.....
I wanted to create the image of the bridge to make it seem like the audience is now entering the village, in the background you can make out a forest and a Chinese looking building.
This is my final composition.
As you can see it is a lot neater, i am pleased with the result however, i was unable to generate the same power that i created in the draft, i was unable to recreate the long dark grass towards the bottom of the screen, and the "Bokeh" is much more subtle as i felt it was too over powering, Perhaps when my digital drawing skills progress i will be able to include the closer grass in order to give the image more depth. From here i will insert my flame loop onto the wooden sticks beside the stream, i will also add leaves blowing in the wind and i will make the screen wobble in order to make the scene appear windy.
I needed to crate a flame animation loop for my animation, i wanted to create a detailed version as in scene 2 of my animation the flames are seen much closer than in scene 1. I decided to take my first steps into using the program adobe flash, i figured that i would use it in replace of using a light box as traditional animators would use, it took me a while to figure out the basics however having used photoshop and after effects alot more i picked the basics us shorly.
I began by looking at a flame cycle in order to figure out how a flame can be animated.
This is my line drawing flame test. I was pleased with the results, it took a few attempts but it looks good, I then imported the image as png sequence into photoshop, and re-created the flame in colour and neat.
This is the final version of the flame, however the version i actually used was a png sequence and not a video.
I then looped the sequence and placed it on top of the wooden sticks beside the bridge.
For my Specialist Study 2 Project i wanted to combine animation and motion graphic techniques in order to help convey the story. One of the most influential style of work to me for this project is Motion Comics, i like the idea that through still images you can create movement and meaning, and it is incredibly effective.
Other motion comics and animations that caught my eye are:
This is a colour StoryBoard that I reated to go alongside the story.
For the first scene I wanted to enter through the forest and overlook the village,
This is my initial plan of the village, peering past the trees into the village. It took me a loooooong, time to create this image as my digital drawing skills are not as advanced as i would hope, as well as this i generally find it hard to put ideas from my mind onto paper.
My next step i preceded to recreate this image neat. I began by outlining my my environment and colouring however i was not pleased with the result the was being created.
I decided to try and colour over the outlined image in order to help create a better look and make the scenery seem more realistic.
Although still at a very early stage, with the addition of a texture, and by creating the image with no "cartoonish" styled outlines, the village is beginning to look half decent!
I am very pleased with the look of the village, i feel that the style is just what i was looking for, however i wanted the scene to be shot at night time, and as you can see the village sees to be very brightly lit.
My next step was to try and colour correct the image in order to create that night time feel i am looking for.
Ive been having alot of problems finding out how to turn an image from day time to night time....i began resolving this issue by looking at how other artists have manage to achieve the effect that i am trying to create.
I tried to find night time images that had elements of light included, just to see how the light reacts to the scene, as i am infact having a torch lighting the bridge.
I notice that in most of the night time images i viewed, they creator had used various shades of blue. I decided to use this theory and began applying photo filters, and adjusting the colours.
I was much more pleased with this result than what i had previously created. At this point i also decided to go for a wider viewing format, "Anamorphic" which basically means extra widescreen, i thought that this would be a good idea, as it would help me to showcase my images when you can see more of it.
Unfortunately die to all of my colour correction, i had to redo the image again, i also had to recreate it in order to prepare it ready for after effects to animate it in 3d space.
This was the final result, it may look very bright however, it is missing the foreground that consists of trees and grass hills.
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