Stop Motion Walk Cycle 1st Attempt

I think our animation went quite well, however we forgot that the camera settings were in the camera tab of Dragonframe, and so our exposure was really low whilst shooting. This is our slight improvement as we increased the brightness on After Effects. 

Myself and Habiba and Ayesha produced this together, mostly because we had a lot of technical difficulties with the camera and the stands. I think this worked well as we had multiple view points on whether the footing looked off or not, and not just the biased stand point of the person moving the model (me).

We used Habiba's model as it was the smallest and mine and Ayesha's were too large for the stand. 

Our feedback: 

• The leg needs to stretch out more as it comes down, so the front leg isn't as bent.
• Because it was beant, it looked like the character stomped a little as it walked. But this apparently gives it more personality and authority with the well maintained posture.
• All in all very good and "one of the best"

Other's feedback that could be useful:

• Focus on the centre of gravity and keep it central.
• People walk with a heel to toe action (which I now realise I didn't do in my slapstick, as I used my own walk as reference and I do not walk heel to toe like everyone else :( )
• Never forget arm movements!
• Head never stays level. It moves in a wave motion up and down as the stationary leg stretches. 

Pitch Bible

I think I had a good amount of content for the deadline. I wish I had stood up and talked more, which I did from my seat half way through. I need to be more confident.

My feedback said that I could look in to the title more, even though "The Boss" works very well. Most titles for crime movies are humourous and play off of each other.
I had a well thought out story that was "charming". Apparently the storyboards seemed well thought out and interesting. Rob liked my transition from film noir to child like, using lighting and scenery and contrasting characters.

I think my own thoughts of improvement are maybe demonstrating some comic pop ups and possible ways of showing the speech. I did suggest using comic book text boxes as I'm using comic book expression symbols. So I think this would be a good experiment

Gylt powerpoint

by@oscarquesta on picuki

Tequila Works (Dissertation project)

Tequila Works is a video game development company from Madrid, Spain.
They specialise in puzzle and adventure games, mostly surrounding the thriller genre.

Their oldest game is Deadlight. My personal favourite is The Sexy Brutale. And their newest is Gylt.

Deadlight is a platformer that is mostly known for it's stunning visuals (like most of Tequila Works' games.) This game follows a man trying to find his family in Seattle during the end of the world - fighting zombies throughout the platformer. Throughout the game, there is lots of interaction with the stylised background, which can  be often left out of platformers. Like in a lot of Tequila Works games, the best detail on the characters is when you zoom in to them (which does happen fairly often in this game). But like in every game, the stylistic background holds it's own very strongly. I think this is one of the games where movement in the characters is the most advanced and fluid (in comparison to Sexy Brutale with each character having a few set in stone actions, and their walk cycle) 

The Sexy Brutale is a mystery room game that involves you solving several murders in one day, inside a large casino. The game is inspired by groundhog day, with a clock that resets after 9 minutes of playing time. The characters don't seem very detailed with the 3D panned out angle of the game, however all of the high graphic animations used in the trailers and show reels for tequila are actually zoomed in versions of video game footage - showing they put a lot of detail in to everything. The Sexy Brutale was created using Maya.
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/l5aXe

Gylt is a 3D open world exploration which uses lighting to create a path for the reader to follow. I think this game has the most detail out of the 9 under their belt - with hidden messages surrounding their backdrop. Without playing it, I think that the trailer shows a clear connection to the title and these words, showing the main characters inner guilt. I think the darkness and fire is the girls own destruction towards herself. Tequila works describe this plot as "nightmares become reality". 3rd person view, following the character. Adventure/puzzle - completing certain actions to move on to the next stage. The game was exclusive to Stadia and so the reviews weren't the best. The game is based around bullying. Guillermo used his own experiences to create this. The girl Sally is named after his cousin. Third person shows helplessness and isolation like in bullying. Highly inspired by Stephen King. Made so that people who wouldn't consider themselves to be good at gaming could easily play it - part of the introduction to google stadia service which is unpopular. 

google stadia is a streaming service that runs 4K at 60 frames per second. The game aims to look like a horror or thriller but is not actually very scary. Game play aims to slowly unveil places and the plot, like Sexy Brutale. The main objective is searching for Sally's cousin, Emily. Bullying never has "an easy solution" so the fact that this game mostly reflects on hiding and puzzle solving over the violence aspects of the game, shows the mentality of a sufferer of bullying. They 

want the game to allow younger viewers to have an understanding of their own bullying through the game, making it as easy to understand as possible. The main tool in the game is a torch - using light to get rid of the dark creatures. Positivity vs Gylt and day vs night, as shown in the concept art. From the looks pf footage from their documentary blogs - they used Maya on the characters like in Sexy Brutale, and then 3DS MAX to plan out the backgrounds. 

Public Service Announcements

THINK! Hedgehog. Safety crossing the roads. Memorable from my own childhood. They also did lots of activities with schools such as colouring contests (from what I can remember) using the hedgehogs as mascots for a larger campaign.

THINK! Road Safety

Star Trek American PSA. I like the style of animation and I like how the PSA can be integrated in to popular television to allow kids to stay engaged. By keeping the object of the PSA vague, it means kids will keep the TV on to watch it - and then think about the meaning of the PSA when they realise there was a valuable message. 

American WIC program PSA 1985

It looks hand drawn and I think this is a unique style to take - simple but effective. Its not as eye catching as some of the others we have seen in class, and the monotone voice doesn't make this very memorable. Yet it has a clear message and friendly characters to attract people to call.

Smutley AIDS PSA

Relates to the modern day convergence back to traditional styles. Aimed at an older audience and therefore uses the older styles that they grew up with. The idea of a cat having 8 lives to waste vs a human is a good focal point against the possible humor the audience will have seeing this. 

As the animation goes on, you begin to not want the cat to ...continue as he was doing. (As people in the comments have said about the dolphin moment) As the plot gets old in repetition, the audience starts to get tired of seeing it - associating to not wanting to do this themselves.

Catchy music of the targeted time.

Documentaries

The LEGO Story
I'm a fan of lego haha
I remember watching this when it first came on the tv and the story itself and the evolution of the toy fascinated me, having not seen older versions myself.

Waltz with Bashir - Israeli war documentary based on the Lebanon War of 1982
This is my drawing style, that I haven't gotten to show much during this course due to my belief that it was too complex to animate. This shows simple movements to allow that style to be more simple during animation.

Tower (2016) - The University of Texas Tower shooting in 1966. Accounts of different perspectives from survivors, witnesses and the heroes of the shooting. Made from rotoscoping over actors, and due to this, the style is very realistic. 

Boss Child

In crime movies, there is often a child or younger sidekick who happens to stumble across the necessary items needed to solve the case. This trope has been altered in a few recent films like Boss Baby, giving the younger person the power.

I wanted to use this by making the child character the boss of the clearly stronger and more capable one.

Playing on this, I was thinking the story could be this child's fantasy, which is why the clothes are overgrown - like he's playing dress up.

His eyes are round, similar to the Minion character's, to show a similar style between them despite the big contrasting body shapes and sizes. He has more poses than the Minion because I want him to be fun and child-like, over the usual stern boss. I like the idea of him possibly doing the trope of the 180° chair spin, but then spinning around on it a few times, like a child would on a spinning chair.

Minion

(Before changes)

For my 'Minion' character, one of my biggest changes was making his body less skinny at the waist. I feel like the very tough square structure is common among gruff looking characters, and I feel like the small waist is much more of a superhero/comic book style proportion that wasn't as appropriate for this character.

My character does not have much expression. I planned for him to walk in to a room and show his deep emotions through subtle facial expressions. Though I do like the more exaggerated anger.

I think his stand still silhouette shows his dominance a lot more than exaggerated actions can, also making the animation of him slightly simpler.

Animated Adverts

New Zealand KFC 1970s advert

I liked this one because of the more traditional looking animation style that I found I liked in the examples in class. This style brought back a lot of nostalgia for me, as I recognised more of the older ads than the newer ones. I also think it's very different to a lot of the other KFC adverts nowadays about the Colonel and false KFC brands.

USA/Britain 1977-2005

I chose this one because it was one that I still remember very well, and it was interesting to see how the mascot changed between US and UK over time. The slogan was very catchy as I still remember it well.

Britain TSB

I feel as though the style really shows off the sophistication of a bank despite the saying that animation is for kids. The watercolour effect throughout is unique and shows a traditionalist style - showing professionalism but also a friendly reception with the colour palette.

Japanese McDonalds Adverts 2016, by Studio Colorido
I loved the story telling throughout and it clearly gave off a japanese feel within the advert. I also thought the premise of the advert was unique- to get people to apply for a job at McDonalds instead of out front trying to convince people to buy their food.

Irish Lotto Advert by Brown Bag studios, directed by Rory Bresnihan in 2007
I liked the 3D style in this one.