Documentary: Reading

 Heehs, P. (1994) Myth, History and Theory, Volume 33, No.1. Wesleyan: Wiley

https://drive.google.com/file/d/136Fb2SMwHCLtqCF85KOJfxejpdTYv_R-/view?usp=sharing

• Historians usually work to try to disprove all elements of myth from historical records - any element where myth may have been used to prove or drive an element of history.
• Mythologists don't believe that history can explain everything about the past without mythology and its narrations
• 'Those who study the data of one field tend to look down on or exclude those of the other'
• Where mythology can be used to support and even sometimes explain history is called mythistory. 
• 'there can be no real distinction between the discourses of myth and history, between fact and fiction'
• In religious based historiography, people have started to use 'myth' as a way to describe false facts, as they are what has been disproven and removed from history
• 'mythos' means decisiveness and 'final pronouncement' what gets carried throughout history, the final rendition/final story. Myth is sometimes the most known story and the best way for facts of history to be told creatively so that it's remembered
• McNeill who studies scientific history judges his findings on assumptions, made up beliefs that drive his hypothesis which are based on the same logics as myths.
• Truth vs truths vs myth
• Truth is the facts: The history of Greece and its subjects, what is written down and what he can see. These gods were depicted on vases
• truths are that we weren't alive in ancient Greece. We don't know what we heard or saw, the gods could come from imagination but who can say they weren't? 
• myth, stories and interpretations of reality told in stories. They twist the past to make it understandable in a narrative
• history is based on the adequacy of facts - people can and do argue that history is as much as a myth. If we cannot take drawing depictions of gods as facts, why should we take words for fact? sometimes logos and mythos can be clearly seperated

HISTORY (2009/2021) Greek Mythology. Available at: https://www.history.com/topics/ancient-history/greek-mythology (Accesed: 25 February 2021).

• Greece didn't have a single religion that they followed like the bible. 
• Mythology was able to answer the questions of how the earth came to be for people who didn't follow, or answer questions that hadn't been answered yet, like the weather. 
• Myths also described the current political and economical system such as social standing, which is why chariot races were heavily based on Ares, God of War. 
• The history of Greece was slowly manipulated and extended on through many scriptures, and eventually took to plays and art forms, which are now shown in architecture. 
• All of the gods were said to be at the top of Mount Olympus, which is very real and can obviously be seen without all of the gods living atop of it in the clouds. 
• Another event is the Trojan War, which sits in the balance between history and fiction. It's very hard to prove real or not
• All of the main characters seem to be heavily based  on the Olympic gods
• Troy has been proven as a real city, though the mound the gods were said to fight on seems inhabited for over 4000 years. 3000 BC, and the origin of Greek myth is set to be 900BC, placing it in the middle of this abandoned period
• Skeletons and debris were found at the site of Troy, evidence of a war. 

Final scene

 

https://youtu.be/wP2S3Lbosb8

This was fun to do and I think a good way to end the animation. 

The storyboard/ animatic required a bit more time on the transition between the box and the envelope. I found it hard to think of an idea to make the box squash in a front view, without zooming it out again the same way that it transitioned in to 3D space. To counter this, I tried squashing the box in 3D, which ended up making the box look like a 2D square with a point for the envelope flap. This worked perfectly and sped up the clip a little which allowed us to have longer on the logo and extra seconds for anything else.

I had fun messing with the timings and the curves on the Giffgaff logo and the envelope. I have used easing in and out on other things but mostly in straight ahead drawings. I think this speed is ease to replicate should Alex need to change the logo to a different colour or file, because I struggled importing files that had the same quality as the vectorised Harmony lines. 

WWW:

• Good 3D to 2D transition
• Easy to fill in/colour
• Clear weight point, corner closest to the camera
• Line weight changes

EBI:

• More dramatic squash - needs better camera angle if it weren't being transitioned. 
• Cleaner less pixelated giffgaff image?
• Doodles/ fun pops of animation like emojis etc from earlier

Research in to Industry 1

After the discussion about our finance breakdowns and thinking about where I would like to work in the future, I decided I would like to work in the United States or Canada. I decided to talk to my friend in an animation college course in the US, and ask her what kind of companies she likes around there. Her teacher had sent them all a resource about jobs, internships, volunteer work and other roles in animation all over the world. He said she could share this with me and I could pass it along to our class. I plan on using this to look more in to Canadian and US companies. I also noticed Cubic Motion on there, who I have shown interest in before. 

 https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1eR2oAXOuflr8CZeGoz3JTrsgNj3KuefbdXJOmNtjEVM/edit?usp=drivesdk

Atomic Cartoons: Ontario Canada

• Kids short films, cartoon style
• Mostly 2D but some 3D including some of the newer Lego shorts. 
• Very different styles but all made up of basic shapes, lots of circular heads. All are fun, quirky and easy to read!
• Vibrant colours, lots of personality
• A theme in the shows is humour/ silly for kids. Lots of dancing gifs in the website and gags in the shows themselves.
• 2D uses Toon Boom Harmony! 😁
• Maya for 3D, ( I think. )
• Most of their jobs are currently in Vancouver, Ottawa has a storyboard job and their LA branch seems for more producer roles. 

Certain Affinity: Texas United States and Ontario Canada

• Video game development company
• Artists
• Texture
• Environmental
• Tech
• Animation
• Narrative Director
• Design Director
• Programming
• All 3D works
• Lots of work with the expanding Call of Duty works
• Animation job necessary requirements: 
• 5 years experience, characters, creatures, vehicles and props
• Autodesk Maya
• Portfolio
• Python mastery, scripting
• Unreal engine 4 experience
• Facial rigging and deformation 
• Diverse and inclusive 
• Pretty much impossible just from a uni course. I did a bit of python in high school but I think that I would need much more experience than I have in all of these fields. Seems a bit extreme for a beginner. Design might be okay though. 

Cosa VFX: British Columbia Canada, Georgia and California United States

•  hello@cosavfx.com
• Lots of tv work for big tv networks such as CW, netflix. They work in realistic visual effects so lots of action packed shows.
• Lots of marvel, lucifer, Divergent series
• They have divided their company in to motion graphics (holograms mostly), environments  and effects 
• Requirements (CG Generalist)
• Minimum of three years plus in either television of feature film industry 😱
• Experience texturing CG objects and basic animation
• Expert in Maya 
• Experience with CPU rendering - V-ray and Redshift
• Production shot tracking software 
• What is it? Basically a way of organising your production, useful for 3d
  
• Understanding of post production processes
• Strong organisation 
• Photoreel/showreel and evidence you were in a tv show or feature film

Crystal Dynamics: California and Washington United States

• playAvengers! 
• Very all around but no major roles, mostly a big support for larger companies
• Environmental artists and designers. Lots of system and camera designs and how this all interacts with the player
• Requirements (Lead Artist)
• Strong skillset in concept art and visual communication
• Works closely with higher ups, Directors etc
• Efficient 3d models but stunning concepts and atmospheres
• Know the fundamentals of high standard software, Zbrush and Maya (First Zbrush I've seen!)
• Show you have a good eye of composition
• Show you have a good understanding of physics
• Game re-meshes, shaders, lighting models and post production effects welcome in show reels. 

Cubic Motion: Manchester England

DreamWorks: California United States

Electric Theatre Collective: Bristol and London England, California United States

• Realistic 3D animation and VFX (so far my favourite stuff I've modelled have been the realistic clock and face, and I found it fun looking for companies who specialise more in realism. 
• Very insistent they only take talented people, reinforced all over the website
• Requirements (CG Generalist)
• MUCH shorter than all the others
• 2 plus years with a busy VFX studio, preferably commercials. (I feel like commercials are mostly freelance? Busy but an unstable job, not really always granted it'll be a commercial even in a studio)
• A broad skill set in all areas of modelling to lighting and composition (no specific 3D software necessary)
• Knowledge of Houdini is PREFERRED (3D software for rigging)

Factory: Manchester, England

• Lots of work for the BBC, heavily based in media city and work close with Salford University students, so student friendly
• Lots of 3D and stop motion hybrids but also an older 2D show. Their brand is definitely leaning heavily on the 3D. 
• Home town
• No job info

Flipbook Studio: Manchester, England

• Specialise in commercials doing lots of 3D animation, some visual effects
• Done a few videogame cutscenes
• Worked with lots of big brands like the BBC, Netflix, ITV and Square Enix (!)
• Experimenting with VR experiences and animation
• No job info

Animation: Computer to box

 

Cleaned up linework

WWW:

• The animation fits in to the time frame assigned in the animatic
• the perspective let me change the shape of the box from a rectangle to a square which looks more minimalised for the Giffgaff style
• I tried out different animation techniques in Harmony. I used a lot more of the animation dragging and stretching rather than drawing frames at a time. 
• We used more scale in this shot as Michaela suggested, with different line weights. 

EBI:

• I don't really like the little lines that connect the corners of the different box faces, but I didn't know how else to make the tv look okay. 
• I think the phone might have needed to appear on screen and then fall down - to give the viewer more time to notice it's a phone. But there isn't much time to work with. Maybe make it bigger?
• Some of the lines are super thin near the end of the turns, but I think it works and adds a little depth, maybe too much.
• This might be harder to colour in for Alex thanks to all of the dragged stills :(

Next time:

• If I had more time, I would rotate the box on a bit of an axel on the second turn instead of a very horizontal movement
• I'd make the tv stand disappearing a little less simple, but it worked for the speed of this. Have the tv squash down thin so the stand is pushed inside and then spring back in to shape. 

Documentary brief and ideas

 Lesson Task - Find a documentary text and animated film and add it to the class list

Before we had the briefing for the project, I knew I wanted to do a documentary based on mythology. I chose a text about the spectrum of Norse Mythology, from it's origins to it's complexities. It's an old book so it avoids modern interpretation, and is available to the public. 

The LEGO Story was a rather mainstream documentary about how Lego and its company came to be. It was very popular on all Freeview channels and has been aired multiple times since 2014, now appearing in full on YouTube. As it is quite popular and recent, I think it definitely relates to viewers today and how they enjoy watching documentaries and their structure. Treating this as a story with animated Disney-like characters makes this feel like a fantasy, much like you would create with the bricks themselves. 

1 to 1 tutor chat

Is mythology history or a legend? The topics for this module that we can make a documentary on are: Sustainability, History, Science, Politics. We had a discussion about whether exploring the topics of Norse or Greek myths were in fact on the topic of history. 

Norse mythology can be considered as a large part of Germanic and Scandinavian history, but can also be told as myth, fictional stories in books. 

If I am going in to this project in a group on my own, don't use character animation. Try some experimental styles and mediums. Style wise, an idea is maybe like Norse ruins and looking at the patterns and designs on Viking ships for Norse Mythology, Greek looks at urns and architecture. Experimental mediums might be hard during covid, especially in my home with orange lights and no desk. But one of the examples in last years' show reel was (I think) Florence Nightingale and used lots of watercolour transitions and that could look interesting - especially if I'm exploring the idea of myths being fantasy or not. 

The topic me and Michaela discussed taking on was convincing people for or against if mythology is history or fiction. Possibly because it was a rather interesting debate. My worries are nit knowing what to animate until after I have spoken to professionals. 

Reflexive documentary types will be best for this, interviewing people and using them as the narrators instead of myself as an anxious speaker. 

Animation: Cash to the Computer

Cash: Spiral

WWW:

• Cash fell nicely and spread well
• Cash covered monitor
• Monitor was big enough to see any details that might need to show on screen
• Just stayed in the 2 second timeframe from the animatic

EBI:

• By the time the cash started rotating, the pivot point was quite low and sent a lot of it off camera
• The spin was quite fast to fit in the time
• Mouse has to come on screen almost instantly
• We've had lots of spins already

 

Cash: Fall

WWW:

• Different method, makes it so not everything has to morph/ new texture
• Gives the cash time to slowly float down as cash would
• We have slightly extra time where the computer holds until the video hits 2 seconds, so we can add some time on to other shots.
• Mouse comes on screen in good time

EBI:

• There isn't much exaggeration, squash or stretch (12 Principles)
• Needs less symmetry, which will be fixed in linework
• Computer had to shrink a little more than it already shrank from the animatic to the swirl.

We think we will be using the fall, mostly for extra time purposes in our already close knit animation. The others also agreed that the spinning motion has been overused and will be used more later on, so it's a good break part way through. When Alex edits the position of the phone, they could always make it higher on the screen so the cash falls further and looks less straight forward. 

Talks with pros and blue zoo

 Isobel Stenhouse - 10/2/21

• Keep looking forward, not back. Don't think badly on the work you've already done and  can't change
• Try to buy student priced stuff and try it out  whilst you can
• Extra courses can keep you feeling motivated and feeling good about your work and your progress.
• Avoid free work. Get paid internships or commissions
• Give yourself time for self care
• Don't ignore depression  and anxiety. 
• Breathe, daily exercises can help
• Talk about things, especially during covid
• There's always something to appreciate
• Therapy, sometimes you don't know what it's doing for you, but it's good to get stuff out.
• GP mental health doesn't mean drugs, you get to choose
• Time alone and time with friends are both needed
• Try to learn something new
• Write, draw or animate mental health - it might help you feel better about your mentality and your work as a whole
• You don't have to tell an employer that you struggle with mental health but you can say "I struggle with noise, can I move somewhere quieter?"
• Find an accepting working environment
• Not racist or sexist and pro lgbtq community 
• Everyone has different perspectives, there will always be someone in an institution where they might be one of the above. But work somewhere where you feel safe 
• Talk to someone if you feel something isn't right. You get fired? You were in the wrong place anyway. 
• If someone isn't being accepting, see if you can improve the situation for everyone. Anti LGBTQ? Make an LGBTQ group in your office. 
• Educate yourself on mental health to be there for others
• You are more than your work! Your personality, experiences, ideas and abilities are all valid and needed in work
• Check out:
• Neil Gaiman talks
• First Aid Dolly
• Film Mental Health
• Access VFX, very diverse company

Blue Zoo - 15/2/21

Internship requirements and what they look for

• Less is more
• Honesty is the best policy, say what's a student film and what roles you did in the clip. They want to help you get to where you need to be. 
• Don't be ashamed if all you have to show is student films, they like seeing them
• They use a lot of Maya but blender work is also welcome as they are quite similar
• Mention any online courses and the names of them, they don't mind if you have uni experience or not as long as you have some
• They want to see breakdowns! It shows the creative process behind what you did and methods.
• They hire 2d animators a lot but the summer internship is purely 3D, they might do a 2d one in winter - Toon Boom for 2D
• For Lighting & Composition and FX, they like to see 3D and 2D examples
• No early priority if you submit to the internship sooner
• They like what matches their style and how they animate their characters
• Include references and references to any people you took reference from
• Walk cycles, movement, weight, facial expressions are what they want to see
• Equal opportunities won't affect the application

• Interview
• Have knowledge about the studio
• Confidence
• Talk about what's relevant, new shows, new adverts, new things the company has put out
• Don't waffle, keep answered considered and honest
• Fully paid internship
• CV no more than 2 pages, they read CVs more than sheets
• Show reel and portfolio wanted, cater portfolio and show reel top which of the 4 you want to apply for
• 3D Animation
• Surfacing
• Lighting and Composition
• FX
• Water
• Fire
• Smoke
• Particles
• Dust
• Simulations
• You go through to a 30 minute interview with two people if they like the application above. One will be the mentor you work with. 

Mike talk and 6 Responses

 LinkedIn

After talking to Mike about my progress in 502, it was suggested that I make my LinkedIn about info directed more about my aspirations and what softwares I can work in, rather than my qualifications. This is the main information that animation companies will look for and be drawn to. 

He also suggested that I send off the messages to the professionals that I had planned to contact. I ended up sending 6 out of the 12, and I want to research more in to the industry in this next week so that I can send 6 more on the Monday afterwards. 

I did get in to contact with six professionals and ended up with responses from two of them, with a response from a third that I was really hoping for a response from a week or so later. 

I have learnt that possibly contacting larger companies is not the best through Instagram and should be done through finding their emails or possibly a single member of the company. Ayesha was telling me about her experiences contacting me, and I think that maybe my formal approach was a little too strong and could have been a bit pushy. An informal approach works just as well. I also think that twitter works a lot better than Instagram, but I am unfamiliar with how Twitter work, and I have struggled to find any new professionals. I also don't have much of a following and no posts on Twitter. 

Animation: Map to the recycling logo

This is another sketch layer that I knew I would struggle to do because it had to match up to the three symmetrical arrows of the recycling logo, which would mean copy and paste match ups. I think this time around, I worked a lot more on the actual sketch layer and did the line work because it was easier to match them to the recycling logo I knew how to replicate in to the right positions, as I had done the matching drawing. I think moving forward, the person who did the matching drawing should definitely do the linework for the scene because it makes understanding the flow easier. 

I also did the line work because I thought the trail of dots would be as hard to follow as the recycling logo, but it was a lot simpler. I knew this needed to turn from four hotspots to three arrows. Though we could have just done three hotspots, I wanted to represent all areas. Though it would have been better to do England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, I think the lines would have clashed in the small space. 

In our talk on Friday with Mat and Michaela, they said they wanted to see more of the white borders, so I put one on the UK as we talked about. I think this looks really good and adds to the perspective that we really wanted to add - but it made the background off white. Monochrome is on the scale in the Giffgaff colours, and I think it adds a more serious tone to the facts in the script. If we don't like the new choice, Alex can always change the background to white and get rid of the border in editing. But we all like it. 

They also mentioned using different line weights, which I was worried about in Harmony as we were using the uniform pen to match the style. But I think I managed to add a nice line weight variant  which gives Alex an example to go off of in editing. 

Nadia can now match these colours to the ones she has been adding in the rest of her editing process on the other shots. 

Sketch layer

My final map

EBI: Sketch layers are getting better but try to show some variety in the next ones in case this one doesn't go so well. Storyboards are left to interpretation after all. 

This might need slowing down a little in timing, I was matching the animatic time length. So something else may need a shorter transition. 

Character Design Challenge

Thai Dancer Theme for the Character design Challenge on Facebook and Instagram

Researching this, I instantly thought about religion and gods. Though people in Thailand have no specific religion, they are known for Hinduism and Buddhism, as the king of Thailand always must be a Buddhist by law.  Despite this, there is also a large Thai-Chinese population in Thailand, which also means there are lots of Chinese worships such as Taoism. The masks often worn by male dancers reminded me of Oni-s (Pinyin in Chinese), especially because in current cultured version by the Japanese, they are known to have a single horn on their head, which the cone caps or the single spear headdress is visible on all the male dancers. 

The colour palettes are heavily based on red, gold and green with accents of white and black. This originally gave me the idea of wanting to incorporate the Chinese monkey king.

Another idea that I had looking at the man in the top left of the mood board below was to create a steampunk Thai dancer, as the headgear and square body reminded me of clockwork like Big Ben. The conditions did say that they were open to examples such as a Thai Dancer from the roman era or from the future, so I was debating the steampunk character. I didn't take this beyond an idea, because I feel like the steampunk genre has quite a reputation behind it that consists of weapons, darker anime and characters such as the devil, such as Crowley in Good Omens. My intention wouldn't have been to alter the culture to that, but I figured the Monkey King had safer connotations. Even if the oni masks represent demons/ evils.  

Looking at female poses, I noticed that the twisted hands and limbs are a huge part of these dances. However, female dancers often dance in large groups together or with a male partner, and part of the brief is that you one draw one character. I also feel if you don't draw the pose correctly, it is very easy to mistake a twisted limb for a limb facing in a normal direction, just drawn very badly. 

Where as the feminine people had very fluid motion and curved arches, I felt like the masculine people had very square forms. Thinking more in to the dancers on the stage, the oni scene looks a lot like warriors in an army fighting along side the dead/ spirits of fallen soldiers. The shoulder pads on all of the masc's costumes actually line up with those of traditional Thailand warriors, so I tried to mix a warrior with the dancer's costumes. As a comic book influenced artist, I really took to the pose with the spear. I thought this showed dance in an attack form very well: showing movement whilst also being very square in shape. 

As I was drawing a Monkey King, I thought that suns would be a good pattern to spread across the clothes, like the sun monkey. This idea was inspired by the character Sun in RWBY who's real life basis was the sun monkey. I liked the switch of the pointed cap to the tweed hat, as I think it looks more traditional and warrior-like. 

After a bit of consideration, I thought the colour palette looked very off. As fond as I was of the clay coloured mask and the authenticity of the design, I thought the details were lost and more primary colours were Looking at onis, they usually have a red or blue face with a golden horn. So trying to merge the cyan/green colour from the dancers' costumes with the onis gave this nice dark teal which gave off a very imperial version of the primary colour palette with the gold and orange-red. The browns added to the rustic feel of the hat and I think the the yellow really helped to outline the best features like the suns. Though the mask is based on monkey features, I do think I lost that. But I like how the red around the nose can suggest fire/power. The gold in the suns shows light. And the blue shows the demonic warrior it was inspired on - all kind of showing the power, light and strength of a some say mythical sun king. I also think the colour in the end represented the colours of a sunrise - a rise of power and a victory in the overall. Which is why I chose a sunrise for the sky in the background. 

I mostly took background inspiration from this reference image of traditional Thailand warriors. Though I liked their costumes, I thought the metal and restricted movement contrasted the fluidity of being a dancer. 

 

Recycling Test 2

One of my tasks from Michaela for the week was to add colour to the animation test of the recycling logo to the phone. But I thought it would be more useful to show the colours in the real version similar to the animatic. I do think this version will be longer than the first, but a lot more fun and unique. HOWEVER I think it will need more room and we may need to zoom this out more. 

Version 2

 

WWW - Nice curve motion, I think. Each blob has a clear path. 

EBI - Some of the paths in the sketch layer didn't make too much sense, so that was fixed in the line work (I need to make my sketch layers clear for the other team if I'm going to be the sketch layer person). The blobs don't follow the movement of the arrow and just randomly jut out. Too fast. The blobs are a little too spiky for the aesthetic of Giffgaff 

Version 3

WWW - Timing is a little better and it follows the arrows. Still got a good curve. Depth! Scale! What Michaela wanted to see more of

EBI - No squash and stretch, looks too uniform. Looks too clumped together and very clearly copy and pasted two more times. make it burst in multiple directions

Version 4

Process

For the final attempt, I decided to colour coordinate my arrows so that I knew which set of blobs would end up where, knowing that in Harmony you can just select and change the line colours to black to match the rest. This helped me remove overlaps/erase lines during overlaps. It also helped me figure out which blobs would be the best ones to form the phone. It made it a lot clearer when trying to make the animation slightly less copy and pasted, as I knew which areas of the canvas had gaps that needed filling with blobs and where I wanted things to end up. 

WWW - It looks like the animatic! I'm very glad I could get that motion and make the heart and face end up where they were planned. The speed of the burst is good. The blobs squash and stretch but don't turn pointy so they suit the aesthetic. i like my personal choice to end with fewer blobs in the background that will need to spin in the next part, but I can't help but feel they're going in an anticlockwise direction to the way they need to move next, so it may not be smooth... Unless I find a way to spin them in he next one. 

EBI - I think the blobs can get a little confusing so the arcs and paths aren't totally clear. All the blobs get quite large, and I think the way things are laid out in the Harmony desktop, it looks like it will all be smaller when you export it in frame. So I think everything could be shrunk a little. The blobs are a little faster, they gain a lot of speed and don't really slow down, but I feel like it works and this was quite a long shot that needed to be condensed down in to the now even shorter script. So even this may be too long. 

My Final

This is the final part of this test shot that I did. Mackenzie checked it over and cleaned it up and also added the colour for me, which was the main reason we did the test. 

I'm very grateful that they helped me, as I spent a lot of time failing and restarting. I feel like this was one of the hardest out of all the shots to start with, especially when I am not too confident at sketch layers and I need to do the rest. So it definitely placed a lot of self doubt and a low mood. So I'm glad I got some time to take control of the blogging and 502 and to relax a little bit for a day. 

Additional Classes: Life Drawing 1 and CG Master Academy

Life drawings

 In my 503 feedback, I was told that to improve, I should draw more in a sketchbook and practice the 12 Principles of Animation for a better understanding of motion. Naomi has been hosting life drawing classes during covid and I have always thought I would be too uncomfortable to enter that scene. But I think understand a good line of motion is necessary. Though it was hard to have dramatic and exaggerated poses in a small bedroom space.

Apparently I joined in their first duo model class, which was very hard for me to keep up. I started off with a very crayon like pencil that kept catching the paper and I slowly realised that the pencil helped my flow a lot better. I think I gradually started to understand the process more and did become slightly more comfortable - though I was self conscious the entire time, even behind a screen. 

Listening to a few of the professionals KK has gotten us all in contact with, they pressed how mandatory these sessions are and I think it will help me if I keep attending. But I do also know there are places like Line Of Action to help with life drawing if I still find it uncomfortable. Or equally, I watched a free talk by the CG Master Academy, and the speaker was saying how important it was for him to make his own reference videos. He works in a production where you get the storyboards and then he has to animate the scene 2D, and then rig it in to 3D. But he said he likes to record a visual of himself before the 2D because keys in a storyboard don't show subtle actions. Storyboard/animatic artists don't think about where blinks or hand gestures need to be. 

Another important thing they mentioned about the 12 principles was the idea that the 'bouncing ball' isn't always the same material. And I think that when I animate with an intention to exaggerate, I always assume the material is stretchy rubber. But in the case of King Kong, the bouncing ball becomes a hard bowling ball. Once one motion has happened, the ball needs to be given momentum and weight to gain power again. If two bowling balls collide, they roll slightly and ping and move at equal speeds. Equally, you can have a character like a flea who is so animated and exaggerated that the bouncing ball doesn't have time to squash and stretch because it's so extremely light weight it won't have enough pressure to squash on the floor.  Pixar use hand gestures and expressions to create most of Woody's appeal in the opening shot, before you learn his story, setting and personality traits. He waves his arm around a lot as a secondary action whilst he's walking and talking - and they make it so the hand is always guiding the eye to where Pixar want you to look - between his expression and the movements of his feet.

Social Media 2

 In our marketing lesson, Mike mentioned that having Twitter, LinkedIn and Linktree are very useful for animation, so I made all three. 

Twitter

I have noticed how useful Twitter is just from seeing how up to date Kahenya is between finding speakers for us all, and all of the links he has been sending about animation opportunities, such as Disney careers internship. I think if I had known about it sooner, I could have prepared myself for a show reel. 

I think it was a good idea to use a photograph from 503 as it shows my most recent project. I think including both softwares and more informal passions was good because it shows what company I also really like as well as what I aspire to learn. 

What I need to do next is just find as many animated influencers as I can. 

LinkedIn

I think that the social media which confuses me the most would have to be LinkedIn. at this point in time, I'm not one hundred percent sure how to use it effectively as a student. But I think that I have tried to include enough necessary information about myself as I can. 

I found that when I added my 5 skills, you really can't exaggerate them. I thought putting down Maya meant that I could use the basics if asked, but I was sent a quiz about Maya and what you would use in any given situation to get a 'certificate'. I didn't earn the certificate which was a bit of a realisation that I am definitely not at a professional standard, even in the basics. (I do feel like I knew some of the answers, just not the names of the actions). I was surprised by the tutorials and courses offered to me when I failed, though. So I'm looking forward to finding other hidden features in the interface that a student can use, more than making a digital CV.

I found the about a little intimidating. I don't feel like I know enough about my future plans to write a lot about that, and I do not have much experience with work. I think that including my college grades is worth a lot to me personally, mostly to show I am not from a long history of animation education. I also think my work experience is worth mentioning even if it isn't animation related, but I'm not sure if that was the right place to put it. 

Next I need to connect with more people and possibly start posting. At least with Twitter, I semi know how to follow and interact, but I have no idea with LinkedIn. At least I managed to find a job advert for a gaming studio and it gave me a good idea for a personal task I could do to improve my portfolio. 

The job was asking for someone with an ability to animate similar actions in this style and design characters. I think designing a character and animating it to react in these actions would be a good practice task. 

Linktree

I don't think that having premium for Linktree is necessary, though it would be nice to be more personal. I think with my current following, not many people will need to access my Linktree who haven't already done so before.  I would like to start commissions but I had the issue that I wasn't sure which account to start it on, professional or my fanart/personal. So I think putting it on Linktree would be great. 

https://linktr.ee/arrow_comics3209

Social Media and Marketing (SWOT Task)

 Main points:

• Cross post
• Post regularly
• Associate with people you want to be associated with AND people you want your employer to see - maybe keep friends or certain friends on your personal accounts
• Professionalism
• No swearing
• Don't show yourself drunk etc
• Showing that you're up at 4am
• Your mood online and when you post can bring your followers and your contacts in to your headspace. Post when you are in a good place. People can often tell when you're upset even if you don't think you are showing it
•  Communicate with people! That's what social media is for!
• You need a LinkedIn and a Link Tree!! super useful, best at being recognised for everything you do all at once.

SWOT analysis

I think one of my main weaknesses is still from the careers event which is comparison theory. I think I've improved in being off of my social media more than I should be and though I'm not comparing myself to other artists as much (besides this overwatch contest) I think I am still comparing my life to my friends. And my mood can show a lot in story posts and when I'm talking to them. I wouldn't want this to show for  a client or future employer. 

My current strengths I think lie in more peer to peer support. I think I am quite diverse in knowledge and specialties even if I am not the strongest in one suit - which means I can help team members and also understand their issues if they have any. Those my only lead role has been art director in a group of four, I do think that knowing a little about most processes helped with not only class struggles but also understanding home struggles as well as their work and emotional load. I feel like my personality strengths with my friends also come under a similar bracket, such as being a good listener/ the person they turn to. I feel like I am a supportive person with a little emotional experience in a lot of areas. 

Michaela meeting 2

Notes

• Script cutting discussion
• 'Forty million phones with recyclable materials are in UK homes' make it one line but still impactful
• 'Giffgaff help you to recycle your old phone' (leads on to 'get money in your pocket Cha Ching') OR 'Giffgaff make recycling old phones easy
• Send your phone in prepaid packaging
• 'All you need to do is' can come out of the script. Replace with 'Just_(...)'
• Show vs tell, show some things you wanted to say in the big chunks of writing
• Giffgaff are quite informal, short and snappy could fit the style, even if they seem to try and tell a story in other adverts - you don't have as much time as that one. "Recycle phone. Use prepaid packaging. You get cash!!"
• Scale in the animation more. Animatic is very central in the frame, so try to squash and stretch and change the size. 
• Fix the colour palette
• I try too hard to include all the hues which means the background will end up being mismatched.
• Try to include more white or more black
• Off black isn't in the colour palette (we are using off black so you can see the line work - also they use black and white photos so every greyscale tone is in the palette even if it wasn't all specifically colour dropped)
• Make an updated colour pin drop board with brush sizes etc (so far been using 30 for thick lines and 15 for details, uniformed brush in Harmony)
• Colour script test!!
• Try to test the colours on the recycling logo animation test too (maybe make the animation look like the one in the animatic first?)
• Lily is fixing the music

Coloured animatic

After the meeting, I decided to colour test the colours that I had designed up to this point and tried to figure out a background colour that would work for them. I think the colour palette on the map really works and changing from white to yellow really shows the seriousness being replaced by upbeat 'Get some CASH!' I think the only area the yellow doesn't really work is with the emojis on the phone - but I think if we can find a way to make the white borders appear then it will look good. I'm not quite sure how we will do the gradient on the recycling logo, as I masked the gradient over white, but it was a little messy and hard to do. And I don't think there's that feature in harmony. So it would need to be done in Photoshop afterwards (possibly along with the emojis)

Designs

My role in the group is mostly being the art director. Like in my other project, I think I have enjoyed being given a style and trying to incorporate that in to other ideas. I think with this one, because the script was mine, I had to think a lot more about adding in the understandability of the items. As I am drawing them as I had imagined them, but others may not see it that way. 

The idea of the antennae hot spot came from Lily's storyboard, and I do really like it, ads it relates a lot more to technology, but also implies locations. 

I also saw in Lily's animatic the recycling logo that all the bubbles that made up the recycling logo burst out to turn in to the phone. As this is what Nadia wrote in the script reprise, I can see that is how they both read the script. I think it's a good idea as long as I can animate it. So I will retry my animation test from the recycling to the phone.

I really liked the idea of the iPhone, and also the spin Lily put on it, giving it some fluidity. However, I do think we have a lot of spinning and maybe we could change one somewhere down the line. 

I like how the cash vaguely looks like a SIM card as it is another Giffgaff service to buy SIM cards and phone plans - whilst it still clearly identifies as a £50 note because of the queen and the colours.  

WWW

• Items are recognisable
• Thought about motion in different ways so the team can decide what they like
• Showed where all the colours came from
• Perspective on UK is good & makes the hotspot icons stand out more

EBI (from Michaela 5/2/21)

• Background seem all over the place and if they are the colours for the actual film background then it will be complex
• Off black/ greyish black isn't in the colour palette and it's used a lot (mostly so you can see the linework - and they use all of the greyscale tones)
• £599 is way too much

What next?

• Other symbols
• Figure out real colours, Nadia wants to take colour script

Overwatch contest part 2???

Recently whilst we have been thinking about putting yourself in to the industry, I came across a small issue. Though I should be happy about it, I think that this made me quite anxious for a long time.

Back in August, I started an entry for the Overwatch student animation festival which was a month to animate based on a prompt, on your own or in a team, and then it was to be submitted (in my case) in the September. I ended up misreading a lot of information about the submission such as the frame rate (i used 24 and it was 60) and also the length of the animation (Mine was 30 seconds and it had to be 60 max) University always says there's no harm asking for feedback. So I sent overwatch my animation and said that I know it's not eligible but if they could give me feedback outside of the contest limits, that would be awesome. 

Apparently because of covid 19, overwatch decided to extend the duration of the September month submissions until January, to give people time. But they only publicly advertised this in January and they also added mine in to the mix of contestants - which I found out after the submissions had closed. 

So not only was mine shorter than the rest, not complete (I didn't name it because I just wanted feedback, hence the 'Sigma Final'), but also everyone probably spent a lot more care and time on theirs. 

I think being rated against others really lowered my self esteem, especially because I did this in august and I think just doing the group project in December this year has improved my skills drastically from this and I know I could do better. It is a little wounding knowing I'm ranked last by over 100 votes, and the public not knowing this wasn't complete. 

It was also a little painful because I was getting YouTube adverts of the other contestants animations, so I knew people were watching mine in between their YouTube binging. And even if people liked it, I didn't have any contacts on it because I didn't quite understand how far these submissions were going in the summer. 

It's taught me a good lesson in reading instructions at every possible stage through a production and not just the start and end, in case they change or add a more updated version like this time. 

It also showed me that I have a very supportive group of friends around me. When I first realised mine was up on the website, I only had 9 votes against others that had 50 - 100. But my friends helped share it and voted and it reached 116 before the voting closed. I am very grateful to them, and the people who liked my poor attempt. 

As unfortunate as it is that I probably won't get any credit or traction from this, I am glad this accident happened. I now am very cautious about instructions for our Giffgaff 504 brief. I understand how strong the effects of self hate can be, and that other people can still like your work, even if it's half hearted and not to your best standard. I know people around me, my friends and followers like my drawing art style in an animated form, which I haven't really done yet in animation. And I know the importance of advertising yourself and your contacts.

'Sigma Final'

 

Freelancing Lesson: TASK

KEY:

1. United Kingdom - Spend £2,516.37 - Left £1,833.63
2. United States - Spend £4,014.93 - Left £3570.89
3. Canada - Spend £3,189.53 - Left £1,349.84
4. Final pay

Production expenses: 

• Computer - £1k for 4 years?  £20.83 per month
• RTX 3080 graphics card as recommended in class £750
• PC + parts for a tower 3D level = £2k
• Current laptop = £650 on Black Friday (1 year and already crashing on Maya etc, I use quite high performance stuff)
• Software - Max £317, Min £218.05 per month on the months I need Maya
• Adobe package - £50 per month , $52/£38.05 per month , CDN$70/£39.85 per month
• Maya - £234 per month  , $205/£150 per month , CDN$265/£150.86 per month
• Blender 😈 - Free!
• Toon Boom (harmony advanced) - £33 per month , $41/£30 per month , CND$55/£31.31 per month
• Other - 
• Actors - $150 for 15 seconds: £439.02 , $600 , CDN$771.16 for a minute of footage
• Musicians - £9.97 , $13.63 , CDN$17.51 an hour
• Working space? (I think I would rather work from home but the future could change) - Freeeee? I couldn't find any prices.. 

Overheads: 

• Bills
• Rent - £650 Leeds , $871/£637.31 Michigan , CND$1200/£683.16 City Centre
• Internet - £27 Average , $56.60/£41.41 , CND$10/ £5.69
• Phone - £25 (currently £10 not unlimited but close) , $114/£83.41 , CND$80/£45.54(Unlimited)
• Gas - £56.33 Average , $63.25/£46.28 , CND$130/£74.01
• Water - £46 Ours , $50/£36.59 , CND$50/£28.46 (Including garbage and sewage)
• Electricity - £58.25 Average , $97.41/£71.27 Michigan , CND$174/£99.60 Average
• Home Insurance - £7.83 , $7.50/£5.49 , CND$840??/£478.21
• Healthcare  
• Eye and dentist:
• UK £40 eye test, £60 dentist £100 a year  (£250 leeway), £8.33 (£10.83 with £30 leeway) 
• USA $46/£33.66 eye test, $49/£35.85 dentist check up a year (£7.72 with £30 leeway)
• Canada CND$75/£42.70 eye test, CND£35/£19.93 dentist check up a year  (£7.71 with £30 leeway)
• Prescription - Asthma(will be more than this with transitioning) £3, $16.08/£11.77 , CND$4.96/£2.82
• (US healthcare insurance) - AVERAGE $141.45/£103.50 per month
• Women - £7 , $5/£3.66 , CND$7/£4
• Travel
• Holiday - £2000 2 years? - £83.33 per month
• Business trips - £700 year - £78.33 per month
• Festivals - £70 year - £5.83 per month
• Transport - I mostly walk but say 2 trains and 3 busses which is last years total. 
• UK - £136 Manchester to Leeds isn't so far but £100 ish leeway for London - £11.33 per month
• USA - $130/£95.12 Buses are $1 and train average is $127 - £7.92 per month
• Canada - CND$150 trains plus $9.60 buses - CND$159.60/£90.86 - £7.57 per month
• Clothes - £12
• Entertainment - £16.66
• Gifts - £20.83
• Food - £25 , $50/£36.59 , CND$81.26/£46.26

I think whilst doing the research, and all of the related ads that kept coming up in-between research off of Instagram and google (I was asking my US friends for some of these facts) I realised just how bad and complex US healthcare is. And though the price of salary and other bills may balance out the payments in terms of the US to the UK - It's pretty clear that Canada seems like a better option all around.