chaya-mga2022mi5019
Chaya Weerasinghe
MI5019 - Experimental Motion Graphics | Semester II, Year 2
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Final 30-Second Film
This module provided me with valuable learning experience and taught me how to communicate information, ideas, and abstract feelings through experimental motion graphics. Here, as I present my final deliverable for the project, I will go through my personal experience throughout the project, the skills I gained, and the challenges I faced.
Thinking back about the past few years and the last modules we had, I always tend to latch onto my initial idea and follow it straight through without really exploring the full scope of possibilities. I often form a strong bond with the first idea that pops up and follow through with it. Therefore, this module was a huge challenge for me.
However, the red hat marked a turning point in this when I decided to step out of my usual way of navigating projects and started to experiment.
Although it seemed challenging at first and I quite disliked it, as I worked through the project, I was able to understand the importance of experimenting as it truly helped me a lot throughout the project in making critical design decisions. I also learned how vital the auditory experience is as the visual when I started to experiment with the soundtracks to further heighten the viewer's emotional journey throughout the film.
At first, it was a bit of a challenge as experimenting with different materials, techniques, and ideas, and constantly having to adapt to new processes and learning curves demanded effective time management. But I think compared to last semester, my time management has significantly improved throughout this semester. I was able to navigate through the project without much stress, which resulted in quality material and execution for the final film. I also learned to break down complex tasks into manageable steps and create a clear roadmap for each hat. This helped me stay organized throughout the project.
To conclude, working on this project provided me with a valuable learning experience. I've learned to embrace experimentation and challenge my creative boundaries. I've also learned how to approach and use my skills in an experimental and innovative manner to resolve issues. I learned uncertainty and experimentation can indeed lead to better results and that also played a part in my creative growth throughout the project. Therefore, as the year comes to an end, and I conclude my last project for the semester, I'm excited to carry these lessons with me as I move forward and continue to push my creative boundaries.
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Sound Design | Further Development
I also realized I could infuse the concept of camouflaging into my soundtrack, and add an extra layer of depth to the animation to further reinforce the theme.
For this, I decided that I could use sound effects that mimic the subtle movements of camouflaged creatures. Like sounds of leaves brushing against one another or the shifting sound of twigs right before the audience sees the camouflaged insect. I can also insert sound effects of an insect's feet lightly brushing leaves, and the light rustling of leaves, etc.
Another idea I also had was to add a slow rhythmic heartbeat sound to convey the creature's calm and calculated movements as I could reveal the presence of an insect in a pile of seemingly natural leaves through that. I will integrate this subtly into the background making it infused into the environment's ambience. This will metaphorically mirror how camouflaged creatures seamlessly blend into their surroundings, becoming one with nature. This rhythmic heartbeat sound effect will also portray the sense of patience in the creature as these camouflaged creatures are always in control, and not making any sudden actions that would reveal their presence.
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Soundtracks I used:
Final Result:
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Sound Design
This was the initial track I was using in the background of my animation. However, I didn't settle for this track as it is, and decided to experiment with it and ended up cutting and editing it quite a bit to add to the animation's emotional resonance. One significant change I made was setting the track to crescendo at the very beginning of the animation, right when the insect steps out of its camouflage to catch a fly. I think this had a huge impact on the animation as it not only heightened the sense of anticipation but also made it quite dramatic and acted as a strong mood-setter right from the start.
Here, my goal was to create an audio-visual experience throughout the animation, so I dived deeper into further experimenting with the track. I added another layer of bird chirp noises in the background. This made it a more immersive experience and made the environments in the animation come alive.
I also cut and adjusted the music in a way that it descends and comes to an end after the black hat animation, and continues in a different tone for the rest of the two clips as those clips act as one unit to support the final solution of the animation. By continuing the soundtrack at a lower volume and different tone for these clips, I was able to maintain a sense of continuity while subtly shifting the audio focus to support the final resolution of the animation.
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Animation Progress So Far (With new green hat) + Visual Coherence and Color Palette Problems
As the brief mentioned, there needs to be an underlying visual coherence in terms of color throughout the whole animation.
At this stage, I wasn't quite sure which green hat idea to go with; the orange hippopotamus idea, or the elephant in the grass. Since the clip that goes before this (Yellow hat) has a very bright orange color palette going on, I made the hippopotamus match that and added orange highlights to the grass to add to the cohesion and harmony of the animation.
However, when I considered the overall structure of the animation and the color palettes used in all the other clips, I noticed a recurring green palette throughout every other hat. This made me like the new green hat with the elephant more since it harmonized well with the green palette I had throughout the project.
To further analyze this, I made 3 different lineups of the animation as it made it easier for me to choose one that suits the animation the best.
The first row is what I suggested earlier. To follow the green palette that's going on in all the other clips (except for the yellow hat), I made the green hat also go with that same palette to support the rest of the animation.
Does it support the visual coherence throughout the animation? Kinda? But not really? The bright orange in the yellow hat in the middle seems to distract the green color palette throughout the animation.
As for the second row, to bring down the bright orange of the yellow hat which seems to distract the flow of the animation, I replaced it with another experiment that I had done earlier which happened to have more hints of green.
Does it support the visual coherence throughout the animation? Better than the first row, I'd say. The green leaves did add to the cohesion a bit, but not good enough as it still appears to be a bit odd.
I would say the third row is what caught my attention the most. I think the yellow hat and the green hat complement each other very well in terms of color.
Although these two clips don't match with the first half of the animation with the shared green palette, those clips act more as an introduction to the final solution while the last two clips act as one unit to support the final solution itself. Therefore, I realized the last two clips don't necessarily have to merge with the green color palette used in the other clips, and it can stand out using a different shared color palette to represent it as one unit.
And these were the reasons that made the orange hippopotamus animation a more fitting choice for the green hat in my project.
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Throughout this process, I realized the importance of experimentation in projects. I realized that if I had not chosen to further experiment with the green hat after shooting the hippopotamus footage, the elephant animation, and its role in the project, would not even have existed.
Although I didn't end up using the elephant clip, it still contributed a lot to the project and my growth as an artist as it had me questioning the entire concept of visual coherence throughout the project which pushed me to think more critically about my design solutions.
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Green Hat - Further Experimentation | Test Render
I also tried changing the color of the hunters' animation but ended up liking the previous version more since it seems more noticeable.
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Green Hat - Further Experimentation | Development
To add some motion to the clip, I decided to add a wiggle to the lineart on After Effects using a Turbulence Displacement effect.
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Green Hat - Further Experimentation | Development
I also tried drawing on top of the scene in 2D to add more life to it.
Final result:
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Green Hat - Further Experimentation | Development
I then tried putting the 3D model of the elephant in different environments that I had taken pictures of earlier for the hippopotamus shoot.
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Green Hat - Further Experimentation | Development
For my green hat, I wanted to further experiment with different materials and see if I like it better than the clay animation I have for now. So I started off by sculpting an elephant on Zbrush to replace the hippopotamus. And these are some of the inspirations I looked at:
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Going back to Clip 4 (Black Hat) | Adding the Flies
I exported the same insects I used for the Red Hat and changed its color. Then keyframed the animation on After Effects.
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