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titmasjack · 5 years

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Mystery Box Briefing

For the second half of BA1b, and as our brief overlap just before our first submission due on the 26th of February, today I was introduced to the ‘Mystery Box Project’. Our largest element of animation that will be produced in the first year, this project gives us the opportunity to focus on and explore the medium of our choice as an introduction to not only choosing a specialism but interpreting, designing and creating an outcome in a much more industry-led process.

With the opportunity to explore either CG or Stop-Motion our brief introduction to either medium over the previous three weeks gave us our first initial insight to the programs, processes and techniques I am expected to incorporate throughout either path I decide to pursue. Whilst I don’t have to initially decide today, my first instinct was to pursue CG not only for my keen interest in the medium itself but its inherent dominance in today's animation market. And with the capability of spending additional time in one area of animation, I believe it would best suit me to pursue and explore the medium that I could most incorporate within an animation career down the line.

Although I have particularly enjoyed stop-motion more over the past few weeks, I believe I would be able to create a more refined and better-animated outcome through the use of CG. Using a pre-determined rig provided by the ‘11 Second Animation’ Club, I think that my approach to animation would best suit CG’s process of iteration and editorial capabilities in comparison to Stop-Motion’s very much straight ahead approach to animation.

Having to consider how I can best incorporate the principles of animation into my work, I believe that through CG’s inherent ability to reiterate and add additional animation through the use of passes I would be able to create a much more ‘refined’ and ‘animated’ character that uses and exaggerates more prominent principles such as exaggeration and secondary action in comparison to the same rigged character using stop-motion.

Brief Expectations

With four weeks to create a short animated sequence using a pre-defined 3D rig or stop-motion armature, we’ll be exploring an industry influenced process in which I establish the journey between the beginning to the final outcome of my main animated piece for the second half of BA1b. To create an 10-15 second animated sequence, I will have to establish a character entering on screen, interacting and looking into a ‘Mystery Box’ followed through by reacting to its content.

Whilst the action must take place within a fixed shot, I have the flexibility to explore the use of angles and dynamics of the character as well. Considering who the character is through their use of action can I determine a character through their use of posture and gesture alone. Even though we’ll all be working with a pre-defined character and rig, how can I ensure that my character is unique through the way they act? What's in the box, even though I’m not allowed to show the contents of the box to the audience, will I allow what's in the box to determine how my character reacts, how will this establish the characters fear or intrigue to the box in the first place?

These are all things I can consider and will have to build upon throughout the first weeks of my project. Not only expected to create an animated outcome, but I will also have to deliver an established variety of storyboards that showcase my original ideas. A detailed animatic that shows a moving image sequence detailing the intended actions of my characters, and my up to date blog that highlights not only my progression, reflection and thoughts on the weeks that go by but the array of research I have gathered to support the development of my project.

We’ll be breaking down these tasks into the upcoming weeks, establishing how one acts upon another, if all goes to plan, I should be able to a clear progression in how my work has developed in the hopes of a final animated outcome. Introduced to a new task each week I understand that it’s my responsibility to keep up to date and on top of any work we are given by working additionally outside of NUA hours to get my work to the standard I hope to achieve.

Week 9: Setting a Foundation

Introducing the brief, this week establishes how we can pursue the briefs outcomes through either specialist pathway. Through introducing us to the importance and continuation of reference footage we have our second lesson with Sarah Perry in a performance workshop that will establish how we can use ourselves and peers as an influence to build a character. This lesson will re-establish the values and lessons we learnt in BA1a as a refresher to the importance of acting in animation.

Alongside this we will be introduced to Helen Schroeder, a storyboard artist for films such as Aardman’s ‘Arthur Christmas’ we’ll reflect and criticise our initial storyboards to develop, suggest and evolve our ideas to how we can establish a better and sense of clarity to our final objectives of the brief.

This will give us the chance to reflect on our initial ideas and take what we’ve learnt before establishing a more refined rendition of our first thoughts and processes surrounding the mystery box project as we begin to develop our ideas.

Week 10: Developing my Ideas

Branching off the ideas we established in week 9, Helen Schroeder will showcase how we can translate our storyboards to a much more organic and industry-led, animatic. To showcase a more in-depth rendition of our ideas, this will help re-iterate the key poses, gestures and actions we want to establish throughout our scene.

Our first chance of animation in this project, this will establish how I can use the process of blocking in a much more loose and organic style to represent the motions of the character. Although I have chosen to pursue CG, this will hopefully give me the opportunity to once again introduce TVPaint in my work, as I have found so far that this is easily been the most prominent program I have relied on and gone back to, to establish and develop my ideas to a standard that I can understand.

Week 11: Transitioning to Animation

With an established idea for my project, Week 11 would initiate the starting point for our animated outcomes. Using a new program such as Maya, I want to ensure that I have enough time to not only get to grips with the software once again but consider any overlap for the previous week's work that I may have to catch up on.

Although having a plan of the work I intend to produce is great, this week of overlap will allow me to catch up on any work that on the off chance I don’t get around to completing. Although I’m fairly enthusiastic to kick start this project, this is something I must always consider as I will have to produce a blog alongside my work, finding time to reflect on each week work as well as handing in previous projects that have already been established and will be handed in during this week.

Week 12: Refining my Outcome

Solely focusing on producing my animation, I will spend the majority of this week in the Media Lab, animating, refining and creating loads of iterations and passes on my animation in the hopes of showcasing how my ideas have not only developed but incorporated the animation principles throughout my work, justifying my reason for originally picking CG animation.

Although not set in stone, I will discuss my reasoning for picking CG and my first initial animator influences based on research of existing artists and processes that are used in the industry today. I'm excited to get a head start on this project and to establish a strong foundation as I make my way through the four weeks of this project. Unlike previous projects, I aim to once again start to get my blog back on track in completing each blog post the day or within 24 hours in which we learnt about the subject. I believe that once I’m able to get this upcoming deadline out of the way I’ll have the time and resources to solely focus on this ‘Mystery Box’ Project to produce the best outcome possible.

To summarise;

I established what I’ll be completing over the course of the next four weeks and how they will be used to produce my intended outcome.

Consider how I can begin to create and establish a range of ideas using external influences and storyboards.

Begin to research existing animators and influencers that may widen my knowledge on the industry-led process or how a character has been used outside of the animation industry.

Discuss which specialism I hope to pursue and why I have made this decision.

Sources;

‘Mystery Box Animation Reel’ Youtube Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsYlrbdcLpc

‘emmakniemis’ Instagram Link https://www.instagram.com/emmakniemis/

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