I think this unit has been good for organisation and learning skills such as referencing. It has also been good to learn about broadcasting controls because when I was doing the subtitles, I would not even thought about the action grids unless I was told. I think my organisation has been good. Even though I am slightly behind on my personal schedule, I don't think this could have been helped because we have had so many unforeseen issues.
I think the way the shots came out was good - I am particularly happy with the environment shot but we still need to improve. I need to investigate issues like not rendering properly and referencing correctly before I go any further because these will only pull us back even further if they are not sorted soon.
I think my marketing is going well and I will happily continue to market the film until the degree show. I will also continue to market myself and get my website up to date as well as completing a better showreel and uploading that to various websites. Now that I have my business card designs, I will get them printed. I will also add more contact details to our group contact card and get some printed for the degree show.
I think I have responded well to this unit and kept as organised as possible. I think that I am not perfect and still have some work to do but I can use the skills I have learnt for this unit to progress further in y professional career.
Friday, 16 March 2012
Two Shots
As a group we have been working on getting two shots done for this project. The first, we decided, should be an establishing shot. The environment was pretty much complete so it just needed a slow zoom into it. This is how it came out:
(if video does not work, it can be seen at: https://vimeo.com/38626556)
For this shot, James modelled the environment which was then tweaked by me (I added the flat surface to the top of the hill). I modelled and added the stairs and pavilion. The textures were mainly basic textures which I simply added but the stairs texture, I got an image of beige stone texture of the internet and then added it to make it look a bit better and a bit more like stone. I added the trees using paint effects but they came out much better than expected when rendered in Vray. I also changed the settings of the ocean shader to get a nice river effect than flowed in the direction we wanted.
I rendered all the main environment using Vray but the river would not render unless I was using mental ray. I made everything a bright green colour (except the water) and then rendered this so it could just be keyed out in After Effects. Once both parts had been rendered, I used After Effects to key out the green but there were still some parts visible. To get around this I used a mask and it worked perfectly. Once the keyed shot was layered over the environment shot, t was hard to tell they were not rendered together.
I created a slow zoom using After Effects because then all the footage would stay perfectly composited. I rendered it in After Effects and uploaded it to my Vimeo account.
The second shot has some character animation in. We didn't just want the scene where they are sleeping to be a static image so Lily posed the characters and added the breathing animation. We had real trouble with this shot because the animated characters would not import into the environment scene correctly. When we tried to import the environment into the animated characters, the rig stopped working so the characters no longer moved. We had problems with rendering too. The animated cat had eyes which would not render using Vray. I tried to use a static image but it looked very poor (https://vimeo.com/38626617) and I was not happy with it.
I had tried several different ways to get the eye to render but the only way was to delete the eyes and start again. It took my a long time because once I had recreated the eyes, they would not move with the head so they kept coming out of its body. In the end, it was getting too late to keep messing around so I animated the eyes so that they moved when the head moved.
Now I had a working animation but I could not get it into the environment without the rig not working or the animation not being carried across. All of the group tried to make suggestions but because I was the only one that had both the animation file and the environment file, the others couldn't do it. My and James Tomkins are the only ones with Vray as well so it was either me or him who needed to render it.
In the end James suggesting that we composite the scene. I spent a one time adding lights to make sure that it matched as closely as possible. It took a long time to render the animation in Vray eventhough it didn't have any environment. I then took a static image of a small part of the environment. Using After Effects again, I keyed out the green background of the animation and added the environment image so it looks like they are sleeping on the grass. I then rendered this and uploaded to Vimeo. Here is the shot:
(if the video cannot be viewed properly, you can watch it here: https://vimeo.com/38635102)
The video quality is quite poor because of limited upload sizes on Vimeo but the final film is in much better quality.
I think this shot is better than it was and I prefer it with animation than just a static image.
(if video does not work, it can be seen at: https://vimeo.com/38626556)
For this shot, James modelled the environment which was then tweaked by me (I added the flat surface to the top of the hill). I modelled and added the stairs and pavilion. The textures were mainly basic textures which I simply added but the stairs texture, I got an image of beige stone texture of the internet and then added it to make it look a bit better and a bit more like stone. I added the trees using paint effects but they came out much better than expected when rendered in Vray. I also changed the settings of the ocean shader to get a nice river effect than flowed in the direction we wanted.
I rendered all the main environment using Vray but the river would not render unless I was using mental ray. I made everything a bright green colour (except the water) and then rendered this so it could just be keyed out in After Effects. Once both parts had been rendered, I used After Effects to key out the green but there were still some parts visible. To get around this I used a mask and it worked perfectly. Once the keyed shot was layered over the environment shot, t was hard to tell they were not rendered together.
I created a slow zoom using After Effects because then all the footage would stay perfectly composited. I rendered it in After Effects and uploaded it to my Vimeo account.
The second shot has some character animation in. We didn't just want the scene where they are sleeping to be a static image so Lily posed the characters and added the breathing animation. We had real trouble with this shot because the animated characters would not import into the environment scene correctly. When we tried to import the environment into the animated characters, the rig stopped working so the characters no longer moved. We had problems with rendering too. The animated cat had eyes which would not render using Vray. I tried to use a static image but it looked very poor (https://vimeo.com/38626617) and I was not happy with it.
I had tried several different ways to get the eye to render but the only way was to delete the eyes and start again. It took my a long time because once I had recreated the eyes, they would not move with the head so they kept coming out of its body. In the end, it was getting too late to keep messing around so I animated the eyes so that they moved when the head moved.
Now I had a working animation but I could not get it into the environment without the rig not working or the animation not being carried across. All of the group tried to make suggestions but because I was the only one that had both the animation file and the environment file, the others couldn't do it. My and James Tomkins are the only ones with Vray as well so it was either me or him who needed to render it.
In the end James suggesting that we composite the scene. I spent a one time adding lights to make sure that it matched as closely as possible. It took a long time to render the animation in Vray eventhough it didn't have any environment. I then took a static image of a small part of the environment. Using After Effects again, I keyed out the green background of the animation and added the environment image so it looks like they are sleeping on the grass. I then rendered this and uploaded to Vimeo. Here is the shot:
(if the video cannot be viewed properly, you can watch it here: https://vimeo.com/38635102)
The video quality is quite poor because of limited upload sizes on Vimeo but the final film is in much better quality.
I think this shot is better than it was and I prefer it with animation than just a static image.
Tuesday, 13 March 2012
Identifying an employer
The area that I would like to work in within the animation industry is commercials or shorts. There are lots of companies out there that create animation for advertising. Because of the argot market of our film, I have tried to find companies that also focus on children's television shows as well as commercials as this would best suit where I would be looking for employment and they would be the most interested in our film.
The first company, that I have mentioned in previous posts, is Blue Zoo. They are a great example of a studio that animates children's television and does television commercials. They have worked with cartoon network and nickelodeon as well as doing diverts for kelloggs "choc and roll" cereal. I did not know anyone from the company so I looked on there website and found their info@bluezoo email address. I sent them this email:
The first company, that I have mentioned in previous posts, is Blue Zoo. They are a great example of a studio that animates children's television and does television commercials. They have worked with cartoon network and nickelodeon as well as doing diverts for kelloggs "choc and roll" cereal. I did not know anyone from the company so I looked on there website and found their info@bluezoo email address. I sent them this email:
This was to make first contact and hopefully get this message around their studio to generate interest in the degree show. It also encouraged more contact with myself and made it clear that it was for animation. I have not had any response at present.
I remembered that a few months ago Steve Smith from Beakus came to ravensbourne and gave us a talk about how he started up Trunk and Beakus. From that I remembered getting his business card with his email on.
Beakus have done commercials and web adverts as well as children's television. I thought they would be a great company to contact. This time I sent an email directly to Steve Smith and this is what I wrote:
As of yet, I have not heard back from him either.
At the beginning of this year, I had some contact with Philip Hunt, a director for Studio AKA. I was talking about the water from Lost and Found because our film focuses quite heavily on the water as well as it is based around the river. When I was corresponding with him, he gave me some great advice about seeing the water as a character in itself rather than some settings that make it work. To finish our conversation, I invited him to our degree show and left it on a positive note.
Lastly, while searching for companies, I came across Lumiere Studios. They do a lot of commercials and Idents for different channels. They have a lot of experience and a very big client list. I thought I would attempt to contact them. When looking on their website, it gives you a producers name and email address so I sent her an email similar to the previous ones but I got a reply very soon afterwards.
I asked Rob who is our degree show rep and he said that they had not made the official invites yet but if I forwarded him the message he would send them out to her as soon as they were ready. I sent an email back to Claire and explained this so that it did not look as though I had ignored her.
Wednesday, 7 March 2012
Rendering
We have decided not to use the render farm to render our film. This for many reasons:
1. It does not take too long to render on our computers and the maximum length of a single shot is about 10 seconds.
2. I have found rendering in Vray quite temperamental. If a shot is rendering how it should be looking, then the render farm will not know so it will carry on with the render and therefore waste us time.
3. We can keep an eye on the rendering when it is in our own homes. Me and James have computers that have really fast processors so we can render a shot, make the image sequence into footage and composite the shot together within a few hours. We can tell when it is done so set up the next shot and start compositing the previous shot all at the same time.
I think with all the problems we are having with Vray and rendering, it is not an ideal solution to use the render farm. If we find a more stable way of rendering in Vray so we can guarantee that it will work each time so it is just a case of straight rending, then the render farm would be more beneficial to us.
1. It does not take too long to render on our computers and the maximum length of a single shot is about 10 seconds.
2. I have found rendering in Vray quite temperamental. If a shot is rendering how it should be looking, then the render farm will not know so it will carry on with the render and therefore waste us time.
3. We can keep an eye on the rendering when it is in our own homes. Me and James have computers that have really fast processors so we can render a shot, make the image sequence into footage and composite the shot together within a few hours. We can tell when it is done so set up the next shot and start compositing the previous shot all at the same time.
I think with all the problems we are having with Vray and rendering, it is not an ideal solution to use the render farm. If we find a more stable way of rendering in Vray so we can guarantee that it will work each time so it is just a case of straight rending, then the render farm would be more beneficial to us.
Thursday, 23 February 2012
Referencing
Ac couple of weeks ago we were taught how to reference our files into a scene. This is so if the models change, they automatically get updated in the other scene. This is a very handy method to use, especially for us as we have three characters and an environment. The characters are changing all the time so they are constantly being updated. If we had any animation, this would be lost with the updated models, but with referencing this does not happen.
We have had a few problems with out referencing and they are mainly rendering issues. I have found that when I reference a model into a scene, they no longer render in Vray (We are using Vray to give us the black outlines for our cartoony characters). The strange thing is that in their own files they will render in Vray just fine but as soon as you reference the file into another scene, it will no longer be visible when you render.
This is a problem, that is ongoing but it is something we will have to figure out how to fix. Referencing is very important for us because the models so often need changes. It can be something small, like a weight painted wrong, or something huge like having to add more set driven keys or changing the texture so having to repaint all the weights. Referencing is definitely something we need to use, it is just a case of solving this small issue before we can render any character animated shots.
We have had a few problems with out referencing and they are mainly rendering issues. I have found that when I reference a model into a scene, they no longer render in Vray (We are using Vray to give us the black outlines for our cartoony characters). The strange thing is that in their own files they will render in Vray just fine but as soon as you reference the file into another scene, it will no longer be visible when you render.
This is a problem, that is ongoing but it is something we will have to figure out how to fix. Referencing is very important for us because the models so often need changes. It can be something small, like a weight painted wrong, or something huge like having to add more set driven keys or changing the texture so having to repaint all the weights. Referencing is definitely something we need to use, it is just a case of solving this small issue before we can render any character animated shots.
Tuesday, 21 February 2012
Business cards and marketing
As part of my plan to market myself, I have designed mini business cards. These have all my contact details on. I am also designing a group contact card for the degree show and for our film.
For my business cards, I will be using the company Moo and using their mini business cards. I will being using different designs and ordering 300 cards. These are my designs:
For my business cards, I will be using the company Moo and using their mini business cards. I will being using different designs and ordering 300 cards. These are my designs:
The card at the bottom will shows the back of each business card and the other pictures are the front designs. Most of the pictures are photographs I have taken and some others are of my own 3D work. It has all my personal details on so they can get hold of me by telephone or email and has my web address on there too.
I have made a mock up of what the group contact cards will look like and this is it:
The first image os go the front and is the poster that Sarah has created. The back shows all of our profile pictures with the roles we had in the group. There is space for us to add other details such as a website address, twitter or linked in account details.
My own personal website is currently under construction. It is www.olywalters.com and even though it has a basic structure, I still need to add pages and my work. This will be updated and added to throughout my career. t is vital that this is done before the degree show but all the base is there - I just need to add information to it.
My showreel also needs updating. I am not very happy with it but I have some small parts which I like. I am going to add to it and rework some parts before the degree show so I have a more up to date showreel. When this is done, I will put it on my different accounts and also on my website as an overview of what I can do.
Saturday, 18 February 2012
Updating
So I have lots of different accounts on places like linkedin.com, creative pool.com and AnimationBase. I also have a youtube account with all my tests that I have done posted on it. None of these accounts have been updated - most did not even have a picture of me.
This is what I have been doing all of this week. I have updated my CV so it shows that I now have a foundation degree. I have also taken a profile pic - the one I have sent to James previously, and added that to my several accounts. On some of them I had to explain my skills and write a summary about myself.
I still need to update my website so that I can put it on my business cards for the degree show. I have a basic website but it is not focused towards my profession. I need to add my contact details and add some of my work and artwork. I also need to redo my showreel, I looked at it recently and it is already out of date, It has some things on there that I am not particularly proud of and that I could have done better. This will eventually go onto my website as well and onto my accounts so that people who are looking at my profiles will be able to see the best of my work.
I have tried to network a bit more on linked in and twitter so more people will look at me and know who I am. I never really used twitter but I think it would be a good idea to get more people interested in what I have to say. Linked in has been a great tool because I have been able to join groups and make more connections. I have been able to find older students and see what they have done since they left to give me aspirations and ideas of what I can do. I have managed to make a connection with a recruiter at the Moving Picture Company and look into lots of groups to start to make contacts.
I am hoping that if I market myself and my work well, I can make more connections within the industry which will help me secure a good job when I leave.
This is what I have been doing all of this week. I have updated my CV so it shows that I now have a foundation degree. I have also taken a profile pic - the one I have sent to James previously, and added that to my several accounts. On some of them I had to explain my skills and write a summary about myself.
I still need to update my website so that I can put it on my business cards for the degree show. I have a basic website but it is not focused towards my profession. I need to add my contact details and add some of my work and artwork. I also need to redo my showreel, I looked at it recently and it is already out of date, It has some things on there that I am not particularly proud of and that I could have done better. This will eventually go onto my website as well and onto my accounts so that people who are looking at my profiles will be able to see the best of my work.
I have tried to network a bit more on linked in and twitter so more people will look at me and know who I am. I never really used twitter but I think it would be a good idea to get more people interested in what I have to say. Linked in has been a great tool because I have been able to join groups and make more connections. I have been able to find older students and see what they have done since they left to give me aspirations and ideas of what I can do. I have managed to make a connection with a recruiter at the Moving Picture Company and look into lots of groups to start to make contacts.
I am hoping that if I market myself and my work well, I can make more connections within the industry which will help me secure a good job when I leave.
Tuesday, 14 February 2012
Website Contribution
For our website for the Cat and Rat film, we each have a section explaining what we have done and links to our other personal websites etc. At the moment, I have not had the time to make my own personal website for my own work but I do have the URL for it - it is a case of updating it with my personal work.
For the group website I have sent james a profile picture of myself, I have explained the win points of what I have done for the project and also my links to my account such as youtube.com, vimeo, linked in and twitter.
This is how my section looks.
These have been added to the artwork section. Once more shots get completed, I will keep taking still images and sending them to James so that he can add them to the section so it looks better for our group.
For the group website I have sent james a profile picture of myself, I have explained the win points of what I have done for the project and also my links to my account such as youtube.com, vimeo, linked in and twitter.
This is how my section looks.
James Waters has done a good job, and all the links under the "contact" part work so you can see my other profile on the other websites.
This has lead me into thinking about my profiles on other websites such as linked in and some job websites like AnimationBase and creative pool. This is something I will have to update especially if people will start looking at my profiles when I apply for jobs.
The other thing James wanted was some artwork for the website. I have been working on the environment mostly to get it right for the film. I took some stylised composited shots of the scene to add to the website. I also added some pictures of my models once they had been textured so that James could put them on the website. I including some rough sketches and drawings to show some of my concept work. These were the images I posted.
Saturday, 11 February 2012
How do other animators market their products?
I have been doing some research into marketing. We have to market our final films with is fine if we were just marketing to Ravensbourne, but we are marketing to industry.
To market a film is quite hard on its own. Currently we have posts being designed and our website but the problem is getting people to see these. We have merchandise for our film which we can send to industry which would be one way of doing it. I was thinking about making up a group flyer which had our contact details on. On one side would be the film and what it is about etc, and the other side would be all of our contact details and roles that we did in the film. If we sent this with an invite to Ravensbourne 2012 and a badge or bottle opener key ring, it may be more memorable and they would be less likely to throw it say and take notice instead. This is something I will be doing when the Ravensbourne 2012 invites have been made.
I found a good article about independent film marketing. You can read it here:
http://www.independent-magazine.org/magazine/07/2009/marketingyourfilm
It was really interesting to read the different case studies and how they each marketed their films differently. Now it s highly unlikely that I will rent a van and travel around the UK trying to show our 2 minute film but some things did stand out.
Festivals. Animation festivals and film festivals would be a really good way to start. It shows people who are interested in new animators and film makers what we have produced and even lead to more work. Ravensboune 2012 will be like our own film screening which industry will hopefully come down and see so we can network and gain some publicity that way.
in April there is the sundance film festival being shown at the o2. It is too late to enter into it but it is also for feature films rather than shorts but London International Animation Festival is currently looking for animations to be entered. I went to LIAF last year and saw some really good animations against some really poor ones but there were plenty of people in the audience it is definitely a good way to help market your film.
Some more modern ways to market films are to add them to youtube and vimeo and post your videos on different channels. Vimeo has staff choice videos that has featured animation quite regularly. These are on the home page so have really good potential for people to see them.
Facebook groups are another way. You can post the videos on different groups to do with animation and film and people will share them. If it is really good, it could be shared by hundreds of people, giving more publicity to the film and becoming a good way to market it.
These are all different ways to market films. With our own film, I think I will post it on Facebook for people to share with friends and write to different companies to gain interest. I think it won't be ready before the entries to LIAF are due in so that would not be a possibility this year but it will something to think about if I produce better work in the future or could even enter it for next year.
I will certainly be putting some parts of the film on my showreel which is posted in many different sites for people to see. I have a linked in account plus vimeo, youtube, twitter and Facebook account which I can post links to our website and get people to share any video that I have posted on youtube or vimeo. I can market myself by making and updating my website with my work and having business card with contact information on. I will be giving these out at the degree show as well as the group contact flyers that I will post to industry with our merchandise.
To market a film is quite hard on its own. Currently we have posts being designed and our website but the problem is getting people to see these. We have merchandise for our film which we can send to industry which would be one way of doing it. I was thinking about making up a group flyer which had our contact details on. On one side would be the film and what it is about etc, and the other side would be all of our contact details and roles that we did in the film. If we sent this with an invite to Ravensbourne 2012 and a badge or bottle opener key ring, it may be more memorable and they would be less likely to throw it say and take notice instead. This is something I will be doing when the Ravensbourne 2012 invites have been made.
I found a good article about independent film marketing. You can read it here:
http://www.independent-magazine.org/magazine/07/2009/marketingyourfilm
It was really interesting to read the different case studies and how they each marketed their films differently. Now it s highly unlikely that I will rent a van and travel around the UK trying to show our 2 minute film but some things did stand out.
Festivals. Animation festivals and film festivals would be a really good way to start. It shows people who are interested in new animators and film makers what we have produced and even lead to more work. Ravensboune 2012 will be like our own film screening which industry will hopefully come down and see so we can network and gain some publicity that way.
in April there is the sundance film festival being shown at the o2. It is too late to enter into it but it is also for feature films rather than shorts but London International Animation Festival is currently looking for animations to be entered. I went to LIAF last year and saw some really good animations against some really poor ones but there were plenty of people in the audience it is definitely a good way to help market your film.
Some more modern ways to market films are to add them to youtube and vimeo and post your videos on different channels. Vimeo has staff choice videos that has featured animation quite regularly. These are on the home page so have really good potential for people to see them.
Facebook groups are another way. You can post the videos on different groups to do with animation and film and people will share them. If it is really good, it could be shared by hundreds of people, giving more publicity to the film and becoming a good way to market it.
These are all different ways to market films. With our own film, I think I will post it on Facebook for people to share with friends and write to different companies to gain interest. I think it won't be ready before the entries to LIAF are due in so that would not be a possibility this year but it will something to think about if I produce better work in the future or could even enter it for next year.
I will certainly be putting some parts of the film on my showreel which is posted in many different sites for people to see. I have a linked in account plus vimeo, youtube, twitter and Facebook account which I can post links to our website and get people to share any video that I have posted on youtube or vimeo. I can market myself by making and updating my website with my work and having business card with contact information on. I will be giving these out at the degree show as well as the group contact flyers that I will post to industry with our merchandise.
Thursday, 2 February 2012
Planning
For professional skills, we have to market our films and try and get contacts from the industry.
I have already set us up a group email account and from this we have managed to create a Dropbox account to share our files with each other. I will be looking after the email account and setting up documents each week that track our meetings. I have also got people to link their individual contracts to the document part of our email account so we can see what each other has agreed to do. This is a sort of back up so if someone is not pulling their weight we can show them what they have agreed to do. Similarly, if someone doesn't know what to do for that week, they can refer back to the contracts and the minutes of each meeting. This is how it looks so far:
I have already set us up a group email account and from this we have managed to create a Dropbox account to share our files with each other. I will be looking after the email account and setting up documents each week that track our meetings. I have also got people to link their individual contracts to the document part of our email account so we can see what each other has agreed to do. This is a sort of back up so if someone is not pulling their weight we can show them what they have agreed to do. Similarly, if someone doesn't know what to do for that week, they can refer back to the contracts and the minutes of each meeting. This is how it looks so far:
In terms of roles for this project, James Waters has experience with building websites so he has agreed to make us a website with the information that we will provide. Sarah Strickland has agreed to make the posters for us and our film. She has asked each of us for an idea and she has draw up basic ideas. She will then pick a few of the best designs and make them into posters for us. I have been looking after the merchandise. The badges and key rings that we made last term for our E and E project - I have been collecting them together as they got distributed to try and get more sales after the project finished. So I have been gathering them together and organising them to see what we have left. With the badges and key rings relevant for our project, I will package them and create a sort of pack to send to industry with a badge and key ring for our film as well a flyer explaining about the degree show and our film. Hopefully this will create an interest for them to come and see what we have been doing.
This is what our merchandise looks like:
Thursday, 26 January 2012
Target Market
Our target market for our film is older children around the age of 7-14. This is because it has cartoon aspects to it so may not appeal to an older audience but will also contain subtitles which a very young audience may have trouble reading.
It is also aimed at anyone interested in the chinese culture as it is an old folk tale about the chinese zodiac which is part of their culture.
The story is most appealing to this age group because it is about animals that have the ability to talk and understand other animals. It is also basic enough for this age group to understand whereas adults may find it all a little bit childish.
We are using toon shading which will give this 2D cartoon look which is aimed more at children as not many adults watch cartoons. The story uses quite basic language which adults may find patronising. The book which the story is based on was also aimed at this age group so it seems fitting that the animation is aimed at them too.
I have been researching some companies that may be interested in our final film and Blue Zoo was the production company that stuck out the most. They create a lot of television shows for children including Olive the ostrich and Tree Fu Tom (which is to air this year). They do ads as well and have worked with the BBC and Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network. Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network are the sort of channel that our film could be broadcast on because they have the audience that our film is aimed at. Blue Zoo would be a good company to invite to the degree show as they may be interested in our film. I have sent there company email address an invitation to the degree show and to ask if anyone else I could speak to that would be interested in coming to Ravensbourne 2012.
It is also aimed at anyone interested in the chinese culture as it is an old folk tale about the chinese zodiac which is part of their culture.
The story is most appealing to this age group because it is about animals that have the ability to talk and understand other animals. It is also basic enough for this age group to understand whereas adults may find it all a little bit childish.
We are using toon shading which will give this 2D cartoon look which is aimed more at children as not many adults watch cartoons. The story uses quite basic language which adults may find patronising. The book which the story is based on was also aimed at this age group so it seems fitting that the animation is aimed at them too.
I have been researching some companies that may be interested in our final film and Blue Zoo was the production company that stuck out the most. They create a lot of television shows for children including Olive the ostrich and Tree Fu Tom (which is to air this year). They do ads as well and have worked with the BBC and Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network. Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network are the sort of channel that our film could be broadcast on because they have the audience that our film is aimed at. Blue Zoo would be a good company to invite to the degree show as they may be interested in our film. I have sent there company email address an invitation to the degree show and to ask if anyone else I could speak to that would be interested in coming to Ravensbourne 2012.
Friday, 20 January 2012
Broadcasting quality controls
Today we had a lecture about quality controls when broadcasting. This was to help us understand what quality control tests we need our film to pass so that we can show it in our degree show.
This is what I learnt:
- At the back of our eye, we have rods and cones. Rods can only see black and white and three cones in our eye can see colour - Red, blue and green.
- If we add red, blue and green together, we get white light. When we mix red and green we get yellow, green and blue make cyan and red and blue make magenta.
- At the beginning of each programme we have bars and tone, a clock and then the programme. The programme will internationally always start at the timecode 10:00:00:00, this is so the timecode can be less for the bars and tone and the clock. Time can never go backwards therefore the timecode cannot be negative.
- the colour bars at the beginning are to show the different colours of light that RGB can produce.
Here are the colour bars:
The colours are at different brightnesses which are measured. Blue is at 11% brightness, red is at 30% brightness and green is at 59% brightness. This is easier to see if you change the the bars to black and white.
- The clock at the beginning before the programme starts must have the name of the item, name of the producers and have the duration. Some request that the description of the first and last shot must also be on there. Below is an example of the clock.
This is what I learnt:
- At the back of our eye, we have rods and cones. Rods can only see black and white and three cones in our eye can see colour - Red, blue and green.
- If we add red, blue and green together, we get white light. When we mix red and green we get yellow, green and blue make cyan and red and blue make magenta.
- At the beginning of each programme we have bars and tone, a clock and then the programme. The programme will internationally always start at the timecode 10:00:00:00, this is so the timecode can be less for the bars and tone and the clock. Time can never go backwards therefore the timecode cannot be negative.
- the colour bars at the beginning are to show the different colours of light that RGB can produce.
Here are the colour bars:
The colours are at different brightnesses which are measured. Blue is at 11% brightness, red is at 30% brightness and green is at 59% brightness. This is easier to see if you change the the bars to black and white.
- The brightness of colours has to be measured before it can be broadcast because in animation, we can produce artificial colours which can be too bright for broadcast. This is measured by using a vectorscope. If the colours are too bright they will go beyond the boundary and this is classed as a fail so has to be adjusted before it can be broadcast.
- The clock at the beginning before the programme starts must have the name of the item, name of the producers and have the duration. Some request that the description of the first and last shot must also be on there. Below is an example of the clock.
- 20Hz is the lowest sound and 20,000Hz is the highest. Sound must be tested so that it is not too loud for broadcast. The BBC designed a meter called a Peak Programme meter which was an analog sound measurer. A PPM measures from 1 to 7 with PPM4 being at 0 db. Each number on the meter equals to 4db. Normal range is between PPM4 and PPM6. There is also a digital version that reads decibels. -18db is normal level and anything between -18 and -9 is fine for broadcasting.
- It must be tested for flashes using a Flash Panel Analyser. This tests wether the programme has too many flashes for it to be classed as suitable for broadcast. Res flashes are worse than white and is it goes above the line on the scale for any reason, then it fails.
- When the resolution is 1080i that means it is interlaced and has 1080 horizontal lines. The programme will be at 25 frames per second. interlaced means that only half the fields or horizontal lines are shown at a time so all the odd ones will be shown and then all the even lines. This merges the first and second frames together to play.
- the BBC require all there programming to be in HD with 1920x1080 resolution and on HDCam SR tapes rather than digital.
Thursday, 19 January 2012
Setting up accounts.
For professional skills, I have been able to set up a group gmail account. I have then been able to set up a google calendar and shared to all of our ravensbourne gmail accounts. This has meant that everyone has a copy of the calendar. We can all update our own calendars but also add anything to the group calendar and everyone can see the changes.
Here is the group calendar that I set up:
I added some preliminary dates and tasks that we have all agreed on. This is the calendar that everyone has access to and can add any more dates by logging into the group account.
This is my own calendar:
Here is the group calendar that I set up:
I added some preliminary dates and tasks that we have all agreed on. This is the calendar that everyone has access to and can add any more dates by logging into the group account.
This is my own calendar:
Everything in blue are the dates that have been shared by the group account so every other colour is my own personal calendar and my own tasks that I have made. It is a good way to organise myself as well as the group so I know what I am supposed to be doing and keeping myself organised.
Tuesday, 17 January 2012
Individual Contract
I have written an individual contract so that I know what I am supposed to be doing on what week. I will try my best to stick to it but I know that problems may occur that need to be seen to as a matter of urgency.
This is my schedule up until the hand in date:
This will keep me on time so that, as a group we will not fall behind.
My roles may change throughout this project so at the omen I am only modelling, rigging and looking after the water but I may have to texture at some stage and I will also need to animate. I think everyone's roles will change though the group and so far, most of us have done small parts of everything. I will write everything that I have done in m blog so that I can see my progress.
This is my schedule up until the hand in date:
Week | Dates | Planned progress |
1 | 02/01/12 | Rat modelling is already completed, rig the rat, bind skin and paint weights. Continue to model the cat. |
2 | 09/01/12 | Continue with rigging the rat, paint weights and adjust component editor. Continue modelling the cat. |
3 | 16/01/12 | Give finished rat rig to Lily, Give finished cat model to James to rig. Start modelling emperor. |
4 | 23/01/12 | Continue to model the emperor. Decide on the best method for toon shading – render layers or ramp shaders. |
5 | 30/01/12 | Rig the emperor |
6 | 06/02/12 | Paint weights, adjust component editor and give to Lily to add nCloth |
7 | 13/02/12 | Adjust rigs if problems arise. Help texture the animals – block colours or toon shading. Decide as a group who is animating and working on each shot. Add water to the environment and adjust the settings to make it look like a realistic river. |
8 | 20/02/12 | Animate water and test render to get the desired effect. |
9 | 27/02/12 | FORMATIVE |
10 | 05/03/12 | Set up cameras and reference to animatic. Time out the scenes to work with animation. |
11 | Holiday | Animate any scenes that I am assigned to. First block out the animation and clean up once action is timed correctly. Check scenes with water and make sure the wakes work with the animal animation. |
12 | 09/04/12 | Help clean up animation and use play blasts to test them. |
13 | 16/04/12 | Set up render layers or adjust render settings so they are ready to send to the render farm or render on our own computers. Check file names are labelled clearly and file types are all correct. |
14 | 23/04/12 | Help render or send to render farm. Make final adjustments to scenes if issues occur and set them up for re-rendering. |
15 | 30/04/12 | Test the renders to make sure the rendering was completed correctly. Re-render any more scenes that need adjusting. |
16 | 07/05/12 | Composite the renders so we are left with clips of each camera angle and scene. |
17 | 14/05/12 | Help edit these and add in any sound that has been made. Add sound effects and adjust timings of each clip using the animatic for reference. |
18 | 21/05/12 | Make any final adjustments and render out final clip. Make sure it meets broadcast requirements for degree show. |
19 | May 25th | Hand in |
This will keep me on time so that, as a group we will not fall behind.
My roles may change throughout this project so at the omen I am only modelling, rigging and looking after the water but I may have to texture at some stage and I will also need to animate. I think everyone's roles will change though the group and so far, most of us have done small parts of everything. I will write everything that I have done in m blog so that I can see my progress.
Thursday, 12 January 2012
Professional Skills
We have been given a new brief to help us and the degree show. As far as I understand it, we have to make a contract for each of us as well as the group and stick to this. We than have to promote and market our films by way of posters and merchandise and then send off to industry to make contacts and invite them to our degree show.
We need to provide evidence of organisation by way of calendar and documents showing meetings and other events. We need to show our correspondence to people within the industry to show that we have actively helped provide attendance from industry at the degree show.
Last term, me and some of my group made merchandise for our final film that we sold. We still have plenty of stock left so for this project, not only will we make posters but we can also send some companies some of our bottle openers and key rings to get them interested. This would be a good way to help market our film and generate interest in our degree show.
Our group has planned to make a dropbox account so that we can all share our files and is also a way of backing them up in case one of our computers die.
I have already made a gmail account for our film which is catandratfilm@gmail.com. This is so we can create calendars and documents for our group and share them with our uni email accounts. We all have the password for this account so any of us can update it at any point.
We need to provide evidence of organisation by way of calendar and documents showing meetings and other events. We need to show our correspondence to people within the industry to show that we have actively helped provide attendance from industry at the degree show.
Last term, me and some of my group made merchandise for our final film that we sold. We still have plenty of stock left so for this project, not only will we make posters but we can also send some companies some of our bottle openers and key rings to get them interested. This would be a good way to help market our film and generate interest in our degree show.
Our group has planned to make a dropbox account so that we can all share our files and is also a way of backing them up in case one of our computers die.
I have already made a gmail account for our film which is catandratfilm@gmail.com. This is so we can create calendars and documents for our group and share them with our uni email accounts. We all have the password for this account so any of us can update it at any point.
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