OUAN603 - Extended Practice: After Effects Refresher

OUAN603 - Extended Practice:

After Effects Refresher

- Don't rely wholly on After Effects for whole sequences! (Create a new composition for each shot, put together in Premiere to save on a horrid build-up of layers and long render times!) This makes it easier to control and see exactly where you're at without having a muddled timeline of bits of bobs. Don't edit in After effects!

- Don't bring Photoshop files in as footage, bring in as composition so that AE does not flatten the layers of your artwork.

- Don't forget! Lighting is really important in AE and brings the last touches of a 3D layer together and gives it more realism!

- Seperate bits of an image (i.e. background) onto different layers so that you can create a parallax effect in AE. Label eveything for ease of use and stay well organised!

- Maximum layer size is 10,000x10,000 pixels in AE, so try not to be too ambitious with backgrounds.


Here's a wacky little test I did just to check out some of the features (even though I've previously made animations in After Effects, it's still really fun and educational to mess about with it sometimes as you often learn new things from playing around)!

https://vimeo.com/154998730 

OUAN505 - Applied Animation - Production: The Plan

OUAN505 - The Plan:

Here is a fairly detailed plan of what stages we need to be at at certain points in our module schedule:

OUAN505 - Applied Animation - Research/Pre-Production: Waltz with Bashir

OUAN505 - Waltz with Bashir:

This particular animated feature-length film responds really well to the theme of documentary animation. It uses a very sensitive subject and animates and tells a story well in an appropriate manner for the viewers. By animating actual interviews with Iranian war veterans, the director is able to approach a subject from an animated viewpoint. He can recreate many effects and processes that would not be as easy or available with live action.

However, many mistake the film for being rotoscoped when it is actually in fact cleverly made using After Effects cutouts and dark hues to give a realistic aesthetic. The film was heavily praised globally but was not so successful in Iran itself which was unusual yet maybe understandable as so many might not want to revisit the memories of the war and the horrors it brought to Iranian citizens. The film is actually banned in certain countries across the globe, including Lebanon which is featured in the film.

I personally haven't watched all of this film and I do plan to. So far from what I have watched I think it looks and feels fantastic. It approaches documentary animation on a new angle and does it very well. For that time, this technique was very new and practically unseen in feature length animated films. The fact it is so realistic brings it home that the war did have a huge impact on so many lives. You feel part of the film and feel a strong connection with the characters.

OUAN505 - Applied Animation - Research/Pre-Production: Sesame Street - Healthy Habits

OUAN505 - Healthy Habits:

Upon looking for additional inspiration and research into our music video for lyrics, facts, and styles of executing our animation, we came across these little gems called Healthy Habits by Sesame Street. As a child I loved watching these and remember the music videos so, so well. I thought it seemed only appropriate to talk about how they influenced me as a child and how they've managed to give me inspiration now as an adult for potentially successful animation.

The above music video is a fantastically catchy little number by Cookie Monster regarding all the different ways eating healthily can affect your growth and life in general. It is informative yet fun and contains the 'Healthy Habits' of which is the name for the group of puppet foods that are featured singing on the screen. This is heavily influential to children as by using mascots and cute characters, children will become more attached to them rather than using humans to drearily moan on about a topic. A song is always popular as it can stick in the minds of those who enjoy it - almost everyone! 

Although this isn't technically animated, it's still a documentary in a loose sense of the word. The below video clip is more towards documentary as it features more facts and helpful tips that are likely to be seen as more realistic and truthful. 

 

'Happy Healthy Monster' is a series of short clips featuring the monsters' choices of food and how it will affect them. They are taught by the foods themselves, other humans that are usually special guests like Michelle Obama for instance, and other monsters. This is a great way of helping children understand healthy eating as it's obvious that the creators of Sesame Street really thought about engaging a young audience with all the bright colours, interesting characters and fun, engaging episodes. We want to take the bright colours, the use of well-known, named mascots, and factual, relevant informative song choices away from this show as use it to our advantage. 

OUAN505 - Applied Animation - Research/Pre-Production: The California Raisins

OUAN505 - The California Raisins:

The California Raisins are a fantastic group of singing and dancing raisins that initially inspired us to make a healthy eating band for Applied Animation. We were drawn to them for their very obvious upbeat, cheesy, and cheerful personalities and the ways in which they went about setting the mood and atmosphere to an instantly uplifting one. We really loved the technique of using stop motion animation to make the band move and bring life to them. I felt that personally, a completely 2D animated band or hand-drawn wouldn't have been as effective as seeing a miniature stage with a band made out of real materials with that signature aesthetic really plays with your mind and allows you think it's more believable.

The creator of the raisins is a man named Will Vinton. He created them with the intent to entertain and he certainly managed to achieve that as the group received one Emmy award and one nomination! The original idea of the raisins was to be used for a 1980's commercial which of course became incredibly popular, thus giving it the fame and fortune to create a whole series of songs for the band. Such songs as "I Heard it Through the Grapevine" usually are a play on words and are incredibly comical to watch. The music genre features mainly around Motown and classic rock which seems obvious really as the band have that 'funky' look to them with all the accessories such as sunglasses and guitars. Even the black and white jazz shoes give it away!

In 1988, CBS aired 'Meet the Raisins', a mockumentary which of course featured the band. Their growing popularity meant that they're probably (at a guess) one of the most well-known fruit bands out there and I'm sure there are a few thanks to all the inspiration they've given us.

There have been such brilliant ratings with the TV shows that eventually merchandise such as 3D glasses, lunchboxes, and even shirts was released. I've never known a fruity band to be that well-loved!

What we really took from these music videos though on a more serious and academic note is that we really were inspired by the way the creators could manage to make the band look a certain way to be representative of a music genre. Our aim was 80's cheesy pop, and for that to happen we needed a cheesy-looking, cheap and cheerful set with groovy-looking characters using all the correct instruments. We needed to learn about the ways bands were made up and what roles were used etc. Our group wanted to be as successful as the California Raisins for a completely different purpose: to inform and instate healthy eating in teens.

OUAN505 - Applied Animation - Pre-Production/Research: Proof of Concept

OUAN505 - Proof of Concept:

To test out some of the 2D animation, David also did a short proof of concept test to get a feel for the style he would be animating in and how well it would work. Although the bit Symphony is acting out is a part from a YouTuber's (JonTron) own video and seems completely irrelevant, it was just a quick test so isn't really a big deal.

I think it works rather well.

OUAN505 - Applied Animation - Pre-Production/Research: Character Sheets

OUAN505 - Character Sheets:

To get a better idea of facial expressions and to have some research and proof that he'd looked into different facial styles and so forth, David created a few character facial concept sheets for nearly every character. It wasn't exactly necessary that one was created for Larry the lemon as his huge leaves would resemble a moustache and cover his entire mouth, so no mouths were really needed. David had a good understanding of what eye movements Larry would make anyway, so to save some time he focused on the other characters.

David also sketched out some ideas of how the armatures would work inside the characters and where the joints would need to be. This will help with initial modelling and understanding of where we will need to add extra weight to support the rest of the character etc.

OUAN505 - Applied Animation - Pre-Production/Research: Prop Design

OUAN505 - Prop Design:

After working out a rough set plan and having a design in place, we moved onto deciding how we were to make our props. We don't really have that much time nor expertise to be moulding every single prop from scratch, so by using the Royal Bank of Grace we were able to purchase most of what we needed for a successful set of props.

Yesterday evening, I worked on putting together the drum kit of which took a tedious couple of hours. I think it looks fantastic and we will aim to paint the kit and design a band logo for the front very soon.

 










I bought a set of Iwako erasers from Blott in Leeds Trinity Centre last week as I thought by having a few cakes and unhealthy food props that were the correct sizes for the characters would help illustrate parts of the song better as the characters could hold up foods that correspond with the lyrics.

I managed to get hold of a Playmobil saxophone for Aubrey of which we may repaint or add some plasticine around it to give it a more 'rough and ready' look. The measurements are relatively in proportion to Aubrey's model, so will fit in really nicely. Modelling a miniature saxophone proved too difficult in the end, so purchasing a cheap dolls' version was a better option.

OUAN505 - Applied Animation - Pre-Production/Research: Set Design

OUAN505 - Set Design:

To get a fairly accurate idea of how much space the characters will need on stage, I did a very rough render on Maya using the measurements I had taken earlier of all the characters. After measuring the characters before armatures and estimating their sizes after their armatures will be attached, I was able to work our how big the set needed to be to give them an adequate amount of room. Below are the sketches and measurements.

OUAN505 - Applied Animation - Pre-Production/Research: Other Potential Song Choices

OUAN505 - Other Potential Song Choices:

Before finally choosing "Wake Me Up Before You GoGo" (Wham!), there were various other song choices we had in mind that would be suitable for our animation and what we were trying to achieve. The aim of using

OUAN505 - Applied Animation - Pre-Production/Research: Backing Tracks

OUAN505 - Backing Tracks:

After searching the internet for a backing track to the song 'Wake Me Up Before You Go Go' so that I could loosely piece together the bits I was going to use together (for timing purposes as the entire song is four minutes long so would need some bits cut out!), I then used some rather bad editing software just so that I could create a very quick and simple mock up of the song we would be animating to. I didn't want to, nor would it be possible to use the entire song so with the help of my partner, Nathan (offered to play guitar, do some backing vocals, bass guitar), I wrote some lyrics, making sure it was within two minutes - the limit that the brief stated.

Here is the website of which I found the backing track for mockup purposes. I will have to research into legalities surrounding the use of backing tracks for the final animation. If it is not suitable for me to do so, my partner offered to help create one from scratch, however we will be very pushed for time so a pre-existing backing track edited to the correct timing would be preferred.

http://www.stafaband.info/download/mp3/lagu_wham_wake_me_up_before_you_gogo_instrumental/

After clipping this in Audacity, the final length of our song will be just over two minutes by a few seconds. Obviously this is slightly over the time frame we were given in the brief and the main reason for this is the fade out at the end that finishes the song. In order of song parts we have chosen to use the intro music, first verse, chorus, saxophone solo (instrumental break), chorus (of which fades out after final line is sung).

In terms of timing, cutting each part up and working out how long each section will take gave us a good idea of how to start the storyboarding and thumbnailing process. The into of which is fully instrumental is around 12 seconds long, a decent amount of time to set the scene, show the band and introduce the animation. The first verse will last roughly twenty five seconds with the chorus following with a hefty thirty three seconds. An instrumental saxophone solo will last about twelve seconds - 2D animated facts and figures will pop up on screen. The pre-chorus is a few lines sung after the solo of which will  lead into the last chorus (lasts eleven seconds). The very last chorus is slightly shorter than the first as not all of it will be sung. It will fade out slowly of which will take a good five seconds. This will be a nice finish to the song.

OUAN505 - Applied Animation - Pre-Production/Research: Foody Facts

OUAN505 - Foody Facts:

In order to get some accurate information into our song lyrics, we had to do a lot of research into what should be put in and what shouldn't. Nothing too long-winded would be appropriate as short and snappy sticks in the minds of kids, boring doesn't! Having evidence to back up our research and facts was important as if, say, a teacher showing this music video documentary to a class of teens happened to look up the lyrics, we wouldn't want to caught out in any way.

After some thorough research, I found some of these interesting facts that could be made song-appropriated.

Fruit and Veg facts:

1. Fruits and vegetables are nutritious in every form.

‘It’s a wildly popular rumor that frozen veggies and fruits aren’t as nutritious as their frozen counterparts. This simply isn't true. Studies by the FDA have confirmed that any decrease in nutrition from freezing vegetables is negligible at best.'

Fresh isn’t always better than frozen as if frozen within a few hours of being picked, it retains its nutrients and structure better than fresh as it has less chance of losing its quality through being exposed to natural air.

http://www.wildblueberries.com/blog/frozen-fruit-mythsdebunked/

'Frozen fruit is just that: fruit. Unless the label says otherwise, frozen fruits like blueberries contain one ingredient. They have no caloric syrups and additives, and are just pure, unadulterated, nutrient-rich fruit.’

2. Broccoli contains more protein than steak.

‘Broccoli got a bad rap a few years ago when President George W Bush proclaimed that he would never eat it again. Sadly, that was probably a bad move because broccoli is actually quite good for you. Aside from the usual nutrition one garners from eating veggies, broccoli in general has a great deal of protein. Calorie for calorie, there is more protein in broccoli than steak. Since it doesn’t come with all those saturated and trans fats or cholesterol, you can get all the protein you need with a significantly lower risk of cardiovascular disease. Let’s not forget all of the other awesome nutrition it provides . Pumpkin seeds are also a good choice as they have more protein than a similar amount of ground beef.’

3. Peppers can encourage proper clotting.

'Peppers are great even if most people use them as a spice rather than using them as a food. A little known fact about cayenne peppers is that they can promote the clotting of blood over wounds. According to experts , you can sprinkle some cayenne pepper into a wound where it will act as gauze. This will help stop the bleeding. Eating cayenne pepper can also help equalize blood pressure and promote clotting from the inside. That means it doesn’t matter if you eat it or literally put it on the wound, it will help it heal faster.'

'In addition to stopping the bleeding from exterior wounds, cayenne also works for internal hemorrhages inside the nose, stomach and throat. In these cases, of course, the cayenne must be taken orally. Cayenne also works to improve blood circulation, assist digestion, stimulate perspiration and saliva, and lessen pain from swollen or arthritic joints and limbs.'

http://www.ehow.com/how-does_4925036_cayenne-pepper-stop-bleeding.html

4. Apples give you more energy than coffee.

'In no way would we ever try to convince the coffee aficionados in our readership to give up their precious morning coffee. We’re not crazy. However, if you’re finding yourself a little low on energy during the afternoon then consider eating an apple in the morning with your coffee. Thanks to its high carbohydrate, vitamin, and mineral content, apples have the perfect storm of nutrition to help you stay energized all day.'

5. The skin usually has the most nutrition.

'If you peel your fruits and vegetables before you eat them, you may be making a nutritional mistake. On many fruits and veggies such as carrots, apples, and cucumbers, a good percentage of the nutrition is actually stored in the skin. That means when you peel them, you’re actually peeling away nutritious benefit. The skins also contain a lot of fiber and we’ve already talked about all the great things that fiber can do.'

http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifestyle/20-incredible-facts-about-eating-fruits-and-vegetables-that-you-probably-didnt-know.html

OUAN505 - Applied Animation - Pre-Production/Research: The Final Band

OUAN505 - The Final Band:

Here are some final concept art outlines of our characters. Note: Aubrey the Aubergine's saxophone is actually playing part of the saxophone solo in our chosen song - it was definitely not made up!

OUAN505 - Applied Animation - Pre-Production/Research: Character Designs

OUAN505 - Character Designs:

These are simply my duplicates of some of David's ideas. The final facial designs were all originally drawn and decided by David of which are on his blog. He made a great effort in using a wide variety of styles in his sketches and showed talent for creating suitable expressions for their personalities. In order to have a better understanding and to show that we'd experimented with many other options, I tried out a range of different faces for each character and discussed them with friends and even family in order to get some opinions from a wide age range. They thought, as well as David, that simplicity was best and the final choices were then set in stone as we had to think about what would be easiest to animate with the most effective portrayal of personality and character.

OUAN505 - Applied Animation - Pre-Production/Research: All About the Band

OUAN505 - All About the Band:

After discussing with David what/how the characters should look like, behave, and what part of the band they should occupy, we came to the conclusion that these would be the most fitting roles for each individual.

Strawberry - Lead Singer/Lead Guitar:

We decided on a female lead as her confident, cheerful yet slightly aggressive attitude allowed her to be a dominant band member. Seeing as she is the only female, we wanted her to have a big personality and be noticed by our audience easily. Also, it's empowering females as lead singers! Her appearance was thought to be cute yet quirky with a slightly 'punk-esque' look. There's not much you can decide on appearance-wise with these particular models as faces and possible hair/facial hair are the only options we have as we want to keep it simple when it comes to animating. However, this doesn't mean we can't give them outstanding personalities!
We decided on the name 'Symphony' as this in fact a subspecies of strawberry.
http://strawberryplants.org/2010/05/strawberry-varieties/
Symphony will also be donning a rather messy-looking green plume of straggly hair (leaves) to mimic that of a punk-rocker. We will experiment with facial features later on.

Aubergine - Saxophone:

This one of our favourite characters to think about and research into as aubergines are so easily neglected when thinking about vegetables. We came up with the name Aubrey as it has a sense of class and a 'smooth' jazz feeling to it, which fits well with his personality and assigned instrument. He was a particularly tough character to develop as we didn't want to offend anyone by means of stereotyping - we chose for Aubrey to have Afro-Caribbean origins. The reason for such a decision was that after watching Wham!'s "Wake Me Up Before You Go Go" music video several dozen times, we were easily drawn to the myriad of black saxophonists and trumpet players. They had this fantastic onstage presence. David came up with a brilliant character design idea of which we have yet to develop.

Chili Pepper - Drums:

Our first impression was that most drummers don't get the recognition they deserve and are quite often overlooked in a band. We wanted to change this by giving our chili a 'fiery' attitude to go with his flavour. Our hot-headed chili was eventually assigned the name 'Pepe' - Spanish origins, chilis are predominant in Mexican and Spanish dishes so this worked. David decided that Pepe should be rather angry-looking.

Lemon - Keyboard:

Larry, our lemon, will be occupying the keyboard. A keyboard is present in the song we have chosen and will be a good feature to animate as not much movement will be required which allows us to focus more on his facial movement and possible interaction with other members. David had the fantastic idea of using a lemon leaf as his moustache. Larry's face would be present on the 'bump' of the lemon at the top, however his standing position would be horizontal so that the top of the lemon actually faces the audience. I thought this would be successful as it would be easier to model with the armatures and weight of the plasticine as it would allow us to keep Larry upright and in the correct position rather than him toppling over if he were stood vertically. Here is an image to illustrate how we want him to stand. Notice the lump sticking out. This will act as a sort of nose on which his moustache could hang.

Orange - Backup Singer/Bassist:

Lastly, our bass guitarist, 'Manny'. Alex, another fellow animator helped us in researching the names for our characters as we wanted them to match their personalities. She gave some good input into what she thought would be memorable for our target audience (12-18 year olds). Manny seemed like a very innocent and cheerful name, not to mention its use in the popular 'Ice Age' franchise of which is linked with Manny the wooly mammoth of whom is incredibly soft and gentle. Being an orange, or a mandarin as we then decided (alliteration and assonance are a great way of choosing names!) made us feel that he was a little bit dopey and didn't quite know what he was doing. The bassist in a band is sadly very neglected and to make use of the stereotype of him 'not really being noticed' in the band, we gave him a personality that forced you to notice him - he's silly, clumsy, and rolls about a lot!

OUAN505 - Applied Animation - Pre-Production/Research: Skhizein - Jeremy Clapin

OUAN505 - Looking into Documentary Animation:

The second animation I found was a little bit more sinister. It didn't have the multitude of colours that the previous one did, and instead was completely in sepia, featuring very bland colours to depict a very hard set of circumstances. The protagonist, a middle-aged man, happens to be suffering from a form of depersonalisation and detachment from his surroundings. Skhizein, a French animated short documentary featuring a gentleman dealing with his mental illness (what happens to feel like Schizophrenia, hence the title?), shows how he is exactly 91cm from his body.


Skhizein (short film) from Jeremy Clapin on Vimeo.

Since this condition is so misunderstood by so many, I feel it is very important to correct any negative or judgemental thoughts about such a difficult thing to live with. The character shown is obviously very confused and is shown managing his life by working out everything 91cm from where it should be. He is very proactive and tries ever so hard to get things back to "normal" but is obviously struggling to come to terms with how a 150 tonne meteorite has managed to affect his life in such a monumental way.

The techniques and methods used to make this seem to be hybrid, using possibly 3D and some 2D elements (along with even some stop motion for the meteorite?). The realistic sound effects bring you into the animation and allow you to feel part of his life, an obviously very intimate place. I think it is important for documentary animation to feel realistic despite using animation as the media of choice. You need to really focus on bringing the audience to the subject's level when trying to portray an incident or event as you want to conjure up emotion and empathy to create a reaction which in turn will make it successful.

OUAN505 - Applied Animation - Research/Pre-Production: Sensory Overload (Interacting with Autism Project) - Miguel Jiron

OUAN505 - Looking into Documentary Animation:

To gain more knowledge and an insight into what kinds of documentary animation is out there and how it tackles difficult subjects, I decided to have a nosey into documentary animation that focuses on mental illness as I have rarely come across any animation that deals with these events. I think awareness is an important thing that animation can bring about subtly. With live action, I can imagine the case of finding subjects willing to open up in front of a camera could be difficult to find, whereas animation can tell someone's story whilst keeping them free from stigma (which sadly still exists).

I had a look on Vimeo for some good examples, and found a good couple that I thought were really touching and gave a good insight into in the day in the life of a someone who suffers with such issues. I also thought I'd check out Samsara whilst I was wearing my "learning hat". It was incredibly moving and did in fact bring me to tears at points (which isn't something I admit lightly)! Albeit a live action film and not an animation, Samsara is a really beautiful piece of art. It shows the lives of people from all over the world over a span of five years in twenty five different countries. Along with the breathtaking shots, dances, events, and costumes, there are very heartbreaking moments of reality thrown in, which shows that in all the world's glory, there is still sadness and horror that we need to change.

So, back to the couple of animations I found relating to mental illness. The first I found was a wonderful look at a boy who went by his usual day living with autism. The style is beautiful, using what looks like a combination of rotoscoping, traditional wet inks, and digital. It featured a young boy going about his day reacting to sounds and events around him. He seemed to be suffering from hypersensitivity to sound as nearer the end, with more and more sounds, everything becomes to full on and he lashes out and collapses on the floor in frustration. The sounds are manifested as synesthesia-like drawings in the animation - squiggles, lines, circles, explosions. It is quite distressing to watch as you can see how difficult it is for him. The animator, Miguel Jiron, has done a fantastic job in portraying such a broad condition and helping us understand just how difficult it can be for some.

The techniques used are fantastic and really help you visualise what is going on in someone's head which would otherwise be difficult to show to the world in an understandable and even possibly a relatable manner.


Sensory Overload (Interacting with Autism Project) from Miguel Jiron on Vimeo.

OUAN505 - Applied Animation - Research/Pre-Production: Model Making

OUAN505 - Model Making:

After a long trek around Leeds for appropriate materials, I managed to gather everything I needed in order to create and start testing my models for the animation. I spoke to my partner's father regarding useful hints and tips when creating stop motion characters (as he runs an art store in my hometown, Harrogate, and also participates in modelling and animation professionally). Wayne, Nathan's father, spoke to me about how it would be best to try and keep the weight of my models down so that they would be easier to work with and would be more manoeuvrable when it came to animating.

I had a brilliant idea of using those plastic toy fruit and vegetables I used to play with when I was younger. I'm sure they would be cheap and easy to get hold of. After contacting a few mothers who might possibly have a few spares they could lend me, I had no luck. However one of the mothers did suggest looking in Home Bargains as they sold a huge pack of them for as little as £4! I grabbed a pack of these and began searching for modelling clay/plasticine. Wilkos' own brand was great quality and had a nice scent so wasn't difficult to work with. I picked up a few packs of these and was ready to start with the modelling.

In the design department, David was on his way to creating a few character designs for us to look through and choose. After deciding on finalised characters, we could then start properly modelling.

Once I got back home, I tested a sample of the modelling clay on one of my plastic fruits to see how heavy it was, the texture of it, and how well it stuck and moulded to the base fruit. Here are some photographs of my progress.

OUAN505 - Applied Animation - Research/Pre-Production: Roles & Responsibilities

OUAN505 - Roles & Responsibilities:

To make this work, I needed a plan of action. Who would be doing what and how can we save time and possibly wasted effort? I came up with a rough plan of how things would work out so that this project wouldn't be too much work with too little time.

I would do my best to create the set, with advice and feedback from anyone who wished to give their opinions. This would take a couple of weeks at the most, but lots of effort would need to be put in in order to make sure the set looked realistic enough. At the same time, model making would need to be done. I planned to do this on my own mostly, but would ask any possible modellers if they wished to help with the modelling and armatures of my fruits and veggies. Also, instruments would need to be made to fir the size of the characters, so this would need to be worked out. I had my hopes on making the drum kit as that could feature the logo of the band (of which I will blog about later).

When it comes to animating, I am not much of an animator but am willing to give it my best shot. Seeing as there will be a good number of characters to animate (I aim for five, as I will talk about later), input from any animators would be fantastically helpful and I would be very grateful for the input as it would allow them to show something for their portfolio. David kindly offered (though I need to make sure he's still up for it) to direct and man the camera and lighting for this project, as well as do the whopping huge task of 2D animation lip syncing and facial expression. This is a huge weight off my shoulders having help from others and I am incredibly thrilled that we'll have others working on this.

Myself and my partner, Nathan, will be working on the music production. That means choosing a suitable song, changing the lyrics to fit the purpose and audience. After this stage of which may take a week or so, I will ask for any volunteers in the singing department. If there are none, then it will just be me with Nathan possibly working on backing vocals, harmonies, and adding in some extra guitar chords over the top in an attempt to make the music "thicker". I will research copyright issues with using pre-recorded karaoke backing tracks first and if this is an issue then Nathan kindly offered to play the whole song from scratch, working on each part then layering the sounds up to create a full song.

For post-production, I will be working on this with any other volunteers. Input would be gladly received as other opinions on things like sound volume and so forth would be needed.

OUAN505 - Applied Animation - Research/Pre-Production: Set Design & Lighting (Part Two)

OUAN505 - Set Design & Lighting:

For the lighting department, whilst in our woodwork induction that I mentioned in the previous post, our tutor at the time (Roger Berry) was telling us about how he worked in electronics a while back and how it would be more cost-efficient of us to create our own customised lighting for our sets. He mentioned that by buying short strips of LEDs and soldering them to battery packs, it would be a better way of tailoring the lighting to our needs.

So, with this in mind I sought out to buy a metre's worth of white LEDs for the set I was so keen to make. Just under £2.00 was a brilliant bargain and at 12 volts input, I sought out some batteries for my lighting. I first wanted to consult Roger to see how exactly this work and what would be the best way forward. I didn't want to go into this blindly as although I had done plenty of this sort of thing at high school, I was no expert and thought it wise to have a chat with him first.

As lovely and theatre-like the white lights were, I was intent on saving up for a strip of the colour-changing LEDs so that I could stick to the "disco" vibe I had in mind. With alternating colours and even a possible mini disco ball featured in the animation, I could achieve a very authentic looking set. 

The coloured lights look much better, however price-wise they weren't that pocket friendly for the budget I had set... In order to add a little more funk and realism, I bought a small disco ball bauble to hang from the top of the set so that it would give some light reflection. After ringing my godparents in a flustered panic about the price of colour-changing LEDs (they have their entire kitchen decked out in them!), they suggested going for a short strip (1M) of them using a 12v DC current so that they could run on batteries (better for set maneuverability) and would a little bit more cost-friendly. I will look into this and ask Roger for some advice. 

From what I learned from the lighting induction last week, it would be wise to follow the three point lighting setup to achieve the best possible results. However, considering the fact that I will be using strips of LEDs running around the top of the set (slightly higher than my models' head height), I think it will only be necessary to have a fill light and possible a key light (I will experiment with lighting once my set has been created and tested).