Animation Complete

The roles and jobs people in the group had for this project where never completely set.


Me - Digital animator (animated all digital elements), created the animatic, Inbetweener cleanup and general animation fixer (after finishing the digital elements)

Lauren - Traditional animator, Primarily animating the adult, Inked alot of the backgrounds, Compositor using aftereffects and premiere pro.

Gemma - Traditional animator, Primarily animating the child, Water coloured most backgrounds.

Jordan - He quit before the production stage and wasn't around much before hand. He isn't in our group anymore but is in the titles. Which i don't think is fair.


The only permanent roles where me as digital animator and lauren as compositor. Everything else was quite dynamic, we worked well as a group.

Each frame of the animation had to be keyed, inbetweened, cleaned, inked (for objects and backgrounds), water coloured (for objects and backgrounds), scanned, alpha channeled in photoshop, composited in aftereffects, exported by scene and finally all put together in premiere pro.

It was very slow to work like this but it was a style choice we wanted to achieve. The digital elements in the animation was to give antagonistical presence.

Animation Complete

I havn't posted anything in the past month because I have been very busy making the film. It is now complete, here are a few screens from the work i did.

I animated the digital carriage in adobe flash. I also used flash to put together a few traditional elements along with the digital.

Painted backgrounds made by Lauren and Gemma.

Painted backgrounds and fire watercolour frames made by Lauren and Gemma. Composited together in flash by me.

These are the digital animation alpha channeled walk cycles, made in flash and exported as an MOV and composited in after effects into the scene by Lauren.

Hands and Details

A few details for the representation of the digital self, bird like claws and long fingernails. pixelated body like a shroud around the figure. Slouches behind a computer, moves slowly and doesn't communicate vocally.

Digital Self Concept

Colour/mood design, the windows will be alot darker as its at the stage where the train is going through a tunnel. The general colouration will be a mix of stark yellows from the train lighting and the green glow from the screen. the general colours are dark greens and maybe a few blues.

Character sheet, i will make another on how the digitization works and how the hands and face will look. this character sheet is about general space the character takes up and its stance, the character will be voiceless, expressionless and move slowly.

Things to do over easter.

Final designs:
Character (main)
Other Characters (shovels, negatives, dad)
Backgrounds (station, carriages)

Tests:
Character on B/Gs, Composited.
Stuff out the windows on carriages.
Characters animated.
Train.
Smoke.

Animatic:
Final,
Add first draft sounds, agree what sounds we want after that.

Ryan - change the animatic (new ending, shovel men shoveling in toys), design the backgrounds for the digital carriage and colour tone ect.

Negative people composited on station/shovel people.

Desgin the digital carriage with pixelated characters.

Gemma - Colour backgrounds, Design shovel men and farther.

Design Stop-motion stuff out the windows. (composited by ryan)

Lauren - Animating tests of main characters (boy and pres)

Draw out the backgrounds.

Animatic v3

http://www.vimeo.com/22670600

Animatic v3

A few changes have been made from the original storyboard.

http://www.vimeo.com/21823643

Storyboard sequenced and put into a video.

Story-Board

The storyboard was put together and talked about as a group over a day with Gemma, Lauren and myself. Originally it was drawn onto A7 size pieces of paper, then scanned. i then vectorised the cells in flash and added a bit of shadow to give better form and added the movement arrows in a different colour.

Put together by Lauren, Gemma and myself.

Scanned and descriptions added to each cell by Lauren.

Vectoriseation by myself.

Script

Massive expansive train station. PRES stands central looking at board of train times. His back is to us. Board says something that isn't just trains and times (e.g. Your train's in 3 minutes. 2nd: you could get this one but you'll be a bit pushed for time. 3rd: if you get this one you're fucked.). White/grey faceless featureless figures walking from behind him to far away into the non-existant distance on either side of the tracks. Sound? (e.g. ambient noise, people walking in an echoey space, then tannoy goes dun dun... ambient noise is reduced, listen for the announcement but there isn't one, ambient noise returns to normal level.) PRES (on hearing tannoy?) looks at his ticket, looks at the board, one of the white/grey figures brushes past him and he drops his ticket. PRES looks at figure and figure gains a fraction of a face for a few frames.

• PAST: You dropped your ticket.

PRES looks at him a bit surprised, then takes it. Train appears in the distance, arriving. (It's a row of terraced houses but they're all different. Stop motion train? Or 2D with texture).

• PAST: Same train as me.

PRES and PAST walk together towards the train as it's pulling up, train slows to a stop, they walk along the carriages. They pass MUM.

• PRES: Sorry (?)

• MUM: You'll be fine (?)

PRES and PAST keep walking, reach one of the houses, PRES goes to open the door, it's really stiff and hard to open, PRES has to push it really hard with his knee against it, it finally opens really fast. They go inside. It's laid out like a train crossed with a living room (or bedroom? Most familiar room in this childhood house?) They both move bits of furniture around, PRES goes to move a chair.

  

• PAST: No no, that one goes there.

PRES is unsure but puts it back. He spots a teddy bear (or other toy) lying discarded on the floor in sort of a corner, as well as other stuff, photos, school work... gathers select pieces up, places them neatly on the table? They sit down at the table (which has other toys and stuff on it).

  

• Dialogue

Train workers (who are relatives, teachers, a counsellor? Family friends, unexplained adults or authority figures) are coming in and out shovelling up stuff on the floor, small pieces of furniture and toys etc.

  

• PRES: We should probably move.

• PAST: Can't we stay, I like it here.

• PRES: No, come on, that's what happens.

They get up to leave, PRES picks up something from the pile of objects to take with him.

  

•  PAST: Why that one? I don't even like that one.

They walk to the back door at the end of the carriage, PRES opens the door, PAST still reluctant to leave. They go into next carriage. DIG is sitting there on a desk chair at a table on a big old school desktop computer. PRES feels uncomfortable in his presence and keeps walking. PAST doesn't recognise DIG.

  

• PAST: Who's that?

• PRES: Don't talk to him he's not real. I don't want to sit here let's go to the next one.

They move on to the next carriage, PRES still leading. PRES moves one piece of furniture. They sit down.

• PRES: Make the most of this, this is the best bit.

• Dialogue.

Ticket collector man (DAD) rattling along the rails. Comes up to them to check tickets. Checks PAST's ticket and gives it back to him wordlessly. Reaches for PRES's ticket. PRES gives it to him a bit reluctantly? DAD looks at it.

• DAD: This isn't a valid ticket.

• PRES: Oh come on.

• DAD: Can you exit the carriage please.

• PRES: Fine but I'm not coming back.

DAD says nothing just coldly waits for him to leave.

• PRES: Fine.

PRES gets up to leave and PAST follows him. DAD dangles from his strings and doesn't even watch them leave. PAST and PRES go into next carriage which is a shit hole house, the first house he lives in without his parents.

• Dialogue

They find some seats and clear a table of rubbish and bits of furniture, a man makes his presence known by laughing to himself on the far side if the carriage to them. He is old, much older then PAST is and PRES was, his clothes don't fit him well and give a vague idea on how he is sitting. He stops laughing, his face is partly covered by his hat. PRES looks at him when he begins to laugh to the point where he stops, PAST tries to see what PRES is looking at but cannot make out a person.

• Dialogue.

The train begins to slow down, both PRES and PAST get up and begin to walk to the door at the opposite end of the carriage to which they entered.

• PRES: This is you're stop not mine. I can't get off this train until next time.

PAST walks into the door section of the carrage, the train comes to a complete stop, PRES is stitting down, sees a hat, puts it on. as PAST steps off the train the doors close. Just before they do..

• PRES: Don't forget to drop your ticket kid.

Doors close.

Character Profiles

PRES

• completely aware of what's happening
• completely accepting of what's happening

PAST

• starts very questioning
• two thirds of the way through becomes slightly more hostile towards PRES during his teenage years. 
• His questions become more indepth as he matures, maybe fearful in realisation? Definitely becomes less pliable in terms of acceptance in the infomation he is told via PRES.

FUT

• old man? reading? sleeping? elusive? sometimes shapeless? 
• Maybe not always there for some of the characters, like when PAST looks at where he should be he isn't there because kids just don't think that far ahead?

DIG

• pixelly? trampish character?
• numb. not real. hollow shell of a person.

MUM

• train driver
• quite normal?
• loving, warm charactered?

DAD

• ticket collector
• quite wooden?
• strings attach him to two rails running along ceiling of carriage
• pose to pose, no inbetweens, but strings move inbetween?
• String is almost the movement of his poses, they are the only physical thing about his character that acknowledges his jarred movements.

A New Narrative.

After looking at the narrative that other had created and my own, looking at the elements we wanted for each and what we where overall trying to 'say' we where still stuck. We still didn't know what we really wanted to create or which of the stories we should start off with as a basis. At the point we felt really stuck, like we had gone back to square one.

Just on the spot i came up with a simple narrative that only included the idea of two characters, one was the present self one was the past, ages where 20~ and 10~. 20 we could relate to since we are all around that age. The age of 10 we should also be able to relate to, the past character would be a child who is always questioning, always smiling and lives very much in the now on a minute to minute basis.

First Draft Narrative.

• Present self (20 year old) sitting at a bench in a train station waiting for a train. present self drops change, a child (past self age 10) helps pick up the coins. They exchange in convocation, present self begins to reflect on what it was like to be that age, they laugh about things, past self always asking questions. As the train pulls up the carriages are different things, points in the present self's life, first car, first car crashed, houses he has lived in ect.
• The driver of the train is his mother and the ticket printer is his farther. The farther is bound to the inside of the train via strings on a rail that are attached to his head body and limbs, all he can do is walk up and down the isles on the carriages printing/asking for the tickets but has no voice. his movements are pose to pose with no inbetweens but the strings that are tied to him describe the movements as if they are just fast movements, the strings follow through his movements. Everyone who has the ability to get on and off the train is himself at different points in time and are subject to the time shifting from the train. Some of the versions of himself are completely fictional, one is an online profile of himself and so is timeless.
• The train station is a timeless limbo where time stands still and there are only people on the platform (who are the same person at different points in life) waiting for a train to get on. The train, when running, creates the passage of time, time is relative to the speed of the train and the perception of it to those on board (eg an older person, having experienced more time perceives it to be faster then say, that of a ten year old)
• As the present self and past self talk on the train the exterior of the train reflects the things they are talking about and remembering. there is a much older man on the train a few seats down that only the present self can see, but only partially. Over the time in the train the 10 year old becomes the present self and the present self becomes more and more like the future self.
• The train stops and they both get up and walk to the door, the present self sits where the future self was with there back to the door, as the past self gets off the present self says 'don't forget to drop your money'.

Three Act Story Structure

Act One/Set up - Man bored of his job/routine.

First Turning Point - Realisation of his dependencies and breaks away from them.

Act Two - Reinventing him self into a projection.

Second Turning Point - Falling in love with his own creation of his ideals?

Act Three/Climax - Resolution ??



Early Concepts 

First picture i drew, the idea behind this was to only show on screen what was noticed by the main character in the animation. Nothing but the house he lives in, the car he gets into to go to work, the stirs he uses to get into his office and his office room itself where he works.

This was a quick sketch of the main character in his car.

Main character sitting at his desk in the office.

Another idea about using wires like umbilical cords to show dependencies on his job and the things around him.

narrative?

A man wakes up, comes out of his house into his car. drives to work as he does everyday, only seeing the things he needs to. only seeing the things that matter to him on the way. road signs, traffic lights and all the wheels, buttons and leavers in his car. 

He arrives at a building which he now recognises only via shape. He steps out of his car, turns and uses a single key to lock it. walks through the door of the building and up the flights of stairs, recognising the each stair by slight shape differences and tone he knows how manny more there are to go.

He steps into his office through the door that separates the carpet to the cold floor of the stairwell. Sits at his chair in front of the machine that works him. His assistant walks through the door with two cups of coffee at hand (teacup pig coffee?). Puts one down onto the desk and walks away but stumbles slightly on something behind his chair and leaves the room.

He looks at his screen for a while, then something clicks in his head. he looks around the room seeing everything for the first time since he got the job. Reaches around the back of himself realising his assistant stumbled upon something.

Homing into a Narrative Form

After a few weeks of trying to work out all the odds and ends of ideas, principles, concepts and even characters. We have realised that our discussions are coming to a point where we need to take the next step, where we need to have some sort of basis for our ideas to be constructed around. We have tried looking into simple straight forward narrative forms, things like conflict and unbalance. We find ourselves struggling because out ideas as so often and so manny that we are finding great difficulty in constructing them into a single, well thought out animation languaged structure.

Reading Viewing Consuming List.

Reading Viewing Consuming List.

Films: 

Inception -  Christopher Nolan (perception of the real, self image, self and other disposition, conscious and unconscious thought and time perception within a constructed reality)

Natural Born Killers - Oliver Stone (unconventional love story)

Black Swan - Darren Aronofsky (first person perspective schizophrenia/metaphorical image/ visual metaphors for character development)

Film - Samuel Beckett (identity?) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yws4Rty2kXw

Jekyll and Hyde - Paul Bush (visual style for dynamic character - character played by 4ish different people and merged together)

Animted Minds - C4 (mind in animation) http://animatedminds.com/

Fight Club - David Fincher (relationship with self?)

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - Terry Gilliam (Perspective shifting/abstracted ideals)

Ident - Aardman Animations - Richard Gole..... (identity in animation)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtdHN0Rc7ck

Guy 101 - Ian Gouldstone (internet aspect?)http://www.bbc.co.uk/filmnetwork/films/p005dsmr

Everything Will Be Okay - Don Hertzfeldt (animation that talks about similar themes?)http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/NYQoLzDeMV8/

Feeling my Way and others - Jonathan Hodgson (the mind in animation, and conventions)http://www.hodgsonfilms.com/shortFilms.php

Moon - Duncan Jones (identity/Loosing self image)

Being John Malkovich - Spike Jonze (identity)

Catfish - Henry Joost, Ariel Schulman (internet/facebook aspect)

Synecdoche New York - Charlie Kaufman (obviously)

Human Traffic - Justin Kerrigan (visual/literal metaphors within character design)

2001 a Space Odyssey - Stanley Kubrick (The use of barrel distortion can be quite interesting when it comes to the animated image.)

A Scanner Darkly - Richard Linklater (Similar theme to Fear and Loathing but rotoscoped from live action, creates an augmented reality feel since the real and unreal in the image are the same visually.)

Waking Life - Richard Linklater (Also rotoscoped but really draws out key poses and bubbling of the image.)

The Break-Up - Peyton Reid (unconventional love story?)

Talhotblond - Barbara Schroeder (internet/facebook aspect)

Mirror - Andrei Tarkovsky (identity?)

Stalker - Andrei Tarkovsky (identity?)

Solaris - Andrei Tarkovsky (identity?)

La Pista - Gianluigi Toccafondo (messing around with image)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxVLr3wQ4KM

Mr Nobody - Jaco Van Dormael (indentity and reality?)

500 Days of Summer - Marc Webb (unconventional love story - other reason?)

Robert Breer (uhhh not so much? we should ask Leonie which of his films she thought we should watch) 

Stuart Jackson (what and why?)

James Joyce (what and why?) 

Michael John Kricfalusi (punchy movement) 

Phil Mulloy (deliberately challenges the inherent beauty in fluid animation by using harsh, sudden movements to reflect the brutality of human nature.)

Books:

Knots - R D Lang http://www.englishbaby.com/blog/hormosapi/view_entry/37704 ;http://www.mat.upm.es/~jcm/laing--outside.html

I'm OK, You're OK - Thomas A Harris

One, No One, and One Hundred Thousand - Luigi Pirandello