Film Studies and Cinematography - Final Project

31 May 2022 - 10 July 2022 (Week 10 - Week 15)

Zetie Binti Bahaman / 0351297 / BDCM

Film Studies & Cinematography

Final Project - 20sec Animated Trailer

---

INSTRUCTIONS

Final Project

In the final project, we are to produce an animated trailer of our original short animation story with sound as voice-over, sound effects and music; to tell a compelling story based on Projects 1 and 2. 


Progression

1. Selected Shots

After multiple changes, I finally have a storyboard with 6 selected shots to start animating with. 

Fig 1.0 Selected Shots

2. Animatic

Upon selecting the shots from Project 2, I am assigned to produce a rough animatic. This will ease the process of animating the scenes later on.

Fig 1.1 Rough Animatic Attempt 01

This animatic included too many scenes, hence, the lecturer asked me to revise my selected shots and choose 4 to 5. As seen as the storyboard above, I managed to reduce to six (6) selected shots.

Fig 1.2 Rough Animatic Attempt 02

3. Workflow

I started by drawing the scenes - foreground, and background etc. This was my first time animating hand-drawn elements instead of vector-based. This phase was most time consuming as I worked with a bunch of brushes to give the hand drawn chalk effect

Fig 1.3 Scene 1

Fig 1.4 Scene 2

Fig 1.5 Scene 3

Fig 1.6 Scene 4

Fig 1.7 Scene 5

Fig 1.8 Scene 6

I wanted to show the transition of colour that reflects the storyline in the scenes. Hence, the first scene is the most colourful as it is portraying that the character in her happiest state. The difference in colour of the scenes reflects the mood of fear and sadness. Instead of using typical grey/blacks to display 'darkness', I used blue/purple tones to show the color contrast. 


Then, I began to animate them scene by scene using Adobe Animate.

Fig 1.9 Animating the bird

Fig 2.0 Bird Attempt 01

Fig 2.1 Bird Attempt 02

I revised my bird animation based on Mr Martin's feedback. It is much smoother compared to the previous one. 

Fig 2.2 Scene 1 - Attempt 01

Fig 2.3 Animating Character

Fig 2.4 Scene 2 - Attempt 02

These are the shots that I managed to show Mr Martin for the final viewing. The comments received can be referred to Week 14 Feedback. The final animation has been revised based on the feedback. Based on Figures 2.3 and 2.4, the difference can be seen from the shadow's perspective. I lowered the angle of the shadow figure so it looks flatter on the ground.

Fig 2.5 Utilising Camera Layer in After Effects

Initially, I used a scale tool to do a push-in animation of the shot. It looked unnatural and Mr Martin suggested I turn them into 3D layers and use a camera instead. The animation process included a lot of pre-composing of several layers and then compiling them in a final composition.

Fig 2.6 Animation Compilation in Premiere Pro

I already knew the audio/SFX I would include during the first scene, hence, that was done in After Effects directly. Afterwards, I exported each scene and the final compilation was executed using Adobe Premiere Pro for the overall audio. Links to the audio sources are available in the video description of the Youtube link below.


Final 20-second Animated Trailer

Fig 2.7 Final 20s Animated Trailer - "Stolen", Week 15 (10/7/2022)

---

FEEDBACK

Week 10
Specific Feedback:

Scene 2

• Body shape of shadow is shocked hand on the 
• Exaggerated shadow 

Scene 3

• Few steps walk closer
• Camera pushing
• Camera closer to the window 
• Add some trees

Scene 4

• Wind coming in 
• Not still breathing

Scene 5

• Box to her 
• Hand reach out to jewellery box

Week 11
Specific Feedback:

The animatic is just rough so not much comments. Though, the length has been reduced and following the chosen shots. 

Scriptwriting Tip -
Follow the flow of our story based on Project 1. If we have no dialogue, we can describe the actions of our characters in the scenes.

Week 12
Specific Feedback:

• Nice scenery for Scene 1
• Scene 2 needs work - try to show the character in a different pose despite being a shadow.

Week 14
Specific Feedback:

 

Scene 1:

• Slower movement - in/out (use camera tool)
• Camera angles - Z axis
• 2 keyframes
• Different layers
• Trees swaying from the start
• Girl's leg not proportionate - thigh/calf

Scene 2:

• Much better almost there but the angle/perspective of the shadow is still off.
• It's not looking like its on the floor
• The right hand arm has to go down a bit.

---

REFLECTION

This module has challenged me in so many ways. Firstly, this is my first time doing animation hand-drawn. I usually stick with vector-based so this was a fun challenge to execute. Though time was crucial and the drawing phase + file prep to animate was the most time-consuming. Because of this, I lacked updates torecord my works in progress. I also struggled to animate certain things because it is not my strongest suit to work with human characters. Overall, it was a good experience to brush up on my animating skills, as well as, explore camera angles that only animation can achieve.