LAUAN603 - Wrapping Things Up

Today I got the last few bits and pieces out of the way before submission.

First I wrote my evaluation, which wasn't hard for me to write as I had a lot to reflect upon and talk about (I was struggling to stay in the word count, ended up 50 words passed it or something). Third year has certainly been an interesting finale to everything...

Then finally, I made the press pack for Stupid Question.
I more or less just copied the basic structure of the one we made for AfterLives to be on the safe side (with a few small revisions).

If I find the time (or happen to feel exceptionally bored), I will perhaps make some more translated subtitles for the film, but other than that, I am finished with this module. I'm gonna spend the next few days triple and quadruple checking everything before submission. Most people would think that being done a few days early feels great, but if anything its just adding fuel to my anxiety because, even though I'm confident I didn't rush anything, the fact that I worked entirely on my own for the most part and yet have finished before everyone else I've spoken to just doesn't add up.

In any case, it feels good to breathe again.

Cameron out.

LAUAN603 - Art Book

Yesterday, I made the official art book for Stupid Question.
It took awhile for me to relearn everything I heard during the InDesign lectures, but eventually I got the hang of it and was able to make a decent looking book. It's a shame we aren't gonna be able to make them physically anymore, at least for the time being, but I'm satisfied with how it turned out. To be honest, I'm kinda surprised that I had so much to talk about in the first place. Maybe it could have done with less words?

In future, I think I will do more preplanning when it comes to creating visual journals like this. I was pretty much just winging it most of the time, so having a structure in mind before heading in would definitely be beneficial, especially when it comes to visual appeal and readability.

LAUAN603 - Editing

The last three days have been some of the most infuriating in recent memory.
Editing a film with software that chugs along so slowly, sometimes dropping close to 20 frames and stuttering all over the place, is a complete and utter nightmare. Somehow it got finished, and it actually looks alright. I don't know how.

After finishing a "rough draft" of the film, I showed it to my housemates to get some feedback. Thankfully, they didn't have much to recommend, just a few minor tweaks related to the audio levels and timing of certain shots. At long last, Stupid Question was finished.

Today I focused mainly on the subtitles, which were very easy and straightforward to do.
My housemate, Carla, is going to make some spanish subs for me later.

LAUAN603 - Final Bits and Pieces Before Editing

Today I installed After Effects and completed the parallax scrolling sequence that plays at the start of the film. It was a very straightforward procedure and only took my about 20 minutes. It looks alright. I'd insert the actual animation here but the file size is too large - enjoy this screenshot instead!

I also drew the close up shots of the books on Ben and Rover's table.
It took way too long to come up with unfunny book titles and references.

LAUAN603 - Of Sibilants and Normalisation

Today I began working on the audio.
Truth be told, there wasn't as much to work on as I had expected - TVPaint made a lot of the audio files sound worse than they actually where after being imported into the animation software.

Nethertheless, I first took to Audacity to tweak the voice files of Ben (James Hare) first. What needed doing mostly with his audio files was the sharp S sounds (also known as sibilants). I could only get so far with Audactiy, so eventually I took my work to Adobe Audition.

This proved to be a wise idea because Audition provided more options, and generally just did everything better. After some slight complications when it came to how exactly I was gonna go about putting everything together (and my laptop crashing... twice...) I think I'm content with what I managed to accomplish.

The end result is far from perfect but with little to no experience when it comes to cleaning up audio and sound files that range in quality, I think I did the best I could do. I have given the final cut a subtle effect that makes it sound as if it was recorded in a small room. While this doesn't make the voice acting sound crystal clear and perfect, it does make it sound consistent, and I'm hoping that alone will be enough to pass.

I will revisit this a little later with fresh... ears? to make sure it actually does sound okay, without having just spent close to six hours hearing nothing but "percipient polymath" over and over and over again.

LAUAN603 - It is done.... almost

Today, Sunday 10th May 2020 at 15:07pm, I finally finished the animation for "Stupid Question".
Tomorrow I will colour the last sequence, and with ten days left to do everything else, that gives me plenty of time to sort out the audio and edit everything together.

My fingers deserve a rest...

LAUAN603 - Feedback Session (WiFi Edition)

After joining the online class mere moments after waking up, having the sound not work for my presentation and eventually showing everybody what I had done so far, I was surprised by how positive the feedback was.

Granted, I didn't expect to be boo'd off the call or anything, but people seemed to really like it. The writing and the animation especially got a lot of praise which made me feel pretty good. The only point of contention that everybody seemed to agree upon was with the voice cast; I like my actors a lot, not only have they been co-operative and helpful, but they provided the closest performances I had in mind for the characters. While I will respectfully disagree with the tutor's remarks that they were not up to snuff, I can't deny that the audio quality definitely needs work.

This was something I was already planning on tweaking once animation had come to completion, but hearing it all again that afternoon really showed me just how much needed to be done. With the deadline less than two weeks away and the final animated sequence almost finished, the audio will be the first bit of post-production that I will focus on. This will be quite challenging especially in James Hare's (Ben) case as the audio files had been toyed with before. I emailed him about whether or not he can send me the unedited files, but he does not have access to them because of covid. Each day I find more and more reasons to hate this virus.

LAUAN603 - Animated Antidote

I made a short cartoon for Dr Simpo's animated antidote. The brief didn't specifically require the animation to be about a cure for COVID-19, but I thought it would be a fun excuse to do some dry humour which is right up my alley. 

Since this only took a few days to complete, I'm not exactly filled with immense pride and satisfaction after finishing it, but I like how it turned out. It's far from my best animation from a technical perspective, but in all honesty I did put a lot less effort into this than usual because of my commitment to "Stupid Question" taking up most of my energy.

Making a quick animation with not a lot of colouring or background work required made me realise that I could do stuff like this more often, as it cuts out a lot of the things I find the most tedious about animation whilst also giving me more excuses to animate, which is never a bad thing.

LAUAN603 - The Indoors Project

The future seemed a bit bleak for Stupid Question as far as festivals go, but recently I was contacted by "The Indoors Project" who approached me after seeing AfterLives screened at Encounters this year, asking if I would be interested in providing them with a new short. I, of course, was very happy to receive the offer, so after submission the film will be making its official premiere online.

The Indoors Project claims to be an online film festival bringing together animators who are working at home because of the current pandemic. Stupid Question fits the festival quite well as it takes place entirely indoors (this wasn't a required theme, but I find it funny how strangely topical the film has become in recent months).

LAUAN603 - Current Progress (11/04/2020)

Progress slowed down considerably once uni closed but bounced back somewhat during the last couple of days. 'Shot 12' (see bellow) was probably the last of the tricky sequences to animate so getting that out of the way was satisfying.

I got in touch with my music guy to make sure that his work was on schedule - all is good with him, thankfully. When it came to the rain overlay I needed for the first shot of the film, I was surprised at how annoying it actually was to animate rain. After a few tries, I think I got it down. I even made two versions.

For the next couple weeks, I will be going through the remaining sequences of animation as fast as I can. This shouldn't be too difficult as the rest of them are more on the easy side. I'm very determined to get this film finished, pandemic or no pandemic!

LAUAN603 - Shot 11

"Shot 11" took over two weeks to complete.
It is perhaps the most complex sequence in terms on animated acting and one of the longest sequences in the entire film. Despite being a complete pain to colour, I am incredibly pleased with how this turned out. I think this sequence might be the best thing I've ever animated so far - almost everything about it works so well. Hopefully the rest of the film can keep up this level of quality.

The file size of the clip is too big for Blogger, so here is a Google Drive link: 

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1tk7Shsseq--h2f8Vozk2OE1K7txJ5Wpm

Today I also began the roughs for Shot 12.
Since we lost the ability to use the uni's facilities this Wednesday, I want to make as much progress on this sequence as possible as it is also one of the more challenging scenes in the film and I would prefer to get most of it done in the more comfortable and practical set-up that uni provides, although the rest of it I will do at home with my own copy of TVPaint.

(Update: never mind we're in lockdown)

LAUAN603 - Storyboards for the Mythical Deer

The other day I agreed to help out on Petra's film by storyboarding the opening paper cut-out sequence and providing an animatic (see bellow).

 

I provided 2 versions with slight differences in timing and shot composition.
I also opted to help animate the scene. With the current state of things however, I'm unsure as to what will come of that.

LAUAN603 - Much ado about Music

When it came to the soundtrack for 'Stupid Question', I had a plan and three backups:

Plan A: Get in touch with music friend from home to see if he'd like to do it.
Plan B: Contact a music student.
Plan C: Look on Fiver.

Plan A fell through, so I'm currently attempting contact with a music student I met the other month. Hopefully they won't be too busy, especially since the film doesn't need much doing for it.

LAUAN603 - Full Speed Ahead

With the voice actor situation finally coming to an end, I wasted no time when it came to knocking out some more animation for the film. The following clip is the first time I've animated Ben and it was completed in just a few hours:

Much like I have done with Rover's close-up, I will redraw the background in order for it to look cleaner. I encountered a strange issue when it came to the audio file of this clip. where it would randomly make a sharp clicking sound at around the 1 second mark. After some research, this was resolved by converting the file from .mp3 to .wav. Hopefully this problem doesn't come up again, or at least not too often.

The next major hurdle to tackle is the film's soundtrack.
Stay tuned...

*UPDATE* Done another one. I've still got to get the hang of making the books appear consistent because they're a bit too wobbly at the moment. Also, the audio file in this one sounds off - will need to work on that.

LAUAN603 - Ben is here!

In a surprising turn of events, Ben's voice actor delivered his lines a couple days early!
I was very pleased with what he gave me, so after compiling all the voice lines I'm gonna use into one soundtrack and splitting all of it up by shot, I am finally 100% ready to animate the whole thing. Took long enough, but I'm glad we got here earlier than I expected to.

LAUAN603 - Where in the world is Ben?

Current update on the Ben's Voice Actor situation...

I have two actors in consideration: one seemed at one point to be asking for money after giving me an audition reel, but I think he was just doing the whole "you don't know if you don't ask" sort of thing. He's currently "in consideration". His audition was fine but...

....the other guy I found was better.
He showed interest in the project after I reuploaded the job ad to Mandy, and he was pretty close to what I had originally had in mind for Ben's voice, so after getting in touch with him, he will be sending an audition file this week. Hopefully I can convince him to send a reading of the full script as early as possible, after we've talked about the approach to the character via email.

LAUAN603 - 11 Second Club

For the past three weeks, I have been working on my third live brief for the 11 Second Club competition. The source of the audio was from a movie called "The Velocipastor", which had a synopsis so bizarre on IMDb that my friends and I just had to watch it for ourselves. I had wanted to do an 11 Second Club challenge for quite a while now, because animating dialogue is something I want to specialise in.

I wanted to animate this sequence in the shortest amount of time possible, so I bit the bullet and decided to mainly use keyframes with tweening in-between to give it bounce and energy. While I would have loved to go frame by frame the old fashion way, I really wanted to get this out of the way so that I could return to animating "Stupid Question" and I'm pleased with how it turned out.

For my next live brief, I may do another 11 Second Club entry, since its the kind of thing I really enjoy animating, but for the sake of keeping things interesting I might do a different animation competition or even a character design challenge instead.

LAUAN603 - LoopdeLoops

Here are my entries for the "Instrument" and "Whoops!" LoopdeLoop themes.
Pleased with how these turned out. The next two live briefs will be for different competitions.

The loop I dd was based on old 40's era cartoons. The design of the pied piper specifically was heavily influenced from adaptations of that particular era. I was originally gonna leave it at that, but I was encouraged to add some filters via After Effects, and I think they turned out quite nicely - I'm very proud of this one.

This loop is actually not the first time I animated a baby in pain. I had animated something for their "Stairs" theme from a while back but never got around to sending it. This one is okay, I think the frames are a little inconsistent and the loop back around isn't that smooth... but I guess it's funny so whatever. Another masterpiece to add to the collection!

LAUAN603 - Close-up Background and Ben finds a voice

With 250 out of commission and the cintique room full, I wasn't able to do any animating today.
However, I still got stuff done. Firstly, I redrew the background that you'll see in the close-up shots of Rover. This will hopefully make it look cleaner.

Secondly, I believe that I now have my 2nd voice actor!
After listening to his audition tape (or audio file to be more accurate), I sent some feedback and he should be giving me the full script by this weekend. I'm very excited to have both Ben and Rover fully voiced, because then I can compose a full soundtrack for the film and there won't be any obstacles in the way of me animating.

LAUAN603 - First Sequence Completed(?)

Today I finished my first sequence of animation.

It took me just little under a week to complete (Tuesday - Friday)
I love how it looks and I am pleased with how it turned out for the most part. However, I am a little frustrated with how jittery it is, but I hope I'll produce smoother stuff as time goes on. Also, I am currently not including any details on the book as not only was it a pain to draw but keeping them consistent was next to impossible and it looked pretty bad in motion. This is something I will look into.

I will also consider redrawing the backgrounds for close-up shots like this. I think zooming in on the pre-existing one looks fine but you can tell that its been blown up when you analyse the line work, so redrawing them to make them look cleaner would probably be a good investment of my time.

LAUAN603 - Rover Has a Voice

This afternoon I received Rover's lines for the film.
To be more precise, I got three takes of the script, which was incredibly useful, as I can now select the line deliveries I like the most and splice them all together (which I will do later today).

I also organised my Google Drive in preparation and divided the film into 13 shots; this will make things easy to keep track of when I'm animating sequences out of order. Since I only have Rover's lines for now, I'm going to focus on his close-ups.

I'm very excited to finally start animating - this has been long overdue.

LAUAN603 - VAs Acquired?

Throughout the last couple of days, I've managed to get in contact with two actors via Mandy.com (one for Ben, one for Rover).

Rover's VA will deliver his lines this weekend.
We had a brief discussion regarding how to approach the voice of the character, and I think the result suits him well.

The other actor, who is trying for Ben, should send his lines over the coming week. I haven't heard his take on the voice yet, but I was pleased with certain parts of his demo reel which I think suited the kind of personality I had in mind.

LAUAN603 - Establishing Shot

Yesterday I completed the establishing shot of Ben and Rover's house.
I originally wanted them to live in a good old fashioned Yorkshire terrace house, but for the sake of composition, I separated them from their neighbours.

I'm really pleased with how it came out - the colours are brilliant and the linework isn't too bad either. I was suggested by Prathik to seperate the image into layers so that I could include some parallax scrolling to give the scene more depth. We also shared additional ideas in regards to the picture itself.

LAUAN603 - The Hunt for Voices

Much like with AfterLives, I've taken to Mandy.com to find voice talent for my film.
I can't lie, this has been a very, very, very daunting process for me. I've received 7 or so applicants so far, which is great, but I do hope more come in soon. I really wanna find the perfect voices for Ben and Rover, and I'm afraid that I might just have to settle with something I'm not happy with.

Time shall tell.

LAUAN603 - Storyboard and Animatic

I completed the storyboard for the film, which wasn't really a difficult endeavor considering the simplicity of the plot (or lack thereof), but it still proved to be a very useful asset to pre-production.

I converted these frames into an animatic, voicing Ben and Rover myself so as to give one an idea as to how I envision the delivery of the lines. It made Matt laugh which is a good sign in my books.

LAUAN603 - Final Script

The script has been finalised.
After running it past a few close friends whom's opinions I trust, I think I'm satisfied with the jokes. I've timed myself delivering the dialogue and it comes out at just under 2 minutes which is perfect.