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.