Development | 4X4 Graphic

Here are a bunch of screen shots illustrating the development of my 4x4 graphic. I have now added a white shape at a low opacity to look like the driver is behind a window, as before it was a white fill background which wasn't realistic at all and without the windows it looked even worse. Refer to screen shots to see what I mean!

I think the driver could do with having more contrast, but apart from that I'm happy with it so far. 

Export | Trying out after exporting

I decided to export and then tryout my After Effects compositions to see what they would look like together. Unfortunately the machine I'm working on doesn't have Premier Pro so I've improvised and used Finder's preview function and incremented the cuts between each composition myself. He's a screen recording of it so far.

At the moment there's no audio and no doubt that will change my decisions once its put in; for the moment though the changes I want to make are:
- Remove white fill from drivers cab
- Put background scene back together where there are breaks.
- Sort out the transitions between the 3 scenes. It currently feels a bit lumpy.

Problems | The message

After completing all the sections of my animation I'm not completely sure I'm getting the message across clearly enough. Although I haven't put all the parts together and added in the sound, I'm still slightly worried its not going convey the message strongly enough. We will have to see once it's all put together though. I'm glad I've left myself plenty of time before deadline as I realised this might happen as it often does in projects.

Amendments | Illustation

There are quite a few irritating problems with my illustrations and parts to tidy up. These will be done shortly when I make a list of extra assets to put in the foreground and background. I'm glad I left all of my imported items as ".ai" files when i imported them as this will make things a lot easier when it comes to changing them and reimporting into After Effects.

I planned this when I was importing into After Effects as I knew I'd change my idea and some parts would need tweaking before finalising the animation. I've learnt this pre-planning after doing many projects like this, maybe something has sunk in after all!

Developments | Happy scene semi complete

As you can see above I have mostly finished my happy scenery that illustrates the idea of biodiesel usage. I'd like to add a few extra bits and bobs in the background though and an old film texture across everything.

Typography | Better late than never...

After getting the thumbs up from my classmates during pitch I've decided to go ahead with the use of a billboard in my animation. I found it difficult to select a font to use for it but "Handwriting - Dakota" seems to be the most appropriate out of all the handwritten fonts I've downloaded so far. I also considered "casual"(right above) and "Lucinda handwriting" (left above) but one felt too childish and the other seemed a bit arabic which certainly wasn't the look I was going for...

I do apologise for this post being 2 weeks late.

Techniques | Pothole effect

I've been trying out a more realistic approach moving my 4x4. I want to imitate the vehicle driving down a bumpy track. The problem is that the wheels are a parented to the body so they move wherever the body does. Ideal if you just want to move them around relative to each other but I would ideally like to animate them separately to add another sense of realism to my animation. The video above illustrated the problem I'm having.

Development | After Effects

Today I started animating my artwork in After Effects CS4. Its been confusing getting my head around a new program and different layout but after 2 hours i've got this and I'm very pleased with it!

Technical | Problems

I've been having problems with my iMac at home. It cannot open my illustrator files or allow me to work on them with the speed it used to. I've been told this is most likely a hardware fault and replacing the hard drive would probably sort the problem... or buying a new Macbook Pro... temptation!

Illustration | Splitting up my scene ready for After Effects

Here are a few of my assets after being exported from Illustrator ready to use in After Effects. I have to do this because I need to be able to animate all the objects separately in order to get the false 3d effect that I spoke about in earlier posts. We did an excellent tutorial last week about making an object rotate continuously. This technique will be perfect for making the wheels on my car rotate.

Illustration | Completed for now

I've forgotten to put these on my dropbox... so i will upload tomorrow when I'm back at Uni.

I've drawn out 3 different scenes for my animation; diesel fuel usage scene, fuel station and biofuel usage scene. These are in order below. I'm still unsure whether I should use a gradient on the fuel station background as I don't feel it fits in very well with my art style, but once put into the video it might work as a visual prompt for the viewers. Only time will tell!

Ignore the black box in the middle, this is my art board in Illustrator which has no effect on the art once it's exported.

Jeffery Bowman

I recently found an artist through an article found on digital arts online:(http://www.digitalartsonline.co.uk/authors/jeffrey-bowman/)

His name is Jeffrey Bowman and He is a designer/ illustrator from the UK; who works between the Lake District and his studio in Norway.

I've found his work very inspiring. Its simple and doesn't require a huge amount of drawing skill, but does require a lot of time and attention to detail. I find i notice more and more intricate detail every time i look at his work, some of which can be seen above and below:

Voice Over!

I've chosen to do a voice over in my work, as well as having a simple text support in the form of a billboard in my scenery; idea to be confirmed after pitch.

Some idea's for voice over script:
- "Try Biofuel today!"
- "Why not try Biofuel and improve your emission score"
- "Try Biofuel today, and reduce your carbon footprint by up to 67%!"
- "Why not try Biofuel today, and reduce your carbon footprint by up to 67%!"
- "Use Biofuel today, and save the world in the future"

Analysis:
- "Use Biofuel today, and save the world in the future" - I think this one is a bit hectoring and doesn't have the tone I'd like to convey through my animation.
- "Try Biofuel today!" - This is a bit thin and doesn't carry any reasoning or weight.

Chosen few:
- "Try Biofuel today, and reduce your carbon footprint by up to 67%!"
- "Why not try Biofuel today, and reduce your carbon footprint by up to 67%!"

I like both of these. I think its because I've managed to convey reasoning as well as a positive tone without it seeming lecturing or bossy.

This is my chosen phrase below. The use of "Why not" makes it an encouraging message which is what the brief states for me to create.

 "Why not try Biofuel today, and reduce your carbon footprint by up to 67%!"

Chosen | Audio

I've had a change of heart and decided against using any of the songs i'd put on my spotify playlist since I've found an upcoming artist called Lewis Watson.

I'm going to be using 2 of his songs -

Development | Storyboarding MK2

Here's my finished digital storyboard. You can see the clear phases of my animation now. Going from the black cloudy scenes at the beginning, to the petrol station scene and then the happier countryside scene that biodiesel is going to be associated with in the audiences mind. 

Here are some close up detail shots of my rough vectors. As you can see I've borrowed the idea of the barn from Pumped BMX artwork by Eva Galesloot.

Development | Audio

Today I created a Spotify playlist in which I could put songs into for my animation. I'm finding it hard to choose between 4 songs I've put in there. I'm currently thinking of using 2 songs - the first being a sadder song, and the latter being a happier song to fit in with the illustrations and message of biodiesel being better for the planet.

I think that Nizlopi's JCB song fits the visual style of my animation, so maybe I should find something that's similar to that. A more acoustic/ organic sound is the key I think. I'll have to see what works when the animatic is being put together though, but I think the 2 song concept could be a little cramped for such a short animation.

I will be using sound affects to support my animation, these will be especially key for my animatic as they will explain what's happening when it may not be as visually clear as I'd hoped it to be. I think an old diesel engine noise will support the farm vehicles movement before the biodiesel is put in, and then afterwards I can have the music as priority. I also need to find a petrol pump sound effect so that I can use that noise instead of illustrating someone getting out of the car to fill it up. This will save me valuable time, as this is the thing thats really limiting me at the moment. 

Development | Storyboarding

Once I'd decided on the concept of my animation I needed to put it down on paper. I drew a very short storyboard of images to illustrate my idea in my sketchbook, as seen below:



And then I went on to digitalise this using Adobe Illustrator. I have really enjoyed doing this process today. I think its shown me how working up from a paper copy to a rough digital copy is more helpful than I'd previously thought. By creating this digital storyboard I could easily create an animatic in no time ready to pitch my idea to my classmates. Here's a screenshot of my storyboard under construction:

Hopefully by the time I do the next post I'll have completed the storyboard and finished the visual elements of my animatic and the audio will be well underway.

Chosen | Concepts

At first I thought I wanted to a head up display on my animation like computer games have, but this has gone out the window since I've been brainstorming more and more in my sketchbook. 

Now I plan to have an stereotypical farm vehicle driving along a lane in the foreground of the animation. The start of the animation will have the vehicle chuffing out plumes of black smoke but once he fills up with biodiesel the music lightens up and the sun comes out and the smoke is clearing. 

I want to create a short animation that's educational but fun and playful at the same time. In my view its important to make the video fun as well as educational because I want to avoid the boring, lecturing tones that other educational videos have. I think that once my concept and visual style are coupled together I can create a fun, yet educational public information video.  

Chosen | Colour Scheme

Here's the colour scheme I'm going to be using. Mostly inspired by the artwork of Eva Galesloot whom I've spoken about in a previous post. I've made subtle changes between the regular and biodiesel schemes when it came to the green/ grey colours but the blue and the yellow are introduced as vivid, happy colours :) 

This may not be my final colour scheme as I might add to it throughout my drawing process when i decide to add textures. I'd like to put textures in to add some realism to my currently very flat images I've got at the moment. 

Research | Biofuel

http://www.biodiesel.org/docs/ffs-basics/emissions-fact-sheet.pdf

Here are the average biodiesel emissions compared to conventional diesel according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). It shows that you can reduced your hydrocarbon emissions by up to 67% if you're using B100 which is 100% biodiesel. It also gives results for B20 which is 20% Biodiesel and 80% regular diesel. This still reduced unburned hydrocarbons that are being introduced into the atmosphere by 20% which I think is quite an impressive margin considering the little use of biofuel. 

By doing this research its bump started my ideas for a voice over. I think I might use something along the lines of:

"Reduce your car's carbon footprint by up to 67%!"

Research | Visual Style

Above is a screenshot from an app i downloaded recently and loved the art style of. Its something that I think I can pull off fairly well with the time I've got by creating a background that tiles as it does in the app. By doing this I can reduce the amount of time I have to spend creating the background imagery whilst still creating the effect I want to. I think this home made style of drawing will suit the biodiesel promotion aspect of my animation. I also think it pays homage to the older style drawing of the 1950's.

Here's another animation I really like. My favourite part of it is the use of foreground and background throughout to make it look like its 3d. The sharpness of an object tells you how close or how far away it would be in real space, something subtle but very effective. The foreground/ background also has its own pace, which again adds a sense of realism. I think this is something I'd like to utilise if i have time. 

Development | Concept and Visual style

After doing quite a few brain storms in my sketchbook I've finally decided to stick with promoting Biodiesel as my Co2 reducing activity. 

I've been toying with the idea of doing a game style head up display to get across the message of biodiesel being better for the environment than regular diesel. I was speaking to one of my lecturers who had the idea of having a "carbon foot" in the corner of the screen that got bigger as the character in the animation polluted more. I was thinking of using this relation between object and character but changing the foot for a leaf that degraded more and more until the character filled its car up with biodiesel. This idea has given me a point to focus on and will hopefully be the concept I stick with until the end as we don't have any time to mess about in this project with different concepts due to time constraints.

The problem with this is that I'd really like to use photography or hand drawing in this project so I can get away from the computer a bit more than I have in previous projects. I also think by combining my skills as a photographer and a digital designer I can create a portfolio with a bigger variation of works.

Here's a piece of work I watched about 3 years ago that's been an inspiration for me ever since. It combines some great photography and use of After Effects/ Photoshop. The title section before you see any photographs has a particle effect I like and I could use for my idea. I like the way it gives the effect of 3d space throughout the video even though all the photographical elements are 2d.

Research | Principles of Animation

Below are the 12 principles of animation with links to video example and a short explanation. These are the movements that can be used in animation to add realism. Some of them are used to make the animation more exciting or by combining two the animator can make something extraordinary e.g combining Squash and Stretch and Exaggeration to make a character move in an unnaturally exaggerated manor. 

Squash and stretch - BUPA Feel fine -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCJ8P2khTec
Weight and flexibility. Its makes movements either natural, or exaggerated. It can be used for kinetic movements.

Anticipation - Red (2010) -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gxrI5CPYIM
Allows for the user to predict what will happen. Suspense is added. Alludes to the forthcoming movements. Heightens drama.

Staging - Skate Rotoscope -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUpPymtMRj4
Staging gives the objects a scene to sit in. It tells you about the object, or the situation the object has got itself into. Directs the audience attention.

Straight ahead action and Pose-to-pose - Stick Figure vs Mouse -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opAJyA-L-fw
Change of size and volume. Continuous sequences frame by frame. Pose to Pose action is key frames and interpolation. Character position cutting between poses.

Follow through action and Overlapping action - Never Enough Alfa -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nx2sPfgqlkg
Overlapping action- More than one animation simultaneously on a screen. Interacting and affecting each other.

Follow through action- Explaining physical movements through the use of continuation.
Ease in and Ease out - HBTV: Depth of Speed -
https://vimeo.com/27010709

Arcs - BUPA Feel fine -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCJ8P2khTec
Paths of movement, they highlight gravity or effects of momentum.

Secondary action - Doctor Fish - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdNghrAeks0
Adds sense of realism, an example is a horses hair moving as it runs.

Timing - Animated Walk and Skip Cycles -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5ffy-YwybA

Exaggeration - Stick Figure vs Mouse -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opAJyA-L-fw
Adds an unatural effect. Overstated physical movements. Stops the story being boring and rigid. Explains whats happened.

Solid Drawing - Emotions and the Brain - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNY0AAUtH3g

Appeal - Animated Walk and Skip Cycles - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5ffy-YwybA
http://vimeo.com/39859084