submission

so today is the final day and after the screening, it will be all over!!!!! so i finish complilling and everything this morning and i felt good! so now im left with this last post and there P3 will be completed.

this 2 month kind of a toture, having 2 other modules especially MAYA which takes up alot of my time. i learned alot from this trial run of FYP. like time, planning, self management, having a good rest and sleep. i would say that my planning for P3 is really bad. at the last week i am still editing my story line and it is kind of messy up. so i think planning and finalise the story early and help myself to save time from doing scenes that i will not included in the animation. i did alot of redundant scenes and wasted alot of time on it.

well overall my animation work is ok. just story wise not really good and the character is not consistence. i know that in term of story telling, my skill is not really good. somehow what i had in mind did not really reflect on the paper. maybe because i feel that i cant really draw well so i shouldn't think of different camera angle and various position of the character. it is like finding my own trouble. so i tend to keep my character and stuff simple. well simple is not really bad like there's the saying 'simple and sweet'. also, i had trouble choosing the correct colour. like example for a grass, i choose a green colour but others will comment that it is too saturated and stuff. sometimes i do wonder how they can choose the correct colour or the colour that will fit in to the scene. like there is a wide range of green, light green dark green but how actually can they find the correct green. for time management, i think it is up to one self to manage. it is own time own target and the time span we have to focus on doing the animation is really short. i get distracted really easily and side track. i realise that i cant really work at home because of the television and the bed. so this time round, i made an effort to go back to school on saturday to work. though sometimes we will start to chi chat, but at least more work can be done in school compare to home. for me, pre-production took quite a long time. like almost a month to actually sort of decide on the story idea and stuff. maybe because i wasnt really sure what i actually wanted and i want to keep the story short but yet the story will turn boring or even that the audience dont understand it. i was having the mindset that i should keep the story short, cut out as many scenes as possible to reduce the time i have to draw and animate. and the chain effect was that the audience dont understand the story and the whole gist of the story is missing. something that i really learned during project 3. sometimes short doesnt mean good and long story also doesnt mean perfect. so i have to make sure that i keep the story flow well, in terms of the timing, make sure it is not too long winded and too short that no body understand.

good bye.

victory scene

so i had a scene of the hen laying the bowling pin egg. it is kind of like a victory for the hen. so when i though of it, i remember the cartoon Power puff Girls which at the near end of the cartoon, they will have the girls together in the center and a very colourful background. so i want to have something similar to it. i went to ask my friends for opinion and they gave me ideas like i can have the background colour rotating. so i did with a rotating background and the hen with the bowling pin egg. but after i animate it, i find the background quite distracting and the whole attention will be diverted away from then hen and the egg. so i decided not to rotate the colours. when i finish it, i show it to yi chuin and she said that the hen and the egg looks weird in the position. the egg looks like it is floating in the air. then she suggested that maybe the hen could be holding to the egg. i thought maybe it might look better so i decided to try it out and there. definitely better then before.

redundant scene

so i guess having to finalize the story earlier would help yourself saving more times and effort. i realize that i had a lot of redundant scene which i had animated earlier on. so i just i should upload a few and let others see.

updates

till now i am still drawing out the scene and had alot more to do. juggling between maya- character design and P3. hopefully i will be able to finish the whole animation.

final woman character design

proposal 2

interim 3

today is the interim 3. well its kind of disappointing cause the rest don't get what my animatic is telling. so its a flop. wow, i didn't really expect this to happen. maybe i did not get people to see through my animatics to get some feedback before the interim. maybe i was too complacent that everyone would get the story. so i think about think and re-organise the story all over again and simplified it. so tomorrow i will be showing amanda my new story and hope that it will be okay. tiime is running fast...

http://plushpenguin.deviantart.com/art/Persephone-s-Flight-95560622

proposal 1

consultation

okay, so today finally i had a consultation with Amanda. I showed the animatics to her and she gave me some comments on how i can improve on. she mentioned some of the stuff that are quite similar to what Alan had said. About the introduction of the farm woman, Amanda and Alan gave different ways of introducing her. So now i am like kind of not sure which method should i choose. Amanda said that i should choose one that i feel comfortable with and that flows well with my story. so now i have to really finalise my story and start on my production. i have already started on a few scene but luckily it is not the part where i need to make changes. Amanda also mentioned that my character does not look consistent, like in the postioning and in different view, they look different. so i need to update and make changes to the character as well. so this weekend there are alot of things to do and hopefully i can get my storyboard done!

update on the farm woman character

update on the farm woman character

interim 2

today was the second interim and we had to show our animatics. so for this animatics, i did not add in any voice over as i did not have anytime to do the recording as i was busy with Animation 2 project. so after the screening of my work, Alan gave some comments on it.

the first was that the introduction of the farm woman was quite abrupt, like quite a sudden you see her in the animation without any introduction. Alan suggest that maybei can introduce her when she starts to collect the egg and then she realise the bowling pin egg then i can add in her different expression.

the second one was to show the other hen laying an egg and then link it to the part where the egg wil start rolling down and hit the 9 bowling pin eggs.

the third one was instead of ending the animation if a fade to black maybe i can end the thing with all the eggs splattering around.

the fourth one was that one of the scene, i did a tracking and it was too fast, the timing went wrong, and it looks like a hen train.

so thats the comment he gave and i should start working and these and good luck to production.

character design

so i did the character design for my main character hen.

character design- farm woman

here is the design for the farm woman

gannet chart

Today is the first group consultation. we are to create our own production schedule using the gannet chart. creating a production schedule is very common in every project or production. it helps to check if we are progressing on time, giving feedback if we are progressing too fast or too slow. like what alan said, it is like creating a milestone for us to reach our target. so to start creating a gannet chart, we discuss on what should be included in the chart like said audio, background and colouring. it should be created in the way we are comfortable with it and a realistic production schedule. well since i have not finish doing my storyboard, i only create a brief production schedule first.














Alan also mention on how we should work smart. Like some animation behind the scene, they will record the voice over first which will be easier to settle on the timing and the lip sync. well i think it make sense which we can use it for the animatic to gague the timing. next, to bring up our confidence level, we should start working on the scene that we are confident with and next proceed to the most difficult or tricky scene then next will be the final scene. why this steps is because we cant tell if we can finish the whole animation on time. so by doing the final scene first will make the whole animation the starting and the ending looks good. even if the middle of it looks horrible, at least the audience will remember the good starting and the end a good ending.

entry 3

so we had our first consultation. well i guess it is rather straightforward on what you want to do and what you want to achieve from this project. getting the right target audience was not easy. having the correct age group, from there we have to make the age group smaller. in the sense that 6-12 years old is a wide age group. children from age 6-12 thinks differently as they grow up. example a 12 years old kid might not like a toy train as compare when he is 6 years old. i guess this is what alan means by the age group.

next is the aim. this is the hardest of all. the aim written will be linked to how i can achieve the aim. for my animation, my aim is to show the expression of the hen when she is laying the eggs. so how can i achieve it is to blog the character design so that i can get comments and improve on it. in a way that i can achieve the aim. it is rather easy to think of an aim but difficult to link it on how can i achieve it.

briefly i have thought of how i want my animation to look like. i want my whole animation to look simple. it will be flat colours and more of using neutral colours to show the farm feel.

i think the most difficult task to achieve is to draw out the hen expression. compare to human, i have never seen a hen doing different kind of weird expression. so i guess maybe i have to apply the expression of human and exaggerate it a little to achieve the expression of the hen.

learning contract

brief of learning contract


Working title: A hen and bowling pin

Short description: It takes place in a chicken farm. A hen was unable to produce an egg and the owner was frustrated. The owner decided if the hen does not produce an egg by the end of the week, the hen will be killed. However a prize awaits her the very next day, a bowling pin egg.

Primary aim: The hen expression when she is laying the egg.

I will know I have achieved my primary aim if: It is like the cartoon Cow and Chicken from Cartoon Network. I post it in my blog and receive feedback from my classmates.

Secondary aims: The animation will be in a vector style.

I will know I have achieved my secondary aims if: It is similar to Looney Tunes style.

Personal motivation: This is the first animation that I am doing by myself and I hope that I can produce a good work. This is a project that I can add in to my portfolio.

PROCESS

Full project description: Synopsis: It takes place in a chicken farm. A hen was unable to produce an egg and the owner was frustrated. The owner decided if the hen does not produce an egg by the end of the week, the hen will be killed. However a prize awaits her the very next day, a bowling pin egg.

Format: 2D animation.

Duration: Less than 2 minutes

Style: Vector, flat colours with outlines.

Genre: Comedy

Anticipated difficulties: The drawings and the time management. Drawing the hen’s expression and the character design.

Research requirements: Location research: Images of the environment eg. Farm and house. Pictures of the bowling pins and bowling ball.

Software techniques: Adobe Flash and Photoshop

Facts: Research on the process of laying an egg.


OUTCOMES

Age range: 6 – 12 years-old

Gender: Male and female

Geographical region: Asia

Social group: Kids who loves to watch TV and cartoons

Viewing reading & listening habits: Those who likes animals and bowling

Are there any secondary target groups? Those who likes surprises, animals and bowling


what effect do you hope to have on your target groups?

From this animation, I hope the audience will be bewildered and feel surprise and laughter within them.

Entry 02

so we had to anwser the questions given on the story we are doing on. this is the plot that i have planned.

Chicken lays bowling-pin shaped egg

Story

An animal lover has found her chickens are game for anything after one laid an egg resembling a tenpin bowling pin. Natalie Wiltshire said the bizarre creation was laid by one of her 20 chickens and reckons it is one of a kind. 'I've done a bit of research and there's nothing to suggest you should ever get eggs in this shape,' said the 43-year-old. 'It really is quite an extraordinary shape. All I need now is another nine pins and a round one for a bowling ball and we have the complete set,' she joked.


http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/article.html?Chicken_lays_bowling-pin_shaped_egg&in_article_id=571847&in_page_id=2&in_a_source=

Who are you telling the story for (primary audience)?

Aged 12 - 25

What reaction do you want?

Shocked
Surprised
Amused

3. Is the narrative omniscient (all seeing) or restrictive (viewed from a single perspective)?(If the narrative is restrictive, whose viewpoint are you using?)

Omniscient

4. List the important events of the story.

The hen could not lay out any eggs
The mother decided to give the hen a second chance to produce an egg, if it does not she will have to kill the hen
One day the hen looks terrible and there she managed to lay out an egg; a special egg
The egg looks like the bowling pin
The story ends with the bowling pin egg and the bowling pin stood side by side on the table.

5. Which aspects of the setting of the story are important (time of day… location… period of history…) and how do you intend to establish these important elements?

Location: London countryside
Time: Modern day - 2009

6. What traits of the characters in your story are important and how do you intend to establish these traits?

Mother
Impatient
Short tempered
Greedy

7. In what order are the important events (step 4 above) covered? Is it a strictly linear sequence of events in time, or does the story contain any flashbacks or other interruptions to the sequence of events?

Strictly linear sequence

8. How does the story flow, does the pace change? Does it contain a surprise? Consider your answers to 1 and 2 above when making your response.

Pace accelerate
Reveals the hen laid a bowling pin egg

9. How will you use sound to help all your responses to 5-8 above?

Not yet decided

10. Does your story need dialog? (write out the dialog)

No dialogue

Entry 01

well project 3 again when project 2 just end not too long ago. again the whole process will take about 2 months to complete a short animation which last about 3 mins. this little area here will be the sweat and blood of mine the process of producing the animation.

Project 3 was introduced to us as a mini FYP. like a pre-run on how the FPY will be like, the process and details we have to take note of before starting on the FPY. sorted out in smaller groups and given a short weird news and then discuss on how we can produce either a short video or animation for it. the first thing taken down was that we can make use of the things happening around us, use it as an idea and make it into a short video which can either entertain people or bring an message across. Alan also introduce us some websites which are full or weird news happening around the world everyday. another source of entertain if we are bored or too stressed out by the works!

the next note to be taken down was the questions that will help us in creating a story and developing the character, storyflow and environment. sometimes we will be stuck at one point when we are not sure how we can improve in the storyflow and make it looks better and able to catch the attention of the audience. through the questions given, it helps us in our thinking process.

Weird stories are everywhere and selecting the one and making it into an animation! you can never expect how weird the world is with all the ridiculous things happening around. i found 3 articles through the internet.

first is about an old woman who was pregnant for 60 years!
http://living.oneindia.in/expressions/life-expressions/2009/chinese-woman-dead-baby-210109.html

second is a hen whom laid a egg that look like a bowling pin
http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/article.html?Chicken_lays_bowling-pin_shaped_egg&in_article_id=571847&in_page_id=2&in_a_source=

the third is the man kill his wife because she changed her martial status on facebook to Single.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/staffordshire/7845946.stm

from there, we are to choose on of the news and make it the story for Project 3. i chose the hen story. i changed the story a little bit.

this is what i have thought so far and probably with some discussion with Alan and classmate, i might be able to improve the storyline better.

Next is the very important thing in FPY which is the learning contract. well i heard about learning contract before, from what i know, it is a contract whereby you must finalise your story and everything, after signing it you CANNOT make any changes to it. So before signing it, you must really make sure that you really like the story and make no more changes to it. Alan gave us a soft copy of the learning contract to see how it actually looks like. never did i knew that the learning contracts covers quite a number of area like the target audience, the aim of the project and the storylines and even to which area of the world do you want your story to sell to. Explaining each section by each section, i get a overview of how the learning contract can affect the markers to grade the work. it is similar to the real contract in which putting your signature down and to aherd to every single rules.