Sarasota Film Festival

Our final project for the semester was a collaboration with our Concept Development class. 

The brief:

Create an engaging :30 promo/open for the 2012 Sarasota Film Festival that reflects the best of the Sarasota community that we as an arts organization represent. 

Use “Why I Love The Movies” as a general theme and conduct audio interviews of the people of Sarasota, which reveal something special and personal about the individual’s love of film/movies. These interviews, done in a documentary style, will form the concept of the individual trailers. Using the words spoken in the interviews as the concept for their piece, but students have the freedom and are encouraged to be as imaginative as possible when animating the interviews. The idea is to have a “documentary” soundtrack, but for the images on the screen to be as fun and imaginative as possible.

Process:

We were in charge of seeing this through, developing the concept and presenting our final storyboards to the client.

From the final presentations my concept was chosen as one of the 12 in the course to be animated with a partner in our animation class. 

My concept was based on representing symbolically word by word what the interviewe was saying in a sand animation, taking this as a metaphor for time and change, and aspect that we experience in the film world from traditional to the more modern movies of today.

The process in itself was very interesting. We were to first create the animation in After Effects and then take it into the stop motion lab and use it as a base to record it with sand.

Working with a partner:

In general the organization aspect of the project was probably the most challenging for many reasons, the first which we experienced right from the begining was the different working schedulles my partner and I had.

I'm a night person, I feel I'm most efficient during the night and am used to staying up until very late hours of the day to have the work just perfect, whether it compromises my sleeping schedulle or not hahah.

My partner is the opposite, she is a day person, and is used to getting the good and healthy 8 hours of sleep, a trait sometimes I wish I had. 

Although challenging, we managed to work around it, I realized it was probably best if we began early anyways and if anything needed to be tweaked I could always stay up later and make the final touches.

After Effects Animation:

I would say one of the biggest challenges we faced with this section was getting the right movements down. We spent a lot of time with the animatic; which is something I had never worked on before and I have to admit that, had it not been for our tedious work with the animatic and its frames, we would not have been able to create the animation in time. 

Sand Animation:

After weeks of working with the after effects animation, when it finally came to working with sand we were both glad to finally be able to get out of the computer and start working with something more manual.

Working with sand was definitely an incredible experience that I would definitely like to work on again.

Although tedious and exhausting at times, what I enjoyed most about this project was the process, and the idea of creating an animation from scratch in after effects and then taking it to the stop motion lab with Dragon stop motion and recreating it.

And the idea that this is a technique that professional companies use today, which made it feel even more exciting since we are from now getting our feet wet with how it works in the actual industry!

Final Animation:

Exploration 6

- Which type of light would be best to replicate a bare light bulb? point light
- How do lights affect 2D and 3D objects differently? 3d objects create shadows
- What is Ambient Light? Omnipresent lights that eveny illuminate every 3Dlayer in a comp, independently of where the layer's position or orientation.
- How is an Ambient Light different from a Source Light? ambient light has no direction, position or cone, nor do they cast shadows.
- What is a Parallel Light, and why would one use it? a kind of point light but rather you have control over which direction the light rays are aimed.
- Describe the term Falloff, and what is the term used to describe realistic falloff? This occurs usually when light goes in different directions from a single source, which results in a gradual decline of the intensitiy of the light, causing shadows to grow larger over distance. 
- What happens to a layer as it rotates away from the light source. The shadow becomes less defined
- Describe a light's Cone Angle? Angle that determines how widely the light rays are sprayed reaching a max value of 180 degrees.
- How do I move the light without moving the POI? shift+command+ axis
- How do I move BOTH the light AND POI at the same time? moving the light normally
- Which type of light is the ultimate 'FILL' light? ambient
- What does the term 'Diffuse' mean? to lower the brightness and intensity of a light.
- What does the term 'Specular' mean? controls the additional "highlight" or hot spot that appears inside an illuminated area.
- Can a precomp layer cast shadows? Yes
- What are the 5 requirements that must be met for shadows to work? 
Light must have its casts shadows option enabled
a nonambient light must be aimed so that it illuminates both the layer you want to cast a shadow and the layer you want to receive a shadow.
The layer casting the shadow must have its cast shadows material option set to on
tje layer receiving the shadow must have its accepts shadows material option set to on
there must be some space between the layer casting the shadow and the layer receiving the shadow


- As objects get closer to the layer receiving it's shadow, does the shadow get sharper or more diffused? sharper
- If a layer's  'Light Transmission' is set for 100%, how does that affect the layer? 
- A 'GOBO' is like a stencil placed in front of a light.  Does the layer have to have an alpha, or can the luminosity of the image work? 
- Adding lights really slows down the render of a scene, what are 3 things that you can do to speed up visual feedback? turn of the render 

Lighting

For our lighting exploration I wanted to explore something different, I decided to play around with an environment composed of a pyramid. Revealing only the sides using light to create a sensation of suspense until the end where the entire shape is revealed.

For the exploration I used a plugin called Trapcode lux which allows you to see where the light was coming from.

EXPLORATION 5

This exploration focuses on the animators ability to tell a story using a single image.

in your career, you will undoubtedly be given a single image and asked to turn it into an interesting animation.  The best animations are ones that tell a story through camera moves, and depth of field.

Phase 1: Research various images that you feel you could tell a story through your methods of animation.

Image Chosen:

      

I chose image 1, maily because out of all of my images, I feel that without a need for explanation or background story, it evoques a feeling on its own. The viewer puts their own experiences into the image to tell their own story.  

In this sense, the story I would like to tell through this is the departure of two soldiers to war, whilst saying goodbye to their wives. Revealing at first only the two people in the foreground and as the camera moves, reveal the couple the lays by the bus along with their suitcase.

ART Network

The Project Overview
To design a 5 sec production company ID for ART Network at Ringling College.  This logo ID will be used at the conclusion of all the shows that are produced by ART Network.    There will be two versions required:  1) with the animated graphics over a background, and
 2) a keyable version that can be placed over any background.

Part I:

Create five different concept statements (what's the big picture? whats the big idea?

Write down 50 different ideas for concept statements, and from those choose the best 5 to present.

To me it's always been easier to write down and brainstorm with pen and paper. Somehow I feel that I get more inspiration when I'm thinking outside of the computer.

The following is a scan of my brainstorm process for my 50 different concepts.

After choosing the different concepts to present, I then went on to find images that I felt transmitted the feeling or mood that I would want to portray with each mood board.

1. Spontaneity and impact. Party Box filled with surprises, props and crazy objects that make an impact. Which is in effect what we as artist strive for with our work.

2. As artists we strive to speak up, and express our ideals. We reach out to you through different channels of communication, tv, sound, voice, technology, writing, drawing, etc. What language do you speak?

   

3) A profound look into who we are at RCAD. From the most essential microscopic elements that compose us and our work, to the outermost aspects on the surface with which you interact. Come see what we’re made of. 

4. Theater performance, we expose the truth in a different way, hoping to cause an impact and change in society.

5. Look at the beauty outside but also within, look again and try to make something out of the image. Confused or puzzled? Were intellectual beings that will make you see and think through various perspectives.

Part II

As a continuation of the project, we were asked to then take one of our concepts and begin to develop it. We were to pick a particular audio to wich we wanted to animate. Create a rough storyboard of the animation, and with it present a style frame. In other words a frame that would give the viewer the idea of how a single frame of the animation would look like.

In addition to this, before creating the style frame I chose to make a mood board, that would help me develop further my vision of the style frame.

 STORYBOARD

MOOD BOARD

 STYLE FRAME

Animation Process:

When it comes to animating I usually get ver attached to my concepts and hence very anxious to animate on the screen. So much that sometimes I forget how important the preplanning phase is.

If I could take something from this project, it would definitely be to preplan every detail before even opening After Effects.

Having not done this, or at least not thoroughly enough, the animation process resulted in me doing three different animations from scratch, instead of a single animation and refining it for each pass.

First Pass:

Second Pass:

Third Pass:

By this point of my process I realized I needed to really sit down and plan out frame by frame of the animation if I wanted to have a successful final exploration; and going back to storyboarding with paper and pen, really helped reach the goal I was striving for.

Exploration 3 = Tule Peak Production Designer

EXPLORATION 3:


This Exploration combines all three methods of combining images; Modes, Masks, and Mattes.  The assignment was to create a 7 second animated collage sequence.  The sequence identifies the role or job title and name of an individual responsible for an aspect of a film.  Such job title descriptions might include, Producer,  Director of Photography,  Casting Director, Costume Designer, Editor, Production Designer.   


Process/ Research:
For this assignment, I wanted to choose someone different, who was not a typical hollywood producer, but rather an international artist whose work I've admired for a long time.



Tule Peak is a Brazilian creative, that has taken many roles in the industry throughout his career. 

As an artist he has experimented with art direction, production design, photography, and many other positions. Nonetheless I’ve found that his best work in my opinion lies in his production design films.  

As a production designer, the artist is in charge of taking the script and translating the visual feel, atmosphere, and environment into film, bringing the story to life. 

They work very closely to the director and producer. Guiding the director of photography and other designers on set, to create a unified appearance to the film.

The images I chose are all directly related to both the artist and the job tittle. Because it is about the artist himself, I wanted to bring his story and cultural background into it, whilst also emphasizing his style. This is why I chose a series of favelas, brazilian character and typical element found in these environments.

The favelas not only to represent where he comes from, but also the very rough and “hands of feel” of his visual style. 

In addition to this, another of my images are the hanging shoes which play along with the idea of the feeling the production designer attempts to evoke in the audience. 

Last but not least, the young boys eyes looking straight at the audience, represent the vision of the artist which is what drives the entire atmosphere and perspective of the story.



Execution:
I wanted to maintain the same type of rusty, hand drawn style that he uses in his work, which is why I chose a pale and warm color palette.

Using our own luma mattes as transitions was one of the aspects I enjoyed the most, mainly because you begin to realize how all the projects are in some way interconnected, and the best part is to be able to apply your knowledge from the previous explorations into the next.

Ryan Woodward

Ryan Woodward is an illustrator/ designer as well as a storyboard artist, who's worked with Disney Studios, Marvel Entertainment, Warner Brother Studios, amongst other well known creative studios in the US.
I was first introduced to Ryan's work with the video of his conte animation for the song "I thought of you". An animation that had me hypnotized for the entire three minutes of it. Wether it was because of my passion for dancing and how it was depicted, or how the song just fit perfectly with the animation, I'm not certain, or maybe it was the combination of it all. From this moment on I become an affectionate of Ryans work. I find his work to be extraordinarily inspiring and humble. I'm not sure what that may mean but when I watch his work, it somehow transmits a feeling of simplicity and humbleness which finally made sense when I found out the type of person he truly is.

Ryan Woodward came to Ringling for three days to give us a one day presentation, and storyboard demo at the beach! Unfortunately for me it was impossible to attend either events because of job responsibilities, but I was fortunate enough to talk to a friend who did attend, and left absolutely no detail behind when giving me a summary of both events.

The first thing he said to me about Ryan Woodward, was how amazed he was of his simple and easy going personality. Of course when I first hear this, it all just comes into place as to why his work evokes that feeling; and I think this is one of the most incredible things about a real artist, is being able to transmit that through your own work.
He mentioned that the demo at the beach was incredible. The simple fact of being able to have a lecture by one of our favorite artists at the beach and get critiques and feedback instantly, was priceless. One thing that I cannot erase from my mind, was how calm and simple he is. I would think, that with the intense type of life he lives, it would be very difficult to find a balance between you, your work and your family. Nonetheless he is able to do it, which gives you hope to some extent to think that it is actually possible to be good at what you do, and have a balanced life.

"Never say no, just grab opportunities, even if you dont know how to do it, get in there and try it out and find a way to do it" This was a phrase by Ryan when talking about the different opportunities life may bring to us, and how no matter how afraid we may be to face a challenge that seems impossible; we have to give it a try. No matter how difficult it may seem, never say no. Give it a try, the worst that can happen is you fail, which will only make you stronger, but you learn on the way. These are key words that have stuck in my mind ever since; Because it's true. No one has ever reached success without failing first, or without taking risks. If we want the chance to succeed at what we do, we must give ourselves the opportunity to get that chance, and grab it as it passes by. I feel this is Ryan's moto and philosophy, and it's incredibly inspiring to see how someone has reached such success by following this simple idea of life.

Unfortunately although I would have loved to be able to meet Ryan personally and listen to his talk both at the beach and later that night; I'm grateful the school was able to give us an opportunity like this one, to be able to learn from one of our most admired artists, and even have the chance to sit through one of his lectures and learn from his personal experiences.