Thursday, 3 April 2014
Monday, 24 March 2014
D&AD Deadline
Unfortunately I was not able to complete my ident for this deadline, above is my first edition ident, which is the progress of the ident as of 19/03.
I was unable to finish my ident for the deadline mainly due to severely underestimating the time it would take to fully model, texture and animate everything in the ident. I have also had several issues with losing progress of animations and hiding elements from certain sequences, an example of this can be seen in the thumbnail for the first edition, in which the grey jagged spike in the background is actually an object from the ocean scene. Unfortunately this has resulted in the majority of my time being spent fixing visual errors.
I am currently working to complete my ident for the project deadline.
Current Ident Evaluation:
Currently, the ident is not full length, but the content that exists is a strong indicator of what the whole video will feel like. The style and animations are designed to be quirky, making the viewers smile, which I believe to be a strong element of cinema. While I have also focused heavily on effects such as hard shadows, reflections and screen effects to make the scenes pleasing to look at.
This version is also lacking the SFX I previously mentioned I would be adding. I have the majority of the SFX I wish to use, however I believe it will be best to add these in through After Effects as opposed to straight into Cinema4D.
Thursday, 20 March 2014
Assessed Presentation
The pdf can be found here:
Feedback:
The majority of feedback on my presentation was good. I feel I managed to successfully explain the project and what my idea and goals were. Though there are 2 points that were brought up that should be addressed.
Firstly, was the suggestion of including some form of character into the ident. As it was suggested that viewers would project their experience onto this characters to immerse themselves. This thought had previously crossed my mind during the design process but I had ultimately decided against it for the following reasons:
- Rigging a skeleton and animating a 3D character to an above satisfactory level is a lengthy process
- I had attempted skeletal rigging in Cinema4D and ran into issues with it
- My own personal take on this project was the power of the worlds that films create, including a character may have drawn attention away from this message
Based on the above reasons, a character is a low priority feature of my ident. However, I may still experiment with the idea if I have enough time to at later stages of the development.
Secondly, was the issue of my soundtrack exclusively using the "Fresh & Fun" song. As part of the cinema experience is also in the rich and deep sound that the audio systems provide.
I have already had a lot of issues with finalizing a soundtrack for my ident. So I feel once again changing the soundtrack will again result in a lengthy search for a new track. That being said, I do still feel the current track captures the quirkiness and joyful nature that I have been going for in my ident, and I still believe it compliments the ident well.
However I also agree that the track doesn't necessarily take advantage of the full power of the audio in cinemas. Such as the swooshes, and strong ambient noise featured in other idents.
As a result of this, I will be using this through SFX as opposed to the soundtrack. Initially I had wanted to keep my ident to music only, but I feel I have underestimated the importance of sound in cinema.
Including SFX of the scenes in my ident, I feel, would make the ident much more emotional.
For instance, having gusts of breeze blowing during the forest sequence, or the sounds of city life in the city sequence, all these sounds are very familiar to us and will make the ident much more immersive.
Firstly, was the suggestion of including some form of character into the ident. As it was suggested that viewers would project their experience onto this characters to immerse themselves. This thought had previously crossed my mind during the design process but I had ultimately decided against it for the following reasons:
- Rigging a skeleton and animating a 3D character to an above satisfactory level is a lengthy process
- I had attempted skeletal rigging in Cinema4D and ran into issues with it
- My own personal take on this project was the power of the worlds that films create, including a character may have drawn attention away from this message
Based on the above reasons, a character is a low priority feature of my ident. However, I may still experiment with the idea if I have enough time to at later stages of the development.
Secondly, was the issue of my soundtrack exclusively using the "Fresh & Fun" song. As part of the cinema experience is also in the rich and deep sound that the audio systems provide.
I have already had a lot of issues with finalizing a soundtrack for my ident. So I feel once again changing the soundtrack will again result in a lengthy search for a new track. That being said, I do still feel the current track captures the quirkiness and joyful nature that I have been going for in my ident, and I still believe it compliments the ident well.
However I also agree that the track doesn't necessarily take advantage of the full power of the audio in cinemas. Such as the swooshes, and strong ambient noise featured in other idents.
As a result of this, I will be using this through SFX as opposed to the soundtrack. Initially I had wanted to keep my ident to music only, but I feel I have underestimated the importance of sound in cinema.
Including SFX of the scenes in my ident, I feel, would make the ident much more emotional.
For instance, having gusts of breeze blowing during the forest sequence, or the sounds of city life in the city sequence, all these sounds are very familiar to us and will make the ident much more immersive.
Progress Report
Although I have not posted to this blog in quite some time, it is mainly due to the process of practicing and creating the project in Cinema 4D. So I will be using this post to show some of the resources I have been using to practice in Cinema 4D in that time.
I have since followed the majority of GreyScaleGorilla's Introduction series until I felt comfortable enough with the program.
I also followed various tutorials on other things such as Tracers, Particles, etc. to see if I could work these into my own project.
One of the design choices I chose which I believed would be suitable for my project and benefiting the fact I am a novice at Cinema 4D is a Low-Poly style. I have followed multiple tutorials and resources in creating Low-Poly models in 4D:
- GreyScaleGorilla's Low-Poly Look
- MotionSquared's Low-Poly World
- Mt. Mograph's Summit Low-Poly Series
I was originally inspired by this style from Beeple's "Subprime" as I felt the style really created a quirkiness to the animation. Then after having followed some tutorials and experimenting with the style, it was the style I decided to use in my own project.
I also continued to look for an audio track, however finding one that met the criteria for using the same beat with different styles and feelings was impossible without having to compose the music myself, which is an area I am not comfortable in whatsoever. So to compliment the Low-Poly style I had decided on, I chose to use a fun and friendly quirky track.
"Fun & Fresh" by MidiCable
The track worked nicely with the style of animation I had in my head, again, similar to Beeple's "Subprime"
I have also storyboarded my animation, the main aspect of this was deciding exactly which worlds would going where. This resulted into which worlds would transition well from one another.
Ultimately I decided on the following order:
- Grasslands/Forest
- Ocean/Underwater
- Modern Cityscape
- Desert
- Arctic Tundra
- Space
I felt the first and end worlds were important, starting off with simplicity of a natural field with grass and trees, into space, which is considered very futuristic and complex. Most worlds in between were decided through how well transitions would work. Due to the nature of the message I am trying to communicate, that cinema is about these rich, beautiful worlds. Any kind of story is currently a low priority, I want to provide worlds where the viewer can immerse themselves into.
I have since followed the majority of GreyScaleGorilla's Introduction series until I felt comfortable enough with the program.
I also followed various tutorials on other things such as Tracers, Particles, etc. to see if I could work these into my own project.
One of the design choices I chose which I believed would be suitable for my project and benefiting the fact I am a novice at Cinema 4D is a Low-Poly style. I have followed multiple tutorials and resources in creating Low-Poly models in 4D:
- GreyScaleGorilla's Low-Poly Look
- MotionSquared's Low-Poly World
- Mt. Mograph's Summit Low-Poly Series
I was originally inspired by this style from Beeple's "Subprime" as I felt the style really created a quirkiness to the animation. Then after having followed some tutorials and experimenting with the style, it was the style I decided to use in my own project.
I also continued to look for an audio track, however finding one that met the criteria for using the same beat with different styles and feelings was impossible without having to compose the music myself, which is an area I am not comfortable in whatsoever. So to compliment the Low-Poly style I had decided on, I chose to use a fun and friendly quirky track.
"Fun & Fresh" by MidiCable
The track worked nicely with the style of animation I had in my head, again, similar to Beeple's "Subprime"
I have also storyboarded my animation, the main aspect of this was deciding exactly which worlds would going where. This resulted into which worlds would transition well from one another.
Ultimately I decided on the following order:
- Grasslands/Forest
- Ocean/Underwater
- Modern Cityscape
- Desert
- Arctic Tundra
- Space
I felt the first and end worlds were important, starting off with simplicity of a natural field with grass and trees, into space, which is considered very futuristic and complex. Most worlds in between were decided through how well transitions would work. Due to the nature of the message I am trying to communicate, that cinema is about these rich, beautiful worlds. Any kind of story is currently a low priority, I want to provide worlds where the viewer can immerse themselves into.
Monday, 27 January 2014
Greyscalegorilla's Introduction to Cinema 4D
Notes:
An introductory video series for beginners at Cinema 4D, I will be using this series once I have dowloaded the software to determine whether my concept will be achievable within my timeframe and ability to adapt to this new software.
"Burning Land" Ident Music Edit
Notes:
One of the tracks that stood out to me whilst searching for a background track for my ident was "Burning Land". The track was calm and whimsical, whilst almost sounding like it was from a dream, this kind of mellow tune struck me as something that would fit very well with my ident. It would allow me to time transitions to the beat, whilst overall, not overpowering the visuals in anyway.
I have edited a rough cut of my first thoughts to what it would sound like in a 25 second format.
Music Info:
Track: Burning Land
Artist: Meekah
License: CC by 3.0
https://soundcloud.com/meekah/burning-land-1
Music Info:
Track: Burning Land
Artist: Meekah
License: CC by 3.0
https://soundcloud.com/meekah/burning-land-1
Beeple's "Subprime"
Notes:
Another video animated using Cinema 4D. Subprime is a good example of the changing/evolving object concept I have been considering, though my concept was the reverse, in which the scenery changes around one single object.
Subprime also has a very nicely stylized look, and is also a good example of why I have been drawn more to use 3D techniques in my project. 3D worlds are more easy to immerse yourself in, as the 3D perspective gives us a good understanding of what we are looking at.
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