Audio

There is not that much Major animation left to do so very soon i would have to begin working on the audio for this project. I've been searching around for voice actors but i still have not found an actor with a voice that matches these characters. I also need to urgently find or create a piece of music which the animation is timed to. Usually the audio for the animation would have been done first before production actually begins, but it is not uncommon to animate first and then work on the audio (how it is done in the Eastern world with Anime). Each has its advantages and disadvantages but for me doing the animation first was more appropriate because I did not have the time to plan my animation in amazing details and as I have learnt from my past projects, the final outcome and the initial idea can be very different and so the piece of audio pre-recorded from the beginning might not sync with the final animation and could easily be the downfall of the project.

The downside to animating first is that it becomes very difficult to see what works and what doesn't because audio also plays a big part in timing, impact and mood. So some sequences just seem very dull without audio. To see to what extent audio affects an animation, I decided to watch some of the roadrunner cartoons with no sound and unfortunately i fell asleep 3 minutes into it. This does not mean some sequences were not funny, it just means the full potential of the animation is not realized without the audio and from this experiment I learnt that visual and audio should be thought of as 1 or at least as important as each other.   

Further progress

I found the list to be very effective and I got much more done on the animation, so this is the update which is just 1 week apart from the post below.

I did not add any transitions in this one but if you watched last weeks version (post below) you would know where they belong.

The changes that need to me made to this are:

Scene 1 ((Road))

Need to finesse the maps flying through the air.

Fix Hunters face penetrating through the piece of paper at end of scene.

Add facial animation as he is reacting and interacting with the map at end of scene.

Scene 2 ((Park))

Finesse Hand movement on map. Make it look more believable.

Add Facial animation

Give Reader Newspaper

Scene 3 ((Park))

Give Reader Newspaper and fix penetration.

Add Reader facials. Make eyes and eye lids move.

Scene 4 ((Park))

Add Jaw movement to hunter whilst he is prepping the pivot rig.           

Add Reader facials. Make eyes and eye lids move.

Scene 5 ((Park))

Hmmm…Discuss with Will

Scene 6 ((Park))

More work on Hunters turn to react to rocket threat

More attention on reader animation at end of the scene.

Add anticipation to rocket before it flies off.

More attention to hunters facials.

Yaaay..im back

I did not have the internet for about for weeks but a few days ago it all got sorted out and I am now back online (with very slow download speeds).

During my 4 week break from the internet I managed to make progress on my animation and in this post I will upload the progress from last week.

After I had finished this I showed it around and also showed it to my tutor and received feedback. Whilst working on this I started to notice my work-rate seemed to have diminished even though I was still spending a very long time working on it. To counter this i decided to start writing down all the high priority changes that need to be made in each scene and then implementing them in the order they have been written down. I hoped this would stop me from straying from one part of the animation to another and thus leaving important parts of the animation incomplete and confusing to the viewer.

The changes i decided to make for the next week were:

Road scene:

After dodging the last piece of paper, maybe he should look back at it before the piece of paper lands on his head. This will add some anticipation.

Park1:

Map needs to be clearer and maybe have him point at things in the scene that are also on the map.

Make the map in ¾ view so it is clearer.

Park2:

When he arrives at the bench maybe have him point at the bench on the map so the viewers know that is where the treasure is.

Park 3:

When he goes back down into the bush, make it snappier. Add some stretch.

When he brings out the hammer and then the other weight, there should be a visible change in weight, so make them heavier (not bigger)

Maybe I should avoid using the fade to black after he arrives with the baby but maybe if I had the audio of the baby crying whilst he goes off screen then this might make it plausible.   

Need more anticipation before he drops the baby, so maybe he lifts the baby above his head.

Lay them out in a diagrammed manner so its hunter, baby, lever then reader from right to left.

Maybe make it so that we can see the Hunters body upon impact.

Drop the bench first and then when the bench settles, drop the reader unto the bench, make him pause, look around and then continue reading.

Park4:

Slow things down.

As camera moves away, it should stop before the explosion.

Park 5:

At close up of him aiming the bazooka, have him shaking and sweating to show his anger

Missile hits floor and dies, (within the screen space) then it reawakens as man goes to look into bazooka, and flies up into the sky (sound helps to build up anticipation as it comes back to land)