Here's my animatic as a part of my final submission. I used the storyboards I've done, cutting some of the boards and adding others. It also features sounds I've recorded and experimented with. I'm pretty happy with the animatic visually and I think it's clear in telling the story but there are a few shots that could be improven upon and also I'm not completely satisfied with the sound.
A lot of the sounds you hear is banging on metal and also noises I've made trying to emulate Quolger. The recordings themselves weren't perfect and I'm thinking I would rather tell the story through something more musical rather than just sound effects and house ambiance. I had trouble capturing the ambiance of a house without getting noise interference.
Also, I'm not entirely happy with the volume of the sound in the animatic. I think it rises a bit too much in some areas and falls too much in others. Though, I suppose these were just experiments. I kind of imagined the track to be a bit different than what you're hearing. It's pretty clear I'll have to experiment with sound more to create the feeling I want. I feel as though the sound is a little too eerie throughout and there's not enough of a transition between the moods of the visuals. Still, I am learning more about sound and this is an improvement to other sound works I've done in the past. Especially considering I used all of my own recordings. I used all open source software; PSS and Audacity to manipulate the and played around with it further in after effects.
If I can't get exactly what I want from experimenting next semester I may have to either commission something from Ryan or look around for a song that will go with the animation. I am thinking I want to put together the finished track after most of the shooting is done. I want to keep myself open to experimentation with the visuals and I won't be working with an X sheet or anything too complex.
I have done the math and I believe it will take me about 30-40 hours to do all the animation for this film. That's actually not too bad, but still I would like to start filming as quickly as possible. Over the holidays I will be searching for a location as well as building my set, and hopefully everything will be ready for me to start shooting within the first week of semester.
Also, I added in a compilation of the tests I've done this semester as well as a time lapse of my process. I just wanted to give some idea of how the character would actually move as well as practice. I think most of these shots are running too quickly - and this is probably mostly due to me not having a whole lot of time to work with. I'm excited that everything will be done by next semester and I will have a lot more time to animate with more detail and make much longer shots.
Also, note that last animation test of the full puppet is cut a little short, it originally ran 5 seconds but when I rendered it in after effects it got chopped off for some reason. I only just noticed it now but I included the full test in a previous journal so that's okay!
I'm very satisfied with my experiments as a whole and I think I've demonstrated pretty clearly how the finished film will present itself. Everyone I showed the animatic too seemed quite impressed and said they could understand it and it was clear so I think I'm done for now!
In the break I will be doing a cartooning masterclass online with Joe Murray, who created Rocko's Modern life and Camp Lazlo. Cost me quite a cent but I think it's definitely worth it. The course will help me to develop a series over a month and I imagine I will learn a lot from it, things I can also apply to my Emedia work. I definitely think after uni I will continue to animate but probably focus more on 2D projects. I love doing stop-motions but 2D stuff will always be number 1 for me. Anyways, I will possibly make a blog for the course and if so I'll post it here somewhere as well!
Been a very productive semester and I have a lot more to add to my showreel so I'm very happy. Can't wait for more!
