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Department of Media and Communication

EXTENDED PROJECT PORTFOLIO

Academic Year 2016/2017

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Jack HilderYear 2 – UAL Extended Diploma

in Creative Media Production and Technology

Unit 13/14 – Extended Project

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CONTENTS

CONTENTS.........................................................................................................................................2

LIST OF FIGURES.............................................................................................................................5

LIST OF TABLES...............................................................................................................................5

DEFINITION OF TERMS...................................................................................................................5

Unit 13/14 - Project Proposal...............................................................................................................6

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Project Action Plan and Timetable.........................................................Error! Bookmark not defined.

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CHAPTER 1...........................................................................................................................................10

Introduction........................................................................................................................................10

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The Background of my Project........................................................................................................10

Who am I?...................................................................................................................................11

What did I learn on my course?..................................................................................................11

What is my project about?.............................................................................................................11

Why my project is important?........................................................................................................12

My Research Plan............................................................................................................................12

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CHAPTER 2...........................................................................................................................................14

Literature/Resources Review.............................................................................................................14

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Introduction....................................................................................................................................14

Practitioners Report........................................................................................................................14

CONCLUSION - Who/what was my inspiration? /Contextualisation of my study.....................15

CHAPTER 3...........................................................................................................................................16

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Research Design..................................................................................................................................16

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Introduction....................................................................................................................................16

Research Questions........................................................................................................................17

Research Design Evolution..............................................................................................................18

CHAPTER 4...........................................................................................................................................20

Research Findings...............................................................................................................................20

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Data analysis...................................................................................................................................20

Conclusion - How did the research help me with my project?......................................................20

CHAPTER 5...........................................................................................................................................21

My Project...........................................................................................................................................21

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Introduction....................................................................................................................................21

Pre-Production................................................................................................................................21

Production.......................................................................................................................................21

Post-production..............................................................................................................................21

Presentation....................................................................................................................................21

CHAPTER 6...........................................................................................................................................22

MY EXTENDED PROJECT – FINAL PRODUCT........................................................................................22

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CHAPTER 7...........................................................................................................................................23

Project Evaluation...............................................................................................................................23

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APPENDICES........................................................................................................................................24

Extended project in creative media production Learning Outcomes and Assessment.................24

1. Be able to initiate and develop a creative media production project proposal.......................24

2. Be able to use research, analysis and evaluation to develop solutions for creative media production project.......................................................................................................................24

3. Be able to solve practical, theoretical and technical problems in a creative media production project.........................................................................................................................................24

4. Be able to plan, organise and produce a creative media production project..........................24

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5. Be able to use practical methods and skills in a creative media production project................24

6. Be able to use evaluative and reflective skills in the production of a creative media product.24

7. Be able to present a creative media production project..........................................................24

REFERENCES........................................................................................................................................25

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LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1 Galactic Plunderer.................................................................................................................13Figure 2 what I love mindmap.............................................................................................................13Figure 3 smearing example..................................................................................................................25Figure 4 multiples example..................................................................................................................26Figure 5 different eyes.........................................................................................................................28Figure 6 different eyebrows................................................................................................................29Figure 7 different mouths....................................................................................................................29Figure 8 Putting facial features into practice.......................................................................................30Figure 9 Emotion tree..........................................................................................................................31Figure 10 Postures and Gestures.........................................................................................................32Figure 11 Sin city example 1................................................................................................................37Figure 12 Sin city example 2................................................................................................................38Figure 13 Sin city example 3................................................................................................................38Figure 14 Castle Of Cagliostro car chase..............................................................................................41Figure 15 Boy and The Beast 3D characters.........................................................................................42Figure 16 Hand Arch............................................................................................................................46Figure 17 rotoscope experiment: key frame 1.....................................................................................48Figure 18 Rotoscope experiment: key frame 2....................................................................................48Figure 19 rotoscope experiment: stretched frame..............................................................................49Figure 20 rotoscope experiment: "multiples" frame...........................................................................50Figure 21 Art style face template........................................................................................................52Figure 22 Art style Normal traced........................................................................................................53Figure 23 Art style Exaggerated eyes and eyebrows...........................................................................54Figure 24 Art style Exaggerated mouth, eyes and eyebrows...............................................................55Figure 25 Art style Simplified but still exaggerated.............................................................................56Figure 26 Mouth simplified but still exaggerated................................................................................57Figure 27 Shot 1 tracing.......................................................................................................................61Figure 28 Shot 1 frame order...............................................................................................................61Figure 29 Shot 1 testing selected frames.............................................................................................62Figure 30 Shot 1 Frame rate................................................................................................................62Figure 31 Shot 1 Grey body.................................................................................................................63Figure 32 Shot 1 Face..........................................................................................................................64Figure 33 Shot 1 clothes......................................................................................................................65Figure 34 Shot 1 shading.....................................................................................................................66Figure 35 Shot 2 Sam colours..............................................................................................................67

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1 - Project Proposal......................................................................................................................8Table 2 - Project Action Plan and Timetable..........................................................................................9

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Table 3 Interview Questions................................................................................................................13Table 4- My Research Plan..................................................................................................................20

DEFINITION OF TERMS

EP – Extended ProjectUAL – University of the Arts London

Unit 13/14 - Project Proposal

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Candidate Name

Jack Hilder

Candidate Number 1094275262Pathway Digital design and animation

Project Title Frame by Frame Animated Fight Scene

Section 1: Rationale (approx. 150 words)

I am interested in exploring frame by frame animation techniques, character movement and pose/posture/gesture; the focus of this project is animating characters and communicating their emotions to the audience, that is why for this project I have chosen to animate a couple of shots of a short fight scene between two characters. Essential information for this project is what techniques and methods are effective when creating fast paced animation, how to communicate the characters’ emotions effectively and how show impact in animation. The reason why I have chosen to do frame by frame animation for this is because I have found that frame by frame is a lot more fluid in movement than vector based, this is something I prefer in animation and can use to communicate emotion. The purpose of this project is to gain some experience in animation before I go to university to study it, that way I am not clueless about animation before I start.

Section 2: Project Concept (approx. 200 words)

The concept of my project it to create a segment of shots of a very short fight scene between two characters using frame by frame animation, focusing on exploring and creating the characters’ movement, emotion and impacts to each of the characters’ body. I want to research what elements make a fight scene intense and interesting to the audience and I want to experiment with techniques used to create fast paced animation such as smearing and blurring, morphing shapes and removing, adding or timing frames differently to create specific effects, I would also like to experiment with creating different types of impacts. I will conduct secondary research through online websites, online journals and books to learn about the elements that make a fight scene intense and techniques used in fast paced animation, and I will conduct primary research through experimentation into the techniques I have researched to see how effective they are and whether I can create use them, such as creating simple animation clips that include shape morphing, blurring and smearing, etc. The outcomes of this project are that I would have a short animation on YouTube of a fight scene that would interest an audience that would be into the thriller genre and fight scenes, I would also have work showing the journey I took.

Section 3: Evaluation (approx. 150 words)

To evaluate the final outcome of my work, I will review the work and research I have documented for each week of the project, looking at key points such as the quantity, the quality and the time it took to achieve specific tasks, I will then evaluate the final product and reflect on the work I have reviewed on, seeing what was successful or what has caused the product to drop in quality. I will finally have a screening of the product and will hold a discussion with the audience and will record the feedback which I will use to reflect. When evaluating certain techniques to use in my product, I will do an evaluation myself and again hold a focus group to see what they think of these techniques and I will also conduct small surveys when working on the

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character’s emotions to see if I have successfully communicated the right emotion.

Proposed Research Sources and Bibliography (Harvard Format)

ANDERSON, K., 2014. MIYAZAKI MASTERCLASS – THE CASTLE OF CAGLIOSTRO (1979). [Online] Available at: http://nerdist.com/miyazaki-masterclass-the-castle-of-cagliostro-1979/[Accessed 24 February 2017].

Animations, A. N., 2015. Fast Paced Fight Animation | By Anthony Nold. [Online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NElnIRyikKI

Anon., 2014. Frank Miller's Sin City A Dame To Kill For. [Online] Available at: http://sincity-2.com/

Anon., 2017. Anime news network. [Online] Available at: https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/people.php?id=4068[Accessed 20 February 2017].

Anon., 2017. IMDb. [Online] Available at: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0396074/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm[Accessed 20 February 2017].

Anon., n.d. Director, Development - Boomerang. [Online] Available at: https://www.turnerjobs.com/job/atlanta/director-development-boomerang/1174/4058966

Anon., n.d. Subject: Hayao Miyazaki Biography, Revision 2 (6/24/94). [Online] Available at: http://www.nausicaa.net/miyazaki/miyazaki/miyazaki_biography.txt[Accessed 21 February 2017].

Anon., n.d. The Colonel. [Online] Available at: http://sincity.wikia.com/wiki/The_Colonel

Anon., n.d. The Hayao MIYAZAKI Web. [Online] Available at: http://www.nausicaa.net/miyazaki/miyazaki/[Accessed 21 February 2017].

B, R., 2017. How to SHOOT a Fight Scene: MOVEMENT, CHOREOGRAPHY (taught by stuntmen. [Online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxap6jc9Sbk

Burton, M., 2015. Animation Director - Career Profile. [Online] Available at: http://www.animationcareerreview.com/articles/animation-director-career-profile

Frank Thomas, O. J., 1981. The Illustrations of Life Disney Animation. Italy: Walt Disney Productions.

Gaeta, J., 2017. Vimeo. [Online] Available at: https://vimeo.com/39790868[Accessed 2017 February 2017].

Grandin, T., 2006. THINKING IN PICTURES with 2006 Updates from the Expanded Edition. [Online] Available at: http://www.grandin.com/inc/visual.thinking.html[Accessed 14 January 2017].

Haroutunian, L., n.d. INTRO TO FIGHT CHOREOGRAPHY (WITH YUNG LEE). [Online] Available at: https://school.rocketjump.com/learn/directing-container/intro-to-fight-choreography

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IGN, 2016. The Boy and The Beast - Clip #2 (English Dub). [Online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Yp92Mq2GdE[Accessed 26 February 2017].

J.Ruocco, M., 2011. Smears, Multiples and Other Animation Gimmicks. [Online] Available at: http://animationsmears.tumblr.com/

Jazza, D. w., 2013. How To: Animation Smears. [Online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a71-rmYCqMU

Martin, S., n.d. Animation Tricks. [Online] Available at: https://web.cs.wpi.edu/~matt/courses/cs563/talks/anim_tricks.html

Medlej, J., 2014. Human Anatomy Fundamentals: Mastering Facial Expressions. [Online] Available at: https://design.tutsplus.com/tutorials/human-anatomy-fundamentals-mastering-facial-expressions--cms-21140

Robin J. S. Sloan, B. R. M. C., 2009. Creative approaches to emotional expression animation. [Online] Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/41461346_Creative_approaches_to_emotional_expression_animation

Robin J. S. Sloan, B. R. M. C., 2009. Creative approaches to emotional expression animation.

sff-webmaster, 2014. Sin CIty (R/I). [Online] Available at: http://www.showfilmfirst.com/sin-city-ri/

slowtiger, 2013. Motion blur, smears and multiples. [Online] Available at: http://www.lostmarble.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=24645

Wimshurst, H., 2015. How to Animate a Fight Scene | Motion Blurs. [Online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ScUIpzswbE

Table 1 - Project Proposal

Project Action Plan and Timetable

Week Date WeekBeginning

Activity / What you are intending to do - including independent study

Resources / What you will need to do it - including access to workshops

13rd April

I will be conducting observations on movement and analysing them in detail.

I will need a camera to record the observations, I will also need a graphics tablet and Photoshop to create rotoscopes of the movement to help me better understand them.

210th April

I will be creating a timeline for the skills I have learnt throughout this course.

I will need a computer and access to Tiki-Toki to create the timeline

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317th April

I will be working on the project proposal and the research plan.

I will need a computer and access to word.

424th April

I will be presenting my project proposal and working the final drafts of the research plan.

I will need a computer and access to word and power point.

51st May

I am going to be researching techniques that are used to create fast paced animation, such as smearing, blurring, timing, etc.

I will need a computer and the library if needed, to conduct secondary research. I will also need a computer to document what I learn.

68th May

I will use the techniques I learnt in the previous week in an experiment to see if frame by frame animation techniques can be applied to a rotoscope.

I will need to Photoshop and a graphics tablet to create the Rotoscope and to use the techniques.

715th May

I will do research into facial expression in animation and pose/posture/gesture. Focusing on communicating emotions effectively.

I will need a computer to document this and to research. I will also need access to the library for books to research.

822nd May

I will work on the art style and draw up the storyboard for the animation.

I will need photocopier, pencils, pens and pads.

929th May

Finalise the storyboard and art style, along with also deciding the setting and time period. I will start working on the backgrounds for the animation to take place.

I will need photocopier, pencils, pens and pads. I may also need a graphics tablet and photoshop if I decide the backgrounds I create are good enough

105th June

Depending if I decide to use rotoscoping or not, I will record the footage for the rotoscope and begin working on the rotoscope whilst applying the techniques I have learnt.

I will need a camera, a classmate or two to help me record. I will also need a graphics tablet and Photoshop to work on the rotoscope.

11 12th June Continue working on the animation and finish it up. Hold a screening to receive feedback and to discuss about my product. I will then begin to work on the final evaluation of my work.

I will need Photoshop and a graphics tablet to finish the animation. I will also need a projector and a classroom to hold the screening.

12 19th June I will be polishing up my evaluation and my presentation of my work and product.

I will need a computer.

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Table 2 - Project Action Plan and Timetable

CHAPTER 1

Introduction

This project portfolio is a report of my Extended Project for my second-year UAL Digital Design and Animation pathway. The project is a short thriller animation of two men fighting in an alleyway, the animation will focus on communicating the emotions and personalities of the two characters as they fight. This first chapter of the project portfolio presents the background of my project starting with writing about myself, what I learned on my course and who or what inspired me for my project. This is followed by explaining what my project is about and why it is important. The chapter concludes with my research plan.

The Background of my Project

The reason why I want to animation in my project is because I want to pursue career in it as I found from last year’s extended project that I had a lot of influences in 2D animated films and series.

Looking back, I can that some of my personal experiences have influenced my choices, one of them being last year’s extended project, where I worked on a graphic novel.

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Figure 1 Galactic Plunderer

I found that I did more research into creating the comic than the characters themselves as I wasn’t able to show much emotion and/or personality through facial expression and pose, posture and gesture. This is probably why I have decided to choose a project where I can research and explore different techniques to communicate emotion and personality to the audience.

The basic premise of my project is to explore techniques used in movement, facial expressions and pose, posture and gesture to communicate emotion and personality from the character to the audience. I seek to achieve animation that clearly shows the personality and emotion of the characters in my animation, this will allow me to show the knowledge and experience I have by using the animation in my portfolio when applying to future jobs, etc.

Who am I?

What I love?

At the beginning of this week, I worked on creating a mind map of the things I love, this would include things that I like and are interested in, hobbies and seeing what I know about such as techniques and methods for frame by frame animation. The purpose of this task is to discover more about myself and to see if my interests are linked to one and another; I can use this kind of research for my FMP to narrow down what I want to do and learn by using my interests and also finding the best base for my FMP that meets most of my interests.

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Figure 2 what I love mindmap

In my mind map, I included four major things I like and love, these were animation, script writing, concept design and landscapes. With that, I then explored more into each one, going deeper it what I like and love about them, along with what I knew.

Reflection

From creating the mind map, I found that I knew a lot about concept art. I found that I knew more than I expected about script writing, however I needed to do more research on it, along with also animation and landscapes if I were to go down that line. This is useful information to me because I can now use it to see what I need to research if I go down one of the paths that link to my mind map in my Final Major project, such as I might go down a path that involves animation as it is linked to several other interests and have my interests in landscapes be the main theme.

Interviewing

Interviewing Xavier

For the 2nd week of this term, I interviewed another student from a different class; this would help us learn more about ourselves and apply that knowledge towards our final major project, I can use this research to narrow down what I want to do for my FMP, along with also discovering new things about myself such as new skills or weaknesses, interests I never really thought about, etc. The research that I will be doing will also count as primary research.

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To start the task, I first began simple research into my interviewee, Xavier; this will help me create questions that are relevant to Xavier; for this research, I asked him simple questions like what is the course he is on, what was his FMP, etc.

He are my research questions:

1. What course are you on?

“Games Development”

2. What was you Final Major Project and how do you feel about the final result?

“3D environment, it didn’t work out to how I planned it.”

3. Do you like gaming and what games do you like?

“Yes, I like Halo games, first person shooters, third person survival and Mass effect series”

4. What do you play on?

“Xbox One”

5. What films do you like?

“Marvel films and Star war films”

6. Do you like anime and which do you watch more, Sub or dub?

“Yes and I mostly watch Sub”

7. What are you passionate about?

“I am passionate about games and my pets”

8. What are your influences?

“My family”

I then did some more research by looking at Xavier’s blog, mainly around his final major project from last year. He made a 3D environment which was very good, however he believes that he could do better, he is also very self-critical about his work.

What do I want to find out?

After going through the research, I found that the main thing I wanted the interview to focus round is, what influences him into pursuing the career he wants?

Questions

Topic Question 1. Interests - What are your hobbies?

- What are your likes & dislikes?- Expand on answers, e.g. what you like linked to…..

2. Personal questions - What makes you happy?- What characteristics do you like about people and why?- What do you dislike about people and why?

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3. Career - What career do you want to peruse?- What is your final goal in your career?- Expand on answers, e.g. do you think that…. Is why you want to do…?

4. Influence - From your interests would you say that … is an influence towards your career and if yes, then why/ if not then what and why?- Expand on anything else learnt from the interview.

Table 3Interview Questions

Answers

1. - His hobbies are gaming and watching anime.

- He likes to spend time alone because of his mental disability (He has to spend an hour alone a day), He likes games quite a bit. He dislikes crowded places, having to give out the same answer to someone.

- I asked him about one of his dislikes which was crowded places and whether it was connected to his disability, he answered that I was slightly right however part of it is because he is not very good at socialising, as a result he prefers to be by himself.

2. - What makes him happy is when he relaxes around his home, as well as being with his pets and family, and playing games. I followed up by asking him if being with his friends make him happy, he responded with that he doesn’t see his friends outside of college but he doesn’t mind spending time with them at college.

- The characteristics he likes about people are he prefers kind people, he likes quiet people because of his disability, he doesn’t want to constantly talk to people about it and he likes people with similar interests as him as it makes it easier for him to socialise with them.

- He dislikes people that involve themselves in other people’s business when it doesn’t concern them, he doesn’t like bullies, people who oppress people and he doesn’t like people who place themselves above others.

3. - He wants to peruse 3D modelling for games, this is because he finds himself mostly skilled at it and he believes that he is not very good at sound, he also hasn’t explored animation, so he sees 3D modelling as the only option.

I then expanded on the question and asked if he thinks that his disability, autism is connect to why he wants to do 3D modelling and further explained how some disabilities also allow different skills and talents to be created. He disagreed with me and said that his disabilities are more psychical and social, along with that when he plays his games, he is somehow able to lose those disabilities.

- He would like to be employed by one of the larger gaming companies and get a stable income and doesn’t have any other goals.

4. – I asked him from the answers he gave that if one of the influences for his career in the game industry was because of games and if so why do you think that is, he agreed with me and said he finds it all familiar to him so he goes towards. He doesn’t like doing new things because thinks he will do them terribly wrong, so he only sticks to the things he knows and doesn’t stray.

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Reflecting on the interview I gave

From this interview, I was able to achieve my main goal of finding out “what influences him into pursuing the career he wants?”, the answer was a bit complicated but I was able to figure it. What influences him to pursue a career in game development is his dislike of change and doing new things which is linked to his autism, the reason why he chooses to pursue this career because he takes great enjoyment from games and it is something he knows a lot about. However, this may be a good choice for him to pursue this career as his autism may benefit him, this is because his autism may allow him to visualize 3D space and objects much more easily than others which is great in games development as most of the development is 3D modelling. (Grandin, 2006)

Being Interviewed

Here are the questions I was asked and my answers:

1. What are the names of your pets?

- My dogs’ names are Lillie and Lolo, my cats’ names are Puddy and Tip, and my goldfish’s name is Bob.

2. Why do I prefer Xbox over PC?

- When it comes down to technicality and gameplay, I prefer PC, however when it comes to emotion, I find I prefer console as in childhood I only had a console.

3. How was I introduced into anime?

- I first discovered anime when watching the TV on Film 4 and Spirt away came on.

4. What is my favourite anime series?

- When I first started, it was Full metal alchemist, however now that I have watched a lot of great anime, I cannot decide.

5. What do I like about the game portal?

- I like how portal’s comedy and story are scripted, along with how it’s one of the games that has great puzzles in 3D space.

6. What do I like about metal gear solid?

- How I can spend hours playing one mission and the amount of concentration needed to do well on a mission.

7. What do I like about battlefield?

- I like the communication that can be used in the game, along with forming up into separate squads in one team to achieve different tasks.

8. What do I want to do for my Final major Project?

- I want to focus my final major project around animation.

9. Do I know what I want to do after the course, and if so what?

- I want to go to Farnham University of creative arts to study animation.

10. Why Am I influence by Justin Roiland and Seth MacFarlane?

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- Because they are both creators of their own shows which both are wildly popular.

11. How do I feel about my name?

- It’s alright, I neither like nor dislike it.

12. Who gave me that name?

- My mother

13. How was my childhood?

- It was great, I spent a lot of it outside because I live on a farm, so I really appreciate where I live.

14. What characteristics do I like about people?

- I like the kindness of people, the empathy they can have to one and another, and the trust they can have between each other.

The results my interviewer concluded

After interviewing Jack Hilder I found out the things that influenced him into pursuing his current career was the Ghibli films and he was also influenced by Justin Roilard and Seth Macfarlane due to their different approach to comedy and the fact they have their own shows. It appears he wants to do animation in shows and tv series rather than games.

Reflecting on my interview

From this interview, I didn’t really learn as much as I wanted to about myself, this is probably because my interviewer didn’t really push as much on the questions he gave. However, what I did learn about myself was that the reason I enjoy landscapes and environments, whether done in photography, sketch or create in 3Ds Max, was because most of my childhood has been in the countryside and from where I live, I have a great view of it. With this knowledge, I can decide whether to use landscapes in my final major project such as using landscapes as the main theme of my project and explore how landscapes are used? for future reference, such as using it in future projects.

Myer’s Briggs test

In order to learn more about myself, I used a personality test to find out more about, the site I used was https://www.16personalities.com/free-personality-test. This again goes towards my FMP as the information I learn about myself, I can apply to the FMP, such as making the project focus on strengths or improve upon my weaknesses.

The theory behind this test that was create came from the theory created by Carl Jung which was that there are four principal functions by which humans experience the world, they are sensation, intuition, feeling and thinking.

After going through the test and answering as honestly as I could, I found that I was Campaigner ENFP-A, each letter of that means different thing and are also pared with another letter/word.

It goes:

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(E) Extrovert or (I) Introvert

(S) Sensing or (N) Intuition

(T) Thinking or (F) Feeling

(J) Judging or (P) Perceiving

What it says and how I feel about it

The results are actually pretty accurate with how I experience life and how I approach things, however there are some parts that I disagree on such as my weaknesses, having poor particle skills and getting stressed easily. The things I related to from the results were how I am in a workplace, a little bit on how I will pursue the career I want and how I am with friendships.

I was surprised when reading through the weaknesses, as I discovered something I never really considered about myself and that is being highly emotional, particularly when under high amounts of stress, criticism or conflict, it comes out in burst and can be counter-productive.

I slightly agree with the test with parts that really match what I am to parts which are way off. The theory of the test I am not too sure about however because the test results were fairly accurate, I think do agree on it however I believe it is more to do with the psychology of human beings.

Reflecting

After doing this task, I have found that I have discovered more about myself than I previously knew and has made me more solid on who I think I am; with what I have learnt, I can use it to inform my work practices, such as making the idea process in my projects a lot longer or shorter than usual as it says in the results that Campaigners are great at creating and working on ideas. I can also improve some of my weaknesses through my FMP, such as improving my ability to focus by creating a plan that would allow me to keep my work flow and when working, create an environment without distractions.

Part 2: Going through the test as if your peer is answering them

After going through the test again as my peer, Sam, I got the same thing he got early; however when he went through the test as me, he got Protagonist (ENFJ-A) which is different to what I got earlier. When reading through the protagonist I found that I related to it a lot, maybe more than the campaigner as I found that some of the weaknesses don’t match with me and nearly of the rest relate with me such as again how I act towards myself, friends, my career and my workplace.

After looking at the results, I find that my perspective of myself and what other people perceive of me are similar but also slightly different, either I see myself less than I am or other people see more than I am.

Reflection

When looking at Sam’s results and my results, I have found that I maybe more complicated than I thought or that I think less of myself; this has helped me also discover more about myself that I didn’t really know. Again this will help me with my Final major project as can base my work on improving myself.

Reflecting on this week's tasks

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When looking at the tasks I have undertaken, I believe I have done very well when doing research into myself. I was able to discover that I may criticise myself a little too much and I can do more than I believe I can. Through the tasks, I was able to give clear reflections on them, however I believe I may be able to do more by asking for feedback from my peers.

What did I learn on my course? What skills have I learnt?

This week I created a timeline in Tiki-toki of what I have done through this course to see what skills and knowledge I have required over the time, this is so I can apply this knowledge to my project proposal and research plan, allowing me to know what I need to research and be able to identify skills I can use in this project.

First year

Term one:

The first skills I learnt at the start of the year was self-reflection and doing research into myself, I now use this skill through most of the course and will defiantly use it at the end of my project to self-reflect on how I have done and whether I could do better.

The next set of skills was learning how to use 3Ds max, and the techniques and methods used in it. Because the animation I am planning to do is mostly 2D work, however after conducting some research into different vector based animated shows, I discovered a technique on using 3Ds max to create 2D backgrounds that have very good perspective.

I then began to learn how to use sound, how edit sound in audacity and how to dub video with sound you have created. These skills are useful to my project as it is an animation, however sound is not my main focus of this project so I will probably work on little bit of Foley sound.

Term two:

I worked on creating a dossier with team on a fictional game, I did concept art, 3D modelling, texturing and voice acting. From this I learnt how to work on a project with a team, learning that communication and organisation is very important; I learnt how to work on concept art, how to research techniques better and document it, and how to use both physical elements and digital elements to create a piece of work. I can use these skills in my project by using them to learn new techniques, to create a team or focus group and have them properly organised, to sketch out character designs and to use physical techniques together with digital techniques.

Term three

I began my FMP by reviewing my core skills and abilities, which is something I did similar at the beginning of this project. Further on, I finally began research into my project, looking at books like Framed Ink and other sources. This taught me how to do independent research and document it properly, along with Harvard referencing it. This is a very useful skill I can use in this project as I will be mostly doing independent research on my project.

When I was researching art styles, I did two types of research, first is secondary research which was on art styles from products with the similar genres I was working with and then primary research which was experimenting with the art styles I had research by applying them to my character. From

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this I learnt how to properly experiment and document it, this is again something I will be doing a lot in my project which means that it is a very important skill to know.

Second Year

Term one

I learnt at the beginning of my interactive promotional video project, the main basics of After Effects, creating and using mask paths and text paths, and using 3D characteristics in After Effects. I also put more practice into storyboarding for my promotional video and motion graphic; most of these skills, I probably won’t be using in my project as I won’t be using After Effects to animate, however storyboarding will be an Important part of my project as it will help me plan the chorography of my fight scene, along with the shot types and angles.

Term two

In the first two weeks, I learnt more about researching myself, one of the skills I learnt that can be useful for my project is how to conduct a proper interview, this would allow me to conduct interviews with people in the industry and be able to gain a lot of information which I can use for my product.

In the third week, I was taught how to do a case study, this was done by first doing asset case study with a group; once I learnt the basics, I put what I learnt into practice by doing my own case study of a chosen technology. I can use this skill to create more case studies into things I want to know for my project.

The fourth week, I was taught how to properly conduct an experiment and how to document it by showing me how and then doing it under a specific theme, I then again put it into practice but this time picking my own theme. I can use this skill to properly conduct and document my experiments in this project.

In the fifth week, I worked on more experiments focusing around 2D animation, I first experimented on using acetates to create key frames of a walk cycle, I found that it would allow me to see what it would look like at the end a lot easier, however this process took more time and requires very few mistakes; from this gain some skills in using acetate, animation and improve my Photoshop skills. When experimenting with vector based animation, I found that it was a little be more fiddly than frame by frame, this was because I had less control of what each frame was and I have little experience with using it. However, I was able to improve my After Effects skills, gain some Illustrator skills and vector based animation skills.

In the sixth week, I worked on my practitioners report, where I researched into two people and their products. From this I found new techniques and methods, along with history of both Hayao Miyazaki and Mamoru Hosoda. From this I improved my research skills and Harvard referencing as I did a lot of secondary research for both products and creators.

Evaluation

Looking at this, I find that I have learnt a lot about how to research, using certain software and techniques used in the industry. This information will allow me to know what I am capable of for my project, and what I need to research and practice to achieve my project; this will allow me more time to work on my project as I will not have waste time trying to find out what I need to more of.

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What is my project about?

My project is about two people having a fight in an alley, the genre is a thriller so I want to explore these emotions effectively through movement, facial expression and pose, posture and gesture. That is why I have chosen to use 2D frame by frame animation to portray the characters emotions, as it allows for more fluid movement and easier morphing of shapes.

In the industry my role would be animator, however because I am working on the majority of the project alone, I will also be taking on the role as Foley artist, actor, story-boarder, a cameraman and a video editor.

Why my project is important?

My project is important because it will allow me to expand my experience in creating animation before I begin my new course at University, this is important as it would allow me to achieve a higher grade with the knowledge and experience I have gained. It is also important because the use of movement in animation plays a key part in animation as it is used to communicate the emotion and personality of the character to the audience. I want to create an animation that allows the audience to fully understand who the characters are and what they are feeling through the characters’ facial expressions and pose, posture and gestures they use.

My Research Plan

Table 4- My Research Plan

EXTENDED PROJECT - RESEARCH PLAN No of Words

Interest/Topic/Theme 150I am interested in exploring the use of movement in 2D animation, focusing more on the fast pace animated scenes and how the emotions of the characters are communicated through facial expression and pose/posture/gesture. I want to also explore in creating a fight scene that is aimed to be more real and messy than most fight scenes by using the same techniques they use in the industry, such as the choreography of the fight, this includes pacing, timing, etc. And how the camera is used, such as the shots, the way the camera moves, etc. The last thing I’m interested in is the thriller genre, I want to know the similar themes used in different thriller based media to make it a thriller genre and what techniques are used to create these themes; this would allow me in the future to create thriller based media and know how to research and create different genres.Why is it important? - Importance 100

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Exploring the use of movement in animation is important to me and the industry because it plays a key part in what the character or scene is trying to communicate, whether its matching a theme/genre, communicating an emotion of a character at a specific point or personality of that character. A character’s emotion and personality can also be communicated through facial features and pose/posture/gesture which is why if movement, pose/posture/gesture and facial features were created with no prior knowledge or research into, lots of these opportunities of communicating to the audience would be lost, making the animation sloppy and without purpose which is why it’s important to the industry and to me.

My research question(s) 100

I will be trying to find out: • What does the audience feel when using certain techniques and methods in animation to create movement? • What makes a thriller? • What techniques and methods are used to create thriller themes in animation? • How can movement be used to communicate a character’s mood and personality? • Can movement be used to communicate different themes? • What techniques are used to created fast paced animation?• How can a character’s emotions/personality be communicated through facial expression and pose/posture/gesture?

Research Design 100For conducting research into the thriller genre, developing characters and researching animation, I will use the sources I have written down and more to find key points, I will then cross reference them with similar products of what I am going to create, that way I can see what key points really matter and learn new key points. I will also do experiments using these key points I have learnt to how effective they are, such as for creating the illusion of fast movements in animation, how does amount of motion blur or smear effect the way an object/character moves.Literature (Proposed Sources – Harvard Format)10 Basic Ingredients of a Successful Thriller. (2008, September 5). Retrieved from Writer's Digest: http://www.writersdigest.com/qp7-migration-conferencesevents/qp7-migration-maui/10-basic-ingredients-of-a-successful-thriller

Animations, A. N. (2015, November 24). Fast Paced Fight Animation | By Anthony Nold . Retrieved from YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NElnIRyikKI

Cabral, C. G. (2013, December 4). Cartoon Fundamentals: How to Create Movement and Action. Retrieved from envatotuts+: https://design.tutsplus.com/tutorials/cartoon-fundamentals-how-to-create-movement-and-action--vector-19904

Filskov, D. (n.d.). The Guide To Sound Projects. Retrieved from epicsound: http://www.epicsound.com/sfx/Pegbarians. (2016, March 25). Amazing Animation Analysis - Jojo's Bizarre Adventure. Retrieved from YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzCGknQg1vk

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Pegbarians. (2017, February 17). Amazing Animation Analysis- ONE-PUNCH MAN. Retrieved from YouTube : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlrpo2nod64

Robin J. S. Sloan, B. R. (2009, January). Creative approaches to emotional expression animation. Retrieved from Research Gate: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/41461346_Creative_approaches_to_emotional_expression_animation

slowtiger. (2013, August 15). Motion blur, smears, and multiples. Retrieved from Moho Forum: http://www.lostmarble.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=24645

Williams, R. (2009). The Animator's Survival Kit. Faber Limited.

Wolf, S. E. (2017, January 21). What Makes A Fight Scene Interesting. Retrieved from YouTube: https://youtu.be/rEn0x1DCk4A

CHAPTER 2

Literature/Resources Review

Introduction In this chapter, I will be reviewing the different secondary research tasks that I will be conducting throughout this project. The research tasks will be using a different array of sources such as books, websites, online articles, etc. The research will be on techniques used to create fast movements in animation, how to communicate emotions and personalities through facial expressions and pose, postures and gestures, choreography and art style. This research will help me to create fast movements in my animation, communicate emotion and personality to the audience, to use choreography to improve the fight and learn how to create specific art styles effectively.

Researching fast paced animation techniques

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I will be conducting research into techniques I can use to create the illusion of fast moving object or characters in animation, this includes smearing, motion blur and multiples. I will also do research into timing as it effects how long each drawing stays on screen which could affect how the object is perceived on screen.

The first couple of techniques I already know but need more research into are blurring, smearing and timing.

Blurring and smearing

Smearing

Smearing is usually found between to key frames, it’s like a normal frame but is more morphed and a little strange. There are different types of smearing which are stretching and multiples; stretching is where the character/object becomes stretched out, however this can be made to only occur in certain parts of an object or character, like a character’s arms moving or a head turning. (Jazza, 2013)

Figure 3 smearing example

Multiples are when the character/object has multiple versions of itself, either separately space from each other, the spacing varies depending on the action, or the multiples are part of one character or object, like a character having multiple eyes and necks in one frame. (J.Ruocco, 2011)

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Figure 4 multiples example

When creating stretching in animation, a key point of the stretching is to retain the shape between the points where it starts and where it ends, placed half way. When working on multiples, it seems that positioning and spacing are very important factors as it shows how the object or character is moving between those two points, usually these multiples follow an arch pattern. (J.Ruocco, 2011)

Motion Blur

Motion blur in animation is the recreation of what happens when a camera records fast movement with a low shutter speed, it blurs. Motion blurs are dictated by a couple of things, like the direction, the speed and some randomness. A way to measure how big the motion blur is, is by using the onion skin and seeing how far the object/character’s limb travels from the frame before, the greater the distance, the bigger the blur.

When creating the blurs, it’s good to have the eraser and the pen ready, this is because there will be a lot of erasing and drawing to get the blurs right. When creating the motion blur, leave at least some rough outline of the original object/character, this will make it easier to animate future frames with onion skins. Also, when creating the blur lines, it’s good to distribute them going further out and a little bit in the character/object.

There are two types of blurs, the trailer edge blur which usually comes from behind the direction the object/character is heading and the leading edge which is at the front of the object/character. When creating the leading edge, the blur lines must not go head of the object/character as they have not reached that destination, this is something I need to be careful about when dealing with blur lines. (Wimshurst, 2015)

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Looking at the book, Illusions of life Disney animation by Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston, on page 116 it shows an example of another way of using motion. From the Adventures of Mr Toad, Weasel quickly approaches toad to shake his hand, as he reaches Toad to shake his hand, the speed lines are still catching up to him, this exaggerates the speed. (Frank Thomas, 1981)

Timing

Looking back at the Illusions of life Disney animation, on page 64 to 65 it talks about timing. When dealing with the speed and timing of movements from characters, the varying speeds of the movement can determine the different personalities ad emotions of that character, like “lethargic, excited, nervous, relaxed. Neither acting nor attitude could be portrayed without paying very close attention to timing.” It also talks about how timing even effects the most basic actions as it can change the meaning entirely, an example it gives is imagine a character’s head, “first showing it leaning toward the right shoulder and the second with it over on the left and its chin slightly raised”. Now here are the different meanings it could give when left or given in-between frames, shown by the book:

“No in-betweens- THE CHARACTER has been hit by a tremendous force. His head is nearly snapped off.

One in-between- ………………………. has been hit by a brick, rolling pin, frying pan.

Two in-betweens- ………………………. has a nervous tic, a muscle spasm, an uncontrollable twitch.

Three in-betweens- ……………………. is dodging the brick, rolling pin, frying pan.

Four in-betweens- ……………………… is giving a crisp order, “Get going!” “Move it!”

Five in-betweens- ………………………. is more friendly, “Over here.” “Come on- hurry!”

Six in-betweens- ………………………… sees a good-looking girl, or the sports car he has always wanted.

Seven in-betweens- …………………… tries to get a better look at something.

Eight in-betweens- ……………………. searches for the peanut butter on the kitchen shelf.

Nine in-betweens- …………………….. appraises, considering, thoughtfully.

Ten in-betweens- ………………………. stretches a sore muscle.”

In my earlier research, I found in some animations they would use two or more frames of the same drawing, the book talks about it. They are know as “Ones” and “Twos”, “This referred to the number of frames of film to be shot of a single drawing”. They used this because it was known that most actions don’t require new drawings for every frame, so to save time they would use the same drawing; it also had an effect on slower movements, giving the animation a smoother appearance. Twos in fast actions scenes also caused an effect, it would make the action seem to have “more sparkle and spirt than the same action with in-betweens, which tended to make the timing too even and removed vitality. An important thing I must keep in mind when working with Ones and Twos is if I have the camera panning and it has the character’s feet in contact with the floor in the shot, the animation would have to be on Ones. This is because the character will have to match the moves of the pan, otherwise “there would be a slippage which looked peculiar. Similar, if the camera were

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moving in any direction (which must be on “ones”), there would be a strange jittering unless the character’s actions were one “ones” also.” (Frank Thomas, 1981)

Evaluation

From this I have learnt the basic techniques of animation and fast paced animation, this includes smearing, blurring, multiples and timing. I used a number of sources to allow me to gain as much information I could, whilst also proving these techniques work through the use of examples. This will allow me to begin to put into practice those techniques and see whether they can be applied to Rotoscoping, such as the timing of frames to achieve specific actions like a punch or a fist bump.

Communicating emotions

Character expressions

In the seventh week, I am going to be conducting research into character’s facial expressions and see what techniques are used to communicate different emotions through the facial expressions.

The human face is known to be the first immediate thing the eye is drawn to, this makes it very important to known how to correctly use facial expressions correctly. As it says in the online article “The body expresses action, but the face is a window into someone's inner life, and the expression of this inner life in a character makes all the difference between a skilled, observant artist (or writer) and a wooden one.” (Medlej, 2014)

Eyes

The eye is made up of three specific things that determine the emotion, the eyelid, the iris position and the pupils size; when working on the face, it is best to work on the eyes first as “the eyes are the main point of focus in a face”. Here are some examples the article gives:

Figure 5 different eyes

This shows that different combinations of how the eyelid is positioned, how the iris is position, and what size the pupil is, can determine the emotion it communicates. For a sleepy eye, the eyelid covers most of the eye, the iris is covered and the pupil is dilated; a relaxed eye is like a normal open eye but can be simulated as still tied by adding one more line, the iris just touches the edge of the

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eyelid and the pupil still dilated. An alert eye is when the eyelid is open normally but with no extra detail, the iris is in the same position as the relaxed eye and the pupil is this time contracted; the last eye shown is a wide eye, where the eyelid is fully open, the iris is free and the pupil is contracted.

Eyebrows

In this online article, it talks about the eyebrow being made up of segments, he calls it the head and the curve. These two parts pull on each other and can be either rested, raised or lowered, the combinations of two different heights can also achieve different expressions; here are some examples:

Figure 6 different eyebrows

You can see that these different combinations communicate different emotions, such as when the head of the eyebrow is rested and the curve raised makes the expression appear to communicate surprised, when both raised it appears to communicate confusion.

Mouth

The way the mouth communicates emotion is though both lips and how they curve, if both lips are curve up it communicates a generic happiness, if the upper lip is curved down and the lower lip up it communicates a greater happiness. If both lips are curved down it communicates dismay or fear, if the upper lip curves down and the lower lip curves up it communicates shock as it represents a jaw dropping and if “Lips look like they want to join in the middle: caused by the corners, which are lifted into a snarl: this is the angry open mouth.” (Medlej, 2014)

Figure 7 different mouths

Nose

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The nose communicates the least amount of emotion however, it is known to scrunch and wrinkle up when the character needs to communicate extreme anger and disgust.

Putting it into practice

For this, I wanted to put what I have learnt to the test to see if I understand and to see if it is effective. To do this I decided to create four emotions through only using eyes and eyebrows, these four emotions are fear, anger, relaxed and tired. Here are the results:

Figure 8 Putting facial features into practice

As you can see, I have been very success full in communicating those emotions, however I have also notice that both expressions for fear and tired are also communicating something else. For fear, it is also communicating confusion and for tiredness, it is communicating questioning; these two emotions are both connected through curiosity, like confusion is looking for an answer to what you are not understanding and questioning is wondering, thinking. I believe that these two are connect through one similarity, the eyebrows; this is because the heads of both eyebrows (where the eyebrow starts from the nose) are raised, this creates the idea the expression is communicating that the character is surprised and curious.

This is also explained in the same online article which it calls “The Emotion Tree”

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Figure 9 Emotion tree

This shows that some emotion are connected to bigger emotions and each other, such as what I was explaining earlier, those two emotion are connected to being surprised.

Body expression

When characters are shown expressing emotion, it is rarely done with facial expressions alone, using body expressions makes the character look less stiff and adds more personality to the character. Hands are known to be very expressive, they can help the audience to tell how the character is feeling, such as if the character’s hands are flailing around, it could mean they are panicked or upset.

Some examples the article gives are:

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Figure 10 Postures and Gestures

Here’s what it could mean for each gesture:

“Hand on Hips:

Palms on the hips, fingers forward, elbows bowed outward:

Classic sign of confidence

Shows the body is ready to step into action, get to work etc

Enlarges the upper body, making one look more powerful and threatening in a confrontation (or when grounding kids)

Also means "Keep away from me, I’m feeling anti-social."

Note that when the thumbs are forward, the posture is more feminine and signals uncertainty rather than aggressiveness.

Arm-Cross:

Classic defensive stance

Disagreement, closing oneself to input, arrogance, dislike. Women don’t cross their arms around men they like.

Self-comforting posture, used to alleviate anxiety and social stress.

Arms and elbows pulled tightly into the body signal acute nervousness.

Touching oneself:

We unconsciously touch our bodies to comfort or release stress. Perplexity, disagreement, frustration, uncertainty manifest in the fingers touching the lips, the hand scratching the head, holding the neck, grabbing an earlobe, rubbing the cheek, massaging the other hand, etc. Self-manipulations increase with stress and disapproval.

It is particularly effective to show repressed anger through these cues, as they are often a way of displacing the aggressivity.

Note that in young children, the hand behind the head can express jealousy.” (Medlej, 2014)

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Reflection

From this research, I have learnt what facial features communicate different emotions and that these facial features can be combined to communicate multiple emotions, or singular, more complicated emotions. This will allow me to communicate more complex and basic emotions to audience without making them confuse to what emotion the character is trying to communicate; this is the same for when I’m using the character’s pose, posture and gesture to communicate.

Choreography in fighting

This week I will be researching choreography in fight scenes, this will allow me to create a storyboard that is effective in matching the themes and communicating the emotion and personality of the characters. I will conduct this research by first doing secondary research to understand the basics and then taking it further by analysing some fight scenes that from films, this will allow me to learn techniques used in the industry and compare them with other film fights.

The official guide

When looking through some secondary sources through the internet, I found a guide created by Yung Lee (also known as GakAttack), he is an action designer and a friend of Rocket Jump.

When reading the guide, I found that there are four key points, pacing, performance, a reason to fight and the way the camera moves. When discussing about pacing, a fight scene needs a rhythm to it and depending on the tone of the move, this could affect pacing as well such as it can be fast and frenetic for an action film or slow and dramatic for a horror film. This is because if you had a fast paced fight in a horror film, the horror and drama would be lost as there wouldn’t be enough time to build up the suspense, so the pacing plays a very big part in the film depending on its genre.

The performance is about the actor and the character they are playing, this is because a character’s personality determines the way the fight scene plays out, as personality can determine how the character fights and approaches obstacles and react to situations. A fight scene has the same purpose as any other scene, to advance the plot, this is why it is necessary for there to be a reason for the fight, along with that it has to be a good enough reason and believable, otherwise the audience won’t be invested in the scene.

The camera plays a very important role in a fight scene as it is the thing that is capturing the fight, this means that the choreography has to be created with the camera in mind, such as how the camera will follow the fight. The camera can also be used to emphasize certain points in the fight, such as fast movements at points, powerful hits, etc. (Haroutunian, n.d.)

A video tutorial

I have gone further and looked at a video tutorial on YouTube to learn more about how choreography of fight scenes are created.

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The first thing Rustic Bodomov talks about is camera awareness, this is where the choreography changes depending where the camera is, such as if we have two actors facing each other and positioned the camera to be an over the shoulder shot. The actor punching the actor facing away from the camera would make his fist go further, along with the other actor turning his face a little more, allowing the audience to get a better view of his face so he can communicate the pain more to the audience through facial features.

The next topic he talks about is intensity and control, this is where precise hits look better in a fight scene and shooting the scene takes less takes; along with that, pacing is important as if you do the movements faster and faster, it makes the fight look floppy.

Timing; in nearly every fight scene there is always an irregular tempo, this means that the fight is a constant tempo, hit after hit after hit, it is broken into pieces of different tempos depending on the choreography, this makes it more interesting for the audience as it becomes unpredictable. Usually this irregular tempo is practiced with a partner before shooting the fight scene to allow them to figure out the different tempos and gain some muscle memory for the fight scene.

Distance is important as a common mistake for actors is when they start crowding in, this doesn’t allow them to throw their punches and kicks as far, making there hits not look powerful. Foot work also plays an important role, that’s why it’s important to learn some martial arts and boxing basics, this allows the actors to use and change into different fighting stances, allowing the fight to look more interesting.

There is a term used in the industry called “45s” is when you have legs bent and always facing at a 45-degree angle, this is used to control the distance between the two actors fighting as it allows them to walk and change stances as the fight goes on. Another small factor that makes a great difference is a ghost beat, this is used when the actor looks a bit awkward when waiting for the next move from his partner. A ghost beat is where the actor throws in an improvised movement to fill in the extra space in a fight and not look like he/she’s waiting for his/her partners next move, this is done by ever moving their hands or throwing in an extra kick or punch.

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Another good tip Rustic Bodomov gives is that when creating the fight, it is also important to remember acting as the character in the story, such as is the character tired or energetic, is the character scared or angry. This changes the choreography of the fight as some punches and kicks can be more aggressive and out of control or they can be weak and slow. The final tip is to make both actors open to the camera, this means having both actors clearly visible to the camera which allows the audience to get a better view on what is going, usually this is done by having an actor in a stance on the left side of the camera and the other actor in a stance on the right. (B, 2017)

Looking at fight scenes

The fight scenes I will be looking at will be similar to what I will be aiming to make a rough, wild, realistic fight.

The two similar fight scenes I will be looking at (suggested by my tutor) are The Bourne Supremacy fight scene and Grosse Point Blank fight scene.

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Looking at the fight scene in Grosse Point Blank, the fight begins right of with both characters delivering blows to each other, you can tell they are both professionals from moves and blocks they do, this makes the fight intense as it is longer than the usual fight which creates suspense and we know that they are both professionals making the scene a lot more deadlier. The camera is quick and smooth when following the movement of the fight, such as when one of them delivers a lot of power into a kick, punch or shove and it follows the direction of the movement and continues with the one receiving, following him move from the force. The camera shots are also connect to the different moves they use, when comes to up close, short punches and grabs, the camera is a lot more closer to the fight, however when the moves are lot more bigger and have distance between both characters, the camera shot is a lot further away to show the actual movement at hand. Looking at the pacing of the fight, it matches very well with the song playing in the background, being at the same pace as the song; because of what the song is, this creates more drama to the scene as it is a fun fast paced song which contrasts to the serious fight. However, because of this pacing, it makes the fight scene look more staged as the actors seem to be taking turns at each other, this could be improved if the actors through a couple of ghost beats in to fill the space in-between of each action.

Looking at the fight scene in The Bourne Supremacy, as soon as the fight begins the camera becomes instantly shaky and rapidly adjusting to capture key points in the fight. This makes the fight seem more intense as its gives the impression that it is wild and out of control, this makes the fight unpredictable which creates an intense fight scene. The camera uses the same techniques as Grosse Point Blank, it follows the direction of the action however it does this by going at arches and being very shaky instead of the fast-straight pan. The camera also doesn’t have a lot of wide shots of both actors, making it harder for the audience to understand what is going on in the fight. The actors are able to make the fight scene very real, there are no pauses, there are lots of grabs and it is very aggressive which makes the scene very intense and real. The pacing of the fight is barely noticeable as follows an irregular tempo, this creates a more intense feeling by making it seem a little wild and chaotic like a real close quarters fight.

Reflection

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From this, I have learnt the basics of how to shoot a fight scene and how the choreography changes depending on multiple factors like environment, camera placement, pacing and timing. This will help me to create the storyboard of the fight scene and shoot the actual fight scene properly for the project. I believe for this research I could have used more sources, however due to the amount of time of this project and my plan, I believe it would be more sufficient to move on.

Art style

To figure out the kind of art style I would use for the rotoscope, I took a picture of my face trying to express fear so I can create a rotoscope and figure out an art style that would be able to communicate the emotions I want to the audience and be nice visually. To decide on the art style, I will create several versions with different features and ask my peers which one they prefer and put it into a tally; I will then use the tally and my own evaluation to decide on how I would work on the art style.

The first thing I did was to do some secondary research into colours in black and white films, especially Sin City, this is because I came up with idea when discussing some ideas for art styles in my project proposal. I did have the idea to do an art style similar to Disney’s art style, however the art style would not match the genre I was aiming for as it would be to colourful and friendly.

Figure 11 Sin city example 1

(Anon., 2014)

Looking at Sin City, you can see that the primary colours are whites, greys and blacks, the whites are more emphasized for the little light being projected on the parts of the actors and backgrounds, the same goes for black; this makes the scene look like it was recorded at night because of the great contrast between black and white, along with having a small amount of light.

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(sff-webmaster, 2014)

However, if you decrease the contrast of white and black, and have more grey colours involved, this makes the scene look like it was shot at day time.


(Anon., n.d.)

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There is one particular colour that the film uses that isn’t part of the grey spectrum, that is the colour red; they use it most of the time for clothes, lipstick, cars and blood. This technique really makes anything red really stand out and it is very effective in drawing the audience’s attention.

Reflection

From this research, I have learnt how to properly create an art style using the colour scheme similar to Sin City, along with how to portray night and day using grey scale. This will allow to apply this art style to my rotoscope to create an animation that matches the thriller genre by using dark colours and will reference another thriller (Sin City).

Practitioners Report

This week I will be doing a report on two people within my chosen discipline (animation) so I can look at their work and learn from them, this will allow me to apply that knowledge to my FMP, such as I can learn specific techniques and methods in animation, I can learn from simple mistakes they have made and can take inspiration from their work to create an animated scene, trailer, etc.

Plan

Create a mind map of what I know about animation

From the mind map, create a list of people I want to look in to

Decide the main person and why?

Look into the person, how they got to where they are at now, what they have worked on, what they are working on right now, etc.

Collect examples of their work and look into them detailed

Why does this interest me?

What Have I learnt? Reflect

List of people and companies:

- Madhouse

- Hayao Miyazaki

- Adam Reed

- Kenneth Muse

- Disney

- Studio Ghibli

- David Productions

- Mamoru Hosoda

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Who I have chosen?

The Studio/person I have decided to base my report on is Animation director, Mamoru Hosoda, this is because he has done a hand full of films in which I have found that the animation in some points are amazing, with both character animation and environment animation.

Another person I have also decided to do research on is Hayao Miyazaki, a Film director producer, screenwriter, animator, author and manga artist. I chose Miyazaki because he is well-known for his animated films and has been working in animation since 1963, which will allow me to compare his animated films to the modern films created by Mamoru Hosoda.

Researching

Mamoru Hosoda was born in September 19th, 1967 and began his career in 1989, the public first gave their attention to him in the early 2000s for his first two films in the Digimon Adventure series and the sixth film in the One Piece series. He worked for MADHOUSE from 2005 to 2011 and in that time he created “The Girl Who Leapt Through Time” in 2006, “Summer Wars” in 2009 and the last film he created with MADHOUSE is “Wolf Children” in 2012. When he left MADHOUSE, he went to create his own studio, Studio Chizu which created his most recent film “The Boy and the Beast” in 2015. (Anon., 2017) (Anon., 2017)

Hayao Miyazaki was born in January 5th, 1941 and began his career in animation in 1963, when he joined Toei Animation. He first worked as an in-between artist for “Gulliver’s Travels Beyond the Moon” and worked on many other things after that, like co-directing Lupin III with Isao Takahata, provided the screenplay and key animation for Panda! Go Panda!, provided key animation for the first episode of Tokyo Giants, provided the original concept for Jungle Kurobe, provided the director role for Lupin III: Tales of the Wolf and more. He later directed his first featured film, “The Castle of Cagliostro”, a Lupin the Third story that was released in 1979; after that he worked on his next successful film, “Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind”, released in 1984 and with that he created Studio Ghibili where he continued to work and release very successful films. (Anon., n.d.) (Anon., n.d.)

Looking at their key works and comparing them

I will be analysing Hayao Miyazaki’s film, “The Castle of Cagliostro” and Mamoru Hosoda’s film, “The Boy and the Beast”, this is because I will be comparing the old animated films done by Hayao Miyazaki and the newer modern animated films done by Mamoru Hosoda. This will allow me to see what has changes have been made when creating animated films, this will also allow me to see what works with animated films and what doesn’t, such as certain techniques and methods used to create animation.

The Castle of Cagliostro

I will be looking at certain scenes within both films and will analysing the animation, sound, colours and art style. The scene I will be looking at is the car chase scene at the beginning of the film The castle of Cagliostro:

https://vimeo.com/39790868

(Gaeta, 2017)

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From the start you can already recognize this is Miyazaki’s work, from its art style to the way the characters move, full of life; the character art style is a mix of the manga creator of Lupin the third and Miyazaki’s art style, that way the characters are recognizable from the manga.

The colours used in the animation are bright, however it is also controlled by what feeling they want to communicate to the audience in a particular scene, such as in peaceful scenes, the colours are bight and also light, and in dark scenes the colours are dark and well shaded. The first part of the chase I will look at is when the cars are driving by Lupin; you can clearly see when looking at the footage frame by frame that the car and the background are two separate things as the car would stop some frames and the background would move, then back to the car. This effect makes it seem that there is an actual camera there following the red car as it drives by.

Figure 14 Castle Of Cagliostro car chase

They also begin to slow down the car as it approaches Lupin by adding more frames of the car and background being still. This is probably because they want to allow the viewer have to process what is going on, on the screen; along with that they have more frames of the car passing by to allow the viewer to get a good look at the character driving the car, introducing her to the audience.

The clothing of the character is also done very well, you can clearly see that the wedding dress veil is fluttering in the wind as the car drives past, this to show that the car is moving fast. It also gives the character an elegant look as she drives past, making her look beautiful and captivating the audience attention towards this character.

If we go further into the scene when the chase begins, we hear the music suddenly pick into a funky rhythm that uses trumpets, drums, piano, etc. The music fits right in for the chase sequence, giving it an action feel to it whilst also making feel quiet fun and lively.

The Boy and the Beast

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The scene that I will be looking at in this film will be the first fight scene in the movie, when Kumatetsu and Iozan fight for the first time on screen. I’ll be again looking into this films animation, art style sound, etc.

The first thing I noticed was that this scene uses both 2D and 3D animation, as you can see when the crowd is backing up from the fight, they are all 3D models of characters; the only two characters that aren’t 3D are Kumatetsu and Iozan. They probably did this because it would be a lot easier and less time consuming to use 3D models of characters for the crowd as the crowd isn’t really drawing the attention of the audience, it’s the two characters in the centre.

Figure 15 Boy and The Beast 3D characters

Looking closer at the animation, to create the illusion of something moving fast, they blur out the lines or even remove them completely on some parts and just leave the colour to be blurred. You can also see that they paid close attention on how a body moves and what rules apply; this can be

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seen when either of the characters are punching, the fist and arm stretch all the way out when punching, then the muscles retracted the arm back a little and finally the arm is pulled away. This can also be seen in the wrist and hand as the hand gets pulled back by the wrist.

The characters also are moving independently from each other, which means they are timed differently, a couple frames one character moves, then the next couples frames the other character moves. This creates the feeling that they are both individual beings that act independently, making the scene feel more believable.

When looking at the art style and colours used in this scene, you can recognize Mamoru Hosoda work, the colours are bright on lighter colours and darker colours seem to be more saturated. The art style used for humanoid characters sticks closely to realistic proportions of a human body, unlike “The Castle of Cagliostro” who sometimes exaggerate specific features, like long limbs.

Comparing

When comparing these two films, they are similar in colour scheme but are quite different to each other on other things, this is because of the obvious age gap, however you can still see some techniques being still used in the present. The first big thing is that Castle of Cagliostro doesn’t do use 3D animation due to lack of technology back then, however Studio Ghibli do begin taking advantages of modern technology and use CG in their later films.

In Castle of Cagliostro, they don’t seem to use the blurring technique that The Boy and the Beast use to create the illusion of speed, this is probably because those kinds of techniques came later after The Castle of Cagliostro was created. However, this does not make the film any lesser, instead gives them a somewhat charm to it. For The Boy and the Beast, this technique makes action scenes like fight more intense as it makes the characters and objects look like they are moving very fast and have a lot of power behind, making them seem a lot more dangerous.

When looking at the characters, they are very different, The Boy and the Beast focuses on more realistic proportions, whereas Castle of Cagliostro is more cartoony such as elongating limbs or making parts of the body extremely thin. This is because they have two different themes, Castle of Cagliostro is supposed to be fun and comedic, whilst also being action packed and having adult themes, that is why the characters have that kind of art style, to both keep to the adult themes whilst being light enough to have comedy in some scenes.

The similar technique they use for both films is that they both have the background and the character animated to look like it’s being recorded by a camera, a lot of animated films and TV series also do this, however there are still some that do not due to lack of time or production.

Reflection

After doing this report, I have discovered many more things about frame by frame animation, such the techniques and methods used to create specific feelings or create illusions of movement and cameras. I have also discovered that I am more passionate for frame by frame animation than vector based animation, this is because the characters feel more fluid and alive in frame by frame animation than vector based. I can apply what I have learned from this report into my FMP by using it to make the final decision on what I am going to and if I am going to use frame by frame animation in my FMP, I can use the techniques and methods I have learnt from this report to create my own animation.

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CONTENTS


CONCLUSION - Who/what was my inspiration? /Contextualisation of my study

Other similar products would be 2D animated films or series containing a fast paced fight scene or other scenes that are fast paced. This is related to my work because to make a good fight scene or a fast paced action, you must also aim to communicate the characters emotions and personalities to the audience, otherwise the audience don’t feel invested in the fight scene or action. Communicating to the audience is one of my main aims for my product to do through movement, facial expression and pose/posture/gesture.

Similar products have influence me to pursue me to research more about the basics of animation and fast paced animation as it seems there are still some techniques I don’t fully understand. It has also influenced me to pursue a product that has a thriller genre, this was because before I was going for an action comedy genre, however after looking at similar products, I have found that it would be beneficial to stick to a thriller genre which will allow me to explore more intense emotions and personalities.

I learnt from the similar products that they use the same drawings for a couple of frames, this could be something to do with timing which I need more research on, so I will be researching the basics and more. I have also found that if I am going to do a fight scene, I will need to do research into impacts in animation, that way I can learn the technique and use it to make the fight scene more intense.

To achieve my project I will need to do more research into the basics of 2D animation and the techniques used to create impact in 2D animation, this is because these are essential things to know to create an animated fight scene. I will also need to look at chorography in fight scenes, maybe more on boxing and action or thriller movie fights, this is because it will allow me to create a more accurate fight, such as using certain types of punches and blocks, along with getting the timing correctly with certain movements.

CHAPTER 3

Research Design

Introduction

This chapter will explain the research I will be conducting for my project, how I will do and what I aim to learn from it. The chapter will first start with my research questions and then will follow up with a description of the research design and the research methods used in my project.

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Research Questions

My intent for my project is to see how to communicate a character’s emotions and personality through movement, facial expression and pose/posture/gesture. To do this I will need to conduct secondary research through books and websites, then use primary research to find more techniques used in the industry, to test those techniques through experiements, and finally use screenings to receive feedback on the techniques I used.

Here are the main questions:

• What does the audience feel when using certain techniques and methods in animation to create movement?

• What makes a thriller?

• What techniques and methods are used to create thriller themes in animation?

• How can movement be used to communicate a character’s mood and personality?

• Can movement be used to communicate different themes?

• What techniques are used to created fast paced animation?

• How can a character’s emotions/personality be communicated through facial expression and pose/posture/gesture?

Research Design Evolution

Observations

For my FMP, I have decide to do some observation on movement, this can be people moving and walking, vehicles moving, fabric, and how the perspective changes when the camera moves, whether its tracking or just panning. This would allow me to learn the way things move and how the perspective changes which I can apply to animation to match life.

I conducted my observations around Canterbury, recording everything I said above whilst using different angles, such as low angles and high angles. I believe I have recorded a sufficient amount of observations and will be analysing it on this blog by using rotoscoping to show examples and get a better idea on movement.

When looking at the video of the when I was tracking my classmate with a panning shot, you can clearly see how perspective of my classmate changes; you first see the front and side of my classmate as he approaches, this changes to a full-on side and then you can only see the side and back of him. What interests me is the timing of the what you can see, you see my classmate’s side-front and side-back the longest, however the shortest part you see is when you can only see his side, this makes sense as he is walking past me, I am not following him from the side but merely tracking him whilst staying in the same position. Another thing I found interesting from this observation is that my classmate stays roughly in the same place in shot-wise whilst the background moves across the shot, this makes sense as the camera is fixed on him as he walks past, meaning he will occupy that space in the frame until the camera decides to stop panning. I can use this if I decide on creating

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a shot in my animation that tracks the character, I can replicate it knowing the timing and the perspective of the character for each frame.

When looking at the way my classmate walks, he sways side to side as he takes each step, he also swings his arm back and forth which explains why he sways side to side as the weight and momentum being generated from his arms causes his shoulder blades to be pulled towards that direction as the arm hits the end of the its swing. From what I have read from the book, “The Animator’s Survival Kit”, I recognized the arch the wrist of my classmate’s arm always follows and this is common with all people who swing their arms as they walk, the wrist will always follow an arch. I can use this replicate a walk cycle in my animation that matches real life standards.

Figure 16 Hand Arch

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I did an observation on the movement of a flag to see how I would replicate it in animation. I found that as the wind hits the flag, it follows a wave pattern which effects the whole flag except the part which is attached to the pole and on closer inspection you can see that the wave of the flag begins at the bottom left of the flag and travels up towards the top right of the flag. The wave will always start at the pole however the way the wave travels across the flag depends on how the pole is positioned and the way the wind is blowing, such as if it was placed horizontally and the wind was coming at it straight on, the wave would start the size of the flag and travel all the way down. How strong the wind is also effects the way the flag flaps, as a calm day would make the flag not stretch out all the way and would flap only a little, a breezy day would make the flag stretch out but would flap slowly and gently, a very windy day would have the stretch out but would be all over the place.

I did more observation of having the camera move, except this time the camera would be at a fixed angle and will be following the main target through space, I did this by recording behind my main target whilst on an escalator. Looking at the footage, it looks as if the camera and the target aren’t moving but the whole environment is moving instead, this makes sense as the target and the camera aren’t really giving any sense of movement, like walking or running. If I were to animate this, I would animate character at a fixed point on the screen, then animate the background moving towards the camera and target.

Rotoscope experiment

I first start the experiment by recording a fast action, this is because my fight scene will be mostly fast actions and movements between to characters. The video was of me doing multiple straight punches, this will allow me to decide which punch I want to use.

I then brought it into Photoshop and scanned through the footage to decide what punch I wanted. Once decided, I cropped the footage down to the punch I wanted; I then began to Rotoscope, however instead of rotoscoping every frame, I only Rotoscoped key points in my movements which are when I started the action, when I was halfway through the action and finally when I was at the end of my action.

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Figure 17 rotoscope experiment: key frame 1

You can see that in my second key rotoscope, I have used animation techniques such as motion blur, this was done by instead of doing the normal outline of the arm and hand, I left the inside colour of its own and used outline to draw trails coming from the arm. I also used smearing by making the inside colour bigger than the normal arm, going towards the direction it came from. I used these techniques for some in-betweens as well.

Figure 18 Rotoscope experiment: key frame 2

When working on the in-betweens, I first took into account how fast I was moving at that moment, this is because the faster I moved the less frames I needed in that moment. I found that I needed less frames half way through than the end and beginning as this is when I am delivering the punch.

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Once all the frames are completed, I brought the frames into a different Photoshop file and began to work out the timing using Ones and Twos which I learnt last week, this is when I have the same drawing for multiple frames.

Here is the completed version:

I have also created alternate versions of the animation, where I have slightly changed the frames where my arm is moving fast. Instead of losing the border lines and using them for trail lines to represent motion blur, I kept the border lines but stretched and enlarged them; here is the result:

Figure 19 rotoscope experiment: stretched frame

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And for this one, I used multiples in one of the frames as my arm launches forward:

Figure 20 rotoscope experiment: "multiples" frame

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When analysing the different techniques, I found that they only made a slight difference to the animation, the rotocope that uses stretching seems to be less powerful than the other rotoscopes. The multiple rotoscope and the motion blur rotoscope are very similar in delivery of the punch, however the multiples to me seem more natural than the motion blur, this is because the action is that fast, making the motion blur sort of exaggerate the speed which isn’t a bad thing. It could be improved with less trail lines to lessen the effect of motion blur; the multiples could also be improved as they seem to give the animation a bit of a stutter, to improve it I’ll need more practice and experience, same goes for stretching.

Evaluation

From this I have proven that the techniques commonly used in 2D animation can be applied to a normal rotoscope; I will be able use this to create my animation, making it easier for me to create an animated fight scene for my project. I have also created my own process of using those techniques when working on the rotoscope, this will allow me to work more quickly when animating for my project and make it easier to plan out what I will do for each day as I will know how long each step takes.

Experimenting with the art style

I first began the experiment by tracing the picture of my face using the colours from the grey spectrum, creating the main frame of my head, ears and jar, along with also the main outline of my hair.

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Figure 21 Art style face template

I then began adding the main features of my face by using different tones of grey, these features include the noise, the mouth, hair and beard lines, shading and facial lines. This will be the main traced face which I will use as the main base when changing the art style.

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Figure 22 Art style Normal traced

Before I began exaggerating my facial features, one of my peers suggested a technique; using liquefy from the filters tab, I can move and morph the face, allowing me to change the face I traced instead of redrawing it. However, after using it, I find that it is not as effect as redrawing it because it also effects the other lines and shapes I don’t intend to reshape and morph.

The different art styles I created were:

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Exaggerated eyebrows and eyes

Figure 23 Art style Exaggerated eyes and eyebrows

Exaggerated eyebrows, eyes and mouth

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Figure 24 Art style Exaggerated mouth, eyes and eyebrows

Simplified exaggerated eyebrows, eyes and mouth

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Figure 25 Art style Simplified but still exaggerated

Mouth only simplified but all still exaggerated

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Figure 26 Mouth simplified but still exaggerated

These are the results from my tally of what my peers prefer out of the art styles:

Normal traced- 1

Exaggerated eyebrows and eyes- 1

Exaggerated eyebrows, eyes and mouth- 4

Simplified exaggerated eyebrows, eyes and mouth- 2

Mouth only simplified but all still exaggerated- 2

Also received some feedback on the art styles and why they preferred the one they picked; for the “simplified exaggerated eyebrows, eyes and mouth” this would allow me to clearly communicate the emotions I want to audience, whilst also reducing the amount of work I have to do on the face. This is the same for “mouth only simplified but all still exaggerated” however, leaving the shading for the eyes would allow to express more with the eyes and eyebrows as they are the most complex communicators on the face.

My evaluation of the art styles

From the feedback and tally, I believe that both the “simplified exaggerated eyebrows, eyes and mouth” and the “mouth only simplified but all still exaggerated” are the best choices as they would allow me more time to work on the animation and would allow me to communicate emotions to

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audience effectively. However, the best choice is the “mouth only simplified but all still exaggerated” as again it will allow me to make more expressions with the eyes, unlike the mouth.

CHAPTER 4

Research Findings

In this chapter, you will summarise the collected data and the statistical treatment, and/or mechanics, of analysis. You should start this paragraph by briefly restating the topic/theme of your project (take it from Chapter 1).

Explain the object of each question, research activity, point out results, and present those results in a chosen form of summarised data. Select method of presenting data carefully.

In a quantitative study, the results usually begin with a description of the sample (e.g., sample size, description of participants who were excluded and why, handling of missing data). Next, descriptive statistics (e.g., frequencies/percentages for categorical variables, means, standard deviations, and ranges for continuously measured variables) are presented.

In a qualitative study, the results often include many quotes from participants who were interviewed. Here you should also present your non-textual elements such as photos, videos, audio files, maps, tables, charts, mind maps, SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis, etc.

Data analysis Secondary research


From this I have learnt the basic techniques of animation and fast paced animation, this includes smearing, blurring, multiples and timing. I used a number of sources to allow me to gain as much information I could, whilst also proving these techniques work through the use of examples. This will allow me to begin to put into practice those techniques and see whether they can be applied to Rotoscoping, such as the timing of frames to achieve specific actions like a punch or a fist bump.

Communicating emotions

From this research, I have learnt what facial features communicate different emotions and that these facial features can be combined to communicate multiple emotions, or singular, more complicated emotions. This will allow me to communicate more complex and basic emotions to audience without making them confuse to what emotion the character is trying to communicate; this is the same for when I’m using the character’s pose, posture and gesture to communicate.

Choreography of fight scenes

From this, I have learnt the basics of how to shoot a fight scene and how the choreography changes depending on multiple factors like environment, camera placement, pacing and timing. This will help

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me to create the storyboard of the fight scene and shoot the actual fight scene properly for the project. I believe for this research I could have used more sources, however due to the amount of time of this project and my plan, I believe it would be more sufficient to move on.

Art style

From this research, I have learnt how to properly create an art style using the colour scheme similar to Sin City, along with how to portray night and day using grey scale. This will allow to apply this art style to my rotoscope to create an animation that matches the thriller genre by using dark colours and will reference another thriller (Sin City).

Primary research

Observations

From this have learnt the basics movement in fabric, people and how the perception changes with camera movement. This will allow me to have a better understanding when recreating these movements in animation and will allow me to also conduct more observations in the future with better aims and objectives because of the experience.


From this I have proven that the techniques commonly used in 2D animation can be applied to a normal rotoscope; I will be able use this to create my animation, making it easier for me to create an animated fight scene for my project. I have also created my own process of using those techniques when working on the rotoscope, this will allow me to work more quickly when animating for my project and make it easier to plan out what I will do for each day as I will know how long each step takes.

Experimenting with art styles

From the feedback and tally, I believe that both the “simplified exaggerated eyebrows, eyes and mouth” and the “mouth only simplified but all still exaggerated” are the best choices as they would allow me more time to work on the animation and would allow me to communicate emotions to audience effectively. However, the best choice is the “mouth only simplified but all still exaggerated” as again it will allow me to make more expressions with the eyes, unlike the mouth.

Conclusion - How did the research help me with my project? This helped me to first create a storyboard with good choreography which will be able to show the way the characters fight and how they live very different lives, one who is well experienced in fighting, whereas the other has no experience and is weak.

The art style research allowed me to create an effective art style that fits with the thriller theme I was aiming to make by using a dark colours from a black and white art style I researched from Sin City. I did however have to simplify my art style in the end as I did not have time to work on a super detailed animation but I was able to still achieve some effects through the colours I used.

The research into techniques used to create fast paced animation help me with creating most of my product. I used what I learnt about timing to decide on what frames on the footage to rotoscope then apply to my animation where I changed the amount of frames of each drawing would appear on, again effecting the timing. I used the motion blur and the smearing techniques I learnt to

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exaggerate the fast movements in the animation between the two characters, allowing the fight scene to look more intense and interesting.

The research into facial expressions helped me when working on the last shot of the animation which was designed to show the fear the character is experiencing. I was able to use the skills and techniques I learnt to exaggerate the actor’s facial expressions and make it easier for the character to communicate fear and confusion. I also used the research into pose, posture and gesture to allow me to communicate the personalities of the characters when recording the footage by having the actors use those poses, postures and gestures.

CHAPTER 5

My Project

Introduction In this chapter you should present the level of self-direction, personal initiative and commitment necessary to progress ideas and find solutions, and the practical, theoretical and technical comprehension, appreciation, knowledge and proficiency necessary to achieve identified goals. The ability to plan and organise work within a given timeframe and the efficient production of outcomes both individually and collaboratively.

Pre-Production

Produce Pre-Production Portfolio which will formally define your project (location survey; risk assessment; treatment; script; budget; schedule etc.).

Pitch your proposal to the production board (video recording of your production board presentation)

Analyse your target audience. Investigate the target demographic and record the type of media or entertainment they consume

Storyboard

I have begun working towards creating my project by working on a storyboard for when I record the footage for the rotoscope; I will first create three different scene ideas and decide on the one I will use. After that I will begin work on the storyboard and will also draw alternate storyboard shots so I can compare them and decide whether I want to use the alternate versions or not and why.

The three scenes I thought up are:

- A guy enters an alley where encounters a thug who starts beating him up, he gets over powered and is on the floor still being punched, he reaches across and finds a blunt object which he uses to defend himself but accidentally kills the thug.

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- A guy finds his friend being beaten up, so he steps in to defend his friend, the fight is short as the police turn up.

- A guy is witnessing another person about to be executed, so he intervenes and uses martial arts to save the day.

I decided to go for the first scene in the ally, this is because it only requires two actors and I can recreate the alley by using the corridor as the alley, so I have a solid environment work off from.

I then created a storyboard that is 12 drawings long and a total of 7 shots; I then created alternate shots to use for some parts of the storyboard.

Looking at the alternate shots, I have decided to use none of them as I believe the original is well thought out. The reason why I chose not to use the alternate shot 8.5 is because if I choose to leave it for the audience to decide to what has happened to the thug, it makes the scene a little bit more intense as the thug could be dead.

I also decided not use the alternate storyboard of shot 2 because the distance needed would make it more difficult to record and it wouldn’t be as effective as the other shot because the audience would anticipate that the fight, whereas the original shot makes it a kind of a surprise.

Reflection

Looking at the work I have produced for this storyboard, I believe I could do more alternate shots which could have allowed to create a better storyboard but because of how long I have to produce the product and the amount of work needed to complete. I believe this was the right choice in moving onto the next steps of this animation as the primary focus of this product is to focus on the movement of the animation and the techniques it uses to communicate emotion.

Production Recording the footage

The first stage of the project is to record the shots for me to rotoscope, to this I needed two other people to help me shoot the shots, one to work the camera and another as an actor. We used my camera and a tri-pod from the college to record; we shot in the hallway in the media department at college, that way when I create the background, it will be easier to create as the environment slightly matches the alley I want to create.

Here is the footage:

Looking at the footage, believe we have done pretty well

I think I will to reshoot the last shot, as I don’t think I expressed the emotion well enough to the camera and I was in a rush as I wanted to get it down before break begun as students would start to

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walk through the hallway. This can be easily achieved as I have my own camera and tripod, along with the right environment to shoot at.

Work produced

Shot 1

When beginning work on the first shot, I first trimmed down the footage, I then worked on choosing key frames from the shot and tracing them, I did the same thing when doing the in-betweens and then finally the frames in-between those.

Figure 27 Shot 1 tracing

I ordered them into different layers, one for keyframes, one for in-betweens and the last betweens. This would allow me to find frames in the animation that need fixing because they cause the animation to look wonky or not timed well. When creating the key frames, I looked through the footage for key points, like in animation such as each footstep the character takes, the starting and end point of a fist is being swung, etc.

I then worked on the in-between and between frames, usually the in-betweens are put in the middle between the key frames, however fast movements can change the placement slightly, either being closer to where the action begins to make the movement gradually speed up or its placed closer to the end to make the movement gradually slow down.

The betweens matter on the speed of the movement, the direction and the amount of effort needed; when it comes to speed, the betweens are at the end and at the beginning of the fast movement, this is because if it was placed in the middle where the movement is supposed to be at

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its fastest, it would slow it down as it would have more frames of that drawing in the same space. The direction matters to the betweens because of gravity, like what I discussed about fast movement, more frames are needed when going against gravity as it takes longer to rise and less frames are needed going with gravity as it takes less time. An example of this would be a bouncy ball, as it rises it slows down to a halt and as it falls it picks up speed; this applies with many other things like a walk cycle, lifting and lowering and object, etc. Finally effort needed to move, this does tie in with gravity as it has to do with weight but it also has to do with the forces behind the movement. When the amount of force is low and the object is heavy, it will move slowly at first, pick up speed and stop slowly, like a truck; however when the amount of force is high and the objects weight is light, the movement becomes a lot more quicker and movement can be made to stop quickly.

Figure 28 Shot 1 frame order

Once I finished tracing, I duplicated them to a new photoshop file and sorted out the layers in the timeline to test if the placement of the frames worked well when put together and timed well with Ones and Twos.

Figure 29 Shot 1 testing selected frames

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However, I had a bit of trouble timing them properly once I transferred them over, I found that the animation was very fast and was not similar to the video. I fixed this by turning the frames per second down, from 50 to 30, however I had to readjust every frame. In the future, I will first set the frame rate, then begin placing the frames in.

Figure 30 Shot 1 Frame rate

I then began to do the rotoscope art style over each frame, I first began by making a base rotoscope using the colour grey.

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Figure 31 Shot 1 Grey body

I then created a group for the face and made separate layers for separate colours, such as the colour I will use for the hair, the colour I’ll use for making facial features, the colour I’ll use for the lines of my hair.

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Figure 32 Shot 1 Face

I did the same for the clothes.

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Figure 33 Shot 1 clothes

I then began shading by making another group called shading and have three layers with different opacities; then using the colour black to add the shading, this would allow me to have multiple shades for my character.

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Figure 34 Shot 1 shading

However, after doing this process a couple of times on other frames, I found that if I was going to use this process, I wouldn’t have a completed product, nor would I be able to reach the goals I set out for this project, such as expressing character emotion and personality, and using techniques in my animation to create the illusion of speed.

To counter this problem, I have decided to reduce the quality of the art style and focus on the main points in the animation, which are shots 2 and 5; if I can complete these shots with time still to spare, I will try to do a shot to connect both shots and make it more understanding to the audience when I present it.

Shot 2

The art style has been reduced to 4 basic colours, one for the skin colour, another for shoes, one for clothes and finally a colour for lines used to show the outline of the arm and creases in clothing. I also created a separate layer with colour scheme I used for actor 1 (Sam), allowing me to easily switch between colours without having to waste time in going back to other frames for those colours.

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Figure 35 Shot 2 Sam colours

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Figure 36 Shot 2 colour scheme layer

I first began by again tracing the key frames and in-betweens, however I decided to use my judgement to decide the placement of the betweens to allow me more time on working on the main frames.

Figure 37 Shot 2 key frames

I created the main frames of the animation by creating groups with 4 layers for each colour; I plan to merge the groups at the end, when I am sure they are all complete, this will allow me to manage the layer more easily as there aren’t as many.

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Figure 38 Shot 2 Frame groups

To create the motion blur when the actor is moving fast, I first looked at the starting point and the end point of the movement itself, then I drew the rotoscope like normal but stretched it out towards the point where it began which is what I learnt from smearing. I then used the rubber to make thick and thin lines in the smear, making it more like a motion blur.

Figure 39 Shot 2 motion blur

I chose to end the animation just as the actor is running towards the other on the floor, this is because it would allow me to continue onto the next shot seamlessly, along with also giving me more time on working on the other shots.

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Figure 40 Shot 2 last rotscope of actor 1

Once I finished Sam (actor 1) I created another group for Jack (actor 2) and placed below the 1 st group as this was the position both actors are in, in front of the camera. I then did the same as the first rotoscope; I created key frames, in-betweens and betweens based on actor 2’s movement instead of the same timing of actor 1. This was because from the research I did in the practitioners report and other research sources, I found that having two characters’ frames timed differently makes the fight scene more realistic as it reinforces that they are two separate beings moving at their own pace.

I also have now decided to only use these frames as markers when creating the group frames, instead of tracing the keyframes. This may cause me problems, however after finishing the first rotoscope, I have confidence in my judgement and it will allow me more time to put in the quality. I have also decided to reduce the amount of frames I have to create by removing some of the first part, this does mean that some of what I did in the first rotoscope I did is a waste, however this allow me more time to work on the other shots.

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Figure 41 Shot 2 jack keyframes

When timing the key frames to when I am falling from Sam’s punch, I decided to have two between frames closer to the first key frame of when I begin to fall and only have one between frame after the in-between frame. This will make the fall look more dramatic and realistic because it acts on the principles of gravity which is that as objects fall, they gradually gain speed; it also makes the scene more dramatic as it shows the after effects of that punch for much more longer.

Figure 42 Shot 2 timing falling

The art style of myself is made of three colour instead of four like same, this is because I chose not to have lines to show the creases in my clothes and the separate limbs when they over cross the body. The reason why is that the actor is quiet far from the camera and because of the cameras quality it makes it harder to see the lines but also can be applied to eyesight which makes the decision make sense.

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Figure 43 Shot 2 Jack's art style

When creating the rotoscopes, I found that when Sam is swinging a punch at me, it doesn’t look like it properly connects to my face and if rotoscope like the footage, it would look the same.

Figure 44 Shot 2 head position

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To avoid this, I chose not follow the rotoscope on the head fully, this allowed me to make the punch look like it fully connects. This does make the rotoscope stand out a bit from the other but because of the speed of the punch, the head turns quickly as well, leaving less time for the audience to notice.

Figure 45 Shot 2 head readjusted with rotoscope

I did this again with the second punch however I had to do this for two frames as I did not turn my head that quickly.

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Figure 46 Shot 2 Another rotoscope readjustment

Figure 47 Shot 2 Another rotoscope adjustment 2

Because the movement after I get hit was fast, I also had to apply a motion blur to the rotoscope, I used the same technique and watched the movement carefully as when I collide with the wall, the movement still continues on the lower part of my body.

Figure 48 Shot 2 Jack's motion blur leg

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Once I had completed the rotoscoping, I duplicated both groups over to a new photoshop file, like what I did with the tracings from the first shot, however instead of keeping the frames as groups, I decided to merge them together to allow for a more clean and organised work space. I also decided to create a quick background, using the hallway as main structure for the alley, I created a simple background using two layers and two colours. I decided that if I had time I would add more detail to the background like trashcans, ladders, graffiti, etc.

Figure 49 Shot 2 background

When timing the frames, instead of changing the frame rate beforehand, I experimented to see if I could figure out the timing when working on 50 FPS, that way I can keep the same sort of speed and pace the footage was recorded at. My first idea was to use the number of frames between each frame I created in the rotoscope, as the number of frames the drawing would go on for, however I notice that when looking at parts of the footage that had fast paced movement, there were huge gaps in-between the frames. This would cause the fast-paced movement to become slower than the regular movement.

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Figure 50 Shot 2 experimenting with timing 1

However after looking at the number of frames between each drawing, it gave me the idea of using those numbers but not like the footage. I chose to use between 3 to 7 frames, 3 frames for a drawing would be for when the actor is moving at his fastest and 7 frames for when the actor is moving at his slowest.

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Figure 51 Shot 2 experimenting with timing 2

This technique worked, allowing for different variations of speed and for a more fluid animation; I chose to use this technique for the other rotoscopes and maybe for the future rotoscopes. However, once I finished timing and putting together both rotoscopes, the rotoscopes for me were showing gaps from me not being able to draw as actor 1 was in front of actor 2. This was because I changed the frames’ timing differently on each rotoscope; I fixed this by using my knowledge of the human body and looking at other frames where actor 1 isn’t in front of some parts of actor 2, to fill the gaps and draw the missing parts.

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Figure 52 Shot 2 fixing errors

Shot 3

Using the same processes I learnt from producing shot 2, I applied to shot 3. I decided to have shot 3 only show actor 1 getting on top of actor 2 and having actor 1 punch. This would allow for a better transition on shot 4.

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Figure 53 Shot 3 length of shot

However, I discovered a new technique that would allow me to create more accurate or fitting rotoscopes, along with better motion blur effects. By extending the frame group I’ve finished to just before the next frame, it allows me to use the onion skin, along with quickly flicking back to previous rotoscope. This makes creating a fitting rotoscope more time efficient, however the onion skin is as good when looking back at darker colours, as the video in the timeline also gets onion skin, making the onion skin a lot darker and harder to see.

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Figure 54 Shot 3 Group frames technique

When working on the rotoscopes, I also added and extra layer for the pipe that lays besides me; because it doesn’t not move throughout the shot, it only required one drawing of the pipe for the whole shot.

Figure 55 Shot 3 pipe

This goes for nearly same as the rotoscoping of actor 2, this is because actor 2 barely moves in the shot as he is on the ground, so I have decided to only have a couple of frames for actor 2. This again will save me more time in focusing on the most important parts of the animation, e.g. movement, facial expression.

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Figure 56 Shot 3 actor 2's frames

However, I discovered when I duplicated both rotoscopes and began timing them, that I had to change the timing of actor 2’s frames significantly to fit with actor 1. This meant extending some drawings to more than 7 frames.

Figure 57 Shot 3 Actor 2's frame timing changed

I finished shot 3 by using the same technique to create the background, I did it last so it would be easier to see if any frames had any errors when they are placed against a no background.

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Shot 4

Again, like the other shots, I used the same techniques to work on the animation, however I changed the positioning of the groups with actor 2 over actor 1. This was because actor 1’s right foot is behind actor 2’s body and there’s more of actor 2’s body in front of actor 1, this allows the drawing of the frames to a lot easier.

Figure 59 Shot 4 actor group set up

I have also added the pipe to the rotoscope frame groups of actor 2, this is because the pipe is an inanimate object and the only reason it moves is because of actor 2, so to connect both actor and the object, they must be animated together, otherwise they become separate moving things which wouldn’t make sense. I also placed the rotoscope layer for the pipe below the skin colour layer, this would allow me rotoscope my hand easily going over and holding the pipe.

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Figure 60 Shot 4 pipe rotoscoped together with actor 2

Like what I did in shot 3 with actor 2, I don’t need to make many frames for actor 1 this time, as a lot of the movement is off camera. However I did add more frames than I did last time to shot 3 as when I looked through the finished animation of shot 3, actor 2 looked pretty static compared to actor 1, which looked a little strange; this is something I will stay wary of when deciding to reduce the normal amount frames for a rotoscope when the actor doesn’t move as much.

Figure 61 Shot 4 Actor 1's frames

Once I finished the rotoscopes and transferred them over to a new file, I found that there were gaps and errors in the frames; so before I began merging the groups, I went through the frame groups, correcting the errors and gaps.

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Figure 62 Shot 4 errors and gaps

When I was timing the frames, I also had to keep in mind about the gaps that are created from both actors being rotocoped and timed separately. To fix the gaps, I simply timed the frames to change together as they move on critical points to stop gaps appearing.

Figure 63 Shot 4 timing gaps

I finished shot 4 by doing same technique I used to create the background, using the colours as well.


Shot 5

When rotoscoping shot 5, I chose to do things a little differently. With the rotoscoping, kept most of it same, I create key frames, in-betweens and betweens, and rotoscoped it. However when rotoscoping the pipe I was holding, I made it become a little bent at the end from being used to hit actor 1.

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Figure 65 Shot 5 pipe bent

When creating the rotoscope for the bent pipe, I used the onion skin to help me position the bent part properly; from using the onion skin more, I found a more effective way of showing the previous frame. By having the frame group be on frame in on the next frame, it shows it more clearly; I found that this was because as the frame goes along with onion skin enabled, the drawing becomes fainter. This technique however causes a problem with rotoscoping the next as it covers the video for the next part, this was solved by hiding the layer at some points.

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Figure 66 Shot 5 better onion skin technique

I also had the idea of having blood running down the pipe; this would require me animating it from scratch instead of using a rotoscope. However after doing a couple of frames, I decided not do this as at the time, I was nearing the end of my project and still had to work do on this portfolio.

Figure 67 Shot 5 blood on pipe

When working on the face of my actor, I chose to exaggerate the facial features using the techniques I learnt from my research into facial expressions. For the eyebrows, I had the heads of the eyebrows raised and the tail lowered, this would suggest confusion and surprised; I then had the eye opened wide with the pupil contracted, this suggested alertness. Combined with the eyebrows, this creates

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fear in the actor’s face; to push it even further, I had the mouth’s top lip bent upwards, along with the bottom lip, this shows disgust or shock.

Figure 68 Shot 5 face communicating fear

I made the mouth alternate depending on different variables like breathing and where the character is looking or realising.

Figure 69 Shot 5 facial expression changes

I also included motion blur for when my eyes dart to the side, this both for how quick my eyes move but also for the effect of exaggerating how intense this scene is to the audience as the actor has become very alert and panicked.

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Figure 70 Shot 5 motion blur eyes

When I finished rotoscoping, duplicated the frames for timing, I decided to use the timing for the number of frames between each rotoscoped frame. I did this because in the scene there aren’t any big fast moving actions, meaning it won’t be as bad as it would on the other shots, it would also be faster process because I don’t have to figure out the timing myself and I can compare both processes to see which is the better technique for timing the frames.

Figure 71 Shot 5 frame timing

Finally again, I created a background for shot 5 using the same technique.

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Post-production I rendered out all shots using the same presets, I set the format to H.264, the size to HDTV 1080p, the frame rate to 50FPS and had the range on how I set it for the work area.

Figure 73 Photoshop rendering presets

Every render came out smooth and fine without any errors.

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Figure 74 Shot 2 rendered


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I then took them into Adobe Premiere where I put the footage together, following the storyboard I created, including having a gap between shot 4 and 5, however without the blood splatter. I also included a brief explanation of what the animation is and how I did it, along with credits of who was involved in the creation of the product at the end. The brief explanation was “This was created by recording the scenes by camera; the footage is the brought into Photoshop where key frames of the footage are rotoscoped and then put together to create these animated scenes.” I also created a quick small focus group to decide on the length of time the brief explanation should appear for by having the group composed of normal readers and dyslexic people. This way I was able to make the explanation a suitable length for both normal and dyslexic readers to be able to read.

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Figure 78 Premiere screen shot

When trying to render out the final product, I had difficulties in getting the right settings for a good render, this was because of both my lack of experience with Premiere, along with that the animation was 50FPS which isn’t a common FPS to use. The first render glitched and lagged, the second ran smoothly but was pixely; I decided to get the help of a peer who has had a fair amount of experience with Premiere and was able to render a smooth version to use.

Presentation

In this chapter, you should demonstrate the degree of competence and proficiency shown in the organisation and presentation of yourself and your work to an audience. Your EXTENDED PROJECT has to be presented appropriately (effectively; imaginatively) presented with suitable (relevant; purposeful) media conventions to suit the target audience.

Write about what influenced your decision to present your work in a certain way.

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CHAPTER 6

MY EXTENDED PROJECT – FINAL PRODUCT

Here present your final EXTENDED PROJECT media production.

CHAPTER 7

Project Evaluation

Critically evaluating your final media project against the agreed requirements and parameters. Answer following questions:

Introduce the project in your words List five strengths and five weaknesses in your final design Was there a theme for the design ideas? Can you describe it? Can you reference any

influences here? - art movements, designers, media companies/campaigns, etc. What experiments and exploration did you do (what happens if). How did it affect your

development? Find a similar type of design publication - place it next to your own - what

comparisons/difference can you identify? What were the key areas of development in this project? - use your daily reflections to

help you with this

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Review your proposal - what changed, what developments did you make, did you manage to complete everything you set out to achieve?

What did the client think of your concept? How did that make you feel? What could you do to adapt the work produced to improve and develop it? Is the final work appropriate for the needs of the project? Does it sufficiently answer your

brief? Reflect on your pitch to the board; how did you feel about it before? Did it go better or

worse than you expected? What was the feedback from the client/lecturer? What do you think you could improve next time?

Did it go better or worse than you expected? What was the feedback from your lecturer? What do you think you could improve next time?

APPENDICES

Extended project in creative media production Learning Outcomes and Assessment

1. Be able to initiate and develop a creative media production project proposal.

1.1. Use critical and contextual perspectives to initiate a creative media production project proposal.

1.2. Use analysis and evaluation to clarify and develop ideas for a creative media production project proposal.

2. Be able to use research, analysis and evaluation to develop solutions for creative media production project.

2.1. Use research to support the development of a creative media production project.

2.2. Use analytical and evaluative skills to develop creative solutions to realise a media production project.

3. Be able to solve practical, theoretical and technical problems in a creative media production project.

3.1. Solve practical and technical problems within a creative media production project.

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3.2. Solve theoretical problems within a creative media production project.

4. Be able to plan, organise and produce a creative media production project.

4.1. Demonstrate the ability to plan, organise and produce a creative media production project within an agreed timeframe.

5. Be able to use practical methods and skills in a creative media production project.

5.1. Demonstrate the exploration, adaptation and application of practical methods and skills in the realisation of a creative media production project.

6. Be able to use evaluative and reflective skills in the production of a creative media product.

6.1. Maintain evaluative and reflective records of the development and production of a creative media project.

6.2. Use evaluative and reflective skills to make decisions for a creative media production project.

7. Be able to present a creative media production project. 7.1. Explore strategies to present a creative media production project.

7.2. Present a creative media production project to a specified audience.

REFERENCES

Make sure you use Harvard referencing. The bibliography should be continuously updated as the project progresses.

BibliographyANDERSON, K., 2014. MIYAZAKI MASTERCLASS – THE CASTLE OF CAGLIOSTRO (1979). [Online] Available at: http://nerdist.com/miyazaki-masterclass-the-castle-of-cagliostro-1979/[Accessed 24 February 2017].

Animations, A. N., 2015. Fast Paced Fight Animation | By Anthony Nold. [Online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NElnIRyikKI

Anon., 2014. Frank Miller's Sin City A Dame To Kill For. [Online] Available at: http://sincity-2.com/

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Anon., 2017. Anime news network. [Online] Available at: https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/people.php?id=4068[Accessed 20 February 2017].

Anon., 2017. IMDb. [Online] Available at: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0396074/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm[Accessed 20 February 2017].

Anon., n.d. Director, Development - Boomerang. [Online] Available at: https://www.turnerjobs.com/job/atlanta/director-development-boomerang/1174/4058966

Anon., n.d. Subject: Hayao Miyazaki Biography, Revision 2 (6/24/94). [Online] Available at: http://www.nausicaa.net/miyazaki/miyazaki/miyazaki_biography.txt[Accessed 21 February 2017].

Anon., n.d. The Colonel. [Online] Available at: http://sincity.wikia.com/wiki/The_Colonel

Anon., n.d. The Hayao MIYAZAKI Web. [Online] Available at: http://www.nausicaa.net/miyazaki/miyazaki/[Accessed 21 February 2017].

B, R., 2017. How to SHOOT a Fight Scene: MOVEMENT, CHOREOGRAPHY (taught by stuntmen. [Online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxap6jc9Sbk

Burton, M., 2015. Animation Director - Career Profile. [Online] Available at: http://www.animationcareerreview.com/articles/animation-director-career-profile

Frank Thomas, O. J., 1981. The Illustrations of Life Disney Animation. Italy: Walt Disney Productions.

Gaeta, J., 2017. Vimeo. [Online] Available at: https://vimeo.com/39790868[Accessed 2017 February 2017].

Grandin, T., 2006. THINKING IN PICTURES with 2006 Updates from the Expanded Edition. [Online] Available at: http://www.grandin.com/inc/visual.thinking.html[Accessed 14 January 2017].

Haroutunian, L., n.d. INTRO TO FIGHT CHOREOGRAPHY (WITH YUNG LEE). [Online] Available at: https://school.rocketjump.com/learn/directing-container/intro-to-fight-choreography

IGN, 2016. The Boy and The Beast - Clip #2 (English Dub). [Online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Yp92Mq2GdE[Accessed 26 February 2017].

J.Ruocco, M., 2011. Smears, Multiples and Other Animation Gimmicks. [Online] Available at: http://animationsmears.tumblr.com/

Jazza, D. w., 2013. How To: Animation Smears. [Online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a71-rmYCqMU

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Martin, S., n.d. Animation Tricks. [Online] Available at: https://web.cs.wpi.edu/~matt/courses/cs563/talks/anim_tricks.html

Medlej, J., 2014. Human Anatomy Fundamentals: Mastering Facial Expressions. [Online] Available at: https://design.tutsplus.com/tutorials/human-anatomy-fundamentals-mastering-facial-expressions--cms-21140

Robin J. S. Sloan, B. R. M. C., 2009. Creative approaches to emotional expression animation. [Online] Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/41461346_Creative_approaches_to_emotional_expression_animation

Robin J. S. Sloan, B. R. M. C., 2009. Creative approaches to emotional expression animation.

sff-webmaster, 2014. Sin CIty (R/I). [Online] Available at: http://www.showfilmfirst.com/sin-city-ri/

slowtiger, 2013. Motion blur, smears and multiples. [Online] Available at: http://www.lostmarble.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=24645

Wimshurst, H., 2015. How to Animate a Fight Scene | Motion Blurs. [Online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ScUIpzswbE

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