E6 Radio 3D Animation Production LogCassie Coyne

To start the new Unit Team Leaders were chosen to create forums on the eccles moodle website for team members to post on, and I was chosen for Team 1.

So I created a new forum under the Unit 67 Animation title, and gave it my name so my team would know where to post their ideas and could easily find it.

Creating my Forum

Creating the discussion topics

Then I created a new discussion topic for each relevant task needed to complete, so the team could post their work on there. I did this by clicking the button highlighted.

Then I simply gave the discussion topic a relevant title , then added a small message telling the team what they should post in the specific topic.

Ethical Checklist

Before we started working on the ideas for the radio station animation, as the Team Leader I had to make sure that the Ethical Checklist Agreement was set up for everyone to sign and fill in. I did this by downloading the document from moodle, then using an old image of my signature and copy an pasting it into the space for my name.

The same as the other times I created discussion topics for the group, I posted a new topic with the title Ethical Checklist then uploading the correct document I just filled in to it so the rest of the group could easily find everything and upload their work promptly.

Collaboration Agreement

For the Collaboration Agreement, I worked the same as wit the Ethical, and downloaded the document from moodle, and used the old signature, then filled in the necessary information about me including my name, address, postcode, telephone number and my email address.

Then I uploaded the work I did under the title Collaboration and let the others reply with their work.

Existing Radio Station Research

To get started with the task, as a team we researched into existing radio stations to get a better idea of what is already out there.

I created a discussion forum for this and uploaded my own work by using the attach button at the bottom of the page before posting it as shown below.

When my team wanted to post their work under the specific title, they simply clicked reply and uploaded a small message and an attachment like me.

Pooled Ideas Generation

The next task for the group was the pooled ideas generation.

For this we all individually, used a light hearted approach and created numerous rough drafts of possible ideas for the radio station on paper. Almost like a mood board of sketches.

Then once we had each contributed our ideas and looked them over as a group, we decided the on the best ideas and what we could use together. After discussing all the ideas we decided to mix two of mine and one of Sam's ideas together. We chose to do the flipbook idea with a boom box sound system and the spinning number ‘9’ which turns into a ‘6’ and becomes the e6 logo.

Individual Tasks

The group was assigned their individual tasks for the e6 logo animation.

1. Me – My task was to complete the base for the animation which was the flipbook, which I did in Flash.

2. Jordan- Had to create the e6 logo3. Sam- Created the 3D boom box in

light wave modeller.

Rough Story board

For the rough storyboard, as I was the best at drawing on my team I was chosen to sketch out the rough idea of what was going to happen.

The pages below show the number of frames, what happens during those frames and how it all plays out and how it is linked to the e6 radio station with the logo at the end.

Final Story Board

For the final story board I used the images of the rough storyboard sketches and the logo Jordan made for the final frame; then I typed in the text boxes underneath the pictures a summary of what was happening in them and how things were playing through, and then uploaded it to the moodle site with the rest of the work.

Creating the Flipbook Flash File

To create the flipbook flash file I loaded up Adobe Flash Pro CS5, Type 2 so it was easier to run and work with.

As I had learned to do in previous tasks on the course I drew the flipbook using the paintbrush tool and joined all the lines so it was a solid object with sections that could be easily selected and edited.

Once it was mainly created, I selected the area of the first blank page at the start of the animation and filled it using the paint bucket tool with bright green so the area stood out. Then I went over the whole animation along the timeline and made sure all of the flip drawings were joined together and were solid.

Once that was done I moved onto creating the correct discussion topic to upload it and began editing the boom-box that was uploaded there.

Boom-box Progression in Modeller

First I downloaded the boom box (shown to the left).

Then I edited the surfaces and properties including luminosity, specularity, gloss, transparency, reflection, colour shades and tones, shadows, materials and more. The boom boxes shown below are my edits, where I used trial and error to come up with an idea I liked the look of so it was personal to my tastes.

The boom box shown to the left is the final edit and outcome. It is clear that the idea progressed as the ideas before it adopt green hues of colour, then purple accessories and detail.

To create a scene for the completed boom box, I opened the start menu and opened premier pro, then imported the object into the camera view. Then I moved the light and camera position into place for optimum visuals and moved the object around taking key frames where applicable. I looked on the final story-board sheet and took the number of overall frames which was 500, then dragged the number of key frames to 500 and went back to make the scene.

Once the scene was created on the timeline with different frames up to 500, I played in real time to check that it looked alright and everything was running smoothly and to plan as the storyboard was.

Once that was finished I could move onto rendering the object.

Creating a Scene in Premier

Rendering with Light Wave

To render out the completed scene I adjusted all the render settings, under the tab Render Globals to make sure that when I rendered everything would run efficiently and flow well with no bugs or errors.

Once I had finished changing all the values in the rendering tab I began rendering the scene and allowed it to load all the different frames together from 0-500 to make a moving film.

As the scene rendered out I was given an image of the final product so I knew what it would look like once it was rendered completely as shown to the far left. I changed the black background to white because I could see the boom box easier and better and the flipbook animation would include the object being masked onto the actual sketchbook which has white paper.

Masking the Flipbook Flash File

Once the flipbook flash file was created and the boom box was completely edited to my liking I could move onto Masking the flipbook flash file with the object. Whilst the boom box was rendering everything out (taking a long amount of time) I decided to use another computer to finish the task of Masking.

To do this I opened Flash CS5 Pro, and recent files, then selected the Flipbook animation. I started out planning how I was going to mask it as there were two ways. First I was going to use multiple mask layers that my tutor Harry recommended and had already created and uploaded to my area. Then after working with it, he decided it was better to use a more simple method and merge all of the masking files into one layer for the entire animation. As I had already built the animation over the multiple mask layers, Harry showed me how to move the animation down onto one layer, overlapping the key frames so it still ran smoothly and efficiently but took up much less space.

Once the masking layers were done, I moved onto the boom box. I imported the files (all in one movie clip as to take up less memory space) into the library, then took it onto the stage view and placed it in the centre of the flipbook on the green page at the beginning of the animation. Then I moved it accordingly with each frame, positioning it correctly on the blank coloured pages, then saving the file and playing it over to check it worked.

Masks 1 –five of all the flips, which didn’t work out

Masks all put into one layer

Masked Boom box over the flipbook

Drawing the flipbook out

E6 3D logo

After all the rendering and the scene was finished I moved onto the e6 logo, and downloaded Jordan's’ creation of it. I found that the flat 2D e6 logo wasn’t appropriate and created a new version in modeller in 3D to give the overall scene a better effect, especially considering I didn’t do too much for the premier rendering scene.

To create the logo used the box tool for the frames and changed the shape and size. Then I used the text tool to type in the number 6 and e and then radio.

I posted them all on different layers so that I could work on them all separately without running into issues all the time changing or editing things that I didn’t mean to because the objects were overlapping or getting in the way.

Once I had finished creating all the separate parts of the actual logo I cut and pasted them all onto one layer as the entire object so I knew it fitted together properly and looked right from different angles.

E6 logo Rendering in Layout

Before I moved onto placing the logo in layout I planned the best way forward. I thought that the letter ‘e’ from the logo would look better spinning around on the speaker than the entire logo, or the six as it is round in shape and fits perfectly.

To do this I took the 3D created E6 Radio Logo, then separated all the objects onto different layers in modeller so I could edit all to my satisfaction. Once I did that, I opened the original boom box in modeller and checked the positioning and the size. I found that it was too large on a whole to fit properly, so I switched between layers of the boom box and the logo and changed the size smaller to match the size of the speaker.

Once the size was right and I tested it by copying and pasting it onto the boom box layer to see if it really did fit, I moved onto the layout animation of the logo.

I opened Layout in the NewTek folder and loaded the recent animations and chose the boom box animation. I did this so that I could start with most of the initial work done (the boom box, all the render settings etc.) and then I imported the ‘e’ onto the stage and moved into position. Once I did that I created frames from 500-750 and rotated the ‘e’ then faded it out.

After creating the 3D logo for my scene, I uploaded what I had finished into premier pro and began piecing everything together by importing the necessary files into the inspector view drop down list including the boom box rendered video, the sound effect (SLIPSTREAM) from the E6 sound beds folder, the E6 3D logo and the flash file of the flipbook.

Once some of the files were imported I dragged them from the library to the timeline on the left hand side of the screen and positioned them correctly so that the animation would flow well and in order. To do this I had to split the boom box animation in half and space it out so I could place the scene of the flipbook n between. I did this because the flipbook scene needed to occur in the middle of the animation.

Piecing the Video Together

Working on the Premier Project

Once all the main work was finished I went back onto premier and checked over everything to make sure it was flowing well. I looked over the timeline and imported the animation of the logo spinning on the speaker. Then I placed it on the end of the original boom box animation so it flowed from one thing to the next.

I had to copy and paste some parts of the make up and then overlap them with a effect called draining, which faded one part of the film to black or to the next part. Once I did that, I went back into the original files on their individual programs that each was created on and edited them to make sure the background colours matched in appropriate places and that all the objects were the same colour and the correct shape.

Once I was sure that everything would run smoothly and that all the build up work was completed, I moved onto the final stage and played the animation, then slightly changed the layout of the timeline so it flowed smoothly and looked to a more professional standard.

Uploading the Video

When I had finished editing and completing the animation motion graphic, I moved onto the last stage of uploading the video to my blog.

To start I exported the file to my folder on the computer drive so it was easy to access, then I went onto YouTube and uploaded it to my account.

After it was uploaded there, I simply clicked on the video embedding URL and copied and pasted it onto the message of the new blog post.