Overall Reflection

I think I have benefited quite a bit from Digital Media III. When I first began the course I didn't think I would be capable of creating an animation, but as the tutorials went on I found that it wasn't as scary as it first seemed. It was actually fun working on Toilet Love and giving our characters personalities.

On Thursday I was actually scared to present our film in front of the class, but once it was done, I must say, I was quite proud of our efforts, as we were able to make people laugh, and that is one of our companies objectives.

Reflecting back on the semester, I would have to say I truly learnt a lot in Digital Media III. In particular working in Photoshop and Flash. I think if I further my studies in Digital Media I would lean towards graphic design, as I really enjoyed that aspect of the course.

I feel really satisified with this course as I think there were a lot of things I was able to take away and apply to my future studies.

Week 13... Finished!

Yesterday we finalised the editing on our film and submitted it to Josh. It's hard to believe we're finished... seems slightly unreal. I keep having dreams that involve adobe flash, which is a little scary, but I'm hoping they will go away after we present at the film festival this Thursday.

I think the movie turned out alright, it's a definite improvement from the initial animatic, in that it depicts the facial features and thus the personalities of our characters. It lets the audience engage in the movie more, and allows them to understand the characters better.

I also think that the music we used gives the film a dynamic quality. Each scene gives off a certain vibe and allows the viewer to comprehend the story to a further degree.

The new and improved main menu:

Week 12: Nearly there...

This week, we have finished the flash folio, after Josh gave us a few tips on what to edit, presentation wise. We have also done most of the animation and are just working on a few extra scenes at present. Tomorrow we plan on putting the whole film together, and begin the sound editing process.

Week 11 Update...

This week I've been hard at work creating the flash folio for the final assignment. I used the same design language for the flash folio as my promotional posters and Victoria and I created a few designs before we settled on the one I've uploaded below. We have also settled on a DVD cover design for the final hand in which I have also attached before. Progress with our animation is going well, we have been mainly working on her perfecting the walking cycle and facial features of the mail and female toilet signs. We also plan on figuring out a soundtrack for the film tomorrow which should be interesting.

Week 10... Layers!

Today's tutorial was about creating a website. I was worried about having to do layers and linking pages together, however I found it to be fairly easy after it was exaplained to us in class. Today I've begun work on our Flash Folio for toilet love and so far, it's going well.

In regards to our movie , Victoria and I have basically finished filming. We plan on officially starting and finishing the animation of our characters in a few scenes by next week.

Week 9: Movie Posters

Today we handed up our movie posters for the promotional package. I stayed true to my initial idea of using a basic colour scheme, which consisted of blue, black, pink and white. The idea incorporates the use of negative space, and a main shot of each character, by themselves and together.

Week 8: Promotional Package!

Hey guys, so this week I've just been working hard on my promotional package. That is- the three movie posters, still shots and the DVD cover! It's a lot of fun, as I love working on Photoshop! I've been looking at lots of precedents to give me inspiration!

Also an update on Toilet Love - we have been working on the facial features of our characters and also their figures. They are starting to really exude personality, which is great, especially for the movie posters!

Week 7.. Preparation!

Today we were tutored on lip synchronisation on flash. Our characters in our movie Toilet Love don't have mouths, so the tutorial didn't really apply to our animation, -however it was interesting to learn anyway.

Today and tomorrow me and Victoria will be developing our scene structure. We plan on having much more close up shots of our characters to show their emotion. We agreed to not alter from our previous assignment and continue using the Adelaide Central Plaza as our film location. This is because the position of the male and female toilets are directly adjacent to each and their position at the bottom of a stairwell gives us a nice angle to film from.
Hopefully we will begin filming this Sunday.

Promotional Package

Today we're working on our Preliminary Promotional Package, which I kind of can't wait to get started on! We looked at movie posters in class today and I really liked the monochromatic designs that incorporated only red, black, white and grey. I might use that style for my final promotional work -but I'm not 100% sure yet at this stage. In any case, I've attached a few movie posters that incorporate the monochrome style.

Week 6: Progress Progress Progress

Yesterday we had to present our progress submission and today we got our feedback. I'm glad the Progress Assignment is over and done with so I can take the notes given to us and work on improving our final cut. I know the characters need major deveoping in terms of facial features at this stage, so this is something I am going to be concentrating on. I'll upload some close up still shots soon.

Toilet Love

So it's Uni holidays and I am currently working on our animation: Toilet Love.

I'm working on flash, trying to figure out how to link scenes! I've totally changed our layout for the cover because the previous designs were just not working. I've attached a jpeg of the main menu, which incorporates our new design. A few more days and we present our progress to the class! Feeling a little nervous...

Wish me luck!

Week 5: Toilets... hmm???

This week, we're just working on our work in progress assignments that we will have to present after the mid semester break. At the moment, me and Victoria are still trying to decide on toilets to film! Hopefully we will find some soon. As of the moment I'm working on the DVD and CD covers.

Week 3: Concept Pitch

Hey all,

This weeks tutorial was devoted to working on our concepts. My concept is about a worm who falls in love with a caterpillar. The caterpillar eventually turns into a butterfly leaving the worm all alone. The worm then tries several unsuccessful attempts at flying until tragically he gets caught by a bird and flies away to his demise.

It was a fun assignment to do, can't wait for the next one..!

Nella

The Animator's Survival Kit

Looking back at last weeks tutorial on walking cycles, I have found that The Animator's Survival Kit by Richard Williams to be particularly insightful in breaking down the crucial steps for me. I would recommend this book to anyone who is having difficulty in perfecting their walking cycle.

Nella

Week 2: Let's take a walk...

Hey peeps,

This weeks tutorials focused on how to make a character walk in flash. I learnt that there are certain stages in a walk cycle that make a character look more realistic.

These are:

Contact
Down
Passing
Up

I made a stick figure that went through these motions, and sure enough it looked like he was walking. In the second tutorial the following day, we made the character 'Kaiser' walk across the screen. It was a different approach, in that it was an actual character rather than just a stick figure, which gave it some depth.

Really helpful second week that will aid in our final projects because we now have a basic idea of how to create a walking character in flash.

Nella

Week 1: Bounce !

Hey guys!



When I first read the description for Narratives in Design, it sounded rather interesting and after this weeks introductory tutorials I must say, I'm really excited to start working on 2d animation. Flash seems like a cool program to use, and the examples of the animations we watched made me really want to get started!

During the second tutorial, we learnt how to make a ball bounce. I found it really interesting how you can make it more realistic by the way it eases in and out.

All in all, an excellent introduction to 2d Animation and looking forward to whats coming up!

Nella