Practise Transitions

I created a quick test video, so I know how to add transitions in a video. I tested out diffrent types of transitions, to see wich one I would like to use. I used previous footage, that I filmed for a previous project. I just used random footage I had, and put them together, and I put transitions between, each footage. So I know what each one looked like.

Evaluation

When we were first given the, brief I was really into it because we had a chance to do what we want, and I really like briefs like that. Also it was very vague so we could do a lot of different things with the brief, and it didn't say what type of media we had to use, so we had a lot of options. I came up with a few ideas, but I forgot a few of them because I didn't wright them down. But I came up with more ideas after so it was fine.

I originally wanted to work on a different idea that I had, but I realized and was advised by Carolyn that, I should think about the time we have, and if I would be able to finish the animation in time. I decided to go with another idea, I had which was a whole lot more simple. I wanted to also use different media, in the the animation to show that I can create an animation using claymation, or stop motion, or using puppets, not just digitally. But because of the time scale, I did decide not to do it and just stick with digital animation In the end.

I found the research a little difficult to do, I don't know why I just did. But over all I did really enjoy this project, I found it fun because we got to do what wanted. As I was animating, I did find it a little difficult, because I of the angle and the view of the character. I found it difficult to draw the angle of the feet so, I ended up finding an image on Google on feet to use as a reference.

I didn't manage to complete the animation, I would have done more on it too, but I didn't because on the week we had off before we had to hand in our animation I was sick and had the flue and I had a few migraines, so I didn't do any work for a few days but when I got a little better and my migraine had gone I was able to work again but about half the week had gone by then. So I wasn't able to do as much as I wanted for my animation. I didn't give my character a face in my animation, because faces take a while to get right, so I thought to save time he won't have one.

The animation is based on me and so is the character too, I also based the dream my character has on me, I made the dream similar to the dreams I usually have, but I did change it a little to make it a bit more interesting. I really liked designing the villain/nightmare character for my dream, I really like designing the characters and animating that's the best part in the whole process for me. I had fun on this last project, also because we got to go on a trip to Hawes which was awesome.

If I redid this animation I would have not colored in my character, I would have left him as a outline/drawing with no colour. I would have done this because it would have gave me more time to animate, because I wasted a lot of time coloring him in. I realized this when looking at my classmates animation, they got more done because there characters weren't colored in it was just an outline. But over all, I really enjoyed this course and the projects given. This project is one of my favouraite projects we have done. The tutors have been great, and really helpful. Every student has been really nice and this has been the best experiance I've had. The time spent here has just been awesome.

Stuff I Was Gonna Use

I made a few extra backgrounds for my animation, but I didn't manage to use them because time has run out. I was going to use this beach scene for the beginning of my dream. But its not finished, its missing shells that were gonna be spread out on the sand, and a few more rocks near the big rock near the ocean. They were gonna be leaning on each other.

Then I was gonna make the sun slowly set and the sky would go pinky. I did a quick example of what I wanted to do with the sky. But this scene was only gonna happen when my character is admiring the beach, and a shadow starts to chase him, so he runs and the sky starts to change, like the image on the left. I also designed the maze I was gonna use, My character was going to get lost in a hedge maze. The reason I designed it, was because I needed to know what it looked like from a sky view,for when my character enters the maze. I wanted a zoomed out view of my character entering the maze to give a spooky vibe to my audience. the view would have looked like the image on the right. I didn't manage to complete the look I was going for but you can still tell, what I was trying to achieve. But the design of the maze is the image below.

I also created a background for the scene, in space where my character gets trapped in the maze so he grows wings and fly's into space. Where he faces the shadow chasing him which turns out to be a monster, and then they have an epic battle, in space. The background is so pose to be stars every where, and there's a colorful nebula behind them. this would be the ending scene, where he get stabbed in the heart, by the creature and wakes up in a shock.

I also decided on the music I was gonna use for parts of the animation. I had a few songs to pick from, and I was going to choose by watching the animation once complete, and play each song, to find the right one which goes with the animation. These are the songs I wanted to use.

The first song was from an anime I started watching, when we began this project, its called Tsubasa Chronicles, and the song I wanted to use was called Siren Song. This song is played in the anime when they end up going into another world parallel or opposite to there own, and dark creatures live in peace there. They may look dark but they just live normally and peacefully. I found the song very enchanting, and magical. It sounded kinda dreamy to me to, and I new it would fit perfectly for a scene, in my animation where my character goes to sleep and every thing goes white, and he's just floating in a white background. He is not wearing anything to, because the dream is about to begin. Then orange particles start to flow towards him and gather on him to form his new outfit, which is an orange fox onesie. Then he starts to slowly fall and the background starts to slowly change into the beach and the dream begins. I wanted to use the first 30 seconds or so of the song, for that scene. The artist is Yuki Kajiura. Here is a link to the song:

Name: Tsubasa Chronicle - Siren Song 
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wMAskUiiaw

The other songs I was going to use was from an artist called E.S Posthumus. I came across it on YouTube, and I really liked the music they made. I was going to use parts of these songs for the chase scene, and the fighting scene. But I haven't decide which ones I actually want to use yet. But these are the ones I like and think could work well with my animation. I have put the names and links of the songs below:

Name: E.S Posthumus - Nineveh
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTy81zxGuxQ

Name: E.S Posthumus - Tikal 
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIyKoPuqTH0

Name: E.S Posthumus - Pompeii
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1YZtupPbRU 

Name: E.S Posthumus - Durga
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_4BfAIDEPY

Name: E.S Posthumus - Ebla 
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iu-WAHBbW8

Name: E.S Posthumus - Menouthis 
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qz2hQrUy-Q4

Name: E.S Posthumus - Varuna 
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLRpTqkNuCI

I was looking at another artist, who I thought made great music, for dark or epic scenes. I would have used this for when, the villain shows up, or for a scary chase scene. I have put the names and links below:

Name: X-Ray Dog Canis Rex II - Apassionata
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3l1wte6jnXk

Name: X-Ray Dog Canis Rex II - Revolutionary (Mix 1)
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rj31v-H_UPY


Name: X-Ray Dog Canis Rex II - Revolutionary (Mix 2)
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5UqB6qUR0s

Vist to Hawes

As a class we went on a trip, to Hawes which is located near the Yorkshire Dales. We stayed there for 3 days, and 2 nights. I had a lot of fun in Hawes, because this was my first ever trip I went on where I had to stay there over night. It was a fun experience, as I was there me and a few of my friends went out and took photos. The scenery there was beautiful, on our second day there we all went out and walked, about 3 miles up hill to find good views to take photos of. We also had a picnic which was pretty cool, when we first got there the weather was really hot, we all had to put sun screen on so we wouldn't get sunburn, but on the second day the weather was much cooler, and on the last day it was raining, but it was fine because we were heading back to Bradford.  Also on the first day we went out in the night to take photos of a meteor shower, but we couldn't see it so we tried to capture it using a camera but that didn't work either. As we were there we saw lots of sheep, and a few chickens, ducks, and a pony I think. I have photos of a river because, there were little fish in there and I was trying to capture them, swimming but they blend in so its hard to see them.

I took a lot of photos, of sheep because there were a lot around. We also went into a church, on the first day and I liked the structure of it inside, I took photos of carvings, the windows, flowers on the inside and the roof. Also on the way to Hawes, there were a lot of awesome scenery's that we seen, I tried to takes photos of that too as the coach was moving, some photos came out ok but a few didn't turn out quite as well. We also went to cheese factory, when we were at Hawes. I ended up buying some cheese.

We also visited a lot of shops, in Hawes and I really liked this one shop we went into. It was a shop that had all these cool, crystals and rocks. I ended up buying a key chain as a souvenir. We asked the shop keeper if we could take a few photos, and he said he didnt mind at all. Every one in Hawes seemed really nice. He told us he get his rocks, and crystals imported from all over the world, which I thought was really cool.

Vist to Queensbury Forest

Me and a few of my class mates went to Queensbury forest to take some photos for references, but it was raining in the beginning of the day. When we got there the rain had stopped so we were glad, because it started raining when we set off and we didn't expect it to rain. We managed to take some photos, but is was muddy and slippy, I almost fell a couple of times but I managed to regain my balance.

I took a few photos using my phone camera. I had fun, walking around and visiting the forest, it was my first time there and the view was really beautiful. We actually found a tree that looked sort of chrome, because it was very shiny. 
I took a photo of it, but it didnt caputure the efffect properly you can still see parts of the tree shining.

My Dreams

I usually have weird dreams, like there very bizarre and strange. There usually about fighting, or I'm running away from something that's chasing me. There tend to be a lot of monsters or aliens in my dreams too. 

I had this dream a few days ago where, I was an alien but I still had human features. My body was just enhanced to the proportions of alien anatomy. It was a weird feeling, my hands were long and skinny to but I had 4 fingers and a thumb. My nails were long and thin too, its like my whole body was elongated. 

I've also had this dream where I'm drifting away, like there's no gravity. I remember going to the shop and buying something, then as I walked out of the shop gravity didn't affect me, every one around was fine it was just me. I started just floating away, and then I felt danger, so I looked at the direction it was coming from. I saw a girl with red hair and she had a bob cut, she was running towards me and looked really angry. I had no idea who she was, but I new I had to get away from her. I couldn't control the direction I was going in  because I was just floating away, I tried to see if a swimming motion would work, it helped a little. She couldn't reach me because, I was in the air and she was on the ground. Then she started jumping over walls and climbing buildings, to get closer to me, but then I stopped floating and I slowly started falling, like really slowly. So I leaned towards a building, and once I got close enough I used it as a boost to get higher in the air by pushing off it. But the girl chasing me looked around my age, and she was very athletic. I have no idea why she was chasing me though, but all I know is she had a killer intent and I had to get away from her.

I remember another dream I had, where I was being chased by a, lizard/dinosaur alien type creature around the train station. It was killing everyone around, and it suddenly stopped and looked at me, I ran away so I could hide, or escape. I found a hiding place, it wasn't good but I didn't know what to do. I hid behind a wall, and I was watching what was going on, because I wanted to know what they were doing. There were only two, one was green, and the other was grey but had purple armor on, I didn't even know what they were. The creatures kinda looked like that evil Lizard man on spider-man, but with a human face and torso it had fangs and dinosaur legs (T-Rex) and a tail. As they were leaving thinking they killed everyone, I thought I was saved, I was so scared I didn't know what to do. The grey/purple one was walking behind the green one. The green one walked away, but as the grey/purple one was walking away it suddenly, just stopped and looked back towards my direction, like it sensed me there. It didn't know exactly where so it started walking slowly closer to where I was, I freaked out because, it was like I was in a horror movie. I didn't want the creature to find me but it kept coming closer, I panicked and just ran, because it was too close to where I was. As I ran I suddenly ended up in a rocky field area, and the creature wasn't there. I looked back and instead I saw a lots of aliens, like the stereotypical type of alien. I was being chased, or should I say hunted by a giant army of aliens all running towards me. But this time I knew I had powers, I could defend myself, I had plant powers and I was some how magically summoning vines from the ground and using them to attack the aliens. It was like an alien war, but they were all after me, there was no one else around. I found myself facing an alien army on my own, but I had strange plant powers, I could make them grow out the ground, I was using them like whips and I was hurting/ killing the aliens. After a while I was still fighting the aliens and fleeing away from them at the same time but then I woke up. So my dreams tend to be really weird, and strange. Most of my dreams have some type of creature in it, some times I'm fighting them, and other times I'm high fiveing them like where best friends.

Final Idea

I keep changing my mind on what my final idea is, I was going to go with the idea about when the universe was going to be in danger, but then the hero is going to have to astro travel so he has the ability to move from planet to planet really quickly, and travel from one end of the universe to the other in an instant. But I realized I wouldn't have enough time, to be able to animate all of it and get all the character designs, and background designs done in time. Because the story is very complected, and there's a lot that needs to be done for it. So I decided to go with one of my more simple ideas, where there really isn't a story

I  am going to go with the story where my character goes to sleep and in his dream, everything he dreamed, and fantasized of as kid would come true in his dream and he does what he wished he could do or be, For example they start to fly, then they become a super hero, travel to space,turn into a dragon, they live there dreams....

But in my actual animation, I want to base it on the dreams I have. In my dreams I am usually getting chased by a creature, or by a person. Or some times in my dreams I am fighting monsters, and I'm in strange places, like I would be fighting and once I've defeated every one there, I instantly change the location and I would keep fighting. I remember in one of my dreams I was fighting these fish creatures, and I was flying but the creatures would come from every angle, like above and below me and from all sides and some times I'm just on my own or with 3 or 4 other people, but they would be far away, they would be fighting to, but for some reason I know where on the same side, like where a team or something. I don't know why but I'm always fighting different creatures and they all have different sizes to like, some are humongous like really really big, and there attacking me, and I'm as big as an ant. Its really weird but there was a creature that was eating the earth but some how it wasn't affecting the ocean, the sea was still there but the earth was being eaten by two of these creatures, I remember almost being swallowed but some how I got a hold of its tooth and I picked it up and threw it on the other creature and then I don't know what happened after that. But my dreams are weird usually, so I am going to use a few of my dreams as a reference, for my animation. 

In my animation I am going to start it with, my character walking towards his bed and going to sleep. Then everything will go white, and the dream will begin but before it does he will be floating in a background of white and he will slowly start to fall and land in a beach. When the dream begins its gonna start with a beach and then my characters gonna walk through it, and a shadows gonna appear, and my characters gonna, run from it and end up in a maze, where he will get lost and stuck, then my character is gonna try and escape by going into the sky, he will achieve this by growing wings, he will fly towards space, and once he gets there he will stop running and the shadow will reveal it self to be some type of monster. He will end up facing his fear by fighting the creature in the end but he will get stabbed by the creature, which will cause him to wake up.

I'm not really sure how to end the animation because in my dreams, I usually just wake up in a middle of a fight, or when I defeat the creature. But to make it different I might just have my character severely injured, and that's what causes him to wake up but in a shock.