Artist lecture review: Meda and Veda Rives

The thing that stands out most about their presentation is their emphasis on cooperation. The collaborative methods used by them created some pieces of art that are very monumental yet lively. The paper craft (more like paper monsters when their size is considered) created allows for a lot of variety in their work; so much so that the excitement in viewing is furthered by winding forms and shadows created from overlaid paper.

I'm not much of a sculptor, but i can appreciate the work they create.

Artist lecture Review: Janice Koplos

Although Janet Koplos was not a full fledged artist and more of an art critic, she presented some interesting ideas about the creation of art. She stressed the process over the final result and provided images and videos of her examples. Unfortunately a lot of the shots themselves had no in-proccess shots, or were shot without close-ups, so it is hard to judge the validity of some of the artwork.

Still, i couldn't help but think about how much of the works of art presented reminded me of the process of creating animations. The work that goes into a minute of animation is so great, yet it is easy to forget how much time goes into creating such content. Animation is all about process, so much so that it can make or break a cartoon depending on the level of commitment.

Current Progress on Final:

CURRENT PROGRESS:

According to my calendar, i'm on schedule for completing my final project this semester. All of my animations are complete, and I'm now currently in the compositing/rendering phase of production.

Despite everything, i still had my share of problems. None of my animations would render out with an alpha channel for compositing for one. This was a problem that set me back a while, until i figured out a workaround using AE's keying system to key out a solid color from everything.

Currently all of my assets and animations are finished. My dvd shows my current progress on my project; laying scenes and animations on each other, albeit still rough at this point. The timing isn't finished, and my current workaround is causing my animations to come out a bit fuzzy.

Hopefully the direction I'm working towards comes across on my dvd.

Pre-Thanksgiving Update:

Current progress:

I originally had this thursday set as my finish time on the animation portion of my final. However, considering the fluidity and timing I want to achieve with my hand-drawn animations, the process is taking longer than expected. Luckily I've planned for such a thing in my calendar.

11/19: 4/5 of all assets completed. Begin animating project.
11/24: Continue animating project. All assets should be complete at this point.
11/26: Animation finished. Any tweaking to each scene completed by 11/29.
11/30: *****Rendering from the 30th thru Dec 2nd. Extra time given in case of mistakes, errors, or unforeseen circumstances.*****
12/3: final revisions to animation done. rendering completed. begin working on class DVD.
12/7: extra time given for unforeseen circumstances.
12/10: last day of class. dvd turned in.

The time between 11/26 and 11/30 as well as 11/30 to 12/3 was padded with extra time for rendering that I know I will not need in case of unforeseen events such as this.. (I'm working with vectored graphics and movie clips; I doubt a whole week is needed for rendering.) So I'm reorganizing my schedule just a bit to compensate, where I lower the amount of days i have to render to continue animating.

11/19: 4/5 of all assets completed. Begin animating project.
11/24: Continue animating project. All assets should be complete at this point. (begin working on class DVD.)
11/26: Continue animating scenes.
11/30: Animations should be complete by this point. Compositing should be in-progress.
12/3: final revisions and compositing to animation done. rendering completed.
12/7: extra time given for unforeseen circumstances.
12/10: last day of class. dvd turned in.

This way, i give myself more time to complete my animations without falling behind.

(Edit: It's been confirmed that the school will be closed most of Wednesday and Thursday. I'm going to work as much as i can, and work on my dvd at home during thanksgiving holiday.)

Beyond that, ALL of my assets are completed. Here is a list of the new ones below:

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The building where the climax of the animation takes place has three parts the first part is pictured above.



Part 2: A bit higher up.



Part 3: Waay higher.



There is an extra shot within the building, where we see him ride the elevator to the top floor.



Cityscape used for the building shots from above.



I revised the CEO, adding a shirt tail and cigar while removing the neck and gold lapel. I agree with the class, and think he looks a lot more 40's greedy-ish this way.


These are the extras that i use to populate the city in my animation. There will be color shifts, so there is more individuality between them, but they are all made from these three. I know the neck on the CEO seemed akward, but no one seems to mind it on my main character (maybe because it was thicker?) so the extras have necks as well.

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Finally, I have a preview of the first 22 seconds of my animation, except for empty spaces where backgrounds or set pieces would appear along with the animation. There is a green alpha channel on it currently to make it easier to see parts that are working and mistakes. Beyond finalizing the timing and tightening up a few sequences, I am getting a good idea of where areas need improvement.

I've been animating him with a certain level of fluidity and looseness in design that I hope will have him stand out from the static, geometric environment he works within. I know that my scenes are not composited yet, but from looking at this in comparison with my environments, is it working? Is it not? Should I tighten my animations to better represent my conceptual art and character designs?

While I am far along into my final, I'm not so far that i am unable to make revisions and improvements to my animations. Any and all comments would be appreciated.

DI Final: Preview 1 from Michael Shaw on Vimeo.

Critique Response:

It seems as though my aesthetic is working well, save for the CEO, who needs to be revamped. I agree with the comments made during class, and think the cigar may help. Should it also prove ineffective, I'll experiment with other methods of portraying his greed.

Other than that, I'm practically done with all of my assets. I have my cityscape and crowd to finish by tuesday. Beyond that, I will start animating today and should have good chunk of the animations in each scene done by thursday.

11/19: 4/5 of all assets completed. Begin animating project.
11/24: Continue animating project. All assets should be complete at this point.
11/26: Animation finished. Any tweaking to each scene completed by 11/29.
11/30: Rendering from the 30th thru Dec 2nd. Extra time given in case of mistakes, errors, or unforeseen circumstances.
12/3: final revisions to animation done. rendering completed. begin working on class DVD.
12/7: extra time given for unforeseen circumstances.
12/10: last day of class. dvd turned in.

I currently have next thursday as my date to accomplish all of my animation. Should something happen however, i've given myself an extra few days to finish the day we come back from break. Either way, the next week is dedicated strictly to animating, and then compositing my animations and backgrounds in After Effects.

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For tuesday, I want to have as many animations as possible to show, ALL of my assets completed, and a revised CEO design.

Final Update: All but 2 assets built (+ motion test)

Here are the additional assets i've made since tuesday. I have most of my set pieces done, only missing my extras for my crowd, and the cityscape for the final scene. (still doing research for its composition.)

Backgrounds:

Field with tree. I wonder if i should add more variety in colors, the solid ground seems to be working for this...

Bridge

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Objects and characters:

Bus; front, back, and side views. I like the detail on the headlights... I'm thinking about revisiting the taxi and adding the detail to those as well.

Donut.

Ceo. Here is his current design. Is he working? Does he seem to be the main character's superior?

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I also did a test in After Effects for the flash animations i plan to start working on today. I needed to make sure that I can effortlessly attach individual textures on characters independent of the background, and together. It took a couple of tries, but I ended up finding a way to make them work. All I have to do is parent the texture, and the layer of animation to each other, set the texture layer to overlay, the texture itself to a luma matte, and the layer to an alpha matte. They matte each other, and work together as if i layered them together in photoshop.

Texturing Test from Michael Shaw on Vimeo.

Everything is coming together well. I can begin animating today. I plan to have them all finished by next thursday.

Current Progress on Final:

My next milestone to meet is to have about 4/5 of my assets already created before undergoing character animation on thursday. I'm happy to say i'm currently about 3/5, of the way there, still working on my backgrounds, and only needing two more characters created.

My project utilizes a lot of compositing of static elements from photoshop and animations from (now), toonboom. I decided over the weekend it would be quicker to animate my scenes in toonboom as opposed to flash, then composite them with my set pieces in after effects.

I currently have completed backgrounds for the following scenes:

Donut stand.
Walk through crowd.
Bus stop.

I've focused more on the characters at this point, and have created

Main Character
Taxi Driver
Donut seller.
Bird
Flying Squirrel


I have also started on the vehicles and objects and created

Taxi (profile and rear view)
Donut stand
Viewfinder

I currently have the following left to do:

Characters:

CEO
crowd extras.
bus in profile, and from behind.


Backgrounds:

Finish tree environment.
Bridge chase environment.
Sprawling cityscape, including the large building climbed by the main character.

Extra:
The Donut

Some of the backgrounds are missing textures at the moment. I'm weighing the options of overlaying textures in after effects for this final, so i can utilize textures for my toon boom animations as well.

The creations:

Main Character

Taxi Driver

Taxi Cab

Donut Seller and Donut Stand

Squirrel (flying)

Bird


Viewfinder

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all backgrounds are in progress shots, missing texturing.

tree scene

bus stop

donut stand

the crowd (in progress)

Workday Revisions:

Calendar:

11/12: Begin building assets.
11/17: Final, FINAL revisions to plot complete. Continue building assets.
11/19: 4/5 of all assets completed. Begin animating project.
11/24: Continue animating project. All assets should be complete at this point.
11/26: Animation finished. Any tweaking to each scene completed by 11/29.
11/30: Rendering from the 30th thru Dec 2nd. Extra time given in case of mistakes, errors, or unforeseen circumstances.
12/3: final revisions to animation done. rendering completed. begin working on class DVD.
12/7: extra time given for unforeseen circumstances.
12/10: last day of class. dvd turned in.

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I made a few changes to my story in response to tuesday's critique. I went ahead and made his love of donuts his fatal flaw (although i might change his love to coffee in the final animation. I'll make assets for both, and switch them out just so i can see which one works better.)

The beginning is slowed down, and establishes his love for donuts. He even buys a second donut for the road to eat, dropping the first one he bought into his briefcase to save for later.

At the end of the animation, he climbs the building, past the elevator, to the very top where the building's flagpole lies. he grabs his paper from the bird, just as it is about to feast on the squirrel.

The worker notices a new sign the donut man sets up advertising a free donut during lunch hour. The squirrel takes his paper and tries to fly away with it (we learn it is a flying squirrel here.)

The worker jumps from the pole, catching the paper at the last moment, and crashes to the ground, only to have his boss take his papers, and the donut he placed in his briefcase at the beginning of the animation.

Test Animatic 2 from Michael Shaw on Vimeo.

Final Idea Revisions, Storyboard, and Animatic

I made him a bit wider, and removed the cross on his face. I like the larger look, as i think it will give me more animating opportunities. I rethought my story, and made it follow the three act structure to a T. Here are my notes below:

I. Act I

A. Exposition

1. Main Character

a) Businessman.

(1) a little large, but not too athletically challenged.

(2) has a love for donuts.

(3) loves his work to death, would hate to get fired.

2. Dramatic Premise

a) his papers are blown away while eating his donut. he struggles to get them back under a time limit. (1 hour)

3. Dramatic Situation

a) time limit. everything wrong keeps happening. has to find creative ways to get his papers in outrageously hopeless situations. wins in the end due to his cleverness.

b) uses the objects in his suitcase as tools to get the job done.

c) the stakes are constantly raised.

B. Inticing Incident

1. he notices one of his papers have fallen out of his suitcase when he opens it to pull out his cell phone. (pulls out next to post it saying papers due: 9:00 AM

2. closes briefcase, walks over to pick it up, it begins to blow.

3. keeps chasing it until he trips and his briefcase opens up. as he puts his stuff back in, it blows away across the street.

C. Plot Point A

1. shock on his face. checks his watch. 8:00. Runs to get the first paper.

II. Act II

A. Obstacles

1. has to cross the street despite the light being red. runs but almost gets hit twice.

2. looks for it in a crowd of people. sees it hanging on top of the bus stop fence. climbs it to grab it, but slips and falls in the street. bus comes, and he jumps out of the way, with his paper attached to the back.

3. calls a taxi. gives him 100 bucks, the car drives after the bus very quickly. reaches the back, tries to grab, has fingers almost on it approaches two-lane tunnel. sees the bus going down the off ramp when tunnel exits. car stops, looks through conviently placed binos. (25c) sees it gone, sees it now in a tree.

4. approaches tree takes tie, uses it to climb tree. sees paper in nest @ very top of tree. grabs it. hears branch cracking. falls. wakes up. sees paper. then sees squirrel. inches for paper, and squirrel runs off with it. look of frustration.

B. First Culmination

1. squirrel runs off with it. look of frustration. chases it, but can't keep up. while he's chasing it and the camera moves towards the squirrel, a bird comes and takes the squirrel as lunch the opposite direction, back towards the city.

C. Midpoint

1. squirrel runs off with it. look of frustration. chases it, but can't keep up.

D. Plot Point B

1. while he's chasing it and the camera moves towards the squirrel, a bird comes and takes the squirrel as lunch the opposite direction, back towards the city.

III. Act III

A. Climax
1. bird flies towards a building across the street from his. runs in, takes the elevator all the way up to the top floor. walks across the roof to the paper, hanging out over the ledge. gets on top of the building, having to reach out over the ledge for it on the flag pole. actually reaches it. goes back in the elevator, watches as he is almost at the bottom (glass elevator, his building is right across the way) and it gets stuck. fire alarm comes on. guy freaks. starts pressing the button repeatedly. fire department comes to open the door, and the guy rushes out. runs out the door, for the building. is almost there, gets hit by a car.

B. Denouement
1. wakes up in bandages with his suitcase next to him. people at his job stare as he is taken into the ambulance. he sees his ceo, hands him the suitcase. is loaded up on the ambulance, and the ambulance drives off.

STORYBOARDS:

Untitled from Michael Shaw on Vimeo.

The Bill Plympton Show: Review

I took a ridiculous amount of notes during the Bill Plympton class. He explained a lot of things about his animating style and production pipeline that i could use in my own animations. In addition to that he showed a lot of his films and would even go through his process making him.

I do wish it was a bit longer, but for four hours, he knew how to keep us interested. His drawings were quick, but really captivating. The simplicity of his dog was surprising; I expected it to take longer to draw.

Speaking of dogs, his dog films are my favorite. I'm surprised I have never seen them before. They were all amazing films; even more amazing considering the way he is able to capture the viewer's interest despite animating keyframes only. That said, he has really strong sound in his animations.

I wish his class was longer, but for the 4 hours he talked, drew pictures, and made caricatures, it was my favorite visiting artist presentation this semester. It's too bad every artist is not that engaging during their presentations.

Presentation Notes: Final Project Idea

Genre: Action Comedy

Logline: With a gust of wind, the future of one businessman's career depends entirely on assembling his missing documents.

Synopsis: Each weekday morning sees a rush of businessmen and women on the city streets. All of them have important calls to make, important deals to close, and important documents to turn in. These actions insure the longevity of their careers. Straying from this work ethic, even accidently, could mean being fired.

Unfortunately, accidents happen. On one such day, one worker's briefcase opens up and all of his papers are blown throughout the city as he eats breakfast on-the-go. Having only an hour before work, he scrambles to acquire all of his papers, and make it to work on time, or he will be fired.

In the animation, the worker searches high and low for his gear. There is a heightened sense of urgency in his actions, and he moves with a lot more life after his papers are blown away. The current list of locations for him to search include:

• bridge
• city park
• busy street (poplar ave. busy)
• tree
• powerline
• rooftop
• nearly endless corporate parking lot
• outdoor cafe

He moves in between each space as he notices his papers (indicated by their light pink color) fly about, getting caught on lines, picked up by people, etc.

I currently have two endings planned for this animation, although I'm not sure which one would be the better ending yet.

In one, he acquires all of his papers, yet in his quest realizes how much of his environment he's missed out on working so hard each day. he faxes his papers and takes a sick day to enjoy the sun.

In the other, he makes a mad dash for his cubicle, trying really hard to reach his desk before he is late, only to turn in his papers with one missing. He notices it at the last second, and pads his work with a blank form from his desk. His breathes a sigh of relief as his boss leaves his cubicle.
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All semester, i've been basing my thematic concern strictly on the lessons taught by shadow puppet plays around the world. There is a whole sub genre of shadow plays that are geared strictly towards action and entertainment. I wanted to use this larger format project to work with a story that does not have a moral with a higher focus on action elements to tell the story.

The aesthetic I want to use will be the same as it always has been, however, i really want to push the detail in these environments and create a fully realized world. The pictures below, while not mine, show the level of detail and clarity i want to achieve in my final project.









Here is my current idea for the main character. Any other workers will not be too far off from him. I may give the others different tie patterns and head shapes to convey different personalities.

front and side view

color keys for animation.

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As a final note, I want to employ more 2d flash animation into my final, and use after effects to composite different character interactions.

Midterm revisions:

The Lazy Construction Worker from Michael Shaw on Vimeo.

"In construction, teamwork is necessary. If one refuses to do their part, the foundation of the team, as well as the building , may collapse."

I took the input from class and made a lot of changes to my animation. The panning shot in the beginning has be omitted, instead starting with the workers working at the construction site. Issues with objects popping in and out improperly have been fixed as well. Depth of field has been removed after comments that it conflicts with my flat, cutout style. The cranes now move with the building without any odd perspective shifts.

I've redone the building sequence, instead focusing on a gradual construction of the building as opposed to an instant cut to the end of the day. I received a lot of different ideas on how to fix it; I tried to reach a solution that best incorporates elements of those ideas. Now the camera cuts 3 times, to emphasize his laziness amidst many workers, yet the camera keeps him at the center of the frame, emphasizing the importance of his work to the whole. The building is erected over the foundation until sunset, where the building is almost complete.

Does this new sequence work better than the original, or does it need to be further tweaked?

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From there, the animation follows the same sequence as last Thursday's iteration, although the camera angles have been altered, the background is visible, and the timing has been elongated a bit.

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Does it work better overall? Or are there still parts that are hard to understand? Is the construction being performed believable?

Are there still any major issues?

Midterm Project: Rough Cut

Midterm Project: Rough Edit.

In this rough edit, I have experimented with transitions between scenes and actions, as well as using depth of field to shift the focus of the animation itself. Currently, despite redirecting my focus on more realistic construction, the story told is the same as the one discussed in class. The lazy worker ends up causing the entire building they're working on to collapse.

I feel that a few of my shots are a bit too long. I want to take another pass and speed a couple of areas up, while addressing pop-in and awkward perspective shifts. The positioning of the cranes is still a bit suspect, and I wonder if I could reanimate a scene or two to make the story more concrete. In addition to it, the worker with the blue hat has an extra arm that pops up in what little is rendered of the animation.

I've been trying to render my work in After Effects prior to this morning, but I think the size of my files is restricting the output of the render itself. I've currently tried to render on my home computer, and is trying to render another one in the macs in the lab. My next step is to render the video in parts, and compile it in quicktime for today's presentation.

I've been wondering if I should add sound to the animation, but I want to focus on getting my animation out of the computer first.

project revisions:

NOTE: EVERYONE IN THE ANIMATION WILL HAVE BLUE CLOTHES, AS OPPOSED TO THE DISTINCTION MADE BETWEEN RED AND BLUE BEFORE.


I did a bit of research into construction roles and edited my story to fit a more realistic construction setting. The basic plot is the same, yet there are a few changes made to the logistics of the story that make it easier to understand.

"
We first see an establishing shot of a skyscraper being constructed, cranes moving steel reinforcement bars into place. Upon zooming in, we see a group of workers securing the reinforcement bars to the rest of the structure. They are all busy at work, except one.

The camera zooms out to reveal one individual not working like he should, sleeping on the job instead. The supervisor (indicated with a blue hat) the lazy worker up, and hurries the individual back to work. We see him begin working again, until the supervisor leaves, where he drifts back to sleep.

Time passes, and the rest of the building is erected by day's end. Workers are still adding the final touches as the lead engineer checks the blueprints to make sure everything looks as it should. Suddenly, the ground begins to shake.

The camera zooms in, and we see the rivets the lazy worker somewhat completed popping out.

Everyone currently on the building panics while the lazy worker is fast asleep again, not even noticing the beams under him falling apart. The building collapses, with everyone in it.

midterm presentation

My midterm will be based on the Grasshopper and the Ant. It involves a group of construction workers trying to complete an entire building by sunset... all except for one incompetent worker. I intend to push character design, as well as my overall storytelling ability in this animation. The storyboard and synopsis below convey my current story ideas, although i'm still open to revisions and a final tweaking.

----------------------------------ENVIRONMENT-------------------------------------
I've done a few demos for it in the past, and the aesthetic will be similar to the pictures below. There will be a change of daylight to indicate time in the animation. There will be more cranes in the background, as well as a few other in-progress buildings.







----------------------------------CHARACTER DESIGN-------------------------------------

I think i've found a way to push my character design, while sticking to my flat, simplistic aesthetic. The red one will represent all of the workers, except the lazy blue one. His lazy and absent-minded tendencies will be indicated through actions in the animation. When they walk, they slide across the screen, while their bodies squat up and down.





----------------------------------------STORYBOARD---------------------------------------------
I hope the storyboard is graphic enough, but if i were to sum up the story, it goes like this:

We first see a sihlouette of the workers, hammering out a round piece of metal. (textured as such) Upon zooming in, there is a step by step proccess showing how the workers make the parts needed to construct their building.

The C shapes are connected with long rods, requiring two people. Everyone connects theirs, except the lazy worker, who upon being woken up (thanks to a hammer tossed at the worker's hard hat) scrambles to produce the same piece of metal. In his frenzy, he forgets to catch the metal as it falls and it cracks. Instead of making a new one, he looks around, and brings the broken metal to connect, hoping not to be spotted.

Everyone connects their pieces, which end up erecting the massive building that stands before the lead construction worker. (indicated by the white hardhat.) He checks his blueprint to confirm everything.

The ground begins to shake.

The camera zooms in, and we see the crack spreading to the beams around the original broken one.

Everyone currently on the building panics while the lazy worker is fast asleep again, not even noticing the beams under him cracking. The building collapses, with everyone in it.

I am currently wondering if I should have the lazy worker die. The original grasshopper and and fable only had the grasshopper suffering due to his incompetence. However, society today revolves more around the group as opposed to the individual... (at least when menial labor is concerned) and we often find a select few crazy individuals screwing life up for everyone.

Any ideas?