Live Brief (Custard Factory)

[PLANNING]

This was one of the early tests we made. As custard factory were still making the brief,  me and riz had time to play around with ideas. This idea was later scrapped.

A lot of our research on the custard factory came from the previous project, you can see that here.

[INSPIRATION]



I really liked the music video 'supernova' and this video gave an idea of how it was composed together. At this point i was inspired by compositing and visual effects, and i really wanted to incorporate compositing into the animation brief provided by the custard factory. It had a contemporary feel which i really felt the custard factory has. 




I found this video inspirational as it looked like various elements composited along with visual effects. The thing that inspired me the most was the lighting, i found it intriguing the way the lighting falls behind the black organic object and the overall mood perceived just by the lighting.

Along with the videos, images of 3d typography inspired me. The animation we made for the digital landscape project was using kinetic typography in 2D, i wanted to go a step further and use 3d elements for the introduction and ending.

Image concept

I looked at different fonts on dafont.com, and as the font is the main visual element we are going to use in our animation it has to be a suitable one. I found two fonts which i thought are quite suitable for the custard factory, as the typography had to be consistent and minimal i chose two similar looking ones.

I started of with an image concept which would give me a better idea on how it could look. I used maya to create the text in 3d which was quite simple using nurbs. 

I added a simple material with a light tone on the text and rendered out the colour and z-depth to give a more realistic feel. The render took over a minute which was a worry and gave me an idea how long it would take for a whole animation sequence!

I later composed the image into photoshop. I moved the zdepth into the channels section and applied a lens blur to the zdepth layer as a channel, this gave me control of how much to blur the layer. I then applied some dust effects using brushes and added a lighting flare, along with colour correction. I was quite happy with the outcome of the image and it gave me more of an idea on how the intro animation could potentially look.

Through communication with the client, we received the alphabet of the custard factory logo, but it seemed to have a problem as each time you select the individual alphabet, rings appear around it and it seems to be made up in segments. I am sure its not supposed to be in segments, but we have to work around this as its the only file the custard factory have of the actual logo lettering.

[TESTS]

This was an initial test which gave me an idea of how to use optical flares. The animation is a bit boring and dull, but it gave me a better understanding on how to use light and camera angles to achieve the look i want.

This was a test sequence to show the client the idea which i wanted to portray for the intro, i was planning on compositing it later into after effects to continue developing my idea. It took over 4 hours to render in maya (mental ray)! The only problem i had with this, is the camera angles were not planned as well, but it was just a test and i would have taken more time to plan the camera angles on the final.

As i knew what i wanted for the intro and the ending i had to come up with something to focus on the main themes of the three videos (retail,office space and events). I wanted it to have a grungey feel, yet still maintain that neon glow style which i feel custard factory suits. I came up with the idea of throwing paint onto the screen while different words came up which would keep the viewer engaged. I found it was quite an exciting approach and felt it could have been a successful idea if developed more.

A colour variation of the above animation.

With my animation rendered i was ready to composite the various elements into after effects. This image shows the kind of thing i wanted for the intro. Where little banners appear with the general information about custard factory.

As i was going to add elements into my scene i had to be able to have tracking data so that my little banners will stay true in 3d space. My initial thought was to bring the footage into a tracking program such as pfhoe. But that had problems as the tracking data kept getting lost, which im assuming is down to the camera movement. 

After doing a bit of research i realised i could use maya and after effects integration. I could copy the camera data along with null objects in maya and import them into after effects. So i placed a few null objects in my 3d scene in maya to use as tracking points for the little banners and exported the data into after effects. I felt this approach is much stronger than using tracking programs, as this is a much more accurate result coming directally from the program which created the camera movements.

After compositing successfully i had my animation ready for the final touchups, such as the optical flares. At this point i had to show the client the kind of style i had in mind and i never had enough time to finish the test, hence why the beginning has the lighting and towards the end its plain. I also would have liked to add dust particles floating in the air.

There are a few problems with this animation. One being the frame rate, because i was going to slow parts down in after effects so that there is more time to read the little banners I didnt realise the frame rate was on 24, and because of this, the parts where i have slowed down heavily appear to be jumpy. I should have used a higher frame rate in maya when recording the camera movement, or i should have created the correct movement of the camera in maya before rendering. Because i didnt have enough time i had to go with the initial rendering which wasn't planned. But ready or not my version of the intro had to be shown to the client.

In order to animate the ending in 3D i wanted the motion of the camera to be smooth in maya so i attached the camera to the nurbs circle, making it easy to rotate along the curve.

Due to little time i had to create an animatic to show the client what i had in mind for the ending. Rendering the animation would have taken too long.

  As mentioned before the file provided by the client was a bit messed up, so i had to recreate the logo in illustrator to the best of my abilities. I then exported the illustrator paths into maya, ready to turn into 3D typography.

I rendered one frame to give an example of the kind of 3D style i will incoporate into the ending, so the client can visualise how it would look in 3D.


[PRODUCTION]

At this point me and riz both met up with the client to show what we have made. The client gave us an insight into what worked well and what didn't. With the work i produced i was told that it was good but it was 'too dark' for the custard factory aswell as the fact that its 3D, the client preferred the 2D element of kinetic typography. Most of my work consists of lights and neon's i really wanted to emphasize that, hence why it was dark. In the end rizwans work was preferred as his work was white with a lot of vibrancy in different colours which i tend to stay away from. But from that meeting we knew where we were heading. The client also changed the brief a little, with the ending being the new intro and some of the wording changed. I think another reason why his work got chosen was because he worked on the main theme, whereas i worked on the intro and ending more, and im guessing the client was more interested in the main theme rather than the intro/ending.

For the main video the client wanted to use the 'history' part from the original video, but the aim was to get the message across without voice, so this initial test uses kinetic typography to tell the viewer about the history of the custard factory. I'm not happy with it purely because the text reading 'with a girl who was...' is too long.

The whole 3D was out of the scene, back to 2D typography! A test done in white for the new intro. Inspired by the original animation, but improved.




And a colour version..

Variance in typography boldness. I feel its too strong, but its upto the client once they see it.

This history test was much better than the other one, i feel it throws the message across more efficiently. Only thing i was noted on to change was the word 'girl' to 'woman'

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At this point we are continuing to work on the project even though our deadline for university has expired. A bit of a mix up caused confusion to us, as we thought our deadline had been pushed to a later date, but in fact it never. So the work we are producing from now on is only for the sake of the custard factory.

I will continue posting once we complete the project next week, with the final animation, along with my final thoughts.

Business of Animation

I have to promote an ad which is 5/15 seconds long exact. Working for the broadcasting companies chellozone and CBS which air different programmes on a variety of channels owned by them. I will be required to pick one or all three briefs, which are: 

'Steet food month'

'Sugar rush Sundays'

'Italian month'

All of the briefs are food related and should reveal the food network logo at the end for 2 seconds.

[Inspiration]

After looking at some contemporary animations i found these 3 inspirational videos. The first one was related to the brief as it was an innovated motion graphic video for food network itself, i found it quite interesting and gave me a better understanding of food network.
The second video was a short animation for the channel e4 which they play back during commercial breaks, which i could relate to as i would be creating something of similar use. Also the style of the animation was quite inspirational with the minimum use of colours to give a nice 'illustrationy' feel.
The third video was the one that influenced me the most as i had a style in my mind and really wanted it to look like that, cheerful and bright. 

[PLANNING]

Moodboard showing all things italian, it gave me an idea of what to incoporate into my animation under the theme of 'italy'.

This was the outcome of learning shapes. I had to create a news like intro. I learnt that shapes are quite useful and can save a lot of time if used effectively.

[PRODUCTION]

The idea which i had was pretty simple and i knew how to go about it so i went straight into production once i had my initial storyboard (see sketchbook).

I was going to make the background and the different elements in illustrator. I created the clouds using different circles and joining them together using unite command to create the overall shape of the cloud.

This was my initial background based on the storyboard i created. The visual elements were exactly how i imagined but when i thought about the animation i thought the rounded italian flag wouldnt really work as i wanted the colours to remain throughout the video and when the wheel turned one colour would go offscreen, so i changed it into something more practical.

I also decided to change the colours of the background as i thought it would look more appealing if i chose a calm evening kind of look to accentuate the theme of Italy more.

To create the certificate i simply made a box and altered the points to create a smooth bend from corner to corner, and then applied a brush stroke with a pattern for that certificate feel.

Dark red ended up being the best suited colour for the animation.

I created the various elements such as the trees, the rounded circles, the vespa and the cbt certificate in illustrator. It had to be vibrant, cheerful and clean, and a vector graphic program was perfect. I carefully considered the right colours to see if it works or not. 




This screenshot shows the way i animated the whole thing in after effects. It got quite complicated with a lot of layers, but with a lot of organisation and understanding of nesting compositions aswell as parenting different things together, the animation worked a treat!

[Tests]

These were some opening tests to entice the viewer. After some thought later on i thought it would be better to start of with a still shot rather than having a motion intro.

This was an initial test of the whole animation, but it was missing some elements as i didnt create the vector images as of yet. It was to see if the whole thing works well and syncs with the sound. It also gave me an idea of what i should add/remove in terms of animation, if its too fast or too slow. I also had the idea of adding a secondary action to the clouds, giving them slight movement using the wiggle expression in after effects. At this point i felt that some parts moved too fast off-screen, and if i reduced the time it would end up looking unsynced. So that was a problem, until the next test.

Vector helmet made in illustrator

I later was told by my tutor to just use graphics from the web. Initially i was creating the little icons myself but they lacked detail and looked boring, so i took his advice and used icons from the web, but i chose icons that worked well together so they didnt look out of tune, i.e using a photographic image with bad quality.

During my search on the internet i came across some photographs which i needed to remove from the background, so i used a technique where you increase the contrast/brightness leaving the actual parts you wish to remove dark and the bg light, and then play with the levels to make the part you wish to remove totally black, yet leaving the background white, giving enough contrast to remove the background accurately. This would only work on pictures which have a variance in tone to easily seperate the background.

At this point i realised my animation lacked detail and looked too plain, so i thought ill use elements from my inspirational video and apply them into my own (the trees). I also thought ill add iconic things of italy, such as the foods and the buildings to make it more interesting, with everything combined i felt it enchanced my work to a greater level than before. I also fixed the problem of things going off screen to fast, i thought once he mentions the vespa, helmet and the CBT training ill keep them on there until his next sentence where i can bring in the next batch of objects, being the accessories (not shown in this test).

[Final]

[Conclusion]

I am quite pleased with the final result. When i first started the project my expectations for the final was for it to be cheerful, vibrant and quirky which is the feeling i got from the sound clip provided, and i feel i have achieved this in my final animation.

I chose italian month because it was the longest and easiest for me to work with. Using the sound clip i generated a storyboard which was quick and easy. I had a clear understanding of how to create the various elements in my scene. Because it was only 15 seconds long the work was consistent and clean. Usually timing is always a problem, but i had enough time to work on this and keep reworking it to my liking, which was quite good as it gave a good result. I think the strongest point about the whole thing is the colours, i chose them carefully so they all work together quite well to give a feeling of a beautiful evening coming to an end which i thought was a good representation of Italy.

The only thing i would consider changing is the icons I used (vespa, helmet, etc..). Originally i was planning on making the icons myself using illustrator, but they seemed to lack a lot of detail and my lack of understanding the tools to create vector graphics didn't give me enough time to create a detailed illustration. I had an attempt at creating them but they came out quite poor, lacking detail and were not smooth, but rather jagged, you can see this in the vespa i made. Instead i searched the web for these icons and used them which was more efficient for me. I chose specific ones so that they have a consistency about them and if they didnt i would tweak them a little to make them look similair. 

When animating i decided to add motion blur as it enchanced the animation and made it look more interesting when different elements came on/off screen.
The use of animation principles differ when working digitally compared to the traditional approach of drawing hence only these principles were applied to my work:

 Staging: The large rounded circles representing the italian flag draw the most attention with the icons inside them, hence why i made them big to cover a large surface area. 

Pose to pose: The best format for animating digitally in a composition program such as after effects. Compared to its other half 'straight ahead action' this technique produces faster, cleaner and smoother results.


Slow in and slow out: Some parts of the animation i used the slow in and slow out function available in after effects (pressing F9 on keyframes). This gave a much more smoother look rather than everything being a constant pace.

Arcs: To an extent this principle comes into play as my whole animation relies on moving around a circle, but not in the context of traditional animation where its usually referred to something natural, i.e limb movement.


Secondary action: I applied this principal to the cloud movement in the background, adding this feature made the scene a little more 'alive'.


Timing: Probably one of the most important principles used here, as everything had to be synced well with the sound aswell as the icons having enough exposure on screen. 


Overall i am pleased with the result, and i have learnt a lot more in the field of motion graphics. This project has also re-enforced my knowledge of after effects and helped me  how to problem solve.