END GAME

So, end of the project.

I'm going to leave out 80% of the crap and BS I've had to listen and put up with, but here's the jist of it. I will be uploading the finished product to youtube soon.


Right. As Mike changed the brief, he also said that this blog isn't going to be assessed, you just need to state what you did, so here I go.

But before I do that I just want to say that the committment from certain people on this project has been beyond poor, despite my efforts to push forward.

This rage post from Gerome pretty much sums up what I feel, and ill explain why:

"I'm sorry but this is ridiculous you lot have decided to not come in because of your own personal priorities (Dom excluded) and you have nothing to show for it!(literally) Me, deon and ash are here less than 2 days before we have to hand this project in and you lot think it's ok to not be here? There are 3 other groups in right now in full doing work and they just laughed at the situation in disbelief.

Sarah, we needed you for texturing but now all of your texturing is gonna be done by deon apart from the branch you made for me. (So sarah has basically nothing to show for this entire project)

Lily, fair enough you animated the spider on the table but I still have yet to see it and if its tracked properly,(She did animate the spider, but it wasn't done well to be honest. The second animation that she was supposed to do was HORRIBLY bad. Of course, I didn't expect the rest of the animation to be done as these two took far too long to complete so we had to take over) as well as the legs coming out my back which i'm sorry, but its poor.. I don't understand why you just didn't use the 3D legs that I made and Dom rigged. Plus the animation of the camera to make sure it matches the real life video clip in full.

Ollie, We have your tracking but as we are not the trackers in the group, we don't know what the hell to do with the files you have given us, so I now have to look at a 14 part tutorial on it and try do the tracking for every scene again.. Also the file is a higher version of after effects than what we have on our machines and also as I have already started to learn about the tracking, I have come to see that it looks like you have just used the auto tracking which, if you have, takes 2 seconds to do and is very poor quality. Also the lighting for the tree and swing (which ash is gonna have to do now) <- Automatic tracking = bad. Files given = we couldn't use because files had to be imported and they were renamed. Not to mention they were the WRONG files. Similar, but not the right ones. What's more annoying though, is how defensive Oly became. Till this day out of all the messages I have on my phone, I don't think she knows she's been talking to an enraged Ash and Gerome. So where are we at now? it means that all those jobs which rely everyone to do to progress has to be done by 3 people in the space of 8 hours to even give us the slightest chance of having enough time to render.. Theirs not even enough time to edit anything at all. This is exactly what happened last project and this is exactly what deon tried to make us avoid, but yet we are stuck doing almost every single fucking thing again because people have other priorities above the group project. You know what makes me more annoyed? I got my stuff done within 4 days (2 days i was off sick from work on a weekend and 2 days on my "days off") because i knew the group was relying on my models to progress, yes there was a few things here and there I could have done slightly better but I got it done quickly and to a pretty dam good standard if you ask me. An once again what gets me evvveennn more annoyed is that if you lot had said, we wont have the time to do anything or we cant do this or that, I would have been annoyed and angry but we would have had the space and time to actually get it done but No.. once again to the last minute we have to rush every thing and hope for the best.. The LAST things that annoys me the most? We will all get either a shit grade for this or a high grade just because we are here working are arses off for work that should have been done 4 days ago.. You can think i'm horrible or just raging but the fact right now is that we can not use what you have given us (that's if you have given us anything) without you here because it is either VERY POOR or something we do not understand and need you to do your job so that we don't need to learn how to do things 8 hours before rendering the fucking final thing.. I'm actually really annoyed.. yes i want to play game, yes i want to go gym, yes i wanna go parkour, yes I wanna do everything that i enjoy or put out to do in my spare time but I CANT DO IT BECAUSE THE GROUPS WORK COMES FIRST. Its a full time course which means you need to work within uni hours if the work needs doing as well as out of hours if the work isn't done. But yet other commitments take priority. I actually can't believe how this is right now and I'l be dammed if I get a shit mark because of this, as I will try my all to get something to show by Friday, as will deon, as will ash. But If you dont expect me to be this angry because of it, you must be fucking kidding me. I like you as people but your commitment to the work mainly because of today and the last few days, i'm appalled and disgusted with. Please give me advice, what should me Deon and Ash do now? just give up because we have done our rolls or do all of your rolls for you so we succeed? Please tell me."




So let me clarify. Let's go back to the roles section:

Deon - Texturing / Concept / Compositing / Sound <- So, like I predicted I ended up doing more. I ended up doing ALL the texturing. The water sky, the terrain. The concept designs for the CG world. The directing. The leading. The compositing (shared with gerome, and from Oly after lots of arguing) The sound (with gerome) The editing. The effects. Additional modelling. Rendering. Compiling, and lighting. So yes, basically everything. Not to mention the amount of sleep I lost, and stress, seeing as I'm the leader and the director. They may not care about failing or doing standard work, but I do.except the parts gerome did, really did help.

Ash then helped quite a bit by taking lighting off my shoulders after I had done quite a bit, but I still helped and gave input to get it done quicker. So from start to finish, in terms of finalizing the idea, the script, the filming of the shots, the compiling etc, was me.

So yes, I ended up doing more than 4x what I was supposed to do, because people couldn't be bothered to do their job, then say they'd get it done, or make up crappy excuses. (Dom is excluded from this because she did her job and did it well. Her father passed away so she hasnt been in uni for a week and a bit.)

You guys have already heard me rant, and you've heard Gerome rant, so I'm not going to rant anymore on here because you guys hopefully know what we've been through. Yes I'm not happy.

Gerome - Modelling / Compositing / Sound ANDDDD RE animating lily's part. Helping giving input on effects. Keying out the green, colour keying, some compositing. Couldn't have done it without him.

Dominique - Modelling / Rigging <- Done. No issue.

Sarah - Texturing <- Nothing to show

Lily - Animation <- A half assed spider and a horrible spider leg animation, done in photoshop.

Oly - Lighting - Instead, did matchmoving and tracking for files we didn't want, need or ask for, then told us to stop being idiots and use it. Only on the last day, when we was given an extension, did she decide to try and be helpful, only to turn into an aggressor the second an issue came up, which was down to her not doing her job properly. Fair do's, she did a bit after constant bitching pretty much. Just for the 'lols', I might actually upload all the messages.

Ash - Lighting - He did his job. Ash also asked me to put his role here as well:

"ANI09204 – Post Production and Visual Effects Ashley Umanee with in my group my main role was lighting in which I set up the lighting for the CGI environment that Gerome, Deon and Dom created , the lighting was fairly simple enough using basic area lights as well as mental rays physical sun and sky to get an overall lighting. As well as lighting I also painted the weights to the rigged spider that Dom both modelled and rigged, painting the weights was a little harder to do because I was unsure how some joints should influence the body this led me to having to look up on youtube and other sites the way in which spiders moved and so on. I enjoyed working with the group however I felt we could of done a lot more with the project if everyone had put their full effort into the work. Some people did not do their roles properly which had led to either Gerome or Deon re doing their part of the work which was unfair I felt. Also dedication to the project from the same people was disappointing when me , deon and gerome would stay at uni till later hours being 10 at night others were not doing the work. Over all I felt there was a divide in the group which was sad to see but has lead me to realise how the workings of the workplace are , if a person is unable to complete the work another must over take it and leave the person unable to do the work out if they do not try harder."

http://deonlitchmore6.blogspot.com/2011/03/faceboo00ok-group-contact-issues.html <- this is just the start of it. If I feel like it ill upload ALL of the conversations / text logs I've had with Oly, Lily, and Sarah.

Treee

Final rendered mountain. Ambient occlusion, displacement maps, normal map, bump map, and a cavity map.





Tree

Same as below, pre-render.

Tests of what it would generally look like prior to effects and editing. Just a basic mask over the 3d imagery that me and Gerome had done.


Concept for dark world


Concept for bright world (Will change to dark once the spider is shown on the swing)


Two weeks to go. Any change from last time? Yes. Kind of. Except me and gerome, no one else has really done any work. Dom has started hers though. I'll fill ya in: Since Dom is my GF, this was pretty much the only way I could get info. She compiled what they decided together with the others (Oly, Lily, Sarah)

Story of idea  Spider could be an abusive boyfriend possibly?  To escape Little Miss Muffet’s fears, she could escape to her own fantasy world like Alice in Wonderland, Paranoia Agent and Paprika. Despite feeling content, a spider slowly crawls down from the umbrella she’s holding and meets her at eye level. She freaks out and quickly drops the umbrella. Her fear grows when she hears whistling of incy wincy spider.  Can cut back to reality and we see the guy spider walking up to her holding weapons while whistling the incy wincy spider song.  For her fantasy and real world, she could be dressed in different outfits to differentiate both worlds. Her clothes as well as the world can show her level of comfort and security. Begins with banging on the door, muffet rocking back and forth. It stops and all is silent. He starts whistling and she puts her hands over her ears rocking more fiercely back and forth then you hear lock picking. She shakes her head and closes her eyes (zooms in). Zooms out and she’s in her fantasy world.


HER FANTASY WORLD WILL BE:


It has to be warm and safe. Where she can feel relaxed She sees a swing tied to a tree (with cloth tied to it for Lily’s ncloth). Will there be a breeze? As she runs closer she sees a spider on the swing. She then hears whistling of incy wincy spider. Like a television, she begins to have a flash back that’s fuzzy of a man kneeling over a dead body. You can only see him from behind but the tattoo on the back of his neck is prominent. As she remembers this her fantasy world shatters and you hear the door swing open. We see the man with the tattoo on the back of his neck from behind as he walks in and closes the door on the audience. SCRIPT Maybe on a chair or a bed. She slowly rocks back and forth with a dazed expression as she hears aggressive banging on the door and the door knob shaking viciously. Then suddenly all stops. She breaths heavily but quietly, slightly relieved.

However, the silence is broken by the menacing whistling and quickly she cups her ears with her hands trying to block that dreadful song. She rocks back and forth more furiously as you can hear locking picking now. Zooms into face as she starts whimpering slightly (possibly) Zooms into her eyes looking terrified as she suddenly shuts them hard. The sounds stop. All is quiet. She slowly opens her eyes and the camera zooms out. We see she’s wearing different clothing and the environment is completely different too. She gradually drops her hands away from her head and relaxes her shoulders in relief.

She gives a heavy sigh of relief. She turns to see a swing tied to trees. Slowly she walks cautiously, then begins to lightly sprint and then comes to a sudden halt. There, on the swing is a spider sitting there. The spider triggers off a flash back that’s hazy because she can barely remember it since she locked it away so tight. There, she stares at a man whistling and kneeling over a dead body. What’s most prominent is the spider tattoo on the back of his neck. Without time to react, the man turns his head towards her but the audience never sees his face. Little Miss Muffet’s fantasy begins to break and disappear and we’re back in the bedroom. Camera is still focused on her face but we hear the door open. Camera cuts to behind the man and we can see the spider tattoo on the back of his neck. He steps in and closes the door on the audience.


I then took this concept, because nothing was really set out, and started thinking about specific happenings etc. I basically rewrote the script.


Starts off in say uni or something somewhere, everyone's here blah blah. Someone starts whistling the nursery rhyme (gerome, he will be in the room as the spider but the camera might only get a quick glimpse of him) (miss muffet whistle by gerome and background noise just fade out This means that we focus on the whistling. Quickly she cups her ears with her hands trying to block that dreadful song. Once she cups her ears, she runs to the bathroom, and locks herself in a cubicle. Once in the cubicle, camera becomes fixated on the door.

The incy wincy spider song still being whistled. Miss muffet continues to panic more and more, then eventually closes her eyes shut. Zooms into her eyes looking terrified as she suddenly shuts them hard. The sounds stop. All is quiet. She slowly opens her eyes and the camera zooms out. We see she’s wearing different clothing and the environment is completely different too. She gradually drops her hands away from her head and relaxes her shoulders in relief. She gives a heavy sigh of relief. She begins to explore the environment. After exploring: She turns to see a swing tied to trees. Slowly she walks cautiously, then begins to lightly sprint and then comes to a sudden halt.

There, on the swing is a spider sitting there. This is a small tiny looking spider, which then begins to morph into quite a big mean looking spider. The spider triggers off a flash back There, she stares at a man whistling and kneeling over a dead body. What’s most prominent is the spider tattoo on the back of his neck. Without time to react, the man turns his head towards her but the audience never sees his face.

ALTERNATE IDEA (Instead of triggering the flashback, miss muffet simply turns around only to see a man There, she stares at a man whistling and kneeling over a dead body. What’s most prominent is the spider tattoo on the back of his neck. Without time to react, the man turns his head towards her but the audience never sees his face. This man has strange artefacts amongst him. The whistling persists. Little Miss Muffet’s fantasy begins to grow dark, things start morphing into creepy evil looking things and then shatter, wither, die. We're then back in the bathroom. Silence persists. Little miss muffet sits there looking agitated, then the door starts being shaken and banged. We switch shots between the outside of the door and the inside. (light the bottom of the bathroom door so we cna see the footsteps of this spider person thingy) Camera cuts to behind the man and we can see the spider tattoo on the back of his neck. He steps in and closes the door on the audience. Right. Moving on..


Deon - TEXTURING (Main role, but I put myself down for these others because I knew that somehow certain people wouldn't carry out their role) / Concept / Compositing / Sound / Lighting

Gerome - Modelling(Primary role, but like me, we knew we'd have to do others work no matter how promising they seem to act) / Compositing / Sound

Dominique - Modelling / Rigging

Sarah - Texturing Lily - Animation

Oly - Lighting

Ash - Lighting

Spider (that crawls on olys hand) Idea - To be completed by sunday 6th by dominique Concept - To be completed by sunday 6th by dominique Final Sketches - To be completed by sunday 6th by dominique Model - To be completed by sunday 6th by dominique Rig + Texture - To be completed by saturday 12th by dominique (rig) - To be completed by 9th by deon (texture) Tracking - To be completed by sunday 20th by Everyone Animate - To be completed by Lily (10th) Spider (that sits on the swing and changes into the big mean looking spider) Idea - be completed by sunday 6th by Deon Concept - be completed by sunday 6th by Deon Final Sketches - be completed by sunday 6th by Deon Model - be completed by 10th by gerome Rig + Texture - To be done by whoever by 13th (rig) texture to be done by sarah. Tracking - Tracking - To be completed by sunday 20th by Everyone Animate - Animate - To be completed by Lily (15th) Tattoo (mark on geromes neck) Apply Glowing light effect to the tattoo - be completed by 14th by deon Spider-Gerome (his form) Idea - Concept by deon (9th) Concept (9th) by deon Final Sketches(10th) by deon Model - 17thby gerome and dom Rig + Texture - Rig by 20th by dom. texture by 20th (sarah and deon) Tracking - Tracking - To be completed by sunday 20th by Everyone Animate - Animate - To be completed by Lily (20th) These ones come last Sound Concept of sound design, and music Capture sound Compose backing music Lighting Concept of appropriate lighting for shots once all is complete Apply lighting Compositing Composite. I actually even set out a mini schedule, both here and actually on shotgun (scheduling software) but I bet that just gets immediately neglected.


I then put this in as much detail I could whilst getting grief from all sides about the idea itself.


Setting: University - Any floor / room will be appropriate as the facilities are identical on each floor. The short starts as the camera is focused on Oly as she types words into her computer, a normal day at university. (Ambient noise in the background) Camera shots from Oly's point of view, and from behind Oly, whilst looking at the laptop screen. Gerome will then start to whistle the incy wincy spider nursery rhyme. This will start off very quiet, but grow louder as the insanity within Oly grows. This will be done by recording the ambient noise, and the whistling, then cross fading and changing volume. This means that we focus on the whistling. Quickly she cups her ears with her hands trying to block that dreadful song. Once she cups her ears, she runs to the bathroom, and locks herself in a cubicle. Camera shots from her point of view and possibly behind as she runs to the camera. Once in the cubicle, camera becomes fixated on the door, then to the right, and the left. During this part we could possibly see parts of the bathroom deteriorating / having spiders fall or something. The incy wincy spider song still being whistled, growing more louder, and distorted (For this part I can overlap the recording of the whistling and tweak the pitch.) Miss Muffet continues to panic more and more (extremely menacing sound effects, such as scratching, banging, shaking. Overlapped to create a heavy dramatic effect, then slowly fade out), then eventually closes her eyes shut. Zooms into her eyes looking terrified as she suddenly shuts them hard. The sounds stop. All is quiet. She slowly opens her eyes and the camera zooms out. We see she’s wearing different clothing and the environment is completely different too. he gradually drops her hands away from her head and relaxes her shoulders in relief. She gives a heavy sigh of relief. She begins to explore the environment. After exploring: She turns to see a swing tied to trees. Slowly she walks cautiously, then begins to lightly sprint and then comes to a sudden halt. There, on the swing is a spider sitting there. This is a small tiny looking spider, which then begins to morph into quite a big mean looking spider, mutating into a rough shape of what we know to be called "The Spider". (Instead of triggering the flashback, miss muffet simply turns around only to see a man There, she stares at a man whistling and kneeling over a dead body. What’s most prominent is the spider tattoo on the back of his neck. Without time to react, the man turns his head towards her but the audience never sees his face. As this happens, parts of his body can begin to show, in the form of spider talons? Arms? Legs. Etc. This man has strange artefacts amongst him. The whistling persists. Little Miss Muffet’s fantasy begins to grow dark, things start morphing into creepy evil looking things and then shatter, wither, die. We're then back in the bathroom. Silence persists. Little miss muffet sits there looking agitated, then the door starts being shaken and banged. (light the bottom of the bathroom door so we can see the footsteps of this spider person thingy before the banging happens) Camera cuts to behind the man and we can see the spider tattoo on the back of his neck. Continues to bang on the door. After a brief moment of silence, he opens the door, and steps in. Camera shot from high angle to see the neck of the spider. We then switch to Muffet's point of view which sees the front of the "spider". We then switch back to behind the spider, and see Oly's facial expression as she tried to move back into the wall. He steps in and closes the door on the audience..

Oh look.

Concept for dark world





OKAY, SORRY FOR THE WALL OF TEXT BUT FOR SOME UNKNOWN REASON BLOGSPOT KEEPS GETTING RID OF MY SPACES AND PARAGRAPHS. IF YOU CAN BE ASSED, READ THE GIANT WALL OF TEXTS.

Rage

Deon Carlos Litchmore
Who's in tomorrow?

about a month ago ·LikeUnlike · ·UnsubscribeSubscribe

Oly Walters I'm gunna be in Thursday but also have work so can't stay longer than on the timetable. Been I'll the last couple of days
15 February at 17:20 · LikeUnlike

Sarah Strickland I cant Afford to go in tomoz And then the rest of the week, but i should be able to stay an hour after on thursday.

That's stuff I'm constantly dealing with. Heck I even tried to give an incentive for people to work:

"I was going to say, after a good shoot (assuming) we could all go to the cinema and see I am number four and I'd pay half of everyones ticket"

That got me no where.

Idea

After all the moaning from the three same people as before, they decided on an idea, and decided to go ahead and use our only day to shoot footage, to go and shoot footage without a clear outline of what they were going to do.

Unprepared. So, to clarify, at this point in time:

- This MESS happened, even though I was trying to prevent it from the start of the project. Especially this week. People are just... not being dedicated enough... Apparently, making a cake or feeding their cats is more important than their uni work

- Shooting random shots for green screen footage. Yay!

- Dunno what's going on, because they haven't filled me in. If I ask, I get shut down.

- As the director and leader of this unforgiving group, I have no idea what's going on, and yet again, just like last project, we're behind, and I'M GOING TO HAVE TO PICK UP ALL THE WORK NO ONE ELSE DOES.

Bleh - Idea generation.

LIttle miss muffet. An actual visual boring representation of the rhyme it self. Nothing awesome about it.

Then decided to make it into a movie, create our own extended verses with narration to create a story / movie trailer

Then decided to reinvent the whole rhyme. at this point it isn't a rhyme, but taking it in a metaphorical sense. Me n g decided about spider being a human character, muffet being oly. etc.

All that I was trying to do this whole time was give input, keep everyone together, get some form of work done like I've been trying since the start of this project, but no. They kept branching off into their own groups and making their own stories / ideas without feeding back to me, and ignoring me when I asked what was going on. This led to me getting quite annoyed, and when I actually said something, Oly started acting like I had no right to speak. The others soon jumped on board (Lily and sarah)

We decided on a story by the end of the day, and all that was left was to storyboard, but just as I mentioned it, oly said. I couldn't be fucking arsed to argue with these lazy people so I just let them do what they wanted to do. I went home.

its too complex. It's too complex! We need to make it more complex to stop it from being complex!!!11111oneone. Fcking lame excuses. Same crap over and over. Not only do they not want to do any sort of work on days off, but they come in at 11:30, leave at like 3. Oly just comes in for a couple of hours then disappears. She likes to have opinionated suggestions but doesn't like to budge. How great.


it wasn't complex, people just didnt want to actually try to be honest. instead, they wanted to scrap the movie, and just do it as little miss muffet. This obviously annoyed be because the whole day I was trying to get the group together, trying to get the thing done so that tomorrow we wouldn't have any issues.

Long story short, everyone left. I went with gerome to his house and we started a maya animatic based on what the idea which the group decided before this little breakout.

Idea generation pt.2

Sarah! Testing the capabilities of the lighting system within the green screen. It's important not to cast shadows as these areas will become quite hard to mask. It's also important that whoever is going to be the subject of the green screen, that they don't stand too close, otherwise the reflection of green might appear on certain parts.
And here we have, a totally irrelevant picture. In terms of the fact that none of these people are in anyway affiliated with our group members, or for our project whatsoever.
The epic Canon 550D. This is the camera that was available for us to use to do our shooting, and pretty much only this. It's handy to know, because this itself sets our limitations. This, and a pair of hands is all that we're going to have to shoot our film. Therefore, in terms of the storyboarding and the planning for shots, we need to shoot realistically. Have an idea of what is possible. At this stage, I'm not too sure anyone is actually thinking about camera angles or limitations though.

Lily messing about with the camera. Well, infact it's Sarah taking the picture, but Lily trying not to be shot.

So yeah, here we are, on Thursday, learning about the green room, lighting, and all that Jazz. Very few people are actually going to shoot today, so we're pretty much just going to learn about the equipment and how it actually works, etc.

And there's Lily, prancing around like a madman. :D

So yeah, here we are, on Thursday, learning about the green room, lighting, and all that Jazz. Very few people are actually going to shoot today, so we're pretty much just going to learn about the equipment and how it actually works, etc.

UPDATE: Right, just found out that it's pretty much near impossible to get a hold of the green room after today and next week that it's booked for, so we were told we HAVE to shoot either today, or next week. Not too bad, as we'll just shoot next week.

At this point in time, I've pretty much just said to everyone else, today, we need to come up with an idea, and storyboard it. Everyone's like yeah, cool.

What got done? Nothing.

We left with the same idea about our project as we came in with. Did I get annoyed? No, I guess cause we had a week to sort everything out. Aside from that, we did actually learn quite a bit about how the green room actually worked, including tracking, chromakey, and so forth.

What would piss me off though is if this happens next week, because fuck, I have and I am going to continue to try to get this all sorted out. Everyone can do what they want for now, I guess I'll just focus on all my individual stuff for now, like my other project.

Idea generation!

Idea generation 28th January

So, carrying on from the last post pretty much, time to come up with an idea and develop it, in place for next week.(Ish) I'm not too sure, but I heavily doubt that next week is going to be our only chance to shoot in the green room. Well, hopefully it isn't as we haven't got much of an idea. I've been trying to get the group together to do an idea but that hasn't gone down very well.

Others are deciding to go home after they've said they'll stay, and to be honest, I've not even seen Ash yet.

Bleh. This is just, typical -_-

Anyways. Me and Gerome started talking about what we could possibly do, and although we didn't really have an idea for context or an idea itself, we came up with the best thing to do would be some sort of movie trailer, or a story. The best for a visual approach to be honest. For some reason no matter how hard I tried to think of what it could be, it always ended up turning into some sort of action movie xD

But yeah, the rest of the group doesn't really have any input at this time, but they've agreed that we should do some sort of movie trailer, on the way to Wagamama's for Lunch.

To sum up:

So.

In response to a direct quote that I did myself just over a month ago:

"4.3 GB downscaled to a measly 32 MB. Why? It had to be quick-time, and I was having SO much trouble and spending SO much time trying to find a nice balance between quality and file size.

Unfortunately, nothing compared to the final in the end. Even though I had to render it in standard resolution, which was quite a shame as I had optimized the textures and lighting for HD playback, which is based on the development of Crysis / Fable 3 (the look of which we were going for,) high res textures, looking awesome, with low poly models.

It really is a shame, really. It's obviously too late to do this now, but the animation is also quite bad, I'm not pointing any fingers there, but long story short I should have corrected it, but I rushed the render to try and get it finished on time, and still managed to overrun slightly.


So, how's this experience been?

Fairly good. I enjoyed working with everyone on the team even though at certain points the workmode just died completely, even in times of desperation work wasn't getting done, leaving me to get more work done. At least I know now, there's no way in hell, that I'm EVER

EVER

EVERRR

EVERRRR

EVARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRr

going to leave a project like this till the last couple days again. It takes far too long to make sure everything is perfect, especially when you're working in a group.

For future reference Mr.Litchmore, be more boss, be less friend, otherwise, nothing get's done and you get the blame.

All in all, I hope we get a decent grade."

As I said, due to the fact that we left it to the last minute to actually DO the work (excluding research and idea generation and so forth) when problems arose, I simply did not have enough time to correct them. I didn't have time to manage, to tweak, to make things as best as possible. I simply had to settle for however it looked. This is something I completely want to avoid, as I want the best possible grade. I might be the only one wanting it at this stage, as my team members are awesome but have no own will to work to the best that they can do. Only if I push them, which is something I'm going to try and do more of.

Submission must be on Friday 25^th March no later than 4pm.
It is suggested to back up your work on a disk as well, in case anything was to go wrong.

Week 1

Whole cohort
Introduction to unit
Show examples of student and industry work
Discuss equipment to be covered in unit.
Discuss 3D camera principles and how these will be applied in the unit.
In the afternoon split them into groups of 2 then groups of 5.
Gareth Munden – All day
Alex Hulse – all morning
Steve Crocker – all morning

SAME WEEK
1/2 cohort am – ½ pm
Morning – Practical on lighting
Afternoon – Replicate lighting in digital packages.
Gareth Munden – All day
Alex Hulse – all morning
Steve Crocker – all afternoon

Groups time-tabled to shoot work over next 2 weeks
Gareth Munden – All day
Alex Hulse – all morning

Week 2
Thursday
Gareth Munden – All day
Alex Hulse – all morning

Week 3 - At this point in time, this is where we actually are even though we've pretty much just started the unit. Since the hand in of the last unit, we've had almost 2 1/2 weeks without any structured lessons / introduction to the brief. Of course, this does not excuse the fact we haven't done anything for 3 weeks. So, from this point forward, we need to start working.
Thursday 4th
Gareth Munden – All day
Alex Hulse – all morning

Week 4
Digitisation of content – start editing on Final cut and Premiere.
Wednesday 9th
Thursday 10th
Gareth Munden – All day
Alex Hulse – all morning

Week 5
Introduce students to camera tracking in Maya
Wednesday 16th
Thursday 17th
Steve Crocker – all day.
Alex Hulse – all day

Week 6
FORMATIVE
Wednesday 23rd
Thursday 24th
Steve Crocker – all day.

Week 7
Lighting/Shadows
Wednesday 2nd March
Thursday 3rd
Steve Crocker – all day.
Alex – all day

Week 8
Render/Output workshop
Wednesday
Thursday
Gareth Munden – all day
Alex – morning.

Week 9
Summative hand in: No later than 4pm Friday 25^th March 2011
Group blog – embed their clip.

Unit Introduction.

This unit provides students with basic skills in the area of post production operations and gives them an understanding of post production technology, as well as a critical appreciation of the craft of editing.

Building on their knowledge of filmic language and narrative developed in the first level of the course, students learn about the fundamentals of screen continuity and timing. Students will be introduced to editing software, basic editing, compositing, special effects and audio functions.

The structure of this brief will be in three main sections.

· Film production and editing techniques - How we make the film, how we decide on certain shots, knowing our limitations within the actual hardware and filming methods that we use.

· 3D compositing techniques - Techniques used to mix live action with CG. Green screen? Purely 3D parts?

· Formatting requirements of Broadcast output - Correct format for audience? E.G TV = 25 FPS. Is it correctly encoded for optimum data rate? Minimal quality loss etc.

Through a series of lectures and workshops you will be introduced to the theoretical and practical interrelation of film production, editing, post production and visual effects;

In the first few weeks you will be encouraged to form groups and assemble from live action footage a short piece designed to be integrated with 3D elements. You will be introduced to essential editing techniques to structure your narrative and will be encouraged to identify suitable material to successfully present your 3D content.

In the middle section of the unit you will be introduced to the skills and techniques necessary to successfully integrate 3D content.

The last few weeks of the project will concentrate on developing your editing techniques as well as utilizing the effects available to you on your compositing software. You will also be introduced to industry workflow practices such as filing conventions and formatting requirements for broadcast content.

Assessment Criteria

A1: Understand the role of postproduction in the animation production process.

B1: Be able to analyze, evaluate and select component assets from a variety of sources.

C1: Understand and apply editing techniques and conventions to competently structure video narrative

D1: Perform basic editing, compositing, special effects and audio functions

E1: Have a thorough understanding of the file convention and formatting requirements of broadcast output.

• The finished piece demonstrates a thorough understanding of the role of postproduction in the animation production process. (A1)
• Demonstrates competency in basic editing, compositing, special effects and audio functions. (B1, D1)
• Demonstrates the competent use of editing techniques and conventions to structure the video narrative competently. (B1, C1)
• The finished piece demonstrates an understanding of the file convention and formatting requirements of broadcast output. (E1)

In short, all these aspects must be touched upon for the best possible outcome (if done well of course :P)

- Understand how lighting and colour affect the appearance and mood of an environment.
- Reflection upon, and analysis of, individual performance in a group context.
- Analysis and replication of a real environment of implementation of a designed environment using 3D visualization software.
- Build a computer generated environment, using modelling texturing, lighting and character interaction to a consistent visual aesthetic.
- Contribute successfully to a collaborative visual aesthetic.

Colour - Self explanatory. Why are the colours we're using there in the first place? What relevance do they have to the scene. What effects do they have on the environment, as well as the mood and atmosphere of the environment. How will colour help us to convey specific mood changes / atmospheric effects as well as how it could be used to indirectly link symbolism.

INDIVIDUAL CONTRIBUTION. MAKE SURE EVERYONE IS AWARE OF WHAT THEY CONTRIBUTE TOWARDS THE GROUP AS IT WILL CONTRIBUTE TOWARDS YOUR FINAL GRADE. BEING SAID, DO NOT TRY TO STEAL OR CLAIM SHARED IDEAS AS ONES OWN. THIS IS AN ASSESSMENT CRITERIA!

What is the purpose of light? Both literally and how it affects an environment / mood of a character / environment. How can we use light to correctly convey various viewpoints of the audience? How can we use light to portray a sense of isolation / suspense / power / beauty?

Implied animation? Needed? Used?