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Advanced and Experimental 3D Computer Animation Techniques Previs Term 2

Week 3: Previs

Went over class content for both week 3 and week 4 this week, so that we can have more taught content to work with and implement sooner

Telling Stories Through the Camera: Establishing Shots

Establishing shot (how this immediately tell the viewer what is happening and where the story is at before going into the story itself. For example, The Simpsons often shows a shot of the family’s house with sitcom music playing to set where the story is taking place and (with the type of music used) the tone of the setting.

We were given some links to examples and analysis of establishing shots, and basic stablishing shots in Maya

During this part of the lesson, I was considering how my second idea, the one I’m currently planning to focus on developing, is basically all establishing shots due to the nature of how show opening’s work. Every shot in an opening is setting the mood and giving context to the show it is leading to.

180 Rule:

The 180-degree rule is a cinematography guideline that helps filmmakers establish the spatial relationships between characters in a scene. It’s also known as the 180 rule. 

How it works

  • Imagine a straight line drawn between the heads of two characters. 
  • Keep the camera on one side of the line for the entire scene. 
  • The characters should maintain their relative positions to each other. 

Why it’s important

  • The 180-degree rule helps the audience understand the scene’s geography and the characters’ relationships. 
  • It helps maintain visual consistency throughout a film. 
  • It helps create dialogue scenes that feel consistent. 

Breaking the rule 

  • Intentionally breaking the 180-degree rule can be used as a technique to further the story.

For example, a director might break the rule to symbolize shock or to disorient the audience.

Though a bit loosely connected, the 180 rule reminded me of this video I watched a while ago analysing the introduction of Bumi, a character from Legend of Korra. The video focuses on how much context was packed into the 5 second character introduction, how well it was done, and touches on how the rest of the series often fails to carry this success forward.

Telling Stories Through the Camera: Characters

Establishing characters by:

  • drawing up designs (even if we plan to use premade rigs)
  • creating a short bio describing who the character is and where they are in the story
  • listing characteristics that demonstrate character’s motivations and why they are who they are (don’t just say a character is ‘quirky’, why are they quirky? how are they quirky?)

What makes a compelling character:

  • Sympathetic (different from likeable)
  • Nuanced (they have layers)
  • Flawed (they’re not perfect)
  • Active (they go after what they want)

Important to really think how we want our characters to be introduced

Show not tell: in the context of character’s, show the viewer the character’s personality through the character’s actions

This week’s assignment:

1. Shot blocking: Continue to flesh out/develop our chosen idea. Continue creating layout/previs shots, and combine them into a video to create a first previs draft.

2. Character Biographies: Write some backstory, characteristics/traits for our characters. These things should drive how we visualise them.

Week 2 Assignment work: Moodboards + Initial Shot Blocking

I didn’t think to include the storyboards updated from last week’s feedback in this review, so George asked that I include them for next week for him to see and give further feedback on.

Idea 1 Moodboard:

I wanted this idea to be set in a world and time similar to medieval Europe. Within this world there is a magic system, and the greater population fears and hunts down those capable of using magic. I wanted the main character to be a blood mage who harnesses his power from his own and other’s blood, similar to a demon character from the anime Frieren. For the shots of the mage demonstrating his power, I have been imagining visuals similar to those shown in the season 1 episode 2 opening scene of Arcane, and the Atlantis scene of Kida sacrificing herself.

I found it a bit tricky to find visual reference for blood magic as I was picturing it, but I would also consider the blood bending scenes from both Avatar the Last Airbender and Legend of Korra as reference. Though these (from what I remember), don’t show blood being manipulated outside of the body, these scenes could be used as character animation reference.

Idea 2 Moodboard:

The first moodboard is more for visual style, where the second is for setting and vibe. I do feel I should have utilised more of the taught content from last week for these boards, as I don’t think they show enough for worldbuilding. Because this idea is an opening, I initially thought I wouldn’t be focusing much on world building, but as I mentioned above I now realise that the world building is even more important for an opening as an opening should show the context and tone for this.

Wanted bright colours, interesting visual styles, visual metaphors, etc.

Want a mix of folklore/ancient mythology and cyberpunk vibes

This week has helped me decide I want to have at least a rough plot and setting planned out for the fake show this opening would be for, as that will drive the majority of what I do for the opening.

Idea 3:

I again didn’t focus enough here on the worldbuilding for this idea as I could have. I struggled to do this as this idea is pretty basic in this regard from my viewpoint, as it is set in real world, modern day London, and the animals are just a fantasy added on top.

While looking for visual research, I did remember the animals conjured by Sandy in Rise of the Guardians, which I would like to draw from as photorealistic creatures by themselves don’t feel as fantastical and eye-catching. I did consider these things when creating the storyboard for this idea, but I hadn’t yet found a visual inspiration for this.

Initial Shot Blocking:

Storyboard Panel / Maya Shot Blocking:

Shot 0010

Shot 0020

Shot 0030

Shot 0040

Shot 0090

Shot 0100

Shot 0110

Shot 0180

I struggled a bit to replicate the camera angles and poses from my storyboard, but I do also prefer the last three shots to the storyboard panels as the perspectives and framings feel more correct and appealing.

Moodboards + Initial Shot Blocking Feedback:

Moodboard Feedback from George:

Chosen Idea (Idea 2) Moodboard:

  • Make sure to keep these bright colours throughout the film
  • Tie down the vibe of the opening since there’s conflicting vibes from the openings shown. It is serious like Arcane? Silly/funny like Dandadan? A good mix like Chainsaw Man?

I think I would like my opening to be a good mix with a leaning towards silly/funny, so I need to have this in mind when developing this idea in the coming weeks.

Shot Blocking Feedback from George:

Shot 0010:

  • Could zoom in more, or at least add something to the background to make it more interesting

I have a couple things I would like to try out for this shot for the background, including light projection like in the Arcane season 2 opening, and a photography/graphic montage like in the Edgerunners opening.

Shot 0030:

  • Character could have turned more at this point
  • Character could also be stood a bit to the side so he’s less centred for a more interesting/appealing shot

I want to block out the poses for all the opening shots before adjusting how much the character turns further, as the opening shots are zooming in one after another as the character turns. I would like to have the final pose of the turn blocked before adjusting the ones in the middle.

Shot 0090:

  • Zoom camera into table more. Storyboard panel felt much nicer and intimate, the space around the Maya blocking feels weird

Shot 0100:

  • Have all the characters looking towards the main character (who is sat at the end of the table closest to the camera
  • Could potentially cut to each character between Shot 0090 and this one, with a quick little intro for each, before we see them all together here

I liked the idea of cutting to each character with a mini character intro for each, so I want to look into examples of this being done for inspiration on how I could implement this.

Shot 0110:

  • Could maybe tighten up shot to show character from knees/waist up instead of full body

My original plan for this shot was for the camera to be animated doing a slight rotation around the character as he walks forward, keeping the frame of the buildings around his upper body throughout the shot. I would like to try this first to see if it helps make the shot more appealing, and depending on how it looks I will also/instead try George’s suggestion.

Shot 0180:

  • Make wolf bigger, doesn’t feel very intimidating/interesting being so small on screen
  • Add in buildings at the back of the shot (where the alley ends) with silhouette

As shown in my Idea 2 Moodboard, I did actually think of Moro (the white wolf) from Princess Mononoke as visual inspiration for the wolf in this idea, so I agree that it should be a lot bigger in this shot to have the same mythical and intimidating vibe.

Categories
Advanced and Experimental 3D Computer Animation Techniques Literature Review Term 2

Week 3: Literature Review

Class Content

We went over the structure for our thesis proposal in more detail today, including what to include/avoid, different research methods, and some example works. The research methods isn’t something that was taught to me in great detail on my BA course (where the theory classes mostly focused on various topics rather than approaches to the writing itself), so this in particular was very helpful to learn about.

Topic Progress

While researching the various artefact medias (those I listed as my current interests last week), I ended up watching a few video essays on the Star Wars series Andor (2022) which inspired me to at least consider it as my chosen artefact for research purposes. A video by YouTuber Spaceman, ‘Andor is A Star Wars Masterpiece From 1978‘ was particularly well composed to elicit excitement and inspiration. I also very much enjoyed ‘Andor: Anti-f*scist Art‘ by Just Write for the same reasons.

I am still unsure what the wider topic of research will include. While I am interested in the complications of a mega-corporation with conflicting values against the media it produces, such as the conflicting values between Andor and Disney, I am unsure of what question or angle to approach such a topic from. Alternatively, I could approach from an analysis angle where I explore how the visuals of Andor reflect its socio-political themes, but I am a little concerned this might be too limiting. I will be considering this more in the coming weeks.

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Advanced and Experimental 3D Computer Animation Techniques Literature Review Term 2

Week 2: Literature Review

Last week’s lesson was cancelled, so this week was our first class with Nigel for this term.

We went over how to develop potential topics, and how our thesis and proposal should be structured. Nigel mentioned that while it is more standard for the Thesis to be connected in someway to our FMP, it doesn’t need to be. This does feel reassuring to me, as I often get very uninspired and demotivated when I am focusing on one topic or project for long periods.

I began considering areas of research I am interested in. While I am still unsure what would make a good research topic, my current interests are:

  • Unique visual styles/techniques in digital media
  • Viewer immersion
  • Empathy towards fictional characters
  • The link between phycology and the way we interact with fictional stories
  • Socio-political themes in modern digital media (especially those that have conflicting themes against the production houses/streaming services they are featured by, such as anticapitalism themes in Apple TV show Severance for example)

I have also been considering potential artefacts to write about. I would want to choose those I have either enjoyed or had an interest in analysing, as to keep my focus while writing about. Some I have considered:

  • Andor (2022)
  • Arcane (2021)
  • Severance (2022)
  • Spider-Verse films (Into the Spider-Verse (2018) and Across the Spider-Verse (2023))
  • Scavengers Reign (2023)
  • Russian Doll (2019)

Categories
Advanced and Experimental 3D Computer Animation Techniques Previs Term 2

Week 2: Previs

Establishing World/World Building

This week we covered world building, including the tone of the world and story within it. When constructing a fictional world, it is important to consider things as its history, ecology, and geography to make the world as interesting and immersive for the viewer as possible. George also went over creating moodboards for our ideas to build a tone for the story and world setting.

This week’s assignment:

1. Moodboards: Create moodboards for our 3 ideas, using what we learnt this week.

2. Shot blocking: Start creating some basic compositions/shot blocking in Maya (using crane rig as our camera). Don’t need to be final/shots we keep in final, but should be enough to combine into a first previs draft that will then be reviewed and improved on over the term.

Week 1 Assignment work: 3 storyboards

What I struggled with: I have always had some difficulty visualising what ideas I have in my head in a way I’m satisfied with (or in a way that I actually feel mirrors what I had in my head), usually due to visual ideas that are difficult/not possible to execute for whatever reason. With Idea 1 in particular, the idea in my head felt more engaging and visually stimulating, but when I got it down on paper it didn’t feel as such, and I struggled to figure out what was missing between the idea I had in my head vs the storyboard I created. With Idea 2 and 3, this felt easier to do.

I did enjoy making the storyboard for the second idea. It was easy to pick out which shots didn’t really work for me to change or cut while I’m also applying the feedback from this week. However it was also easy to see which shots did work/worked more than others, and this was also motivating as I could imagine how I would create these shots in 3D and what experiments I could do to develop these shots.

3 Storyboards Feedback:

Idea 1:

Feedback from George:

Feels like this idea doesn’t have enough of a start to it. This could be helped if between scenes we see flashbacks that show how the mage ended up in his current situation.

Idea 2:

Feedback from George:

Would be good with this idea to think a lot about transitions between shots to add flare to the visuals

Idea 3:

Feedback from George:

Not much to say as this is a very basic and short idea, but it works well. Should be expanded on if it becomes the chosen idea.

Categories
Advanced and Experimental 3D Computer Animation Techniques Previs Term 2

Week 1: Previs

Though I was unable to attend the class, I caught up with the class material and this week’s assignment via the class PDF and discussion with my peers.

Along with introducing us to the brief, this week covered mise-en-scene, with a focus on shot layout and different types of shots and camera angles. In the past, I have found it difficult to create dynamic shots and camera angles, so I would like to use this project as a chance to improve on these things.

For next week, we should draw out 3 different ideas for our final projects. I have two in mind so far that are fairly fleshed out, and one I’m unsure on.

Idea 1:

A wizard is being chased through a forest by a group of men with hunting dogs. The wizard reaches a clearing, and begins to cast a complex spell. An orb of light surrounds him as he works. The men and dogs reach him, but hesitate to attack, fearful of the wizard’s power. One man tries, but is thrown back the moment his weapon makes contact with the orb of light. The wizard smirks, raises his hands, and claps them together. Light explodes outwards from him, sending the men and dogs flying backwards. One of the men sits up, dazed, and looks over to where the wizard once stood. The wizard is gone, and in his place a wanted poster with the wizard’s face on it floats to the ground.

While I really like this idea, the visuals I have in mind would require either a lot of 3D or 2D FX work, and because I want to focus primarily on animation and exploring my personal visual style, I would want to collaborate with someone to do this idea who would be able to handle the FX side of things for me.

Idea 2:

A fake anime/tv show opening. 

It’s difficult to write about this one, as the idea is more a collection of random shots that I want to try piecing together, instead of a typical narrative. This idea started in my head when I was debating if I would and should make a showreel for my final film. Speaking to other 3D animators (and VFX people in general) about their time studying, many of them said they regretted trying to make a full film as they weren’t able to focus on their specialism as much as they liked, and most of them only got two or three hero shots for their showreel from almost a year’s worth of work. A couple of them mentioned that they wish they had just made a showreel instead, hence my consideration of doing the same.

However, a big part of the reason I wanted to study at UAL was to explore and develop my personal artistic style, and to reconnect with my passion for the arts. I felt that making a showreel wouldn’t satisfy these goals. I was still considering the topic, and around this time I watched the anime Frieren. The second opening features many dynamic shots of the characters that I noticed would cover a lot of the types of shots someone should have in a 3D animation showreel. I decided at this point that I would explore the idea of making a fake anime/tv show opening, so that I could include a diverse collection of shots as seen in showreels, while still being able to experiment and develop the aesthetics and style. If I develop this idea, I would like to come up with a narrative for the fake anime/tv show, as this narrative will drive many aspects of the opening, especially how characters act and move.

Idea 3:

Fake zoo advertisement

I’m still unsure of what kind of story I want to tell with this idea, but I like that this idea would allow me to work with many different creature rigs and have a diverse collection of creature animation shots for my showreel.