audio production process for final animation

Ambience

For our ambience, we used public domain sounds from websites like 'Sound Bible', and 'Free Sound'.

http://soundbible.com/

https://www.freesound.org/

- We ended up layering cave ambience, especially at the beginning at night to give a eerie feel. This goes with the scary, unknown feel at the start which the characters feel.

- We also used lots of multiple animal noises, like wolves, birds, growling and bush ruffling to give the feeling they're truly in the middle of the wilderness and alone. It also gave an idea of danger and fear, something out characters are clearly experiencing at the start.

- Finally, when the scene turns to day, and we re-join our characters, we changed the ambience to a more friendly, new and fresh one, changing the crow sounds to morning bird songs.  This changes the atmosphere and mood, giving a more friendly atmosphere.

dialog

For dialog, we wrote out lines and scripts, practised the ascents and voices, and finally booked a studio and recorded.  We applied and synchronised the dialog throughout our animation. 

sound effects

We used the majority of our sound affects for added comical effect, as well as to just add believability.

- We used footsteps on different terrain like gravel and grass, and different volumes for different characters. For example, Kovsky who marches in a militaristic fashion makes a large amount of noise when he walks; whilst Paul walks very lightly and delicately.

- We added lots of sound effects for comical value, for example; we used a high pitch and over-exaggerated glass squeaking sound for Paul rubbing his head in confusion  and a leather stretch sound for Kovsky's stretching arm.

- We also used a fire sound effect which was overly loud to control the mood of the situation, and how how important it is.

music

finally, we used one piece of music for the end credits which was appropriate with the crazy happenings on screen.
 The age of the song allows it to suparse copy write issues, making it fine to use.

The song was Tchaikovsky - Overture, made in 1812.

screen grabs and evaluation.

with these screen grabs we have the final edit and the changes and added edit decisions from the feedback from the rough cut, we kept with the style and look of the animation and kept pushing forward with artistic looks from before.

we also added the audio and dialogue from before feedback, we had voice acted dialogue for the characters through out the sequence we also included sound effects of foot steps, eating food and blinking.

we also included ambient sounds that was recommended to add more effect and humour in key scenes.

in terms of the visual effect change we updated some scenes to be colour corrected in the later of the sequence, we also had some scenes re-illustrated due to the difference in artists style of animating, and having more flowing with one style and more visually appealing   

project 2 - animation final pitch document

Animation pitch from Chris Yarwood

health and risk assessments.

time scale and production 

rough cut and feedback.

feedback

barney: some shots are breaking the 180 degree rule, and break the flow of the animation.
however he found the look and art style very very good and gave it a unique twist.

sam: needs sounds with dialogue and sound effects, also the ending needs to be re-looked at and finished to get a resolved ending.

matt: the begining clearly drops in quality between transitions and in later parts of the sequence, also colour of characters change in certain clips from black to brown and back to black again.
a positive was that it was rather comical even without sound. 

animation - shady bunch - treatment - project 3

Animation Process Flow Chart and animation process

- The pre-production stage consists of making a few rough structure of the idea you have which may Budgets, scripts, a brief and the concept are all discussed and considered in this stage. If all this is given the go ahead. the other stages get involved and crew get hired for their specific  jobs.

-  the concept is expanded out a lot more. The narrative and visual style of the animation will be looked a pon on so their is a strong feeling of what is wanted and what has to be achieved. This stage often consists of a lot of experimenting and trying/tweaking things.

- Next, the director and storyboard artist come together to create the narrative in a visual form. Storyboarding is a way of planning the types of shots wanted, the camera movements and a rough guide line for animators to stick to within loose constraints, still giving room for creativity.

- Then the art director will develop a style and create the characters and environments. Most of these pictures showing what everything will look like would be drawn, but it really depends on who is designing, and if it is a group of people or just one person.

- The director and producer will then cast the voices for each character until getting what is needed. The chosen voice actors will then go over the script, trying to get what they want. sometimes it is all recored in a day, sometimes it can go for days, once again it is up to the vision of the director and producer. The editor will then create a sound track example to show a representation of each character.

- From the original drawings and designs, modellers will begin to make CG examples and skeletons of the characters so the animator can move each joints creating realistic movement.

- Working on things like layout and timings are next. although the first real show of timing is form the storyboards whilst keeping in mind camera movements, shot types, moods and other visual information. Ones completed, the layouts will be shot and made into a 'layout reel' or edited into the perviously made storyboard. In the making of larger, more structured and expensive products there will be often two phases, rough and final.

- The animation can now begin as all the assets needed to go with it are done with exception to the backgrounds. Scenes will be assigned to specific animators by the director. As each scene is completed the director will approve it and will then be added to the real to be viewed in context. each scene will built up to create an almost completed running animation. Effect animations will be added after all is complete.

Final Animation

process and equipment - project 3 - shady bunch

Animation Example

 http://youtu.be/vaVSTCnlcBU

This is the layout of our Adobe Flash document for one of the most complicated scenes for our animation. This scene shows the 3 characters as inflatable waving men which required us to draw frame by frame to give the illusion of swaying.
On top of this, we needed to move the mouths using keyframes to follow the movement of the balloons as well as the actual pronunciation of each syllable.

On this scene, almost everything consisted on frame by frame animation using keyframes which is why it took so long. Firstly moving the balloons by using the onion skins and drawing each individual frame gave the swaying, flipping look.
 Then we drew the main features to make identifying each character possible. For example, Kovsky's moustache and tall hat, Bois' Beard and Beanie, and Paul's scratched fish bowl. After drawing them, once again we went frame by frame moving and rotating so they travelled with the balloon. This was quicker that drawing it frame by frame with the balloon.
 After we made sure that the 1st frame and the last frame where very similar so they where loop-able.

On the video, we tried to show the massive amount of individual, complex keyframes within this short scene as the picture didn't express and show it enough.

Our set up and equipment consists of a Intuos or Wacom drawing tablet plugged it to a MacBook Pro laptop with software installed such as Adobe Flash and Adobe Photoshop, which both came into our project massively. 

Assets and Motion cycles

Assets.
Moving
- Some trees
- Fire
- Long grass
- Paul, Kovsky and Bois
- Fire people.
- inflatable arm men
- Melting heads
- Mouth movement

Not moving
- Most of the trees
- Rocks
- Logs
- Backdrop
- Berries

Motion cycles.
- Fire people cycle (walking)
- Inflatable arm men (waving)
- Kovsky walk cycle.
- Eating cycles

Animation Planning project 3 - the shady bunch

Location.
- Campfire/base: Grassy opening, Trees behind, Grass ground, Camp fire, Log seats, Sticks and stones.
- Woodlands: Trees, Long grass, Bushes, Dirt ground Rabbit holes, Stones, Sticks.

Props.
-Torches, Sticks, Berries, Fish bowl, Wooden weapons.
Our story idea is about the three stranded outcasts eat some wild hallucinative berries which Kovsky pulls out of his pocket whilst standing around the campfire at dusk. The trio are very hungry and reluctantly eat them. Suddenly they lose all sense of reality and strange occurrences begin to unravel before their eyes. The episode follows the group as strange things happen and we see how they react.

Event Idea's.
- Paul's head changes to a posh cat and he drinks out of his fishbowl head.
- An old man (Wizard) in fuzzy slippers and a bath robe runs insanely through the distance.
- The three become wacky inflatable arm men in the fire whilst three giant campfires are sitting around the "fire".
- Kovsky's head turns into a ice-cream which quickly melts (Bois' point of view) then you see bois' eyes which has hypnotic swirls as well as burning cities and pure madness.
- Lot's of weird hand actions by kovsky.
- Bois' beard hair does strange things.
- Kovsky's eyebrows crawl like a caterpillar down his face to reform his missing moustache.

project 3 shady bunch script

documentation sheets

Assets Sheets

Logging Sheet

Call Sheets

Project 3 - story board - shady bunch animation

1. Silence around the campfire except from the cracking of the fire and the noises form the wilderness. A tree behind the duo ruffles And both look.

2. Close up of a scared and anxious looking Bois. His eyes go on to shrink into his skull.

3. Suspense builds over the shoulders of Bois and Paul as both stare into the trees. Suddenly Kovsky's head pokes up in the foreground and covers most of the screen.

4. Kovsky is behind Paul with something in his hands. His arm shoots up out of shot and back down, dropping berries into Pauls fish-bowl head.

5. kovsky can't believe he's got away with it and his gross hands come up from out of screen and covers his mouth as he begins to laugh.

6. The screen shows the duo as Kovsky marches in through the woods where the ruffle had occurred. He shouts, "Friends!".

7. A close shot of the three and kovsky continues to whisper, "I've got food". Paul bubbles in joy loudly.

8. Kovsky opens and reveals the berries in the palm of his hands.

9. Close up of Bois begining to chew.

10. Close up of Kovsky beginning to chew.

11. Close up of Paul with the berries still floating in his bowl.

12. Closer up of Bois chewing.

13. Closer up of Kovsky chewing.

14. Closer up of the berries continuing to float in Pauls bowl.

15. Extreme close up of a concerned looking Bois chewing.

16. Bois looks at Kovsky and see's Kovsky has taken the form of an ice-cream slowly melting. Kovky  said, "Are you ok friend".

17. A quick zoom out to reveal Paul has now taken the form of a army general cat, swirling a bowl (which was once his bowl head). Paul says "Yes, you're looking quite under the weather friend! Are you feeling ok?".

18.  Close up of Bois replying looking calm and relaxed saying "Yeah, i think i'm fine!". His voice is very deep nd slowed.

19. A medium shot of Kovsky saying "Are you sure?". In this shot he has no moustache, His eyebrows slide down his face and form a new moustache.

20. The screen shoots through Bois' beard, into his mouth, and down his throat into blackness whilst he is saying "Yes".

21. Goes down Bois' throat until blackness.

22. Screen zooms in, through the parting tree's towards a light in the distance.

23. Once the camp is re-revealed through the trees, the trio are now wacky wavy inflatable arm men with 2 giant fires sitting around.

24. The two fire people walk up to each other.

25. A close up as two hands appear out of the fire people and they link hands

26. A shot of the two fire people declaring there love for each other before kissing.

27. A full sized shot of the trio, still in their inflatable arm men state. Kovksy says "I think we shouldn't of eaten those berries!"

28. Kovsky quickely wakes up, breathing heavily and sweating, looking left to right.

29. Long shot of Kovsky sitting up with the other two still asleep. They are now in day light.

30. Kovsky sighs in relief and says, "It was just a dream!" until he then stops and stares almost in fear.

31. In the distance the two fire people are lying on top of each other in the field plains.

32. Kovsky looks in horror as he reacts to the realisation of the truth. He then slips some berries into his mouth to escape reality.

33. Fades to black, Fancy "Fin" appears.

treatment of the shady bunch show - project 3

project 3 - risks. health and safety

project 3 intial planning

Our animation is a short story episode of The Shady Bunch. I chose to do this type of animation because I'm a fan of these story style of animation on channels like Cartoon Network and liked the idea of creating my own one. The chance to create strange and creative characters, storylines and locations was by far the most appealing as well as the chance to use inspiration throughout but to change it to my own personal style.
 The animation type is hand-draw, frame by frame Adobe Flash. This style was most appropriate for the genre of animation I wanted to do. Flash gives the possibility for smooth lines, block colours and flowing movement which the alternatives don't offer.
 I would best describe my animation as a dark humoured comedy for teens. Although the visuals looks more like it belongs on Cartoon Network for young children and teens, the content and subject matter perhaps belongs on a more 'mature' network like Comedy Central or Adult Swim. 
 It's also possibly 'abstract' due to some of the content.

The overall 'The Shady Bunch' animation story is 3 completely different characters find themselves stranded of a mysterious, dark and confusing island which is completely un-inhabited and there day to day processes.
 The specific episode story is that, the native Kovsky brings back berries to the starving camp and the 'adventures' which go on after the realisation the berries are hallucinative.

story treatment

The Story of Omega is set in the city Miami, where five characters live in a flat together.

they consent of Guy, Olde Knick, Earth man, The chairman and Yarn cat.

the story is guy, a human who works for the council and is a social worker however one day he gets set on a new project he had not heard of.

this project was to look after 4 demons and make sure they cause no trouble until the day he expired upset with the life he's given he is too fed up with life to try and escape this fate, guy had just lost his girl friend and has no car or nice possessions he works everyday just to buy things to pay for him to keep working the next day, so accepts the life he has been given in the hope of change in his life and some peace and quite.

the 4 demons he has to look after are Olde Knick who and evil demon stuck in the form of a trumpet and is looking to reap souls to get full form back and his power.

Yarn cat is a cat trapped in the 'body' of a ball of yarn and is servilely depressed and is a massive push over whom never stands up for him self.

Earth man is loath of bread who is sexually confused and looking for the true meaning of love and is willing to find it in any way possible.

The chairman is a british  octopus that is was a major in the great wars, now he is explosive alcoholic and gambler to forgot.

Earth man's silhouette and description

Earth man is a loath of bread that is not either gender he/she is genderless and is simply a loath of bread that is alive, she uses make up for a face and redraws emotions when she can.

earth man was made but mistake by dark conjuring and isn't almost the generic robot that wants to know what love is?

However earth man believes he found it by choosing female as the preferred gender and trying to have a relationship with any man possible. she will go to extreme lengths to find love. and as she develops she in facts captures men in the night and keeps them in cages to find out what love is and how to get it.

Olde Knick's silhouette and description

Olde Knick is the evil one of the group, just pure evil is only goal is to get what he wants and will use any means needed to do so, and what he wants? souls, mainly children's souls.

olde knick is in a form where all his power is limited and has been in this form for thousands of years he needs the souls to regain his full form and power.

Olde knick spends his time mainly come up with plans to go to the outside world for souls and tormenting the others in the flat, olde Knick is also incredibly racist and sexist and every form of offensive.

Yarn cat's silhouette and description

Yarn cat is a feline trapped in the object of yarn in ball form, yarn cat's character is servilely depressed and is always the one getting pushed around and lets people get away with anything they want. is also a massive suck up to the character Olde Knick due to the fear he stirs in him so he tries to keep on his good side.

Yarn cat used to be a normal successful cat working as an accounted in hell for the devil until one day he pushed his luck by trying to take one the devils wishes(soul trade wish) however it send south and ended badly luckly he kept his soul and was send to earth and become everything he ever wanted to be.