For my PRP research i'm reading into Character Design which I think will tie in nicely with my previous PRP topic; Animation Choreography.
I've found this great blog post by Chris Wahl where he takes us from design sketches: To final realisation of TV commercial:
This is extremely useful information for me at this time because my Client Project is focusing on Character Design for a big UK company who I'm sure will ask me to redesign over and over again. I could use Wahls' almost as a template.
Music: The Rosenberg Trio - Mediterranean Sundance
I can't seem to hold onto a PRP question... On Monday i'm going into Uni to talk to Andy and Simon about changing my PRP question. I'm not sure yet what the new question is going to be, i'm going to think about that today and hopefully have something for them. The question now is... Is there a commonality in choreographed animation that is used to assist and/or enforce the story and inform the audience when there is no dialogue? I want the question to be more focused on Character Design.
Why?
I've found it REALLY difficult to find relevant information on the subject. More work has been published around the science of movement than the art. Character design is something that really interests me as a 3D animator. I design characters all the time, especially cartoony ones and have done for longer than i've bee animating. So in this sense I think I'm compelled to change my PRP question... only it's SO annoying as I have less than three weeks to write about it!!!!!!
Six week project to design a 20 sec animation to be used as anti digital piracy campaign advert.
Software used: 3ds Max Photoshop Pro Tools Premiere
Feedback... In the recent tutorial, I showed the video to my class and feedback was pretty much what I expected. As usual I 'filled' the brief, in other words, I have done what was required and nothing more (and nothing less). Basically it didn't wow anyone because I played this brief safe. I ran with the first idea I had, again, which was pretty a mediocre one. Also, you could tell that I didn't plan it very well. This was supposed to be focusing on an animation, and the animation is very scarce! That being said, the positive feedback was the effect I implemented on the musicians; the way they 'dissolved'. The music worked (as usual) and the voice over was clear and people got the message. Conceptually the idea was again, a 'safe' one. It was on a boarder line of being quite a dictating message, but it was quite subtle too. Perhaps the nature of the narrative made it so, after all, it's only music (you're buying/downloading something that doesn't really exist, sshh!) So the general feedback I got was 'ok'. It was an 'ok' piece of work, and I agree. I know I can do better though.
That's what I'm going to be writing about. Now with only 3 weeks to go (thats on average 1250 words a week) I need to start collecting my thoughts and organising myself and what I'm reading.
There are different areas of Character Choreography and I will be looking out for anything written about these in context: Fighting, Dancing, Filling in for dialogue, Voice Acting, Miming, Spacing, Timing
And there are different areas of the entire animation industry that I will be looking into, such as: 3D, 2D, Puppetry
Yesterday I went to one of the best entrepreneurial conference/seminars I have ever attended. It was organised by The Hive. These are my notes from the day.
Firstly I arrived and saw that there was in fact free tea, coffee and buffet. Good, then! I thought to myself. Breakfast! :)
BassToneSlap were the first people talking about their business. They are a african drum workshop organised by Richard Enion. They were on Dragons Den and successfully got the £50k they were looking for, for 40% of the company from two of the "dragons". This was more than they wanted to share but in the end realised it was okay, and got some great publicity out of it.
One thing I noticed is that their business wasn't a new idea. They saw a working type of business, saw their own potential doing it and chose to do the same. I'm always trying to think of a new business idea. What I understand after this is that perhaps it's better to start with something which already exists, and do it better!
Piccy Products Ltd were an interesting business. They are simply mums and teachers (as they put it) who found a way of kids to eat the healthy foods without kicking up a fuss. Sue Amphlett and Vonny Shelley entered and won the iEXPO "Last Business Standing" (speed dating-esque) competition. Some of the reasons why is because of their uniqueness. They had a song to grab the audience. They thought creatively about their business plan; it spoke to everyone not just people who understand figures and profit forecasts etc. And they had a well thought out pitch to execute.
Shed Simove was on the program but couldn't be there. He is the Ideas Man. He thinks of funny, innuendo gifts and sells them.
Then Mike Southon came on stage to give his talk, and my life changed forever. Haha! Well, near enough. His talk was great. It really made sense what he was saying. It was funny. And he used the best entrepreneurial analogy of them all; The Beatles. He writes for the FT and has a book out called "Beermat Entrepreneur". This is what he had to say: Does your product sell? Would your friends buy it? If not, strangers won't! Get a good picture of yourself...
He is the ambassador for Peter Jones' National Enterprise Academy... so he's a celebrity! Think about your career in seven year cycles. This made a lot of sense to me. I couldn't explain it until now but i've seen it before and he's absolutely right about it...
Make a level of connection to your customers like Paul McCartney has done... but don't make them cry like McCartney does! Find someone with the opposite set of skills to yourself.
Then he somehow managed to relate this to the Simpsons characters and it still made sense!
There are three people needed to make a business work well...
Delivery - Product or Service (Intovert)
Sales - Who needs it? Who's rich? (Extrovert)
Finance - Can we make money? (book keepers and accountants)
Could be three people in the pub, talking about those things, hence beermat entrepreneur.
Seven stages of finance:
Operate a cash business
Use a spreadsheet
Get a part-time book keeper
Get a part-time accountant - you could end it here and be a comfortably small business.
Get a Virtual Finance Cornerstone
Get a full-time Finance Director
Get a top accounting firm.
Think about your elevator pitch (the 5 p's):
Pain - what is the pain/problem that is to be addressed.
Premise - be literal. say exactly what you want to do. local, reliable and nice - be them!
People - who are the people in your team? it's important. what makes you different?
Proof - friends. happy customers. references.
Purpose - why this and not something else?
Money and Wealth (guanxi) link in with the purpose.
Wealth - treat people how you would want them to treat you. Always help, without going broke. Tell the truth!
To finish his talk he showed the new and brilliant animation for The Beatles Rockband...
Intro...
Outro...
And closed the event by summarising everything in quoting The Beatles:
Through reading various articles on the Internet i've come across a new term in the industry called Character Arc and because it seems like such a big topic, I thought I would compile the articles I find here into one post.
Definitions: Musik Therapie The rocky path of personal growth and development a character undergoes in a story, usually unwillingly, during which the character wrestles with and eventually overcomes some or all of a serious emotional fear, limitation, block or wound.
Wikipedia: A character arc is the status of the character as it unfolds throughout the story, the storyline or series of episodes. Characters begin the story with a certain viewpoint and, through events in the story, that viewpoint changes.
All stories are about people, even when they're about rabbits. And the stories that move us most, the ones that stick inside years later, are those inhabited by characters we can connect with and admire.
And no characters resonate more than those who in the course of a story learned how to transcend their own flaws and weaknesses to do something great—this is known as a Character Arc.
And by great I don’t mean saving the world, for often the quietest moments are the ones in which characters find their greatness. The moments that truly define us are almost always personal, times when we’re able to overcome our own limitations and rise to be something more.
Character Arc—the rocky path of personal growth and development a character undergoes in a story, usually unwillingly, during which the character wrestles with and eventually overcomes some or all of a serious emotional fear, limitation, block or wound.
In a character's development he or she might overcome: o lack of courage or inner doubts o lack of ethics o learning to love o guilt o trauma from the past o errors in thinking, etc.
Weaknesses, imperfections, quirks and vices make a character more real & appealing. They humanise a character. The audience can identify with them. Flaws and imperfections give a character somewhere to go and progress toward in the story. The development of a character is only interesting if they overcome something.
A great example of a character arc is Tom Cruise’s character in "Rain Man."
Beginning – Cruise is a ruthless car dealer who kidnaps his autistic brother because he feels cheated about not receiving any money from his father's will.
End of Arc – After a cross-country journey with his brother, he learns the importance of family and turns down the money.
Role of a Character Arc... - Keeps the tension high and the conflict going. - Serves as the “inner” conflict and is always mirrored by the story's “outer” conflict. e.g. DieHard: Inner conflict = overcome internal weaknesses to be able to get back together with wife; Outer conflict = fight bad guys who have taken over wife’s building. - The Arc is the internal change the hero goes through in a story. - It can be positive change of character—a happy ending - Or a negative or no change—which gives us a tragedy.
Characters who remain essentially the same from beginning to end are fatally flawed. They have learned nothing from their experience and have shown no growth. Or the character is already ‘good’ and doesn’t change (e.g. James Bond, Braveheart, John Wayne).
Development of a Character Arc... Personal changes in a Character’s Arc require smooth development—changing is really hard. 2D verses 3D character development 2D—Jumping changes in character create 2 dimensional characters. 3D—Show the natural, step-by-step development of a character. Show how the personal beliefs that cause internal flaws are torn away little by little by forces within a character and by his surroundings. Small conflicts/transitions as the character evolves from one state of mind to another in a slow even pace until he is compelled to make a life changing decision.
Here's a great short film i've been waiting to watch for quite a few months. It's made by Lucas Martell with a budget of just under $10k. Have a watch and let me know what you think.
Also, prior to it's release, Martell made a series of really useful podcasts, which only made me more eager to see the film. These are really good so i recommend watching them too if you'd like to know how the film was made.
This beautiful piece of animation is 88 years old and is still amazing to watch today as it was back then! It was made by Max Fleischer and implemented his innovative animation technique known as rotoscope to make the animation movements more "realistic". And this technique is still used today. This was also made a whole decade before Disney!
Today has been very productive for me. I gave a presentation for my Simulated Project, which went quite okay. Then I attended the 'Hollywood Screenwriting - Jumping The First Hurdle-A Masterclass' by industry expert James T Bartlett at Broadway Cinema. I was surprised and disappointed not too see many others from my course, especially as I know how relative it is to them. Still I decided it could be a worthwhile (and cheap!) class to professionalise my writing. Here are some of my notes from the three hour seminar...
EM Media - FUNDING! Does your idea have commercial success? Because that's what they want/look for.
Execs are always looking for reasons to say 'no' because they have so many other scripts to go through.
They will look for 'dirty fingernails' and 'chewing gum' like they will during interviews. So here are 13 tips to get it right - whether you are sending your script to UK or USA...
Number the pages - USA standard is top-right hand corner - Easier to read.
Spelling and Punctuation - Right it the way you know best; not with Americanisms as this will miss guide the reader. Frequent spell checks. Read it backwards - it uses another side of the brain, doesn't make sense in context but will show any spelling or punctuation mistakes.
Formatting - Length should be: UK - 90-100 words, USA 110-120 words for a feature length. Think of it as almost one page per minute on screen. Font should be: UK - Curier New 12, USA - Curier 12. Send an e-mail if that's what is asked of you, but also print and post a hard copy.
Sluglines - Every new location has to have this. Interior or exterior, place, day or night. Very brief description of where, when and what is happening. Every new character the appears has to be written in capitols, but only the first time, every other time is normal eg. JOHN (20s).
Camera Angles and direction to actors - Don't put directory things into the script. Leave camera set ups out. Leave out character motives and emotions. Don't number the scenes.
Songs, Poems and Quotes - Don't list specific artist, track or band names; keep it generic. Keep in mind they won't know the songs and they might be expensive to get the license. Don't quote poems; again licenses are expensive and unnecessary. It's easier to use dead people rather than people who are alive. No famous living people. UK - 75 years of an authors death. USA - 90 years of an authors death.
Literary Description - Avoid the flowery description; being like a novel. Think about what the audience can see! Do not describe how the character feels.
Describing Emotions and Characteristics - Examples: She fears that... he knows... he wonders... she thinks... ALL BAD. Enigmatic, moody, troubled... ALL BAD. Blue eyes, rugged handsome etc... ALL BAD! How do the characters get in trouble?
Smells, Time, Temperature and Taste - It's novelistic and unnecessary.
Transitions - Think of interesting alternatives to just fades such as: A dog to a cat, a tap to someone drinking water, raining then sunny, ceiling fan to helicopter propellers (Apocalypse Now), a bone to a spaceship (2001: A Space Odyssey).
Referencing other films, Books or Actors/Characters - Just don't do it. Keep the idea unique so that it doesn't sound like anything else or is made comparable to anything else.
Nudges, Prompts and Jokes - It's showing off! Like you know the business of films, but it has no business in the script. There is no "we" in a script eg. "we see the car coming..." should be -> "the car comes towards the screen".
Presentation - Don't underline or make bold. Don't use coloured paper, only white with black text. Don't give it any pre-conceived notions such as writing 'First Draft' on title page. Title page contains contact details. Three wholes in paper connected with Brad clips.
Extra things noted:
Watch: City of Ember, The Wire, The Shield, Sideways, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer.
Read: Smoking In Bed.
The profit margin on popcorn is huge. It's the biggest money maker in the whole cinema industry!
Winnie The Pooh makes more money for Disney than any other one of their character franchises.
A few things over the past couple of weeks have prompted me to materialise my business cards. Firstly Rob has made some really good cards. Then at Game City I was given lots of cards, but didn't have anything to give out. And tomorrow I'm going to the Flip Animation Festival Launch Party so it's an ideal time to have cards at the ready.
After a couple of hours designing here is the final one.
Front
Back
Please let me know what you think of these as it's quite important for me.
You’ve heard of this film Where the Wild Things Are by now, maybe? Well, back during the making of movie, Motherboard’s own Shane Smith headed over to London and caught up with the film’s director, Spike Jonze, and his legion of masterminds as they toiled away at the digital artistry that would ultimately breathe life into the creatures known as the Wild Things. It was the painstaking work of 300 artists and tech-wielding specialists, who, in the process of tweaking every frame and every miniscule detail of every image, undertook to create an entirely new way of animating—an ingenius blend of the artistry of traditional, film-based movie-making and the wizardry of newfangled technologies. In the end, Jonze and Co. created some of the most compelling monster-beings in history.
From 26 - 31 October (last week) I worked at the games festival here in Nottingham called Game City. I have seen it every year for the past two years that i've lived and studied here, but never really paid much interest to it. This year however, I received an e-mail about working there as a steward, applied (in a drunken haze at 4am) and swiftly got the job!
It was very well organised, but most of the time I had no idea what was going on or what I was supposed to be doing.
I started work on the eve of Tuesday the 27th at the Launch Party. It was such a great and memorable evening! I helped set up the drinks table on which there was champagne, soft drinks and red wine. I was stationed at the champagne table handing out A LOT of free bubbly to lecturers and professionals in the industry. It was a great opportunity for me to meet people and I had a great time listening and sharing stories about the creative and games industry. I also got a free bottle of red wine :-)
Wednesday I went snowboarding with Trent Snowsports so I didn't work that day... but it was well worth it!
Thursday I worked on another late shift from 17.00 - 23.00 inside the Exchange Arcade where I helped to set up the Flower installment. Flower is a game on the PS3 where you play... a flower. It's not a game a particularly like but it was cool to set up the four sided projector and get a fan from uni which was going to be used to blow dried fragrant petal leaves over the audience below.
Friday began EARLY at 8am and I was working in HMV. I set up and ran a Lego Rockband audition. We were briefed to find people who were really good at the game and to ask them to come back on Saturday to play live in the tent on stage. I had loads of goes and it was a fun morning.
Saturday was the day of Brickstock; he Lego Rockband concert on Market Square in the big tent. Here I managed to have a go as some players were without a drummer...
Everything came to an end after Brickstock and there was ALOT of clearing away to do. Rob and I were both totally exhausted after a long week of Game City and Uni work. Fortunately there were free things handed out to us and they let us go a little bit early. Afterwards, I went home and my friend from Hungary was on his way to visit. This being Halowe'en n all and his first time in Nottingham I wanted to find something really good to go to. After much deliberation I decided the best thing would be to attend the Game City After Party, because I figured there would be free alcohol and games to play. Sufficed to say, it was a good decision =D I spoke to more people from the industry. Met the man who made Canabalt! Played Left 4 Dead live and Street Fighter live!
It was a really great week. Worthwhile participating and I'd do it again. Only if I didn't have so much work at Uni to do as well though!
