eve vfx

When we were first given the brief for this project I did have a mild panic due to my lack of drawing ability and ideas however when Jason showed some video examples I could see that I could create the frames digitally instead and I did have ideas I just hadn’t thought them all through. This brought some relief to me at the time but as you can see I didn’t have time to do the frames how I wanted to and so the drawings have been used instead. I think they turned out a lot better when I added colour. Overall I’m happy with the final product. After stressing about how it would all look in the end, I think the use of colour and sound effects made the video a lot better than the original black and white frames would’ve looked. 

I chose the story of the bird crapping on my head because I thought I could over exaggerate the tension between the seagulls and the main character. I think it turned out quite well in the end especially because some parts match with the music which creates drama. I also chose this idea because I thought the frames would be simple as it’s quite a basic storyline.

I think the whole style mainly the colour scheme has definitely taken inspiration from the shows I mentioned such as the big lez show and David Firth’s Cream video from youtube but also from the films like Napoleon Dynamite. I’ve used quite soft calming colours that still contrast with each other well and make the overall aesthetic better.

What I don’t like about the storyboard is how the edges of the images are still quite rough which I found difficult to edit out in Photoshop. Also I didn’t think the music transitions were very good because they camer out of nowhere and I couldn’t figure out how to ease in and out. 

The main thing I struggled with in this project is the time management. I’ve realised I like taking the longest way around doing things. When I start doing something and realise I could’ve done it a lot quicker another way I just carry on doing the long way because I don’t want to give up on it. For example in this project I would start colouring in the background image using the brush tool but then I realised I could just use the pen tool and fill it in with colour but for some reason I just carried on using the brush tool. This is a habit I need to shake off. If I managed my time better I would have added more details to the images and make the animatic a bit more complex. I’d also want the music to flow a bit better. Although I think I set realistic expectations that would fit the deadline, I just couldn’t focus at times and didn’t commit to the work as much as I should have. This has definitely helped me completing this project because it’s made me realise I need to manage my time better. I’m really going to try and finish the projects maybe a few days before the deadline so I have time to receive feedback and improve. I’m also going to start making a timetable of when and what work I’ll be doing each day. I need this kind of organisation in order to make me more motivated because I think if it’s set out in front of me everything I need to do, it’ll be satisfying ticking things off the list.

Another problem I found is that I struggle with coming up with and deciding on an idea. So for future projects I definitely need to leave a few days free just for brainstorming ideas and testing them. The mind maps and quick storyboard sketches really helped to give me a quick idea of how I could do the storyboard ideas so I could decide which story would flow the best. I’m going to use this method for future projects. 

Final Flat Storyboard

The final storyboard with and without colour. This just shows the difference between before and after adding colour and how effective it is. I think it made the storyboard look a lot more pleasing to look at.

A quick analysis:

1) Establishing shot at the start sets the scene for the rest of the story. Two people sitting on a bench in a seaside setting. Zoom in on their faces to a medium shot. 

2) Pan down showing the toilet sign. 

3) Hands moving across the screen show the ice cream being passed over. This close up makes the storyline clearer. 

4) Medium shot shows me holding the two ice creams happy. 

5) Still a medium shot of me eating my ice cream. 

6) Pan up showing me looking up. 

7) Continue panning up to suggest I'm still looking up. See seagulls flying around. 

8) Medium shot. Continue eating ice cream. 

9) I spot the birds in the corner of my eye and look down. Pan across from top right to bottom left suggesting eye movement. 

10) Shot showing the seagulls staring at me and my ice creams. 

11) Slow zoom in on my nervous face. 

12) Pan from right to left showing squinting eyes. 

13) Look back down to look at seagulls. 

14) Close up of seagulls popping their heads in. 

15) Gasp SFX. Scared expression. 

 16&17) Eyes go from straight to looking down back at where the seagulls were. Still frame no camera movement here. 

18) Quick shot of the pavement where the seagulls were. No seagulls in sight. 

19) Sigh of relief SFX. Relieved seagulls have gone. 

20) Pan from left to right shows ice creams are starting to melt and drop down my hand. 

21) Pan down on the drips of ice cream to a splat (SFX) on the floor. 

22&23) Sad face. Bends over to look at puddle. 

24) Worms eye view, up shot shows me looking over the puddle. 

25) Zoom out from me looking down to reveal the bird above my head. 

26,27&28) Camera slowly pans down as the bird crap starts to fall on my head. 

29) Slow zoom in on my face like a sitcom moment. I am looking into camera. 

The Final Animatic

Another useful website that I’m going to use to find some royalty-free music for the animatic. The range is quite limited but I think there must be some styles of music that fit my style of animatic.

Registered for an account at freesound.org, a really useful website, so I could download sound effects and add them to the sequence. 

Test 3

Adding Colour

Test 2

Test 1

Drawing Inspiration 

The seagulls appear at 0:30.

I’ve decided to have a more in depth look at the ways I’ve used the camera movements and shots from my research in my storyboard. I attached a link earlier in my research to a website which showed me how camera movements could be shown in storyboards but I want to compare them to mine and see how I’ve used them.

Extreme Close Ups - I used quite a few extreme close ups to help show the emotions of the character more obviously or to show an important part in the story.

Medium Shots - I used a lot of medium shots when the camera was on the main character because it meant I could show the facial expressions clearly but still have some context to the shot.

Up Shot - I also drew this very weird up shot that you can’t really tell is an up shot but there you go. This shows the bird crap falling onto the character (me)’s head. I’ve also used camera arrows to show where I want the crap to move and how.

Camera Movement

I showed some camera movement. I’ve used a pan and a few zoom in shots. I used the pan to show a close up of what was happening in the character’s hands in a more interesting way and the zoom ins I’ve mainly used for establishing shots to give the viewer some context as to where the scene is or to enhance the humour of the moment like in the bike scene in Napoleon Dynamite I mentioned earlier.

Final Idea Storyboard - Draft

Method Ideas - How I’m Going to Go About It

A third year VFX student uploaded this video to facebook showing the VFX breakdown of some scenes in the film Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. There’s a link below. When we were first briefed about the task I was slightly worried that my drawing skills weren’t strong enough to put my ideas across clearly. However, after seeing the director’s sketch for this scene I was reassured as it made me realise that you don’t have to be the best drawer in order to put your idea across. So I've decided to do some rough sketches before creating the final piece as it will help to plan the image in my mind of what I want to produce. For the final piece I've decided to take photographs and then draw over them adding objects in where necessary just for a better aesthetic overall.