IDS 252 Topics

IDS 252: Topics for the Week of October 27, 2008

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Lab:
- Continue work on Lab 8: Animation Production.
- Discuss Status Reports (these will begin next week)
Three days of working in Maya will save you a few minutes working on the storyreel.
Tuesday in class:
- Give your group a one word name (will be used for email group)
- Meet with group to discuss changes and refinements to story. One person in the group should take notes so that the group can refer to it later on when decisions must be made during the modeling, animation, and shading stages.
  - "Act out" story to get a better grasp of timing.
  - Think careful about how the tension, conflict, and pace change over time. An animation where these are all constant is monotonous. High tension and conflict only feels high if you allow for moments of low tension and conflict. It is all relative.
  - How will you use the camera to help tell the story? Also look here
  - Who is your intended audience?
  - What is the intended genre(s)?
  - What kind of emotional response do you want from the audience?
  - Is your story trying to be serious, silly, funny, dark, satirical,etc?
  - What is the gender, personality, back-story, etc of your characters? What is the relationship between the characters? What is your character's name, age, health, character's fears, joys, weaknesses, strengths, etc?
  - What is the "Look & Feel"? Look here for more on cinematography.
    - Are you aiming for a realistic or cartoon look? Do you have a "style" in mind?
    - Will the the coloring be bright or dark, primary or secondary, simple vs busy, etc.
    - Will the lighting be bright, medium, or dark? Will it be soft or sharp contrast?
    - What is the duration and time of day. How do you indicate this and how does this affect story, if at all.
    - How do issues of genre, audience, emotional response, tension, etc affect the Look & Feel?
- Based on the discussion with the group, make changes to story text, storyboards, and storyreel. For example, you may need to change:
  - Story title
  - Story details (may need to add/remove/change storyboards)
  - Camera angles and direction (may need to redraw storyboards)
  - Pacing and timing (affects storyreel).
- Once storyreel is updated:
  - Create shot list
  - Fill out task list
- Place discussion notes, story (text version), storyreel, tasklist, and shotlist in project folder on enfuzion.
Tuesday in lab:
- Continue group discussion as needed.
- Begin to collect reference material for scenes, characters and objects. Place on enfuzion in "Reference" folder.
- If time, set up Maya project folder
- If time, begin modeling of characters, scene, props.
- If time, begin animatics.

Thursday in class and lab:
- Continue to collect reference material for scenes, characters and objects. Place on enfuzion in "Reference" folder.
- If not already done, set up Maya project folder
- Continue or begin modeling of characters, scene, props.
- Continue or begin animatics.
Check out The Animator's Survival Kit The author, Richard Williams is speaking tonight in Portland.
Homework: Continue modeling and animatics.
NEXT TUESDAY: We will begin the class by reviewing what has been done. Groups will
- Pitch the updated storyreel.
- Give a brief recap of the group discussion and conclusions
- Show reference images
- Show preliminary modeling and animatics.

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