IDS 252: Topics for the Week of October 26, 2008

• Check out The Animator's Survival Kit.

• Look at some animations from previous years
• Look at docs on enfuzion (McCloud, Hooks, ...)

• Continue work on lab 8 as detailed in Lab 8: Animation Production and in the instructions below. Note, status reports will begin next week!

  Three days of working in Maya will save you a few minutes working on the storyreel.

• Tuesday in class and lab

  • Pitch storyreels.
  • Have class vote on their top 3 choices. Assign students to groups based on vote.
  • Groups meet together to do the following:
    • Give your group a one word name (will be used for email group) and a working title.
    • Meet with group to discuss changes and refinements to story:
      • "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 low conflict. It is all relative.
      • How will you use the camera to help tell the story? Also look here as well as Film Analysis (go to section 3 Cinematography, subsections Framing and Scale).
      • 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?
      • Describe you characters: What is their gender, personality, back-story, etc? What is the relationship between the characters? What is your character's name, age, health, character's fears, joys, weaknesses, strengths, etc? Even if this information does not go in the animation, it will help you create characters with more life and more consistent behavior.
      • What is the "Look & Feel"? Again, look at Film Analysis.
        • 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 on enfuzion the story (text version), revised storyreel, tasklist, and shotlist.
    • Organize project folder on enfuzion. Within your group folder, at a minimum you will need subfolders for 1) story boards and reel, 2) reference material, 3) the maya project, and 2) adobe premiere animation project.

  • Homework for Thursday:

    • Complete the above activities is not completed in class and lab.
    • If time, begin to collect reference material. Place in a "Reference" subfolder on enfuzion.

  • Thursday in class and 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. Carefully think about what subfolders are needed.
    • If time, begin modeling of characters, scene, props.
    • If time, begin animatics.
    • One person in the group is reponsible for backing up the project folder (perhaps minus tiff, iff files) e.g. on a weekly basis. However, each individual person is also responsible for backing up their own work on a more frequent basis.

• Homework for Tuesday: Continue modeling and animatics.

• NEXT TUESDAY: We will begin the class by reviewing what has been done. Groups will

  • Pitch the updated storyreel. MUSICIANS WILL JOIN US!!
  • Give a brief recap of the group discussion and conclusions
  • Show reference images
  • Show preliminary modeling and animatics.