Game Project - Team Sprout 07

Week 31 - Day 4

This week has been quite relaxing. Phew! A nice change of pace from the couple of weeks previously that have been nothing but HECTIC. Anyway, I drew up some more concepts for additional NPCs but I don't think we'll be needing them since Taylor's done a bang-up job of putting the game together and the backgrounds Taylor, Mikayla and Phoenix have done look awesome, too. I'm worried about over-cluttering it so I'm just gonna put these here and leave it as is...

Concepts for a Lily character living on the "water section" of the map. Glow-worms and scared bunny included on the page.

Stick insect concepts...

Huhu grubs, snails, praying mantises and more lily pad concepts.

Refined version of a praying mantis, veined slug and MOREPORK!!

Extra snail concepts, soldier bugs and another MOREPORK!

 In terms of concept work I think I've done quite a good amount. In terms of actual game development, maybe not so much. I'm very happy with the sprite PNGs that I was able to do with the non-playable characters as well as our own sprout character designs and animations but the rest is...eh...

Anyway, this is it from me for now. Adios amigos.

Cooking Montage 09

Week 31 - Day 2

I don't like recording sounds. I don't know why but the sound quality for some of them are super clear and CRISP while others are weirdly muted and...faded in the background. I talked to Dane about it and he pointed out that the mike was a...one-directional mike? And the way I recorded some of the sounds was that I ended up either recording some of the audio from the back or from the side. YAY. Anyway, they're not too bad because there's still a good chunk of recordings I could use (about 40+) as opposed to the ones I couldn't (about 10+) but at least I still got my original target of 20 sounds as mentioned in my schedule so that's awesome.

Also, I don't like the background white noise in the background of a lot of them. I'm assuming it's because of the lack of padding in the sound room and too much echo going around that the mike is just picking up. It's muy bien...

I've added some filler noise for a few of the quiet parts, such as when we're moving from one shot to another and there's a gap of audio between one action to the next. I threw in a really subtle noise from one of our recordings I wasn't planning to originally use just because we could barely pick anything up but heck, looks like it'll be put to good use after all! Huzzah!

As a little nice extra, I added a nice track at the end during the end credit scene that I'm pretty happy about. I'm excited to show it next week. Out of the entire "movie" the end credit is my favourite part. XD

This is it for now...I shouldn't need too much more on the audio section. I think I just need to go through the audio files a few more times to polish it a bit more. I'll probably ask a couple of people to have a watch and listen before I convert it into something viewable for the final submission. I'm aiming for a nice 1920 by 1080. Whee!!

Chur...

Game Project - Team Sprout 06

Week 30 - Day 3

I decided to add a transition forward for the character to go from sprout form into flower form!! Here's what they look like going forward.

There won't be a transition backwards because...they don't work like that. XD Their final form will stay as their new idle loop~

Now that's all nice and done I'll be working on extra assets. I'm thinking of doing some huhu grubs, snails, lilypads, praying mantis and stick insects? We'll see. With the exception of the huhu grubs which will remain static, everything else will have a small movement to them so that they don't end up taking away too much of the attention. I'm still unsure about whether to have them as an interactive asset or leave them on an idle loop animation. I guess depending on the movement it can go either way. Like I said...WE SHALL SEE...

Cooking Montage 08

Week 29 - Day 4

Oh, mah, gah, the forum layout on moodle is so weird. HOW DO I CHANGE THIS?!? ALL THIS WASTED SPACE!! SOMEONE HELP ME!

Anyway, I recolored shot 01 and shot 05 for the spring onions because the minty colour was just...not what I wanted for it so I made it look nicer. Also, I collected about...40 sound files with the help of Phoenix, Mikayla and Tea and I may or may not record a couple more. I think I'll try and for for a bottle opening just for the cracking sound of it being twisted open, water being poured into a cup and some popping candy noise. I forgot to record an audio file of me going "ew" or thereabouts for the last shot so I need to remember to do that long with the other recordings.

I should be able to start compositing everything by next week and hopefully get at least halfway through the animation by the end of next week. I should be able to do the title and end credit scene in After Effects without too much trouble, too, but we'll see...

All in all, a pretty productive week. I've been falling asleep on the bus ride back home and, a couple of times I woke up just as the bus was driving past my house because I didn't wake up in time to hit the button. XD I don't usually get tired enough to just doze off but man, I have been so tired recently and my energy levels are just low. I can't wait for this entire project to be over so I can take a breather. At least I know where my limits are when it comes to self-directed projects and I'll probably cut back 15% of the workload just so I'm not so overwhelmed. If this was the ONLY THING I'm doing for the entire term then it would've been just fine, but as it is it's just too much on my small, tiny plate.

Anyway, I'll give another proper update on moodle once I've more or less got some scene with the sounds thrown on top of it. See y'all next time!

Game Project - Team Sprout 05

Week 29 - Day 2

I am very tired. It's been a struggle trying to keep up with so many assessments going on at the same time. I hope this isn't a reflection of real life because if it is then it sucks. Anyway, I've been working on our characters but I've yet to animate the part where the little sprout transitions into our character sprites. I'll work on that this week, hopefully...

So, apart from our character sprites I think we could be with another few sprites of insects, a lilypad, maybe a still of a birds' nest, maybe a leaf fluttering on the stalk still attached to a tree branch...? I don't want too many assets, that might be overkill especially if they're all moving in the background. I could make the leaves an interactive bit of background; it doesn't have to be moving until it's clicked on.

Before I forget, here's a snapshot of our characters in-game. I've yet to sort out the timing of the animation and make their proper transitions but we'll get there...I have a few more weeks to work on this so...I could take it easy for a while...

I need to sort out my assets' folder. I'll work on it later...

Cooking Montage 07

Week 28 - Day 4

I GOT ALL MY SHOTS DONE!! SHOT, SHOT, SHOT, SHOT!! With the exception of shot 06, everything is done and dusted. Well, not completely 100% done yet because I still need to colour them in but I've already fixed the timing for them and they're looking a little bit choppy (haha) but it's a deliberate move. I'm not looking for super smooth, super refined animation. It's a rotoscope and for me, most rotoscope pieces have that slightly stilted look to them. I'm drawing (haha again) a lot of inspiration from the Take On Me music video which has a really rough but pleasantly rustic look to it.

Anyway, I'm pretty confident that I can get all of my shots coloured by the end of the week. I'm putting a little bit more focus on the gaming project because it's been neglected and put on the back-burner for the last couple of weeks...I can finally afford to dedicate some more time onto it which is great. Although, in saying that, it's been really hard to juggle more than 2 projects at a time. I dread the moment when I have to start doing clean-ups for Thaw's animation. It shouldn't be too bad, I don't think. At the very least, not as difficult as the animation we did for Foster Hope.

SO! Agenda for this week, since my schedule is kaput and out the window: COLORING! And then converting them all into SWF files so I can start to composite them for sound editing. I'm not sure if my laptop can handle After Effects since the last time I opened it the whole thing kind of froze and stuttered and crashed on me so there's a good chance I'll be doing most of my editing at school.

Right on. This is me signing off.

PEACE!

Game Project - Team Sprout 04

Week 28 - Day 3

I got distracted by Dane's assessment that I kind of forgot about the group project. Opps. DX But, I was able to catch up with making up some more sprites so in addition to the fire animation and the bunny animation I've also got 4 pieces of ember animation, spiderweb animation, glowworms, fireflies and swaying sprout and a scared bunny animation.

I'm also doing our character designs which I will be drawing up this week and also a lilypad and frog to put somewhere in the level. I'm still a little unsure on how to animate our characters but I think a simple swaying of their flower dresses will be nice to try. I think I'll have them pop out of the ground in a shower of the flower petals they represent.

That's my update for now~ I'll add more later.

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I has a cute frog! My initial sketches were more towards realism but I changed my mind and did a cartoony version instead. It looks good. It fits much nicer with the overall look of the game, I feel. The head moves from side to side. Look at it so happy~

Game Project - Team Sprout 03

Week 27 - Day 3

We had a meeting yesterday to discuss what our level is going to look like and we've managed to get a basic idea down. Tea took what we talked about and got a basic illustration up to better show and clarify exactly what it is we're aiming for in our level design. This includes a tutorial section as well as "secrets" and a "final boss". This is what Tea's done for us:

Taylor and Phoenix are going to be blocking out the level in Unity together using the diagram as shown above.

We also decided to insert ourselves as NPCs in the game via the sprouts the main character will be collecting on the way back to the beginning in the second stage. I've drawn us some concepts using the template of the character Tea previously drew:

I drew Taylor as a lily, Mikayla as a lavender, Phoenix as the phern (fern), myself as a sunflower and Tea as a fuchsia! I'm happy with how these turned out. We so cute~

Cooking Montage 06

Week 26 - Day 5

So I hit a couple more snags with shot 08. The file was too large to bring into Animate and it wouldn't accept an 800mb file which, fair enough. So I took it to school because my version of After Effects was crashing way too much...I tried it to split it into 3 parts instead but then it saved the file as a huge 4.5gig EACH which was totes ridiculous and then media encoder didn't help by a whole lot when I tried that option either. Instead of shrinking the file size from 800mbs to...ehh, I dunno, maybe 300-400mbs but then it kind of...turned into a 1.3gig file instead which, WHAAAAT?? SENSE, NO MAKE?

Another option that Dane suggested was turning it into a PNG or GIF sequence but then it kind of...only belatedly occurred to me that 11mins of an image sequence = A LOT OF PICTURES. So...I stopped that before it blew out of proportion.

Thaw gave me another suggestion of using an OBS screen capture program which helped a lot. I still had to record it into 4 chunks of about 3 minutes each and it managed to get it down to about 50-60mbs per file. Hopefully, that's small enough that Animate will accept and just...let me animate. If not, I can download the program and re-do it as 2 minute chunks and go from there.

I mean, I'm still early enough of that shot that I don't actually need to get it ready for animating right this instance but it'll be good to have everything prepped up and ready for animating, right? Because cooking is the same way: you don't chop a garlic, start cooking it and then start chopping an onion because by the time you're done with the onion the garlic is probably already burnt to a crisp which is just...no beuno. Anyway, yes, yeah, that's my progress for the past couple of hours.

Huzzah~

I'm about...halfway done with shot 02 and hoping to get it completed by tonight and then I'll see about starting shot 03 if it's not too late. In any case, I probably won't need a WHOLE WEEK to dedicate to coloring the frames since style #5 is a pretty solid color base which is nice and easy enough and should probably only take a day or two max. I can use that week, if need be, to catch up on the rest of the shots and getting them completed.

Cooking Montage 05

Week 26 - Day 3

After some consideration, I decided to change the shots in the storyboard a little bit. Not by a huge amount but just enough to make things a little easier for me to read. In any case, not including the parts where the montage is included within the storyboard there are a total of 10 shots within the whole animation. I estimated about 50 seconds give or take a few here and there but I gave myself a little bit of allowance for the opening and end credits.

In a random fit of creativity (so pro) I decided to make my establishing shot a part of the opening sequence so that'll take up about 5 seconds. The text will fade to give a better view of the kitchen as an establishing shot before moving on to the second shot of vegetables being murdered for the greater good that is this assessment. Anyway...

I started drawing up the first shot before I realized, heck, I really need a folder and dedicated animate files with their shots embedded into it so I spent most of tonight just doing that as well as plotting out exactly where I want the frames to start and finish (more or less). I'll be animating in 25fps as well and, if my calculations are correct, there's going to be about 2000 frames in this whole animation, give or take a couple hundred here and there depending on whether I need those extra seconds or not. Most likely not because...I'm predicting this here, but I will be reduced into a puddle of tears by the middle of next week.

Wish my luck...I think I may need it.

...

...

2000 frames? Honestly? What the frick-a-frack was I thinking?

Cooking Montage 04

Week 26 - Day 1

So I've finished all 30 of my concept sketches based on the selected style of Mambo Number #5. I also did up a rough storyboard but Dane said I should try to alternate the angles a bit more which I completely agree with because I hadn't realized how BLAND it looked until it was pointed out to me. I'll do that later tonight and change the angle of the chopping board and the cutting to a different angle while hopefully still sticking to the 180 degree line of my kitchen. Hopefully.

On another note, I've borrowed a camera and tripod to try and do some recording later. It's mine for the next 3 days and I'll be returning it on the morning of the 13th. This should be more than enough time to record everything I need and to change things if need be due to poor lighting. The weather forecast looks a bit dreary for the next week but Dane told me that I could use adjustment layers in After Effects to bring up the hues and saturation of everything if I need to. Hopefully I won't have to resort to that because I'd like to color pick from the actual palette within the recording but I guess we'll see, eh?

I've changed my schedule again because I completely forgot to take into account the actual filming. Hopefully I can get all of the filming done by the time Thursday hits and then I can spend the rest of the week doing a rough animation to follow the basic storyboard.

On my to-do list for this week:
- Storyboard (revised)
- Filming
- Rough animation

I've already got a few snacks to play around with for audio but I'll wait for when I've got the animation done before I do that. I'm thinking I might need to sacrifice one week of audio and sound design for animating but this is just a tentative plan for the moment; it may not come to that. I'm not doing too badly for time but...yeah, we'll see...

Cooking Montage 03

Week 25 - Day 5

I finished all 15 of my target concepts but unfortunately I took an extra day to get them done. Also, I've changed up a little bit of my schedule to allow me to grab some feedback on the possible selected styles I might end up animating my final project in. I'll spend Thursday night, Friday and Saturday morning collecting feedback and compiling votes and, depending on how many certain styles people like the most, I'll do an extra bit of concept work within the selected styles for Saturday afternoon. I'll put the last pieces of concept sketches up on the forum again and spend Sunday replying to them, hopefully coming to a conclusion by the time Monday hits.

I referred back to my schedule again and, apparently, I decided to make myself do the storyboard and the animatic within the first week. (Yay...) I don't think it is feasible for me to attempt the animatic this week but I'll definitely spend some time on the storyboard while waiting for feedback on what the overall animation is going to be like. I'll possibly spend the first couple of days next week to get the animatic sorted before moving to a rough version...

Although, in saying that, depending on how simplistic the storyboard is going to be, maybe an animatic might not be necessary. But, we shall see. It would be good for me to attempt it anyway. Hopefully, I can still keep on top of everything before the end of the second week. If I need to take an extra week out of the audio section then I'll have to do that and sacrifice some of the time that I put aside for the opening and ending credits.

UNTIL NEXT TIME.

Cooking Montage 02

Week 25 - Day 4

I meant to make a post last night but I was tired and I forgot about it pretty much the next minute so here it is now; late.

Anyway, I managed to do more rotoscope concepts last night so that's 13 out of 15 done. I have 2 more to do today and then I'll make the post on my progress and grab some votes for Thursday, Friday or until I get enough votes to satisfy me. I'll work on the 30 extra concept sketches in the weekend in the selected styles and then move on from there to the next part.

As you can see, I've already muddled up my first week's schedule just because I forgot that I really need to ask for feedback from the concepts. I mean, the beginning stages are pretty critical to any project so yeah, I should've given myself a little bit more time to doing concepts as well as receiving feedback. HINDSIGHT!!

I need to review my schedule again but I'll do that once I've got the first concepts up and while I'm waiting for some feedback. I've already got a couple of favorites that I think I'll have some fun (and frustration) playing with but it'll be good to see what other people think!

UNTIL NEXT TIME.

Game Project - Team Sprout 02

Week 25 - Day 2

SPRITES!! ARE!! Cute but also very finicky and it made me angry for a little bit because NEW PROGRAM! Yay!

Anyway, here's a picture of what the animation looks like. I have no video to show because I don't have the program to record from the screen so yay~

I have more sprites to do but ugh, just for the submission this is enough. I'll do more as the week progresses but for now...SUBMISSION FOLDER!

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We had "meetings" throughout our holidays via Facebook group chat which was nice to be able to know where everybody is at in terms of progress. I think we all went a little bit overboard with our assets but it's better to be over-prepared than under.

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Also, I figured that I CAN ACTUALLY KEEP THE FIRE GOING ON A CONSTANT LOOP!! HUZZAH!!!

Here's a screenshot.

Bunny, get away from that fire. Fire bad for you. FIRE BAD.

Anyway, these are the two assets I'm keen on putting in our unity project. =D WHEE~~ I'll package them tomorrow for easy import/export because honestly, Git confuzzles me. DX

Cooking Montage 01

Week 25 - Day 1

Okay, so, I managed to get 2 out of 15 rotoscope concepts done and I am honestly not sure I can get them all done by Wednesday. I have Thursday and Friday to churn out 30 more sketches based on the selected styles and I think I might've bitten off more than I can chew. I spoke to Dane about my concerns about falling behind on my schedule and it's only the first day and I already feel a bit...all over the place. Wow, ain't that a nice feeling?! Anyway, I might cut it down from 15 to 10 concepts and then 30 down to 20 sketches. I'll keep to my original plan for the moment but it may or may not change as the week progresses. I may end up eating Thursday working on the rotoscope sketches UNLESS I absolutely cannot think of anything else to try and add.

I'll be posting my actual progress on my forum but this is more like a...progress bar of what's going on currently with the project so I don't end up making my posts go offtrack where it's not necessary. Phew!

Hopefully, I can get another 2 more done before the night is over but...ugh, I almost dozed off on my cintiq so 1 is more feasible than 2, honestly. X'D Yayyy~~

BACK TO THE GRIND!

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I just dished out 2 more. Get it? Dished out? BA-DA-PSSH!!! SKDFJHSDFJJSDFSDHFKS

Goodnight...

Game Project - Team Sprout 01

Week 25 - Day 1 (Holiday? What is that word?)

So, I pretty much spent the entirety of the holiday preparing for the Overload Convention, and writing up the Literature Review and drawing up some sprites and concepts for the gaming project for Team Sprout. YAY! RELAXATION!! MUCH FUN. SUCH HAPPY.

Anyway...so, I made up some sprites for fireflies (x3) to be dotted all over the place, some ember pieces (x4) of varying shapes, a spiderweb, a fire animation, and A BUNNY!!!! <3 Bunnies~~ <3 That's 10 pieces total because...there can't feasibly only be one piece of ember or one group of fireflies. The bunny can be re-painted into different colors to add more variety but I'll do that later now that I've got a basic animation of the bunny. I also made a rough background concept but it's not the best so I'm not keen on using it. Everything else is top notch, though! Whoop~

I'll add the gifs and the background concepts when I get home BECAUSE I only brought the sprites and I'd rather show the whole thing.

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TA-DA! I AM NOW HOME TO UPDATE THE BLOG ONCE MORE!

Here is the background concept. It's a bit yeecghkdjfs...

As for the rough concepts, I pretty much stuck with my initial ideas but I had to draw a few bunnies and a couple of spiderwebs just to figure out which way I was going to go. It wasn't until I was done with these that I decided, oh, a semi-realistic but "casual" approach would be nice.

Everything else after that was sussed out enough for a clean-up, color and animation. Whoo-hoo!!

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And here are all of the animated frames I've done so far. I may or may not add more as we go on with the project but for now this will work as a basic guide for the interactive background pieces.

Initially, I didn't have a "sleeping state" for the bunny but I changed my mind and decided to draw a couple more frames to make sure it'll loop nicely around and around until I click out of it again. I had 3 bunnies of slightly different styles altogether but this was the one that tugged my heartstrings the most.

I struggled a little bit with embers but I wanted fairly organic shapes as well as "sharp" edges despite using the waterbrushes. I tried to go for grey embers and then really dark embers to have a clearer glowing effect. It's supposed to loop continuously and I'm assuming that that will be the "idle" state so it's just constantly glowing in the background. Whoop!

FIREFLIES! I actually had a lot of them all over the screen but I asked Tea and we decided to cut it back by 30%. There are actually 3 layers currently visible but those layers can be split and independently animated to add a little bit more variety in the scenery.

PHEW. Also, animating fire using waterbrushes IS HARD. LIKE. I DON'T KNOW IF I CAN DO THAT AGAIN! But if need be I will. Just know that I was tear my hair out, lose a bit of sanity, probably shout at my tablet a lot...but I'll get there. X'D

In saying that, this was probably, by far, the worst of the entire lot. Not just fire animation on its' own but also for the fact that I was using a waterbrush to draw everything with. I'm quite...happy with how it turned out. I mean, the reception it received from the rest of the group was awesome so it helped boost my confidence a lot about how it would fit in the scene. I can always alter the colours a little bit if we needed to add a bunch of them together in the same area.

Spiderwebs! This will animate with a nice swaying motion that'll make it look like the wind is moving it. I had 2 concepts, 1 which I refined a little bit more while the other one was a bit too simple. I looked at a few more pictures for some ideas and I really liked this one the best simply because of the weight I could see in the lines behind it. I like that it looks like it "breathes" a little bit when it's animated so that's awesome, too.

I've got all of my sprites converted into PNG format so all that's really left to do is to turn them into animated assets in the Unity Program.

Trans-disciplinary Thinking 12

Week 24 - Day 5

So I made up a production schedule to hopefully keep to...I had a few tweaks here and there and I had to push opening and end credits to the final week of the project rather than the beginning. I thought I could just get it out of the way within the first week or so but I'm sure if I do that I'd end up going back to re-do or add things to it. I shouldn't take up too much time anyway so the final week or earlier, time permitting, will have to do~

Anyway, here's a lookie.

NEXT TERM, HERE I COME!

Trans-disciplinary Thinking 11

Week 24 - Day 4

This is my final draft for the brief I've got to submit for Dane by tomorrow~ I still have a few minor tweaks to think about and consider for the production schedule but I'll get it ready by tonight and hopefully submit it before I turn in for bed. PHEW. Anyway, here's a look at my final draft...that I'm just going to copy and paste straight from google docs...

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Cooking Montage

By Joanne Teo

TRANSDISCIPLINARY FRAMEWORK:

Cooking Montage will be a rotoscope 2D animated film combining techniques from a-ha’s “Take On Me” (1985) music video, the theory of Synesthesia and ASMR (Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response) videos.

In the music video “Take On Me” the actors were first filmed and then drawn over in certain frames to show not just the disparity of the real world VS the comic book world but also the eventual clash and combination of these two separate universes coming together.

Synesthesia is the perception of sounds and the written language beyond “the norm”. It is often the stimulation of a particular sense which triggers the mind and can often induce an automatic and involuntary reaction of the body. Some people can perceive sounds as “tastes” or letters and numbers in certain colors. Going in the same route, ASMR (Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response) plays on the enjoyment of visuals and sounds. It is a “low-grade experience” of different sounds paired together with their complimentary videos meant to induce and promote a positive reaction exhibited via a “body shiver”. It can be completely visual, completely auditory, or combination of the two.

CREATIVE PROCESS:

This animation will have an amalgamation of techniques including live action, rotoscoping and 2D animation. This will explore the concept of synesthesia and ASMR, and combine it with the normal perception of food and cooking by playing with different audio files that are not normally associated with the foods that will be displayed in the animation.

Development for this project will be achieved through a minimum of:

• 15 styles of rotoscope stills
• 30 concept sketches, based on selected styles of rotoscoping
• 20 sound effect files
• Storyboard and animatic

On top of these developments, videos of the live-action clip will be needed to display use of technique and to show progress of the animation. Audio will also be included in the process of animation which will either need to be created new or sourced from royalty-free websites.

SCOPE OF THE PROJECT:

By the end of this project the film will be converted into a digital video and uploaded for submission. The length of the film, not including the opening and ending titles, will be determined through the rough storyboard, animatic and the eventual testing of the footage. The projected time for the final submission is aimed to be a minimum of 30 seconds.

Due to sound design being a new subject, the project timeline will be split evenly over the eight weeks to give both the animation and sound design ample time in order to achieve a good quality video. Multiple animation and sound tests will also be conducted throughout the project to ensure the best audio-to-visual disparancy. Feedback will also be requested during this time.

Programs that will be used during the project will be Photoshop, After Effects, Audition and Animate. Equipments that will be used will include a mic and camera, both borrowed with permission from the school, space to record, a kitchen, a phone and various kitchen tools. As mentioned previously in the Creative Process, audio will most likely either be original or sourced from a royalty-free website.

OBJECTIVES OF THE PROJECT:

The animation will be compiled together into a collage using video effects such as a multiple split screen to better describe the “cooking process” which will be synced with the audio sound effects to give the final submission the best audio-to-visual feedback and audience reaction.

The project will test the human perception of sights and sound; the relationship of how we view our food and the audio that is usually associated with it. While ASMR plays on the “feel good” nature of visual and audio footage, the animation will be done in a manner that gives the audience a sense of general unease instead.

The final submission will include:

• Opening title and ending credits
• Rotoscope animation
• Audio file
• Finished animation

PEER FEEDBACK:

Due to sound design being a new subject, feedback will be required during the animation process to see how well the animation aspect matches with the audio files. Constructive criticism will be asked the synchronization of the audio with the animation will also be sought along with the consistency of the rotoscoped footage, i.e. cleanliness, style, timing, etc.

REFERENCES:

Moss, L. (October 5, 2014). What is synesthesia and what’s it like to have it? Retrieved from http://www.mnn.com/health/fitness-well-being/stories/what-is-synesthesia-and-whats-it-like-to-have-it

Rhino. (January 6, 2010). A-ha - Take On Me (Official Video) Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djV11Xbc914

The ASMRlab. (2016). ASMR - That’s what that head tingling is. Retrieved from http://www.asmrlab.com/

Fairley, R. (October 2014). The horrors of rotoscoping. Retrieved from https://www.videomaker.com/article/f06/17164-the-horrors-of-rotoscoping

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Job done. =D

(Almost there...)

Trans-disciplinary Thinking 10

Week 24 - Day 1

For this week's exercise on Synthesizing we are asked: What is a perfect society? What does society look like when it is working at its best?

My brain immediately went to insects and bugs because they always work together as a whole. Their lives are always centered around the betterment of their community. As a hive-mind in ants and bees their main goal will always be to expand and to grow together. They are communists, in other words. The concept of communism is kind of nice but as humans, as we are currently, we are a corrupt bunch so to be a perfect society is IMPOSSIBLE. It is a pipe dream and, honestly? That kinda sucks.

Okay, first of all, I took a lot of reference from google images. I am in NO WAY CLAIMING THEM AS MY OWN, okay? I'm just using them for the sake of the exercise. Unfortunately, I stumbled across some pretty dodgy pictures so for the sake of my sanity, I'm limited by using just a handful of pictures and cobbling them together to make something fancy...And fancy I got! You can see how the bees are dressed up all nice and dapper and the praying mantis at the front is totally debonair.

I wanted to draw a market place where people are trading goods for other goods but I didn't want to spend too much time on it when I could spend it more on trying to write out the brief for next term's assessment..yay~

Anyway, here's the picture...

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LOTS OF WORK LEFT TO DO.

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I've finished the draft for the brief we're supposed to write for Dane. I've shown it to him and he said I needed to add some more things about doing animation tests during the project which I will do soon. I've also got me a production schedule going and HOPEFULLY, I can keep myself on track with this. Much horrible coming soon...but I hope I can keep up.

MORE LUCK MY WAY, PLEASE.

Trans-disciplinary Thinking 09

Week 23 - Day 4

EXQUISITE CORPSE!!! Sounds pretty gross but the concept of it is pretty amazing. I got Jerwin's frame to transform some of my animation into and I sent my first frame over to Jonathan to have some fun with. I'm not sure what he's gonna do with it but TOTES EXCITED TO SEE EVERYBODY'S RESULTS!!

Here's mine...

...Don't stare at it for too long...

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I mostly found me some Wikipedia websites describing Synesthesia and ASMR. I'll find some other websites eventually that's not wiki-related and use those for my brief instead.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synesthesia#Auditory-tactile_synesthesia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autonomous_sensory_meridian_response

Also, I watched this video of Markiplier that talked VERY LOOSELY of ASMR and it was funny and partial inspiration to go for this route. WATCH IT.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0APwKHtdMCY

Unity 05

Week 23 - Day 2

We don some sprite animation...it was complicated and hard to follow but we got there in the end...

I have no idea how to export as a gif so a single frame is all y'all gon get.

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ASSESSMENT! GOTTA MAKE US SOME SPRITE ANIMATIONS!! YAYYDKFSHDFKJHSDFKJS

Unity 04

Week 23 - Day 2

I forgot to blog last week...so here are some unity screenshots. We made a level, albeit a small one where we've got a circle character jumping from one platform to another. I was surprised by how simple it was, although it was technically horrendous because brain hurty. Also, it made me think a lot of Super Mario Maker. X'D

After that was done I decided to have a little fun with the other bits of asset that came with the sprite sheets. So, I threw in the trees, the bushes, the fence pieces and some clouds. HUZZAH! We've got a little level that is rather reminiscent of Super Mario. XD

-plays the Super Mario theme song- 

Trans-disciplinary Thinking 08

Week 22 - Day 4

I'm thinking of experimenting with Synesthesia, or more specifically, the type of synesthesia that falls under the auditory category, or even more specifically...ASMR, and combining it with cooking but in a way that throws off your perception of how certain food sounds like...

BUT, before that, let's rewind a bit. Synesthesia, in broad terms, is your mind taking a weird trip when certain sounds are introduced. A name could have a taste or a number could have a colour associated with it. It is a stimulation of your mind where certain "triggers" induce an automatic or completely involuntary reaction to your body.

On a similar route, ASMR, or Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response, is a type of low-grade sensation usually made up of positive feelings that invoke a relaxation of the body and a tingling on your skin. This feeling is usually experienced via what you hear.

I want to combine these two together with food, or more specifically, what we THINK of when it comes to food...

...

I'm off to talk to Dane now. I has half an hour before class starts so I'm going to vamoose now.

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And he's busy teaching a class. XD My bad...

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YAY!! Approval~ Now for more research...X'D

Trans-disciplinary Thinking 07

Week 22 - Day 1

ABSTRACTING! YAY! (not really...)

Okay, this is the kind of astract I can get behind. XD We're supposed to create a creature or character that reflects our chosen discipline...but all I can think of is digimon. Like, the digi-evolutions of...let's say, a kitchen hand to a chef to a sous chef until they hit their final digi-evolutions of THE HEAD CHEF. XD KSDJHFSKHFHDSHF

Like, the baby digi-evolution, then the in-training then the rookie stage, the champion stage, the ultimate stage and then THE MEGA STAGE...I reckon the baby stage will be easy enough but the in-training could be a little chef hand (like with Kids Masterchef) before going onto the rookie stage of a kitchen hand, maybe the station chef or the commis chef as the champion, the sous chef as the ultimate, before hitting the mega digi-evolution of head chef. I dunno. I like the idea of a lot of station chefs banding together to create the mega digi-evolution, or something, but would that be too Transformer-esque? WKJSDHFKJSDHF Whatever? The names are going to be funny, and completely unoriginal. XD I'm sure there's a...chef-type digimon out there already but I'm gonna have some fun with this...

Here's a super rough version of the digi-evolutions...

I'll finish off the rest at home because I can't draw on this tablet. DX Not properly, anyway...I might change the design on the ultimate and the mega because they're looking a bit too similar but I want one of the digi-evolutions to do a carrot cake attack because CUTE. The champion will throw dinner plates as their attack. XD

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AT HOME. THIS IS DO.

I like bunnies.

So, my line of thinking is this: you gotta be quick in the kitchen. You gotta be quick, you gotta be smart, you gotta work it. As you can see in this digimon here...they gots a big stirring spoon on their back and a wok on their head. The wok can act as a shield, albeit a small one. XD They've got a knife roll tucked right next to them so they can use their assortment of knives if poop hits the fan and they need an extra attack boost. WHOOP! They've got claws so they can slice and dice their foes, powerful feet to give drop-kicks and a cute fluffy tail that belies their utter strength at bashing a head in. BOOYAH. The wok can pack a serious wallop because it's made of CAST-IRON STEEEEELLLDFKJHSJDFHSKDJFHDS How does this digimon even work? HOW DOES ANY DIGIMON WORK? I have no idea. Leave it to the power of the IMAGINATION...

<3

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Also, I thought a little bit more on the whole trans-disciplinary assessment and I wondered, hey, what about the 12 principles of animation? I could combine that into cooking, right? I mean, a jelly is a whole squash and stretch principle all on its' own...XD

-sobs-

So many weeks have passed and I still have nothing to show for it...

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I started on the brief but there are some changes to be had still. I've more or less settled for this as a starter:

TRANSDISCIPLINARY FRAMEWORK:

Fusion Cuisine will be a live action/stop motion film mixed with 2D animation combining techniques from Steriogram’s “Walkie Talkie Man” (2004), Aardman’s “Wallace and Gromit” series and Buena Vista Pictures Distribution’s “Ratatouille” (2007). The animation will be split into three main parts.

According to Exquisite Taste, it is the: “blending of two or more culinary traditions from different areas to create innovative and often very interesting dishes.” It is the taking of different cooking disciplines (Asian VS Western, American VS Mexican, British VS Middle-Eastern) and combining it to create a new dish/condiment. While the art of combining flavors has been around for decades and even centuries, it is only in the 1970s that chefs and home cooks alike began to really play around with Fusion Cuisine and Gastronomy. It was in the late 1980s that “Molecular Gastronomy” took the culinary world by force, recreating old ideas with new techniques that make chefs like Heston Blumenthal a sensational rave by most food critics.

In the music video “Walkie Talkie Man”, a mixture of live action as well as stop motion was seen interspersed throughout the footage. On top of this, I will also be taking reference from the “Wallace and Gromit” series which was done almost entirely in stop-motion. In “Ratatouille”, the main part which I will be taking from are the moments when Remy is describing the scents, tastes and texture of cheese and seeing them in music and color in his mind’s eyes.

CREATIVE PROCESS:

This animation will have an amalgamation of techniques including live action, stop motion and 2D animation. I will explore the “creation” of Fusion Cuisine; the marriage of different flavors and the birth of a new sensation. This will be described, not through words or exposition, but entirely in a visual story with elements of a “rom-com” movie.

Development for this project will be achieved through a minimum of: ????

• 15 fusion cuisine food items
• 30 concept sketches
• 10 abstract visualisations and perceptions of “fusion cuisine”
• Storyboard and animatic

On top of these developments, videos of basic stop motion footage will be needed to display use of the technique and to show progress of the animation. Music will also be included in the concepts of visualizing fusion cuisine which will either need to be created new or sourced from royalty-free websites.

SCOPE AND OBJECTIVE OF THE PROJECT:

By the end of this project the film will be converted into a digital video and uploaded for submission. The length of the film, not including the opening and ending titles, will be determined through the rough storyboard and animatic and the eventual testing of the footage. I am hoping to achieve at least 30 seconds for the final submission.

Programs that will be used during the project will be Photoshop, After Effects, and Animate. Equipments that will be used will include a camera, borrowed with permission from the school, and various kitchen tools. As mentioned previously in the Creative Process, audio will most likely either be original or sources from a royalty-free website.

The final submission will include:

• Opening title and ending credits
• Live action footage
• Stop motion footage
• 2D animation
• Audio

PEER FEEDBACK:

Not many people understand the term “fusion cuisine” so peer feedback will be asked throughout the project to gauge reactions and to determine the clarity of the explanation through subtext. Feedback will also be asked on consistency of filmed footage, i.e. lighting, item placement and timing. Feedback on the smoothness and cleanliness of the 2D animation will also be sought.

REFERENCES:

Exquisite Tastes. (2013) Retrieved from: http://www.exquisite-taste-magazine.com/all-editions/may-july-2015/east-meet-west/the-history-of-fusion-cuisine.html

Wallace and Gromit. (2016) Retrieved from: http://www.wallaceandgromit.com/

Walkie Talkie Man. (2004) Retrieved from: https://www.nzonscreen.com/title/walkie-talkie-man-2004

Ratatouille. (2007) Retrieved from: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0382932/

Molecular Gastronomy. (2016) Retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molecular_gastronomy

Heston Blumenthal. (2016) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heston_Blumenthal

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HEAD HURTY.