Reflection

Reflection

This film has been a big eye opener to all the little parts that go into making a short film. I have enjoyed making my film and I'm glad that I made it by myself, but if I were to do it again I would get a team together and share the work load with them. Especially for the model and set building parts as these are not my strong points. I would however like to continue making things towards the production, as it is a skill I would like to improve.

I think that my timing of my character movement has come out very well and I am glad that I took the time to reanimate some of the scenes and tested some of the harder to time scenes as I think the film looks a lot better for it.

I was unsure how the use of 2D images and animation would look along side the stop motion animation but I think that it compliments the animation, and the 2D eyes give my characters more personality.

If I had more time I would work harder in the sound studio on the narration direction. Even though the quality of the sound wasn't very well recorded the first time, I preferred the pacing of the narration to how it sounds now. I like how the new narration sounds, as it is very clear and sits well along the music and the sound effects but there a few pauses that puts the pace of the narration out and sounds quite rushed. This was because I didn't have enough time to be able to get more takes.

I would also have liked to have used lip sync within the film, this couldn't happen while I was filming because the replacement mouths didn't fit my characters properly so they didn't form the shapes I needed. I wanted to do the lip sync in post production using Toon Boom but unfortunately I ran out of time as adding the eyes and mist effects took a lot longer than I thought they would and the post production elements were more of a priority for the finished film than the lip sync so I made the decision not to include any at all.

I have enjoyed making this film because it has been like working for a client, having to be in contact with the author and the publishers to make sure they are happy and also I wanted to do the book justice, as I want to show the finished film to the author and illustrator, in the hopes that they will give me permission to enter it in competitions and show it on my website. This has given me the extra push to finish the film to a good standard.

I have liked working with the green screen, this allowed me to put the different layers of mist between the foreground, character and background. I would have liked to have used a matt painting in the background to give the scene a bit more depth, but I wasn't able to obtain one at the time.

I want to take this project back into production and spend more time perfecting the character movements some day. I would build larger sets, especially the island, dividing it up into a couple of sections to show that the character is moving around a large island. At the moment he looks like is on a very small island and isn't moving very far. I would like to use different fabric for the character's clothes because what I used was quite thin and moved too easily out of shape when I adjusted the character from pose to pose. Also recreating the replacement mouths would be a priority so that I can add in the lip sync. I would also like to complete the film to its original length of five minutes so that the whole book has been recreated.

Making this film has set me up with a wide variety of skills within a production to take forward into other projects and I now know which parts of the production I am better at and which I need to improve on. I have enjoyed animating these characters and I am looking forward to animating my next set of characters. 

Using Green Screen

Using Green Screen

After animating a couple of scenes for my film using a black background and putting them into After Effects, it became apparent that I wouldn't be able to key out the backgrounds easily and the characters would be left looking very dark and not easily scene against the black.

I decided to reshoot these scenes with a green background, this not only made the characters easier to see but I could also prefect the characters movements from the previous take I had done.

Example of removing the green screen

Based on the book Here Be Monsters text © Jonathan Emmett 2013 and illustration © Poly Bernatene 2013, first published by Macmillan Children’s Books.

Test Animations

Test Animations

Scroll Unroll

I am testing the frame rate of the character opening the scroll.

Unfortunately the armature doesn't stand very well on it's own so will try this again with a rig.

Scroll unroll using the character rig.

Beach Walk

Quick walk cycle using the external extension rig.
This cycle would have worked better if I had the tie-downs, so that I could secure the leg the character is putting the weight on to the floor.

Second try at a cycle and I think the key poses are ok, but I think I'm bending the legs too much on the down poses.

Test scene using the wheel

Another take, moving the focus onto the wheel.

Lookout scene test

Removing green screen tests

Test of the sea swaying movement

Overlaying the mist

Monster Scene

Monster Scene

Like the introduction scene, I wanted this image to be 2D so that it bookends the film.

I have used the final image from the book and repainted it to make the colours more simple but striking. This will help the image stand out as it will only be on the screen for a short amount of time to make the viewer want to see the full film to find out what happens.

I have used my island set for the background so that it still fits in with my stop motion film.

Based on the book Here Be Monsters text © Jonathan Emmett 2013 and illustration © Poly Bernatene 2013, first published by Macmillan Children’s Books.

Introduction Scene

Introduction Scene

This is the scene that comes after the titles and the narrator speaks about Captain Cut-Throat.

In the book this image is used before the story begins so I thought the use of 2D with my 3D character would be a good introduction to my film because it is showing an image from the book to start with and will ease the viewer into the next scene that will be stop motion puppets. I will also have the last scene of the film in 2D so that it bookends the film in the 2D book style image.

To do this I made the poster in photoshop and brought it into Toon Boom, along with and a colour changed version of the background used for the cabin scene.

I will then animate a knife being thrown at the poster in Toon Boom.

I will add a photo of Captain Cut-Throat when the puppet is finished.

Adding the knives being thrown was a big task for me as I haven't used Toon Boom much before. I asked one of my class mates to help me with this.

I felt that the first knife being thrown was too slow and didn't look realistic.
I edited the timing and I think that it looks much better.

I have now added the narration to the scene and I think it makes the gaps between the knives being thrown seem shorted than they were before the narration was added.
I still need to add the overlap of the poster on the knives so it looks like they have stabbed through the poster.

Adding the overlap of the poster.

When adding this scene into After Effects I found that the scene ended too suddenly so I have moved the second knife throw forward to give enough time at the end for it to fade out.

I've made this image to use a place setting for when I add the image of my puppet.

Based on the book Here Be Monsters text © Jonathan Emmett 2013 and illustration © Poly Bernatene 2013, first published by Macmillan Children’s Books.

Monster Eggs

Monster Eggs

For the island scene I have had to make two sets of the eggs, one set closed and 

the second cracked open.

These will be attached to the island with blue tac so that they can be changed easily.

I have made the monsters that come out of the eggs from Sculpey.

Based on the book Here Be Monsters text © Jonathan Emmett 2013 and illustration © Poly Bernatene 2013, first published by Macmillan Children’s Books.

New Animatic and Scene Breakdowns

New Animatic

Using the storyboard frames and the narration that I had recorded of Bryan Hancox I made a new animatic so that I could see how long each scene would and how long my characters have got to complete each action within the scene.

Scene Breakdowns

Cabin Scene 18 secs - 432 frames
- 2 secs - Captain holding map.
- 4 secs - Placing map and smoothing out.
- 2 secs - Placing candle on top.
- 3 secs - Leaning back nodding, others agreeing.
- 4 secs - Rat leans forward tapping the paper then leans back.
- 3 secs - Character changing weight and scratching heads.

Wheel Scene 7 secs - 168 frames
- 7 secs - Determined face, side view. Moving the wheel with a slow swaying motion of the camera.

Drinking Scene 4 secs - 96 frames
- 1 sec - Lifts glass.
- 2 secs - Drinks and lowers glass.
- 1 sec - Smiles.

Wheel Scene 3 secs - 72 frames
- 3 secs - Happy face, close up on face. Moving the wheel with a slow swaying motion of the camera.

The Mist Scene 3 secs - 72 frames
- 3 secs - Composited image of the ship swaying to a painted background.

Lookout Scene 4 secs - 96 frames
- 4 secs - Lookout lip sync while pointing towards the mist.

Chef Scene 4 secs - 96 frames
- 4 secs - Chef lip sync while waving the frying pan around.

Nonsense Scene 3 secs - 72 frames
- 3 secs - Captain lip sync, close up of face.

Telescope Scene 6 secs - 144 frames
- 2 secs - Mid shot of Captain with the periscope to his eye.
- 2 secs - Zooming into the lens.
- 2 secs - Close up of island reflected on the lens.

Island Scene 8 secs - 192 frames
- 4 secs - Wide Shot, Captain smiling and looking around.
- 4 secs - Captain walking forward.

Skipping Scene 9 secs - 216 frames
- 9 secs - Picks up the egg, lifts it above his head and skips off with it.

Cracking Sound Scene 5 secs - 120 frames
- 3 secs - Stops skipping, looks around scared.
- 2 secs - Lowers the egg from his head.

Giant Eggs Scene 2 secs - 48 frames
- 2 secs - Mid shot of Captain holding a cracked egg with his arms stretching out. Fast zoom onto Captain's face.

Monster Scene 1 sec - 24 frames
- 1 sec - Still of 2D monster
(To possibly animate at a later stage)

Credits 12 secs - 528 frames

Based on the book Here Be Monsters text © Jonathan Emmett 2013 and illustration © Poly Bernatene 2013, first published by Macmillan Children’s Books.

Sound

Sound

As I will only be animating the key parts of the story I won't be creating a soundtrack for the trailer as this will only feature in the finished film.

The text from the book has been narrated to tell the story. Rather than casting different actors for each character's voice, this will all be part of the narration.
The author Jonathan Emmett made a trailer for the book where he narrates part of the story and he changed his voice for the different characters this way too.

(the blog post I wrote about the sound recording can be found HERE)

The sound effects will be subtle, sea and water effects so that it doesn't distract from the narration.

On the University library website there is a BBC SFX CDs that can be taken out from The Hive and they are all royalty free. I will be looking through these to see if there are any suitable for my trailer.

https://capitadiscovery.co.uk/worc-ac/items?query=bbc+sound+fx+cd

I have also downloaded some background sounds from Freesound.org

Music

For the background music I sourced the songs Sportsmans Hornpope and Rawnee Reels by Firepit Collective to be used throughout the film. I also found the song Santa Maria by Rory Mcleod for the credits.
I liked these songs because they had a pirate/sea theme to them and they also fitted well with the uplifting feel of the film.

Narration recording

When I put the background music together with the narration the voice sounded too distant and didn't connect properly with the film and music. After a sound technician reviewed the sound it was apparent that there was too much ambient noise within the recording. As the narration is a big factor of my film I have made the decision to re-record the narration.

Based on the book Here Be Monsters text © Jonathan Emmett 2013 and illustration © Poly Bernatene 2013, first published by Macmillan Children’s Books. 

Lighting

Lighting

To light my sets I will be using Dragonframe, using this software I can control the lighting through the computer, changing the atmosphere from scene to scene.

The atmosphere will be dark and gloomy during the majority of the film; this is to show how the characters are feeling while surrounded in the mist and alone in the dark sea.

The surroundings will begin to lighten when the Captain starts to see the outline of the island. When he reaches the shore it is completely clear of mist and the lighting can be bright. This will uplift the audience along with the mood of the Captain, as he believes he has found his fortune.

In preparation for lighting my sets I had a demonstration of lighting an armature, where I got to practice using the software to control the lighting and the camera.

Titles And End Credits

Titles And End Credits

I wanted the titles to have the same text as the front cover of the book.

Here are a few examples of the font that I would be using.

Titles

The information will include:

Here Be Monsters
By Louise Baylie
Written By Jonathan Emmett
Illustrated By Poly Bernatene

I want mist to be surrounding the title and the other information.

The mist getting denser until the text has gone and then the next image to be of captain Cut-Throat having daggers thrown at his wanted poster.
Within the wanted posted I wanted to replace the original illustration with an image of my stop motion model.

Credits

For the credits the information will include:

Slide one
Narration By Bryan Hancox

Slide two
Created And Directed By Louise Baylie

Slide three
Based On The Book "Here Be Monsters" By Jonathan Emmett
Original Illustrations By Poly Bernatene
First Published By Macmillan Children's Books

Slide four
Special Thanks To
Talon Baylie, Isabelle Kennedy, David Baylie, James Booth

Editing the timing.

I have also made the credits as a rolling scene to see if that looks any better.

After looking at the two scene's together, I think that the titles at the beginning will be too long for a trailer. So I will be cut all the text other than the title of the film and just have my name, the authors and illustrator's at the end of the film.

Adding the sound effects I found on freesound.org I have reworked my title scene.

This is the first attempt at adding the mist coming across the frame.

Based on the book Here Be Monsters text © Jonathan Emmett 2013 and illustration © Poly Bernatene 2013, first published by Macmillan Children’s Books. 

Captain Cut-Throat's Head

Captain Cut-Throat Head

After making the heads for the secondary characters out of Sculpey and then hand painting them. (Blog post "here") I thought that the Captain's silicone head will stand out and look too different from the others.

Because of this I have decided to make Captain Cut-Throat's head in Sculpey as well.

It will have the same design as the silicone one and if anything it will be able to have more detail in the painting of it than what I could achieve with the silicone mould.

Based on the book Here Be Monsters text © Jonathan Emmett 2013 and illustration © Poly Bernatene 2013, first published by Macmillan Children’s Books. 

Lip Syncing

Lip Syncing

Although I have a narrator speaking the words of the characters, I still want them to speak the words.

For this I will need to look at what mouth movements they will need to make by looking at the script and by listening to the narration.

Creating the basic mouth shapes as replaceable mouths is where I am going to start. For my Sculpey made character heads I cut out the lower part of the mouth and put in magnets so I can replace the mouths easier.

The faces of Coraline.

Speaking parts in the script

The Lookout - Turn back!

Ship's Cook - Here be monsters! DOWN HERE! Inside the mist!

Captain Cut-Throat - Nonsense! Monsters simply don't exist.

Based on the book Here Be Monsters text © Jonathan Emmett 2013 and illustration © Poly Bernatene 2013, first published by Macmillan Children’s Books. 

Link To Preproduction Work

Preproduction Work

http://preproductionanim.blogspot.co.uk/

Research For Mist/Fog Effects

Research For Mist/Fog Effects

In the story of my film, the mist plays a big part. It is what hides the monsters from the view of the Captain. I wanted to make sure that the mist looked realistic. I have looked at ways of creating it during production, including using a smoke machine.

In this blog (Storm The Castle Smoke Effects) I found someone who had used a fog machine for their film and it seems to be quite effective. unfortunately for health and safety reasons I couldn't use the smoke machine.

In Production

To create fog while shooting a stop motion film flags many problems, like continuity, consistency of the fog and the focus of the camera. When trying to make a subtle misty atmosphere, animating material to look like fog could deter the eye away from the characters if not done correctly.

Making realistic fog without using a smoke machine is quiet difficult and from looking at other projects similar to mine it isn't something that is attempted often.

I found this fog test on YouTube using wool and I don't like how static it looks.

As it looked like I wouldn't be able to create the mist during the production of my film, the next step was to research into creating the mist in post-production.

Post Production

I wanted to make sure I had done my research and practiced using these effects in after effects before hand in so that I didn't spend too much time in post production learning how to use the software.

https://www.rocketstock.com/blog/how-to-create-realistic-fog-in-after-effects/

In this blog the person explains how to apply a layer of mist to a still image, this will be helpful towards my project but the mist may seem too static next to my moving characters.

Laika also use computer software to create the atmospherics in their films. I found this blog showing the process of their production.
https://www.fxguide.com/featured/thinking-outside-the-boxtroll/

With the idea of creating the mist for my project in post production, I researched how it could be created using the software I already have at home, After Effects.

I found this fog tutorial on 

http://cgi.tutsplus.com/tutorials/realistic-fog-without-3rd-party-plug-ins--ae-7376

and it explains how to create fog in after effects without having to download any plug-ins.
I thought I could use this tutorial and make the fog effect with a lower opacity to look more like mist.

Using this tutorial I have been able to apply a mist layer to my test animations.

Presentation

Based on the book Here Be Monsters text © Jonathan Emmett 2013 and illustration © Poly Bernatene 2013, first published by Macmillan Children’s Books. 

Proposal Form

Negotiated Study in Animation	Module Title:	45 Credit Negotiated	Module Code:	ANIM3000
	Student Name:	Louise Baylie
	Area of Study	Stop Motion

Title of Project:	Here Be Monsters
Synopsis:	A short trailer for the popular children's book "Here Be Monsters" made in stop motion.

Treatment:

I aim to make a 2-minute trailer for the film adaption of the popular children’s book “Here Be Monsters”. This book is a light-hearted story about a greedy Captain and his crew going on a journey through the perilous mist to reach treasure. The Captain ultimately learns the hard way that selfishness and greed will leave him alone and empty handed. As this is a trailer, only the main parts of the story are shown, leaving the audience questioning what was really hiding within the mist, and what happened to Captain Cut-Throat and his crew. The film will be made in stop motion because it will bring the illustrations to live with still keeping the look of the characters that the readers of the book will recognize. The atmosphere will be dark and gloomy during the majority of the film; this is to show how the characters are feeling while surrounded in mist and alone in the dark sea. The surroundings will begin to lighten when the Captain starts to see the outline of the island. When he reaches the shore it is completely clear of mist and the lighting can be bright. This will uplift the audience along with the mood of the Captain, as he believes he has found his fortune. This will be achieved by using the software Dragonframe that is linked to the lighting in the stop motion room. The lighting can be programed to change throughout the timing of the animation. As I will only be animating the key parts of the story I haven't created a soundtrack for the trailer as this will only feature in the main film. The text from the book will be narrated to tell the story. Rather than casting different actors for each character's voice, this will all be part of the narration. The sound effects will be subtle, sea and water effects so that it doesn't distract from the narration. The camera will be mounted onto a moving tripod rig that I can control through Dragonframe. I am using this rig so that I can animate the camera to sway like it would on a ship at sea. Also this can be used to follow the character as he skips along the sand on the island. This technique will be helpful for when I need to mask out the character rig as I can run the camera movement along the scene without the character in it so erase the rig but will be able to still see the background behind.

Aims

To create up to two minutes of film that can be continued after University.

To develop my stop motion character animation skills.

To put across the story effectively.

Week	Date	Activity plan	Tutorials	Tutorials
1	1st February	Write proposal form/Finishing sets
2	8th February	Presentations/Finishing models and sets
3	15th February	Submit Proposal form/Finishing models and sets
4	22nd February	Blocking character movements/Test animations/Character movement
5	29th February	Filming
6	7th March	Filming
7	14th March	Filming
	Easter	Sound editing/Filming
	Easter	Sound editing/Filming
8	4th April	Filming/Editing
9	11th April	Filming/Editing
10	18th April	Screening
11	25th April	Screening
12	2nd May	Editing
13	9th May	Editing

Student signature		Date
Tutor signature		Date

Negotiate assessment criteria with tutor

	Generating and selecting ideas	Subject-specific knowledge: understanding, attributes, skills
x	Investigation, enquiry & visualization
x	Process &/or concept development
x	Research & analysis of information, contextualisation & critical thinking	Generic knowledge and understanding, attributes and skills
	Collaborative & process management
	Communication