Team Meeting Minutes

Team Meeting Minutes

Team meeting 1: 8th April 2013

In this meeting we sat and looked over the storyboard. By looking at this we came up with ways to make the animation itself relate closely to the story. We thought about how we could make the characters look believable through the image and movement. After discussing the pros and con's of each medium we found that claymation would be the best option for our type of advert. The reasons for this being that we were able to create any props we needed from scratch and give the characters individual details to make the animation more realistic and hard hitting on the audience, along with the claymation being the smoothest moving animations from our tests before. 

Team meeting 2: 12th April 2013

In this session we talked about making the models move and giving them "life". To make it look like the man is walking into the shot and is not just jumping closer and closer to the screen we talked about how we could achieve it looking real. We looked at the leg and how a person would move each section differently to create the one movement. By looking at and following this we were able to form an animation that looked realistic and believable to the audience. 

Team meeting 3: 16th April 2013

The final meeting involved us looking at the animation and discussing what sound we was going to add. We already had the idea of using all natural sounds but we was still troubled on which to use. After sampling a few we were able to come to an agreement on which ones fitted best and which ones would go well and synchronize with the video. 

Visual Effect Editing Guide

Visual Effects Editing Guide

If you are making an animation and you wanted something to hover or to look like it is in mid air there are ways using the software Photoshop to make this happen. This is done over a process of five steps. These include the equipment, the set up, getting your footage, editing the film and then finally, using Photoshop.

The first step is to make sure that you have all the equipment needed for your animation. This will include your characters that you are using, the set where you are going to film, a digital still camera, and  a stand or some string and a clamp. The string and clamp or the stand will be how you get the object to be in mid air. Once all of this has been collected then it is onto the next step. 

The second step to this is to set up the equipment. Once the set is ready and you have placed the camera in a sensible position to view what you want to capture you would need to place the character or object where you want floating either on a stand or tied to a piece of string which is elevated by the clamp. Although the character is suspended in mid air, it is still clear how it is done and does not give the impression of floating. This will be the last step we do which fixes it. 

After the set up you will need to start taking the photo's for your footage in your animation. This would be done by taking images using a still image camera in a sequence and remembering to move the characters slightly each time. This would give the illusion that the, assumable, Lego man is moving. once this is done and you have your sequence you would need to upload your footage onto a computer and start the editing process. 

Once the footage has been uploaded via either SD card, or USB cable, you can edit the footage as you feel fit's. The footage that is uploaded into the editing software Final Cut is then editable to become shorter, longer, a change in colour, or adding video effects. Creating your story and adding audio is the main thing here, as you can add sound affects and dialogue to the animation. Once your story is ready then you can move to the final finishing touches and patch up them errors  using Photoshop. 

With every image used where the character or object is seen on a stand or tied to a clamp you should open it up within Photoshop so you can start to make it look like what you want to achieve. using the colour selector you can choose the right colours of the Lego man and paint over the string hiding it from all shot's. Once all images are edited your animation would look like the character/object is floating and would give this illusion to your audience. 

Movement Analysis

Movement Analysis

The movement for the the thunder, as shown in the images to the right, was easily achieved by simply placing them up with blutack behind the cloud. After every shot I would change the order of the lightening to give the effect and show the audience that it is a cold wet night, and also to set the scene for the dog.

 The picture to the left is of the dog as he is jumping up at the bin. This was more difficult to achieve as the plasticine modal of the dog was heavy and would not support on it's back legs. I succeeded this by sticking the back bottom part of the dog, which was out of shot, to the paper below on the set floor.

The next shot that i had difficulty with due to the movement of the character was where the man comes into shot and bends down to attach the lead to the dog. This lead to me having to look at how a leg would normally move and copying the action. To make it look believable I took cation with is and don the moving in stages. The first stage of it's upper body and how that would lean slightly but still remain upright. The second stage of the left leg and hoe it would have to bend the knee upwards and having to move the waist along with the knee at the same time. The best way for this was to make it stair shaped with a right angle at both joints. The stage to follow was the right led and how the man would be more sitting on that leg by bending it backwards. The final part was looking at the shoes and how they would both be the same except the right foot would be slightly stretched to make it more believable to the audience.

The next three three movement shots are from when the dog is rolling around after playing with a green ball. to do this I simply placed it on it's side, back and then opposite side. However, to achieve it having an affect on an audience I moved small noticeable features about the dog. These included the feet, back, ears, head and tail. The feet I moved throughout the rolling to show that the dog is using some force and to show the audience that the animation has lifelike elements. I moved the back to show that the dog is using some force to roll itself around and almost personifying the plasticine model. The head, tail and ears I moved to show the emotion of the dog.

These two shot's are of the dog walking and getting closer to the ball. This was achieved by leaving the dog on the spot and moving it's body and legs to give an illusion of the dog moving. To support this instead of moving the dog closer to the ball I moved the ball closer to the dog.

To make the logo appear I had the camera pan up in the animation and then the image would be revealed from the top of the screen. This was done by moving the camera up past the dog and then once it was out of shot I would have the camera fixed at a blank wall. I would then place the logo, using blutack, slightly in the shot and then slowly move it down the wall. due to the start where the camera moves up the audience assumes that the camera is still moving up even when the logo is appeared.

Dog's Trust Animated Advert

Annotated Screen Grabs

Annotated Screen Grabs

The tool that came in handy the most was the 'razor blade' tool. This allowed me to cut any specific amount of audio that I needed. Along with this was the 'pen' tool. this allowed me to easily change the volume of the audio at specific times as seen below. the pink lines on the green audio show the volume at which the audio is at. I faded in and out the audio at points to show in the animation the dog is getting further and closer to the camera to give it more of a third dimension.  

To the right is a the bar in which the I could tell if the audio was too loud or not loud enough. the colour would move up and down either in the red zone or the green zone. Depending on how close the colour is to the yellow line depends if the sound is at a level which is suitable for the film.



To the left is the 'bin' this is where all audio and footage is kept. This was a handy way to manage my files well. If
I needed any thing from this i could just click and drag it into my workspace and start editing.




The screen shot on the right is where I edited the audio. The blue arrows indicate where I have edited the clip to have a start point and a finishing point.

Production Log

Production Schedule

PRODUCTION SCHEDULE

Advert   Title: A dog's life for the better

Client: Dog's trust

Producer: Perry Dabbs

Date: 30/05/13

	Date:		Date:
Planning Started:	17/01/13	Completed:	25/01/13
Proposal Started:	28/01/13	Completed:	30/01/13
Agreement from Client:	04/02/13
Audience Research Started:	06/02/13	Completed:	21/02/13
Audience Research Analysed:	28/02/13	Completed:	08/03/13
Drafting Started:	12/03/13	Completed:	27/03/13
Production Started:	10/04/13
Rough Cut Supplied to Client:	25/04/13	Agreed with Client:	03/05/13
Final Version to Client:	24/05/13

Crew Roles

Film title: A dog's life for the better.

Crew Roles

Major Roles

Director:

Definition: Someone that is in charge of the advert.

Producer:

Definition: Someone that helps the advert either by giving ideas and funding the project. 

Director of Photography (D.P.):

Definition: the director of photography is a person that has say over the lighting, colour, filters and camera angle set ups. 

Editor:

Definition: the person who works on and has the say on the final cut of the advert. 

Camera Operator:

Definition: the cameraman/camera operator is somebody that films the footage for the advert. 

Minor Roles

Assistant Camera (A.C.):

Definition: the assistant camera is a person who maintains the image sharpness on what is being filmed. 

Assistant Director (A.D.):

Definition: an assistant director makes sure that everything is in order, for example the cast have done rehearsals, making up a shooting schedule, directing the extras and more. 

Art Director:

Definition:the art director is responsible for the design in the film. From making sure that models and props are made in time for filming the animation to overlooking the set designs and controlling the budget. 

Production Manager (P.M.):

Definition: the production manager is involved in the planning for the film.  

Risk Assessment

Risk Assessment

Advert Title: A Dog's Life For The Better

Producer: Perry Dabbs

Date: 5nd April 2013

Director: Perry Dabbs

Writer: Perry Dabbs

Filming at Ravens Wood School

Possible hazards

Risk - Level of Risk

• Small space with loose wired may be a tripping hazard. - High
• large equipment could fall or be knocked over - Medium
• Using a lot of electrics that could explode or catch fire. - High
• Using large lamps that heat up quickly - High

Solutions

• Will have all wires leading down the side of the room to avoid tripping hazard. 
• I will area off the large equipment using tape. 
• Test all equipment to make sure it is in order and working correctly before use. 
• The light will only be on for when the image for the animation is being taken and will be off at all other times. 

Contacts 

Ravens Wood School - 01689 856050

Directors Mobile - 07794943432

Emergency services

Farnborough Common

Orpington

Kent

BR6 8ND

01689 863000