Tuesday, 10 June 2008
Fossil Bottle
Redid texture on it, but still wasn't perfect. Glass tutorials on net wouldn't work so this had to do
Created smokey effects of afterfx
created smokey effects over the cave on intro and when man falls down rock near end.
-used a royalty free video of smoke and used a mix of masking, feathering and opacity changing to make it look nice.
-used a royalty free video of smoke and used a mix of masking, feathering and opacity changing to make it look nice.
music
Couldn't use music track because of copyright and no permission so had to find other tracks (which weren't good)
3D animation Complete
The entire 3D animation had been completely redone by myself. It looks a lot better in my opinion but still isn't perfect. But with no time it is still adequate.
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I re created all the 3D animation from scratch
I didn't like Heba's 3D animation because it was too choppy so I have decided to redo it.
It doesn't look like the 2D fits with the 3D at the moment, this is because I re did the entire camera movements FIRST then changed the 3D rock animations to fit in afterwards.
These only show the 2D being re done. Except the last whcih has a little secondry 3D animation added in on the floor.
I have also textured the Fossil bottle with basic transparency and the fossil logo.
It doesn't look like the 2D fits with the 3D at the moment, this is because I re did the entire camera movements FIRST then changed the 3D rock animations to fit in afterwards.
These only show the 2D being re done. Except the last whcih has a little secondry 3D animation added in on the floor.
I have also textured the Fossil bottle with basic transparency and the fossil logo.
My 'run out of time' 2D creature animation
Time was running short for the Rave deadline and there was no 2D creature completed. Aah! So I.. rushed it. And it's obvious. This was the result.. brace yourself.
2d animation setup in maya
The picture above shows how I set up the first scene in Heba's 3D wall Maya scene. I got a Plane and placed the 2D animation sequence onto the plane as an image sequence. I then parented the plane to the camera, but only when the plane was in the exact right distance away from the camera. To determine this exact distance (or at least almost exact) I turned on th efilm/resolution gate on the Maya camera and adjusted the plane to fit the box frame on the camera display. When this was near enough the same I parented it (locked it to) the camera.
This is so that when the camera moves the animation plays directly infront of it indefinitely. This is perfect reference for keyng the camera correctly in time with the 2D animation as the animation will be playing infront of it, frame by frame.
Below are just a few shots showing that I worked out how to take away the white background of the image sequence in Maya also.. if needed.
First 2D Sequence
The first 2D scene is done! And I'm quite impressed myself. Fair enough It's mostly rotoscoped but It still turned out better than I hoped.
Remember that it is set to widescreen (16:9) TV, so on a computer format it'll seem a bit squashed.
Remember that it is set to widescreen (16:9) TV, so on a computer format it'll seem a bit squashed.
Heba's lighting
Heba has been working on the lighting and I helped her with the final placement. the lighting looked great but it was a little bright at the front so I helped her position them at teh end of teh cav emore and tweake the colour slightly to a more fiery colour. Other than that though I was really pleased with teh lighting she made.
She also modelled and animated the fire.
Filmed reference for 2D scenes
These are some videos I shot to use as reference for the 2D animation of the male character.
They are organised in seperate parts that could be easily fitted together, because the overall idea is that I animated over one part and when it is done I can give it to Heba so she can start the camera animation in 3D. This is so we can both be working at the same time, but still on our own areas.
Ok there's an error with uploading some of the videos so you can only get to few the first part of the reference, but you get the idea.
They are organised in seperate parts that could be easily fitted together, because the overall idea is that I animated over one part and when it is done I can give it to Heba so she can start the camera animation in 3D. This is so we can both be working at the same time, but still on our own areas.
Ok there's an error with uploading some of the videos so you can only get to few the first part of the reference, but you get the idea.
Starting on 2D
As the title has stated I'm starting on the 2D side of the animation. For a test I thought i'd do a 2D illustrator image with a few graphics just to see what the style could look like.
It didn't take very long and is pretty rough in areas but it's just to show an example of what the animation could look like.
It didn't take very long and is pretty rough in areas but it's just to show an example of what the animation could look like.
Heba's cave model
This is an image of the 3D cave model Heba is working on.
I think it is a good start except a lot needs to be changed in order for it to be good for our commercial.
For starters, the cave needs to be deeper so when it zooms in the beginning it will seem like a much more immersible/realistic cave.
I also felt the shape was too square for a cave, it should have a lot more curves, and jagged pieces also, a real mix, definitely not as square as it is now.
The texture wasn't bad but I felt it could be more realistic as the texture used, though it looked like rock, didn't really look like cave rock.
I found a texture online that I felt did do a better job and tested it out. The rocks are also slightly smoother just to test.
Heba's frames
Heba's updated storyboard frames.. I couldn't be bothered to show them all as bloggers image uploader is incredibly annoying. And presumably Heba has put all them up on her blog anyway. Just an update on what she is doing.
Finished animatic - although rough
Yeah.. it's a bit sketchy, but hopefully you'll get the general idea.
Finalising story
Finalising story and EXACTLY what will happen when music plays. (in time with music)
Now that the music is done (at least enough for now) I have been working on what exactly is going to be happening in this commercial. After a while I came up with what exactly would happen.
The commercial would start off with the screen zooming into the dimly lit cave. It would fade to a clsse up of a wall showing the 2D artwork/silhouette of a man. A 2D beast silhouette will then emerge from the top right of the screen.
The 2D male character will then slowly lean downwards to pick up a spear off the ground. He will then quickly raise it up in defence against the creature and the screen will zoom into the spearhead (all in time with the music). After this it will cut back to the man who will then use the spear (or whatever weapon it is) to destroy the ground underneath him.
The character will then slide down a shoot of rock with the beasts arms coming out from several directions trying to grab him (travelling right down the slope)
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The character will then smack into a rock on the way down and go flying across the wall (the camera following the character the entire time). He will land with a thud (again in time to music) and raise himself off the ground. He will look up and it will cut to a zoom in of his head with the creatures face next to his. It will cut back with him running the opposite direction (left). He will then jump over a rock in his way and, upon landing, will break the floor yet again. This time trapping him in a hole. The creature will then creep down the hole and towards the character. At the last few seconds it will turn into the silhouette of a woman and will thrust the male character against the wall. This is what will then cause the screen to shake and the 3D rock to fall down the screen and crack open on the floor. This is also where the music will fade out.
The screen will then cut to the broken rock and will slowly zoom in onto the Fossil Product with which the end part of the music will fade in.
Also, throughout the animation, everywhere the man travels, stylised 2D graphics will emerge and possibly at the end with the creature/woman transition
Here are the frames I drew for it also.
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Now that the music is done (at least enough for now) I have been working on what exactly is going to be happening in this commercial. After a while I came up with what exactly would happen.
The commercial would start off with the screen zooming into the dimly lit cave. It would fade to a clsse up of a wall showing the 2D artwork/silhouette of a man. A 2D beast silhouette will then emerge from the top right of the screen.
The 2D male character will then slowly lean downwards to pick up a spear off the ground. He will then quickly raise it up in defence against the creature and the screen will zoom into the spearhead (all in time with the music). After this it will cut back to the man who will then use the spear (or whatever weapon it is) to destroy the ground underneath him.
The character will then slide down a shoot of rock with the beasts arms coming out from several directions trying to grab him (travelling right down the slope)
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The character will then smack into a rock on the way down and go flying across the wall (the camera following the character the entire time). He will land with a thud (again in time to music) and raise himself off the ground. He will look up and it will cut to a zoom in of his head with the creatures face next to his. It will cut back with him running the opposite direction (left). He will then jump over a rock in his way and, upon landing, will break the floor yet again. This time trapping him in a hole. The creature will then creep down the hole and towards the character. At the last few seconds it will turn into the silhouette of a woman and will thrust the male character against the wall. This is what will then cause the screen to shake and the 3D rock to fall down the screen and crack open on the floor. This is also where the music will fade out.
The screen will then cut to the broken rock and will slowly zoom in onto the Fossil Product with which the end part of the music will fade in.
Also, throughout the animation, everywhere the man travels, stylised 2D graphics will emerge and possibly at the end with the creature/woman transition
Here are the frames I drew for it also.
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Working with music
At the moment I am working on the music that will be used for our commercial. We have decided to use the track "E-Talking" by Soulwax. We listened to various tracks and styles but none other than this track sounded good enough for our type of commercial.
I believe that in order for the commercial to flow properly, both in story and timing,
the track needs to be edited to the 30 seconds gap the commercial has so that the story can fit around it.
I often find it easier to create a story around a track of music rather than the other way around.
What I have edited I think is good enough for the moment. The track unedited had a long intro which is far from ideal, so it had to be cut down. Luckily, noticed that around 40 seconds in the buildup ends on a nice beat and then the beat changes. This was brilliant to start off with and the track continues on a nice beat after this so hardly any editing was required. Of course though it needs to end.
We had previously decided we want the Fossil product falling at the end and this is a good place to and a fade out to the music or even a straight cut.
Below is a screenshot of the entire music track edited. The music track is in green. The blue is the intro and outro animatic images.
As shown above I tried this with a fade out and a fade in back when the camera shows the Fossil product on the floor and I think it worked well.
It just needed one more minor touch to the end bit of the edited music track. This was to add a lowpass effect to the sound output. This made the end sound more tinny or like radio. I felt that this would create less emphasis on the music and more on the imagery on the screen (such as the Fossil Product).
Below is the Lowpass I used on the end of the track.
I believe that in order for the commercial to flow properly, both in story and timing,
the track needs to be edited to the 30 seconds gap the commercial has so that the story can fit around it.
I often find it easier to create a story around a track of music rather than the other way around.
What I have edited I think is good enough for the moment. The track unedited had a long intro which is far from ideal, so it had to be cut down. Luckily, noticed that around 40 seconds in the buildup ends on a nice beat and then the beat changes. This was brilliant to start off with and the track continues on a nice beat after this so hardly any editing was required. Of course though it needs to end.
We had previously decided we want the Fossil product falling at the end and this is a good place to and a fade out to the music or even a straight cut.
Below is a screenshot of the entire music track edited. The music track is in green. The blue is the intro and outro animatic images.
As shown above I tried this with a fade out and a fade in back when the camera shows the Fossil product on the floor and I think it worked well.
It just needed one more minor touch to the end bit of the edited music track. This was to add a lowpass effect to the sound output. This made the end sound more tinny or like radio. I felt that this would create less emphasis on the music and more on the imagery on the screen (such as the Fossil Product).
Below is the Lowpass I used on the end of the track.
Sunday, 11 May 2008
Presented Idea
We thought about these ideas for a while and we thought of this idea..
This time we focused our idea on a cave. The synopsis of the video was that there would be a cave, dimly lit with a fire on the ground. Cave art on the walls of a man and women would come alive. One of these women would start playing with the man. Pushing him around and generally having fun. Whilst all this is happening, this is where we would experiment with these types of graphics.
This, I hope, will give the advert both it's subtle sexiness (of the man and woman flirting and messing around) and the vintage design of the graphics appearing all over the walls. It is important to have some sort of contrast between the characters actions though, as it is a men's fragrance, not a uni sex (or both sex range) product.
We were happy enough (so far) with this idea though, that this is what we presented to the product design class.
They thought the idea was OK, but believed it needed to be more modern, and that the vintage style needed to be shown more.
This leads us onto the next stage.. finalising exactly what is going to happen in the scenes. This is both direction and styling.
This time we focused our idea on a cave. The synopsis of the video was that there would be a cave, dimly lit with a fire on the ground. Cave art on the walls of a man and women would come alive. One of these women would start playing with the man. Pushing him around and generally having fun. Whilst all this is happening, this is where we would experiment with these types of graphics.
This, I hope, will give the advert both it's subtle sexiness (of the man and woman flirting and messing around) and the vintage design of the graphics appearing all over the walls. It is important to have some sort of contrast between the characters actions though, as it is a men's fragrance, not a uni sex (or both sex range) product.
We were happy enough (so far) with this idea though, that this is what we presented to the product design class.
They thought the idea was OK, but believed it needed to be more modern, and that the vintage style needed to be shown more.
This leads us onto the next stage.. finalising exactly what is going to happen in the scenes. This is both direction and styling.
Saturday, 10 May 2008
Brainstorming.. or is it Mindmapping. Ideawebbing?
For our brainstorming session we came up with a few ideas, but didn't really have anything concrete but its a good starting point.
General main points coming out of the brainstorm were things like mud, being earthy and brown in relation to the literal sense of the word fossil (as mentioned before). Having mud in it would assume being the basis of it's environment, so it led us to locations such as fields, forests, rocks, caves and cliffs.
One main idea we had involved a wood and a cliff with a waterfall. The waterfall would be flowing with the fragrance of the Fossil bottle at the top and bringing fossils in the cliffs surface to come to life. Our ideas included both men and women (perhaps cavemen and women) and even prehistoric creatures coming to life. They were only to come alive within the rock, so as if they're still half inside the rock, or even made of rock, like fossils can sometimes look like.
We also had another idea connected with this one, with a silhouette of a man ontop of the waterfall putting the fragrance on. Afterwards a few silhouettes of women would emerge as if being lured in by the fragrance.
This was too much like Lynx adverts and doesn't really work with our product, being more up market, so this idea died pretty quickly.
After looking at some more advertisements of men's fragrance's I came across this video which I LOVED. the song works well (although I ma not sure it is the original of this advert) but mainly the graphics involved within is what really caught my attention.
It's such a fun style of animation. We thought of perhaps doing similar effects, either 3D or even 2D but in a similar style of black and white modern imagery.
Of course, doing something too similar to this would be implausible. The main problem, which affects every other idea also, is the fact there is an actor in it. Filming actors for the advert isn't a good idea because it would not only take too much time casting and filming, then editing and chroma keying the actors, but we would also have to find the right actor for the advert.
By this, I mean finding attractive, and probably athletic actors. Finding such a specific type of actor in such a small space of time, inside a small college, without funding just wouldn't even be worth looking into.
This then leads to creating 3D actors to replace the actors we can't use. But again it is not a good idea. This would mean creating a really realistic character which wouldn't make sense and is just incredibly impractical.
So..
We thought of having actors, and it won't work, we then thought about creating them in 3D, but that's even less of a good idea, so how do we have characters in the advertisement?
This then leads to stylised 3D or 2D or even straight up 2D, but which hides most of the detail, given the illusion that there are characters moving around, rather than showing real characters (which can't happen).
In other words, I mean having something like 2D characters done in a certain style, but one that matches the brief. Or really something like silhouettes of people doing all the actions we would have had from live actors, kind of like the ipod adverts.
..but without the bright colours of course.
General main points coming out of the brainstorm were things like mud, being earthy and brown in relation to the literal sense of the word fossil (as mentioned before). Having mud in it would assume being the basis of it's environment, so it led us to locations such as fields, forests, rocks, caves and cliffs.
One main idea we had involved a wood and a cliff with a waterfall. The waterfall would be flowing with the fragrance of the Fossil bottle at the top and bringing fossils in the cliffs surface to come to life. Our ideas included both men and women (perhaps cavemen and women) and even prehistoric creatures coming to life. They were only to come alive within the rock, so as if they're still half inside the rock, or even made of rock, like fossils can sometimes look like.
We also had another idea connected with this one, with a silhouette of a man ontop of the waterfall putting the fragrance on. Afterwards a few silhouettes of women would emerge as if being lured in by the fragrance.
This was too much like Lynx adverts and doesn't really work with our product, being more up market, so this idea died pretty quickly.
After looking at some more advertisements of men's fragrance's I came across this video which I LOVED. the song works well (although I ma not sure it is the original of this advert) but mainly the graphics involved within is what really caught my attention.
It's such a fun style of animation. We thought of perhaps doing similar effects, either 3D or even 2D but in a similar style of black and white modern imagery.
Of course, doing something too similar to this would be implausible. The main problem, which affects every other idea also, is the fact there is an actor in it. Filming actors for the advert isn't a good idea because it would not only take too much time casting and filming, then editing and chroma keying the actors, but we would also have to find the right actor for the advert.
By this, I mean finding attractive, and probably athletic actors. Finding such a specific type of actor in such a small space of time, inside a small college, without funding just wouldn't even be worth looking into.
This then leads to creating 3D actors to replace the actors we can't use. But again it is not a good idea. This would mean creating a really realistic character which wouldn't make sense and is just incredibly impractical.
So..
We thought of having actors, and it won't work, we then thought about creating them in 3D, but that's even less of a good idea, so how do we have characters in the advertisement?
This then leads to stylised 3D or 2D or even straight up 2D, but which hides most of the detail, given the illusion that there are characters moving around, rather than showing real characters (which can't happen).
In other words, I mean having something like 2D characters done in a certain style, but one that matches the brief. Or really something like silhouettes of people doing all the actions we would have had from live actors, kind of like the ipod adverts.
..but without the bright colours of course.
More research notes
These two images are also what Alex had used for his research. They don't really show the sexy side as much, but they show the nice contemporary vintage look in its' industrial styled design.
I think these earthy colours like the browns would be perfect to represent Fossil, comparing these colours to the literal meaning of the company's name. The shadow designs of the first and the flowery graphics of the second pictures are also trademarks of vintage design. But although they are, I fear they will seem too feminine for a men's fragrance.
Priliminary Research
The first research we have is the research given to us by Alex. Alex is who has created the concept for the Fossil Fragrance, so seeing the research he used to help him will surely benefit us in understanding exactly how he envisions this product. This will then help us make sure we are making the advertisement exactly right for the product.
There isn't many images he gave us, but here is what we were given.
As explained by Alex himself, all these advertisements for other fragrances show a subtle sexiness that is what he would like for the Fossil fragrance.
I believe he wants to portray passion in a quite subtle way and with both sexes involved. Not like an advert that show a half-to all naked man jumping through water.. and that's it.
Like this bad advert..
These advertisements shown above also demonstrate the use of contemporary vintage fashion in the style of the models clothing.
I must admit, I was quite confused about what exactly he wanted from 'modern vintage' but he helped me understand with this picture
He explained how this picture is a good example of 'modern vintage'.
Old style clothes and car, but used (in a fashionable) modern way.
There isn't many images he gave us, but here is what we were given.
As explained by Alex himself, all these advertisements for other fragrances show a subtle sexiness that is what he would like for the Fossil fragrance.
I believe he wants to portray passion in a quite subtle way and with both sexes involved. Not like an advert that show a half-to all naked man jumping through water.. and that's it.
Like this bad advert..
These advertisements shown above also demonstrate the use of contemporary vintage fashion in the style of the models clothing.
I must admit, I was quite confused about what exactly he wanted from 'modern vintage' but he helped me understand with this picture
He explained how this picture is a good example of 'modern vintage'.
Old style clothes and car, but used (in a fashionable) modern way.
The Brief
OK so the brief for this project is as follows.
The product Design students have fully designed the concept of a luxury item. The group I'm working with has designed a bottle of Men's fragrance for the watch company Fossil.
It is our job (me and Heba) to create a 30 second promotional video for this product. With a quick talk with the student who designed the idea, we have learnt that the advertisement MUST include the following.
Sexiness and a Contemporary Vintage Style.
Of course that leaves the general idea for the advertisement very much wide open. Which is good, and as long as we find a way to include these aspects we should be fine with the project.
The product Design students have fully designed the concept of a luxury item. The group I'm working with has designed a bottle of Men's fragrance for the watch company Fossil.
It is our job (me and Heba) to create a 30 second promotional video for this product. With a quick talk with the student who designed the idea, we have learnt that the advertisement MUST include the following.
Sexiness and a Contemporary Vintage Style.
Of course that leaves the general idea for the advertisement very much wide open. Which is good, and as long as we find a way to include these aspects we should be fine with the project.
Wa
Right, I want to catch up with everything I've done so far before I start blogging so it's all in order.
These will be up ASAP
These will be up ASAP
Thursday, 8 May 2008
First blog
AAahhhh. It's really really late, but that's what you pay for when you DON'T start your blog off straight away.
Apparently, because I left my blog without creating a first post, google flagged the blog as 'suspicious'. So I've created this new blog AND POSTED ON IT.
Expect regular updates from me and my work from now on.
Apparently, because I left my blog without creating a first post, google flagged the blog as 'suspicious'. So I've created this new blog AND POSTED ON IT.
Expect regular updates from me and my work from now on.
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