2D Animator – Director – Compositor
Today I created a base project for the entire group to work from. It has the 3D camera and Maya render ready-synced up with the audio. I’ve also left a placeholder asset as a locator in each person’s project so putting their assets into 3D space isn’t too much hassle, like it can be finding the first time.
Because we’re all working from the same base background of the 3D render, I’m going to create a master After Effects project that I will split into 5 compositions for each animator. This way, I can set up the 3D camera and sync the audio for everyone. Hopefully, this will also make combining the projects easier when it comes to the edit.
For some parts of the project, assets will need to overlap from section to section. I think it’s worth saying now that I will manage the combining of the projects whether that means stitching them together in post or combining them before the final render.
Today I will show the group how to combine assets and with the render from maya to create the fake 3D effect so we can begin working properly.
A couple of days ago, I asked Ruth, being the best illustrator in the group, to produce a style sheet. I asked for her to make something achievable for everyone in the group. Her feeling on this was that everyone should be able to use their own style but she agreed to do it anyway.
This is what she produced and I aim to keep to this pretty rigidly.
Yesterday and today I sat down with Emily and a copy of everyone’s animatics to create the 3D camera that would observe the tower. We analysed each person’s animatic to create the most accurate replication of the camera movement they had tried to convey. I directed Emily in composing each of the shots while she handled the software.
Something I considered when going into the task was to not move the camera in a way that would make it overly obvious our assets are totally flat. An example of how I avoided this is having the camera track directly backwards away from Ruth’s shot on the balcony.
Our first attempt we think is pretty successful but we will see what Jon has to say in our next session.
Here’s the demo for tomorrow’s session. This demonstrates how we’ll combine 2D assets with the 3D model. It’s certainly not perfect but it gets the message out. I would like to have tried to comp something in behind a window but time is short.
And here’s my new animatic for the big edit I’ll be putting together tomorrow.
Here’s a palette I put together for the group to do the animatic in.
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Here’s the 3 colour frames for my section of the transcript focusing on identity.
I’ve begun work visualising my section of the script. I chose the section at the end about the loss of identity Donna has felt for herself and others that have experienced poverty. This is in contrast of the section before hand that describes the free spirit and character of the migrants in Glasgow.
During today’s session, I came up with an idea to integrate CG into our project by having some 3D asset for us to use as a thing to base our film around. One idea I had was to use a tower block to fly round and composite 2D assets onto the balconies and walkways of it. Tower blocks are home to diverse communities that our particular clip explores in some detail, so it seems like an appropriate centre to our animation.
I decided to do some research into the tower blocks of Glasgow, mainly to get some idea of what a Glaswegian tower block might look like but came to find that they are currently quite a relevant issue. Glasgow used to have the highest density of high rise flats in the UK back in 2006 but over the last decade, a quarter of them have been demolished to make way for the commonwealth games, leaving some communities fractured. They’re a contentious subject as I found out reading this article.
Disappearing Glasgow: documenting the demolition of a city’s troubled past
The Whitevale towers fit the bill for a tower with balconies to base the model on. I will share some pictures with Em who’s in charge of making the 3D assets.
Darren & Donna
I’d never come across a black man before,
We refered to shops like Chinese shops as ‘chinkys’ and ‘paki shops’ … Pakis,
We were a wee bit behind the times for political correctness,
And before I knew it I was meeting all these different guys frem all over the world
And you know what? People kept asking me
‘How can you work with asylum seekers and refugees?’ very negatively
And I was like they working wie me, they’re accepting me, you’ve got this wrong here,
You know it’s me that’s lost here,
I look at it as if I’m the repressed, I’m uncultured,
So see, when I’m with them I find a part of myself that comes right out and goes:
‘Well I’m back’, you know?
I think that’s a part of the British ‘stiff upper-lip’, isn’t it?
We’re British, we don’t really show emotion.
I’m not British for the record.
Aye, well.. It’s just the stereo-type, you know what I mean?
You get your Giro so you’re British enough for that, so…
It’s one of these things, poverty’s not spoke about,
But I’m from the east end of Glasgow.. [???]
You’re stigmatised, I mean we grew up, you come from say, the east end of Glasgow,
And people shout, ‘you’re scroungers! You’re having babies at at thirteen, fourteen,
Wie been told you’re less than,
You know, when we meet people from different cultures,
we feel ashamed,
And these people are free spirits,
They might not come have come from countries where they’ve got running water and electricity,
But they have free spirits.
Their minds are open, their hearts are open and they don’t feel supressed.
When I find that in Glasgow and a lot of the rest of society,
We’re so supressed and pushed into such a box that we don’t know who we are any more.
And we’re all just turning into the same wee tick box people,
Ne soul, ne heart and a recklessness to ourselves.
The biggest target about n’ around is welfare reform,
It just shows you how you can alienate parts of society,
And manage to have them judged by the rest.
I think it’s barbaric.
I’ve been sanctioned three times,
When power’s gone down, food’s dwindling,
That’s when the sanction’s kicking in,
BOOM, stop, and that’s you.
If my children were gonna get fed that way,
I think I would be more embarrassed to walk into a food bank,
And ask for food for three,
And I’ve never stole, I don’t believe in stealing, I’m a Christian,
But I would actually prefer to steal it than go and beg wie ma cap in hand,
Coz although people are poor, we still need hope and we still need dignity.
Well, Donna, the simple fact remains that we are in poverty,
Our minds are in poverty and you freed my mind a wee bit by telling me that.
And I could see it, I did ne understand for the five ten years beforehand,
Who I was, my addiction, my homelessness, my alcoholism,
Then I could clearly see it,
Coz I feel that the world’s really heavy on my shoulders,
And I see people looking down all the time,
Bu you see, just now and again, when I look up to the stars,
I get so inspired, and through meeting you, Donna, specifically,
I found a real friend, and now the future, I’m looking forward to it, let’s just say that.
People are starting to believe in me so I’m starting to believe in myself a wee bit.
Finley Geen