UAL Diploma Creative Media Production

Student Name – Jacob Symes

Pathway – Web, Digital Design and Animation

Figure 1 – Animation Sketches – Google Search

Unit 5 Investigating Audio Production and Technology

Unit 6 Investigating Visual Production and Technology

Unit 7 Investigation Interactive Media Production and Technology

Contents

4Chapter 1 – Week 1

5Chapter 2 – Week 2

6Chapter 3 – Week 3

7Chapter 4 – Week 4

8Chapter 5 – Week 5

9Appendicies

9Appendix 1

9Bibliography

10Appendix 2

10How to Harvard Reference in Word and Creating a Bibliography

14Appendix 3

14How to add pictures, graphs, etc to your Table of Figures in your Portfolio

15Appendix 4

15How to add to the Appendix in your Portfolio

16Appendix 5

16How to embed videos into your portfolio

20Appendix 6

20Unit Criteria’s and Learning Outcomes

22Appendix 7

22Allocation of Criteria to Chapters

23Appendix 8

23Trimester 2 Calendar

24Appendix 9

24Loading your Portfolio

26Appendix 10

26How to create a Professional and Academic Portfolio

Table of Figures

1Figure 1 Please add a picture of your choice, make this your own personal portfolio. It should be an image relevant to your research.

Chapter 1 – Week 1

This week we began creating Self Portraits and Puppets to animate. We used Illustrator and basic shapes in order to create simple yet appealing portraits of ourselves. We are creating characters in preparation for our animations. I believe I did well in this as I succeeded in making my puppet as accurate to me as possible.

Figure 2 – Self Portrait process – Created by me

Figure 3 – Self Portrait – Created by me

After doing this we created a puppet from the portrait. We used layers to separate the body parts and to help us animate it later.

Figure 4 – Puppet process – Created by me

Figure 5 – Puppet – Created by me

After this, I conducted research of different video uploading platforms in order to determine which would be best for my animation.

· YouTube – 1b users

· Vimeo – 100m users & 400k paying subscribers

· Facebook – 2b users

· Instagram – 100m

· Twitter – 330m users

· Daily Motion – 300m users

YouTube

Pros

Cons

Over 1 billion users

Requires payment for certain features

Most globally known video sharing website

Due to such a large community it can be hard to get your content seen amongst the bigger channels

Specialises in videos as opposed to Facebook, twitter etc.

Not very flexible in customization

Available in almost every country

Disrupting advertisements

Owned by google - trustable

Long upload times

Chapter 2 – Week 2

In week 2 I researched an animation called ‘Clouds’ and analysed it. I did this as research for my own animation. I went into detail analysing sound, visuals and SFX.

Animation Analysis – Clouds

Clouds - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiyKoYaMVL0&t=2s

‘Clouds’ was produced by the University of Hertfordshire Digital Animation student Sam Miller in 2008. I researched his other animations and I could only find sketches or short demo animations that were leading up to a project. Clouds appears to be his only finished and published piece of work. I chose to study this animation as it stuck out to me with a unique art style. All of the other animations I looked at had a style I had seen before, or the plot itself didn’t captivate me, however I especially liked Clouds as the animation was consistent with its style, music and plot. Although its short, it delivers a beautiful sequence that portrays a young girls adventure through the clouds.

The animation was distributed on YouTube, probably because most people think of YouTube when video comes to mind. Although it isn’t interactive, the plot itself opens up for interpretation. It appears to be a highly metaphorical animation with the only dialogue being at the very end, so I believe everyone could have a different idea of what the creator was trying to portray. The plot of the animation is the young girl begins staring up at the cloudy sky, waving her hand at the clouds. Before long, she is actually in the clouds, dancing around each cloud like a dream. However, she spots a storm cloud that engulfs her, terrified, she’s looking around for help. She spots a glint of light and uses her hat as a fan to blow the storm away. When she puts her hat back on, she is back on solid ground and her mum is calling her inside. When she runs in her mum asks her to take off her hat, and upon doing so a flood of water falls out and the animation cuts to black. I personally love the ending as it puts a literal spin on a metaphorical journey. It caught me by surprise the first time I watched it too, which I enjoyed.

The animation doesn’t really fit into the group of educational or documentary, it’s more of a creative display. Obviously it was created by a student which leads me to believe it was probably a project for university, so there may have been limitations we are not aware of. It doesn’t have any narration, the only dialogue is at the very end when the mum calls her daughter inside, so I would say it is non-narrative. The story structures itself well, for a two-minute animation it flows very nicely, with a clear intro, adventure, obstacle, overcome and ending that most stories follow.

The animator probably chose to use this structure as it is easy to identify, create and overall works well in any plot. It allows a story to be told whilst keeping it short and sweet. The colour palette is vibrant and the art itself uses basic shapes to create simplistic characters that are still visually appealing. The colour palette uses complementary colours, the yellow of the girl’s shirt compliments the bright blue sky and her orange hair compliments her deep sea blue shorts. It’s all picked out very carefully and you wouldn’t notice unless looking very hard for what makes it appealing. The shadows are also in the same blocky style and overall creates a very nice visual style. I think the animator chose the child-like style to make it have a visual impact on the audience. Making it appear child-like automatically makes us assume it’s going to be a child-like animation, so by almost forcing us to set lower standards we are surprised by the charm and style of the animation. The style is also easy to create so it would take less time to create rather than hand drawing each frame.

I think the animator probably used adobe illustrator to create his animation, as we have been studying a similar style in class recently and I can definitely identify some of our technique within this animators work.

Convention

Example

What effect this had on me

Sound Effect

Music

The change from happy music to harsh piano keys when the storm appears

It changed the tone of the animation and made me realise the hero had reached her obstacle

Action / Animation

The girl removing her hat at the end and water falling onto her

It ended the animation on a funny note but also left it open to interpretation for if the sequence was dreamt or real.

Colour

The sky and clouds having a painted effect

Makes the whole scene in the sky appear dream-like and unreal.

Voices / Dialogue

The mother calling the daughter at the end of the animation being the only dialogue

It surprised me and brought us back to reality, as it brought the girl back to reality within the animation too.

I also began writing the script and synopsis for my animation. It is important to do this before storyboarding so I have a clear idea of what I’m aiming in terms of visuals and sound.

Script

ext. forest - day

A beautiful summers day. Lush trees and grasses flow lightly in the July breeze. A young lady enters. 

SFX. The sound of her footsteps mixes with birdsong.

She walks across the screen in profile view, watching the trees around her. 

The camera cuts to a first person shot, she raises her hand to the trees and the leaves swirl away.

SFX. She gasps 

She begins walking backwards in shock, the camera cutting to her feet trembling and stumbling over themselves. 

Jump cut to her face and her eyes open wide

Her back is against a tree and as she turns around, it withers into the ground. She begins to run away.

SFX. Panting and rapid footsteps

She runs and arrives at a clearing covered in vibrant flowers. She slowly approaches them and the flowers wither away to dust. She falls down and grabs the grass in her hands. It swirls and turns to dust around her.

SFX. Birds chirping, crying

A bird lands beside her and then flies into the distance. The camera follows it and when it pans back down to the girl she is gone.

Only a sprout remains in her place. A drop of water falls off the leaf and the screen fades to black.

Synopsis 2 the future of nature

She begins to walk slowly through the forest, and glances upwards at the leaves of the tree. Suddenly, they fade away leaving only bare branches. She backs away, her body hitting another tree and as she turns to face it, it fades into the ground. She starts running, frantic to escape the forest that's dying around her. 

She arrives at an opening, flowers are spread across the grass and light filters in upon them. She walks up to them and they twist and wilt away into the ground. The girl falls to the ground and grabs the grass in her hands, and it turns to sand. The camera zooms out and the grass all turns to sand stemming from her. As the camera focuses on her, she begins to fade away, all that remains from her is a single seed that sprouts from the desert ground. 

Chapter 3 – Week 3

In week 3 I continued my animation research, firstly by familiarising myself with the 12 principles of animation.

12 principles of animation

1. Squash and stretch

The more squash and stretch in an object indicates the object is softer.

Always keep the volume the same [if something gets longer it also gets narrower]

2. Anticipation

When the character prepares for an action to allow the audience to assume what the character is going to do. It also makes the action appear more realistic. It helps communicate actions to the audience to prepare them for what is coming next. It’s important to make it easy for the audience to know whats going on.

3. Staging

Main action of the scene needs to be clear / simple. Do not make characters’ fight for the audience’s attention, allow the viewers eyes to drift around the scene by staging the characters correctly. If there is text on screen, keep it there for as long as it takes to read it 3 times. Be over the top and overly obvious.

4. Straight ahead and pose to pose

Straight ahead is animating scenes as you go, whereas pose to pose is drawing out the key poses, and going back and filling them in later. Pose to pose is better as you know where your subject will end up, rather than worrying about animating as you go and having them end up in the wrong place. Straight ahead animating can lead to the characters being a different size or on a different level. Straight ahead animating is good for animating things that are unpredictable. Draw the keys first, then draw the furthest the character will go with extremes, then decide how they will connect with breakdowns.

5. Follow through and overlapping action

Having clothes / appendages move separately whilst the character is in action, and having them continue to move when they stop. It adds character and makes them appear less robotic. When something moves, the tip of the appendage should be the last thing to move, and when it stops, the tip should be the furthest thing forward before setting back. Similar to squash and stretch, the amount of follow through and overlapping action says something about the objects mass.

6. Slow in and slow out

Start animations slowly and end slowly, picking up speed in between. It is important to do this as it makes the subject appear more lifelike and less mechanical

7. Arcs

Most living creatures move in circular motions known as arcs. Also helps give character to heads when turning. When movements are very fast, you can add arcs in the form of a smear. Take the beginning and end of the pose and fill it in with an arc. Make the arc the same colour as the object and slightly transparent, or maybe fragmented towards the end of the animation.

8. Secondary action

The action of other parts of the figure to indicate what emotion they are feeling, or how they are interacting with an object. Don’t let the secondary action dominate the animation.

9. Timing

The personality and nature of animation is greatly affected by the number of frames inserted between each action.

Less Drawings = Fast

More Drawings = Slow

Better to draw in twos as it cuts the workload in half and looks smoother.

10. Exaggeration

Every action can be exaggerated to take it to the next level. If a character is sad, make them sadder. If they’re happy, make them happier.

11. Solid Drawing

Making drawings feel like they’re in a 3D space with weight, volume and balance. Sketch characters in spheres, cubes and cuboids rather than circles squares and rectangles to make them appear 3D. Avoid ‘twinning’ which is making both arms or both legs do the same thing.

12. Appeal

Characters you animate should be appealing to look at. They should have some kind of charismatic like to them. Dynamic designs can greatly boost appeal. Try using different shapes to build characters rather than the same ones. Play with proportions. Find an aspect of your character that makes them interesting and blow it up. Keep it simple. Complicated designs are hard to animate and follow. This is the difference between illustration and animation.

I could apply the 12 principles of animation to my own animation to give it more life where necessary, and to help show the death of nature. I can use arcs and squish and stretch initially to bring life to the forest and to the girl. When things start to die, I can try using less of these effects to create a harshness between life and death. I believe this will be effective as it will be immediately evident through the contrast, when the camera changes to show the trees dying, the entire feel of the scene will be different to the last because the 12 principles of animation are not present.

Next, I used this information to analyse another animation. This time I analysed the video ‘what would happen if a black hole appeared in your pocket’

Animation analysis – What would happen if there was a black hole in your pocket?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nHBGFKLHZQ

Whilst watching this animation for the first time, I noticed almost all of the 12 principles of animation being used.

Squash and stretch –

I noticed a different trend in the animation. Rather than having squash and stretch, it made it extremely obvious that it was lacking squash and stretch. By doing this the characters he used appear more like puppets than life like creatures, thus making it less traumatising when they are killed repeatedly by the black hole. Though this may sound farfetched, this definitely works as I found myself focusing less on the deaths of the puppets and more on the black hole theory the narrator was discussing.

Anticipation –

Like with squash and stretch, the character’s lack life in terms of anticipation. The movements are unpredictable and so appear robotic, making us care less for their emotions when they died in the animation.

Staging –

I noticed in terms of staging, the subject that the narrator was discussing was always the centre of focus, with the background usually just being a solid colour. This is to keep the confusing subject as simple as possible with drawings that a child could comprehend and understand.

Arcs –

When introducing new subjects into the animation, to give them a friendly appearance, the object rotated on an arc when coming to a halt. This is hard to notice at first but I realised it makes the objects appear more cartoony and less rigid and robotic. This links with the concept of it being child friendly as it is appealing to the eye and less scary to watch when the subject itself is scary.

Secondary Action –

There is no secondary action within the characters, as this would indicate they’re alive rather than puppets. This can be seen clearly here –

There is an obvious lack of reaction to death, which would usually be seen with secondary action.

Slow in Slow out –

There was slow in slow out used when the black hole was animated, the white lines began slow and gained speed towards it, then slowed down again as they reached it. This indicates a huge gravitational force pulling towards the black hole.

I also began work on my design document, adding mood boards, my script and my colour palette. I used colours that complement each other so my animation is visually appealing and powerful.

THE FUTURE OF…Concept Paper and Pre-Production Document

1. CONCEPT PAPER

The concept paper is a general overview of the project, its direction and key details. It should set out your general intentions for the product.

· Introduction

My animation is a short story about a girl who unwillingly destroys nature when she sees it. It is symbolic of global warming and is meant to open up people’s eyes to the future of nature if we continue on this path.

· Background

· Genre/Category

My animation is a fantasy genre, as it features scenes that would not occur in real life.

· Audience

My target audience would be youth as they are the next generation who are in charge of looking after our planet. As the theme of my animation is nature and global warming, I have to make it appeal to the younger generation with a cartoon style.

· Distribution

I will distribute my work on YouTube as I am able to utilise End Cards, which is unique to YouTube. This helps direct a lot of traffic to my video and work in general. I may also upload my work to Vimeo as this is where a lot of animators post their work, and I may gain connections by doing so.

2. DESIGN DOCUMENT

The design document provides specific details of key elements.

· Concept

I am trying to achieve a strong message with basic animation. The juxtaposition of the two will hopefully create a more powerful ending and open up people’s eyes to how real global warming is.

· Script

· Pre-visualisation

· TO BE ADDED -

· Interactive Elements (explain how you plan to use the interactive elements of your chosen distribution platform to enhance your work)

· Style Guide

My animation will use slightly unsaturated colours as to not hurt the eye of the audience.

· Sound (explain the feel of the sound, using examples from other animations, where relevant – consider voice, sound FX, ambience and music)

· Asset List (include a list of assets you need to create and what you will need to gather from other sources, such as backgrounds, characters, fonts, sounds)

· Technical specifications (identify technical specifications where relevant, such as, resolution, video/animation frames per second, export file type [you should know what file types your online video platform supports])

· Key team members (identify key roles you would need to fill in order to make this in a professional context, i.e. what are the essential team member roles and what skills / knowledge would each team member require?)

· Key Health & Safety Requirements (what will you need to consider when working on your animation?)

· Production Schedule (start this from the beginning of term):

Week

Activity

Resources Required

1

2

3

4

5

6

Bibliography

Bofable, 2016. Mother Nature. [Online] Available at: https://bofable.deviantart.com/art/Mother-Nature-582959850[Accessed 25 January 2018].

fotolia by Adobe, 2016. Adobe Stock. [Online] Available at: https://www.fotolia.com/cat1/1006001?k=cartoon[Accessed 25 January 2018].

Scirra, 2016. Cartoon Animals Pack. [Online] Available at: https://www.scirra.com/store/2d-game-graphics-packs/cartoon-animals-pack-2738[Accessed 25 January 2018].

Scribblenauts, 2013. Mother Nature. [Online] Available at: http://scribblenauts.wikia.com/wiki/File:Mother_Nature.png[Accessed 25 January 2018].

Chapter 4 – Week 4

Chapter 5 – Week 5AppendiciesAppendix 1Bibliography

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Appendix 2

How to Harvard Reference in Word and Creating a Bibliography

Go to the REFERENCES tab – open it

Change the style to Harvard

For inserting in a reference in a text – correctly called a citation - at the point where you want the citation to go……

Go to INSERT CITATION and then click on ADD NEW SOURCE

Change this to whatever type of source is relevant, ie. Book, web etc and then answer the questions

And click ok and it will in correctly reference your quote or picture etc at the point in the text you need it to be i.e. (Blackman, 2016)

It also puts it in your Bibliography! –hurrah!

BIBLIOGRAPHY

To do this you go to the BIBLIOGRAPHY TAB, which is in the drop down from the REFERENCES tab

Click on the top list – it says Bibliography

And hey presto…

You have a bibliography! - Try it! it is magic! And you will never ever get it wrong ever again! And when you do another citation it adds it to your bibliography and if you only want something in your Bibliography

If you are just putting an entry into the Bibliography

Go to REFERENCES

Then go to MANAGE SOURCES

This drop down then appears, as you can see it already lists my citiation that I have already done.

Go to the NEW

This drop down then appears, and fill in all the questions

And then Go to Bibliography, click on the top box and there is your Bibliography!

Bibliography

B, J., 1990. Cats and Dogs. First ed. London: Fred.

Blackman, J., 2016. Cats Rule. First ed. New York: Routledge.

Appendix 3How to add pictures, graphs, etc to your Table of Figures in your Portfolio

To make your portfolio even more professional than it already is, and to be correct, academically, you can add pictures, graphs etc to the already created Table of Figures.

This is how you do it …..

Add your picture/graph etc at the point you want it to be.

Right click on the picture/graph etc

Click on – Insert Caption

At the top of the box there is a line saying Caption

It will automatically tell you if it is Figure 1,2,3 etc – DO NOT ALTER THAT

Then put in the citation for the bibliography (after the Figure 1,2,3 ) and what you want to call it i.e. Focus Group Graph.

Click – Close

Remember to note the layout, so you do the same for each figure i.e.

Figure 1 : Hello Project – photo by myself

Figure 2 : Focus Group Graph

Figure 3 : (Fred, 2013) Green Screen Examples

Then go to the Table of Figures (at the bottom of the Contents Page at the front of the Portfolio)

Highlight it

Right click

And click on update field

Click on update whole Table ……. And it is done!

Appendix 4How to add to the Appendix in your Portfolio

An appendix is a place to add extra information that may help the reader of your portfolio with background information, additional info etc. It is a good place to load your Daily Production Diary for example.

This is how you do it.

This is what it looks like now…..it is right at the back of the portfolio

APPENDICES

Extended project in creative media production Learning Outcomes and Assessment

And the criteria are here.

Step 1 - Type in – in bold – what it is you want to say e.g.

Appendix 2 – Daily Production Diary (for example) and then

Step 2 - Highlight it

Step 3 - Go to References in the top menu

Step 4 – Click on Add Text

Step 5 – Click on level 2 – so it now looks like this

APPENDICES

Extended project in creative media production Learning Outcomes and Assessment

Then your criteria are here.

Appendix 2

Daily Production Diary

Then cut and paste your production diary here

Step 6 – Add Appendix 1 to the Criteria, so it looks like this

APPENDICES

Appendix 1

Extended project in creative media production Learning Outcomes and Assessment

Then your criteria are here.

Appendix 2 – Daily Production Diary

Step 7 – Go to the Contents Page, highlight it

Step 8 – The update table menu comes up, click on update whole table and it is done.

Appendix 5How to embed videos into your portfolio

From YouTube

Step 1. Find your video, right click on it whilst the cursor is over the video

Step 2 click on Copy embed code

Step 3 – Go to your portfolio

Step 4 – Click on insert – top menu bar

Step 5 – Click on Online Video

Step 6 – paste in the embed code and click on the inset tab and voila, it is there!

From Vimeo

Click on the Paper Plane

Then highlight this code

Appendix 6Unit Criteria’s and Learning Outcomes

Unit 5 - INVESTIGATING audio production and technology

Learning Outcomes

The student will:

Assessment Criteria

The student can

1. Be able to analyse an audio-based problem in creative media production

1.1 Analyze the requirements and parameters of an audio-based problem in creative media production.

1.2 Apply research activities to support solutions to an audio–based problem in creative media production

2. Be able to use an integrated approach to audio-based creative media problem solving and production.

2.1 Demonstrate the ability to plan, organize and present solutions to an audio-based problem in creative media production.

2.2 Apply practical skills, understanding and methods to solve an audio-based problem in creative media production.

3. Be able to evaluate solutions to an audio-based problem in creative media production

3.1 Analyse the effectiveness of solutions to an audio based problem in creative media production

Unit 6 - INVESTIGATING VISUAL production and technology

Learning Outcomes

The student will:

Assessment Criteria

The student can

1. Be able to analyse a visual-based problem in creative media production

1.1 Analyse the requirements and parameters of a visual-based problem in creative media production.

1.2 Apply research activities to support solutions to a visual–based problem in creative media production

2. Be able to use an integrated approach to visual-based creative media problem solving and production.

2.1 Demonstrate the ability to plan, organize and present solutions to a visual-based problem in creative media production.

2.2 Apply practical skills, understanding and methods to solve a visual-based problem in creative media production.

3. Be able to evaluate solutions to a visual-based problem in creative media production

3.1 Analyse the effectiveness of solutions to a visual based problem in creative media production

Unit 7 - INVESTIGATING INTERACTIVE MEDIA production and technology

Learning Outcomes

The student will:

Assessment Criteria

The student can

1. Be able to analyse an interactive-based problem in creative media production

1.1 Analyze the requirements and parameters of an interactive-based problem in creative media production.

1.2 Apply research activities to support solutions to an interactive–based problem in creative media production

2. Be able to use an integrated approach to interactive-based creative media problem solving and production.

2.1 Demonstrate the ability to plan, organize and present solutions to an interactive-based problem in creative media production.

2.2 Apply practical skills, understanding and methods to solve an interactive-based problem in creative media production.

3. Be able to evaluate solutions to an interactive-based problem in creative media production

3.1 Analyse the effectiveness of solutions to an interactive based problem in creative media production

Appendix 7Allocation of Criteria to Chapters

Appendix 8

Trimester 2 Calendar Appendix 9Loading your Portfolio

Click on Add and then click on media and then on Add New and then follow the instructions to your latest draft and load it into your wordpress.

Then highlight it and click insert

When you are ready to load the next version/draft, make sure that you have the cursor at the right place

So that it goes above the previous draft, so that your latest is always on the top

And ensure you post it with the following heading

Your name draft number and date so it looks like this - Jenni B Draft 2 6 Jan – posting once a week, at the time agreed with your Course Tutor.

Appendix 10

How to create a Professional and Academic Portfolio

Checked

1

Same font i.e. Arial, Calibri, Comic Sans! throughout the portfolio

2

Same font size throughout the portfolio for the main body of typing – minimum 11, maximum 12

3

Same style for headings and sub-headings throughout the portfolio

4

Referencing and Table of Figures

All pictures/graphs etc must have a caption, which says what it is a picture of and who produced it (even if it is you!)

There is a how to guide in the Appendices

5

Do not split headings from text

You can ensure that this doesn’t happen by putting in a page break in – See Appendix 7

Page 1

Page 2

6

Always have a chapter at the top of a new page (see number 5 for how to do this)

7

Always have an introduction to what you are writing about; and then a conclusion. Do not just post work!

8

Personalise the front page, remember, this is your portfolio, be proud of it. Think about adding a picture that is relevant to the contents.

9

Check your Contents Page and Table of Figures every time you finish working on your portfolio.

Highlight, right click and then edit table.

There is a how to guide in the Appendices

10

Check your spelling and grammar flags! Blue and red lines??? Nothing says lazy more than that!!! (Sorry!)

11

Bibliography There is a how to guide in the Appendices

This should be in an Appendix, not at the end of each chapter. You can just cut and paste the bibliography built in word, and paste it into your Appendix and title it Chapter 1, Chapter 2 etc, you do not have to merge them. However, it must be alphabetical.