Final Major Project

 Final Major Project - 

Week 1 - Rough Animation 

For the first week of production I aimed to start working on the rough animation of the film. With reference to my storyboard I started with the beginning of the story. I prefer to work frame to frame and for some scenes I went straight in without a rough - Like the bubbles for example, but for stuff like character animation it required a lot more planning.

Week 2 - Rough Animation 

For some of the animation I did the colour immediately after, with short shots like these I didn't see a point in leaving it for later. I also made changes to some scenes to make things easier for myself as I needed to be more conscious what is realistic to achieve within one term.

I also started working on what the cracks in the island were going to look like - I started on the small cracks above to get a grasp on the movement so I would be better prepared for the finales with the island splitting. For the animations that require quick or harsh movements I have taken to using motion blur on a couple of frames to enhance the quickness of the movement. 

The version on the left uses the effect, the image on the right is the frame without any effects on it.

Week 3 - 

I haven't been animating in chronological order at this point, I found it's easier for me to focus when I just pick a shot and do it - I chose to do these two shots so I could keep the framing similar, I wanted these close ups to be used as a turning point in the character when they realise something. Althea realises she can't leave Cherry behind and Cherry finally realises she cant stay. 

Week 4 - 

I worked on some of the running shots this week as I knew they'd be some of the character animations I'd struggle with especially with how detailed Cherry's design is (I knew it was detailed during production so I had simplified some aspects but really not enough). I wanted to choreograph this running scene more dramatically but there wouldn't be time for  me to animate it.

I was originally planning to have my characters boil through the film but it wasn't very efficient for me so I compromised and had their pupils boil instead. My style outside of this film is far more detailed in regards to the faces of my characters but I had simplified it in anticipation of animating the film easier for me, but I feel like I lost some of the life in the characters eyes until I started to use a boil on them.

Week 5 -

I focused on more animation this week - I had changed the first interaction between Cherry and Althea slightly, instead of Cherry slapping Al away she gives her a look and Al falters from reaching out fully. Although I liked the idea of the slap I didn't think it would be in Cherry's character in the end to hurt Althea. 

Week 6 - Audio 

I had help from a friend on the audio music technology (AMT) course in regards to recording the voice lines. Because of him we had access to quality mics and software, we were able to record the voice actress in a booth instead of a handheld mic. I was able to collaborate with a student, Charlotte on the drama course for my film, I had her read the lines for both characters as unfortunately the other girl I had requested to work with was busy. I also got her to record other things like gasps, cries and screams.

I also worked on some short shots for the film. I wanted to focus some attention to these shots in particular since I knew I would have to loop the movement on Althea's clothes and I wanted to get the urgency of Cherry's movements correct - both relatively short animations but they were important for me to get right.

Week 7 - 

I decided to revisit scenes of the fish, these were very enjoyable and much easier to complete than other shots due to it being in black and white. I also wanted to include impact frames for the shots of the fish breaking out of the island to make it more visually interesting.

 

I also did some work on the character animation, I spent considerable time on Cherry hitting the tree because I wanted to portray the weight of her hitting the tree but also to show Cherry's strength as I cant show how strong of a fisher she is through this film in other ways. I also spent some time on the shot of Althea standing up as the island shakes as it has many components, Al herself stumbling, the island vibrating, and I'm gonna add in a flock of birds flying away as well as water rippling at the bottom of the screen.

Week 8 - Soundtrack 

This week I really focused on getting the music done for the film. I have played the piano and have been composing music since I was fifteen, I have composed music for a film previously so I decided to do it again as I feel like it would be much easier to make a match to the film than find one online or commission someone else to do it.  

I wrote a motif for the fish which is some low minor chords for mystery and tension. Not all scenes have music but I felt like for the confrontation between Cherry and Althea there needed to be some simple background music.

Once Cherry trips and passes out is when the main track of the film enters. My main inspiration for the way I write music is Joe Hisaishi and Ryuichi Sakamoto, both amazing composers and pianists. I composed the pieces originally on an acoustic piano and later made the official versions on a midi keyboard and edited them on Logic Pro.

(screengrab of my composition) 

Generally when composing pieces before I haven't had to match it to visuals, but when recording for a film I prefer to have the film playing in front of me as I play so I can, I had a rough collection of the animated shots put together so I figured out where to place the final piece of music. I plan for the end of the film to have no music but the main theme will return for the credits.

Week 9 - 

I started working on the climactic shot of the island splitting, working on the small cracks earlier in the film helped me conceptualise how to tackle this shot as its essentially the same as the small cracks but enlarged. 

I am concerned for how I will tackle all of the movement in this scene as the wind and speed of the boat will be causing a lot of movement in the characters hair and clothes, I wanted to have them struggling to keep their footing in the boat but realistically I cant animate all of that in a timely manner.

Week 10 - Lip syncing 

The lip sync scene probably included the most revisions as I had to make changes to fit the schedule but also because I thought it would flow better. 

Althea has the longest dialogue of the two, I originally wanted to have more movement during this conversation but I had to be mindful of what was realistic to achieve. Overall I wish I could have spent more time on this scene but ultimately I'm happy with the changes I made.

Week 11 - Animating 

I left quite a complicated scene for last as I knew I wanted to have a dramatic shot of the fish causing a huge wave that the girls will ride, but I wouldn't be able animate it on a 1080x1920 canvas so i nearly tripled the width of the canvas to get the movement and I will move the camera along the screen in After effects.

 

I did make some changes to the final shots as the changes in pose in the original storyboard didn't line up with the actions in prior scenes. I feel like the changes work better in this version too as the girls are in shock but relieved, I wanted to emphasize their hands as there was a lot of reaching out and refusal to reciprocate earlier in the film. At the start of the film it's Althea trying to reach Cherry but in the end Cherry's the one clinging to Al.

I decided in the end to update the backgrounds for the final film, I had originally used lineart in some shots backgrounds but I knew that wouldn't fit in every scene so I redid a lot of them. I also finally added in the overlay for the forest scene, I wanted to create the illusion of sunlight peaking through the trees so I put a layer on top with the pattern erased to imitate pockets of light and lowered the opacity to make it look like shade.

This is an example of the layer I used for the forest scene

I also made multiple large backgrounds so I could pan the camera across the more action packed shots easily.

Week 12 - Finalising 

After all these weeks I decided it was finally time to create the title screen for the film. I generally like doing this task last in a project because by then I feel like I know the story well enough to create a title screen fitting to the story. I thought about the themes of the movie - Fish is a very obvious theme/visual motif, they live on a fishing island and the main 'antagonist' is a fish after all.

I went for a black and white scheme for the title screen in reference to the scenes of the fish when its underwater, it also is a reference to old-timey cartoons with the black background and ornate white borders or those vintage voiceless films. 

I included fish on the border, all different kinds, I didn't put much thought into which fish I drew I just wanted it to look fun - I did consider including the main fish of the story as a small form of foreshadowing but ultimately decided against it. I drew some heavily stylised waves and some birds next, the waves are obviously for the sea the girls eventually make their escape in and the birds are merely aesthetic. In the centre there are shooting stars that look like jelly fish too - In my first version of the story the girls were running away from home in the night and I was planning to have a scene with the sky full of shooting stars, there are also old concepts with jelly fish (specifically a drawing of the characters having a picnic underwater on top of a jellyfish) in them as the story had a more fantasy focused world. In a way its like an homage to the old ideas I had.  

There is also a fish hook motif in the title, I hand-drew the title as I didn't want to mess up the 'rustic' aesthetic of the title screen, everything is drawn with no stabilisation or rulers.

I also put some finishing touches on the animation as a whole, colouring in the last scenes and backgrounds.