Storyboard Part 1

This is the storyboard for the first 30 seconds of my animation. It's done very roughly in Flash, but it demonstrates the different camera angles I want to use and the general flow of the animation. In the first part, the character appears as quite confidant in his quest to steal the Golden Potato from the Giant's house, which will all change in the second part.

Dissertation Timetable

As you can see from the timetable below, I have left 10 days at the end so that if anything takes longer than expected, I can overrun a little. I also predict that the animation smoothing won't take as long as predicted.

	Date	Task
Pre-Production	20th Jan – 24th Jan	Write script for animation
GAMES JAM	25th Jan – 26th Jan
	27th Jan – 3rd Feb	Draw storyboard from script
Production 1	4th Febuary	Create ‘Part 1’ geometry
	5th Feb - 9th Feb	Create ‘Part 1’ layout
	10th Feb – 15th Feb	Block out ‘Part 1’ animation
	16th Feb – 27th Feb	Smooth out ‘Part 1’ animation
	28th Feb – 2nd Mar	Set up cameras for ‘Part 1’ animation
	3rd March	Set up lighting for ‘Part 1’ animation
	4th March	Export ‘Part 1’ animation as PNG Image Sequence
Production 2	5th March	Create ‘Part 2’ geometry
	6th Mar – 10th Mar	Create ‘Part 2’ layout
	11th Mar – 16th Mar	Block out ‘Part 2’ animation
	17th Mar – 28th Mar	Smooth out ‘Part 2’ animation
	29th Mar – 31st Mar	Set up cameras for ‘Part 2’ animation
	1st April	Set up lighting for ‘Part 2’ animation
	2nd April	Export ‘Part 2’ animation as PNG Image Sequence
Production 3	3rd April	Create ‘Part 3’ geometry
	4th April – 8th April	Create ‘Part 3’ layout
	9th April – 15th April	Block out ‘Part 3’ animation
	16th April – 28th April	Smooth out ‘Part 3’ animation
	29th April – 1st May	Set up cameras for ‘Part 3’ animation
	2nd May	Set up lighting for ‘Part 3’ animation
	3rd May	Export ‘Part 3’ animation as PNG Image Sequence
Post-Production	2nd May – 10th May	Edit video together in Sony Vegas
	11th May – 13th May	Add sound to project in Sony Vegas
EXTRA TIME	14th May – 23rd May

Stages of Animation

Pre-Production

Script

The script is for getting the story across in a physical form, and is vital for the other stages of the animation. The script not only includes the dialog, but also the settings, actions and camera movements. Even though my animation isn't very story-based, it's still important  to write down what happens so that it's easy to time the storyboard.

Storyboard

The storyboard is made up of drawings in the form of a comic strip, and is used to both help visualise the animation and to communicate ideas clearly. It details the scene and changes in the animation, usually accompanied by text notes describing things happening within the scene itself, such as camera movements.

The storyboard will be useful as a visual reminder of the original plan; something that can be referred back to throughout the production.

Production

Layout

Using low-resolution models and basic blocks of geometry, the shots are composed and a rough animation is created. It’s essentially a 3D version of the storyboard.  This gives a good idea of camera movements, depth of field and the posing of the models.

Character Animation

I plan to animate the characters body, his face, and any props (such as blocks that he trips over). I will split the animation into two key parts: blocking out, and smoothing.

Blocking out the animation involves creating all of the key poses for the character and props. Key poses are the “key” moments that most clearly describe the important physical actions or emotional moments in a scene. They are so essential to the movement/acting that if you removed any one of them, the scene would no longer work.

Lighting

Lighters have a broad range of responsibilities, including placing lights, defining light properties, defining how light interacts with different types of materials, how the position and intensity of lights affect mood and believably, as well as colour theory and harmony. 

As lighting isn't my main focus, I plan to do a very simplified version of this, sticking to placing lights and deciding how they should affect the mood and believably.

Post-Production

Video Editing & Sound FX

Video editing involves taking all of the rendered shots and putting them together into one file, adding transitions between shots, and making sure the timings all seem correct.

Sound FX involves selecting and assembling the sound recordings, overlaying them with the video in Sony Vegas, and making sure any lip syncing (for gasps, exclamations) is lined up.

Back to Work

I forgot to mention earlier, but the meeting with the Ipswich Museum was postponed until the 13th of January. I have now given my presentation, and can start focusing on the dissertation project again.

My main focus right now should be writing up a new, more specific timeline for the rest of the year, so that work is easier to manage.