Monday 26 May 2014

Final animation


WWF Save the Rhinos from Emma Rowsell on Vimeo.

soundtrack

The music used for my updated WWF Save the Rhinos animation:
(Sourced from Audio Network and Free Sound)

Predator by Terry Devine-King
Dangerous Moments by George Van Dyk / Jon Isbell

Ice Age by Neil Williams / Miles Bould / Sarah Ozelle / Rupert Pfaff


Updating animation

Feedback:

- Make gunshot louder in the poacher scene to make it more clear why the rhino is blacking out.

- Fade to black after the opening shot, as it cuts straight to a new scene which does not make sense.

- Cut the opening shot before he turns his head back and then hold that frame a little longer.

- Redo the camera for the scene where the helicopter comes into screen.

- Slow down the black out scene.

Thursday 9 January 2014

Production Diary

Major Project: WWF Rhino
Production Diary

Week 1:             17th September
Researching for WWF campaign ‘Stop illegal Wildlife trade’
Came up with two initial ideas to focus on.
Research on environment- Savannah grasslands, gathering secondary images to get familiar with colours and different compositions within the landscape
Research Rhinos- life drawing on rhinos (Woburn Safari Park), primary source photographs and motion research

Week 2:             24th September
Decided on developing rhino point of view idea.
25/09 - Made clay rhino head to help with drawing reference and also to imagine rhino perspective
27/09 – Lecture on narrative. Improve the narrative by adding in a twist- the story at the moment is too predictable
Research on moving rhinos to safer locations
29/09 – first rough storyboard
30/09- made 3d rhino model

Week 3:             1st October
02/10 – feedback on storyboard- the rhino cam needs to build more tension and fear; could do this by introducing different environment and convey rhino is living in constant fear.
04/10 – Feedback- Do camera tests for rhino perspective, don’t focus on making the horn good now.
06/10 – Second storyboard
07/10 – Feedback on storyboard-
Character designs

Week 4:             8th October
10/10 – Third Storyboard
11/10 – feedback on storyboard
13/10 – environment designs


Week 5:             15th October
15/10 - Camera tests in Maya for rhino perspective
18/10 - Final storyboard

Week 6:             22nd October
22/10 - 1st Presentation:
-       Animatic
-       Character and background designs
25/10 – feedback on animatic

Week 7:             29th October
29/10 - Rhino character rigged
02/11 – Texturing character tests

Week 8:             5th November
08/11 – finish environment concepts
10/11 – motion research and colour palettes
11/11 – render character in motion

Week 10:             12th November
2nd Presentation:
-       Full animated example of characters motion
-       References (actors, motion research)
-       Environment concept
-       Colour palettes
-       Character textures
-       Character designs and models (rigged not textured)
13/11 - environment tests
14/11 - rough layout environments 3D
15/11 - film rotoscope footage
16/11 – create shot breakdown (see below)

Week 11:             19th November
Start animating
25/11 - rotoscope scene 3

Week 12:             26th November
26/11 – Helicopter scene 4
27/11 – scene 1 animation
29/11 – scene 2 animation
02/12 – dead rhino image

Week 13:             3rd December
03/12 – scene 5 waking up + rhinos grazing
05/12 – rotoscope walk
06/12 – scene 3 rhino pass out

Week 14:             10th December
10/12 – scene 3 rhino looking for helicopter- helicopter comes into frame
12/12 – rotoscope WWF worker

Week 15:            17th December
17/12 – put shadows in scenes
19/12 – lighting in scenes
20/12 – put animation together
21/12 – put in soundtrack and sound effects
23/12 – Animation completed



Scenes and environments animation break down:
SCENE ONE:
Environment 1
Rhino looking around, hears noise

SCENE TWO:
Environment 2
P.O.V walking through environment, looking at dead rhino

SCENE THREE:
Environment 1 (slightly changed)
P.O.V hears helicopter noise, looks up
Turns around
Poachers pointing gun (rotoscope)
Turns again
Starts to run off, starts to pass out
Poacher walk

SCENE FOUR:
Sky environment
Helicopter carrying rhino

SCENE FIVE:
Environment 3
WWF worker kneeling beside rhino (rotoscope)
Rhino waking up
Other rhino grazing around character



wwf animation final

Soundtrack

I do not own copyrights to the soundtrack. Below is the track I used for my animation.


Rotoscoping

Shot the footage using video camera and tripod.
Footage included:
- 3 'poacher' stances
- 'poacher' walk
- WWF worker

I have never attempted rotoscoping before so a lot of was trial and error. After trying various methods, After Effects rotoscope brush proved to be the most accurate. I rotoscoped over the footage and changed the levels to black to create a silhouette figure. 

Would have worked a lot easier if I used green screen or one coloured background and floor. At least I  now know for future reference!

Below is the rotoscoped footage: