Create and justify a planned animation (P5, P6, M3, D2)

Create and justify a planned animation (P5, P6, M3, D2)

Be able to create a planned animation

Setting up Backplates

These are the photo backplates I will use for my animation. I will draw my animated characters on top of these photos to make it look like they are in the key location ‘Leicester Square’. I have made the canvas size 2560 x 1440 pixels as thats what i found was best for this video advertisement. One of my images has changed from the original (Leicester Square Station) backplate image as it was too blurry upon scaling it up to canvas size so I found a larger image which wouldn’t be as blurry once blowing it up.

The backplates perfectly fit inline with my storyboard as the locations and scenarios set the scene. The outside landscape which will be used to show the zombies walking to the station is perfect as it shows the the Zombies didn’t teleport there, so it gives a sense of movement to the animation. The inside the train backplate is good as for certain scenes in my animation, the family of zombies are travelling on the train. The various train station backdrops is good as it shows that the family is travelling through the train station so it creates a sense of movement. Furthermore, the two backplates of Leicester square station and the outside of Leicester square align with the brief as there are requirements for Leicester square to be featured in the animation.

Setting up equipment 

The only equipment I will be using to animate my sequences is my iPad and Apple Pencil as I will complete all animation on procreate. Me using my iPad allows me to create consistent content and have my characters look exactly as they do in their character sheet.

I will also be able to reuse certain animations such as walk cycles as I can copy and paste previous work to save time.

To record voice overs and sound effects I  used this microphone plugged into a laptop and recorded onto the software Logic and Garage Band. I used this microphone as its better quality than if I decided to use a microphone on headphones as you could potentially get background sound.

 Here I am directing someone doing one of my voiceovers. I have my storyboard in front of me so I can directly reference back to the timings and dialogue of each scene to ensure that each line lasts as long I need it to. It also gives me an idea of what other sound effects I would need in the background.

By having the storyboard in front of me, I was able to direct the voice actors to do exactly what I needed in line with the storyboard. I directed the voice actors to say lines and make sounds which stay in line with the timing of my storyboard.

Log Sheet

Scene #	Started	Completed	Length (seconds)
1 - Alarm clock	√	√	3
2 - Turning of alarm	√	√	1
3 - Blinking looking at calendar	√	√	2
4 - Calendar zoom in	√	√	2
5 - Male zombie smiling	√	√	5 (overall)
6 - Female zombie sliding in	√	√	3 (overall)
7 - Child zombie sliding in	√	√	2
8 - Walking to station	√	√	3
9 - Train pulling in	√	√	5
10 - Family walking into train	√	√	4
11 - Family sitting in train (awake)	√	√	3
12 - Family sitting in train (sleeping)	√	√	5
13 - Female zombie walking out train	√	√	1
14 - Child zombie walking out train / Female walking out of frame	√	√	1
15 - Male zombie walking out train / Child walking out of frame	√	√	1
16 - Male zombie walking out of frame / Train doors closing	√	√	3
17 - Zombie family moving up escalator	√	√	4
18 - Female zombie looking around upset / then looking happy	√	√	3
19 - View of the zombie fest poster / Female zombie walking off	√	√	2
20 - Normal humans walking through barriers / then turning into zombies	√	√	3 (overall)
Crowd walking outside the station / main zombie family walks out of station	√	√	3 (overall)
Cut to the split frames of the zombie family	√	√	2
Zombie family walks into distance	√	√	4
Text scene	√	√	3
Zombie cut scene	√	√	4

Offline Edit

This is all my footage simply put together with limited special effects and traditions and no sound applied. For this I used an app called cap-cut which is on the app store. I made sure that all my animated scenes followed my storyboard. This was quite easy for me as I was digitally animating it so I would make sure that I would keep to the storyboard timings. I animated all my scenes at 8 frames a second, so if I had a scene on my storyboard lasting 2 seconds, I could make sure I do all the animating I need for that scene with 16 frames as I know that it would be 2 seconds long once exported.

Above is my storyboard, when watching the offline edit you can tell that I very heavily used this storyboard as a reference when animating. I also heavily relied on the movement/action arrows which are in purple. I also made sure that the timing of my animations were exactly matched with the ones i wrote on the storyboard.

The storyboard illustrates the zombie family making their way from their home to the zombie fest in Leicester square. This timeline was directly transferred into my animation as I made sure not to stray from what I put on the storyboard. The narrative presented in my storyboard matched my offline edit really well as I didn’t make any significant changes in my offline edit to what was written on my storyboard. I made sure to follow my description and edits written on the storyboard as precisely as I could.

Video only edit

This version of my animation includes only visual effects with no audio. Below are pictures of my progress in the software Final Cut Pro along side the video only edit.

I had animated all my clips directly on top of the backplate image so this meant I didn’t need to green screen the backplates in. This made the editing process a lot simpler as all I had to do was put my clips in order.

In this version i also added transitions and effects, such as the scene in which the family slides into shot in their own frames. I did this by key framing each clip and moving and transforming them accordingly. And for the transitions I used the ones that were already loaded up on final cut pro.

I also have a text frame towards the end of the animation with informs the viewer of the date and name of the event. I did have this text in the offline edit, however this is the final look and design of said text scene.

In final cut pro, I used the cut tool in order to cut pieces of the animation that were either too long, or I didn’t need out. This helped me as I was able to keep the timings of my animation exact to the storyboard. As well as the cut tool, I used the option to layer videos as well as the key frame option in order to create my split screen effect at the beginning of the animation. This let me move all the clips around on top of each other to give it movement. Then I used the transition tools in order to create smooth transitions to my scenes, as well as keeping it inline with my storyboard.

My animation actually went a bit behind schedule when it comes to the gantt chart as I actually finished editing my animation on the 15th of September where as my gantt chart ends not he 8th of November. This means along the timeline, one of my tasks took longer than expected.

Final version - Video and Sound

Here is the final version with sound for my animation. The sounds I used were either the sound effects already loaded up in final cut, or the voiceovers I recorded myself specially for the animation. I altered the sound of the voiceovers I recorded using the sound distorters on Final Cut pro. This was in order to make the voices sound a lot more unnatural and zombie like.

Optimisation

This is my .MP4 version of my final animation. An .MP4 file type is a good file to export an animation in as it is a very common, standard file type, meaning it can be opened on many devices. This is useful as it means that the animation can be easily spread across a variety of platforms and devices, meaning more publicity. This file type can also be uploaded and ran on many social media platforms which is integral when it comes to advertising and informing people of the event. Using the .MP4 file type also means that the size of the video is compressed, this too is also helpful when it comes to watching the video on smaller devices such as phones as a smaller video size will make it easier when it comes to streaming the video online and downloading it. 

Furthermore, I changed the video coding to H.264 which is a video compression standard. This is one of the most frequently used video formats nowadays. The H.264 video compression standard is commonly used for recording, compression and distribution of video content. Its network friendly and delivers high quality images whilst only using half the storage space.

For the animation sequences I used transparent PNG image files. This means I didn’t use any moving images which resulted in a lower file size. If I were to use moving images, the file size of my final animation would be much larger which would make the file harder compress and therefore worsen the quality. As well as not using moving images, I did not use bitmap images in order to take up less space, and decrease the file size. As well as being naturally a smaller size, they still retain a high quality image when compressed unlike bitmap images. Because I’ve made a smaller version for smartphones, a smaller, simpler file would mean no complicated graphics, which means the animation would run smoothly on smaller devices. This smaller file size is best for watching on blackbox devices such as smartphones and tablets as you can’t put external storage into a phone, meaning you’re limited on the amount of space you have. So therefore watching a video which takes up a smaller amount of storage space would be more beneficial.

.mov files offer a very high video playback quality. This .mov file is a much larger file size as its a much higher resolution and better quality than the compressed .mp4 file. This higher resolution version would be the better file to upload to video services such as youtube as it would be better to view on bigger screens such as desktops and TVs without looking blurred or pixelated. This file type is also a lot better to use when it come to editing in softwares as you can compress and decompress after if wanted.

Due to this file size being so large, it’s much more difficult to view on smart phones without the ability to add external storage. Furthermore, this file type is unavailable to android mobile devices meaning it’s not inclusive for everyone to see, unless they’re on a PC.

Test Plan

Test Name	Expected Outcome	Actual Outcome	Comments Needed?
Does the animation follow the story board?	Yes	Yes	-
Was the animation the required length?	Yes	Yes	-
Is the animation engaging to audiences?	Yes	Yes	-
Does the animation appeal to the required target audience?	Yes	Yes	-
Does the story line in your animation make sense?	Yes	Yes	-

 

This picture shows 3 people (Paige, Leora and Sam) watching my animation. As proved in the test plan above, they gave positive feedback.

Debug Test

Test Name	Expected Outcome	Final Outcome	Comments Needed?
Do the jump cuts make sense?	Yes	Yes	-
Are the sound levels appropriate per scene?	Yes	Yes	-
Does the animation run smoothly without any glitches?	Yes	No	There is one point where the Male zombie gets of the train it seems to jump forward a little bit
Does the audio play at the correct times?	Yes	Yes	-
Do the sound effects link up with the actions on screen?	Yes	Yes	-
Do the transitions match the events on screen?	Yes	Yes	-
Are the characters expressions clear?	Yes	Yes	-

Why the animation is fit for purpose

Going back to the brief, it states that the target audience would be an adult audience of dedicated horror enthusiasts and so it would have to be engaging for them. My animation has followed the brief by incorporating some traditional horror conventions such as zombie sounds and also incorporating blood into the character designs of the zombies. These things, especially the blood, would cater to older audiences of the horror genre as these are typically seen in most films of the horror genre.

Based on the brief indicating that the target audience are ‘adult’ horror enthusiasts, you can deduct that the target audience should be people aged about 18-30 (give or take a few years each way). My user testing was using people in this age bracket, and based on the feedback seen on my user testing sheet, the intended target audience enjoyed the animation, and understood the storyline, they also mentioned how they found the animation engaging. Making sure the audience is engaged by the animation is really important as if the audience is engaged by what they’re watching, they’re more likely to retain information, and in this case come to the march. The fact that the test sheet shows that the target audience found the animation appealing, and understood the storyline, means once the animation is put out to the public, the intended target audience would be sure to enjoy and understand my animation.

The brief also states that the product will be displayed on a mobile device app that shows as a full screen. The use of 2D animation is perfect for this purpose as the file size can be compressed yet still be of high definition and resolution for audiences to watch clearly. They also states that the animation must be exported in a format that elf br suitable for distribution across the web as well as a smartphone interface. This requirement has been met, as shown above I have exported the animation in both an mp4 file type and also a mov file type. This means I have both a high resolution animation to upload to places like YouTube for viewing on larger screens, as well as a low resolution animation to upload to other social media platforms to be viewed on smaller phone screens.

Furthermore, the brief also specifies that the animation should include a themed character as a central part of the animation. This requirement of the brief has been met as I have a central family of zombies that the storyline follows throughout. This family is clearly the main focus throughout as we follow their journey to Leicester square to take part in the march.

Lastly, the whole purpose of this animation is to promote the march and my animation has done just that. I made sure to include important information about the march such as location, date and also how participants are encouraged to arrive in fancy dress. This is done through the text screen towards the end, and also the zombie pop up holding a poster saying ‘Zombies Only!’.

Justify the choice of animation technique for the frame rate and duration

I used 2D animation to make my advertisement, I thought using this medium would make it a lot easier to choose the frames per second I want and figure out what fps looks best. Using 2D animation also allowed me to draw the different parts of the body and the facial features however I wanted to with no limits. This freedom was extremely useful as I could portray emotion and movement super easily through my drawings. This also conforms to the brief as drawing my own characters, i can make it appeal to horror enthusiasts by adding elements of horror such as blood.

The frame rate for my animation is 8 frames a second. However there are a few scenes in which I use real video footage which would most likely be around 24 frames a second. The frame rate also changes in scenes like the close ups. During this scene, the zombies are blinking, and to make it look a normal pace, I slowed down the frame rate for when the eyes open. Whilst the frame rate differed from scene to scene, it didn’t compromise the quality of the animation. In fact I think that the differing frame rates enhances the quality of the animation as none of the scenes go to fast or too slow. Furthermore, using this lower frame rate, it means that the animation is slower after all and therefore a smaller size overall. This is beneficial when i comes to compressing the video for smart phone viewing.

Overall, the total running time of my animation is 1 minute and 2 seconds. Due to being short, it would attract the audience, and would keep them interested throughout the animation which links back to the brief as they asked for the animation to be engaging.