Category: Final Major Project & Thesis

I did the opening and closing credits and I used a couple of different titles and endings.

1. a short cartoon video that I drew myself using procreate.
2. a reference found on a website and some personal tweaking. (Using the software Afer Effects)
   The final choice was to use the reference found on the website and put it into AE for tweaking.

I did the editing of the video to find some needed audio sources. Dubbing myself at home using Audition and dragging in the video to debug it in Premiere. Dubbing and editing the video was the main task this week.
In the process of finding music, I looked at a few relevant websites to see which music would be more appropriate for the project and I ended up going into the forest and recording a forest sound and editing it with the music I found on the website.

This week I have been composing videos from the rendered images and checking for missing images etc in between. Also made posters and postcards and filled in personal information. Rendering the missing frame images again.
But as some of the frames weren’t rendered properly, I did another render using maya.

This week I ran a render test to tweak the lighting parameters and positions. After confirming that the render test was ok, I rendered the first scene and composited the video in Premiere for the first scene integration. This render lasted about a week.

This week I animated the interior of the room and created a new scene file to animate the main male character walking tiredly. Created animation of him going to grab the bear with his hands. The camera was repositioned. And an animation of the main character lying on the floor with his eyes open.
I had some problems with the frame rate not being adjusted properly when the character was walking, resulting in the timing not appearing to be a slow walk forward.

This week I animated the forest section, using what I learnt in class to character-bind the bear. I then placed the bear in the scene, confirmed the general position and then animated the opening of the eyes, looking left and looking right step by step. I then created a new scene file to confirm the position of the animation of the bear walking through the forest and the position of the camera.

This week I put the first scene into MAYA to tweak the movements, and calculate the timing and the frame rate of the walk.
Here is a partial video of the character walking animation without putting it into the scene. I tweaked the feet, waist, and weight offsets.

This week I worked out the times and detail frames and placed the scenes and characters in the MAYA software for debugging.
Firstly, regarding scene details: (time + action) (budget time, for reference only)
Sc-1: The main character walks from one side of the street to the other. (Tired walk) (The scene is at night and there is nothing on the road) (5s)
Sc-2: Man walks into a home in front of the table (weary walk) stops at the table, (3s) reaches for bear on the table.
(Cut to close-up) Get the bear and hold it up. (3s) (Cut to medium shot to change to another view) He backs up to chair (2s) (for not looking at the chair) sits empty and falls out of frame. (2s) (Cut to close-up shot) Man’s eyes closed (2s)
Sc-3: Bear looks left and right with eyes open (3s) (close-up shot)
Sc-4: Bear walking in the forest (4s) Cut shot: bear walks to middle looking towards camera and waves and invites to join him (5s-7s)
Sc-5: Bear hiding behind tree in forest (2s) Bear sitting on rock and staring (3s-4s) Bear jumping down from rock (2s-3s) Bear lying on grass (3s-4s)
Sc-6: Man wakes up (close up) (3-4s) Man sits up and hugs bear (advancing shot from distance) (3-5s)
These are my summary times and general scenes and action for the week.

This week I sorted out the story and wrote it down, organising the logic and counting the time and frames.
Firstly, I organised the story roughly as the boy came home from a hard night’s work, saw the bear on the table and was about to take it in his arms and sit down together on a chair to rest, but missed his seat and fell to the ground and went into a dream. In the dream he becomes a bear playing in the forest, resting, enjoying the freedom of his dream and lying comfortably on the grass. When he wakes up again he is back in the real world and he sits up and touches the bear like he is getting closer to the freedom he wants to live.
Secondly, I wanted to show through this film that the life of a modern working person is too boring and tedious, with little time for rest. As a human being, I long for a free and unfettered life. But in today’s society this life exists in a dream. When I open my eyes, I have to go back to work.
This is what I did in the first week, to put the story together and to sort it out, and the above version is my final script for the short film. Again, there are some details of the story that were dropped.

For example.

1. his passage to the dream world.
   Wearily he sat down at the table and slumped over and passed out.
   He collapsed on his bed and fell asleep hugging his bear.
   He tripped over an obstacle on his way home and fell to the floor and passed out.
2. In a dream.
   Bear turns into a big bear in his dream and lets him rest on top of him.
   The bear talks and moves in his dream, exploring the forest and having adventures with him. (Reference to Alice in Wonderland)
   The hero enters the bear’s world and explores the forest alone eventually finding the bear’s house and playing with him.
   Turn into a bear and adventure in the forest.
3. Return to reality.
   He wakes up to the sun.
   He gets up, looks at his watch and realises that it is time to go to work and then drags his heavy body to work.
   He walks happily because he is relaxed in his dream. (Not enough time)
   This is the planning of all the pre-determined stories and details I have made this week.

I will prepare a preliminary outline for my thesis, taking into account the books and newspapers I have read recently

Chapter 1

Background to the literature review

1.1 Definition and classification of experimental animation

1.2 The significance of experimental animation

1.3 The characteristics of contemporary art

1.4 Contemporary Art in Experimental Animation

Chapter 2

Analysis of experimental animation cases

2.1 Balance

2.2 Closed Mondays

2.3 Paperman

2.4 Piper

I have chosen two different experimental animations to analyse

Chapter 3

Contemporary Art – Installation Art Exhibition