text storyboard

-> linkage <-

Without music: linkage

research stuff

I got tons of sketches and storyboard stuff, but it's on refill. The only bad thing about online workbooks. :/

For next time...

More storyboarding. My thumbnail storyboards worked nicely, but I didn't think about all of the transitions between scenes. Which causes problems down the line with continuity, timing of the animation and extra time it takes ot modify stuff at the start and end of scenes.

More frame by frame. Some of the shape tweens really pissed me off trying to get them to work how I wanted. I used tons of shape tweens (rather than motion tweens) throughout the animation because shape tweens are eaisier to process by the machine, and if you have too many mtion tweens in one scene it causes slowdown. A problem with syncing to music. Flash player skips frames if it gets behind, and I dont like that.
If more was frame by frame, it will take a little longer, but it gives a more organic feel to movement. As I have found, there are a very little amount of shortcuts to animating fire/water/dust/etc (anything that "flows") and FBF is the only way to acheive realistic looking effects.

More story. Like a possible back story for the characters, personalities, etc. Also I think I need to finalise the complete story before animating. I love to jump into animating the characters and such, but if you change the story halfway through you might need to scrap some/all of the animation. Which would be a big waste of time.
The guys from Pixar are always going on about how "story is king", which I now understand completely.

More acheivable timeline. I was pretty much working non stop to just to get this project done. I was animating for 2-3 weeks for 80 seconds = 4.4 seconds a day. Roughly. Maybe i'll go for high quality 2 seconds a day? Depends on how much longer FBF takes for me.

Thinking about copyright bs. Copright material is so troublesome. Perhaps too troublesome to attmept again any time soon. NZ laws are whack. What's wrong with making something for entertainment. Lame...anyways...

A seperate flash file for character's body parts, and another file for effects.
It was time consuming to look through all the files to find a simple object. If I had a file library it would be a lot quicker. :)

final thoughts

I got it done. That took a while.
Two or three of the transitions dont flow nicely 100%, but I am satisfied with the overall result. Fun to create despite the little problems.

The blue dinosaur intro is probally my favourite scene since I like his character design better and I think the sphere landing with the spring effect with easing looks nice. The sand that blows past the sphere gives it a 3D impression, playing around with 3D space with flat looking objects and characters is interesting.
The final result looks like what I was going for, although if i had more time I would have added more objects (clouds, etc) and more textures. I need to practice with textures in flash, because I found you have to move the texture as well as the moving object.

Hopefully the viewer can determine that the two characters have met before. Perhaps a quick flashback would have helped this.
I added the ending which challenges the viewers sense of perspective. The lizard that notices the beams of energy in the middle of the animation (with little perspective), comes back in the end to show the viewer that in reality the fighting fire/electric dinosaurs are actually really tiny comapared to the lizard. This idea came rather late, and I think could be developed for more clarity.

When making it I thought to myself "what would I want to see in a fire vs electric dinosaur battle?" So I noted those ideas down while listening to the song. I chose the song because I liked the energy and attitude of it, and it gave me that gut feeling of excitement, and connected the music with the potential animations. For example the "explosion" of the chorus would go nicely with a "explosion" of movement, and obviously the fast parts require fast action.

The still frames worked nicely as they differ from the rest of the animation because of the overlayed textures which I feel gives it an epic quality like pages from a book about a legend. Because they are only visible for half a second or so, this makes the viewer want to see it again, a technique I have noticed while watching some of my favourite online flash animations.

final days

I worked on the more difficult/time consuming scenes left to do this week, and I may be able to actually finish it.
Don't know if I have time to do the extra final scene cause I want to add more effects. And I need the "reactions" scene to be quick to make.

wed:
-finish blue/electric running+crouch+jump+flight scene

wed night:
-still frame shots (x4) (already drawn on paper) + texture?
-plan reaction scene

thurs:
-reaction scene

thurs night:
-extra effects
-extra ending foot print squash

friday am:
final stuff like how it will be displayed + more blog

friday pm:
sleeep.

weekend

Did some more. Very annoying when you can't get a simple inbetween going. The half of the "charge beam" shot took way longer than it should have.

Flash program has crashed a few times as well. I don't know why since the file aint that big.

Not sure if I can finish by the due date. I might have to cut some corners and flip some scenes horiztonally to get it done. For example the electric charging beam will be pretty much the same as the fire charging beam. Which sucks. I'm not even sure this will save time as I have done mostly shape tweens and not motions. Shapes take longer to edit.

Also instead of the blue dinosaur emerging from a dark cave, he will probably just fall into the screen from the "sky".

Blue dino's attacks shouldn't take as long as the red ones did, since blue dino kinda teleports because as he has lightning speed.

The fun factor definitely dropped off due to a lot of small tweens not working like I want it to.

Maybe animating some of the eaisier scenes will ease my frustration :P

fast week

Have been doing a lot of animating this week, some problems, but most of it was fun. :)

I noticed some slowdown when there was a fullscreen movieclip symbol animating.
It looks like slow motion during playback. I can easily change the motion tweened MC to a frame by frame shape motion to prevent this.
But I like the slow motion effect, so I'll try to keep one slow motion section during the beam movement.

I also had to horiztonally flip both the dino's ( sniff, O_O, >=) ) scenes because I built them the wrong way.
Because I flipped everything most of the shape tweens where out of whack, so I spend a bit of time fixing them as well. I had to fix this scene because blue is always coming in from the left, and red is always coming in from the right. This is to keep it consistant, so the viewer can understand what is going on since the action is kinda fast.

Also, I haven't animated any arms on the dinos yet. The characters don't use them at all so it is not really needed. I can acomplish the dino's gestures without arms. Throughout the planning I really tried to think about how the dinosaurs would move without arms, as they are tiny compared to his main devices (teeth+feet+tail). So I watched sparrows and seagulls and stuff in the holidays. Just paying attention to how they move about.
If I have time at the end (which I doubt I will), I would want to go back and animate them in. Just because it would make it more like a dinosaur and not a like a dinosaur-like creature with no arms. Or maybe having no arms adds to the animation's story line on how the dinos are ant-size, and the whole fanstasy type enviroment.

bg colour tests

I chose to use pastel like backgrounds because it allows the characters to easily stand out. I have warm and cool colours to match the warm and cool coloured characters and their elements.
- blue + purple sky = blue electric dino
- yellow + redish sand = red fire dino.

I decided on the bottom one. There may be a transition through the animation from the lighter rock colours in the bottom panel to the darker ones in the top. To suggest the sun is going down/time is passing.

flash processes + research

I have done up some tests in flash (speed depiction, dust clouds etc) and they seem to be acheivable enough so far.

I also started animating portions, FUN! :D
- Blue smell > O_O > >=)
- Red smell > O_O > >=)
- Most of the abstract fighting scene (just need to add fire/lighting)

Next thing to do is probally draw up the landscape in flash, and finally decide on the colours. As that is rather important for the characters to interact with.

I have been studing some cartoons (dragon ball + naruto) and paying attention to how they depict speed and effects(dust/fire/lighting/etc). Visually flowing things(dust/fire/water) take time to animate because there are no shortcuts, and it pretty mmuch has to be frame by frame.
While also looking at the camera angles and perspective used.

I also took some photos of my old toy dinosaur for reference in the holidays, I never really thought about dipicting the size of the dinosaurs. Maybe they could be the size of ants for a joke at the end and the massive explosion would only be a tiny spark. Interesting me not thinking about a certain element can add to the animation in the end. :P
I don't know how horizon lines works with tiny landscapes. I guess they don't have any. Might do some camera tests today.

after break update

Cut the music, runs for about 1.26 or so.

Created a new flash document. synced up the keyframes with the beat of the song. That took ages. Then I realised it was on 12 frames per second. :/

Whipped up some tests which prove to depict the speed I want, which proved needed it to be at about 24 frames per second. god damn.

So I had to change the frames frickin MANUALLY which was a complete *****. That took ages also. :(

But it was probably worth the extra effort, because speed is a focus in the animation.

Completed thumbnail storyboards, most came out the way I had in my head, but some didn't (like the jump secquences)

The storyboards definitely helped as it showed things I didn't think about (like the dinos movements when they fire their energy beams, + that I probably need a widescreen part when they jump back + weather and light direction)

From the start I decided to not have any animation that was too time consuming. So most of the shots are like from an anime, with small, subtle gestures instead of over the top movement.

Possible difficulties:
-Initial running scene. At the moment I dont this to be from side on, I want a perspective (may change to a more abstract version, or just have a the dino go from still movement to w/lightning/fire)
-All the action seems rather mirrored. eg same perspective run, just flipped horizontally for both dinos. Dunno if I should mix this up or not. :/
-Spiral fire twist. I really want this, will have to be frame by frame so it will be a bit of a bitch to animate. Still need some reference.
-Still no reason as to why the dinosaurs are fighting and what the outcome is.

T-Rex 101

Tyrannosaurus

-Balanced by tail
-Cretaceous Period, approximately 68 to 65 million years ago;
-it was among the last non-avian dinosaurs to exist prior to the Cretaceous–Tertiary extinction event. (yay no plot holes)
-bore two clawed digits (might need to change this for 2 and a thumb for readability)


Other cretceous dinosaurs:
Ankylosaurus, Gallimimus, Iguanodon, Velociraptor, Triceratops

Music

Aight, so I found a enjoyable piece of music which fits the pace of my storyboards.
I have already edited the track down to the desired length, now I shall attempt to mark the cues of the music with basic keyframe notes in flash.

I also need to research some t-rex info. eg. period (jurassic/etc) + foliage + other similar period dinosaurs.

research:
-landscape
-foliage
-other dinos.

It doesn't need to be super accurate, but I will try to give some sense of realism.

storyboard

I have been reading a lot of animation blogs, splinedoctors.com is run by a few pixar guys, and as usual they reitorate that th story is the most important.

STORY — no surprises there. The single most important criterion that you must not let suffer under any circumstances. More important than any character’s consistency, more important than any scene’s entertainment value or appeal, if you fail to convey the story point of a scene, you fail to tell the story. And that’s really what this medium is all about: telling a relevant story that will affect an audience. It’s the whole reason animation and indeed movies themselves were invented in the first place. An audience must be able to follow the story. And this is where showing your animation to your peers is vital. You can find ten different people that will give you ten different opinions on your animation’s appeal, but if half of them can’t understand what’s going on, you’ve got a problem on your hands.

So my two dinosaurs will fight over some land/girl and will be the reason of their own extinction. :)

Also on animating a snake like movement, instead of animating it frame by frame, I can just draw a long snake path, and then move it across the screen.
===============
Starts off by showing the setting in landscape. Focuses on each of the 2 dinosaurs, they smell each other, and race towards the other. a Dragon ball z style fight ensues for a little bit. they jump back and rest for a bit. they both charge up their ultimate attacks, and fire them. camera focuses on the beams closing in, and sceen goes white from explosion. the 2 dinos defend, and the electric/fire wave goes around the world killing all the dinosaurs, so we find out these 2 elemental dinos were the reason for the dinosaurs extinction. :)

Maybe more dinosaurs popped up after all the rexes died, so that doesn't need to be accurate for the storys sake.

will put up rough storyboard later. :)

colour test

Animated gif. May take a while to load.
I'm satisfied with the lightning effect, as it should be be easy enough to convert it into a beam/kick/punch/tail/etc. Looks cleaner in SWF, but blogger/flickr doesn't upload swf files.





colour testing.
red vs blue for contrast.
might animate into abstract. Maybe a mix.

I need to research into some animated fire that doesn't take too long to animate. Fire is rather fluid and could become troublesome.
I could animate a horizontal section of flames, then I can flip/rotate for beams.
Ideally I want flames that can sway realistically from movement. For example if a dude does a flame punch or something the fire can leave a trail.
The action scene/s would probably be quick, which requires less frames.

Need to keep working on the storyboard.

Not sure if I want music or sound effects atm. I don't think I'll have enough time to source/sync any sfx.

fire vs electricity battle

Manipulation of elements:
naruto, avatar, pokemon, DBZ, heroes, full metal alchemist, ben 10

t-rex moves:
growl/roar, kicks, thrash/rage, punches, body slam, speed/agility, tail attacks, bites, tackle/charges/headbutt

fire moves:
flamethrower, fire spin, fire blast, overheat, heat wave, flame wheel, fire punch, sunny day, ember, smokescreen, will-o-wisp

electric moves:
thunder/shock/bolt/wave, flash, zap cannon, sonic boom, light screen, shock wave, explosion

other:
increased power/recovers with sun
close combat burns
soak in water to absorb burns
lightning rods
obscure vision w/heat from fire
paralyzed from electricity
slow motion
horizon heat waves
wall of fire
burn marks in/on ground
cracks/destruction from impact
burns/blood/scars/damage
seal to stop elemental powers
dragon energy blast
weather conditions
elemental bullets

rough storyline(red=fire, yellow=electric):
-Yellow backs Red into corner near water
-Red creates fog smokescreen
-Yellow sneaks up behind + hits Red into water
-Yellow thinks Red is done
-water starts steaming, then boling
-jumps out + continues

I want something in a cave to play with light a bit. Through it? Can they smell each other?
Both in cave + turned off fire/electric to hide/stalk.
Then they can "light up" + battle some more.
-one goes to hide, the other slowly sniffing him out, reaches him but opponent is above! Then opponent attacks + runs.

Yellow (electric) rex is hunting the last elemental rex, Red (fire) to become the ruler of the dinosaurs. or something.

fire/electricity/light/pixel project ideas

controlling elements (ex. avatar/pokemon/DBZ/etc)
interactive puzzle using light
combining fire + light = explosions
flash animation for practice for final project
fire vs electricity battle
connecting circuits
light battle in darkness (using fire vs electricity or something) (similar to advent childen cloud vs sephiroth in building (blade clashes result in lighting up the darkness))

possibly a fire vs electricity battle between two characters. probally t-rexes for practice. or maybe flightless birds. something that has similar movements to a t-rex

artist research

Nam June Paik
Interesting how the old style TV screens fit together to make the robot models.

romy achituv
"text rain" interactive element is interesting.

du zhenjun
The end has no end
Looks cool weaving in, out and around of the pillars.
wind
Cool how the viewer can control the direction of wind. As if he is controlling the element of wind.
cover
Viewer can physically move around to try get a better look. It reminds me of when certain people play driving games, and they rock side to side, and "turn" the controller as if it is a steering wheel. Ha.

erwin redl
matrix works looks cool because of the 3D space
flow: it would be better if it worked like music bars, moving up and down.

joachimsauter
kinetic sculpture
pretty damn amazing.

art + com
Jurascopes
fun way to learn about the awesomeness of dinosaurs. Ace idea.

phenakistiscope wheel

I cut out a phenakistiscope wheel, and 12 frames for the animation.
Still have to put it together and see if it works.

Made it, it works. But is kind of hard to distinguish because it is only greyscale and a subtle animation.
It would work more effectively if it worked as a complete loop, had colour, and changed shape or something similar.

model of early cinema (any media)

I used flash to rotate a wheel with a sequence of images (that create an animation) around the outside, with a viewfinder over top.
It worked well in the program.
LINK

I then made a model of the same thing with paper/cardboard, but it didn't work at all.
The images on the wheel just turned into a blur. It looks like this technique only works if it is viewed at a certain frame rate with a certain rotation speed.

I'll try to turn it into a phenakistiscope wheel.
How to make one.
I printed out the 12 frames needed, so I'll make another.


Another one:
Turning on the light reveals hidden image.
I made something like this in flash. move the mouse to light it up.
LINK
Not quite the same because of the gradient, but this could be achieved with transparent layer and shading.
I'll try to make a paper model of this also.

filming remoscopes

I found it hard to find something interesting to film.

But I finally did some that were fairly interesting.
All are around 1 minute, and you can just mute the sound.

http://www.youtube.com/user/scottgEA
1) Remoscope: amazing circle of wonder
2) Remoscope: footsteps above
3) Remoscope: footsteps above 2
4) Remoscope: crowd reflections

remoscopes.

camouflage something maybe?
Like how animals only become visible when they move.
like birds in leaf litter/tigers in jungle/etc

From the spark to the pixel

-remoscope #1
-remoscope #2
-model of early cinema (any media)

17th - 27th march (completed)

-Final project that encorporates two of the core elements (fire/electricity/light/pixel)

27th march - 27th april (four weeks)

+ document research in blog.