Top 10 - Finished Animation.

It's been a long time coming, but here's the final resolution to this brief. 

I'm really happy with how it turned out. There's still loads and load of tweaking that I could sit and fiddle with for weeks if I had to, but they're things that no one would ever notice anyway! 

I think it's evident in the duration of the video how my confidence within After Effects has grown, and though there is some questionable timing towards the end where it seems a little rushed, as a whole I feel I've gained an amount of technical knowledge that will out weigh any unfavourable aspect this video may contain. I'll sum up my thoughts further in the evaluation to come, but for now - Enjoy!

All comments and thoughts are very welcome.

Top 10 - Animation update

Updated with the last scene changed, much happier with this version - and it was an idea I'd had since the beginning so it's very satisfying to see that come to life. I need to add the final scene, and just a little bit more tweaking before I'll be happy enough to submit this, but for now I'm going to leave it and focus on the more pressing matter of creating the dvd.

Top 10 - Animation update

Another animation update, again just to show you where I'm at. It was incredibly difficult to animate the spade fighting scene with keyframes, but I have learned a huge amount in the process. I feel it could have been executed a lot better, maybe even a stop frame technique would have worked better, maybe even have been funnier!
The last scene here needs changing as well - it's a bodged job and it's obvious. I have a few potential scenes to take it's place though so I'm not too worried about that.
Apart from that I'm happy enough - though the music is starting to get painful to listen to...

Top 10 - Animation update

Just a quick update to show you all where I'm at, there's a lot missing and still a fair amount of tweaking to be done, but I'm pretty happy with where this is going - it's really satisfying to see it all come together.
I've also left the rest of the song playing until the end of the 50 seconds to give you an idea of how the piece will finish, and a sense of how long I have left to fit all the pieces in.
Enjoy.

Top 10 - 'Running' Zombies...

I devoted an entire evening to the movement of the zombie, with rather futile results. I came across many 
problems; the main one being that a natural run is a movement that can be repeated over and over, 
where as the movement of a zombie is pretty erratic, and there would have to be pauses between steps... 
making it very difficult to just drop him into a composition as I please.
Anyway, here are my try outs... I laughed, I cried, I gave up.
Time for plan B.

TOP 10 - Animations

Audio: Zombina and the Skeletones - Nobody likes you when you're dead
Myspace

Top 10 - Colour Choices

Still toying with the idea of having a colour transition between yellow, orange and red through the duration of the animation, but to ease the progression (which has been rather slow) I'm going to stick with orange for now.

Top 10 - Schematic

A really simply schematic for the dvd menu - subject to change as I discover the possibilities within Dvd Studio Pro. I have no end of ideas for theses menus, my only concern is that I'm being too adventurous with some of the things I want to achieve - like a looping video embedded in each menu. Either way I want the menu to have plenty of animated elements and transitions, but we'll see how achievable that actually is as the module progresses.

Top 10 - After Effects, Test 1

A quick test in After Effects to see if the poster works as a composition once zoomed in. The idea was to move through the poster as the animation progresses, though I think it will be harder than I first thought to navigate round the poster as it currently is. I might have to move things around once the first zoom is over, to allow the animation to flow smoothly... Doing this will add a sense of disorientation to the video, which could actually work in my favour.

Top 10 - Feedback sheets & Crit Notes

(notes taken during crit)

Top 10 - Storyboards

Initial storyboards

I used the idea of a flowchart to help organise and structure my ideas, getting a feeling for the pace of the animation as well as how all the scenes I want to include may link together.

Top 10 - RATIONALE

The zombie genre has seen a rainbow of different approaches throughout the years, from the old days of green faces and staggered walks, to the modern day rage infested kind and of course, the recent 'zom-com' or zombie comedy that is Shaun of the Dead. Tone of voice will be particularly important when considering the appropriate way to respond to this brief, and I have decided that the idea of a scary zombie has long since run it's course, and the future lies with the black humour of zombie comedy - as much of my research has shown. 


I plan to produce a 50 second animated title sequence for a 'mockumentary' style T.V program detailing the top 10 of zombie survival tips. The program will be shown on the channel Living Tv, as this gives me the most appropriate audience to work with. The tone will be quite sarcastic, mocking the idea of traditional horror or gore genre zombie films. 


The design direction will be determined by my current research into information graphics. Some of the pivotal pieces I have been looking at include the title sequence for 'Euro Trip' and 'Catch Me If You Can', I enjoy the simple approach to each of the pieces, especially the quite twisted humor of 'Euro Trip'. I want to keep the overall appearance of the piece as simplistic as possible, allowing me to push my technical ability within the software and not get caught in the trap of using special effects to mask bad workmanship. 


I feel video and audio go hand in hand, each enhancing the other. I will need to consider this aspect very carefully, as failing to find the right track could ruin everything I am striving to achieve. 

Top 10 - Poster Variations

DVD MENU

After coming up with a quick dvd menu concept,  I decided to animate it as a test to see how the movie might come together - this was really a test in kinetic typography.

Now working in RGB, that yellow has become far more intense, and almost illegible. More consideration over colour is definitely on the to do list.

Movie Season - Change to TOP 10 Brief

As my ideas started to take shape last week, I had the sudden realisation that the Movie Season brief was in fact holding back many aspects of my work, making it difficult to make any progress. My ideas about comedy zombie movies naturally progressed into info graphics and the story boards called for a longer running time than ten seconds each. Also my ideas all focussed around the idents being one continual piece, the fact that they would have to be cut into pieces, interrupting the natural flow of the animation was something I had ignored until recently, when I figured it would be much more relevant to answer the Top 10 brief.

And so, that's exactly what I'm doing.
 - 'Top 10 Zombie Survival Tips' As a title sequence to a one off 'mock-umentary' about a zombie apocalypse.

These two posters I designed almost as story boards. The second one is obviously far better than the first, but both of them explain the story of my project just as a storyboard would. They are subject to change, but the process alone has helped me visualise my ideas, and put them in a logical order. Perhaps an odd way of working, but it's done wonders.

My plan is to use all the elements of the poster in my animation, so lots of kinetic type and diagrams, but I'm in the process of developing a stick man character who will move around the images, and interact with the type to reinforce the message, or make fun of it, or both. Either way this character will be an unexpected comedy edge, he'll have a lot of fun moving around on this deadly serious backdrop.