Final Film

112 from Ally Baldwin on Vimeo.

This is my final animation. It was difficult for me to upload my 'practice' animations and progress as I was having some serious technical issues. First I kept rendering incorrectly and have to re-render which was taking a long time on my laptop. I also have never been taught how to do animation in 3DS Max so at the same time I was rendering I was also watching and reading tutorials, trying to figure out how to make it work. Then I put all the frames (over 2000!) in Adobe After Effects which made the programme a bit slow and animated the text over top. I've also never used Adobe After Effects before so this was a struggle and I was watching tutorials as I was going along, making my work progress a little slower than I would have liked. Nevertheless I figured everything out. I then had trouble exporting and couldn't work out why. I exported a "test" film which was over 6GB! My computer wouldn't run it smoothly. I then downloaded QuickTime and restarted my laptop which got it working.

I'm so happy with the final result and super happy that I managed to finally pull it off. I was getting really worried that I had been too ambitious wanting to learn how to do this but I'm so glad I went to all that effort to learn how to.

I like how I've kept a simple black and white approach which creates a nice contrast between the app and the background. I also like how the light rendering in 3DS Max has turned out. The movements in the text are smooth and not over powering from the app itself I feel. I also really love how beautiful the music is and how well it fits with creating this warm and pleasant atmosphere. My aim was for my film to make you want to go and buy the app as it makes it look like your life would be so much easier and fun with it.

Overall I'm super proud of how this project as turned out. Especially as I self taught myself how to use both programmes for this animation. I also feel it will be a refreshing change from other peoples films as it's not just a video of someone walking around lost at Kelburn with an app. I feel this is a lot more original and polished. I'm curious as to whether anyone else has done something similar because I haven't found someone who is not using a camcorder yet.

Sound Track used

This is the sound track I want to use:



Sourced from: http://soundcloud.com/derek-cornett/uncle-lou

Because it is a nice gentle guitar piece like one of my precedents for this project. It creates a nice, calming and happy atmosphere which makes the app seem revolutionary and very simple and enjoyable to use. I decided to choose the music before I make the finished film so I can make the timing of the film will fit to the music. I think it's really important to know what kind of theme, mood and atmosphere you're wanting to create in your film and to represent your product.

The finished code

The blue successfully represents the water and the green for the tadpoles. The movement in the tadpoles is beautiful and smooth, the mouse interaction represents feeding them and allows you to play with them and freeze their motion. The long screen size makes the mouse interaction easier to focus on and more enjoyable for the user.

After much careful consideration into the colours and size I'm very happy with it. This code was very difficult to write from scratch but I'm glad the tadpoles movements are so smooth and life like. That's the thing I'm most happy with in this project.

Developing the colour and size

I then developed the perfect screen size. This allows a still nice square shape, but enough room to interact with the tadpoles and allow them so split up. By making the screen wider rather than longer it is easier for the user to move the mouse horizontally as opposed to vertically.

This light green background is too bright and 'apple' coloured. It needs to represent a swamp. 

Still too bright.

Finally got the tadpoles to a good, deep green colour which correctly represents their true colour. 

This green makes it easier to see the tadpoles but isn't a pleasant shade to look at.

The green is too dark here.

This is more of a sky blue than an ocean blue which is what I'm more wanting to represent the water correctly. 

The blue is too bright.

The blue is too dark.

Experiments with size and colour

I began experimenting with background colour, back ground size, tadpole size, tadpole amount and tadpole colour to find what works best.

Tadpoles with a slight green tinge

Lighter blue background. I was having trouble getting the tadpoles a deep green transparent colour.

Light blue background and tadpoles.

Now experimenting with size

Larger quantity of tadpoles. I felt they were more like particles and less like tadpoles at this size.

More of the tadpoles and size 20.

Fewer tadpoles and size 20

And even fewer tadpoles.

Experimented with a deep green background which looked horrible.

Experiments with the size and colour

I have begun to experiment with the size of the screen and the colour of the background. 

For the size of the screen I really need to find what works best as an interaction. If they screen is too large the tadpoles flocking may not look as good and with the screen too small the interaction isn't as effective. I need to balance these two factors successfully. I also need to figure out what looks best as a screen size. Whether it be a perfect square or long horizontally or long vertically. 

Size

I feel that this screen looks aesthetically pleasing. The mouse interaction as a good horizontal movement going but I feel the interaction would be more interesting if the movement were vertical also.

This screen is far too long down the eyes don't like it as it's not as easy to follow the interaction.

I experimented with making the screen smaller to see if the interaction was more effective this way. I found the tadpoles couldn't flock as far and their character therefore wasn't as apparent. The interaction was a lot more boring as you couldn't make 

Colour

I have began testing the colour of the background only. I will narrow down the best colours and then try them with the coloured tadpoles. For the background test I will keep the tadpoles while transparent for now.

This is the colour I have been currently working with. A very nice blue but perhaps too dark? So I tried a lighter one....

Far too light and makes the code seem too cartoon like. A deeper blue is perhaps more sophisticated.

This blue seems to have a tint of purple and is very cool toned. Not sure how well it would work with the perhaps green tadpoles (unsure of tadpole colour yet)

This deep blue seems nice but still a little purple toned. Really need to test this with the green tadpoles.

The swimming and flocking is working!

I'm very happy as the tadpoles are finally swimming in a nice fluid movement and they change direction on their own. They spawn from the middle of the code and swim outwards. They don't touch the edges of the screen as if trapped in a fish tank.

Also now when I press the mouse down the tadpoles swim to the mouse and then slowly depart. However when the mouse is held down the tadpoles freeze which is something I would like to attempt to fix.

If I can work out how, I would also like to move my mouse through the code and interrupt the tadpoles movement, forcing them to depart and swim away.

I also now need to focus on colour. Working on a good colour palette will help my code to be much more stronger and effective. I'm thinking of trying a photograph background to see if it portrays tadpoles better.

I also need to experiment with different screen sizes to see which is more effective for this code.

progress - the tadpoles are fluttering

I had just one dot moving extremely fast from the x and y position. It appeared that it was fluttering and not swimming.

I then made an array with many dots doing this movement. It wasn't the swimming motion that I wanted but it was a start as it wasn't just moving horizontally or vertically anymore.

Final Images

Rewritten Proposal

My aim is to explore the human portrait by photo manipulation. They must still look like a photographic medium but either look like a persons face or an alien like creature.

I will achieve this by taking well lit photographs of three models faces at the same height and angle. These portraits alone will be good photographs. I will then mix their faces to create a new character. I will also use photo manipulation and colour to make an altered human species. The viewer will see a series that begins with three close ups of faces but then changes into something more interesting.

This illusion will create unique characters and it's purpose is to elude and entertain the viewer.

Figuring out which photographs work best together

Am trying to figure out which photograph of Rachel to use. The second one will work better when merging the faces I think but the first one looks better with the other two. I think I may use the first one when just showing her face but when merging, use this second one.

Irving Penn - artist model

Irving Penn is an American photographer and best known for his fashion photography. However, I really like his black and white portrait style.

The photos are lit in a very interesting way. They're very high in contrast and create very interesting shadow on the subjects faces. I would love to emulate this in my own work for this project.

Adriadne Photography

I am especially inspired by Adriadne's studio photography. her models appear to be very well lit and although using just plain backgrounds, I find the composition, colours and expressions on the models faces to be very successful. I would love to emulate this style by having very crisp photographs with correct white balance as hers appear to have.

Simon Woolf

Simon Woolf is a well known photographer in Wellington New Zealand. He does some great commercial and portrait photography. I especially love his studio style and how well lit his photographs are.

His black and white style is especially beautiful. He tries to catch people looking happy.