May 26th

I had a really productive day today. I re-recorded Grandpa narrating the last bit of the video. This was because the sound was really different and didnt work very well at all. Therefore I went to his house and we dubbed over the live action but this time with the camera the same distance from him as it had been for the rest of the narration. To do this i put the live action on the TV on DVD and muted it. I then recorded whilst playing the DVD and Grandpa spoke the narration in perfect lip sync to the video of himself. We had to do a few takes to get the lip sync correct but when i inserted the new audio over the old audio on the final cut it worked perfectly. This was a big problem that i had solved and although it took a lot of effort to do it was definately worth doing and has made a big difference to my videos audio.
I then worked on the title and end credits. I exported frames from the video as JPEG image files and then added the name of the cast member on top of it on Adobe Photoshop. I then added these images back into the final cut. This worked really well as credits. It is interesting and keeps the credits in the same theme as the video.
I also recorded some audio for the credits to play to. This was of an old piece of music that i borrowed from my Grandpa. I got my Mum to play it on the piano and recorded her using the sound recorder on the PC. In a audio editing software that i downloaded i got rid of the noise and put the audio into my final cut. This music still sounds very tinny and is poor quality though. I am also not 100% sure that it goes with the rest of the video. However it is definately better than the credits in silence so unless i can think of anything better i will keep the music as it is.
Now that i had the final video plus the credits i exported it as a Quicktime Animation. All i need to do now is to add the glow on After Effects and then its completed. I will add the glow tomorrow. I will also start and hopefully finish making the "making of" extra for my DVD.

May 25th

Today i spent more time updating my sketchbook and getting it all sorted. I also corrected one of the problems that i had with my first final cut. This was that scene 9c didnt work correctly. It jumped at the end of it and was noticable. Therefore to correct this problem i retraced my steps with it and found that the quicktime movie from Flash had the same problem. Therefore i re-exported it from Flash and this solved the problem. When i then put it back into my final cut it worked correctly.

May 24th

Today i mainly caught up with some sketchbook work that i have been a bit behind with as i have been working with the computers and away from my sketchbook for so long. I printed lots of screenshots and wrote in detail in my sketchbook what i had been doing which was actually helpful for me as i could get myself organised again as far as my sketchbook goes!

May 23rd

Today i started planning my final show. I wrote a quick list of ideas of things that i could put up and thought about how to present it.
Project wise i was mainly trying to solve the problem in my first final cut that it was quite cold. I wanted to find a glow effect that might make the video warmer and more interesting to look at. I played around with the effects of Adobe After Effects but the standard effects weren't really what i was looking for. Therfore i went on the Internet in search of a plug in for After Effects. I found a great plug in on the site - http://www.genarts.com/sapphire-ae.html. This allowed me a 30 day free trial which was enough for my poject as in 30 days i would have finished it. I downloaded and installed this plug-in for After Effects and it worked really well. I used one of the new features for glow and created a nice glow which i was pleased with. I will use this in my final movie.

May 22nd

Today i finished my movie! I finished editing all the scene together, i put the black and white filter on them and used the fade transition in various places. I also slowed scenes down slightly to fit to the narration etc and also played with the contrast of some scenes. In the end i am really happy with my final video. I think it is what i imagined and i am proud of it. There is still a lot to do though. I plan to make a whole DVD including "the making of" and deleted scenes as well as possibly a commentary by me. I also have to catch up in my sketchbook work to record how i edited it and various other bits. Therefore tomorrow i shall crack on with my sketchbook and DVD extras. I also have to plan my final display for the show which i will do.

May 21st

Today i really needed to crack on and edit the final cut of my video. Firstly i needed to film and animate the scene that was missing. This was a simple shot of a door closing which i filmed and captured using Windows Movie Maker and then animated using Flash just as i had done in all my other animations. Now i had all my animating done!
Next I wanted to start editing. I started using Adobe Premier and this was working fine. But then i started to use the same animated files and they still were odd and lagged a bit and the frames were all cut up. I thought that using a more basic software would be better as it was a complicated problem. I re-exported the files loads of times from Flash and they still didnt work. They worked fine in Quicktime but not in Premier. I spent ages trying to figure out the problem. In the end i found that it was probably that the frame rates were different and so it was getting confused. I sorted the problem and started editing. I got loads done in the end but it took all day and was extremely frustrating.

May 20th

Today i spent the whole day in the edit suite editing together my video. I have finally finished all my animating however there is still one more short scene that i have to film and animate which i hope to get done tomorow. I was in the edit suite all day today on Final Cut Pro. The editing started off really well and i was happy with what i was seeing. However as i started adding the scenes with animation i found that wierd things were happening with the animated parts. They were sort of lagging and very pixelated. This did not look good at all and really needed to be sorted. I didnt have much of an idea why this was doing this so i asked the IT technicians to help me. They didnt know what the problem was either! After a few hours of trial and error and changing settings we managed to figure that the sequence settings was trying to play the videos as PAL compression although they were actually animation compression. Also the sizes of the videos varied which may have been my mistake. Even now though they still did not work as they should. Final Cut is such a powerful and clever software that sometimes its too clever and spots things in files that we dont understant. This whole process and day was very very frustrating and meant that i felt that i had wasted my time as i had not got anything done. I decided to try using the software Adobe Premier to edit my video that i have at home.

May 19th

Today i really hoped that i would get all the animating finished so that i could start editing my video. However this has not happened and im still animating. Im not too worried though as as i said before i have allowed myself a whole week extra in my plan which i can use without worry. I have also cut a scene from my video as i felt that it was more work and in the storyline may have made the story a bit slower and possibly a bit boring. This also allows me more time to animate on the other parts. I have explained more about this in my sketchbook.

May 18th

Im getting towards the end of my animating now which is going to be great when its done. Im getting lots of positive feedback from people that have seen it so far which is really helpful and is spurring me on to complete it to the best of my ability.

May 17th

I continued to animate today! Im finding im getting a lot quicker at animating but its still taking a long time. According to my time plan i should have finished animating by today which hasnt happened. However i am confident that even though i will be a few days behind i have left enough time in my plan to finish what needs doing in time. I have not planned anything for the last week of my project so that if i needed extra time i would have it. This has proved to be very useful as i can be a bit late in finishing my video but still have plenty of time to catch up on sketchbook work and finish whatever else needs doing.

May 16th

I continued with animating once more. Today i did scene 6 and am now well on my way to finishing. I am using various frame rates at various times in the video clip. This is because when there isnt much movement of the character i can use a slower frame rate, however when its quick such as being picked up i often need to animate at either 12fps or even 24fps for it to look effective. I also uploaded a sample of one of my scenes onto this blog so that people could see it and say what they think!

May 15th

Today i once again continued with my animating. I finished scene 5 which means im about half way! Its taking a long time but i will keep going.

Short video clip

Here is a short clip of one of my scenes. It's not black and white yet but has the animation. Hope you like it, please comment!

May 14th

Once again i continued to animate today. I animated all of scene 3 which i was aiming for by the end of the day so that i can start on scene 4 fresh tomorow morning. The animation is getting easier as im getting more used to it but it is beggining to take up a bit too much time. Im thinking of cutting a scene from my video but will give this further thought tomorow. I have showed a lot of people the various parts and they are all very positive about it. So much so that i now not only want to do the best for me but for the people that have helped me and spurred me on so much aswell. Although its not long until the finish i still have a lot to do so im not resting from it very much. Im cracking on with it!

May 13th

Im now rattling through my animating. Today i finished scene 2 and began on scene 3. I am constantly using my maquette to help me on angles which is proving very useful. I am really quick at using Flash now which is helping me to produce the animation quicker and better. Im enjoying the process but am aware of what little time i have to produce so much!

May 12th

Once again i continued to animate all day today. I animated mainly the start of scene 2 which has the character on a swing. This was long and difficult to animate as i needed to do it at 24 frames per second for the animation to match up with the live action well enough to be believable. I used Flash's capabilities of copying frames to enable me to copy frames as the clip is repetative. This was really useful and speeded the process up and is something that i would not have been able to do as simply if i had used paper.

May 11th

Today and for the next few days i will be animating everything! Its going to be a long process but i hope at the end it will be rewarding and something i will be proud of. I continued today animating the parts of scene one. Throughout the animation i change the frame rate that i animate at now and again. This is so that if the live action is fast the animation can keep up with it without it looking really jumpy. Its going well so far and i have had lots of positive feedback. I just need to keep going with it now.

May 10th

Today i showed a few people the rough cut of my video and they really liked it which has left me feeling very positive about the film.

I continued to try and solve the problem of the compositing animation with live action. I tried various file types to try and correct the problem. I found that it may not be keying the colour correctly because i am using bitmap graphics from Flash and not vector, meaning that there is a fade in the pixel colour between colours. I did find however that Flash enables me to import and export high quality videos so i might be able to just use Flash and not have to composite them seperately. Also i found out why the live action was so slow in my test on Flash. It was because i had set the video to 6fps but i should have left it at 24fps.

I also began the first bit of my animation today. Scene 1d is difficult as i have to change live action. I had to re-create the live action drawing as a digital drawing to enable me to manipulate it. I will talk more about this process in my sketchbook.

May 9th

Today i did the main bulk of my editing. I made a whole rough cut of my film to make sure i could fit the narration with the live action. This was really really useful as i was able to make changes that i needed to to the speed of files and video clips. At the end of it all i also got my first rough idea of how the film with the live action will look. I havent added any effects or animation to it at the moment but i like the way i have cut the film and i think it's going to work really well. My cinematography is varied which also makes it interesting to watch.

In the afternoon i spent a lot of time trying to get my animation test to composite with live action. I tried using a software called Adobe After Effects instead of Final Cut. This keyed the colour better but still not perfect. I will need to figure this out before i start the main bulk of my animating.

May 8th

Today i just caught up with some sketchbook work as my files are at college so i will use them tomorow when im at college. I now have the final edited narration audio file. The audio is 4 minutes 11 seconds which is a good time.

May 7th

This morning i finished my filming completely. I had to create the photos of the posters going up and down on the sisters' wall and film Grandpa for the very last verse of the poem. Once this was all done i then used Final Cut Pro to begin transffering the footage onto the computer and then start editing it. To enable me to animate each camera angles of each scene in Flash i needed to save each angle as a different movie file. Therefore on Final Cut i cut the footage up into scenes and angles and then saved them seperately as Quicktime Movie files. This took a long time to do but will be very useful when completed. The file names i used refer to the storyboard so again i can play it easier. I tried putting black and white filters on the footage and cutting piece together to see what it would look like and i am very pleased with it so far.
Once i have all the angles as seperate files i will then begin animating them angle by angle, scene by scene before then finally editing them together.

May 6th

Today during the day i continued to plan the rest of my filming in even more detail. I finished my storyboard and also designed the sister's character. I also made props such as the puzzle that i would need for filming that evening.
In the evening i then went straight to my cousins house to finish the shoot. This time i was in it as well as my sister and other cousin. This made planning even more useful as i knew exactly when i needed people and what i wanted them to do effeciently. I also used stop motion to create some of the effects.
I really enjoyed the filming even though it was very tirying. I think that it went as well as i had planned and i am excited about editing it. There are two more bits i need to film tomorow morning but this shouldnt be much problem. It went really well and i am very pleased with it all.
Im also ahead of schedule which i am pleased with.

May 5th

I havent been able to leave comments for a while again as my Internet is still playing up and i have been very busy, not finishing work till late. It should be sorted now so i can get back on track!
Today I planned a lot of my storyboard. I decided to do this using seperate panels so that i could change the order around. I also divided the poem into scenes and shots that i can use for reference when working on my editing etc. I used research of cinematography and other videos i have watched to help with ideas for camera angles etc.
In the afternoon i started filming my final film. I chose a costume for my cousin to wear and used my storyboards to help to film it. I also used a CD recording of the narration to make sure that i got the timing right. I did various takes until i got the one that i thought would work well for what i wanted. I really tried to use a variety of shots and techniques as well as keeping the shots to the rthym of the poem. My cousin acted really well and i was really pleased to see that he enjoyed it. I took great care in making sure i kept some of the time period the same so i included no electric sockets or TVs etc in the shots.
I am really really pleased with the amount of filming i did today i will continue filming tomorow. I think that the amount of detailed planning i did both with my storyboard and narration have really helped my filming be succesfull.

May 3rd

Today i took some photos of where i will film the video. This is that start of my planning for the shoot. Using these photos i can create a storyboard and an animatic to enable me to really plan my video well so that i can start filming it next week. I have also mapped out some pages in my sketchbook of things that i need to do to help with my planning.

May 2nd

Today my aim was to combine animation with more movement in the live action. Also i wanted to experiment with hand drawn into Flash. I imported live action video footage into Flash. Using a graphics tablet i was then able to draw the animation straight ontop of the live action, ensuring that the animation matched up with the live action perfectly. This process was really succesful as i found that i was able to change my animation slightly if i needed to and copy, delete and edit frames. I then took the live action layer off and added a green layer behind the animtion. I then exported this and put it into Final Cut over the better quality live action file. The idea was that i could key the green colour out so's to have just the animation. For some reason this didnt work which was very annoying and frustrating. It seemed that a setting on Final Cut wasnt allowing me to key the colour correctly. I will try it again to try and get it to work.
The process of animation on Flash was succesful however and i think this will be how i animate my final video.

In the evening i recorded my Grandpa reading the story for the narration. I realised from research that it is easier to animate to sound rather than the other way round. i recorded his narration using my video camera and i can then take the sound off the video to use. The narration is great and i think its going to work really well.

April 30th

Firsty i havent been able to leave comments on here for a few days now because my Internet connection has been playing up at home. But now iv fixed it and am updating what iv been up to.

Today i made some further experiments of animating my character. I did another test of hand drawn animation. This was into live action footage. To do this i filmed a very short sequence of me with my hand out on a table. I would animate the character to walk across the table and jump onto my hand. I printed off a screenshot of my video footage. I animated it by hand over the top of this print out and then had to get all the frames onto the computer. I scanned each frame into the computer, opened it on Adobe Photoshop and deleted the background, then put them all onto FinalCut Pro. This was a very long process and the compositing took longer than the animating. I then tried to insert the video into FinalCut but i had saved it as a WMV format which wont work on Final Cut so for the test i used an image. In the end it has come out really well. However it is a very long process and one which i dont think i will have time to achieve. I like the hand animation look and the frame rate was ok. I found it tricky to time it well and sometimes i could do with adding an extra frame in certain places. On the computer would allow me to do this so i will next try using hand drawn into Flash to animate.