People in this group:

·         Mats Hovind - http://matshovind.weebly.com/

·         Knut Eliassen -http://luvmachine.weebly.com/index.html

·         Jan Kristian Sætre -http://janki3d.weebly.com/index.html

·         Andreas Magnussen - u are here!

The final 2d animatic
This was a tricky project, not because we didnt know how to do it, but because we had a storyboard to draw. Since Knut and I had to draw the storyboard and the final pictures that should be used in the animatic, Mats Hovind become the project leader for this one. He wanted to learn nuke, so it become the program used for the 2d animatic.

First we took the draft sketches form the storyboard and started to make a animatic form that. We discussed it in our group on how the camera should move, and how it should look, then Mats did that in nuke and learned how the program worked. He worked for the most alone, but one day he got some help with the timing from Jank Kristian.

The last day before delivering we all sat down and decided how the final animatic should look. Some contributed more than others, but so it always will be in a group. We worked close together and rendered out drafts to see what could be changed and did the changes. Jan Kristian was supposed to find some sounds to the animatic, but he didn’t find anything that would made the animatic better, so we dropped the sounds completely. It would only ruin it.

This way of working was probably not the best way. I would prefer to work together with Mats on the animatic from the start and help him make decisions. More heads and thoughts always comes up with a better result on a shorter amount of time. But the drawing took a lot more time than we had planned and family trouble for Knut made this even harder. But when things happen, we have to make the best of it.

We could have used a program for the animatic who everyone knew, so we wasn’t so dependent on Mats. But Mats did a good job, and worked a lot. The majority of the group always have the last word, but Knut was gone the day before delivery, so that crippled our group because it was his story and he who had a vision on how it should look.

If we had more time, we could made some more different and advanced camera moves that would show what we was thinking better and give it a more filmatic look. Sounds would also take it to another level, but it had to be sounds that fit the movie and don’t ruin it. The line between brilliant and failure is thin when it comes to adding sounds. And you need a lot of time to make the sound match perfectly to the animatic.

I also would have made some changes in some of the shots. A bit more faster cutting to get more pace on the parts where it's action in the movie.

To go from a storyboard to an animatic gives it more of a feeling of how the movie would look. I think that it can be useful if you do it right. It's nice to see how the scenes would look when it's clipped together, and it's better to do changes in the animatic than it is one a rendered 3d movie. The earlier you make the changes the less time it takes to change it. Our animatic turned out good, but I feel that it still is missing some of the pace and some transitions. But I think that you can see what we were thinking and what directions we would take it. I think it would looked better if we had the whole group gathered at all times.

I was responsible for the drawings together with Knut. We provided Mats with drawings. Everyone also had responsibility of taking a look at Mats computer from time to time. I am sure that I could have been checking in on him a couple of more times than I did to give him more support.

So, last words now. Overall I am happy with the result we managed to get. The time spent on this wasn’t as much as I wanted it to be. But a deadline is a deadline, something we just have to learn. I think we could have made it better in some ways if we had more time, and if everyone did their part of the work.
 
This was a project I was looking forward to. We had to make storyboard in groups, and decide how the angles of the camera should be, and so on.

We had a daily activity where we worked in groups. The activity didn’t go that well, so we felt that we needed to show that we can work together. I really think we learned a lot about each other just from that small 1 hour activity.

People in the group:

Mats Hovind - http://matshovind.weebly.com/

Knut Eliassen -http://luvmachine.weebly.com/index.html

Jan Kristian Sætre -http://janki3d.weebly.com/index.html

Andreas Magnussen - u are here!

I kinda fell into a position in the group as the group leader, the one who arranged meetings and made sure people were where they supposed to be. I didn’t mind that at all, because I am not afraid to push others to do their best. I am organized person who likes to have control on what I am working with. But when things don’t goes as intended, I try to keep my head cool and still get the job done. I have to admit that I got stressed out a couple of times, but the others helped me get back on track.

The time for this project was about 1 week, but in that time range, we had to make an animatic too. So we felt that we had to decide what treatment we should make the storyboard from, and this was big decision and a tricky part.

We had 3 treatments, all very different. 2 of em was meant for a 1 min animation, and the last one was a bit longer, about 5-10 min long story. But the main idea here was so good, that we chose to pick parts from it, and make in shorter so we would manage to make a storyboard in the given time. We brainstormed for about 1 hour before Knut started to write the 1st draft for the treatment, and rest of us started on the first draft for the storyboard.

fluffy_hats_-_treatment.docx
File Size: 13 kb
File Type: docx
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People tend to show up a bit late sometimes, so the ones who are at school just keeps working and makes decisions. I showed what I thought for a first draft, and all that day we sat down as a group and made choices on how the shots should look like. Brought in a pair of fresh eyes sometimes, and got new ideas. The whole storyboard got hung up on the wall so we clearer could see the story. It evolved and we experimented a lot.

So we took the weekend off from the project and met up at Monday. We had a couple of new ideas and made some more changes, but not before we had it discussed properly. And I mean properly. Just one small discussion about one small shot could go on for an hour or so.

Been a lot for writing. I am now going to try to show how we took the different decisions about camera angles and why we chose to do things differently than the first draft.

"The fly away scene"

The thought here was to let the viewer see the spaceships leave and the plant explode in one scene. We wanted the ships to pass the camera so you could see the details close up, but still see the earth in the background.

First draft:
The start was to violent, seems like they rushed out of there, but this was a planned event, and they left long before the comets hit. So we drew them closer to the camera and let the comet crush the earth after they had left.

Second draft:
Almost what we were looking for, but chose not to let the earth be in the middle of screen and it gives a more powerful look when the ships fly almost to side of the camera, than down and to the side. It almost goes straight intot the camera now.

Final:
"The hibernation scene"

This was a key scene. We wanted to show many people in pods who where in hibernation and show that the captain was alone. So we wanted it to finished we a wideshot to show all the people and him standing in front of them. We got this idea that we could zoom in on of the pods and then zoom out to the wide shot.

The first draft:

The final didn’t change much, just the camera angle. By lowering horizon we got really nice look.

The final:

"The wake up scene"

Here we wanted him to wake up from the dream/flashback. He had to wake up from something that showed him that they had discovered a new planet they could live on. Tried a longshot before we had an insert of the radar.

The first draft:


This didn’t work at all. The camera was angle was weird and you don’t get that he wakes up. So we had to do some big changes here. We wanted the effect that what we have seen had been inside his head, so we went for a drift out shot from his eye. And then he suddenly opens them when he wakes up from the sound.  Instead of the insert of the rader, we combined them and made it onto 1 singel shot. Gives it a better flow. We had a couple of to many insert shots, so this was one good way to remove one of them.

The second draft:

The final didn’t change much.

The final:

"The meteor hit scene"

In this scene a meteor was going to hit the ship. I thought of a long shot so you get this big epic feeling.

1st draft:

The angle didn’t quit work out, but I still wanted a longshot. but the others wanted a medium shot to show the impact more.  We redrew it from another angel, and added one more frame. Since it's in space, we felt that everything should go a bit slow, so the shot had to be longer.

2nd draft:
The final got even closer. Personal I think it should have been longer away.

The final:

"In the door scene"

This is where he gets in to the section. I had the idea that he was standing in the door. A longshot.

First draft:

After a discussion we wanted to try how it would look with a medium shot.

Second draft:

We didn’t like that as much of the long shot, so we made it back to the longshot and added a light behind him to give him a heroic feeling.

Final:

"The bye bye scene"

This is where the section is let go and drift out to the space.

1st draft:

So, this was a bit emo. If he is going to kill himself to save many others, he needs a bit more heroic look. The salute gives you that feeling. Instead of having a camera in space, we now let be inside the part of the space ship that flies away. To achieve that we zoomed out a bit constantly in the shot to revealed a window frame.

2nd draft:

The final didn’t change. But we might have added one more frame of the section being even more far away.

Final:

"Our new home scene"

The end was a bit tricky. At first we didn’t have any real end, we made one where someone is coming out their pods and overview of the many people staring at their new home.

First draft:

Didn’t quite work out. The pods where set wrong, and the shot don’t gives a good feeling with a medium shot here. Bu the overview of the crowd and the zooming in at the planet will give it sweet end. So we draw it again, this time with a close up of someone leg coming out, the a camera paning upwards her back.

The second draft:

Now it works good. The final didn't change.

The final:
We also did some minor changes, but nothing very big. The scene where he pushes the button was changed to a more satisfied insert shot with a angel that isn't to boring. You can download the 3 different drafts here, and see how it evolved.

firstdraft.pdf
File Size: 770 kb
File Type: pdf
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seconddraft.pdf
File Size: 1009 kb
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finaldraft.pdf
File Size: 924 kb
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The work method.

After we had decided that we were happy with the final draft, we divided up in 2 teams. Knut and I was going to the drawing, while Jan Kristian and Mats was going to look forward for the animatic and start to get the timing right.

Since Knut has great experience when it comes to digitally drawing, we chose to go for that. I haven't  done specially much of that, so it was a bit scary for me, but a exciting challenge. We started off with a blast and drew a lot the first day. But we did a big mistake, the drawings were to detailed and we used so much time on each drawing. This meant that we had to draw for a longer time than we really had time to. 12 hours a day.

I drew something for the storyboard, and showed it to Knut. He mentioned that highlights was missing, and the image overall was to "flat". I couldn’t really understand why that would make my images awesome, but I could clearly see that something was missing after seeing some of his sketches. So I went ahead and tried to add highlights and a much darker shadow color, and actually thinking of where the light is coming from. This helped a lot.
Here is the final story board frame by frame. click to get bigger.
I think that the camera overall in the movie shows what we wanted too. I really like where he camera show how alone the captain is, but it are other peoples here, but they are in hibernation. The close up of the eyes give really the expression of that something is coming his way, and that it is really bad. I think that the view will see it that way.

I also love the part where the section drifts away into the space. The camera movement isn't big, but you can see that the section is going further and further away, but the viewer is still on the ship and have to leave him behind.

The angles at the end is also delightful. A mysterious end for the story. I think that we did a good job one this part.
I would change the part where the meteors hits the ship. I want a wideshot here that gives the feeling of the space being huge. Maybe get some fast cutting into a close up of the meteor hitting it, and then back to a wideshot again. Just to show how big the damage is, but still you can see the action up close.

I don’t really think I would done anymore big changes. Just some more of the running to show how big the ship is and maybe add some more at the end of people coming out.

We also added some text to the template. To tell what the camera does and what happens. Here is the pdf file, it's bad resolution on that, so I have also every page in a zip fil.

storyboard.pdf
File Size: 998 kb
File Type: pdf
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pages.rar
File Size: 2999 kb
File Type: rar
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First of all, I am happy to be done. And this is a reflection on the group work on project 6 AND 7. Since the work was divided in that way, it will be a reflection on both of at the same time

Group work VS workload.

 I want to reflect a bit at the end. This was a group project where we didn’t have very much spare time and I am completely sure of that everyone on the group knew that. When I am in a group, I know that people expect something of me and I am surely expecting something from the one I work with. If I get a task, I give it 100% of my attention and I do my best. If don’t know how I will make it, I talk to the other on the group and get help as fast as possible. I don’t show up the day it should be done, and say I couldn’t do it.

In one way I am happy and really pleased with the result we did here, but I am also a bit pissed and upset. The quality of the drawings are really nice looking, but we miss some frames to make the storytelling a bit clearer. We would have had time to that if everyone on the group and worked hard. It wouldn’t even be necessary to work hard, he could just worked a bit more and we would have made the whole project flawless.

Some of us worked 12 hours each day. I don’t say that I expect that from everyone, but I expect them to work  dedicated and to show up on time. When people don’t do their job, the job falls down to someone else on the group. One person can drag the whole group down.

I really think that a group project shows what kind of people they are. I am really proud of the work I did one this one. I have learned a lot and done my best to get this project done. A big part of this group did a good job.

 
This was a project where we had to write a treatment for a 3d animation short. The length of the document shouldn’t be more than 1 page of writing and we had to use creative methods to get to our result. I was a bit nervous on how this project will, because I don’t feel that I am good writer.

Here is 3 of the drafts and the final treatment! I am not gonna upload all of the drafts because the changes isn't too big on some of the drafts.
draft_001.docx
File Size: 12 kb
File Type: docx
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draft_003.docx
File Size: 15 kb
File Type: docx
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draft_005.docx
File Size: 15 kb
File Type: docx
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treatment_final.docx
File Size: 15 kb
File Type: docx
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We had a daily activity where we wrote as many pitches as possible in about one hour. I used one of my pitches from that day. "A man hates to go to the dentist. When he gets there he hallucinates a lot". I used often my way to the school, a 40 minute long train ride, to think about the story and what I could write. I took notes and let the creativeness flow. I made a brainstorm sheet where I tried to see in what different directions the story could go. Once I felt that the story was good enough to get on paper, I wrote the 1st draft. I then opened the document often the next 2 days and made changes and got other to read it and give me feedback. This project was put on hold when we started the group work for the animatic and the storyboard. I thought I would have some time to write the final draft before it had to be handed in. I was wrong. The group work turned out to be much more demanding than what I had foreseen.

So, I didn’t got those hours I really needed to fix the treatment, but I feel that I got a decent story who follows the 3 act structure. The problem is that it could be wrote more as a treatment should be wrote, but I got some of the things in there. Story writing isn't my strongest side, so I am very happy that I actually managed to write a story that I am happy with, and that I think could have made a good 3d short.

If I had got some extra hours here and there, I would have got more people to read it and made changes if the feedback said so. And I would have made the story a bit easier to read, and removed some of the sentences, and make some of them shorter. That would made the story more like a treatment and made the story an easier read experience for the reader.

About my creative methods, I used the "what if" method, but I didn’t do it on paper. I just used it in my head when I took the train. For me the dentist is the worst place in the whole world, so I wasn’t hard to imagined how the old man would see the dentist. The 1 hour pitch writing was very useful, and I will definitely use it again, because I think I will get better at it if I do it often. I might have used some other creative to methods, but I feel that I got the result I wanted when it comes to the story.

We have to present 2 others stories that have a similar story structure like the one I wrote. I have a hard time finding any that is like mine, but I think that the first lord of the ring movie has some similarities. When Frodo gets the ring we know that this is a problem because we have already seen a flashback where the ring is the problem. He gets to Rivendell and thinks that everything is okey, but he has to take the ring further. It's not quite like my story structure but the best I can find.

A little conclusion to the end. I feel that the story is good, but could have wrote more as a treatment. The story was developed from some creative methods, but mostly a lot of thinking when I had nothing else to do. Overall I am happy with the project.