problem solving
how do i make the narrative of my film?
WEBINAR:
I thought it would be a good idea to watch a webinar from the VFX Festival EDU, presented by Kris Pearn, an animation producer/director. I thought this would be a good chance to see some insight from someone working on large scale productions. The theme of this webinar was Art Vs Story, I which I found quite relevant to my issue here about developing a narrative. I recorded some notes of what they talked about.
This and my audience research taught me that having a solid story is a very important aspect to making this film, so I then I tried to think of a way I could plan out my story effectively.
STORY MOUNTAINS:
When trying to think of how I could plan my story, I thought about how I planned creative writing stories in English Classes at school using a 'story mountain' structure, an opening, build up, climax, resolution and ending. I then gathered and printed out all the story idea parts I'd written as research and arranged them on a story mountain to create the bare bones of the story
HOW DID THIS HELP MY SOLVE MY ISSUE?:
Making the story mountain helped me arrange my ideas into a way I could clearly see a coherent narrative start to form. After this I just have to fill in the blanks so it flows nicely and write it up. I found that planning the story helps you form ideas about what you want to happen whilst maintaining a good structure. This is useful to me because I want to create a narrative piece with a clear message/meaning behind it, so a good story is instrumental to making this clear.
is my story feasible to make into animation?
WHAT IS MY PROBLEM?
After receiving feedback from teachers, I realised that my story idea was quite lengthy and turning it into an animation would be quite ambitious, and take lots of time I may not have with the final deadline coming in less than a month. I need to revise the story idea to be shorter, work out a way to make it with less animation or pick a section of it to make.
insert jam board
WHAT DID I DO?
I decided to act out the narrative, using the story idea text to refer back to. I acted this out with my twin sister because it would be easier to do so with two actors for the two characters. We weren't very bothered with acting seriously or making the acting match exactly with what will happen in the animation, the goal of this was just to get a feel for the total time frame. I then put all the clips on a timeline using an app called Videoleap.
WHAT DID I FIND OUT?
The total length of this video was 55 seconds which I thought was not too long or short. Many of the shots are short and have limited motion in them, most of it coming from whatever would be shown on the phone/laptop screen. This leads me to believe that it could be possible to create the full narrative if I managed to work efficiently enough.
HOW DID THIS HELP MY SOLVE MY ISSUE?:
Doing this lead to me learn that it could be feasible to create the entirety of my narrative into animation, provided I stuck to a clear timetable and worked quickly. Realistically, I think it would be better to pick a shorter chunk of the story to complete so I could focus on the quality over the quantity of the animation I make.
WHAT DO I PLAN TO DO NOW?
I made some short notes on how I plan to move forward with storyboards and production. Roughly, the idea is to make some basic storyboards for the whole narrative, then maybe a more comprehensive animatic for the first half I want to focus on first, then making the first half and depending on time, maybe create some more.
I then thought it would be a good idea to create a diagram of some sort to help illustrate to myself what I plan to do. I knew a flowchart diagram would be a clear way of showing this since they show events happening in a specific order.
EVALUATING MY PROBLEM SOLVING
Overall, I managed to solve my problem of finding out if my narrative idea was feasible by acting it out collaboratively to find a rough timing of what it could be like once completed. I found out it was less than a minute long which I considered doable. But I have made a plan to create animation up till a point in the narrative I thought could be a good endpoint if needed and. I believe I was able to successfully solve my problem, and used a diagram to help make a plan which I think will help guide my work over the next few weeks. However, I would have liked to add some more specific goals of dates and deadlines to get some of this work done by, these could help me arrange my time in a prodcutive manner and help me get more animation done.
how can i stay motivated?
WHAT IS MY PROBLEM?
Over the course of this project, I have had some issues with motivation and willingness to get work done at times, which has resulted in some work I'd planned on doing not being completed and taking longer than originally accounted for. I think it would be a good idea to look into how I can help myself stay motivated to do as much as possible.
I wasn't sure where to start, so watched some YouTube videos I thought might be relevant and made some notes.
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‘Excitable accountability’- making an environment that forces you to work hard towards a specific goal, like a deadline or having it be made for someone. A little ‘good’ pressure makes you want to work hard towards your goal because there is a consequence or outcome at the end
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Using the internet for tutorials, consume a lot as possible
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The locus rule- how much you feel you are in control of your actions
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Internal locus of control- more motivation because you know what you do will affect things
The overall message I got from these videos was that it's a lot easier to feel motivated when you have something specific to work towards and when you feel you can control what happens. I thought that the next step would be researching more into how I can implement some of these things into my work and life.
I then read this article about the locus rule I saw in one of the videos.
WHAT CAN I DO TO IMPLEMENT THESE?
Excitable Accountability-
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Set me deadlines for certain tasks
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Re-evaluate what to do each week?
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Maybe use a time table or set deadlines using Trello?
What I can control-
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Try to develop some sort of routine, like getting up at a certain time
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When I’ve completed a task, reward myself with something - builds up the idea I’ve achieved something that I have controlled
The website I use as a to-do list, Trello, has a system of setting due dates and reminds you when they are due, I thought this would be a good way of implementing this idea.
HAVE I SOLVED MY ISSUE?
Doing some of this research has helped me identify some ways I can alter my work ethic to help myself stay motivated like setting deadlines and goals and rewarding myself when those are met. I cannot say now if this has worked, but I think that creating a better system of setting targets is a step in the right direction. Having a deadline will make me more inclined to work because I know that sticking to It will help me stay on track with it. I can reward myself with breaks or food or doing something else I'd like to do, this will help me enjoy the process and stress less. Overall I think that's it's important to set goals to push myself forward, but I've learned over this process that things can change, obstacles can come in the way and that it's important to be flexible and open to changing plans. I think this attitude will be useful going forward.
problem:
tablet pen stops working
I found my Huion tablet/stylus and a cheap phone stylus I had on my desk and decided to test out what ones would work best for this task.
The Huion ones connected easily but the strokes lagged when I drew and I wouldn't let myself draw on another side of the screen. I think this is because the workspace on the drawing tablet gets smaller when it's not connected to a PC. Meanwhile, the mobile stylus was less precise and not well built but worked well enough and I know these ones are functional from using these types of styluses to draw on phones.
WHAT'S MY ISSUE?
My problem is that my tablet stylus has run out of battery and I need to get some new ones before I can use it again. Ordering them online will take a few days to arrive, time that I don't have. So I need to find an alternative way that I can draw digitally using the tablet.
HAVE I SOLVED MY ISSUE?
I ended up deciding on using the mobile stylus until I manage to get new batteries. I thought this would be the best option since it offers the most similar experience to using my usual stylus,( I.e drawing on the touch screen). Hence, this felt like the option I was most comfortable with using since I have less experience with the tablet/pen. This felt like the best opetion for me and I hope that this will help me progress my animation in the time that I have left.