Filming & Editing my animation

This week I finally started filming my animation on Monday. I started with the Veronica scene which took the longest to film (3 hours!) since it was the first one & I hadn't gotten into the gist of things yet. BUT on Wednesday when I filmed the other three (SS, Penny & Nick) it only took another 3 hours to film ALL of them! I started editing on Thursday & that's when things got complicated like computers crashing, backgrounds stuffing up, cameras not capturing onto computer, etc, etc... I FINALLY finished late Friday (the sound took a bit longer than I thought) & the end product looks pretty good but still has a few flaws like the background bleeding through SS's head when she morphs into an ALLIGATOR!! which annoys me because it's one of the best parts. Oh well, that's life I guess..... still it could be worse, it could be a complete mess of static but it isn't so I'm happy. Ms. Basile was a great help too.

The TTN interview

Last week we had a visit fro the channel 10 crew from a show called TTN that screens on Tuesdays. They came & talked to us about our ideas for our animations & what we think about animation in general. They filmed our models as well as us 'working' on props or the models which was pretty fun because all we had to do was what we normaly would. During that Sarah came around & the crew filmed her talking to us about how we where planning to film or move the models when we began animating. Then we headed into the back computer room to film us editing & asked us a few questions. We were told it would be shown either this Teusday or the next, it wasn't on this week so I'm guessing it's on next Teusday.

Setting up for my animation

I met with El again today to discuss the finl points to begin animating my project. He showed us a few things about analysing sound & movment of characters which I found helpfull since I need to match up the actions of my characters with the voice over. He also explained how helpful it can be to have clay models with wire skeletons to improve the movements & to stop them from falling apart when we are filming. Because I wanted to use blue screen instead of actual sets I decided to use the media rooms fabric blue screen but as El pointed out, the fabric has too many lumps & the light makes shadows appear which I really don't want because it can mess up the background! He showed me how to experiment with different coloures to see which is the best colour to use for a background. We finally decided on pure green since the only green on my models id the fichnet on Penny's legs which I can easily change. So now all I have to do before I can animate is fix my 'green screen', fix my Penny model & experiment with the colour scemes so the green screen will work.

My Animation Ideas for Pop Fiction

Today I will explain about the animation I'm doing about the book 'To Love Veronica Bee'. The novel is written in pop fiction which is the basis for this project, different schools get to make films, artwork, animations, etc.. & eventually they will be posted at the State Library exhibition.
I'm going to make an animation based on some of the main characters & their personalities & the way they go about life. I'm going to make the models out of clay & probably use some fabric for clothing so it is easier to make them move around without them breaking apart!! I think I'll make models of Veronica, Penny, Nick & maybe Suzie/Lisa (depends whch is better in the end).
When I introduce the characters via a voiceover, I'll talk about thier quirks & habits along with descriptive words flashing up on screen next to the character to make it look kind of like a profile of them. The thing is though, I want to make the animation a comedy so I'll make the characters features very exaggerated, e.g. I might make Nicks head abnormaly big! I'm also going to use blue screen & use photos for the background to make it look better (I'm not much of a drawer!)
Next week a guy called Al who's an animator is coming to visit us so we can show him our ideas & he can give us his professional opinion on how to make our animations better than ever!

Pop fiction at EKC

When I went to the launch of the pop fiction novel 'To Love Veronica Bee', I saw just how different pop fiction was when compared to regular novels. With pop fictin, it is much easier to relate to the cheracters, the locals, the atmospheres & the experiances shared between the book & the reader.
Today we had a visit from Sarah Boland, the author of 'To Love Veronica Bee'. She explained to us about what she does in regards to her novel & the other schools she visits, as well as the variety of project ideas available to us when we begin to make & design our projects based on the novel which we've all read. I think I'm going to do a claymation in the style of a comedy, I'll probably include characters like the nuns of Lagilla, Penny (Veronica's older sister) & a couple others as they come to mind. I know I'll enjoy doing this project because it gives me the freedom of expressing my own ideas in my own way.
It's interesting to know that there are tons of other students are participating in this project & it'll be fun to see what others come up with.