Frames...millions of them...

In the past few weeks, the process of getting roto-scopes up and running has been somewhat more treacherous that I first imagined. Having borrowed a Canon HD505 from the University, my first hurdle was acquiring a Flash/SD card with enough memory to hold everything I wanted to film. With it being in 1080p I wanted/needed a pretty hefty storage capacity. Hilarity ensued when it took a week to arrive, feeling more like wasted time than anything, but I used this time to refine my storyboards and idea. Then, at long last came the filming!

For the filming, as a makeshift green-screen I used an orange sheet, stretched out to be creaseless so as not to cast any shadows, lit by various lamps aimed at the actress from all directions. Proceeding through the motions the filming was over relatively quickly, leaving more time for the exhausting process of roto-scoping. But first, came the keying. This is where the first problems began, as ever!

Using After Effects for keying out the background was relatively simple. There were discrepancies here and there, but feathering the edges down and individual selections got rid of anything that looked somewhat out of place or wrong. Using VirtuaDub I exported the completed moive sequence out as individual frames, which turned out to be…a whoooooooooole lot of frames. With a runtime of around 1 minute, working at 25fps, well 25x60x60 = one heart attack. Luckily I restricted movement as much as possible during the filming, so corners would be able to be cut in regards to how many frames I would actually have to draw over, but the number was still pretty daunting.

Taking the frames into photoshop, I began roto-scoping various test shots, trying to see which type of colour and style would actually work in motion. In previous works, I tend to get very addicted to the finer details and line –art of it all, which was something I was being pushed to give up for this process. I quickly learned in order to get a fluid motion between the frames, the detail had to be either incredibly precise, or deliberately basic. I tried the former at first in a couple of test shots, but the amount of work that went into a single frame was just not viable to be doing for each individual frame. With the latter I became utterly unenthused, as this project I had imagined just began too look so scrappy and essentially not truly showing the amount of work and forethought that had been put into it.

I should explain, the example below was the worst test frame I worked on, yet still took me a few hours, only to then botch it up by merging layers and messing up a lot of opacity and masking options, the blue background was a temprary solution which ended up making the picture unusable. To me, this problem alone spoke volumes about the future of the rotoscoping, with every mistake or wrong line making a huge impact on the entire project, leaving little room for error and not enough time to realisticly do it without error.

I'm glad I took this direction for the project as I really wanted to embark on something completely new which would challenge me in new ways, but for now I have to concede victory to rotoscoping. Instead i'll be going back to one of my earlier ideas of making a comic. It will have

the same expectations of expressing and displaying the character, allowing the reader to easily and quickly assess what sort of character she is, purely by her actions, reactions and expression. I intend to create the comic in Flash CS4, aiming to give it sounds, possible dialogue, ambient music and overall with a hint of interactivity. I think this is definitely the direction to take, being more realistically achieveable and not so much of a niche.

A brief summary

Losing sight of the goal at hand seems to be a recurring theme within this project, so in light of this, I've decided to summarise everything til now and with a view to the future, explain the idea in as basic a principal as I can. It seems like a decent way to kick off the second part of the project, so here goes:

Upon the final incarnation of my previous design and research document, this project was outlined to have a final product along the lines of an animated trailer, promoting a series of characters within an entirely new world, narrative and storyline. Within this trailer, facets of the created characters’ personalities would shine through, recognisable by any viewers. The intention behind this was to further upon the previously investigated facts behind empathy being an un-deniably large part of character design within any media, the belief being that once you have established empathy within your viewer or user, they are essentially “snared” in to your creation, creating a captive audience for the product.

While the aforementioned trailer was the intended final product, in order to be completed on time and be more realistic within the boundaries, several parts of the idea have had to be trimmed down and/or replaced, eventually remodelling the basic design concept to something achievable. With the first idea, several characters would need to be created from scratch, taking heed of every single aspect of their persona and design, including the actions they make right down to the clothes they wear, as each of these elements are integral to our initial response upon viewing a character for the first time. Narrowing this field down to a single character makes more sense as it allows more time for specific development in each area. In regards to developing a vivid and depth-filler narrative or storyline, it has begun to seem that this may detract from the original intention of the idea. If too much is invested within the story, then this will detract a substantial amount from the character. The point of this project is to show the character driving the story, not the opposite, therefore a more basic setting or environment seems appropriate.

As this project has begun to take form, each facet of design and ambition has been tweaked and tweaked, eventually ending up to be nothing like the original intention. The two original themes and ideas are still standing strong however, those being: animation (in regards to how it will come to life) and character design. As things stand now, the aim is now is to create a short animation introducing a new character, illustrating the key traits of their personality in a simple series of events or happenings.

At this moment in time I'm working on a complete set of storyboards so I can begin work straight away. Filming will begin next week, along with editing and initial rotoscoping. getting a start into that side of things is crucial at this point if i want to made any headway.

Can someone tell me what week it is please?

Good news! As far as I know, stoppable only by another second marker meeting: My project idea has officially changed. Hooray! Instead of focusing on the marketing, I will be focusing more on the creative aspect of things. I’ll still be designing characters, only with the parameters different this time around. Instead of creating the character around what would be profitable in the market, I’ve shifted the research in character design “for the hell of it”. After all, not every TV show/Movie/Anime etc creator bases their product on what would sell; they create because they want an outlet for their ideas and passions. This is what my new project will do for me.

I briefly mentioned in my previous blog post about the prospect of roto-scoping. After spending endless hours contemplating this idea, I’m going to go ahead with it. In my third year I very briefly skimmed the surface of roto-scoping, drawing over still frames in the opening sequence of my groups designed TV show intro. These acted as small intermissions to introduce the characters and their actors, in a sort of homage to cheesy American soap intros, with a bit more colour (and cheese).

Ideally, what I’m aiming for is to create a character or two, a brief narrative or storyline coupled with the kind of world they would inhabit, and then proceed to make a thrilling trailer to showcase what would be considered the “best bits” in said narrative. This trailer will give the viewer a good idea what the plot of the characters would be, while demonstrating my creativity and enthusiasm for character and narrative design.

As for implementation, I was thinking for the most part filming in HD in front of a green screen, this way I would be able to easily Photoshop matte paintings into the background, which can be designed for whatever environment the world would have: at the moment I’m thinking relatively Sci Fi. I think working in green screen will give me the chance to basically create “something from nothing”. Holding a simple prop like a long stick would then be turned into some sort of hellish, flaming sword in the roto-scope. The possibilities seem endless, however to make this good it’s going to consume every single moment I have. Roto-scoping aint fast!

On the downside I once again had to start my academic essay from scratch, so it’s more panic reading for me.

-MS

Week 6: Pretending it's not week 7.

After a lengthy thinking period, paired with a couple of eye-opening meetings with my supervisor and second marker, I’ve begun to realise I don’t know what I want my project to be as well as I thought I did. I’m starting to realise it’s heading in a direction I never intended. Initially I wanted to create a storyline and world filled with characters, to be used in whatever medium suited the most, whether it be a game, anime or movie. I wanted to create something of my own, with my own designs and my own imagination, only taking notes from previous examples for long-successful franchises and stories. Instead I seem to be more on the track of creating something for the market, tossing my own creativity out of the window and replacing it with “what would sell”. Of course selling is an important part of any piece of work in this field, but to me it just doesn’t feel like where I want to focus.

This is probably one of the worst times to have this realisation, just over halfway through the semester, however better late than never. If I don’t solve this issue right now then I know fine well I’ll resent the work that I end up doing in my final semester, which is not a great position to be in.

Possible impending fate

I’ve already researched heavily into character development and creation, so it’s not all bad. From this point all I need is a little change of focus and with any luck I won’t end up falling behind. Of course this change in my final project needs to be green-lit first, so now’s as good a time as any to go over the issues.

What: Design and create characters around a world or environment. Create these characters with focus on backstory and illustrating how the people they are is due to the environment they inhabit.

Why: To show my interest and skill in character/world design, storyline and narrative writing.

How: Create a short movie trailer and short comic, demonstrating the characters in action in their world. This will draw upon skills in Adobe Premiere, After Effects and Flash.

The interim deliverable of an academic essay drawing on research in the field still seems easily achievable, however my additional deliverable may have to change. I had just decided that this project was a good excuse to learn Actionscript 3, but if the change is leaning away from Flash then maybe this isn’t wise. Perhaps the small deliverable could be a gif, layered in after effects, possibly rotoscoped. I’ve always wanted to give rotoscoping another bash. Imagine a medium where real tv shows and anime could merge and actually be high budget, marketable stuff. A new genre of television…highly unlikely! But I’m getting somewhere in my thought process. Anyway I’m getting way ahead of myself and it’s getting late. Bonne nuit

-MS

Week 5: Too many books spoil the broth, or my idea.

Having taken a step back from thinking about the final outcome of my project, I realised I’d managed to just throw myself into the idea so much that I lost objectivity. Simplifying it down is the way forward. Instead of pre-deciding what I want my outcome to be I need to wait and see which would be easiest and most applicable to my idea. For instance, I could talk myself in circles about how much I want to create a game, but in reality, how much do I actually know about game design? Diddly squat. Herein lies the problem.

I should probably point out before I write anymore circle-talking blog posts, that although this is to be an update for my project and report, which will be taking a deep look into proper research undertaken in this field, the mumblings on this blog are purely subjective, so if I appear to be talking in utter nonsense or personal preferences, it’s because I am. In otherwords: I’m right and you’re wrong!

Back to the point, in realising the major flaw in this project, ie; me not having certain technical skills needed to accomplish all of my initial goals, I’ve managed to narrow down what my final design will be. Instead of creating various different media outlets for my project, the main focus will instead be on creating character archetypes.

Now what does this actually mean? Well, I want to create 4 skeletons. The absolute default of a character, taking the time to flesh these skeletons out so that they may be adaptable to any environment in which they would be placed. The first semester outcome will be having these 4 characters created, ready for implementation. The challenge of this will be creating backstory, traits, personality and so many other artefacts which build a relatable, empathetic character, without making these designs so convoluted and with any luck, not generic.

This week I have been delving deep into Lee Sheldon’s: “Character Development and Storytelling for Games”. Although written for gaming character creation primarily, it’s still been incredibly useful in pointing out certain no-no’s to stay away from when trying to create an immersive design. First and foremost: Amnesia. Just stay away. STAY AWAY. (But Memento was a great movie…). Also, don’t trip yourself up. You don’t need to create an incredibly intricate character, so much so that you cannot remember all the details yourself. The thing is about characters, especially in gaming is that the character should NOT be so fleshed out in the beginning, usually the journey/adventure/story is going to take care of exposition and character growth for you, the more mystery the better. If the player/reader already knows everything about the character they are following then they’re going to get bored very, very quickly.

TL;DR: Keep your character creation simple.

I always seem to end my blog posts ad the oddest points very abruptly, for this I apolo-

-MS

Week...4? Panic.

Somewhere along the way I got lost in my days and 2 blog posts are happening one day after the next. I’m not playing catch-up, honestly. I have a strange feeling this was somewhat due to my idea completely changing after having read some Alan Moore, one quote in particular shattering my illusion, illustrating that design and creativity need to be changed at the most basic fundamental level before concepts can begin to be original once more:

"You can produce a comic about bright and interesting new characters, have a computer draw it, publish it in a lavish Baxter package and colour it with the most sophisticated laser scan techniques available, and the chances are that it will still be tepid, barely readable shit."

It made me think about how generic my story and characters I had in mind were, so it was back to the drawing board, however that is where they’ll stay as it’s really time to do the research part.

At the moment I’m thinking about how to structure my project report and what areas to tackle/research. Characterisation is a big one, how does one create a ‘Han Solo’ character that everybody loves? He’s not the star of the series but he certainly stole the show. Hell, you could even agree that Darth Vader is more popular than Luke Skywalker…poor Mark Hamill.

My pro MSPaint skills can only mean good things for my final design

This got me thinking though: everybody loves a rogue; the unwittingly charming, devilish one with and edge or some mysterious back story. For example, a few off the top of my head:

Han Solo: Swashbuckling rogue

Captain Jack Sparrow: Swashbuckling pirate

Professor Snape: Wand…buckling Wizard

Dexter: Knife-wielding homicidal nice guy

The Joker : Batshit crazy (GEDDIT?!)

Agent Smith: Logic defying, world-breaker

Jack O’Niell: Sarcastic space crusader

These characters are all loved for a variety of reasons. This is the point where I sign off and learn how to make my own Jack Sparrow.

Until next time!

-MS

Week...I've already lost count

After a short first couple of weeks back in the swing of things, the project is starting to take a little more shape. I've been spending most of the time "researching" other popular franchises and by no means ever partaking in the fun they offer. (and shamefully I STILL have yet to complete Final Fantasy XIII).

I still don't see how her outfit makes her battle-ready

In all the sucessful franchises there is a non-coicidental trend I've begun to notice. They all have incredibly striking names. Think about it, think about the games you go home and slave over or the TV shows you brainmelt, I mean, immerse in. "Grand Theft Auto", "Warhammer", "Final Fantasy", "Dead or Alive" and guiltiest of all: "World of Warcraft". Their names have power over you, the consumer. We can't help but be tantalised by the titillating tease of word-ology(that one's on me, dictionary) of marketing geniuses. (Geniusii?). Half the time they don't even have to make sense or have any correlation to the product they're advertising. I can't even count on both hands how many times there has been a "FINAL" Fantasy. I do wonder though, what will they do when they actually come to the last game in the series? They've kind of shot themselves in the foot there. But, let's be serious here, we all know Square Enix will never stop making Final Fantasy, it's more or less a license to print money.

Moving swiftly on. Although the names have credence to make little to no sense, there's more to a franchise than that. Focusing mostly on games and tv shows here, "products" (I feel a bit mercenary calling them that) tend to have a very well developed storyline especially when it comes to Eastern developed products, a background derived from a modern take on

ancient histories or mythology. To list a few:

Bleach/Death Note: Japanese Anime/Manga taking a different approach to their legends of "Shinigami" or "Death God"

Naruto: Another Japanese Anime/Manga wherein several of the characters are designed around and ancient tale of the slug, toad and snake.

Stargate: Based mostly around ancient Egyptian mythology.

Having a strong interest in ancient history and mythology myself I'm thinking this would be a great road for me to take. I just need to pick from THOUSANDS of histories which would suit best. Ancient Rome would be a good one, however it's quite overdone and they definitely have more than a few taboo areas which might not go down so well with the marking scheme.

This belated post was brought to you by a burned out from reading student.

-MS