OUAN603 - Background Design / Method

To create the shots of the backgrounds for each scene there was a process I went through with each rendered background in order to make them fit the style I wanted to achieve. First, the kitchen environment was modelled in 3D. A tool within Blender called 'archimesh' made creating the room very simple. It allows you too add walls and windows automatically and adjust their lengths to whatever size is necessary. You can also add windows, certain pieces of furniture and a floor and ceiling. I used a range of reference images sourced online, specifically an interior design website called 'Houzz' which returned a lot of Japanese style kitchens when I searched for them, and meant I could work directly from good references rather than imagination. In order to save time some of the more complex objects such as the utensils with mesh were sourced online and imported into the scene. This meant I didn't have to model every detail myself, but by using unrestricted objects I could fill up the scene without having to worry so much about time.

Once the modelling was completed and the objects were in place I began adding textures and colour to the scene. This was done primarily through the node editor and I took the majority of textures from 'poliigon.com' a site that provides textures for texturing in 3D software. I was mostly searching for woods, tiles and certain ceramic materials to apply. The texturing was done by applying various texture maps to objects, so as an example the tiles were applied to a plane and normal, displacement and reflection maps were then applied to make the light interact in a more realistic way with the object - otherwise it would have looked like a 2D image on a flat surface.

After this stage was completed I was unhappy with the clean, 3D look that the scene had and knew I had to somehow 'break' the 3D look so that I could start applying paint to the image in photoshop and begin the animation process. To do this I used a tool called 'snap art 4' which took the 3D render and applied an oil paint filter to it using the various settings I chose, such as brush stroke size and level of realism. This took the once clinical looking 3D scene and gave it the painterly feel that meant I could paint over the top with ease and without the worry of it looking jarring or out of place. From here I added various details such as the buildings outside and adjusted the colour settings by increasing the shadows and saturation of the image.

I plan to add some additional details in the post production stage, but I am relatively happy with the results of the process and how the backgrounds turned out ready to begin the animation process.

OUAN603 - Time Management Difficulties & Safeguards

With a project like this where I am working on several different elements at any given time I am well aware of time and the way it can easily get out of hand. In a way I feel more comfortable if I need to scale something back because I know that other areas of the project are there to back up to project if they need to. There have been different safeguards employed throughout the project, some of which I learnt to use through the dissertation module, that help to make sure deadlines are met as closely as possible. There is also a range of techniques that I used to cut back on time I needed to develop different things [such as creating backgrounds in 3D].

One of the biggest over arching constraints and somewhat unavoidable problems throughout the project was that the narrative itself [the foundation for the entire project] was constantly in develop, and quite complex in itself. So instead of having a relatively simplistic short story that I needed to create an animation from I was having to constantly make decisions so that the other outlets could actually be made. In other words, it had to be cohesive and consistent across all platforms but to do this the story had to be final before anything was made or the different pieces of the story puzzle wouldn't fit together like they should. This was the most difficult part of the project to deal with and to deal with this I attempted to base the media I created on the most concrete parts of the story, i.e the finalised sections that wouldn't be changed. Or alternatively, if it was something like a piece of art work, I could be a little more abstract and in that case if something small changed it wouldn't be too much of an issue or detrimental to the smaller piece itself.

Some other safeguards I used to make sure I was progressing at a steady rate were to plan what I would do each day as precisely as possible to be as efficient with how I spent my time. The days that were spent simply thinking about the story and trying to write it but not getting many words on the page were difficult because they felt like a waste but overall it was still progress in some form or another. Furthermore, I attempted to make sure I was writing the story whenever I had a spare fifteen minutes and even if I only managed to write a couple of sentences it was still progress towards furthering the story and the ability to write wherever whenever was a good advantage of this outlet within the project, compared to the others which needed specific conditions and software to work under. Fortunately, all of the people I collaborated with, both the voice actors and the translator were quick in their delivery of work so there was no drawbacks or time lost in those areas.

Overall, I used a combination of setting realistic goals with effective planning of time and a relative distribution of time to the different outlets to ensure that they are worked on in a fair way. For example, giving less time to artwork and giving more time to the development of the narrative and the animation work as it does take longer to create. This coupled with deadlines made it easier to gauge my progress and realise how much I could do in the given timeframe.

OUAN603 - Learning Blender 3D & Why I Chose 3D Backgrounds

The crafting of the animation and the approach I took to making it was quite carefully planning for this project because I wanted to be able to create a high quality animation [or best I could] whilst also distributing my time across several other segments of the project to tell the story. This meant saving time where I could, or being as efficient as possible but achieving the best results.

Working alone I knew that I would have a lot of work to do, perhaps more than I could do given the timescale, if I had to create every single background as well as animating on top and additional lighting retouching at the end. To save time in this respect I took a small risk and chose to develop a 3D space where I could set the camera wherever I wanted, change the focal length for depth of field and basically create backgrounds as I needed them. I would need to make some small adjustments but once the background was completed but it would save time in the long run as I could derive all the shots I needed from that scene. This worked for the reason that the whole animation is set in the same kitchen with some other spaced around the apartment implied but not shown specifically. As long as I created a scene with enough attention to detail and visual interest it should be a good method to creating the environment for the animation.

Once I decided to pursue this I needed it so succeed otherwise it would have been a large waste of time and resources learning or revisiting software and attempting to create something that didn't work. After coming across Blender 3D - a free, open source 3D software and viewing several videos on the results you can get with it, I decided I would use that. Some of the appeal of Blender stemmed from the relatively simplistic built in material options as well as the lighting options and the node editor that can be used to develop surfaces, textures and colour within objects. This coupled with the online resources available that led to the discovery of the software for me, confirmed my choice. I started by creating a simple scene to get used to the tools. Again, the dedication to picking up a new piece of software felt like a risk and I was constantly thinking about the time I was dedicating to it but it felt necessary in order to make a somewhat polished animation.

The simple test scene I created allowed me to tap into the program's lighting options, texturing, use of the node editor, modelling and compositional features. Basically everything I needed that would allow me to create my environments in 3D.

OUAN603 - Delivering the Story

The format I am using for this project is a central narrative delivered through the short written story, with everything else acting a supplementary piece to that main narrative.

As a project, the story is divided into several different outlets to be effective in its delivery to the audience without containing the story world to a single story. This is of course fine and a single window into a story world can be great. However, with this project I wanted to create a detailed narrative through the use of a long form written story but also bring in a back story of two characters and something that is quite important to me, depict the world in terms of its aesthetic and give the audience some visuals to work with. It isn't that I think it is necessary to give the audience visuals from the world, and in most if not all cases they can derive there own visuals from a piece of written story. However, I wanted to reinforce some specifics through art work and animation so that I could reinforce and demonstrate a few examples of descriptions from the book and bring them to life in this way.

To understanding the story the book is all that is needed to obtain a thorough understanding of the story. Essentially this is the centrepiece in terms of the importance of the different platforms I am delivering the story through. A broad range of media is often a good way to tap into different senses and interpretations that can be derived from each one.

Each of the supplementary and main platforms not only allows for a different entry point into the story and working together but also operate in different ways when they are received by the audience. For example, the written story gives a lot of detail but with no visuals, forcing the audience to envision the things described in their own way. Specifically with the magical realism centre this gives way to authorial reticence when any unusual or uncanny events take place - making it so the audience has to on some level accept what is happening in the story. Once they do this they have the possibility to become immersed in the story world through the use of their own acceptance and acknowledgement of the rules of the story world. In contrast to this, the animation, artwork and graphic segments leave less to the imagination visually and provide clues into the aesthetic of the story world. Specifically, lighting and atmosphere can be used as vital tools to create a certain accompanying feeling or response to the audience which is what I am going to focus on most with them. Creating atmospheric work is something I have been working on for a while, so hopefully I can use what I've learnt to push this within this project.

OUAN503 - Story Development, Narrative

Since the beginning of the project I've been working on a document that gives details of as much of the story as possible. It has turned into a type of feed that displays ideas as they have changed and developed whilst I continue to change and further the story. The beginning shows the initial ideas I had and how they expanded into a longer narrative with additional characters. This thread of ideas has been beneficial to maintain because I can keep track of the different narrative threads, return to previous ideas and essentially make sure that the story world is consistent and that all of my ideas are kept in the same place. I've treated this like a bible I can return to and work on when necessary and making sure it is kept updated has meant that my ideas weren't forgotten along the way.

I've found it difficult to develop a full plot from beginning to end, so to be more efficient the approach I took was to simply start writing and see where the writing takes me. It felt a lot more intuitive and creative than simply plotting out every action or scenario that takes place, and reading back some of the work I've written up to now, hardly any of the finer details are in my plan. This demonstrates to me that it is important to have a good mix of both planning and intuitive writing when crafting stories especially in long form like I am attempting. A difficulty I did encounter was that sometimes I would hit a point in the story where I hadn't fully realised what was going to happen at a certain point, and this is the point where I would go back to my notes and make a decision on where the story should head next, once the idea is set to work towards for a certain stage in the story it is simple to write up to that point, it is just a case of setting a certain goal for a scene or chapter.

The speed that I am writing at has varied greatly up until the point. Currently I have about eight thousand words written of the main story with another five or six thousand in notes. My time has of course been divided between this and developing a final animation a long with artworks and the planning of a graphic novel so some days will contain no writing at all whereas on others I could perhaps write several thousand words with everything else in between on other days. I have tried to use what I've learnt in my efforts to develop original IPs to date and make sure each of the story platforms is used to its fullest potential and the segments of the story world that each displays is the best for that platform. There is other considerations such as the feasibility of what can be included in the animation for example based on my own ability and the time I have to create it so there is some constraints in place but this can be worked with to still create engaging and successful content. The novel will encompass an entire narrative from start to finish, the graphic novel depict some back story of two detectives from the main narrative and the animation giving a small window into the life of the main character extracted from the main narrative, so there is some overlap and some highlighting of key scenes amongst the different story outlets. The main narrative is still in development at this point and I am constantly working on different sections that have already been written. I think it will still be being developed until the deadline purely to ensure it is as good as it could be.