Finally at last its done

Derek and Boggy Finish Animation

This is the video of the finished animation only sound verison will be uploaded soon

(the black bit is were the credits go's)

Sound Effect version

Very quick update

I know it's been a long time since I've updated this online blog but I'm very much now in the writing process on finishing this project. I was granted an extension for my individual project for August 17th. The writing process of the report has been very time consuming and I've had almost no time for regular entries on the blog.

I have now finished the animation a few weeks ago and would have liked to have posted this on my blog however, time has been used writing the report. Currently I am still editing and polishing the animation to get a finished and final version. I am hoping to upload one version of the whole animation piece next week on my blog which shows the entire film from beginning to end.

In terms of the report, so far sections 1 to 4 have been completed. I am hoping to have my report completed for the end of July ideally. If this target isn't met then I will most definitely have the report complete before the deadline- 17th August.

It's been a long year getting this project done and considering this is my final year at Teesside Uni I want to finish off this year with this animation done to the best of my ability's.

Update on current progress (11/06/13)

For the past few weeks I have been unable to work on the Derek and Boggy film, as I have focused on my group animation project. As it became closer to the group deadline,  my workload increased and it was very time consuming to complete the final group animation video. My task was to edit all shots together and add the sound effects and vocals to the film. This was very last minute, as I could not complete my task until all other group members had provided me with their completed work.

I had to work throughout the night to meet the deadline and finish the animation.

I was unable to work on both projects at the same time as, one task would take up more time than expected.

After submitting the completed group project, I have spent some time having a break from work. During this time, however I have carried out further research on British animation and Cosgrove Hall. Research found includes:

Animation Nation - a BBC Four documentary about the history of British animation from commercials, Children's TV and a episode on different views of British Culture

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0088rlw/episodes/guide

The DVD to watch episodes can be found in the Teesside Uni Library.

Skwigly Podcast - Skwigly is a online magazine website which features podcasts from animation pioneer's. One featuring Brain Cosgrove discussing his work from the past, present and future.

http://www.skwigly.co.uk/animation-podcasts/

The podcast is in two parts

Chuck Amuck The Life and Times of an Animated Cartoonist by Chuck Jones - a book about the lifetime work of Warner Bros most renowned animation Director Chuck Jones

The book can be found in Tesside Uni Library.

Derek And Boggy Progress

Let me start off by showing you what the title should looks like. The animation piece will begin by panning out from the starry sky to this still image shown below.  This has already been timed out and simply needs to be added to the video.

The scene will then be set by making it clear that it is night time and that the two characters will be walking through the woods in the dark.

I possibly might add a text sequence to verify what the two characters are doing before they appear on screen.

  

I have managed to at this point to get the film's animation run time up to 49 sec leaving only a few more scenes let to be put in.  

 

One of the challenges that I faced was to have a sequence were one character (Boggy) turns from one position to another, at a moments notice. See below

Boggy start off pose 

Looking Right

Looking Left

I carried out research to establish how this sequence could be done. A looked at animation video created by Chuck Jones 'The Dover Boys' who showed how to make fast movement look effective.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=vrD0aog7Kts#t=829s

To achieve this I distorted the eye's shape making it stretch out and blurring it to give the look of boggy zipping across from left to right. Around 16 frames were used to created this sequence.

This save on the amount of frames used compared to if it was done more conventionally

See examples of frames in this sequence

Write up

Below is the link to the write up. This is a work in progress. 
So far I managed to write:

• Introduction
• History of Animation - Chuck Jones, Cosgrove Hall Films 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/74mh2mhlohskaa3/CP.docx?m

Update for work over Easter Break

There's a lot I have to say now that Easter holiday now over been really busy with both the animation and final report I've been working both at uni and home to get the most out during the uni Easter holiday

Some pieces of animation have taken longer to make than previously thought and a bit concerned about the film length of now (see below)

Here are some of the storyboards I've managed to do They show off the key frame poses for the eyes please note none of the pages have any writing on them yet as time is of the essence they will be put on later.


Storyboards


Each panel is taken from a line of dialogue and description of the scenes.  I have only drawn what key scenes will appear I have not included any transitions at the moment.

For this animation, which is of a comedic genre, I am animating to the sound rather than timing out each still image.    In my opinion this was the best way to produce, as the overall effect of the animation  relies more on dialogue and therefore the audio and soundtrack had to be completed first.

I have been working mainly on the animation which took longer than I had anticipated.  The sequence of Boggy walking on and off screen was something that I new would take a while to do, unfortunately it took far long than I thought it would.

I had a lot of alterations to do to get it right.  I have now finalised this but at present feel I will have to reduce this to one of these whereas I had previously intended to do three.  I will replace the other two with captions of walk on and walk off accompanied by sound effects.

The timing of the film at present is at 1 minute 16 seconds without the opening sequence and credits.  Due to the amount of work I still have to do I may have to reduce this further.

I have also been working on my dissertation outlining the structure and at present have written 1,000 words in relation to  my History of Animation section which is based on the work of Chuck Jones and Cosgrove Hall Films.