It is hard to find royalty free Audio online. The websites i looked at was just not reliable enough e.g. pop ups, signs ups for spams, etc. So I used Youtube to search for downloadable content. Each of these artists will be credited at the end of the animation.
I download the audio and edit them on Adobe Audition. I have very few knowledge of the program but it is easier for cutting and pasting parts of sound as well as adding little effects such as fades, echo, bass, etc.
For the wolfs growl I used Iwan 'qubodup' Gabovitch audio which is found here;
For the background soundtrack, I broke up parts of this song as I wanted an eerie effect. I used Mattei Cupelli "Dark Tension" soundtrack. This is found here;
For the sound effects such as leaves rustling and more I was signed up to Freemusic.org where people can upload sounds for others to use. I found Carolin Weidner who recorded leaves rustling that can be used for filming. The link to the effect is found here;
I will be looking for a short sword swing sound, running and I asked a friend for one word in the goats character voice, who will also be credited at the end.
I have almost completed my animation. I have added the wolf and just created my goat character. I tried to design a normal goat but the way they run, it did not fit well with the animation. So i decided to create a humanoid goat, with a bit more personality. As the Brothers Grimm stories was set in germany I thought to give the goat traditional old german clothes used for hiking back then.
Goat character
I will animate the front arm and head of the goat as well as the movement from one side to another. After this I will add the trees, then fix the lighting and that would be the animation complete.
I used the original wolf from the last animation. I animated the head and the tail
I have made a few text imagery from my first character. I used different modes such as screen and darken and I also just used the parchment on the characters clothes.
The first design I used the modes of the screen to determine what looks the best for the character.
Parchment character 1
Parchment character 2
Parchement character 3
parchment character 4
Parchment character5
The text is too harsh on the characters face on parchment 4,2 and 1. Parchment 5 sort of works but the text is too faded. Parchment 3 works the best in this type of mode.
I also tried adding the text just to the characters clothes to see the effect and if it looks better.
characters clothes
This works really well, especially the out lines that I have added. Without the outline the characters face stuck out too much.
Lastly I thought about adding the parchment texture to the characters face to see if it all blends in well enough.
face and hair texture
Even though the character blends in the outline of the hair looks wrong and will need re working. Between the tests I believe that either Parchment Character 3, text clothes and the last image all work well. I will need to decide which one to choose so I can then work on the poses tonight.
I notice that I am not keeping up with schedule and with few weeks to go I thought now would be the best time to start my time limit.
24/11/2015: Finished rough animation. Finally decided to use Cinematic approach. Will design character poses in text imagery. Will try and scan in text to draw on OR create a parchment on Illustrator with old text and then characters on top. I have done something similar to this and I can edit the fonts as so. May Use Lorem Ipsum for paragraphs of words or copy text from Brothers Grimm book. Lorum Ipsum site : http://www.lipsum.com/feed/html
Previous character imagery from a few years ago:
Alice in Wonderland text Imagery. Outlined parts of the book and used a path pen to create the shape. Got the shape of Alice from Lewis Carrol book with Illustrations
I will need to create at least 5 main character poses, 1 Wolf pose, 1 goat pose and 2 character expressions. I enjoy creating expressions and changed my style as of today to make the expressions work. I used the reference of Chris Sanderson's ( Lilo & Stitch) character work for my main character and looks less robotic than before:
More expression and interesting than before. Brighter colours and appropriate size for a younger character.
I will try to reduce the opacity of the fill on the character for text to come through. If it doesn't work then I will leave the text imagery to the Wolf, Goat and background.
25/11/2015: Work on the background layers. This consists of a few trees, a log and the sky. I decided to leave out the lightening to show inside the wolf. Movement of the wolfs paw is enough as well as audio that will be added later on. Trees will sway, and the head of the wolf will move as well. Once I completed the background I will add text Imagery characters to the rough animation, keeping the key frames. A simple replace exercise of the rough concept.
28/11/2015: Have the animation completed with light effects. I will look online for free sound effects to add to the animation. I will also look for a battle like sound track similar to Kingdom Hearts games when introduced to a boss battle but with a more playful concept such as Pokemon or Mario games.
Kingdom Hearts boss battle soundtrack
29/11/2015: Have the animation completed with sound effects and hopefully a soundtrack. If I can't find a sound track I can try and make one myself on Adobe Audition
After I lost an image to the animation I couldn't fully function DUIK. Even though DUIK is great for character animation, it was a program that I wasn't familiar with and with the deadline at a close I had no time to learn all functions.
So I decided to go back to the original Cinematic idea and implement it with my newest storyboards from previous blog. Lynn showed me how to mask a parts of a drawing and then how to animate in after effects. I finally finished with a rough cinematic of a cut scene.
I will keep the idea of text imagery of the characters so my next step is scanning in text from books and then illustrate on top of them in Illustrator. I will then replace the mask drawings in after effects with the text drawings, thus creating an actual story. The background will also be text but slightly larger. The light tool can light up the character, just so that it doesn't blend in with the environment.
My plan for this week is to get the animation finished, in time for touch ups and adding audio. I think the audio will just be sound effects with a soundtrack.
I've updated my storyboards and decided to go with a cut scene rather than a trailer. It will still have th previous boards but I've added more and took out the witch and close up of the character. I have also designed my main character as a girl and will be using book text as a background. As though the player is playing the game inside the Brother Grimm book.
I am in the process of designing the background so the storyboards are quick but clear sketches. It will also be a cinematic but might have the same pace as American McGee Alice games.
Main Character
I used any books with long texts to experiment this process. I will print off text from the Brother Grimm to draw on so that the players can see some of the stories.
Storyboards
Opening is the same as the last animation. Dark forest with branches swaying. Will be in the same style as main character
Main character walking through woods. Puppet like
Goat runs past her. She calls to it but the goat replies to RUN!
Everything in the woods starts to shake. A large shadow then looms over the girl
A wolf appears (same as the last animation). He growls that he's going to eat her next. Lightning flash and you see skeletons of 6 goats in the wolves stomach crying out
Girl takes out her weapon. Silhouette of the wolfs jaws in a grin appear and goes towards the girl. The cut scene ends with a swirl black.
I think instead of using the lightening flash to see the goats skeletons, the wolf might either have all 6 goats in one and flips them into his mouth, the goats are in a cage or if the goats are already in his stomach when the wolf growls or shows his jaws you see the goats inside his stomach. It might be something to think about on how to involve other goats.
I was also told of a software called DUIK which is a more simpler tool to use than the puppet tool in After Effects so I'll download that on my laptop.
I've looked through YouTube for a tutorial on puppet tool rigging and have found one that will move exactly how I want my characters to move. I will keep on looking for more tutorials but once I gain enough I can then start animating.
In the college I wasn't taught enough about the puppet tool so I had to teach myself through YouTube videos a few years back. Now that After Effects is becomming more popular I will have more tutorials to watch and study.
For my animatic I would need to make a few changes. The story wasn't clear enough as most would assume it's just a flashback rather than a flash forward and that the story is a bit of a scramble. Because I just chucked in Hansel and Gretel story it didn't tie in very well. The idea of using lightening to show the skeletons is a good idea and may use that in my refinements. I should also create something else to help with the flow of the story.
Maybe instead of creating flashbacks, should I just create the opening of the game using the cinematic approach? keep the opning of the forest and the boy going through it and try and make the start of the story?
It is a hard process of trying to figure out if I should stick with the trailer of the game or an opening. I think I will need to have a look at more game trailers to get an idea of how to go through with it.
I could perhaps create a cutscene in the game. American McGee Alice Madness Returns uses this approach by having paper cut outs acting out the cut scene and using the same cinematic. Their designs are very unusual but it relates to the original Alice in Wonderland Book.
My designs will be illustrated rather than paper but it is something worthwhile to think about for the cutscenes.
Lewis Carrol Alice in Wonderland book Illustrations
https://libr280bookstudyblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/de_alices_abenteuer_im_wunderland_carroll_pic_25.jpg
American Mcgee Alice Madness Returns paper illustration cut scenes
http://img00.deviantart.net/15fe/i/2011/070/1/9/what_do_you_mean__rabbit__by_jack8642-d3bdzg2.jpg
I have found the video of all the cutscenes of American McGee Alice. Hopefully I can try and create a cutscene for part of my game.
I will say this video/game is not for the light hearted so apologies
Using cinematic approaches works well when referencing to a book. It worked well for Harleys Mad Love (see first blog post for video) as it is based on a comic book.
When making the designs, I need to make sure everything is in layers and have minimal movement for the characters. I can do this with the puppet tool on After Effects as it connects the joints and moves the character more like a puppet, which is what I am looking for.
I created something like this in HNC which lasts only a few seconds as I was new to After Effects at the time. I know the timing is off and it bends more than it should as I didn't put the layers right. But now I know what to do from my past mistake and hopefully create a cinematic with the tool.
From the storyboards I recently made I have just completed the Illustrations and a rough animatic.I went over each drawing and used minimalist graphics until I fully reworked the story. The main character is still a base at the moment and will be working on him this week for creative research.
First scene is the front of the forest. I used subtle black and grew to give an eerie feel:
Front forest
Second scene is the main character through the forest. Instead of sticking to grey and black i decided to use different shades of purple which worked well against the blue sky and black shadows
Through the forest
A close up of the main character. The arrows indicate the tree branches coming in both sides, surrounding the boy.
Close Up
Flashback to fighting the wolf. Again used purple for the grass. I added the skeletons in now to show the story. Lightening shows where the flash will be. Arrows indicating movement of the wolfs head and tail. The goats will also be floating around too.
Big Bad Wolf
Because i just thought of this, it is just a sketch but i will be illustrating it very soon. This shows the character jumping away from the witches knife as Hansel and Gretel look on.
Hansel and Gretal
This is a quick drawing of a book. Once the flash back is over it shows the boy which zooms out to pages in a book. I'm not sure for the background as of yet. The big arrow indicates movement of the pages flicking through.
Open Book
The last illustration is of the closed book which will be the ending of the trailer. It will have the games title on front as well
Close book
I have completed my animatic which is very rough with still images but i will be animating them once i re worked the illustrations. Here is the video:
I've made up a few storyboards that I am going to use for my animation. Everything is quick sketches so nothing is on point atm but will be redrawn on illustrator. In my animation I want a deep voice over, someone with a bass in their vocals like Christopher Lee and Brian Blessed, to tell the story but that won't happen until much later on when it is all complete.
The start of the animatic is the opening of a deserted and empty shadow of the forest. Eyes will flash between the dark trees and the branches will slowly be swaying. It will then zoom into the forest and open up to a boy going through it with the brothers grimm book in hand. The eyes of the boy will look around and leaves will slowly fall to give it an eerie feel. The next scene it will be a close up of the boy, trees coming from the side and we will zoom into the boys eye with a flash and it will open to him fighting a large demon Wolf. Lightening in the picture will flash and you would see the skeleton of the Wolf and Skeletons of the 7 little goats. It will then go fast right and open up to another of the grimm story.
Since I already done the rough animatic I quickly sketched up the witches house with hansel and gretel in a swinging cage so that's not done in illustrator as of yet because I need to work on character design for the witch. In the animatic the cage will be swinging and the boy jumping slowly away from the slow large knife coming towards him. It will then zoom Into the boys eye and flash to white. The next scene will be zooming out of the boys eye in a close up shot. Red eyes will lit up behind him in the forest. It will then zoom out the whole picture, revealing his story in a book. The book will close and will have the title of the game.
This is a lot of illustrations to do but it will work. As long as I keep a steady flow of the pace it will tie in with a cinematic theme.
I have already finished a very rough animatic of showing the illustrations. By next week I will rework some of the illustrations and start to properly animate.
Here are the quick sketches of the storyboards.
Front of the forest
Boy going through forest
Boy confronting wolf ( Have not made the wolf as of yet)
I was searching Cinematic Animations for my project on a trailer for a mock game that will tie in with my Creative Research. I have found a few examples that I like the style of and the pace.
DC Universe Online - Harley Quin is Crazy in Love
Flat Animation
Cyberpunk 2077
DC Universe Online - The Joker, The Bat and The Scorpion
Mooncatchers - Adrianna Figueroa
Each video has a specific animation that the designers focus on, such as Harley Quin with the camera, Flat animation with the one sphere, Cyberpunk 2077 with the bullet shards and the ears & eyes of the Mooncatchers. Environment plays an important role too as it effects the emotion of the video like rain or hazy forest.
I will learn how to do this style for my mock game trailer as it can create something dramatic in 2 scenes without giving the game away.
