Monday 7 May 2012
Wednesday 1 June 2011
'Cliff' 01/05/2011
As part of self promotion I have released a trailer online.
I specifically chose clips that would not reveal any story, hopefully it will bring an audience in for a Friday online release.
If i am to send it off to festivals I may take it offline (If required) But I thought i'd give people a chance to see the movie.
Another part of my advertising was making a FACEBOOK event for the release.
This means when people say they are 'attending' the notice will remain on their facebook page until the release date.
Meaning on Friday facebook members following the event will be reminded of it's release. I will also be able to send out a mass email about it.
I sent the invitation to a large amount of people.
Here are currently the stats
______________________________________________
I aslo thought i would post the original concept of the story.
The whole story of the film came from this:
Finding voice actors can be difficult, especially child voice actors. So, i decided to make a film about a boy without a voice! The rest grew from that.
Nathan Viney
I specifically chose clips that would not reveal any story, hopefully it will bring an audience in for a Friday online release.
If i am to send it off to festivals I may take it offline (If required) But I thought i'd give people a chance to see the movie.
Another part of my advertising was making a FACEBOOK event for the release.
This means when people say they are 'attending' the notice will remain on their facebook page until the release date.
Meaning on Friday facebook members following the event will be reminded of it's release. I will also be able to send out a mass email about it.
I sent the invitation to a large amount of people.
Here are currently the stats
- 61 attending
- 22 maybe attending
- 35 not attending
______________________________________________
I aslo thought i would post the original concept of the story.
The whole story of the film came from this:
Finding voice actors can be difficult, especially child voice actors. So, i decided to make a film about a boy without a voice! The rest grew from that.
Nathan Viney
Monday 30 May 2011
'Cliff' 30/05/2011
The soundtrack for the film is being produced by Stephen Brooks, a fellow animator and talented musician.
Before any production began I came across a set of blogs he had posted online.
This was the one i was impressed with, how he takes the idea of his animation and creates a perfect tune to fit it.
Although he presents himself as INSAAANE in the vlog, he shows off his enthusiasm for both animation and music.
I asked him if he would like to work on my next animation for my final major project. He was enthusiastic and was looking forward to getting to work.
He first began work on the original animatic, which to be honest was a mess. He was doing a basic guitar tune for a some scribbles. Luckily i began work and seemed to complete a good amount of footage in a short amount of time giving Stephen a taste of what the polished film will look like.
I went back and fixed up the animatic with co director, Lana Cohen and began to make sure the story was clear.
I then did the same thing as i animated.
Stephen's basic guitar track was fantastic and completely created the mood for the film where the animaton did not.
He chose beautiful sounding chords and tunes for different moments.
Since then I have completed animation and edited the whole film together in a way, that i hope represents the story to the audience clearly.
From what I have heard of the music so far it is fantastic and i am very very excited for people to see the movie and listen to the music.
There are some scenes in my film, i admit may drag on a bit but his music will keep them interested and excited.
He will be working to complete a good % by the end of today for my hand in deadline. But will continue to polish it to his liking for the 'Summer Show Screening'.
*
Here are the song examples i sent for Stephen to look over and possibly be inspired by.
I wanted a very acoustic sound to the film, 'guitar, piano, bass, drums'. ~A classic sound, similar to children's series like Peanuts and Winnie the Pooh.
Other that i told him he could do whatever he liked with the sound, and he has done brilliantly.
*
Schedule, to do list for paper-work
* = not done
* = done
Front Cover *
Statement of Intent (* but not printed)
DVD Authored*
Journal* (Blog)
CV*
Promotional Package (Information about film and cast)* (Including DPI Images)
DVD with Quicktime file *
Evaluation *
*
Before any production began I came across a set of blogs he had posted online.
This was the one i was impressed with, how he takes the idea of his animation and creates a perfect tune to fit it.
Although he presents himself as INSAAANE in the vlog, he shows off his enthusiasm for both animation and music.
I asked him if he would like to work on my next animation for my final major project. He was enthusiastic and was looking forward to getting to work.
He first began work on the original animatic, which to be honest was a mess. He was doing a basic guitar tune for a some scribbles. Luckily i began work and seemed to complete a good amount of footage in a short amount of time giving Stephen a taste of what the polished film will look like.
I went back and fixed up the animatic with co director, Lana Cohen and began to make sure the story was clear.
I then did the same thing as i animated.
Stephen's basic guitar track was fantastic and completely created the mood for the film where the animaton did not.
He chose beautiful sounding chords and tunes for different moments.
Since then I have completed animation and edited the whole film together in a way, that i hope represents the story to the audience clearly.
From what I have heard of the music so far it is fantastic and i am very very excited for people to see the movie and listen to the music.
There are some scenes in my film, i admit may drag on a bit but his music will keep them interested and excited.
He will be working to complete a good % by the end of today for my hand in deadline. But will continue to polish it to his liking for the 'Summer Show Screening'.
*
Here are the song examples i sent for Stephen to look over and possibly be inspired by.
I wanted a very acoustic sound to the film, 'guitar, piano, bass, drums'. ~A classic sound, similar to children's series like Peanuts and Winnie the Pooh.
Other that i told him he could do whatever he liked with the sound, and he has done brilliantly.
*
Schedule, to do list for paper-work
* = not done
* = done
Front Cover *
Statement of Intent (* but not printed)
DVD Authored*
Journal* (Blog)
CV*
Promotional Package (Information about film and cast)* (Including DPI Images)
DVD with Quicktime file *
Evaluation *
*
Tuesday 17 May 2011
'Cliff' 17/05/2011
i finished animation on the 12th of May. Almost two weeks ahead of schedule. This means i am straight into editing now.
All of the scenes have been put together using Sony Vegas, an easy to use professional software.
The reasons i decided to use Sony Vegas
I emailed a friend of mine, a fellow animator. It was important to get someone who did not know the full story, or had not seen any footage yet to review it.
I have plenty of people who have helped my progress throughout making the film, but as they have now all seen the production their they cannot judge the footage by story.
Milo Waterfield, a brilliant animator. Here are his views on the film.
All of these critiques have been taken into account. I may fix up all of these points.
To do these fixes I will need to go into the flash files, do the fix, then export the png image sequences to individual organised folders.
Then i bring them into Sony Vegas and replace the original files.
Click for larger
My letter to my musician
"So i will try and get that full film sent to you saturday-sunday (15th)
> From then on we can conference call whenever you have the time if need be.
>
> The deadline if it is ok for sending me the soundtrack would be
> 26- 29th of May
> This gives me a bit of time to edit it all in and plop the film on a DVD
> for uni"
Here was his letter in response
Perfectly fine! Like I said if you give me a date to meet I can meet it.
Once all of this is done i must work on the paperwork that accompanies the release of the film. And place the film on an authored DVD for hand in.
- Nathan Viney
Cliff and the End of the Rainbow Production Blog
All of the scenes have been put together using Sony Vegas, an easy to use professional software.
The reasons i decided to use Sony Vegas
- Although i am comfortable with editing on Adobe Premiere, i have had bad experience with exporting my animations from it. No matter what i did the quality would lower or the colours would glitch. It is also not as simple to important image sequences into it as Sony Vegas.
- I'd like to use After Effects for compiling the images as i know it is brilliant with exporting image sequences at a perfect quality. Though i lack the knowledge to add simple effects like fading, also the sound control is very limited on After Effects.
I emailed a friend of mine, a fellow animator. It was important to get someone who did not know the full story, or had not seen any footage yet to review it.
I have plenty of people who have helped my progress throughout making the film, but as they have now all seen the production their they cannot judge the footage by story.
Milo Waterfield, a brilliant animator. Here are his views on the film.
- There were a couple of moments that i thought could do with a little more time to absorb what's going on... in the opening shot, maybe a beat or so between Miss Locket flying by and the cat cutting the branch off the tree? It all happens at once - i guess that was the idea - but i was a bit, like, "whuh?"I wonder whether when we first see toddler Cliff, before she takes the key, he should speak or at least make a noise? Maybe repeat "Good boy" or something? It might make it clearer that she is stealing his voice? I was a bit confused about that at first...I find the fade to black just before Cliff shakes the plant to get the Tam's attention a little confusing... it suggests time has passed. And should he look up at her when she finds him?Maybe just a beat or two at the very end after Tam kisses Cliff and the camera pans up? That all seemed to happen quite fast...
All of these critiques have been taken into account. I may fix up all of these points.
To do these fixes I will need to go into the flash files, do the fix, then export the png image sequences to individual organised folders.
Then i bring them into Sony Vegas and replace the original files.
Click for larger
My letter to my musician
"So i will try and get that full film sent to you saturday-sunday (15th)
> From then on we can conference call whenever you have the time if need be.
>
> The deadline if it is ok for sending me the soundtrack would be
> 26- 29th of May
> This gives me a bit of time to edit it all in and plop the film on a DVD
> for uni"
Here was his letter in response
Perfectly fine! Like I said if you give me a date to meet I can meet it.
Once all of this is done i must work on the paperwork that accompanies the release of the film. And place the film on an authored DVD for hand in.
- Nathan Viney
Cliff and the End of the Rainbow Production Blog
Monday 9 May 2011
'Cliff' 09/04/2011
Recently i have been working day by day on the last scene I need to produce. This is the airship scene. I am quite proud of some of the simple background i have produced for this.
The workflow has slowed down a little, possibly as I am thinking I am ahead of myself. But work is still being produced each day, i am hoping to complete the scene in the next three days.
On Friday i attented my university class and got a useful critique from my tutors and fellow students.
This critique was on the lines of "It is not clear that Cliff's voice is 'the key'."
Although you do see it occur in the film, i agree it was not clear. So on the spot i worked out something that could help this plot-point be communicated to the audience.
I animated an extra scene involving Cliff at the bottom of the ditch. In editing i will put a faded clip of the witch pulling his voice out of him, Cliff will then slowly touch his neck.
The audience will clearly connect the two together.
I will begin editing this weekend. Although i may put some of the scenes together before then if i finish this airship scene early.
*
To inspire my progress i have also been reading a lot of Peanuts, i love the characters so much it makes me want to jump back into MY own story and tell my characters story through animation.
*
The scene i am doing at the moment includes
I was working on the rain falling today a long with a few other things.
Here is some screenies of my work
The captain is holding a pipe when we first meet him, this was to avoid much arm/hand animation.
This was my first and final test for Para Cat folding his arms.
It was noted by my assistant director that it does look weird for a character with no elbows to suddenly have elbows, but there was no other way of doing it.
I then worked on the animation of Cliff, he is tapping on Para's shoulder throughout the scene trying to get his attention.
They are both leaning on the side of the airship.
As a final attempt to get Para Cat's attention Cliff does this.
As you can see from the picture i have put a dark gradiant over the top to add a darker mood, as well as a grey sky and rain drops.
*
Skype is a very useful program for communicating online.
Over the course of film making i have spoken in depth with various people over skype.
I have constantly asked advice of my girlfriend and my fellow animators.
Skype has a brilliantly system where the other people on the call can see your screen, and what you are working on, giving advice and suggestion.
I have also used it to communicate with my musician to work through the animatic.
Cliff and the End of the Rainbow Production Blog
Nathan Viney
The workflow has slowed down a little, possibly as I am thinking I am ahead of myself. But work is still being produced each day, i am hoping to complete the scene in the next three days.
On Friday i attented my university class and got a useful critique from my tutors and fellow students.
This critique was on the lines of "It is not clear that Cliff's voice is 'the key'."
Although you do see it occur in the film, i agree it was not clear. So on the spot i worked out something that could help this plot-point be communicated to the audience.
I animated an extra scene involving Cliff at the bottom of the ditch. In editing i will put a faded clip of the witch pulling his voice out of him, Cliff will then slowly touch his neck.
The audience will clearly connect the two together.
I will begin editing this weekend. Although i may put some of the scenes together before then if i finish this airship scene early.
*
To inspire my progress i have also been reading a lot of Peanuts, i love the characters so much it makes me want to jump back into MY own story and tell my characters story through animation.
*
The scene i am doing at the moment includes
- airship outside and interior, all designed.
- cliff and para discussion, completed today
- rain storm working on it
- lightning and electic shocks not done
- balloon pop not done
- Captain animation not done
- Cloud turning evil not done
I was working on the rain falling today a long with a few other things.
Here is some screenies of my work
The captain is holding a pipe when we first meet him, this was to avoid much arm/hand animation.
This was my first and final test for Para Cat folding his arms.
It was noted by my assistant director that it does look weird for a character with no elbows to suddenly have elbows, but there was no other way of doing it.
I then worked on the animation of Cliff, he is tapping on Para's shoulder throughout the scene trying to get his attention.
They are both leaning on the side of the airship.
As a final attempt to get Para Cat's attention Cliff does this.
As you can see from the picture i have put a dark gradiant over the top to add a darker mood, as well as a grey sky and rain drops.
*
Skype is a very useful program for communicating online.
Over the course of film making i have spoken in depth with various people over skype.
I have constantly asked advice of my girlfriend and my fellow animators.
Skype has a brilliantly system where the other people on the call can see your screen, and what you are working on, giving advice and suggestion.
I have also used it to communicate with my musician to work through the animatic.
Cliff and the End of the Rainbow Production Blog
Nathan Viney
Thursday 5 May 2011
'Cliff' 05/05/2011
Today i began re-working the epic middle scene of the film. This is where the audience are introduced to the 'captain', who takes them on an exciting journey across the sky.
Here is the scene list and of which are completed
Intro - Pre story
This is where we are introduced to Para Cat, the Witch and the abused Cloud
This scene shows Para trying to catch the witch and prove his is a worthy warrior but fails. The witch then captures a small blond boys voice (Cliffs)
complete
Intro scene
We are introduced to our two children main characters, Tam and Cliff as the play hide and seek.
complete
The sad scene
Cliff falls down a ditch and is unable to call for help! Once he has got back up to the surface we learn that he really wants a voice.
A letter appears from the sky inviting him to meet Para Cat.
complete
Para Cat scene
The informative scene, Para lets Cliff know about his past and asks him if he wants to come with him to get his voice back.
Tam jumps in introducing herself. She shows her care for Cliff
complete
Emotional departure
A very short scene showing Tams sadness that Cliff is going away
complete
Boat scene
We are introduced to the wacky captain of the ship, a big, beautiful mechanical flying boat.
They fly along, there is a bit of dialogue, then the abused cloud (A sidekick to the witch) comes after the boat and fires lightening at them bursting their balloon.
The captain lets them know that the door at the end of the rainbow is a TRAP. They are sent away with parachutes.
incomplete
The end of the Rainbow scene
Cliff and Para finally get to the end of the rainbow. Para trys to fight the witch but fails. Cliff befriends the abused cloud and the witch opens the door at the end of the rainbow.
Cliff trys his hardest to pull her away from it but she only pushes him down.
complete
Conclusion
The witch is caught by the trap and gets wisked to only a skeleton inside the haunting world. Cliff runs out scared and slams the door behind him.
Back at home Para gives Cliff the key (his voice) It floats towards him and enters his mouth. Cliff is about to talk, but gets kissed on cheek by tam instead.
complete
Here are some screenshots of recently production
In the beginning I was very frightened about doing an 'intdoor' scene. I have had bad experiences with working on the insides of buildings and rooms. So to avoid this i planned to have them talking and discussing Cliff's departure out the front of the house.
But once I'd seen some inspirations pictures I decided, with the time that i have, why not try my best?
This image from google images inspired my scene set out straight away. Although it was very ambitious i went ahead anyway.
So this was my first plan
This drawing autmatically looks too modern, and why does he have a double bed?
So then i drew myself a victorian bed. I am very proud of the look and shape i ended up taking from it.
This image was not traced so i was quite happy with my final result.
Once i had that i drew up a bedroom around him.
The keywords were
Farm House
Childs bedroom
and Victorian.
Once tracing over all my red lines and going into extreme detail with lines and colour this was the final piece.
Then i put Cliff and Tam into the room to have their own emotional goodbye moment.
I really like the window, and how even though the background is quite different with all the objects the outside is the same as the viewer should be familiar with, bright and blue.
Today i was working on making the big flying ship work (Designed by Lana Cohen) and finding some great mechanical sounds for it's engines and wings.
I also reworked the animatic for the big boat scene which took a lot of mental effort but will hopefully work out for the best.
We worked it out in a way that the 'flying' boat would be quite a surprise for the audience.
First the characters will begin of the docks (Jetty) meeting the captain. Para asks the captain how then seas have been treating him, he replies good, where are you heading?
The witch has been sighted downstream. Fade away
Then we see a close up of Cliff smiling with his hair blowing. Next up we zoom out and reveal to the audience the flying boat!
- Nathan Viney
Here is the scene list and of which are completed
Intro - Pre story
This is where we are introduced to Para Cat, the Witch and the abused Cloud
This scene shows Para trying to catch the witch and prove his is a worthy warrior but fails. The witch then captures a small blond boys voice (Cliffs)
complete
Intro scene
We are introduced to our two children main characters, Tam and Cliff as the play hide and seek.
complete
The sad scene
Cliff falls down a ditch and is unable to call for help! Once he has got back up to the surface we learn that he really wants a voice.
A letter appears from the sky inviting him to meet Para Cat.
complete
Para Cat scene
The informative scene, Para lets Cliff know about his past and asks him if he wants to come with him to get his voice back.
Tam jumps in introducing herself. She shows her care for Cliff
complete
Emotional departure
A very short scene showing Tams sadness that Cliff is going away
complete
Boat scene
We are introduced to the wacky captain of the ship, a big, beautiful mechanical flying boat.
They fly along, there is a bit of dialogue, then the abused cloud (A sidekick to the witch) comes after the boat and fires lightening at them bursting their balloon.
The captain lets them know that the door at the end of the rainbow is a TRAP. They are sent away with parachutes.
incomplete
The end of the Rainbow scene
Cliff and Para finally get to the end of the rainbow. Para trys to fight the witch but fails. Cliff befriends the abused cloud and the witch opens the door at the end of the rainbow.
Cliff trys his hardest to pull her away from it but she only pushes him down.
complete
Conclusion
The witch is caught by the trap and gets wisked to only a skeleton inside the haunting world. Cliff runs out scared and slams the door behind him.
Back at home Para gives Cliff the key (his voice) It floats towards him and enters his mouth. Cliff is about to talk, but gets kissed on cheek by tam instead.
complete
Here are some screenshots of recently production
In the beginning I was very frightened about doing an 'intdoor' scene. I have had bad experiences with working on the insides of buildings and rooms. So to avoid this i planned to have them talking and discussing Cliff's departure out the front of the house.
But once I'd seen some inspirations pictures I decided, with the time that i have, why not try my best?
This image from google images inspired my scene set out straight away. Although it was very ambitious i went ahead anyway.
So this was my first plan
This drawing autmatically looks too modern, and why does he have a double bed?
So then i drew myself a victorian bed. I am very proud of the look and shape i ended up taking from it.
This image was not traced so i was quite happy with my final result.
Once i had that i drew up a bedroom around him.
The keywords were
Farm House
Childs bedroom
and Victorian.
Once tracing over all my red lines and going into extreme detail with lines and colour this was the final piece.
Then i put Cliff and Tam into the room to have their own emotional goodbye moment.
I really like the window, and how even though the background is quite different with all the objects the outside is the same as the viewer should be familiar with, bright and blue.
Today i was working on making the big flying ship work (Designed by Lana Cohen) and finding some great mechanical sounds for it's engines and wings.
I also reworked the animatic for the big boat scene which took a lot of mental effort but will hopefully work out for the best.
We worked it out in a way that the 'flying' boat would be quite a surprise for the audience.
First the characters will begin of the docks (Jetty) meeting the captain. Para asks the captain how then seas have been treating him, he replies good, where are you heading?
The witch has been sighted downstream. Fade away
Then we see a close up of Cliff smiling with his hair blowing. Next up we zoom out and reveal to the audience the flying boat!
- Nathan Viney
Monday 2 May 2011
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