Major Project

Major Project | Final Year Project

Name : Chan Huei Lian (0351597)

Major Project | Bachelor of Design in Creative Media | Taylor's University

---

INSTRUCTIONS

---

CONSULTATION

W1 - Breifing

We were briefed about our final project by Mr Asrizal. The main takeaways are that we have to make sure that we make this project to be industry standard / professional, and not treating it as only an assignment. We also need to come up with an issue to be solved, before we think of outputs or media execution. 

W2 - Proposal

I consulted Mr Asrizal with 2 ideas, which was about beach pollution and also homecooking and the feedback I got was that it does not need to always have a storyline for animation student. Can explore with music video style motion infographics. Avoid touching on issues that are too big/major to be solved.  

Idea 1

Idea 2

W3 - Finalised Proposal

I changed my topic to creating an animated music video for a 2000s classics R&B song 'Just Fine' by Mary J Blige.

Feedback from Mr Kamal : 

- make Mary J character come in first in Intro.

- Transition flow is important

- which part is the most exciting / important part of the mv?

- excitement throughout the mv is important.

- make the 2 characters dance together / have connection.

- Make sure 2 characters look different (colours / lines)

W4 - consultation

Feedback from Mr Kamal : 

-  Use glass crack/shattering effects when girl throws the tv remote towards the lens / camera.

- change retro tv to modern tv.

- finish up storyboard and create the animatic to see the flow.

W5 - consultation

Feedback from Mr Kamal : 

- the girl to look abit awkward / not so confident before she start dancing with mary j.

- make the glass crack more obvious (thicker lines) in animatic.

- make the girl appear with the record player in the middle scene (so that it connects that she is listening to the song)

- dont make girl lipsync to song during audition scenes.

- add hair to the humans so that can be distinguishable who is who in the scenes.

W6 - consultation

Feedback from Mr Kamal : 

- can proceed to start background design dy.

- throw remote : make anticipation, record acting : throw reference by myself to see.

- make 3d model for remote control, animate in blender.

- finalise the characters

- make backgrounds for the scenes, put dummy charcater to see the flow (or design still frames with finalised characters, before animating).

W7- consultation

Feedback from Mr Kamal : 

 - work on lineart of still frames / layout first, then line animation then lastly colour.

- maybe have presentation on w8 physically, be prepared.

W8 (Independent Learning Week).

W9 - consultation

Feedback from Mr Kamal : 

- finish all layouts

- overall good style

- mary j stage (the floor platform make it more polished, the gradient looks wonky/unpollished), the back make some ambience light gradient, so not too dark.

- start on animation

- the shading shadow would take extra effort, but will be worth it as its nicer.

W11 - progress presentation

Feedback from Mr Kamal : 

- add musical notes for the record player animation. 

Feedback from Mr Kannan : 

- fix perspective of girl room

- add lightings for retro feel (look at jem & holograms reference).

W14

Feedback from Mr Kamal : 

- its okay dont be too fixated for perfection, get the overall done first then can polish ltr.

- get easier scenes done first then hard ones can find 'cheat' way to make it easier and faster.

W15

Feedback from Mr Kamal : 

- Its acceptable.

- put mouth / any pattern on the girl background / lights (make it less kosong)

- polish animation (if got time).

- put all lights (make it brighter)

- spotlights for all scenes.

- soften the back shadow for the girl record player

- play around transition (if got time).

- audition stage (bg and girl stop same time)

- streaklights on the mouth rotating (retro feels)

---

PROGRESSION

W3 : Finalised Proposal 

W4 : Storyboard

Lyrics breakdown doc

W5-6 : Animatic & Characters.

Animatic

Characters

W7-10 : still frames backgrounds.

Because of my initial scene planning and storyboard, I realised that the number of my scenes are quite heavy for the timeframe. I also struggled with setting the overall styling for the animation backgrounds, whether to make it simpler and easier to work with, or making it as detailed as I could. At the end, each scene took me too much time to complete & I was quite behind of my initial working timeframe that was planned. I was quite worried about the animation, as I am doing frame-by-frame, which requires more time and energy to complete. I think it was my mistake for spending too much time on the scene/environment designs.

Below are the scene designs :

1. Kayla's Audition stage design

2. Judges panel audition stage design

3. Final City Scene design

4. Back view concert stage design

5. Kayla feet walk cycle scene design

6. Kayla Mirror scene design

7. Lipsync scene design

8. Kayla, record player scene.

8a. Record player only scene

9. Mary j stage design

10. Mary j stage curtain scene design

11. Kayla tv room design

12. Kayla TV scene design

Final Animatic (with bg)

Week 11 - animation (stage curtain opening, record player animation), 

Progress Presentation slides

I managed to do 2 rather quick animations to be included in the progress presentation on W11, which are curtain and record player scenes. Hence, I included all the progression of the previous weeks into slides as show below.

1. Curtain Animation line process & coloured

2. record player cd rotate loop animation

3. Slides 

FYP Presentation by lianne chan

Week 12-14 - animation & collateral printing

I continue to progress with my animation in these few weeks for the rest of the scenes, animating frames in Clip Studio Paint, export png sequence, then compile and composite in After Effect. 

I also modelled a simple TV remote control in Blender with my house tv remote as reference, and animate it before compiling them in after effect.

TV Remote Rendered Model

Animation process in blender (screenshots).

Collaterals

 I created poster, postcards, sticker, and small art prints for giveaways at the exhibition.

Here are the collaterals :

1. Poster.

I was also required to create a collage of my progression to be printed on the A1 board for our booth :

Final A1 Poster designed by committee.

2. Postcards.

3. Sticker sheet.

4. Artprints & booth deco (printed characters, elements).

Week 15 - exhibition

Prior to exhibition day, we made preparation at the venue, Mayamode at the campus, including arranging the booth tables, cutting the stickers to be placed on the glass doors, and also setting up our individual booths. 

My first day of the exhibition was quite fulfilled, at the same time it was an adrenaline rush as my project file got corrupted when I tried to render it out. As a result, my last dance scene was animated very rushed in just few hours, and it looked really wonky (T_T) . By the time the file error was fixed, I had to rearrange the timing because it was kinda messed up by the technical problem.

Animated Video (not yet finalised)

booth photos (pic credits to Manling).

 Nevertheless, I was grateful to the visitors who dropped by my booth, and gave me so much encouragement and kind words. I was so happy and shooked when they expressed being reminded of a few animated series, even webtoons that I also loved watching, really made me feel that my effort had paid off. One of the guests even filmed an IG story to feature my work, I am really grateful towards her too. Unfortunately, I forgot to take photos with these guests.

I was also grateful to Mr Kamal's feedback, as he showed me to the ways that I could work on to make my video better, and also encouraged me on my effort.

pic credits to the committee.

The second day was abit more laid back, and my friends came over to visit. I was grateful for them for their moral support, and was glad that they had fun exploring the exhibition booths and games. Mr Mike also came gave me words of encouragements, as well as insights and tips on how to build a career with our skills in the industry. The day ended smoothly, and we closed off our exhibition with group photos, they will be cherished.

Group Photos (pic credits to the committee).

W16 - Final Animated Video Submission

---

REFLECTION

At first, I was in doubt of what I am capable to do for my final year project. My mind crossed so many ideas, scrapped, improvised, and then being scrapped again. At a point, I was demotivated and feeling incapable as I tried to settle down on a project, then, I came across this song, Just Fine by Mary J Blige. The lyrics really appealed to me with the uplifting message of 'carpe diem', which means to enjoy the present and not overthinking about the future, & also self validation. It really allowed me to feel motivated and less anxious. Hence, I decided to make a short storyline that emphasizes the lyrics into an animated video. 

However, I get burnout very easily, and I was already starting to feel it when I was designing the scenes and environment. The process took me longer than originally planned, and my worries for the animation grew. I initially opted for a month, for the animation process, including rough frames, line animation, inbetweens and also, the most time consuming one, which is colouring. But because of my burnout and bad time management, by the time I started to animate, I was only left with 3 weeks, including post production and also collateral designs. Each scene really took me a while to animate and I struggled alot with self-doubting in the process, by week 14, I only animated a quarter of the project. There were times where I really felt like giving up, but I know that I have to help myself, no one would be able to do that apart from myself, and just like the song's lyrics emphasized, I need to give myself more validation and trust, instead of focusing on the "Am I enough?" question.

It felt like an impossible task, even my supervisor, Mr Kamal told me to exclude colouring first in order to make it to the exhibition. Fortunately, I tried and made it with colouring, but sadly, the animation wasn't as satisfactory as compared to the intro, because of the rush and lacking in skill. I learned that in frame animation, you have to cut down scenes, and opt for quality over quantity. Too many scenes are overwhelming within a short timeframe, with the quality compromised, and I learned it through the experience. Nevertheless, I am really grateful for everyone that guided me through the journey, my supervisor, Mr Kamal, my family, peers & friends for the moral support, and also everyone who stopped by my booth and all the kind words of encouragement.