Presentation: Night of the Monsters
Wednesday, 18 January 2012
@Katy @Sean Meeting Tomorrow Morning!
We need to meet at 10.30 tomorrow morning, up at lecture theatre 1 to sort out everything.
I'll have our group disc ready to hand in by then.
Leave a comment if you need anything!
I'll have our group disc ready to hand in by then.
Leave a comment if you need anything!
Tuesday, 17 January 2012
Images for the Drop box
I think it would be a good idea if everyone put their concepts and renders in the drop box. That way they are all in one place and of high quality. I noticed when posting to the blog they tend to get re sized to a smaller format and start to loose their quality.
I have made an image folder with all my pictures in, you can put them there or make another one with your name on it. Tomorrow when we come in I will start the 'making of' if anyone has done a background for the 'making of' please bring it in tomorrow. Thanks
I have made an image folder with all my pictures in, you can put them there or make another one with your name on it. Tomorrow when we come in I will start the 'making of' if anyone has done a background for the 'making of' please bring it in tomorrow. Thanks
Night of the Monsters Trailer (Final Edit?)
I feel pretty good about this one, I must say:
Let me know if you agree or not! :)
Let me know if you agree or not! :)
Poster Progress
Here is what I came up with. I didn't see the post about doing the poster a certain way when I finished it. Is this poster any good to use?
@Alan, Music's Sorted!
Thanks for the help Alan! After your comment I realised I can just nab the music from the opening credits of those films as it'll have the least random noises in it. Here's the music from Attack of the Giant Leeches:
Pretty good I'd say! Onwards! :D
Pretty good I'd say! Onwards! :D
Meeting With Alan
I had a meeting with Alan today to discuss our progress and our current situation (the animation, music and posters). I am posting what was said in our meeting here, this is what he had to say.
Animation:
He has seen the final animation and believes that although the actual animation is fine (maybe slightly mechanical at times) it still needs tweaking and refining.
Firstly, the sound effects either need to be taken out completely, or blended in with some suitable background music (as he said in a comment). At the moment the sound effects are "too in and out", meaning there is no consistant flow, they are just put in and taken back out. What we need to do it start by finding some suitable music and syncing climax in the music with climatic scenes etc. As we are now adapting the music to the animation, this will be very tricky to find the perfect soundtrack that goes in sync with the trailer, what we will need to maybe do is edit parts of the music to go with specific parts of the trailer (buildup/climax/cooldown scenes) by cutting and pasting bits here and there. After this is done we can then move onto adding SFX (if we have time).
Secondly, there needs to be some pace. At the moment, it seems we have made an animation of the actual film "Night Of The Monsters", more then a trailer, meaning editing of clips are in order.
An example of how we can set a pace for the animation is to cut unnecessary footage out! E.g. If the monsters are making there way down a road, we must NOT show a scene of them doing just that (from start to finish). The audience only need to see that they have started making there way down that road to know what they are doing, meaning it should only run for a few seconds before making the transition to the next scene. This keeps the pace.
Also, trailers tend to glamorise the major plots, action scenes, and particularly interesting parts of the film. These chosen scenes do not reveal everything about the film (that's what the film is for) so they often wont make sense to the audience, but they will be drawn in by all the action from the trailer. We need to imply these techniques into our trailer.
Now some advise about the posters.
The usage of either renders from our animation, or drawing out new pictures specifically for poster art both have their pros and cons. I'll start with the renders.
Renders
Pros:
Using renders is a good, time effective way of making poster art for the trailer. We already have all the models and stuff and all that is needed is the editing in Photoshop etc.
We have more versatility (we can create many different poses and backgrounds quicker and easier in Maya)
Cons:
Doing it this way is "a bit to forward of the time and the B movie style we are trying to portray". It may come out looking too polished, thus killing the B movie theme.
Also, trailer posters from films of this era are generally hand painted (King Kong being the best example here).
Painted
Pros
As stated above, trailers of this era are traditionally hand painted, so doing it any other way may be a little confusing to the viewer.
Hand painted posters in the visual style, along with some post production editing, will be more effective.
Cons
Producing posters, DVD & case covers and any extra shots we may need by hand, along with the editing of the animation, may or may not be do-able as we do not have much time left.
We have to plan exactly how we are going to do each poster (the picture is not as easy to manipulate/edit/reuse as Maya models).
One thing Alan did recommend is maybe to use a bit of both Maya & Photoshop.
Tip #1: We could maybe use Maya to pose the models, then use the alpha channels to create a silhouette of the model, export that to Photoshop and do some creepy shadow posters.
E.g have the shadow of the tiger fish monster on a wall as he is about to slice somebody.
or
Have a monster shrouded in the darkness in the middle of the road in the town. It could be shrouded in fog maybe?
Tip#2: Using the concept images of the monsters and backgrounds to create some posters. Cropping, duplicating and overlapping specific parts of the monsters are all options to consider (we don't necessarily need to use images of the whole monster). Boardering an edge with a monster is another option.
Tip#3: Shots used in posters don't necessarily need to be a shot that was used in the film!
I think that's everything, hope this is helpful!
Animation:
He has seen the final animation and believes that although the actual animation is fine (maybe slightly mechanical at times) it still needs tweaking and refining.
Firstly, the sound effects either need to be taken out completely, or blended in with some suitable background music (as he said in a comment). At the moment the sound effects are "too in and out", meaning there is no consistant flow, they are just put in and taken back out. What we need to do it start by finding some suitable music and syncing climax in the music with climatic scenes etc. As we are now adapting the music to the animation, this will be very tricky to find the perfect soundtrack that goes in sync with the trailer, what we will need to maybe do is edit parts of the music to go with specific parts of the trailer (buildup/climax/cooldown scenes) by cutting and pasting bits here and there. After this is done we can then move onto adding SFX (if we have time).
Secondly, there needs to be some pace. At the moment, it seems we have made an animation of the actual film "Night Of The Monsters", more then a trailer, meaning editing of clips are in order.
An example of how we can set a pace for the animation is to cut unnecessary footage out! E.g. If the monsters are making there way down a road, we must NOT show a scene of them doing just that (from start to finish). The audience only need to see that they have started making there way down that road to know what they are doing, meaning it should only run for a few seconds before making the transition to the next scene. This keeps the pace.
Also, trailers tend to glamorise the major plots, action scenes, and particularly interesting parts of the film. These chosen scenes do not reveal everything about the film (that's what the film is for) so they often wont make sense to the audience, but they will be drawn in by all the action from the trailer. We need to imply these techniques into our trailer.
Now some advise about the posters.
The usage of either renders from our animation, or drawing out new pictures specifically for poster art both have their pros and cons. I'll start with the renders.
Renders
Pros:
Using renders is a good, time effective way of making poster art for the trailer. We already have all the models and stuff and all that is needed is the editing in Photoshop etc.
We have more versatility (we can create many different poses and backgrounds quicker and easier in Maya)
Cons:
Doing it this way is "a bit to forward of the time and the B movie style we are trying to portray". It may come out looking too polished, thus killing the B movie theme.
Also, trailer posters from films of this era are generally hand painted (King Kong being the best example here).
Painted
Pros
As stated above, trailers of this era are traditionally hand painted, so doing it any other way may be a little confusing to the viewer.
Hand painted posters in the visual style, along with some post production editing, will be more effective.
Cons
Producing posters, DVD & case covers and any extra shots we may need by hand, along with the editing of the animation, may or may not be do-able as we do not have much time left.
We have to plan exactly how we are going to do each poster (the picture is not as easy to manipulate/edit/reuse as Maya models).
One thing Alan did recommend is maybe to use a bit of both Maya & Photoshop.
Tip #1: We could maybe use Maya to pose the models, then use the alpha channels to create a silhouette of the model, export that to Photoshop and do some creepy shadow posters.
E.g have the shadow of the tiger fish monster on a wall as he is about to slice somebody.
or
Have a monster shrouded in the darkness in the middle of the road in the town. It could be shrouded in fog maybe?
 |
| Tip#1 Example |
 |
| Tip#1 Example |
 |
| Tip#2 Example |
(1957).jpg) |
| Tip#2 Example |
 |
| Tip#2 Example |
I think that's everything, hope this is helpful!
Poster Progress
Been studying some 50s monster posters and their colours are quite bold and striking.
Very Rough Poster Sketch
@Sean, a Job for You!
I need you to make a post on here of all the concept art, images of test renders and any other development images we've posted on here so we can start making our 'art of'. I want them in one massive post so we can pick and choose what we want to show so it saves time later!
Reply with a comment so I know you've seen this please :P
Reply with a comment so I know you've seen this please :P
Aging the Trailer Update.
Trailer Music.
The soundtrack is really weak in the trailer, so I want to find something better. However, I'm struggling to find a suitable 50's style piece of music that's royalty free at the moment. I only have these two so far:
What d'you guys reckon? let me know what you think please!
What d'you guys reckon? let me know what you think please!
Poster Attempt
Im not sure if this is exactly what your looking for Molly, but heres a poster i've put together.
Also, could you tell me what font you used in the animation please.
Edit:- Added another compostion
Monday, 16 January 2012
Rendering
Im trying to render out some screenshots for the posters, this is how they are coming out
They are coming out really dark and I dont know why? The monsters dont seem to be displaying their textures correctly. Do I need to put a light in the scene?
Aged Trailer (First Attempt).
It's looking good!
I'll bring it down a few notches when I finish tweaking the trailer though because it's a bit too extreme, but I like it! :P
I'll bring it down a few notches when I finish tweaking the trailer though because it's a bit too extreme, but I like it! :P
Night of The Monsters Trailer (First Edit).
Okay so here's what we've got so far:
I'm going to add something to age it a little, probably in after effects and I know some scenes feel rushed and some sounds need tweaking but let me know what you think TODAY please! So I have enough time to squeeze in some more renders if we need to! :)
I'm going to add something to age it a little, probably in after effects and I know some scenes feel rushed and some sounds need tweaking but let me know what you think TODAY please! So I have enough time to squeeze in some more renders if we need to! :)
@Katy @Sean What's Next! *Updated*
Come on now you two, where have you gone? I set this post up yesterday afternoon and I'll keep updating until I get replies!
I've pretty much finished the animating, renderring and putting the trailer together, so the first draft will be up by today (16th)
Katy & Sean we need some drafts of a poster, DVD case and disc, so can you both get some rough ideas started and post them up by tonight? (16th) Remember, they need to fit the style of a 1950's horror film poster as well as our own animation's style.
Let me know what you reckon and if you need screenshots too!
I've pretty much finished the animating, renderring and putting the trailer together, so the first draft will be up by today (16th)
Katy & Sean we need some drafts of a poster, DVD case and disc, so can you both get some rough ideas started and post them up by tonight? (16th) Remember, they need to fit the style of a 1950's horror film poster as well as our own animation's style.
Let me know what you reckon and if you need screenshots too!
Saturday, 14 January 2012
Female Character Finished Texture
Non Smoothed
Smoothed
Wire Frame
Toon Layer
Render Test
UV Maps
Out UV
Colour UV
Bump UV
Ambient UV
Alpha
@Sean @Katy Check In!
Hey guys! I just want to know what your currently up to.
Katy: Remember these two characters aren't the most important! Just keep em basic and let me know how it's been going.
Sean: Have you finished the facility because I need it TODAY so I can animate it tomorrow (Sunday). If it isn't finished then put it in the drop box tonight and I'll finish it. There's no more time I'm afraid so put it in the dropbox tonight, finished or not.
ALSO! Are we all happy with the plain grey backgrounds? I thought it made the scenes look really staged as if they've been bunged together in a rubbish back lot somewhere, but be honest and let me know!
Please leave a comment at the bottom so I know you've seen this post too!
We're almost there guys, we can do it! :D
Katy: Remember these two characters aren't the most important! Just keep em basic and let me know how it's been going.
Sean: Have you finished the facility because I need it TODAY so I can animate it tomorrow (Sunday). If it isn't finished then put it in the drop box tonight and I'll finish it. There's no more time I'm afraid so put it in the dropbox tonight, finished or not.
ALSO! Are we all happy with the plain grey backgrounds? I thought it made the scenes look really staged as if they've been bunged together in a rubbish back lot somewhere, but be honest and let me know!
Please leave a comment at the bottom so I know you've seen this post too!
We're almost there guys, we can do it! :D
Friday, 13 January 2012
Male Character Finished Texture
Render Tests
Wire Frame
Toon Layer
UV Maps
Out UV
Colour UV
Bump UV
Ambient UV
Alpha
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