Project report

WWF

Submitted!!

Today we managed to resize our animation after asking around a bit. A techie guy told Aggie to use media encoder but it was taking quite a while and it wasn't really great quality anymore so i asked Mat in my tutorial and he said theres a much simpler way and our animation definitely shouldn't be that big! Turns out theres a quite easy way in after effects. Apparently the amount of kbps was waaaaay to high causing our animation to have a massive file size so we limited that to 10,000kbps which means its 10mb per second. This retained the quality while giving us a file under 200mb.
Both Mat and Annabeth looked at our animation and they both really liked it but wanted us to tweak a couple of things as they thought that would up our animations value by a lot! They said put some motion blur on some things that are moving fast. Which made it look so cool! and there was a bit of cleaning up to do on the smoke that i had moved with the puppet tool but i didn't know how. There was a really easy way! Annabeth just told us to click a button i pretty sure it was in opacity and it just magically disappeared! Very clever stuff. She also has a keen eye for editing and realised that there was a flash where the bulbs went back to just bulbs with nothing growing out of them so we changed that.
It was definitely worth putting in the extra work because now it looks even better!! 
Submission time!! Now we could finally submit our work. It was a very exciting and scary thing to know that we were entering a very big competition and people have said we might actually have a chance of winning. The video uploaded fine, then we went to upload the pdfs and they were too big! so Aggie used a compressor on her laptop. Then we just had to pay and that was it! 

It was such a good feeling to know that its all over and done with now and we are very happy with what we produced. I personally feel its the most professional thing i have produced to date. I honestly believe it would not look half as good if i didn't collaborate with Aggie because her illustrations are amazing and she was great to work with! Definitely glad i responded to her email!
Unfortunately as the rules state on the brief I am not allowed to upload our finished animation online until the winners have been announced, although i really want the world to see it!!!

So close...but yet so far

Today we were working on our animation trying to get in finalised and submitted so we knew it was all out of the way and done with. We Finished the animation after adding sound to it that we think feels like it was made for our animation. We used a royalty free track from http://www.purple-planet.com/international/4583971414 and decided to add some extra boards to show it off a bit more if they liked it which was something optional. We did a board explaining why we did what we did, then our idea generation then 2 boards with our storyboards on them.

  

We were then ready to submit. We went to upload our video at about 20.45 baring in mind that uni closes at 21.00, and it failed because the file size was a bout double the maximum we could have! So with only 15 minutes left we decided to leave it for the night and ask someone how to resize it but retain the quality the next day. It was so frustrating knowing we were that close to submitting and then didn't!! Never mind it will all get sorted tomorrow.

So close...but yet so far

Today we were working on our animation trying to get in finalised and submitted so we knew it was all out of the way and done with. We Finished the animation and decided to add some extra boards to show it off a bit more if they liked it which was something optional. We did a board explaining why we did what we did, then our idea generation then 2 boards with our storyboards on them.

  

We were then ready to submit. We went to upload our video at about 20.45 baring in mind that uni closes at 21.00, and it failed because the file size was a bout double the maximum we could have! So with only 15 minutes left we decided to leave it for the night and ask someone how to resize it but retain the quality the next day. It was so frustrating knowing we were that close to submitting and then didn't!! Never mind it will all get sorted tomorrow.

Responsive

I have started animating now, its going okay now i am getting more used to the software. I have not used after effects all that much so i am still learning. 
This is the storyboard made from Aggies drawings. I think they're absolutely lovely!! Aggie had a change of heart though. She thought it might be nicer if we use a typeface rather than hand writing. I agree that it looks nice and professional looking but now its not at all like our original idea with the continuous line that shows that everything is linked together. It still looks nice though and still gets the message across.

We had a crit on Thursday and we took these, we were going to show the animation we have so far but we were in a different room and couldn't really put it on a computer. We got so many positive comments!! Mostly about how beautiful the drawings were which they are! Some people said we should make the drawings bigger but I don't think they realised we were submitting the actual animation not the storyboard. But it did give us the idea to submit some concept art to show it off. 

Here are the comments we got:

• Very professional vibes
• definitely 'winner' potential - such a well adapted and appropriate tone of voice.
• Nice designs, lovely textures, clean and simple - effective.
• We like the combination of typography and book style illustrations.
• Spelt carbon wrong on the seventh image. Otherwise amazing. Perfect tone of voice for the brief - Beautiful as always.
• More design boards to show off this idea because its absolutely lovely.
• Illustrations are so good - can they be presented bigger? Need to give your work and amount of detail justice!
• Nice style, clear to understand
• Really nice style. Simple and gets the point across.
• Beautiful textures. Do you need a statement 1st board?
• Playful. Nice designs - very fitting for brief.
• This made me feel a feeling
• Amazing style and flows really well
• Nice consistent style!
• I've seen you making this and it looks great so far!
• Very professional. Would make a lovely book.
• I love it - looks so professional and consistent

I am really proud of us :) i just hope people like the animation as much as they like the art. We also thought it would look quite nice in a book.

animatic

So i did an animatic of our idea to see how it would go. I really like it and can't wait to do it properly!! the video ended up being 1 min 12 seconds but a few things went to fast but it should definitely end up being less than 2 minutes which is the timeframe we are allowed. So exciting! Here is is: Please note images used here are not final images, they're just for the purpose of the animatic...

Responsive progress

Last night, Aggie emailed me some information she had picked out from the living planet report, I then put that into a rough script as an idea of how we could use the information to make a story. heres the script:

Our earth has a big problem. Us. We are using more than Earth can provide.

·      We can cut trees faster than they mature,

·      Harvest more fish than oceans replenish

·      Emit more carbon into the atmosphere than forests and oceans can absorb

·      Carbon from burning fossil fuels has been the dominant component of humanity’s Ecological Footprint for more than half a century, and remains on an upward trend

·      In 1961, carbon was 36 per cent of our total Footprint; by 2010, it comprised 53 per cent.

·      Low-income countries have the smallest Footprint, but suffer the greatest ecosystem losses.

·      Populations of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish, has (fallen by half) declined by 52 per cent since 1970

·       

What we are doing to fuel our needs is destroying everything else

·      But oil concessions have been allocated across 85 per cent of the park

·      Drilling for oil could lead to habitat degradation and see the park lose its protected status and World Heritage Site listing, leaving its wildlife increasingly vulnerable.

·      Globally, habitat loss and degradation, exploitation through hunting and fishing and climate change are the main threats facing the world’s biodiversity

·      They have contributed to a decline of 52 per cent since 1970

·      Terrestrial species (animals that live predominantly or entirely on land) declined by 39% between 1970 and 2010. Causes:

o   Loss of habitat to make way for human use

§  For agriculture, urban development and energy production.

·      Freshwater species declined by 76%. Causes:

o   Loss of habitat and fragmentation, pollution and invasive species

·      Forest ecosystems provide shelter, livelihoods, water, fuel and food security for more than 2 billion people.

·      Food production accounts for around 70% of water use and 30% of energy use globally.

And theres a bigger problem

·      World population is growing at a fast rate

Meaning that our problems are only going to get worse, unless we start doing something to improve our planet

We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children

We can:

·      Produce Better – reduce inputs and waste, manage resources sustainably, scale-up renewable energy production.

·      Consume more wisely – through low-Footprint lifestyles, sustainable energy use and healthier food consumption patterns

·      Equitable resource governance – Share available resources, make fair and ecologically informed choices, measure success beyond GDP

Examples of solutions in action today:

·      Wind power provided for 57.4% of Denmark’s electricity consumption in December 2013

·      In Chile, Conservationists are working with partners to protect one of the world’s most important marine ecosystems.

·      In Australia, More efficient sugar farming practices are helping to conserve the Great Barrier Reef by reducing the impact of chemical and soil run-off.

·      In South Africa, Smart land-use planning has helped restore a critical wetland, allowing commercial tree plantations and a World Heritage Site to thrive side by side.

Changing our course and finding alternative pathways will not be easy. But it can be done.

We know where we want to be

We know how to get there

Now we need to get moving.

So I emailed that to Aggie and she came up with a rough beginning of a storyboard that she brought to the lesson. This is what she did:

And this was it in a more finished form:

So when we met up today, we really got stuck into it and were determined to create a finished storyboard. We did it!! :D 

 Here is our storyboard. I will write a description of what is happening to explain:

So firstly we have an image of the earth with handwriting over the top saying the earth has a big problem. 'The earth' is all fancy writing that is on one line and will continue through the whole piece. in the third scene, the line cuts through a tree 'we cut trees' and it falls over 'faster than they mature' 'harvest more fish than oceans can replenish' a little fish swims across then the nets come up full of fish. the line carries on and goes over the outline of a car and writes in the smoke 'emits more carbon' 'into the atmosphere than forests and oceans can absorb''what we are doing to fuel our needs is destroying everything else'

'Drilling for oil' oil starts glowing all over, 'carbon development' starts off with trees but they go down and disappear and skyscrapers appear in their place. 'energy production' power plants that are smoking 'this all contributes to habitat loss and degradation' 'causing a massive drop in population' the next page start with lots of land animals and they slowly disappear 1 by 1 'decline by 39%, the same happens for freshwater animals 'decline by 76% and marine 'decline by 39%' 'and theres another problem' 

'Our population is growing at a fast rate' babies appear at the bottom. 'meaning these problems aren't going to get better' 'unless we do something' 'protect nature' Someone planting a tree. 'reduce waste' image of a recycling bin' 'consume more wisely' wind turbines turning. 'Changing our future will not be easy' 'but it can still be done' 'we know where we want to be, we know how to get there, now we need to get moving' WWF image of logo appears.

Aggie is going to start doing the drawings and assets soon and send me them as she goes so i can start working as soon as possible. In the meantime I am going to create an animatic to try and show what is happening in real time, to see if it works and to see how long it will be, this will show us if we need to make changes before we start the real thing.

Responsive

Today we had to show our pitch boards to the class. First of all we had to create some questions that we wanted to ask people. Ours were:
1. Which colours do you think would be best suited for the project?
2. Does it fit the target audience?
3.Do you think the idea is engaging?
4.Are the Pitch boards too plain?
5.Any suggestions?
6.Does it need anything else to show our idea?

The responses we got were actually quite useful:
-Like the infographic idea
-2 minutes might be a bit ambitious but will work nicely
-Like the colour schemes
-Could relate to the audience by using technology in the animation
-Initial idea has potential but fluidity might require a bit too much time for a 2 min piece
-Cool idea
-Single line to signify interconnectivity is an effective solution
-Is it too simple for 2 minutes?
-Could have more coloured/textured areas but always return to the line
-Love the layout of the boards-very professional
-2 minutes might be too long and create too much work.
-Love the idea
-Like the idea of the world unraveling into a human figure
-Explain last bullet point on initial ideas, why column, not sure what it means
-Colour scheme, blues greens browns, shades, earthy brown colours in background
-Any concept work/ideas?
-Isn't too clear what it will actually look like
-I like the 3rd column of colours and 2nd background option
-Not much of a specific idea
-Boards are good
-Bright colours and graphicy pictures would not work for the audience
-What information is going to be presented in your animation?
-Colours- I think you should use greens and browns and maybe a blue if your going to be doing a globe
-2 mins might be too long, motion graphics is quite hard to keep someone interested for 2 mins with pure factual information
-Might be better looking at the minute mark
-3rd colour chart and 2nd background
Boards are nice and professionally laid out. But there isn't much to show about your actual idea, storyboards etc
-I like the simplicity-works well
-It definitely reaches the target audience
-The text could be reduced to make room for more concepts/images


What we have taken from this:
-The animation needs to be about 1 minute (we only but max of two minutes on the presentation cause thats what it said on the brief and we hadn't decided yet)
-Need some concept art/storyboards. I think when we have these, there will be less need for the amount of text because the text was explaining our ideas that we hadn't yet visualised
-Theres a typo on the why column- need to check better next time
-Chosen colours should be greens browns and maybe a blue, from the 3rd set of colours.
-The second background should be used.

It has shown us what people like and don't like and how our pitch boards went down which is good practice to help us figure out what needs to be on them and what doesn't. People like more visual things but a bit of explanation.

Responsive

Today, Aggie and I met up to switch ideas and research and to create our pitch boards. Unfortunately we are both finding it difficult to collate researched information as there is just so much to go through so as a result we are a little behind on properly planning the animation i.e a storyboard. We have agreed that by the end of next week the research needs to be done and decided which parts we want to use.
On our pitch boards we decided to put a bit of the brief, a bit of research, examples of our inspiration, examples of the test animation and words describing what we are doing and why, then a selection of colours and textures to choose from.
INSERT IMAGES HERE

test 2 responsive

Today I went to and After effects lesson and i came away with what i think is a better way of doing our WWF animation. Before, my technique was to draw out the whole thing and then frame by frame use the eraser tool and make it look like its been drawn on photoshop using the video timeline. However this new way I believe will be more than twice as fast and so much simpler. Its on after effects. There is a brush tool which allows you to draw free hand, then down on the bottom right, there is a 'write on' option and basically this puts your brush strokes on a timeline so just records what you have just drawn! so it does what i was trying to do without all the erasing and frame by frame nonsense! I am so glad I found this I think it is going to make this project a million times easier! I do however need to figure out how to get an image that I can trace over so I get nice clean images that are how they are supposed to look for example, to make them look like Aggies drawings. Im sure I can just go down to the AV suite and ask Matt for a hand on that though. 
Im quite excited now! here is just a very simple test animation so show the result that I made in literally 5 minutes as apposed to the hours that the previous one took. 

test

So today I decided to do a test run of the idea we had for the start of the animation. I think it could look really nice! However unfortunately I am having a lot of trouble with it. The actual creation process is going fine and for some bits I am planning, I have tutorials on them coming up. But when I went to save, it decided to tell me there wasn't enough disk space so i started deleting a load of things and it still wouldn't work. Then I noticed the file format was .psb instead of .psd so i thought that might be it and i think it helped a bit but its still being extemely slow! I also thought this might be because of the size of the document, I wanted it to be larger than it needed to be so I could pan around but Im thinking I went a little too big. It feels like I have wasted a day but I guess its good that I found this all out now rather than when I started the real thing.

Hallelujah! I don't know how i did it but i managed to get it to save properly! I think part of the problem was having a ways too big canvas (i had it on mm instead of pixels) 

Here is my test run of our idea so far to see what it would look like. Theres also going to be facts etc on it but as we haven't figured out what they are yet.... i didn't put them on.

Research

So apparently there is a LOT of information to go through in the full living planet report. I am finding it really difficult, not only to stay focussed on it but to pick out information relevant to what we are doing!! i have tried but  i am really struggling so i hope Aggie gets on better than myself. However, me struggling to process the information has shown me the need for this animation so that people can have another way of getting this information in a more friendly, understandable way.

Here is the information that I did manage to pick out that might be good to include in our animation:

-WWF’s mission is to stop the degradation of the planet’s natural environment and to build

-a future in which humans live in harmony with nature, by conserving the world’s biological diversity, ensuring that the use of renewable natural resources is sustainable, and promoting the reduction of pollution and wasteful consumption. 

 
-We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors; we borrow it
from our children.


-We need a healthy planet for a stable future. This means we need to consume more wisely and produce less wastefully, to harness clean energy, to manage the world’s resources better and to halt the loss of our key habitats and species.


-We rely on nature to meet all of our most basic needs - from food and shelter to the water we drink and the air we breathe - and if we continue to mismanage the Earth's resources there will be serious consequences for our future food, water and energy security.

-We are living as though we have more than one planet at our disposal, and if we continue to do so, we will create huge problems for ourselves in years to come

-Wildlife populations worldwide have declined by 52 per cent since 1970

responsive

So today we met up and discussed what we are doing. Firstly we agreed and signed our contract :

Next Aggie told me about her idea. She thought we could do outlines like we had seen in previous videos that we both liked and the outlines could follow on from each other in one long line. Then she remembered i mentioned a video where at the end you zoomed out and had an image so she was thinking we could do something a bit like that maybe. 
I thought it would be cool if the line was making like a journey and like it was a piece of string so its like the same length all the time making these images but that wouldn't work if we wanted a final image at the end so we will have to see.
We then started bouncing ideas about and we were thinking we might start off with an image of a globe in outlines and it would say something like our planet is home to....(some statistic of people and animals or something) ...then the line would come off the globe and turn into a few animals and a human and trees or something to show the variety. Thats as far as we got really but that is the general idea that we want it to have a journey and fluidity about it. 

I was just now thinking that it would be cool if when talking about the water or sea life that we could go into a pool of blue and the line would move like its swimming or fighting the water or something then jump out when we were talking about land again. I think this would give some diversity and something interesting to make it a bit different and draw your attention back. Also we have decided we don't think were going to have a voice over, just music.

Aggie had to go do some screen printing stuff this afternoon so we decided that that was it for the days work and we would both go and do research and ideas at home as it was hard to concentrate on reading the information in a noisy studio. So we what we are going to do it pick out bits of information from the living planet report that we would want to use in our animation and hopefully this will give us something to work on to help drive our idea generation. We also said both of us mock up our own ideas of what the storyline could be working with the theme we have discussed then we can show each other and pick out bits we like and mash them together and hopefully that will give us a fairy solid idea.

When we have decided on our idea, we will get together and put our proposal and pitch boards together which we will be presenting on on 26/02/2015

Questions

What are your priorities as a team?
We want to create an animation that solves the issue WWF have put to us in a simple, elegant, fluid way that gives you lots of information but not in an overwhelming way, that makes you think about the way we treat our planet.

What problems do you foresee with the project?/ how will you resolve this?
I dont foresee many problems except creative difference but at the moment that doesn't seem likely as i think we are wanting the same kind of thing. Possibly a problem in deciding fully on a design but i think once we have found something we are happy and passionate about we will have no problem decided that that is definitely the idea.
Who decides on the solutions?
I think we both decide on the solutions, this is collaborative practice after all.




brief analysis/cocept proposal/project plan

Collating info

So from what we have looked at so far we want our animation to be:

• Simple
• Possibly outlines
• Containing info graphic information
• Clear
• Make the audience think
• If we use audio, it backs up the animation and visa versa
• Contain images of animals
• Dynamic engaging camera movements

What we don't want:

• Too many numbers and confusion
• Talking animals
• Visuals that don't match the audio

We have arranged to meet on Thursday and discuss ideas and thoughts, I think we will come up with an idea then and then we can think about the list above to decide on style and actually how we are going to do this.

I don't really have a specific idea as such yet, I just would like to portray that what we do as humans, directly effects animals and our earth. And maybe would like to end it with a rhetorical question or a thought so people go away thinking about it. 

Collaboration

Aggie emailed me saying she has found some more videos. This one we both liked the beginning part where it outlines animals. We also think that the infographic information is increasingly becoming a good idea. 

http://vimeo.com/81885951

This one isn't to do with WWF but Aggie liked it so sent me it. I think its a really neat idea how its just lots of simple shapes that all fit together to create families.

http://vimeo.com/10753182

Through emails, we have both agreed that the style should be simplistic, 2D, using infographics to show facts but not too number heavy, with a nice visual style. Possibly like the outline styles we have found like below:

I really like the background texture on the second image as well I think we should definitely use something like that if we go that simplistic.

Research

I have found a couple of videos I have found that I think have unique points that we could work with.

This one is called Man. What I like about this is that he just strolls into this place and starts using things and killing things like its nothing just for his own personal gain. This carries on until he has completely changed the way the world is and then aliens come down and kill him just like the man killed the animals. It's a really hard hitting way of showing people that this is actually how we are acting but because its in animation and done in a comical way, it is easier for us to digest. However I don't like the design of the man. I also thought it was wrong how the man was walking to the left because that portrays going backwards or the wrong way but then i thought perhaps that is intentional because ruining our planet this way is a step backwards and the wrong thing to do. I do like the idea of having a visual representation of how what we do affects the planet/the animals. I don't think this tone of voice is appropriate to WWF but the idea would work in a less graphic way.

This other video is called End overfishing. What I like about this video is the statistics we can see. I also like the 3D globe with the water but I believe we are wanting to go the 2D route on our project. What I do take from this is the movement in the animation like when the are talking about the aeroplanes and they fly in from the foreground, I think this is very visually engaging and jus the way they pan shots. I also like the voice over, it makes it seem very personal and like a David Attenborough show, I think this works well with the visual statistics as it helps the information go in.

Aggie has also done some research, she chose to look at pre existing WWF videos. Here is what she found and what my personal views are.

http://vimeo.com/6047270

I quite like this video as it shows the 'domino effect' that something can  have. I really like that idea of literal dominos that are people taking a stand. I also like the contrast between the original black and white with the colour of the dominos showing a positive change.

http://vimeo.com/50829586

This video I actually didn't follow very well which has made me think that our video needs to be nice and clear. I do really like the illustration style though how its just outlines and nice and simple and I really like the texture on the background.

http://vimeo.com/117910068

I actually wasn't too keen on this video. I thought the visuals didn't really properly relate to the audio so it wasn't explaining what was being said it was more of a distraction. I also wasn't very keen on the illustration style but that is personal opinion. From this i have learnt that if we use audio it definitely needs to be properly linked to the animation and would be to help explain what is going on and they need to work in tandem.

http://vimeo.com/77782321

I love the visual style of this video how its nice and bright and colourful and clean and cute. I thought it was a really unique and clever concept how they did something that seemed silly and not something you would do and then showed you that actually this IS happening in a different context and then ends with a rhetorical question making you really think about it and although you were kind of giggling at the start, now your thinking oh actually...yeah thats pretty wrong. This is what we want to do, we want to make the audience think otherwise they will just see it as a video. If we don't leave a lasting impression, we won't get the target audience to think about how they are treating the world.

http://vimeo.com/26649021

This video is film but I get the reason Aggie looked at it. Its the split screen idea. I think this could work really well with animation perhaps having the left side as human and the right as animals and you can see that as the human does things, it affects the animal and you can instantly see this. 

I think a good thing to do from here would be to find some more videos like this and dissect them and find out what works and what doesn't. When we have done that we should create lists of the things we have found that we would like to include or want to consider, and the things we have seen that we definitely do not want to include.