The Final Film for the V&A:
(Notes from: 26.04.21)
As I hadn't started this blog till March this year (2021) these notes will be from my memory and animation journal . I have done my best to recall key information however, these event's will not be 100%.
If and when this " * " icon appears I am writing from memory.
25.01.21
Today was our first meeting with the client and I guess for this and only this meeting the preasure is off because this is the part where they brief us about what they are looking for. From then on it will all be up to us and a bit daunting, it is the V&A. The Victoria and Albert Museum. A palace of creative design from every discipline from art to architecture to furniture and ceramics. I've been to the V&A so often when I lived in London that it was almost a monthly pilgrimage and now since the Dundee branch opened I've there too however, with covid it's been difficult to go anywhere and do anything.
Back to the project...
Some Links from the Client:
Mary Quant Exhibition at the V&A Dundee from 2020
(A trailer for the previous exhibition at V&A Dundee. This should help establish the V&A a little more, as well as show the variety of styles/techniques available to use.)
British Museum Exhibition Trailer
(This is a contrasting style from the British Museum using live action film.)
Studio 54 Documentary
(Available on Netflix US for those with a VPN, to buy/rent on Youtube, and possibly elsewhere on the internet... a detailed look into classic nightclub culture in the USA.)
Lates at the V&A
(A short video about the Lates at the V&A London)
Brief:
Key Components:
Themes of the Production:
Bold
Bright
Energetic
Upbeat
Atmospheric
First Mood Board for Night Fever:
(Research and Investigations from 03.02.21 to 07.02.21)
Presented on the to the V&A: 08.02.21
Initial research into club life in the 1960's, 1970's, 1980's and 1990's. Beginning with The Cavern club in Liverpool from 1957 onwards. Where several legendary bands have played from The Beatles to the Black Sabbath.
Studio 54, the most iconic of the clubs within the exhibition is an area of interest and a source of inspiration for a large portion of the concept and design work in the Animation.
The Hacienda club in Manchester is also a great area of interest to the exhibition and has Iconic designs which we can use in our animation.
From the 1990's the Ministry of Sound is a club that is being focused on and also has great iconic designs which we could use within the animation.
Concept and Idea Mood Boards
The idea behind the Evolution of Dance was to show the progression of dancing though the various decades and drew inspiration from the various era's that are represented through the exhibition from the 1960's to the 1990's. This board shows the various era's styles. Inspiration was taken from the Apple iPod Adverts that ran through the mid 2000's of Silhouetted dancers dancing in various styles to various music.
The Velvet Rope concept was an idea to take a more abstract direction for the animation by using light, shape and colour as its defining themes.
Cyber Punk was an interesting futuristic concept that involved a look into more developed digital and computerised idea of looking back into the past. While this idea was interesting and stylised it wasn't heading in the right direction that the V&A were looking for in a reflection of the whole clubbing era. (This concept was NOT Presented to the V&A)
Rahuls's Concept.
Heather's Storyboards.
Reference Materials for the V&A:
From the first meeting the group was able to gather some initial ideas about where the client, the V&A were looking to go and what they like best from what was presented.
Other items raised at this meeting:
Q. Is this all animated or mixed media?
A. Different animation styles blended together.
Q. Vapour Wave? What is it and was it created by Dj's in the 1980's?
Yes but, we don't have much experience with it and would need further investigation.
Q. What are the animation styles and how long will they take to do and will you have enough time to achieve something that you are proud of that looks stylish?
Rotoscoping - time consuming but not too complicated
2D Classic Hand Drawn - Time consuming and difficult to achieve a high end look but, can be used for smaller sections that are simple and uncomplicated.
Vapour Wave - Needs more investigation before a conclusion can be reached at the present time.
After Effects - Would be visually interesting and sits at a mid level experienced person
3D - Would be achievable as we have several skilled 3D
Q. How long will the film last?
A. The film will last about 1 minute but, we would be focusing on quality over quantity
Feedback:
1st proposal is good for being eye catching and would work well with instagram.
2nd proposal works to create a mood and theme as well as establish a club environment.
Transitions work really well to maintain a looping video.
Next Steps:
Check to see if it meets audience recommendations and legal guidelines.
How many weeks left at this point: 10x
Feedback from the Client:
Team Meeting on Wednesday
10.02.21
From Kieran:
Meeting with Kieran on Wednesday 10.02.21:
From this post Kieran and I had a chat regarding the group and the direction or lack of direction the we had and organised a plan for the next steps of the project.
From this meeting I was told I was going to be assigned the role of director whether or not I wanted it. From past experience of working on a remote project where the main parties are in different locations I had prior knowledge of the difficulties that we would face going forward and if I was going to be pushed then I might as well jump first. That way at least I would have some control, or the illusion of it anyway.
The difficulties that we faced as a team were simply that none of us had ever met before and aside from an ice breaker back in October of 2020, where it was about 5 to a team, we had no real idea of anybodies capabilities. There was no trust in the group, no previous projects to refer back to. I myself was a novice when it comes to Maya, Adobe and other VFX programs since I have only started to use them in the last 4 months.
However, creativity is not about computers or 0's and 1's its in your head and desire to build something from nothing. The computer is a tool that you use to generate the project and if the worst came to the worst I always had the "Classic" way (pencil and paper). Plus if everyone else was on board then we could do this. Our inspiration would be the John Lewis advert from Christmas 2020 as it was made across the world with people who had never met in person during the Covid pandemic. It also helped that it was a lopping video.
John Lewis Christmas Advert 2020.
My Day's as Director:
11.02.21 - 17.03.21
These few days seem like a blur now and they were mostly. The five days went very very fast as I tired to show the team my "vision" for the project.
Tasks for the Group:
The first task I asked everyone to do was to read the objects list provided to us by the V&A. To look at the object list and find 10 things minimum that interested them or that they liked to get an idea where we are at and what we are all thinking.
This is my 10 images.
I tried to find ones that were a little less obvious and could be used in both a 2D and 3D environment.
Images and choices from some of the group.
It was really great to see us all making similar choices and picking themes which would help us stay on the right track when it came to the project. At this point things seemed to be working out well despite a few members of the team not taking part in choosing their ten object or images, we did have enough to be going forward.
By this point I had also produced a word document that described each of the clubs listed in the exhibition and condensed it from around 210 pages to 6.
It totalled 28 individual clubs presented in the exhibition as well as various other bits of useful information.
Again this was only read by a few members of the group however, those in the group who did take the time to read this said that they found it to be very helpful as it connected them deeper with the project, giving them further inspiration and a desire to do there own further investigations into the historical background of a few of these clubs. Baba Issa was particular favourite with the team.
Next Steps:
Divide up the group into two teams that would still work on the same project. We had two production teams one 2D (pre-production) and one 3D (pre-production)
In 2D: Myself, James, Heather, Rahul and Yutong.
In 3D: Cameron, Muhammad, Santosh, Jian and Emma.
I took the role of Director.
Heather took on the role of Production Manager
Emma took on the role Colour Scripting
Rahul Production Advisor and
Cameron was Head of the 3D Team.
With these roles in place it was a lot easier to take the project into storyboarding and a more solid idea generation stage.
Ideas Generated by the Group:
James' Ideas and Concepts:
Storyboarding:
As much as Rahul's opening was stylish and conveyed a great sense of an arrival at a club and the atmosphere within I wasn't too fond of the direction it was heading. For me it was a little too dark and didn't contain any of the "light" that I had seen being presented in the exhibition. So I proposed a new start. One with a slightly more sophisticated opening, a city building up one building at a time till the club comes into view and a woman arriving in a pink/white limo with a more 1970's styled look instead of the 1940's noir feel in Rahul's version.
Rahul's Girl.
My Girl "GG"
Emma's Character Concept:
While this was a slight change from what we had proposed to the V&A on the 8th of Feb during our first meeting where we had proposed Rahul's original concept and idea, it was I felt, a strong step in the right direction for the project because we were in such a early stage of the project and it wouldn't be too complicated to change.
I asked Rahul to work with this new storyboard and concept and he refused to do any further work on the opening sequence and expressed a desire to work in the 3D team as that was his area of interest and where he wanted to work.
Storyboarding 11.02.21 - 17.02.21.
This first page represents the link from a previous site to an outside scene where a city builds building by building till it is able to zoom in-between the buildings and drops down to a club: "54".
From here we cut to a limo pulling up to a red carpet. A woman exits the limo and holds an invitation. The next scene is a crowd trying to gain entrance to the "54" club. The crowd parts as "GG" the woman approaches. She walks down the red carpet and is stopped by a bouncer. She produces her initiation and is allowed access to the club. From here we would transition into Motion Graphics before looping back to the start.
These storyboards were proposed ideas, concepts, morphing attempts. They were presented to the group for consideration and posted on Teams and SyncSketch.
When I presented these ideas to the group I didn't get much feedback or thoughts accept from a few members and Rahul wasn't a cooperative person to work with. He refused to do anymore work on the opening scene, either his one or the one I was proposing, and since he is the best person on the course for human figures it was going to be imperative that we would need him to work on this part. Instead he was more insistent that he be put on the 3D team as that was an area he wanted to gain experience in.
Some other team members were also becoming difficult to work with at this point, which was about four days after I had taken on the role as director. Tasks that I had assigned weren't being completed, people were showing up late for meetings, if they came at all and some people didn't respond to messages.
The overall feel that I picked up from half of the group was that they simply didn't want to do the project, that it was getting in the way of other personal work and that I would basically do the project and they would help out a bit.
While I was prepared to put my own work on hold and take the role of Director I was not prepared to produce the whole film alone. So for me it was difficult to see a way forward at this time if things didn't change. I became increasingly stressed by the situation and it wasn't helped by the medical issues I was having or that I needed to attend hospital appointments in the weeks previous coming up in February.
I made the decision to resign from the role of director on the 17th of February. I didn't come to this decision easily and I weighed up the options, the pros and cons of the situation very seriously before going forward. I personally felt that I wasn't in a strong enough position to have the team listen to me.
In short I couldn't make them do the work and they were under no obligation to do anything that I asked of them. It was time for our lecture, Kieran, to come in and take control of the situation. To issue tasks that would need to be completed.
I understood what I was doing when I made this decision. I was doing it out of respect for our client, the V&A in Dundee, first and foremost before anything else. I knew that as a team we could make a great animated film according to the brief but, only if we were all on board.
I also understood that by stepping down as director my involvement would reduce I just didn't realise that I would be effectively sidelined to the point where I would have no assigned role. It was therefore up to me to find a place in the project and assign myself work. To force other team members to work with me. Team members that weren't all that pleased with the new circumstances that I had personally placed us in.
Nevertheless, I've never really needed people to like me just understand that all I want is the best outcome for the project and to have a strong professional work ethic.
Below is the outcome of my involvement on the project and the tasks I have taken on board as well as the collaborations I have taken part in.
Animatic Produced by Heather, James and Rahul
On the weekend of 17th and 18th February 2021.
Collaboration Work: 19th February onwards.
Collaboration Work with Heather.
Schedules/Work Assignments/Meeting Notes:
Example of Meeting notes that I made in the beginning to keep everyone on track with assignments and tasks. After some time these documents were no longer needed.
Collaboration Work with Cameron.
One of Cameron's block out of the DJ scene.
From this we started to work with the camera by making it feel like it was an actual character in the scene rather than an object. For this we extended the scene out from 4 seconds to about 24 as a test to see what might be possible and achievable. Then we cut back down to the 4 seconds that were in the animatic and came up with a really dynamic shot of the camera being used by the DJ as he spun his record.
A test of the Dj with more lights over 8 seconds:
This is my way of trying to block out a camera scene as I find it difficult to convey my ideas through teams.
While this test worked really well to show off the DJ it was far too long and would need a lot of work from the 3D team to produce in the high standard that we wanted for the overall project. So we took the first two camera moves and cut out the rest.
From here we worked on refining the movement and adding some lights to the background that would help show off the Dj in a laser light show. This is the example that we thought had the most dynamic edge and visual points of interest to keep peoples attention.
Lights in consideration:
One Concept in consideration:
In the end I think we have a really dynamic camera movement for the time that was allocated in the animatic.
Collaboration Work with Yutong.
A Really Productive Week
15.03.21 - 21.03.21
This week has been really productive and potentially the biggest leap forward in personal development so far in this project, well for me anyway. This week I managed to get a complete rotoscope of one of my two dance styles.
The "twist" is done as best I can and I hope to get started on the 1970's next week. Now that I have the method down the progress I'm hoping will pick up and then the rest of the dance floor sequence will follow.
Stills from Rotoscope Tests;
The second best personal development I had this week was with the logo design. The client really liked the original and wanted us to develop it further. I have spent some time this week working on a Glow effect in After Effects. Now I'm no expert in Adobe and I really struggle with some of the tutorials on Youtube but this one seemed easy enough and gave me a decent effect to match what I was going for. I know some things will need to be altered but this is going to be good enough for just now or until we know the direction we want to take this in.
Logo from the Animatic:
18.02.21
My attempt of the Logo from After Effects:
21.03.21
I think these really turned out well and I used a typeface from the V&A in the 1970's (ITC Baskerville) for just now and will update when needed. I love the reflection as it reminds me of the V&A in Dundee as weather day or night the logo reflects into the water pool where it sits.
So that's the week so far and quite a productive one. Let's hope that the next one is just as productive and progressive. Time is ticking down and the deadline approaches...
What will be the result?
22.03.21 - 28.03.21
This week I managed to get the second of my two dances completed and with a few adjustments next week I think that I'll be done with that side of things. On the logo front it helps if you know how to spell as I realised that Dundee has a "n" in it and once you've updated the file it actually looks pretty good. One is a little darker than the other and that represents the colour on the animatic but, this will be updated to the RGB values once they are up on the one drive.
Client Meeting: 29.03.21
Today we had out last client meeting before the easter break which really helped us with nailing down some of the key points we were concerned about and it was really helpful to get some positive reviews from the V&A.
These images highlight the points that were raised from what we have done so far.
Next on the agenda was to confirm some key points.
That the posters were ok to use on the entrance to the club scene.
2. That the backgrounds in the club are ok to use for both the drink scene and the dance floor scene.
3. Character choice from the x4 images that were presented plus any additional ideas or requests that the V&A might have.
4. The Disc design from this CD for the 3D DJ scene.
5. The free model from Animation Buffet. How would they like him. Silhouetted like the rest of the characters? With a neon, bright t-shirt and accessories? Or still visible?
6. The Logo. If would could have the typeface or vector files/package from the V&A public relations department. So that it can have the proper branding. (Kieran will go over how to add it to After Effects when received).
Other items raised at this meeting:
How long will the final film be? Overall about 1 minute 10 seconds.
Can the marketing team take stills images or screen shots for Instagram and Gifts?
Shouldn't be a problem.
No dialogue or writing? Correct
Can the V&A use the track that they've commissioned? or stick with the one we have on it? You can use either.
Posters? Should be fine but will double check.
Feedback:
The concept and themes have be captured really well and continue to promote the anticipation of going to a club and experiencing the nightlife around it.
Next Steps:
Moon and Spoon
Transitions and
3D DJ Scene
How many weeks left at this point: x5.
Proposed Option from the V&A:
Ravel to key members and staff in late April and/or early May.
Feedback (received 19th April 2021):
More about the Dance Floor.
30.03.21
This is the chosen 70's dance preformed by John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever 1977 during one of the disco scene. The Move is about 4.5 seconds long and equals around 65-69 frames on 2's. It took about a week to do working mostly afternoons and three full days and as always at the end when it's assembled together their is great excitement and joy from making something come to life that was essentially from a still image (even if you know that it was going to work out fine) there is always a moment when you doubt that it will work. After all what's the worst that could happen? If it's bad or out of sync you start again and make it work. Trial and Error. Always trial and error when it comes to animation.
Dance Floor construction:
Dance Floor Assembly 17.03.21 - 09.04.21
Logo Work Continued (TESTS NOT PROVIDED TO THE CLIENT):
6.04.21 - 11.04.21
So it's been two weeks since I've updated the blog and quite a few things have happened since then.
These logo's are taken from the official V&A logo. From paths and effects have been added to enhance the visual style and link to the Night Fever Project however, a more detailed brief from the client is needed in the final film.
14.04.21
The first is that the Dance Floor has changed quite a bit from the last time and I've added in some changes to help improve the overall look. The Second it that I've been working on the transitions from the DJ (previous) and the Moon and Spoon scene (after). I think it's finished but, I'll wait to hear what everyone thinks about that over the next few days. Anyway here's the photos and mp4 files of the progress so far.
Final Sequence with Dance floor to Moon and Spoon segment.
Things to note in this are the Light Rays that I've added to the centre of the background image and the ghosting of the dancers are the moon comes into view and then into the middle of the screen.
Elements that were investigated for the sequence above.
This is the Moon from Emma's Colour script that James will be using for his and Yutong's sequence. James took this original drawing and divided it up into two layers which really saved me time when adding it to After Effects.
Moon Test's with different Sunburst Rays.
As a very bad and rough test this seems to work well but, I couldn't put my finger on what wasn't working. Later I would realise that it was a little too P.T Barnum, you know circus style rather than night club chic.
In this test I didn't have the image of the moon and had to improvise with a full ellipse which became a full moon as a place holder. Another thing to note is the Rays which have changed and didn't have quite the same impact as in the final composition.
This is a plain test of the moon coming and staying in the same position and then transferring into a white background which did work but, didn't have the same impact as the final one with Emma's colour.
Since this week has felt like a roll coaster with some things working out, some not and then all the drama in-between with after effects crashing and my files loosing locations and links I thought I crack up in the end but, it's nice to be finished before the end of the week and able to move onto other things that have been waiting patiently in the wings.
16.04.21
Tasks issued from todays meeting.
Heather and I put this spreadsheet together for the weekend of the 16th April to keep everyone one track and focused.
19.04.21 - 23.04.21
Team Meeting.
New Task List:
Today was a great chance to catch up with everyone from the weekend and because the project is coming to an end in about 3 weeks...
things are really starting to pick up. The animatic has been updated with all the recent stuff. All the scenes have now been started and many have been finished to a high standard.
Latest Animatic for Going Live (as of 23.04.21 9am)
I also received the vector image from the V&A on Monday as well. However, there have been some issues when applying the glow effect I used in After Effects to this new one.
Official Logo from the V&A:
With glow effects added from test concept:
As you can see from this image the dense lettering gets very blurry with only one glow effect added. In the original test there were x3. If three are applied here the letters would merge into one another. This causes problems with; clarity and established identity.
So I came up with a new logo for the project. I'm not sure how it will be received by the client.
New Logo Idea for Monday 26.04.21:
Client Meeting: 26.04.21 (9:30am)
Next Steps:
To finalised the transitions and smooth out all the rough edges.
To rework the V&A log to include a neon and flicker effect if possible
26.04.21(pm)
New Logo Ideas and Animations:
From the Animatic:
Screen shots from the logo animation.
Logo Animations with Neon Flicker Effect:
28.04.21
Final Group Meeting:
This is a sped up recording of the last meeting we had as group on the Going Live Project.
News Report on the Night Fever Exhibiton:
(Reporting Scorland 30th April 2021 at 6pm)
Final Animation Film:
Overall Conclusions about the Project:
Deleted Scenes and Objects:
The Ice Cubes and Bubbles:
This was scene that James was going to be working on and was cut from the overall film. It was sad to see it go however, the group felt that there wasn't enough time to do it to a high standard and removed it from the end production.
Scene from the Animatic:
Colour Script Black and White:
Colours by Emma:
The Barbarella Sign and Tunnel:
This sign was due to be placed at the end of the dance floor scene and lead into the moon and spoon. I had originally built a model for it on Maya back in February before sending it to Muhammad who improved it considerably. However, after his departure in March there wasn't anyone available to finish it off in the 3D team. An attempt was made to do it in 2D however, again with time issues, there wasn't enough to produced one to a high enough standard.
Original Artwork done by James and Colour by Emma:
Colour by Emma:
My Barbarella Sign in Maya:
Scene from the Animatic:
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