Major Project - Reflective Statement

Post minor submission, there was a hint of anxiety in the pit of my stomach knowing that my film should/would be finished and available for people to see. Such a feeling gave me a real push to make the film as good as it can be in the remaining time left on the course.
My plans for the major project were to animate, render, and start and finish post production, which I successfully achieved.
Animating was a great experience, overall it took about three months but it felt like 3 weeks, it was a lot of fun bringing the character I had designed and developed a story for to life. I was pleased that rendering went smoothly, it was the one thing I worried about the most as it was out of my hands and I knew it would take the most time to complete. However, I kept to schedule and in-between animating I was able to get certain shots rendered through the night.

a BIG part of the major project was collaborating with composer Jeffrey Wang. Jeffrey was a pleasure to work with, he was always open to ideas and opinions which made working with him fun as opposed to being a daunting experience. I am very pleased with how the music has turned out, it is the perfect blend of sound and theatricality that I had in mind. I look forward to working with Jeffrey in the future.

One of the final things I had to do was edit the film together. Which I absolutely LOVED. I have always loved editing and this project didn't change that, if anything it made me appreciate it more, the time and effort that can be put into a single shot to give the best performance I feel has shone through within my final film.
Being at UCA and on this course has helped me to fully realise the career path I want to follow. I want to be a director. I have always appreciated films, the way they are made, the cinematography, editing and so on. I've always looked up to directors as creators with a wide scope of talent. The ability to be at the driving seat of a large production and trust both yoursef and the people working alongside you, is something I am striving towards. Since the final hand-in I have already started laying the ground work for a couple of ideas I have had stored as notes on my phone and I look forward to progressing with these in the future, my plan is to get the help of my fellow peers who want to develop their skills further and create fun and exciting animations.

Escape Zone 3000 - Major Project Submission Post

Escape Zone 3000

The Art Of 'Escape Zone 3000

Escape Zone 3000 VFX/Video Ageing

Whilst I await the arrival of the final soundtrack for Escape 'Zone 3000' I wanted to show a quick breakdown of the FX used to make the animation look like a VHS tape.

Shadows...Before and After

To keep my blog a bit more active I wanted to show a quick change I've made during the post-production period of my project. The picture above is an example of one of these changes. This shot had been rendered about a week or more ago and overtime I looked at it I felt like something looked odd...the shadows! So, I went back into the file and re-rendered a new set of shadows and voilà an updated scene that looks, in my opinion much better!

Escape Zone 3000 - Final Look Development

Over the past few weeks I have been rendering my animation and I have also started compositing some scenes together. I have taken some stills of certain parts of the film to give a glimpse into the current look of 'Escape Zone 3000'

However, this is still not the definitive look. I plan on working on some colour grading and some other added VFX to tie everything together in the end.

C-13's P.O.V

The Holo-Cell

Zone 3000 Corridor

" The Music Is On His Side"

During my short blog hiatus I have completed the animation for the dance sequence and the rest of the animation. This post shows the dance sequence with the music. There may need to be some changes with the music to hit key musical stabs that match up to certain actions but overall it has gone to plan. (Side note - There will be artificial camera shake/wobble added in post to give the dance sequence/ALL the outdoor shots a sense of freedom in comparison to the mechanical movements of the interior shots) 

In the next few days I will be posting the rest of the shots that complete the animation whilst I render each part of my animation. 

Scene 8: Shot 1 Playblast

Scene 7: Shot 1,2,3 and 4 Playblasts

Shot 1

Shot 2

Shot 3

Shot 4

Scene 8 Pre-Vis Edit

I'm just a couple of shots away from this scene in which C-13 finds the elevator exit. I wanted to know what your opinion is on the above video which shows two different edits. They both work visually but I wanted to see what you felt looks/feels better when watching.

Scene 6: Shot 3,4,5 and 6 Playblasts

Shot 3

Shot 4

Shot 5

Shot 6

Scene 6: Shot 1 and 2 Playblast

Shot 1

Shot 2

Scene 5: Shot 2 Playblast & Re-shoots

Today I worked on Scene 5: Shot 2 which, like a couple of other shots in my animation, is recycled from a previous scene. This shot helped me to fix some issues I had with certain shots, specifically Scene 4: Shot 4. The video above is now finished and in my opinion an improvement on the previous iteration and gives me two new ways of using the scene in the final edit. The video above has no post production camera wobble, nor has it been edited at the end, however, it is a definite improvement to the earlier much more 'stomp' version.  The next few days may see me going back to other shots that I am not 100% ok with and re-animating them. 

See below for earlier version

Scene 5: Shot 1 Update

The animation is now complete for this part of the animation, I chose against adding the slow-mo jump. I'm very pleased with how it has turned out.

Scene 5: Shot 1 Playblast/Update

Tonight I spent some time animating the 'laser maze' scene which has been fun to do, the video above shows my current progress which I am happy with. I still have the final slow-mo jump towards camera to add and the camera work as well as some minor changes to the jumps to make sure there is some differentiation between them. 

Scene 4: Shot 5 Animation Update

In continuation from my previous post I have completed this shot and I am pleased with how it has turned out...NEXT!

Scene 4: Shot 5 Playblast

Started work on shot 5 today, this final shot of scene 4 introduces the 'laser maze' scene which I look forward to animating. However, there is still more to do on this shot which I will continue with tomorrow. 

Scene 4: Shot 4 Playblast

Scene 4: Shot 3 Playblast