More Title Sequence Development - Font Types

I have been testing other font types similar to the ones I found earlier that I thought worked well with the style of the film and the 1950's motif. Below are some more font types I found which I think also work. Although a small asset in the film, the font type will give the very first indication of what era and style the film will be in. I tried to find fonts that are a little quirky yet stylish to compliment the 1950's feel and aesthetic.

Big Sky

Boyz R Gross Shadow

Cartoonsix NC

Desigers

Em

Fabulous 50's

FairChild85

Fontdinerdotcom Sparkly (CAPS)

Fontdinerdotcom Sparkly (NO CAPS)

Fontdiner Swanky (NO CAPS)

K.P Duty JL (NO CAPS)

More Animation and Shot Development

Over the past few weeks I have been producing the majority of my film since all the character rigs and background projects have been completed and most are set up in individual After Effects projects with some animation and rough timing.

Below are some developments I have made over the past few days.

Shot 18 - Betty enters the kitchen

The layout was a challenge to get right for this shot as we see Betty enter the kitchen from the diner so we see see some of the diner too. I had to be careful how I illustrated the doorway and door so it could be animated with Betty as she comes through the doorway. As the above screenshot illustrates, I set up the KitchenPan layout which is a large panoramic file in Illustrator so I can use a camera to pan across the layout for multiple shots instead of separate backgrounds.

Montage Sequence 

MontageBG (Diner) test with Betty file animated

Here I set up one of the layouts for the montage sequence in 3D space and applied depth of field to a stationary camera. This is so only the assets in the foreground (the tables and chairs) as well as Betty when she pans across the frame is in focus and therefore concentrating the audiences' attention on those assets only.

Shot 17 WIP

Here I have started the animation for when Betty nods as she understands William's order and is about to shoot off to the kitchen. Instead of animating each asset on the face including the ear rings, I pre-comped all of these assets and animated the pre-comp within the character master composition. I also animated the rotation property of the hat separately in time with the face animation. This video above is not finished as I have to animate the hair in time with the face and hat as well as the ear rings. I cannot animate the head pre-comp as I did not illustrate any blend shapes in which the head appear like it is looking up or down, this is shown through the ears as the head is in effect just a circle, and these look the same from any angle.

Shot 18

The cut between 17 and 18 shows Betty leaving the diner floor space and into the kitchen area. To animate this, I created a plane that had the diner assets (booth, clock, wall menu etc.) and placed it behind the kitchen layout pre-comp in 3D space. The biggest problem I had was trying to match up the grey and white tiles seen on the diner floor and the blue and white tiles seen on the kitchen floor. To get Betty going from one are to the other, I set the anchor point of the kitchen door to the right so when it was keyframed in time with the character, it would open and close revealing the diner space behind.

Shot 25

I have improved the animation of the wrist so it looks a little less static and moved the assets in this pre-comp to the right because the framing of this shot, in which we see William in the background scoffing his first meal to the left of the frame.

Shot 4 BG

WIP 1

WIP 2

Shot 14 BG

William POV Diner BG (Shot 17 and 31)

Wiliam Table layout

Diner Party asset prep for Shot 53

Montage Scene Development

The montage sequence that takes place at the end of Act Two is the most important scene in the whole film as it has to convey how both characters are feeling as well as get across the story too through fast cuts and repeated imagery. For this reason, I've gone through the whole sequence and changed some bits to make it more entertaining to watch. A few posts ago I posted the updated production planning sheet to show my progress so far as well as an improved storyboard for the montage scene. Below is the roughed out improved montage scene.

I have also gone through the files required for each shot of the montage sequence and organised them better in the production plan. This is so when it comes to importing all the projects and assets needed for each shot, I can quickly refer to this document and easily see which shot requires which assets.

BettyKitchenProps.ai file

These are the props Betty will be interacting with during the montage sequence when she is in the kitchen preparing and cooking William's meals.

BettyMontageProps1.ai file

These are the ingredients Betty will be using in the first third of the montage when she is preparing William's first meal.

William1stMeal.ai file

These are the assets Betty will be carrying to William for his first meal.

William1stMealAssets.ai file

This is the same file as the one above but with extra assets. These are on separate layers so they can be animated individually with William (see below).

William1stMealAssets.ai file layers

BettyMontageProps2.ai file

William2ndMeal.ai file

William2ndMealAssets.ai file

William2ndMealAssets.ai file layers

BettyMontageProps3

William3rdMeal.ai file

William3rdMealAssets.ai file

William3rdMealAssets.ai file - Pizza Slices

DirtyPlatesandCutleryCollections.ai file

UPDATE:

I have been adjusting the planning document with more details, including all the asset files required for each shot during the montage sequence as well as shots 24 and 25 when Betty brings William his first meal before the montage sequence.

Here is the final KitchenExterior layout

Here is the outline view of the above file, as you can see the props Betty interacts with are included in this layout file, just placed above the wall out of the way.

Here is a quick render from After Effects of the above layout with BettyMontage1 file.

This first render has the foreground blurred.

This render has both the foreground and the background out of focus.

I think the first render works better as your attention is on the kitchen as well as Betty, which is what is required as some assets she will be using will fly off screen into the background and through the porter window.

Compositing Tests - Effects in Flash

Yesterday I received files off Bo that she has worked on over Easter. I asked her to send me the Flash files so I can test compositing them in with After Effects

Original List of Effects for Bo:

• Burp effect for shot 26 (when William burps after his first meal)
• Smoke effects (x3) for the montage sequence when we see Betty cooking in the kitchen and smoke rises from the oven in the background (specifically shots 32, 36 and 40)
• Fire effect for shot 40 (oven on fire in kitchen background)
• Colour explosion for shot 48 (when Betty hits William over the head with a frying pan)
• Streamers and confetti for shot 49 
• Fireworks for shot 53

UPDATE ONE:

Bo has told me she is struggling with the fire effect so I have told her to not to worry about that one as it's the most difficult out of all the effects I gave her to do. If I have time at the end, I will have a go at the fire effect but it was only intended to finish the montage sequence with a definite end so we understand how bad Betty has got it and so emphasise with her more.

Instead of Bo animating the colour explosion for shot 48, I am going to do it instead. I will use After Effects for the coloured stars that pop out of the smoke cloud and animate a smoke cloud myself in Flash. I will then composite them together in Flash.

The streamers and confetti effects may be used in shots 50, 51 and 52 too as Bo gave me several copies of these effects with different timing so I can use them in different shots if need be.

I have asked Bo to improve the burp effect slightly so the lines that come off the sides ease to the end more.

UPDATE TWO:

I have been testing Bo's effects with what animation I have so far.

Because Flash produces vector art, Bo's style of animation works well with the style of animation I am doing in After Effects.

I have an idea for the cut between shot 48 and 49; when Betty hits William over the head followed by a colourful explosion of stars and dust (to show the impact) and then the next scene which begins at the diner; there could be a transition between the colour explosion and the streamers and confetti. So when the colours appear and then disappear, the streamers and confetti could begin to appear so it flows nicely. This is just an idea and I will have to test it out when I have the streamers animation from Bo and I have finished the cloud explosion myself. 

Film Title Sequence Development

Whilst animating the majority of my film over the past couple of weeks, I've been going back to shots I started some time ago and have been tweaking them a little. One part of my film I really want to get right is the title sequence. Originally, I was going to have the title of the film, "Just Desserts" appear and disappear before the camera pan downs. Now I feel this won't do the film justice, as in the story that is being told, since it's pretty boring to look at and quite generic. Below are some type faces I think might work well:

Animated Title Sequence Ideas

Thinking more on the idea of an animated title sequence, I did some research on styles and effects I could apply to my title sequence. I came across this tutorial which shows how to use the CC Page Turn effect in After Effects.

Flash Tongue Test

I thought about having a diner waitress name tag with the film title written on instead of a name and a tongue appearing from behind licking the edges of the name badge. Here is a test I did with rough Flash animation