Formative Review Feedback - Thursday 6th March

This morning I had my formative review with Sultan and Hilary. I showed them the animation I have done so far and updated them on my team's progress with their own work. I showed them the interior layouts I have set up in After Effects as well. The feedback I got was positive and I have been given a few suggestions to improve how the characters and layouts look against each other because at the moment they are indistinguishable between each other.

Fig. 1. The Diner East Panorama layout WIP - Camera Pan

The following ideas were brought up by Hilary and Sultan:

- Multiplane effect - make foreground assets such as the tables and chairs move a little to add to the impression of the layout existing in 3D space

- Camera Depth of Field - apply this to the shots that have a lot of assets in the background and a wide gap between the background and foreground assets so the characters stand out more and the background detail isn't distracting for the audience to watch

- Vignette effect - apply this in post-production to amplify what's on screen in the centre i.e. characters and push back the background at the edges

- Add shadows - to create a sense of space and for the assets to be grounded and not floating like they appear at the moment. I'm not sure whether to use After Effect lights or create vectors so I will research these options tonight. If I were to do this, I'd more than likely create small grey circular shadows with a feathered effect to make them less apparent.

Hilary suggested making the foreground assets less detailed, especially the props on the three front tables

I also suggested the texture, gradient and varied brush stroke applications which I will apply to the assets once they have been set up in After Effects. I have also thought up this afternoon of adding light rays with a low opacity coming from the lights and windows to add to the aesthetic and setting of the diner. I could create several colours of lights to create an impression of neon lights too.

Sultan also mentioned a second year student who is interested in After Effects character animation using a puppet set up for her film next year so I am going to get in contact with them and see if she might like to have a go at animating some shots for me. I will also mention that I will teach her how to use the characters and give her information on how to set files up ready to animate in After Effects so she has a heads up for next year if she wishes to pursue this direction of animation style.

UPDATE:

To further improve the aesthetic of the characters against the layouts, I have decided to apply outlines to the characters' assets as well as some of the layouts. This won't work for all of the shots, especially where almost all or certainly most of the character is in frame. For this reason, I'll only apply outlines to characters in close up or at most mid shots.

I will apply outlines to custom poses only and not the Master files (full body):

Betty Custom Poses 5 and 7

William Custom Poses 3 and 5

NB. I have decided not to set up William Custom Pose 4 (the high angle view or Betty POV of him at the table) but instead use the Master file from the front view for the only shot this was going to be used for.