A1 Assignment: Identity - Production & Post-production

 Week Four - Day Sixteen

To get started, I thought the best thing to do was to put some of my assets together to become one layer like how they would be viewed in the final animation. For example this town photo:

 

However, this did become a problem later on. Unaware that this would be a problem, After Effects was up and running and ready to go!

Having not used After Effects for a while, it took a short amount of time to remember the different buttons and right click commands - I did have to search up quick tutorials, like the example of having to remind myself how to render using this short video:

This was just to remind myself of basic skills, but it didn't take up too much time at all. Nearing the middle of the title sequence, I was slowly getting used to the Puppet Pin Tool. Rewatching my animation over and over as it progressed, I realised just how much difference the Puppet Pin Tool can make, adding so much more movement and character to my animation. The Puppet Pin Tool, to me, will definitely be an essential tool in the future should I wish to make another animation with it being such a simple technique to make my animation smoother and dynamic.

Week Four - Day Seventeen

Continuing with my production, I encountered the problem with the photo frame...

Problem Two

When trying to add more movement to my characters in the photo, the Puppet Pin Tool would also drag the wooden frame upwards as it was all one asset.

How did I problem solve?

Now stuck as one asset, I needed to come up with some other way I could add more action and movement into my photo frame scene - this is where the bird idea came in. I quickly drew a bird on Procreate, another asset, to add into my photo frame scene as a separate asset with the hopeful idea that it would bring more energy into my animation. 

This is how it looked with the bird addition:

Reflection

My mistake only made me realise that is it important to try to keep each asset separate and to avoid combining them into one layer on Photoshop if possible. In the future, it is something to keep in mind. I could possibly avert this mistake whilst also adding in the bird to get maximum animation, not conscious of the Puppet Pin Tool dragging anything I didn't want to be altered.

Having finished the beginning and middle to my title sequence, I was nearing the 30 second maximum mark on After Effects I was unfortunately unaware of, creating my third problem.

Problem Three

The beginning and middle of my title sequence managed to take up the majority of the space on the After Effects timeline (a timeline I didn't know had a maximum time), only giving me roughly 3 seconds left - an insignificant amount of time for the ending.

How did I problem solve?

The only way I knew how to problem solve was to create a new composition for the ending only which would result in me having two After Effects files saved for this project - nothing Pemiere Pro can't put together seamlessly.

Reflection

I do not if there was another way to avoid this situation, but it was still seamless nonetheless when both compositions were put together as one on Premiere Pro.

After rendering both compositions and saving them, Premiere Pro was the last app used to finalise my title sequence. I added all of my sound effects to my title sequence as to engage the viewers to my title sequence more, adding that little touch of chaos and realism. Sound effects, I found, were imperative for a title sequence, especially an animated show, to lay the ground layer and overall theme of the show just like The Simpsons. The Simpsons' title sequence has a variety of sound effects, from tyre sounds to skateboard wheels, of which, in my opinion, are key to making a title sequence inviting, setting the tone for the show. Sound effects are essential to create immersion, enhance realism and evoke emotions for an overall engaging experience - it adds to the viewers confidence of what the show or movie is about.

A pretty cool technique I used, which definitely finalised my animation with its little touch, was adding mirror lights to the "Getting ready" montage as if the viewers point of view was from a mirror with a ring light. This technique was created on Photoshop by:

1. Drawing a rectangle
2. Making the fill of the rectangle a warm white colour
3. Selecting the "Inner Glow" option on the rectangle and expanding the inner glow of the rectangle for that mirror light effect, keeping with the warm white colour

This is how the scene looked before:

This is how the scene looked after:

A little touch but a massive difference in making the point of Steph putting on lipstick before a mirror.

Although my title sequence was not yet finished, I decided to ask for some feedback on my project so far to see if I needed to add or change anything to enhance my animation. I gained feedback from my peers and, to my delight, it was extremely positive! 

Week Four - Day Eighteen

The evening before day eighteen, I recorded my own voice saying "Ugh, typical!" on my own phone through voice memos - it was a quick and easy approach to making a VoiceOver of which was essential to conclude my title sequence. I recorded my voice three times just to have some variation and to test which one fit best into my ending and best suited her character. Although most title sequences do not have talking, the iconic "Doh!" in The Simpsons, said by Homer Simpson, was also their way of ending their title sequence - ending my title sequence with an iconic line was heavily inspired by this. To make sure it fit, I had to speed up my ending clip to around 125% but that really didn't cause much trouble.

Adding in the credits was the final thing I needed to do. Credits are displayed in many title sequences with many that flow with the movement or play with the actual character, for example in The Pink Panther and how the credits are viewed as something to mess with to the Pink Panther. Not only does this reveal his character more, but it also adds to the theme and comedic style of the movie itself.

I made sure my typography was similar to the "Being Steph" title itself by choosing a font that was bold and thick and colour picking the title colour so they were identical. To me, it looks a bit weird that the credits are just in my name, but I thought it was best to add in some credits rather than have none at all to try to match majority of other title sequences and achieve their look.