Danny Hard At Work......

I contributed to the pre production by creating the; story outline, storyboard, script and budget. The group made individual mind maps to get across their ideas and creativity. I found the budget easy to complete, whereas I took more time over the script and story board. This could be because I had to be a lot more creative, thinking about the ideas than I was working out the estimated budget. All these steps were necessary to attempt to create a high quality advertisement, engaging the target audience thus getting our intended message across.

With the information we received from the focus group, we then analyzed and evaluated the results in a final evaluation of the audience. We compared techniques used in professional animations to similar ones used in our own and how we have been creating our animation to near-professional standards.

Once we finished our final edit of the animation, we had to get our video reviewed by our target audience in a focus group. This was important because we got a good understanding of the target audience's psychographics, so we knew what we did good and what we could change. We uploaded the video to youtube and each member gathered 5 members from the target audience, therefore we received a mix of answers from a good selection of people.

After the previous two days of capturing the raw footage needed for our animation, it was time to start the editing process. Danny created a first draft of the animation, while me and Liam helped give creative ideas. The outcome of the first draft was very successful, in my opinion. With the use of music and narration, it really gave it a better effect than we previously thought. With use of Adobe After Effects we aim to give the finished article an even more polished look.

Todays task was to start filming our animation. We were assigned a room with specialist lighting equipment, a iMac with iStopmotion and a camera with a tripod. We started to set up our first scene by clamping down the road to a sturdy table, however the road was not flat all the way, which was a problem because if we put too many clamps then it would be seen in the shot. We had the background set up on clamps that were held up by poles, this gave it a very stable stance while filming.

We found it very hard to create the illusion of motion, it got even more difficult when our clay model got hot due to being exposed in the light for a long period of time. This caused the model to be less sturdy, also the colours were blending which affected the continuity. To stop this from continuing we had to to stop for 30 minutes every few hours so we could put the model in a fridge to harden it up.

We then started to set up our second scene, which was at night. To get this illusion we put a blue filter over our lights. This gave it the appearance being at night without being too dark.

Today, my group and I started to create our sets and characters. The main set was completed along with the characters. There was some problems when I was trying to make the wolf character, which was made out of black card and cardboard, one of the problems was trying to make it stand up, which was pretty much impossible. The solution I came up with was to stick the wolf to the background with removable limbs so it was easier to animate. Another problem was the scissors used didn't cut through the cardboard effectively enough, causing rips and tears. I then used a Stanley knife so the cut was more effective and straight, giving it a smoother outcome.

The next task was to record the voice over, Kieran was our narrator and recorded his lines in a superb professional standard; adding to the dark effect and the suspense of our animation.  He recorded the short back story of the main characters and the sound effects such as the gasp. It was difficult because the group on many occasions starting laughing, causing it to drag on.