Personal Project

Contents

Planning

For a long time, I wanted to create my own 3D animations you would see in movie theatres or youtube. However when I tried to get into 3D animation, I was struck with hard reality that creating animation is not simple as it seems on the surface. There are so many things that go into creating a 3D animation films. From screenwriting to animating to editing, there are dozens of different steps that needs to be taken in order for a single 3D animation film comes to life, and it could get much more complicated when it also includes elements such as 2D animations and motion graphics. Creating an animation by individually would be a very difficult task, having to handle majority of these elements.

What I am currently trying to create would have been practically impossible if I went in to this with zero knowledge. However, I have past prior experiences of creating short 3D animations using tools such as 3D software Blender and Adobe Premier Pro, typically lasting no longer than 30 seconds. Through making and publishing these animations on my Youtube channel, I have learned a lot of important skills each time, even if the project gets scrapped. I am determined and confident that with preparations and organized plans, I will be able to create a proper animation video.

Product

Goals for final product is to create a proper 3D animation short film and to learn new skills with it. I would like to learn new processes to create the 3D animations, in order to further expand my specialty in this area. I also want to make sure the animations are minimum of 30 seconds, since I have never made any animations longer than it. Most importantly, I would like to keep the project in the scope to make sure I can complete the project in time. The most important ATL would be organization and management skill, in order to achieve the goal             

Research

Research Question: What processes do animators go through in order to create a 3D animation film?

complementary Questions

I would like to achieve to answers for research though finding medias on internet (i.e. website, youtube, etc), and interview individuals who are involved in the animation industry in order to further open my field of view for this project.


Research Results


Complementary Question Answer Citation Credibility

What is an average length of a 3D animation film?

Short films could last up to 40 minutes according to the Oscar standards. However, most animated short films last around 5 minutes to less than 10 minutes.

  • Credible: 16pts
  • Not so credible: 10 pts

How does animation studios and companies manage production time?

Animation studios set a certain deadlines for each animation or shots that needs to be completed. It also usually includes extra padding for the time, as the animation might not turn out as well as expected, or there might be some issues that might occur with other departments in the animation studio. When the task can be completed earlier or the department that comes after the animators need extra time, the schedule can be moved to complete it sooner.

  • Lang, Ian. Interview with Ian Lang about Animation. 22 Oct. 2022.

How does one write a good screenwriting?
  • Researching about the environments and characters involved with the story is important

  • Showing instead of telling is important, due to the medium being focused on visuals, not audios

  • Characters need to be developed in order to prevent them from being a shell moving the plot
  • Quite credible: 13 pts
  • Quite credible: 13 pts
  • Somewhat credible: 11 pts

What are techniques to create a great shots?
  • Shots can allow not for the film or animations to look great, but also can be used as a story telling tool. They also need to guide the audience's eyes to where the director wants people to look towards to tell the message.
  • There are vast amount of techniques that are used for film shots, and here are some of them:
    • Shot size
    • Framing
    • Angles
    • Movement
  • Another important factor is not only applying them, but using multiple at the same time effectively and appropriately
  • Quite credible: 13 pts
  • Quite credible: 13 pts

How important are the pacing in the films?
  • Pacing is very important for films, as slow paces can lose engagements from the audiences, and too fast paces can lead to audiences feeling lost and confused

  • There are no single good pace, and it depends on each film or project
  • Somewhat credible: 12 pts

What are the processes for voice acting in animations?
  • Usual process begins with outlining necessary characters for the voice acting, then hosting an audition or finding a candidate to do the voice.

  • While not necessary, recording in the proper studio can result in better sound quality and polish.

  • Cleaning up and adding design can be done digitally using softwares which later gets implemented to the film during editing.
  • I have spoken with teachers in music department for advises and to know how to setup equipments

What FOVs do 3D animations typically use?
  • There is no correct FOV, and they should be applied accordingly to the scene and context.
  • Somewhat credible: 11pts

What are 12 principles of animation?
  • 12 principles of animations are elements that help the animations to stand out, be expressive, guide and communicate with audience to tell a compelling story.
  • Credible: 16 pts
  • Credible: 16 pts

How can dynamic posing be achieved?
  • Dynamic posing allows for the movement to deliver more message indirectly, and heavily ties in with the elements from 12 principles of animation

  • Action lines are curved outline of a whole action/movement

  • Using references can help the little details and curves to come to notice
  • ArtRocket_en. “Bring Energy and Life to Your Poses!” Art Rocket, イラスト・マンガ描き方ナビ, 11 Oct. 2019, www.clipstudio.net/how-to-draw/archives/156164. Accessed 16 June. 2022.
  • Kuwana, Masaa, and Brian Muelhaupt. Interview about the Animation Industry. 2 Nov. 2022.
  • Somewhat credible: 12 pts

How important are real-life references?
  • Real life references can be beneficial, as it could give you posing ideas, and how the scene would play out in general. However, references should not just be a total copy of the footage, or an image, but elements from it as well. these elements include such as:
    • Appealing shapes
    • Emotion & moods
    • Arc/curve
    • Rhythm
    • Weight distribution
    • Silhouettes
  • Quite credible: 13 pts
  • Not so credible: 8 pts


My research plan helped me to not only learn new things, but also further understand the areas that I already had some experiences in. For instance, writing a script or 3D short films in general has been new, while researching further about animating better has widened my views. It also helped me to head to right path for the project, instead of being left feeling lost of direction. Most of my sources came from online, ranging from online articles, videos, award regulations, and more. However, I also interviewed people from the animation industry as a source, incorporating collaboration skill through communicating with people I know and school faculty members. The credibilities of the sources varied, but I have used them accordingly and categorized them for reliability using Source Evaluation Rubric.

Success Criteria

Product Success Criteria Details

Create a short 3D animation film through steps that an actual animation studios go through to create one

Not every single step can be done due to every studios and companies having variety of them. However, I will be following the basic steps that they usually have.

In order to succeed this criteria, I will be using a website called Trello to keep track of the process. The trello board can be viewed from here or from the Website

Animation length longer than than 30 seconds

I have not made animations over 30 seconds, leading to no story being told. The causes vary from motivation, and commitment. I would like to get out of this habit and create a proper story that could be told. In real animation studios, commitment is what drives the project, not the motivation. Which is why this criteria is needed to ensure the project could be completed.

The scope will heavily depend on complexity of the idea, However above 30 second would be a feasible minimum requirement that I would be able to achieve, even if it is challenging. In order to keep the engagement and keep the project at scope, I would also like to keep the film under 10 minutes excluding the credits.

Inclusion of voice acting

I have never done a proper voice acting, which made me want to include it in this project, even if minimal. Voice acting is probably one of the most important part of the films, as it immerses the audiences to the world. By using Voice acting, it could also improve my collaboration and organization skill to setup and work with people in order to complete this criteria.

I will make sure this criteria has been met through sending out surveys to make sure the voice acting is clear, and blends in with the animations themselves.

Create world environment that matches the story

I don't want to just get or create assets and place them into a world without any thought. I would like them to match the world and environment that they are in. This criteria would not only require 3D models and assets, but lightings, color/mood, and animations that match the story.

I will measure this criteria through sending out surveys to group of people who agree to watch and take it after the film has been completed.

Achieve overall positive reception from the end product

I would like to make sure this product is not only successful through criteria, but also a final result to be successful as a whole. Making a great animation film requires all of the processes coming together, with every step of it being crucial to it's success.

I will measure this criteria by sending out surveys for audiences from school to give their honest ratings and their critiques.

Action Plan

I have decided to use a program called trello for my project, due to it's flexibility and convenience. The each tasks and steps have different timelines, and it could also be adjusted as the progress continues and changes are necessary


Applying Skills

I began applying my skills around the June during the summer break. Throughout then, I began researching topics that I needed to know, learn how to write scripts, and try to get myself warmed up by doing small practice with 3D.

Project Log

This section includes the logs of my activities involving the personal project.
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Additional Log

While applying my skills, there has been changes that has been made to the process, and they are recorded here.

  • During the process, I realized I could do many things in blender instead of using external softwares, so I decided to use an addon that could do screenwriting, which fit my workflow much more than the software that I was using. I also decided use blender for storyboarding instead of external softwares, which also may have saved more time than learning the software and attempting to create the scenes that I envisioned.

  • Overestimating my workflow, I was not able to complete every task assigned for summer break and august, and moved some of them to september and October deadline.

  • Concept art process has been scrapped, as I couldn't complete it in time, and I struggled creating one no matter what techniques I used. While I didn't wanted to scrap this step initially, I knew I couldn't let the whole project drag behind due to this.

  • Wire connected to the walkie-talkie has been removed, as it was janky and turned out to be inefficient

  • Implementing footstep required too much computing power that was unfeasible, so I decided to remove it and add effects instead.

  • After interviewing, I used reevaluated my project to be somewhat unfeasible to achieve as it has an 8 minute worth of content in it. The interviewee recommended me to edit out and reduce the time, and gave me a good advice: Quality over quantity. I wanted to add many cool things and shots while adding restrictions that I thought would make it feasible, however this isn't still enough to give enough time for each scene to get quality it deserves. I decided to reduce the scene number down to one, with the whole film revolving around it. The scene itself doesn't have enough context, so I am going to put extra dialogs or expositions for the story to make sense.

  • The terrain has been changed from sinkhole into a crater-like hole, as I was having difficulties creating the sinkhole itself, and it was slowing down the progress to halt.
  • The animation has been changed to trailer-like format, as creating the entire scene turned out to be not possible under the time constraint.

Reflection

During the research and process of creating the project, I have realized that creating an animation is much difficult than I have anticipated. There are so much more things that needs to go in apart from rotating bones in a 3D software. Despite cutting down the scenes and the length of the animation, it was still a difficult task to complete. I also did not anticipate for the problems to arise while working on the animation, mostly to do with performance with computer.

While I believed good management skill would have kept the project on track, handling all of these tasks would have been unrealistic even for most organized students. Working on this project also made me learn much more in depth about the industry, and creating animation as well. If there is one most important thing I learned from this project is the reason why many of these short films are created in a team or a group, not only due to faster production time, but also because many of these areas (e.g. audio, texturing, compositing) are art for themselves. While the project did not turn out as what I envisioned, I still believe the experience of learning, applying, and collaborating certainly was worth the challenge, and many skills I have unlocked can be used for my future projects, or career itself.