Sound

In our meeting with Sharon last week we decided that it would be better if we get the background score of our film sorted before we moved further in the production process. So, we locked down a day when each of us would bring a piece of music that we thought would suit best for our film. 

George had found a very good royalty free music site. So, I looked through this site http://www.bensound.com/ 

It had some really good music. I thought mixing few might bring the sound effect that we were looking for. Usually for mixing music I have used Sound Forge. I think the UI is very convinent and easy to adapt. I didn't have it on my laptop but I found this software- Nero SoundTrax in my laptop and thought I would give it a try. As it was just getting a rough idea for what kind of music we might like I didn't bother searching for some other software.

While mixing these pieces my laptop decided to call strike. I couldn't complete the mixing but I think my team got an idea of what I had in mind. We have squared on 'Funny Song' from the same website above as our base. We will hopefully be building on it.

Layout for Shot 14-20

Shot 14

We see the bird fly off to the fence where her tummy rumbles.

Shot 15

Lily and the dog understand the bird's problem. 

Shot 16

Lily builds a bird-feeder.

Shot 17

Lily builds a bird-feeder.

Shot 18

Lily puts up the bird-feeder.

Shot 19

The bird rushes to it.

Shot 20

Last shot, the dog and the bird happily peck on the their food.

Layout for Shot 7-13

Shot 7

The bird stealthily sneaks the biscuit while the dog is busy digiing a hole to hide it. Its near the pumpkin patch.

Shot 8

The dog turns and the bird swallows the whole biscuit and takes off.

Shot 9

The dog asks for another biscuit. We see the wheelie bins and the patio in the background.

Shot 10

The stand-off. We see the house in the background.

Shot 11

As they fight over the biscuit, Lily is raking. The wheelie bin and neighbour's house can be seen.

Shot 12

Lily comes running to brake the fight. The pumpkin patch and the bar-b-q table can be seen.

Shot 13

Lily picks up the dog and the biscuit. We see parts of the pumpkin patch and the shed area.

Layout for Shot 2-6

Shot 2

This shot was particularly very interesting to me. It has the tool shed as the background and I had fun modelling all the objects that  makes this house look like a running household.

Shot 3

Moved in Trees and Ivy to show the back garden area. There was a tree that was obstructing the view of the bird in the scene above. So,it was deleted for just this scene. 

Shot 4

The camera angle of this shot covers some of the pumpkin patch area and the rest in the back garden area.

Shot 5

Lily brings in a wheelie bin and we see her doing daily house chores while the dog comes back for another biscuit.

Shot 6

The dog runs after the biscuit and thinks of hiding it under the tree just behind it.

Layout for Shot 1

Shot 1 starts with the name of the film with a few clouds in the sky. Rough

clouds were just made for the animatic. So, I modeled a few new fluffy clouds and also set up a sun.

There was a lot that needed to be added in, as it is an extreme long shot where the camera pans down to reveal the entire set where the action takes place. I added a lot of houses that could be the prospective neighbours for our Owner and her dog.

Supervisor Meeting

Today,we had a meeting with Sharon. She was overall happy with the storyboard that we have put together.

Some of the things that might need a look into is for one more human involvement in the story. So,we are planning that Lilly(the owner) will be present in the garden at all times oblivious to the dog-bird fight. Maybe doing some gardening or putting up some clothes to dry. However, since that would be a challenge as putting up clothes will require excellent knowledge of ncloth. We might look into that.

Also by bringing Lilly to the garden it will save us time as we will then just need to make the exterior of the house plus it will save screen time as well.

Another issue that came to the forefront was using 2D Backgrounds with 3D Animation. Sharon told us that it will be easier for us to get things together if we did not try and merge two different animation styles. So, that is a thing that we will be discussing in our next team meeting.

Sharon liked the piece of Narration that I have made for my counterpart research film. Currently,I am working on its visual presentation and story-boarding.

For the next meeting, we are required to have polished Animatic of both the films, 3D Model of Lilly, Colour tones that we might use for the films and background styling.

According to the production schedule, and my planning we must have the Animatic ready by 21st February so that I can go ahead with my Focus Group Research.

Story-Boarding

Discussing ideas

Lilly very efficiently has prepared a Script for the story,'A tug of Biscuit'. Just the other day,we sat and decided on the story creating a rough storyboard as well. For detailed story boarding, we all selected parts of the the story that each of us would have liked to draw.

Story-boarding..

..continued

George took the introduction and ending part of the film,while Lilly took the first scene, Sheng took the second and I the third.Everybody had come up with the detailed parts of their story. A few pieces drawn by me..

Finally,we have put together this Animatic in Shotbox as suggested by Lilly.