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Pre-Production (Part 1) - Scripting and Website

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Pre-Production (Part 1) - Scripting and Website

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In this project, I am in charge of the overall documentation to showcase our progress of the project. I made a Wix website for our main blog page, and it is still in progress, as I need to customize it to fit our theme.

Besides that, I also needed to write the script for the story, which I did multiple times until we agreed on the storyline. The problem was mostly on how the story was told, and the actions in it that might be too complicated for motion capture, especially since it is the first time we did it. The story itself changed a few times because of this very reason, since the first story had actions that are far too complex for the small space in the motion capture space in the studio. This caused me to do multiple script for it.

Our team is advancing smoothly and on schedule. For the Wix blog, I am still having problem with getting myself familiar with the editing tools, so my progress with it is slower than expected, in addition to being busy with other assignments. But now that most of them are finished, I am going to proceed to finish the website. I watched tutorials for how to edit it, and where everything is in the interface, and then slowly worked my way into editing it.

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Matriks no. : 82450

Role : Scripting & Documentation

Responsibilities:

Writing the story, Documenting the process, maintaining the website and video editing

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Pre-Production (Part 2) - Website Editing

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Pre-Production (Part 2) - Website Editing

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I finished the website on the last day, still because of how hard the site is for me. I also found out at the last minute that the format I made for the site is the wrong one. (I made it into multiple pages with subpages for each of the topics like script, storyboard, instead of making it into a blog). So I changed it and split the pages into Pre-production, Production, and Post-production. It looks cleaner after the changes, but redoing the whole site took a lot of time and energy.

But the site still needed some improvements especially on the layout and the readability, since some of the PDF files and images in it are not very clear and too small to see. Besides that, the problem I encountered when editing was mostly not finding the elements I needed, and the layout not being good enough. I also needed to consider different monitor sizes in different devices, which can make the elements inside the site (images, text, videos, slideshows) look wonky.

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Continuing this project, we started on creating the assets for the animation. The environment was done, as well as the character model, and props.

Then, on 27th November, we booked the studio to use the mocap system for filming. The filming started in the morning, and went well into the evening. All of us were present for it. I went there specifically to look at the process and record and film the behind the scenes to make into video later, and to observe the process to add it into the blog later on.

The day was really long and tiring, especially for our actor. We needed to recalibrate multiple times because of the glitching on the character model. The limited space also made it difficult to create the movement we needed.

After the day ended and all the recordings are done, I needed to make and edit the behind the scene video and compile the real-time animation video. The animation clips and webcam recordings done during the day was sent to me via the group chat. I ucomplie it to a short 1 minute showcase to show how the filming was done in real time. Then I created another video using the videos I took throughout the day to make the behind-the-scene video, to show how everyone in the team was conducting the filming.

After getting both videos done, I got into our website to put down everything we've done during production, including both the real-time animation and the behind-the-scene videos, and all the process explaination. After that was done, I needed to edit the whole blog to improve on its visual, basically making sure it looks readable and tidy. Aiman had sent me the layout for the blog, which I then needed to incorporate into the real website. Editing the website and adding everything in took a few days. All teammates were really cooperative to send me everything I needed for the website.

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After we were done with the filming the other day, it was a bit quiet because we were all busy with other pending deadlines. Then, we had to continue again, this time we were getting ready with the setting and assets as well as the clean-up since our animation has a ton of glitches.

I realized I wasn't given much task for the clean-up so I asked for any task I can do but unfortunately all task at that time needed a good laptop since the Blender file were all very large which my laptop with low graphic card couldn't handle. So the three of them lead the clean-up.

Since I do all of the documentation including the video presentations and websites. I need to always be aware and understand the process at any time and note it down, so I always watch and document their process to put inside the website and explain it all in detail and accuracy.

After the clean up was done, all the footage of screen recordings was sent to me so I can create a video presentation again to show the retargetting process. Then I put it into the website and began to do my work of putting down the details of the process into the website.

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Final phase in out production process is editing the website, making sure it has everything we need and looks nice. Aiman asked to share the editing link so he can edit it too. After a few days he share the website and said that he made a big adjustments. But the website has a few flaws so I edited it again one more time and made a big adjustment to it to make it look clean and consistent.

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Post-production (Part 1) - Compiling and Editing raw clips

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Post-production (Part 1) - Compiling and Editing raw clips

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After the rest of the team were done exporting the raw clips and putting them into Onedrive, I downloaded them all to compile and edit.

I was scared that the clips would be large and a lot at first but surprisingly they were all moderate and the amount of files to download were not much because the files were multiple shots of the same scenes combined. This is due to the different camera angles.

So after downloading the files, I head over to DaVinci Resolve to start the next step but I found out that it was a bit of a hassle to use. So I ended up using Capcut which I already accustomed to. Plus, I didn't have to do any colour grading or detailed editing anyway, considering the shots are all already in good lightings and colors.

When combining the shots, I noticed that the movement of the character in some of the scene were glitching for a second, which made the shot look very unnatural. So, I trimmed some of the frames out, which is basically just a few miliseconds of the clips to get rid of the glitching frames. Even after getting it out, they still have some hiccups in it that I couldn't get rid of but at least it looked way better. After that, I arrange the clips, cutting and trimming everything that needed it to make the scene flows more naturally.

Then, I moved on to adding the video effects and transitions to make the video look more interesting. The effects and transitions I used were mostly black fade out and blurring, but I also added glitching effect to the end to add drama to it, and to give some context to what's happening.

Finally, I added the sound effects. I searched for ambient sound of laundry place on Youtube and used that as the main background sound of the animation. I decided not to have music as the main background sound because it would take away the ominous and creepy emotion from the story. Instead, using familiar sounds of crickets and laundry machines in the beginning, before slowly having creepy and unfamiliar sounds towards the end, would be a better choice. Then, the other sound effects were found on Capcut itself. Surprisingly Capcut has a lot of different sound effects in it, which makes the process a whole lot easier. I usually would just search for the effects one by one on Youtube and download it all.

And then, I rewatched the video a lot of times to ensure everything is perfect before exporting it out and send it to the group.

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Post-Production (Part 2) - Website Editing

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Post-Production (Part 2) - Website Editing

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After I was done with compiling and editing the final animation, I was left to finish the 'Post-Production' page of the website. It was fairly simple, all I did was explaining the editing process I did just like in this reflection, except in a much more formal format.

Editing the website now feels more natural now, so adding the final page in was easy and fast.

After that, I made sure to include the final animation in the Post-Production page and also the Home page so viewers won't miss it.

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Our team, which consists of me, Aiman, Nashhan, and Duncan, was very cooperative with one another. There were no communication problems. Due to strict schedule, the time management went smoothly too, so our project was done right in the timeframe we hopes and expected.

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During the start of this project, I was fairly nervous because of the new concept of Motion Capture. Even though I know about it, I have never learn about it. As the projects went by though, I can see how it works, although not as clear as I hoped it would be, at least I am somewhat familiar with it by the end of the project.

Since I am the one tasked with documentation for the projects, I needed to update the websites and compile and edit videos. Having to do this for the whole project made me very familiar with the skills, especially creating a website. At first, the only website I have experience with is Carrd, so using Wix was new to me. And it was proved by how much I struggle to do things in it. But as the projects went on, I can now handle it naturally. It's a very different skill from Motion Capture, but I was happy to learn this one because I would like to do my own website soon for my portfolio. So this skill would help plenty in that.