I experimented with cut out and claymation techniques, I found that the cut out technique was very fiddly and time consuming. After a few practices I started to get the hang of it, however is still prefer using plasticise, for more freedom of movement.

We were also given a brief from the 'Essex Local Offer' and they asked us to create and animated ident for their website.

They also said that we would have the creative control, but, they wanted the ident to attract young people (18-25) and not include flashing images or harsh content.

This will impact my design, as will need to make sure that the content is interesting for young people, but not boring or childish (and family friendly) .

Me and Ashley also discussed which animation formats we could use. As we had both experimented with plasticine,object and cut-out animation before. 

I briefly thought about the other techniques we could use such as puppetry (used in productions like Tim Burton's 'frankenweenie' ). However I didn't think that using puppets (made out of fabrics or wire etc.) would be the best or most cost effective techniques to use for our ident (as puppets take a long time to make effectively and can be difficult to move).

After our discussion we came to the conclusion that using plasticine( clay ) for the main character would be best as clay is far more tangible and easy to mould and animate (as clay is strong yet easier movable, there there are less limitations).

We also concluded that we could use props (mix formats) mad out of cardboard and possibly soft board, which is easier to cut.

We also researched the Nytol stop-motion advert, which also used claymation, and the techniques they used to make it look so life like.

One of the things they did, and is still commonly used in industry,is mimicking human facial expressions and body language (by filming or watching real people). I thought this would be a really useful techniques we could use to capture the human essence through our character.

I then explained my idea of having character disappearing into a computer into a 'virtual world(the internet ) where he is alone and doesn't know where to find help. Then he finds a spinning signposts which gives him the simple and tailored options on where to go (represents the Essex local offer website, helping direct people to the correct information and support for them.

After explaining my idea Ash told be about his 'Maze' idea and we started to brainstorm on how we could combine the two and how the narrative should go.

We also talked about how to make the visual language and subtitles or a voice-over to make the ident accessible for all audiences, and simple enough so that everyone could understand it e.g. audio or visual impaired viewers.

Ashley was very understanding during this time he completed a lot of the written documents that we needed such as the risk assessment and the script whilst I was unwell. However I did get find the time to completer eh storyboard and some of the set sketches as well as character sketches and brainstorms.

Today came back to college where me and Ashley had a team meeting to make sure everything was on track and sorted out anything that I had missed from last week. We also discussed our pitch and presentation, and who was going to present what. We came to the conclusion that we should both be part of the introduction of the pitch, to show how we can work together. 

I also started my proposal draft, which I produced from my plan that I had completed the previous day.

We also worked on finalising our production schedule, as I wasn't here, we needed to confirm dates, and make our job roles clear.

I also spent the day cutting down the storyboard (e.g. the computer scene) to make it simpler to make it easier for us to achieve for the deadline. We also discussed my ideas and sketches or the main character.

I also printed off and handed out my half of the audience questionnaires to a variety of people around the college. I then planned out how i would collect the results and what data I should make into a chart, so We could use it for our pitch.

I also email Ash there results so that he was up to date on the findings.

I also did some extra set sketches and finalise the character sketches that I made before and annotated them. I also completed my dope sheet (3 second signpost scene).

After the bulk of the preproduction was complete, I then was able to continue working on my proposal and making sure the grammar and spelling was correct. 

Me and Ashley also assigned who was going to cover what in the pitch presentation and we also chose out house style theme on power point.

At home I then created my half of the power point and presenter notes for the pitch and also practised my half of the pitch and made sure it was roughly 4 minutes long.

I did this so that when I retuned after half term me and Ashley would be able to combine our power point presentation, and practice the pitch together.

- character and set development

- production schedule, resources and equipment

- contingency plan

- risk assessment

- the budget

Practicing

how it went

- voice over narration (to be played at end of ident) to be recored by Abi. We wanted a female narrator, because the ident character is male, and we didn't want to look biased or have a preference to either gender.

- 'pop' sound effect to show characters entrance (recored by Ash).

- swishing signpost sound effect, (to be recorded by Ash).

- signpost stoping sound effect (record, using a ruler rebutting against a desk)

- wind (light breeze)

- Foot steps of characer (optional, if we have time, or could be sourced royalty free from internet)

- Could also source 'happy' background music to add the tone of the ident

Originally I was going to size it to fit in a 4x3 aspect ration, which was what the animation was filmed in. However I later found that keeping making the image bigger had a much nicer effect and draws more attention to the logo.

After this we also added the credits and rendered the whole project, before exporting it as a quicktime file.

Anyway, to get around this issue I selected each clip and them selected 'enhance colour' option which took me to the colour and exposure settings. Once I adjusted the colours and exposure on the clip, I then use the 'match colour' tool which enabled be to either copy or compare the setting to another clip. This sis make the whole process slightly easier. However we did decide to do the colour correction last, because I knew we needed to prioritize cutting the scenes first.

We initially though it would show the progression of the the 4x3 framing transform in to the 16x9 framing (of the still image at the end). However we liked how the white backgrounds layered together more fluidly, so we decided against it.

- shot sheet

- mimicking human facial expressions and body language (by filming or watching real people e.g Ashley)

I also then worked on perfecting the power point, add all the necessary points and aligning them up with the presenter notes (both mine and Ashley's ). I also took pictures of the character sketches, parts of the storyboard and written feedback from the questionnaires, to use as visual aids and to back up out point as well.

However as the character has facial features I had to make him quite big, to allow for the detail. This was an issue I had already discussed with ash, as we knew we had to make a sets that would fit the characters size and proportion. I then came up with the idea of creating more that on version of the same character. So we would use the big model for the close ups and a smaller model to the other set e.g the overhead maze (where your wouldn't see the characters face).

Once I got the proportions of the character right I was able to star making the sets and the props e.g. the signpost, archway, and some of the of the binary maze sets.

As I was in charge of making the character we decided that I should make the sets where the characters size needed to fit the scale of the set e.g. the front view of the maze and the archway scene, so that the character didn't appear to big or too small within the set.

However for the shot with the birds eye view of the maze we needed to make a different set. However this one didn't need to be scaled with the character in a much detail ( as the character only appears of a speck inside the maze). So we decided that Ashley could make that set with out any scale issues.

Before half term I also measured the maximum size the set could be to fit under the rostrum (and be within the camera frame) so that Ashley would know what size to build the maze. 

what we did:

Firstly we imported all of our animation footage, which we labeled e..g scene 1 etc.. This made it easy for us to place the clips in order as there were 9 in total. I did later make the decision to switch the order of one or two scenes, but it was mostly in the original order that was in the storyboard.

- Recording sound effects, that we had planned, trying out different noised and positions (found quiet room)

- Getting a free actor in to record character voice (like morph and pingue)

- I did female voice over (my acting experience, and saved time because I knew what we wanted and the tone to use)

Once we got the first set in place and had set all the equipment up we began work, me animating the character and directing the scene, whist Ashley took the shots on each frame. We also made the decision to shoot everything in 1's so that it was smooth.

In total we had 9 scenes to shoot, although toward the end we decided to not shoot scene 7 as we didn't need it (because we cover it's content in scene 6).

We used 3 front view sets, and one rostrum set (which is feature in the image below).

During the whole production process I used the storyboards, shot sheet to keep on track of where we were an to make sure we would meet the deadline, as outlines in t he proposal. Due the the planning we did, we managed to finished all of the shots wiht the two we had allocated to shoot. We even had time to animate the logo the end, which was a scene that wouldn't have been used in out contingency plan.

We decided to conduct focus group because we wanted to talk to our audience and really gage what they thought. We then spend the next day asking around the college campus for people to participate in our focus group. 

One of our focus groups was conducted in the leaning difficulties department on campus. I wanted us to go there because I really wanted to know what people with a variety of leaning difficulties (aged 16-25) thought.

However we also planned another focus group with other students in the college aged between 16-25, just so we could get the opinion of a variety of people in this age group.

Later in the week we also pitched our finished ident to the client, which they said they were very pleased with.