Back Tracking

I will be doing a little bit of backtracking in this post as it has been quite busy and I haven't been able to post recently. Currently the project is completed. Al came in at 11:00, I parented the product to Sony Boy's hand and rendered it out. We then submitted it on time. I am a bit worried about epilepsy. There are some broadcasting codes that state that a shot can't be under 7 seconds long and if your advert contains shots under seven seconds long it won't be broadcasted. There is also the dates that might prove a problem.

Our production schedule is up to date and now I just have to finish this blog.

Okay, back to the past. I ended up mostly texturing the products myself, since Al was busy with other things. I had to learn how to UV texture, which was difficult. I then rendered of the shots and took them into aftereffects. Previous to this I also edited and altered the pencil Sony Boy animation in Premiere and saved them out as AVI files.

The products had to be rescaled when they entered aftereffects but that was the least of my worries. Since some of the Sony Boy animation was slowed down in Premiere the animation of the products no longer matched up with the animation of Sony Boy. I therefore had to reanimate the products again in aftereffects.

The most difficult shots was the opening shot and the Television shot as the product had to go behind Sony Boy. I had to place a mask on the product and mask out the areas that were behind Sony Boy. It took a while but the results as you can see are below.

I also searched for some free copyright free music. You have no idea how difficult that was. Luckily I found a website called www.freeplaymusic.com and I found the sort of fifties lounge music I was looking for called Floor Sample.

Enjoy!

Panic, Reflection and Deadlines

12:00 today, the deadline is 12:00 today.

Everything is ready, all I need to do is drop in Al's scene and render. But he is not here yet and I can't get into his computer and I can't reach him on his mobile.

Sick, I think I'm going to be sick!

On the plus side, I am really pleased with the advert. It's entertaining and turned out mostly as I expected it would. The products are recognisable and I believe it reminds people of Sony's history in a fun way. It might need a bit more spic and polish here and there but overall I am pleased with the results.

Let's just hope that Al gets here.

Current Progress

Okay, the situation at the moment is that Al has nearly finished modelling Sony Boy, only the back of the head is missing. The actual Product, now called the Sony, has been textured and rendered along with the PlayStation and the TR55. Al textured the PlayStation. The Sony and the PlayStation have been com posited into the animations in aftereffects and it looks good. It looks exactly like the Oscar Mayer wiener ad. Dan says the animations were really good and to not change them a bit, which I was really chuffed about. The TR55 needs to be done tomorrow. Al says he is going to texture the Television and the Walkman so I can do them tomorrow also. If Al can get all his work done we should have the ad done for Friday.

Jared suggested to solve our confusion problem, by just having the name of the product come up. That way it doesn't mess up the timing, we already figured out.

Well, all engines go!!!

How to do a Tagline and Mascot Adverts Research

Here is some research I have done to help me decide what to do about this confusion problem.

Honda Cog advert
This is something on the lines of what we need, description wise. It provides a bit of explanation but not too much that it makes the advert pointless. Don't know if it should be voicover or text.

Underroos
I just like this advert.


Funny Fruit
This would be a typical fifties advert.

The Flintstones Commercial
Just because!

Home Stretch, Panic Sets in

We are on the home stretch no. I have completed all my tasks. I'm just waiting on Al now. When he finishes, we can render, composite and edit. Right now I am having doubts about the project. I am worried it might be a bit confusing. Maybe we should have some explanation in the advert. However, I don't think we want to much explanation, because too much might make the animation pointless. I remember the teacher of the product design students suggested we should put a little explanation as to who Sony Boy is. Should this be in just text, or should it be in voice over. If we are going to do voice over, we will have get that set up quickly. I just don't know. I will have to go away and think about it.

Product animation

Above are some of the close-ups of Sony Boy's hands, for the close-ups of the products. They are in photoshop on layers, so I can just slip a picture of the desired product in. Also above, is a Sony Boy cone. Jared suggested creating a cone and coloured in the same colours as Sony Boy. A bend handle was put in. The cone was rotated, moved and bent and rendered out using a 3D motion blur software.

Below is a movie of some product animations I did today. They need to be textured by Al. I looked at each drawing of my 2D animations and I tried to match the pose with the product in Maya. I have done two scenes and have got three left to do. Back off to work I go.

Images from the Animation

Here are some images from the animations. As you can see we went for a 101 Dalmatians, Rhubarb and Custard feel. I think it works quite well. Don't you. The sketchy style gives a nice hand drawn contrast to the computer animation that should follow. I believe it could stand up as a professional advertisement.