PRE PRODUCTION JOURNAL

For my Pre Production Project, which shall work in to my Second Major Project, the
idea began as an Advert for a fictional company, which specialises in Communication
Technology.
My initial idea for this was to have it be a Company Promotion, in a similar style to
ones seen in; Monsters Inc. Ant Man, and the Terminator attraction at the Universal
Parks.
I even had a Company logo made, during the summer. A number of things, which I
was insistent on was that; the colour scheme needs to be green, there needs to be a
Canine in said advert, and the logo looks partly like an eye.

I made a Power Point presentation, to propose the idea to the Lecturers, but I admit
that I may come across as a bit awkward, when doing so.
Amongst the suggestions, which they made, was that I put more focus on to one
product of the company, rather than the company as a whole, as well as making it
more of a parody of As Seen On Television Infomercials, than how I had it
originally, playing the Advert angle straight.
I can understand this reason, since it would have required to look in to multiple
products of the company, and considering how long I may have to Animate the
project, it would have probably made the Animation too long.
In my research, I have looked in to a number of Infomercials, and noticed how either
the product looks ridiculous (such as the Hawaii Chair, or the Magic Mess Collector),
or how the people in said adverts come across as too incompetent to use a blanket (as
seen with the Slob Stopper, or the Cover Mate). It does make me wonder if theyre
not trying some kind of self parody, as it is.

I drew some Design Sketches for the idea, particularly the Characters in the advert,
and some for the product itself.

Though, after I showed the designs my Lecturer, some major changes to the project
were made.
For one, the Lecturer felt that if I were to focus on the Glasses technology, that would
cause me to spend too much time in trying to invent a new product, than doing Script,
Concept & Storyboards for what I have in mind. I can understand that factor, and so
we look in to pieces of pre-existing technology made for Canines, and we came across
a Treadmill for Dogs; so the Advert developed to be about that.
Admttingly, I did find that I was having issues in trying to think of what the
infomercial would sound like. Like I establish before, most of those infomercials
almost feel like Self Parody themselves, so I am not sure how I could write an
Infomercial, without making it sound more like a parody, than it already does.
My Lecturer also suggested that, since I plan to focus more on the Animation, than
Modelling, I should download a Pre Made Canine Model to use, which is allowed, as
long as I credit who made the model.
Looking in to the Treadmill Idea, I came across a Video called The Treadmill
Dance, which became an online hit, so much so that it got featured on Ellen
DeGeneres talk show. I plan to use this, as well as some Videos of Canines Dancing
as reference for the Animation.
I then did some concept work of what the Canines Human can look like, as well the
design for the setting of the Animation.
When looking in to Apartment Designs, I research some living sets, as seen in
American Sitcoms, such as F.R.I.E.N.D.S, Frasier, and the Big Bang Theory. One of
the items use from my research was a Kitchen Counter being prominent in the floor
plan, similar to the Apartment from the Big Bang Theory.
When one looks at the Room Lay Out, for my project, it is similar to a Sitcom
Apartment Floor Plan, as there isn really a Fourth Side of the Apartment, as that is
where the Camera and Audience would be located.

This may cause trouble later, when Lightning is applied to the piece.
On the Subject of lighting, I looked to numerous Animations about Canines, and I
notice the style used in the Disney Animated Short: Feast.
In that short, while using C G I, the lighting and texture gave the piece a type of Cel
Shaded look, which I feel would work for the subject of my Animation.
I experimented on Maya and found that, in Play Blast Mode, using Flat Lighting
would create a Cel Shaded appearance, but I needed to do further research to see how
to make it look like that, when the Animation is rendered. I was able to achieve this
by applying Ambient Lighting to the Scene, and then rendering using the Maya
Rendering Software.

The Canines Human receive numerous alterations, from being Too Lazy to walk
their Dog, to Too Busy To Walk The Dog, which I admit makes the Human more
sympathetic, and would allow for more use of Story telling in the Animation, with the
Canine trying to get the attention of his Human.
Some designs for the Human shows him, at the Computer, with his glasses obscuring
his eyes, but the design did make the Human come across as Cold.
I then decided that, since the Animation is told more from the Canines Perspective,
the Humans face shall be mostly obscured for most of the Animation.

I then download the Franklin Model, for the Human, and made some adjustments to
it, which in turn presented a warmer look for the Character. I also adjusted the colour
of his clothing, to match more with the colour themes in the piece.

The Main Colours are Scarlett and Green, which work as complimentary Colours.
You can see these colours on both the main Apartment Design, and Franklins
Clothes.
There are also some examples of Analogous colours, as on top of there being a theme
of Scarletts and Greens, we also have multiple uses of brown in the scene, such as the
fur on the Canine, Franklins Hair, and the wooden texturing on the floor, tables or
other props in the scene.
With the changes to Franklins Colours, he is beginning to look more like Cody, the
Canine Rig, which can play in to the idea of Humans looking like their Animals, as
seen in the; Animated 101 Dalmatians.

Franklins Work Room however uses more subdued colours, such as Grey and Dark
Blue, as a means to emphasise the sad emotions of how the Work load is keeping
Cody and Franklin from each other. The darker colours also allow the Work Room to
feel more compressed and claustrophobic, to help empathise Franklins heavy work
load and how it may give the idea of him being trapped in how busy he can be, than to
walk Cody.
My lecturers have praised my choice of colours too, so I have a definite colour pallet,
for this project.
I did attempt to start Story Boards, though my lecturer suggested that I should practice
on my Perspective Drawing. After doing some research in to it, I think I have been
able to gain an understanding of the two point perspective, especially with my lecturer
telling me that the points are allowed to be outside of the frame.
Initially, the Animation would have been told in one long continuous shot. This idea
was changed, as a long static shot does run the risk of becoming boring to an
audience, as well as how it would make it more difficult for me to animate with
consistent continuity or what I may be able to do with the Canine Model.
This also allows me to think of a narrative, for the project, creating more sympathy
for the Characters we may see in it.
In the Story Board Process, there were also a number of ideas which were cut from
the Cleaned up Animatic. Some of these include a scene during the Montage, which
we see Cody looking longingly at his leash. This scene was cut, as the point to come
across in it would later be shown, after Franklin has done his work and he notices
Cody sleeping, with the leash in his paws. It would have been redundant to show it
before, if we were to show it then. The latter time seeing it worked more in to the
narrative too, as it is Franklin realising how his work if affecting Cody and his
walking time.

There was also a scene, which Cody wakes up to find a crate, before he examines it to
find that it is addressed for him, by Franklin. Franklin then appears and leans down to
Cody, before revealing the treadmill to the audience. This scene was cut as it did slow
down the pace of the Animation, and the scene itself would have stretched the
Animation to more than two minutes, while the project advises that it should be under
that time.
The Montage would have also been longer, but that too was cut due to time, and what
I may be able to Animte, with the time I have for the project, such as how to show
writing on paper (probably by using an Image Sequence), or some extreme motions,
the Characters may perform.
I then realise that the idea had altered from being an advert and became a Narrative in
itself. This is probably beneficial to the Project as, while it allowed more opportunity
to look in depth to the Characters, making them more sympathetic, the more I worked
on the project, the more I was concerned with how the Script would look. I was not
sure how to phrase it like an advert. Since the idea began as an Advert, it did offer
sound dialogue, such as a family using the technology of the company to locate their
Canine, as well as two people playing holographic chess with each other from
multiple locations across the World. The treadmill idea would have then had an
Announcer on top of it, advertising what the treadmill could do, in an over the top
manner; however, there wasn much of a plan for what the digetic sound for the scene
would be, as the Characters had been adjusted from an entire family, to just one
Human and their Canine.
Since my Animation, Sound wise, shall primarily be in a non digetic Soundtrack, I
have been looking in to Royalty Free pieces of Music, which I think shall be suitable.
I looked in to what my Animation is about, in order to find something appropriate.
Since the Animation is about a Canine waiting for its Human to take it for a walk, I

felt it called for something which sounded soft, yet jaunty. What I found was a piece
called Morning Walk, which tied in with the narrative, since it is suppose to be
about a Canine waiting for a walk.
When it reaches the Treadmill Dance scene, I looked in to what the Music piece used
in the Original Treadmill Dance Video was called, and I learnt that it is named;
Down Town Funk. I then came across a similar sounding Royalty Free Music piece,
called; Up Town Funk, which I have been able to sync to the Animatic.
At this time, I have place holder files, for a number of digetic sounds in the scene.
These include the Canine Sounds, Doors, Heavy Objects, The Canines Bowl, and the
Human at Work. I am however planning on using one of the place holder sounds,
when I animate the piece, that being the Squeaky Toy used by the Dog, as using it in
the Animatc showed how well it works, with the correct timing. This does make me
wonder if I shall be able to maintain the timing of the Animatc, when I begin to
animate the Project in Maya.
I do feel that this Pre Production Course has been a major benefit for my Major
Project. It has allowed me the proper time required, in order to properly plan out my
Animation and Scene Set Up. I have the Characters, Designs, Animatic, Sounds and a
Majority of the Models for the Project, because of this Course, which now allows me
more time for Animation and Modelling, than I would have without doing so, in my
second semester.
I do express some concerns that the idea has so radically changed from my initial one,
to the point where the most it has in common with the Original idea is that it has a
Canine in it. However, there have been examples of other pieces of Animation in the
past where the Early Concept Stages were extremely different to the film which was
aired (Such as Zootopia or Toy Story).
What I am curious about now is if I shall be able to animate what I have shown the
Characters to be doing in the Animatic, and if not, try to get it as accurate to what it
shows, as possible.
I do wonder, how I shall be able to make the Animation look?