Final Meeting - Week 12

Minutes - All members present

Points Discussed:

We have finished all of our work now, so we just need to submit separately and concentrate on finishing our individual blogs.

References

References for the sound effects that we've used in the animation:

Daveincamas, 2007. Ww2airplaneflyover.wav. [Online] (Updated 12 November 2007).
Available at: http://www.freesound.org/people/daveincamas/sounds/43807/
[Accessed 05 December 2012].

Dynamicell, 2006. Fire_forest_inferno.aif. [Online] (Updated 2 April 2006).
Available at: http://www.freesound.org/people/Dynamicell/sounds/17548/
[Accessed 11 December 2012].

ERH, 2007. Wind.wav. [Online] (Updated 30 April 2007).

Available at: http://www.freesound.org/people/ERH/sounds/34338/

[Accessed 11 December 2012].

Gould, D., 2007. Seagulls-m.wav. [Online] (Updated 1 April 2007).

Available at: http://www.freesound.org/people/DaveGould/sounds/32930/

[Accessed 28 November 2012].

Luftrum, 2008. Oceanwavescrushing.wav. [Online] (Updated 16 February 2008).

Available at: http://www.freesound.org/people/Dynamicell/sounds/17548/

[Accessed 28 November 2012].

Sandyrb, 2007. Usat bomb.wav. [Online] (Updated 3 June 2007).

Available at: http://www.freesound.org/people/sandyrb/sounds/35643/

[Accessed 05 December 2012].

Sound Recording Lengths

So that we can all keep track of our scenes, the lengths of the voiceovers are recorded below so that we know the minimum length that our scenes need to be:


Scene 1 - EVERYONE                                       0 Seconds

Scene 2 - SCOTT                                               0 Seconds

Scene 3 - EVERYONE                                       0 Seconds

Scene 4 - EVERYONE                                      5 Seconds

Scene 5 - LEANNE                                           25 Seconds

Scene 6 - LYDIA                                               17 Seconds

Scene 7 - DANIEL                                            26 Seconds

Scene 8 - LYDIA                                               22 Seconds

Scene 9 - SCOTT                                               0 Seconds

Scene 10 - DANIEL                                         13 Seconds

Scene 11 - EVERYONE                                    0 Seconds

Scene 12 - LEANNE                                       30 Seconds

Scene 13 - EVERYONE                                   0 Seconds

Week 11 Meeting

Minutes - All members present

Points Discussed:

We now have one week remaining until the animation needs to be completed. Our progress is as follows:

• Leanne - One scene needs to be completed and two scenes need to be rendered.
• Scott - Two scenes need to be completed and rendered.
• Lydia - Two scenes need to be completed and rendered.
• Dan - Two scenes need to be completed and rendered.

For Next Week:
All scenes need to be rendered and put together in the premiere pro file by Wednesday 12th December. We will then add the sounds and finalise the animation for hand in on Friday. We will come in on Friday to get our scenes finished for those of us that can't work from home. On Monday after another lesson we will put our scenes together ready for Wednesday's presentation to the class.

Week 10 Meeting

Minutes - All members present

Points Discussed:

• De-bugging some of the building's texturing issues - Leanne has been fixing other people's scenery that had building textures mixed up.
• Fixing little problems with the landscape - some things were floating so Lydia has fixed this and given a new copy of the scenery to all members.

For Next Week:
Continuing animating our scenes - we should be finalising them all by next week. 

Final Scenery and Landscape

The landscaping and scenery as a whole have been completed. Buildings, planes, ships and the water have been placed, as well as the configuring of the daylight system. The scenery, layout and landscaping are all by Lydia.

Pearl Harbor

Ford Island

Lighting

Completed Planes

By Dan.

Japanese Plane

USA Plane

The USA planes are placed on Ford Island to form part of the scenery and the Japanese planes will be used to fly in as part of the scenes.

Week 9 Meeting

Minutes - All members present

Points Discussed:

• The models of the planes that we have been waiting on did not fit in with the rest of the scenery, as they were blocks of colour and not textured. To combat this, we have been helping Dan apply architectural textures (Leanne) smoothing the wings (Lydia) and adding more detail to the wings (Scott). These models need to be finished by the end of today as every other aspect of the scenery is finished, so three of us can't do any animating until it is completed.
• The daylight system has been discussed and added, with everyone having an input instead of just Dan, so that he can finish his planes today.

For Next Week:
Animating scenes should be well under way next week, as everyone should have a copy of the completed scenery by the end of today's lesson. This way, we can individually work on our scenes and make sure all scenes have been animated by week 11. For the rendering, we will render according to the settings on Richard's blog, so that we are all consistent with each other.

Finished Ships And Water

By Scott - these have been placed in the scenery.

Week 8 Meeting

Minutes - All members present

Points Discussed:

As it is now week 8, our modelling should be finished by the end of today and we should be merging all of our models together and starting to animate. Our individual progress in terms of our work and timescale is as follows:

• Leanne - Models are completed and put into the scenery. Lydia has been worked with for the scenery aspect and practises for the explosions have begun.
• Scott - Models are completed and put into the scenery. Lydia has been worked with for the scenery aspect and the water has been created for the scene.
• Lydia - Scenery is completed. Just waiting for Dan's models asap to be put into the scenery. Parts have been re-made to fit in with the models of others and the background for the island has been made too.
• Dan -No models are yet completed, need to be done ASAP so the rest of us can begin our animating and individual scenes. Deadline was today, so the new deadline to get the planes to Lydia by is Monday 18th November.

For Next Week:
Dan's models need to be given to Lydia so that the scenery can be completed. The scenery will be given to everyone for next week so that we can all begin our scenes according to the storyboard. Until then, we will be catching up with our blogs and beginning to practise the animation techniques that we need.

Completed Building Models

The buildings to be placed in the scenery throughout Pearl Harbor, by Leanne.

 

 

 

 

 

Week 7 Meeting

Minutes - All members present

Points Discussed:

According to our timeline, the modelling stage should be coming to an end and should be more or less completed by next week. Our progress in terms of our work and timescale is as follows:

• Leanne - All models are finished apart from texturing. Three models have been finished in terms of texturing and the rest shall be finished by next week.
• Scott - Model has been finished and texturing has begun. Models will be duplicated and edited slightly next week to add variation.
• Lydia - Island landscape has been finished, including texturing, just some final adjustments are being made. Props for her scene still need to be made but will be done either this week or next week.
• Dan -Plane is coming along, but still needs to be finished modelling as well as texturing. Parts for his scene also still need to be modelled and textured, so at the latest this all needs to be done by week 9.

For Next Week:
All models should have been finished and the texturing stage should be nearing the end too, ready for the animation process to begin.

Week 6 Meeting

Minutes - All members present

Points Discussed:

• Modelling - we are all making good progress with our individual models. Today, we have been sharing techniques and all of our opinions on each other's work now that we are at the halfway point. Our progress is going well and we all have some good work to show.
• Texturing - sharing websites to get textures, progress with texturing methods.

For Next Week:
Continue our modelling so that all models are finished by week 8 or at the latest week 9. We should all have begun our texturing by next week and be making good progress with that.

Week 5 Meeting

Minutes - All members present

Points Discussed:

• Modelling - our progress with our individual models. We are all making good progress with our models and shall continue to do so over the next week. We are showing each other our work and helping each other if needed.
• Timeline - sticking with the timeline in terms of modelling and animation.
  

For Next Week:
Continue our modelling in our own time so that we have at least one model virtually finished.

Week 4 Meeting

Minutes - All members present

Points Discussed:

• Paperwork - all paperwork has now been finished.
• Modelling - we will now commence our individual modelling tasks and learning new things along the way to help our progression and improve our own techniques. Our progress will be noted on our individual blogs.
• Timeline - sticking with the timeline in terms of modelling and animation.
  

For Next Week:
Make a good start on the modelling for our designated areas.

Storyboard

Completed panels for our storyboard, from everyone in the group.

Scene 1

Scene 2

 Scene 3

Scene 4

Scene 5

Scene 6

Scene 7

Scene 8

Scene 9

Scene 10

Scene 11

Scene 12

Scene 13

 

Modelling List

Buildings

Air base

Mess halls  

Navy yard

Planes

American planes

Japanese planes  

Boats

American warships

Environments

Hills

Water

Fire

Effects

Explosions 

Script

[BLACK SCREEN WITH THE TIME AND DATE THE ATTACK STARTED]

[FADE IN FROM BLACK]

EXT. PEARL HABOUR. OAHU

[EXTREME WIDE SHOT]

[ZOOM IN]

Shot of Pearl Harbour, around 7am, sounds of the waves and cheerful birds.

CUT TO:

EXT. PEARL HABOUR, FLASHBACKS.

Explosions, screams, shots of planes and boats sinking.

CUT TO:

[BLACK SCREEN WITH TITLE- PEARL HABOUR}

Narration begins.

NARRATOR (V.O)
Pearl Harbour….a day that the US had never seen  coming…or what they said they never saw coming.

CUT TO:

EXT. PEARL HABOUR. OAHU.

[WIDE SHOT]

Multiple shots of Pearl Harbour and the fleet ships before the attack, calm and quiet.

NARRATOR (V.O.)

There were a number of conspiracy theories for the attack after it had happened; it was as if the US had set the entire event up so that they had a reason to enter the war, that President Roosevelt was the main blame of the conspiracies themselves. But what if the conspiracies were cover ups for their embarrassment of being outsmarted by the little guys? What reason did Japan have of attacking Pearl Harbour in the first place if they knew that they knew that the US would follow after them? What did they get out of it?

CUT TO:

INT. MAP.

[MEDIUM SHOT]

Shot of US and Japan, models of transport boats travelling from Japan and back. The Countries stand out by being excluded and change colour.

NARRATOR (V.O.)

The US and Japan had previous had relations before the events of WW2 started to occur. It was only in January 1940 that the US had stripped Japan from supplying the natural and industrial resources due to Japan’s advances onto China and forming an alliance with Italy and Germany .

The models turn away from Japan and return to the US, stopping travel to Japan all together. Japan begins to turn dry.

CUT TO:

EXT. PACIFIC OCEAN. SUN RISE.

[WIDE SHOT]

Japan aircraft cross the Pacific Ocean as the sun begins to rise.

NARRATOR (V.O.)

With resources stripped, Japan continued their aggressive path for land and resources in China and parts of Europe, until they were stuck. Japan wanted to invade the south east of Asia, mainly for more supplies and territory. The only problem was that if they were to attack, it would prompt the US army for war. If the Japan was to get the territory and supplies needed, they would need a distraction to give them enough time to concur the areas needed.

CUT TO:

INT. MAP

[MEDIUM SHOT]             

  Models of Japanese aircrafts on the world map, being pushed from Japan to Pearl Harbour, being moved in to attack the US.

NARRATOR (V.O.)

From that, ‘Operation Z’, originally known as ‘Operation Hawaii’ was formed. The plan was simple. The first wave would arrive at 7:40am to strike the base before the second wave arrived at 8:40am. From the attack, while the US try and recover from the sudden surprise, Japan can easily continue their aggressive moves across Asia without the worry of the US’ appearance.

 

CUT TO:

 EXT. PEARL HABOUR. OAHU

[POV]

From the view of a person, they would look up into the sky to see the planes coming in.

                                                                                                                                                                                CUT TO:

INT. SIGNING HALL.

[CLOSE UP, FORMS]

Italy, Japan and Germany all sign the Tripartite Pact, forming their alliance.

NARRATOR (V.O.)

Japan had sided with Italy and Germany all because they had lost their resources and began to fall out of their relations with the US. Because of that choice, as well as the US disregarding any warning signs,…one of Japan’s greatest attacks occurred.

CUT TO:

EXT. PEARL HABOUR, OAHU.

[MULTPLIE SHOTS]

Japan attack Pearl Habour, shots of boats sinking, explosions, and sounds of gun shots and screams and smoke, echoing as the screen eventually goes dark.

CUT TO:

EXT. REMAINS OF PEARL HABOUR, OAHU.

Smoke filled the sky as the US looks at the aftermath of the attack

ROOSEVELT (V.O)

The attack yesterday on the Hawaiian Islands has caused severe damage to American naval and military forces. Very many American lives have been lost…

The Japanese government also launched an attack against Malaya.  Last night, Japanese forces attacked Hong Kong.  Last night, Japanese forces attacked Guam.  Last night, Japanese forces attacked the Philippine Islands.  Last night, the Japanese attacked Wake Island. This morning, the Japanese attacked Midway Island.

I ask that the Congress declare that since the unprovoked and dastardly attack by Japan on Sunday, Dec. 7, a state of war has existed between the United States and the Japanese empire.

[FADE OUT TO BLACK]

[TIME AND DATE OF WHEN THE ATTACK FINISHED FLASHES ON THE SCREEN]

Asset List

Asset List

1. Aircraft Noise
2. Bombs Dropping
3. Bombs moving in water
4. Bombs Exploding
5. Boat Engine Noises
6. Pen Signing a name

Week 3 Meeting

Minutes - All members present

Points Discussed:

• Structure of presentation.
• Storyboard progression: Leanne - done Lydia - done Dan - done Scott - needs to do one more. We all are going to scan/photograph our own parts and send them over to be put together in Photoshop and pasted into the presentation. We will all explain our own slides.

Tasks From Last Week:
Lydia: Script and storyboard DONE
Leanne: Timeline, treatment and storyboard DONE
Daniel: Storyboard and asset list DONE
Scott: Storyboard and modelling list Storyboard needs to be completed and modelling list needs to be shown to us and put on blogs by FRIDAY.

FOR FRIDAY: All storyboard parts need to be e-mailed to lg365@student.anglia.ac.uk . 

Treatment

For this animation, we have been given the task of producing a documentary style animation that shows the attack on Pearl Harbor.

With extensive research on this historical event, we soon came up with ideas and a storyboard showing what we wanted to portray during the production. We easily discussed all members ideas and everyone's contributions, which resulted in everyone having a fair say in what goes into the animation. We each were assigned tasks to focus on in terms of the pre-production stage as well as specific areas to increase our skill levels when we begin to model and animate. Focussing on people's strengths was an important part of the task allocation process, however, trying new things so that we can gain new skills along the way was another important factor that we considered.

The main themes of the video include flashbacks, different viewpoints and stating the facts. The main event will be the attack on Pearl Harbor itself, but the events that lead up to and possibly triggered the attack will be included, as well as the aftermath. The flashbacks are included to help show that we are portraying certain events that may have led up to the attack, prior to the attack. The flashbacks are also to keep the audience engaged, rather than be a standard documentary.

After Effects is used as well as Premiere Pro to do some minor editing after the video. We are including dates and times and a couple of black screens displaying this to mark the beginning and the end of the animation. As a voiceover is going to be speaking throughout, we also have to do some editing in Soundbooth or a similar editing program, then overlay it with the video.

There are no characters in this video that are specified as individuals - only the countries involved will be mentioned. As our character animation is extremely limited, we have decided on this as to know our boundaries and not push our limits over the edge.

Timeline

One of the group paperwork tasks for next week that I have been put in charge of completing is the timeline for the project. This will help give us a guideline to follow so that we can stay on track and keep in time with our allocated tasks. This may fluctuate slightly if we encounter problems or find extra things to do, but we will try and stick to it as close as we can.

Week 1 - 26/09: Gathering research, setting up blogs and establishing ideas.

Week 2 - 03/10: Continuing research, beginning the storyboard, group brainstorm, assigning the main tasks for people so that everyone is clear on what they are doing and re-capping techniques.

Week 3 - 10/10: Making the slides and planning for the group presentation next week, final brainstorm, getting feedback off each other from our individual storyboard frames, finalising the paperwork and beginning to learn more techniques.

Week 4 - 17/10: Group presentation, if any paperwork has been left undone it should be completed now and beginning the modelling of the scenery.

Week  5 - 24/10: Modelling the scenery and researching new techniques specific to our scenes that will help out animation look better, focussing on our assigned areas of animating to focus on (e.g. water, fire etc).

Week 6 - 31/10: Modelling of things needed for our scenes (characters, scenery, props, vehincles etc.) and continuing learning of new skills that haven't been tried before, in both animating and modelling.

Week 7 - 07/11: Continuing the modelling of our scenes, giving each other feedback and helping if necessary.

Week 8 - 14/11: Finishing off modelling and researching animation techniques that are needed for our specific scenes.

Week 9 - 21/11: Applying animation techniques that have been learnt to the animation.

Week 10 - 28/11: Animating and beginning to render scenes with approval from all group members.

Week 11 - 05/12: Finalising the animating, rendering, putting all the scenes together and applying any after effects.

Week 12 - 12/12: After effects, ripping to CD, ensuring everything works, finalising our group blog and the individual blog and handing in on the friday.


Due in: Friday 14th December 2012, Week 12.

Modelling

We have assigned who is going to specialise in certain models according to our scenes, as well as what techniques we would like to learn from this animation so will need to focus on in particular. Here is the rough assignment:

Leanne - Buildings and explosions.
Daniel - Planes and lighting.
Lydia - Landscape and fire.
Scott - Boats and water.

Storyboard Plan

We have discussed as a group the ideas for the storyboard: how we all visualise each frame and combining our ideas together. We are now going to work on each of our own scenes for the storyboard and then come together next week with our frames to ensure that it is consistent in terms of the modelling and the style, as well as to get feedback from other team members. Our individual scenes will be posted on our own blog and the completed storyboard will then be posted on the group blog.

Storyboard plan is as follows:

1. Black screen with the time and date that the attack started - fade in. EVERYONE
2. Long shot of the island from a birds eye view using a bitmap, which gradually zooms in. SCOTT
3. Four quick flashes of shots of what's to come: buildings destroyed (LEANNE), planes letting out bombs (DANIEL), the landscape (LYDIA) and boats getting bombed (SCOTT). 
4. Black screen with the title and the voiceover beginning to explain the animation and events.
5. Pearl Harbor before the attack: quiet, happy etc. LEANNE
6. Flashback: Japan's exports being stopped. LYDIA
7. Planes flying toward the harbor with the sun rising (Japan's symbolism) in the background, using the feature in 3DS Max that shows what the lighting would be like at the certain time of day in the year. DANIEL
8. Flashback: A map of Hawaii in Japan's possession, with them using an operating stick to show their plan, along with the title of their operation: "Operation Hawaii" or "Operation Z" as it was later changed to. LYDIA
9. From the viewpoint of people on the island looking upwards, with the planes flying towards them. SCOTT
10. Flashback: Signing of the Tripartite Pact. Showing the pact and some hands signing it, with the voiceover explaining what countries were involved (to save us animating the people from the different countries). DANIEL
11. The destruction on the island - the general battle with all the bombings and the time listed to show how the destruction gets worse and worse. Lots of different viewpoints and camera angles. EVERYONE
12. Gradual zoom out of the island showing the aftermath of the attack. LEANNE  
13. Black screen with the time and date that the attack finished - fade out. EVERYONE

Week 2 Meeting

Minutes - All members present

Research tasks from last week were all completed by each member.

Points Discussed:

• Discussing possible ideas for storyboard - documentary style. 
• Possible structure for our animation: beginning the attack, then during the scene having flashbacks during the attack. We are still unsure on this as some members were having trouble visualising so will be unsure if it will work. This will make it easier to animate and render as it will give a difinitive point for dividing up the scenes. However we are unsure of whether this will fit the documentary style criteria.
• Another possible idea is to create the animation from the Japanese's viewpoint. 
• Creating the documentary showing the Japanese and American viewpoint, but using colour for symbolism to show the different perspectives being shown/flashbacks.
• We have decided that we definitely don't want any people (unless we use bipeds) as our knowledge for animating characters is practically minimum for all of us, so knowing our limits will save us problems later on. We will use camera viewpoints to ensure that only body parts (e.g. the hands signing the treaty) are seen, so that we can focus on the scenery and objects.
• We aim to get all of the paperwork finished for next week so that we can begin the modelling as soon as possible. We anticipate that the modelling is going to be the part that will take the most time, so we are keen to begin this as soon as possible.
• We are going to sort out the music towards the end of the animation, as we are doing another module that involves making soundtracks, so the skills we learn in that module will help us make a soundtrack if we have the time.
• Storyboard and who is doing what scene (posted in a seperate entry).
• The models that we each have been assigned (posted in a seperate entry).
• Assigning tasks so that we each try something new so that we can gain new knowledge, as well as working to our strengths.
• Possible sound effects.
• Timescales for the animation.

 
Final Idea After Discussion: A documentary style from the Japanese viewpoint, including black and white flashbacks. The American perspective will be included, but we will mainly be focussing on Japan and what caused them to bomb Pearl Harbor. A voiceover will be included to add to the documentary element of the animation.


Tasks For Next Week:
Lydia: Script and storyboard
Leanne: Timeline, treatment and storyboard
Daniel: Storyboard and asset list
Scott: Storyboard and modelling list

First Meeting

Minutes - All members present

There are 4 members in our group: Leanne Goddard, Lydia Bell, Scott Laird and Daniel Runeckles.

We have all joined and followed the group blog with each of our pages associated with the group page.


Summary:

• For the first meeting, we have all established some basic ideas about what all of our intentions/plans are for the next few weeks.
• We have began by everyone commencing their own individual research into Pearl Harbor so that we all have a decent knowledge of what happened. 
• We are all going to do two types of research: the facts and the conspiracy theories/opinions. Once we have distinguished the difference between fact and opinion we will decide what approach we would like to take on the animation.
• We have also discussed everyone's strengths which shall allow us to allocate tasks more efficiently to the most capable person. Strengths are as follows:

1. Leanne - Good attention to detail, particularly in modelling.
2. Lydia - Detailed animation, particularly thorough work is produced.
3. Scott - Detailed animation, particularly evironments and its content. 
4. Daniel -  Good creative visualisation during the modelling stage.

For next week:
Over the next week, we are going to continue our thorough research into Pearl Harbor, including:

• Facts about the attack - date, time, deaths etc.
• Conspiracy theories - different opinions etc.
• Scenery - before and after the attack.
• Events leading up to the attack.
• What happened after the attack - repurcussions.
• What the ships, planes etc. looked like in this time era.

We are all going to research these particular areas and then come together next week and show our findings. As we are al researching similar areas, we can ensure that the accuracy of our information is 100% correct.

Next week, we will begin to assign individual tasks and come up with a timescale for the project.