Wednesday, 31 October 2012

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.

Wednesday, 24 October 2012

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.

Wednesday, 17 October 2012

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.


    Sunday, 14 October 2012

    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
     

    Friday, 12 October 2012

    Modelling List



    Buildings

    Air base

    Mess halls  

    Navy yard

    Planes

    American planes

    Japanese planes  

    Boats

    American warships

    Environments

    Hills

    Water

    Fire

    Effects

    Explosions 

    Thursday, 11 October 2012

    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

    Wednesday, 10 October 2012

    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

    Monday, 8 October 2012

    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.


    Sunday, 7 October 2012

    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.

    Wednesday, 3 October 2012

    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