Applied Evaluation -- OUAN406

I feel like Applied was the first module in which I was really happy with the work I completed. My idents both came out very similar to how I pictured them in my head, and I managed to create and find soundtracks which I feel suit them both very well.

I really enjoyed the cutout process - taking the best part of a week to plan it, create all my assets, and tweak the animatic meant that I spent no more than an hour or two animating, not including a few tweaks in After Effects and Premier. It was also fun to record in the sound booth with Dan and Brenda. I think we made a very fitting audio track for the piece. I have a little prior knowledge of sound recording, and we were able to finish everything that I needed very quickly, and with no post-recording editing required.

This module I enjoyed getting into Maya, and am enthusiastic about working in it more in the future. At first glance (and from speaking to second years) it seemed really daunting, but actually modelling and texturing my truck and banana was quite enjoyable, and animating MOOM's walk cycle was very intuitive. I also enjoyed teaching myself more After Effects, and some parts of the National Geographic ident really made me think and stretch myself technically. At the beginning of the module I decided I wanted to do some motion-tracking, or something similar with live-action footage - originally this was going to be for the E4 project, but once I chose the cutout path for that film I had to think of other ways to try and incorporate these techniques, eventually using a myriad of different software and processes. It was satisfying to be able to set myself this challenge at the beginning of the module and then figure out a way of enacting it through the National Geographic ident. This could have resulted in an ident that was all about the technique, but I believe I managed to make something that was suitable to the identity of the brand at the same time. I had worried that both dent's would turn out quite drab and lifeless, but I think I succeeded in adding some vitality to the E4 piece at least with some overlapping action.

For the first time I also felt much more calm and confident during the pre-production stages, and was happy to pursue my ideas to completion, which hasn't always been the case. I got lots of brainstorming out of the way early and made a much more astute decision over what I wanted to work on, before steaming ahead. Perhaps it is because of the more professional style briefs - and the thought ringing in the back of my head that I could potentially submit the E4 ident when they next open their competition - that made me engage more professionally with the tasks. I want to keep this momentum going through summer as I work on my own practice, and hit the ground running next year.

National Geographic sounds -- OUAN406

I was originally planning to have some diagetic sound for each scene in the Nat Geo ident, but after playing around with different audio tracks couldn't get the results I wanted. I have now decided to use some ambient music in the background, and found a nice sample on copyright free site looperman.com which I think suits the feel of the ident quite well.

E4 Sound effects -- OUAN406

I booked time in sound booth 1 to record some sound effects for the E4 ident. I used my voice to make screams, comet sfx and an impact explosion. I think using vocal sound effects works with the irreverant tone of E4's output, and the surreal storyline of my ident. I took these recordings and synced them up in Premier.