This week was mostly looking at post-processing in Unreal. I really enjoyed this workshop because I found that post-processing added a lot of visual intrigue to the project, such as adding bloom and chromatic aberration to the camera. We also learned how to use capital LUT tables to edit the colour grading of the scene. I will definitely be using all of these functions in my environment scene to add further detail to my project.
I have decided in my scene that I wanted to make the houses smaller in scale so that I can have a more comprehensive and detailed village. I have created a more complex material in unreal that allows me to paint the landscape effectively so that I can blend between textures at will. They should allow me to create a really dynamic-looking Island built off of one texture. I have added curl to the beach, which creates a more natural-looking coastline in comparison to the previous island level. I have also added emissive textures to the lights created by my teammate, which I can decorate the island with. I would like to add more lighting, since so far I have only added a few campfires from the pack, and would be keen to create some emissive firefly particles.
This week I wanted to talk about one of my favourite films, Amélie, and the way it utilises the 8-point story arc.
Stasis: Amélie’s isolated and introverted childhood establishes her as an observer, yearning for connection. She works as a waitress but observes details of everyone she encounters on a daily basis.
Trigger: The discovery of a hidden box left behind by a boy from several years ago in her apartment sparks a transformative moment for Amélie. After seeing the reaction of the boy (now a man) receiving the box, she is inspired to change the lives of the people around her.
Quest: Amélie’s quest involves a series of small, yet impactful, acts of kindness, from encouraging her father to travel to orchestrating a romantic encounter for a coworker, to helping her sickly neighbor experience the wonders of the outside world. She aims to encourage the stagnant lives around her to progress.
Surprise: Her budding romance with Nino involves Amelie’s life in her schemes. Most of her choices change her friends’ lives without them knowing of her involvement, but Nino and Amelie become connected.
Critical Choice: Amélie faces a critical choice when she must decide whether to confront her own insecurities and fears to pursue a meaningful connection with Nino or remain as she is.
Climax: The film reaches its climax as Amélie takes a courageous leap of faith, revealing herself to Nino and confronting her own emotional barriers.
Reversal: Amélie’s actions lead to positive transformations in the lives of those around her, creating a ripple effect of happiness. Her father chooses to travel, the concierge recovers from her broken heart, Lucien takes charge of the grocery stand without being mocked by Collignon, etc.
Resolution: The story concludes with a sense of fulfilment and contentment as Amélie finds love, and those she encounters throughout the film are changed by her actions.
Breaking down (some of) the characters into Archetypes:
Amelie- Protagonist/Heroine Amelie is the protagonist, and her journey of self-discovery and overcoming personal challenges aligns with the Heroine’s journey.
Raymond Dufayel- Mentor – Raymond serves as a mentor to Amélie, providing guidance and encouragement, especially when it comes to pursuing Nino. His wisdom and artistic perspective contribute to Amélie’s growth and he frequently questions her motives.
Nino- Love-Interest Nino is a quiet and reserved character who, like Amélie, feels a sense of detachment. They become connected through change meetings. When Amelie picks up his dropped photo album, helping him solve the mystery of the photographed man within, the end up becoming romantically involved.
Lucien- The child Lucien works at the grocery stand, and is verbally abused by Collignon for his slow (but loving) work. Despite this, Lucien is always friendly and kind, and brings groceries to Dufayel, who is unable to leave his home. Lucien never responds to cruelty, and is shown to be a truly innocent person.
Collignon- The shadow While there are no major antagonists in Amelie, Collignon is the closest to an antagonist. Amelie observes his cruelty to Lucien, inspiring her to play pranks on him as punishment, mirroring the cruel neighbour from her childhood.
Gina- The Ally Gina is the coworker at the Two Mills who is able to intercept what is going on between Nino and Amelie, testing his character and advising him about her at the climax of the film. While Dufayel acts as Amelie’s mentor, Gina is the only person who can actively advocate for Amelie to Nino when she is emotionally held back from meeting him.
Dominic Bretodeau- The Catalyst Bretodeau never meets Amelie in person, but his hidden box is the item that she finds that inspires her journey, and his overjoyed reaction encourages her to continue, catalysing the events of the rest of the film. Not only this, but her search for him is what involves her with her mentor, Raymond Dufayel.
Timeline:
The information revealed about Amelie’s childhood informs her choices throughout the film. She is lonely, which distances her from others. She does seek and enjoys emotional connections but is not used to having them. She has a strong sense of justice and is willing to play pranks on those who she feels have behaved improperly, and solves problems practically.
In Maya this week we were beginning to plan the weight shift animation. This requires applying everything I have learned in the previous animations since the weight shift utilizes are, overlapping action, momentum, squash and stretch etc. I’m personally interested in making quite a stylized weight shift, and I will be recording my own reference for the purpose of creating my block out. We also created poses based off of sketches from our sketchbooks, which is helpful in understanding how to pose the human body.
This week in Unreal explored lighting our environments. I decided that I was unhappy with the environment that I had created, because I was having some technical issues following a tutorial that I had used to create a specific environment, and because of this I recreated the Island from scratch. After this, I was able to use the lighting experiment from this workshop to make more of a sunset scene, which allowed me to create a more interesting atmosphere. Initially, the environment I created was too dark, so I have changed the time of day to provide more light to the scene. I also decided to use a pack from the unreal marketplace that’s very hand-painted and Nordic style, which was different from our initial concept of a tropical island. However I like how this environment is turning out, and with more emphasis on dynamic lighting, I think I will be able to create an interesting environmental piece. I have successfully remade the island in a new level, with a larger space for creating a village area, and I have animated the windmills to rotate endlessly during game mode. There is quite a lot left that I want to create, however, so I will continue to add throughout the next few weeks.
I wanted to examine the Mise-en-scene of Miyazaki’s Howls Moving Castle. I think this film really utilises environments and scene settings, as well as i’s characters to emphasise the messages within the film.
In “Howl’s Moving Castle,” Miyazaki creates a fantastical world where magic seamlessly intertwines with the mundane. The intricate and imaginative set designs, particularly the moving castle itself, reflect the director’s commitment to crafting a rich and immersive environment. The vibrant colour palette, ranging from lush greens to deep purples, adds to the film’s dreamlike atmosphere. These rich hues indicate magic throughout the film- Sophie, who is initially considered a normal human, is later revealed to be magical herself. Her hat shop mirrors that of Howl’s bedroom through the use of colour and detail, linking them narratively as a form of foreshadowing. You can imagine Fibonacci’s spiral fitting identically in these two shots- one of Howl’s room, the other Sophie’s hat shop.
The moving castle itself showcases a whimsical mix of architectural styles, created from a hodgepodge of scraps and pieces of buildings. Its unpredictable and ever-changing structure mirrors Howl’s mystifying personality, creating a visual metaphor for the character’s complex nature. The castle becomes a character in its own right, with Calcifer, the fire demon acting as the castle’s literal heart. The castle from the outside appears as a dangerous living creature, complete with a sharp-toothed mouth. Inside, however, is shown to be a warm and bustling home for the characters in the film, a reflection of Howl’s presentation as a cool and aloof wizard in contrast to his sweet but somewhat eccentric personality. The castle appears as an impenetrable fortress, but Sophie in actuality gains access rather easily.
Beyond the castle, the film features lush and enchanting landscapes, from the vibrant flower meadows to the huge royal greenhouse. These environments are rich in detail, with each frame teeming with life and colour. Miyazaki’s commitment to environmental storytelling is evident as the settings evolve alongside the characters, reflecting the emotional journey of the protagonists. Miyazaki is known throughout his works (Such as Nausicaa or Princess Mononoke) for using the natural world to demonstrate mysticism. Throughout Howl’s Moving Castle, Miyazaki utilises scenes of abundant nature frequently surrounding the most magically powerful characters within the film, including Sophie, while most of the other characters exist within a bustling city.
This week marks a continuation of the ball and tail animation, following the planning and block-out phase from last week. I faced a lot of challenges visualizing and recreating the tail’s movement, particularly during the spin, making timing adjustments a bit fiddly. Despite the hurdles, I’m satisfied with the final result. This exercise significantly improved my understanding of drag and how extremities, like a tail, follows an object with its own momentum.
This week we use the sequencer to collect key frames from objects including when we apply physics to things like a ball or a chain. I can see how this will be useful in the future as applying animations to objects using physics is a really helpful way of creating a baseline for an animation that I can then edit to look however I want. I imagine I could use this to animate things like wind or animate moments like an object falling without having real-time physics activating. Thinking about my own project, I’d like to animate things like a clothesline with clothes blowing in the wind.
I have added further detail to the island, adding texture such as rocks and a collapsed pillar, and foliage and trees around the island. I have also created a material I have used to paint textures onto the island with, and they are dynamically layerable, so I can use this to blend between textures pretty much seamlessly. I have obtained the props, foliage and textures from quixel bridge.
The concept of animation used in documentaries can be considered somewhat controversial, with some taking issue with the term “documentary” being used for recreations of true events. However, I would argue that a recreation through animation is no less a valid form of recording information than giving a verbal account by memory, or other forms of estimation of information we cannot recreate. David Attenborough is one of the most esteemed documentarists of all time- even his works have utilised animation, such as within Natural History Museum Alive. Animation should be considered another source of presenting information, no less able to promote factual accounts as spoken word.
As a separate topic, I am looking at My Life as a Courgette as a piece that discusses complex social elements such as child abuse, alcoholism, suicide, verbal and domestic abuse as well as the foster care system. My life as a courgette shows the perspective of children who, for various circumstances end up in the foster care system. This film handles these topics without being sensationalist but instead shows realistic children’s perspectives on such difficult conversations. Not only are the issues themselves covered but also where the children end up, the struggles other children might face in being left behind in the system and feelings of guilt. The claymation art style evokes the sense of innocence and fun that should be inherent in children, but the rough “imperfect” texture lends itself to the concept of people who have been through far too much. I believe my life as a courgette provides an important perspective for children and adults alike and could be used as an educational tool to provide further insight into domestic issues and the foster care system.
The ball and tail expands on elements of both the bouncing ball and the ball in chain exercises since the jump part of the animation is similar to the momentum arc and squash and stretch elements but the tail will need overlapping action and momentum. This week is planning and I am interested in having the ball character flip on first landing as if it was a sentient ball rather than an animal. This is the first week where our animations involve one week of planning and one week of execution so this week is only the plan.
I’m looking at reference of squirrels in my home garden to help understand the movements, particularly of the tail.
During the unreal workshop, we tested the sequencer and how it is used to make animations in unreal for things like animated cameras. This is obviously extremely useful to know as I continue to work in unreal. We also looked at materials, and how we can apply them to our levels, so I’m excited to use this in level creation.
I’m starting to develop my scene in unreal, deciding to go for the island concept that was discussed. I sketched a few scenes in my sketchbook, finalising it with the largest thumbnail. I’d like to make a small tropical island, with a small house and a waterfall that a player could move around in. I have a mental image of being able to scale the waterfront, but I’m quickly realising that unreal is more complex than I thought, so it’s possible that I’ll focus mostly on the environmental side of this project, though I would still like to create the project in a third-person scene so that it is possible to walk around. So far in my level design I have created a small level with an island and used the water plugin to create the ocean and some rivers. I would like to create a more dynamic waterfall eventually, but I need to research how to create particle effects in unreal. I’m going to create a material to add texture to the island as soon as possible.
