YEAR 3 Animation

This is the blog related to my progress in my 3rd Year in Animation.

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Anastasija Zubareva FMP Production Reflection

For my production, I chose a very intricate technique. As a director, I wanted to expand my work area from animation to live-action and integrate them. The animation part of the production required a lot of fluidity with the scenes merging one into another, I did a lot of research for the references. I drew inspiration from the Russian singer Monetochka's music videos ('Net Monet', 'Falling into Dirt') as well as from the Russian interviewer Xenia Sobchak's intro animation (show 'Careful Sobchak'). Alongside this, I created a lot of drawing and illustrations, working hard to understand different camera angles and animation principles. Some of my test animations reflect the idea I had behind it (head test animation, hand grabbing a pen, etc.) even though I did not manage to finish those tests. What comes for the test animations, the head eating head animation is the most colourful and reflective. Yet I have to work on clean-up and in-betweens and also adjust the pace. The same goes for the other more or less finished piece with the hand grabbing the pen and when transforming into the characters. The difficulty is with the perspective, especially for the stab moment. I have put more work in drawing hands and bodies at different angles to understand how perspective will change during the motion. I enjoy distortions, yet, I would like to polish my skills, so it would look appealing to the viewer's eye.

Creating the test animations meant that I could finally summarise my aesthetic and clear up for myself what exactly it is that I would like to produce as an animator in the future. Doubtless, it is hard to judge the animation skills at this process from an outside perspective. Yet, the understanding and willingness to constantly work on the development gave me confidence I did not have before. For the first time, I am self-assured that I am on the right path.

As I have started working later than other students due to personal circumstances (I have received an official deferral till August), from January 2020 till lockdown I have worked very intensively to prepare everything for the shooting on 30th and 31st March. Unfortunately, the main part as pitch, bible and animatics I have left till the last moment. Yet, the quality of the pitch and production bible is higher than expected. For a couple of months, I was focused on creating the script, gathering and directing my crew, preparing costumes and props (at own expense). My schedule was shifted, and I had to work around it as much as I could. I am very proud of what I produced with all limitations. I will continue to work on my film even after finishing university, as my crew is very excited about the project. I acknowledge I could have used the time till August but with all complications and my resubmissions, I have decided to submit my work by the 13th May and keep working for my portfolio after that.

 My blog link: https://yunicoworld.tumblr.com/

My website link: https://anastasijazubareva9.wixsite.com/ana3et

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Journal

As I have taken a deferral till August due to personal circumstances, my pre-production has started when it was a production period on our course. Here is a short overview of the key points from my schedule to give an understanding of what I did.

Journal

14th January – Script Review with Oliver Marson (sound designer).

9th February – Finalising the script and creating the breakdown

14th February – Meeting with the actress, DoP and Producer.

20th February – GG41 TV studio visiting, measuring.

24th February – Pitch Creating

5th March – Costume fitting and make up tests.

7th March – Costume finalisation and jewellery pick.

9th March – Prop store visiting; the final decision on the props.

30th and 31st – shooting planned (cancelled).

5th - 12th April – Production Bible creation, editing.

7th - 14th April – Animatics creation, editing.

19th April – 3rd May – Break for dissertation writing and submission.

4th May – 13th May – test animations creation.

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Head test animation. Probably I will use it as it is in my production.

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A test animation where the first 2 seconds were cleaned up and are ready for colouring. The rest part is to be finished.

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Test animation of eyeball getting stabbed.

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Test animation of the beraking ashtray.

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A short test animation (in progress) for my FMP.

P.S. Please loop as it is 1 second long.

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New poster with edited title. I decided to keep the same design and concept as it reflects the story and the visuals of the film.

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Creative Portfolio and Showreel Reflection

Creative Portfolio and Showreel development were an outstanding experience in my practice.

Website creation was a true challenge, as I never did it before. Yet, it was a pleasure, because newly obtained skills are always beneficial. First, I researched on the best and easy-to-use platforms for website creation. The winner became WIX.com. After that, I followed all the step-by-step tutorials to understand the interface. Moreover, I watched YouTube tutorials to broaden my knowledge, which I've used in the end. The design part was the most intricate. Confused at first, I looked at what other animators/photographers did. I wrote a list of what makes these websites successful and tried to use it in practice. As a result, simplicity and minimalism mixed with creativity came out. My artwork and animations are very colourful, so I decided to use a black and white colour palette. This helped to highlight my artwork.

The main issue emerged when I was considering what to post, both on the website and blog. Unfortunately, I do not have enough finished projects and side jobs like freelance. Thus, showreel creation became distressing. Most of my 1st and 2nd-year end of the year animation was not finished due to personal circumstances. Same was regarding the 3rd-year project. The only solution was to take my responsibility for that and cut as many clips as I can, and work with it. Fortunately, it was enough. After that, I decided to use Harriet's advice on speeding up the sequences to enhance motion. Moreover, I decide to synchronise motions with the sound. However, during the crit, it turned out unnoticed, and I received suggestions for improvement. On one hand, I do agree with the comments. On the other hand, these changes would affect the initial idea behind my showreel. Also, I consider, firstly, create a little bit more animation, especially finishing my FMP, and then change my showreel. In given time limits I had to think of my priorities and try to finish as much as I can before the submission date.

For the portfolio, I wanted to create something simple, yet compelling. I did use for the cover the same logo I've developed for my website. The same issue emerged: lack of work. I did use a website with quick poses to draw something fresh and better as over the year my skills improved. However, the long poses were best from the last year of life drawing. I finally admitted that I do enjoy sketching people. I lovely selection of observational sketches became proof. Yet, I must focus more on storyboarding.

Overall, this practice was challenging. However, it was equally helpful in terms of reflecting on my strengths and giving me enlightenment on what I should focus on and what I should improve. Thus, even after graduation, I will keep intensively polishing and perfecting my skills. Nevertheless, I'm confident enough that I have managed to work through all complications and achieve the best possible result.

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My lovely showreel as a part of our Creative Portfolio brief.

For more videos and art you can check my website: https://anastasijazubareva9.wixsite.com/ana3et

and vimeo: https://vimeo.com/anazett

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Pen_and_Cigarettes_Festival_Pack.docx

Festival Pack for FMP Pen and Cigarettes as a part of final assignment. Please click the link to get acess to the file.

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Postcard and Bussines Card Designs

For this part of the project we had to develop 3 designs for the postcard and bussines card which will be printed out. The top two designs have been selected as the main one for printing.

The rest images are other designs I have created but did not ended up using. Note: I originally created only 3 ,ain designs which I used for both postcards and bussines cards.

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A lovley website I have created as a part of my Creative Portfolio assignment. Please click and see!

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Anastasija_Zubareva_Portfolio2020.pdf

This is a link for PDF file of my Creative Portfolio assignment.

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FMP 500 word Reflection

  After Christmas Holidays I have changed my mind about what exactly I would like to produce as my Final Major Project. This brought me to a completely new project: a mix of live-action and animation.

  I was very anxious about how it would turn out, especially because I did have a little time. However, as soon as I started my preproduction, everything turned in my favour. At the very beginning, I contacted my best friend Stephanie (ex-MDX Film student). She is a professional with amazing skills, vision, contacts and more. Stephanie became my producer and helped to gather the crew. I started to work out on the script, learning all the basics. I wouldn't say it's very original, but I focused on the feelings, emotions, performance and animation. I incredibly enjoyed the storyboarding, trying to visualise everything, the angles, the distorted perspective, etc. It was tough, I was looking at different examples, seeking for the inspiration. Research, research and a lot of reading. My initial character designs were not based on the actress but it serves as costume designs. Drawing are simple and costumes, in the end, turned out a bit different. This includes other little details as makeup, nose piercing, earrings, etc. which weren't depicted on the character sheets. In the production bible, I did miss the background designs. However, I did do a scrip breakdown, marking out what kind of props I do need and on the storyboards the set was clearly visible. My production bible is just a little glimpse of the work I made. It doesn't reflect other details as group meetings, work with an actress, costumes shopping, fittings and etc.

  Animatics were my least favourite part of the work, comparing to the tests and bible. The reason behind it is that a huge amount of my film is the 'acting', which would be individual, time to time improvised and totally different from my drawings. I wanted my actress to experiment with various emotions and subtle actions (a nervous arm scratching, etc.). I tried to do my best to depict it, but I didn't want to restrict myself or the actress. I kept it rough, added a little bit of colour, but unfortunately, I wasn't able to finish it completely. But the sound effects, my own voice-over and music should be able to decipher silent images and give an idea of what is happening on the screen. It's like a 'Frankenstein monster' which turned out to be alive.

  Test animations are simple. As I'm planning to use animation also over the top of the live-action, I had to figure out, how technically I can do it. So I did a simple recording and tried to draw on the separate frames in the Photoshop animation following the main action. It's not perfect, as I still have to figurate what brushes and colours I will use in the end to match it up the main animated sequence.

  Overall, preproduction was very exciting, emerging, intriguing, challenging and definitely helped me to gain new skills and enhance my previous ones.

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This is a couple of my test animations for FMP ‘ Pen and Cigarettes’.

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This is my animatics for Year 3 Final Major Project.