HOW TO BE A VILLAIN: FINISHED FILM

Below is the finished version of "How to be a Villain".

I had a good experience serving as the director and key animator in this project. Despite having some animation experience under my belt, having completed an FDA course and working in these types of group projects before, it's a humbling experience to come out of this project and still seeing there is much to learn. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ck7agCHVxSM

I'm somewhat happy with the film but somewhat annoyed about some decisions that I made in the story-boarding process, such as some shots being way too fast for the audience to properly catch and absorb. I've learnt that when working in a group with anybody, everyone has to be equally as organised and on the same page. Physical interaction between members of the group are of the most importance when it comes to group synergy in my opinion. I don't like using Skype conference calls as a replacement for meeting in person as I believe that some key pieces of information can be lost in translation through the computer screen.

Another thing I learnt, is that for the type of animation this is, being a video tutorial and all, having a voice actor is critical. Considering how late into the process it was before I realized we might need a voice over, we were extremely lucky we managed to find one in time.  It would have been a very dull and confusing film I think if we didn't have one and i'm not sure how I ever thought that having a silent subtitled animation with lots of fast paced movements would have worked at all.

Lastly, there were some changes that were made. The biggest one being the removal of the borders. This was actually an accidental discovery, but as I was playing around with the video in Sony Vegas, mistakenly hid the layer which had the interface and realized that the film looked FAR better without it. I have no idea why I was so fixated on having it there to begin with. I think I thought that having it there would make it look more appealing and interesting or something. Or maybe because it made it like a game and a short film at the same time? I'm not entirely sure, but I'm glad I realized this sooner rather than later.

HOW TO BE A VILLAIN: PHASE EIGHT - ANIMATING

This is a video of all the scenes I animated in How to be a Villain. The video has no color, no sound and no backgrounds.

   

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUkBuCfQ9-g&hd=1

Below are screenshots of some of the scenes I animated. I used Toon Boom Studio 5 and primarily used the brush tool with smoothness set to low (level 2) and the minimum and maximum line thickness between 3 and 10. I insisted on using a low smoothness because I don't like the program to correct my lines to the point where the process of drawing feels artificial. I tend to draw with the grid switched on as well because it gives me a way to constantly measure the position of where the character is and the spacing/size of things like the eyes, mouth, hands, etc.

Within these three screenshots below, I used the camera to pan across the screen and/or zoom out of the shots. 

HOW TO BE A VILLAIN: STAGE SEVEN - ANIMATIC

                                          

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrO4dQH6O_0&hd=1

This is the Animatic presented during the Formative Assessment. It received some negative criticism for being a bit unclear in it's narrative. I felt most of that was due to the audience having to rely on the text in order to understand the plot, instead of relying on the visuals. Also, there were too many shots and scenes coming in and out at such a fast rate that it was just too hard to tell exactly what was going on without an explanation. All of these thoughts and ideas is what influenced my decision to get a Voice Actor on the project. I figured if the dialogue was both spoken and present in text form, that would eliminate the need for the audience to look at two places at once and thus, would make the film much more easier to absorb. I think my hypothesis ended up being right in the end.

This is a screenshot of me compiling the animatic in Sony Vegas. All the orange lines in the timeline are the markers I used to catch the beats within the song. I wanted to make sure that the video was paced with the music so I had scenes sharply cutting in and out, every 8 to 16 counts/beats. Some transitions were determined by what I felt looked right and suited the duration of a certain part of the song but most cuts were carefully placed.

It was a fairly simply process. Outside of using markers, the only other tools I used were some cross fades and the "pan/crop" tool. Here is a shot of me using this tool to zoom into the Villain in the scene just before he bursts out laughing.

HOW TO BE A VILLAIN: STAGE SIX - STORYBOARD

 

These are some key shots from the storyboard that I produced in Toon Boom Studio 5. I used the same drawings to make the animatic but I had to add more shots on some scenes in order help illustrate exactly what was going on in the narrative.

HOW TO BE A VILLAIN: STAGE FIVE - LAYOUT DESIGN

This is the first draft I came up with of how the actual style of the animation may look. I like the style and the look of it but I knew it could still use some work. I also sent the PSD file for this image out to the rest of the group for everybody to work on top of and come up with their own version of the layout. The Narrator, the speech bubble, the text, the villain, the borders, etc were all put on separate layers so everybody could edit things easily.

This design is probably the best example of the result of the groups combined ideas. The borders and color scheme was done by Henry. The skull in the top left is an idea that Robin came up with. The bar next to the skull is the meter that Agbons originally thought of. The "Lesson 1" and the orange and white scratches in the borders is an edit that I implemented. While the color scheme for the Narrator is what Ben first came up with. I took all those ideas, made some edits and put together this interface design.

HOW TO BE A VILLAIN: STAGE FOUR - FURTHER DEVELOPMENT

After myself and the group were satisfied with the final design for the Villain, I came up with a quick poster design. The kind of thing you'd see on the walls in tube stations or pictures on the internet, advertising the film.

These were the first drawings I did for the Hero, who appears in the 2nd/3rd act of the film. The very first sketch I did where the Hero looks like a Ghost is the one I instantly fell in love with, but I decided to draw a few more versions for the rest of the group to come up with alternative versions.

The Villain and the Hero together in one shot. This isn't the final Hero design I've decided to use but I wanted to see how they looked together in the same image.

HOW TO BE A VILLAIN: STAGE THREE - INITIAL DEVELOPMENT

These were the first sketches I made for the project. I decided to start out small and draw out ideas for the villain since he is the star of the show

These are drawings for the layout/interface idea. At this point, I wasn't trying to come up with any drafts or near final ideas for the actual design of the interface. I was more trying to explore and explain the function of the interface and why it would be necessary to help push the narrative forward.

Above is a mixture of design ideas for the Narrator and the general theme/point of the whole film and how it would play out.

In this sketch, I was exploring the importance of typography and how it needs to have a consistent look that acts as a glue which brings the whole film together. I also came up with and decided on a final design for the Villain.

Here, I was coming up with a general story flow. They are the very early ideas for the current storyboard that we have now.

HOW TO BE A VILLAIN: STAGE TWO - STYLISTIC INFLUENCE

This video is what I showed to my peers when I pitched the idea. It's a tutorial for a fighting game called "Persona 4: Arena". I've never even played a single game in the Persona series but instantly became strongly attached to it's presentation when a friend had showed this video to me. I like the colors, the design and the visual interactivity of the whole presentation. Which is the biggest thing I wanted to try and achieve in "How to be a Villain".

HOW TO BE A VILLAIN: STAGE ONE - CONCEPTUAL DESIGN & INSPIRATION

This is my Mood Board. It holds the key influential points of reference for "How to be a Villain".

Batman, Video Games, Tutorials, Interactive Interface and Comedy were the driving forces that helped inspire original concept of the film. I think out of this list, Batman was probably the most important in terms of style. As I was sketching out designs for the Villain, I couldn't stop thinking about old Batman: The Animated Series (what I always referred to as "The Batman Cartoon where Batman has a Big Chin") and how he had pale white eyes within a dark shadow for a costume.