Digital animation

Starter
GANNT Chart
Storyboard
Location recce
Talent consent form
Location form
Risk assessment
Mood board
Colour scheme
Visualisation diagram



Pixar

Pixar Animation studios is an American computer animation studio owned by The Walt Disney Company.

Pixar began in 1979 as part of the Lucasfilm computer division. In 1991 Disney and Pixar announce an agreement “to make and distribute at least one computer-generated animated movie.”

Pixar begins work on the project that will become Toy Story, while continuing to produce commercials and other short materials, including spots for public television.

Pixar has produced 21 feature films, beginning with Toy Story in 1995, which was the first-ever computer-animated feature film; its most recent film was Toy Story 4 2019.

All of the studio's films have debuted with CinemaScore ratings of at least an "A−," which gives them a  positive reception with audiences.

As of July 2019, its feature films have earned approximately $14 billion at the worldwide box office, with an average worldwide gross of $680 million per film

The studio has earned 19 Academy Awards, 8 Golden Globe Awards, and 11 Grammy Awards, along with  numerous other awards and acknowledgments.

There are 10 common themes throughout all the pixar animated films that are used to teach children valuable life lessons. The first theme is:

Laughter Is Stronger Than Fear

This theme was explored masterfully in Monster’s Inc. 

The notion that laughter and happiness are more powerful than fear can be applied to many life lessons and contexts in this day and age.

Another theme highlighted in Finding Nemo is; 

The Best Relationships Are Based on Trust

In the film, Nemo needed to trust in his father’s protective side, while his father needed to trust that his son was growing up and needed to be given trust. His father also needed to learn to trust Dory, even though she was suffering from a disability that prevented her from being able to trust herself. Another theme can come from this; 

Believe In Others When They Do Not. 

Another theme highlighted throughout The Incredibles is:

Family Makes Us Stronger

The Incredibles proved that family is everything. 

Even when each family member has their differences with one another, there’s not stronger than family and there’s no one else you can turn to more than your loved ones.

Pixar have created many lovable characters over the years

Here are some of them:

Mike and sully

Woody and buzz

WALL.E

Merida

Edna Mode

The incredible family

Lightning mcqueen

Nemo

Environments

Pixar's animation can take place wherever and whenever it pleases. For example it could be set in a medieval Scotland like In the film brave, under the sea in nemo or even just in a modern time period in a house like Toy story. This is so The magic never stops whenever its set so children can feel mesmerised and build up their imaginations.

Narratives 

They usually follow Todorov’s Narrative Theory;

Stage 1- Equilibrium: life is just as usual 

Stage 2-The disruption: a problem happens 

Stage 3- Recognition: think about how to resolve the problem 

Stage 4- Repair:  go ahead and resolve the problem

Stage 5- Restoration/ New equilibrium: life returns to normal or to its new state after the events

1. Equilibrium
2. Disruption
3. Realisation that disruption has happened
4. Attempt to restore
5. New equilibrium

1. Life is Normal Nemo is starting his first day of school the ocean is calm and quiet.

2. Nemo Is then taken away from his dad and friends by a diver and put in a fish tank.

3. The dad realises he needs to go and find his son and goes on a long adventure making new friends with a forgetful fish named Dory.

4. They find Nemo And take him back home.

5. 
   

The equilibrium is restored and life returns to normal.

Pre production documentations

• Interpretation of brief 1
• Purpose, medium, target audience, run time 2
• Developed storyline with focus on events/ characters 4
• Synopsis/ treatment 5
• Sketches 6
• Storyboards- along side sketches the storyboard should capture the movement and facial expression of your character 9
• Script 7
• Personnel and crew 8
• Running order/ Gantt chart 3
• 2D/3D Backplate- the cop-out option would be to source these from google. produce your own -you could photograph them from 2D backplates or model them out of old shoe box , cotton reels and pipe cleaners or use 3D programmes such as Autodesk 3ds max or Maya 10

Cuts and Transitions

Cutting on action- cut when a certain action is done. Like a punch

Fade cut

Cross cut- Cuts back and forth between shots- like a phone call

Jump cut

Montage- Collection of the same footage

Match cut- Cut from one shot to the next either with an action or a visual or audio

Fade in/Fade out- Dissolving to or from black

Dissolve- Used to represent a passing of time with one shot becoming translucent over the other

Smash cut- Going from something intense to quiet/quiet to intense

Iris Transition- Circle to close in on an object

Wipe- It's a wipe your audience.

Invisible cut- Not to be shown. Deliberately hidden in the dark of the scene

Wip Pan- Hide a cut in the camera moving quickly

Hidden Cut- Cut is hidden

L Cut- When audio is carried from one shot to the next

J Cut- Audio from next scene is started before we get to it

Titles and graphics

Graphics and title cards can help you to generate the appropriate mode of address for your audience.

Audio and Effects
diegetic
non-diegetic
foley work
dubbing-original recordings but adding sound to create a product
incidental music-usually a background noise or music
noise print- noise reduction
wild track

high quality sound is essential
have separate recordings so people can listen back
BOOM mic will get the sound at the loudest it can so it will be clear
poor sound effects the story
record on lower setting
BOOM or leveller
test the space
sound boards
Sound blanket
If you do wild lines record them on set