Character biography

Harry Mores:

Age: 24

Occupation: Photographer

Home town: Manchester

Hair colour: Brown

Eye colour: Blue

Harry is a very determined person and pure hearted, he is a man that keeps his promises no matter what. Although he is not very athletically fit, but he is brave when it comes to fulfilling his objective. However, he often carries all the burden and responsibility to himself.

His hobbies are photography, carries a camera wherever he goes to and captures his life through photos and his collections of photos are his treasure. Harry came from a some what wealthy family who supported him for his studies.

He studied photography at the Victoria University of Manchester and this is where he met his

beloved person, his wife, Anna who also studied photography. They have recently moved together into their new home(terraced houses) in Manchester, Tameside. He is very protective over his wife.

His dream is not to become a famous photographer, but wishes to change peoples perspective of life through his work for the good.

When the World War II started, he begins to act differently to his wife. Although he knows that he is not fit to be a strong soldier, he feels that something needs to be done about it. But all he is ever good at is his photography skills. He begins to think about if he should join the army and fight for his country even knowing that he is not athletically fit. Day by day, as he listens to the news on the radio, his determination of joining the army grows. He feels as though he has to do something about the war. Until one day he finally decides, he wants to join the air force, not to fight, but to capture the horrific events around the war. His bravery lead him to the British Army as a air force photographer. His aim is not only to show the current generation of his pictures, but to show the next generation of this horrific event that should never happen again and to show the world that this conflict should be stopped.

Harry receives training for the first 6 months, after that he was dispatched to other war zones, taking actual footages of the battlefields with his Argus C3 camera. His greatest threat is not the enemy, but death, because he has yet to return home to meet his unborn child.

He joined the army in 1942 and the war ended in 1945. However he remained in the army to capture the aftermaths of the war.

1 Years later after the war, he officially returns home and reunite with his wife and son, his photos were later published around UK and later around the globe.

Anna Mores

Age: 24

Occupation: Photographer/House wife

Home town:

Hair colour: Blonde

Eye colour: Blue

Anna is the youngest sister out of her two elder brothers. Being the youngest in the family, she is often spoilt by her parents. She is always the one making decisions without thinking about others around her and she is very impatient. She studied Photography at the same university as her husband and graduated together. Her dream is to become a well known photographer. At home, she is often the decision maker that will make people agree with her.

When the World War II started, her husband began to treat her differently, and at times disobeying her. Because of her lack of cautiousness, she can’t quite figure out what Harry is thinking. One day, Harry left her a note saying that he is joining the British Army. At the time she was furious, angry and confused. It was hard to accept because she was 3 months pregnant as well. During the absent of her husband, she worked at Manchester Evening News as a photographer. She often gets visit by her neighbours and friends.

Life without her husband was hard because she had to face all her daily problems herself such as house works and raising their child. Without the help of her friends, she would face a even more difficult life. However because of this, she slowly becomes strong and independent. At first she is very worried about life without her husband, but day by day she begins to realise the reality. Their style of photography is very different, Anna is very into her fashion photography, while her husband Harry is into nature and scenery. One day, she opened up Harry’s photo album and browsed through all his work. Since then, she begins to understand Harry’s decision.

When the war ended in 1945, Anna waited another year for her husband to reunite with her.

Plot:

The World War II has started in 1939, the people of Manchester and all around are at the threat of conflict. (1940) Harry, a photographer for Manchester Evening News is on the way home to Denton in his friends car. That day he feels pretty down after hearing a friend’s death, the reason is unknown. When he gets home, he goes to the dark room upstairs to develop his photos.

His wife Anna then comes home from next door. Harry is just sat in the room thinking in deep thoughts. Anna knocks on the door a few times.

Harry is in the living room, putting his developed photos into his album, with the radio on.

He then hears a shocking news to him and becomes even more worried. Anna is also in the room putting her photos in her album giving no attention to Harry because she was so interested in her own pictures.

At night, Anna is asleep upstairs, while Harry is going through his photos in the living room.

The next morning Anna finds that Harry has already left the house, and downstairs by the door there is a note.

Harry explains all his reasons for leaving, (scene shows flash forwards of Harry in the army) Anna cries.

Harry trains in the army for the first 6 months, during this period he takes pictures of his life.

After he is dispatched to the battlefield to take photos of the conflict, peoples and the horrific events. Harry keeps a photo of him and his wife at all times. He carries two Leica II camera with him and each films taking 36 photos. The camera can be easily carried with the lens being pushed into the camera. Harry develops his photos at night, using the helmets as a container during times when he is at battlefields.

Times when he is back at his H.Q, he sends his films back to his wife and lets her develop them due to lack of the resources he has. Anna puts all his photos into an album, she is still yet puzzled with all the photos and his purpose of taking these pictures.

One day, Harry was dispatched to another battlefield, the enemy had advantages and outnumbered. Harry was shot into his chest and has fallen.

Through out the years Anna has helped Harry develop his photos, she finally understood why.

The War ended in 1945. However soldiers during that time has to remain in the army for many purposes. In 1946 she receives a letter about her husband coming home. She waits at the Manchester Victoria train station for his arrival. But she waited from day til night. Finally, Harry returns and for the first time he sees his son in person.

In the later years, his photos are published around the world.


I have yet to amend these, but firstly I would need to model all the characters and scenery first.

I have went through many researches such as articles, websites, documentaries and picked out interesting bits and made into a fiction story

And finally the dissertation intention

INTRODUCTION

How do you depict realism in animations?

What makes it believable that the audience gets so attached to the world?

Is it to do with the quality of the graphics represented?

Or could it be the story behind it?

Technology in animation today has come a long way since animation first became popular worldwide. Back in the days, animation was unable to show realistic characters and they were portrayed by caricatures. Although presented as caricatures, many of these animated films were filled with rich storylines which brought characters to life that made them more believable and gave more imaginative spaces for audience.

Since the release of CGI (computer generated images), animators were able to create a virtual world and photo-realistic characters that gave the audience a closer connection with the animation presented. This technology often used for realistic representations as well as special effects which are not possible to do in action. However, being too realistic, this leaves no room for imagination and that everything seen is static.

However, there is a limitation on how much realism to have in a film. Too much detail and realism in a film will cause disturbance to the viewer, such as violence and gore, too less would make the film unbelievable. The depth in realism must be balanced in order to aim at certain audience.

One of the main techniques to achieve realism in animation is to have a deep story with lots of details, from character features to personality, habits, age, family, home and the world. Realism in literature often involves almost everything about the character and the world in rich detail. Many storytellers often get their inspiration from past or personal experience, by doing that, the story often mimics the real world that people can relate to themselves.

Things to look at:

Cinematography

Realism in literature

Realism in Art

Films

- Casshern

- Pixars

- Uncanny Valley

Propaganda

World War history

Exaggeration

Psychological perception

Limitations

Robots

Too realistic

Cultural humor

Philosophers research and back ups

Use of language

Linguistic

Aesthetic realism

Physics

Social groups

Bibliography

Appendices

CGI

Timeline and setting

Initial idea was to base this story on World War in history, however there are already too many novels and media based around this already and will lack originality.

Another plan was to design a world that is similar to the real world, maintaining similar features such as; religion, technology, geology, cultures and society.

However, the focus is mainly on the character so for this purpose, I will be mainly focused on the related context.

Many novels mimic the real world in their own respective ways. Many of the unusual representation are often the successful ones. The use of unusual representation and the use of realistic storyline backgrounds is what I’m aiming for.

Due to the theme of this project, with the visuals, I want to stay near to the real world as possible, because it is a dark and serious themed storyline, therefore it is important not to stray too far away with the visuals. With the short film having only around 4 locations, I would not need to go all out in designing a world, perhaps a few different representation of these area will do.

Visual Style

Software used will be mainly 3DS Max for creating characters and background scenes. The intended visual style I will be going for is quite a classical style to reflect the old times and a sense of past. Although I will be using a 3D model, I want a 2D cel-shaded style to it with a sketchy representation. From start to end, I want to show less color to start with then slowly show more color as the movie progresses.

Below is an example of the style I want to achieve. In my iteration, I would use more realistic looking characters as opposed from the anime style shown below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0kHjBhUmFg&list=FLzxps7EZluHPRFiFkkTEdrg&index=22

Plot

During the War era, the country of is on the verge of elimination. Their country are in desperate for soldiers, they ordered every young men to fight for their country. This was all over the news, spends his last day with his wife . The commander sent his troops to s house to take him away. wouldn’t let go and then he was beaten up and taken away from his wife.

He sits with 8 other men on the truck. When they arrive to the H.Q, sees long queues for collecting uniform and weaponry.

lost in thought, she takes out her photo album to reminiscence of her memories with her husband. puts on his helmet ready to battle, the troops are dispatched the red zone 20 miles away from H.Q. was frightened by the explosives, gun fires and cries. When they arrive, they got off and charges to the enemy. But was petrified, one of the enemy by his foot still alive, his comrade tells to finish him off. While too frightened, ’s comrade kills the enemy. Most men from the truck before are dead, runs and hide, his pendant drops out from his pocket with a picture of his wife. He realizes that must win so that he can come home. He grips hold of his gun and enters battle. He rushes into a forest, as he run passes the trees, the camera pans round in slow motion. A change of visual and aging can be seen here.

Few months have past, gives birth to their child. wakes up from a nightmare about his being killed in a bomb attack along with their child.

He looks outside into the moon, then slowly covered by smoke.

2 Years have passed since the day left his home.

Next day enters the final battle, the country’s fate are in their hands.

sees on the news that the army has won and the soldiers are returning home.

The is waiting at the train station with her 3 year old child. There are many other family members of the soldiers waiting for their arrival. Most of them are reunited, but for , never came back.

Here is the script for the animation

Daily Life of a Solider

Scene 1

Early in the morning, the man has breakfast with his pregnant wife for one last time. The truck arrives to picks the man up and takes him away.

Background noise - birds singing, wind breeze, plate dishes, truck

Notable objects – clock, calendar, photos, furnishing, baby cradle

Scene 2

The man is sat with the other people who are also taken, each looking depressed, some look excited.

BGN – truck, people talking, cries, laughing

Notable objects – clock/pendant and photos of his family

Scene 3

Man arrives to the H.Q, queuing up, trying to pop over to see what is ahead, then given his uniform, gears and gun.

BGN: people talking

Notable objects – Guns, uniforms, helmet

Scene 4

The wife looks at the window, waiting for something, walks over to the chair and gets out the photo album

BGN: steps, chair creeks, wardrobe

N.O : photo album, clock, calendar

Scene 5

Man puts on his helmet, pans to the gun looking frighten. Gets pushed out of the way and marches forward with the team. They go back to the truck with uniform on this time. The solider sees explosives from a distant. They get all get off and charges towards the enemy, except the man who looked shocked seeing dead bodies all over the place. One of the enemies still alive on the ground, his comrade tells him to finish him off from a distant, but he was too scared to shoot him. The comrade shoots it for him. The man then runs towards the trench looking shocked as each of his comrade are getting killed. His pendant drops out of his pocket and sees the photo of his wife, he realises that he must stay alive therefore he picks up his gun and fights.

He rushes towards the trees, the visual turns from black and white to colour as he passes the tree in slow motion, from looking shocked to heroic. This also shows the progression of character growth and timeline.

BGN: explosives, screams, gun shooting, cries, vehicles

N.O – guns, pendant

Scene 6

The wife gives birth to her son

Scene 7

I haven’t quite finished but at the end of the animation, the wife waits at the train station with her child, but her husband never came back.

The message I’m trying to bring across in this movie is really treasure your family, in which this case I used the father as an example, many people that I know take their parents for granted and doesn’t realise how hard they are working for them.

Perception of

Realism

This project aim is to deliver a short film with various of medium. One of the key element is to have deep story telling, such as a person(s) daily life in their perspective. If the plotline is not believable, it would require high amount of visual details to overlap that missing hole. However, realism is a broad subject and can be delivered in many different ways. For this iteration, I want to design a touching story that the audience could feel for the character(s). To achieve this, it requires a large amount of research involving that subject that I am to express.

Idea

The idea, is to base the story on a solider’s daily life at war, being at threat everyday will show a lot of depth of the character’s emotion. Their departure from their homes and family can also bring up the level of realism. With this, I want to add a past and future storyline for this solider. The medium and visuals will be expressed by;

a) Pencil drawing still backgrounds with possibly 2D or 3D cel shaded characters

b) As the story progresses it moves onto a Propaganda style visuals

c) In the end, the visuals opens up into a photo realistic style

This reflects the timeline, the character’s growth as well as the technology movements of animation. To add an extra depth, I also want to implement some other themes to this.

Cycle of Life:

Although the theme about war is slightly dark, I want to balance it by giving it a bit of light to it. Solider puts his life on the line everyday to defend his country, encountering numerous deaths and injury, but there is also new born life everyday, bringing new hope to the future.

Heritage:

This shows the life of the man before becoming a full time solider. His dreams and will being passed on through generations.

To balance out the film, I want to end it with a happy ending because being a dark themed, it will feel repetitive with the same coloured mood, showing the progression from dark to light will keep the audience occupied.

Research

History of the world war

Film making

Realism in literature

Documentaries of solider, peoples past experiences during war time

Art movements

Propaganda

#

Here is a sample of lip sync using the morph modifier

Our D&AD entry piece, I worked with Aaron as a team for this project, Character design for Disney. I came up with the original concept and drawings and Aaron did all the 3d work and the layout for the board.

Pod is a mandragora that lives underneath the crops in Max's farm. Coming up with this concept I went through all the disney films and think about what hasn't been done before, so I came to this in the end. Mandragora and Mandrakes appeared in other films such as Harry Potter but they did not have a lead role, this will be the first time that a Mandragora gets a lead role in disney.

Pod is curious and cheeky and hes very nosey, I went through lots of different drawings to finalise his appearance making sure it looks right. Also I have included supporting characters such as Mr Onion and Mr Carrot.

Storyboard shows his appearance in context.

Visual Studies - Location
For the location I have chosen Manchester Chinatown as mentioned in the previous post, here are a few experiments I tested out on photoshop, I'm trying to get this ink style shaded material for this animation but having some difficulties at the moment, here are a few examples.

The old brown paper background brings that ink style feeling

This is probably one of the closest one I could get at the moment

No texture

no texture

Animation & Kinetics

Here are more sample of motion capture using my 3d model






After testing the model with many BIP files, I know that the model can pretty much use most of the motion files

Visual Studies

Here my chosen location is Manchester China Town, because of the night lights there and the culture they have there. One of the idea is influenced by video games, in the animation "The Pixel" they had video game characters invading the city, this is purely based on my personal interest and would like to see what it would look like for my favourite characters to appear in a real location

second idea is the chinese ink style, I want to create a 3d animation with 2d ink style effect to reflect the chinese culture. A few artist is influenced by this and are used in a few games/animation. I think this could be done in 3d with cell shaded skin in a ink style.

Digital Culture - 200 word and storyboard of a city


Long ago, this place was a small fishing village, for generations the Li family has been making boats as carprenters. This village grew into a small town over the years with many overseas visitors selling and trading goods. Their business was very successful for generations and they’re very well known throughout the town. Decades later, the town evolved into a large city and they are a well known company by then.
As the Li family thought that their happy lives would last forever, one day their city was invaded by the Japanese Military, killing, slaughtering and destroying their homes. By then the Li’s have lost everything they had for generations.
Under hopelessness and despair, miracle has cast upon them, The British Army fought off the Japanese Military bringing peace to the city once again.
Now today, the city is crowded with people, skyscrapers are everywhere, a city that never sleeps.
The Li family may have lost their business but they have not lost their spirit as carprenters they were once to be, now they are rebuilding their company making ships that set sails around the world seeking for their ultimate goal.