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Category: 5.1 FMP

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5.1 FMP

Week5：Thesis themes and animations

Cultural Hybridization in the Film

The blending of many civilizations and the subsequent creation of new cultural forms is referred to as “cultural hybridity.”  Some see cultural hybridity as a completely new kind of culture that emerges through recent connections with other civilizations. But there has been a lot of discussion about cultural hybridity.

  • Cultural hybridisation can perhaps be used in my animated short film, I have always been interested in the traditional culture of exorcism, and I will further explore how to make this theme to be presented in animation
  1. the importance of the title, as the questions in our paper should drive your research and structure your paper.
  2. all the different and relevant factors need to be identified. Setting up sub-theses requires enough practical examples to support our theories
  • Survey research
    This paper will take cultural mixing in film and use the literature and the work of experts in the field as a basis for analysis. A different perspective distinguishes cultural mixing from homogenisatio

Cultural hybridisation is the combination of two different cultures to form a new form, there are many films of cultural hybridisation such as Singin’ in the Rain, Kill Bill, and the Disney Adaptation series, most of which are based on cultural elements for cultural exchange, learning and application.

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4.1 project 1 5.1 FMP Advanced and Experimental 3D computer Animation Techniques 1

Week4: Preview video of changes and character design

After directing a new version of the split shot, I made the following adjustments in this version

Firstly, the overall speed has been reduced so that each key shot stays for 1-2s longer.

Changed the multi-distance shots in the first act from pushing close to the camera to rotating shots. Maintaining the character in the top right visual centre, first having the trees in the scene obscure the main character, then slowly changing the camera angle to bring the main character out.

Secondly I noticed that the split shot had to be timed to take into account the continuity of the action, with two different angles for the same action shot.

Then I optimised the shot, for example, in this scene, the character is repositioned to the third of the frame, with the whole body in the visual centre.

Finally I sketched the design of the monster character, inspired by Nuo-myeon, which has a dragon like mask with a red and green colour scheme, the story takes place in the New Year and the dragon is a representative of the zodiac, so I designed the character’s head as a Nuo-myeon dragon mask.

Categories
4.1 project 1 5.1 FMP Advanced and Experimental 3D computer Animation Techniques 1

Week3：3D Preview Video

This week I created a 3D split preview of the film，and there are some tweaks from the previous week’s static 3D subplot.

Compared to static storyboards, dynamic split-screening focuses more on the movement of the camera, the timing of pushing the camera closer and further away, how the camera follows the character’s movement, etc. Here are some of the important points I learned about split-screen design during the production process.

Crossing the axis
In this shot the girl’s character appears on the left side, after which the shot keeps her on the left and the monster on the right side of the girl. The camera also stays to the right of both characters

Movement curve
The movement of the lantern is designed so that the glowing lantern moves in an S-shaped curve and the lantern is the only warm glowing object in a cool colour scheme.


The characters are always on the left side of the camera in order not to overstep the axis, for example in this shot the little girl appears from the left side of the camera when chasing the lantern

Next some details of the production process

The first scene, in which the girl chases the lantern, is shown alone in the woods in a distant advancing shot to give context.

The girl’s lantern flies away and the girl makes a wish

The lantern is blown by a strong wind and is about to fall

Girl following the lantern and run into a cave.

Coming inside the cave, the huge monster looks down on her

The girl is terrified, but the monster gently fixes the lantern

As the lanterns are released, the camera follows them into the sky, looking down to see the warmth of the light on their happy faces.

The sky is full of lanterns and theirs rises slowly. (End)

Categories
4.1 project 1 5.1 FMP Advanced and Experimental 3D computer Animation Techniques 1 Maya

Wek2: 3D storyboard

Story plot：

  • There is a monster with a terrible mask live in the foreast and people were afraid of him. During Chinese New Year, a little girl was alone to release the lantern in the forseast, she make a wish to latern that not to be alone anymore. When the lantern fly to the sky, a strong wind suddenly blew and the lantern almost going to fall. The little girl chased the lantern and accidẹntally walked into the monster’s residence. The monster made the girl frightened at first, but the monster is actually very nice and fixes the lantern，finally they fly the lantern together.
I ended up picking one of the stories to create a 3D storyboard.(Read in top-to-bottom order)

Production process

  1. The corresponding scenes were first built: the forest, the scary and mysterious cave, and the room where the monster lives

The forest：The forest is in cool colours, a cold winter’s night when a little girl flies a lantern alone.

The cave：

The entrance to the cave is designed in the shape of a monster’s mouth and the protagonist, a little girl, runs the cave after the hole in the wall, which leads to the monster’s home.

The monster’s room: The walls of the room are covered with various masks. The roof is hung with lanterns and is a room with warm tones.

2.Set up the camera after building the scene:

In the design process I applied the principles of split-screen design that I had learned in class, placing the main characters and important objects in the visual centre，and used various shots in conjunction with the rhythm of the plot, such as medium close shot, medium shot, full-length shot.

Last step, I layout of all individual shots on the same page:)

Categories
4.1 project 1 5.1 FMP Advanced and Experimental 3D computer Animation Techniques 1 Maya

Week1：Three stories and producing of three scenes

I conceived the third story, which was a reference to traditional martial arts films, where two warriors meet and fight, with one of them eventually winning. The rhythm of the fight between the two characters can be expressed by the distance between the characters and their movements, and when they get closer to each other the rhythm will be faster. It was interesting to see how the characters moved in the subplot.

Moodboard of three ideas：

  • 1. The first story takes place in the ruins of an ancient Egyptian castle, with a predominantly yellow colour scheme, a combination of desert and ancient architecture, and a scene with many stone temples and triangular structures.
  • This is the video of model, the scene with tall pillars and the idols in front of them, the symmetrical structure of the temple will make the scene look more solemn.

  • 2.The second story is a mysterious ancient Chinese temple. I did some research on the Nuo masks in western Hunan, where there is a tradition of touring the gods during the New Year, Nuo masks are masks that symbolise the gods and are worn by people during the New Year to dance and pray for all to go well in the new year, with different masks representing different gods.

Design of scenes：

The scene model：

  • 3. The third scene takes place in a more modern martial arts film, where chivalrous men in a modern metropolis compete in a martial arts tournament.
  • This story focuses on the action of the fight and this is a reference to some of the action design.On the right is a reference to the scene, and on the left are some storyboard.

and modelof scenes：