I chose a couple of games that had inspired me in the past - Diablo 3 and Dark Souls - and also Pixar's Up, which features an extremely effective backstory intro cinematic that tells it's story with only visuals and music.
What I hoped to gain from this was a little more exposure to some of the camera techniques and compositions that industry professionals are using in their films.
Diablo 3
Dark Souls
Up
There was quite a lot to take in from all of these shots, and these are just the ones from each clip which appealed to me the most. The main thing I had to take into account was that while each of these clips are fully animated, the style I'm using is treated more like a frozen moment in time that the camera is able to pass through. My characters and objects aren't animated, so not of all the techniques used here will be applicable to my own work. I had to make sure and focus on camera movements, colour theory, placements and compositions, in order to get the most from this exercise.
When I first made a quick study of Dark Souls and Up, I noticed things like: changes of narrative pace supported by quicker editing and faster tempo audio; dynamic compositions and angles; and also atmospherics and lighting. Now that I'm returning to these clips after having already produced most of the practical work for my animation project, I'm noticing more techniques that I should be able to implement into my next experiments.
I managed to apply change of pace to my own work, which I planned for during the storyboarding and narrative writing stages. I later emphasised the pace change with quicker editing in my animatics. I'm unsure if I've been entirely successful yet, but there's still time for refinement there, so hopefully I can rescue it if I have to.
I also thought about the influence of colour; how each shot should follow a similar colour scheme, with a transition taking place somewhere throughout the storyboard to reflect the shift in mood/emotion and provide variety to the visuals.
When I see these clips now and look into them a little deeper, I'm seeing that when it comes to presenting dynamic compositions and more interesting shots, the planning stages are by far the most crucial. When I look at some of the shots that I've studied here, it's plain to see that a ton of effort has went into figuring out the best angles and sets. I'd already learnt that storyboarding was a very important stage in this kind of a project, but this has reinforced that idea and made it clear that it's possibly the most important step, requiring refinement and revision in order to produce the best results.
Throughout each of these clips there's a fluidity of motion and variety to the camera shots - something that I feel my own work lacks at the moment. I feel as if my current animatics suffer from repetitive camera motions. This is something I might be able to fix by the end stages, but then I may not have prepared myself for enough during the storyboarding stage. If anything, this has again taught me the importance of placing more emphasis on storyboard planning and refining.
I feel better off for having made these studies and I think I'm far more prepared for my next project. I'll be taking into account a lot of what I've learnt here and improving my workflow with the extra knowledge. In future posts I'll make some more of these studies, aimed at movies, to see if I can pick up any interrsting camera tricks from that; I'm quite interested in leanring a bit more about the dolly-zoom maneuvre - which I attempted in some earlier edits - to see if this effect might be useful in my practical work.
I managed to apply change of pace to my own work, which I planned for during the storyboarding and narrative writing stages. I later emphasised the pace change with quicker editing in my animatics. I'm unsure if I've been entirely successful yet, but there's still time for refinement there, so hopefully I can rescue it if I have to.
I also thought about the influence of colour; how each shot should follow a similar colour scheme, with a transition taking place somewhere throughout the storyboard to reflect the shift in mood/emotion and provide variety to the visuals.
When I see these clips now and look into them a little deeper, I'm seeing that when it comes to presenting dynamic compositions and more interesting shots, the planning stages are by far the most crucial. When I look at some of the shots that I've studied here, it's plain to see that a ton of effort has went into figuring out the best angles and sets. I'd already learnt that storyboarding was a very important stage in this kind of a project, but this has reinforced that idea and made it clear that it's possibly the most important step, requiring refinement and revision in order to produce the best results.
Throughout each of these clips there's a fluidity of motion and variety to the camera shots - something that I feel my own work lacks at the moment. I feel as if my current animatics suffer from repetitive camera motions. This is something I might be able to fix by the end stages, but then I may not have prepared myself for enough during the storyboarding stage. If anything, this has again taught me the importance of placing more emphasis on storyboard planning and refining.
I feel better off for having made these studies and I think I'm far more prepared for my next project. I'll be taking into account a lot of what I've learnt here and improving my workflow with the extra knowledge. In future posts I'll make some more of these studies, aimed at movies, to see if I can pick up any interrsting camera tricks from that; I'm quite interested in leanring a bit more about the dolly-zoom maneuvre - which I attempted in some earlier edits - to see if this effect might be useful in my practical work.
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