Friday, May 16, 2008

Final Day

ok, we sort of screwe dup our presentation.

as we have really too many frames to colour, we could nto finish. i went to reprint the cd covers and name cards, joel and rae finalized the powerpoint, but the animatics was not done. ok, when it finally was the time to present we did have the workfile but as we had simply too many frames, all the sources files are from 4 different thumbdrives and we could nto locate the files on time. so, after making the lecturers wait, and then we introduce our company, apologise, waive the fees for cd cover design and poster design, explained to them our budget, why we charge at such a flat rate as we are independant company, we don;t hire people, so no tax, show our research, etc, and made the lectureres wait again, until Mr. Ronald finally said "RAYMOND. take this(peer assessment) pass it to your group, do outside, ask next group to come in. they didnt want to see te storyboard and requested to see the animatics first. so, there goes our hard work, and we couldn't show anything. my whole group is very sad.

however, personally i got over it after awhile as i know we did work hard. But the lesson we have learnt is very important. it is managing our time and group. ya. Mr. Ronald said he would look at our animatics when we submit our cd.

so, we went our separate ways and rest. finally, rest. hahaha. haha. ha.
Mr. Ronald sounds very disappointed. =(

Day 05

ok, left school at abot 12 am.
so, that means, presentation and submission is TODAY.
we finished drawing everything basically, but we decided to do mroe for our clients, so we coloured every single frame. apple was suposed o do the animatics, but jing yuan havent finished colouring. we've got SO MANY frames. me joe and rachael did the budgeting, apple did the posters and name cards, joel did the mood board, i did the time chart, jing yuan still colouring. rachael continues on the powerpoint.

I seriously hope that we can finish on time, as we really put alot of effort into it. lalala.oh well.
so tired. left school at about 11 pm. apple jingyuan and joelhad night classes, so rachael and I continued on finalizing the storyboard.I was supposed to do the animatics after jing yuan and rae have finished drawing but i guess i had to help out or we won't be able to finish in time. wow, i can;t believe i can draw so many frames. i improvised on the shots, drew the car driving away (new added idea) and the graveyard scene. We thought that we couldn't finish, but found out that actually we are only left with 1 verse and we can finish it by tmr evening and do the animatics! erm. hopefully la. hahahaha.

Day 03

we had our first presentation today. a few things to take note:

we should not spoonfeed too much
must be careful of the overall environment/setting
framing, don't put things right smack in the middle
character clothing is important

Our idea not really approved at first, but after consulting him again we decide to continue using our idea.

Day 02

oh well, we thought we are going to go on with the person walking and walking and background changing only idea, but we decied to do something more challenging. MO
RPHING! Complex, even some of us don't get the whole picture, or rather everyone had slightly different visualisations.

We felt that recently most mtvs have nothing or little to do with the lyrics itself, or the lyrics itself have no meaning. Since our song, the coward of the county is so meaningful and is actually narrating a story itself, we have decided to make the animation according to the story.

Jing Yuan and Rachael are our storyboard artists! next monday first presentation. i will be doing the powerpoint.

Thursday, March 20, 2008

Day 20

Came to school to pass Nafisah my hole punch and blog hard copy. Exporting video to the tape later. Hope it doesn't take too long. Now that MOI P1 has ended, i feel relaxed but on the other hand...some kind of feeling that i cannot explain...the fun memories and lessons learnt.

Day 19

My group had this crazy idea of wearing super formal. Tux, bow tie, Blazer, tie, blah blah blah.
Basically, I am the Boss. Andreas is my Right Hand Man/Butler, Nafisah is my Lawyer, Honey is my Secretary and Gary is my bouncer.
Alan said we will be given credit for reaching on time, and that he will postpone the presentation to 1 pm.
We were then told to do the peer assessment sheet. I thought that A = can work in industry wheres it's A+. This resulted in me undergrading my Andreas and Nafisah. sobs.
I rated myself a C.
I feel that i have not contributed enough partly due to my injury. I also think that i have disappointed my members sometimes. I guess a C would be appropriate. I don;t think i was a good leader. wonder what my team wrote for me.
I was quite moved when there were no questions asked, and despite the drop in quality due to using quicktime to play it the reaction received really made me happy. Thanks all MOI people for the support =) Especially my Team.
Personally, i would Rate Raj's group's video to be the best, followed by Boon Bin's group (although i feel that at a certain point the personal attack was too much and has crossed the line) and third would be Lionel's.
We took a group photo with Mr Ronald. Year 1 is coming to an end...

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Day 18

I reached school at around 2pm to pass Nafisah and Andreas the scripts, storyboard and notes taken during interim. I was not needed anymore so i guessed it's better that i go home...

Monday, March 17, 2008

Day 17

I came late at around 12 plus due to some rendering at home. I joined Nafisah and Honey for a quick lunch and returned to the lab. We all went to return our equipment after that. Well, Andreas mentioned that he didn't look in the tripod bag d\for the missing piece. I did something even more stupid. I checked the bag, didn't see it inside. I went up to 3rd floor, then went up to fifth floor, opened both storerooms, received a call from Andreas it is in the bag =.=/. Went down to first floor to look for my team and they have already went up to the 3rd floor. ARGH.
I humiliated myself once again by doing the voiceover of WINNIE again. In the crowded 3d lab. Everyone who heard it, even those who were not familiar with me, gave me a weird confused funny look. Ok i admit it was quite fun but still a bit embarrassing. HAHA.
Nafisah and Honey had the privilege of having such a voice talent in their group. They were laughing like...on the other hand Andreas found it disgusting as it was directed at him in the video. This made me thought of something. Although our group tend to quarrel, we are really happy when we are happy.
My help for doing the storyboard was rejected by Andreas. Sobs. Okay i think the Winnie thing is getting over me.
Nafisah then asked me to figure out how to do the subtitles. She then went to have a break. I couldn't figure out and asked Sarah for help. Thanks Sarah.
I went for a quick break.
I would say i am quite impressed how honey managed to finish the slideshow in the amount of time given to her.
Ok, this is the most fun part and most retarded voiceover of our project. It is the No - Exams voiceover!!!!!!!!
We went out of the lab, and recorded whatever we recorded, with Honey shrieking at the end of the video. YES. It's now left with finishing the subtitles!
Basically, Andreas got addicted to doing the subtitles. Nafisah and I had a hearty chat with special guests like Sholleh and Betty.
We left at 10.30 pm. Wow.

Saturday, March 15, 2008

Day 16

We spent over 2 hours trying to get the tape, audio and lighting right. We had no experience. Setting up the lighting was painful. Ouch. One of the lights spoiled.
Getting to the point, we finally set up 2 lights and it was actually sufficient.
We gave up on creating a filter for the camera mike and had someone hide under the newscaster table and hide my $6 mike behind the mac book.
Guess what. It worked!!!
We did not know how to use the reflector. Me and Nafisah switched roles on being cameraman and the one that hides beneath.
I told Andreas to try to have more enthusiasm while speaking. WOW. It was marvelous. Best shots taken so far.
We then packed up and went to 3d lab to upload the videos. Had to use other group's camera to upload.
My group members told me i was the one that caused Gary's misery by unplugging his laptop and thus destroying the information in his Zen. But i was stubborn and confident that i was not the one that did it.
After awhile, i thought about it. Oh no. i was the one that did it. Apologised to Gary. Sigh. I feel i am becoming lousier as a leader day by day.
Andreas finished editing the Newscaster segment and sent it to Nafisah, Honey went to fix her laptop, i tried editing my video but got very irritated by the file corruption(AGAIN) and decided that i should keep my blood pressure in check by going home to complete the work instead.

Friday, March 14, 2008

Day 15

I did not sleep at all.
Original plan for the trailer would be using the music clip which i used for my video fundamentals video. However, it seems that it has been taken off all the websites. I can find the websites but all the sites state a missing file for that file.
So, i decided to use Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho's music. Yes, i know, i used it for animation fundamentals cone assignment. But i tell you, it works well...
Original plan was just using black slides with white text and segments of the video with voiceovers(with tones like typical hollywood trailers "This Summer(Low low tone voice)".
However, since i am using the psycho music, i decided to do it the psycho introduction way!
Which means, animation.
Tried using windows movie maker.
Then i thought to myself. Okay it's time i brush up on my Flash skills.
After i finish everything, it's morning! Well i admit in between i got stressed and went to play some online flash games.
And oh ya, alot of time was spent on the green colour ratings screen in trailers.
Further cutting of my interview segment, rendering of both videos, changing fps rate of animation and rendering, i finished work at 11 am.
And we had Interim! Our group came first!
After waiting for a while, Ronald decided to let us consult him first. He looked through everyone's work over and over again without looking at mine to build up suspense in me.
I have to thank Mr Ronald for the help he gave us in our video and teaching us many skills during the interim assessment. He taught us on dissolve, transitions, styles, and many other precious lessons. Our consultation took over 2 hours.
This is what he told us to do:
1. Reshoot Andreas' scene due to audio and lighting
2. Gary's slide transitions to be altered to only a few.
3. Slight changes to animation backgrounds and highlights/shadows
4. Use a few fonts. We used too many different ones.
5. Add in MOI news logo animation in between each segment.
He said my segment was okay, just need to remove the black spaces on both sides, change some of the text fonts, and try removing soem parts of the interview.
And he looked impressed by the night scene...hehehe
We were then told to loan this huge amount of equipment, turned out we don;t have a certain type of tape and we had to return the mike. We called Zaihan to help us keep our stuff int eh 5th floor studio storeroom and left.
They told me to edit the font for my video. But, i am going to K.O.
zzzzzZZZZZZ

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Day 14

We all thought that interim will be tomorrow. turned out that when i asked Mr Ronald during diploma show that it is on Friday. Poor Andreas got so stressed up and wasted so much time trying to export the videos.
Basically, we were supposed to compile everything together today to get ready for the supposedly interim tomorrow.
Original day for interim was past Monday or Tuesday. So, I told my physiotherapist that i will be available on Thursday. After the end of my physiotherapy, i felt that it was better that i go home straight and do my work at home. I don't want to risk corrupting my hdd and i was feeling lazy to go to school anyway. Not needed there too. I finished the interview segment of my video. Called up Naf to tell her i am not going to school and that i will finish the trailer by tomorrow morning.
So, basically, we will show Mr Ronald our whole compiled sequence by tomorrow.

Day 13

Nafisah started on the credits!
Gary tried exporting his video in school! Successful!
Honey combined the girl audio voice i did into her segment!
I finally can start editing my video peacefully. Good bye 2b lab.
And yes, i mean finally. so sick of redoing, re-exporting, re-rendering, re-transferring, don;t know how many times already. Just hope my new hdd don;t give me problems again.

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Day 12

There was no meeting today.

Sunday, March 9, 2008

Day 11

"wuah. nice. Nafisah you make your advertisement segment so nice to pull down our grades right? wuah.......Oi!!! don't anyhow use MOE logo arh!! They didnt sponsor us, don;t anyhow use MOE logo..." (what i said to Nafisah roughly)
Ok, i was editing my video, but my group had this INNOVATIVE idea of using me for a girl's voice over. So i spent like 2 hours trying to get the tone and everything right.
Basically, i'll try to talk like a girl and set the rate to around 54000.
i went back to edit my video, however shortly after the security guard asked us to leave.

Friday, March 7, 2008

Day 10

Today was supposed to be the day on which we will be compiling all our complete segments. However...:

1. Honey is in Hospital
2. Gary could not export his completed work
3. Nafisah could not finish her super tedious animations
4. ARGH I STILL STRUGGLING AND REDOING DASDHJKASDHFJKSDAGHFSDAGFJLDASGJ

Andreas showed me his completed work. I felt that the slide show could have been longer, but i guess it can be like this for this moment. finally his exported video was okay.

AND. I forgot to bring a necessary file to sch. So how? Go home do. ZZZzz. Waste time go to school. ARGH. Went to Elias to watch my friends play table tennis to get this off my mind. i am really very irritated. Can;t play due to injury. sigh.

Day 9

I came to school seeing Andreas all stressed up. Found out that Mr Ronald wanted him to add tone and highlight to his animation.
In the meantime, i am getting stressed up over why Honey's segment is only 1 minute 35 seconds. Honey was doing her animation at that time. I clarified some questions on the time limit of our video. Mr Ronald said that either everyone's is 2 minutes, or everyone equal length if it exceeds 2 minutes.
In the end, i found out that she left out one whole segment. ZZZ!
It was then decided that all our videos are edited to 2 minutes 20 seconds.
I asked Mr Ronald that if we are allowed to stray from the storyboard. He said no as he wanted us to learn from now that the storyboard will be what we will be showing to our clients in the future. Although i don;t like the idea but i think he is totally right to say this, so i accepted. Haha. See, there is a difference between whether you like it or whether it is useless or not.(refer to block 1 moi p1 day 03 entry lol)
I guess I stressed up Andreas by telling him what i want of the ending slide show for his segment so i offered to help him look for the required sound effects.
Me and Andreas felt that the time lapse needed some background music.
AND. MY SEGMENT IS SO IRRITATING. All because of the computer viruses and soem other technical errors. ARGH.
And retribution has come. Andreas has shown his true colours. He poured back vengeance by irritating me two-folds.
lol. That's all folks.

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Day 8

I reached school and Andreas was doing his colour and light assignment. He really looked stressed. So Yvonne helped him out and i tried to help out if i can too. I allowed Nafisah and Gary to stay at home to continue on their own segments. Honey beside Andreas editing her own segment. I guided her on how to edit.
SIGH. Have to RE-SHOOT Andreas' introduction again, as the previous take looked weird and out of place.
Andreas went back to upload the video while me and honey went to have lunch. Andreas finished editing his sequence.
The Seniors had to use the computer that we stored all our files in. We returned the equipment to the store and went home.

Day 7

As usual, Andreas was the first to be there. (Sometimes due to his lecture, sometimes due to his own punctuality.)Somehow the version of Premiere couldn't open soem of the video files due to the type of compression. we got all stressed over it and finally Gary's laptop managed to open it and export using a different compression.
Gary and i recorded some voice while Andreas was transferring some files.
We then selected the voice clips that we wanted and I helped Andreas in some of the editing.
That's all folks. Yes, That all.

Sunday, March 2, 2008

Day 6

We met at around 10.30 in the morning (Saturday...sob) and set up everything and waited for Peng to come. While waiting for him, we went to Cheers to buy some food. Peng's scene took less than 5 minutes to complete. Thanks Peng for the time =)
Andreas then continued with his lip sync while i went to the 2d lab to collect the required files. I did some editing.
While trying to clear some misunderstandings, i spoiled Andreas's mood. Really sorry for this.
We then went over to the school gate to re-shoot Andreas' scene as it wasn't satisfactory.
Up next is the main reason why we chose to shoot on a Saturday. It is due tot he fact that there are actually much less people in school on a Saturday.
We proceeded to shoot the no-exams part of our video. As Gary was injured, he became the cameraman instead of me. (i'm injured too...but mine is thumb, his is neck and shoulder, if he acts in this scene, he will be out of commission for quite some time lol...)
Basically, this sequence is choreographed by me with complex camera angles, zooms, timings, but with a totally random concept. To show that we are running around the whole school shouting "No Exams!".
i shall leave this self explanatory and for a surprise during the final presentation.
However, i can tell you it's very very tiring. it was drizzling that day too. We had to throw up old textbooks at the end, and we need to keep retaking this shot to get the dispersal of books right. Due to the rain the books and papers become soggy and muddy. ew.
We then went back to the lab to upload the videos. on the way back Gary randomly took random videos, including a close up of the cctv camera.
I thought work was over, so i started playing some games with Honey. Didnt notice Nafisah was editing and asking me questions.
I think i failed as a leader today as i pissed off 2 of my team members. I hereby Apologise to my tram for the incompetence.
Dat's all folks. Very long nvr say this end phrase.