One Last Point...

Other methods of distribution, other than the internet, are festivals. These are a good place to bring your work to a wider audience and to be able to successfully network with other animators. A list of festivals in England can be found at: http://www.animation-festivals.com/advanced-search/results/ With more notable festivals being 'Bradford Animation Festival', 'Encounters Short Film and Animation Festival' and 'London International Animation Festival'

More information

Some more written work that I have done with regards to the animation.

Why The Internet Can Be Advantageous To Animated Content.

Primarily One-By-One (OBO) is a comical animation, whose sole purpose is for it to be enjoyed on the internet. The very nature of the style used lends itself for this to be the most likely outcome. There are other places where it could be ‘distributed’ such as TV or Cinema. But as the content is a little more surreal than you would expect to find in these mediums then this would be unlikely.

At best on TV the most you could hope to achieve with something like this would be a cult following. It is for this reason that the internet is the best place for OBO to appear on. If it gains its cult following then great, but the bigger advantage is that the internet is a much more free and open place than TV and Cinema can ever be. This is because there are no commissioning producers for the internet, just ‘You’. This means that you can create whatever you want and upload to it to any number of the video sharing sites. Such as: YouTube, Vimeo, Openfilm or any number of the hundreds of sites that exist. You can create what you want and then upload it where you want, as long as you have the technological capacity to do so, something that you will NEVER be able to do for TV/ Cinema as there will always be someone “who knows what they are doing” who wants to change something.

The biggest advantage of internet intended animation is that it will not take as long for it to be seen as TV/ Cinema based animation would be. This is because, if you are doing it all yourself then, you are working on your own schedule. You will not be reliant on funding as much as mainstream content is, and can just go out and do it. It isn’t going to take you 2 years to get funding and then another 2 years to produce your content. The very nature of the internet and how wide ranging it is means that although good content will be produced it doesn’t have to be up to the same standards as that of more professional content. This means you can produce your content faster and get it seen faster.

If this happens, because of the very nature of the internet, your work can be shared. Then if you are very lucky your work can go viral. The biggest example of this being Gangnam Style which was only meant to be appreciated within South Korea.

Viral can be advantageous as you can then earn money from advertising streams, approximately $6,330 per 1000 hits on YouTube. If your primary concern is in making money then this can be a great booster to your earnings.

Another example of the internet being more beneficial than mainstream media (TV/ Cinema) is that your work can be more focused at your intended audience. Mainstream media can be seen by anyone, it may only be intended for instance to be viewed by for example the 16-30 age range, but you may not want this. Not everyone wants to be big and famous. You may have a talent and want to use it, but not want to be ‘mainstream’. The internet allows you to do this by providing sites that are dedicated to what you want. This means that you can be big in your area on the internet but never go mainstream. People are very protective over their work, and by using the internet you can protect your work by making sure that it is only ever viewed by those who are going to appreciate it, rather than those who will just want to criticise it.

What Other Zombie Content Is There?

In the last decade or so there has been a resurgence in the Zombie genre. With such content being: Shaun of the Dead (2004), Dawn of the Dead (2006), The Resident Evil Franchise (2002-2012), World War Z (2013) and many more inbetween.

The increased popularity for such content seems to have come from the increasing demand for ‘survival’ stories, and what better way to do this than to have hordes of attacking ‘creatures’ come after you.

Primarily though, whichever of the 7 basic story types you use, there is only one intended outcome. That is the portrayal of human endeavour. The Zombie genre does this but in a much more extreme way than a RomCom does. It achieves this by throwing the characters into sudden situations in which they have to survive. They have no choice, they have to keep going. People enjoy watching this, as the content plays up to people’s egos by making them think that if they were to be attacked then they would be able to survive. This is probably why, films now portray ‘Zombies’ as being faster more dangerous thinking creatures. It is because in all honesty, if there were truly proper Zombies then you would have to be very unlucky to have been overcome by them, as they move slowly and all  you would have to do to survive is to walk quite fast. From this there are ‘super zombies’ more powerful, who can do more harm. This allows for greater heroes to come along and thus now makes that audience think that if it was to happen to them, then they would no longer be a survivor but a hero.

Why Animated Zombies Matters?

Animated Zombies matters, because it isn’t trying to be clever with the genre, it just wants to use it.

By using a Zombie character it allows me to be able to create situations and outcomes that wouldn’t be able to happen to anything else. For instance, a ball flying through the air can hit someone on the head and be considered funny. But by subverting this and using a Zombie I can make the outcome more surprising and much more unlikely. I may for example have the Zombie pull off his arm and then use it as a bat. Done in the right way with the right timing this can extremely funny. You just can’t achieve this with a human or an animal character.

By the very nature of comedy when portraying a character, you either laugh at or with. If you are going to have serious harm come to them then you either need to make them the ‘bad guys’ as happened in Home Alone (1990) so that you have no empathy, or have the character with no back story so that you can’t form an emotional attachment with it. This is what I have done with Animated Zombies. I have used a Zombie character so that you can’t form an attachment, but so that I can deliver content in a quick sharp approach.

Some thoughts that I forgot about

Anonymity:

The internet has many good and bad points. One of the main ones being anonymity. There are of course advantages and disadvantage to being anonymous.

Advantages being that: anonymity can protect people who are being persecuted, so that they are able to fully protest without revealing their identity. It can allow you to do research without others knowing what you are doing. If you are researching in the library, then someone just has to look over your shoulders to see what you are doing. You cannot do this with the internet as you can go on it on your own and use programs that block what you are looking.

Of course these can all be disadvantages. People can use anonymity to unfairly criticise without being able to be traced. They can use the anonymity to carry out some very questionable activity.

In all honesty it depends what you are doing. If there is a piece of media then surely criticism should be made in your own name. After all media should never be about life and death.

The Internet for Distribution:

The internet can be fantastically simple for distribution of a media product. There are any number of video streaming websites where all you need to do is to create an account and you can upload straight from your computer.

This therefore means that the internet is now the primary choice for distribution from ‘amateur’ producers. Although here amateur us a misnomer as a lot of content published on the internet is nowhere near amateur.

The major advantages of using the internet for distribution are that it is instantly available so that your work can be seen as soon as it is finished. You can create it and showcase your work as soon as it is finished. This then follows on to being able to focus your work maybe more than you would be able to do so with traditional media outlets.

The disadvantage comes from the fact that if you can do it then so can thousands of others, this means that you are always fighting to be different and to be noticed. Whilst this could also be considered to be somewhat true for more mainstream media the difference for them is that they have the budget so that they can make more considered careful decisions on the work. As it is so hard to get to this stage it means there is less work from them and so it is more likely to be noticed.

Basically on the internet to be successful you need to be different, to have a following and to be able to adapt to change as soon as it comes along, because if you don’t you will be forgotten very soon. There are numerous stories of people making money from advertising revenues on YouTube, but this can’t last and unless they are able to change they might find a time when they are no longer in demand and they might actually find that they are struggling.

So whilst the internet is a good place to distribute it cannot and should not be the only place you distribute and earn your revenue from. If your work is good enough then you should be able to get it to more mainstream media, where more work should then hopefully follow.

Social Media:

Social media described in the simplest terms are sites where like minded people can keep in contact. As the internet allows you to communicate more information faster than any other form of communication this means that change can fluctuate more so than anywhere else. However, because of social media with these like minded people, you can focus your work and target it towards people who will be interested in what you are producing. Probably one of the best sites to attempt to do this is Twitter. Not because of being able to share links for videos, but because there are celebrities on the site with millions of followers. If you are able to gain there attention then they may tweet a link to their followers. If you can do this then you open your work to the possibility of millions of people seeing your work. This is where your work can go viral.

Finished Animation

Just to notify that the animation work is now finished and all that is left to do is to add some sound effects, and that's it. Job will be done.

Update

I have now started on the production of the animation. Out of the three I have been working on the first one, which is now just about finished.

I have also been doing simple bits from the other two clips.

As I was delayed in getting the equipment and software I needed to complete the work I have been looking at the audio and some of the shots used in the animation. The dialogue of sorts is still going to remain, but there is now going to be less of this. This is to make it more realistic and appropriate to the zombie. There are now going to be less morphs within the 3 clips as these were getting in the way and deviating attention away from what really mattered.

I have also been working on background detail and cycles and working out what need to go where in relation to this. This is so that I can re-use certain pieces of animation, but alter this in certain ways so that it looks different.

Shock Horror

Scientist says that Zombies as portrayed in films would never be able to function in that way.

Such a shame. But it does mean that no one will be coming after your brains.

Viral Media

There is a lot of information out there on what it means for something to go viral on the internet.

I take it to mean that some sort of content that has gained over 100,000 views.

There doesn't seem to be any reason for what will make something go viral. It can be good or bad. Rebecca Black became infamous for her 'terrible' music video Friday. I presume that something similar was happening with 'Gangnam Style' but its popularity took over and meant people enjoyed the dance rather than making fun of something silly.

Usually something goes viral by accident, it will be shared between friends and from there will just keep on going. If something becomes big enough like Gangnam Style did then it can make it to international news where it gains exposure and will then garner even more views.

There are companies out there that profess to know how to make something go viral, but usually these will have money behind them so that they can sponsor posts on Twitter and Facebook and make it more likely to go viral.

It doesn't always work though. If a site produces good content then it may go viral, but as everything cannot go viral then the one good piece could be stuck between rather rubbish pieces. Because of these rubbish pieces people turn away. The bigger the company the more content and the more likely this can happen. This is why companies go for advertising campaigns where it will be a more drawn out process. As this can more or less guarantee that the piece will be seen. This obviously costs a lot more money, but is more likely to provide a return.

Why the Narration Matters.

Even though I have previously mentioned that there is going to be no dialogue, this is a misnomer of sorts. There is no intelligible dialogue, just muttering. It doesn't matter if you cannot understand it, as it adds to the atmosphere. However, as there is a script that corresponds to these mutterings and you knew what they meant then it would add a new layer of the audiences understanding. It would act as a sort of in joke. In the same sense that 'The Clangers' employed the same technique, with the whistling, it adds to the atmosphere. But if you care enough to want to know, and are able to understand these mutterings then it can just add to the enjoyment that can be felt by watching something like this.

Cycles in Animation

I use cycles in my animation as it allows me to do more work in less time.

If I was to animate a 1 minute clip of walking, on 12 frames a second then I would have 720 images to 'draw'. This would take an extraordinarily long time to do and would mean less time spent on some other part. By using a cycle I can create a walk cycle from 10 images. Using the cycle method I would only have to do this once and then repeat the cycle 72 times. This would save me a lot of time and allow me to move onto something else. This is a big advantage that comes from being able to use layers in Flash, as it means I can add backgrounds that make it look as if it isn't a cycle being used.

However, some may say this is lazy. But, as mentioned on the inspiration page, there is nothing wrong with limited animation it is all about the story telling. Sure the animation has to be professional but if you have a good story then you don't need to over-complicate it all by going over the top with the animating.

Review

Have watched World War Z (2013).

It was a very different Zombie film in that it showed the outbreak as being a 'virus' that had got out of control. It made extensive use of hand held cameras for the action scenes. This allowed for a more realistic effect in that it immersed the audience in the action, so that as tension built up and winded down the audience could feel every twist and turn. The film showed the reluctant hero being forced into taking action by his family effectively being taken 'hostage', and being told that they would be removed from safety if he didn't get involved. He showed that even though he had been out of action for a while he was still very capable at getting the job done. Even though he was an investigator he seemed as if he was much more than that and seemed as if he had been in military forces at some point as he seemed very hands on. The film for me felt perfectly placed as even though it was 2 hours long, the action flowed nicely and meant that you were able to follow along the action and not get bored.

Further update

Having just found this website: Perspective Drawing, I will now be having a closer look to decide if any of the perspective within the animation needs changing.

Update

From the last time I updated a lot has happened. I have updated the animatic so the timings are now locked.

The flow is now a lot more smoother and I have decided to go with morphs between scenes and clips. This has allowed a really fluid feel to the animation and allows for the three separate clips to feel like they are all one big animation.
I have updated the walk cycle that was used. This has meant a much more realistic look to the walk. Also the lines no longer boil, which means a more professional look as the animation looks as if it fits within its world rather than invading. Also there are three layers of perspective within the walk cycle. A foreground, a middle, and a distance. This as well makes the walk cycle look more realistic and that it is inhabiting a 'real world'.
I now have a sound designer, working on the animation, doing the sound effects and editing the music.

Oh, there is now a finished script and narrative transcript. This will allow for the voice over to be a lot more in sync with the animation, and will no longer be prone to change.

Review

Have watched George A. Romero's Land Of the Dead (2005). Here is my review.

I enjoyed this as it showed a deeper meaning to what being a Zombie is. After all in generic Zombie Films the Zombie is the antagonist that needs to be killed so the heroes can get to the safe destination. What was different here was that the Zombies were becoming self aware, so that rather than just ambling around they were becoming organised. This seemed to breathe life into the genre.
However, it is still based on one of the 7 basic story types, that of Overcoming the Monster. Although, because of the way the film has been developed this is a murky area. What you realise is that rather than the Zombies being the monsters they are just a side show to who the real monsters are. The film shows what many people suspect. That the rich would use the situation to stay rich and to keep those beneath them downtrodden. Indeed it was almost inevitable that the Rich would have their downfall as they were still hanging onto the old world, by leading parties to gather remnants of food, medicine and whatever else was left over from the old world. This was a problem as to truly survive then they would need to start again and build up their own new community and to make everything from scratch. The problem being that the rich as portrayed don't know how to do this and are always relying on others to hold them up whilst oppresing these very same people.

Review...

Have just watched Tim Burton's Corps Bride.

Although animation it is still a typical love story with references to Romeo and Juliet and numerous other love stories. The difference here being that it is stop motion animation as opposed to live action. It is a very cleverly done animation. Very slick, but then professional animation usually is. It has a fluidity that would be very hard to achieve in live action as everything is designed specifically for the animation and shot carefully. This is a degree of control that you cannot get in live action. My only problem is that it just seems too good, but I suppose this makes it better as you know it is animation trying to be animation rather than animation trying to be live action.

Research

Stuff that I have been working on in the last week include, camera movements and zombie fonts.

First the camera movements. I have been looking at a better way at connecting the clips that make up my zombie animation. First off I started looking at zooming in and zooming out, and discovered that this didn't work. The problem I believe is that because I have limited detail in my animation it just doesn't work to zoom in and then zoom out, as you end up with big blurred detail rather than a refined look. Because of this I have decided yo use the morphing technique to link up the clips. With the limited detail in the clips it works a lot better morphing as the technique enables me to link by shrinking all the detail into a ball and then expanding this into whatever I need it to, this is something that I have always found an interesting thing to as it really does allow me to convert anything into anything.

Secondly, the Zombie fonts. From the research that I have done, fonts come in all shapes and sizes but the one thing that I have noticed is that these fonts are usually covered in blood. So whichever font I do use, it will come covered in blood.

Added extra, I have also designed my own ident that I can include at the start of any of my animations.

Updated Animation

Having the chance to update the animation, I have made the decision to make some change that will definitely improve upon the idea.

These include: going down to only having 3 clips that will make up the overall animation, and making these 3 clips more zombie based.

This in practice means that the overall movement of the zombie will be slowed down, which connects a lot more with how traditional zombies are portrayed in cinematic history. Also the changes mean that now within each clip everything that happens will now only happen to  the zombie and because of his own doing. So whereas before accidents happened because of external influence, they now only happens because of the zombie's determination to interact with its environment. So for instance taking as example one of the discarded ideas, for the updated series, the zombie would pull his own head off and shake it to complete the task. Before with the older series something would have taken the zombies head off. Now the zombie makes the decision, as it were, because only a zombie could pull its own head off and survive. Before anything could take off anybody's head so it wasn't particularly restricted to being based with a zombie character, but now it can be as in media only a zombie type character can physically damage their own body and then carry on as if nothing happened.

Some other changes that I had been considering. Were: white lines on a black background, and a more sinister atmosphere to the piece.

However, after consideration and having received feedback from tutors I have decided to keep the overall feel the same.The problem with the slower moving sinister piece was that it just felt as if it dragged on, it had a good impact but because of the dragging feeling it just felt wrong. This can be seen as with the same feel from before on the new ideas it works a lot better. I believe this is because the more humorous aspect allows the clips to drag on a little more, than when it is sinister, and therefore the viewer is a little more forgiving than they would be with the sinister piece.
I think that for the sinister piece to work that it would probably have to have been one clip so that a story could be developed that would enthral the viewer, which just wasn't possible when having 3 short clips together.

Another change that will be implemented will be camera movements. This will allow the finished animation to be more professional than the original idea where the camera as it were was still. The movement will at least be a zoom in and out that will link the 3 clips. This will allow for a more fluid feel to the overall piece than what you got from the original piece, as the black that separated before interrupted the flow of the animation. Now the movement would mean that the flow would be more fluid and would keep the viewers more enthralled. Other experiments would still keep the black in between the 3 clips but with captions on. However, as this is an idea that is left over from the sinister idea it is likely that this will be dropped in favour of the zoom in and out linking of the clips. Another idea for the linking of the clips is that instead of zooming in and out, there would be morphing between the clips. However, as both of these ideas involve smaller effort for animating than the overall piece this will be something left until the end when the 3 clips will be linked up.

For now this is everything that will happen, but I may make more changes depending on circumstances, but I vehemently believe that the changes that I am going to implement will vastly improve the overall piece and in the end have a more professional feel than the original.