Additional Research.

We also looked at a Documentary from Animal Planet called Dragons made Real, unfortunately I cannot embed it into my blog, which is a shame, but here is a link to the first part, if you wish to watch it HERE.

The documentary itself is very interesting, and explains how Dragons could have existed, with scientific theories as how they achieved flight and breathed fire. Well worth a watch in my eyes. Lovely Dragon Models and CGI.

We also looked at Falcor from The Neverending Story as he his the same shape as our dragon. Unfortunately as the film is a little dated, the movement was so realistic and it wasn't really as inspirational as we thought it would be. Still Falcor rocks and deserves a spot on this Blog.

Concepts.

Here are a few early concepts playing with shapes and head shots, still early days, and im not sure which I like yet, these can probably we taken a lot further and im hoping looking at more dragon material will help with this. We shall see, especially after we see How to Train a Dragon. I also have to look at an Animal Planet Documentary called The Last Dragon.

Because our chosen dragon is quite thin and long we also had a brief look at Mushu from Disney's Mulan. We found he had some lovely poses and exaggerations. Take a look at the clip below to grasp an Idea of what we mean. We especially liked how his spine was used characteristically, as if it was another emotive limb.

The Book

After reviewing the book, cover to cover, we have chosen our dragon to feature in our animation, we have chose the fabled Knucker. Said to reside in Europe and dwell in dark damp places. It is also notorious for it's hoarding of gems and does not breathe fire, instead it has a rather venomous bite.

Schedule

Lydia kindly made our production schedule. As you can see we have a lot to do however I feel confident that as long as we stay on schedule (or ahead) there is nothing stopping us from completing this project.

More Research;

Today Lydia & I will be attending Empire Cinemas in Bromley to watch "How to train a Dragon" in 3D.

This will be beneficial for all aspects of the design throughout the project, from the concepts to the actual animating.

Research;

Me and Lydia began research by visiting a small exhibition in Forest Hill at the Horniman Museum. The exhibit was about Myths and Monsters, and covered the origins of some of the

myths and the plausibility of truth behind sightings.

It was a nice small exhibition and including moving life-size animatronics of the monsters (including the dragon). It was helpful to get close to their models so we could gauge scale.

The Dragon model was particularly impressive as we really got a sense the positioning of limbs and scale. It was also nice to see how a dragon would move, kinda slow and powerful.

I also really like the structure of the head. So I made sure I took some nice profile shots. We also recently discovered that our chosen dragon has got horns, as mentioned in later books in the series.

Obviously Our chosen Dragon for this project may not look like this dragon, though i still find these images beneficial, as it was nice to see up close details.

This exhibition however was a little weak on the information front, however that doesn't concern me at all as most of the information on dragons we will be acquiring from the original source material.

Moving Forward.

Lydia took the initiative and emailed Templar Publishing whilst I hunted down the Author Mr Dugald Steer. I found him on facebook and sent him an email. Obviously not the most ideal form of contact but worth a try.

Heres my message;

Dear Mr Steer,

I am very sorry to track you down on facebook, it seems a very rude way of asking this. My name is Andrew Bennett, and I am a second year student of Animation Practice at Ravensbourne College for Design and Communication.

I am about to participate in a term where we have to find an outside brief. There were some students from the year before whom managed to contact a book author and create an animated short from an exert of one of their works. Roughly a minute/minute and a half animation that the author would perhaps use on his website or for other purposes.

Being a huge fan of your Ology books I was perhaps wondering if we could do something similar? Maybe creating a short 3D Animation of one of the teachings from Dragonology or the other Ology books. If you would like to set us an outside brief it would be an amazing opportunity for myself, and team. We have contacted Templar Publishing and are awaiting a reply, however I thought perhaps emailing the actual author may be a better means of contact.

Please rest assured that you will not have to actually use this animation. All we ask is that you possibly set us a brief and allow us to bring something of your work to life.

If you are interested, We would absolutely love to hear from you. Our term starts on the 22nd of March and any response/interest would be greatly appreciated.

You can reach me by replying to this, or my email and phone number at the bottom.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this and thank you again for creating such an inspired series of books. (And so sorry to contact you via Facebook.)

Kind Regards
Andrew Bennett

Luckily Lydia had more luck and to my amazement received response from none other than Nghiem Ta, the artistic director of the series. Heres her messages and our responses, including our brief rewritten to fit our proposal for the project.

--------------

Hi Mike,

I'm hoping that you're the right point of contact for the media creation
of the Ology Series.

My name is Lydia Fabian and i am a student studying Animation Practice at
Ravensbourne College of Design and communication, London.

I am contacting you concerning the Ology series.

I would like to use the Ology series and take some extracts from the book
to create them in a 3d environment. Potentially using the books
illustrations and artists style from the book to animate the selected
chosen sequences from the book such as 'how to tame your dragon'.

It would be a great project for my university and i think that the Ology
website would maybe look as though it's a closer continuation from the
book, taking fans into the world of Dragonology!

Please contact me on this email,
or my mobile number is _______

Hope to hear from you soon,

Kind Regards,

Lydia Fabian

---------------

15th March 2010

---------------

Dear Lydia,

I hope you are well. My name is Nghiem (Neem) and I design and art direct
the Ology book series. Mike Jolley, our art director passed your email onto
me.

Your project sounds really interesting and it would be great to see another
dimension to the Dragonology book. Before granting an official approval for
your use of the Dragonology content, I will need to trouble you for a more
detailed project breakdown (detailing how you would use and treat the art
etc.) and also list any further assistance you may need from me.

In the meantime, may I ask for your postal address? I¹ll need to ask you to
sign a letter of agreement. I hope this will be okay.

Thank you for contact Templar and I hope to hear from you soon.

Regards,
Nghiem

----------------

16th March 2010

----------------

Good afternoon Nghiem,

Great to hear back from you!
I just wanted to let you know that this project will be my final unit for
this year, and I anticipate having the finished animation available for
you to view in 9 weeks time.

When I return to Ravensbourne next week I will be discussing and
finalising my Project Brief in detail with my Tutor, Jared Taylor, and I
will forward you a copy as soon as possible.

In the meantime, please feel free to look at some of my work as follows:

Here is some animation from the end of my first year-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yG2ZTF8dCmk

This is the unit i did last term which was to create a 3D environment-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGnGAsDJPAE


My postal address is -

_____

Thank you for giving me this opportunity and I hope to be able to keep you
updated on a regular basis.

If you have any further questions or wish to discuss any finer details
once you have received my brief, please do not hesitate to contact me.

I will be in touch next week
bye for now


Lydia Fabian

---------------

24th March 2010

---------------


Hi Nghiem,

You will find attached to this email a copy of the brief which has been
assigned for this terms work with the University.

I have also attached a more detailed brief that defines what content we
will be using, and how, from the Dragonology book.


To fit the requirements of the brief we will need you to be involved with
giving us feedback, and constructive criticism at various points through
the next eight weeks. I was also wondering if you could outline the
parameters for exactly what we can and cannot do with this dragon’s design
and animation?

We have decided to use the ‘Spell to catch a dragon’ at the beginning of
the book for our animated sequence. Were there any 3D generated or 2d
animations you like the style or look of which we can reference closely
to?

Do you have any more information that you could send on the Knucker
Dragon? Maybe some images you could supply for more detail?

Also has anyone contacted you and attempted something like this
previously? If so what did you like about it?

One final thing!

We would like to showcase our finished work at a broadcast event Rave
Live. Rave Live is run by a collaboration of students from Ravensbourne
each year and this year is the first year it is being held at the o2 Dome
in London, Matter, Wednesday 19th May 2010.

do we need to sign anything for Copyright or using it at this event?

You are certainly very welcome to come to the event, all you need to do is
go to www.ravelive.co.uk and there is a big button saying 'register your
interest'. You will need to fill in the details and once you get to the
venue your name will be on the guest list at the door.


We could also send a CD with the animation on to you if you would like.

Kind Regards

Lydia Fabian

----------------------------


Brief Requirements in more detail (the attachment i sent in the last email to Nghiem)

----------
Attachment
----------

Here is a more detailed project breakdown for what has been planned for the use of the Dragonology content.

We plan to create an animated short which will be suitable for use on the Ology website.
This is the extract from the book that has been chosen to work from;

Spell to catch a dragon
Take a mirror and sprinkle it with dragon dust,
Then place a sapphire or other treasure outside the dragons lair,
When the dragon emerges to investigate the gemstone,
quickly bring out the mirror so the dragon see’s it’s own reflection,
and cry,
“Ecce Narcisso Draconus Attractivae!”
This spell will tame the dragon – but watch out when it wares off!

We are going to bring this character to life in its personality and movement whilst showing it in its natural environment and delivered in a 3d medium.

To make this work in 3d, we are to create a dragon in the 3d application Maya.
We are to keep it as closely related to the book illustrations as we can,using textures, shapes, colour and size ratios from the book.

We also intend to use the sound and lighting to help generate the atmosphere.
The final outcome will be fit for broadcast standard and suitable for the Ology website.

The animation will be between twenty to thirty seconds in duration, and the final will be available from the 19th May.

---------------

The Brief.

This is the set brief from our tutors at college;

The Brief

This unit builds directly on the Industry Exercises 1 and Industry Exercises 2 units, allowing students to use their portfolio of animation skills to develop finished broadcast animation pieces (in small teams) to be shown during Rave on Air, and to generate an individual show-reel to promote those skills to employers. Students also develop more advanced planning and organisational skills necessary to manage team productions.

This unit has the potential to allow inter-faculty collaboration through the use of animation to promote the work of other courses in the creation of animated advertisements for Rave on Air (product design for example). Intra-faculty collaboration is also possible through the use of other disciplines such as post production and sound design that naturally complement the animation industry. These collaborations will be negotiated on a per team basis.

Aims of the Unit

• To enable students to initiate, plan, and complete complex team projects.
• To enable students to work to broadcast standards of quality.
• To provide experience of establishing and developing team project schedules and tracking progress towards project completion.
• To enable students to demonstrate and promote the range and quality of their animation skills through the production of a show-reel.
• 
  

The emphasis for this brief is upon fitness for broadcast purposes, if you read the learning outcomes and assessment criteria that follow this section then you will see that one of the main areas for your assessment is upon how well you meet technical parameters to enable your work to be broadcast.

You will be required to work in small teams, ideally, two, or three people per team.

You will be required to submit three pieces of work for assessment.

· An individual reflective journal (Blog)

· An individual interactive DVD showreel

· A group film fit for broadcast

Journal

This should focus on your plans for this project, your brief, your project schedule, and your performance as a team member. These can be supplemented by a group journal to help communication with team members, but the primary concern is your individual reflective account. These should be hosted on Blogspot, or Wordpress and the URLs submitted to your tutor.

Showreel

Your showreel will take the form of a menu driven interactive DVD where users will be able to select which of your work they view. You will be expected to assemble a reel that demonstrates the breadth of your capability, and the diversity of your style as an animator. As such, you may use work from any point in your studies, or from outside your time at college. You may also consider generating new work this term to supplement perceived gaps in your portfolio. The main drivers for assessment here are NOT the quality of the individual pieces of work, but the way in which you choose to present them and to promote yourself…

Movie

This is where the majority of your effort will be directed for this project. You will have to choose a team first of all, ideally a small one of two or three individuals. Then you will have to negotiate a brief for your project. There are three main ways that you can fulfill this part of the brief, but all will depend upon you having a real client, and it is up toYOU to get information from your client to define your brief. This information should include a list of deliverable items, and a set of deadlines.

Way 1

Work as a junior on a BA film project.

Identify the film you want to work on, agree a role, agree deliverables, and then deliver them. It will not be possible to do much in the way of concept or modeling work for these films given the advanced state of their development, but it should be possible to do large amounts of UV mapping and texturing, lighting, rigging and animating.

Way 2

Work towards Rave Live.

This will involve you either working towards doing one of the six channel idents, in which case you will have to contact the graphics students responsible, or towards generating programme content in which case you will have to contact broadcast content creation students to find out their requirements. Be aware that work will need to be ready much in advance of May 19^th, so it should be viable within a reduced time frame. Remember the panic that you had at the end of last term? That is a luxury that you do not have this term. It would probably be a good idea to attend all possible meetings about Rave Live, such as the one this Friday (26^th) read your email, and look for posters…

The 3^rd Way

Find an external client.

You may source a client for your project beyond the confines of college. The same conditions apply, you will negotiate a brief, and whatever work you produce must be produced in a form that is technically suitable for broadcast purposes. Other than that, the subject matter or content are entirely down to you and your client. This is possibly the most challenging of the three ways you can fulfill this project…

ASSESSMENT CRITERIA

By the end of this unit students will be able to demonstrate:

Individual Reflective Journal

• Evidence of critical reflection on the creative and artistic merits of their work in relation to contemporary practice. (A1, C1)
• Evidence of critical reflection on team dynamics and performance. (E1)
• 
  

Showreel

• Evidence of creative presentation and promotion of students’ individual repertoire of animation skills. (A1, C1, D1)
• Evidence of the critical analysis and selection of work of an appropriate quality for submission. (A1, C1)
• 
  

Broadcast Piece

• Evidence in the realisation of the projects of systematic application of animation skills and practices to the standard expected for an entrant to professional animation or visualisation. (D1, E1)
• Initiate and negotiate a team project and independently manage their time and workflow. (B1, E1)
• Successful completion, to a broadcast state, of a team animation project. (B1, D1, E1)

Beginning.

This term I will be working in a small group, and by small I mean miniscule. I shall be working with Lydia again this term as we worked well together last term, and communication between us, has always been good. I believe this dynamic will allow for a good production process, without fear of treading on each others toes.

We started work for this unit during the easter break. I proposed to lydia that we use a children's book as inspiration for an animated short, and contact the author/publisher to set the outside brief. I bought a book called Dragonology from the Ology book series, they are written by an author named Dugald Steer. It's amazing series of books which I have admired for a long time. They consist of several lovely mock encyclopedias about mythical and legendary characters, such as Dragons, Wizards, Pirates etc...

I adore the artwork and the interactivity of the books and especially love the little anecdotes and teachings included. To create a short for such an amazing series seemed like a stretch, but we decided it wouldn't hurt to contact them.