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Project.two
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Project.two
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Project.three
Task.five
Pitch Video
A level 3 VFX students FMP
Pitch Video
A level 3 VFX students FMP
planning
Aka Pre-production
19.04.21
asset planning
What I'm going to making
Pre production is a majorly important part of my project as these two weeks are going to be really impactful to my project in the end as if I manage to do a large part of the actual creation of assets witch I plan to do, It will help me make the most effective use of my time because I don't want to have to got from creating assets straight to animation them, this on other projects has lead to a fast burnout, and that's something I really want to avoid with the FMP.
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The entire first week of the pre production has been dedicated to the planning and writing of the script, you can find all of that on my script writing tab, This leaves the second week entirely open for the creation of assets and animations I want to drop in when doing the edit of the entire project, things like the maps, the flags and the troop block, although a lot of the process I will be following are already documented on the experimental research page.
This is the current timetable for my pre-production, A lot of the tasks are small and relatively easy to complete in a day such as gathering and sourcing appropriate music where as other id like to take a little more time on, such as the flag creation and troop blocks.
All of the timings on this chart are subject to weekly reviews and any changes to the schedule will be documented and explained in the Weekly review section on the website.
19.04.21
Music and sound FX
The backbone of the project
Audio as I've stated before will be a huge part of my project and I'm going to have to consider all the options when it comes to music and sound effects, I'm going to start my planning for this with a list of resources I know I will be using, I'll have reference my script quite a bit as the sound effects will most likely be related to what I'm talking about.
As for the music I have talked about this briefly already in my primary research as I asked the recipients if they could give me any recommendations to add to the playlist I'm building up for the background music. I was considering making my own foley sound effects but I feel I have enough on my plate as it is and that stock sound effects will do nicely anyway.
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Sound planning documents
Above is the list of audio assets I need to precure for the project to go ahead next week, all of this is on top of recording the entire script witch will be done on the week of production, for a lot of the assets I plan to gather from stock sites or use footage/sound from YouTube all of that will be relatively easy to gather but the quotes is where it depends on what happens on Friday, if I can I'll get some of the students from the drama class to voice act a few of the quotes, I also have some of my family members lined up that offered to help with quotes if it doesn't go to plan.
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For all of the Japanese quotes i.e. Hojo Tokimune, Mugaku and Takezaki Suenaga i'm going to commission a voice actor I found on fiver that is pretty cheap for what he does, in the gig description it says he'll translate the English to Japanese and then voice act it, the show reel of his work is quite nice and its a perfect fit for the Japanese parts of the project.
Screen cap of message
Music
All of the music that I plan to use with my project can be found on a YouTube playlist Linked below.
For the most part the majority ended up being video game music as this was the most easily accessible for me as well as offering a huge range of theme and tone, which is important for my narration to work well, I've talked a lot on music on other tabs so I won't go into a lot of detail on all my picks as there are quite a few.
There are a good few tracks I intend to use as battle music. they aren't too erratic as to get in the way of the narration but still exiting enough to emphasize the chaos of the battles, Likewise I have an ample amount of calm and serine tracks to contrast with the previous set of music, I intend to use theses pretty much everywhere else just to offset the battle themes.
Some specific tracks
I have a few options for the into scene in terms of music, it really depend on if I want a Mongol themed one or more of a Japanese flare, well for the Mongol one I have chosen the into music from the Marco polo Netflix show.
It has a nice build-up and screams Mongol right from the start, the throat singing and choses of instruments are great and I think it would fit pretty well for a documentary on a Mongol invasion. as this is a intro theme already I'd be happy to use it as such in my project.
In all likelihood I won't use the whole piece but the start and build up are exactly what I'm looking for
This Track is from one of the DLC expansions from the game Total war shogun 2, The track plays after you win a battle so I thought it would be appropriate to use for the end sequence, it starts as the camera slowly zooms out on the Image of Japan and I read the quote from the Stephan Turnbull book, I would have it play all the way through to the credits.
I think the track really encapsulates the feeling of a victory celebration and so I really think it would fit the end credits to leave the whole thing on a relatively happy note.
19.04.21
Flag designs
What are they based on?
The set of flags I want to create would be one for the Mongol faction: the Yuan Dynasty, and the other for the Shogunate of Hojo Tokimune, This meant sourcing pictures from the internet and getting to work creating them, I wanted to have a clear display on my maps what side controlled what territory, to do this flags seemed like the easiest option. I didn't just want still images though, so I plan to animate them in adobe after effects using the wave warp effect and some pining, giving the effect of the flag fluttering in the wind to make it look as realistic as possible.
hojo Flag
For the First flag I want to create the standard of the Hojo Shogunate, The picture on the left is going to be the most likely inspiration, Its a picture from the Hojo Godai Festival at Odawara castle in Japan, a celebration of the clans roll in the Japanese history.
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Oddly enough there has actually been two separate Hojo clans both using the same heraldry and name but having pretty much no relation to one another, the flag to the left is representative of the second hojo clan but I'm sure it will pass as an example of the first.
The First clan was the one Hojo Tokimune controlled at the time of the Mongol invasions, the second called the Later Hojo clan (sometimes called the Odawara Hojo after there home castle) was founded by Ise Moritoki in 1493, at the time the entire country was at war with itself, Moritoki took the opportunity to seize land and create his own clan, naming it after the Hojo, a old and revered name.
The only heraldry found for the original Hojo clan was the triangle 'Kamon' or family crest
Yuan flag
For the second flag it was relatively hard to find good quality pictures to take inspiration from, these are the two I did find however and are the two I have chosen to base my flag on.
The main thing I have to worry about when designing this flag is the tassels which are on all of the depictions of the Yuan dynasty flag under Kublai khan.
The flame bit on the top as well might be tricky to create, but I think I could use the same technique as the experimental troop block (pen tool).
The Yuan dynasty of china was originally set up due to the great Khan of the Mongol empire Kubli wanting to appear more Chinese to his Chinese subjects, The inspiration behind the flags design isn't really well known and I couldn't find any information about it on the internet or books.
19.04.21
Flag Creation
And how I did it
The whole creation process for the Flags was relatively simple, sadly I didn't record any of the Yuan flag creation but the tassels were actually quite easy to make I used the pathfinder divide tool to remove a oblong shape from a circle and that gave it the curved shape I wanted (all of the pathfinder tools I use are covered in the experimental practical troop block, check there is you are uncertain), after that I simply made a line of them and and positioned them under the flag.
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All the flag components are made with the shape tool and on separate layers both the flags and poles they attach to are sperate to make them easy to animate later down the line.
Although the video doesn't show it I do add some shading to both the flags, mainly where the flags meet the poles, this just adds a little bit more realism that I think makes them look pretty good.
Here are the first two versions of the flags I created in illustrator, honestly I think if I were to use these now when creating the rest of my project I'd be fine with it, But there are some changes I'm going to make, specifically about the colour of the pole on the Yuan dynasty flag, I think I'm going to change it to a dark brown instead as I think the black is a little too stark when compared with the rest of the colours, also to make it look like wood.
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Another Huge thing I'm going to have to add on the Mongol flag is the flame crest that goes atop the circle, that's a pretty big part of the flag and I'm quite suppressed I missed it when creating it originally, this shouldn't be too hard to add as I can use the pen tool to trace it out and make it into a shape to add to the flag.
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As for the Hojo one I'm pretty pleased how this turned out but I think I need to slightly re-align the Kamon and squish it down a bit more, as the crest isn't made up of perfect triangles.
Apart from those changes I'm happy to export them and begin animating.
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20.04.21
Flag changes
Upgrades people, Upgrades!
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These are the final versions of the flags that I will use in my project, I'm quite exited to get these fully rendered and imported into aftereffects.
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In the end I added a few more things than I listed in the previous section, for one I added a bunch of shading over the both of the flags poles to give them just a little more detail. I added a spike chest to the pole of the Yuan flag effectively making it a spear, I think it looks better than having a more modern flag pole.
on top of all that I made the alterations I said I would, i.e. flag crest moving hojo kamon etc.
20.04.21
Getting ready to export
Layer separation
I felt like I didn't need to add commentary to a 26 second video so Ill just explain it here, all the different shapes are in different layers which are then grouped into two sublayers the 'flag' and the 'pole' this is to ensure I can easily export them as two separate images to animate.
I had actually had some issues with exporting in the correct resolution and ppi all of that will be documented on the practical problem solving tab.
even though the video shows the old flags I used the exact same prosses with the updated visions.
23.04.21
Map planning
and creation
For the creation of the maps I will be using the methods outlined and explained in my experimental practical, This time however I won't just be making maps of Japan, I plan to make maps of most of the eastern world with the layout of the Mongol Khanates over the top, the Song dynasty, Japan again, a close up of Hakata bay, the islands in the Tsushima straight as well as a map of Komoda beach. (there aren't any maps for this so I will use a generic beach as a base.)
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All of theses should be pretty easy to make as I have a good number of reference images to draw from, I plan to add a texture to the maps in after effects just to make them look a little less cartoony.
Tsushima Straight
Japan
Khanates of the Mongols
Mongol empire and the eastern world
Hakata Bay
All of these maps have a specific purpose and thus will be more or less detailed, I'm going to be using the main map of the Mongol empire and Japan as the overall map, this will show fleet movements and just as a way to see the whole region in witch things are going on.
There are also more specific maps, such as the Tsushima straight and Hakata bay, these will be used to show the battles with the troop blocks I endeavoured to make these slightly more detailed as they will be shown for a good while and that's supposed to be the centrepiece of the project so to speak .
23.04.21
Map Making
In illustrator
These first two maps are of the Japanese mainland and most of the eastern world, The two will be combined as you can see there is no Japan on the map of the east. The Mongol empire is shown in the dark blue divided by the separate khanates, the map also shows the remainder of the Song Dynasty in 1274, all of these are on separate layers so I can mask out the song dynasty in after effects when the Mongols conquer it.
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On all my maps I plan to add names of places and notable cities such as Beijing and Xiangyang, I will do all of this in after effects as I will make the map have a 3D appearance by using the camera as well as the 3d tools available to me in After effects, and as I want the text to be separate from the maps It makes sense to add them later.
All of the 3d editing in after effects is an attempt to make the whole thing seem like its on a board or table witch is an effect I've seen pulled of very well in a few different styles of content.
The second set of maps are for more close up and are purposed to be battle maps, where the troop block will be shown clashing with each other, these are the maps that will show the Mongol conquests and retreats, I plan to either commission or make some Mongol boats assets so I can show the paths the fleet will take.
I have two versions of the Hakata bay map, One with the walls and one without, When the section of the script comes to Hojo Tokimune rebuilding the sea wall I'll mask ask out the one with the wall and slowly reveal it to the sounds of hammers and masons tools, I think this will be quite a nice touch to give the map some activity in the interwar section of my project.
