Premise - Neatened Orphographics and Expressions Page Progress

Line Orphographs

Expressions (I plan to do at least 2 more lines)

Premise - Vocal Synth #2

I got the fully configured bank back from Yin a few days ago, and I have been working on some demo covers of existing songs to show off its capabilities while I'm waiting for a new demo from Kowa. Once again this vocal synth is made using my voice recordings and configured in such a way that it can "sing" in English.

Original Song: Lie by Circus P


Original Song: Machine Gun by KIRA

Premise - Mika Color Blocking

I think I need to do more of these blocks, but the ones I'm leaning toward out of these 10 so far are 1 and 7. I think the pops of colour on 7 lend to the outfit well and will make Mika stand out from the otherwise grey blanket room.

Premise - Mika Orphographs

I'm unsure about the hands and side face right now (those two things have never been my strong suit) so they may change as I go on.

Premise - Concept Art #1

I'm thinking of giving Mika this kind of pink and blue effect to show the thoughts of the song fluctuating. So when they're really bad they'll be wobbly and unstable and toward the end when Mika breaks out of the dysphoria they'll completely disappear.

Perhaps instead of a silhouette, they could be rotoscoped on top, so I can really make them wobbly, though at this point I am still unsure.

Premise - Room Tests #1

Today I decided to test out my blanket room in Maya to see how I could accomplish the look. At first, I did a basic room model using cubes but the cloth just kept falling off and wouldn't feed into the middle of the room. Soi decided to do a more open test.

first test 60 x 60 subdiv

second test 150 x 150 subdiv no friction

I like the look of the second one. It looks like loose sheets and still holds form to the objects.

@Alan - Premise - Thinking about the Room

Today I began thinking about the room of my animation and how I could abstract it more. Alan suggested a white space instead of a room but I want the feeling of how i feel trapped to come across. Then I remembered Deannas Inverted Hospital Room with the breathing bricks and how that created a sense of being uncomfortable.

I began thinking along the same lines and thought of the fact that when I feel dysphoric I tend to bundle myself up in bed until it passes (which usually takes a while). I thought along the lines of a blanket fort made up of a giant blanket, that is in the general shape of my room. The idea of this signifies that the blankets are comforting, but also suffocating as it has become a habit that I shouldn't have to be used to.

Premise - Making Of Progress #1

Right now I'm just laying out my images roughly to figure out how I want it to look. When I finish that I'll take it into photoshop to finesse everything and make it look nice.

@Phil @Alan - Premise - General Thoughts #1

I emailed Phil and he suggested I stop thinking about the nuts and bolts of my project for now and focus more on the song and its "story".

The song in question is going to be based around my experiences around coming out as Agender, the critique I get from others surrounding it, and my general feelings from when I came out to now. The song will be fairly moody, but I've asked for Kowa to have upbeat elements in it so I can get some choreography in there too.

The character in the song is a representation of me, based on me and my feelings around the subject, acting as a bridge between me and the audience as someone to identify with.

After discussions with Kowa, we honed in on a subject that isn't talked about much in media or in songs and is fairly unknown. Gender Dysphoria. Its something I face on a day to day basis. I don't want the song to get too depressing as I want there to be a point where the character "breaks free" of the dysphoria and accepts themselves.

Although my feelings with Gender Dysphoria are around me being agender, I'm hoping the song will connect with other trans people and people with body dysphoria too, and to let them know things will be okay.

The video itself will be set in one room with a changing environment as mentioned in a previous post. The room is a metaphor for feeling trapped and unable to get free, and there will be a point in the video where Mika gets fed up with the dysphoria and breaks free of the environment to finally be themselves without the chains of other peoples opinions holding them down.

Please let me know if you would like me to elaborate on any of these points, or if you have suggestions for things I can look into regarding the subjects.

Toolkit 2 - Pipeline 1: Head Modelling Part 9 - Fixed

Yesterday Alan kindly helped me with my JPJ progress by cleaning up the mouth area for me. Now it looks much better and I can move onto part 10 of the tutorials

Premise - Vocal Synth #1

Yesterday I finished recording the strings needed for one base pitch of the vocal synth for Mika.

Main Strings (194 lines)

Extra Sounds (51 lines)

Now I just need to configure the strings in UTAU so they start to make sense together as words. I am getting the creator of this CV C list, Yin-P, to configure this for me for $19 or £14.51. He will also be configuring the extra banks I record in the summer.

Configuring the bank is basically programming in how the program reads these sounds to be able to put them together. For example, A simple do re mi sequence such as this:

Actually looks like this behind the scenes:

With the Do sound for example looking like this:

The lines tell the program how to play the sound. So the green line is at the start of the consonant, the red at the start of the vowel, and the blue areas not being played. The pink area is what stays as is, and the white area is whats stretched/looped depending on the length of a note. It's a little like keying an animation, but without the animation.

Premise - Music Video Inspiration

I spent some time today gathering moving visual inspiration for my music video.



There are points in this music video where the singers are in rooms interacting with them in different ways. This was the main source of my inspiration for mine. Mika in a room with a changing environment interacting with it in different ways. Acting like they're trapped and by the climax of the song breaking free from it.

I've also been looking at interpretive dance videos, as they add a lot of emotion to visuals.







Although I am as of yet unsure if I should include interpretive dance (as I haven't done much in the past, only a little back in school), it is a nice option to explore.

I also looked at the music video for one of my song inspirations as it has the ambience I want to include in this piece of animation.

Toolkit 2 - Pipeline 1: Head Modelling Part 9 - Issues

I have run into problems with the Sculpting & Clean Up part of the pipeline. More specifically with cleaning up the mouth area and making the transitions smooth with the vertices. I've tried to rebuild the mouth and go from there but ran into the same issues where I couldn't get them in the right positions.

I know to some this might seem like an easy fix but because of my Aphantasia, I have trouble viewing things in a 3D plane. So trying to get this cleaned up is difficult for me.

Premise - Loose Animatic 2

Toolkit 2 - Pipeline 1: Body Modelling Part 1

Since I got stuck with the head again I decided instead of waiting around for Monday I'd start the body modelling just so I'm not stuck with nothing to do.

Premise - Character Exploration 29-40

Toolkit 2 - Pipeline 1: Head Modelling Part 7 & 8

Front

Side

Premise - Character Exploration - 25 - 28

Since all my first designs for Mika were done before I decided on my theme, I wanted to explore some new outfits for them to wear in the video. Right now I'm leaning toward developing 25 and 27. I think having the torso exposed with the binder gives a sense of vulnerability to the character.

Premise - Room Exploration #1

Quick Maya Test

Concept Art

I feel like at the moment the colours are looking much too monochrome. It will become boring to look at if the entire music video is just this for 3 minutes. So I plan, when the room is switching between activities/environments, the more important parts will be lit up with a neon blue.

Example of the glowing wires Mika is strung up with

Toolkit 2 - Clay Modelling: Lesson 4

Toolkit 2 - Facial Animation: Eye and Brow Extremes

Premise - Lyrics #2

Initial Lyrics:

-Verse idea-

Shot with an arrow

I’m falling apart

My face in the mirror 

Does not match my heart

But I’m moving on

And I’m walking along

-Verse idea-

Held strung together

This one thing I fear

Even if I manage to get free

I might just disappear

-Chorus idea-

Dysphoria

Oh why would you do this to me

Dysphoria

Stuck in this cage and can’t find the key

…

-Bridge ideas-

I feel wrapped up in what other people think of me

All tangled in the strings that never set me free!

…

This is who I am

Why can’t they just accept that

Why mock me,

With the he’s and the she’s i don’t want to be?!

Writing about my feelings and experiences around gender dysphoria is hard for me as I've never been too open about my feelings. But I made notes and started writing random lines and such for Kowa to work with.

Toolkit 2 - Facial Animation: Lip Sync

Premise - Lyrics #1

As a response to my own notes, I decided to have a stab at writing a verse for this song.

"Shot with an arrow

I’m falling apart

And my face in the mirror 

Does not match my heart

But I’m moving on

And I’m walking along"

--

"Shot with a burning? arrow

I am burning to pieces/ashes?

My face in the smashed mirror

Is oh so far from decent?"

Admittedly I'm not the best at writing lyrics, but I had a stab at it and then drew some rough storyboards as a response to those.

I showed them to Kowa and she said they are something she can work with when going forward.

Premise - Room Moodboards

Premise - Updated Submission Commitment

I wanted to change my submission commitment a little based on feedback from the interim crit.

1. Rough Pre-Production part of Making Of
2. 1 Minute Rough Song Demo with animatic based on the overall sound and feel
3. Rough Lyrics
4. A single pitch recorded demo bank for the vocal synth with tests. (more pitches will be recorded in the summer)

Premise - Song Notes #1

I thought in preparation for a lyric writing session with Kowa I'd start writing down some of my thoughts on my gender dysphoria. I honestly got a little too depressing with these and I want to try and take it back to a more hopeful point of view. I think If I can't do that I'll go back to talking about my gender as a whole rather than just my gender dysphoria.

Premise - Loose Animatic 1

Premise - Thumbnails 1-3

These are the first 3 thumbnails based both on the first draft from Kowa and the Initial mood boards I made. Right now I can see the music video being set in a room with a changing environment. One minute there's strings/wires, another it's empty in a bathroom etc. This will simulate my feeling trapped. It will mostly be static cam, but will also feature some points where they'll be close-ups of the character.

My next goal is to show this train of thought in animatic using part of the 30-second draft music.

Premise - Song First Draft

Today I received the first 30 second draft of my song. It's earlier than I expected but I'm happy that things are moving along too early instead of too late.

You can listen to the draft here.

I like how it sounds so far, slow but upbeat, which will make for good choreography to be planned. Here is a list of what Kowa intends to add after this:
-add bass
-build up more drums and drum patterns
-add more intense synths for an upbeat feel
-build up kinda like EDM, still keeping the ambient feel but allowing it to have room for choreography

They'll send me more drafts as there's more progress with the song, but I'm glad I have this opening so I can plan more for the video.

Premise - Initial Moodboards

The song as discussed with Kowa is going to have a slightly sombre tone to it and also be slightly upbeat so my animation isn't limited. Without having the music yet I decided to look at some images for aesthetic for how I feel about my gender dysphoria (which is the theme of the song). I'm thinking of metaphors for how I feel that I could fit into the lyrics, like how I feel like I'm just wrapped up by what other people think of my gender and trapped in these strings of other peoples opinions on my gender. Sometimes I feel like I'd rather be rubbed out of existence rather than face the misgendering of the day and others I feel trapped in this box of what people think of me.

I don't want the song to be too depressing though so I'm going to explore more once I have first music demo (which kowa is expected to have to me by tomorrow. it will be rough and short but will give me an idea of the tone)

Premise - Updated Schedule

I have updated my schedule to get rid of the mistakes that were in my original one. I also am not going to dedicate as much time to sculpting. I'm going to have 2 days set aside and then do 3D tests in Maya based on the sculpts to help me visualise Mika in 3D. I have reserved weekends and Thursdays for toolkit 2 and JPJ and after the final crit, all focus will be on JPJ.

I have two days off. One on the 28th April for my birthday and one on the 7th May for a hospital appointment. I am hoping to have a first draft of the song from Kowa soon, but for now, I have marked it on my schedule as late April/early May.

Premise - Character Exploration 1 - 24

The one thing I'm certain on is I want the character to be loosely based on me, Agender, Androgynous and a bit loopy. I designed the outfits based on clothes I want to wear but don't think I could pull off. It's very loose, showy and baggy. Designs may change as I get music demos from Kowa however.

Premise - Song Moodboard

Premise - Discussions with Producer

The music producer i'm going for goes by the name of Kowareta. They have experience in the program i'm using as well. I've been a fan of their songs for a long time and I am excited to work with them to develop the music for my film.

Examples of their work:

We have discussed costs already

I'm going for a 3 minute song with harmonies and i'm also going to purchase rights to the music as well.

3 minutes - +30
1 vocalist - free
basic mix (for now) - free
advanced harmonies 1 - +2
rights - +60

All in all that comes to $92 or £70.52

I also sent them a playlist with the general vibe/genre I want from this music:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2P3aP1gFu0hyWsVpOubEc1

We will discuss lyrics as soon as our schedules line up, though I want the theme of the song to based around gender identity and the struggles that come with it. Both me and the character i'm developing are agender so I feel like that would be a good place to start.

For now the title of my project is pending, and will likely end up being whatever the title of the song turns out to be.

Premise - Interim Crit

Personal - UV and Texture Commission #1

A few days ago I got asked to edit the mesh, rig, uvs and textures of a preexisting model, and add some extra parts onto it to fit with the up to date design of the character.

I am working on this bit by bit whenever I find a 10 minute break through the days. I'm using a program i'm not familiar with to edit the exisiting mesh and rig and then doing the rest in maya.

Original Model.

The mesh was just coloured straight on with no textures or uvs.

Sorted Mesh into logical parts for new UVs.

Edited hair separately into logical parts for new UVs.

UV Progress in Maya.