aspects of ratio

Fellow independent artist and animator, Michael J Dowswell called me out on the flight forums about the aspect ratio I was using on the storyboards. This post and podcast is dedicated to him, and his unholy obsession with AR. Check out his work at Studio Tacitus. His work on "the rescue" is particularly good.

So Aspect Ratio is just a number to express what the frame of your film is, expressed in width to height ratio. There are two ways that are mostly used: integer or decimal - 4:3 or 1.33:1 respectively.

I normally don't quote the wiki, but in this case, the entry is pretty accurate, so check this out if you're interested in knowing more: Wiki Entry on Aspect Ratio

It is an important consideration when starting out, as it will define how you compose your frames, and since storyboarding is the stage at which you do this, it's very relevant to where I'm at.

Several things need to be taken into consideration when choosing an aspect ratio to shoot or render at.

I'll just focus on two, for the sake of brevity: Target audience, and scope of story.

The first is important because a TV audience expects different things to a movie audience. And these days, an internet audience expects things that are different again.

The second is wrapped up in many influences as to why this is so, but is your story intimate, or wide and sweeping? It is subjective, or objective? It is a space opera, or is it a Bug's Life?

Cinema scopes are by their nature wide, and all films from Lawrence of Arabia to The Incredibles have exploited it to good advantage. Films usually have big budgets, so wide sweeping vistas can be shot and displayed to give the audience a sense of expanse very easily.

This does not, hover, translate so well on TV. TV on the other hand, has traditionally had smaller budgets, and therefore, more intimate scenarios play out better. So a narrower scope works better in TV.

Lastly - the web age can arguably be considered aspect ratio independent, or free, but I would tend to disagree. Currently, YouTube works best with a 4:3 AR, even tho there are hacks to make wider ARs work.

iTunes, however, will play any aspects, but most iPods and iPhones are set out to accommodate wide screen. With Apple TV plugged into your plasma, you can download HD content - which is also 16:9 - and play it.

Because 16:9 HD is a format that is extremely popular, I am choosing to make the series available in this format.

This is a frame that gives me enough scope, but allows me to have intimate scenes as well.

Unfortunately, I have framed my storyboards in 4:3. Some of my frames will have to be adjusted to accommodate the difference. It is not a simple fact of making it wider. Here's why:

This is the 4:3 frame and the 16:9 frame side by side.

Here is a simple grid drawn over the two frames:


Each frame here is divided in 3 both horizontally and vertically. This is called the rule of thirds. It is a basic composition rule that allows you to position horizon lines, relationships between subjects and objects, foreground, middle ground and background, power relationships - the list goes on. Here is how:

It this example, the horizon line is just below the lowest third of the screen. This gives the sky the dominance. This is a great frame to put something large in, or flying objects. In contrast:

Putting the horizon there gives the ground dominance, so you can frame things from above, or focus on really small things.

Subjects in the fore-ground and background can be put in relation to one another using this rule also:


Now, the difference in framing is important when comparing 4:3 and 16:9 frames. Take a look at these two examples:

In the 4:3 frame, the subjects appear closer; the 16:9 frame, they appear farther apart. What do you think this says about the relationships?

So that's all I have for this week. Great news, however - I am nearing the end of storyboarding. So I shall soon be cutting my animatic. I record two more voices tomorrow - Corben and Sal (Corben shall be voiced by Joel Sarakula; Sal is a re-recording of Osman Kabbara).

I should have the Marcus reads from Orien within the next week, so it is reasonable to expect that the animatic will be well and truly cut by mid to late August.

ADDENDUM:

Michael just got in contact with me about a couple of errors in this week's podcast. Please read his comments below:

"2001 is shot in 2.20:1 and not on 18mm film. Bit of a mix up there...what happened was Stanley said bring the 18mm lens on bit of making of The Shining.

Kubrick was very much down in the lower ratios on most of his films with the only exceptions being Spartacus and 2001 which are both 2.20:1

He mostly used 1.33:1 for his films Paths of Glory, Dr. Strangelove, A Clockwork Orange , Barry Lyndon, The Shining, Full Metal Jacket and Eyes Wide Shut.
He came straight from a photography background and just loved working with those ratios.

They’ve actually started cropping his work recently quite savagely and a lot of people like me are very upset about it, because we’ve all come to know and love his films in full frame.

Mike"

Cheers for that, Michael. Some really informative stuff, there.

Originally posted July 30th 2008

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Work in Progress - July 2008

Work in Progress - July 2008 from Paul Caggegi on Vimeo.


This month's work in progress video: the first of the animatics based on a piece of dialogue I've had edited for over a month. I've just gotten to this page of the storyboards so I thought it appropriate to use it as a showcase of the work to date.

This edit took me less than half an hour. This is due to so much work that has gone before. The rest won't be so cut-and-dry, I know.

When story-boarding, I try to think of each most important shot to show. I am considering many things here. Aziz is a verbally diuretic intellectual, who poses in dramatic stances. Marcus is a stoic, stone giant. There is a great subtext I never thought of before at the scripting stage which came out purely by accident - notice the fondling and opening of the small crate? What do you think might be in it? It makes me feel as tho Aziz is going to pull out some sort of death for Marcus.

Could be. :D

I am as of this writing, at nearly 30 pages - almost a full week ahead of schedule. These shots comprise of pages 21 through 24. I think there could be some extra shots injected into that sequence, but I am determined to plow through to the end before I go back and revise the story-boards.

There's already scenes I am marking for edit. The edits range from shot sizes I think could be better, to shots I need to put in in order to explain events more clearly. I shall be showing some examples closer to the time.

One thing I WILL consider going back and changing, however, is the aspect ratio. (Kudos to Michael J Dowswell for picking up on that... albeit because of his unholy love for the 4:3 AR)

I shall preface this by saying: I AM HUMAN, THEREFORE I ERR. Coming from a video editing background, how could I overlook something as fundamental as Aspect Ratio? It should have been the FIRST thing I checked.

I didn't. I apologize. I need to go back and correct. What aspects am I thinking about? Probably a more cinematic 1.85:1 although the other night I was at an editor's seminar that featured footage shot on the new RED ONE and I am VERY tempted to cut the whole thing in 2:1 (Imagine THAT!) and render at either 2k or 4k.

This week, I also want to showcase the amazing efforts of my voice actors. I had but the merest inkling of what the characters should be doing in this scene, but it wasn't until I first heard Steve Ogden's interpretation on Aziz that I began to visualize how he may move and act.

And so I roughed out the scenes in my head. When the time comes to animate this, I shall have to resort to a tried and true method: film myself acting out the parts.

These past few weeks, I've really learned that the best way forward is to do focus on one task at a time, and not diversify too much. I am pushing modeling back until after the storyboards are completed. I am frantically reading up on things I shall need to know soon, such as texturing (my weakness) and I am formulating some very specific looks.

Milt Kahl - one of the "Nine Old Men" of Disney - once said (and I paraphrase of course): "Animation is doing one thing at a time." His justification? "I'm not smart enough to think of more than one thing at a time!"

Perhaps, despite this day-and-age, the old guy was onto something. And I had to figure it out the hard way. But I'm in here for the long haul. You guys are gonna tag along, right?

.....RIGHT!?

See y'all next week.

Originally posted July 20th 2008

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Slow ride, great view

The past few weeks have been a bit of a slow roller coaster. I've had some hurdles, as I've blogged about, but I've also caught up in other departments.

More and more, however, I am realizing it is a slow but steady race to the finish line. Some people I have been talking to over the past few months have begun to doubt the validity of their own stories, and this week's podcast is a short cheerleader chant to them, as well as a quick essay on the importance of story.

I haven't got much to show this week, as I am really plowing ahead with my storyboards. I will reveal one or two pages on this blog, just to keep you guys in the loop, but my quota of five pages a week has been smashed because I am currently at 22 pages (count them: 6x22=132 panels) and I am getting better at drawing with every panel. This means I am just two scenes away from the end of ACT I. I think I'll crack a bottle of the Old Wynyard open when that happens.

By the end, I think I'll be drawing some Da Vinci's for sure.

I re-recorded Jane this week with my new set up. I not only got a better voice, but an even BETTER performance. Steve provided me with some "shouty" tracks for one of the final scenes, and when I put these up against Jane's reads and my own, our fake shouting just didn't hold a flame, so I said to Jane: "stand back, and let her rip".

I don't know what the neighbors would have thought, but I can tell you that I believe Corben and Minauld are caught on the top of a speeding Sand-boat during a meteor storm... oops, I have said too much. :D

Joel's Corben reads have yet to be recorded, and I am still waiting on Orien's Marcus reads, but I have time.

So as promised, some new storyboards for you to perve on:

It's a short one this week, and I have plans to begin revealing some prop designs week after next - market stands, tools, gadgets - those sort of things. Probably just thumbnails, but it's the stuff that will populate the scenes.

Originally posted July 16th 2008

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3 Steps forward...

There are some setbacks, but at the same time, some leaps forward. This week, I want to take pause and review what I've just attempted and the results of what's gone on this past fortnight.

The biggest hurdle I thought I had leaped was completing the vocal recordings.

I'm not there yet. Personally, the quality is not that good when compared to what I've received from the actors in the US. So I am taking stock, regrouping, and I will be doing it again. I guess this is the advantage of having a personal project: I have the time to do-over anything that is not to my liking. Know that in paid projects you have two choices in this situation: either offer the client a freebie and eat the cost yourself to correct your mistake, or go with the lesser quality version.

There is a saying I despise, most likely because I end up at the sharp end of the stick in the situations to which it refers: WE'LL FIX IT IN POST.

This is putting too much faith in tool-sets, filters and compressors which exist nowadays, when a whole lot of work could be avoided by just getting the best possible raw media. It is largely why I am doing the recordings again. Sure, I could compress the bejesus out of the files, run filters up the wazoo to scrub out all the ambiance, then up the bass and... well you get the idea - but WHY? I have the opportunity to get it in one, and not waste those late nights on correcting my mistake because of laziness on the day. I could use that time instead to complete my storyboards and begin cutting the animatic. I could spend that time modeling and learning about texturing (the next big hurdle I face).

So I am back to the drawing board, partly on that one. It shall be rescheduled in separate passes, as not all the actors are available at the same times.

Secondly - I did lose most of my 3D models due to a failure to back up my thumb-drive which housed my project. This means I will be remodeling: Market, the Navigation Tower, the Cockpit, and the Cargo Bay. By some stroke of luck, the Sand-boat had been backed up in another older on my external hard drive at home, so I managed to salvage that.

I now have this project backed up in three other places, and each night when I make a revision, I save that file to the thumb-drive and the back ups.

On the plus side: I drafted new concept sketches for the two Sand-boats and two characters which will be replicated often. Here are the sketches below:

I've also modeled the Young Dirigible. Here is a render:

My new schedule reflects these set-backs, and it looks like the next task is to complete concepts on props. In the meantime, I will be story boarding right through until the deadline for that. I am already doubting some of my shot sizes, but I want to press ahead and go back and edit when the whole thing is done. I figure that's the best way to complete the task at hand. Perhaps I need a couple of weeks of "clean up" to go back and address holes and mistakes to the storyboards and designs, before I go full-pelt into modeling, texturing and rigging.

That's all from me this week. Next week is a bit up-in-the air as I have some work commitments that will make production time a little scarce, but I shall endeavor to showcase whatever work gets accomplished between now and then.

Originally posted July 7th 2008

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Recording Session I

Recording Session I from Paul Caggegi on Vimeo.


Yes folks - recording was commenced in Sydney on the 28th of June 2008. The cast and I had brunch, then got down to some character discussion, and finally, a four hour recording session.

Yes, for a 15 minute pilot.

In this week's vidcast, I show a few behind the scenes shots, and you can see my shoddy home-made recording booth. Here are the materials: 1x shag-pile carpet; 1x threadbare wool blanket; 1x curtain. 1x Samson condenser microphone; 1x Eurorack 812 pre-amp and mixer; 1x Macbook pro running garage-band.

Jane Newton and Osman Kabarra gave stellar performances, and special Kudos goes to Adam Ring, who did much of my extras voices (including a character called Ozman Lane, and all the traders). Adam's actually pretty versatile, and he's inspired me to expand a character which up until now was just going to be played for laughs (the running joke being that you never see him). You will also recognize Adam as the off-screen assistant director in this week's vidcast.

However, I let myself down in the recording. The results were less than ideal. There was way too much room echo, and when I put it up against Steve's reads, the difference in quality was obvious.

So I immediately went online and asked for some advice on home recording. After some digging and searching, I called up Audio Oz and ordered a "mic thing". This is a brilliant bit of foam on a stand that sits behind the microphone. When you talk into it, it deadens the space and gives a clean, ambient-free read. Apparently, it can so deaden the sound you can end up sounding too flat.

So here's my progress report:

It's been a full year since I began this blog to egg myself on to create this project and make it work. Can you believe it? I can't, but know that I look back, the pre-production process has truly eased into production, and I am creating all the elements which will ultimately serve to create the final product.

I currently have Steve Odgen's most recent reads for both Aziz and Marcus. We've been discussing the dangers of having the same actor voicing two roles in conversation, so I've enlisted the help of a long-time friend and fellow podcaster, Mr Orien Colmer, to provide me with a Marcus read.

I have the Minauld and Sal reads from the weekend - which I am dissatisfied with because of my poor recording efforts (the acting was terrific, btw). I also have my own Corben read which I've since recorded after purchasing the Mic Thing.

I am ten pages into story boarding - that's 60 panels people. I am averaging 5 pages (35 panels) a week. Hopefully I can pick up the pace here.

I have reconstructed the Market exterior, and the interior as far as the entrance tunnel.

All in all, I am a little behind, and I will have to re-draw my schedule to accommodate for further audio recording and remodeling of sets.

My next recording session may not be for a few weeks, however. When I will have to figure this one out to accommodate a work commitment. Without saying too much: you can blame the Pope. ;)

I will put up a new schedule ASAP, however, and in the meantime, I'll be pushing ahead with storyboards and props concepts.

Originally posted July 7th 2008

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