Evaluation

I am pleased with the outcome of my work because I feel that I addressed certain key points that are relevant to the mise-en-scene, and tackled them accordingly. I have documented my work in detail throughout the course of this blog, and was able to keep track of my progress, and backtrack to look at any areas that needed revising.

For example, the last minute inclusion of the POV shot where the character looks at the moon. I decided to include that after looking back through my blog entries, and noticing that I had spoken about different types of camera shots, but only focused on one.

I didn't address this about my work earlier, but the use of shapes had a significant impact on the message that I was trying to convey. I did draw a point from Pan's Labyrinth where round, curvy shapes appear around the character of Ofelia. I tried to a similar thing around my character with the use of vast numbers of bricks, which are square-like. Squares represent a box, and boxes are limited or restricted. The character is restricted in many regards on account of being in prison.

Ideas just came to me while working on this. I never planned on making the cell grey. That just came to me. I would like to work on something which has been planned from the very beginning, and to see if I can recreate the plan in an accurate way.

Having completed this, I will strive to work towards that goal.

Otherwise, my ambition of creating a story using the mise-en-scene in conjunction with the character has been fulfilled.

Final Animation

The animation for this blog entry can be found on the CD I handed in. It is called Specialist Study 1 Final.

This is the final animation. All of the elements that I have built up to this point are featured with in it, and I have included the still shot of the moon.

Finally, I decided that a fade to black would be sufficient at the end. I would have liked to have made the ending slightly longer, where the character sits still for a few more seconds before the fade out occurs.

Here is the final piece:

It can be found on the CD that I handed in. It is called Specialist Study 1 Final.

Mise-en-scene revisited

While I felt that I was exploring the concepts and principles of the mise-en-scene, and was applying them effectively, I felt that I was doing enough in terms of the camera. I was advised that the camera is an important part of the mise-en-scene, which is why I took an in-depth look into it in my thesis.

I didn't want to change what I already had for the sake of the camera, however, because it would look forced, and if something works, then it is generally best left alone. So instead, I decided that I could add to what I have.

The shot where the character looks at the moon provided the perfect opportunity for this, as it meant that I could employ a POV camera shot, which I touched upon earlier in a previous blog entry.

The shot would, of course, be from the character's point of view, looking at the moon.

The character will look up and at the moon, then it cuts to the POV Camera, and then back to the default camera.

Facial animations

The last thing to regarding character animation, was the facial expressions. They were as simple as eye gestures, so it didn't take much time.


I like the way the eyes stand out in the dark:

With all of the animations completed, I made a playblast which included everything:

Camera movement

The animation for this blog entry is on the CD I handed in. It is found in the Camera Test folder.

As said, I wanted camera movement. Despite all the research I did, it turned out that I only needed a small introductory panning from right to left. I knew exactly how it should look, and I have used this type of camera work before, so I was very quickly able to construct it.

And I needed it to slow down just before stopping in order to tell the audience that we have now arrived at the focus -- the character.

The graph editor, causing the slow down:

Eventually, I created an animation playblast to test it out, and it turns out that I got it correct in one try.

Animation + Light test

The animation for this blog entry is on the CD I handed in. It is found in the Light Test folder.


This is the character animation and the light animation combined in the form of a playblast, the file called Light Test 02. I think the timing is okay, though I admit it could be better. I think that the lean forward that the character does at 8 seconds could have been quicker, or removed altogether, but there wasn't much time left at this point. Final rendering had to begin.

Light animation test

The animation for this blog entry is on the CD I handed in. It is found in the Light Test folder.


This is just a quick test to see whether or not the flickering is acceptable. It's just as well as that I got it right the first time.

Next, I need to tailor the character to move in conjunction with the light changing.