=Animating plan.
First of all I decided to make my whole animation from many little pieces of short videos, in that case, I could finish the rendering process quicker each time, also if I have made an mistake, I could correct it quickly.
=Camera
I usually only used 1 camera per scene, and moved it around every time, in order to reduce confusions in the scene.
And by doing that I could have more time to adjust, test and experimenting around the camera. I could focus on one camera and get it to shoot at the perfect angle that I wanted.
But in a few scene, I did use up to three cameras, that was only when I wanted the same animation to be shown in 3 different angles etc.
I only used target camera, because in my opinion, the target camera was perfect for all type of use. it was very important to have that target. I wasn't much of a photographer, so I didn't change any lens during the whole animating process.
=Lights
During the whole film, I mainly used Omni and Target Spot light. I didn't use too many of lights in the animation, as I tried to keep the animation realistic, with a dark space background.
=Key frame
Set key and adjust the number of key frame was the technique I used throughout the whole process.
Because the auto key couldn't provide the effect that I needed, it changed the first animation when I edit the same object the second time.
0:00-0:12
The whole animation was combined together by many short clips by window movie maker. It was quite a good software and did provide all the effects that I needed. In the first 10 seconds of the animation, the only disappoint to me was, I couldn't be able to record the voice, I could only show it by words on the scene. It was also because I didn't know much of audio/voice editing etc.
First the animation started with a count down, I did that so that the audience would be waiting for the clips to start- anticipation, but then I put an upside down star war logo up on the scene. Therefore when these two things combined together, the audience wouldn't miss the upside down logo effect, and they would definately be quite confused about what was going on on the scene.
Then I used a slide down effect to replace the upside down logo with the right one. This was like an effect to show the audiences the animator had realised the first logo was wrong after that second and replaced it.
Then it was a cartoonish blur effect to bring the right logo into the one with the word "The fake" star war logo.
This provided an effect suggested the story/logo was "mutated" to a wrong one that audiences weren't expected to see.
0:12-0:15
The scene was transferred from the words to the shot of R2-D2 with a heart shape, this suggested the audience should like this character, also provide quite an easy and funny atmosphere to beginning of the film and this matched with the childishness of the "hero talk" and arrogance of the R2-D2. The word of "I am the one" was also left on the screen when the R2-D2 showed.
The camera was first following the r2-d2 into the scene by it crabbed left to right , then as the r2-d2 was inserted to the x-wing, the camera tilted down into a long shot with the x-wing in it, and that introduced the x-wing into the story.
0:16-0:25
Then it was the introductions of the x-wing, in all different camera angles, shooting every part of the x-wing.
0:16-0:17
A medium shot to last show the R2-D2 was inserted onto the x-wing.
0:17-0:20
Camera panned from left to right with a long shot of the x-wing, this camera angle showed audiences the whole x-wing.
0:20-0:23
The camera started showing all the parts of the x-wing in a medium shot camera, tilted from bottom to top to show the wings, and a tracked out to show the guns of x-wing, this strengthened the effect of how powerful the weapons looked. Between them, there were white flashes on the screen, to create a "wow" or "bling-bling" stunning effect. It was a bit like a car advertisement technique, giving a luxury feeling to the scene.
0:23-0:25
The camera first demonstrated the front of x-wing and then panned back to the r2-d2 and the whole x-wing to show that the demonstration was over, and the story was going to move on.
0:25-0:31
Therefore the story continued, with the bird's eye camera shooting down to the x-wing and elevator, I built the light on each side of the elevator shaft specially for this scene, therefore, it would look like the elevator was moving. After that the camera switched to a subjective camera angle, which included the R2-D2, this could give audience a general idea of how it felt waiting on the x-wing, also an anticipation in this scene for what would happen next.
0:31-0:36
The way that the scene switched from the elevator to the next scene was like a story book/cartoon style to take the audiences to what would happen next. Then the camera pan from left to right in a bird's eye angle camera to the platform, introducing the platform and the whole scene to the audience. After that I used a steady camera and had the spot light moving along and brightened the platform, with the spot lights moving along it suggested that this platform was only just starting up, there were not anyone who had departed before, therefore the R2-D2 would be the first to try etc. Also in this scene, I did not build many lights, because I would like to keep this planet a feeling of being a very far away planet, a secret military base, which would seem to make more sense to the story line, as otherwise they would be destroyed.
0:36-0:46
The start up of the platform. First, I had a medium shot camera tracked along with the extension of the platform, only to let audiences focus on what the platform was performing. Then I switched to a high camera angle to let the platform extend towards the audiences. I also had the camera tracked out along with this animation to make it felt we were moving with the platform. After that I used a steady camera to shoot the whole process of how the stand lifted up the platform and repeated this process twice in different angle just to show off this animation and allowed audiences to know clearly how that was done.
0:46-0:55
The opening of the gate. At this scene I used three different cameras, first two were stable cameras to record the whole process of how the gate was opened because it was quite a critical moment for the story and I decided I must repeat it as well, As one camera angle would not show clear enough was happening in the scene. The first high angle camera showed how the gate was opened, then the second bird's eye camera angle allowed audiences to see a little more, it showed that something was coming up to the surface; last the third angle was a top view angle to the x-wing elevator and tracked out along with the x-wing coming up, it changed the focus from the gate to the x-wing. This was also my favourite part of the animation, the change from 2nd camera to 3rd camera 3 with that effect. Therefore after introducing the technology of the platform we could switched back the focus to x-wing especially with the spotlight moved towards the x-wing.
0:55-1:00
In these 5 seconds I used a steady high angle camera when the fences went down, and a slow moving camera panned from right to left when the platform moved forward. The whole thing was very steady and clear, just aimed to let the audience focus of how this platform worked and gaining their patience for the x-wing to take off. The spot light was also focusing along with the x-wing.
1:00-1:02
The engine start up. This was a quick two second, by a steady eye-level camera just mainly focused on the engines to let audiences know the x-wing was starting up.
1:02-1:05
Immediately after showing the engines started up, the camera quickly switched to a point of view camera, giving the effect of exactly how it would be like if the audiences were on broad, this also gave an effect of taking the audiences to fly with the r2-d2, and suggested the journey/story was beginning.
1:05-1:07
After that I switched back to the third person angles to repeat what had happened clearly in the scene. One at the start and the other from the taking off stage, this showed exactly how the x-wing took off using the platform which also showed the speed of the air craft.
1:07-1:11
Next, I showed the x-wing switching to the x-mode (opened up the wings into X form), however it wasn't very clear and that was a quite failure to me. I actually had quite a few attempts creating this scene, when I was able to show the x-form transformation clearly, the whole scene had lost the speed that it should have. Therefore after a few trials, I finally ended up with the current version, which was a balance between speed and showing the transformation. The next scene was a few more x-wings flew across the camera, to show that there were actually more than just one x-wing. I also made some rotations for these x-wings in order to make them looked more realistic. I used a stable camera and let them flew across to show the speed that they had to the audiences. I didn't use much light for the universe scene, but their sliver texture and engine glow were light enough to show audiences everything in the scene.
1:11-1:16
The jump to light speed. Originally in starwar, x-wing was not able to preform that, but since this is a fake story, I decided to add that for the x-wing, and let audiences experience one of the classic/futuristic starwar scene. And I used the same point of view camera angle to let the audience experience that with the R2-D2 and x-wing. Those "lights" were all self-illumination cylinders, and I animated them all to move towards the camera to create this scene.
1:16-1:29
Introduction of evil r2-d2. First I introduced this character by filming it moved with a close up to its "feet", audiences were not able to see it, and they would probably be guessing about this character, until after the words "to stop the evil empire".
At this camera shot, I created some noises on the camera while it moved, so that it looked like it was moving realistically instead of some smooth sliding which didn't. As with the noises while it moved, it gave a feeling that audiences were following it, moving along with it.
Then I used a steady long shot camera and let it moved into the camera clearly, suggested that it clearly was the evil empire/emperor. After that I changed it into a worm's eye angle camera, to create a more powerful effect for this evil r2-d2. I also used an off-set movement in the animation when it turned side way. I first moved its head to face this way and then its body, also I considered that the r2-d2 couldn't rotate its body on a spot, it had to move liked a car, therefore I moved it backward when it was rotating.
1:29-1:34
After introducing the leader of the evil empire I showed the evil empire to the audience, but unfortunately my computer was not powerful enough to render this whole empire in animation, therefore as an alternative solution, I had them rendered in pictures instead of videos. That was the only solution I could have if I needed a scene like this. I would say the outcome wasn't bad at all. I used many different type of camera angles in this few second of slideshow such as bird's eye to include everything in the scene, many subjective angle to see from the view of a soldier, seeing how the leader/emperor was so high up from them, making them look more like a dictatorship.
1:34-1:40
This scene started with the words "The ultimate weapon-Death star" which had already stated that it would introduce the death star. Then it was the scene using a point of view angle which included the evil r2-d2, control panel and screen all at once. After the picture of the x-wing popped, I used a window movie maker "contemporary-drop down" effect to add the word "enemy detected", which was like a classic style of security alert. Then The camera panned from right to left and focus on the red button on the control panel, suggesting it was the key for the next scene.
1:40-1:52
There were 4 scenes in these 12seconds.
1:40-1:44
I used a dutch angle camera to shoot the part when the evil r2-d2 was extending its "arm", this was because the evil r2-d2 wasn't doing something that was right, a normal camera would be too standard to shoot such scene, the rotated camera angle however provide this "this is wrong" message to the audiences.
1:44-1:47
When its arm reached the button, I switched the camera into a dutch angle extreme close-up camera to the button, and then tilted up the camera to shoot the evil r2-d2 in a reverse point of view angle. This created an extreme effect of how the evil the evil r2-d2 could seem. Because the robot could not have the emotions showing on its face, but by using all this effects and camera technique, it produced the same message to the audience.
1:47-1:49
The death star fire was a standard steady camera to show the death star fired in space. It was shown clearly and directly to the audiences.The beam was created by self-illumination cylinders and with a glow lens effect with them.
1:49-1:52
The camera switched back to a normal standard and steady camera, just aimed to show audience what had happened by those pictures popping up on the screen
1:52-1:57
"This is war" soon after the words had displayed, the first war scene was shown. the camera was a first person, it moved as an individual x-wing, the turrets were firing all over the scene, it didn't spend a lot of time focusing on anything, which made this scene realistic. This scene was one of the hardest scene to create for me, because it had to do at the same time, the computer was also very lagging during the production. First of all I had to move the x-wings moved in the speed in the way that the camera could capture, not over showing or flew away without showing at all. Each x-wings also must had individual flying route, they also spun/rotated during the flies to look realistic. But the most difficult part was the four turrets which I had to make them kept firing and rotating and adjusting fire angle all at the same time. That would mean I also had to rotate the fire(green self illumination cylinders) at the same angle each time.
1:57-2:00
This was the same repeated scene, this time I used a steady, to show audiences the war from another angle. It showed the four turrets and how the x-wings flew across the universe.
2:00-2:15
With the words "Are you ready" this was basically the ending of the video. After this I showed an r2-d2 arms continually pressing the death star fire button, just to create a hilarious scene, which caused the death star to explode in the following. The explosion was made with the bomb technique in 3ds max. And I first had the complete death star shown on the screen and panned the camera from right to left when it exploded.
2:15-2:25
Credit and last scene. I had made the credits quite fast, because I was already twice amount over the 60seconds requirement, also I did not want audiences to miss out the last scene. Which was just a extra scene for audiences to have a laugh.
=Materials
All the materials were from Google search engine research.
