Editing and final hand in

Once I had done all the colouring I could, I moved onto editing to make sure all the sound was synced and all our new coloured and smoother animated scenes were put in place. There were points where I had to add backgrounds to the PSD files which was more taxing than expected. I also added the camera zoom on the last scene through premiere:

Here is the final hand in, rendered at a lower resolution for the blog:

Notification animation

At the end of the film the camera zooms in on the computer screen and an unknown notification pops up on the screen, giving the film an open ending. I decided to try out the glitch effect with this scene as well. I used after effects to animate the notification popping up:

Original:

Preview test in film:

Colouring in sequence 4 and 5

In sequence 4, there was only one shot i coloured which was very easy. Marcio coloured the scene where bill is chasing the bus which meant i had to patch the frames back into the bus prop animation once he was done. I added some effects to scene 1 to make it look more like bill is actually moving towards the automatic doors:

In sequence 5 I coloured in all the scenes:

More demon animation

Seeing as I did the face transform animation, i thought it would only make sense to do the other scenes that include Bill's dark side as well. Once again, using polygon tool for the skin layered over Amy's original animation:

For the scene where bill walks up to the toddler I used after effects to make the looming of bill slowly walk towards the toddler. This time I had no reference:

Colouring in sequence 3

Applied the same effect:

Colouring in sequence 2

For the colouring part their wasn't anything particularly skillful or technical, it was more time consuming and a large amount of work. Here are all the scenes I coloured in sequence 2 (animation):

I used the same glitch effect that i used in the credits with the co-workers in scene 7:

Normal:

Demon:

Touching up Sequence 5

I was given the task of animating sequence 5, so on my list it was the last animation to touch up. Like with sequence 3 and 4, I added more drawings:

Scene 1:

Scene 2:

Scene 3:

Scene 4:

Sound design draft

As most of the animation was completed for the film, I edited and made a draft to send to the sound designers so they could start applying sound to the film:

More transforming

Heading back to the transforming scenes I took Wilde's animation of the hands typing and applied the same effects as I did with Amy's face animation. For the scene where the 'corruption' travels up Bill's shoulder, i changed it and went for the whole screen transforms:

Wilde's animation:

My transforming version:

Transforming screen:

Credits animation

We had multiple ideas what to do for the credits; such as a slideshow of the backgrounds, as they are the most visually appealing attributes in the film. However, when I started making the credits and put a name on the computer screen background, I had a different idea.

Wilde's layout:

Using Wilde's layout of the screen I could make each credit in turn fade in and out on the screen, but the cool catch was I could make the layout "glitch" in between titles, enforcing the creepy atmosphere of the film:

Altered layout:

I added a couple of new layers into the layout such as red mist and a glow on the screen. Then I made the credits in After effects, and in between each credit for 2 quick frames I altered the intensity, position and scale of the layout, causing a visual spooky glitch effect:

Face transform animation

After Amy had smoothed out the animation for sequence 6 scene 20 I got to creating the transforming animation that would be layered on top.

Amy's version:

I added the skin using the polygon tool and used the gradient tool to add a shine to the eyes and mouth:

Final version:

Sequence 4 (sound design draft)

Here are all the scenes for sequence 4 all patched together as reference for the sound designers:

After effects in Sequence 4

For sequence 4, scene 4 and 5 required work in after effects. Scene 4 required camera effects to imitate bill running towards the bus, and the bus begins to move in this scene. Scene 5 required the bus prop to move off screen and splutter smoke from the exhaust into Bill's face.

The bus prop needed to be made into 3 separate parts so I could make the wheels roll. The original prop was not separated in this way so I made new wheels:

Scene 4:

For the smoke effects I followed the same procedure as I did with the rain. I looked up the solution online, and used a tool in AE called 'particle playground'. I then messed with the sliders and different values until I made the smoke effect that worked for the scene:

Scene 5 (with animation layered on top):

Sequence 4 refining animation

As Marcio did half the scenes in sequence 3 along with me, once i rendered sequence 3 I moved on to sequence 4. Some scenes did not require any work such as the first one (as Bill is standing still) and the first person scene, as its taken from Bill's point of view.

The scenes that needed work were scene 3, 5 and 6. Scene 7 had already been done earlier.

Scene 6 being the longest was the most taxing to do, baring in mind it was also a close up:

Scene 3:

Scene 5 (bus prop will be put in through after effects):

Scene 6:

Sequence 3 last scene

As far as the animation for sequence 3 was concerned the only thing left was to redo the animation for the last scene where the office complex's lights slowly turn off one by one. At first I thought i'd have to import the PSD file into After effects, however i could alter the opacity of the lights through the animation timeline on Photoshop:

As can be seen in the render, the scene gets slowly darker as the natural light outside does too. In the meantime the office lights switch off quickly one by one:

After this scene was complete, all the animation in sequence 3 had been in-betweened, so therefore I edited and patched the scenes together so it was ready for the sound designers:

 

Refining the animation (Sequence 3)

Seeing as sequence 3 contained the first scenes I key-framed I decided to then smooth out the animation there first before moving on, as Marcio was smoothing out sequence 1 and Jeng was smoothing out sequence 2. I started applying the extra frames in the first scenes, where Bill is typing on the computer:

I then updated the boss face change seen, adding a ripple effect to the frame with the demon face:

Rain in after effects (First finished shot)

I wanted to experiment with the effects that were going to be used in the film. So I went to the scene that required a rain effect to start with. To make it easier and so i didn't have to backtrack later I added all the in-between frames into the PNG sequence and coloured it in using the new colour scheme:

I then taking reference from the rough cut scene put the frames into after effects and added the camera effects:

 Finally, I looked up how to create rain in after effects and then applied the effects, changing the sliders until I was satisfied with the overall feel:

Final scene:

Shading test

Original:

High contrast:

Lower opacity:

Colour tests

Here I've taken two shots from the animation to test out colouring:

Demon form

For the co-worker and boss characters, we had the idea of the animation almost glitching to show the darker sides of the characters. The white eyed, demonic characters illustrate the concept of bullying, and we want to show that to the audience before Bill's transformation, without hinting it too much.

The demon forms are drawn with the polygon tool to make them more sharp:

The test shots:

Sequence 3 scene 1 inbetweening test (24fps)

Sequence 6 scene 12 (After effects work)

Scene 12 in sequence 6 was not completed for the rough cut. This is the scene where the computer screen grows as the camera zooms out on an overhead shot of Bill typing on the keyboard. This required some technical work in After effects, where I took Wilde's original PSD layout and separated the computer screen layer from the rest:

I then animated the screen in after effects so it grew bigger whilst staying in place in the layout:

I then created animated PNG sequence of Bill typing from a bird's eye view:

Example:

I then added camera effects and filters to make the change of the computer screen seem more dramatic:

Final colour schemes

 After adapting the tests according to the feedback the team gave me, I made a color pallet that has a code showing what all the colours belong to on the character:

Assessing the colour schemes

To make sure everyone was following the same colour schemes I did a couple more tests. The colours are more dull in these ones so it follows the subtle backgrounds. I then showed these to the group to see which ones were to be the final ones:

Final rough cut hand in

This is the final cut after the rest of the team added there remaining shot of which some were improved versions of stuff in the first draft:

Rough cut so far

Here are all the clips I have edited over the animatic for the rough cut draft. They are a mixture of all the teams animation and there are still some gaps need to filled:

Sequence 4 animating

A lot of sequence 4's work relied on After Effects work for the first person shot and the movement of the automatic doors and bus. I did these shots first so I could then start fleshing out the animation:

For the first person scene I simply enlarged the layout below slowly whilst making it shake to imitate Bill behind the shot running:

Here are all the shots put together for sequence 4, with all the layout added unlike the key-frame version:

Animation in Sequence 5

For this part I simply fleshed out the keys I had already created originally. Scene 2 did change because now the door is already closed from scene 1:

Scene 2

Scene 4

Scene 5

All the final clips put together for sequence 5:

Sequence 5: After effects door

After the editing, I moved on to sequence 5, skipping 4 as I wanted to start trying out animating the house front door in After Effects, the set up was quite simple:

Wilde's original layout:

Layout with a couple of my additions added:

After using 3D effects in After Effects, I was able to create what seems to the camera a 3D door, even though it is actually just two planes stuck to one another, here is the first draft:

In the second draft I decided to make Bill close the door too and I fleshed out the animation a bit more:

Editing: Demon transformation and colouring

On Amy's shot of Bill's face transforming, I decided to try out the skin transformation technique, using the polygon tool:

Amy's original footage:

I added a dark gradient for the background, and frame by frame used the polygon tool to add a jagged black shape slowly crawling up the face of Bill:

The finished animation:

I also added some colouring into certain shots from Amy where it was important:

Here are all the altered scenes put together in scene order. Some required more work than others. Some just required a little lighting or colouring to fit into the scene:

Editing: Adding in Amy's scenes

Amy had animated a lot of scenes for the final sequence, but none had the layouts included and a few weren't timed. So I tasked myself with sewing together Wilde's backgrounds with Amy's animations, then timing some through Photoshop. I then added the scenes to Premiere to add to the rough cut draft:

Wilde's layout:

Amy's animation:

The two put together:

I did this for all the other scenes Amy (to that date) made for sequence six, timing them out in order in Premiere to make up parts of final sequence.

Sequence 3 improved animation

Now on a more finalized draft of sequence 3, I included the layouts and turned up the opacity on the brush to make a more defined line. This time I in-betweened the frames a lot more and tried to add more character into the movement. I only did my half of sequence 3 like the first time but also included the shot of the boss grinning sadistically at Bill:

Bill getting anxious as he hears the boss's footsteps:

The boss grins at Bill ready to deliver more paperwork:

At first when animating the first scene I didn't add the typing fingers animation as I could add them in later:

The boss's face animation:

The final cut with the typing fingers added:

Full sequence 2 and all keyed scenes

Here is the sequence 2 fully keyed including Jeng's scene in the middle:

And here are all the scenes I've keyed put together in chronological order:

Sequence 2: The co-workers

The co-workers are in 3 scenes in sequence 2:

Pushing bill in the queue

 Throwing a paper ball at Bill's food

Laughing at Bill

The throwing animation was quite difficult and required a couple of tries but eventually I made it realistic:

Key draft for scene 1:

Key draft for scene 5:

Key draft for scene 7 (one loop):

Sequence 2 close-ups

I started with the easy close-up shots for sequence 2:

Bill looking down at food:

Bill sighing at his shirt stain:

Keyframing in Sequence 5

 Sequence 5 was quite a difficult scene to key at times, and its the first scene to incorporate the toddler. Its important this scene is quite calm and slow paced as its almost the calm before the storm:

Final key draft:

Technical difficulties in Sequence 5

 In Sequence 5, Bill walks into his home, greets his child vaguely and then waddles up the stairs. The first shot was hard to do as we needed to find a way to make the door open out to the camera. For the key test I did it in rough, but come the final I'll make it open in After Effects using the 3D features:

In the next shot, the scenery had to be changed by Wilde as Bill would not have enough space to get around stairs. Its a subtle change but you can see the difference:

Old shot:

New shot: