This week, Commonwealth Secondary School’s wasd powers full-steam ahead in the production of their SAF-themed animation masterpiece. Erin Tan was on site to get to know the team members and to get the latest updates on their progress.
The team, wasd, with their mascot – Penguin the penguin.
Last Friday, we visited N.E.mation! team wasd, working studiously away in their cubicle in Nanyang Polytechnic.
They have been keeping very strictly to their schedule, as created for them by their mentor, and have made much progress in the making of their animation piece.
Niger and Zhi Qing talking enthusiastically about their progress of the previous week.
So far, the team has been able to finish most of the animation sequence, and were able to show us a fully-coloured, fully-animated sample of the final animation.
As planned, the animation comprised short animated segments of scenes where the Army, Air Force and Navy are performing their various duties and keeping Singapore safe over the course of 24 hours.
A scene from the draft animation clip, showing a helicopter from the RSAF.
A ticking clock runs in the background of the entire sequence showing the passage of time, emphasising how the SAF are always protecting Singapore, 24/7.
As for the soundtrack, wasd need not do anything yet – audio professionals will come to help them compose a suitable soundtrack.
The team creates, colours and edits their animation scenes using Toon Boom Studio. Here an animation sequence showing the firing of rockets in the SAF.
The soundtrack that the team is planning will be an epic, James-Bond style theme, to create a suitably-heroic tone for the animation to match the heroic role of the SAF.
It will be added after the animation has been completed and rendered, next week.
A photo of a rocket system that wasd used for reference when drawing the illustrations used in the rocket firing sequence.
In terms of the visuals of the animation, the team has been colouring and inking the images of the animation digitally.
Also, each of them has taken on a specific role in creating the animation piece so far.
The mantra of wasd that team members remind each other of when drawing digital versions of real life scenes – “Trees should look like Trees”. And likewise, clouds should look like clouds, while tracks should look like tracks. You don’t realise how important this mantra is until you try your hand at digital illustration!
Ethan is in charge of coming up with the illustrations, while Niger and Xun Yi construct the animation.
Lastly, Zhi Qing is mainly in charge of colouring the scenes digitally, for example, varying the colours of the elements in the scene based on whether it is day or night in the animation segment.
What keeps wasd & other teams alive in the 3-week production phase for N.E.mation! 9? Here are the rations for the “boot camp”. Isn’t it apt that N.E.mation! participants should drink NEwater?
It’s not all work and no play here in wasd‘s cubicle – the team relaxes their minds during their free time by playing games such as Cards Against Humanity. Accompanied, of course, by their friendly resident penguin.
All that is left for wasd to do is to complete the rendering of the animation – basically, using computer programs to generate a smoother, slicker version of their rough animation piece – which will be done in the following week.
The workspace in which wasd works. It’s been livened up and personalised by various soft toys the team has brought, which include a moose and a penguin.
Tags: animation, Commonwealth, competition, education, N.E.mation!, N.E.mation! 9, production, wasd