ARD 503 Design for Society - Creating an Animatic

'Create ideas and concepts that will form an animatic / prototype for a 15-60 second film for a social campaign, emphasizing ethical and moral viewpoints whilst analysing and exploring forms of design for society. Your solution should reflect the power of screen language and will take the form of a presentation and storyboard that will be developed into animatic.'

Research

Having only recently changed from the film and photography assignment for this module to the animation assignment, I began by researching what an animatic actually is and how to make one, finding an informative and interesting website devoted to the subject called 'Everything you always wanted to know about animatics, but were afraid to ask' which provided the following explanation:

Animatics are animated storyboards..used every day in the advertising industry to test commercials..to preview scenes of live-action films before they are shot..[and]..in the pre-production stages of animation and in the video game industry. Up until just a few years ago, animatics were produced by filming or videotaping storyboards. Over the last ten years, animatic production has become much more sophisticated. Animatics are now produced with the aid of computer animation (2D or 3D), with special visual effects once reserved for high-end Hollywood productions.

An onsite video widget – from which the screenshots below are taken – displayed several commercial animatics. The actual content of these animatics varied depending upon the mood and story required for each product, however the production values for each one remained high and the narratives were easy to follow. It was evident from watching the videos on this player that by showing the story, camera shots, timings, colour schemes, characters, lighting, ambiance and props all in animated form, these animatics alone would be able to provide sufficient information for a film crew and actors to accurately re-create a live action version of the commercial.

                                                          http://www.aboutanimatics.com

In the series of stills above for example, the camera begins with an establishing shot of a pair of red stilettos discarded some distance apart in a dimly lit and plushly carpeted hallway. The camera pans over the closest of the two shoes, bringing the sole of the nearer one into an extreme close up before skimming over it toward the farther shoe in the brighter doorway to the upper right. All of this cinematographic information has been successfully conveyed in seconds, without any verbal or written instructions. From the examples displayed on the video, it is clear that an animatic can be a fast, cost effective and powerful way to both experiment with various elements of a visual concept and to impart the final idea in readiness for actual production.

On the storyboards-east.com website, professional quick production animation specialist Mark Simon describes animatics as 'breathing life into drawings through motion and sound.'  His production company use the Toonboom Storyboard Pro software to create their animatics, several demonstrations of which are available on their website video player.

  http://www.storyboards-east.com/animat.htm

http://www.storyboards-east.com/animat.htm 

Toonboom certainly appears to be the best tool for the job.  Unfortunately however I don't have a copy, so I began looking into alternative methods to make animatics.  Although individual animatic frames could feasibly be hand drawn and scanned into Adobe Premiere Pro, this procedure would not actually differ greatly from the early methods by which animatics were produced using VHS to videotape storyboards. I therefore began investigating what types of dedicated software might enable me to do this more easily and quickly. Toonboom, used by Mark Simon and many others appears to be the most effective tool but is a somewhat costly investment for a student. A free package called Pencil is available for download but it appears to be a poor relation of Adobe Flash, which I already have but do not yet know how to use, my conclusion being that it has become necessary for me to learn to use Adobe Flash and / or Toonboom (once it has been installed on the university computers) in order to create my animatic for this assignment.

http://www.pencil-animation.org/index.php?id=Screenshots

I therefore began to research online tutorials on the use of Adobe Flash software for animatics, finding a resource in Australian animator Jason Rodger's YouTube video 'Animation Tips Episode 5: Creating Animatics'. In this, he describes an animatic as a pre-production testing ground that enables one to obtain a good idea of how one's finished animation will look in terms of action, timing and sound, adding that a scratch dialogue track can be synchronised to the action on screen.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVFAUckjsJo

His working method is to import a scanned image from his hand drawn storyboard into Flash, convert the onscreen image into a symbol, add an alpha effect to it and trace a vector version of it on a layer above, convert that also into a symbol and use a simple tween to create the basic animation. This somewhat labour intensive approach is a crude but nonetheless effective method by which to test out the action, timings and audio of an animation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVFAUckjsJo

He also sometimes creates fades between one image and the next by keyframing the top image to 0 alpha and placing the image into which it is intended to fade in the layer below it, which produces a nice straightforward transition between the two frames.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVFAUckjsJo

Whilst continuing to deepen my research into methods of animatic production, I have also been considering potential subject matter for my forthcoming animatic and the audience to whom it is aimed. After careful consideration I have decided that my target audience will be young adults, since I believe that this is the consumer group whose aspirations are most likely to be influenced by such input in terms of both lifestyle and buying choices.  The primary considerations behind my choice of subject matter are that the information should be delivered in non-verbal form, thus targeting a global audience and that it should highlight an environmental issue close to my heart such as pollution or the improper disposal of litter. I feel that the best way to convey such a narrative would be to use some kind of figure to represent the person causing the problem and to show them learning to avoid this behaviour by experiencing regret at its unfortunate consequences. It is important not to make this message 'preachy' however and where possible I will make it humorous in order to keep the audience's sympathy for the protagonist. The underlying message however will be a serious one.

This was my shortlist for potential themes:

Litter
Pollution 
Renewable Energy
Anti Bullying (School)
Anti Bullying (Workplace)
Domestic Abuse Awareness   
Fire Prevention in the Home
Health and Safety in the Home
Destruction of Natural Habitats

I selected Bullying in the Workplace, Domestic Abuse Awareness, Litter and Renewable Energy as narratives that would be exciting to work with.  From this list I was able to narrow my choice down further on the basis that a non-verbal animation designed for a global audience and therefore based around exaggerated visual concepts would have to take cultural and ethnic differences into account, particularly where the roles of women are concerned.  In countries where women are traditionally expected to restrict their activities to child-rearing and home-making and to defer to the males in their family I could anticipate problems getting messages about domestic abuse and bullying in the workplace across effectively.  I simply do not have enough information about how women in such places view their roles and it would be arrogant in the extreme to make an ethnocentric judgement on the basis of my Western upbringing and personal beliefs.  The exclusion of these two themes then left me with Litter and Renewable Energy and of the two I felt that Renewable Energy probably had the greatest scope for narrative development overall.

After sketching out a couple of Renewable Energy scenarios I chose a storyline in which a figure reposing beside a traditional rustic windmill is persuaded by visitors to replace the windmill first with fossil fuel energy and then with nuclear power.  Having blotted out the skies with smoke and destroyed the local fauna and flora with nuclear waste our protagonist builds a modern 'windfarm' style windmill and returns happily to sleep beside it as nature recovers its equilibrium.

The initial figures I decided upon for this story were 'blobs' - a soft, genderless shape looking like something between a chess pawn and a salt cellar - and I experimented with how such a figure might move and manipulate its environment.

  

 

After showing these ideas to Marisse and Ian however it was pointed out that a similar figure has been used in EDF's recent energy advertisement.  If nothing else this fact testifies to the power of advertising since at the time of designing my 'blobs' I had no conscious awareness that such a commercial had ever been shown!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2BwOMBlato

I am very pleased that this has been brought to my attention so early on in the process since it will give me time to develop another character shape in its place.  As I was already interpreting my animatic animal figures in the style of paleolithic cave paintings I am currently considering substituting semi-stick men, based on the cave paintings of Lascaux for my 'blob' characters.

 

 
  

http://deitchman.com/mcneillslides/units.php?unit=%20Prehistoric%20Arts

Online research in this area proved fruitful and I was able to find many examples of prehistoric rock art.  Although the Lascaux cave paintings are very beautiful, the most useful resource I discovered was the Bradshaw Foundation which is a privately funded foundation based in Geneva which works in collaboration with UNESCO, the Royal Geographic Society, the National Geographic Society, the Rock Art Research Institute in South Africa and the Trust for African Rock Art.  This website hosts pictures of rock art from around the world and the images are easier to see than many of those from Lascaux.

Clothes Peg Figure

Namibian Figures

Bushmen

'Action' Figure

 

Algerian Hunter

Using these lovely, simple images as a starting point, I initially made sketches of them and then developed my own figures for animation from these drawings, working out how each limb could best be described in the fewest lines.

 

 


















Over the next three weeks I developed my storyboards for this project using simple non-shaded outlines without any particular cultural bias.  I wanted my audience to be able to relate to the protagonist, regardless of their ethnicity.  It was suggested to me however by Marisse and Ian that this made it difficult at times to differentiate between the figures of the caveman and the engineers.  For this reason I am considering adding tone to their safety helmets, and at Marisse's suggestion, to the smoke also in order to give it greater dramatic impact.  I do not however wish to lose the quality yielded by using pure line and therefore would like to avoid adding further tones to the landscape (unless it becomes absolutely necessary) and to retain greyscale throughout.  All of the humans will be toned in the same shade in order to avoid any racial implications, the identity of the engineers being indicated by their safety helmets which will be given a prominent dark tone.

On presenting the story to Marisse and Ian over two storyboards, it was felt that I needed more frames in order to explain the action more fluidly.  A second and third revision resulted in the following four storyboards, which I then presented during the December Formative Assessment:

Several useful points were raised during this review; the necessity of introducing tone into the frames in order to help the human figures to stand out from the background and also to differentiate between the engineers and the protagonist was reiterated and I was also advised to replace Frame 31 from the fourth storyboard - in which the caveman carries his chair and hat outside to sit beside his eco-windmill - since it unintentionally implied that the construction he had undertaken in the preceding frames had actually resulted in the building of the chair, rather than the windmill.  Marisse felt that the introduction of a further frame showing him making the eco-windmill would also help to reinforce this element of the narrative.  Since access to Toonboom storyboarding software is proving difficult for me, Ian suggested that I could create my animatic using Adobe Premier Pro which I am pleased about since I am already familiar with this software and it plays very nicely with Photoshop which will allow me to tweak and import frames back and forth as I go, without fuss.

Following this assessment, my final storyboard revisions therefore comprised the replacement of Frame 31 in Storyboard 4, the addition of a further frame to show the protagonist building his windmill and the application of tone to the human and animal figures, the engineers' helmets and the pollution smoke.  

The final four storyboards now look like this:

During the following weeks I made scans of the four storyboards, extracted the individual frames and imported them into Adobe Premiere Pro from where I was able to produce my completed animatic.  Setting the frame duration to two seconds, I tweaked the length of time that individual frames were on screen in order to create the right pace and whenever I felt that extra frames were needed to explain the action in greater detail I amended the originals in Photoshop CS5 and imported them directly back into the timeline.  

I spent some time researching for the right kind of music to accompany the animatic - I wanted something quietly offbeat with a slightly melancholy feel - and found a royalty-free performance of Erik Satie's Gymnopedie No3 played by Kevin MacLeod which worked well with the film.  It was a little slow for my requirements so I used Sony Soundforge to speed it up a little and add a few of the introductory bars at the very end to imbue the work with a sense of finality during the closing credits.  I also spent a couple of days researching royalty-free sources for Foley sound and eventually found all of the sound effects that I needed at Freesound.org.  Several of these needed tweaks - such as increasing the upper frequencies with a high pass filter to make them sound more distant - in Sony Soundforge.  I experimented with various sounds to imply human voices talking during the exchanges between the caveman and the engineers, but although I tried out several different audio files for the purpose, none of them sounded right - even the most serious voices murmuring softly conveyed the incorrect impression of intended comedy when put into the animatic and the consensus of everyone to whom I showed the film was that story had far more emotional impact when the voices were removed, which is why I have left them silent.

After a little more editing I felt that I had taken the animatic as far as I could without turning it into an actual animation and at this point therefore I exported it and uploaded it to YouTube.  The finished video can be viewed below.

Evaluation

I have greatly enjoyed this assignment although it felt somewhat labour intensive during the early drawing stages.  I feel that I have gained an insight into the best way to go about creating an animation and from now on will use animatics to test out my animations as a prerequisite to their full development.

As a result of this project I have increased my knowledge of the processes involved in creating an animation, both in terms of developing the initial artwork and also in communicating a narrative unambiguously by asking myself the right kind of questions whilst creating the initial keyframes.  Although unable to use the ideal Toonboom Storyboard programme for this assignment I was able to successfully apply my knowledge of video and photo editing software and audio editing software to the task and feel satisfied that I have done my best to make an enjoyable animatic that could now be developed as a full animation.

Given the chance to do a similar task in the future, the one thing I would do differently would be to draw the individual frames on a much larger scale at the beginning, as until they were uploaded I often struggled to see them clearly.  The whole experience however has been very interesting and I feel far more informed on the subject as a result of completing this assignment.

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References

Research

Unknown. (2009). Everything you always wanted to know about animatics, but were afraid to ask. [Website]

Available: http://www.aboutanimatics.com/.

Last accessed 16th Oct 2012.

Mark Simon. (2012). Animatics. [Website]

Available: http://www.storyboards-east.com/animat.htm.

Last accessed 16th Oct 2012

Pascal Naidon, Patrick Corrieri. (2009). Screenshots. [Webpage]

Available: http://www.pencil-animation.org/index.php?id=Screenshots.

Last accessed 17th Oct 2012.

Jason Rodgers. (2011). Animation Tips Episode 5: Creating Animatics. [Online video]

Available: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVFAUckjsJo.

Last accessed 18th Oct 2012. 

EDF Energy. (2012). EDF Energy Feel Better Energy TV advert. [Online video]
Available: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2BwOMBlato. 
Last accessed 23rd Oct 2012. 

Duncan U. Fletcher High School. (2008). Deer and Hunters 17,000 BCE unknown shaman Paleolithic cave painting Lascaux, France. [Online image]

Available: http://deitchman.com/mcneillslides/units.php?unit=%20Prehistoric%20Arts. 

Last accessed 23rd Oct 2012.

Unknown. (2011). Exploring Our Past, Informing Our Future. [Online images]
Available: http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/. 
Last accessed 16th Nov 2012. 

Audio Files 

Incompetech.com (2009) Erik Satie gymnopedie No3. [online audio] 
Available at: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/ 
[Accessed: 25 Dec 2012].

Freesound.org (2010) Demolition excavator with wrecking ball.wav by Ohrwurm. [online audio] Available at: http://www.freesound.org/people/Ohrwurm/sounds/97850/ 
[Accessed: 27 Dec 2012].

Freesound.org (2012) Construction site with a tractor by antique98. [online audio]
Available at: http://www.freesound.org/people/antique98/sounds/160679/ 
[Accessed: 28 Dec 2012].

Freesound.org (2011) 03200 fastener bolt.wav by Robinhood76. [online audio] 
Available at: http://www.freesound.org/people/Robinhood76/sounds/135040/ 
[Accessed: 28 Dec 2012].

Freesound.org (2011) A windmill is squeaking alone in the desert by felix.blume. [online audio]
Available at: http://www.freesound.org/people/felix.blume/sounds/131924/ 
[Accessed: 28 Dec 2012].

Freesound.org (2005) boom3.wav by NoiseCollector. [online audio]
Available at: http://freesound.org/people/NoiseCollector/sounds/6721/ 
[Accessed: 28 Dec 2012].

Freesound.org (2011) windfarm turbine walkbye by Andy_Gardner. [online audio]
Available at: http://freesound.org/people/Andy_Gardner/sounds/132722/ 
[Accessed: 28 Dec 2012].

Freesound.org (2008) whoosh.wav by Benboncan. [online audio]
Available at: http://www.freesound.org/people/Benboncan/sounds/62260/ 
[Accessed: 28 Dec 2012].

Freesound.org (2008) Zaanse Schans sawmill.wav by phonoflora. [online audio]
Available at: http://freesound.org/people/phonoflora/sounds/64373/ 
[Accessed: 30 Dec 2012].

Freesound.org (2009) digging_a_hole.flac by lorenzosu. [online audio]
Available at: http://freesound.org/people/lorenzosu/sounds/72068/ 
[Accessed: 28 Dec 2012].

Freesound.org (2011) metal on metal.aif by jasonLON. [online audio] 
Available at: http://freesound.org/people/jasonLON/sounds/125407/ 
[Accessed: 30 Dec 2012].

Freesound.org (2009) AE0027 Wind howling through cracks in a window 07-27-2009.flac by audible-edge. [online audio]
Available at: http://freesound.org/people/audible-edge/sounds/76454/ 
[Accessed: 28 Dec 2012].

Freesound.org (2012) Woodland birdsong June .wav by juskiddink. [online audio]

Available at: http://freesound.org/people/juskiddink/sounds/157536/ 

[Accessed: 27 Dec 2012]

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ARD 502 The Message - 5. Illustrating a Feature

Illustrating a Feature

3. Choose either food or fashion and produce images for each category in one section. Collate an image bank of this type of work and show a design process.

After carefully considering the logistics involved in each of the two choices on offer, I have decided to produce a selection of images for a magazine corresponding to the four given titles for the food:

'Pass the Pasta'

'Vegetable Visions'

'Fantastic Fruit' 

'Vine and Dine'

Research

I began this assignment by researching current trends in food photography, both online and in magazines.  Possibly encouraged by the rising popularity of recent culinary television programmes, the emphasis in contemporary food photography has shifted away from the neat, perfectly presented dishes of the 1970's and 80's to a more sensual aesthetic in which vivid colour, texture and appetising appearance take precedence.  Crumbs are left around rolls, tabletops are strewn with sifted sugar and spice and juices ooze enticingly along plate rims.  These images with their immediacy and carefully orchestrated 'messiness' are designed to appeal directly to our desire to eat the food on display.

The images below illustrate three contemporary approaches to fruit photography.  In the first (below) the berries are arranged by colour in identical bowls like a typology.

http://favim.com/image/6694/

By contrast, in 'abrowntable's' image of figs on a chopping board below, the colours and tones are somewhat muted and the emphasis is upon texture, whilst in the composition beneath by a professional photography company, chopped and whole fruit are displayed together in a bright and vivid jumble, (although the abrupt disparity in focus apparent in the image causes me to wonder whether we are seeing two photographs edited together).

http://www.flickr.com/photos/abrowntable/8080025359/in/pool-foodphotography

http://shootingfood.com/

There are many online articles detailing the best way to go about photographing food.  Most of them agree on the same basic principles - to photograph food at its best the dish should be fresh, daylit and as appetising as one can make it - the rule of thumb seems to be that if you do not want to eat it, neither will your viewer.  In 'Food Photography – An Introduction', online photography journalist Darren Rowse lists all of the most important aspects such as utilising daylight where possible in order to keep food looking natural, supported by a flash bounced off the walls or ceiling to cut harsh shadows.  He recommends using a 'stand-in' for the dish until all of the other elements have been finalised in order to avoid the food becoming dried out or sinking and also suggests enhancing the meal with vegetable oil in order to make it glisten appetizingly. 
 

http://www.dallamiacucina.com/2012/01/food-photography-styling-challenge.

A good example of this can be seen in the above image; the tomatoes and olives are shining with oil, inviting one to eat them.

In terms of composition, Rowse recommends shooting with macro from plate-level, leaving a way in and using leading lines to guide the eyes of the viewer into the dish.  An example of this can be seen in professional food photographer Andrew Scrivani's photograph of spaghetti with walnuts (below) for the New York Times.

 http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/07/health/nutrition/07recipehealth.html?ref=recipes_for_health

Interestingly, a close up of this particular dish has been cropped for a recipe feature further on in the same article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/07/health/nutrition/07recipehealth.html?ref=recipes_for_health

It is interesting to see how the narrowed depth of field in the above image alters one's perception of the food, creating a sense of intimacy somewhat lacking in the more distant photograph with its cutlery props and leading lines.  Rowse himself advocates the use of a couple of simple props such as a glass, fork or napkin in one's sets - in the photograph below by professional food photographer Jennifer Bartoli, the filled spoon invites the viewer to take a bite.

 http://www.boston.com/community/photos/raw/2009/01/photographing_food.html.

In her food photography article for the boston.com website, Jennifer Bartoli recommends that one should take shots around one's subject from several angles to locate the side with the fewest shadows and use white reflective boards to increase the light on the subject.  She also suggests placing a portion of the food in the foreground with the rest of it placed 'suggestively' behind, as shown in her shot below.
  

http://www.boston.com/community/photos/raw/2009/01/photographing_food

The fact that a small portion of the cake slice is missing in the above picture exemplifies another modern trend in food photography in which the food is shown as being 'less than perfect'.  This adds to its realism by helping the viewer to relate to it as food that they themselves could prepare and since it looks like something that could have come from one's own kitchen. Formal, classical food compositions are still in evidence, as illustrated in photographer Tori Soper's splendid wine and cheese composition below, but they tend to be geared toward the commercial market - one could imagine this image being used as part of a hospitality advertising campaign.
 

https://www.elance.com/samples/still-life-wine-cheese-brochure-product-photography-food-photography-wine-cheese-still-life-photogra/26281037/

The visual approaches of the magazine market (at which my images will be aimed) varies according to its projected readership.  As this will be my first attempt at working in the genre, I initially decided to aim for a British market publication such as 'Woman' magazine and its sister publication 'Woman's Own' aimed at the female C2 45+ demographic.  In the current issues of these magazines I found recipe images for sundaes and 'Rocky Road' chocolate brownies:
 

Woman's Own 15th Oct 2012 p46

panini recipes:
 

Woman's Own 15th Oct 2012 p48

cakes and burgers:
 

Woman 15th Oct 2012 p62

and 'Winter Warmer' style recipes:
 

 Woman 15th Oct 2012 p49

These images embrace the principles outlined above - the food is presented at interesting angles with appropriate lighting and props.  Whilst I would probably give the cremated sausages (above right) a miss, most of the food on display in these magazines looks colourful and appetizing.  

I also investigated food images further down the economic scale, looking at how Aldi advertises special offer meals in its free mailshots.  In these pictures, the food still looks inviting but the images are simpler in composition; the angles at which the dishes have been photographed are more straightforward with slightly fewer props in evidence, so that the reader can instantly recognise the meal and relate it to the price shown underneath.

 Aldi Mailshot - 6th Oct 2012
 

Having investigated these images, I now began to consider in detail how best to interpret the given brief.  After some thought I decided that rather than a women's magazine I would prefer to illustrate a magazine aimed at university 'freshers'.  I could envisage a serious article in which young people living away from home for the first time were encouraged to eat properly on a budget - indeed I was bombarded with such material myself from UCAS and its affiliates when I first applied to university. Much of this material was designed with a frenzied layout designed to appeal to teenagers and involved humorous graphics and eye-catching colours.  Other magazines however - such as those offering advice on how to manage finances - took a calmer approach and it is for a feature in these types of publication that I envisage my photographs being used.  Having shared houses with students who appeared to subsist entirely on crisps, cola, Pot Noodle, KFC, Big Macs and Dominos Pizza, I felt that it would be an exciting idea to contrast the standard 'junk food' elements with an inexpensive and nourishing ready meal that could be heated in the microwave in minutes, such as those available in Tesco, M&S, Sainsbury and Asda.  The challenge would be to make the 'junk food' appear vaguely unappetising and the healthier ready meal a preferable alternative. 

As it would be difficult to photograph the food in natural daylight in the Regent Street Studio, I decided to create an ambience in keeping with a winter evening and therefore set about acquiring props with a warm colour scheme that could be used throughout the sequence of dishes to provide a sense of continuity.  With this in mind I bought a plate with a red design, a red bowl (of a different design to the plate since I wanted to avoid a 'dinner set' feel that could alienate my student audience), a set of new stainless steel cutlery, a scarlet 'hurricane style' candle holder, a wineglass with a red stem and an inexpensive bottle of pink Zinfandel (since I felt red wine would not be appropriate with pasta, vegetables and fruit).  

With a little further searching I found a piece of lime green fabric to complement the reds. Using a crumpled piece of kitchen towel in place of the food, I then practised photographing the assembled items in my room to experiment with various compositions, both in daylight and with the curtains drawn to simulate a darkened studio:

  Using natural light

 Natural light with flash and no candle flame or 'food' - to see how the plate reflects the light.

As the shadows disappear, the props - especially the plate - seem to 'float' 
slightly.

 With drawn curtains

With flash

I was relieved to see that even with flash, the flame of the lit candle remains visible when the surroundings are darkened slightly. I then experimented with close ups and different viewpoints:

  Views of the plate from different angles, with and without flash

 A crop - although this would be created in post production

 From above 

A close up crop

Having a clearer idea of the composition enabled me to begin sketching out my ideas for the forthcoming shoot:

Composition Ideas

  

 Pass the Pasta 1

The four dishes to be photographed potentially comprise a single three-course meal in which the pasta and vegetables could be either be served together or as alternatives to one another. In order to preserve continuity, the same lighting rig and props will be used for all four courses. 

Each dish will be presented on a scarlet plate or bowl with appropriate cutlery. A scarlet-stemmed glass of zinfandel, wine bottle and nite-lite candle in a scarlet glass hurricane-style candle holder will be variously placed around the featured dish.  The table covering will be light lime green to complement the reds and introduce a subliminal sense of 'green healthy living'.  The background will be dark and unobtrusive.  The ambience of these images is intended to convey warmth and intimacy, hinting at a little private luxury.

 Pass the Pasta 2 

 Pass the Pasta 3

Pass the Pasta 4

Probably the best layout, omitting the wine bottle but including the glass and candle holder.

Vegetable Visions 1
 

Vegetable Visions 2

The best layout for the vegetables; a 1/3 crop of the plate and candle, seen slightly from above.  This will be photographed in full and cropped later during post production.

Fantastic Fruit

The angle for this image is from slightly above the dish but less so than for the vegetables.  Only the wineglass will be included.

 Vine & Dine

All of the props will be present for the final 'Vine & Dine' photograph.  The ideal viewpoint for this would probably be directly front-on.

Suggested lighting rig for the four courses from front-on

Suggested lighting rig for the four courses from above

Photoshop mock-up of suggested lighting to convey the ambience, with the dishes taking prominence over the props (which should not distract).

Concept and layout

The above sketches enabled me to finalise my concept which is that of a students' magazine article suggesting nutritious food on a budget; 'junk food' staples are replaced with delicious and nutritious alternatives at very little extra cost.

In the sketch above, all four categories follow an identical, assymetrical 'split screen' layout, with the 'junk food' shown in the top left corner; separated by a slender diagonal white line, the healthier and tastier alternative is shown underneath it to the lower right.  I may alter this layout during post production, it will all depend on what looks best.

All four 'junk foods' will be photographed to look fairly unappealing in comparison with the alternative dish below.  This will be achieved by using harsh lighting, a plain white backdrop and leaving empty space around the 'junk food' dish to convey a sense of isolation and lack of intimacy.  For continuity, the lime green table covering will still be used in these photographs.
 

'Pot Noodles' - the upper-left partner to 'Pass the Pasta'

 'Baked Beans' - upper left partner to 'Vegetable Visions' (although since uploading this sketch I have realised that baked beans might be too 'healthy' to be construed as a 'junk food' and will therefore also photograph 'microchips'). 

'Haribo Fruit Gums' or similar fruit-flavoured sweets - upper left partner to 'Fantastic Fruit'

 'Cheese flavoured crisps and Coca-Cola' - upper left partner to 'Vine and Dine'.

 

Suggested lighting rig for 'Junk Food' seen from the front on.

Suggested lighting rig for 'Junk Food' seen from above.
The lighting for this is to be harsh and uninviting with a brightly lit backdrop of pure white.

The next step was to obtain the necessary food items and source a microwave within Regent Street.  For the vegetable dish I will be using a set yoghurt sprinkled with herbs poured over the vegetables to look like a sauce. 

Having obtained Pauline's permission to use the microwave in her office (and a fuse for its plug) I was able to set about obtaining ingredients for my forthcoming shoot.  Armed with all the necessary meals I began shooting on the university's Canon 5D in Room 8 on Wednesday 14th November.  With Colin's help and advice, the shoot went according to plan and I was able to obtain all of the shots I needed during the course of the day, uploading them in RAW format via memory card at the end.  

The next step was to process and arrange the images.  Stewart explained about the types of two, three and four column grids used in magazine layouts.  This information provided me with the means to research layouts in a little more depth and I downloaded a free Adobe InDesign magazine Template.  Although this was designed to be used with Adobe Illustrator (which I don't have) it worked reasonably well in Adobe Photoshop and saved me a lot of time.

The resulting image files to be submitted electronically for this assignment comprise:

a)  three original images for each category

b)  the images set within a magazine layout, saved in both Jpeg and Tiff format.

 'Pass the Pasta' 
 

  
'Vegetable Visions'

 

'Fantastic Fruit'

 

'Vine and Dine'

Evaluation

This has been an interesting assignment to work on.  I knew almost nothing about food photography when I started and now feel far better informed on the subject as a result of both my researches and the practical side of actually spending a day in the studio photographing the food.  I'm pleased that the finished photographs look very similar to my preparatory sketches and I think that the presence of the green tablecloth and red tableware has successfully created the feeling of continuity throughout the four dishes that I was aiming for in my 'Student Meals on a Budget' feature.  I have come to appreciate that food can be quite challenging to photograph because it is usually presented on a flat surface and doesn't stand up very high, which is why I struggled a bit to make interesting compositions from the dishes I chose, especially once the wine bottle was introduced in 'Vine and Dine'.  I think that my Vine and Dine images are the best from the sequence but suspect that this may be because I actually like to eat all of the things in the photograph whereas I am somewhat indifferent about the other meals; I was not expecting this bias to be so obvious in the finished pictures.

Next time that I am called upon to photograph food there are a few changes that I would like to make, such as bringing the camera closer to the food at table-level and exploiting depth of field a little more.  I would also like to experiment with ways of bringing a warmer feel to the dishes by using fabric napkins or tablecloths and a hint of steam provided by a kettle or something similar out of shot behind the dishes.  

All in all this has been a very enjoyable assignment and a great opportunity to expand my skills.

______________________________________________________

References

Unknown. (2011). berries, berry, blackberry, blueberry, colors, food. [Online image]
Available: http://favim.com/image/6694/. 
Last accessed 9th October 2012.

abrowntable. (2012). Figs on Chopping Block.[Online image] 
Available: http://www.flickr.com/photos/abrowntable/8080025359/in/pool-foodphotography. 
Last accessed 13th Oct 2012.

Unknown. (2012). Fruit.[Online image] 
Available: http://shootingfood.com/. 
Last accessed 10th Oct 2012. 
 

Darren Rowse. (2007). Food Photography – An Introduction. [Online article]
Available: http://digital-photography-school.com/food-photography-an-introduction. 
Last accessed 9th October 2012.

Laurie Vengoechea. (2012). Orange Roughy with Sauteed Olives.[Online image] 
Available: http://www.dallamiacucina.com/2012/01/food-photography-styling-challenge.html. Last accessed 10th Oct 2012. 

Jennifer Bartol. (2008). Grapefruit, Avocado, and Mint Salad. [Online image]
Available: http://www.boston.com/community/photos/raw/2009/01/photographing_food.html. Last accessed 11th Oct 2012.

Andrew Scrivani . (2010). Spaghetti With Walnuts and Anchovies. [Two online images] 
Available: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/07/health/nutrition/07recipehealth.html?ref=recipes_for_health.
Last accessed 12th Oct 2012.

Tori Soper. (2012). Still Life for Wine and Cheese Brochure. 

Available: https://www.elance.com/samples/still-life-wine-cheese-brochure-product-photography-food-photography-wine-cheese-still-life-photogra/26281037/. 
Last accessed 13th Oct 2012.

Ipsos MORI for NRS. (2012). NRS Readership Estimates - Women's Magazines - July 2011 - June 2012. [.PDF]
Available: http://www.nrs.co.uk/toplinereadership.html. 
Last accessed 12th Oct 2012.

Unknown. (2012). Page Layout Design. [Website]
Available: http://www.serif.com/appresources/ppx5/tutorials/en-gb/tutorials/design_grid.htm. Last accessed 12th Dec 2012. 

Unknown. (2011). Free Exclusive Adobe InDesign Magazine Template v.1. [Website]

Available: http://www.designfreebies.org/design-templates/indesign-templates/free-exclusive-adobe-indesign-magazine-template/. 

Last accessed 12th Dec 2012.