9 Week Project

Matt, Frances and I are working as a group to create a 20-30 second advertisement using house-hold items. We have decided to share a physical sketchbook in order to record our ideas and plan our work.

Our first idea was a Christmas-themed ad for polish, with characters "ice-skating" on a kitchen surface. We decided not to follow through with this idea as it would have been difficult to put together and not very interesting to animate. 

Our second idea was an ad for a cleaning product where a typical "Super hero" fails to clean up a kitchen mess and the real hero (the product) comes in to save the day. This idea had a little more potential for comedy but we decided the super hero theme was a little clique and we moved onto our final idea.

Our current idea is a Halloween-themed advertisement that warns young children of the dangers of playing with bleach/other cleaning products. We have designed all the characters and I am responsible for "Count Spatula" who acts as a narrator.

1 Second (Week 6)

This week I jumped on the bandwagon and made a Halloween-inspired animation. I wanted to show the witch being affected by the air around her as she flies; I quite like how the movements came out bouncy even if it is less realistic. There seems to be something off about how the background moves, however, so I will look into walk cycles where the character stays still and the background pans to help me understand better.

PROJECT 6

RESEARCH: Video and Sketches

I made this recording of myself demonstrating each of the emotions we are going to animate. This was useful to do, but it is more interesting to watch other people in order to see a variety of reactions across different genders and ages.

These are some sketches I made based off my research into body language and facial expressions. I have been practicing gesture drawings so I found it a lot easier to portray distinctive emotions.

1 Second (Week 5)

 

I realised that I'd only been drawing animals for these short animations so this week I tried something non-animal. I had read about animating fire in one of the books that was recommended by our tutors so I attempted to replicated what I remember from the book. Arcs or air-pockets that travel upwards through the fire create a rippling sort of effect. I think it makes a nice scene but the fire could have been drawn bigger or had a glowing effect to make it seem more impressive.

PROJECT 6

RESEARCH: Emotions and Body Language

 REJECTION;

Sad, disheartened, defeated, distress, embarrassment, slumped shoulders, down-turned mouth, averted eyes, flushed face, covering the face

 ANGER;

Rage, frustration, snarling, flared nostrils, gritted teeth, furrowed eyebrows, direct staring eyes, tense jaw, balled up fists, squaring up to someone

 HAPPINESS;

Joy, laughter, natural smile, teeth showing, squinting eyes, relaxed facial muscles, open posture, expressive limbs, excitable

 BOREDOM;

Fidgeting, slouching posture, half-shut eyes, unfocused, looking around, head in hands, yawning, impatience

 TIREDNESS;

Fatigue, sleepy, rubbing eyes, head nodding off, head in hands, heavy stance, slow moving, sluggish, yawning, slow blinking, slumped body

 IRRITATION;

Vexed, exasperated, frustrated, impatient, eye-rolling, hand to head, tense jaw, twitching eyes, tense shoulders, pacing, huffing/sighing

Resources:

Tutorials:

1 Second (Week 4)

For this week's one second animation I wanted to try lip syncing again with the added difficulty of the character's head moving at the same time.

I came up with this character because it's nearly Halloween and I was in the mood for creepy stuff. The movement of the tail is something I thought a lot about but it looks a little off so I will have to research how a cat's tail moves and try again.

I had the same problems with audio quality as last week's animation.

Week Four: JAN SVANKMAJER & QUAY BROTHERS

Jan Svankmajer uses a variety of mediums to animate including clay, puppet theatre and live action sequences. His work is recognisable through his use of inanimate objects and exaggerated sound. In "The Garden" he skillfully dissects the communist regime in simple imagery, society and communication are key themes in his work. In "Dimensions of Dialogue" there is a progression in each set of interaction where the outcome is negative. Svankmajer's use of everyday objects is very captivating and clever in the way it translates easily into real life situations. The style in which the clay is used is eerily close to real life with distorted expressions.

The Quay Brothers are two brothers who collaborate on their stop motion animations. Typically they use puppets and distinctively dark or creepy looking models as their characters. They don't use dialogue to tell the story as the focus is on atmospheric noises and music. "Street of Crocodiles" focuses on the decay and dark atmosphere of a heavily commercialised area. The puppets are deliberately repulsive and together with the gloomy colours and well-matched music the viewer is left a little unnerved and on-edge. The viewer sympathizes with the protagonist as he is trapped in this world and coerced into various situations by creepy, eyeless, doll-headed figures.

PROJECT 5

PROJECT 5: Photography

 

We had to take a series of photographs based on a set of themes, and we weren't allowed to crop or edit the photographs. We had to show depth of field by altering the aperture in our cameras. I took nearly 60 photos, but these were the ones I chose for my main submission.

 

 

ACTION

 

AUTUMN

 

BUSY

 

CALM

 

COMEDY

 

CURIOUS

 

FILM NOIR

 

HAPPY

 

HORROR

 

PULP FICTION

 

SAD

 

STORM APPROACHING

 

TENSION

 

1 Second (Week 3)

This week I wanted to try something else so I decided to produce something that was coloured, had a background and some noise or lip syncing element.

I made this unrealistic horse and liked the way it came out as it is quite funny to watch. I could have improved it by shading the horse character and also there are some frames where the neck seems to "flicker" that could be fixed.

I also used my mp3 to record the audio so the sound quality is not to a professional standard.

Week Three: JOANNA QUINN, CANDY GUARD & ALISON DE VERE

This week we looked at animators who were, in their era, uncommon and revolutionary as they created animation (women were not considered to be capable of creativity by many male animators) from the perspective of realistic female characters.

Joanna Quinn made two animations we watched surrounding the same character, Beryl "Girl's Night Out" and "Body Beautiful". The animation style is like a mix between life drawing sketches and exaggerated cartoon motion and caricatures. Quinn's use of character design was a strong statement in that era as she dared to portray a woman as a non-idealised, average, overweight working class individual. The rapid and surreal movements in the animation create a hectic, busy feeling and a sense of noise much like the busyness that the character felt as she worked hard in the factory and at home, doing all the housework like a woman in that time would have been expected to.



Candy Guard created many short pieces that explored the themes of relationships, health, body issues and everyday life from the perspective of the average woman. Guard's style is very simplistic; cartoon figures drawn with few choice lines and little shading or colour. The main focus of these shorts, such as "Moanologue" and "Fatty Issues" is the comedy aspect, as many will laugh in the realisation of how close to real life these witty observations are. Occasionally darker themes are behind the narrative, again they reflect real life and serve to force the viewer into considering situations they've experienced which are similar.



Alison de Vere created the short film "The Black Dog", which follows the heavily symbolic story of a woman trying to improve her life and herself as she is guided by a mysterious and protective spirit-animal type entity which takes the form of a black dog. The style of the animation is very sketchy and fluid like a cartoon but the dark, muted colour palette and frightening character designs takes this piece far away from any suggestion of comedy or lightheartedness. The viewer watches anxiously as the female protagonist experiences vanity, greed, lust and ends up on the wrong side of various malevolent creatures. Time and again the black dog steers his ward onto the right path. The piece is eerie, thought provoking and a little bit depressing.

PROJECTS: 1, 2, 3 & 4

PROJECT 1: Animation & Compositing

 

We had to use greenscreen and models we had made to produce a stop motion animation. I worked with Dec and Celia and we made a piece called "The Happy Onion". It was a fun project to start with and I learnt a lot about the cameras and software as I have not made many stop-motion animations before. We then tried to remove the green screen but unfortunately our screen was quite yellow so we had to use a mask instead.

 

PROJECT 2: Timing & Motion

 

The task was to animate a simple block in flash so that it took on the qualities of certain objects. To practice we animated our blocks moving across the screen; accelerating and decelerating; and swinging like a pendulum. The objects the block had to seem like were an apple, a balloon, a cannonball and a bouncy ball. I am happiest with the outcome of the "cannonball" as the short movements I used give it a sense of weight. I struggled to make the block move like a balloon so I should have maybe got a balloon or watched a video of one on YouTube to help me.

 

PROJECT 3: Animating in Maya

 

Using what we'd learnt about motion we animated a bouncing ball in Maya. We learnt how to use squash and stretch to make the movement more dynamic and convincing. I hadn't used Maya before and occasionally I got confused when using keyframes but I am used to the program now and this project was really useful for me to learn.

 

PROJECT 4: Walk Cycle Foundation

 

As a class, Mario explained and demonstrated how to draw key poses for a walk cycle then fill the betweens. We had to make one walk sequence from the side, one from the front and an animal walk sequence.

 

 

I used Toon Boom Studio 4.5 for all of these. The drawings are a little scruffy and awkward looking but I think I know understand the basics of a walk cycle. I should practice these and also attempt to include arm movements in order to improve.

 

http://youtu.be/jSB69sAY1s0

 

For my animal walk sequence I decided to look at raccoons. The YouTube link above is the resource I used to make my own animation; it was very helpful to watch. I think my attempt was okay but it could have done with more frames to make it smoother and more emphasis on how the back leg lands before the corresponding front leg.



1 Second (Week 2)

This week I drew a dog scratching itself. I think this had potential to be a looping scratch but I tried to keep it within one second. I dislike how the tail flickers and should have traced it using onion skin, or created a clear wagging movement. I think the movement is clear and sharp, particularly after the scratch as it had emphasis.

Week Two: NORMAN McLAREN & OSKAR FISCHINGER

Norman McLaren worked as an animator after WW2 which had a great impact on many of the themes in his work. He made experimental pieces by drawing in ink directly onto film with abstract shapes moving in time with music. He is mostly known for his use of pixilation, a mixture of stop motion and live action. In "Neighbours" he sets a pleasant scene which quickly dissolves into chaos. The use of bright colours, quirky movement and cartoon violence gives such humour that the viewer feels even more disturbed when the outcome is the death of the two protagonists and their families. McLaren does well to make the film attractive and enjoyable whilst perfectly expressing the deeper meaning instilled into the scenario.

Oskar Fischinger left Germany to animate in America, but found that the big companies wanted to censor and over-edit his work for their own needs, something which he felt limited his artistic freedom. He was experimental in his work and often produced abstract pieces without narrative. He worked with many materials including liquids, wax and clay to create wild shapes and patterns that moved along to pieces of music. "Optical Poem" is one such abstract piece where Fischinger hung paper shapes on wires and animated them with stop-motion. He wasn't popular for commercial animation at the time but now he is revered for pushing the boundaries of his craft.