Project Log 3

What have you done since last time?
i have re-evaluated my animation and have tweaked any missing parts. Ive edited the speed of it, and have tried to create the element of movement.
What worked? What didn't?
I think the initial idea of skiing down a hill worked, as i got the arms to move in different positions but so they were in sync with the legs. I think that was probably the hardest thing i had to do in my animation and i seemed to cover it pretty well. I don't think my idea in general worked too well. It didn't make a lot of sense, and was a pretty poor effort in creativity. It didn't work so well zooming in on the facial expressions of characters either, as the focus came out blurry in places.
What soloutions have you found?
I found that using macro mode works on zoom, but only to a certain extent. The soloution i found for this is to have the image i'm taking closer, and using the zoom button less often.
What do you need to do next?
I need to decide on any changes i may make to the animation, for example music and sound effects. I don't however think i will use any of those mediums, as i'm quite content with my animation.

CLAYMATION by ellie, sable, and rachael

This is a claymation me and others created at the beginning of the year. Our animation was made up by creating different characters, and making up a storyline simply by analysing their appearance. Our charactes were quite distinctive as you can see, so we were clueless about how to start out animation. We decided to turn it into a worst case scenario love story, resulting in a messy situation. It was quite easy to make the animation, although it was time consuming having to move each part of our characters literally a millimetre per shot. We ended up taking quite a few shots, and resulted in quite a successful end product. i think we could have put a lot more thought into the story behind this animation, but considering it was a first time using claymation i think we did pretty well, especially in making the girl character fall over.

this is a picture of my production schedule. i pretty much managed to stay on task with this, although i slipped up on different parts on a few weeks. its colourcoded towards each learning objective, and is set out in an easily readable format.

this is a picture of the storyboard i created. i took some of the main images i wanted to show my characters in, and put them into a larger scale. i didn't use all of these images as you can probably tell in my animation, but they were used at milestones in my production.

this is just a picture of my initial ideas after some minor tweaking. it describes the way in which i wanted my characters to be portrayed, and gives a brief description of my storyline.

BACKGROUNDS

This is the first background used in my animation, as you can see it's a ski slope which is represented by a white whiteboard and transparancies coloured in.

This features in the scene where the two characters fall in love. I found it hard to fit the background in because its so different from the previous scene, but i think i managed it okay.

Again, the beackground featured in the previous scene minus the character face.

The background at the end of the animation when the two finally fall in love. This is also made by using transparancies.

The background used when the two characters crash into each other on the slope. This was made from just a piece of plain paper.

PLANNING

This is a picture of what i was hoping to make one of the main shots. it didn't end up featuring as a keypoint in my animation, but it did help me to link my idea together in terms of character emotion.

This is a close up shot of one of my characters. he realises he has fallen in love with the mysterious pink creature, and this is the expression he produces.

This is another keypont in my scenes. you see this image appear after the close up of the dog character, as a way to show the detail of emotion. i used two transparacies to create this background, and it seemed to work out quite well.

CHARACTERS

This is just a picture of all my different characters.

The two different sillouhettes of the dog character,

The three different angled characters used to create the movement effect.

The images of the second character and its features.

All the different parts needed to create the dog characters changing faces.

PLANNING

All of these pictures are of my progress throughout the unit. They are self evaluations of my work progress this term. I looked back at various points to see how my skills had developed, and used these as points on my development scale in progress.

POWERPOINT

Ellie tindsley

View more presentations from gdsteacher.

This powerpoint is a description of some of the factors we used within our animations and factors used in general animation. Its not the best piece of work i've produced, but its quite detailed and gives out the description needed.

PLANNING

These are pictures of the planning that i've done throughout the production of my animation. The pictures include my individual characters, backgrounds, storyboard, production schedule, and my initial ideas..

TIM BURTON - VINCENT PRICE

Tim Burton was born in Burbank on the 25th August 1958. His family knew from a young age that he had a high imagination, and he would often watch low budget horror movies to help him escape from his reality. Tim Burton has brought some of the best animations and films ever into our lives including “The Nightmare before Christmas”, “Edward Scissorhands”, “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”, and “Big Fish”. All his films have a somewhat noir effect to them, bringing dark storylines and characters. Tim Burton has had an extremely successful career, and is a legendary figure in the film making industry. Alice in wonderland his latest creation starring Johnny Depp has already been sold out. Vincent Price was the first short film 6 minute black and white animation written and directed by Tim Burton that was released on 1st October 1982. Based on a poem that Tim Burton wrote, Vincent is a 7 year old boy who wants to grow up to be like his hero Vincent Price. His character is disturbed and twisted within his imagination and has a somewhat split personality. He lives in a world inside his imagination where he is the equivalent of Vincent Price – the popular horror actor. Vincent Price is actually the voiceover for the animation which says a lot about the animation in itself, as Tim Burton was the only man at the time who managed to get Vincent Price to participate within a film. Tim Burton uses rhyme and gothic features to create an atmosphere full of darkness and hatred. Vincent is a very disturbed child who turns anything good into something bad. The animation has a noir effect to it, contrasting with the claymation and adding to the bizarreness of narration and imagery. It seems as if the animation is reliving Tim Burton’s childhood, and Vincent is really how he was as a child, pretending to be in horror movies and causing havoc.


I think the animation as a whole is a great success because of how its pieced together. The techniques used create and illusion that Vincent is dreaming, but it then links with another scene that brings him back to the sincerity of reality. Its mesmerising how the character is in his own world one moment and then in reality the next, as its shown in a way thats truly remarkable. I think that the only problem with the animation is that you have to really concentrate on what’s being said and shown, instead of being able to use it as a source of reflection. I liked the animation however, and i don’t think Tim Burton could have started his career in a better way.

websites: www.youtube.co.uk
www.googleimages.co.uk
www.imdb.com

PIXAR

FOR THE BIRDS
For the birds is a computer animation, that was created by pixar. Computer animation is an effective technique, because you can visually portray absolutely anything without too much hassle. For the birds is an interesting animation because it seems to hide a moral within it. All of the smaller birds make fun of the largest bird because he's so big, and try to exclude him for being different.
They try to push him off of the wire they're all standing on, and eventually he falls off. As he's so big and heavy, the wire weighs down so he's pretty much at the floor, so he falls off without having any injury. The small birds however who aren't so heavy are all thrown off by the force released as the bigger bird steps off the wire. They all come plummetting to the down in a pile of feathers, bare skinned and ugly. The story relates to real life situations because people are often excluded for the way they look. The idea of the birds being hurt in the end is a sign of karma and what goes around comes around.



The feathers used within the animation were all real, and the short clip used over 10000 of them. I think the animation is really effective because its simple and creative. The idea in itself has an impact on its overall appearance. I enjoyed it due to the idea behind it, and i'm sure others will too.

Websites used: www.youtube.co.uk www.googleimages.com

FINAL ANIMATION ONE

The video which you can see above is my un-edited final animation. To make my animation, i used a medium thats called transparancies. As you can see in various points in my animation the transparancies don't work so well, but because of the storyline i'd chosen for my animation it seemed the best option to use as i could change the facial expressions of my characters sufficiently. It took me quite a while to get used to using the medium, but after about 2 lessons i got to grips with making it look effective. I found that using white paper as backing made the colours seem bolder, and made my animation look a lot less like an 8 year old had made it. The various stages if making my characters were irritating, because i couldn't get them to look the same each time but with different expressions. It took me quite a few attempts to get there, but i think it worked pretty well towards the end. My animations quite unusual, because its storyline makes no sense. I'd started off with the idea to have a love story where two characters meet on a ski slope from knocking into each other. It started off okay, with the downhill skiing, but as i progressed to zoom in on their facial expressions to show their emotions it became quite hard. You'll notice that at a point in my animation it zooms in on the orange characters face then changed into a heart background with him being in love. I had absolutely no idea how to combine these two parts of the scene together, but the best i could come up with was to try it by zooming in. I'm quite pleased with my animation because honestly, i never thought i'd have had the patience to see it the whole way through. I'm still browsing for some sound effects to put in the backing of it, but once thats done it will be fully complete.

There are a lot of strengths and weaknesses within my animation, which you can probably see for yourself. Th transparancies are a weakness in a few parts, because the colours appear different shades and you can actually see the outline of the transparancie. This makes my animation look quite un-proffessional, and i cant say im pleased about the way they turned out. Another weakness would be the movement within the animation. When the character is skiing down the slope at the beginning it doesnt look too disastrous, but once he meets the 2nd character it all seems to go downhill. The camera photos are out of sync so the animation is jumpy, which is really uneffective. There are some strengths with my animation though. I think the skiing scene actually works quite well with the arm movement, because it gives a real effect f skiing. I also think that how the facial expressions change is quite good, because it seems to run smoothly. Overall i don't think my animation was anything special, but i do have to say i'm pleased with it. Even though it doesn't look amazing i put a lot of effort into it, and just to see a finished product is good enough for me.

TEST ANIMATION ONE

This animation was my first test of my end project. I was quite pleased with this because i got the timing right, but as its only a few seconds its hard to see what i can work on from it. I found inspiration for this looking through books of cartoons. I saw the image of a dog, and decided to interpret it into my own character. I chose the word "slide" to base my animation on so a ski slope seemed a good idea. I've experimented with different types of movement, and found the best way to animate this scene is by taking 2 pictures per frame to make the movement smooth. This excercise helped me to find where i was going wrong in my attempts, and helped me to improve my animation greatly!

I think the weakness with this attempt is the way it looks on camera. All the lighting has changed and i moved the camera accidently a few times, changing the affectiveness greatly. I could have put more effort into the appearence of the character, as the colours seem rushed instead of blocks. I can learn from this animation all round within my camera shots, because seeing this has taught me about how important it is for the camera to stay still at all times. If i could do this again, i think i would do a claymation because it seems a lot easier and also less time consuming.

websites: www.youtube.co.uk

WHITEBOARD

This animation is a whiteboard that i made alone. I don't know where i got the inspiration from, it was just one of those ideas that spontaniously pop into your head. I think that doing this animation helped me to improve my drawing skills and using a steady hand, because it was quite challenging to draw without rubbing out pieces of my work. I think this animation actually went quite well because i worked independantly, and had the chance to try things out on my own. In this excercise i learnt how effective the simplest of things can be.

I think this is one of my better animations. In comparisson to my pixilation i'd say it was pretty good because i tried to put effort into this one. I can learn from this animaton, because it shows that things don't have to be complex and awkward to look good. If i was to do another i think I'd add a lot more to it because its quite short, and could have been made more interesting with a bit of time.

websites: www.youtube.co.uk

PIXILATION

This video was supposed to be a car crash that me, sable, hobie, and jake made at the beginning of the year. To create this video we used pixilation, which is a technique that makes images appear to be moving. I did this in a group, and although i wasn't actually in the video i took all the pictures. Making this animation helped me to progress in my camera skills, by giving me practise at getting the correct shot. There wasn't a particular animation that influenced us, it was just a creative idea we had in our heads which wasn't portrayed so well when we recorded. In this excercise i learnt just how complicated pixilation is, because before i didn't realise just how much effort it is create the right effect.

I dont think this animation was very good because we misunderstood the concept of making the movement look real. I don't have any animations i can really compare to this because my others fall into different criterias, but I think we could have improved this a lot more. I think from this i could learn to be more careful with planning, so the idea we come up with actually works. If i could change this animation, i'd scrap the whole idea and try to do something a bit more simple.

websites: www.youtube.co.uk

Project Log 2

What have you done since last time?
Since last time i have drawn up all the backgrounds and characters i am using for my animation and have created two test animations. Last week i was going to begin animating properly, but there was a technical fault with the camera.
What worked? What didn't?
The first test animation i did wasn't successful because i had left too little space between each of my scenes making it drag on for longer than it really needed to. The test animation didnt work, but it did help me to realise where i was going wrong with my animation. After this i did another test which i could have potenentially used in my real animation, but the camera settings made it all turn out black ruining all my pictures.
What soloutions have you found?
I have found that when making my character move, i should take about 4 shots each time to make it go on for longer. If i move my character about 1cm each time, it will give the illusion of movement more smoothly.
What do you need to do next?
The next thing i need to do it actually start my animation, and then possibly make a moodboard if i finish all my work. I also have to start and complete my evaluation

*no websites used

"A short love story in stop motion" By Carlos Lascano

A Short Love Story In Stop Motion
A short love story in stop motion is a mix between lots of different animation types. It mainly uses stop motion and claymation, although it has other animation types including video and computer edits. The characters are all made differently, starting with the little girl who starts off the animation. She is made out of clay, but as she grows older she progresses to be a 2D animation and a partial computer edit. All the sets are made from carboard and wood, that Carlos Lascano uses as replicas before editing them digitally. The storyline is simple yet affective due to the background music, and the dramatic affect of the colour tone. The story starts with a little girl daydreaming and doodling in a class room, ending up with two of the birds shes drawn unwinding all the tales behind the life she progresses to lead. Its a touching story because it show her growing up, and eventually falling in love, having a husband and becoming an old married woman. The story is affective to its audience because of the music played in the background and the general scene of the animation. Both these factors combine together to create an atmosphere of love, bringing the animation to life. It targets peoples affectionate emotions, and makes you feel all warm inside. I think that the imagery is more important than the storyline in this animation, because there's so many different types of imagery involved. The story is easy to follow, but working out what different animation technique represents is quite complex. I can use the idea of different animation types for my animation, mixing ideas together. I like the idea of editing in real life features such as eyes also, but i think that would be a bit too complex to do. Other animations like this that i've seen include Harvey Crumpet because of the contrast in lighting and the overall unique factor about both animations. I haven't had a chance to watch anymore of Carlos lascano's animations yet, but im told there very similar to this. i look forward to watching them.

A SHORT LOVE STORY IN STOP MOTION from Carlos Lascano on Vimeo.

websites: www.youtube.co.uk

www.imdb.com

Project Log 1

What have you decided to do?
Ive decided to do a whiteboard animation/claymation. In my animation a dog is struggling to ski down a mountain but falls over as the pink brain ski's past him. He instantly falls in love with her and tries to impress her, but he ends up falling down the hill as a giant snowball. I'm possibly going to use some sound effects and props including fake trees, and a moving background.

What planning have you done so far?
I have:
made a proposal form
developed my ideas
come up with an original idea to elaborate on
started to create a storyboard
This as well as all the work we have done this year has been used to help us prepare for making our animation.

What do you need to do next?
The next thing i need to do is to make a mood board, dope sheets with times, finish my storyboard, and create a production schedule.

What skills are you going to work on?
I'm going to try and improve my skills on premiere animator, and meeting deadlines. I'm also going to work on improving my ability to make animations move at different speeds.

Harvie Krumpet

Harvie Krumpet By Adam Elliot

Adam Elliot was born on the 2nd January 1972 in South Australia. He grew up on a shrimp farm in South Australia with his two brothers, sister and parrot. He found his talent for art at an early age, and spent 5 years studying photography, painting, pottery, and other artistic areas. He has won 34 awards including oscars, and is a unique and succcessful animator.

What type of animation is it? Describe the use of sets/script/characters/storyline. The animation is a type of claymation full of characters with extremely large eyes and noses like the style of wallace and gromit. The big features are kind of like a trademark animative technique, as the other animations by Adam Elliot do. It has partial aspects of substitution and all the characters have distinctive similarities about them.

How would you describe the style? Why do you think Adam Elliot uses that style?
The style seems rather old fashioned and dull, with sepia affectively used. It has a pretty blank story line that seems quite basic, but its livened up by sarcastic and witty naration. The voiceover gives it a commical effect, as it narrates the life of Harvie. It involves some aspects of history in WW1 adding detail to what seems a blunt story.

What effect does it have on the audience?
The animation is really funny because of the tone the narrator uses when he's telling the story, but he also makes you feel sorry for Harvie. When his parents die you feel sentimental, but then the narrator says that "they were frozen, in the nude" which instantly makes you laugh.

Why do you think it won an oscar for best animated short in 2003?
I think that it won an oscar because its an animation thats original from others. Like Vincent, the animation is slightly twisted in a dark setting with a celebrity voiceover, but its also nothing alike to it. The animation really connects with the audience within the language it uses, and the way that its all set out. You could compare it to the likes of "wallace and gromit" or "creature comforts" because of the appearance of the characters, but as a story they are completely different

websites: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0254178/ http://www.melodramapictures.com/

Metamorphis and Zoetrope Animation techniques

Above Left: Pictures for metemorphisis animation Right: Zoetrap animation strip

Metemorphis animation is a series of pictures put together to show an object expanding into another. It consists of drawing a beggining picture, and an ending picture then drawing all of the stages inbetween. The ways in which they merge can vary widely, from explosions on the page to shape shifting and size expansion or decreasing. The easiest way to merge the two is by finding shapes within both pictures that are similar in some way, and looking at the ways they can blend together. Zoetropes were first used in Roman times and are still used today as a form of entertainment. They consist of a series of drawings that change very slightly each time, and when spun inside a zoetrope give the illusion of a moving picture. The simpler the idea the more affective the outcome is, for example, using a ball is a simple idea but because its simple the effect can be played around with easily. Zoetropes are popular animations andare relatively simple to make.
On Friday 26th February, we went to the Norwich University of Creative Arts and had a go at making out own metemorphosis animations

We were taken there to have an insight of how they were made, and had the chance to make our own. We used shots of two to give a smooth running effect, without any blips to spoil it aswell as making the video in itself longer. The link posted below shows our final animation.


We started off by each taking a word out of an envelope and changing the word into a picture. Mine was a house so i drew a house trying to limit the detail to make transforming it easier. We then had to copy our partners drawing which in my case was a bicycle and then draw all the pictures inbetween. I managed to get the windows to turn into wheels, the chimney into a bike seat, and the roof into random parts of the bike, but it was hard work and isnt as easy as you'd think. We then went over to the A level students, and they took photos of our pictures on a rostrum and edited them all together on the computer. While they were doing this we started working on a zoetrope. The zoetropes were a lot easier than the metemorphisis animations, but were just as effective. Mine was a little creature sitting in a room and a box fell on his head then tumbled off. It sounds plain and boring, but thats all you need to make a good animation. You basically have to draw out the full animation twice however to make the running of it look smooth and not like a load of pictures just thrown together in a wheel. I found the experience really good because i didn't even know what metemorphisis animation was before going to the studio, so justlearning about them was something new to me. I found the day really good, and i learnt a lot of animation techniques including the use of lightboxes and rostrum use. I think the trip really benefited me, and i now have an insight of another 2 types of animation.

The Monty Python

Killer Cars
The monty python is a type of animation thats very different from others. The monty python is a series of different cut outs and still images to produce an individual animation. Terry Gillian uses images that appear to be victorian to make the Monty Python, to give a desaturated effect in his animation.
The still image and stop motion technique is another effective type of animation. Pictures of magazine cutouts or photographs are moved at different speeds togive the illusion of deformed movement. A few pictures are taken of each picture, and are then processed as frames and edited together. Some of the animations are quite surreal with one including a giant cat eating acity and being squashed by an abnormally large sized hand. They animations are all made up of moving mouths, eyes changing direction of sight, different sized limbs and characters disproportioned, un-coordinated bodies, and lots of different layers.
The monty python is styled to be a surreal type of comedy with bizarre outbursts. The randomness of the animation is amusing becayse the whole animation makes sence without having to make sence. Everything slots in together by using things such as giant animals or limbs, linking images together, and adding peculiar sound effects. The all round outcome of the animation is a weird but wonderful selection of sketches that git together to create 5 minutes of pure genius.


souces used: http://www.youtube.co.uk/ http://www.wikipedia.co.uk/ the help of mr seal

Pixilation

Pixelation is a technique where human beings are animated by taking different frames and pictures. It blends actors in with live action, giving a surreal and quite disturbing effect. Popular television series such as “Angry Kid” and short films such as “Bolox Brothers – The Secret Adventures of Tom Thumb” “A Chairy Tale”. “Neighbours” and music videos such as “Coldplay – Strawberry Swing” and “Kanye West – Heard em say” all use pixelation.

The actors in the animation
Food was created by Jan Švankmajer and is a prime example of pixilation. A man enters a room puts down his belongings, and prepares to become a human vending machine. He puts money into the mouth of the man whos currently the vending machine, and eventually is presented with a meal of sausages, mustard, bread, and a drink. He eats the meal and then becomes the human vending machine himself. All the men who enter the room take it in turn to do this for the 3 different meals of the day. The pixilation makes the film seem quite disturbing because it looks un-real but is moving in an un-human way. Long shots with close ups are used to catch the different angles of the pixilation, focusing on the movement of the men especially.
Neighbours was created by Norman Mclaren and is another good example of pixilation. Neighbours is supposed to be an anti-war film which is about two men who fight over a flower. They end up losing everything, and die themselves for this one flower which neither of them end up claiming. They kill each others families, destroy their houses, and end up dying all for nothing. It’s a pixilation from the 1960’s, with some live action added in to give a more realistic effect. They use a mixture of long shots and close ups again, to emphasise different parts of the film like when they’re in their graves at the end. Its quite strange when they attack each other because it all seems so pointless, but it makes sense because its based on pointless fighting.
Both the films use pixilation with some clay motion, and the same types of shots. They use the same techniques to show movement, and shuffle instead of walking. They both come across as un-human in the way they move, and are original ideas. Food is digetic however, and Neighbours is not. Both the films make you feel differently, and only Food uses recording as well as still images.

websites used: www.wikipedia.co.uk www.imdb.com

learning objectives: