Evaluation

Throughout both stages of this module I was out of my comfort zone. I chose to do an animation for stage 2 simply because I thought the whole idea of the module was to be out of your comfort zone. Personally I think I did pretty well considering how much I expected myself to do. I got an example animation completed as well as a 35second long animation. When watching the animation people may think it looks simple, but that was the point. I didn't want to add colour or anything, I wanted to keep it to pencil/pen and paper. If you actually watch it carefully it was actually challenging in a technical sense. It wasn't easy trying to get the angle of the stair case right to make it look like 'they' were actually moving up the stairs. Also, I have wrote that I did the animation to a song, and yes I did, however, realistically, I wasn't going to be able to literally do an animation to a song as a typical animation is 24frames a second. I just based the 'story' on the song.

Yes I do feel like this project was a weakness in nearly all ways. But I was trying hard to try something new, try something I haven't really had chance to do before. I wanted to build new skills and get out of comfort zone, like we were asked to. I was experimenting. Maybe I didn't do as well as I could of, or as well as someone else may have done. But I tried, and personally I feel because I tried I now know how hard animation is, I know whether or not I would be happy doing it again in the future, and I now know what it takes to do it. Perhaps I won't take it up as a career but I've always wanted to give it a go, and now I have.

I definitely would like to try animation again but probably in my spare time or for a project when I have longer to complete it in, when we haven't got 7 other projects going on at the same time. I'm not going to completely rule it out. Overall, yes I am happy with my result for my animation, because even though I was busy doing the other workshops as well, I was able to complete the animation to a certain point as well as getting some wrapping paper ideas done as well. Because I was pushing myself I feel that maybe next time I will try and only take one thing forward instead of two, however, I think my wrapping paper results are a success, I would happily buy them in a shop and so would people I've asked, which I think is a great result. Finally, I think in the future I will definitely think about what is actually achievable in the amount of time that we have been given, and what I can actually realistically get completed to a high standard in the time we have.

I took these videos to help me with my animation so I had an idea of what to draw in the frames.

http://s1286.photobucket.com/albums/a605/Kerribear91/Animation%20Video/

Kilogramme

This is a film CBeebies asked a company called Kilogramme to produce for their between show slots. CBeebies provided them with the little girl's voiceover and Sam Jones created designs and storyboards.
While she directed, Andy Gubba animated the characters and Jon Turner helped with 3D.

Kilogramme is an animation company based in Manchester, England. Their work is a design led m ix of 2D and 3D; mostly short form, with an emphasis on character work.

Kilogrammenews.blogspot.com

http://vimeo.com/31436382

Other work by Kilogramme:
http://vimeo.com/39829569 - Easter 2012
http://vimeo.com/38450566 - Odds and Ends
http://vimeo.com/24507090 - Unbound
http://vimeo.com/17157685 - 2D snippets

Ideas

Because of time, I've decided to make an animation to a song rather than to Autumn. With the amount of time I have I thought it would be best to do it to the lyrics of a song as then I wouldn't have to think of a story from scratch.

Ryan Woodward

This animation is by far one of my favourite animations I've ever come across. The video itself tells the viewer a story of two lovers. The way it has been constructed is beautiful.

http://motiongraphics.nu/experimental/thought/
The making of thought of you: http://vimeo.com/16330140

http://www.bottom-of-the-ninth.com/?page_id=357

Other videos by Ryan Woodward:
http://vimeo.com/23562061 - Google
http://vimeo.com/15696812 - The Banshee
http://vimeo.com/15674911 - Ha-Breath of Life
http://vimeo.com/49660736 - Dark Fairies

Stuff to Consider

- Animators should always try and engage with other art forms, particularly those that privilege movement - for example, dance; and those that tell storers by other means - for example, opera, through music.

- Try not to move everything in every frame - pauses are beneficial and silences can be dramatically effective.

- Not all animation should be 'realistic', but it should be credible. Establish the 'illogical logic' of the world you create and give it credibility.

- Try to make sure that all the elements of your animated world are used to tell your story - for example, colour, design, lighting etc.

Harold and the Purple Crayon

A 1955 children's book by Crockett Johnson

The protagonist, Harold, is a curious four-year-old boy who, with his purple crayon, has the power to create a world of his own simply by drawing it. Harold wants to go for a walk in the moonlight, but there is no moon, so he draws one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzaovPWUb-0

Narrative Drawing

Mario Minichiello - "The act of drawing empowers the artist to look at the world, to deconstruct and rebuild it. Drawing as a discipline will enable the maker to develop a visual memory, meaning that past experiences and observations can be used to informed, insightful ways that, in turn, change the nature of what is created and communicated.....Drawing goes beyond what a camera or any other mechanical process can do, it has the limitless freedom of the mind and as such enables the artist, animator and illustrator to transport the viewer to any space, through any experience, telling stories often without words, creating empathic characters that have complexity and connections to the viewer, and above all that entertain and inform."

"Drawing enables one to try out ideas and plan compositions irrespective of what media is used to finally complete the work with. Most of all, it allows animators to 'visually think out loud' gaining them entry into a dialogue with their imagination."

Gerald Scarfe - "The most important thing is to build up a mood, which is productive in liberating your imagination further. I fully believe in 'attacking' the paper so that you can bring out what you are visualising in your mind. i liken it to a dream - even as you are recalling it and attempting to tell someone about it, it starts to evaporate - and you cannot remember the end, so getting the 'bare bones' down is crucial. Even three or four lines can work as a stimulus to develop the piece. Sometimes i am knee deep in paper bring to work an idea through, but it comes eventually."

Concept

Paul Driessen - "I do not draw my stories at this stage, but I write them down. I can vaguely picture in my head what it will look like, but there is no definite image yet. Writing is abstract. Im not hampered by design. Writing also goes much faster than drawing and one can insert afterthoughts and correct flaws without spending time on draughtsmanship, however sketchy. But it does spend on how your mind works, the kind of stories you write, your style and experience within that approach. some people need doodling, need to se images to find clues and directions. eventually, I do make a storyboard. It suggests the look go the film and defines, more or less, the various shots, the progress and order of the action."

Our biggest resource in the first instance is ourselves, and thinking about our backgrounds and the characters and possible narratives that inform them is a ready place to generate possible material. Many creative works have a strong autobiographical tendency because the artist has such in-depth knowledge on the subject and can transform it into a set of aesthetic and social, as well as personal outcomes.

"Just imagine a cabin sitting on a railway track in the middle of nowhere. Then make a list of everything that has to do with the railways, the era of the locomotives, whatever comes to mind, and stories and gags start to emerge from that imagery." - Driessen

Saul Bass

Born in New York city, May 8, 1920. He was known as one of the best ever graphic designers for film, as he has created the credits and title sequences of over 60 films, he has often worked with directors Martin Scorsese and especially Alfred Hitchcock on his very famous film Physco, of which he designed the titles. Other famous titles include The Man With the Golden Arm (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGnpJ_KdqZE), Vertigo (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXu-lNBqRR8) and North by Northwest (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIlqatMQSgI). All of his later title sequences such as Goodfellas (1990) and The Age of Innocence (1993) all feature new and innovative methods of production and startling graphic design. He also worked with Otto Preminger to design film posters for his 1954 film Carmen Jones. He was so impressed with Bass's work he asked him to produce the title sequence as well.

His skills have intrigued audience all over as film critics say that you could tell what was going to happen in a film for which Saul designed the titles. He has a long lasting and successful career, helping out with the visual concepts, storyboards but most importantly the titles for the bigger cinematic hits of the 20th century. Saul died in 1996.

John Lasseter

(January 12, 1957) is an American animator, director and the chief creative officer at Pixar and Walt disney Animation studios. Lasseter's first job was with The Walt Disney company, where he became an animator. Next, he joined Lucasfilm, where he worked on the then-groundbreaking use of CGI animation.

Lucasfilm became Pixar in 1986, Lasseter oversaw all of Pixars films and associated projects as executive producer and he directed Toy Stoy, A Bug's Life, Toy Story 2, Cars and Cars 2.
"The art challenges the technology and the technology inspires the art. Technical artists are coming from computer graphic schools, and learning sculpture, drawing and painting and traditional artists are learning more about technology. The more we get their cross-pollination the more we will stretch the boundaries of this medium"

Experiment

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7VO-u9U4GM

This is my first experiment with a hand drawn animation using flash. This hasn't got any relevance to my work, but I've never used flash before and wanted to see how it worked. I think it turned out pretty well and now I know what works and what doesn't. It has been a good learning curve for me.

Various Videos

Census "living mural" DK by Bruce Wymer

Animated wall mural, 30 second frame.

They shot all the live action plates and painted the entire contents of the mural frame by frame. It took 15 days to produce consisting of 250 paintings.

Agency : Globalhue

http://vimeo.com/9304227

Idiots and Angels - Bill Plympton by Maurice Huvelin

Hand drawn animation (short film)

Its all about a selfish, abusive, morally bankrupt man who hangs out at his local bar. He wakes up with wings on his back which makes him do good.

http://vimeo.com/groups/2Danimation/videos/28836409

Sand animation film "REZIGN" by David Myriam

Animation made completely out of sand, frame by frame.

The animation is all about what the world will be like after it ends.

http://vimeo.com/groups/2Danimation/videos/29736941

7up commercial by Brandia

Client: Pepsico

Hand drawn style but digitally produced.
http://vimeo.com/groups/2Danimation/videos/29663092

Tooth Fairy Affair by Izabela Melamed

Independent short film, traditional animation, pencil on paper
http://vimeo.com/groups/2Danimation/videos/26530030

Sony commercial "hand drawn"

A 4 minute CG playstation 3 commercial.

http://www.gamefront.com/sony-releases-cool-hand-drawn-video-for-the-ps3/

They used the playstation idea from their commercial trailer for the PSP film "features".

http://www.techeblog.com/index.php/tech-gadget/video-sony-goes-cg-with-new-psp-slim-features-trailer

Pincel de Zorro

Pincel de Zorro tells the tale of Shiori, a little girl whose life changes the same night her father brings home a dead fox from a hunting trip. Mysteriously when her parents decide to sell the precious skin of the animal, they receive a visit from a magical women.
http://vimeo.com/31069740


Time-Lapse Drawing

Drawn over 2.5 days with pen on paper.
Song by Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
http://vimeo.com/13926803





The One I Like Best

http://vimeo.com/1310308




http://vimeo.com/877053
http://vimeo.com/8332956
http://vimeo.com/21198351
http://vimeo.com/42635813
http://vimeo.com/36873964
http://vimeo.com/2354261

John Whitney

(April 8, 1917 - September 22, 1995) was an American animator, composer and inventor. His work as a director of animation at UPA studios in 1955 led him to a partnership with Saul Bass. The team produced such work as the opening sequence for the Alfred Hitchcock film 'Vertigo', and the television graphics for shows with Dinah Shore and Bob Hope. In 1960 he was able to found the aptly names company "Motion Graphics Incorporated". Most of the work completed at Motion Graphics was created with a "mechanical analog computer for specialized animation with typography and concrete design" (Youngblood, 1970) that Whitney invented. His work with the analog computer gave Whitney worldwide recognition, and one that did not fail to gain the attention of the International Business Machines company. The film, or rather collection of analog effects entitled catalog, was completed in 1961, a 7 minute, full colour exploration of visual effects set to music of Ornette Coleman.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbV7loKp69s - "Catalog" 1961

Ideas

These were my first initial ideas for this project. I found it very hard to narrow down my choices on what to do my animation on because the sky was the limit when it comes to animation. I wanted to do the animation on something I loved to begin with, stuff like tattooing and baking, but was finding it extremely hard to come up with ideas on how I could produce an animation for it. I decided to start my research before deciding on a subject for my animation, hoping that I'd build up ideas while looking at animations on sites like Vimeo and well known animators work.

These are examples from a storyboard book of how you can show full animations in short. (cutting out the middle man) These images animate the image quickly rather than a small movement between frames.

Walt Disney

Walter Elias 'Walt' Disney was born December 5th, 1901 and died December 15th, 1966. He was an american film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, entertainer, international icon and philanthropist. Hw was well-nown for his influence in the field of entertainment during the 20th century. Along with his brother Roy O. Disney, he was co-founder of Walt Disney productions, which later became one of the best known motion picture producers in the world. He and his staff created some of the worlds most well-known fictional characters including Mickey Mouse. During his lifetime he received four honoury Academy Awards and twenty-two Academy Awards.

Toy Story 3

Toy Story 3 earned $1,063,171,911 worldwide, to become the highest grossing 2010 film worldwide and the 7th highest grossing film of all time worldwide. It is also the highest grossing animated film worldwide, it was nominated for five Academy Awards - Best Picture, Best Animated Feature, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Song and Best Sound Editing. Approximately 120,000 story board frames were produced for Toy Story 3. It took 6 months to add the images to the computer and add colour. Another 9 months to animate them and then a week to render it all.

Fantasia

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

Fantasia is a 1940 American animated film produced by Walt Disney. The film consists of eight animated segments set to pieces of music (conducted by Leopold Stokowski). The soundtrack was recorded using multiple audio channels and reproduced with Fantasound, a pioneering sound reproduction system that made Fantasia the first commercial film shown in Stereophonic sound.

Fantasia consists of cartoon animation as well as live-action photography. During the production of Fantasia, segments would be colour-keyed scene by scene so the colours in a single shot would harmonise between proceeding and following ones. For inspiration on the routines in Dance of the Hours, animators studied real life ballet performers. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEjPDS8Jp1E)

The Ave Maria segment/sequence provides the illusion of depth to the 2D drawings.

"A difference in the width of the pencil line was more than enough to cause jitters, not only to the animation, but to everyone connected with the sequence".

Disney ordered many time-consuming and expensive reshots. Over 1,00 artists and technicians were used in the making of Fantasia, which features more than 500 characters. To create the illusion of "moving" sound, a three-way differential circuit device named "The Panpot" was built to allow sound to progressively travel across a left, centre and right speaker configuration using constant output fades.

Simon Russell

"I have over nine years of experience working broadcast design and advertising. My skills include design for the screen, print, illustration, character design and animation."

http://simonfarussell.com/

Nothing to Fear:

☞ http://vimeo.com/17593192

Demand Dignity, Amnesty International:

☞ http://vimeo.com/9152627

Amnesty. Optional Protocol Animation:

☞ http://vimeo.com/2395507

New project - SOI

Description of your project/projects:
Creating a short animation, only using pen/pencil, no colour

Can you define your intended outcomes (what realistically could you achieve within the timescale?) In what contexts could you envisage your ideas being realised? can you identify any media, techniques and technical processes that you plan to use/explore?
I'm hoping to be able to make a short animation, a bit like a trailer, something to show a small snippet of something could be expanded on.

What will be your research focus - what are the relevant issues, ideas and themes?
Research any texts and associated themes alongside the genres of, and possible contexts for, your illustrations.
Currently I'm thinking about doing the animation about Autumn as it fits in with the current season and I would be able to draw it quite easily.
People's work that I've looked at include Simon Russell and Ryan Woodward.
In developing your project/projects, in what ways have you reflected on your practice and critically evaluated their relevance in terms of your aspirations as an illustrator?
People usually see animation as a graphics thing but because I'll be hand drawing the animation I think that fits in well with Illustration.

Wrapping Paper Research

When I think of wrapping paper I generally think about Christmas, I like this design because it really simple, they've used the same image all the way through and despite this the red really stands out and I think this makes it really eye catching. I think the colours used really fit in with the season its for.

This wrapping paper is just simple black and white but the detail makes it stand out. The design is by an illustrator called Rachael Clare Price. She's an illustrator and designer from the North East. Her work is inspired by fashion, music, nature and folklore.

http://itslikeartillustration.blogspot.co.uk

Because my first idea for wrapping paper came from the 'Element of Surprise' project, a project that was based on animals and insects, I found this wrapping paper design which had a range of different animals all mixed in together. I found this design very childish and simple but eye catching. Personally, I want to stick to a more realistic style but will take into consideration how a vibrant and simplistic design can be effective.

This is a wrapping paper design made by Anne Wendlandt, also known as Enna. This folksy style is really big right now, especially the Russian dolls called Matryoshkas.
This design caught my eye because of the amount of detail thats been put it, the detail may be simple, but I found everytime I looked at the design I saw something new. Its effective because it's used multiple designs of dolls rather than the exact same doll. The colours aren't over the top and there actually quite calming and work well together. 

First Wrapping Paper Designs

After looking at my second attempt a few times I decided that the coloured feathers were just to scarce and the black/grey feathers still over powered the image. I took the image back into Photoshop and adding a bit more colour. I was trying to keep all the coloured feathers different to make the image stand out more and also it meant I could include more of the colours we see at Autumn. This is my final design for the feather paper. I think its turned out really well and I received good feed back about it.

 

I thought the black and white feather wrapping paper, my initial design, was a bit plain, I thought it was nice and calm and I love working in black and white, but for wrapping paper I just didn't think it worked as well as it possibly could. I started playing around with the design on Photoshop and adding colour. I didn't want to colour all the leaves in because I didn't want a hectic design just something that stood out. I chose these colours because they're Autumn colours and personally I think they're subtle. 

This is another design I came up with, I was trying to stick to the nature theme. I didn't want to just do random designs. Because my initial idea was meant to be about Autumn I'm thinking of trying to create something similar to this feather one but with leaves.

This was my first design for the wrapping paper because the idea came from this workshop. I think this design could actually work for the front of a card design also, the reason I've chosen wrapping paper instead is because you generally find repeated patterns like this on wrapping paper.

STAGE TWO

Element of Surprise

I then used Photoshop to change the size and position of the Penguin. I used the hue/saturation tool on Photoshop to change the colour of one of the Penguins to represent the 'element of surprise'. This is my final piece for the element of surprise task. Personally I prefer it to my earlier attempts simply because it has more detail to it, where as before I was trying to use as little detail as I could.

I took the project further after class and decided to create a more realistic image. I used my images from my research to paint this Penguin.

http://s1286.photobucket.com/albums/a605/Kerribear91/Penguins/

This was my second attempt at the element of surprise task. I thought I'd make one that was more obvious and easier to find. On this one I took the idea of using the collective noun that we found earlier on. There is a Penguin with a parcel on this image with penguins in the parcel which was meant to represent the 'Parcel of Penguins' collective noun.

We got asked to create an image with a element of surprise within it. This was my first element of surprise. I was trying to make it as difficult as possible to find the 'odd one out'. I asked a number of people if they could see it but many found the 'decoys'. The odd one out is actually near the bottom left hand corner, there is human face wearing a Penguin hat rather than an actual Penguin.

My final experiment was with paper cut outs. These were really simple to achieve but I found to be really effective. My favourite is the first one on this sheet of Penguins, I was very surprised at how much you could strip away.

My next lot of experiments I tried on different paper. I thought I would do them backwards to the last ones I did, and instead of using black on white, use white on black. These were actually some of my favourite ones. 

After completing the required amount I started experimenting with other materials and other ideas. Because on my first page some of the shapes looked a bit like bowling pins I decided to have a bit of fun and see what they would look like as a collection of bowling pins. I also did quick drawings with a black marker pen to see if I could strip any more detail away. I found I could literally strip everything away apart from a triangle for a beak and a white circle for its belly and people still recognised it as a Penguin as they are know as a 'black and white' animal, which makes them easily recognisable.

The first task was to get at least 25 drawings done of your chosen animal. I started of with a pencil because it was the simplest and quickest material. I tried using different shapes as well as trimming the detail right down to its most simplistic form to see how much I could cut the detail down whilst it still looks like a penguin. I asked people around me what they thought to get second opinions of them still looking like Penguins.

Examples of how to make a bird look as simple as possible but still look like the animal its supposed to.

I found a few collective nouns for Penguins, my favourite ones were:

Colony of Penguins
Parcel of Penguins
Raft of Penguins
Huddle of Penguins

As soon as I knew we were doing this project I was really happy because I love drawing animals and bugs, personally I think its one of my stronger points because I'm not very good at drawing people. I knew the animal I wanted to do from the word go, Penguins. This is because I know a lot about them and I have a real passion for them. 

Aboriginal Seasons

Gurreng

Wurrgeng

Yegge

Banggerreng

Gunumeleng

Gudjewg

I read the research again I thought a whole landscape would be better as you could see when it was flooded etc, which would make it a lot easier to distinguish each season.

Originally I was thinking about doing the image really complex and full of detail, but like this example shows that less detail can actually be just as effective and still show whats going on.

My first attempt was actually a painting to begin with, I did this because I thought I might be able to do each season with a single tree just changing the surroundings around the tree. E.g the animals. But also changing the tree, showing whether it had leaves or not etc.

I decided to make a diagram of all the things that happened in each season so I could try and come up with ideas of what could be in each image to show that specific season.

After researching the brief more and looking up what each season was actually about, I started thinking that painting this one might be a bit hard because I would have to try and repaint everything in the same position. Because of this I started worrying about how I was going to achieve my final pieces.

I thought that the newspaper task was going to be the worst project we were going to have, but once we got briefed on this one I thought differently. I love taking photographs of landscapes but I don't really like drawing them. Originally, I thought I could paint the landscape so started looking forward to doing the task.