Animation Blog

https://youtu.be/8FCYbS-bzoM

To take my photographs, I decided to go on a walk near my house, to capture shapes and places in  my area. When I returned from taking my photographs, I realised my eye had been drawn to a lot of regular shapes – grids, squares, parallel lines etc. I had also taken several photographs of scaffolding, as I was interested in the depth that it created from the front of the building. I wanted to play on this, and began to place sections of different images into the grid created by the front of the scaffolding. I eventually realised I had a lot of images of pavement stones, grates and covers. Choosing to create part of a pavement over the top of the scaffolding, I filled in some of the gaps, but left enough of the building underneath exposed to still be clear what the original image was. I also removed the gaps in some of the grates so that the building beneath can be seen. I then moved out of photoshop and used a different app to change some specific areas of the values to make the pavement a similar range of values and appear to be the same level, and so flatter. Overall I was happy with how my image turned out, and would’ve liked to have been able to make a series involving different areas or different types of buildings.

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Rotation 7: Traditional Animation

For the traditional animation workshops, we had a number of task set over several days to learn how to work with different types of hand drawn animation; straight ahead, pose to pose, combination, and ease in and out. Beginning with the classic bouncing ball was a great way to practice the squash and stretch as well as work out timing, which is needed in every other type of animation. Drawing the pathway out on one page first was definitely helpful in visualising how the ball would move. I think I should have left larger spaces between frames in some areas, to show a bigger contrast in speed of the ball.

My personal favorite task was the straight ahead animation, in which I created a loop of a girl blowing away her hand. I enjoyed experimenting with how each aspect of a frame would move from the last, such as her face, hair, and hand all moving separately. 

https://youtu.be/4-rJOJ24xFI

One thing I found difficult in this project was time management, as I felt that some of the animations were difficult to complete in the small number of hours we were given, leading to me either rushing or having to complete them in the weekend after.

I began my motion graphic project by sketching out my idea in a storyboard. I wanted to use a moving fire and then have the scene pan up the chimney, following a spark to a scene of rooftops, where there are many sparks. The concept behind by video was the idea that everyone’s lives are as complex and unique as your own, but we all go through similar experiences and life events, with the suggestion that each building in the scene has a fire of its own. I had not worked with After Effects before and had some difficulty getting used to the programme, so began with very simple elements, including some hand drawn assets and a few lines of moving objects. One thing I would have liked to do was replace the fire lines with flame-shaped objects, to make it more realistic. The art also ended up having two styles – one with white outline and one a more cartoonish look, but I think they ended up working well together. I primarily used the position transform, trim paths, and opacity transform, so as not to overcomplicate the project. I also used sound from a copywrite free track on SoundCloud, which inspired the fire imagery initially, as it has the crackling in the background.

https://youtu.be/YdPKQdubug8

When creating my story world, I wanted to make a small garden that may be used for worship of a statue. I started by creating a base which I extruded and tapered to create a floating island base. I then made a second layer which I used the clay tool to add levels, making the ground textured. I added this inside the first island base, and then began to construct the statue in the centre. I used basic shapes which I pushed and pulled to create the rough shape. I originally planned to add texture later but decided I like the minimalistic look once I had added everything else. Starting to work on the trees, I made a simple trunk and branches, and the created stylized ‘leaves’ which were slightly transparent to give a more leaf-like feel. I chose to use very simple shapes for the rocks, and clumps of stretched cones for the grass. Working with Maya for the first time was a challenge since I had difficulty troubleshooting anything that went wrong. For example, a lot of the time the render view showed the camera off to the side. Near the end a lot of the shapes became black in the Maya default window, which I never worked out how to fix, and sometimes all my shapes would disappear, causing me to revert to previous saves. Despite this, however, I was very happy with my final model, and the style I managed to achieve was similar to my original vision

I began my character design process by researching other artists and media within my chosen theme – ‘Winter’. I wanted to look into different cultures that live in cold areas, such as the Inuit people, and how their environment affected their appearance. I found that often, they used animal skins to make tents and clothes. They crafted tools and weapons from the animals’ bones, antlers, horns and teeth. In summer, they travelled in boats covered with animal skin, called kayaks and in winter, on sleds pulled by dog teams, so their lives were very reliant on nature.

My first idea was based on a huntress who harnessed a wolf’s spirit in order to aid her. I wanted to combine some of the practicality of the Inuit with a more adventure/fantasy look, to add more interest to the design. I began by sketching out many ideas to experiment with different looks, trying out different silhouettes and shapes. I continued the use of furs and natural looking colours for most of this design process, but in the end decided to make use of blue colours to add contrast to the design, and make it match more with the winter/ice theme.

I finished my design process by asking for feedback on my artistic choices, in order to finalise some areas, and then drawing turnarounds of the character from the front and side.

Mary Taylor

I look down at the postcard on my doorstep. A woman’s vacant gaze stares back at me, her old fashioned black bonnet surrounding her face with shadow. Turning the card over, there is no note, only a signature: Mary Taylor

Through the glass pane of my window I see her on the street, consumed by a black shroud. She’s staring in now, directly at me. I turn and bolt my door, questioning ‘what could you want with me, Mary Taylor?’

I am on the bus. Through the window condensation I see a shadow, a white face standing out from the darkness. I stand from my seat but she is already gone, leaving the words on my lips: Mary Taylor

I hear a scraping outside my apartment door, like scissors on metal. The door clicks and creaks, and a tap, tap, tap, clicks along the hallway. She is here.

I wanted to use the image that I was basing my creative writing on, within the piece. I found an image of a Victorian woman, and based the character ‘Mary Taylor’ on her. The story itself is loosely based on the myth of Bloody Mary, which I wanted the audience to realise, hence naming the character Mary. The idea was that after seeing her three times (instead of saying her name) she would appear and kill you/the main character. I also chose the surname Taylor as I wanted her to have a seamstress theme. If I had had a higher word count I would’ve liked to explore the idea that she was a seamstress originally, possibly using sewing scissors to murder her victims. The word count did prove to be a challenge, as I could not offer much context, or description of the main character or the situation they were in, instead having to rely on more subtle descriptors. I also wanted the character of Mary to seem as if she didn’t really belong in the world, or was a supernatural character, so tried to show that she often blended in with the dark or could only be seen not in person (eg in on a postcard).

Beginning the week, we started by exploring different sounds in our surroundings, both inside and outside, and seeing how they could be translated into drawings. I explored showing individual sounds as well as soundscapes, through words and artistically. I also took recordings of a few sounds that I came across.

After beginning to work with sounds, we had to create three 10 second soundscapes, with accompanying imagery. The first, I wanted to create a theme of a supermarket, so I worked with different sound recordings of people chatting in a shop, a rhythmic scanner beep, and a metronome. Second, I made an outdoor scape of rain at a bus stop, using rain sounds, and the noise of a bus stopping. I also experimented with using whale noises and a previous recording of a siren, to bring a more musical quality. The accompanying animation was inspired by the sound itself, featuring a man who turns into a whale to board a mysterious portal-like bus. The third soundscape was of a cooking scene. I experimented with different sections of a long recording of myself cooking, including chopping, frying, and boiling sounds. Overall I think the second one was the most successful as I experimented with it the most, and spent the most time dedicated to the visual accompaniment. I would like to have had more time to work with the others.

Reflecting on my location drawing, I found it interesting to work with different perspectives and angles of the same area, both indoors and outdoors. After sketching outside and at the Tate with my class, I went to a café to try and focus more on people in my drawings. I was not used to including people/characters in my location sketches, so found giving them character quite challenging. I feel like I got better at this over time, though still have a tendency to draw the area around the character as the main focus. 

When drawing the ‘narrative story’ I wanted to use a very simple idea – a woman getting a text from a loved one. I knew I would find drawing the same character multiple times to be difficult, as it means maintaining the proportions and shapes of the character, so I chose to focus on the expressions and keeping continuity, rather than making the ‘plot’ too dramatic. I do think I managed to show clearly what is happening in the scene through expressions, though I would like to push them further at my next opportunity.