Jess
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Story bases
Each character will slowly rise into the shot walk along and fall back down again. Then the backdrop will instantly change to the next character and the routine would continue to repeat itself to the point it reachs the robots (The Final Stage).
----------------------------
Movement
First shoot we moved the character along aswell as their movable body parts. After though we changed our minds to having them like hover back and forth infront of the camera instead of the body parts moving about crazily on the screen.
Once each character had finished moving one of us would change the background to the next one suited for the next character.
-----------------------------
Camera Set-up
The camera was set up to be level with the bottom of the stage. This helps us on the second shoot as it removed the site of seeing the brown cardboard when the stage is black. The camera was also on a tripod to allow for us to keep the shot still rather than jerky.
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Roles
Jess - Working the camera & taking the photos & keeping them inline with each other.
Jo - Backdrop changing & helping with camera technicalities (Focus, lighting...) & moving the characters
Vicki - Moving the characters
Tuesday 24 March 2015
Animation Project: Solving Issues
Jo & Jess
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Throughout our group animation we have had many problems like
- Losing our work (people stole it)
- Having to figure out how we're going to approach our idea
- Making character
- Thinking we wouldn't have enough time to shoot
- Re-Shooting out animation
Even though we lost some of our characters, we managed to improve some of our testers and use them instead. It took us about a week to actually figure out how we could approach our idea. Going from just drawing a character to actually having multiple characters and a backdrop. In the end we got it together and actually built a stage and did all our backgrounds. Then after that we was ready to go.
(Jo) When it came to making characters, it took me a whole day to make loads of different media ones. I wanted to see which glue and paper would be better to use. Luckily i made loads so that i could use the back ups. This was a problem, because it took a while to figure out how the characters would move, which in all honestly i stressed about.
Thinking that we wouldn't have enough time to shoot and everything else being a challenge at the start, it started playing around in our minds. Therefore we all became stressed.
We all didn't mind re-shooting the animation because it looked so much better in the end, plus we all had a laugh with it. The first time we shot the animation it took a whole day and went really slow because we had the backdrops moving instead of just appearing. The second shoot went pleasantly well and quick because we knew what to do.
Our ideas have changed an awful lot over the course of this project. We changed our timeframe. Then we changed our story line and switched characters. When it came to using media we did try doing some sand and plaster-scene, which we knew we would fail in completely... Vicky was pretty good at it and so was Jess, but we thought it would take to long for us, as our characters needed quite a bit of detail.
Whenever we changed an idea, it would always be for the better and not just because we thought it would be the easiest thing to do.
Thinking that we wouldn't have enough time to shoot and everything else being a challenge at the start, it started playing around in our minds. Therefore we all became stressed.
We all didn't mind re-shooting the animation because it looked so much better in the end, plus we all had a laugh with it. The first time we shot the animation it took a whole day and went really slow because we had the backdrops moving instead of just appearing. The second shoot went pleasantly well and quick because we knew what to do.
Our ideas have changed an awful lot over the course of this project. We changed our timeframe. Then we changed our story line and switched characters. When it came to using media we did try doing some sand and plaster-scene, which we knew we would fail in completely... Vicky was pretty good at it and so was Jess, but we thought it would take to long for us, as our characters needed quite a bit of detail.
Whenever we changed an idea, it would always be for the better and not just because we thought it would be the easiest thing to do.
Animation Project: Feed Back
Jo & Jess
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The feedback that we got for our evolution idea was, 'the idea is good, but think about how each character is going to change from one to another'. This has been the most popular feedback, we got their in the end though. We found an easy way to change the characters and how they would move. The characters would just slowly drop out of scene and the back drop would instantly swap to the next one.
Other feedback that we got was, 'use psychedelic colours'. Although we already knew that we wanted/ should use those type of colours to add to the surreal effect. We responded to this by making some of our backgrounds the opposite colours to what they would normally be. Like for our human backgrounds, we made buildings bright pink and green.
We ended up re-shooting our animation (Advice given to us from our peer) because there was too much going on in the background, and the stage had messy white specs in the foreground. When we re-shot the animation, we changed the focus and we moved the camera upwards as it was pointing slightly downwards, showing off the brown parts of the cardboard we used for our stage. We kept changing small elements to make it more technically excellent.
'Do sketches, but in different media'. I responded to this by other than drawing out characters in pencil and giving them simple shapes. I gave them more detail and used pen on them. Also this lead me to do different media, for example i made my characters out of chard and built them up with layers of paper and card.
-----
The feedback that we got for our evolution idea was, 'the idea is good, but think about how each character is going to change from one to another'. This has been the most popular feedback, we got their in the end though. We found an easy way to change the characters and how they would move. The characters would just slowly drop out of scene and the back drop would instantly swap to the next one.
Other feedback that we got was, 'use psychedelic colours'. Although we already knew that we wanted/ should use those type of colours to add to the surreal effect. We responded to this by making some of our backgrounds the opposite colours to what they would normally be. Like for our human backgrounds, we made buildings bright pink and green.
We ended up re-shooting our animation (Advice given to us from our peer) because there was too much going on in the background, and the stage had messy white specs in the foreground. When we re-shot the animation, we changed the focus and we moved the camera upwards as it was pointing slightly downwards, showing off the brown parts of the cardboard we used for our stage. We kept changing small elements to make it more technically excellent.
'Do sketches, but in different media'. I responded to this by other than drawing out characters in pencil and giving them simple shapes. I gave them more detail and used pen on them. Also this lead me to do different media, for example i made my characters out of chard and built them up with layers of paper and card.
Animation Project: Evolution
Jo
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What is evolution?
Here are some images of different forms of evolution-
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What is evolution?
Evolution means the changes that occur in a population over time like how we supposedly evolved from apes. Evolutionary changes always occur on the genetic level. In other words evolution is a process that results in changes that are passed on or inherited from generation to generation.
"Generation to generation" this quote was a huge part of putting our backgrounds together. Where we was thinking about how we would change the background slowly, or just appearing. We went with the background just appearing as it was more effective. The backgrounds are changing through time, so from an ape background to, caveman to, human to, cyborg and then to a robot.
Here are some images of different forms of evolution-
Monday 23 March 2015
Animation Project: Character Design Inspiration - Last Scene
Character Design Inspiration
Vicki
Robot: To start of with the robot character for the last scene, Jess and Jo decided that I would be able to produce a appropriate character for this scene. I was inspired by 2K's concept design of the Big Daddies from Bioshock 2.
I felt that a similar design to these iron diver-suits would work, because of my personal interests with this character. As a gamer and fan of the Bioshock series, the Big Daddies have always appeared to me as robotic monsters of the underwater city of Rapture (More info about the game http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BioShock) They were designed by a group of scientists to protect the Little Sisters that crave the ADAM that lay in dead splicers, as the whole art-deco city fights its own civil war. Big Daddies are distinctive of the other enemies in Bioshock and are a important aspect to Rapture, wearing heavy armour, oxygen tanks and the massive drills the wield.
As the Big Daddies wear more leather/cloth compared to the metal tanks, I designed the character so it was vice-versa, to add a better robotic effect rather than to make it the same. I also decided to remove any weapons, making it appear less life-threatening.
Cyborg:
Animation Project: Jan Švankmajer
Jo
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Jan Švankmajer is a Czech filmmaker and artist. He is a self-labeled surrealist known for his animations. I looked more in to some still images from his work, i found that he does 'surreal evolution'. I found some images that link in to evolution, they're very surreal but are very inspiring.
Also where there is a egg, it's like Jan wanted the crow to have a final look at it's creation and to see the change going around. The crow is seeing what his baby is going to end up living in when he has gone.
This inspired me to think about the atmosphere. For example, how backgrounds will change in our group animation like will they slowly change or will change fast.
In this image Jan has used different types of bone and historical features, like old shells.
These features build up a dinosaur. This fits in with evolution because the creature has changing bones and parts. Where evolution is one thing changing to another, this has that element, but the creature is basically a collage of different creatures.
Because of the composition of the objects, it's easy to tell that it's a dinosaur, some may have to look twice though.
This image inspired me think to about composition and how we could place our characters.
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Jan Švankmajer is a Czech filmmaker and artist. He is a self-labeled surrealist known for his animations. I looked more in to some still images from his work, i found that he does 'surreal evolution'. I found some images that link in to evolution, they're very surreal but are very inspiring.
Here is a piece by Jan. I found this very inspiring because the crow has been skinned down to the bone, but Jan has left the head. I find this very effective because it breaks down 'evolution'. The bird has changed, but still processes a living feature.
Also where there is a egg, it's like Jan wanted the crow to have a final look at it's creation and to see the change going around. The crow is seeing what his baby is going to end up living in when he has gone.
This inspired me to think about the atmosphere. For example, how backgrounds will change in our group animation like will they slowly change or will change fast.
These features build up a dinosaur. This fits in with evolution because the creature has changing bones and parts. Where evolution is one thing changing to another, this has that element, but the creature is basically a collage of different creatures.
Because of the composition of the objects, it's easy to tell that it's a dinosaur, some may have to look twice though.
This image inspired me think to about composition and how we could place our characters.
Animation Project: Health & Safety
Jess
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When using the Tripod to hold the camera on:
- Make sure it's out of someones walking path
- Don't mess around with the Tripod
When using the Camera:
- Don't mess around with the camera
- If using flash, don't look where the flash will come from
When using Paints:
- Don't eat it
- Clear up after using it
- Don't play around with it
- Wear an apron
- wear gloves (If elegiac)
- Wash hands after use (Especially if you're going to eat afterwards)
When using Playdo:
- Don't eat it
- Clear up after use
- Wear gloves (If elegiac)
- Wash hands after use (especially if you're going to eat afterwards)
General Health & Safety
- Place bags under the table
- Don't eat or drink in the class room
- When using equipment always put long hair up
- Don't play around with the equipment
------
When using the Tripod to hold the camera on:
- Make sure it's out of someones walking path
- Don't mess around with the Tripod
When using the Camera:
- Don't mess around with the camera
- If using flash, don't look where the flash will come from
When using Paints:
- Don't eat it
- Clear up after using it
- Don't play around with it
- Wear an apron
- wear gloves (If elegiac)
- Wash hands after use (Especially if you're going to eat afterwards)
When using Playdo:
- Don't eat it
- Clear up after use
- Wear gloves (If elegiac)
- Wash hands after use (especially if you're going to eat afterwards)
General Health & Safety
- Place bags under the table
- Don't eat or drink in the class room
- When using equipment always put long hair up
- Don't play around with the equipment
Thursday 19 March 2015
Animation Project: Movement
Jo & Jess
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Ape movement
I did some research on how apes move. Apes tend to walk on their knuckles, but I've decided to go with a different solution. I've made my ape character move only his arms, legs and tail. This however is only a tester, I may change this over time.
Apes walk on all fours, which my ape does, but the apes joints do not all move in the same way as an ape does.
"Knuckle-walking is a form of quadrupedal walking in which the forelimbs hold the fingers in a partially flexed posture that allows body weight to press down on the ground through the knuckles."
Human movement
This is a CGI image of a computer simulation of a human walk cycle. In this model the head keeps the same level at all times, where as the hip follows a curve. My humans head doesn't move. So, like the model above, I'm sticking with that idea.
"Walking (also known as ambulation) is one of the main gaits of locomotion among legged animals, and is typically slower than running and other gaits."
As my human character is going to be walking. I thought about different ways i could make my puppet walk. Like the CGI image above, I'm thinking whichever leg is in front, it will be straight and the back leg will be bent, while the thigh is in a straight angle.
Caveman and cyborg movement
The movement of my caveman character will be the same as the human.
Also cyborgs move the same as humans, but they just have different body features, as they are half robot, half human.
Robot movement - Jess & Jo (Designed by Vicki)
The way robots move can be in different ways. Depending on their size and features. Some futuristic robots may even fly/hover. so they would just float above the ground which mean't no parts of their bodies would move (Maybe the arms but not the legs). If we went with the idea of Iron Mans suit then the robot would be very human-like, which we didn't want. We wanted to drastically change the cyborg/human to a full robot.
----
Ape movement
I did some research on how apes move. Apes tend to walk on their knuckles, but I've decided to go with a different solution. I've made my ape character move only his arms, legs and tail. This however is only a tester, I may change this over time.
Apes walk on all fours, which my ape does, but the apes joints do not all move in the same way as an ape does.
"Knuckle-walking is a form of quadrupedal walking in which the forelimbs hold the fingers in a partially flexed posture that allows body weight to press down on the ground through the knuckles."
Human movement
This is a CGI image of a computer simulation of a human walk cycle. In this model the head keeps the same level at all times, where as the hip follows a curve. My humans head doesn't move. So, like the model above, I'm sticking with that idea.
"Walking (also known as ambulation) is one of the main gaits of locomotion among legged animals, and is typically slower than running and other gaits."
As my human character is going to be walking. I thought about different ways i could make my puppet walk. Like the CGI image above, I'm thinking whichever leg is in front, it will be straight and the back leg will be bent, while the thigh is in a straight angle.
Caveman and cyborg movement
The movement of my caveman character will be the same as the human.
Also cyborgs move the same as humans, but they just have different body features, as they are half robot, half human.
Robot movement - Jess & Jo (Designed by Vicki)
The way robots move can be in different ways. Depending on their size and features. Some futuristic robots may even fly/hover. so they would just float above the ground which mean't no parts of their bodies would move (Maybe the arms but not the legs). If we went with the idea of Iron Mans suit then the robot would be very human-like, which we didn't want. We wanted to drastically change the cyborg/human to a full robot.
Friday 13 March 2015
Animation Project: David Firth
Jo
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYjny4qNy24
David Firth is a surreal animation maker.
His videos are hellish, and dream like. They are very dark, just like 'Crooked rot'. They consist of dark colours and objects that colour relate to death and hell. David firth is very good at capturing the disturbing elements of life. Davids videos are very surreal because they don't make much sense, even though the colours he uses kinda fit in to the atmosphere he tries to make. The heads in the video do things that a normal head wouldn't do, the way they move and speak is very unrealistic.
David has inspired our work because we are going to use spinning objects. As he uses lots of spinning, me and my group like the effect it gives. The constant movement gives it an over the top feel, which we like. As surreal is really over the top constant spinning would fit perfectly.
David work fits in to the brief because it's a surreal photographic animation and that's what we will be producing. Davids work is a great example of still shot animation.
------
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYjny4qNy24
David Firth is a surreal animation maker.
His videos are hellish, and dream like. They are very dark, just like 'Crooked rot'. They consist of dark colours and objects that colour relate to death and hell. David firth is very good at capturing the disturbing elements of life. Davids videos are very surreal because they don't make much sense, even though the colours he uses kinda fit in to the atmosphere he tries to make. The heads in the video do things that a normal head wouldn't do, the way they move and speak is very unrealistic.
David has inspired our work because we are going to use spinning objects. As he uses lots of spinning, me and my group like the effect it gives. The constant movement gives it an over the top feel, which we like. As surreal is really over the top constant spinning would fit perfectly.
David work fits in to the brief because it's a surreal photographic animation and that's what we will be producing. Davids work is a great example of still shot animation.
Wednesday 11 March 2015
Animation Project: Test Animation
Jess
------
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After taking over 100 pictures of doll parts that slightly moved into place I (In my spare time and own programs) brought the images together and made a very rough test to see if we need to move the pieces a bit more closer or not... This is what came together.
Due to that fact my group were only using my iPad to take the photos with no stand to keep the iPad still it caused all the pictures to be of centre. What's good about this test video is I can clearly see that the position of the doll parts moving at the pace they were moved worked perfectly. Just need a stand thats all.
This is a video to show off exactly how it is I brought the video together...
Tuesday 10 March 2015
Animation Project: Day two
Jo
---
Me and my group are now in to the second day of our Animation project.
Today started off a little start struck, and within a few minutes we began to collect images of the things we wanted to include in our project. For example Sketches of apes, cavemen, robots etc. All of the imagery was found on a computer and the whole group was pleased with the images.
In our second lesson we began to produce our Mood boards further.
Jess- Made a mood board with the imagery we found earlier that morning, also she wrote the materials and story line that we all decided on the day before.
Vicky- Began to create a Mood board of drawings that she was inspired by, from the pictures we found. Vicky and myself also went to the Library and got some secondary research. Unfortunately i have no photo of Vicky's moon board yet, but it is coming together very nicely.
Jo (me)- Other than collecting secondary research with Vicky. I made a mood board on sketches with different composition of the characters we are thinking of using. I also added images that helped inspire me.
In the last lesson we we're all a little lost and confused. We all know what the story line is, and how we want it to work, but we got lost when it came to materials. We started off by using clay and taking images of how we we're thinking of layering out the starting title for the opening of our animation.
After doing that we moved on to using plaster scene. I speak the honest truth when it comes to that. We failed horribly! Well i know i did, i tried to accomplish a caveman... but... Yeah.
After lots of hard thinking me and Jess decided to use retro props. We discussed how they would move and look (this took awhile). Finally we came up with an idea that everyone loved.
Me and Jess took some parts of some retro dolls and placed them on a desk. We made the parts slowly move in to the doll, so that the parts would form a full sized doll again. While doing so we took pictures of what we did.
It took a wile, but we all got their in the end.
---
Me and my group are now in to the second day of our Animation project.
Today started off a little start struck, and within a few minutes we began to collect images of the things we wanted to include in our project. For example Sketches of apes, cavemen, robots etc. All of the imagery was found on a computer and the whole group was pleased with the images.
In our second lesson we began to produce our Mood boards further.
Jess- Made a mood board with the imagery we found earlier that morning, also she wrote the materials and story line that we all decided on the day before.
Vicky- Began to create a Mood board of drawings that she was inspired by, from the pictures we found. Vicky and myself also went to the Library and got some secondary research. Unfortunately i have no photo of Vicky's moon board yet, but it is coming together very nicely.
Jo (me)- Other than collecting secondary research with Vicky. I made a mood board on sketches with different composition of the characters we are thinking of using. I also added images that helped inspire me.
In the last lesson we we're all a little lost and confused. We all know what the story line is, and how we want it to work, but we got lost when it came to materials. We started off by using clay and taking images of how we we're thinking of layering out the starting title for the opening of our animation.
After doing that we moved on to using plaster scene. I speak the honest truth when it comes to that. We failed horribly! Well i know i did, i tried to accomplish a caveman... but... Yeah.
After lots of hard thinking me and Jess decided to use retro props. We discussed how they would move and look (this took awhile). Finally we came up with an idea that everyone loved.
Me and Jess took some parts of some retro dolls and placed them on a desk. We made the parts slowly move in to the doll, so that the parts would form a full sized doll again. While doing so we took pictures of what we did.
It took a wile, but we all got their in the end.
Monday 9 March 2015
Animation Project: Schedule
Jess
------
09/03/15 (Monday)
Idea mind map (Everyone)
Sketches - (Jo & Vicki)
Blog - Ideas & Schedule - (Jo & Jess)
10/03/15 (Tuesday):
Research: Visual & Information (Jo & Jess)
Sketchs (Vicki & Jo)
Blog - Research information and visual research (Jo & Jess)
13/03/15 (Friday)
Story Board (Jess)
Making the set (Everyone)
Making the set (Everyone)
More Sketches (Everyone)
Blog - Extra Research & Pictures of sketches (Jo & Jess)
16/03/15 (Monday)
Making the set (Everyone)
Blog - Plan: (Jess)
Blog - Plan: (Jess)
How the camera is set up
Step by step guide
Roles
Story details
17/03/15 (Tuesday)
Backdrop Completion (Everyone)
20/03/15 (Friday)
Shoot the animation (Everyone)
23/03/15 (Monday)
Reshoot (Everyone)
Blogs (Jo & Jess)
24/03/15 (Tuesday)
Finish ALL blogs (Everyone)
27/03/15 (Friday) HAND IN DAY
Edit
Write up evaluation
Hand in animation
23/03/15 (Monday)
Reshoot (Everyone)
Blogs (Jo & Jess)
24/03/15 (Tuesday)
Finish ALL blogs (Everyone)
27/03/15 (Friday) HAND IN DAY
Edit
Write up evaluation
Hand in animation
Animation Project: Main Idea Mind Map
Jo & Jess
------------
Evolution-
Apes... Caveman.. Human... Cyborgs... Robots.
As time goes on, we see the creatures change, their face details and their characteristics.
The creatures will have colours that are not suited to their natural state.
The creatures state will change:
- It begins with a gorilla/ape being drawn
- Then the position moves slightly to side (Paper of drawn gorilla will move to the left)
- A Caveman is then formed in a new drawing
- Then the position moves again
- A baby doll starts to form? (Need to rethink this - Doesn't fit in with the others!)
- Position moves again
- A Cyborg (Half Human & Half Robotic) is formed
- Position moves again
- A Robot is then drawn
- Camera zooms out to reveal the entire picture of all 5 evolvements
Details:
- Traditional evolution
- Surrealistic robot
- Apes
- Humans
- Cavemen
- Cyborg Parts
Project Title Ideas:
. Evolution
. End Of Humanity
. Life To Robotics
. Natural To Robotics
. Unfolding
. Robot Evolution
Materials & Techniques:
. Paper
. Newspaper
. Water colour
. Smudge
. Drawings
. Illustrator
. Paint
------------
Main story
Evolution-
Apes... Caveman.. Human... Cyborgs... Robots.
As time goes on, we see the creatures change, their face details and their characteristics.
The creatures will have colours that are not suited to their natural state.
The creatures state will change:
- It begins with a gorilla/ape being drawn
- Then the position moves slightly to side (Paper of drawn gorilla will move to the left)
- A Caveman is then formed in a new drawing
- Then the position moves again
- A baby doll starts to form? (Need to rethink this - Doesn't fit in with the others!)
- Position moves again
- A Cyborg (Half Human & Half Robotic) is formed
- Position moves again
- A Robot is then drawn
- Camera zooms out to reveal the entire picture of all 5 evolvements
Details:
- Traditional evolution
- Surrealistic robot
- Apes
- Humans
- Cavemen
- Cyborg Parts
Project Title Ideas:
. Evolution
. End Of Humanity
. Life To Robotics
. Natural To Robotics
. Unfolding
. Robot Evolution
Materials & Techniques:
. Paper
. Newspaper
. Water colour
. Smudge
. Drawings
. Illustrator
. Paint
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