Studio Brief 1- Reaping for Dummies

Reaping for Dummies

This animation was created by CGI VFX Animated Shorts by some graduation students from their 3D design and animation course and was published in 2013. The students are from Norway and are called; Jonas Martin Larsen, Øyvind Fiksdal, Eilef Sandnæs, Eskild Carlsen & Yvonne Engbråten.

This animation reminds me of the Looney Tunes 'Wile E. Coyote and The Road Runner' where the two main characters could chase each other for eternity but never catch each other. This is what makes this animation funny but also really makes you get attached to the characters. You start out not liking the smaller character as he is trying to kill the reaper who comes across really nice yet you start to like him when you realise he is trying to kills him too so its an even fight.

The character design of these two character is very well done because they wanted the reaper to be tall and thin, so they really accentuated his lankiness so he is all bone with skin over the top. With the smaller character they wanted him to be short, they then made him about 2ft tall and quite round which is a good contrast to the reaper. This is why i like them as they are very opposite extremes of each other.

Studio Brief 1- Out of Bounds

Out of Bounds

This is an animation created in Denmark by Animation Workshop. I chose to look at this animation because it really speaks volumes with the character they have designed and used. The person in this animation has severe OCD, where his life must run in and must follow a schedule. I really love this because people never get to see just how much people with mental health issues have to go though on a daily basis. This is an extreme yet it gets across his struggles.

I always love these types of animations as they have a purpose, to portray this characters life as a struggle is this animations job to make the audience to understand. The body language of this is also important. The animators must have really understood what was going on in his head when certain things happen as his rocking body, arms used as barriers to protect him, moving houses to distort the world and banding of the head to keep him in reality and feeling safe. Never before has i seen this animated which is amazing to see.

I think the message overall is telling people to not judge people so easily as you don't know what they are going though, it is also trying to point out that you have to be kind like his neighbour, as someone could need help but not be able to ask for it. This animation really makes the audience think of mental health which is what I'm very interested in creating myself, so my animations could have really meaning and purpose like this one does.

Studio Brief 3- Explore- Pixilation Animation and Evaluation

Final Pixilation and Evaluation

This is my final pixilation animation. I followed my ideas and storyboard about wanting to film an animation that was about a moving mannequin where its wondering about but then the owner comes home and cannot know it is able to move. Out of the animation themes i chose Lost and Found as my mannequin needed to hide and stay hidden from the owner so its like they have to be lost so they are not found.

I really like doing this pixilation as i had never done one before but i came across many fault and many issues that need improving if i were to do it again. I filmed this using my phone camera as i did not have a tripod so this made all the images come out overly jittery which is something i would change next time as i will make sure it is on a stand so that it is overall smoother, but also easier to understand and see what is happening.

Another big problem i found when i came to uploading my images was that i was told that when filming i needed to film in landscape instead of portrait which i had not realised so my images were the wrong shape. This is also why i ran into the issue with merging videos with my pixilation, they were filmed the wrong way so when the animation plays they are changing shape and getting smaller. This is very noticeable so i was angry that i could not change this when it came to putting it all together.

I did like that when it was presented in front of the peers that they liked the comic effect that the throwing of the mannequin added to the pixilation. As it was very un realistic and just a still mannequin being clearly thrown, it created humour and entertainment. I'm glad i included this but i am still sad it came out smaller than expected.

I also found i was able to use good camera angles, i used more in this pixilation then i did when storyboarding for Jack and Jill as i found more opportunities to add them into the shots and create a more visually interesting animation overall.

I don't know if i will use pixilation in the future or more go for stop motion but if i do use it i will change these errors with the filming and angles so it is more professional and just looks smoother with connecting frames. As a first pixilation and filming opportunity i felt i did ok and just found many things to add to new opportunities in the future, i will also now go on to find out how to change these issues in the uploading process as i did not know how to change the sizes but if i had more time i would go and ask different people how to do it or go online and find help. So overall this Pixilation has opened my eyes to how difficult and time consuming it can all be and how i can make silly mistakes that affect the final piece so easily.

Studio brief 1- Meet the Pyro

Meet the Pyro- Team Fortress 2

This is an introductory character for a game called 'Team Fortress'. This was created by Team Fortress themselves as it helps promote the new characters for their games by showing their back story but also what they are like as people which is very different as most games dont do that.This animation is also very interesting because the characters come as blank models for certain programmes so they can be the same looking characters that can be manipulated by the creator, so this lets the fans create their own animations and therefor help them promote their game.

These character designs are looking at the stereotypes of the human form, if they're supposed to be buff, they are extremely over buff and if they are skinny, they are overly skinny. This is quite an important thing for the characters though because the game has added mass and weight to the characters which is really good because if they are big they are slower and the skinny characters are swift and light.

This animation is for older people as it includes violence and blood within it, it also includes themes that children would not understand, like mental disorders and mass murder. The message this is all telling is that if you choose to play the game round with this character, he sets everything on fire leaving nothing behind which is all you need to know, this animation is just to comically show a little extra.

Studio Brief 1 - BattleBlock Theater

BattleBlock Theater Opening Cinematic

This is the opening animation for a game called BattleBlock Theater which was created by 'The Behemoth' which have a way of creating characters have little features and yet large amounts of expression. The playful faces and overall intro shows just what the game is like but also that this game and animation is for all ages, The language is very tame and the overall animation is easy to follow but i feel the sarcasm and humour will go over most peoples heads but it makes me laugh ever time so it is a good humorous introduction.

The purpose of this animation is to introduce the game and what it is about, but also introducing some of the main characters that are not yourself as a player and what the overall look of the game is and is like. This media is really good because it is all animated yet aesthetically it looks like paper puppets which is very clever of them to do. This also shows some of the humour, like when you can see the stick when the boat gets turned over.

The character design in this is very easy to do as it is boxes, circles and triangles with very pencil looking drawn faces which makes their aesthetic so desirable as it is so different yet simple. 

Studio Brief 3- Explore- Pixilation- Storyboards

Storyboarding for Pixilation Animation

These are the storyboards i drew for what plan i will follow for the pixilation animation, I wanted to have these to draw from as it is easier to create an animation when you have something to follow with movements and for pose to pose movements.

This animation will mix 2 frame shots and videos so that i can have very fast motions and slow motions in one animation making it more visually interesting. I did a fair amount of planning as i needed to show where the camera angles change and when the characters change so i can understand where dig camera changes happen so i can plan ahead and understand what i'm doing.

Studio Brief 3- Explore- Pixilation- Ideas

Ideas

The task set was to produce a pixilation animation that included one person and must be under one and a half minute and less than 1200 frames. For ideas i had to take a few hours to think of something, what i decided to do was have a moving mannequin in someones bedroom that was moving around when they weren't looking but when they turned around it has to be still.

This was the page i took notes on other pixilating videos that i found i could be inspired by in a presentation showed to us but also my notes on the task itself so i could use it to remember the details of what we were needing to do.

This was my first rough draft of the plot i would follow on the pixilation clip. I needed to think about what would happen and what i wanted to capture. 

This is the mannequin that i will use when doing the animation as its limbs make it easy to maneuver but also i can bring it to life by moving it in lifelike ways to get the audience attached to the character. I also have to get the character to show emotions on whats happening which i feel with be the most difficult task.

Studio Brief 1- 'Take on Me'

a-ha- 'Take on Me'

The method of making a music video with rotoscope was most famously done when a-ah created their classic song ' Take on Me' ,which was make famous not only for the song but for the video that accompanies it.

The purpose of this video was to show what it would look like if real people suddenly turned into animated characters, this is interesting because it makes it seem that characters in books and on shows are trapped so it is a deconstructive genre that looks at characters as real people with real lives.

The audience for this would be people who like this form of music as it is a very classic song but for the animation i would say it could be for all ages but older people would understand it is a love story of the guy falling for the woman and breaking out of his world to be in hers in this style of metaphor.

The character designs in this would have been a lot easier to make than doing them from scratch as the use of rotoscope means that the actors were doing all the movement and the characters, which were their animated selves, were drawn on top.

Studio Brief 3- Explore- Pixilation

Pixilation

This method is frequently used by beginners as it is an easier method than most as you only need a camera and a story to go with it. Pixilation can be mixed with film to make it all a lot more fluid as an animation.

This type of animating process is done by taking pictures and much like stop motion, something is being slowly moved with every shot., it is called pixilation as it is with real people and can be mixed with film when needed.

When making pixilations they need to be planned out for every shot and what is going to be happening for every second or it will not work. When filming each frame is 2 shots as the motions need to be picked up easily. One shot is for when the scene either speeds up or includes a lot of motion as it will look faster and more fluid if its one shot. This method of 2 shots can make it look a bit jerky but overall it does make it easier to understand and see what is going on.

The song Sledgehammer is very famous, not only for the song but for the Pixilation it includes in the video.

This song is by Peter Gabriel and for every second, pictures were take, this really make you see just how long this would have taken to not only film, but for him to have to sit for. It was also done in the 80's so it really was amazing that they could produce something this difficult for a music video.

In 1952 Norman McLaren crated a video that symbolises was and the two sides it creates and how it causes fighting and death. This video is a mix of the shot compositions but also filming to make the whole thing look better and more smooth or rough in areas which creates the comic effect.This was a very old video so this method was how they made it look advanced and have elements of fun in the whole thing.

The Wizard of Speed and Time was created in 1983 and was completed in 1988 by Mike Jittlov. This took 5 years as the method of getting the guy to look like he's floating, was to take pictures when he was jumping in the air. This is why it took so long as was so time consuming and hard to produce.

This is the run that took so long to produce. You can clearly see how much effort it would have taken to get all the shots at the right second, and also how much jumping the guy had to do for it.

This music video was created my Oren Lavie and is shot continually above a bed and has a woman moving across it and creates different scenes about her life and how she runs form life though sleep as its easier.

This is an amazing video as it includes she doing walk cycles and running all while laying on her side. This is very difficult to get right and makes the whole video come to life and become stunning. To create these types of motions, it would have taken a huge amount of planning and work to make it as smooth as it comes out as.

Overall these videos show you just where you can take Pixilation and what you can accomplish and do with the right amount of planning and time put into them.

Studio Brief 3- 12 Principles of Animation

12 Principles of Animation

1.Squash & Stretch

This is to look at the mass and weight of an object as animations can be ruined if something isn't moving with the correct weight, like a walk cycle. When creating these think about what force there is behind an object and what energy it holds.

2.Anticipation
This is the preparation for the action that is about to be created. You have to break it down because before you do something, like throwing a ball, you have to move your body into position. This step is so that you have to think more about the movements.

3.Staging(Mis-en-scene)

Staging is so you can clearly communicate what is happening. I can help you get across; mood, attitude, emotional state of the characters of objects. This also includes looking at the camera angles and where you want the audience to be looking, its best not to make some sequences too complicated as the audience can get lost.

4.Straight Ahead& Pose to Pose

Straight ahead-This is when the frames done use keyframes, its just one long run. These are usually used in fight scenes when its all going very fast. These are risky as it can be easy to lose size and volume of objects.


Pose to Pose- This is when every key pose is planned and then someone fills in the extra frames to make it all flow. This is used when timing is a problem as you can get things done a whole lot quicker.
Its good when using these to try to use both as it makes animation look a lot more visually interesting.

5.Follow Through & Overlapping Action

Follow though- Actions that carry on when something else has stopped, this is usually hair, clothing or just subtle body parts as the person comes to a halt.

Overlapping- This is when things overlap as they are happening at the same time. For when things need a looseness but also a solidness to them.

6.Slow Out & Slow In

To be used when the scene either needs to be fast or slow, the more slides the slower the action and the less slides means slower and quicker action. This can make the whole thing seem more lifelike or more cartoon like. Can also be called ease in and ease out.

7.Arcs

All actions follow in an arc and make everything flow smoothly. This applies to everything apart from robots and and mechanical objects, they follow a more jerky pattern of motion.

8.Secondary Action

These are actions that support an action, this can be very large eyes for when someone is shocked. Can be exaggerated for a more comic effect, makes it easier for people to understand what is going on.

9.Timing

Used for timing of actions, can either be 2 shots,when the motion is slower and can sometimes be jerky and 1 shot for when the motion is fast and needs to be smooth and quick. Mixing the two can make the overall piece more visually interesting. This can be made better when you can use references as you get a better understanding of things.

10.Exaggeration

Exaggeration does not have to be big and fast, it can be subtle and small. This makes animations all the more impressive. You can over stretch something or make the expressions hold just a bit more expression than needed to make it all stand out more so.

11.Solid Drawing

When doing this you can make things come to life as it creates dimensions, volume, depth and weight. When drawing it is best to draw in a 3/4 view as it makes the drawing more visually appealing but also look more lifelike.

12.Appeal or Character Personality

This is important as it helps to create an emotional bond to each character and if done wrong, it can make animations fail and have less audiences keep up interest with certain characters. When making animations character design, surroundings and story all have to be good for it to be successful.

Overall i find i will need to learn how to apply these to every animation i create as it makes all the difference to the final outcome. I feel i will learn these though practicing each one and trying to apply each to different types of animations to make them look better as well, but also make them all look more professional.

Studio Brief 3- Explore- Flipbooks

Flippin'eck

When looking at animation in the form of flipbooks, i had to do very basic books as it takes a long time to create an in depth flipbook as every page has to be precise and you need hundreds of pages.

These top two were mine that i did to look at the principles of animation, mainly squash and stretch. I used a ball as my object and messed around with its material to change how it effected the overall squash it would have on impact and the stretch as it took off from hitting the surface.

This book was my first attempt and was just two ball that was coming down and hitting the bottom then going back up at angles. Its not the best as one of the balls takes too long on the hit so it seems too slow, i would also make the flip go faster as there were only 20 pages in the books i had so i didn't think to make less slides to have more going on. The other ball looks like it should hit the other ball but i slowed it down to miss it accidentally which makes it look wrong.

This was the second one i did that was better in terms of speed but as they were made of rubber, it wasn't overly interesting on the squash as they don't really squash down so they could have been more interesting if they were smashing into something or breaking.

This book is done by a serious professional as it took so long to even do 40 pages for my two books, but this person used many in the process of creating this as it is 30 frames per second. This would be what i would work towards if i wanted to use this method in showing my ideas clearly. This animation is showing the Matrix move and the path of the bullet, when viewing the slides the camera angles change and it makes the whole thing very visually interesting for the audience.
You can also see how certain objects are weighted making the whole thing look more realistic and a good animation.

This flipbook has been done in pencil and was done in detail but not a lot of colour of toning as it would have added a lot more time to an already time consuming animation. This animation is also taking place at a speed of 30fps whereas mine is only 12 so you can clearly see that if mine was longer and at 30fps the overall look would be smoother and less wobbly.

Studio Brief 1- Zero

Zero

 

 Zero is a very interesting animation that was created in 2011buy Jealous Creative and has won many awards for the message that it sends across. That everyone is worth something.

Zero in my view is about how out world runs and what happens when you are born in 'Classes'. First class is easy as you are born into wealth and therefore more opportunities which are represented at 9's. Middle class is the in-betweens, 5 is average where they are told you can only achieve so much and you will not have a fun interesting life really. And then there is Lower class, shown as 0's which means society thinks they are a waste so in this animation they are bullied and shunned.

The interesting use of material for the characters makes it good to get across their feelings and emotions though their eyebrows, eyes and body language. This is harder for the creators to do but has a good overall effect in the end. The use of string makes the characters seem sweet and cute as they are like dolls making them appeal to children as well as older people.

I think the audience is for older people though because i think a child would only be able to get so much from it, as its about segregation and isolation, older audiences will spot more and get a better understanding of the character and what he is feeling, but i feel anyone can understand the final message that everyone can accomplish anything so that is also why children would gain from watching an animation such as this one.

Studio Brief 1 - Sweet Cocoon

Sweet Cocoon

Sweet Cocoon is a short animation that was created in 2015 by ESMA is 2015 for SIGGRAPH which is a student competition on 3D animation and Graphics, to which this was an Oscar nominated short.

One thing i love about this animation is that it is a fun take on the butterfly metamorphosis cycle. Audiences form all ages can enjoy this type of animation as it is simple enough for children to understand and learn from but some of the humour can more be enjoyed from older people. The character design used for the insects are playful, colourful and cute which makes the main character more lovable so more people will grow attached to them and therefor the animation.

The type of animation used makes the whole world look full of texture, it also makes certain things look like they are made of Plasticine and have a shine to them.One thing i noticed and liked about this was the camera angles, they needed to show how small the insects were to they zoomed out and showed this whole massive scene so every viewed knew where it was set but how big everything is.

The character development this shows is quite big as the caterpillar turns into a butterfly. The development sadly carries on into the characters death but this animation still carries such an element of lightheartedness that the death is not overly sad which is why it is still good for children to enjoy.

Studio Brief 2-Telling Stories (Final)

 Telling Stories-Final                       Jack and Jill

 This is the final storyboard of Jack and Jill. I have added subtle colours so that what is going on in each panel is clear and can be understood by whoever i show it to. I have written the camera movements and basic stage directions in the lines at the bottom, this is for whoever i would give this to as they would need to know the directions and angles to shoot each panel with. I have also put the rhyme in the columns so that it can be understood more for motions and movements.

 If i were to do this task again i would do the whole thing digitally to try to practise using it more often as i need to get used to tablets. I would also add more arrows indicating directions because even if it is obvious to me it might not be for someone else so that would be to stop any confusions or questions from the animators.

The audience i was aiming at would be all ages, even if children would not catch onto the relationship between the two, they would still be able to grasp the core concept that the rhyme was showing. Older people will be able to fully understand this sequence and all that it is telling them about the people and story.

My media choice is pen and coloured pencil in areas. i chose these two as the colours add subtle details where they could be lost otherwise, like on the cotton wool there was blood from his wound. The pen is just a good medium to show characters and whats happening in a scene very easily. 

For lighting i had the scenes set during the day apart from when Jill is helping Jack home as it is night when they go to bed. I have also used crosshatching where needed to show light, for example when it is looking at his desk as there is clearly a lamp from the shadowing shown.

When drawing the  scenes i really tried to concentrate on where the camera was and how i could make each shot interesting but also relevant so there were no slides that there didnt need to be and none that were too similar which would be boring to look at if they were all the same.

Studio Brief 2-Telling Stories (Second Draft)

Telling Stories- Second Draft                   Jack and Jill

This is the second storyboard sketch in  pen and more detail so the characters can be seen more and the story looks more developed overall. I like how the story is coming along but i still need to tweak sections and panels to make them look more professional. 

 In this panel you can see the introduction of the characters, scenery/ location as well as what jack is doing. I have changed the story to my interpretation where Jack and Jill are together as i felt that the story held more drama and is more of a love story than just about someone falling.

 These two next sections are full of motion and camera movements as Jack is falling down the hill with the camera tracking his movements, but also Jill is running down after him so the camera is moving about making the whole scene look more dramatic if its movments are done the same.
I have also included little effects, like when Jill  sees Jack fall, the whole scene goes dark to show that all she can see is Jack on the ground and nothing around her, this adds tension.

 This panel is showing their relationship in more detail as Jill is running to Jack and she falls into the hug to make sure hes ok. In the first panel i will also zoom in and show the wound as this is to show what happened in the fall as this view is too far away to see.
The sillhouettes of Jack and Jill walking home is from behind as its like your following behind seeing what they see just so the viewers can see the location. Jill is then helping to fix Jacks wound.

This last two frames are just to show what Jill was using as it is an old method of bandaging someone, the light makes it also look like it is on his desk just to make it clear that they are fixing the wound in his room like in the rhyme.
It then ends with the two falling asleep with Jacks head fixed and the camera from above shoing the them both.

Studio Brief 2-Telling Stories (First Draft)

 Telling Stories-First Draft                        Jack and Jill

 

This is the draft work i did for the storyboard for the nurcery rhyme Jack and Jill. As this was my first initial thoughts, the post it notes were very sketchy and didnt hold much detail as that would have taken too long. Post it notes were used as they are good for mixing round panels where needed and they can be easily thrown away if something needs redoing.  

Jack and Jill

Jack and Jill when up the hill,

To fetch a pale of water.

Jack fell down,

and broke his crown.

And Jill came tumbling after.

Jack got up, And home did trot

As fast as he could caper.

He went to bed and bound his head, 

With vinegar and brown paper.

Studio Brief 2- Storyboard Artist- Peter Paul

Storyboard Artist

Peter Paul is a storyboard artist i have found that has done many storyboards in his career. These include Lilo and Stitch, How to Train your Dragon and Piglets Big Movie. I  have included these 3 movie panels because it really shows his different aesthetics. 

 This first one shows how he has done the whole panel with minimal detail do the background but the character Stitch is very detailed as it is important that the animators can see what he looks like. This is also done because they are the key people in the scene so the wrest is less important.

 The way he had done the storyboards for this movie are very different, they look at basics of what is going on so the motions and face is the most important detail he has payed attention to on each slide.

This also shows that he does some of his work digitally, this is because it is faster and easier to edit if something needs tweaking on one panel.

Finally these are from Piglets Big Movie and show his work with coloured pencil to show more clearly what is going on and who is who. It just shows you how flexible you have to be as a storyboard artist as you will have to use all different types of mediums for different projects.

Studio Brief 2- Storyboard Artist- Hayao Miyazaki

Storyboard Artist

Studio Ghibli is a Japanese company set up in Tokyo. They have released many movies like Ponyo, My Neighbour Totoro and Spirited Away. Many of these movies include messages about the country and its way of working like pollution and nature. Hayao Miyazaki is an animator who is very well known in japan much like Walt Disney is in this country.

One of the reasons i like him as a storyboard artist is that he doesn't let the box restrain his designs. I also find his use of colour, bold pencil work and detailed scenes make it easy to tell what is going on within this shot but also it makes it very easy for the storyboards to be brought across to become an animation.

These two panels are showing other ways he works, either using yellow to sketch and then adding pencil to make them more clear, or adding very colourful backgrounds and scenes to make sure the animators can see how he wants the overall composition to look.

This shows just how many notes are made by Hayao Miyazaki just so that they can be followed and understood.

Again he also shows how if a scene is from far away and showing the whole scene, he went outside the box and made the scene long showing the camera shot.

Studio Brief 2- Storyboard Artist-John Canemaker and Michael Sporn

Storyboard Artist

John Canemaker and Michael Sporn have done many storyboards together throughout their career together. Some of these include Dumbo and Wind in the Willows. I really think that Dumbo is really well drawn for the storyboards, shows you just how much time they put into each slide and how long it could have taken for them to complete them.

Each slide shows every small movement that is made by the two characters shown of the mother and child. Not every storyboard artist puts this much detail into the slides as you only need to make them as detailed enough for the animators to understand and sometimes the time constraints don't allow for a lot of detail to be included.

Wind in the Willows would have been a very hard one to do as it was all hand drawn by the animators so every slide had to be clear and understandable for movement, characters and what was happening overall.
http://johnkstuff.blogspot.co.uk/2008/01/michael-sporn-and-john-canemaker.html
This is a site that talks about how the two worked together and what they worked on.