FMP: Berlin Trip

Berlin Wall, Germany (March, 2014)

Berlinische Galerie, Germany (March, 2014)

The Holocaust Memorial. Berlin, Germany (March, 2014)

Modified observation sketch of the holocaust memorial

The trip to Berlin, Germany was not too influential on my concept, but instead provided a lot of food for thought on my visual representations. The Berlin wall introduced different characters to me. Arising questions like, do I want to represent the characters as I saw them in my dreams? Do I want to be less literal? How can I make the characters contribute to the disturbing nature of the film I wish to produce? Should they be vibrant, obscure, flat, expressive etc? 

My visit to the Berlinische Galerie introduced me to the artist Franz Ackermann, who's art captivated me for hours. The experienced provoked so many questions and opened my eyes to the importance of detail, not necessarily in regards to intricacy, but what each and every part means, what it communicates. The manic, visual maps that Ackermann creates involve many different mediums including paint and photography, which creates layers and depth to the work. It was truly delightful to discover all the secrets that revealed themselves throughout each piece in pockets of detail.

The Holocaust Memorial was a daunting experience. We were gradually submerging in the graves of the dead, once again conjuring the idea of escape. In my sketch, the graves are beginning to fall and I have included the "Royal Road", leading the path out of the graves. This was a small idea I was working with on the spot, trying to illustrate what a break through into lucidity might do to the environment if I were dreaming in that second. It kind of conveys the initial state of mental escapism.

Metamorphosis: Final Animation

Authors own

This is the final animation of my story, which I entitled 'Gregory's Soul' that explores the concept of metamorphosis through life, death and the spirit world. Overall, I am pleased with my outcome as it evokes the emotions I was aiming to strike in the viewers. I think the choices I made during production, e.g.  choosing to make it in black and white, the music I chose, the idea of inverting the tones once we entered the spirit world, were the prime reasons the mood of the piece was so well received. If I were to improve this animation I would of taken care to include more frames and movement, as in some places it does seem a little static and incomprehensible. However, these are points I can take on board and carry forward for my next animated projects. In order to avoid this happening in future projects I could make animatics before I start final production, making sure all transitions and keyframes work accordingly. 

I made the animation by hand using a lightbox to aid me. I then scanned each image into Flash and put them into sequence.The inverted colour frames where scanned into Photoshop, where I edited them and then imported them into Flash. Once this was done I add fade out transitions and small movements, such as blinking and the bug sprat entrance, using Flash. I then exported the file into iMovie where I added a glowing effect on the second half of the animation and included rolling credits at the end. 

I was surprised at just how time consuming the animation process is and how much there is to consider. In order to help my future animations, creating a check list would really help make things run more smoothly. 

Metamorphosis: Title Card

Title card development

Photo is authors own

I really enjoyed this part of the project as I was able to focus my attention on what the animation was all about and try to portray that in one still image. I was working with the idea of foreshadowing, and how I could use that term literally. I worked with a few different view points and also thought about how I could produce visual meaning behind the shadow cast by Gregory as he prepares to get into bed. The last image on the page seen above is my final design, which I believe to be effective. The large shadow cast by Gregory creates a daunting atmosphere, as it haunts the space, towering over him. I included a mouth on the shadow to suggest it being a separate entity, although a part of Gregory, just as death will be.

Metamorphosis: Initial Idea (decided concept)

Initial storyboard (left), initial character design and research into concept (right) 

Final character design 

Layout/setting design

Photos are authors own

I decided to work with a slightly obvious idea, which is the metamorphosis of a butterfly, but including the idea of death and afterlife. My initial working story was that a caterpillar awakens from sleeping in the form of a butterfly and is first confused, but the fearful as the shadow of the former caterpillar tells him the he has died and entered the spirit. I left the story as a cliff hanger. However, after attending a critic it was brought up that the story requires the viewer to erase what they already knew about the natural life cycle of a butterfly and it was clear they I needed to include some representation of death into the story. 

Before going on to make a final storyboard I proceeded to create my final character and layout designs. I decided due to time keeping that I would create the animation using grey scale (no colour). However, this seemed to work well with my concept with black representing death and white life. The colour choice will also create a more obscure, eery mood. My final storyboard will therefore be made in black and white, using the polished character and layout design.

Graphic Design: Project 1

This is an informative piece of graphics work, designed to explain visually (in the large square image) and using text what it is that I aspire to achieve when studying Graphic Design and in the further future. I found this project to be quite straight forward because I am fairly sure of the path I wish to take in Graphics. However, it was hard to decide what to include in my image and in the end I opted for a more simple design that reflected my interest in illustration and animation. The image was supposed to relate to character design and breathing life into a character. I conveyed this message by using the pun, "I'm Alive.", which is said by an obviously dead/lifeless character. Although, the character is dead it is my job to animate it.

When designing this piece, my attention was brought to font size/choice, lay out and effective visual communication, which I will find really helpful in designing future graphic pieces. 

Storyboard Idea: Cat Vs Wasp

This story flows from top to bottom.

1) There are two cats who are friends and a wasp and spider who are friends, living in the park. However, the two groups are enemies. 2) One day one of the cats squashes the spider and it dies. 3) The wasp goes back to his tree and plots revenge. 4) The wasp charges at the cats ready to sting them with poison. 5) The cat squashed the wasp and killed it, as a little girl obsessed with hello kitty walks by. 6) The girl spots the cat and steals it to make her very own live hello kitty, leaving the other cat to live alone.

This story is basically an example of the saying "what goes around, comes around". The cats were heartless towards the lives of the wasp and spider and in the end they were forced to live alone or as a play thing. I feel like the story isn't as strong as the previous two and is also quite childish, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, just not what I was aiming for. 

Time Capsule Burial

This photo marks the ending of the burial and the scar that the process has left on the landscape.