You Are Here: Final Animation

Train Strike

Authors own

This is my 30 second animation that explores the evolution of the name of the street that we today call Cannon Street. It is a visual piece, with no narrative, just experimentation of transitions, sound, insinuated actions and style. 

I find the most successful components of this animation to be the switch between two styles to give the viewer some indication of the environment they are being introduced to. Also, the insinuation of movement in the arches that pass the flame as it flickers out to make way for the incoming train. I do wish I could have done more with the sound, creating a mix that explored all of the interesting audible recordings I made. I also feel as though the flame could have been developed more, but because of my very basic knowledge of After Effects I was not able to create anything more elaborate in the time I had to complete this project. For future projects, I will make sure I put some time aside to explore software I haven't tried out yet that may come in handy in the production stage. 

You Are Here: Medium and Layout

Media experimentation

Layout development

Through doing media experimentation I successfully identified a medium that would work best for the hand drawn section of my animation. This was watercolour as it has a ghostly feel about it, much as the past does, which is where the viewer is being taken. However, one annoying thing about using watercolour is it wrinkles the pages if they are too thin. Hopefully, this does not show up on the scans.

Designing the layout of the train station was pretty straightforward. I based it on how the actual station looks presently, with a few minor changes. Mainly, I just simplified the environment, taking away things like pillars and enhancing the colours to give it a more cartoony feel. One thing I did not think about though, was the design of the train tracks. I future, I will make sure I have got every aspect of my design right before I start marking over it in pen and colouring it.

You Are Here: Storyboard Development

Storyboard development (left) and visual research (right)

Authors own

Through developing my storyboard I was able to concentrate on what was to be visually important within my final animation. I want it to run smoothly against the eyes, so therefore I concerned myself with clever transitions and subtle changes that insinuate things rather that embodied them. I was working with the name of the old street 'candlewick', packing the storyboard full of visual puns. Half way through making the storyboard, I came up with the idea of creating the first half, where we are leaving Candlewick Street, by hand, giving it an antique feel to reflect its historical nature. Therefore, the second half would look much more digital and modern, using simple aesthetics or perhaps even photographic collage.

Freedom & Liberty: Title Card

Title card design development

Authors own

I focused on the idea of being trapped and controlled, in my title card design. I wanted to include the protagonist and the antagonist in a situation that represented the concept of my piece. I think each idea that I produced captured that in one way or another, but I found some of them to work more successfully than others when considering visual communication and aesthetics. I was also playing around with the symbolism of the black power salute (a raised fist) in reverse (a fist punting downwards) to symbolise the oppressive nature of the narrative. I also worked slightly with tone, using a darker tone to surround the character, reflecting their mental state. I found this ideas to be very visually effective and emotive. However, when regarding the pose of the character, some of the positions were quite weak. For example, the very last coloured image that you see in the photo above gives the expression that the character has laid flat by choice, voluntarily being controlled. In order for me to create a successful image for the title card I will ask others what each image is saying to them and from that choose the one that evokes the most accurate interpretations. Once I have decided this, I can finally move onto the production stage.  

Freedom & Liberty: Final Storyboard

Reworked storyboard

Authors own

I reworked my initial storyboard so the idea's explored are much clearer and flow better. In this new narrative the character is walking to the park and is constantly bothered by the giant hand, getting poked around, tripped and dragged across the floor. They are then picked up and placed at the gates of the park. Relieved that they have been left alone and are at their intended destination, they enter the park. Suddenly, the hand reappears and crushes them into the floor, they are left a squashed and dizzy mess. This story works better because the character is put through a more brutal sequence of events and we are taken on an emotional roller coaster of tension, empathy, hope, relief and shock. 

Freedom & Liberty: Character Design and Development

                 

  

Character design

Authors own

I feel that the most successful part of my character design is its detachment of gender and race, as humans comprehend it. I kept everything simple, which works well in portraying a lack of identity. The process of designing the facial features of the character was interesting, as I had to consider avoiding any racial stereotypes, so I tried to keep the features simplistic, choosing to give the character brown eyes as brown eyes can be found within most races. I chose orange as the skin tone as it further detaches human ideas of an existing race. Initially I was going to give my character hair, but it quickly became apparent that different styles/textures of hair were developing an identity for the character, no matter how androgynous the styles were. Therefore, I decided to stick with the one curled hair atop the characters head. I tried to design an outfit that was in keeping with the idea of non-gender, non-race, non-ideanty. I found the red jumper and genes to work best as both men and women these garments and they are quite simplistic designs, saying very little about the personal taste of the character. 

Freedom & Liberty: Initial Storyboard

Initial storyboard

Photos are authors own

This is my initial storyboard for the freedom and liberty project. I found the process to be very time consuming as it is the most in-depth, elaborate story I have worked on so far. However, due to my inclusion of more boxes I was able to get a clearer picture of my final piece. The most successful component of this storyboard is the concept and its potential. Although, the sequence of events sort of splits into two separate stories. In order to work past this issue I will pick one half of the story that I can work best with. I need to identify one goal for the character, which is making it to the park. I also need to create a more sever antagonist and identify the significance of that antagonist (the hand). At the moment it is coming across as a parental hand, but I wasn't leaning towards that idea. I wish to make it the hand of unnecessary brutality and control.

Freedom & Liberty: Research and Concept

Research into Freedom & Liberty, including definitions (authors own)

Screen shot of freedom (google search)

Olympics: Black Power Salute (right to left: John Carlos, Tommie Smith and Peter Norman)

Source: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/mar/30/black-power-salute-1968-olympics

For this project I aim to make a short animated piece that communicates something about Freedom and Liberty, and what it means to me. I started my research, looking into dictionary definitions of the terms and then diversified my sources onto the world wide web and that of other peoples opinions on the matter. I then watched documentaries and films such as, The Naked Rambler, that explores others opinions on what freedom is, in this case to be publicly nude without being antagonised. I also watched the films, The Truman Show and Bruce Almighty (both staring Jim Carey). I found something very interesting being said in Bruce Almighty, which was about the idea of playing God and the limits to that power. We as humans all have free will, we make our own decisions and choose our own paths. This can be manipulated by those around us, but ultimately it is our choice (unless you believe in destiny). However, in animation an animator has the job of playing God and the poor character has absolutely no free will. In continuing this project I will work with the concept of free will.

I then looked into historical revolutions, such as the black power movement and freedom fighters. I found it to be rich in potential visual metaphors. The black panther could be a great visual metaphor for me to play with, as well as the salute (seen above) . Oppressed, black people were almost completely without freedom, but the Black Panther movement was them using their free will to make a difference. Just like them, I want my character to fight back.

Title Sequence: 'BBC Three 60 Seconds News' Final Animation

This is my final animated title sequence for BBC Three 60 Seconds News, made in Flash and edited in iMovie.

I feel as though I was successful in visually communicated the idea of technology and travelling information. The added sound and revolving, multicoloured circle introduced the concept of time and fast pace. However, I feel that my decision to tween the travelling line into a circle instead of creating a frame-by-frame transition, where the line curls into itself, weakened the overall flow of events that occurred in the sequence. I was surprised throughout the process of making this title sequence how easily ideas came to me and how well the production phase ran. Perhaps because I was dealing with less complex ideas and and a shorter timeframe. However, if I were to remake this title sequence I would try to create something with more movement, using frame-by-frame animation, as the end result always feels more impressive and rewarding.

Title Sequence: 'BBC Three News' Storyboarding

Storyboard generation for BBC Three 60 Seconds News title sequence

The process of making a storyboard for BBC Three 60 Seconds News was really fun because it was fast paced and I was able to think more about ideas of communication, time and technology as it is in this present time. For primary research I watched the show and the things it includes; what news it chooses to share, how we as viewers are addressed, how it looks visually (making sketches of this in my book) etc. I found it to concentrate mostly on social matters and tabloid news and the set was completely animated, nothing but the reporter was real. Images would be shown on animated tablets and in the background you could see floating mobiles, TVs and computers. Therefore, I wanted to create a title sequence that explored the idea of communication, travelling information and technology. However, I also wanted it to reflect the fast pace of 60 Seconds News. 

I made a few storyboards (seen above), but found my third attempt to be most successful (bottom left). However, I found it to be too simple within its use of colour. Therefore, moving forward with this idea I would like to look into changing the colours used within the title sequence. 

Title Sequence: 'Kiss the Girls' Final Animation

Authors own

This is the final outcome for my title sequence made for the thriller Kiss the Girls. What I enjoy the most about this piece is its strong sense of style and atmosphere. I feel the sound and simplistic appearance compliments the complex, haunting nature of the themes explored in the film itself. However, one thing I'm not too happy with this the mask section of the sequence. The text that insinuates a tear drop is too ridged and the movement needs to be reworked. Also, as the mask fades away and is covered by loads of lip prints the outline of the mask can still be seen long after, a silly mistake done in Flash on my part.

I made almost everything using Flash, I drew everything on Flash, animated on Flash and added the typography on Flash. I used iMovie to add in the flashes into negative colour at the beginning and add in the sound. The sound is actually my voice. I looked into the nursery rhyme and reworked its melody and lyrics (only slightly), keeping the same rhythm, just slowing it down. Then I layered the sounds of water droplets over the top of my vocals, to represent the idea of water placed in the film. I recorded and put together all sound components in GarageBand. 

Title Sequence: 'Kiss the Girls' Experimentation

Quick montage of my Kiss the Girls experimentation

Authors own

Experimenting with the style and medium of the title sequences was a great way of figuring out how to represent the mood and themes of the film visually, as all successful title sequences do. I found what worked well here was the chance to diversify not only the style of each experiment, but also the way the different typography worked or did not work. Some ideas I found weaker than others, because the text was not legible enough or it came across a little too erratic. 

Screen shot, working in Flash

Authors own

A made most of the arms using paper cut out or drawing and scanning them into flash. I then added the typography in on flash, either drawing it digitally or modifying existing fonts. If I were to redo this process I would have tried out more software, like After Effects, to see the advantages or extra effects it could have brought to the style of the title sequence. 

Title Sequence: Kiss the Girls Storyboard

Final storyboard for the Kiss the Girls title sequence (left) and Style/media experimentation (right)

Photo is authors own

Creating the final storyboard for Kiss the Girls was great as a starting point for how I would like the sequence to look and what medium I could use to effectively produce the ideas seen within it. I really like the potential for a strong sense of style and atmosphere for the sequence. However, I'm not sure how well the first box, which would be live action, will fit in with the rest of the sequence. I was surprised how hard it was to find purpose in the flow of the sequence as it did not have a narrative and was relying solely on visual representations.

Experimenting with the style/medium a of the title sequence was the most creatively rewarding part of the process. I was able to explore ideas and identify what would work best in representing the themes of the film. I initially started working with newspaper print in relation to a scene in the movie where one of the killers has a safe full of newspaper clippings. Once I had tried out a few different ideas, I took them into flash and made a series of short animations. This gave me a clear indication of what would work best on the whole. It was a shock to find how engrossed you can become in exploring ideas and metaphors. In future I will definitely give myself a stricter amount of time in which I'm allowed to do this. 

Title Sequence: Thriller, Spaghetti Western, News, TV Drama?

Mind-map of Kiss the Girls

Mindmap and inital storyboard for Django 

Research and storyboarding for BBC 3 60 Seconds News

All photos are authors own

The aim of this project is to produce 4 storyboards for a title sequence for a Thriller, Spaghetti Western, News/Recent Events, Bollywood or TV Drama and then animate two of them. I chose to go with the Thriller, S. Western, TV Drama and News genres. I looked into existing title sequences created by directors such as Saul Bass (Psycho, 1960), Maurice Binder (Dr. No: James Bond, 1962) and Iginio Lardani (The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, 1966). The process of choosing which genres I wanted to work with was quite straight forward. I went with which I felt I had the most experience with. I decided on the thriller Kiss the Girls (1997), the western Django (1993), the TV drama The L Word (2004-09) and the news programme BBC Three 60 Seconds News (on presently). In order to create the best possible title sequence designs for each of these shows I made mind maps that explored and analysed them. I want to produce something that explores the themes of each show in a visually metaphorical way. 

I have designed storyboards for each film/show and decided that I am going to animate the ones made for Kiss the Girls and BBC3 News. I made this decision in regards to what I can produce with the amount of time and facilities I have, but also on the designs that were most successful in portraying what the film/show is about. I found this process to be a great way of getting rid of weaker ideas. 

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.

Metamorphosis: Initial Idea

Photos are author own

My initial idea was based on metamorphosis as a super power, looking at examples like, The Hulk, Ben 10 and Megamind. I made a storyboard (first image) that included a boy who was teasing his sister and in order to avoid the consequences he turns into a rock. However, whilst he is still in rock form a man walks by and kicks him across the ground. When the boy turns back into his rightful form he has a huge dent in his head. This worked as a good starting point, but the story needed to be developed more. Most people felt as though the struggles the boy is put through should be elaborated and more extreme. So I expanded the story to include him getting kicked into a river and having to battle through numerous obstacles, whilst getting pushes down the current. I found the process of developing my story challenging because I had to make sure the audience was able to empathise with the character, but still find his experience comical. This is a hard thing to master. 

I then went on to designing the character using illustrator (second image), which was a very fun experience. I was able to create a character that before only existed in my mind and visually express the temperament of the boy. I think my initial character design was successful, but I found myself loosing interest in the concept I had chosen for the project. I want to create a more metaphorical, in-depth representation of metamorphosis. 

Day 5: Film Poster

The brief was to make a promotional poster for the unmade film The 33, which is about the miners that were trapped underground in Chile, 2010. I started this project off by researching the accident and finding photos and videos associated with it. I then looked at existing film posters to do with being trapped and also for films in the cinema today. I started generating some ideas for my poster in my sketch book, picking my favourites and producing them on InDesign. I decided to go with the design you see below.

Authors own 

I produced this image on Photoshop. It was originally a screen shot of two miners hugging from a video I found. I cut out a black silhouette of the two man to represent the darkness of their environment underground and added some thin lines to show important details e.g. the helmets, the squeezed close eye, the arms. I am pleased with this design decision because it says a lot about the struggle the 33 miners endured, the desperation. However, the background loses its meaning a because you can clearly make out what it is. There are actually rocks in the back ground. I enjoyed the research and idea generation part of this task because I was able to learn and also be created with the new information. Although, I found the final process of making quite stressful as I was not too familiar with Photoshop. Having said that, I am please with the outcome, considering.

Two other designs I made using Photoshop and InDesign

Day 4: Type Play

All authors own

Experimenting with fonts and layouts was an interesting process. I was able to be playful with words and strengthen the mean of each word by portraying it in a communicative way. "Busy" is situated amongst repetitions of itself, "thin" uses thin lines and narrow spacing between each letter and "pinched" is situated between two fingers that are pressing together against the P. I would have liked to have used more colour, but I feel it would be most appropriate when using adjectives that are emotions or temperatures. I was surprised to find that so much planning was put into the presentation of words e.g. colour, type face, size, layout and context. I have a new found respect for typography as it's own art form.