FMP: Dream structure and Perspective

Explanation of the process leading a lucid dream from my sketch book

Consideration of the viewers perspective in sketch book

Photos are authors own

In order to get the information I had gathered through research into the psychology of dreams, video blogs by lucid dreamers and the interviews I conducted, I created a flow chart of events that proceed the state of lucid dreaming. Whilst drawing this out I began to wander what it is that I am actually communicating to the viewer. Am I creating an informative piece about the process of achieving lucidity? Am I focusing on the lucid experience? Am I showing a struggle to obtain lucidity? Do I even want to include the idea of lucidity? Maybe, that almost magical feeling of being in a situation that you can't control, yet it is stimulating enough to create excitement within you, that an unconscious dream gives you is a form of escapism. 

During one of my interviews the interviewee said that when they had a particular dream, their perspective changed. I found this to be really strange. So it caused me to think about how I want the view to be experiencing the animation. I will start to experiment more with perspective.

Freedom & Liberty: Storyboard Ideas

Storyboarding 2 ideas

Authors own

The process of storyboarding my ideas was quite challenging, as I had a lot of places I wanted to take them.  I feel I produced some successful ideas due to the responses I received when pitching to a group of my peers.  However, I went with my first storyboard idea, as it had the most potential.  What I think works well about the idea is its potential to engage with the viewer causing them to empathise with the character and its struggle to control its own freedoms.

The narrative follows the journey of a non-gender, non-racial character as they attempt to make their way from A to B.  However, throughout this journey they are burdened by the presence of a gigantic, controlling hand.  This hand pokes and pulls at them to the extent of them snapping and fighting back.  When reviewing the story I can see that the extremity of the hands behaviour needs to be intensified in order for the audience to have an emotional response and for the characters resulting reactions towards the hand to be justified.   

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: Screen Shots

Screen Shots of final animation

Photos are authors own

These screen shots are organised chronologically to give a rough idea of the storyline. Evaluation of final piece is to be found on the next post. I have included these images incase you cannot watch the actual animation. 

Rastaman Final Image: 5

This image depicts the scene where Rastaman see's the blurred outline of a goat when he awakens several hours later after he collapsed from OD'ing. This is the view that Rastaman see's as he stretches out his hand to grab onto the goat to be rescued. Most of my peers found this to be the most effective image of all the 6, clearly depicting the predicament of Rastaman by blurring the image and using high exposure. I have also continued the element of illustration in this photo.

Rastaman Final Image: 3

This image depicts the scene where Rastaman arrives at the mountain and is shocked to find out it is covered in cocaine instead of snow. Here we see the world from Rastaman's point of view, looking down at the pile of cocaine in his hand. Through is fingertips the viewer can see the terrain of the mountain, which acts as a clue to the location of this image. To create this image, I used decorative house stones, shells, my hand and talcum powder. I draw over my hand to match the illustrated Rastaman that has appeared in the images so far. My peers said that it was successful in capturing the environment of the mountain e.g. the cold climate. However, the image visual communication is slightly unclear.

Rastaman Final Image: 1

This is the film still for the beginning of my Rastaman story. Here, Rastaman has collapsed on the floor due to OD'ing on cocaine as an attempted to numb the pain of his wife leaving him for a Doll. I found the task rewarding as I was able to see my story come to life in a small. but I feel effective, kind of way.  I really like my use of illustration over a photograph, each medium compliments each other well as the photography brings an element of reality to the image, whilst the illustration keeps the image light-hearted to avoid completely depressing the viewer. However, in contrast, if was wanting to creat a very serious vibe throughout my story illustration would hinder that goal.
Other students found the illustration to not be quite bold enough, only by studying the image did they notice the body I had draw onto the photo. In future I will make sure my illustrations are bold enough in contrast with the image.

Final Rastaman 6 Film Stills

These 6 images are my final visual embodiments of the Rastaman story I presented in my sketch book in my previous post. They are layout here like a comic book would be. I'm overall quite proud of my final 6 images. However, in the last image there is a goat slowly disappearing, which isn't very clear at all.

Storyboard Development: Rastaman

This is my developed idea of the 6 still images of my Rastaman storyboard. In this version Rastaman lies on the floor of his apartment after he OD's on cocain because his wife left him for a Doll. The Doll then feels as though she needs to do something to help Rastaman and presents him with a flyer, which advertises 'The Path to Enlightenment' -  a course up a mountain that offers enlightenment at the summit. Rastaman contemplate the idea and decides to go. However, when he reaches the mountain he finds that it is covered in cocain instead of snow and he must resist temptation in order to reach enlightenment. As he climbs the mountain he can no longer resist the drug and ends up OD'ing and collapsing. Rastaman awakens hours later, weak, to see the blurred outline of a goat in front of him. He grabs onto the goat in hopes that he will drag him to safety. The goat then drags Rastaman to the top of the mountain where he finds enlightenment and it is revealed to him that the goat was a hallucination that symbolised the strength of his own will power. 

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. 

Storyboard Idea: Rastaman

This story is ordered from the bottom square to the top. 1) Rastaman is happily married to his wife in the city. 2) Rastaman finds his wife cheating on h with a doll in the shower. 3) Rastaman's wife leaves him for the doll. 4) Rastaman goes on a quest to Mount Coke - a mountain covered in cocain - to ease his pain. 4) On the way to the top, Rastaman meets an intriguing ftm (female to male) transgender male. They climb the mountain together. 5) When they reach the top they have fallen in love and live the rest of their days there.

I found this idea interesting because it tackles quite serious concepts eg doll obsessions, drug addiction and gender identity/sexual orientation. However, I hate stories that send out the message love conquers all. If I were to rewrite this I would definitely change the resolution to the story and make more of a internal change within Rastaman.