year evaluation

 

I transferred over to this course half way through the first module, from graphic design, where the class was trying out different types of animation and styles and techniques. I entered the module close to the deadline and was just able complete a line drawing of a bear balancing on a ball just before the module finished. Although I hardly understood what I was doing I was able to complete it.

I learned how to use a light box to create line tests for animation. This meant that when I scanned my work in or used the dragon kit my animation did not just jump all over the screen and stayed in position.

 

I used the method of a peg bar and light box to basically onion skin over the previous frame and animate the character frame by frame. For the short amount of time that I had I think I done really well in the time frame and managed my time well. I think one of the most impressive things about the animation is that for my first one I was able to loop it so it played on infinitely.

 

One on the first key part to animation that I learned was the 12 principles of animation. This gave me a guideline to animation in what I should aim towards and what would make my work better. I found this very useful as I work to set information well. I used the principle of simplicity on the bear character to make him easier to animate and to make him stand out more. Sometimes less is more.

 

Throughout the year I heave learned a new set of key animation skills that I had never known before. I learned how to storyboard better by knowing what eye frames are better to pay attention to, also that different camera angles are an important choice in my work and I should think more about the mood and setting to better determine which ones I should use. This was useful when I began storyboarding my animatic.

 

I also learned key skills and was newly introduced to the program final cut pro where I was ale to import my hand drawn story board images and cut out pieces and sections to animate them using a rage of effects such as panning, rotating and zooming. It was here that I planned out the movements and sequence for my 3d animation in cinema 4d. 

 

I was first introduced to cinema 4d in this course. When I first tried to use it I had no idea what to do and it seemed too complicated. However throughout several workshops and introductions into the program I was able to create flat 2d planes in a 3d environment and animate my storyboard. I learned in this project that we had to manage our time well because it took a lot of time to make and dedication. We also learned how to rig our 2d characters and give them joints and bones to move around. Key framing was also a key skill we learned using this program and how moving them around can influence to tempo and pace of our animations.

 

After our initial use of cinema 4d I then went on to extend my skills in the program by using the 3d modeling tool to create my character Glick. Glick was again made by keeping in mind the idea of a simple character that stands out. I think that my skill in creating characters is good and that it is one of my main strengths. Although it was my first time ever creating something in 3d I took well to it and was able to do it quite easily and grasped extruding and modeling well.

To help support my character design I created a model sheet that clearly depicts the characters set design and color scheme. This was a good skill learnt and it shows planning and preparation work similar to that an actual animation production studio would use.

 

I then had the opportunity to refresh my drawing skills in several life-drawing sessions. It helped me revise body proportions and lighting and shading and how they work together and interact. Then later we picked an artist of our own choice and worked in their style, this refreshed how we worked and let us break from our old habits and try something new.

 

One new skill, or moreover, habit I developed was blogging. Blogging helped remind me where I was, what I was doing and what I had to do. It also helped me show to people what I had been doing and to  see if they had any feedback it was also interesting to see what other classmates were doing and to see if they were suck or needed any help or if they could help you. It was just a good way to share and keep track.

 

At the end of the year we had the chance to choose a method of animation of our own and make an advert for e4. People could use something they already done and a strength they knew they had. However I decided to go for cutout animation, as I never had the opportunity due to my late arrival in the course. This may have seen like a foolish move but if anything I got to learn something new and develop a new skill. My animation went well and I was very happy with the outcome.

 

I think that throughout the year I have learned a lot and developed new and old skills and it’s been a great insight into the animation course. I hope to be able to extend more on my digital painting skills and this is an area I wish to excel in. I did have a couple of tutorials on digital painting and learned plenty of skills with tools I never understood, one main one was the pen tool, which I had never grasped before. However I wish there was more that we could have done and developed in that area further.

Esting

Here is my esting that i created for the live breif 

Estings evaluation

Estings evaluation

For this project my aim was to create an animated short to be used as a tv advert for the channel e4. The specific aims and targets for the brief was to have a clip that lasted only 10 seconds no more no less and that it has to somehow utilize the e4 logo in it. My choice was to go for a type of animation I had never tried before so I could extend my skills and take the opportunity to learn something new. The type of animation I went for was stop motion, I decided to work with left as it was interesting how the felt would grip each other, this was good when moving a large piece with smaller bits overlayed on top, they would stick and follow thee larger bit making the animating process slightly easier. To give my animation some direction I decided it would be made for the audio that I selected. I listened through and through the music provided my e4 and selected track 7, this was due to the fact it sounded very ska band like and that’s what I had been listening to all week so I already had some inspiration. With this lead I turned my felt into little musicians based off the band madness, a well-known ska band. I gave my character the classic features of black hats and sunglasses. With this all decided I went forth with my recording process. I set up a dragon kit and prepared my pieces to begin recording he segments. To make production more manageable I broke up my recordings into three key sections.

 First was the set up, then the confrontation, then the realization and big reveal, in my animation this was portrayed my the set up of character, them playing the music and moving on their own, then the reveal of the e4 logo at the end. I recorded all of this using a dragon stop motion kit. The main feature I used was the auto take function which worked on taking two frames every two seconds, this was I could moved the objects and have recording at the same time so I didn’t have to use one hand for each.

On the last section where the big reveal happened I used larger gaps in the frames because it was more work moving so much at one. When the final video was finished and I had attached all of the videos together I then added the music I had based my animation on, I was scared it would be out of time and the characters wouldn’t move to the music, but they actually timed perfectly even then the saxophone comes into play. In the end and looking at my final video I was really happy with the outcome. I think that my main achievement for me in this project was finishing something that had no direction as I don’t like working too freely and feel like I need some sort of direction. Also the use of a new technique was a big move out of my comfort zone. I could have gone and done something I knew I excelled in but I decided to learn something new as well as completing the task at hand.

Estings winners

E sting: E4 Musical Instrument

An ident made by viewers Yannis Konstantinidis and Christos Lefakis 

winner 2008

A very interesting 3d animation created for the 2008 e stings competition for e4. It shows what seems to be a rather simplistic model of a robot clapping his hands then suddenly as the music charges a lot of objects and shapes seem to stem out of his head. I find it very visually appealing and I  like how the music interacts with the movement in the video. Out of the finalists this had to be my favorite and I'm glad it won that years e stings.

E sting: eGOR - Kitchen Monster 

An ident made by viewer Philip Swaine 

I really like this runner up e sting from 2008. I think the reason I like it so much is because its not all digital and using live actions scenes which I find difficult to do so I have a lot of appreciation for this type of work. I guess it relates to my idea slightly with making characters out of material and animating them. The only thing I found to be slightly lackluster was the ending sequence, I think that live action slime of some sort would be better.

recursive culture 

post-post-modernism or something 

winner 2009

I really dislike this piece. I find it has no direction or story at all, it just seems to be a lot of images in my face. Personally I don't find the explanation, confrontation or and resolve. I think the images are good but there’s no reasoning behind it and I think that some sort of explaining and a way to understand it should have been applied. Looking at the other e stings form 2009 I think there were more better choices of winners then this piece. Its visually inexpressive but has nothing to back it up or material to help you understand it. I cant relate it to my e sting at all and I don't think id take anything form it. I don’t think it deserved to win in my opinion, I think there were other pieces that had more thought put into it..

Dizzy Dave 

runner up 2009

I cant really decide how I feel about this e sting. There are parts I like then parts I really dislike. Firstly what I do like is the character, although a little disagreement on the dull coloring and how clumpy the hands are I feel that his general design is cool and that the younger generation would like it. Also the textures are good and it gives it an odd spot like skin. What I font like is what has been done with the character. It seems very cliché, someone being hit on the head via the see saw and weight. It just seems too expected and easily foreseen. Its overused. So although their character looked good, it didn’t matter because how they delivered it and presented it to the view was just boring, I wasn’t even amused rather confused to why someone would waste time making a character like that and doing nothing with it. I cant decide if I really like it or not.

pitching the project

You and you work

·       My project is to create animated short for the e4 channel which-will be possibly shown in and advert interval.

·       There are no narrow specifications for what the animated short must contain, therefore we have almost complete control over the concept and story. The only requirements are the length and the displaying of the e4 logo in the video.

·       I have decided to base my animated short on music and constructing my animation around the provided tracks for the shorts. I wish to create a band using traditional methods; maybe the traditional methods will influence the type of band I make.

Making it happen

·       For the first week I will look at existing estings and the successful ones to see what they have utilised and how they have approached the task.

·       Then I will listen to the tracks provided to us and listen out for the types of instruments and sounds and try and imagine how a band would interact with that and how it would l look.

·       I will then plot and design my characters and how they will look and move.

·       Then I will purchase the materials necessary to create my cut-out characters.

·       Here I will start the recording process. The video will be broken down into three separate recordings. This will make it easier so I don’t have to get everything in one take.

·       Editing and video management will then follow after the recording. I will piece together my clips then make sure it fits into the ten second band.

·       The pre determined audio will then be added to the clip and then to exporting my final piece.

Your budget

·       The only cost incursion to my project will be the purchase of some felt.

Benefit to you and the public

·       I want to do this so I have a better understanding on another method of animation and a new skill I can use and to further my understanding of animation styles. Another benefit is that I have the opportunity to work to a live brief and the chance to gain notoriety and gain further work because of it.

Marketing

·       Although my work is not really meant for marketing it can gain support and noticed through the use of social media site like facebook and twitter, also through the use of video sites like youtube and vimeo.

Meeting the aims of the client

·       The aims of the brief was to create a ten second animation for the TV channel e4 that shows the logo somewhere in the clip. My video animation will adhere to these restrictions and limitation and I will work with the clients requirements.

Evaluation

·       

·       The success of my project can be measured by the duration of my clip, is it exactly 10 seconds ?

·       Does the audio work with my animation and does the visuals of the characters imply that they are a band playing music?

·       Is the level of cut out strong enough to show on tv.

·       The success of my video can be measured in if it meets all the target requirements set out. Also if it reaches what I wanted to achieve for myself and gain the skill that I wanted too in my work.

The subject/idea

·       The animation shows the set up of a cut out animation and how the characters seem to come alive to the music. The concept is that micro sized bands are playing ska music to the e4 track.

·       The work is slightly experimental to me as I’ve never done cut out animation before.

Structure/form

My animation has a clear three-act structure with a clear setup, confrontation and resolution. The set-up is the outlaying of the characters, the confrontation is the band playing to the music and the big reveal is the presentation of the e4 logo.

·        

Visuals

·       The animation will be made in traditional media and the characters will be composed from felt.

·       The visuals will contain the little life of these hand made characters and their life as a band.

·       The colour palette I will be working with will be that of the actual e4 logo, which is purple, white and black.

·       The visual effects I will apply are those used in cut-out animation where different pieces are moved over a stretch of photographs creating the illusion of movement.

Sound

·       The audio is a predetermined song from a selection of tracks from e4.; I wanted to build my characters based on the music I was given. It is slightly post synthesis animation.

·       The music sounds to be a range of instruments most likely used in the jazz selection or ska band music.

·       The track will be cut and timed to the characters movement of the animation.

Technique

·       The technique that I will use to achieve the project outcome is cut out. I am using this as I’ve never used it before and would be a good skill to learn.

·       To make the use of cut-out prominent I will use rather large gaps in my photos so each frame is notably different. To separate my characters from the background I will also use a check background so my mono coloured creatures stand out a lot.

Audience

·       My work will engage the audience by presenting to them this light hearted fun animation that all ages can relate too, it will also combine the audio and visuals for the viewer.

life drawing

Life drawing

during the time we took the life drawing course I learned some new skills and techniques, but not only that I was able to revise some of my older drawing skills. Firstly I had done life drawing before with the same model last year. So initially I thought and felt like I was wasting my time doing something I had already done before. Then we began using new materials with different methods. One of the new methods for me was using a stick and ink. Initially this really annoyed me because I had a lack of control over the stick we were using. However the outcome of patterns left by the ink interchanging made it worth while working through it. Also an important factor was that even though I found the drawing boring it was good for me. I had been getting used to drawing cartoon and manga characters too much and my proportions were starting to become too stylized. This was I was able to refresh my understanding of proportions and limitations of the body. I think that this project was a great success for me as it is one of my strong points. My only problem with drawing tasks like this is the physical task of enduring the sitting duration due to back problems. If I am required to do life drawing again I should invest it a cushioned seat.

Life drawing artists

Fons scheidon

I like the simplistic bold coloured work by fons scheidon. I find that the lack of detail and simple featured characters helps to give more focus to the actual story in the animation rather then distract the view with loads of visuals. The lack of outlines also makes it very interesting and keeps the image very bright and colorful. Although it is not my style of work it doesn’t mean I cant appreciate it. I tend to over complicate images so to do something like this is very skillful to me.

Fons scheidons works seems to be mostly digitally done. I feel that its good to refer back to his work if I’m trying to make a simplistic character.

Tomer hanuka

I really enjoy hanukas work. I love the style and the detail put into his work, also how he uses color and the strange combinations and how they work well in a composition together. I think its really unique that he would color something that say was meant to be brown and changed it to pink or red. His images seem to be very bizarre and random with no real reasoning behind them. However I feel that this edge give his images a great uniqueness to help it stand out. I feel that these images are done in a two stage process. One traditional sketching and lining, then digital programs are later utilized to color these images at a later stage. Hanuka really inspires me and whenever I see his work I do get the urge to draw random things.

Alex pardee

Im not sure how I feel about alex pardee and his  work. Its either I like the color, but don’t like the line work, or I like the line work and not the color, there is very few pieces I find a happy medium at. I love the textures of the watercolor backgrounds and how they give some of the monsters in his drawings a skin and a visual feel to them.  One aspect of his work that I like and I wish to try and do more is changing weights in line work where they are more dense closer to shadows and thinner nearer light.

Jeremy fish

Jeremy fish’s work is very crisp, clean and sharp. Most of his work is digitally done and vector based. Sometimes I like this as it means that the image can be presented on a large scale, however sometimes work like this would suit texture but they are in block color. I like the integration and combination of animals and death, so on one side its cute but the next its horror. This artist’s work inspires me to try and use vector based drawing tools more.