Studio Brief 1- Process and Production

These are my moodboards I had created, selecting images that would give the look and feel towards the style i wanted to come across within my animation. I had also added some images I had found that will help me when animating such as, the designs on the sugar skulls and the colour schemes. I had created two moodboards to represent both the dark side which i will have when showing the spirits and the light side which will be shown through the bright colours of the sugar skull. 

Studio Brief 1-Process and Production

Animatic

This was my first try at making an animatic and I think it looks pretty good, although I wish I had created more frames so then the animatic would run smoother and look better. I have added some sound affects to my animatic which are the sound of a match lighting, and the song from The princess and the frog- Iv'e got friends on the other side, I know this song is copyrighted, and if I was going to ask for permission I would do this by emailing the owner of the song. but I plan on changing the song slightly so then its no longer copyrighted, doing this will make the song fit more with my theme.

Studio Brief 1- Process and Production

Storyboard

This is my storyboard, I started it off setting my animation in the grave yard and then having the candle on one of the stairs. The camera will then zoom in to where the hand will place the sugar skull over the candle and then the transition will happen and at the end the spirits will appear out of the sugar skulls eye socket. 

Studio Brief 1- Process and Production

Initial Ideas 

I received feedback from Matt saying  that I needed something that would tell the story more clearly as just the transition itself wouldn't really tell the story. so I decided to add a candle which would have something written on it so it would tell the story. After i knew i was having a candle in my animation i started to draw hands either picking up the sugar skull or something to light the candle, I didn't know whether i wanted to light the candle with a lighter or a wooden splint, but the wooden splint looked better and suited the style of my animation more.

Studio Brief 1- Process and production

Initial Ideas/ Style guide 

The first two images our of my style guide for my animation, I had created a style guide to help me have a continuous style throughout my animation. Researching images online on Pintrest helped me with how I wanted my style to look.  I started off deciding what colours will be associated with the light and dark side, I wanted the light side (life) to stand out so i had to decide what bright colours to use and the same with the dark side (the after life). I then started coming up with ideas how to change from life to the after life within my animation, I came up with the idea to have all the colours of the sugar skulls dripping off and changing to the after life colours and rise back up to the original position. 

Studio Brief 1- Process and Production

Initial Ideas 

I started off drawing out grave stones and tombs with a Day of the dead style which meant having really colourful patterns on them or having colourful flowers surrounding the graves.
I then looked into which colours are mostly used for the flowers and they are usually a mixture of any bright colours

Studio Brief 1 -Process and Production

Research

The Princess and the Frog 

The Princess and the frog had also inspired me because within this film the Shadow man sings a song were he says he has friends on the other side, which then gave me the idea to incorporate shadows of demons  within my animation. 

Studio Brief 1- Process and Production

Research 

The Book of Life

This film is what inspired my idea towards my animation based upon the other side, because the film refers to life and death i thought that would be a good idea for my animation. Also i really liked the idea of Day of the dead as Day of the dead is a celebration in mexico were they celebrate honoring the dead. 

Studio Brief 3- Explore flipbook

This was my first try at doing a flipbook, we first tried to make a ball bounce using the squash and stretch technique, I think in the future once I've learnt how to draw a walk cycle of a person i would like to complete a flipbook of a person walking but really exaggerate the squash and stretch. I think i could of made this flipbook of the ball move more faster to really show the effect of the squash and stretch of the bouncing ball.

For my second flipbook i had done the flight cycle of a bird. This flipbook really helped me in the process of drawing my animation for the brief Apply as it would give me an example of what the bird should look like when flying, and what stage of flight should come next. Personally I think this flipbook of the bird flying works really well as it looks really smooth. 

Studio Brief 4- Apply evaluation

For my animation on the studio brief 4- Apply i have based it on the subject fear and because my biggest fear is birds. If i could go back and change anything during this project it would be the dot work on my animation because the animation is hand drawn the process was slightly more time consuming than what i think doing the animation digitally would have been. In the future i may attempt to complete an animation only using dot work as i really like the outcome of the first scene, the swam of birds. I really like how it all flows together and the amount of detail that can be seen. Another thing if i could go back and change something during this project it would be my time management, I think i personally need to come up with an initial idea early on in the brief so that i have plenty of time to develop and gather more feed back for my animation.

Once I had my idea for my animation, I decided to draw out the flight cycle of a bird in my sketchbook, I also decided to test this process out in a flip book so that i could see how my drawings would turn out when completing my animation. The planning of the flight cycle had helped me hugely when it come down to me drawing the scenes where the birds could be seen flying.

I personally really like the scene with the phone line, as it gives the animation some perspective. I think this is mainly because throughout my animation there is no background present. This would be another thing i plan to work on towards future animations, as i would like to try and animate different layers of backgrounds at different distances, which would give greater depth to my drawings.

I plan to work towards my character development in the future, as i am quite disappointed with how my character looks, this is because i didn't really plan what my character would look like because i just wanted a simple drawing of a man cowering, and because i didn't plan to be showing much of his facial features anyway. although i am disappointed at my character because i could have developed further am not hugely upset with how my character looks because the last scene is planned to be quick and i wanted my character to me simple compared to my first scene of the swam of birds.

When i had finished drawing my animation on paper i had tested it out by doing the line test multiply times so then it could help me have a more clear idea of what frames needed adjusting and what frames needed to be filmed either on one's or two's. I came across problems after i had line tested my animation because i had drawn the flight cycle of a bird, when i had tested my animation using the line test certain scenes would play too fast and you was unable to see the actual flight of the birds moving across the scene. I resolved this problem by changing these scenes so that they would be shot in two's.

Studio Brief 4- Apply Animation

This is my final animation for the apply brief. I think i could of developed my animation further if i had animated the scenes of the birds flying for longer as i think that they cut out pretty quick. I am pleased with the outcome of this animation as i have learnt numerous things though hand drawn animation, as If you keep your animation simple and not to complex you wont have as many frames but will be able to repeat those frames to carry on your animation. another thing i have learnt through animating hand draw is that you need to properly mange your time as this process will take you longer. These are the things i will be taking into consideration for future animations.

Studio Brief 4- Apply Line Testing

This line test of my animation i had done was to see the effect of my animation being filmed on one's to give me an idea of what scenes or frames needed to be changed to two's. By doing this line test i was also able to see my dot work frames in my first scene of the swarm of birds flying.This line test showed me that before I go straight ahead and complete my animation, i can view what and where i needs to adjust my animation, it gives you a rough idea of what its going to look like before completing it. My first scene i didn't need to adjust on, but i tried playing this scene on both one's and two's but because the birds are suppose to be seen flying relatively quick, animating on one's was better. Other than my first scene the rest of my scenes are being animated on two's. 

                                      

Studio Brief 3- Explore pose to pose and frame by frame animation

In this Video it demonstrates both pose to pose and frame by frame animation. It tells you how to do a pose to pose animation which would be drawing the start and end of an animation and then going back to fill in the rest of the poses, Pose to pose animation is usually better because you have more control over the drawings and you know what it will look like before you finish animating. I will apply pose to pose animation in future projects as i can see it being more simple because i know where my animation will start and finish before even drawing the middle process of my animation. Frame by frame animation is better for when the animation will be unpredictable such as smoke, fire and water another way to use Frame by frame animation is for overlapping action, this will good to use it on hair and ears and tails. I will apply frame by frame animation in the future to my animation when drawing a character that has either hair, ear or a tail because it makes it easier to focus on just those features and the way they respond with movement rather than drawing the whole body.

Studio Brief 1- Identify 12 animations

Partly Cloudy

When one cloud looks up at all the other clouds wishing he could make cute animals or babies for the stalks to deliver to families and all he can make is either crocodile's, ram's or porcupine's. After struggling with delivering these animals to their families the stalk then leaves to go help another cloud that wont put himself in danger, the main cloud then gets really upset and angry by the stalks decision, but it turns out the stalk only when to get body protection so he can continue to help this cloud. I think the audience for this animation would mainly be for children as the colours used in this animation are really warm and subtle colours and the character design is really simple.

Studio Brief 1- Identify 12 animations

Gorillaz- Do ya thing

The character design for the Gorillaz is so unique when seen anybody could recognize that it is the style of the Gorillaz. This animation is about 2D the main character who lives in a abusive and unclean house, this is seen when another character in the style of the Gorillaz beats 2D over the head with a shoe when you know all he wants is to be loved by him when he reads a comic in the newspaper showing this. He wakes up and there are strange people in every room and even fridge and cupboard of the house, and the house is a mess. I would say the target audience for this animation would be young adults and above and people who are interested in the genre of alternative rock.

Studio Brief 1- Identify 12 animations

Out of bounds

This animation about someone who lives and suffers with agoraphobia, but when his only friend is a gold fish and him being unlucky with keeping them alive he ventures out of his house to receive his parcel of fish food that had been delivered to his neighbors house. The man then collapses in the middle of the street and wakes up at the neighbors house. This animation is really sweet because it shows us what its like to live with that disorder and the troubles he has everyday. The character design is really effective because the animation its self had its own style which really stands out.

Studio Brief 1- Identify 12 animations

The Staves- Winter trees

This stop motion music video for The Staves is really gentle animation to go with the gentle song that is being sung, The animation uses origami techniques which really makes the character design look unique as the owl with what looks like a giraffes body has very big eyes compares to the rest of the simple facial features. i think this animation can have an audience of any ages because the colour choices even though they are very subtle it would be appealing to children, also the character design is creative with one animals head with another animals body.

Studio Brief 1- Identify 12 animations

Love Automatic- Nightmare

This animation would be aimed at an audience of young adults and above because of its graphic features, The animation its self is about five people who go to an abandon house in the search of spirits, when one of them gets possessed and starts killing the others, but when one of them tries to kill him self  he opens his eyes it is like he has woken up from a nightmare. I think this stop motion animation is really effective because when the faces get pulled inside of themselves you can see what their inside of their heads look like and then blood pours out.

Studio Brief 3- Explore flipbook research

Goku vs Superman

I really like how detailed these flipbooks are and how smooth the movements are throughout the whole flipbook. In the future i would like to try and animate using a flipbook much like this one were it shows close ups to the characters face and exaggerates their movements.

Studio Brief 1- Identify 12 animations

Chump and Clump

This animation is about two characters who are waiting for the bus but when waiting for the bus for so long they then start to drink alcohol and take drugs, the animation then changes to the two characters tripping out. The audience for this animation for be for adults and over this is because of the drugs and alcohol content, otherwise the charcters look like they would be child friendly because of the character design, the colours used are bright colours which would be eye catching to children and the shape of the characters makes them look more fun and unusual.

Studio Brief 1- Identify 12 animations

Mcbess

Matthieu Bessudo is a illustrator and animator who animates the music videos for a band called The Dead Pirates. The illustrative style that this animation is,  is very effective because it works well with the rock music style that the band plays. The character design for this animation comes across very fun and simple because of the way their eyes have been drawn or the way the bigger band mate has been designed he doesn't look human the way the others do The audience for this type of animation would be people who are in to rock music or this style of drawing

Studio Brief 3- Explore pixilation research

Her morning elegance

I really like how smooth the movements of the woman moving across the bed are in this pixilation, also the props and materials such as pillows and socks can be recognised as stairs and fish is a really clever way of using common objects to depict other objects.  

Sledgehammer

In the Sledgehammer pixilation music video, I really like how the objects used can be quite random but also relevant, for instance when he sings about the bumper cars two bumper cars then come crashing into either side of his head. another thing I really like about the Sledgehammer video is how synchronized his lip singing is, it looks as if he is really singing.

Neighbors

The Neighbors pixilation the video is really smooth just like Her morning elegance, especially when either one of the men are moving around the grass. I really like the way when one of them is placing the fence pickets he only has one but as he moves along it is like he has already placed multiple ones.  

Studio Brief 3- Frame by frame animation

This is my Frame by frame animation of a bouncing ball that i had created in photoshop. I struggled at first trying to figure out how to create this animation doing frame by frame, but once i had done the first few frames that show the ball bouncing i now find it slightly easier to animate in photoshop. I would probably use photoshop again to complete a short animation

Studio Brief 1- Identify 12 animations

50 Percent grey

This animation is about someone who is purgatory and keeps trying to kill themselves, he finds out he is in purgatory when he turns on the television and it states where he is. The man then tries to kill himself to find out he cant and heals back up again. The 3D animation makes the bullet wounds look more realistic and when he looks as his hand and part of his brain and skull is on it.This animation would not be suitable for kids but for young adults and above, this is because it shows graphic content and disturbing scenes.

Studio Brief 1- Identify 12 animations

The ride of passage

the audience for this animation would be to younger children as it has typical aspects that are associated towards children animations, which includes bright colours, and a moral story. The animation itself is about tribes people finding the biggest animal to kill to demonstrate their power by wearing the animals head on top of their head. When a small child finds the biggest animal in the jungle they then form a bond instead of him killing it. I really like the style of this animation as it starts off as a silhouette of the tribe telling the story of them hunting and then as they run through the jungle it changes to 3D which makes the animation more aesthetically pleasing towards children.

Studio Brief 1- Identify 12 animations

Bo Mathorne- Black water gospel

This animation is about a town that fears god, and fears the undertaker because when the undertakers comes to visits it means that someone is going to die, but the towns people turn on each other and all die. The homeless man is seen as one of the main characters within this animation as he is the only person who lives in the town that doesn't attend the church, The style of this animation really fits the story line as the characters comes across with really geometric shapes as their faces as usually shapes like the homeless persons faces is really square.

Studio Brief 1- Identify 12 animations

Ring of fire

By Andreas Hykade. This animation is based upon peoples sexual fantasies, but quickly turns quite deep and dark when you realise that the animation  is about sexual abuse when one of the cowboys beats the woman when she wont perform any sexual activities. This animation doesn't bring to light a specific issue from the start because it comes across fun and comical because of the artistic style. the target audience for this animation would really be aimed at an older crowd of people because of animations content.

Studio Brief 1- Identify 12 Animations

Birds on a wire

This animation was made in america by Pixar studios and usually shown in the cinema before certain films were played, such as children's films as this animation is quite fun and adds humour, this is shown in the animation when the birds make fun of the larger bird for looking different but then when the larger bird falls off the wire all the smaller birds shoot off into the sky. The character design is really simple as most of the smaller birds body is mostly facial features and the larger bird comes across different as he has a long neck and bigger body, even though the colour of their feathers as the same he doesn't fit in.

Studio Brief 4- Apply Storyboard

This is my storyboard to help me plan towards my animation, i have key framed the specific actions that will show me the important shots, I plan to hand draw my animation and then scan it in using quick time pro. My style toward this animation will be very simple, by only drawing it in black and white and not having it very detailed only on the main features such as the person and the phone line. I took inspiration from a scene in Resident Evil where there is a swarm of birds attacking people, this helped me with how the swarm of birds would look flying around in the sky. 

 

Studio Brief 4- Apply Research

This is my research for my animation based on the category fear, as my fear is birds, i started off with drawing how a bird would move in  9 steps, i then started drawing different power lines as i will have the birds landing upon then through my animation. I had got feedback from Brogan and Amy on which one they both liked, both of them had picked the second one as it looked like it had more dimension and had more detail.   

Studio Brief 3- Explore 12 Principles of Animation

12 Principles of Animation

The 12 principles of animation was developed by Walt Disney and introduced by Disney animators Frank Thomas and Olli Johnston in 1930, many animation have been created through without any knowledge of the principles.

1. Squash and Stretch 

-Squash and Stretch gives the illusion of weight and volume 

-Lots of squashing and stretching could mean that the object is more rubbery and pliable

Tip- Keep the volume of squash or stretch constant

2.Anticipation

-to paraphrase Richard Williams 

-Anticipation communicates what is going to happen because for almost every action weaker there is anticipation

-Anticipation is preparation

-Simply put anticipation is the movement that a character or object makes before a major action

3.Staging

-Staging, or mis-en-scene as it also known is the presentation of an idea so it clearly communicates to the audience

-is should communicates a character or an objects mood, attitude or emotional state within a story 

-The use of shot framing eg. long medium of close ups and camera angles 

-Staging directs the audiences attention to the ideas or story being told 

-It's a good idea to present one idea at once otherwise the audience won't know where to look, or what is going on 

-You don't wont the main character to be upstaged 

4.Straight ahead and pose to pose animation

-Two different ways of animating is the process of animating frame after frame without the use of key framing 

-Literally starts with the first drawing and you continue to the end of a scene if you aren't careful you can wonder off, lose a sense of scale, size and volume 

-Pose to pose animation is meticulously planned and the animator works out what key poses will be needed to make an animation work, an assistant will then draw out the 'in between' frames that will for the animation 

-This allows the animator to focus on key drawings to allow for the more control over the movement and performance of the animation 

-With pose to pose this is clarity and strength 

-Working pose to pose means that its easy for the people to assist as they know what they are working towards, the director can see how far on progress is 

-As there are positives and negatives for both ways or working the obvious solution would be to combine both

-Plan using thumb nail sketches 

5.Follow through and overlapping action 

-Follow through is/are actions that happen when the main body of the character has stopped moving 

-Follow through is the termination of an action

-Overlapping action, we observe overlapping action when an object or character is trailing behind in action this is sometimes called 'drag' it often gives a sense of looseness and at the same time solidity

6.Slow-out and slow- in 

-Is also referred to as ease-out and ease-in

-As an action starts we will have more drawings at the beginning at the start of pose, one of two in the middle and more drawing near the end 

-Fewer drawings makes faster action

-More drawings makes action slower 

-Slow-out and ins soften the animation making in it feel more life-like 

7.Arcs

-All actions, except perhaps some mechanical ones follow and arc or circular path

8. Secondary action

-Simply put it secondary action is an action that support and reinforces in the intention of the first 

9. Timing 

-To make effective use of timing come from experience. It requires you to try again, refine and again 

-More drawings between poses slows and smooths the action. Fewer drawings make the action faster and crisper 

-A variety of slow and fast timing within a scene adds texture and interest to the movement 

-Most animation is done on twos (one drawing photographed on two frames of film) or on ones (one drawing photographed on each frame of film)

-Twos are used most of the time, but ones are used during camera moves such as panning

-Twos are also used for quick dialogue animation

10.Exaggeration

-Is not always something about making it bigger and better you can make it subtly

-It is a walk, head turn or even eye movement to make your animation have more appeal

11.Solid drawing

-The basic principles of drawing and turning them into colour movement, and give characters and objects the illusion of life, moving them through space

12.Appeal, or character personality 

-Appeal facilitates the emotional connection between character and audience. Characters must be well developed, and have an interesting personality.

Studio Brief 3- Explore Pixilation Video

This is my pixilation Video based upon predator and prey, I had used a small dinosaur toy to create the silhouette of the predator and Brogan as the prey. I came across various problems whilst shooting this pixilation, such as lighting, while shooting the silhouette of the dinosaur moving through the halls towards Brogans room, the lighting was too bright and was not about to see the shadow very well. I also had to include film footage into my video as i was not able to capture Brogan walking properly from one side of the room to another. I think i could have improved my pixilation if i had duplicated frames so that the video didn't move so fast and you would be able to see the video more clear, another thing i could improve on for the future is to plan out what size images i will need and what size video so that it is all one continuous size throughout.

Studio Brief 3- Explore Pixilation

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This stop motion video of Rex chasing the toy soldier's is what gave me inspiration towards my Pixilation video, as I really liked the way Pixar had used the silhouette of Rex chasing the soldiers before Rex was filmed into the video. I used this idea to help create my own Pixilation video as I had used the idea of a silhouette of a dinosaur to act as the predator, and have Brogan as the prey.

Studio Brief 3- Explore Pixilation Storyboard

Pixilation Storyboard

For my story i had decided to base it on predator and prey. I plan to create a silhouette of a dinosaur to be the predator in my pixalation and use Brogan as the prey. The dinosaur will only be seen as a shadow throughout my video, with Brogan getting dragged out of bed and taken away by this silhouette. I could of improved my storyboard by drawing more scenes so that the story was made more clear, I could also improve by showing more camera angles to show the direction of which the camera will then facing. 

Studio Brief 3- Explore Pose to Pose Animation

This is my pendulum, I struggled with trying to work out where the 6th and 7th slide should be as we were framing it at 13fps and instead of drawing the 6th frame being in the middle the 6th and 7th frame were suppose to be beside each other in the middle. apart from that i was able to complete my pendulum and make it swing successfully.  

Studio Brief 2-Telling Stories My storyboard

This is my storyboard for the rhyme Humpty Dumpty 

I exaggerated the fall to a great extent just to make the fall more dramatic. I could of improved my storyboard if i had added more camera angles to the storyboard and added more notes to make it more clear, so i would have better instructions of whats suppose to be going on.  

Studio Brief 2- Telling Stories

Aladin

The colours used for this storyboard are really vibrant with the deep blues and greens it gives the storyboard loads of depth, also the warm glow of the red on the characters faces gives us the feeling of the romantic scenes. I really like the use of shading on these storyboards as you can tell where the moonlight will be hitting in each scene. Each character is really detailed and recognisable. This storyboard gives clear instructions on what the animator should be doing, but there is not much for animations to go off such as notes or camera angles. 

Studio Brief 2- Telling Stories

Bob Camp- Ren and Stimpy

I really like how drastic changes in the characters facial features, as it adds to their personality, Also each storyboard shot is really clear as it focus on the character instead of the background. Reading Bob Camp's notes on the storyboard he has made them very clear and simple. Another thing i like about This storyboard is that there are no filler shots, each shot shots exactly what should be going on in the animation. Even though the characters in Ren and Stimpy aren't hugely detailed its really effective with the style and theme of Ren and Stimpy 

Studio Brief 2- Telling Stories

     

Andreas Hykade- Ring of fire

The style of this animation i really like especially as it looks like it has all been sketched, the use of shading is what really makes the animation as it gives us the idea that animation its self it quite dark, and the story behind it is quite deep. The background on the storyboard of Hykade's animation gives you a sense of movement whether it be which direction they're walking in or the wind blowing past the characters. Each shot of the storyboard gives us the clear idea of whats going on throughout this animation.

Studio Brief 2- Telling Stories

  

  

Bo Mathorne- The Black Water Gospel

I really like how simple but effective the storyboard is for this animation, it gives you the sense of how dark the animation is. What i really love about this animation is the whole style of it, with how sinister like the story is and it gives off  that western feel towards it, it reminds me of the game Red Dead Redemption because of the similar surroundings. I also love the character design, the way their facial features are shown to be quite square.

Studio Brief 2- Telling Stories

            


Adventure Time it all came from the nightosphere

Storyboard created by Adam Muto and Rebecca Sugar. I really like the way the storyboard can be very simple with little detail and still work so well, as each character is recognizable and you can tell what is happening so clearly in the story. From the images above from the animation's storyboard you can tell where there will be camera movement in that shot by the dotted square around the characters. On each one of these shots from the storyboard it has really clear instructions for the animator as it has notes and camera angles, even with quotes from the animation it gives us the idea of how the characters should respond or react.