Audinence and Communication- final animation promoting animation @ BCU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwbDvFYeQ78&feature=channel_page

This is the final animation that we produced as a group project. We each had our own in put to the project and as a group we decided to use the theme 'magic' as children love the idea of being magical. I chose to use a dress up act because as a child i loved to dress in my mums and nans clothes; the problem was getting them off and getting changed into my own clothes so the idea of magically changing my clothes would be so easy... if only we could!

We each came up with a character relating to magic and my chosen character was a little girl. I used a cut out style of animation and used fabrics and textured backgrounds for the clothes and skin of my character, i then cropped each part by using Photoshop and then put them together onto After Effects where i started my animation.

Once we had finished our animations we were able to piece them altogether... thanks guys.

Portfolio work

This is the first CG character that i modeled on Maya. As a starting point as a group we decided to use the theme 'circus acts' and my chosen act was a contortionist. The character design is not great but i feel i did well with the modeling of the character and tackled the problems in which i encountered.

The black hole- motion graphics

This is an animation that i did for a motion graphics project using the black hole as a starting point. My target audience was 8-14 year old children and my aim was to tell a story about the black hole in a way that children would understand. I used a Chameleon as a black hole to show that it eats up the stars.

For this project i used mixed media and is how i like working; i have no limit to the techniques i use and therefor can get more from it such as more textures and ways of mark making. I really enjoyed this project and i think that i have succeeded with getting across the message/story of how the black hole works and its affects to the universe.

I started off by using questions that a child would ask i.e. where is the black hole? what does it do? etc and by doing this i was able to give the answers but in a style for the children to understand.

my first CGI animation

http://www.youtube.com/user/natashawilliams30


This was my first Cg animation that i did by using Maya. I loved this practice as i gained knowledge of the program and begun my first modeling practice. I found the program difficult to learn and get used to but once i knew the basics i wanted to learn more. I used simple shapes to start with so i could learn more about using the program rather than focusing on the modeling. The project was to create a domino affect animation and this is what i came up with whilst doing my storyboard. I wanted to create a flowing animation and i think i did pretty well for my first attempt.

audience and communication brief-Group project

Audiences and communications Brief:


Produce a 20-30 second Animation combining a variety of styles and promoting animation at BCU specifically children’s animation. The style of animation is to be targeted at younger children, while the advert itself is aimed at prospective students and professionals interested in the animation course and animation for children at BIAD.


The animation must showcase different styles of animation while tying them together in a unified way, utilising knowledge of what children like in animation and what it means to be a 7 year old.


It must be lively, attractive to both target audiences but more towards children. Make it fun while also showing the processes behind animation, for example showing the mistakes that can happen, and the creation of new characters by existing characters- A character given a pencil and drawing himself a friend.


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Pre-production for specialist study- inspiration on body language behind fashion

The devil wears Prada

stern faces, not much expression































hand on the hip showing power

thinking about L6

Summary on tutorial -21^st May 09

 

What do I need to consider for my style of animation?

 Publish Post

Client/audience

I like to work with unlimited use of media and technique’s and is why I find that my best area of animation is motion graphics/cut out animation; where I have the chance to experiment with image and text, 2D and 3D and also different use of texture and mark making.  I feel that I am perhaps a maker rather than an actual animator.

I would like to experiment with promoting fashion as I feel that this is where I can use my textile skills and combine them with animation. I also feel that I could get a lot from fashion as clothes tell a lot about the person wearing them and I could generate ideas of character design from this. I feel my work is aimed at an older target audience which would be useful for advertising fashion as it’s mainly adults/teenagers that have an interest in fashion.

For my L6 project I am going to create an animation promoting fashion and/or taking elements from it such as body language.  I could create a brief for promoting the fashion show at Birmingham NEC.

 

Where do I look for inspiration on fashion?

I could gather inspiration by going to fashion shows, looking at fashion magazines, gather inspiration from the general public; looking at what they are wearing and how they wear it, their body language and postures and how they portray themselves. I could also gather inspiration from films such as ‘The devil wears Prada’ looking at how obsessive women can be about fashion and how it can have affect on your personality (a plain dressed girl is not excepted but once dressed in designer clothes she is recognised and is now ‘competition’ to the other girls in the office who are jealous and ‘bitchy’ to her). Another example of this is on the streets and at high school; girls have a tendency to talk behind another’s back about the clothes that they are wearing.  

I could also look at the different relationships between people, the kind of people that one attracts and how they react around other people. The relationships between friends; are they a large group, a few of them who keep themselves to themselves or do they go out drinking/to watch a film/for a meal etc on their own? What kind of people are they? How do they dress and portray their selves? Using fashion as a starting point I could create an animation based on the person rather than the clothes that they are wearing.

 

 

pre-production for specialist study

Wednesday 6^th May

Preparing for level 6

1. Do I understand what L6 is aiming to achieve and what do I want to achieve?

Level 6 is about being ready to step into the professional world so that I am prepared to work in the industry. I want to get the most from this course as this is my opportunity to find my path in animation and achieve my own way of working and style, also be confident with my presentations is also vital as I need to be ready to sell my work to my clients.

2. How do I achieve this?

By the time I reach L6 I will know which area of animation I want to do. I will have an updated portfolio showing my best work so far and will then fill it through the year with my final projects and life drawings.

For my final project of L5 I will sum up my options and decide which area I work in best and what kind of audience I want to produce animations for; thinking about age groups, TV animation, Feature film animation etc

Through the summer term I hope to be in work experience as this would help me to improve on my skills and prepare me further for working in the professional world.

3. How will work experience help me for L6?

· It will improve my skills in technology; finding short cuts and working to a strict deadline

· It will improve my communicational skills and working as a team member

· It will prepare me for working in a professional company

· It will give me a better idea of the kind of clients I will get and what they would want from me

4. What am I good at?

Skills Audit

GOOD

· Using different techniques and methods - I have always been interested in illustration and what you can achieve with it but animation is that extra bonus for me as this gives me the opportunity to express myself further. By experimenting with different techniques and mark making I can choose the best way of working fitting to the clients brief.

· Patience and determination- when I am working on a project although I may have problems, I am determined to sort the problem and finish my animation.

· Open minded- I find that the more open minded you are the better as it allows you to experiment more and have a wider opinion, there for the more different styles you try and different ways of working; working outside of your comfort zone and working to a clients opinion and not your own.

AVERAGE

· Drawing- my drawing is getting better and as I have been going to life drawing classes it gives me great practise and gets me used to the human anatomy.

· Using animation to communicate to an audience- my communicational skills are improving and I have a better understanding of how to work to a clients brief and how to communicate to a certain age audience i.e. I feel I achieved a good result in the Motion graphics project as I researched on what the audience would want to see and how I could use this to communicate to them.

· Animating a Character- I feel I am also improving with animating a character and showing expression i.e. for the New media project I chose to recreate an animation of the hare and the tortoise. I feel I succeeded with the movement of the characters and also the movement and expressions showed the characters personality.

· Modelling/making-

· Observation- my observation is improving as when I watch advertisements/animations/films I am more aware of the techniques and methods used, the programs used and also what they are communicating is also clearer as I am becoming more aware of how to communicate to a certain audience.

· Thoughts process- I am improving on my thoughts process and showing this to my audience in a presentation; where I get my inspiration, my developments, problems that I encounter and how I solve them etc.

NO GOOD

· Reading/understanding- It takes me a few attempts sometimes when reading the brief, I have to read it over again until it sinks in what is being asked.

· Another problem that I have found is I feel that I am a slow learner in the technical side of the tutorials/workshops; I struggle to keep up with the class as we learn about the new programs that we are using. If I am still unsure of the tutorial I will look up tutorials and practise.

My vocabulary is also lacking as I sometimes find it hard to describe and explain my work. This is a big problem for me when it comes down to presentations.

· I also need to do more artist research as I am also lacking knowledge of the popular/successful animators and artists.

5. Skills audience

I feel my best area is motion graphics as this is how I can express myself to the most of my ability. I also like CG animation but I need to do a lot of practising to reach a high standard for working in the professional industry. I think that motion graphics is an area of animation where I can go wild and use as much different media and techniques as I like/need and this is how I enjoy working.

tutorial

Summary of tutorial

 

I need to start thinking and planning my final year projects, thinking about what I want to do with my career, what target audience am I aiming to produce for and what style of animation I want to do. During discussion I decided that I wanted my final project to be using mixed media, I should try not to think about how the final animation will look, define a set of principles that will show why we are doing what we are doing and link to how you do it. I should start creating my own principles relating to my work.

Think about what we:  need to do – could do – should do

·       Animators need to do/think about whilst planning and developing a project :plenty of market research, getting inspiration from references, experimentation, plenty of life drawing etc

·       Think about what you could do:

·       Also think about what you should do: create a personal development plan, record inspirations in a RVJ

 

 

 

Personal development plan

·       Get active and engage with ‘stuff’- go to plenty of events over the summer holidays, gather as much inspiration as you can.

·       Make notes of theatrical issues

·       Start seeking industry collaboration – who? – Friends, tutors, family, colleagues. MAKE CONTACTS!!!  

 

Primary research- research that you have done

Secondary research- someone else’s work/research

14^th May 09

Procedural animation- notes

 

Today I was introduced to a new area of animation. We had an animator/tutor come to our University to present some of his work and tell us about his influences on procedural animation. Procedural animation is a type of computer animation, used to generate animation in real-time. It is used in computer games, when actions are needed such as a character dying it will realistically fall to the floor. Procedural animation can be used to control a character and even more complex user-created characters can be control in the game from walking to driving a car and picking up objects. This technique can be used to control more than one character at the same time. Procedural animation was discovered by Mary Ellen Bute in the 20’s, this was imagery of pattern created by sound.

 

 

“Motion synthesis as in sound synthesis”

Procedural animation includes-

·      Key framing- Flash –easy to use, simple but effective animation 

·      Motion capture – After effects  

·      Blending- Maya

 

 

 

Physics based animation-

·      Particle systems – After effects

·      Cloth/flexible dynamics – Maya

·      Locomotion

·      Rigid- body physics – Maya

·      Fluids

 

 

 

Simulation= building a replica of reply

 

Genetic algorithms: synthetic characters can be trained to walk, swim, climb etc

Artificial Intelligence: can be used to control large numbers of characters

 

 

Philip Galanter-Generative art

 

Yoko Ono: 1961 Smoking paintings

Algorithmic art

 

·      Mathematically constructed

·      No visual hypothesis to begin with

·      Not a modelisation or simulation

·      Movements: Lyapunov, Lissajous art (Laposky,blue)

 

Computational aesthetics

Computation aesthetics or generative design is a process by which design is deconstructed into conception elements.

·      From the computer as a tool to the computer as a medium

·      Computers as programmable calculators

·      Programs as a custom-made piece of machinery set in motion

·      Handle data with software routine and procedures (handled by you)

 

Is it animation?

Whatever you do it is art but that is for you to decide, Procedural animation is a technical art and if you can find beauty in mathematical forms it helps a great deal and it all make sense.

 

Historical background

 

Mary Ellen Bute

Mary Ellen Bute began painting in 1920’s, she was influenced by cubism. She became the only animator in its time and was interested in physics and electronics, she combined science and technology to show “seeing sound”. In 1932 Mary Ellen Bute worked with Leon Theremin (invented the musical instrument) and they put together a show using electronics for drawing.

Book- Cecile starr- co-author-Experimental animation

 

 

John and James Whitney

·      Composer and painter

·      John studied music with Sheinberg in Paris

·      Created their own tools, using the oscillations of pendulums and pantograph to compare synthetic sound and motion

·      Reduced images to atomic levels, working with point of light

·      Motion control devices (optical printer-not creative)

·      Use of transformation- matrix- still use it today

 

Larry Cuba

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tools and Methods

 

·      3D studio max + Havok

·      Maya- create particle systems and soft bodies

·      After Effects- motion graphics

·      Lets you set up dynamic systems and run simulations

 

 

Visual programming environments

·      Max-MSP-musicians use this

·      Isadora

·      Pure-Data (open source) free- good program to start with

·      VVVV- not free

·      Quartz Composer (Mac only) free- well designed

 

Script based environments

·      Flash

·      Processing (open source)

·      Fluxus (open source environment)

-http://pawfal.org/fluxus

“People are working for a living”

 

Contempory figures

John Maeda

·      Associate Director of research, MIT Media lab

·      Redefined the use of electronic media  as a tool for expression and creativity

·      Works at the intersection of interaction, graphics and games

·      Books he has written:

Maeda @ media

Edited-Creative code

·      Initiated the “Design by numbers” project; a very simple programming environment to introduce artists to computational design (programming)

·      DBN became the stonework for processing used widely in the creative art world

 

Marius Watz

·      Began doing live graphics in the 90’s

·      Makes hedonistic and colourful visuals in contrast to minimalist or conceptional approaches that often characterises computer art

·      Creator of Generator x- a platform for generative practises

 

Other artists used generativity

·      Lia- http://re-move.org

·      Taxi- http://taxi.co.uk

·      Chdh- http://chdh.net

·      Flight 404- http://flight404.com

·      Dave Griffiths- http://pawful.org/dave – used Fluxus

·      Evan Raskds- http://pixelist.info

 

Outputs and applications

·      Artificial life algorithms (artificial life)

·      Modelisation of real world situations

·      Maths art (if you like it- use it)

·      “Visualises” programs using real-time sound analysis to produce sound responsive visuals

·      Visual instruments akin to their musical counterpart, can be used with controllers

 

Where is it used?

·      Music video’s

·      SFX in film

·      Audiovisual art

·      Real time graphics- playing graphics to the music

·      Games

 

Why use procedural techniques?

·      To achieve results that would be difficult/impossible in traditional animation

·      To explore the formal/structural qualities of algorithms

·      To create an animation that responds to events (e.g. audience/user input) utilisable in live contexts (games performance)

·      As a method to manipulate and re-shuffle existing media: sound samples, illustrations, re-useability of the things you produce- i.e. walk cycles

 

The age of stupid

15^th may 09

 

 

The age of stupid

 

The age of stupid is a film produced by John Battsek. The film is about a man (Pete Postlewaite) living in the devastated future (2005) he sits watching footage from the past (2008) as he stresses the fact “why didn’t we try stop climate change while we had the chance? The footage is about poverty, war and the environment that we live in and the effects that we are causing to our planet. The film follows the daily lives of several people as they are interviewed; as they tell us about their problems of how they are living.  One man Alvin Duvernay is devastated by the loss of his home due to the hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, his home and belongings have gone; the only thing that is left is 2 tree’s that stood in his garden.  That day he rescued 100 people at sea’s on his boat, which was an eye opener for Alvin as he saw a “taste of what was to come if we continue to take advantage of our most valuable resource. He says “with our use or misuse of resources from the last 100 years or so, I’d probably rename this age something like The age of ignorance, The age of stupid.

Two children Jamila and Adnan Bayyoud wait for their elder brother to return to them after he was badly burnt by the Americans and their father killed. The young boy tells us how “his father was the best man in Iraq, but the Americans killed him. If I see the Americans again I will kill them too” The children’s home is also destroyed, it happened on the second day of the war in Iraq.

We see the affects of our day to day living such as pollution from transports and how it isn’t necessarily needed such as transporting food that we already have here. We see the differences in life style from Jeh Wadia a man born in one of the richest family businesses in India to Layefa Malemi a wannabe medical student living in a village called Niger Delta, she lives with tiny amounts of water, no electricity etc she tells us “If I could live like an American, I wouldn’t want to die, I wouldn’t want to leave this earth”

 

 

Notes

·      The age of stupid came out the same time as the film “300” in 200?

·      The animators for the age of stupid also produced a BBC ad for the Euro football-using live action with hand painted art- (works well together)

·      For the explosions in the film, they experimented at the University by exploding milk in a tank; they also used this technique for the smoke but handed it to another animator so that he could add a cross stitch affect so that it blends in with the style of animation. Tests were then done on After effects to get a good idea of how it would look and giving them a better idea of the time line.

·      For the shot of London under water they took shots of London and water, then recorded a piece of poly floating on a lake; they then built the imagery adding the city to the imagery of the water. They added the video footage of the floating poly and added shadows and more imagery and effects to make the piece feel and look realistic and more alive.

·      Different medium used to make the film- live footage, CGI, After effects

·      Wanted to give it that montage feel

 

John

·      Freelance director/Teaching art at Middlesex University

·      Worked on the animation Charlie and Lola

·      Mainly doing commercial- Channel 4, animation scheme, Lava scheme-London film (won awards)

·      Re-produced the video for the band “U2”. They were given it to them and asked if they could change it by making the background more interesting. The video is very 60’s style as they were asked to do the animation in the style of Vivian Westwood; they were also influenced by other pop art. Live footage is used with the Cg background that’s been added by using the green screen

·      They sent an invite for the public to send their photographs if they wanted to appear in their film “the age of stupid”. They had a great response and were able to pick out the people that they thought were suitable for the film

·      A lot of research and references were used for the style of imagery and textures

·      Had a problem getting the copy write on the Aboriginal piece of the people; it was the only reference that they could find and in the end it was ok to use.

·      Most of the imagery is repeated, the people were duplicated, the same water and other parts of the animation were re-used (saves a lot of time)

·      Parts of the film are very Monty Python style

·      A lot of the work was done on After effects, some of the parts were very time consuming as there were a lot of imagery to move around and animate

·      The script was given to them and it took 4 attempts to alter it before it was finished (had to take a lot of the dialog off to fit into the time line)

 

the best of flip

18th may 09

 

Best of Flip – Pete Mclusky

 

This presentation was really interesting as I got to see a range of animations that were successful and have been nominated for/won awards. This gives me a good idea of the standard that is needed and also that an animation has to have a concept and not necessarily a story. Flip is a place where you can promote your work, gain and share your inspiration and also gain contacts. It also gives an idea of the styles of the up to date animations.

 

Animations that we looked at in lecture:

 

·       KJFG BY Alex Alexy (Award for best sound design, Flip 2008) – 2D animation about three musicians; a bear, a rabbit and a wolf. They practice their music in the woods when a hunter comes along with his dog, the animals hide behind a tree as the hunter and his dog fails to spot them under his very eyes. I found this animation quite funny and although its a simple plot; it affective and keeps the audience engaged.

 

·       Muto by Blu (Awards for best abstract film, Flip 2008) – This is an interesting animation showing graffiti and using the walls and floor as its canvas. This is an abstract piece which has a constant flow of images leading to make another image. The character appears in the animation quite a lot. There is no story to this piece but it’s almost like a journey in a sense. The feel of the animation is quite sinister as the character eats the objects it comes across and explodes into thing such as bugs. Another main focus about this animation is the long length of it, but as Pete Mclusky states it’s not always a good thing because most of the time there is too much; only use what is needed to see and not what you think you should put in the animation because you feel it’s a waste not too because of the effort you have put in, you have to be prepared for this in animation- editing is important!

 

 

·       Skhizein by Jeremy Clapin (Best International film, Flip 2008- this film has won over 15 international awards) –I loved this animation, I found the concept of it very interesting and it really keeps the audience engaged (had a good response from the audience) The animation is about a boy called Henry who is hit by a 150 ton meteorite and this has a great affect on him by making him 91cm away from himself. Henry has to map out everything in his house so that he knows exactly where everything is such as the telephone and television etc. I found myself feeling sympathy for Henry and could almost imagine what it would be like in his world; mainly lonely. Whilst this is happening Henry is talking to his psychiatrist, the dialog in this film is in French and if I have to be honest when I first saw the English subtitles I slightly felt disappointed as I thought I would miss out on the actual animation, but I felt that with the French language it made the piece feel more lonely and had a better impact than what it would have if it were English (in my opinion) 

 

 

·       This way up by Smith & Foulkes (Oscar nominee 2009) – This is an animation about two funeral directors trying to escort a coffin to a grave yard. The beginning of the animation is like a domino effect, as the two men load the coffin into the car; the background around them is flowing like domino’s resulting to a large rock landing and crushing their car. This means that the two men have to carry the coffin whilst over obstacles get in their way. The first half of the animation is slow and quite funny but then the second part suddenly changes contrast by becoming lively and quite random, a skeleton followed by numerous characters come on screen singing and dancing. Towards the end of the animation the old lady in the coffin suddenly comes alive and the two funeral directors continue with their journey and carry the old lady still in her coffin. When they finally reach the grave the old lady is dead again and she is put in the grave, the animation ends on a still image of the two men jumping into the grave with her.  The animation is funny and I think it has a good quality to it and good use of CG, the film was nominated but didn’t win the award.

 

·       The Pearce sisters by Luis Cook (Best British film, Flip 2008, BAFTA winner 2008) – 2D animation about two spinster sister live by the ocean; catching fish and gutting them for their living. The film at first seems quite sad and has a lonely kind of feel to it. I t starts with the young girl fishing with her elder sister on a boat in the ocean. The girls are really ugly and almost look manly which adds to the feel of the film. They see a man drowning and attempts to save him. The film then starts to become a little peculiar as they dress him like a women, he wakes up shocked by the look of the girls and also to what he is wearing, ripping off the clothes he runs away with the little girl chasing him. The film then becomes even more sinister when they recapture his dead body and gut him. The film has a ‘Texas chain saw massacre’ feel to it as she hangs him up and then burns his body, they then place his burnt body alongside the rest of the bodies they have sat around a dinner table, drinking imaginary tea, it is now obvious that the sisters are mentally disturbed. At the end of the animation the two sisters stand gazing at the ocean, the little girl reaches out to hold her sisters hand and the slow delay of reaction in her sister reaching out her hand shows that they are not so happy.  I quite like the concept of this animation and the rough style of it is important to the feel of it as it reflects on the strange but traditional culture that they live. (good response from the audience)

 

·       Codswallop by Brothers McLeod (BAFTA nominee 2009) – This is an animation showing a series of stream consciousness postcards sent by the film maker to their son. I found the animation quite random but also interesting, it kept the audience engaged by showing a series of short animations which didn’t have a story but had some ‘point’ to them. I found myself looking to see what connections the animations have but they didn’t relate to each other in any sense. As Pete Mclusky stated “you have to watch this animation a few times to see the relation in the piece”

 

 

·       One nice family photo by Tom Senior (Best newcomer 2008) – This is a hand drawn animation about a family sitting down at a table to eat dinner. The animation is to a recording of an actual family sat down eating their food. There are nine of the family and their dog. The animation begins with the family attempting to take a photograph, the middle is where they sit to eat and then the animation finishes on the family taking a photo and then ends on a paused image of the photograph. The animation is quite lively in some parts as the voice over is louder and more frequent. The animation has a rough feel to it as it is sketchy but it adds to the lively family feel. ( had a good response from the audience- “i like the rough look, it’s good to see that traditional approach”)

 

·       Small birds singing by Lind McCarthy (selected for Edinburgh 2009, Annecy 2009) – This is a ‘traditional’ style stop animation about the home of “the unbelievable family” begins by showing the house and the family collecting their traditional English breakfast. There is a voice over as we are introduced to the house “the house is open to the public every day except for a Monday, but every day is a Monday at Small birds singing”. We are then introduced to the nephew of the man that once lived at the house but then vanished and his two sisters. One of his sisters is lonely and the other one the once a beautiful victim of tragic cosmetic surgery tries anything to gain back her good looks.  The animation is divided by a close up shot of hedge cutters trimming the hedge.  This is no ordinary family they have tiny elephants for vacuuming, a living art work spaceman in the hall and walking hedges to make the gardening harder in the morning, arguing apples and a body in the hedge in the garden.  (had quite a good response from the audience)