Project 6 - Pix-elated Animation

Pix-elated Animation - CLICK HERE

For our fifth project we were given the task of creating a pix-elated animation. This excited me as I've worked on animations using this technique before, and know the fun and endless possibilities this type of animation hold.This project also marked the first time we were given any form of brief, in this case it was to base the animation on a recent or current news story, which proved moderately difficult as I hadn't watched news, or any form of television, since moving to Leeds (As far as my knowledge on recent global events goes, we could be at war with North Korea and I wouldn't have a clue). I was happy with this as I felt we as a class were becoming more adept at animating,and making progress, as well as understanding there would be requirements our work would need in the future.

To improve our historical and general understanding of this technique, we were shown different examples such as Neighbours, Animated in Bed, and an old PES advert. Since this technique is so open and possible to create nearly anything you want, it was difficult to give a detailed explanation of what the technique is other that 'making something move in a way it wouldn't normally' , and so the best way was to show different examples of animations using this technique, both old, and new. Once at home I spent a considerable time watching stop motion animation to gain ideas on what I could do, some notable examples I found were deadline, and Transformers Battle.

From the get go, my head started to fill with dozens of ideas for the animation. And after coming to an agreement that 4 of us from Opal would work together on one animation, I thought we would be able to create an impressive piece of animation, perhaps even a cardboard box race, that I've seen on YouTube a few times, and been itching to make for a while. But we quickly found our schedules differed greatly and there was no way we could all work on it at the same time, so we went back to working on individual animations as we had done with the previous projects.

Plot wise I chose a news story about a trawler sinking off the Irish coast.I wanted a fairly straightforward story, that I'd be able to animate without needing too advanced audio or movements for the viewers to understand the story. I decided I would create the necessary pieces out of cardboard and cartoons, as it would have been unnecessary to go out and buy material when I have some at home waiting to be thrown in the bin. Overall I'm pleased with the story I chose, even though I had to explain which story it is. Then again I don't expect the viewers to be informed of every boat sinking in Britain.

From a technical aspect I am pleased with the outcome. I decided to make all the necessary pieces out of cardboard, and use blu tac to hold them together. I'm happy with this decision as it saved me some cost, and was easier to work with. The FPS for it is high enough to give a smooth movement of the boat sailing and the sharks swimming (as great whites and makos infest the Irish seas, as we all know). Although the helicopter is a completely different story. It was an absolute ordeal shooting the frames for every scene showing the helicopter. The frames for the helicopter flying into the room and towards the half sunken boat was annoying, but fairly easy, but the scene of the helicopter hovering above the boat took a bit more time and imagination.

I went all Gilligan Island and made this set up using things lying around my room. I made it in order to make the helicopter appear as if it hovers. I'm satisfied with what I created to get the scene done, and although it had its problems (Most notably trying to keep the helicopter from rotating from left to right, which was a pain as I lowered the helicopter closer) . But considering the difficulty and complexity of the scene, I am happy with what I accomplished.

As for the audio, this is the first project were I have used it, and I believe it benefits it greatly. I downloaded the sound effect from a free sound bite website and then just cut them down to fit the scenes in windows movie maker. It adds to the feel of the animations, and greatly improves its quality, it also helps the viwere understand what I am trying to visually interpret, for example the carpet as the sea, and the cartoon as the helicopter. Which without the audio, would have been fairy difficult to realise.

If I could improve anything, I would like to add more scenes of the helicopter, which at the time felt there were enough of, but once put together and speed up, were too quick and easy to miss.

Project 5 - Silhouette/Paper Cut Out Animation

The project given was to create a short silhouette animation, a thought that put me on a nervous edge at first, seeing as I had never tried this technique before, nor knew what equipment I'd need. Fortunately we focused on silhouette animations for that session, which included looking at various examples of silhouette animation from past years, as well as listing the equipment we would require in order to shoot the animation, which the film school had available for us to use. We were also shown how to properly set up the camera, stand, light etc, to take the frames while also able to reach the paper cut outs without accidentally hitting the light or trip over a cable.

To improve our historical understanding of this technique, we looked at Lotte Reiniger's work. We discussed Lotte's history and work, as well as watching a few examples at home, such as Cinderella and Papageno, to gain a further understanding of the technique. We were also instructed to watch the documentary 'The Art of Lotte Reiniger' to further prepare us for our own attempt. By today, the technique is still used in short films, such as this, and this. and met with positive criticism. But uncommonly seen in big budget, feature length films, but recently it has been used in a independent video game. Which I personally played after seeing the spectacular visuals and atmosphere of the game.

Due to the list of equipment necessary (and the financial standing of me and my fellow students) most of the class decided to use the school's equipment to shoot. Which meant that we would be paired up and given a time slot (90 minutes) during friday to set up and get to work. Luckily though we found on the day that there was enough equipment for both of us to film at the same time, although I still had my doubts about completing my animation in 90 minutes, but fortunately I was able to finish without eating into the another students time slot.

One important note to make is that I misunderstood the projects goal, although I was still able to create the silhouette, I was (for some reason that only Cthulhu can explain) under the impression we would also be making a Paper Cut Out animation, perhaps because I read a section on it in the pamphlet handed to us. Regardless of the reason, the end result was that I had created 2 seperate animations by the end of the day made with the same cut out paper sections, but in 2 different animating techniques. Which is a benefit as I had learned the basics of making a Paper Cut Out Animation, which wasnt too different from that of a silhouette.

I wanted to have two characters on screen at the same time, but understood that the time it would take two move each limb of both characters in unison would be too much for the time I had, and so I wanted one that did not have any moving parts, this is where I came up with the idea of making one a spaceship with an alien inside, as all I'd need to do would be to move the spaceship along the slide, and it would appear to be hovering/flying. I based the design of the ship on the oldest and most common image of an alien 'disk' spaceship with the dome cockpit directly on top.

I arrived friday morning with tired eyes and a stomach full of red bull, with my cut outs and pins (To hold the cut outs together) in hand, and set up the equipment in the class. I felt that I set up the equipment well, I knew where to get the equipment from and how to piece it together, so there was no real difficulty or problem, and managed to finish in a few minutes.

I decided to shoot the Silhouette animations first (as it was more straightforward than the paper cut out).

Silhouette Animation - CLICK HERE

I feel that my animation is unsatisfactory. From a technical point of view there are many faults visible while watching. One of which is that the character appears to be running 'up', into the sky, and then move back down again before being hit by the laser. The reason for this was the paper sticking to my finger after I moved it, which wasn't initially obvious, but after a few more frames, it was clear that from looking back at the first frame that the character seemed to now levitate. Another problem was the bulb from the light source breaking (Which I can only assume was an act of god), therefore when it was replaced with a new bulb that was much brighter, the amount of light in the animation suddenly changes towards the end. I could also have made it longer, by adding more frames in between, which would also have made the animation run smoother. I would have liked to basically redo all the frames for the animation, but unfortunately I still had the Paper Cut Out animation to do, and was nearly half way into my 90 minute time slot. 

Paper Cut Out Animation - CLICK HERE

I believe I had more success with the paper cut out animation. Set up wise there was not much I needed to do, aside from move the light source from underneath to above the camera, which took less than a minute. Technical-wise I had much more success compared to the silhouette. The movements are smoother compared to the other, as well as the details being visible. Although I still had difficulty with moving all of the limbs at the same time to make the character appear as if he was running, the moving background on the secondary makes the scene more realistic, even though the characters were just moving on the spot. One problem I felt I resolved to a satisfactory level, is the shadowing from the characters being displayed on the background, which shows that the background is on the secondary panel. To resolve this I placed books underneath the background so the background was closer to the characters, and the shadow smaller. This problem actually become somewhat of a benefit, as the shadow looks intended and realistic.

I pieced both animation together using Windows Movie Maker, as I am still new to using flash, and a stranger to other editing software. Although it did the job, there are obvious flaws, such as black frames and some in the wrong order. In the next few weeks I hope to find a more suitable software than movie maker to install on my personal laptop, while still able to feed myself for the rest of the month.

Project 3 - Anticipation Animation

Anticipation Animation - CLICK HERE

For our 3rd project we were given the task of making a running animation. Nothing as complicating as it sounds, rather just animating the character moving into the position to begin running, and then leaving a trail of dust or cloud in his place.

Unfortunately I was working on the finishing details of the morphing animations upstairs on one of the newer macs as it had the latest version of Flash CS 5.5 on them (while the macs nearest the animation room ran on CS 4), and so I did not hear Tony explain the task directly, rather from fellow students. But I do not believe that handicapped my understanding of the project, nor the quality of the final animation. Aside from the fact I did not have a a printer at home to scan the images in, and so had to use take picture of the frames and then upload them to my laptop.

Plot wise I am happy with the animation. I think the character I drew was humorous and appropriate, although I believe I could have made it a bit bigger to fill the screen. I also believe I should have made the characters torso smaller and more proportionate to the rest of the body, at the time I thought the larger torso would make the character look more stereotypical of an aristocrat, but when it came time to rotate the character a little bit, I found it just looked odd compared to size of his limbs.

Technical wise I am happy with the outcome. I scanned the images in from home, then converted them from PDF format into JPEG. The process of converting them into a JPEG was an unexpected chore, but was simple. I downloaded a free file converter from an online source, and then put all the frames through it, I was then able to put them into the editing software. I believe the final piece is effective, although one thing that'd improve the animation would be the cloud at the end. If I had drawn the cloud to show the vacuum made with the characters absence, and its direction following the characters, it would have looked more realistic.

Project 8 - Jump Key Frame Animation

Jump Animation - CLICK HERE

Our 7th Project was given by Elroy (an amazing name, if I may say so myself) who came in for 2 weeks to do a workshop for the animation students. Process wise, there was not much difference from that used in the morphing animation, we set up the light-boxes and traced previous frames to create a traditional animation. So this projects goal wasn't really to let us practice a completely new animating technique or process, but rather to look at a characters movements and shape, and how it changes with the momentum and when getting into the position of jumping, and landing.

Plot wise...well, there is no plot, or even a detailed character. The goal of this project was to study the realistic change in the shape of a body when it jumps, therefore I did not want create extra work for myself by creating a story board and a character design, and went with a plain, slightly overweight (To better show the body's changes and momentum).

Overall I was...content with what I had created. The characters shape and movements are realistic to some extent, but there is definitely room for improvement with this piece, for example I could have added more frames at the beginning to show the character preparing to jump, as well as the characters landing, as it doesn't show the force of the landing, and how the body would actually react.

Project 9 - Push Key Frame Animation

Push Animation - CLICK HERE

Our 9th project was the 2nd task given to us by visiting guest Elroy, which was to create another key frame animation, but this time of a character pushing against a wall or an object. The process in how we used to create the animation was the same as for the previous Jump animation, which was to create key frames, and then fill the spaces in between to create a smooth animation. Plot wise I decided I would have my character push against a wall on the spot, I also went with the same body shape as the previous animation, and decided I would put more detail into the character, such as clothes, hair, facial features etc.

One slight problem I encountered was the lack of space and light boxes during the lecture, therefore I had to wait until I could start on the animation at home. I thought that it would be rather difficult to create the animation, and so made a makeshift one by placing my phone with flash on, underneath a see through plastic box, and then turned all the lights off. It worked surprisingly well, granted not as well as a real light box, but still good enough for the job.

Project 4 - Scratch Animation

Scratch Animation - CLICK HERE

With the departure of Tony from our lectures, came Rozzi to broaden our horizon, with a brand new set of challenges for us to conquer. The third project was to create a line animation drawn straight onto film. Unfortunately the Tuesday on which the class began to look at this kind of technique, and set the project, I was away in Cardiff accepting the Best CAD/CAM work award for my A Level D&T work, from a Carwyn Jones, who's the prime minister of wales or something...I'm not a man for politics. Due to this I came in the next week not knowing about the project and having to create and draw on a piece of film with another student who'd been absent.

To improve our historical understanding of this technique, we learned about Len Lye, who created the first direct film shown to a general audience, aswell as his second. We also observed Norman McLaren's work, who created Hen Hop and Blinkity Blank. By today, this technique is rarely seen in, but still around, for example Steven Woloshen still uses this technique.

We listened to Rozzi's advice on what we should draw onto the film, and we agreed to make lines and shapes in various colours, as well as making them change size and shape. We didn't really think of a plot, just to draw lines, sguiggles , marks and shapes to flash on the screen in bright, contrasting colours to draw the viewers away to it. I also drew some more complicated images onto the film, such as a dragons head for example, unfortunately I did not stretch the image out, and so the design was only on 2 frames, and were only on screen for a less than half of a second, and easy to miss. Which is unfortunate, but from this I learned what I'd need to do in order to make more complicated images.

Once we had finished the film, we connected our individual film reels together to form one 2 minute long line animation, which we showed on an old film projector the film school had. Initially the projector slightly scared all of us (Since it looked like an antique and about to break at any moment). But Rozzi demonstrated how to load the film reel in, and how to operate it. It was an interesting and curious process to use, which I'm happy we did.

But I do not believe this particular project had any great benefit to 'honing' in on my favorite animating technique, but it was an excellent opportunity too see what it was like to work on an animation back in the 20th century, and gave us all a feeling of going back in time, especially when the projector was turned on, and you heard the flickering of the film reel and the gears within grinding.