2013 brought with it a new semester and a new module for us, Animation Practice 2.
I was excited for the new work we would be creating, mainly because we were moving away from traditional techniques, and branching out towards adobe software. Something I have been looking forward to since taking an interest in animation.
We began by viewing films and animation on Mystreetfilms.com. A website where people around the globe can upload films between 1-10 minutes long, revolving around their street. This could mean locations, people, stories, practically anything noteworthy about the area the individual lives in. While going through the hundreds of films available, I tried to find films that included animation. Unfortunately I only found a handful that did so, with most being real time documentary or discussions with people in their community.
After searching through the website for 30 minutes, Rozi discussed what our first project for this year would be, which was to create an animation through Adobe After Effects, that could be uploaded to the website once finished. My first thought upon hearing this was 'How on earth am I going to be able to create an animation about an area in Leeds I barely know?'. An alarm that went off in a number of my classmates heads as well, one which Rozi defused quickly by explaining the film could take place anywhere we knew a lot about. So I immediately began thinking of locations back home in Wales I could use as a basis for my animation in the back of my mind as Rozi began introducing us to the basics of After Effects.
At first I found picking up After Effects to be quite daunting, but after a few sessions, as well as help from Rozi and tutorials on sites such as YouTube I was confident in my ability to use After Effects to create an effective animation, from basic title sequences to transitions.
For my After Effects project, I decided to create a smudge and click stop motion, with a small amount of real time footage. I settled on this after stumbling across an animation on Mystreet I felt worked incredibly well, and wanted to create an animation around the same basic idea, which was to draw a symbol/image with chalk on something natural found in the area, for example a stone or the bark of a tree. I began by writing down a list of locations back home that could serve as shooting sites, and from there narrowing them down to a practical amount, as I would not have enough time to visit each significant area, unfortunately. Once I had the locations, I created a storyboard of the animation, to help me choose which order the scenes would go in, as well as the smaller details of the scenes.
Once I had my storyboard in place. It was time for me to schedule a suitable time to return home and film/shoot the footage. I decided I would return home and work for 3 days, between February the 14th - 16th, sacrificing the Friday lecture to gather the raw footage needed. On the train home I returned to my storyboard and made a few large changes, most notably including a person at the beginning to be the 'source' of the chalk eyes, as well as including the view from the car on the trip to the destinations.
Once I had arrived and was ready to work, I contacted my friend, who I had paid £30 pounds to drive me around and assist me if necessary. Here are the locations and route I took as I gathered the footage for the animation.
Overall I was happy with the footage I managed to get, although I did not have enough time to visit the most important and iconic location on my to do list. Therefore I had to return to Leeds without all of the footage I needed, but I wasn't too concerned as I had enough footage to work on before returning to Wales, and considering the time and planning it took to get to all the locations I had planned, I was rather proud of my ability to gather most of it in less than 3 days.
Once I had returned to Leeds I imported all the footage into After Effects, and began piecing together the animation, which took longer than I had anticipated, as I couldn't import all the footage at once without the mac/laptop becoming slow and unresponsive. Therefore I had to create the scenes in separate projects, and once completed bring them all together into one finished piece.
At this point I had finished most of the after effects (aside from the 3 ending scenes that needed to be filmed in Tryweryn) and so switched my focus away from The After Effects Project, and towards the Flash Project
given to us by Ged.
There was no obvious development to the After Effects Project until after we broke up for Easter holiday, since I now had time to return home and collect the last, but essentially needed footage from Tryweryn.
At this point I had to make a difficult choice, choosing between which location to visit personally and film at. Both locations had its advantages and atmospheres differed greatly, but still held true to the welsh history I had running through my animation. Ultimately I decided on visiting the Graffiti art located near Aberystwyth, as it held much deeper and sadder meaning, one which the old slate mine could not match.
Here is a map of the route we took to reach Tryweryn. It is a rather long trip, but my agreement with my friend still stood, and so we made the day trip down there for me to film, and to see the wall itself. It is something everyone home knows about, but few have actually visited the national landmark. another friend voluntarily accompanied us simply to see it. The shooting process went relatively smooth compared to the previous times. We reached the sight in good time, and the snow still left on the route there gave a very nice stop motion journey to the location. But the main thing I took away from the experience was the sense of welsh nationalism we felt seeing the wall. Reading about the incident that happened in 1965 is bitter, but seeing the aftermath in front of you, something you can touch and see with your own eyes is a whole different experience.
Once back home I imported the footage and begun finalizing the animation. I decided at the end to turn one of the welsh freedom signs underneath the writing into a red dragon, similar to that on the Welsh Flag, to symbolize how Wales as a people are still proud of their history and heritage.
Overall, I am quite pleased with the animation. I'm particularly proud of the beginning, where the eyes move from the head to the side of the shed. I feel it was smooth and well done. I am also proud of the Tryweryn scenes. The stop motion journey to the wall is interesting in my opinion, showing the variation of scenery North Wales has to offer, from the tall forests ,to the snow capped mountains. I also enjoy the shot of the Wall. It shows the wall completely, not only the main writing, but also the symbols underneath, which symbolize welsh language and the FWA (Free Wales Army). There are some scenes which I felt did not go as I had hoped, mainly the scene at the beach. As I was trying to draw the eyes on the rock, the crashing waves would distract me from the work, as well as smudge the eyes since the salt water running down the boulders would ruin any small movements I tried to make, mainly the pupils moving. If I could go back and improve on any scenes, it would definitely be this scene by filming at a better time when the waves are further out. I did not put any music in the film as I felt the only audio that would compliment the purpose of the film would be a welsh song, something which is of course copyrighted, and so unable to be used I'm afraid. Although I did put a dragon growl at the end as a sing the film had finished, giving it a small closing in some way. The dragon animation I am pleased with. I felt it was smooth and effectively done on After Effects. I created it the same way I created the morphing animation in the first module. Wings and all four limbs would have made the dragon more effective, but I felt it would have changed t0o much from the original shape.
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