The final day was set up so that every event could be experienced, so there was no overlap of events in the schedule.
he first thing i saw was the short animations, i had a wide variety of opinions on the animations as they were interesting animation techniques but not entirely interesting animations, the animations covered love, mostly, in the form of lost, gained, familial and relationship love. others were story telling and interesting. My two favourite animations from the films were fresh cut grass, and , my home. Fresh Cut Grass was about a dog going to the big city to find his sister, and for me i found this to be very close as it reminded me of my sisters and so i felt a lot of empathy towards the dogs woes and the heart felt reunion between the dog and his sister. My Home was a lot more abstract in comparison as it gave a vague view of what the story was as it focused on a young boy whose home seems to have been infested by a giant crow but has been accepted by his mother. I thought it had to do with a step father coming into new household and the boy finds the crow as an unusual entity who is taking over his home and his mother.
The Bob Godfrey was a very dull talk i felt. it merely talked about him but i didn't feel like i learnt anything. I think if i had prior knowledge of him i would of been able to appreciate his work and him more. I understand that this is coming across as rude but i didn't know anything about him so i was unable to appreciate the animations for what they were.
The Re-Making of Danger Mouse was another of the really interesting talks i attended, as i learnt more about the animation industry and what people do and have to go through to make the work. The consideration that gets put into making a reboot, the amount of writers used per episode and its story as well as how it has had to grow with the new times but keeping true to its original using features such as photographic backgrounds. The key point that was put across was to not be boring as that is truly the bane of an animation, your point isn't going to be put across.
The final Master class i attended was hosted by Tim Searle, whose work spread across many groups from the 'Have I Got News For You' title sequence to the 'Mr Bean' animated show. Across all his work his main focus has been comedy animation, some towards wide audiences for entertainment purposes and others for political messages. I found the talk to be interesting but again i was frustrated that i was unable to talk or ask questions.
Before the final event i went to, i went to the BFG showing and focused my watching on the interactions between the characters and the background, how motion images interacted with static images. it was also a nostalgic thing as i had forgotten the whole story from my childhood. I also found myself comparing the animation to animation of today which i feel i really shouldn't do.
The Final event was the awards ceremony, the event was unexpected and the nominees that i personally preferred didn't win any awards which i was disappointed about. This was possibly because the animations that won were very (personally) disturbing or weird stop motion animation, which I find to be very scary in most cases, (the movement of dolls mostly). The overall award however i was very happy to see because i hadn't seen it prior as it was part of a group of short films i didn't see. The animation was called 'Guida' a hand drawn and watercolour animation, which was just so satisfying to watch as it left a positive feeling in me, it made me think that the main character, Guida, was possibly based on a real women making the animation and her character all that more real and relatable.
Overall i enjoyed the animation festival, it was my first window into the lifestyle and work of professional animators and animations. Learning both techniques and directions i should go for my storytelling, development and animations. I most certainly hope to go again next year.
Tuesday, 15 December 2015
Manchester Animation Festival Day 2
This day was the most full and active day as it had so much happen. With some very interesting talks and animations.
The short films were really interesting and used mostly 2d animation, if not stop motion, none were 3d. These animations worked with a much wider variety of themes and meanings and were much more enjoyable than the students grad films, this most likely came down to experience, however it did result in some very, artsy films which could be seen as either confusing or pretentious. there were two animations that i really liked. My favourite was called the orchestra, where people had a mini music band following them around playing a tune to there feelings, emotions, lifestyle or even heritage, (I'm talking about the bagpipe characters there!) it had such a satisfying and pleasing feeling to it the story focused on an old man and his out of tune brass band falling for an old lady and her string quintet and the humour and story fitted it so nicely. The other animation on the other hand turned out quite disturbing and was very thought provoking, The Master, where a dog and monkey were waiting for their master to return however the monkey got out of its cage starting to reek havoc around the house looking like it was assuming the role of the master, an abusive master. It ended with the deaths of both characters but not after they were represented in a way which i saw as an abusive couple as the dog was beaten then treated nicely then beaten and repeated until it died.
How to make Friends and animate people: The art of crowd funding, this was enjoyable purely because of the name. But honestly i found it the most interesting and the most frustrating part of the festival. There were three professionals at the talk, one of the members on the team for Simons Cat, Emma Burch, an animated series whose first video got leaked and went viral leading to public funding and fame to get the series off the ground. The series is on YouTube but it is not seen as a good platform for animations due to an issue over a new system which affects animations to be (i believe) a lower frame rate. The second was a man from Aardman, Merlin Crossingham, talking about how they advertised their kick-starter for the reboot of morph. This relied on an older fan base as well as knowledge of the original to get it up and running. The third professional was from an independent studio that relies upon their fan base and crowd funding, Jon Turner, the co founder of Kilogramme. His Tall Tales series covered various short stories and became its own advertisement through it gradually gaining fame and giving out rewards or merchandise for supporting their kick-starter campaign. He also talked about how you need to work with your budget as it could be very limited and to create the most suitable advertising to get your work out there.
The main feature i found from this talk was the use of kick-starter and indie gogo sites that get independent content off the ground as well as being a good way to advertise your content. A prominent part that often came up was the target Audience which gives direction to your content.
The Master class with Will Bescher, an animator from Aardman and gave us an insight into the development of the animations at Aardman, from the characters to the sets and the actual animating. I found it interesting but at the time i was unable to apply it to anything as i had yet to do stop motion work, features such as having multiple faces and expressions for each characters weren't needed in something like 2d animation where it gets drawn in. None the less to see armatures and models from a professional company was still incredible.
Because of the Will Bescher talk i ended up really wanting to see the shaun the sheep movie, which was fun and entertaining, but i also focused and looked at things that had been brought in the previous talk, looking at the little details that were brought up like thumb prints in the models or flat characters. I found it enjoyable as i felt it widened my view of animations to actually focus on the finite parts of the animation.
I found the day enjoyable but frustrating as i wanted to ask questions and talk to the professionals but failed to because i felt my questions were irrelevant or nonsensical, what further frustrated me was i didn't have any of my own work to show, feeling i needed a specific style to interest people. However this is not needed as it is only my first year and its better to have a wider range in drawing style to be able to adapt, while still developing my own work.
The short films were really interesting and used mostly 2d animation, if not stop motion, none were 3d. These animations worked with a much wider variety of themes and meanings and were much more enjoyable than the students grad films, this most likely came down to experience, however it did result in some very, artsy films which could be seen as either confusing or pretentious. there were two animations that i really liked. My favourite was called the orchestra, where people had a mini music band following them around playing a tune to there feelings, emotions, lifestyle or even heritage, (I'm talking about the bagpipe characters there!) it had such a satisfying and pleasing feeling to it the story focused on an old man and his out of tune brass band falling for an old lady and her string quintet and the humour and story fitted it so nicely. The other animation on the other hand turned out quite disturbing and was very thought provoking, The Master, where a dog and monkey were waiting for their master to return however the monkey got out of its cage starting to reek havoc around the house looking like it was assuming the role of the master, an abusive master. It ended with the deaths of both characters but not after they were represented in a way which i saw as an abusive couple as the dog was beaten then treated nicely then beaten and repeated until it died.
How to make Friends and animate people: The art of crowd funding, this was enjoyable purely because of the name. But honestly i found it the most interesting and the most frustrating part of the festival. There were three professionals at the talk, one of the members on the team for Simons Cat, Emma Burch, an animated series whose first video got leaked and went viral leading to public funding and fame to get the series off the ground. The series is on YouTube but it is not seen as a good platform for animations due to an issue over a new system which affects animations to be (i believe) a lower frame rate. The second was a man from Aardman, Merlin Crossingham, talking about how they advertised their kick-starter for the reboot of morph. This relied on an older fan base as well as knowledge of the original to get it up and running. The third professional was from an independent studio that relies upon their fan base and crowd funding, Jon Turner, the co founder of Kilogramme. His Tall Tales series covered various short stories and became its own advertisement through it gradually gaining fame and giving out rewards or merchandise for supporting their kick-starter campaign. He also talked about how you need to work with your budget as it could be very limited and to create the most suitable advertising to get your work out there.
The main feature i found from this talk was the use of kick-starter and indie gogo sites that get independent content off the ground as well as being a good way to advertise your content. A prominent part that often came up was the target Audience which gives direction to your content.
The Master class with Will Bescher, an animator from Aardman and gave us an insight into the development of the animations at Aardman, from the characters to the sets and the actual animating. I found it interesting but at the time i was unable to apply it to anything as i had yet to do stop motion work, features such as having multiple faces and expressions for each characters weren't needed in something like 2d animation where it gets drawn in. None the less to see armatures and models from a professional company was still incredible.
Because of the Will Bescher talk i ended up really wanting to see the shaun the sheep movie, which was fun and entertaining, but i also focused and looked at things that had been brought in the previous talk, looking at the little details that were brought up like thumb prints in the models or flat characters. I found it enjoyable as i felt it widened my view of animations to actually focus on the finite parts of the animation.
I found the day enjoyable but frustrating as i wanted to ask questions and talk to the professionals but failed to because i felt my questions were irrelevant or nonsensical, what further frustrated me was i didn't have any of my own work to show, feeling i needed a specific style to interest people. However this is not needed as it is only my first year and its better to have a wider range in drawing style to be able to adapt, while still developing my own work.
Monday, 14 December 2015
Manchester Animation Festival Day 1
The Manchester animation festival (MAF) is a new festival that started this year celebrating the work of animators and animations over the past year(s). The festival spanned over three days and covered animation from 2D to Stop motion to 3D and each day there was a multitude of events going off in one of two cinemas or in the event space.
The first event i went to was the graduation films, as i felt they would have the most relevance towards what i will be doing in the coming years. Over all i found them unfortunately depressing as almost all of them included the theme of death, or more specifically suicide. This was a great disappointment for me because i love to watch animations which factor in enjoyment, but i feel sad thinking that the animations in the coming years could also possibly include such morbid topics. In the case of animation quality however it was all really impressive ignoring some of the story lines. I also found that the most prominent form of animation used here was stop motion.
Tomm Moore is an acclaimed illustrator, comic artist and animator, he is the co-founder of Cartoon Saloon the studio that created the film, 'the song of the sea' and his master class gave us an insight into how his studio worked and how they went about making the film 'The Song the Sea'. The talk was interesting in the sense that it gave us an insight into the work and life style of a studio. how they had to spread the work across multiple partner studios, working to a deadline and making the film accessible to other countries as the film was initially in irish/gaelic.
There was a second set of graduation films which had a much wider variety of subject matter which included a wider variety of animation, still mostly covered morbid subjects which i understand are needed at times to get messages across. There was animation that i found to be most absorbing, Chiaroscuro, a film with no dialogue, and its characters being a gas ball and solid particles but i felt it told a better story than a lot of the other animations because of the way the objects got characterised by there actions, there speed, velocity and strength showing the change. The quality of its animation as well was fascinating and it almost looked lifelike but not at the same time.
Skwigly Online Animation Magazine show cased many of the animations from its website. The magazine covers everything animation. In comparison to the graduation films these were a lot more light hearted and funny, i found myself laughing and enjoying the animations that they showed.
The main event of the festival was the Fellowship Award which awarded Brian Cosgrove for his contribution to animation over the past 25 years, the evolution of his animation work and the future of his work. The talk was wide spread covering almost every aspect of his work which i found to be very detaching as it started to feel like more of a list, merely going through his achievements. I was happy to have realised where some of the animations o grew up on came from which was interesting, especially in the case of the BFG.
Over all i enjoyed the first day, i was nervous and unsure as to what would come of it but it did start to open up my view on the animation industry however i also found i want to make a graduation film in three years time that doesn't work towards a depressing plot point, as i find while they get emotional responses a positive emotion, causing a person to smile or laugh were very few and left a much better feeling in people. (i don't disagree with negative films as sometimes it is to get a message across and it isn't always a positive message so seriousness is needed.)
The first event i went to was the graduation films, as i felt they would have the most relevance towards what i will be doing in the coming years. Over all i found them unfortunately depressing as almost all of them included the theme of death, or more specifically suicide. This was a great disappointment for me because i love to watch animations which factor in enjoyment, but i feel sad thinking that the animations in the coming years could also possibly include such morbid topics. In the case of animation quality however it was all really impressive ignoring some of the story lines. I also found that the most prominent form of animation used here was stop motion.
Tomm Moore is an acclaimed illustrator, comic artist and animator, he is the co-founder of Cartoon Saloon the studio that created the film, 'the song of the sea' and his master class gave us an insight into how his studio worked and how they went about making the film 'The Song the Sea'. The talk was interesting in the sense that it gave us an insight into the work and life style of a studio. how they had to spread the work across multiple partner studios, working to a deadline and making the film accessible to other countries as the film was initially in irish/gaelic.
There was a second set of graduation films which had a much wider variety of subject matter which included a wider variety of animation, still mostly covered morbid subjects which i understand are needed at times to get messages across. There was animation that i found to be most absorbing, Chiaroscuro, a film with no dialogue, and its characters being a gas ball and solid particles but i felt it told a better story than a lot of the other animations because of the way the objects got characterised by there actions, there speed, velocity and strength showing the change. The quality of its animation as well was fascinating and it almost looked lifelike but not at the same time.
Skwigly Online Animation Magazine show cased many of the animations from its website. The magazine covers everything animation. In comparison to the graduation films these were a lot more light hearted and funny, i found myself laughing and enjoying the animations that they showed.
The main event of the festival was the Fellowship Award which awarded Brian Cosgrove for his contribution to animation over the past 25 years, the evolution of his animation work and the future of his work. The talk was wide spread covering almost every aspect of his work which i found to be very detaching as it started to feel like more of a list, merely going through his achievements. I was happy to have realised where some of the animations o grew up on came from which was interesting, especially in the case of the BFG.
Over all i enjoyed the first day, i was nervous and unsure as to what would come of it but it did start to open up my view on the animation industry however i also found i want to make a graduation film in three years time that doesn't work towards a depressing plot point, as i find while they get emotional responses a positive emotion, causing a person to smile or laugh were very few and left a much better feeling in people. (i don't disagree with negative films as sometimes it is to get a message across and it isn't always a positive message so seriousness is needed.)
Sunday, 15 November 2015
Thought Bubble Convention
Thought Bubble was a convention which focuses on the appreciation of comic books, manga and memorabilia of that genre. The convention includes no only mainstream comic books, but indie works as well, these being comic books, promotional art posters, concept pieces, final works, specific requests etc. This was my first time to Thought Bubble so my view of it will be from the point of view of some one who didn't know what to do, as well as spending most of his time considering wether to buy manga and comics or not.
As a whole thought bubble is a very overwhelming event as i didn't know what to look at and so I just wandered from stall to stall looking at what I found interesting or recognised. Specifically I recognised the Nobrow stall and spent a lot of time browsing my way through what they had to offer and it was enjoyable to talk with those in the comic/graphic novel industry, not just from Nobrow but any of the stalls I liked the look of. Unfortunately I only talked about how interested I was and spoke nothing of working in the industry, independent or in a company.
As a whole thought bubble is a very overwhelming event as i didn't know what to look at and so I just wandered from stall to stall looking at what I found interesting or recognised. Specifically I recognised the Nobrow stall and spent a lot of time browsing my way through what they had to offer and it was enjoyable to talk with those in the comic/graphic novel industry, not just from Nobrow but any of the stalls I liked the look of. Unfortunately I only talked about how interested I was and spoke nothing of working in the industry, independent or in a company.
Saturday, 14 November 2015
Final Photoshop Session
In our final photo shop session we learnt about how to animate on photoshop. There were two ways; Frame animation and video timeline.
Frame to frame animation made use of the regular layers on photoshop, so on each frame a certain amount of layers would be used and on another frame a different selection of layers would be used. This can be seen on my pendulum animation where each placement of the swing is a different layer creating the animation.
Frame to frame animation made use of the regular layers on photoshop, so on each frame a certain amount of layers would be used and on another frame a different selection of layers would be used. This can be seen on my pendulum animation where each placement of the swing is a different layer creating the animation.
The other format is video timeline where you have another set of layers that you build upon, adding frames to one layer gradually creating the animation, this format has an onion skinning technique to help keep the animations flow showing the past few frames. The animations below are made using this format.
Tuesday, 13 October 2015
Who am I? Why am I here? and What do I want to Learn?
We had a seminar on reflective practice on the 8/10/15. This reflective practice covered who we are and our reasons behind what we are doing. We were given a study task to answer five questions on our reasons behind our decisions.
Why you chose to study on this programme?
I was initially interested mostly on illustration and with the mindset that i needed illustration education for the type of work i wanted to do, which was comic books and manga, however as i went round universities i saw parts of animation courses which peaked my interest. So i had actually applied for the illustration course but as i had my portfolio looked through and had my interview the university suggested that i would be more suitable for animation based on my portfolio and and interview. So my interest in animation has only really been for nine months and why I chose here was because it gave me the opportunity to look at and learn about character design, narrative and back ground art as well as learning how to animate and animation.
What do you want to learn?
As my interest is in comics and manga, or telling visual stories, i want to really work with character design, backgrounds to work with the layouts of the stories and understanding placement and layout. While the other part i want to learn about is the story telling or the narrative through the use of story boards and the writing of stories.
What skills do you think are our strengths?
As i have only had a recent interest in animation it isn't my animation skills, i think it will come down to my initial ideas such as story ideas, observational drawing as well as character design and the analysis of those designs and ideas.
What things that you want to improve?
I want to be able to move my initial research further, create clean, polished ideas. So to gain the ability to move the stories that i write on from just an initial concept and learn how to continue them on as well as improving my own drawing skills, getting more comfortable with drawing in digital and to take observational drawings and turn them into strong pieces suitable for presentation or developed into animations.
What ways you will evaluate your progress?
While doing sketchbook work i will note down and write my analysis and opinions on my work alongside the sketches, once those notes are done i will scan those pages into the computer and post them onto my blog and along with those on the blog there will be several pieces of research into animations and opinions posted onto this blog.
Why you chose to study on this programme?
I was initially interested mostly on illustration and with the mindset that i needed illustration education for the type of work i wanted to do, which was comic books and manga, however as i went round universities i saw parts of animation courses which peaked my interest. So i had actually applied for the illustration course but as i had my portfolio looked through and had my interview the university suggested that i would be more suitable for animation based on my portfolio and and interview. So my interest in animation has only really been for nine months and why I chose here was because it gave me the opportunity to look at and learn about character design, narrative and back ground art as well as learning how to animate and animation.
- A recent and heightened interest in animation, from being exposed to new possibilities.
- Wanting to take my illustrations to a new level.
- To learn about character design, backgrounds and narrative.
- They will be more helpful for working towards what area i want to work in.
- The recommendation of the tutors here that animation is more suitable for me and what I'm interested in.
What do you want to learn?
As my interest is in comics and manga, or telling visual stories, i want to really work with character design, backgrounds to work with the layouts of the stories and understanding placement and layout. While the other part i want to learn about is the story telling or the narrative through the use of story boards and the writing of stories.
- Story telling and narrative, being able to move further than just an idea.
- Character Design and bringing those characters to life, taking them further and giving them movement.
- Creating backgrounds which work with the characters to tell the story and art just 'there'.
- Layouts and camera angles that work with the above, and of course…
- ANIMATION! and how to animate!
What skills do you think are our strengths?
As i have only had a recent interest in animation it isn't my animation skills, i think it will come down to my initial ideas such as story ideas, observational drawing as well as character design and the analysis of those designs and ideas.
- Initial ideas and starting concepts such as…
- Story ideas and starting of stories…
- Beginning character designs.
- Observational drawings which can be developed into work to be used.
- My analysis of those designs and ideas, what I've changed and considering what could be changed or developed.
What things that you want to improve?
I want to be able to move my initial research further, create clean, polished ideas. So to gain the ability to move the stories that i write on from just an initial concept and learn how to continue them on as well as improving my own drawing skills, getting more comfortable with drawing in digital and to take observational drawings and turn them into strong pieces suitable for presentation or developed into animations.
- Take the initial ideas further to turn them into animations and stories.
- To continue started stories into something that can be enjoyed.
- Get more comfortable with drawing on a digital format.
- Turn Observational drawings into a developed piece of animation having taken inspiration from them for backgrounds and characters, etc.
- Gain and develop writing skills to make stories that interest and draw in people
What ways you will evaluate your progress?
While doing sketchbook work i will note down and write my analysis and opinions on my work alongside the sketches, once those notes are done i will scan those pages into the computer and post them onto my blog and along with those on the blog there will be several pieces of research into animations and opinions posted onto this blog.
- Written notes in my sketch book
- Scanning these pages into my blog
- Blogging
- Independent research onto the blog
- Analysis in sketch books as i work.
Saturday, 10 October 2015
Leeds Light Night
On Saturday Leeds had its Light Night event where the buildings were lit up with projections and music played alongside the projections. However it was a little underwhelming. It could of been down to my prior knowledge of Leeds Light Night which was close to nothing, but what i did see was interesting none the less. In front of the main hall there was several performances happening, specifically the one i saw (or part of) was the fire dancers, but due to the amount of people i could only see the tops of the flames unfortunately. I had heard that there would be something projected onto the Vernon Street College of Art building so i decided to see what was up there seeing my first piece of projection, lights and sparks following the lines of the building, creating cracks and sparks as well, playing music alongside the sound effects of sparks and flashes. It was interesting to see but i felt like it needed more of an explanation as a lot of what i saw that night was very unclear besides the fact light was needed to be used (i wasn't entirely sure what to make of what id seen).
Another piece i saw was a set of garments where these women were dressed in large billowing dresses with lit up head dresses, sleeves and skirts, while standing on stilts, visually i really liked how it fitted the bright and bustling light night and it reminded me of a workshop i had done in the past with costumoligists (we had to create a garment or clothing piece which incorporated a set of lights somehow).
The forth and final projection i saw was a game being projected onto the Leeds Train Station. It seemed like you could play the game on the big screen however what was required was unclear. i think that if the events were closer or there were more buildings lit up with just appealing imagery/patterns i would of felt more invested to look around and to stay out later but as most of the walking consisted of going through packed crowds and trying to figure out what was light night and what was light up signs sadly, however as i now know more about the event i would like to go to it again next year and see what i didn't see.
Another piece i saw was a set of garments where these women were dressed in large billowing dresses with lit up head dresses, sleeves and skirts, while standing on stilts, visually i really liked how it fitted the bright and bustling light night and it reminded me of a workshop i had done in the past with costumoligists (we had to create a garment or clothing piece which incorporated a set of lights somehow).
The forth and final projection i saw was a game being projected onto the Leeds Train Station. It seemed like you could play the game on the big screen however what was required was unclear. i think that if the events were closer or there were more buildings lit up with just appealing imagery/patterns i would of felt more invested to look around and to stay out later but as most of the walking consisted of going through packed crowds and trying to figure out what was light night and what was light up signs sadly, however as i now know more about the event i would like to go to it again next year and see what i didn't see.
Tuesday, 6 October 2015
Photoshop Tutorials - CATCH UP!
Along with all the studio briefs we are going to be set we will also be having photoshop/adobe tutorials.
With the above image we learnt about basic tools like the select, layers, magic wand and the colour change tool. We were told to just try out the features and see what we can do. I used the select tool to take the upper beak and turn them into horns and the layers to get them behind the head. i used the colour change brush on the eye, tongue and beak tip.
The next thing we used was the adjustments, specifically using the levels. Taking the initial image on the left i made the outlines darker and the body lighter so that it looked like a line drawing.
With the below image we worked with layers and textures with fade out brush.
This week we looked at actually animating using photoshops stop frame animation and video timeline. The above animation is stop frame and uses frames and separate layers. We used a different colour on each frame and then tweened the animation. Tweening is making the frames in between the main actions.
The second animation used video timeline which incorporated the use of onion skins layers which let me see the previous layer and draw to continue the animation.
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