ashleywarrenmi4011 - Tumblr blog

[ashleywarrenmi4011]

undefined

Final Animation

This is my final animation. After the feedback, I went and reshot the animation. I had the feedback notes with me so I knew where I needed to pay more attention to and where I could use the old animation as reference.  

I am very happy with this version of the animation as I believe that is a much better finished piece than the previous one. I was going to try and film it at a higher frame rate but after asking for feedback, the responses were that the slower frame rate extenuated the movements of the puppet and the eyebrows making it a better viewing experience. I also took the opportunity to make the movements of the puppets more pronounced as I believe it gives the animation a bit more life.

[ashleywarrenmi4011]

undefined

First Animation Attempt

This is the first animation attempt for the project. I was happy with a few things and unhappy about a few things. 

Firstly, I was unhappy that the animation was shorter than I originally wanted at only 13 seconds when I wanted at least 15 seconds, though not too bad. However, I was happy that the motions looked ok and not too rough or choppy.

Secondly, I was unhappy that the puppet was moving around a lot, and I didn’t notice until I looked through the playback at which point it was either keep going or restart the whole animation. I decided to keep going and show it to some people to get their feedback.

Feedback:

I showed the animation to a few people, and they gave me some very good feedback and Ideas to improve.

1. The dog was very hard to see and was only spotted once I pointed it out in the bottom of the screen.

2. The drawn image of the dog wasn’t onscreen long enough for the viewer to get a good look at what it was. 

3. The viewers couldn’t see that the dog was shaking their head at the camera nor that the dog looked annoyed before walking away.

With these notes I aim to redo the animation from scratch and adjust the shots to create a better final piece

[ashleywarrenmi4011]

Puppets and props for animation

For the animation I needed two puppets and some props.

The props I would need were a pencil and sketch book that ‘Nick’ would be holding and using. I created the book and the pencil with plasticine so that the puppet would be able to hold them with some bits of wire that hopefully won’t be seen in the final animation. The final prop I needed was a bench for the puppet to sit on. I created this out of the card left over from my previous projects. I later painted the legs and the two vertical supports black with some hobby paints.

The two puppets I needed would be a human to represent Nick Park as well as a dog to represent Nick’s “inspiration” for Gromit. As I have already created a humanoid puppet before I used a similar method to create the Nick puppet, but as I have never made a dog puppet before, I decided to create a small-scale version first so that I could get the proportions right before staring on the main puppet.

I am very happy with how the Nick puppet came out, it isn’t the best representation and lacks a mouth and nose but for my second ever puppet I am very happy. I’m not so happy with the dog puppet, very disproportioned and doesn’t look the best. If I were to do this again, I would spend more time making the dog puppet and work on getting a smooth finish on the puppets.

[ashleywarrenmi4011]

undefined

Puppet Animation

For this puppet, my part was creating the skeleton out of wire and adding the first layer of plasticine to the skeleton. If I were to do it again, I would have tried to add a little more to ‘bulk up’ the entity and maybe wok on the eyes or smile a little more. However, saying that, I think that it looks perfectly creepy.

For the animation, my part was setting the entity up in the different poses. This turned out to be a challenge as it was top heavy and required some patients to get right and to stand. This being said the strange thing about this animation is the single frame of my hand in the top right of the screen, this is strange as because on Dragonframe, that frame didn’t exist. I tried exporting it twice as well as asking Gary for help, but nothing seemed to work. If I were to do this again, I would put some metal in the feet to make it more bottom heavy, or I would put drawing pins in the feet and use a cork board as a floor. This would hopefully remove the need for me to try and hope the entity stays standing up.

[ashleywarrenmi4011]

Second Storyboard and camera positions

With feedback from Ellie as well as the medium I am using being 3D stopmotion, I have come to realise that my original plan wasn’t possible. As such I have come up with this new storyboard as well as the different camera positions that  will use.

This new animation will be more static that the first with only a few different camera shots rather than a constantly moving one. It will start with ‘Nick Park’ Sitting on a bench outside and have a dog walk up to him. This will give him the idea for gromit, draw the dog and show it to the dog as f to ask “What do you think”. The dog will be unimpressed, shake their head and walk away while ‘Nick’ stares at them as they walk off.

[ashleywarrenmi4011]

Medium for Animation

For the animation I have chosen to do a 3D stop motion style animation. I have chosen this for multiple reasons. 

Firstly, I have chosen this as I believe that my skills with models and 3D objects are better than that of my skills with a pencil or cut out shapes. This way I hope that I can make a better finished product than if I were to draw it.

Secondly, I have chosen this style as it is similar to what Nick Park uses for his animated films, and can pay homage to his work and the films that I grew up with.

[ashleywarrenmi4011]

First Storyboard

This is the first draft for the animation that I’m going to do. The Idea is to have ‘Nick Park’ on a bench within a garden or outdoor setting with him drawing birds/bird watching. Then the ‘camera’ will start to circle him, and the background will change to represent the different productions Nick Park has worked on throughout his life. Finally ending back with him on the bench, getting up and walking out of frame.

[ashleywarrenmi4011]

undefined

Rotoscoping Exercise

For the lesson we had to choose a section of a video or film and rotoscope the section of it in TVpaint. 

I have chosen this clip as it is one of my favorite animations on youtube at the moment. This is because It combines my love for animation with the love of one of my favorite hobbies. I love animations like these as it shows off the skills of the animatior who wanted to bring to life a world which they love for the enjoyment of others.

Video Used for Rotoscope: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmv9YA2pS-g

[ashleywarrenmi4011]

A Closer Look at Animators #3 - Nick Park

Of the three animators I narrowed it down to, Nick Park is the one that had a effect on my childhood as I watched many of his animations while I was young.

Born 6th December 1958, Nick Park is a British animator, director, writer and producer. While Park was growing up, he had a keen interest in drawing and when he was only 13 years old, he made films with the help of his mother. Park later studied Communications Arts at Sheffield City Polytechnic, (Now Sheffield Hallum University), once graduated Park then attended the National Film and Television School.

Park started his career in the animation sphere in 1985 when he joined Aardman Animations where he started his animation work on commercial products. Some of his first works included animating the music video for Peter Gabriel’s Sledgehammer, and the short films Second Class Mail in 1985 and Babylon in 1986. Only a few years later in 1989 Park would write, direct and animate the first of one of his most notable works, Wallace and Gromit: A Grand Day Out. Over the next six years Park would work on the next two instalments of the Wallace and Gromit franchise, Wallace and Gromit: The Wrong Trousers as well as Wallace and Gromit: A Close Shave. There wouldn’t be another instalment of Wallace and Gromit until 2002, however Park worked on his first feature film for which he was the director, producer and writer titled Chicken Run that ended up becoming one of his most notable works alongside, as well as the highest-grossing stop-motion animated film. Five years later in 2005, he would direct, produce and write the first Wallace and Gromit feature film titled Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, and two years later n 2007 he was the idea behind, producer and writer of the television show Shaun the Sheep. The show would end up running for 8 years and became another one of his most notable works. In the same year, Park was commissioned to design a bronze statue of Wallace and Gromit for his hometown of Preston. In 2013, Park was involved in a stage adaptation of Hayo Miyazaki’s animated film Titled Princess Mononoke.

Park and his work have been nominated for 16 awards and has won 10 of them, these include 5 BAFTA awards, 4 Oscars and one Animafest award.

[ashleywarrenmi4011]

undefined

Digital Bouncing Ball

This is the digital version of the bouncing ball animation I did using TVPaint. I had never used the software before and first impressions were not the best. I had a few different problems with the software from it not wanting to show me my backround image, to the previous frames not disappearing while it was playing. Thankfully with some help I managed to create a rather rushed animation of not the best quality.

[ashleywarrenmi4011]

A Closer look at Animators #2 - Monty Oum

Of the three animators that I narrowed my choice down to, Monty Oum has had the most impact on my adult life.

Born 22nd June 1981 Oum was an Asian American animator, director, and writer for web-based shows. Oum first gained attention in 2007 with a short video he uploaded to YouTube called Haloid. In the video the protagonist from the video game franchise Halo fights against the protagonist from the video game franchise Metroid. With this video, people started to notice Oum’s proficiency for fight scenes as though the animation was ok for the time, the choreography really caught the eyes of some important people. Later that same year, Oum created and released a follow up video titled Dead Fantasy. Similarly, Dead Fantasy had characters from the video game franchise Final Fantasy fight characters from the video game franchise Dead or Alive. These videos also gained a lot of attention.

Only two months after releasing Haloid, many video game companies were seeking to hire him for their teams, and Oum decided and joined the team at Midway Games as a combat designer in 2007. However, after only a few months, in 2008, Oum left Midway Games and started working for Namco Bandai Games, he was hired for the same job he had while at Midway Games, but he was also one of their animators for the upcoming game Afro Samurai. Though Oum loved to animate, his time in the video game industry frustrated him and was close to quitting animating entirely, however in 2009, Oum met Burnie Burns who was co-founder of a company called Rooster Teeth at the San Diego Comic-con. The two discussed the possibility of Oum working at Rooster Teeth and was hired by the company that same year as an animator for their long-running web series Red Vs Blue, but this wasn’t revealed until the next year at an event called PAX East.

After working at Rooster Teeth for a few years, Oum pitched a show idea that he had been working on for years and it was approved. On the 7th November 2012, Monty and Rooster Teeth released the first of four trailers simply titled RWBY “Red” Trailer. In the upcoming months he would release the next three trailers titled RWBY “White” Trailer, RWBY “Black” Trailer and RWBY “Yellow” Trailer. The show RWBY was officially launched in mid-July 2013 and went on to be awarded the International Academy of Web Television and the Streamy Awards for best animated series in 2014.

 However, in January of 2015, while undergoing a simple medical procedure, Oum had a severe allergic reaction and fell into a coma. On 1st February 2015 Oum sadly passed away.

 “I believe that the human spirit is indomitable. If you endeavour to achieve, it will happen given enough resolve. It may not be immediate, and often your greater dreams are something you will not achieve within your own lifetime. The effort you put forth to anything transcends yourself, for there is no futility even in death” -Monty Oum

Statz, M. (2015) Monty Oum: A Life Remembered. HuffPost. Available at:https://www.huffpost.com/entry/monty-oum-a-life-remember_b_6842584

Sweet, M. (2009) GD AT AX: Interview with Monty Oum. Gaming Dead. Available at: https://web.archive.org/web/20150202221728/http://gamingdead.com/2009/07/07/gd-at-ax-interview-with-monty-oum

Kietsmann, L. (2007) Haloid Creator Mashes up Final Fantasy and Dead or Alive. Joystiq. Available at:https://web.archive.org/web/20140912080441/http://www.joystiq.com/2007/10/13/haloid-creator-mashes-up-final-fantasy-and-dead-or-alive/

Solomon, D. (2013) The Full Monty. The Austin Chronicals. Available at:https://www.austinchronicle.com/screens/2013-07-19/the-full-monty/

Monkelban, A. (2009). Monty Oum - Hail to the King. PopTEN. Available at:https://web.archive.org/web/20150203005901/http://popten.net/2009/07/monty-oum-hail-to-the-king/

[ashleywarrenmi4011]

undefined

Bouncing Ball animation

This was my first attempt of the bouncing ball and the second time using dragon frame. I am personally not happy with the outcome of this. The ball is far to faint towards the end of the animation and is still quite hard to see at the beginning of the animation. I am also quite confidant with using the software as well as the cameras the software uses.

To make the animation better next time I will next try to either copy the currant piece I made with pen or go over my current piece with a pen so that the ball is more visible.

[ashleywarrenmi4011]

A Closer Look at Animators #1 - Syama Pedersan

After looking into Pedersan I have decided not to use them as the animator for my project. The reason for this is that apart form a couple of interviews, there is very little information about them on the internet and as they now work for Games Workshop, all of their upcoming works are held very secretive.

[ashleywarrenmi4011]

First Look at Animators

There are three animators that I am looking at for my main project, these are Monty Oum, Nick parks and Syama Pedersan.

Monty Oum was most well-known for his work with the American company Rooster Teeth on their show Red vs Blue as well as his own show RWBY.

Nick Parks is most well-known for his work Wallace and Gromit, in which he was the writer, director and animator.

Syama Pedersan is most well-known for the phenomenal web series Astartes, which he made by himself and over the course of a few years.

I am stuck between these three as they have all had a significant impact on my life.

[ashleywarrenmi4011]

The 12 Principles of Animation

1 Squash and Stretch - Arguably one of the most fundamental principles of the twelve. This is used to give something the illusion of weight. This is done by expanding and compressing the object.

2 Anticipation – This is used when a character or other animated form is about to make a movement. An example would be when someone is about to jump, first their knees will bend, then they will bend their arms before finally jumping.

3 Staging – This principle is all about what needs to be done when a scene needs to be filmed. Where do all of the pieces need to be in order to successfully film that scene.

4 Straight ahead and pose-to-pose – This is two different drawing techniques. Straight ahead is when you draw each frame of an action one after the other, while pose-to-pose is where the animator will draw the first and last frames of the action, then they will draw the middle frame and work out from there.

5 Follow through and overlapping – This principle is about how an object moves when it comes to a stop and the parts of the object that doesn’t stop moving with the main body. For example, if a person is running and then suddenly stops, not all of their body or what they are wearing will stop with them, their hair, their clothes if lose fitting or even jewellery will still move once the person has stopped.

6 Slow in, Slow out – This principle is about adding realism to a movement. This ieing s done by having a movement start slow and then gain speed and the reverse when something is coming to a stop. For example, if a car were to start moving, it doesn’t immediately reach 30 MPH but has to get to that speed gradually, and the same with slowing down. A car doesn’t immediately stop, it must slow down and then stop.

7 Arcs – This is yet another principle used to make animated characters and animals feel and look more realistic to the viewer. Most living beings don’t move in straight lines and all have some kind of curved nature to them, this is why when we see something move in straight lines we can immediately see it as strange and wrong.

8 Secondary Action – These are movements that accompany a main action to add a bit of personality to the action being performed.

9 Timing – This principle is about the number of frames for a given action. This is used to make actions seem either faster or slower. For example, if you look at a bouncing ball, the ball slows down as it gets to the top of the ball’s bounce curve and then speeds up again on its decent.

10 Exaggeration – This principle is used t present an action for a comedic or dramatic effect. This can be seen in scooby-doo, when scooby and shaggy are scared normally their eyes will get a lot bigger and their jaws can sometimes hit the ground.

11 Solid Drawing – This principle is all about making sure that the animated forms feel like they are in a three-dimensional space.

12 Appeal – The final principle of animation is all about making the character something pleasurable for an audience to look at and something that will be memorable.

Colombo, E. (2020). 12 Principles of Animation with Emanuele Colombo. YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqMi1AzbFqs.

Ritchie, J. (2017). The 12 Principles of Animation (With Examples). [online] idea rocket. Available at: https://idearocketanimation.com/13721-12-principles-of-animation-gifs/?nab=0&utm_referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F.

[ashleywarrenmi4011]

Notes on Animation #3 - Dog by Suzie Templeton

This animation was quite hard to watch. From the very beginning there is a very heavy atmosphere to the piece, the colour palate used also reinforces this as there is a lot of darker colours used for the different scenes. The line “It was very peaceful” only adds to the heavy atmosphere already present.

One thing that i did like about this animation is i believe that Templeton combined puppeteering for the father and boy, with Claymation for the dog. though I am not 100% sure that it isn’t a puppet, but the way it moves doesn’t seem as fluid as the father and boy.

[ashleywarrenmi4011]

Notes on Animation #2 - G-AAAH by Lizzy Hobbs

This animation depicts the record-breaking flight of Amy Johnson from England to Australia in 1930. This animation is very interesting to me as Lizzy Hobbs decided to use a Underwood 315 typewriter to create this piece rather than using any other method, though this is very fitting as Amy Johnson was a typist.

During the animation, there are a lot of different colours used, most of these colours are from the different coloured paper Hobbs uses as the backdrop, however there are multiple occasions where the ink used is also a different colour. Hobbs also used a lot of different letters and symbols to create the plane in flight. This gave both the plane and the piece a feeling of movement and life.