emilyburkeanimation

[emilyburkeanimation]

Final Submission

Over the last four months, I have been animating and adding the final touches to my film. I submitted my film yesterday and I feel very proud of what I have accomplished.

Some elements of the film have changed:

- The alien character went through another redesign. I wanted a more symbolic design to represent the alien’s important link to trans identity, so I used a paint splotch brush to create a more ethereal, nebula-like design that contains the colours of the trans flag.

- The backgrounds are more detailed and atmospheric. I used light and shadow to give them more dimension and added details such as a family photo to give the bedroom more personality at the end of the film.

The animation process consisted of creating character drawings from the rotoscoped footage, styling the characters using their design sheets, and adding ink and paint to these drawings to make the final animation. As this is my first animation film, I kept the animation quite simple and used the rotoscope as my guide for the characters’ movements, but made sure that the characters’ expressions were more exaggerated than the live action video footage.

The music for the film was kindly designed by music producer Marcane Howells. Alongside the voiceover of the poem which was voiced by me, I wanted a soundtrack that captures the story and emotional journey of the film, which was beautifully achieved in the final mix by Marcane.

I have made a film that meets my original aims, representing LGBTQ+ characters through my own experiences. I hope that my film will help other young neurodivergent, queer, trans and non-binary people connect with themselves and feel not so alone.

[emilyburkeanimation]

13-04-23: Rotoscoped Key Frames

I have completed the first version of my film: all key frames have been rotoscoped from the live action footage and edited down to my desired duration and timing, along with a demo of the voiceover.

This first process has helped me to figure out which scenes I can take out and how long each scene will take to animate.

Here is the film:

[emilyburkeanimation]

09-03-23: Mock Scene

To get an idea for how long each part of the animation process will take me, I chose to completely animate a single scene - a ‘mock scene.’

I really enjoyed this exercise and discovered how I prefer to animate each step. Here is the scene:

[emilyburkeanimation]

15-02-23: Performance Footage for Rotoscoping

After having recorded all the performance footage I wanted for rotoscoping the film, I edited it together as a live action version of my animation film. Some parts are blank due to the fact no footage I filmed would be suitable for those scenes; for example, there are no characters present in a shot of a nebula and just background art will be required for that shot.

Putting the footage together has also given me a better idea of timing, especially in how the characters move and thus how I will animate them to look ‘real.’ Angles of shots may change slightly due to the reality of where the characters need to be for the situations presented on screen, as I have found that some of the perspective in my storyboard frames is off. Having a real life reference to the characters is really going to help my film look natural.

Here is the video:

[emilyburkeanimation]

08-02-23: Filming Performance for Rotoscoping

Last semester, when I was trying to figure out how I wanted to animate my film, my tutors suggested rotoscoping. As I am new to animation, they felt I would find this method easier, especially having experience with filming and editing live action footage for previous short films. Rotoscoping will hopefully play to my strengths and save me precious time.

Over two sessions, I filmed live action performance in one of the photography studios at university. Harley Burke performed the main character’s movements from the storyboard, while Beckett Burke and Spinderella Chiumia portrayed the alien and the brother characters. I also had assistance from Beckett and Spinderella, who also acted as clapper loaders. Alice Slater filmed and photographed behind the scenes.

Real life performance was a great way to see the movements of the characters come to life, and will definitely help me with not only rotoscoping but also reference shots when animating. I have a better idea of how I should animate movement and the time it takes to get from one key position to another. Thus, the duration of each scene may be slightly different, which should give a more realistic feel to the film.

[emilyburkeanimation]

03-02-23: Space Background Art

Adding to the background art I created earlier this year, I made two pieces that resemble nebulae. Taking inspiration from my colour script, I have used colours that feel cohesive with the rest of the film and reflect the emotion and tone of the story.

The first nebula is going to be featured in the film when the main character is first on the moon and finally feels free - the moon is peaceful and almost heavenly. The second nebula is more striking in colour and contains many layers of different colours, as I wanted to show the vastness and grandeur of space in this moment - just like how the character feels when they are exploring space with the alien.

[emilyburkeanimation]

28-01-23: Colour Script

Over the course of this month, I have been creating my colour script. Using examples from Pixar, Cartoon Saloon and on YouTube, I first began with four basic colours - blue, grey, purple and yellow - and worked from there.

I chose these specific colours in order to reflect the mood of the film and the emotions behind the poem and the character. I felt that blue could be quite neutral to reflect the character’s steadier but unfeeling emotions at the start, while grey can be visually darker, emptier and lonely, playing into the character’s spiral into depression. Purple symbolises non-binary and asexual identities particularly in this film, coinciding with the introduction of the purple alien and the character’s metaphorical journey of theirself, shown through the characters gliding through space past nebulae and stars. Yellow is embraced at the end of the film, where the character is happier and lets their brother in, the overall feel of the film being warmer and safer.

I have tried to incorporate these running colour themes throughout the script, as well as elements from my existing background designs. This process has made me consider light and shadow more in the shot composition, as well as how to position the elements of the scene in order to get visually balanced and interesting shots.

[emilyburkeanimation]

05-01-23: Background Art

While creating my storyboard and over the Christmas break, I have been drawing and painting the background art for my film. I have painted only with base colours for now, as I plan to add light and shadow when animating.

As I will be somewhat animating the bedcovers and pillows, I decided to leave out these elements in my backgrounds. I will also add more detail to the moon’s surface with more defined rocks and craters, while the space above the moon will feature distant comets flying by and some of the stars twinkling in the final film.

[emilyburkeanimation]

Practising Runs: Anticipation and Run Cycles

Taken from the runs assignment in The Animator’s Workbook by Tony White.

[emilyburkeanimation]

Practising Walks: The Passing Position and Walk Cycles

Taken from the walks assignment in The Animator’s Workbook by Tony White.

[emilyburkeanimation]

Practising Head Turns: The Natural Path and Eye Movements

Taken from the head turns assignment in The Animator’s Workbook by Tony White.

[emilyburkeanimation]

Practising Superimposition: Square to Triangle

Taken from the inbetweening assignment in The Animator’s Workbook by Tony White.

[emilyburkeanimation]

Practising Superimposition: Shrinking Square

Taken from the inbetweening assignment in The Animator’s Workbook by Tony White.

[emilyburkeanimation]

Practising Inbetweening: Rolling Ball

Taken from the inbetweening assignment in The Animator’s Workbook by Tony White.

[emilyburkeanimation]

Practising Animation

Over the course, I have been taking some time to research and practise key animation elements. Using The Animator’s Workbook by Tony White, I have so far learnt how to animate inbetweening, head turns, walks and runs.

[emilyburkeanimation]

17-12-22: Understanding Perspective

A few weeks ago, I spoke to my tutors about perspective and angle. Mark gave me helpful tips and links to resources, while Sarah suggested I make a 3D model of the bedroom in order to have a guide to how the room should look at different angles.

Alice kindly made me a digital 3D model of the room in Blender. I can now look at and tweak it whenever I like at university, and when I don’t have access to the software, I also have a turnaround video of the room to refer to. It has definitely helped me with visualising the space, and I will be using it as a reference when developing my backgrounds.

[emilyburkeanimation]

16-12-22: Revised Animatic

I assembled the storyboard as an animatic, adding a voiceover of the poem read by me. It really made this preliminary version of the film come alive. After watching it and making final tweaks with timings and transitions, I feel confident in my film and I will now be able to start animating in the next semester.