ASS3 - Project 4 - Animation
Research point
Athanasius Kircher began experimenting with magic lantern slides and projections in Rome during the 1640s. As the above quote suggests, magic lantern shows combined the magic of theatre and legend with the illusionary quality of the projections themselves. How has animation maintained this connection with the idea of the ‘illusion’? Find examples, join in on discussions in the OCA forums and write up a summary of your thoughts in your learning log
All animation is about illusion if fact it is just that an illusion. Our brains operate by retaining the previous image, accepting the newer one and putting them together to assemble movement of images in the brain. This is known as the ‘Persistence of Vision.’ you can find more here on the link below:
https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/explore-animation/0/steps/12222
From this page there was a lot of interesting facts such as: ‘Persistence of vision works because the human eye and brain can only process 10 to 12 separate images per second, retaining an image for up to a fifteenth of a second. If a subsequent image replaces it in this period of time it will create the illusion of continuity.'
The connection to the illusion quality of animation is more obvious in some subjects than others. A few I have looked at are bugs bunny cartoon, Wallace and Grommit And Disney's Cinderella:
A cartoon animation called Steam Boat Willie is one of the first cartoons by Disney is a true gem to the animation history.
When watching it you can slightly see the changes of each slide to form the animation as a whole. Often stuttering and the animation wobbling makes the production of the animation show through. Compare this to a more modern cartoon such as The latest mickey mouse series there is no jumpiness and it has a smooth process through out the cartoon.
Going back to Wallace and Grommit, worlds have also been build up in miniature for creating animations such as this animation.
This still works as a stop start motion which takes hours to put together. As each shot is takes the camera person has to then keep moving the characters slightly for the next sot and repeat this procedure. Once put together it forms movement in the animation when they are combines and sped up.
Some more info on this link which was useful:
Animation also appears in live action films such as Mary Poppins, Caspar the ghost and Roger Rabbit
Above Mary Poppins
Above Casper the Ghost
Above Who killed Roger Rabbit
The type of animation was a breakthrough at the time and created a combination of real life and cartoons forming a film. This type of animation put the imaginary character or worlds with live people and places in which created an illusion that they are real.
In today's world we also have CGI its not a type on animation but more of a type of special effect. The latest Lego movie is created using CGI but the creators have created it to look like a original made animation such as showing finger prints on Lego bricks and dents on objects. I have been following a you tuber called Corridor Crew. They look at animation and CGI films and talk about good, bad and hidden things with in them On this video below they talk about The Lego Movie, Disney the Incedables and others. It is very interesting to follow and watch their videos, they have lots of interesting discussions.
By doing the research above I have learnt that illusion creates magic in animation. It is so versatile that you can make anything you think of come alive through it. There are different mediums of choice too such as general paper form to miniature wold models and characters. They are all created with using separate frames and when put together create an illusion of movement. It truly is a creatives blank canvas where anything is possible.
Pick a range of different animations and try and identify how they have been made. Are they digitally created or do they use claymation, live action or a combination of technologies? You may want to do this historically, picking animations that chart its development, or aesthetically by choosing animations that interest you.
Can you identify examples of illustrators being inventive with the technological limitations they have available to them? Can you find examples of illustrators who are pushing the boundaries, finding new ways of working?
For this research I have decided to look at animation that interests me. I have firstly found a video about different types of animation:
Research point
Pick a range of different animations and try and identify how they have been made. Are they digitally created or do they use claymation, live action or a combination of technologies? You may want to do this historically, picking animations that chart its development, or aesthetically by choosing animations that interest you.
Can you identify examples of illustrators being inventive with the technological limitations they have available to them? Can you find examples of illustrators who are pushing the boundaries, finding new ways of working?
For this research I have decided to look at animation that interests me. I have firstly found a video about different types of animation:
Traditional Animation - cell animation (animator draws every frame to create an animation sequence usually 12 or 24 panels per second)
2D Animation and Vector Based Animation - ( uses bitmap and vector graphics to create and edit the animated images and is created using computers and software programs, such as Adobe Photoshop, Flash, After Effects, and Encore. Done in Flash popular as cheap and easy to use.)
3D / Computer Animation - (Most common animation of the world today.)
Motion Graphics - (mainly used for commercial - animation of graphics and objects not used for living beings)
Stop Motion - ( A special type of animation that mixes live action with traditional character animation.) Its similar to traditional animation but special as it uses real life visuals too - such as claymotion., regular puppets, cut out and pixelisation - usually real people instead of puppets
For this research I have decided to give myself the task of looking at all the above animation types and finding animations in those types that include paper as this is my favourite medium.
Stop Motion Flip books
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvfF1YNDrTw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2YayD8D8_0
Stop Motion Flip books
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvfF1YNDrTw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2YayD8D8_0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIR9RPlWWsg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGw6VREYkLE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xMDORbzyWw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGw6VREYkLE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xMDORbzyWw
From looking on the internet I found the most popular with the use of paper is stop start motion/ flip books. These videos above are example of this type on animation.
Traditional Animation
Traditional Animation
Traditional Animation - I have always looked up and been inspired from Disneys traditional methods such as the examples above. Disney in the last few years have been making remakes of their older films such as these above and creating them using CGI and motion graphics animation to make then appear real and more in keeping with the technology and trends that are around today.
2D Animation and Vector Based Animation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_W5Eyldi3jU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9B9JyULvEo
These above are all 2D Animations which have used computer software instead of paper to create them on. The only vector video I could find which involves paper is the bottom one. This is a video of a paper house model and then they have used flash software to add in characters. This shows a modern way of a animator pushing boundaries and trying something different.
3D / Computer Animation:
Aminal Animation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5P2Qmq9r40 Blackmagic Fusion
https://www.facebook.com/paperworldfilm/
Pixar
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORFWdXl_zJ4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBcb_eq9qOY
Computer animation is animation build up in 3D on computer software. These two videos above show the use of 3D with creating an effects and textures of paper. In the animal animation video they have created the animals to look like they are made from an origami form. It is a clever way to bring in a real item in to this animation but create it digitally and still capturing the essence, form and structure of paper making it appear realistic. The other two videos are both Pixar films where Disney evolves from traditional animation. Here films are in 3D and are a lot more smoother flowing compared to some of Disney's older films.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9B9JyULvEo
These above are all 2D Animations which have used computer software instead of paper to create them on. The only vector video I could find which involves paper is the bottom one. This is a video of a paper house model and then they have used flash software to add in characters. This shows a modern way of a animator pushing boundaries and trying something different.
3D / Computer Animation:
Aminal Animation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5P2Qmq9r40 Blackmagic Fusion
https://www.facebook.com/paperworldfilm/
Pixar
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORFWdXl_zJ4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBcb_eq9qOY
Computer animation is animation build up in 3D on computer software. These two videos above show the use of 3D with creating an effects and textures of paper. In the animal animation video they have created the animals to look like they are made from an origami form. It is a clever way to bring in a real item in to this animation but create it digitally and still capturing the essence, form and structure of paper making it appear realistic. The other two videos are both Pixar films where Disney evolves from traditional animation. Here films are in 3D and are a lot more smoother flowing compared to some of Disney's older films.
Motion Graphics
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjCKQYxjow0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rJ2E4AFnjY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVihtlxopY8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYpJVRzLsQ0
Many motion graphic illustrations only contain objects, typography and simple graphics. These are usually for commercials or advertising. The first video I managed to find for paper is of somewhat a mixture of claymotion (but in paper ) and the use of graphic Animation on top of it. Here the animator has pushed his boundaries to create something fresh and new yet in keeping with the animations genre.
Other types of stop start motion
Kubo Film
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qJAu6X9lBs
This film is a clay type motion film where they have actually created the characters who are puppets and the world they are based it. I saw this in the cinema and I was wowed back then by the animation they created. It also includes paper as the main character has a special ability to create origami animals that come to life. Its very imaginative and wonderful to watch how far stop start animation can evolve to.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-t2aqli5Z4E
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4EEQXO_Y38
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eukv0_3JcWQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjCKQYxjow0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rJ2E4AFnjY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVihtlxopY8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYpJVRzLsQ0
Many motion graphic illustrations only contain objects, typography and simple graphics. These are usually for commercials or advertising. The first video I managed to find for paper is of somewhat a mixture of claymotion (but in paper ) and the use of graphic Animation on top of it. Here the animator has pushed his boundaries to create something fresh and new yet in keeping with the animations genre.
Other types of stop start motion
Kubo Film
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qJAu6X9lBs
This film is a clay type motion film where they have actually created the characters who are puppets and the world they are based it. I saw this in the cinema and I was wowed back then by the animation they created. It also includes paper as the main character has a special ability to create origami animals that come to life. Its very imaginative and wonderful to watch how far stop start animation can evolve to.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-t2aqli5Z4E
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4EEQXO_Y38
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eukv0_3JcWQ
These above show different mediums used in claymotion which sows different ways and ideas people have thought of and how they had used the camera to bring their ideas to life.
After doing this research I feel that I am more educated and that I understand that there are various types of animation and how to identity them. My favourite ones to create would be stop start and claymotion with the use of paper.
After doing this research I feel that I am more educated and that I understand that there are various types of animation and how to identity them. My favourite ones to create would be stop start and claymotion with the use of paper.
Exercise: Flick-books and animated gifs
Loosely playing within the genre of action movies, create some basic flick-book, QuickTime or animated gif animations that involve chases, shoot-outs, or any other staple of the action film. Think 007 films that only run for 10 seconds or less!
For this practise I am going to create a few stop start motion videos that can be used as small videos or gif’s.
I remembered last year I went through a phase of making paper puppets. I have picked out a few and edited some to work in my animations. I think the puppets will be great as they are pose-able.
I am now at my art desk and have decided to create my animation just using paper and making a few marks with pens. I have picked out some backgrounds to use and some pieces of paper I can make props with.
I have also got a desk camera holder which will hold my phone above the scene that I want to shoot. To create the stop start motion I am using an app I found called Stop Start Pro. I am hoping this is going to work well in making my puppets come to life.
Flying Lady and the wolf
This is my first testing for an animation:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4Zhm9xszbs&feature=youtu.be
I think it took me about 40min to create. Its kind of an action but also more of a light thriller of a wolf scaring a woman - who has flying skills!
While producing this short animation there were a few things which came to light when filming. Such as perhaps next time to think about using sellotape to fix the background to the table. When I kept moving the puppets around, sometimes I would accidentally move the background with them too. Luckily on the app I'm using I discovered you could have a ghost screen which shows your last shot so you could then align everything back up before taking the next shot, it then looks as though the background had never moved in the first place. Another thing I noticed when playing the film back is at the start you can see my hand on the left. I think I must have been concentrating too much on the movements on the background then looking to see what was around it. However it does not damage the animation. The other issue I had was the stick that was holding up my phone, every time I pressed to take a shot the phone and stick would wobble so I would have to wait till it stops to take the next image. It got quite annoying after a while and I think this added to my time in creating it.
The short clip though us very good for my first one I think. I was even able to make the characters eyes blink and look around and also change some face expressions.
007 - James Pond!
Here is my second attempt in creating an animation. It took me 50mins I again used paper as my medium and used another puppet I had created previously. He was a frog prince but I cut his crown off and gave him a suit to look the part.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6DJeFJT1hw&feature=youtu.be
This video is the start to a typical James bond film - but the character is a frog, hence the name James Pond.
In this video you see a gun hole looking around the screen and then discover James Pond. He then swims off and comes back on to be handed a gun and pulls the trigger with a bullet coming out. The gun hole comes back on and James Pond disappears. His name then fills the centre hole and using red paper I make it appear as though there is blood coming out to finish the scene.
I think I did a great job with fitting in to the task to create some action. I stuck the background down, which I learnt to do from my first attempt. Puppets are great for this type of thing as all there joints are joined together using butterfly pins which makes them movable and able to perform natural movements such as swimming this helps them come to life in an animation.
I have really enjoyed this task, having a go at animation. I am interested in using this to advertise my pet portraits and do some pets moving about with my logo. I also could perhaps create a youtube channel and do a series when I have more free time next year. Paper is a great medium to create an animation from and its helped to open up my imagination a bit more to create what just comes to your mind and have some fun! It was great to see the finished animations I showed a few people and they laughed and smiled at them.
Minnie Mouse, Danger Mouse, Tom and Jerry, Gromit, Watership Down, it’s often hard to name an animation which is about people rather than animals pretending to be people. The term anthropomorphism describes this process of superimposing human characteristics onto animals, and animation seems to do it a lot.
With this in mind, develop an animal character that is capable of showing a range of emotions, movements and reactions to different situations. Come up with extreme examples such as ecstatic or terrified; though you might also want to work with mildly pleased or startled, it’s much easier to work with stronger emotions first of all.
Explore what these expressions might look like extended into the body – ecstatic and hopping, terrified and running, for example. Develop a range of drawings showing your character from different angles, with different expressions and in different poses. You may want to develop some model-making as part of this exercise, using plasticine or exploring the options puppetry gives you.
To start off this exercise I have listed all the animals I can think of that live on a farm and which ones are my top favourite. I am interested in creating a character of either a Goat, Pig or a sheep.
I am now going to draw each animal to see what characters I can create and decide on which one I want to explore further,
Here above are my sketches I did. I really had fun seeing what I could come up with and enjoyed creating various breeds of the animals too. From my sketches I have decided to go with a sheep and a goat as my two animals to look at further and draw them with various emotions.
Here are my illustrations above of the goat. Frank the goat has a crazy personality and I think goats generally give that impression in real life. I have made one of his eye pupils bigger then the other to indicate this and have drawn him with sticking his tongue out quite a bit too. He is a small goat who has two personalities he can be Mr nice and when something annoys him can flip into a crazy goat that you don't want to get too close to!
Victor the sheep is a little sheep from a breed called Valais Black nose sheep. They are very rare and I was lucky enough to get up close to them on an experience day last year. There personalities are more like dogs then sheep as they love to have a lot of fuss and love being around humans. Victor’s personality is of a young sheep who is learning about the world around him. He loves nature and is very inquisitive. To show this in my illustrations I have shown various emotions such as thinking, happy, and interested in a new discovery.
I think my expressions work very well and with the body language it exaggerates each emotion. My illustrations show anthropomorphism very well. I have always been in to creating characters and when it comes to the faces was quite easy for me. However I have never really thought of body language so it was good to experiment here of how the body portrays the emotions too.
I am now going to draw out Victor using one of the emotions but at different angles:
I remembered last year I went through a phase of making paper puppets. I have picked out a few and edited some to work in my animations. I think the puppets will be great as they are pose-able.
I am now at my art desk and have decided to create my animation just using paper and making a few marks with pens. I have picked out some backgrounds to use and some pieces of paper I can make props with.
I have also got a desk camera holder which will hold my phone above the scene that I want to shoot. To create the stop start motion I am using an app I found called Stop Start Pro. I am hoping this is going to work well in making my puppets come to life.
Flying Lady and the wolf
This is my first testing for an animation:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4Zhm9xszbs&feature=youtu.be
I think it took me about 40min to create. Its kind of an action but also more of a light thriller of a wolf scaring a woman - who has flying skills!
While producing this short animation there were a few things which came to light when filming. Such as perhaps next time to think about using sellotape to fix the background to the table. When I kept moving the puppets around, sometimes I would accidentally move the background with them too. Luckily on the app I'm using I discovered you could have a ghost screen which shows your last shot so you could then align everything back up before taking the next shot, it then looks as though the background had never moved in the first place. Another thing I noticed when playing the film back is at the start you can see my hand on the left. I think I must have been concentrating too much on the movements on the background then looking to see what was around it. However it does not damage the animation. The other issue I had was the stick that was holding up my phone, every time I pressed to take a shot the phone and stick would wobble so I would have to wait till it stops to take the next image. It got quite annoying after a while and I think this added to my time in creating it.
The short clip though us very good for my first one I think. I was even able to make the characters eyes blink and look around and also change some face expressions.
007 - James Pond!
Here is my second attempt in creating an animation. It took me 50mins I again used paper as my medium and used another puppet I had created previously. He was a frog prince but I cut his crown off and gave him a suit to look the part.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6DJeFJT1hw&feature=youtu.be
This video is the start to a typical James bond film - but the character is a frog, hence the name James Pond.
In this video you see a gun hole looking around the screen and then discover James Pond. He then swims off and comes back on to be handed a gun and pulls the trigger with a bullet coming out. The gun hole comes back on and James Pond disappears. His name then fills the centre hole and using red paper I make it appear as though there is blood coming out to finish the scene.
I think I did a great job with fitting in to the task to create some action. I stuck the background down, which I learnt to do from my first attempt. Puppets are great for this type of thing as all there joints are joined together using butterfly pins which makes them movable and able to perform natural movements such as swimming this helps them come to life in an animation.
I have really enjoyed this task, having a go at animation. I am interested in using this to advertise my pet portraits and do some pets moving about with my logo. I also could perhaps create a youtube channel and do a series when I have more free time next year. Paper is a great medium to create an animation from and its helped to open up my imagination a bit more to create what just comes to your mind and have some fun! It was great to see the finished animations I showed a few people and they laughed and smiled at them.
Exercise: Animal farm
Minnie Mouse, Danger Mouse, Tom and Jerry, Gromit, Watership Down, it’s often hard to name an animation which is about people rather than animals pretending to be people. The term anthropomorphism describes this process of superimposing human characteristics onto animals, and animation seems to do it a lot.
With this in mind, develop an animal character that is capable of showing a range of emotions, movements and reactions to different situations. Come up with extreme examples such as ecstatic or terrified; though you might also want to work with mildly pleased or startled, it’s much easier to work with stronger emotions first of all.
Explore what these expressions might look like extended into the body – ecstatic and hopping, terrified and running, for example. Develop a range of drawings showing your character from different angles, with different expressions and in different poses. You may want to develop some model-making as part of this exercise, using plasticine or exploring the options puppetry gives you.
I am now going to draw each animal to see what characters I can create and decide on which one I want to explore further,
Here above are my sketches I did. I really had fun seeing what I could come up with and enjoyed creating various breeds of the animals too. From my sketches I have decided to go with a sheep and a goat as my two animals to look at further and draw them with various emotions.
Frank the Goat
Here are my illustrations above of the goat. Frank the goat has a crazy personality and I think goats generally give that impression in real life. I have made one of his eye pupils bigger then the other to indicate this and have drawn him with sticking his tongue out quite a bit too. He is a small goat who has two personalities he can be Mr nice and when something annoys him can flip into a crazy goat that you don't want to get too close to!
Victor the Sheep
Victor the sheep is a little sheep from a breed called Valais Black nose sheep. They are very rare and I was lucky enough to get up close to them on an experience day last year. There personalities are more like dogs then sheep as they love to have a lot of fuss and love being around humans. Victor’s personality is of a young sheep who is learning about the world around him. He loves nature and is very inquisitive. To show this in my illustrations I have shown various emotions such as thinking, happy, and interested in a new discovery.
I think my expressions work very well and with the body language it exaggerates each emotion. My illustrations show anthropomorphism very well. I have always been in to creating characters and when it comes to the faces was quite easy for me. However I have never really thought of body language so it was good to experiment here of how the body portrays the emotions too.
I am now going to draw out Victor using one of the emotions but at different angles:
Victor looks amazing! I used pens to add colour to his fur and horns. Once finished them I cut them out and stuck them on top of a blue background to make him stand out. I think the final illustrations of Victor look great and I have really brought him to life. I used the excited emotion to use as my final illustrations of him. I want to at some point come back to this task and create the illustration of victor screaming I think that would be really fun to do.
To explore further and now that I know Victor pretty well after drawing him a lot, I am now going to make him out of clay. This is a bit of a challenge as this will be my first time using clay and creating a model of a character.
Victor as a model
Well I am so happy with my model! He came out great. I have never use clay before and I managed to create the little sheep. I used polymer clay and he is currently drying off in my art room. I used various tools which came with a clay kit I brought to create the textures of his wool and also to cut out little bits of clay for his eyes, ears and horns. There are some areas which could have been a bit more tidyed up but I am so happy with hows hes came out.
Overall
This task was right up my street and its the kind of thing I want to look at more. I love designing characters and drawing them from different angles and bringing them to life with emotions that people can relate too. I also really enjoyed making Victor out of clay and it has made me want to explore clay making more.
I also have had a go at character making for a woman called autumn. I wanted to have a go at illustrating a human as I feel I have not done much of this in this assignment:
She is the spirit queen of the fall season. I think I have done well with capturing good expressions with the face. I want to use my sketchbooks to create more expressions and get to know my designs better. This was a great self given task and I was happy with the final designs.
Sketch Books and Research
When talking to my tutor at the start of this assignment I said I would show some of my sketchbooks, scrapbook and books that I am studying from. Here are some videos below.
Scrap book - https://youtu.be/URvmxbZGyck
Sketch book 1 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRhKs-XNIpI&feature=youtu.be
Sketch book 2 - https://youtu.be/Y93clOv6qKI
Books I've been studying - https://youtu.be/40pOsg9Mfwg
I also have another two sketchbooks but not had time to film them as my wedding is next week! However I will but them in to my next assignment.
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