The Sand Pit: Animation

As I looked at animation for the Chinese whispers activity, I became quite keen to look at different aspects of animation to see how it works and to see how it communicates using different softwares. Im sure using different animation softwares and techniques can manipulate and even change a narrative.

The prinicples of animation:

Set up by Disney in 1930 which has helped transform animation from being a novelty to being an art form.
The principles range from

Drawing in a praticular style looking at balance, composition, weight ect of the characters. Creating ARCS- movement of the character
Appeal- giving the character a personality and chrisma

There are a few more but I have metioned the ones im going to look at.

After looking at examples of these prinicples such as the drawing board from the Disney character Betty Boop, I feel it is very important for the creator to follow them despite what software they decide to use to put the animation together. I think following them would allow you to convey and communicate your narrative easier. I also think a good communicated animation always makes the viewer feel the characters are interesting and realistic. For instance, even in old time animation you can see these principles.



Short film by Winsor McCay 1914

McCay used 10,000 illustated drawings which were inked onto rice paper and mounted to create this film. Although this is a narrative of a Dinosaur taking commands from her creator to 'perform'tricks. I believe it was a mere example of the potential animation had at the time, I think McCay was simply showing off.

The reason I made this video my example of the animation principles is because although this was done at the time animation software and techniques weren't really in full swing the elements are still apparent. The dinosaur has life. If you look closely you can see the dinosaur breating in and out, you see it rolling over and behaving almost like a child. All this has made the dinosaur have charisma, although it is just a 2D cartoon. Because it has these life like traits we can relate with it in our own minds giving the dinosaur a more realistic presence.

From this initial research I decided I wanted to create a short animation using these principles. I wanted to work in photoshop using a graphics tablet to create the illustrations, something im not too familiar with. Although I could have drawn them in pencil and scanned them in,using this software will allow me to experiment and develop my skills in photoshop. I also believe using photoshop will give the illustrations a cartoon type style.

I think using an up todate programme like photoshop was a good idea for illustration. As I learnt whilst using the software I could use the layers to my advantage. Being able to recreate the background and the chicken several times made the whole process alot quicker than if I had to draw them all from scratch. Also you can keep an eye on composition, colour balance and scale whist using this software something thats not so easy to get right when drawing the same picture over and over again. Also using the graphics tablet was just like working with a pen to paper once I got used to it. This story board is about a deluded chicken who is sick of the abuse and is trying to escape, I illustrated the chicken to look slightly crazy because the ideas he comes up with to get out are disturbing, iv tried to put the animation prinicples to some use.

All I have learnt and the tools I used to create these illustrations are written down in my sketchbook.

This is the animation I created from these illustrations. Its called Free Roam

This sequence was produced using Final cut, a software I had never used before. As I worked on my sequence and also had some introduction classes into the software I eventually gained quite a bit of experience on it. Im hardly a pro but I certainly know how to put a sequence together editing it, adding audio and effects in the process. I think using this software made me aware of time and movement something which is very important in animation. I did have a lot of problems trying to syncronise the movement of the chicken with the audio, and also whilst adding key frames but with time it worked out okay. I am not really happy with the outcome of the sequence the music does not run as smooth as it should because I cut into it a few times by mistake Whilst editing and also the timing of the music has changed when I compressed the video so the chicken isnt timed in with the music which is an important thing in animation. The other problem I think with this small project was the fact that I think I spent too much time on it instead of just doing a small experiment I opted to finish the whole thing because I wanted to see if my narrative worked. But on the other hand Im glad I finished it because I gained a better understanding of the process and software. The instructions and process I used are in my sketchbook.

The Sand Pit: Chinese whispers

Create a story using Chinese whispers and visually communicate this narrative through photography using a mobile phone.

The Narrative:

1 BANG the lights went off
2 SHUFFLE the lights came on
3 The sausage had four eyes
4 Micheal Jackson came in and took his coat off
5 An Eagle flew in from the window
6 Mike was there as well, and hes from Wigan
7 He got the shits and sick for christmas
8 and he died

I think the narrative created for the activity was very weak and hard to communicate with much imagination. Although we did try this out, the end result was far from visually stimulating.

The Sand Pit: Chinese whispers PT2

When asked to do the Chinese whispers exercise again me and Stephanie decided we would take the Eagle flew in the window and Micheal Jackson theme from the narrative and develop them to re-create our own narrative. We would still use a mobile phone to take photographs, but also using the other applications of the phone to record moving image and sound. We drew illustrations of the eagle, we took pictures from flickr, we took videos from various websites and recorded sound from youtube and our own voices. We decided to turn this sequence of photographs into a short film with all these elements because we felt it would give an eclectic and surreal style to the narrative. Also doing this allowed us to use the phone to its full potential and it gave us the opportunity to try out new softwares such as final cut. Which developed our understanding and introduced us to some animation techniques.
The short movie is about an Eagle who goes on a journey in search of her soul only to find Hitler has it. Due to the fact that Micheal Jackson has stolen his pants, Hitler decides that anything with wings is vermin and so their souls should be traded in for his trousers back.

The film starts off with a speech from a video on www.revver.com. we felt the speech was a good introduction to our narrative as the lady explains how she is the eagle flying. Although we felt this was an interesting way to start we werent sure our audience would understand the link between the speech and the short narrative. The images in the background are from flickr which were done by a photographer called Jonathan Haeber of Micheal Jacksons Neverland and the sound are clips from the animation Alice In Wonderland.

I think the video works really well and I think overall we achieved the result we wanted. We had a go at editing in Final cut and introduced some old fashioned animation techniques which also worked really well giving the film another dimension. The only problems we faced was that initially we was going to record the eagle moving across the images that were on the computer screen but this only created a really pixilated video. So to get round that problem we decided to print off the images for the background and make our eagles puppets. Recording them this way was still bad quality especially the sound but not half as bad. if I was to create this film again id use a different software other than a phone as it wasnt suitable for this film to have a professional finish.

Current Brief: The Sand Pit

Research, Explore and Document your relationship with Communication Technology.

The Technology I currently use:

The first thing that comes to mind is my mobile phone. Me and My mobile phone have a special relationship. I have a reputation for not 'LOVING' my mobile phone enough. It finds itself in the most annoying places, In the wash basket, In the washing machine, In someone elses pocket, (I know its dreadful).When things like this happen which has been quite alot, it really makes me appreciate how much I love my phone ( I suppose you never know what you've got till its gone).
When my phones actually with me, I can keep intouch with my favourite people, I can listen to my favourite music, I can take photographs of my favourite visions, and last and very least it wakes me up in a morning. It does everything I need it to do, and its an important part of my everyday life.

The second my Computer. I Love the fact that I can access endless amounts of information without even moving. I love the fact that I can talk to my boyfriend for free on skype. I also love the fact that I have the opportunity to use different softwares to my advantage which help me create endless amounts of work. But I hate the fact that the internet is so advanced that I dont really have to do a thing to get anything. Sometimes I might buy something online and until I look at my bank balance its like I never even bought it because its just so easy to press a button. Having to go out and buy it on a rainy day would alone put me off. Im not saying its all bad though because for someone who isnt so mobile this would be good. They could use this facility to their advantage as there are websites set up such as tesco.com that do certain offers such as shop and drop which is fantastic.

I once had a conversation about technology with this random person on the bus home, he was so passionate about his veiws he simply forced it on me. He said something along the lines of

" In my day no-one had these things (mobile phones), they are alien to us. The young ones these days are constantly on them, if they arent talking on them they are blasting out what some would call music. We dont communicate like we used to, whats wrong with a bit of respect"

By this point I stopped listening as I was slightly annoyed by his opinion of the music someone was playing on the bus (I actually liked it that time). But later on I realised he actually had a point. We are all wired up constantly and we are all so happy to isolate ourselves from doing the natural and healthy things in life, Some of us not even noticing the environment we live in.