A Call to Arms: final film

Overall I am quite happy with my finished piece. Some aspects could be improved a lot making the camera changes smoother for example but on the whole I think it is alright. I wanted to do some kind of stop motion to make my animation a bit different to my other course mates seen as most of them are using flash. I think my technique in using stop motion has increased slightly, however the picture could be less jumpy in some areas.

Sketchbook

These are some drawings I have done in my sketchbook. I have tried to capture shape and tone in the body and I think my skills in drawing shape are improving. For this drawing I used pen to make the outline more defined and then used pencil to create shadow on the body.

Sketchbook

Here are a few examples of some of the sketches in my book.

Drawing 5

Following previous drawing sessions we carried on with a model but today we used ink to show the different posses. Ink I find can be quite hard to use and make look good. If you get it right however it can look great. To start with the model stayed in one pose then rotated every couple of minutes so we could capture his shape. The next exercise we drew 3 more detailed drawings. We mixed ink with water and had the model pose in different ways and drew with twigs to create the effect of shadows on the body. I wasn't very pleased with how my drawings came out as I said before ink can be hard to use.

Run Lola Run

I quite enjoyed the movie Run Lola Run. I found it a little confusing as to what the point was in showing the three different outcomes and which outcome we were supposed to believe happened. However saying that it was interesting to see how small changes and time can affect ones decisions and outcomes. The use of animation in it at parts was interesting I thought and showed feeling and tension by use of exaggeration.

Sketchbook

Production

Here are some production background stills that I will be using in my animation. As you can see they are the same design as in my animatic and haven't differed a lot from that design. To create these stills I used Photoshop. I am planning on printing these out and then animating stop motion over them. When designing the wall I used different colours to make it appear more realistic and stand out. I also added some scuff marks on the concrete too using the brush tool.

Elroy Workshop

This character was the one I created for the workshop with Elroy. Our goal was to each make a different character with an instrument to have in a band a make a small animation with all our characters together. I decided to do one different and make an owl dancing to the band playing. The owl had two movements to mimic dancing. The wings go out and in and he hops up and down.

Alice

Alice was a very strange movie to behold, (especially so early in the morning). I couldn't decide whether I enjoyed the film or not. The amount of effort put into the film, mainly the scenes with the rabbit and other creatures was applaudable due to the stop motion affect, seen as stop motion is very time consuming and difficult to do. The film did seem to drag on a while and was slightly creepy we all agreed but it was admired as well. There's no denying that Alice was in some eyes brilliant because of its different more dark take on Alice in wonderland.

Drawing

 

 

We have now filled in the city using black chalk scratchings then rubbing it in. Here are a few examples of it finished above. It was messy work but fun. Once we had filled the city we used rubbers to remove the chalk and highlight areas as you can see above.

The Secret of Kells

I loved The Secret of Kells and have already decided to write my essay on it. The film uses animation to create stunning visual scenes and creates a sense of depth to the story. I believe all of the people in my year felt the same. The theme of the film is light against darkness and this was shown to the audience in a number of different ways and in particular scenes.

Animation Practice ANIMATIC (Second)

This is my second animatic. I feel it captures what I want to do in my final animation correctly. I could have done some more drawings to make it run smoother however in this one compared to my first there is sound. I think the sound has a huge impact and helps the viewer to understand what is is being portrayed.

Drawing 4

For this drawing session we had to create a birds eye view of the city we had a created. The aim was to make a map so others would be able to, in a way, navigate through the city. It was a fun session adding to our city Redcoating Vill and I enjoyed the change of pace from life drawing.

Drawing 3

Animation Practice ANIMATIC (First)

Drawing 2

Today we carried on with the city and finished the basic drawing of it. This is a rough idea of what the pictures look like when stuck together. The city is really quite big in person, you can't get much of a sense of it on here. I think the work collaborated by us all is very good and I'm looking forward to completing the city.

Drawing 1

So our drawing module has started and to begin with we as a group are making our own city. We each had to draw two sketches of what we imagine in a city, whether it be a tree or building or even a monster rabbit in some cases. Then we passed the paper on and repeated the process until we had something like the above pictures.

Animation Practice STORYBOARD (Royal Armouries)

To begin with we had to create a simple storyboard to show a basic idea of what our story would be about. I decided to go a more light hearted route with my story putting some comedy elements into it whilst still relating to the fact that it was a serious issue.

Year 2 - Client brief

So I have started second year and in Animation Practice we have been given a brief for a client. We had the option to choose between three different briefs. First was one for the NHS, then the Royal Armouries and finally Can Makers.

I read through the different briefs and pretty much decided straight away that I wanted to make a film for the Royal Armouries due to the fact that it is nearly the 100th anniversary and I already had an idea forming. The Royal Armouries also had four different brief stories to choose from giving me quite a wide range of things that I could delve into. After reading them I decided on the 'Call to Arms' brief which is telling the story of the famous Kitchener needs you poster and how young men felt pressures or even guilty and so joined the Army.

Flash Project

file:///C:/Users/Admin/Desktop/Flash.mov.html

(problem uploading, copy this address and paste it in URL)

Animation Practice

In our first practice session we looked at the module brief and started to get an idea of how to use Adobe After Effects. One part of our brief is to create a My street project video showing the area of where we live with an added element of animation. This shouldn't be too difficult as long as I get the hang of using after effects. For the basics in the first session we imported a few images from Google and played around with them just to get an idea of how the program worked. The other part of our brief is create a flash based film on an encounter between two things or people.

Animation Theory

For our first lecture in the second semester we were introduced into a broader look at animation theory. We began to look closely into ideologies and how they shape the way we see things in film and in real life, capitalist ideology, patriarchal and racist. During each session we watched a film so we could discuss what we thought about the messages in the movie and how our theory sessions related to it.
List of films:
Persepolis
Waltz with Bashir
Animal farm
Kirikou and the sorceress
Chico and Rita
When the wind blows

I enjoyed all the films that I saw and thought they helped greatly to help me understand factors of ideology. During these sessions we also learnt about Semiology the 'science of signs' that we see in and out everyday. It was fascinating to see how we naturally interpret these signs without having to think about it, for example a fire exit sign doesn't always say 'fire exit' it is just symbols but we understand what these symbols mean.
Representation also made an appearance in the lectures teaching us about the social process and how it connects meaning and language through written, verbal and visual aids.