For the narrative I would like to explore journey taken by an older person, perhaps by one of my grandparents. Both of both of my grandparents migrated to England, my Grandad from South Africa and my Nan from Ireland. As my Grandad lives in the north and my Nan lives twenty minutes away it seems which is the obvious winner.
-17th March 2015
Today my Dad who's side of the family my Nan is on broached the idea of the film to my Nan. She seemed very interested and had some ideas of here own, one being about the story. She said that her migration story was fine, but a story about another journey she took would be much more interesting. The said journey involved going from Ireland to England to France and finally to Spain, taking many forms of transport which I believe to be a much better interpretation of journey. She did not say a lot about the story, but one fact that she teased was that on a train in France she and her family sat opposite two french prisoners.
In this experience even despite having just starting the project I feel as if I am on a journey of discovery. I am learning thing I didn't know about my family and things I did not know about myself for example my inability to draw fists, which I learnt how to do today as I thought it was necessary for the film as well as for my life of being a designer.
-18th March 2015
Today I calculated approximately how long it would take be to make the animation. After a few calculation I realised I would not be able to make a 5 minute film before the deadline for the film, the first of May. Due to this I decided to shorten the film to 4 minutes which would be a lot more manageable and possible in the time frame. Also according to my calculations there will be around 1728 frames to draw in the film, each one will be hand drawn and photographed.
As well as calculating how long it will take I also looked into film structure and how much animation v film I would have in the short film. Unfortunately I do not know how the story will pan out as I am yet to hear it myself. Due to this and the fact it is a true story I am in the dark whether it will fall into the three act structure.
-19th March 2015
Today I read a few books of animation to help me perfect my film aesthetically, and technically , well as close to perfect as I can get it. And a sentence that I found to be important in MASTERS OF ANIMATION was "Moving pictures were admirably placed to visually express new ideas and explore technical innovation"(Halas, Masters of Animation, 1987, p.9). This is got me thinking about how my short film is different from any other student film. In this project I will try and keep a layer of originality and individuality, but with so many films and ideas out there it's pretty hard.
"One of the biggest differences between amateur and professional animation in [sound design]"(Furniss, Art in Motion: Animation Aesthetics, 1998, p.85) This something I have noticed myself and will be something I will try to put more effort into. Although also in the book there is mention of "Attention to the soundtrack"(Furniss, Art in Motion: Animation Aesthetics, 1998, p.85). This is something I may be unable to do in the time frame, but I have plans for a friend of mine to create a soundtrack for the film. This will probably only be able to happen after the deadline and so would just be a personal project.
HALAS, J. (1987) Masters of Animation, London: BBC Books
FURNISS, M. (1998) Art in Motion: Animtion Aesthetics, New Barnet: John Libbey& Company Pty Ltd
-20th March 2015
I created a short abstract animation of a face to test the software, the medium and frame rate. Although the animation is not in the style of animation I will use, it helps to work with the scanner and the program I am editing in (After Effects for the moment).
-23rd March 2015
I redesigned the characters and style to make it simpler, thus making it easier to animate and I want to make the narration describe the situation and people and so to have the film be directed by the story rather than the visuals. Also I created a short flipbook animation using the style, I will scan and animate this later in the week.
-24th March 2015
I played around with aftereffects to try adding style to the film for example a glitch effect, an old fashion effect and a cinematic style.
-26th March 2015
Due to my commitments in the Easter holidays and my new rather demanding job I have had little time to work on my projects, however today I had a full free day. And so I went to my Nan's hospice with my Dad to record the story of her journey to Majorca. Lucky other than a small technique glitch of the sound recording, which I was using as a backup anyway, everything fell into place. She sometimes needed prompting when she forgot certain things she was talking about, but other than this her accounts of journey was were vibrant detailed and contained many interesting potential visuals. The story had all the themes I could have wanted, with a hint at the differences between then and now. And with the overall light-hearted comedic theme that I was wishing for. I think the story is perfect and I can't wait to bring it to life.
Also something interesting my Nan said in the video which I found very interesting was a photo she remembers being taken of her with some palm trees and a striped dress and she even showed the angle of the stripes. So before me and my Dad when home we stopped in at her old house, just a few miles away. We looked through her old photos for a while finding a lot great photos of my Nan, Grandad and their whole family. And after looking for a while I found the exact image she was referring to, with everything she described.
-4th April 2015
Due to work wanting me to work almost I full week I have had not enough time as I would have liked to have, although today I made progress. I edited together the footage and have condensed it to 6 and a half minutes, including credits. I have to started animation, but have blocked out with a blank slate, where the animated parts will be to help me know how long it will take and what to animate.
I also had a go at colour grading as I didn't think the lighting went along with the story. The light was blue and had a cold feel. With some minor changes to saturation and colour using the Three-Way Colour Corrector I was able to make the footage warmer and more fitting to the story.
-11th April 2015
I presented my work so far, with a preview, to one of my Tutor, an University graduate and a small group of my peers. I got good feedback in regards to the presentation, the work and the idea. But somethings that I found surprising where that they liked the fact there was no animation and that the screen was just white. This is something I will take in to account when animating, for example leaving spaces where there is no animation just white. Also what I found hard to believe was that my Nan's accent was hard to understand, but this I tested later and discovered it was the speakers that were muffling the sound.
-13th April 2015
Today I had a workshop with John Dargan, where we used cutout animation to animate part of a song he had chosen. The workshop was really good and as well as learning techniques, it was really useful to just get my hands on the equipment and set up that I would be using. What I liked about the technique was the improvisational nature of the animation, you could draw an object and instantly put it in the scene.
Here is the animation that me and Will created in the workshop:
PERFECTO!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJm-Sk3B2Z8
I think for the time we had the animation came out pretty well, but if I were to do it again or continue it I would match up the doorbell noise to the animation better. Also I would have planned the animation more, although I liked the improvisational nature of the animation I think planning would have been improved the piece as well as saved time in the animating process.
-14th April 2015
Me and Max, who is also creating an animation for his project decided we would create a short animation to develop our skills in stop-frame animation, composition and story telling. We kind of made it up on the stop with very little planning and decided on a story of two British gangster. We used the same equipment as we did on Tuesday however we took up residence in a small room in the studio, which would become our temporary studio.
-16th April 2015
Today me and Max finished the animation, as much as we could without wasting time, and I am very happy with the result. I think the mini project has helped me learn the software and basic animation principles. At the beginning of the day I took out more equipment, two large lighting devices and a DSLR which would work with Dragon StopMotion to make the animation better quality and more professional.
Here is the final animation without sound:
BULLDOG AND THE CROW
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVrJ25_3kVE
As a short project I think the animation turn out very good, it helped develop narrative as well as develop animating techniques. In hind sight I would have all the assets drawn with the same pen as I think it would improve the look of the film and control the array of different styles of drawing that are in the film.
As a short project I think the animation turn out very good, it helped develop narrative as well as develop animating techniques. In hind sight I would have all the assets drawn with the same pen as I think it would improve the look of the film and control the array of different styles of drawing that are in the film.
-17th April 2015
-20th April 2015
I decided for my own animation that I would use rotoscoping, which I was introduced to by John Dargan. I decided this based on reflection and comments about the idea in the presentation. I think rotoscoping gives a better feel for documentary style animation, which I have decided to embrace about my project. From this point I have finalized the style and idea that the film will many be blank with small animations to illustrate scenes and point made in the film.
This morning I bought a ton of transparencies to start animating onto, despite them being very expensive for the amount I need (12 per second) the result were worth it. The style is great and I can't wait to finish it.
-20th April 2015
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