Tomorrow is Judgement Day...

Well, the last week has been a pretty eventful one and been super busy all in the run up to the pitch on friday.

Since my last blog post I've created a whole load more of concept art and some test animations...

Kathy suggested I put together a visual research file of the things that had inspired me to create the concept art, some are more relevant now than others, but in the process of trying to get the look for my project, they all inspired me in some way.
Style Inspiration Bible


One of my own loves (which I'm told by my housemates is very weird...):


"I love watching the sun rise" Sequence:




Newer version of Birds (as it would be animated):


"I hate fish":


Sea animation test done in After Effects:



The fish I hand animated... It was super frustrating, because it took me two hours to scan in, only to discover that it didn't work... it's not great: the tail flops around all over the place, but I feel my timing has vastly improved since last year.



I think now, (well, all depending if my project is picked...) that any rough animation I do will be done in Flash or ToonBoom Animate and then, when I know the timing is correct, I'll draw the animation in graphite or whatever other medium I'm using for that section.


The fish and sea combined look a little something like this:




Ah, I'd almost forgotten to add this, a video of the rough soundtrack that my good friend Rob Allen has been working on for me, which I was contemplating playing it at the pitch, but I have collected many more voiceclips since sending him the (very) rough edit I put together for him to play around with. This is only a rough version done in Midi, put gives an inkling as to what the final thing could sound like, however I think I need to spread the soundclips out a bit more, it's really rather quick at the moment.



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So, this is something I forgot to write on here earlier, but a couple of weeks ago I emailed six local primary schools asking if I would be allowed to come to the school and ask the children (and staff) the love/hate questions. I had two responses, one yes and one no.

Paula Ross, the deputy Head Marlborough School, was kind enough to invite me to the school on Thursday to record the students. The students were forewarned of my arrival in asssembly and many had already thought of things to say when I turned up at lunchtime. Paula's class separated into two groups and sat in a circle as I recorded them one by one, which worked really well, although the children who couldn't think of anything quite often said similar things (it turns out, alot of boys hate the colour purple...), Paula then led me around the rest of the school to interview smaller groups of children which provided a much larger range of responses and some absolute gems which I'm certain will go into the final film (if it gets picked). After interviewing the children, who ranged from 4-11, I asked the staff the same questions. The school was so helpful and accomdating, the whole thing was much easier to pull off than I expected thanks to Paula's organising. If the film gets put into Production, I'm going to keep in contact with the school and send them updates as progess (hopefully) continues, however it may not go anywhere, it's beyond my control now!

Which leads onto the deciding power...

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The PITCH. Both Kathy and Derek said that I should create some more concept art to show at the pitch, which made me think, why can't I explain my idea through concept art? So, to explain the process behind lovehate, I decided to do just that, have a corresponding picture to what I was saying.
My actual pitch was really quite short, my idea was very simple to explain, so it really didn't need long. I thought I'd try and keep it short and punchy, and the corrseponding pictures helped to do just that and even got a few laughs which was great (and intended I might add).
I was second to last in the pitching order, which made me mildly annoyed (I really wanted to just get the thing over with - I tend to get more nervous the longer that I have to wait to do something), it was probably better, as the rest of the third years relaxed around me, I felt alot calmer when it finally was my turn...
Lovehate Pitch

The presentation probably needs some explanation, so here's a small summary essentially of what I said:
- Everyone in this room has at least one thing they really love and one thing they really hate: it might be something completely unique to you, or something that you share with others. My current hate is standing in front of a room full of people and trying to explain my idea, something the other third years will share with me. I want to make these individual love and hates come to life on the screen. So the idea behind lovehate is quite simple:
- I will take a number of peolpe of different ages,
- Stick a microphone in front of their face,
- Ask them to tell me one thing they love,
- Ask them to tell me one thing they hate,
- Record their reply.
- Think about their reply.
- Visualise their idea.
- Storyboard the idea.
- Animate the idea, taking the last frame and morphing it...
- ...So that it becomes the first frame of the next sequence.
And then I showed the concept art of previous answers.

The panel (made up of 4 industry professionals), complimented me on my pitch and (I think) overall were fairly positive and quite liked the idea. I feel I got away quite lightly, quite a few people got some grilling from them and struggled to answer some of the trickier questions. I feel I did quite well, but I guess we shall see tomorrow when we discover which projects are going through to production. If my project hasn't been chosen, there's a multitude of other ideas I would love to be able to help out on. But then, if mine is chosen, that's a whole new fear altogether!

Animation Test [1]

Probably the first of many...

Inspired by this drawing:


Combined the drawing with a bird cycle I animated roughly for practice last year.

Research/Concept Art

Third Year Beginnings.

I was tempted to name this post "The Final Countdown" or something equally as corny, but nobody wants to start the year off with a terrible pun, (unless you're my Dad, then it's standard practice).

So, yes, third year, the beginning of the end and yet it feels like my University experience has just started... (Obviously this post already appears to be filled with clichés and all that jazz). After a lovely (albeit very geeky, but not very productive) summer, I'm back and ready to work my ass off. Currently this has involved acquiring a large wall chart and marking all the important (and scary) hand-in dates for Final Major Projects & Dissertations, it also has days marked off for when I need to update my blog... The plan is to update it at least every other Tuesday, so we'll see how successful that is. Days are also marked off for when I need to attempt to do academic reading for said dissertation. For those of you who wonder exactly what a pile of dissertation research is looks like, it's currently a little something like this:

Rather intimidating, yes? Especially when I tell you that the yellow folder is filled with photocopies and printouts of essays and book chapters as well. Eep.

However, on a slightly better note, this term will be spent developing our ideas for final films ready to pitch (in front of all three years of Animation, the tutors and a panel of industry professionals... although perhaps this is just as intimidating as the dissertation) and, hopefully, get selected to be put into production.

After spending the first half of the summer fretting because I had a complete lack of any creative ideas, I had inspiration hit me while I was on a train (somehow trains appear to be good for my creativity, in the past I've had a couple of ideas for other projects suddenly come to me while train travelling). Being paranoid about the possibility of potentially having to stand on a six hour train journey (Falmouth really isn't the most easily accessible place), I always book a seat reservation. And someone, it doesn't matter how empty the carriage is, will always pick to sit in my seat. Always. It annoys me so much. And then I thought, well, why couldn't I make this into an animated film? Obviously not just about a train seat, but why not ask people about all the random little things that specifically annoy them or they really hate? I could run around with a sound recorder and ask people the same question (a la Creature Comforts), then take their responses and turn them into an animated sequence.

Everyone I ask will have different opinions, so I want to replicate that with a range of different animation styles. In my Foundation year for our first 'Time and Image' workshop we had to create two images of ourselves and animate from one to the other, then we had to take our last image and animate it to the next person's first, it was really effective and despite everyone having created very different images, the piece worked as a whole. Sadly, I do not have the original video of everyone's work, but I have the section that I created, which you can watch below. I want to do the same for this project, animate all the 'phrases' separately, then take the last frame from one and animate it to the first of the next. I also want the film to have a kind of spontaneous feel, like the 'Lightbulb Boy' animation I did at the end of last year, each bit was really different, but it all flowed together.

After telling Andy and Derek and a few of my classmates my idea, it was suggested that instead of doing just things people disliked, that I include their likes/loves. So, currently I am in the process of juggling between the ideas of creating two separate films, a "Love" film and a "Hate" film, or making a completely combined one.

My idea is a relatively simple one, but I feel that if it is picked, it will have a much higher chance of getting completed than an a 5 minute long scripted idea. Working so closely (well, practically as a third year myself - I even got a 'medal' for "Wannabe 3rd Year" in our 'award' ceremony at the end of term last year) on Barista, I know that even with the best intentions and time management, it is not always possible to get everything done in time. Hopefully, by having an idea that works in segments, even if a section is not working, it can be scrapped and work without it. Even if I only worked with two other people on the entire thing, if we created five 10 second segements each, that would equate to a two and a half minute film to hand in.

Some inspiration:

http://www.postsecret.com/

And I leave you with a screenshot of the fruits of about an hour's work on Maya achieved (I've attempted to make something in order for a little test sequence I'm planning...):

Lightbulb Boy

My paper animation works! It works better at 12fps, but this video export was a much better quality.

Experimental Production Report

Alice Nightingale Experimental Production Report

Experimental Endings!

1 lamp,
1 screen,
1 camera,
1 tripod,
3 blocks of wood & a mobile phone,
4 bits of wire,
7 or 8 cereal boxes,
3 nights filming,
1 night compositing
and 138 cut-out shapes later...

MY EXPERIMENTAL IS FINISHED:

The end is in sight...

All the photographs for the experimental are complete, going to stick them all in After Effects tonight, 80% of the production report is typed up and the 11 Second Club makes me want to kill myself.

Roughin' it up.

After effectively losing 3 days to work I'm powering on ahead and I'm determined to get things finished. I took some experimental work home and managed to crack on with a fair bit: I sat in the car outside the hotel cutting cardboard rabbits out while the rest of my family helped set up balloons and other party paraphernalia... and starting to write my production report on the train yesterday (I went to Wales and back, Sunday trains are crazy).
My Dad has provided me with some garden wire so I can make something similar to a wire photo holder to hold my carboard animals in place (animation paper is far too flimsy) and I don't want to have my glass frame moving in everyframe (also it'd probably fall over, I don't have a stand for it, so i'm propping it up with massive Diet Coke bottles).

So, this morning, I have finished my rough version of the 11 Second clip. I'm aiming to have a neater rough done by the end of the week.

Experimental beginnings and (slow) 11 Second progress...

So, after my panicking at the weekend and the 2D session we had yesterday I'm feeling far more positive about the 11 second club project.
Andy liked the flow of action in my (very short) hand-drawn attempt, which led him to talk to us about practicing timing by mapping out the sequence with really really rough drawings. Trying to do as many drawings in sequence as possible, while resisting the urge to play it through until you have done a large number. As you can see below, my first attempt isn't great, I got to about 60 frames, it's very quick so the angel looks like he's buzzing around on speed:

I'd say my second attempt is better, but I still have a long way to go before I'll pick up the animator's "instinct" for timing.


One the other hand, my experimental project is starting to come along nicely. Following my plan I had mapped out using two incarnations of dopesheets...
And a surprising amount of maths involved when it came to working out how many photographs I would need to take...
(and that's only one of the 3 times I did that).

I now have a fully formed plan/schedule to follow, with the exact number of photographs needed for each bit of my animation, all mapped out (hopefully) to the music I've selected from our choices (which I now hear in my head rather alot, so thanks Derek...).


Using my (excellent) plan I have now completed taking all the photographs with live human hands, with help from my very patient friend Liz, who agreed to be my lovely assistant for the evening and my nice housemates for letting me commandeer the kitchen table. Here's a frame from what will be a part of the final animation:

I'm now using my lightbox to animate my transformations and drawing the shapes of what will become my cutouts to create shadows. I'm going to use the spare time I have when I got back home this weekend to cut them all out so I can get shooting quickly after I get back.

So currently I've been drawing lots of rabbits, which I'm finding fun (I'm not quite so looking forward to drawing lots of birds) and surprisingly easy. I think it's because I have four of them at home who I always sit and spend a bit of time with while using them for drawing practise. So I'm looking forward to seeing their lovely fluffy faces this weekend. And they're too cute not to share pictures of, especially since it's on topic anyway ;) (L-R:) Molly, Chilly, Arthur & Mim.

11 Second Panic

Well, I was panicking a little bit longer than 11 seconds.
I had no idea about which format I wanted to present my 11 second club clip in, I really wanted to try and hand draw it with my own lightbox, which I left at home this term *FAIL*. Luckily I have a very lovely mother who has posted it to me at the grand expense of £11 (though it was considerably cheaper than buying another lightbox), but it is too heavy for first class so should arrive either tomorrow or Tuesday.
Worrying that this weekend would be a complete waste of time if I didn't start animating (there are 15 days left until our deadlines for the 11 Second Club AND the Experimental) I headed to the studio on Saturday to start animating. But pretty much half an hour into animating (and only managing to produce 7 very rough frames) panic got the better of me. I realised that there is no way I can hand-draw it all to the correct time scale, I need so much more practice on timing before I can sit and know exactly how many frames each movement should be (especially when you are adding lots of secondary movement like I am [wings]).
Behold Saturday's failure:


I do not want to have to sacrifice my Experimental project for the sake of hand-drawing it all when I now realise (after some kind words of encouragement from my ever-so-patient boyfriend) that I can do it in Flash to the same standard, but quicker, and can clean it up far more easily (or, as he pointed out, I could always print out my rough Flash work and draw over the top).
I'm not really happy doing it in Flash, having used it for the practice pieces we did before we started making the actual thing, but I'm no where near confident enough to be able to do it in 3D and I know that I simply haven't got time to produce the final image I have in my head by hand. Yes we have 15 days, but I have to go home next weekend to celebrate my Grandad's 90th birthday, which is something my family have been planning for a couple of months and I really cannot afford to miss, so realistically I have 12. AND I still have to do my experimental project, which thankfully, has been alot easier to plan after dopesheeting it all and working out the exact number of photographs I need to take. I still need to make all my card animals for it, but once my lightbox arrives I'll use it to help me with that project.



However, after my initial panicking yesterday, I'm feeling alot more confident today and have already managed to do about half of the actual clip in rough in just a few hours. Yes, it is rough, but once I get the movement sorted I can go over it to a higher standard. Yesterday was not a total loss, I used the lightbox to draw outlines for one sequence animal shadows and my friend Liz came round (partly to cheer me up) and also to be my hand model for the Experimental which has begun :)

EDIT, I forgot that I drew out all the mouth shapes for practice the other day:

I used last year's lip-sync project and my housemate's compact mirror to help.

There are Blind People with no fingers that are better at shadow puppets than me...

Using an appropriate Humdrum quote there.

So instead of going to Life Drawing tonight I've been experimenting for the Experimental project. Doing a mock up and some tests before I launch in to the real thing sometime soon.


A glass frame, covered in Grease-proof paper (do you realise how expensive Tracing Paper is? Seriously, it's like £5 for a book of A4), currently supported by some shoe-boxes to stop it falling over and smashing, my bedside light and the tripod box to rest my camera on (because the tri-pod would be to big for the frame on the floor...)



Of course I realise now that my bedroom floor isn't the best place to sit and try and get your hands in the middle of the frame. One sheet of grease-proof wasn't enough to stop the lighting hot-spot, so I added a second one:



It's also better to actually have an idea of how to do any kind of shadow puppet before you start filming... Luckily the research I did in my sketchbook paid off and I am able to present to you, a tremendously crap dog:



My favourite bit is where I move the wrong fingers and forget about the ears... I'm so going to get someone who is actually somewhat decent at making shadow puppets to film for the real thing...

Shadow Puppets and the 11 Second Club

Everytime I hear the phrase "shadow puppets" I think of this Aardman animation my brother and I watched a few years ago.
It looks like a Fireman chasing an igloo to me..



I've been looking up different types of shadow puppets(and reserved myself a tripod) this morning in preparation for the Experimental Project, I still need to get a piece of plastic or glass, but I plan to get them after our Character Animation Principles lesson tomorrow. So here's some research to look at:


Our second major project this term is to animate the November voice clip from the "11 Second Club" website. The 11 Second Club, for those who don't know, is a website that puts up a voice clip each month (which is around 11 seconds long, although this month's is actually 12 seconds), that anyone can animate to and submit their work onto the website for others to view and rate. You can use any technique you want to, although their are restrictions on the rigs you can use if you choose 3D, but the winners always seem to be hand-drawn or 3D pieces.

Obviously November's soundclip was only posted up yesterday, but I've already had a few ideas which I've made a few doodles of. Though I'm feeling rather protective of them at the moment, so I'll post them later on when it's developed into a fully fledged idea I'll work on rather than scribblings. Also, I don't want anyone to nab my ideas ;)

In more preparation for it, (it's like I'm a rocket that's been lit and suddenly my creativity and productiveness [if that's even a word] has returned in full force), I created my own dope sheets and broke down all of the soundclip for lip-sync, I'm thinking this will make storyboarding an awful lot easier (and I'm also going to try to break down the music for the Experimental project, although I think music will be harder to break down).

Experimental Ideas

I've been kind of neglecting blogging about this project, mainly because I had a lack of ideas for aaaages, and then when I had some, they weren't particularly good. But, this post is to show, that YES, I have actually been doing some work towards it. But more importantly, have now got an idea I want to start working with.

Some reject ideas:

My final idea:

Reminds me of this YouTube video I had a look at (though hopefully my cut-out parts will be animated better):


Camera set-ups for the final idea, the one on the left is how I thought I'd need to set things up, but after talking to Derek, the plan on the right was formed.


So now I need to buy a large piece of glass or plastic, tracing paper, potentially get a tripod and lots of black card/paper.
Work out the music on a dope sheet.
Film the hands.
Prepare the card.
And then animate it all.

I think I'm going to initially use animation paper & a lightbox to figure out my creatures metamorphis and movements.

Also, check out the new header/banner thing, made from lots of scanned in magazine-y bits, because I like collage and the old one was annoying me muchly.

Walking assignment and general experimental fail.

This week our assignment is to draw a character walking across the screen. My first idea was to practice using a model made out of paper, (I'm tempted to use cutout for some of our other projects), but it epically failed. My figure was too small and fiddly to use well and with no ghost image I was making it up (horrendously) as I went along... which resulted in a very wobbly, unrealistic and down right rage-inducing less than a second of pure fail.


After giving up on that idea rather swiftly I tried using the armature option in Flash, the video below is a simple test...


...Which led to this:

Both arms and legs are animated using Flash's armature tool, then converted into frame by frame to delete the terrible inbetweens it added. 12fps. No reference material other than an old walk cycle plan I did last year.