Steve Dee model making project

To begin this project we were shown a piece of work that Steve had built the models for. We were then given our brief to create a similar piece using house hold products. After discussion with Kate we came up with the idea of building a piece that was a hero and villain fight scene, for the hero Kate decided to use a bottle of washing liquid cut down with the idea of a small but mighty character. For my character I had the idea of using cans because I had a large amount of these and they stack so I would be able to create a large chracter out of the many smaller ones. The character designs I began with started very basic with little change being made to the can. I then began to develop this idea with a suggestion from Kate to cut and unfold the can and slice this to give the character more movement and the addition of legs. I then researched bacteria because this is what I am basing my character on, there were many different images and types of bacteria but they all had characteristics in common which were hair like structures around the cell with longer flagella on the bottom, they all had a loose chromosome plasmid and ribosome's. My next development in the design of my character was to incorporate these characteristics to my cans, I experimented with different ways of  opening up the can to expose the inside.

 I thought the best way to do this was the second image because it offers more movement with each strip being able to be moved separately. I next worked on ways of making the cans more resemble bacteria by adding more detail inside the can.

This image shows these additions hanging inside the can, I chose to keep these details 3 dimensional rather than drawn to give it more depth. I decided to move away from this though because it just didnt fit how me and Kate were imagining the piece, we both envisioned the pieces being quite insect like living together in a hole and coming together at the end to for one creature, for this I decided a can like the ones above on its side would be better so it could scuttle.

My focus now was on colour, I wanted to characters to appear to be mucky, villainous and be able to be linked to bacteria,  one way to do this would be to colour the cans using paint. Another idea I had was to collage with parts of cans so various logos and colours would be present within each piece, I like this idea because it changes the texture of the cans and also the different colours help to represent the frantic movement and feeling I wanted to create in these characters.

This is the beginning of the collaged  piece, I made this with super glue witch I found wasn't as affective as I had hoped, it did not hold the piece together well and took a long time to bond the metal together which when sticking many pieces like this to create one character is not useful. A good thing with super glue is that it also sticks me to the cans and the piece is left with many fingerprints and dried patches witch added texture and helped to elaborate on the mucky way I wanted to portray the character. After adding wire to the bottom for legs the character was finished. 

during filming after we had completed all the scenes with the smaller singular bacteria  had to attach them all together to create a larger monster to try and defeat the knight. this character was just all the bacteria already created overlapped at the ends to make a long centipede like character

The story for a piece had a few minor changes throughout as we developed our work, we began initially with  rough idea wanting to base it on a knight and monster type story, we developed this a little but had to make a slight change to compensate for the addition of another character, however this character was not created so we story boarded again without this character, this was not a problem though a re story boarding helped us to develop the story and rethink aspects of it. 

When it came to actually animating the piece it began as a rough process, my models had been thrown away by a flatmate so I had to quickly rebuild them luckily they are not complicated pieces to build so this was not as big an issue as it could have been, after this we built the set, this was a cave built out of a plastic bag with wire in the top to open it like a mouth  we used some hair rollers fashioned into trees, this was a good set it did what we needed it too

one second a week, wish you were here

As this week contains Halloween my first thoughts for were based around this, however I was not sure what to actually animate for this and was struggling to find inspiration for my work. For my Halloween costume I purchased a large pumpkin which I hollowed out carved and wore on my head. it was not until after this was done and I again mentioned to my flat mates my difficulties in creating an idea that someone suggested to me that I should have photographed the process of me carving the pumpkin, I really like this idea  but it came too late so I cannot do this, however i may buy a pumpkin now they are cheap and then do this and use the flesh after to make food so it is a win win situation. This week I have also been getting my flatmates into Pink Floyd and Gerald Scarfe who had a massive influence on my work last year. This resulted in us watching a documentary about the making of the album "wish you were here". It was from listening to this music watching the videos created by Scarfe that made me decide to take my inspiration from the iconic album art of the wish you were here album. The two men shaking hands whilst one is on fire is where I began, I planned at first to have the flames leap up from the ground leaving behind the man. This left the problem of introducing the other man, one idea was to have the flames create both men but only one is on fire on the artwork so i was not happy about this. the second idea was to have the man walk in but in just a second to make him come in and shake hands seemed a bit fast so I decided to have the image as a still and have the fire on the one man whip around him as it burned. This is the idea that I decided to use and began by drawing out the image of the two men for the first layer. I used photoshop to create this animation because it allows me to use colour relatively quickly and is a program I am still getting to grips with so am enjoying using. I next created the fire on separate layers and created a new layer for each frame of the piece so I could easily put it into timeline and animate it.

photography project

The aim of this project is to portray certain emotions and express film genres using raw unedited photographs. The themes were Happy, Sad, Tense, Curious, Busy, Calm and Quiet, A Storm Approaching, Autumn, Film Noir, Comedy, Pulp Fiction, Action and Horror. We had a short tutorial about creating depth of field and different camera settings to make areas of the photograph in the fore and background appear out of focus and the subject of the photograph remain in focus and then we hired a camera and began. As it was the first day we were all new to the brief and still generating ideas so myself and Dec decided to walk into town and just take photographs as opportunities presented themselves rather than trying to create scenes. When I returned to my flat I had some of my flatmates pose and act whilst I photographed them this photos are obviously posed for rather than natural but express the emotions well so I kept them, I then spent the rest of the night getting accustomed to the camera and focusing on different subjects for practice. I convinced a flatmate to come to Blackpool on Wednesday because I thought this could present me with opportunities to get plenty of different themes, the weather wasn't good so this was good for the storm approaching. For these photographs I turned the exposure down to darken the photos making them almost black and white with just hints of colour in it, these photographs look like they have been edited but this is because of how the weather and lighting was on the day, many of the photos from this day portray a storm approaching the two best in my opinion were photos of the pier with a very choppy sea and darkened sky around it and rain drops on the window of the train on the journey home.

For happy Ii decided to use a photograph that I took of an unsuspecting flatmate as he spoke with his girlfriend, I decided to use this because he didn't know I was taking the photo so it is a natural pose.

For sad I used a photograph of a memorial with poppy wreaths on it as I feel death really sums up sadness.

For tension I took a photograph of Laura playing on a grabbing machine because this is tense in the sense that she does not know whether she will be successful or not and it is also tense because the teddy is hanging from the machine.

For curious I had Laura look over the barriers and gaze into the distance this I feel shows curiosity as she wonders what lies before her hidden by the stormy surface of the water.

For busy I photographed jenny working at her desk surrounded by here laptop and papers, I also took photos of crowded streets and people preparing meals but I felt this picture best described busyness.

For calm and quiet I went to the library with Dec as this is a quiet learning area with little commotion and provided a perfect setting for this theme.

For Autumn I used fallen leaves as my subject.

Black and white photographs seemed to be the best way I could interpret film noir using the old pier arch and seating as my subject.

For comedy I decided to use the classic banana skin with someone walking towards it as I thought most people will easily make this connection between it and the comedy theme.

for pulp fiction I took a photos of my flatmates smoking outside looking serious with a darkened exposure looking very much like they were from a film or novel.

For action I decided to have my flatmates perform various tasks like handstands and cartwheels, I wanted to photograph Cam and Jenny doing a handstand and cartwheel simultaneously but Can went too early, however I like this because now it looks like Jenny is being chased by Cam on his hands and it captures the action pretty well.

The final theme was horror and for this waited until it was very late and climbed over and under to an old railway bridge near my accommodation, I then photographed the two tall archways where the lines would have run because of the darkness of the photo it is very difficult to make out the subject adding to the horror theme where you do not know what lies ahead

walk cycles

This project with Mario was about basic walk cycles, the aim was to produce a walk cycle from the side and front and the walk cycle of a quadruped. To start this brief Mario first showed us an example of what he wanted us to produce, he used Photoshop to do this to demonstrate another program available for us to use to animate. We started with the basic parts of a walk, each step has 5 points the two contacts, the pass and the two in-betweens which are the down and up. The first part of the sequence we started with was the contacts, at this point both feet are on the ground and this makes up the beginning and end of a step. The next drawing is the pass, this is in-between the two contacts with the character on one leg the other leg passing it. Between contact 1 and the pass is the first in-between, this is the down, at this point the character has the leading foot firmly planted and the other just about to leave the ground, both knees are bent and the characters head and torso are slightly lower than the previous frame. The second in-between is the frame after the pass and before contact 2 this position is the highest in the sequence with the character being on one leg and standing on their toes leaning in the direction of motion to move forward the passing leg is now in front of the weight bearing leg. Mario drew each one of the frames in a separate layer on Photoshop, changing the opacity of them to create an onion skin so he could judge each drawing as he made it, he then went to the timeline at the bottom of the screen and made each layer a frame to view his work. Using Photoshop was not compulsory so i decided to draw my work on paper and photograph it to create my piece. I began by drawing out the full sequence which is two steps to see how each frame looks in relation to all the others, I then marked all my pages with a base line so I had a reference point for my character to walk along. Because I had already drawn each frame on the same sheet when drawing the sequence I traced each step and moved it to its own separate page for each frame. For the front view I used the Animators Survival Kit and videos to see how the body bends during a step, for this sequence I decided to do both a male and female character to see the separate characteristics of each walk. A female walks with her legs very close together and crossing over slightly walking as if on a tightrope, her hips moving more than a males whereas a male walk tends to be with the feet wider apart the shoulders twisting more than a females does. The final sequence was a quadruped, for this I chose to do a squirrel as it coincided with national red squirrel week so I could also use this sequence for my one second a week project. I used videos and Muybridge's work to visualise this piece and then draw each frame, because this movement is slightly different to a walk rather than creating it using contacts and in-betweens I decided to just draw the frames in the linear order that that occur.

one second a week inverting man

My initial source of inspiration for this weeks animation was going to come from the news that there had been an new piece of information regarding Madeline Maccann's disappearance. For this I was going to have a man carrying away a child. However when I was seeking other sources of inspiration and questioning my flatmates it was put to me that I could have a person bending over as earlier in the week I had managed to lean backwards into a crab. I decided to take this and change it so it was a person leaning backwards into themselves and then unfolding from the other side. This movement is difficult to describe with words although I managed to visualise it and then draw a basic idea down which is now in my second a week sketchbook. I then started by just drawing a man from a 3/4 profile, I started like this because we have been doing gesture drawing this week so it seemed comfortable to do. Being able to clearly visualise the movement and how I wanted it appear on the paper really helped me with this piece as I began to draw. I could clearly see what I wanted to happen and knew whether each drawing was successfully moving in the direction I wished or needed editing without having to create the animation and watch it back. I stuck to just black fine line drawings for this piece as it was already a complicated and strange movement and I didn't want it to become too overpowering and begin to draw attention away from what was actually happening, so leaving colour out of it seemed like the best. I decided to have two cycles of this because it gives time for the movement to register, i also keep it on repeat for this reason when viewing it.

one second a week Mad Hatter

The inspiration for this pieces has come from the hatter from Alice adventures in wonderland, this is because it has been mad hatter day during this week and this seemed as good a source of inspiration as any. I started by drawing the large hat and then large mad looking eyes, I also thought the hatter should have an overly large and disturbing smile. In all I decided the way to make this character appear mad was to have his features excessively big. I also used colour in this piece and this played a part in creating the mad persona, I used yellow and orange for the eyes quite pale skin and a red toned hat with dark areas to make it look tattered and parts which appear torn. I drew up this character and then cut it out to use as a puppet for a stop motion animation, I decided to do this because the character was coloured and redrawing it would have been difficult, also I wanted to use coloured ink splats in the background but as I didn't have any I used black ink which when mixed and allowed to run with water separates into its constituents. I think this may be better than the different coloured inks as it gives a busy but dark background which emphasises the colours in the foreground so doesn't take anything away from the hatter. Having cut out the character I cut out its eyes and hat separately, I also placed a teacup on the head of the hatter and put a slit in the hat so it could slide underneath and appear to be being unveiled. As I animated this I changed the background between the ones I had created so it flashed, I also rolled the eyes in different directions and raised and lowered the hat so the teacup was briefly visible and for a couple of frames had the eyes and face disappear in turn, this was effective when working slowly animating but after being sped up and viewed full speed it makes the animation seem a little more jumpy like a frame is skipping or something, I think if I had just made the eyes disappear this would have been more effective. I am happy with this piece though because when seeking feedback from my flat mates I was told by one that he couldn't handle it which is how i wanted to make this although I only wanted it to be strange not unbearable.

one second a week squirrel

This week has been national red squirrel awareness week so I decided to use this as my inspiration for my work. I started this by drawing some sketches of how the squirrel might appear, it was also suggested to me that I could have a grey and red squirrel boxing so symbolise how the grey has taken over the red squirrel in its habitat. I sketched this idea out but I was not happy with the way it looked because it seemed to me to be quite a childlike visualisation. As we have been studying work cycles with Mario I decided to also incorporate this into my work too, the project with Mario required us to create a walk cycle for a quadruped so for this I used the squirrel and then used this animation for both projects. I used a squirrel running rather than walking as a squirrels is more typically seen running or skipping and rareley walking. First I visualised the movement and watched videos of squirrels walking and running to refresh my mind and stimulate my imagination of this sequence. I also looked at Muybridge's studies of animals and people which helped to determine how many frames to have in one of the squirrels leaps. After I had done this I began to draw beginning with a hunched position ready to spring forward, I then opened up the body and the squirrel extended creating momentum and leaving the floor, holding its position flat in the air and then coming down in an arc with its front feet making contact first, the back legs follow this motion and land in front of the front feet so it is then hunched and ready to spring again. In this way the squirrel is always readying itself for the next jump and can also be played on a loop. I drew the rough sketches for this in my walk cycles book and then traced these and neatened them up using fine liner to put into my one second a week sketch book. For the walk cycle I had the squirrel move across the page however when I neatened it I kept it in the same spot on the page so it appears to be running on the spot or the camera is panning with it.

one second a week week 2. finding my feet

This project is challenging because it requires you to convey a message and relay information in a very short period of time. As this week has been the first proper week of classes not the induction week I thought an appropriate title and theme would be finding me feet. Initially my idea was to have a person reaching above their head trying to grab papers as they passed by. This was to represent all this new information and experiences going over my head and myself having to work to grasp it. I still like this idea and may return to it at a later date. However for this week I decided instead to draw a pair of shoes and have the owner search for them, I made an observational drawing of the shoes and was happy with the outcome but I did not know how to execute the person. In my test I had them with a blind stick and also crawling, I had wanted them crawling or dragging themselves along however I chose to have them sat and looking side to side. I still struggled with this even though I used a stick figure. I was going to leave the face blank but decided to add features and hair just so it was easier to give the impression that the head was turning and searching.

bouncing balls project

This project continues to look at timing and motion but also introduces squash and stretch to give a better expression of emotion and character to an object. We used the program Maya which alloys you to create key frames and will animate the movement in-between, you can still create each frame yourself if you wish but there is no need to most of the time. The subject of our work was a sphere and the initial work was creating movement similar the falling blocks project then further developing it. We were introduced to the 3 parts of a movement, the initial pause to build up apprehension for the upcoming action, the action or movement, and then the recover or post action afterwards. For a jumping ball the was a squash a stretch and then another squash. the ball would squash to appear to be preparing for the jump, as it jumped it would stretch to give the impression it is trying to gain height, a smaller squash at the top of the jump similar to a tuck just helps to give more life to the movement and after the ball falls down a squash to recover and compose itself. After the initial jumps we experimented with others incorporating sideways movement and twists and then an interaction. I did encounter problems after introducing sideways movement and had to add key-frames to certain points in order to stop the ball moving at unwanted times. A good thing I found when using this program is that it allows you to study the graphs showing particular axis and certain stretch, movement and rotation of each which can be separately viewed this was extremely beneficial to study for correcting areas within the animations when something was wrong but it was difficult to work out what exactly or how to rectify it.

falling blocks project

This project is to help us get our heads around timing. We used flash to animate because it is fast and gives results straight away which is most beneficial when learning because instant feedback means you can edit your work and test new areas. Our main aim was to give character to an expressionless block bearing in mind that these techniques will continue to be used throughout the course and our futures in the subject.
  The first tests revolved around a linear movement on a flat plane having the square move from side to side with equal spacings between frames so the movement was  uniform. I experimented with different sized spacings gradually increasing them so the block moved faster until I found the popping point at which point the block no longer appears to move and just seems to disappear and reappear.The second test was based on acceleration and using increasingly larger or smaller distance of movement between frames so the block appears to be increasing and decreasing in speed. From this point on I have been surprised at the amount of physics from A-level I have called upon to assist my work. Having experimented with acceleration we applied what we had learnt to a pendulum. This uses the same principles but works on a curved plane rather that a linear horizontal plane. Changing the rate of acceleration on the block gave the impression that the block had different masses and that gravity was affecting the differently. During this test I used a large amount of my time on one animation trying to make the block appear to naturally slow down and come to a stop resting underneath the fulcrum, this was a challenge that I enjoyed and helped to summarise my acceleration work.
The final test was to make the block fall on a vertical plane and upon hitting a base line take on the qualities of a bouncing ball, a cannon ball, an apple and a balloon. the first two of these were not overly complicated because it was easy to visualise in my head how these would fall. I found with these test that the easier it was to imagine the movement the easier it was to recreate on the screen, sound also played a large part in helping me to produce these pieces as I could imagine the noises that would be produced when the objects were dropped. A bouncing ball I found to be similar to the pendulum gradually coming to a stop each bounce losing height, however this wok is only on a vertical plane not a curved one. A cannon ball would come to an abrupt stop with very little bouncing afterwards. An apple I managed as it lies somewhere between the two bouncing less than a ball but more than a cannon ball. The balloon I had problems with I had a tendency to make it float in the air too long when it does accelerate towards the floor quite fast, I also had a problem with the period of time and number of bounces afterwards. I thought about it and then watched a video of a balloon falling and noted its springy material this would mean on contact with the floor it would bounce and accelerate quite fast but because of its light weight it would have a low momentum so would loose speed quite fast and would fall towards the ground slower than it gained height. After a great deal of experimentation I was happy with the movement and finished the work.

One Second A Week: Week One

The one second a week project is to create a weekly animation with its inspiration stemming from current events or our own experiences from the week. The first week took place during freshers so naturally my inspiration came from the over consumption of alcohol. I started this with an observational drawing of a bottle a bout 3/4 full I used pen to outline the work and fine liner dispersed with water to colour it along with water colour pencils. I then proceeded to redraw this bottle each time with  smaller amount of liquid inside it to empty it. Hand drawing and colouring these was quite time consuming but I am happy with the outcome of this work.