OUAN603 - Extended Practice: The Big Impressionism Research Haul

OUAN603 - Extended Practice:

The Big Impressionism Research Haul

What was Impressionism?

• Considered firstly distinctly modern movement in the art world
• It rejected the idea that the government controlled the exhibition of work in salons, which were a Paris biannual event
• The movement was shunned by prestigious art acadamies and institutes
• The Impressionists turned away from finer finishes and perfection and aimed to capture the impression of a piece, creating a sensory effect
• Many criticised the Impressionists as they felt their work was rough, amateur and unfinished

When and where did it take place?

• Start: Early 1870s to early 1890s
• Started developing in Paris in the 1860s 

Who were the major artists?

•  Camille Pissarro 
• Edouard Manet
• Edgar Degas
• Pierre-Auguste Renoir
• Berthe Morisot

Born: January 14, 1841 - Died: March 2, 1895

Berthe entered many of the prestigious "Salon de Paris" exhibitions and was highly spoken of, She was "described by Gustave Geffroy in 1894 as one of "les trois grandes dames" of Impressionism". She was a close friend and model of Manet, later marrying his brother. As a Christmas gift, Manet gave her an easel. Her paintings reflect the cultural and gender restrictions of the time, featuring women subjects and their daily lives. She was considered one of the great female pioneers of Impressionism which was controversial due to her gender (female artists were few and far between), and her choice of genre (Impressionism). 

•  Claude Monet

 Born: November 14, 1840 - Died: December 5, 1926 (Paris, France)

Monet was talented from a very young age, drawing caricatures and making pocket money from his art. His mother supported his decision to become and artist, however his father wanted him to inherit and take over the family grocery business.

Was Monet blind?

By 1907 he had painted many well-known paintings, but by then he had his first problem with his eyesight. He started to go blind. He still painted, though his eyes got worse. He wouldn't stop painting until he was nearly blind. In the last decade of his life Monet, nearly blind, painted a group of large water lily murals (Nympheas) for the Musee de l'Orangerie in Paris. - http://www.disabled-world.com/artman/publish/famous-blind.shtml

• Vincent Van Gogh (Post)

Born: March 30, 1853 - Died: July 29, 1890 (Netherlands)

Van Gogh was famously Bipolar, suffering from both manic and depressive episodes. Although his life was tumultuous and difficult, his illness inspired many of his great works of the post-impressionist era and influenced many future artists.

He was an avid drinker, often indulging in absinthe, kerosene, and turpentine. His hallucinations and experiences were possibly made worse by his impulsive behaviour and substance abuse, contributing to his paintings.

"In 1889 van Gogh committed himself to a mental hospital. He could barely take care of himself. He still continued to paint and painted one of his most famous paintings Starry Night. Many of his paintings during this time featured cypress trees and lots of swirling colors."

Did he really cut off his ear?

Yes. After an argument with painter Paul Gauguin, van Gogh went home and cut off part of his left ear with a razor blade. He then wrapped up the ear in a cloth and presented it to a woman as a "present".   He cut off "a portion of his right earlobe during a manic episode" - http://www.theartstory.org/artist-van-gogh-vincent-artworks.htm#pnt_2


What were the major works?

• Vetheuil in the Fog (1879) 
• In a Park (1874)
• (Post Impressionism) Starry Night (1889) (Painted whilst Gogh was in mental asylum) 

What were they trying to achieve?

• The Impressionists were trying to break away from the government's control over art and make a statement
• Abandon linear perspective and change their use of colours, opting for a lighter and more intense palette with thick, textured brushstrokes
• Stray away from the traditional styles and open the new century with an artistic revolution 

OUAN603 - Extended Practice: Copyrights

OUAN603 - Extended Practice:

Copyrights

It was inevitable that some images from each movement would need to be used in my animations to illustrate the piece and give it content, though copyright issues could arise from this. I needed to find a way to use images ideally that weren't under any copyright laws and were completely fine to use in my animation, of which is a non-profit educational piece.

The problem came with what would happen if a school or company ever contacted me in hope of using my animation, thus meaning possible profit and monetary benefits which would render some of the images unusable if they had strict laws on them. A good way to avoid running into any snags was to simply reference each image used underneath in a way that would be cohesive with the animation, and be sure to state who currently owns rights to the image. Further research lead me to this conclusion:

"Duration of Copyright

The International Berne Copyright treaty (Paris text 1971) states that copyright lasts until 50 years after the death of the author -- for countries that signed this treaty. European Community countries: artists rights societies and pay-per-view lobbies have unfortunately succeeded in raising this duration to 70 years after the artists death." - https://www.ibiblio.org/wm/about/copyright-issues.html




So, after the copright has run out, is the piece of work in the public domain, free to use as and when we please? If so, is it acceptable to use somebody else's photographs of a public domain artist's work as it cannot be considered a new rendition that has been altered enough to be a new piece of art?

Thoughts by Michael Greenhalgh about whether photographs of paintings should be classified in the public domain:

"There may be two copyrights: copyright in the artistic work (for example, a painting) and copyright in the photograph of the artistic work). You will generally need permission from the owner of copyright in the artistic work unless the copyright has expired. It is unlikely you need permission in relation to the photograph, if the photograph depicts nothing but the artistic work and is indistinguishable from other photographs of the same work. Otherwise, you will generally need permission from the owner of copyright in the photograph.

In other words, when someone photographs a painting of Van Gogh in a museum, producing a picture that is indistinguishable from other photographs of the same work, this cannot be considered an original art creation: it is precisely requested that the photographer annihilate his own personality to only mirror the artist’s own personality and reflect the artwork with maximum fidelity through the photograph. Thus, the photographer does not hold any copyright on the picture itself."


Okay, but what happens when a photographer of a public domain artist's work gets "stolen", despite the original work's copyrights not belonging to them in any way as they did not create the original piece? Well... 

http://www.vangoghgallery.com/ is a brilliant site set up by a man named David Brooks of which took him five years to fully develop. It features some of the rarities of Gogh's work, and took an incredible amount of effort for David to compile and collect scans and photographs for his audience. A short snippet from a New York Times article states how copyright breaching affected him:

"Last year, Mr. Brooks left his job at the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce to devote himself to the site full time. An Internet-based poster shop in Boston agreed to sponsor the site, and for the first time Mr. Brooks began earning a small amount of income from banner ads. He also entered into an agreement with a Dutch-based company named On-Site to publish his database as a CD-ROM. It looked like his dream of making a living as a van Gogh researcher was about to come true. 

That was until an e-mail message arrived last December, from a friend at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. ''She said, 'I found this Web site, and I think the person is using a lot of your material, you'd better have a look,' '' Mr. Brooks recalled. 

Mr. Brooks said he was flabbergasted to discover that all the art images and all the letters appeared to have been copied from his site and reposted on About Van Gogh Art (www.about-van-gogh-art.com), a commercial site that sells everything from van Gogh lunch boxes to reproductions painted in China. Mr. Brooks recognized much of the digital work as his own. 

''I probably have about 15 images that you simply can't find anywhere in color,'' he said, ''and I found them on this guy's Web site, the same size, pixel for pixel.'" - http://www.nytimes.com/2001/05/17/technology/when-the-art-s-public-is-the-site-fair-game.html?pagewanted=all

I want to avoid taking anyone's hard work for granted by not breaching any copyright laws and regulations. Sometimes projects that feature others' works, especially deceased artists', can be a bit of a minefield. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5ZmVheuxpo - Coot Cat Learns Fair Use was a really handy video for me regarding some of the opinions and issues regardinf "fair use". I may consider contacting the individual holders/owners of the pieces of work I will need to use in my animation to ask for their permission just in case, otherwise it was suggested I talk to someone in the gallery of the college.

OUAN603 - Extended Practice: Sound Design

OUAN603 - Extended Practice:

Sound Design

With regards to sound, I spent a good few hours online simply listening to all kinds of varied music, hoping to find something that would set off a little lightbulb in my head or give me that feeling when something "just clicks" and works with thw project. First of all, a backing track should be established, and seeing as I wanted one consistent piece of music that would be faded in and out on each of my three animations, it was difficult to imagine the perfect track. I visited plenty of "free to use" sites hoping I would come across something that would suit the audience and the purpose.

Eventually, I fell in love with a piece of Jewish-style "Klezmer" music, a clarinet-based style usually featured in commercials/adverts, parties, and documentaries. Most pieces in this genre are happy and uplifting, despite being considered as jazz which can often feel a bit too deep.Something like this would be ideal and reflects the historical feel whilst staying creative and fun. The music definitely brought a smile to my face as it feels, not to be disrespectful, quite silly and daft as the sound of a clarinet is "trumpy", almost a musical equivalent of passing wind... This would certainly amuse anybody, let alone young adults with a sense of humour!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXySfsSX6pg - Heiser Bulgar, Naftule Brandwein
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmGDTSTd__4 - The Happy Nigun : Let's Be Happy

Despite my love of these few tracks, I would need to somehow find a brilliant Klezmer track that was free to use in my project and wouldn't drop me into copyright problems.

http://www.purple-planet.com/fun-backgrounds/4586388999 - This site had some pretty good music that was free to use, so long as credit was given to the site. I may have a nosey around on here to see if there's anything suitable.

After discussing background sound with peers and tutors, it was decided that maybe music would be too overpowering and distract the audience from the main feature - the voice acting. I already had a fantastic collection of sound effects to use alongside the dialogue, so music would be too much and would also be extra unnecessary work considering I'd have to find a suitable musician that specialised in clarinets/Klezmer (very niche and difficult to find).

I acted on all the feedback I received and went against the idea of using background music. I now have a strong set of voice actors to work with, and a good sound effects library at hand. This will give the animation the charisma and life they need to captivate the audience.

OUAN603 - Extended Practice: Storyboards (Finalised)

OUAN603 - Extended Practice:

Storyboards (Finalised)

Impressionism

Dadaism

Surrealism

OUAN603 - Extended Practice: Scripting

OUAN603 - Extended Practice:

Scripting

One of the first tasks I would need to work on was of course the scripting. What is a good educational animation worth without a well-developed plot to keep the audience gripped and focused? A rough plotline I had stuck in my head was something along the lines of this:

Opening Sequences

(Title music, bright colourful, theme of graphics/2D shapes)

Scene One - Impressionism

Brief introduction to the movement, key dates and historical background. Mention of a few of the key figures, leading onto am introduction to Van Gogh (add in some fun facts such as correct pronunciation - humour can be added i.e "Imagine you've got something stuck in your throat and you're choking. Gogh sounds a little bit like a huge chunk of phlegm that you can't quite shift!" 

Character is established. Use character's puppet-like movement to make noises, point, and direct the audience to the information on-screen. Facial expressions and exaggerated animation can be used to entertain and add a certain appeal.

Scene Two - Surrealism

Follow the same idea of introduction > establishment of character > key facts > follow through onto next movement

Scene Three - Dadaism

Same theme of introduction > establishment > key information. Include a nice round-off scene where all three movements are talked about as a whole, introduce all three characters to the scene to conclude the animation.

Further Ideas

After much "umming and aahing" on a collective title for these animations, I decided to go for "Art in 60 Seconds" as it's snappy and to the point and gives me yet another goal: a sixty-second exact deadline! 

A rough draft of my scripts will be uploaded in due course.

OUAN603 - Extended Practice: Motion Tests (After Effects) - Extended Practice: Motion Tests (After Effects)

OUAN603 - Extended Practice:

Motion Tests (After Effects)


One of the main extensions I wanted to get my hands on for the initial testing phase was of course DUIK, a free add on to After Effects that some of the second years had used and I really liked the look of. I asked Mike kindly if he would get DUIK on at least one of the Macs so that I could do  short test before the research crit, however he hasn't yet spoken to the technicians about it so I'll have to wait and work around this.

DUIK, according to the second years who have used it, say it is easy to use and gives a really nice effect and makes the puppet tool really smooth and lovely. The motion is apparently better and there's a wide variety of stuff it can do. I will use DUIK over Easter as soon as I have created my nine puppets in Photoshop.

Get Duik:

http://duduf.net/index.php/products/after-effects/duik/download/

OUAN603 - Extended Practice: Initial Character Sketches

OUAN603 - Extended Practice:

Initial Character Sketches

OUAN603 - Extended Practice: Material Play & Rough Tests

OUAN603 - Extended Practice:

Material Play & Rough Tests

https://helpx.adobe.com/after-effects/how-to/adobe-character-animator.html (An interesting tutorial regarding the use of Adobe Character Animator)

http://blogs.adobe.com/aftereffects/2015/04/adobe-character-animator-revealed.html

https://helpx.adobe.com/after-effects/character-animator.html#Install%20Adobe%20Character%20Animator

The above links are some great sites I found on the Adobe Character Animator extension of Creative Cloud 2015. I was incredibly keen to try this out and have a play with the features and weigh up the pros and cons, comparing with frame by frame animation. However, after the meeting with the principal and her team, it was made apparant that due to Apple's operating system issues, CC2015 cannot run on the current system and thus will not be available anytime this academic year for me to or any others to use. So, in order to find a way around this, I ventured around looking for new methods of animating my puppets.

Feedback regarding the length and flow of my animation was questioned, and it was later suggested that three individual one-minute animations would be more appropriate for both me and the audience as (not to be patronising) it would hold their attention and they would "feel okay giving up a minute of their time". I feel that this would make the scripting easier as it will mean I do not have to have the characters interacting with one another and I focus wholly on their individual movements without having to create some kind of flow and connection between them all having one movement lead onto another. 

After having a short play with Character Animator in the mezzanine, it was decided that actually, it wasn't that suitable as the movement was very jerky and not in way that would be easy to pass off as the jerkiness of regular puppets. The program itself ran quite slowly and had a myriad of errors and problems. I also wondered about how my voice actors would possibly be able to act in front of a webcam in their home studios with their own copy of character animator using my own pre-made puppets on one collective file sent out to them so that they could record their facial expressions and movement. It all seemed to complex and a bit silly and unreasonable. I abandoned the idea of Character Animator and instead moved onto the idea of either using the regular built-in puppet tool in After Effects or a free extension called DUIK that allowed you to create more realistic movements that take into account the natural restrictions that our bodies have, such as the way our bones can't bend past a certain degree. I plan to play with these a bit more and decide on the most appropriate.

OUAN603 - Extended Practice: A Look into The Movements

OUAN603 - Extended Practice:

A Look into The Movements

"Art History Timeline for Dummies"

Impressionism (1865–1885)

Capturing fleeting effects of natural light

Monet, Manet, Renoir, Pissarro, Cassatt, Morisot, Degas

Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871); Unification of Germany (1871)

Post-Impressionism (1885–1910)

A soft revolt against Impressionism

Van Gogh, Gauguin, Cézanne, Seurat

Belle Époque (late-19th-century Golden Age); Japan defeats Russia (1905)

Dada and Surrealism (1917–1950)

Ridiculous art; painting dreams and exploring the unconscious

Duchamp, Dalí,    Ernst, Magritte, de Chirico, Dali

Disillusionment after World War I; The Great Depression (1929–1938); World War II (1939–1945) and Nazi horrors; atomic bombs dropped on Japan (1945)

Source: http://www.theartstory.org/section_movements_timeline.htm

 

 

http://www.theartstory.org/section_movements_timeline.htm

http://www.theartstory.org/section_movements_timeline.htm

http://www.theartstory.org/section_movements_timeline.htm

OUAN603 - Extended Practice: Statement of Intent

OUAN603 - Extended Practice:

Statement of Intent

As a means of finalising our ideas and committing to our chosen projects, we each filled out a statement of intent. This meant that whatever we had chosen to do, it was written as proof and there was no backing out or changing our plans. This was quite daunting as I have a terrible habit of getting bored with ideas so very easily. Commitment is a big thing and with something as unpredictable as my animation skills (things can quickly go from bad to worse!) it was an idea I had to be sure of.

After writing up and submitting, I could now be clear that my project was on its way and I could get on with the research and development stage confidently. I was unsure about where I stood as after the briefing in October, not much work has been done to further the project as Context of Practice got in the way massively and there was much panic about what needed to be done Extended-wise.

Our statement asked us if we were to be working with anybody or taking on any contributions for our projects. Although I am not working on anybody else's as of yet, (there may be some small input if anyone needs and asks for my help i.e research, contacting people on behalf of others, production-type work?) I have asked Rosy is she would kindly consider helping me out with a short title sequence as she is also working in After Effects and has a fantastic, punchy, graphic-design-type style that would really work with my target audience. Below is the email I sent her proposing a collaboration:

Hi Rosy,

You mentioned that you were taking on a couple of briefs for your Extended Practice regarding title sequences and I'd be really grateful if you could consider my animation for a title sequence please?

I'm working on a 3-5 minute educational graphic-design-stylised short about the History of Major Art Movements. I've chosen to create animations for Impressionism, Surrealism, and Dadaism, creating three puppet-like characters (one for each movement) that will narrate and talk about each respective art style. The target audience is high school students of around 13-18 years old, so bright colours, funky text, and anything fun will fit perfectly! I'm using After Effects for my animation and think your style is perfect and will look great with my piece. (I'm after that clean, 'graphicy' look that you're really good at!)

Personally, my animation will be a mix between the style of Horrible Histories, Little Big Planet (texturised, 2D shapes with bright colours), and Terry Gilliam's Monty Python works. My opening sequence aims to be very short, about 10-20 seconds long at most. I'm really keen on the old "Art Attack" opening too.  

I completely understand if you've taken a few on already and don't have enough time, so don't worry if you can't accept it. If you want any more info, let me know too. 

Cheers,

Grace :)

OUAN603 - Extended Practice: Research & Development (Mood Boards)

OUAN603 - Extended Practice:

Research & Development Boards

Below are some mood boards exploring the kind of style I would like to go for. Over the next few weeks, I will be developing some of my own backgrounds, texturised shapes, and colour schemes to test out whether or not this style is right for the project and if it works.

(Click the title of the board, shown in grey, to view the full board)

Follow Groose's board Extended Practice - Style Guide on Pinterest.

As I mentioned elsewhere, I have drawn heavily from things such as Terry Gilliam's Monty Python animations, Horrible Histories, Little Big Planet, and various graphic designers. I aim for a textured-looking 2D animation with a hint of shadow, bright colours, and a clean, crisp look.

OUAN603 - Extended Practice: Research & Development

OUAN603 - Extended Practice:

Research & Development (a look into style)

After having a basic idea of what I wanted to do, I took out some books from the library on the different art movements I was going to use in my animation. I chose books on Impressionism, Surrealism, and Dadaism simply because I felt that they flowed nicely from one another and followed a similar theme of going against the grain and rebelling against popular art at the time. I did some research on whether or not these styles are still taught about in high school art classes, and found not surprisingly that nothing has changed subject-wise since I left school, which was incredibly handy as I could use my own experiences and those of people around me of a similar age to understand how art class was for them and what could be done to improve and make the lessons more interesting - of which inspired me to create a fun, educational animated short regarding major art movements. 

For a few weeks I have been thinking very much about style, and what I would like my animation to look and feel like. With my target audience being young adults, I wanted to focus heavily on aesthetic and the way in which I can make my piece look appealing whilst holding their attention. With younger teens, there has to be a lot more work involved in holding their attention, though not so much as primary school ages, so I had to bear in mind when choosing colours and any other details.

I've drawn inspiration quite heavily from Little Big Planet, as that came to mind when thinking of an engaging and fun style to accompany my piece. I was aiming for an After Effects-based look somewhere between Terry Gilliam's Monty Python works (think moving mouths in a very puppet-like motion) mixed with very 2D, flat-looking, heavily textured and brightly coloured pieces from LBP (Little Big Planet), with the feel and humour of Horrible Histories! I was very excited to bring these ideas to life, so I started out by creating some mood boards of possible "looks". I'm very interested in a faux cut-out animation, using After Effects to create subtle shadows on 2D textured shapes, and the puppet tool to create brilliant characters of which will narrate their corresponding art movement. 

OUAN603 - Extended Practice: Creating a Texture Portfolio

OUAN603 - Extended Practice:

Creating a Texture Portfolio

To begin the next part of my research, material play and testing, I would need to find some suitable textures that could be manipulated and played with in After Effects to give the effect of a "Little Big Planet" world. These would need to be soft, fluffy, not too heavy. and brightly coloured (although some could be edited) to achieve this).

I started out by looking on free stock image websites that supplied free textures for use in personal projects and videos, so long as credit to tjhe site is given. I found this lovely site: TextureMate
The site featured all kinds of realisitic textures, though many of which were not suitable as they were far too "grungey" and miserable-looking.

If I need a special kind of texture, I plan to take photographs of interesting textures I find out and about, for instance, the bark of trees, different cloth textures, floor tiles, even grass! Anything bright and dynamic will be useful.

To prove that all these textures are acceptable for use in my project, I took a little look at artist's info:

Do you require any credit given if I use a texture in my commercial product?  No, not at all! Although appreciated, it is not required. Enjoying the site and spreading the word among your colleagues about where to get free textures is enough! I always love to see my textures or brushes used in your finished product!

Below is an example texture from the site above. I like the roughness and dynamic feel it gives, so I may use this in my testing pieces to see if it works. I will also try changing the colours around a bit to see if I can make it a little more cheery!

The Decision

After much playing around with other people's pre-scanned textures, I didn't feel that any of them were really what I was after and didn't give the exact texture I was looking for. I went to the local market, hunted around my flat, and borrowed found materials to scan in and use as overlays in Photoshop. The look I was aiming for was slightly textured paper. Enough to make the shapes jump off the screen, but not too much to detract from the fact that the animation will be 2D pieces. I was after that cutout aesthetic and felt that online free textures weren't really doing it for me. 

Here are some omy final few textures that I will overlay in my animations:

OUAN603 - Extended Practice: Initial Ideas Mood Board (Rationale)

OUAN603 - Extended Practice:

Intial Ideas Mood Board

(Click the title of the board, shown in grey, to view the full board)

Follow Groose's board Extended Practice - History of Art on Pinterest.

After gathering useful photographs of the artists I initially thought I'd be drawing, studying, and creating as puppets for my animation, along with some tutorials on caricature, interesting graphic design ideas for each movement, and some of the artists' works to really get a feel for each movement, I took the mood boards along to my next tutorial. It was after the feedback that we came to the decision that Pop Art wouldn't really be a successful and innovative movements to add to the animation. Whilst I was thinking purely about movements which featured artists with notorious faces, Andy Warhol, Van Gogh, Salvador Dali) the feedback I received was helpful in the sense that it would make more sense, especially educationally, to choose three movements that linked well with each other and connected in another way, in our case, the rebellion against the art of the time. This made much more sense rather than simply picking faces that stood out and not thinking about the wider purpose of the project - to educate on a consistent level.

So, after the useful feedback, it was decided that Impressionism should come first, followed by Surrealism, followed by Dadaism. With that kind of flow, it would help with keeping the audience's attention and allow the viewers to understand that there's a pattern going on. I then researched some of the most popular artists within Dadaism and of course thought instantly of Marcel Duchamp (of whom although is not directly linked with the Dada movement and is more of a Cubist by definition, started an avant-garde, nonsensical movement as a means of uprising after the war, which definitely falls into a Dada sort of theme!)

I discovered that Duchamp actually did have a very distinguishing face, so I was even more accepting of using him in my project as I knew he would be fun to draw and create, but would stand out and have striking features, making him more memorable from an educational standpoint - young people often remember information better visually, so having a memorable face will hopefully allow a large amount of my audience to retain the information better. Horrible Histories executes (no pun intended) this well!