OUAN505 - Applied Animation - Production: Discussing Roles

OUAN505 - Discussing Roles:

In order to make our project more organised, we worked out certain roles between us and who would like more practice and experience with certain aspects of the post-production. We decided amongst us that Alex would work on the title sequence which was simply the opening of curtains combined with an overlay of text quite possibly splitting and sliding off screen along with the curtains. David would work on the end credits of which would consist of small animations or images of each character surrounded by a bounding circle which would move onto screen and display the end credit text in a sequence of roles followed by the specific people who engaged in them.

Seeing as our soundtrack sounded a little unenthusiastic and blues-like, a fellow offered to give it a trial run and sing for us on Monday. Katy happily agreed to volunteer and sing our lyrics over a backing track of which we were very pleased about. This will then require minimal editing of which can be done in the space of a day.

I will be working on the poster aspect of the post-production of our project. This will require me to have a good knowledge of graphic design of which I am keen to work on. I am also very fond of working in Illustrator which will be a fun and beneficial task for me. We all work in a fairly consistent style and communicate appropriately to get all three aspects done on time and in the right style.

OUAN505 - Applied Animation - Production: A Song of Type and Titles

OUAN505:  A Song of Type and Titles:


To help us understand type and titles a little bit more as we have merely scratched the surface of what vast knowledge lies within graphic design, we were given a session on playing with type and how this could benefit out project for Applied Animation. I now have a rough understanding of kerning, leading, typing on a path, what fonts make for good projects and why, connotations behind certain fonts, and so forth.

I'm currently reading a book called Typography by Harris/Ambrose which is actually quite useful in giving me a recap on the things Annabeth taught us. My ideas for our title sequence were things like 'The Good Life' title sequence where quite blocky text is revealed around an object (could be a piece of fruit or veg to relate to the band). 'Eating Healthy with HiVit' has a nice ring to it.

There are also some useful websites such as

OUAN505 - Applied Animation - Production: Set So Far

OUAN505 - Set So Far:

Our next step is to hook up the curtains on the front, neaten the whole thing up and make sure everything is stable, create the microphone, fix up the recording song of which might be recorded again due to apparent 'lack of enthusiasm', and recreate the strawberry as David wasn't happy with the stability of her.

OUAN503 - Responsive - Individual Practice - Study Task 3: Evaluation

OUAN503 - Evaluation:

OUAN503 – Responsive Evaluation

This module has been a particularly tedious and soul-wrenching experience for myself and everybody I have had the fortune to meet regarding Responsive over the past few months. It can be agreed by many that the workload was constant with little or no regards to what other modules we were undertaking at the time and I find that in fact affected the quality and quantity of my work overall.

However, it was particularly enjoyable to be given the freedom to choose what live briefs we were able to respond to. Independence and choice was a privilege in this module and allowed me to find areas of practice of which I was capable of and will help me in the future. In terms of time management it was obvious that I struggled with some of the larger briefs such as YCN and DANDAD. This was genuinely because of a high workload in other modules and partially lack of enthusiasm as longer briefs tended to lose my attention span very quickly whereas shorter competition briefs were more manageable and easier to juggle between other aspects of the course.

Standard of work was also an issue as I felt that feedback often wasn’t substantial enough for me to find areas of improvement in my work thus leading me to leave my work at – in my opinion – at a very low standard. In order for Responsive to improve as a whole, the requirement of constructive feedback must be made clearer as I received a lot of pointless feedback such as ‘you need to improve this’ and ‘this isn’t very good’. Some peers did give me very critical and helpful feedback of which I was grateful for, however some comments like the ones mentioned did nothing for me or my work.

In order for me to improve when responding to live briefs in the future, I feel that keeping a better, more obvious schedule or plan would be helpful as I would benefit greatly from better time management on my behalf as there was often to the temptation to ‘leave work unfinished’ which was due to boredom of that particular brief. To overcome that boredom, setting a better time plan would force me to work on those dedicated days and the quicker I try and get a brief done the better as it would not drag over weeks and induce my lack of interest.

Responsive was definitely the most difficult module I have experienced so far mainly due to amount of briefs that we were asked to undertake. I found it very daunting at the start when told that a minimum of five live briefs was the requirement. After completing five briefs it actually became quite addictive and a positive experience as I found that learning new skills and communicating with new professionals was exciting and encouraging.

An area of improvement for future collaborations would be to work outside my comfort zone and not necessarily opt for members of the group I am familiar with. In our collaborative practice brief, I found it difficult to approach members of the Illustration group as I was not aware of their personality compatibility, skillset, or interest. An introductory session would have been highly beneficial to all of us as it would have given us the opportunity to get to know everybody briefly before choosing who we were going to work with. In the real world you will often talk at least once to a possible work partner before being thrown into an agreement or project with them. I feel that this was not available to us and seeing as some of struggle with social encounters (myself included), it would have given us all a confidence boost knowing that being in a room full of strangers is not so daunting anymore.

 All in all, I feel that this was a rewarding yet challenging module – of which it was expected to be in the first place – that I found to be helpful in preparing me for future briefs and different means of tackling them. I thought brief analysis was particularly beneficial to my responsive work as it enabled me to select and work out target audiences, what needed to be achieved, how, and in what context. I wish never to stumble upon a module like responsive again alongside any other work I may be doing, however I definitely saw the positives to such a negative part of the year.

OUAN503 - Responsive - Individual Practice - Study Task 3: Project Report

OUAN503 - Project Report:

In order to correctly document all of the briefs I have taken part in over the course of Responsive, we were asked to create a project report. I found this very therepeutic as it helped me to organise everything I had done instead of being some form of spaghetti junction floating around in my head of which I struggled to remember. I created my report in PowerPoint as a means of not only completing one of the module outcomes, but as a means of organising my work and myself into a neat and tidy journal of my time with Responsive.

Below is a link to my project report if the below embedded version doesn't work. OUAN503 - Responsive Project Report - Grace Elmer

OUAN503 - Responsive - Individual Practice: LoopDeLoop Storyboarding

OUAN503 - LoopDeLoop:

Seeing as there was not enough time to actually create my LoopDeLoop animation, I decided that the best option would be to create a storyboard and finish the animation as part of PPP instead to at least show that I am able to create it from my storyboard. Having to juggle lots of modules and work around along with personal life and events is quite difficult so I will at least get a storyboard churned out for this brief.

After waiting a week for the bimonthly theme to be released, 'Gravity' was decided on. I feel this is a very strong theme that can spawn lots of ideas and possible animations. I wrote down everything that came to mind as soon as I read the word gravity and came up with a long list of ideas from things that could happen in space to animations that could possibly break the laws of gravity here on Earth. I wanted to go for cute and quirky as I usually find this is appealing to a younger audience. I thought about creating a couple (at most as I didn't want to overcrowd such a short animation) of characters that would instantly be funny and loveable that would some way interact with the environment to show how gravity affects them.

It took a long while to think of what objects would look successful if animated in space until I finally thought about how toasters and toast would react on the moon. Toast could make for an interesting couple of characters and the toaster could act as a propeller of animation - it would trigger the event which would then turn into a loop.

My final idea is that a toaster will be featured on the moon of which will then 'ping' and release two slices of toast of which will float into space and proceed to put on helmets whilst flailing their arms around helplessly. As they put on the helmets they will float up and off the screen as a new 'moon' is shown with another toaster on it. They take off the helmets and float back into the toaster on the new moon. This will then loop. I have the ability to show gravity whilst adding humour.

OUAN505 - Applied Animation - Production: The Making of...

OUAN505 - The Making of...:

Whilst trying to work out the best process for creating both our keyboard and microphone, I did a few quick sketches after talking to both my godparents who are both DIY and prop and set-making enthusiasts. They gave me a few really good ideas and tips for creating the instruments, making sure they were both lightweight and sturdy enough for movement.

I then gathered up all the materials I will need to make these and now all I have to do is create them.

Upon creation, the microphone didn't actually stay together made just out of clay because of the weight of the top bit, and when made with a q tip, the head of the microphone was too small. I will have to work out the best method of creating a microphone before the start of next week as we need to animate.

OUAN503 - Responsive - Individual Practice: LoopDeLoop Ideas

OUAN503 - LoopDeLoop Ideas:

In preparation for the upcoming new LoopDeLoop theme, I decided to create a character that I could possibly use for my future loop. I named her Clover and she's a young, hippy female character with lots of charisma and happiness. I plan to give her a lot of bounce of flounciness when she walks to make my loop more interesting if the Loop requires me to animate a walk sequence.

I thought of styles and came up with a few rough sketches of her nearly final form:

OUAN503 - Responsive - Individual Practice: Teespring

OUAN503 - Teespring:

As another contribution to Responsive, I decided to have a go at creating yet more T Shirt designs for a website called Teespring. Teespring allow you to create 'campaigns' where people who like your designs can buy them and if enough are bought and you reach minimum target, you start raking in the profits. So far I have uploaded two designs. I will respond to these based on what feedback I receive from other users, and how well both designs do in terms of sales.

Here are my two shirt designs so far:

I discovered that a younger audience is more prone to using these websites as quirky fashion revolving around popular culture tends to be more successful with a teenage audience due to an almost 'cult'-like inclusion or by using shared interests amongst teens to create an exclusive group. Cuter, more fan-based designs did better in terms of voting so I created the sushi design in response to how well other designs did previously. 

OUAN505 - Applied Animation - Production: The Set so Far

OUAN505 - The Set so Far:

Despite the long gap of a week we had with no work, we set to work straight away by getting the curtains set up, cut and ready for the stage. Alex and I also worked on putting in the armatures by sliding wire through the plastic fruits and then securing them in place with pliers. We then used Milliput on the joints to keep them stiff and realistic.

So far, we have the curtains cut and ready to attach with the curtain rail I bought (with hooks), we have the plasticine to mould around the fruits and veg so that they're finished and ready to animate, the song needs to be produced which I shall do on my return from my holidays next week, the drums are done but need painting and a logo attached, the guitars are arriving through post soon, and the lights are all set up and working but need electrical tape to secure them.

What we need to do:

- Lighting electrical tape/secure power supply for RGB LEDs
- Varnish stage
- Fit 'parquet flooring' (holographic card)
- Secure 'Hi Vit' in glitter card to back of stage
- Model the characters further
- Produce song
- Finalise a storyboard
- Paint drums and secure logo
- Make a keyboard
- Make a microphone
- Attach curtains
- Fit back curtains
- Animate!

OUAN503 - Responsive - Collaborative Practice: Submission

OUAN503 - Submission:

Here is some evidence that we have submitted our work to D&AD. I managed not to delete the evidence this time around like I did with YCN. Also, here are the final pitch boards that Anna kindly neatened up for submission. 

OUAN503 - Responsive - Collaborative Practice: Working on the Final Piece

OUAN50 - The Final Piece:

Whilst Anna was t start work on the flipbook aspect of our designs, I was to start finalising a character design, colouring it in, shading, finishing, then adding some subtle animation. I believe I can get all of this done by Saturday at the least, though it might run over into Sunday as my animation skill set isn't brilliantly developed yet.

The subtle animation I wish to add would be simple things like the eyes blinking, mouth moving slightly, hair flickering, shirt creases rustling, and lastly feet shuffling a little bit to act in a way that seems like both of us: a little bit nervous, quite quiet, and fairly timid.

We were to take our inspiration from such artists as Rebecca Mock and 'ofsparrow' on Pinterest.

an example of ofsparrows's work. They include subtle animation in their pieces also.

Here is the finalised sketch of our collaborative piece. I will go on to animate and colour this in to make sure it's okay for submission.

Coloured:

OUAN503 - Responsive - Individual Practice: YCN Confirmation Email

OUAN503 - YCN Confirmation:

Regarding my submission for YCN's brief that was to be handed in last week,  I submitted roughly a few hours before the deadline which was just in the nick of time. However, sadly whilst clearing out my emails the other day I deleted my confirmation email! I am horrified and sadly I will not receive any marks now for this brief due to my carelessness. I will learn from this and will blog about my submissions AS and WHEN I receive an email.

On the brighter side, I managed to submit and was rather pleased that I could at least submit something for the module. I am not so pleased with the work I produced as I feel it was not a high enough standard for my liking and in order to improve I should have conducted some questionnaire research for my product design relating to my target audience for better feedback. I could have then used this to create better label designs as the ones I did churn out were a little bit rough and ready and weren't really that well thought out. I could have sought out advice from graphic design regarding typography and layout, and the illustration team for colour coordination advice.

All in all I have learned from my horrible mistake and there is no point dwelling on the past. I can move forwards from this and make sure it doesn't happen again.

OUAN505 - Applied Animation - Production: Bought Materials

OUAN505 - Bought Materials:

As it's my nature to love spending money on artsy things, I went on another shopping spree for curtain hooks, red velvet curtains, and an eyelet puncher and eyelets! Here are the things I have bought today and how I plan to use them:

I plan to, as it's quite obvious to see, punch holes for eyelets into my fabric after measuring and cutting the velvet (against the grain to minimise fraying). I then plan to fit the eyelets, screw in the curtain wire hooks and then set up the wire to hang the curtains off. This will give a lot more realism than simply using glue on the curtains as we want to be able to move the curtains as realistically as possible.

OUAN505 - Applied Animation - Production: The Plan

OUAN505 - The Plan:

Here is a fairly detailed plan of what stages we need to be at at certain points in our module schedule:

OUAN505 - Applied Animation - Production: MDF Staining

OUAN505 - MDF Staining:

As part of the MDF board process for our theatre, I decided to do some research into staining MDF board and how it would affect the wood and how exactly the lighting would be affected also. Our tutor told us that varnishing the wood would make the surface sticky when hot lights were shone on the surface which would be a pain to animate with. Also, large pools of light would show up as varnish is highly reflective and shiny.

Instead, I thought about staining the wood to simply change the texture and colour a little bit as I know you can get small sample pots for around two pounds at most paint shops and hardware departments. I looked up some videos on how to achieve this look of 'floorboards' that I was after to make it a more realistic stage.

The lady in this short clip demonstrates how easy it is to get a streaky effect simply by wiping with tissue to get a floorboard effect, I think by doing this, it would be more cost-effective and save on wallpaper paste and brushes and printing pictures of floorboards out to then paste onto the wood which was our first idea. However, if we were to paste images of floorboards on, from prior experience the paper would peel off under hot light and be effectively useless to us.

The lady in the film uses sponge brushes that can easily be found in kids' craft shops for about a pound for a set. I will pick some of these up with the varnish. I believe that it is less messy and means you can simply soak the sponges in hot water to use again. Varnish easily comes out if soaked whilst still tacky. Here is another research video that I watched to help with my choice:

OUAN505 - Applied Animation - Production: Band Logos Part One

OUAN505 - Band Logos Part One:

Ad part of establishing a well-known band brand, we needed to create a cheesy-looking logo that fit in with an 80s theme. I looked up some popular band logos like The Beatles and decided to create a similar one just for reference. I looked at 80s colour schemes and eventually came up with some of these small examples. I will message these to the group to see what their suggestions are in order to move forwards and get these logos sorted as soon as possible.

My personal favourite is the 'Beatles-esque' logo alongside the vinyl record logo as it looks futuristic and very pop-cultured. I like simplicity over all other aspects of logo-design so I reckon that these two might be the most successful among the group due to ease of visibility on stage and lack of complication which is an advantage when displaying these on the drum kit. I measured out the size of the drum kit for accuracy before creating the logos.

OUAN505 - Applied Animation - Research/Pre-Production: Waltz with Bashir

OUAN505 - Waltz with Bashir:

This particular animated feature-length film responds really well to the theme of documentary animation. It uses a very sensitive subject and animates and tells a story well in an appropriate manner for the viewers. By animating actual interviews with Iranian war veterans, the director is able to approach a subject from an animated viewpoint. He can recreate many effects and processes that would not be as easy or available with live action.

However, many mistake the film for being rotoscoped when it is actually in fact cleverly made using After Effects cutouts and dark hues to give a realistic aesthetic. The film was heavily praised globally but was not so successful in Iran itself which was unusual yet maybe understandable as so many might not want to revisit the memories of the war and the horrors it brought to Iranian citizens. The film is actually banned in certain countries across the globe, including Lebanon which is featured in the film.

I personally haven't watched all of this film and I do plan to. So far from what I have watched I think it looks and feels fantastic. It approaches documentary animation on a new angle and does it very well. For that time, this technique was very new and practically unseen in feature length animated films. The fact it is so realistic brings it home that the war did have a huge impact on so many lives. You feel part of the film and feel a strong connection with the characters.

OUAN505 - Applied Animation - Research/Pre-Production: Sesame Street - Healthy Habits

OUAN505 - Healthy Habits:

Upon looking for additional inspiration and research into our music video for lyrics, facts, and styles of executing our animation, we came across these little gems called Healthy Habits by Sesame Street. As a child I loved watching these and remember the music videos so, so well. I thought it seemed only appropriate to talk about how they influenced me as a child and how they've managed to give me inspiration now as an adult for potentially successful animation.

The above music video is a fantastically catchy little number by Cookie Monster regarding all the different ways eating healthily can affect your growth and life in general. It is informative yet fun and contains the 'Healthy Habits' of which is the name for the group of puppet foods that are featured singing on the screen. This is heavily influential to children as by using mascots and cute characters, children will become more attached to them rather than using humans to drearily moan on about a topic. A song is always popular as it can stick in the minds of those who enjoy it - almost everyone! 

Although this isn't technically animated, it's still a documentary in a loose sense of the word. The below video clip is more towards documentary as it features more facts and helpful tips that are likely to be seen as more realistic and truthful. 

 

'Happy Healthy Monster' is a series of short clips featuring the monsters' choices of food and how it will affect them. They are taught by the foods themselves, other humans that are usually special guests like Michelle Obama for instance, and other monsters. This is a great way of helping children understand healthy eating as it's obvious that the creators of Sesame Street really thought about engaging a young audience with all the bright colours, interesting characters and fun, engaging episodes. We want to take the bright colours, the use of well-known, named mascots, and factual, relevant informative song choices away from this show as use it to our advantage. 

OUAN505 - Applied Animation - Research/Pre-Production: The California Raisins

OUAN505 - The California Raisins:

The California Raisins are a fantastic group of singing and dancing raisins that initially inspired us to make a healthy eating band for Applied Animation. We were drawn to them for their very obvious upbeat, cheesy, and cheerful personalities and the ways in which they went about setting the mood and atmosphere to an instantly uplifting one. We really loved the technique of using stop motion animation to make the band move and bring life to them. I felt that personally, a completely 2D animated band or hand-drawn wouldn't have been as effective as seeing a miniature stage with a band made out of real materials with that signature aesthetic really plays with your mind and allows you think it's more believable.

The creator of the raisins is a man named Will Vinton. He created them with the intent to entertain and he certainly managed to achieve that as the group received one Emmy award and one nomination! The original idea of the raisins was to be used for a 1980's commercial which of course became incredibly popular, thus giving it the fame and fortune to create a whole series of songs for the band. Such songs as "I Heard it Through the Grapevine" usually are a play on words and are incredibly comical to watch. The music genre features mainly around Motown and classic rock which seems obvious really as the band have that 'funky' look to them with all the accessories such as sunglasses and guitars. Even the black and white jazz shoes give it away!

In 1988, CBS aired 'Meet the Raisins', a mockumentary which of course featured the band. Their growing popularity meant that they're probably (at a guess) one of the most well-known fruit bands out there and I'm sure there are a few thanks to all the inspiration they've given us.

There have been such brilliant ratings with the TV shows that eventually merchandise such as 3D glasses, lunchboxes, and even shirts was released. I've never known a fruity band to be that well-loved!

What we really took from these music videos though on a more serious and academic note is that we really were inspired by the way the creators could manage to make the band look a certain way to be representative of a music genre. Our aim was 80's cheesy pop, and for that to happen we needed a cheesy-looking, cheap and cheerful set with groovy-looking characters using all the correct instruments. We needed to learn about the ways bands were made up and what roles were used etc. Our group wanted to be as successful as the California Raisins for a completely different purpose: to inform and instate healthy eating in teens.

OUAN505 - Applied Animation - Production: Being Ethical, Being Good

OUAN505 - Being Ethical, Being Good:

As part of our learning curve in our second year and particularly in this module, we are learning what it means to be ethical and professional. How are we working with our peers? Are we being a suitable animator with respect for our team members and staff? Are we treating everyone fairly? Well, for me to blog about this and demonstrate how I as a member or team work with others, I can safely say that so far we've done a really good job in keeping in contact with others and staff regarding work and other matters.

To begin with, our group (Alex, David, myself) contact each other predominantly using Facebook chat. This might seem unprofessional to some but it is really the easiest way of getting hold of someone and distracting them from their daily browse through their News Feed. Who wouldn't want to talk about work whilst snooping through someone else's profile out of boredom? We felt Facebook was clean, simple, and easy to use. It was always at hand on our phones and wherever else we may need to contact someone.

In terms of emails, our student emails were used to send emails to members of staff regarding questions, advice, guidelines and general help with our work. We didn't actually email Roger Berry regarding the set making as we intended only to pop down for an initial chat to see when he was free but being a helpful member of staff, he kindly offered to make it there and then for a small fee of MDF board.

When it comes to sharing work, Google Docs/Drive/Slides was perfect for what we needed. If a set of work boards or ideas needed to be discussed in person but not everyone was available, sharing it to those members on Google Drive meant that they could view any images or pieces of work and we could then discuss without losing out on time. This was particularly helpful when coming up with a band name as there was some squabbling (light discussion maybe?) when it came to that.

All in all, we've treat everyone fairly as best we can. There have been some team issues not with myself regarding politeness to others, but hopefully this will resolve as we're all old enough to deal with this and sort it out. I as a member of our group wish for peace and understanding, and mainly just to make a fantastic piece of animation!

OUAN505 - Applied Animation - Production: Whacking out a Logo

OUAN505 - Whacking out a Logo:

For the drum kit we were thinking about creating a logo that would stand out so that the audience could easily tell what the name of our band was. After much discussion and quarrelling, we ended up going with Hi-Vit, a catchy, nifty name for our band. It featured a vitamin-related word which was a good idea as words solely revolving around fruit OR vegetables wouldn't be so appropriate.

The size of our drum kit had to be measured so that the logo could be accurately designed. We wanted to base our drum kit on that of such bands as The Beatles and the way that most popular bands have their logo on the drum.

OUAN505 - Applied Animation - Production: Making the Set

OUAN505 - Making the Set:

Today after a long break from Applied Animation, we decided to get making to set and get on with creating some dummy armatures so that we knew how to go about making the real ones. We popped down to see Roger Berry, the woodwork guy, and he kindly offered to help us with our set. He created a top down view for us in a 3D woodwork software program and began to cut out our pieces and mitre them for us. We are to pop back at lunch and pay him for the MDF and pick up the set to then put together and fix in place.

We will then proceed with decorating the set and playing around with the lights in order to see if everything works on set. It is quite a large set so we decided to keep it in the stop-motion room so that it wouldn't need any transportation. Also, all the Dragonframe software is in there so it will make life a lot easier for us to have our own space there.

I will take some photos of the process of our set and pop them up here shortly.

- Afternoon -

We have very thankfully received our beautiful little (rather large in fact!) set with many, many thanks to Roger down in Woodwork. Roger kindly cut out the boards for us, mitred them and glued them in place for stability. We then paid him and proceeded back up to the room where it will spend most of its life as a mini theatre for our Hi-Vit band. Photos will be posted below:

OUAN503 - Responsive - Collaborative Practice: Merged Character Designs

OUAN501 - Merged Designs:

Albeit not finished fully, here are some merged designs for our characters. I incorporated some futuristic clothing with our own clothing. We plan to now choose from these and maybe sketch some more out for more ideas. We'll then think about colour and backgrounds whilst we draw up a finalised character for the brief. All we then need to think about is the small parts of animation and the flipbook.

OUAN503 - Responsive - Individual Practice: Animation Portfolio Workshop

OUAN503 - Animation Portfolio Workshop:


The Website:
http://www.animationportfolioworkshop.com/apw-character-design-contest/contest

The Brief:
http://www.animationportfolioworkshop.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/apw_char_des_contest_RULES_GUIDELINES_2015_11.pdf

Ideas:

Small female child, bob haircut, sharp, sleek, chubby body
Small male child, skinny legs, chubby torso, sleek haircut, chubby face

Only Canadian residents are eligible to enter, however I feel that this would be good practice for Responsive in general and would allow me to get some valuable hands on knowledge on character design and concept. I also plan to use the facial designs for our upcoming casting and moulding workshop as we will be modelling a complete face of a character we have created. Once the model is created, I can add this to the Responsive brief above that I plan to work on.