brenacanimated2

[brenacanimated2]

This is the background I drew in paint tool sai for my mystery box animation. Since my character and the box both have nature-inspired appearance with mossy features, I thought a forest would be the most fitting setting.

[brenacanimated2]

This is my finished lip sync animation. I really enjoyed working on this and found that I became familiar with the process very quickly this time around.  The placement of some of the different mouth shapes could be refined, and I also think, given more time, I could have animated the blobs above the character’s head separately so that they lagged behind the main head’s movement, but I’m quite proud of this overall despite those factors.

[brenacanimated2]

Presentation Script

Below is the script I wrote up for myself for the Media Industries: Roles and Practices presentation.

So I chose to research Rebecca Sugar. She’s probably most well-known in recent times for her Cartoon Network series Steven Universe, but I focused more on her history as a storyboard artist for Adventure Time. She began working as a storyboard revisionist for adventure time in 2009, but after only a month she was promoted to storyboard artist because of the high quality of her work. A storyboard is basically a series of drawings that are usually coupled with some dialogue or directions that depict what happens in different scenes – they pretty much make the animators’ lives a lot easier as they provide reference as to how some scenes may play out, what emotions need to be conveyed, what the characters might say, etc. Now, storyboard revisionists and storyboard artists are pretty similar, with the only difference being that an artist actually draws out the storyboards, while a revisionist would assess the storyboards, might re-draw a few poses or adjust the angle of the scene, things like that.

I can definitely see why Rebecca Sugar got promoted so quickly though ��� despite the usual rough and simplistic appearance and style of storyboards, I find that her work encapsulates emotion very well, which is why I chose to add in this storyboard panel from the Adventure Time episode “I Remember You” that Rebecca Sugar storyboarded along with Cole Sanchez. Just this panel alone is a good example of how well she illustrates an emotional scene despite the simplicity and limitations that storyboards might pose.

I find it pretty interesting to see how an animation can evolve from a static sequence of illustrations to a fully-animated tv show. Storyboards are an integral part of making shows or movies – they act as the initial building blocks that pave the way towards the finished animation – here you can see a side-by-side comparison of a storyboard panel from Steven Universe next to the final product.

[brenacanimated2]

Email to Artist

To get some first-hand information on the animation industry, we were asked to email some people within the industry with any questions we might have about working as an animator or any other relevant job, either in a company or as a freelancer.

Rebecca Sugar is apparently a difficult person to contact so I couldn’t find an email, but these are the questions I would have asked her.

- What kinds of inspirations did you initially have to become an animator/get into the animation industry? - How did you get involved in the animation industry?  - What advice would you give on becoming a recognised artist within social media?

[brenacanimated2]

Storyboard Artist

I chose to research Rebecca Sugar and focused on her history as a storyboard artist for Adventure Time. When Adventure Time began, Rebecca Sugar was hired as a storyboard revisionist but was promoted to storyboard artist after just a month of working because her work was of such a high quality. This is a good reason as to why I chose to research Rebecca Sugar’s work - she’s multi-talented as an animator, director, screenwriter, producer, songwriter, and storyboard artist and has a vast amount of high-quality work.  Sugar’s art style is also very fitting for storyboarding. Her drawings convey feelings very well as a lot of her content is emotion-driven; this storyboard panel from the Adventure Time episode “I Remember You” (which Sugar storyboarded along with Cole Sanchez) shows how well she illustrates an emotional scene despite the simplicity and limitations that a storyboard might pose to anyone else.

Below are some more examples of Rebecca Sugar’s storyboards and general drawings. 

[brenacanimated2]

Presentation Research

Within our group for the media industries: roles and practices presentation, the four of us split up which animation job we would individually research. I went for story boarding as I don’t have much experience with it and find it an intriguing job.

A storyboard is a series of drawings that are usually coupled with some dialogue or directions that depict what happens in different scenes. A storyboard artist is an artist who draws out the storyboards, while a storyboard revisionist would assess those storyboards - they might re-draw a few poses or adjust the angle of a scene, just small details to make sure the boards are top quality.

The concept of storyboarding interests me mainly because I find it crazy how animation can evolve from a static sequence of illustrations to a fully-animated TV show. It seems to me that storyboards support the rest of the animation process; they provide reference for the animators as to how some scenes may play out, what emotions need to be conveyed, or what the characters might say, among other things. Although I’d likely be more comfortable working as a concept artist/character designer, I think storyboarding seems like it’d be a fun job that requires versatility in drawing skills. I’m not opposed to going a bit out of my comfort zone if it means improving my skills as an artist.

[brenacanimated2]

Media Industries: Roles and Practices

In groups we were asked to make presentations on the animation industry, employment, different jobs, and different people established within the industry.

My group decided on the animation company Frederator Studios, founded by Fred Seibert in 1997. Frederator is a production studio that focuses on independent artists and their original concepts for series, shorts, or movies - it’s a very creator-friendly company. Some of Frederator Studios’ most popular shows include:

- The Fairly Odd Parents [created by Butch Hartman] - Adventure Time [created by Pendleton Ward] - Bravest Warriors [created by Pendleton Ward] - Bee and Puppycat [created by Natasha Allegri]

[brenacanimated2]

Showreel Evaluations

This showreel by Joshua Mutter shows some good-quality 3D animation that plays well along with the music they chose. The addition of some life drawings at the end of the showreel also shows that they have an understanding of human anatomy and gives the viewer something different that isn’t usually included in showreels. The length of the video also isn’t too long or too short, and the inclusion of contact details at the end means it’s easy to contact the artist.

This 2D animation reel contains a lot of high quality and varied work that never gets boring or uninteresting despite the 2 minute duration. The inclusion of still illustrations scattered throughout the showreel gives nice breaks in-between the animations, keeping the reel fresh and interesting. There isn’t much more to say about this showreel besides the lack of contact information at the beginning or end of it.

This showreel is similar to the previous one in that it contains a lot of high-quality work that is varied throughout - though this one contains a mix of 3D, 2D, and flipbook animation. The music fits the tone of the work shown and although a few of the same clips are shown, they are split along the course of the showreel meaning some parts don’t go on too long and it doesn’t get boring. Also similar to the previous showreel, there isn’t any contact information.

[brenacanimated2]

Week 13 Evaluation

4-5-2018

This week was a bit full-on in terms of big projects - our media industries: roles and practices group presentation was on Tuesday, and I had my Mystery Box filming slot on Thursday. After the presentation was over on Tuesday, I spent all of Wednesday and Thursday morning working on my mystery box puppet as my filming slot was from 4:30pm until 9pm. I was pretty happy with the final result of my mystery box animation - all I have to do now is sort the background out.

[brenacanimated2]

This is my completed mystery box animation - all I need to do now is sort out the background. As I’m not very experienced with stop-motion, some of the movement in this animation seems a bit stunted - particularly Yo-yo’s walk towards the box. I do like how the quick step backwards looks though!  I tried to make it look like Yo-yo flapped his wings after being surprised by the movement of the box, but I think I added too many frames which made the wing movements look a bit too slow. I kept moving the box accidentally during filming so I just decided to make it seem like it was alive - it does look a bit like a mossy shell that might house some kind of odd creature... There are some frames in which hands are visible which I didn’t notice until after I had finished and exported the animation which is a shame, but hopefully I’ll be able to erase most of it when I edit out the blue background. I’m very proud of this overall despite the errors I made and I feel that I’ve made a lot of progress in understanding the process of stop-motion and puppet making. I definitely have a lot more respect for stop-motion animators because of the sheer dedication and effort it takes to make the animations look smooth!

[brenacanimated2]

These are some behind-the-scenes photos I took while filming my mystery box animation - I was very happy with how well my character held its poses and how easy it became to position as the animation process went on. During the animation, I wanted the box to open but couldn’t quite get it to stay put, so I attached some blue Plasticine to a thin strip of cardboard to prop the lid of the box up from the inside (as can be seen in the first photo). The moss glued to the top of the box weighed the lid down a lot when the box opened wider, so I used more blue Plasticine to balance-out the box lid and keep it in place - this is shown in the last image (though the Plasticine is a bit hard to see).

[brenacanimated2]

This is my finished puppet for the mystery box project. I enjoyed the process of making this armature as I had never done anything like it before so I found it really interesting! I’m happy with the final result even though it isn’t exactly like the character design sheet I drew at the beginning of this project. The wings aren’t quite the same, and I added a ‘belt’ made of brown felt with fake moss glued around it, as well as around the hooded cloak and Yo-yo’s feet. I used a solid foam ball for the character’s head and painted it with white and green acrylic paint. I made the feathers for the wings, tail, and head using watercolour paper and paint, and used white felt for the body. I used super sculpey and yellowy-orange acrylic paint for the beak. I wasn’t sure how to incorporate the dark markings that resembled a silver birch tree from my original design so I decided not to include it just in case it didn’t end up looking very good.

[brenacanimated2]

This is the box I ‘put together’ for the mystery box project. I used a small purple egg box, painted it with different shades of brown, and glued some fake moss to the outside and inside to give it a forest-y appearance.

[brenacanimated2]

Week 12 Evaluation

27-4-2018

This week I continued to work on my mystery box puppet; now I only have to finish the character’s head, tail feathers, and hooded cloak. We began work on our show reels - using Adobe Premier Pro we used existing clips and images to create a ‘practise’ show reel, learning how to edit clips and how to cut the show reel contents to play along with the music. As with the majority of new programs I learn, I found it hard to get the hang of it but I soon found it easy to remember the different functions which will be useful when it comes to creating and editing my own proper show reel. We also began our own iterations of a lip sync animation using After Effects. We used photoshop to draw our own characters and the different mouth shapes required for the lip sync then transferred them to After Effects in order to animate them along to one of three audio clips given to us. The first lesson on lip sync animations in After Effects helped a lot when remembering how to animate it, so I found it a lot easier this time.

[brenacanimated2]

This is the progress I’ve made on my puppet so far. Initially I made the wings using painted black wrap, but the individual feathers turned out to be too heavy to settle evenly when attached to the puppet. Instead, it was suggested that I use watercolour paper painted with watercolour paint as it’s thick enough that it won’t bend easily and isn’t nearly as heavy as the black wrap. To cover up the spaces on the wing where the ‘skeleton’ was exposed, I just added some smaller feathers and layered them up. The most difficult part of making this puppet for me was covering the body in felt; I found it challenging to cover the seams and the glue I used has discoloured the felt in some areas. I’m considering either painting over these areas using green paint or gluing some fake moss to the areas where the seams are obvious. The character does have a cloak that I’ve yet to make that will cover a good portion of the character’s back, however.

[brenacanimated2]

Week 11 Evaluation

20-4-2018

This week was split between working on my puppet for the mystery box project and starting a new project - lip sync. We were shown how create a lip sync animation in Adobe After Effects using existing assets. I found it difficult to keep up initially as I had never used After Effects before - I tend to be quite slow when learning how to use new software - but by the end of the lesson I feel that I understood it a lot more.

[brenacanimated2]

This is my first attempt at a lip sync animation in After Effects. We were given this pre-made head and were shown how to manipulate the facial features and change the mouth shapes to match up with the audio. I enjoyed this process for the most part and am interested in practising lip sync animations more.