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Performance and Character

24/09/18

  Today was a late start but a fast paced day waking up late and being behind in all the traffic of Rush Holme. The minute I got to the class I immediately greeted and used manners then before I knew it was watching the lecture and presentation from up front. The clip we watched was called ‘elergy’ taken adapted from the life of pianist Tchaikovsky the focus was around body language and minimal facial expression. I was of course entertained about the way the stop motion was conveyed on the theatrical stage set to work with drawn curtains. The animation itself was in detail elegant but was actually complicated with how the stop motion was used to walk and dance the puppet. The lighting and shadows was realistic, also the way the puppet moved in a suit was similar to a musical composer to an opera. The pacing of sound and footsteps was bang on. ‘Elergy’ was like the high standard of what the lecturers expect from us eventually. I couldn’t make much notes so I asked Joe at the end of the lecture how many exercises required and how time could be managed. I reckon once I get the character bios out the way the poses, and turnarounds the portfolios will be good enough to transfer to the studio, in a way I can translate through bar sheets and planning to set the stage for a proper stop motion or 2D storyline. The poses will be part of this through separate weeks of planning and with them I will dedicate my spare time to broken down exercises.

Week 1 Character Bio and turnaround

Week 2 Climb

Week 3 3 Walks minimum

Week 4 Dialogue performance (I’ll gain advice through Annabeth and about script writing then I can accept constructive criticism of format)

Week 5 A short story (10 seconds?)

All of the animation could best be achieved through a series of 2D drawings and then Armature in Stop motion studio all experiences previously considered.

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Re-iteration of essay with change of plan

27/04/18

I had tried to expand on what I had initially said but found the idea wasn't that exciting as it had flaws. the theme of eastern animation suited western better, because you have people like Sylvia Bull and other illustrators who have worked closely with studios, like Aardman for instance. This betters equates for ‘western animation’ than any other group because I could be referring to UK studios at best. The research I gathered varied from, articles and blogs and books of course. I feel there is diversity of research to further my point. 

Books and references

 (Shorts, P. and Beiman, N. (2018 p 41, 147). Prepare to Board! Creating Story and Characters for Animated Features and Shorts by Nancy Beiman | 9780240808208 | Get Textbooks | New Textbooks | Used Textbooks | College Textbooks - GetTextbooks.com)

 (Hart, J., 1999.xi. The art of the storyboard : storyboarding for film, TV, and animation. 1st ed. Boston, MA. ; Oxford : Focal Press: Boston, MA. ; Oxford : Focal Press.)

Bull, S.

shawn the sheep

In-text: (Bull, 2018)

Your Bibliography: Bull, S. (2018). shawn the sheep. [Blog].

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Feedback on essay

17/04/18

The essay draft I did was about Story boarding in animation the main point of correction was in text citations and the way I wrongly laid them out, there was also not enough block quotation or formatting. I specifically liked how my main form of evidence was presented after a few re writes. The thesis and body were a bit off but some minor corrections set things the way I wanted them set. Like for instance the thesis was mean’t to say story boarding is a job in demand but heres why it is competitive.... then I said my opinion on it. 

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Liverpool trip

12/3/18

Today was very reflective, interesting and engaging of course. The trip to Liverpool Tate had an artist who we were told about Roy Lichtenstein who was famous during the pop art era of the 60′s and this comes from works with stippling and flamboyant bright colour sometimes with over reactive words. Wham for instance reminded me of graphic communication and how something appeals with out being too in your face. I think there was a balance to this it looks like there is 2 canvases which convey strong meaning from the same image, the yellow and red really bring out the catch.

There was more things in the gallery which I found peculiar, there was tank illustrations, which were fascinating to look at because the detail is clearly high prized above all else, The camouflage on this panzer IV tank sits well. It’s like appreciation art in a way for those who like this sort of thing, but to me I used to build kits so I can respect this kind of art. 

I feel as though today has furthered my idea of art style for 2D animation the lines in Roy’s work have elements with flamboyant colour schemes and the graphic communication speaks loudly. I studied graphic design often as a teenager and this was highly prized work in my eyes.

The whole fine arts and design layout to boost spatial confidence and increase art influence in general personally interested me. I have stressed before I have spatial awareness drawbacks with my own work which is why I do things differently in my style. The chaos is like failing a game of tetris, maybe this comes from claustrophobia and growing up with people with compulsive disorder. After a while you begin to appreciate this work it’s like abstract cubism. 

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Context

The magazine is reflective of my own interests in character design, this comes from expression, layout, colour and appeal for the poster itself and the cool concept art. This makes character design the best thing because you can share your ideas from a thought into a powerful ideal work of art. The font wasn’t great but the rest is visibly clear and shows development in the making. I really wish to build on my graphic communication skills. You see I designed the poster two of the drawings are my own on the top.

I really want to be able to refer to contextual references in the proper way like in text citations, formatting and para phrasing because you look at what the artist or publisher says and try to be opinionated better.

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Ok so here was all the way back when I didn't fully understand the process of referencing and I was to make a poster on my chosen theme, present it after making a PSD document the trouble was that editing took ages and eventually I was a little late to present. I just applied a few articles and magazine references in my presentation which took a while to update from these. The initial magazines were not that relevant to the point every one else made where I thought talking about the reason I am interested in characters was a good idea. Instead I should have talked about the importance, relevance to the industry.

07/11/17

Animation Context week 7: Character design with magazine reference

Character design quarterly is an exciting new print magazine for illustrators, artists and animators. The magazine focuses on inspirational and professional articles, tutorials and interviews for top industry professionals specifically geared towards helping artists hone their character design skills. Character design is a vital part of Disney’s work through Pixar animation studios. Character is what drives a story and breaths life into a film. 

The design of characters for the film begins during the initial stages of the development of the film. Pixar’s character designers work with the director as the script is still being written to bring the characters to life. As the concept and script of the film goes through changes, so does the design of the character.

Harvard referencing guide: Drawn to life: 20 years of Disney master class by Walt Stranchfield

Page 131 chapter 63: Body language ‘Body language is vital to animation. The uses of body language in visual communication ranges from subtle eye movements to great sweeping bodily gesticulations. Each of these movements has meaning and has developed to a high degree of spontaneous understanding between people of like cultures’.

Library books and references to chapters

‘The Illusion of Life Disney Animation’ page 60, paragraph 4, ‘the way in which an action is completed tells us more often about the person than the drawings of the movement itself’ ‘in most instances, the driving force behind the action is the mood, the personality, the attitude of the character-or all three. Therefore, the mind is the pilot. We think of things before the body does them.’-Walt Disney, page 93, intro.

Bibliography:

Crossley, K., 2014. Character Design from the Ground Up: Make Your Sketches Come to Life. 1st ed. Character Design from the Ground Up: Make Your Sketches Come to Life: Ilex.

Keane, G., 2011. [( The Art of the Disney Princess By Keane, Glen ( Author ) Hardcover Oct - 2009)] Hardcover. 1st ed. [( The Art of the Disney Princess By Keane, Glen ( Author ) Hardcover Oct - 2009)] Hardcover: Disney Editions.

http://chrisoatley.com/. 2017. http://chrisoatley.com/. [ONLINE] Available at: http://chrisoatley.com/. [Accessed 15 November 2017].

Summary 

Character design in animation is done by form, firstly to have an idea of body and physical features, secondly to show the viewer how to best emphasize the figure through shape and expression. Expression gives more life to a drawing for example the characters face. Finally the media used in the creative methods this could be pen, pencil, ink and digital media also. The whole point behind character design is to animate and adapt over from drawing to digital media, which brings action.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1906838062/character-design-quarterly

http://pixar-animation.weebly.com/character-design.html

http://www.cgsociety.org/news/article/1895/animation-character-design

https://characterdesignreferences.com/magazines/

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1906838062/character-design-quarterly

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Context

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Script to screen: put together in animate and Premiere pro

04/05/18  

Focus on only the main two characters along with rough prototype of animatic.

Yeah so here there wasn’t supposed to be a desk second scene as it was later considered a prop and by then it had served it’s purpose as an opening reveal shot. The ranges of shots were varied I really could’ve done the hands of J fidgeting at his cuffs on this table to show who the interpretation belonged to. It isn’t really all that canon if you think about it. The paper is mean’t to be read over as a statement of appeal coming from the Lawyer ‘Barry’. This should be the fifth shot really because the discussion between the two is brief then the announcement begins. 

Here I was trying to show Jeremiah’s point of view for the audience perspective using a medium long shot. It later progresses as close ups and zoom ins to focus on what the characters emotions are displayed as.

23/05/18

Final animatic for ‘the court’ script

This took ages no joke, the time management the lack of backup. At least I can say I enjoyed making this. The plot also fits the script but it was a nightmare to manage the files and submission. Sounds snap came in handy for the audio I feel prepared better for next time round there is do’s and don’ts but for certain now I will write a script using the main source to make a premise, log line and so on. Definitely do not rush last minute and have the stress of late submission. I couldn't have avoided this but there is no harm learning from mistakes. I know the animatic is slow and there is only the exclusive of sound effects but consider the story and what it is trying to tell. I believe I did the best I could’ve done with the script. Also left all my blogs as drafts last minute so this cost extra time as well.

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Script to Screen: Premise, log line and checklist

27/04/18

The premise incorporated the origin but not the proper back story of the character. I needed to do this separately for the production bible. There was the mention of flash backs, and day dreams, to expand on this the flash backs were more short term so there was less need to depict them without threat of mis-interpreting the premise. I saw it safer to show what the character felt before a final decision was made to leave Jeremiah’s innocence questionable for a continuation.

Logline: A challenged carpenter Bee has trouble when framed for a crime he hasn’t committed and struggles to prove his innocence.

Synopsys: An irresponsible and former carpenter Bee shows humbleness when framed for a crime, theft against the hive he didn’t commit in order to overcome this he must prove his innocence in court.

Premise: Starts with an opening of characters’ discussions one a Judge and the other the main character then focus shifts to protector (District Attorney). The intermediate of the story is conveyed with day dreams, which aids the person of Jeremiah and his proper introduction to the audience. This would be to build on the like able impression of the two-strong judicial cast. The ending is resolved of the plot proving the characters innocence and that in nature all things must work together to survive.

·         The genre is comedy and fantasy possibly thriller.

 ·         The main story idea developed directly from the personality of the main protagonist or other lead characters, actually the concept of Bees and nature led to the creation of an anthropomorphic Bee called Jeremiah which means ‘salvation’ because he saved the plot and fits things together through his behaviour and habits, this in turn introduces us to more characters. I had the notion that if my character dreams a lot then would he be irresponsible or awake this is where I made the cast in the court theme. The plot centres on Jeremiah and focus shifts from one character to the next.

·         Story contains a theme, this character learned something from what happened so the creation of a court room was to show the correct setting for someone like himself who had been accused falsely of something. In order to give way to better influence of character I added the element of day dreaming in the story to act as a clear that the moral of the story is if all you do is dream you may never wake up.

·         You care what happens to the hero and here’s why: because the plot is about an innocent person who is wrongly being charged in order to make it look appealing to audiences through drama and suspense. I have to centre the character as the main person to excite viewers to keep on watching as they could want this character to go free.

·         Characters true to what they are, the hive is a home for Bees a whole species and each one has a job to sustain survival, mix this with some human emotion and comedy you don’t have to take this too seriously after all, the characters need more uniqueness to appeal this is best gained through comedy and plot turns.

·         Idea is visual, and it’s all mainly that with exception of sound effects, but there was methods to have story boarded in the first place that is how I enjoy script writing personally and methodically put together the animatic.

·         Is considered funny with a few gags included in the original script, there needs to be soft as well as slap stick humour throughout to generate surprise further engaging audiences.

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Script to Screen: Idea iteration and character expression

26/04/18

The character expression wasn't really translated as I needed the panels drawn and redrawn to tell the story with minimum emphasis. If you look at the original story boards you will see nothing but expression because I was enabled that kind of freedom to determine the plot, where as the expressions here are just the same: not required. The drama is done by body language mainly. 

The main reason I Illustrated my point here was to say there was a bit of facial expression to convey the message of story. Here you see Jeremiah is horrified at the thought of being eaten. There is also hubris in the Judges expression. This is because she is depicted as evil.

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Script to Screen: Creating a cover image for production bible

18/04/18

Here I used Dafont to emphasize the updated title. This is where a panorama works well as an undistracted complete view of every major subject. The main protagonist is actually the lawyer because he has good intentions, where as Jeremiah is questionable and the judge is a shady character so the layout of the script is essential, like you see light on Barry because he is good. In spite of the fact he helps ‘criminals’ to plea innocent much how every one is innocent until proven guilty.

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Script to Screen: Turn around

17/04/18

I had used Photoshop to draw over my initial drawings and fill them with colour. The description of Jeremiah was that he has an appearance of some one bedraggled and long hair, ended up making him look a lot older than he was supposed to be he looks about 40! 

The same method was done with this character concept and turn around. He has a correct sort of appearance for a 56 year old and the right clothing, I've been told that the tie is really in your face. I couldn't agree better but it is complimentary of the blue.

This is the judge of course she looks very convicting and tough which works for her job. The hair style shows she is very pompous of her looks and the fur frock may suggest she is fashionable as this equates for her old age. The colour scheme is based off her fictional Bee species. 

To be honest the shading works and the shape for character appeal, the thing which doesn't work would be the antenna like there is few indication of what species they resemble. I ran away with imagination and didn't search into Bees properly. However it is anthropomorphic after all which calls for loose imaging.

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Script to Screen: Backgrounds and improvement from rough sketch

10/04/18

 I once considered making a 3D mode of the set, but given the benefit of the doubt I don’t think the glue in the maker space was worthwhile. A digital version would be ideal. This led to me thinking about how I could reinterpret front of the room in a precise way, which later translated with the grid tool, making the dimensions align enriching design.  

I changed the scheme a bit, for instance the shade of colour because of the lights in the room. Without the lights you see a darker texture on the walls and panels, the seats are more illuminated in the dark like neon glow. To be honest when I checked the references of courts I found mediocre looking results. The fan made Rick and Morty short on YouTube was a great reference that fits the research of podium and court layout.  

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Script to Screen: More examples

 “Everything I’ve written is personal- it’s the only way I know how to write.”

– Charlie Kaufman

The part here was me looking into formatted examples, this translation was confusing because I am unsure of what text to use, the most effective layout, as well as where to even begin on translating what story boards I had drawn, to make further ideas match after script editing. The story got longer there was the bare minimum at first but going over it some ideas were revised like script alteration and doing the character dialogue differently (rewritten) to fit the drawing times. 

This here was some of the research I looked at on blackboard where I found some work belonging to Mark Huckerby and Nick Ostler (black board) I think the center alignment was adopted into my formatting well. ‘Courier new’ looks close enough to Vietnamese subtitled text. 

10/04/18

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Script to Screen: Intro to script formatting

12/03/18

Actual formatting

We were shown different examples of text like ‘courier new’ as well as the layout of the scripts. In the lectures there was different fonts and examples of how they were used in different movies. I still found this tough as understanding the process was hard at the time anyhow. We didn't really do much these following days but were still thinking of creative approaches to designing layouts and finding a way to translate the story in a bit of a savvy way. 

Story focus

I didn't like the whole bombardment of questions from others at the time I was still thinking up the script premise. Where my story was being critiqued before it was even made. In short the story centers around a bee hive and there is a main, protagonist and antagonist of the story. That alone is not enough to deconstruct without having some personal preference of how they would’ve liked things to be in the story.  Like explaining how there is characters with human traits for instance: ‘Barry Benson’ who is a lawyer, defending the case of a suspected thief. The premise was actually he is framed because he is easy target but others were saying that doesn't show likableness. This is what really annoyed me.

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Script to Screen: Story boards

21/02/18

The main character has daydream issues through a court hearing where seconds are like hours of extreme space outs. You see Jeremiah flying after being attacked by bee eating birds, this is where I had the chess dimension. He sees the court members in his fantasy as a gathering of consciousness. The conscious you see reveals deeper what the characters are thought of in the head of the protagonist. This is why he feels despair, he cannot prove his innocence.

The main antagonist of the story was a judge who had a very high temper and a sadistic side to her, as she orders capital punishment and is a fiend towards victims of framed crimes. I got this idea from needing characters with depth to create suspense upon introducing them at given times.  

I came up with a trippy story line much further out than every one could handle winding peoples imagination up was fun whilst it lasted. They could read into it as a sequence later on when I corrected it and was beyond the requirements of the brief so I decided on one back ground ‘the court room’.  This is where the plot changed into something shorter and more appropriate if I was looking at the bare minimum this would be between three characters only, along with the setting. I worked with different angles to reflect on perception.

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Script to Screen: Methods

30/01/18

Today we played a dice game where we rolled and placed together stories based on the numbers and correlation of rules from the dice. This was a creative group response to how many scenarios you could make up, if you were given random chapters how they would fit into a story. It’s really this which helps above all else to think creatively and be imaginative. I think my chapter was something ridiculous like alien abduction and catastrophe mixed with, bright day or something? I cant reflect too much on this other than to say board games yeah they work as a method of inventing a story.