hannahsanimationblogyear2-blog

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My finished animated segment for our group collaboration project for the BBC.

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My experimentation reel for the production collab project.

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My new finished showreel!

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Week 23 summary

Production team collab

This week I’ve been changing my animation quite a bit. First of all I’ve changed the beginning, I’ve removed the troll toys with coloured hair and have instead animated a single clump of hair growing from the bottom of the screen. The animation of the troll was seeming a little too fast, it looked like I was cramming the animation into a time that was too short; plus I needed to change it to better link in with the previous animation. The transition from the previous animated segment was an after thought when I first started animating which in looking back was probably a bad idea, luckily we created an easy solution where the animation before mine ended on a blank screen which enabled my animation to easily form onto the screen. As a group we decided to scrap the original plan of using texture overlays, in the beginning we were going to use stop motion elements so the texture would have been a good way to keep the two mediums connected but since we’re not doing that anymore we removed the texture since we thought it looked better. I think without the textures it gives the animations a crisper look and makes the colours pop more. After we had a group meeting we discussed whether I should keep my ‘dirty blonde’ animation. In our audio clip, in my segment, when the father and son are discussing hair they use the phrase ‘dirty blonde’ to describe the hair colour. For comedic input I animated a piece of hair growing legs and lip to create a dirty blonde in ‘sexy’ kind of dirty instead if the colour of using mud! Although I like this idea and my group expressed that they liked it I decided to take it out of the final animation. Because of the connotations of I’m not sure it’s entirely kids friendly, though I haven’t had any response from the BBC client on it I’ve made the decision to remove it mainly because I’d hate it if I was the one to ruin our chances of winning the competition because the BBC decided it ultimately was not quite appropriate. I am pleased with what I have replace it with, the hair clump jumps into a muddy puddle to make a dirty blonde piece of hair. I also put together my experimentation reel which has been a really rewarding way of seeing the progress of the animation! 

Personal branding and career planning

This week I finalised setting up my website and am pretty pleased with how it looks. I’ve changed the little ‘about me’ segment to something that I think reflects me and what I do better and I have also changed the arrangement of the site so my showreel page is the homepage. This week I also wrote up my CV for industry work. I think it looks a little bare but that’s expected since I haven’t done much relevant work outside of university studies. My new showreel is also completely edited with music and title board and I really like how it turned out, It shows the work I’ve done at University that I’m most pleased with. I also included a short stop motion animation i made with a puppet I created back in sixth form, I still quite like the slightly eerie animation and think its an interesting way to start my showreel. 

Research Proposal

I finished my research essay proposal this week. At first I was struggling with what to put in the proposal as I had done lots of different and still wasn’t completely sure on what direction I wanted it to go in, but with some help in the group and one to one sessions I made my ideas much more clearer and I think the proposal clearly explains what the essay will discuss. 

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I’ve changed a couple of things in my animation this week after hearing some feedback. I’ve been hesitant about my ‘dirty blonde’ gimmick since I had the idea but since I didn’t hear any criticism from the BBC I kept it in though after talking to Jon and discussing with my group I’ve changed the animation to show the piece of hair being dropped into a muddy puddle. 

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My showreel so far, I’ve put together all the clips in order, I need to add music and a title card and end card.

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https://hannahschlatter.wixsite.com/artandanimation

My website is all set up and published!

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This is my animation so far, it looks pretty much done but there is still some tweaking to do.

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Week 22 summary

Research report

This week I’ve been looking a lot into animated horror. I looked at the use of horror in kids animations such as Courage the Cowardly dog, a western animated series created in 1999. I remember watching some of the show when I was a child and enjoying it, not being scared at all but looking back at it I’m surprised some of it didn’t scare me! A more recent kids show that often uses horror elements is Gravity Falls, a show that I happened to see while my younger brother was watching tv and I was instantly hooked on the intricate story and dark themes. I have since watched the entire series! Another animation I watched was Perfect Blue, a Japanese animation that focuses on identity and the collapsing mind of the main character. This film was actually later a huge inspiration for Black Swan; and though both films are great in threre own way, I prefer Perfect Blue. The way the film distorts time and reality is so jarring and unsettling, and the often cute looking style of some of the characters and settings creates a creepy contrast to what’s happening in the film. I also looked at an anime, The Junji Ito collection after reading some of its manga source material and kind of disappointed. The style of the original manga is very detailed which often helps make the horror so unsettling but in the animation there is a huge lack of detail so the horror does not translate as well. This might be something that I can bring up in my essay; unfortunately the production in the anime is pretty bad, there was likely a lack of resources and time to create close enough interpretation of the art.  

Personal branding and career planning

This week I’ve been making progress on my website, most of it is set up but I think I need to change a few things. My ‘about me’ section is really lacking, I need to think of something better to write since clients and employers will want to read it to get a sense of who I am. The colour scheme I have is looking quite nice which I’m pleased with and I’m quite pleased with the way the website works- I made a gallery of my art and animations with links on the images to the full animations and further work based on the subject, this helps create a much more orderly look. I currently have my home page, the first page that comes up, as my gallery but I think I might change that so my showreel is the homepage. In looking online at other animators websites they often have there showreel front and centre which is the most effective way of showing your range of skill straight away to anyone that clicks onto the website. I haven’t made my showreel yet but I’ve been putting animations and illustrations into a folder which I’ll then put into a showreel next week. I wasn’t sure whether to just have animations in the showreel but I think my designs are often what I’m best at so I’m going to include some character designs such as some pages from my character bible from last terms mythological bestiary project. I’m also still dabbling in the idea of specialising in character design when I graduate so it’s important I show some in my showreel. 

Production team collab

This week I continued working on my my animation, tweaking things along the way when it didn’t work. I was originally planning on creating the entire segment in TVpaint but have since decided that it will work better to use some elements of After effects just in small parts such as the ‘dirty blonde’ and the animated lips part. The changes I’ve made to my idea so far include: the transition from ‘dirty blonde’ to the head of hair, I was originally planning of animating the blonde exploding outwards and then transforming into the head, but I though this animation might take up too much time so I tried the idea of animating the lips on the hair to blow a kiss that then takes up all the screen, as if it’s kissing the screen, this then enabled me to have a full screen of nothing but colour that I could then animate onto. I’ve also changed the ending, in my animatic I showed a piece of hair forming the shape of a question mark but realised that there wasn’t enough space in the timing at the end for that; it would be too much happening at once for such a short amount of time, so I have instead ended on the head of hair melting. I think this works really well and am planning on making the hair colour change to orange before it melts for the “I’m not ginger” line.

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BBC group project, current progress.

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In researching horror in animation the psychological horror Perfect Blue caught my attention. The film is an interesting look at the deteriorating sanity of pop idol turned actress Mima. There are so many twists and turns and a lot of the horror comes from the confusion you feel while watching, it does a great job of distorting reality to make the viewer uncomfortable in a way that leaves so with an uneasy feeling and makes you question what was real in the film and what wasn’t. The film reminded me of the 2010 film Black Swan, which I found out is because Black Swan took a lot of inspiration from Perfect Blue, including a similar plot and even using some of the same shots.

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Junji Ito

It was recently recommended to me that I check out the works of horror manga artist Junji Ito, so I read a manga of his called ‘Uzumaki’. The premise is odd and doesn’t seem like much -a small town is infected with spiral shapes, but it’s a really interesting a disturbing book! The way he creates body horror and unsettling images is really amazing, largely due to the detail in his art. 

I was thrilled to hear that there was an animated series adapting some of his other work titled ‘The Junji Ito collection.’ However, after just watching some of I was disappointed, the detail and emotion in Ito’s artwork seems to be completely absent in the anime. My guess is that there was a lack of time and resources in the production which led to some rather shoddy animation work, which really is such as shame since with the right talent and resources Ito’s stories could be brought to life through animation in a much more deserving way.   

Take this side by side comparison, Junji Ito’s original image creates a chilling uncanny valley effect, and the detail in the face creates an odd almost three dimensional effect. In fact there’s a huge amount of detail everywhere. Unlike in the animated adaption; wherein the proportions aren’t as strange an uncanny, and the detail is lacking. Instead of the highly textured face of the original, there is a texture overlay making it look like compared to the one on the right that no effort has been put into it. 

I’ve found a couple of live action films based on Junji’s work so I’ll check them out to see if they showcase horror as well as the artist shows in his manga.

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This is the progress I’ve made so far on my website. So far I think it’s looking okay, I think the banner is a nice touch and the use of not too many colours helps make things look less messy; particularly since some of my animation and images use bright colours. 

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Week 21 summary

Production team collab

This week I’ve started the first edit of my animation for the project, I’ve done all the keyframes and am now making why way through it completing animations which I’m about halfway through doing! Over the easter break we got some feedback on our current progress and received a fairly positive response, they seemed to like our imaginativeness but there main criticism was that areas were a little too literal. This will be something to keep in mind as we move forward and change things.  

Personal branding and career planning

For part of this project we are learning about effective ways of showcasing our work, so I made an art account on Instagram- https://www.instagram.com/hannahschlatterarts/

I don’t have much on it at the moment but am planning on adding more soon.

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Essay notes

The psychology of horror- possible essay title

Helpful videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WoYrpA3v-38

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcAfzK4YPSI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPRppNlfaX8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzRHGS-HUdE&t=334s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXEF1lcW-oQ

Notes from Dr Steven Schlozman’s TED talk ‘What horror films teach us about ourselves and being human’

-Horror teaches us something about ourselves.

-The average age someone watches their first horror film is 11

-Horror can discuss difficult topics, In Nightmare on Elm Street we see Freddy’s backstory and how he was burned alive by townsfolk. Despite what he did in life did he really deserve this horrific death, does anyone?

-Horror grabs you

                                  -Cult followings: The Shining, Silence of the Lambs,                                                Nightmare on Elm Street

-Profound questions hide in plain sight in horror movies.

What is it about horror that attracts us?

“Horror makes us ask questions that we are very uncomfortable asking in any other setting except in the campy displacement that horror affords.”

-Difficult questions in displacement.

[ Metacognition ] :Being aware of your thoughts, ‘thinking about thinking’

Metacognitive thought: Why do clowns scare us?

                                  -Uncanny valley

                                  -Clown at a circus belongs there so isn't alarming, clown                                      holding a knife your garden at midnight does not belong!

^^^Tweaking the normal pattern of things confuses the brain.

Horror creates community- when watching a horror film in a cinema the audience lets out their shock and yelps in unison at the scares bringing the people in the audience together.

Notes from ‘The Psychology of Scary Movies’

Modern day human fears link to our natural survival instincts

-Fear of the dark= links back to the fear that predators are lurking in the dark

-Fear of spiders= fear of poisonous insects in the wild

Our natural fear of being eaten by a predator can be shown in movie monsters and villains with sharp teeth and claws like Nosferatu as well as monstrous humans with cannibalistic qualities like Hannibal.

According to Glenn D. Walters  there are 3 factors that give horror films an allure

                                   -Tension

                                   -Relevance (personal, universal, cultural or subgroup)

                                   -Unrealism

In a study on disgust three psychologists; Haidt, McCauley and Rozin, showed students in 1994 documentary videos of disturbing content. Few could watch all of it but could easily watch a horror movie. This is because we know what we’re seeing in a film is fictional.

Film is a safe space, it allows us to face the unknown, put fears in to context and shape our belief system.

“Where there is no imagination there is no horror” -Arthur Conan Doyle

-Horror comes from the uncanny

-Some think that people enjoy horror due to primitive pleasure- Sigmund Freud’s theory on our primitive nature in the ID being suppressed by our socially acceptable front -the Ego.

Excitation transfer theory- The horror elevates the joy of the protagonist wining in the end. We watch due to a morbid curiosity and fascination.

David J Shul: horror films show the societal fears of the population at the time.

In a 1995 study, Deidre D.Johnston studied 220 students watching slasher films and found that there was four categories for reasons to watch:

Gore watching

-categorised by low empathy, high sensation seeking, identifying with the killer.

Thrill watching

-categorised by high empathy, high sensation seeking, identifying with the victims, mainly motived by suspense.

Independent watching

-Categorised by high empathy, positive outlook, motivated by the protagonists overcoming the bad and facing their fears.

Problem watching

-Categorised by high empathy and a negative outlook.

People sometimes switch between the type of viewer depending on their current situation and feelings at he time.

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Week 20 summary

Research report

This week I’be been doing some research into the psychology of why people watch horror. I found a very interesting TED talk, ‘What horror films teach us about ourselves and being human’ by Dr. Steven Schlozman, which goes into what horror tells us about ourselves and how there is some benefit to watching it, he stated that fictional horror can discuss difficult topics and helps people cope with there own issues and fears. This is an interesting topic for my essay, as a fan of horror movies myself I’ve often been disappointed at the stigma that surrounds the genre; the misconception is that people who watch it can be driven to act out on the violence depicted in a film, this is mainly du to there being multiple cases of crimes being committed by someone after watching a horror film. I hope with my research I can show that horror has benefit, its not this ‘evil making’ thing that seems to sometimes be perceived as. I think this project is going well so far, I’m definitely learning a lot about the psychology behind horror which is very interesting. Next week I think I need to start researching into horror animation as I haven’t looked into that much yet. 

Production team collab

I continued working on my animated segment for our group project this week. I made a colour script which enabled me to get a clearer idea of which colour work and how I can use them to my advantage by having a colour that needs to be used in the next clip in the previous one so the transition between the two is easier. The colour for the background in the beginning may change, I have it as green at the moment but I might change it to fit the background of the previous animated segment to transition between the two easier. I’ve made another animatic, this one showing the movement more clearly and have redone my visual treatment as well as made an animation test of the hair on the persons head for the “what colours your hair?” part at the end of my animation. We’ve decide that we’re going to add some texture to our animations in the form of water colour looking colouring -similar to what’s seen in the animated series ‘BoJack Horseman’; where the title character has textured water colour skin as well as some of the other characters in the show.

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This week we’re sending over our current progress for the BBC project to get feedback. Including visual treatments, animatics and animation tests.