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My final outcome

Authors own (Callum Bridge)

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WEEK 8

This week I began putting my animation together, and since Imovie is the only editing programme I know how to use, so I knew this would be a challenge, nut one I was willing to take on. After matching up my storyboard with my animated sequences I began experimenting and editing. I had thought a lot about sound design and the sound effects I would use along with my visuals. I delved into the world of symbolic thinking: I had recorded around 50 audio files on the London overground and Underground and began piecing the most effective ones together. I used the rhythmic sound of a train clattering over its tracks for the heart heart of London, I used the sound of a train screeching along the tracks to a halt when London experiences a stroke, and I used the sound of a London Underground train starting up to create tension and a build up (that would eventually lead to a stroke). I also came up with a name for my animation - 'strøke'. this word allows stroke and strike to merge together as the O' appears to have an I striking through it. It also looks like a brain with a slash in it - a damaged brain. After a lot of editing and fiddling around with green screens my film was finally complete. I'm very happy with the outcome although I'm very surprised about how dark my animation ended up. I must have underestimated the horror of a stroke, because the outcome is pretty terrifying. In the future of my projects however I think I should invest in better editing software and screen displays. I have noticed imperfections in my sequences because my screen couldn't go bright enough. All in all though I'm very happy with the outcome I think the visuals as well as the sound design is great.

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WEEK 7

This week was yet again packed full of animating. I’m struggling to say anymore on the matter other than its hard work and extremely time consuming. I began animating the tube (London Underground) parts of my animation. I used a mix of techniques to accomplish this: rotoscopy as well building a small plasticine model of a train so that I had a reference to draw a train carriage from multiple angles. I thought i would delve in to the technical side of my animations as this week I have been doing lots of technical stuff. After I scan my hand drawn sequences I put all the frames into seperate folders and load them into a stack of layers on photoshop (file > scripts > load files into stack). After this I open up the animation window and make frames out of all the layers. I add filters/adjustments and remove any mistakes/errors I have made with my pen using the clone stamp tool, and i make errors quite a lot so this part always takes a while. If I am planning on layering one video on top of another I remove the background and replace it with a green screen. Imovie gives me the option to stack one video on top of another using the green screen tool. After this I render my frames into an MP4 file and save it to my desktop. This is probably an extremely long way of doing things, but it works for me and I’m happy fdoing it. However, I should definitely learn how to use other editing softwares such as Final Cut Pro as I feel like I can extremely limited with what I can do using Imovie. In the future I should definitely teach myself more complex more capable editing softwares so that I can create a better outcome. For now, I comfortable with using Imovie but let down by how rubbish it is. I am nearly finished with all my frames, next it is down to editing and sound design.

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My Dad (The Actor)

Authors own

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WEEK 6

This week was packed full of animating and rotoscopy work. I began taking the first steps of anthropomorphising London. I decided that my dad would be the perfect person for this role, (old and wise looking) so I began filming him acting out scenes in my storyboard to help me with my rotoscopy work. However, little did I know until this point; my dad is the worst actor in history. His movements just weren’t how I wanted them to look at all. When he moved he was stiff and awkward looking. It took me ages to get a take worthy enough of rotoscopy. He was only required to appear in 3 animated sequences, yet it took me almost an hour to get the right shots. I wanted a clean and flowing movement and eventually we got there. After capturing the shots of my dad, I separated the video file into frames using photoshop and began rotoscoping (hand drawn). After working for days on certain sequences my soul started to feel like it was being destroyed; it can get extremely boring. The level of detail I was drawing each frame at made this process extremely time consuming and dull. However its all worth it for the final outcome, even if it is only 3 seconds long. I had decided that I would have London die of a stroke at the end of the animation. This would mean that I would have to get my dad to act out having a stroke and dying. However, my dad seemed to be very uncomfortable with acting this out, and he refused the first few times I asked him. Having a family history of strokes in the family probably made him very worried, and even if he did re-enact having a stroke it would probably be the worst acting imaginable. I managed to get my dad to do two takes, but I scrapped both of them as they were too appalling and I simply couldn’t work with them. I think I am going to have to find a more creative ending. Despite my dads reluctance to be filmed and his jerky awkward, hilariously bad movements I made the best out of the situation and managed to capture some pretty good shots. I’m happy with the outcome and cant wait until it all comes together. Next week I need to created animated sequences of the London underground, to link to the human body.

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Oil Pastel x Digital Animation Test

Authors own

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WEEK 5

This week was packed full of planning and preparation for the creation of my animation. After I’d created a storyboard I realised that I finally had some structure in my project and I felt like I finally knew what I was doing. My animation has a brief yet effective narrative. First I will show how the inner workings of the human body are similar to the workings of the London Underground. Then, London (Anthropomorphised) will have a stroke and all the blood will stop circulating around his body, just like how the trains of the London Underground would be immobilised during a tube strike. I will have a sequence representing the chaos, confusion and dizziness London will experience during his stroke until the screen fades to black. I’m not sure what happens to London after this. While I feel like leaving London’s fate inconclusive would be effective, I definitely feel like I should explore different outcomes. After another crit I feel a lot more confident in my project, People seemed to like my idea and thought that my idea was better and more radical and unique. than the last. I began creating an animated rotoscope sequence in which I would ignore every part of the train except the hand rails. I ended up drawing 230 frames using oil pastels and immediately found out they weren’t the most practical medium to use for animating. Since all my frames were hand drawn, they were smudging against each other and turning my work space in to an utter chaotic mess. After two days of slaving away at drawing these hand rails I had finally finished. But little did I know the trouble that was headed my way when it came to scanning them all. Oil pastels smudge extremely easily, so I should have seen it coming that scanning them would be an utter nightmare. The oil pastels were getting all over my scanner. Every time I scanned a frame I had to clean the scanner and remove all the excess oil pastel that was stuck on the printer from the previous drawing. After 5 hole hours, working from eight to one o’clock in the morning I was finished, and I couldn’t have been more happy with the outcome. I felt like the smudges gave this sequence a rough, gritty, energetic feel and I really liked it. After this, I experimented with digital animation. I rotoscoped from the same video, but this time I would ignore everything except the people. I thought it would be cool to layer them over my oil pastel sequence. After around 2 hours I had finished, but I didn’t find the outcome very rewarding. To me it didn’t look like anything special, and I didn’t really enjoy making it. I think I will definitely focus more on hand drawn animation. After finishing both sequences I layered them on top of eachother and after playing around with the colours I had made something that I really liked. Above is my outcome. In conclusion, although using oil pastels is a massive hassle, I think that it pays off. In the future of this project i will use oil pastels more and experiment with other materials.

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WEEK 4 - MIDWAY POINT

After a crit this week my final major project took a sudden unexpected turn. From the feedback that I have gained on my project so far I came to the understanding that my idea was not radical enough, and to an extent I completely agreed. I didn’t feel like I was heading in any kind of direction, I felt a bit lost within the realms of my project. So after a lot of work, thinking and communicating with tutors I came up with the idea of anthropomorphising the London and its underground rail system. According to the Telegraph, tube strikes can cost the London economy up to 300 million pounds. I began to think about how reliant London’s economy is on the London Underground. I began seeing the London Underground as the arteries of London, fuelling its economy and allowing it to thrive. I started associating tube strikes with strokes and heart attacks, turning London into chaotic, broken and weak state, just like a stroke would to a person. I feel like I have come to a breakthrough, finally I have a way forward. I began researching human anatomy, scoping out any other similarities between the London Underground and the human body. I began thinking about what London would look like if he was a human. Old and wise I immediately thought. London is a historic city founded nearly 2000 years; if it was a person it’s gone through a lot, and clearly its managed to adapt and survive throughout hundreds of years. It continues to grow, despite the tragedy and obstacles it would have faced: the fire of London for example. Lesson learned? Don’t makes houses out of wood anymore or it will die. London gets wiser and wiser the more it grows. The people and buildings of London are what makes London, London. The same way the blood cells and major organs in your body make you, you. London is one of the most diverse cities in the world and I feel like it always has been. Would London be a posh gentleman or a cockney market seller? I think he’d be a mix of everything, an average male or female, celebrating a mix of all cultures and origins. I thought my dad had a lot of potential for this character. In his late fifties, he has a wise and kind looking face. However, London also has its negative side. According to the guardian, London is the heart of global financial corruption. Should he/she be more menacing looking? I could make my dad put on an evil, sinister look. I need to explore this idea further and come up with some kind of storyboard so I know exactly what I’m doing. However I am very pleased with the idea as of now, and am happy with the direction it is heading in.

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Filming on the London Overground and Underground

Authors own

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EASTER BREAK

Over my easter break I have conducted a number of film and animation tests in order to prepare myself for my final outcome. I also created a plan of where and when I will film and tested different drawing mediums extensively from physical to digital. Every time I went on the underground I would take it upon myself to film everyone and everything around me, making minimal effort to be discrete, taking the Dougie Wallace innitiative. Over my easter break I have conducted a number of film and animation tests in order to prepare myself for my final outcome. I also created a plan of where and when I will film and tested different drawing mediums extensively from physical to digital. Every time I went on the underground I would take it upon myself to film everyone and everything around me, making minimal effort to be discrete, taking the Dougie Wallace initiative. In order to avoid alarming people on the underground I would never focus on specific individuals, I would only ever record the train carriage as a whole. If I was feeling particularly brave I would zoom in on strangers faces for a few seconds, but none of these shots came out too well, as the train carriage was shaking about a lot. I found this technique to be effective. No one seemed troubled or suspicious of me walking down train carriages multiple times between stations, filming. I was honestly expecting to be confronted people, and I’m glad I never was. I think being blatant about it makes people less worried. After I’d filmed over 200 videos of the London Underground, its passengers and its trains, I downloaded them on to a computer and rifled through them, finding my favourite and most effective shots. I had started off filming using a ‘Walker Evans’ approach; filming secretly and discretely as possible but without looking through my lense or display my shots came out very badly. As I had gained confidence and took more of a  Dougie Wallace approach my shots were of a much higher quality. Above are some of the shots I managed to capture during my time on the London Overground and Underground. My next step is to experiment with rotoscoping and establish some sort of structure/storyboard to my project. Although there has been difficulties in my project so far (filming hundreds of videos strangers on public transport) I believe I have overcome them thus far and I am excited for the future of this project.

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WEEK THREE

This week I began thinking about the artistic techniques I will use to create my multi-media observational animation. At the moment, I am thinking about combining physical (hand drawn) animation and digital (computer) animation. I will use an extensive range of media including oil pastels and paint. This project is giving me a chance to push the boundaries of visual animation; I will experiment with new, innovative techniques and artistic styles, going against the orthodox way of doing things. I am looking to create something unique in an exclusive way. This of course will be extremely difficult and I am expecting many obstacles along the way. The more common and conventional ways of creating animation are a lot more practical, so I might just be making things a lot harder for myself. However, one of my main focuses on this project will still be on experimentation as I want to push not only myself, but animation in general, seeking different ways to represent the chaos and confusion of the London Underground and my surroundings. I began looking at animators/film makers such as Joe Pease and Kristian Andrews. Kristian Andrews created an observational animation on the ‘58′ bus, focusing on passengers and aspects of the bus itself. ‘58′ is extremely relevant to my project as we are both focusing on observing public transport and its passengers. I have been inspired to use similar rotoscope techniques to Andrews and I will carry out a number of animation tests this Easter. If my animation is to be created using a rotoscope technique, my project will have to involve me publicly filming disgruntled passengers on the London Underground during rush hour. The idea of this filled me with dread, but what else could I do? I began researching street photographers such as Dougie Wallace and the techniques they use to capture people in public without angering/creeping people out. Dougie Wallace took street photography to an ‘In your face’ approach. His technique is actually pretty hilarious and I have to say I admire him for it. He will shove a double flashed camera in your face without asking for any permission and takes a shot. I believe he is so bold and blatant about it he doesn’t raise many suspicions. By simply not trying to hide the fact that he is taking photos of people, he becomes less of a threat. However, I don’t know how practical this technique will be on the London Underground, trapped in a compact carriage with hundreds of strangers. while there may be a wall of bodies to protect you from being punched, there is no escape until the next station. It could actually become dangerous. I would certainly be alarmed if someone used this technique on me. Walker Evans captured portraits of the Subway in the United states during the great depression. He managed to take discrete portraits of people using a complex concealed camera contraption, hidden beneath his coat. Carrying out this technique today would certainly be a lot easier than it was for him with his bulky 1930′s camera. This idea seemed to cause a lot less trouble so I was definitely leaning towards Evans’ approach. I already have a great number of obstacles to tackle in order to perfect my project, and I am trying as hard as I can to overcome the issues that will ensue in the future of this project. This Easter I will begin observational filming on the London Underground and Overground and experiment with animation techniques. I am greatly looking forward to it.