ezrasanimationblog - Tumblr blog

[ezrasanimationblog]

Trimester one, Motion Graphics

This project started off with Sivan displaying some examples of what exactly a motion graphic is which was helpful as at first I'd been a little unsure. The project as a whole feels nostalgic, maybe I don't watch enough movies which I think I will aim to rectify but I haven't seen an opening credits like that in a while.

That is to say I'm intrigued by the possibilities in spite of the challenges. Last year I struggled heavily with using the software such as adobe after effects but I'm optimistic this year that I will figure things out. This year I aim to be less afraid of asking for help but also in challenging myself to do more difficult things.

While all of the stories seemed interesting, some of them being ones I'd heard of before such as 1984, I am hoping to get permission to use one of the stories I already know well. While I understand the importance of having enough relevant material to make a full video and that part of the challenge is in working with material you don't know so well (as is the case often for commissioned artists), I do think getting to choose a story I'm truly passionate about will help me stay dedicated to the project in spite of the troubles I might run into.

For now though I'll remain thoughtful of the differing ways I might be able to use text inorder to display an emotion as well as how that text might be delivered or displayed. I'll also be thinking of examples of powerful imagery and further watching more motion graphics inorder to get a better basis for what I want to achieve.

[ezrasanimationblog]

Trimester one, Character Design

This monday we began work on a two week character design assignment in which I will need to eventually create a portrait, turn around and comic orientated around the character I come up with.

Initially the assignment started off with picking traits for a character from a series of hats. I got willowy, rebellious and Flander's renaissance.

In basic my process so far has taken into account lectures on shape language and inspiration for my design. I have not only made a mindmap about the historical setting but also set up a pinterest board featuring fashion and paintings from the time period. I have already firmly decided to create a painter and so I followed that up with a small mindmap dissecting the symbolism behind many pieces of art created at the time including themes such as beauty, power and religion.

When first beginning to draw my character I have made a large effort to use pointy, sharp shapes for features such as the hair, nose and chin inorder to feed into the idea of 'rebellious' and its associated synonyms including dangerous and sharp.

Additionally I have looked at images of characters describe as willowy, creating a stronger understanding of what that sort of character may look like. Coming to the conclusion that these characters are often tall, lanky, dour and skinny, I've made the choice to create a teenager as I feel those proportions suit well the idea of a moody, rebellious teenager not entirely grown into themselves.

With this basis in mind I will explore more fashion, poses and expressions so that I can use them to better express the character's internal attitudes. My observational drawing work will help with this as I have practiced motion and balance within poses hopefully enabling me to deliver a better sense of weight (something I struggled with last year).

Additionally I will continue to work on my character's purpose and the meaning behind his story, I think this will help providing more clues as to his personality over the upcoming week.

All in all I am excited for this project.

[ezrasanimationblog]

Year Two

This is the beginning of my second year of animation, so far this blog will detail both my animation course work and my motion graphics work.

[ezrasanimationblog]

Trimester 2- Puppet Making

The locals project and puppet making was a long process one at first I did not regard as much in all honesty. I struggled to find a subject and that impacted my motivation going forward, due to issues with my 'hometown' and a lack of family around me, I took to the internet to find someone inspirational but struggled immensely to find the right person. Even now, at the end of the project, I still don't like my choice of Frederick Delius but I have ruminated more so on the project and what it meant to me- this was where I found my energy.

For a long time now I have looked to the past for direction in what I want to achieve whether it be artists or writers, I find history to be a good source of motivation as I recognise that by building myself up with the lessons of those who have drawn or written before, I have the opportunity to make similarly great things. For me the locals project isn't so much about where or who I come from, but rather who I could be and who will lead me there. So I wrote a poem. Orientated around this idea of looking up to someone but recognising that due to the years that have passed, knowing that they will never be able to take as much joy in your work as you do in theirs. I chose to use oranges as symbology for the desire to share art, art being a fruit of sustenance and the segments being an easily shared snack amongst friends. I used the basis of music as the inspirational artist as a reference to Frederick Delius who I had originally chosen for the locals project. The poem is as follows:

A hundred years and a hundred miles- Segments of an orange, we two are tugged apart. You roam the field, I march the marsh. Unraveling the grass from it's flesh, Our two hands are stained by the same fruit peeled. Looser now, I feel the distance groans as it wanes, Knitted up by forgotten refrains, Little melodies signed in your name. You may not know what I write, But I know your songs were fine. And yet divided by the hands of time we hold tight the two of us- Spaced upon the same papered line.

After finishing this I had a stronger sense of what I wanted my stop motion to contain beyond just a rat playing guitar. I started with the oranges, having the scenes start with an orange each. I then added a small story of hedgehogs reuniting as well as the rat, playing guitar but looking outside as if expecting someone to be there- seperation.

Reuniting and seperation were the central points I wanted to cover here as I feel they play a large part into the idea of the poem itself and the way that artists function. We can be reunited with inspiration, muses, ideas, friend and family but equally we can be isolated from what we create, what we love and ultimately what we want inorder to pusue this idea of art. This loneliness in pursuit of sharing is both at odds with itself but also a consistent part of many lives and one I feel should be spoken more about.

I recognise that this post was not what was actually required of the blogs but in truth I not only prefer doing long form writing but I also wanted the opportunity to actually explain my feelings and my work rather than running over the act of making it. What I struggled most with phyiscally though was sewing as I ended up doing numerous all nighters trying to learn how to make the miniature clothing of my rat. I did however enjoy making the set alot as the chance to use many materials made it very tactile to look at and appealing. I enjoyed thinking about these smaller details like woolen wallpaper and buttons about the place, this contributed a lot to a fake feeling that was intentional for the peace. I didn't want the audience to think of it as real life, I wanted them to understand it as art much like its subject matter.

[ezrasanimationblog]

Trimester 2- Pixilation

The pixilation I found extremely fun to create as I got to experiment with new angles involving the camera as well as had the chance to add a little more complexity to the story I was telling. While yes it was about people becoming pieces of fruit, I think getting to change the camera shot and dpsacing added alot to the tone and atmosphere. There was a lot of comedy in the final shot zooming in on the orange in a way that made it menacing. Additionally I am glad we spent so much time editing the sound as the choices in music and effects lead to a lot of laughter form the people around us. While I do think I could have been better at getting the movements of the people in a more cohesive and clear way, I am proud of what we've made.

[ezrasanimationblog]

Trimester 2- Real Life

In this piece I tried to focus on the topic of squash and stretch as instructed. Inorder to do this I created a design that was inhuman, soft and stretchy. This eldritch abomination type of character would then skitter and fall about the screen, I feel this added a strong animalistic quality to the beast that increased the sense of life in it. While I know I could have added shadows inorder to make it feel more realistic on screen, I think I would like to do more experimental things like this in the future.

[ezrasanimationblog]

Trimester 2- Collage

The collage animation was created through the use of dragonframe and some magazine cuttings. After combing through various magazines our group found some pidgeon comics and decided to make them the central focus of our animation. Focusing on ease in and ease out, I wanted to employ a series of adds that would spill out of a laptop that we had created as well as a motion with the wings. In doing so I felt the stop motion animation had a greater sense of liveliness and movement to it. The story line was simple, a bird wants pizza, gets pizza and then loses it. In focusing on this small scale the work as a whole was made a lot easier and meant we managed to complete all of it within the required time frame of the lesson as we had not bloated it with too much content. I like the piece however I do feel we could have spent more time thinking of interesting ways to employ the medium of paper and pen into the animation itself where by scrunching up the paper or destroying it in some way to convey the depression of the pidgeon after losing its meal.

[ezrasanimationblog]

Trimester 2- Adobe After Effects

Finally when it came to actually compiling the piece of animation I had made sure to create five assets to accompany my background, this gave the wooded scene more depth as the ball bounced through it. I also made the background and assets a little too large for the canvas, meaning that the camera had more space to move along. In the end I spent a chunk of time changing the speed of the ball bounce I had made, this helped the piece feel more realistic as a whole. I chose to do the ball bounce inorder to remain consistent with things I had been taught previously. If I could change anything I would probably make the background into two seperate layers meaning the sky and grass were independant of another and could have more depth. I would also make more assets to the ball so that when it bounced I could apply squash and stretch to the piece instead of just ease in and out.

[ezrasanimationblog]

Trimester 2- Adobe After Effects

After with adobe animate for a few weeks I approached the after effects project with more energy and confidence as by this point I had found that with enough patience any software could be tackled irregardless of difficulty.

My first order of business had been to prepare a series of ideas and then a background with additional assets to create something original to work with. Some of my initial ideas revolved around the idea of the camera passing over a series of rooftops with some dragons sat upon them, roosting like birds. Another idea I had was of a falling star. Finally I settled on a red ball bouncing through the woods.

I then began to further develop and draw out the backdrop, going through various drafts as I alter the colours to attain a better look for my backdrop. At first I struggled with this due to an inexperience drawing backgrounds however with some tutorials I began to become more comfortable with drawing scenery using non-straight lines. This helped immensely.

[ezrasanimationblog]

Trimester 2- Walk Cycle

While I struggled with adobe animate at first, I found with consistent practice that the software wasn't so difficult to use. I ended up creating four alternate drafts and watching many tutorials as I attempted to wrap my head around the walk cycle and how to add a personality to it. My main focus in the end had been to add more weight to the steps, slowing him down and putting an emphasis on his weight as a character as well as his relaxed and confident nature.

After this draft I would begin to properely line and colour the walk cycle, resulting in my final version. Unfortunately I can't upload my final on this blog post however I did add a background to add more atmosphere as well as included the swing of an arm inorder to make the character seem more lifelike with a secondary motion.

[ezrasanimationblog]

Trimester 2- Walk Cycle

The walk cycle was a project to be worked on through the use of adobe animate, we had to choose an emotion and a profession, either designing or reusing a character to create a walk that would appropriately match this energy.

Initial character ideas I had included an anxious looking student with many papers in his arms that would fly out out behind him as he scurried towards his next class.

This did however end up feeling more like a run cycle and so, keeping in mind the project, I chose to use a pre-existing character of mine. Lior is relaxed/tired professor/doctor.

Some of the art I did for the character sheet.

[ezrasanimationblog]

Trimester 2- Computer Modeling

Using references gathered through the use of a pinterest board, the theatre began to shape up as I spent the time making smaller details such as the knobs on the front sign and the details of the brick work inorder to add more to the cluttered nature of okder architecture.

Additionally I decided to implement a small narrative within the work, providing a stronger sense of personality to the piece as a whole. Behind the theatre a back door is open and a stool has been placed by a bin, in my mind I like to think that the employees of the theatre might sometimes sneak out during their breaks and sit outside to be alone for a while. This relaxed attitude to their work has attributed to a pile up of old popcorn cans on the front table outside of the theatre.

Finally I built up a mostly warm colour palette using reds, oranges and yellows, I feel this contributes a cohesiveness to the building as a whole making it pleasant to look at despite the mixture of real life textures and flat colours being used inorder to decorate it.

As a whole I found maya quite difficult to use due to the many windows however I find that spending a lot of time redoing certain actions leads to a stronger sense of understanding and I can now apply texture with ease.

[ezrasanimationblog]

Trimester 2, Week 2- Computer Modeling

This week in class I continued working on my maya project using a collection of references that I have accumulated through the use of a pinterest board.

After asking for some help from Patrick, I have created the basic fundamentals of my buildings including a rectangular base, six columns and ticket stand with a sign overhead. With this strong base in mind I have begun to experiment with the modeling tools avaliable in maya including the extrude, this has allowed me to make some distinct shapes to fit my building better.

Additionally I have started to add details like extra brickwork and doors inorder to accentuate the feeling of an old theatre.

[ezrasanimationblog]

Trimester 2, Week 1- Sequential Practice

In class today we used dragonframe and collages inorder to create a small stop motion animation inspired by the likes of Lotte Reiniger (an animator and German film director).

While working on this project I tried to be very orderely as I followed a step by step process that resolved in us finishing the animation on time.

First we flicked through the magazines, then we selected the images and texts we liked, then we cut them all out and began to prepare the animation at which point everything was neatly filed and on hand meaning that we could make the frames at a fast pace as we weren't waiting for props. I also created a storyboard inorder to get across my ideas.

During this project I worked with Amy and Freyja who helped animate, cut up the magazines and added sound effects.

[ezrasanimationblog]

Trimester 2, Week 1- Computer Modelling

This is the first week back after the winter break, during this time I have continued to practice animation through the use of short clips on clipstudio, I have also continued to work through a generalised sketchbook. Tuesday's class consisted of our first attempts at using Maya, an industry standard 3D modelling software. I have never done 3D modelling before though I sculpted a little as a child, I found the experience to be both strange and alien given how the shapes are provided and how they need to be molded inorder to be used. I struggled at first to get to grips with the software however I have since gone out of my way to find some more online tutorials that have given me a better understanding of the user interface. Already I have decided I will be modelling an older cinema as those sorts of buildings have always been inspirational to me and I have fond memories of a particular one in Newcastle while growing up. Since deciding this I have begun to collect references on pinterest that both give me a sense of atmosphere and shape, this will help me create concept art in the future.

[ezrasanimationblog]

Animation Principals

Squash and Stretch-

Squash and stretch is the act of compressing and stretching an object based on how fast it is moving, the density that it has and the impact that it has when arriving. Objects with less density will have more fleixibility when it comes to this. Squash and stretch is a really useful way to emphasise how fast an object is moving without using too many or too little frames or incorrectly timing the animation.

Staging/Straight Ahead versus Pose to Pose-

Pose to pose animation involves starting a project with a definitive start pose and end pose, the animation is then created by filling this with various inbetween frames. As the opposite of this, straight ahead animation involves a motion starting at the beginning and then following all the way through to the end without plotting it out beforehand. While pose to pose is great for keeping character models on point, straight ahead animation is very useful for things like fire or explosions that are more chaotic.

Overlapping Animation-

Ovelapping animation allows a figure to move more naturally as various parts of their body may lead while others follow, resulting in things moving at different paces. This is a natural part of life and also keeps movements feeling more fluid with less stopping and starting within a sequence.

Follow Through-

This relates closely to the use of overlapping animation and is the idea that certain parts of a character will continue moving even if the rest has stopped. For example flowing fabric will continue to sway in the wind even if the arm it is on has stopped moving. This continues to make figures on the screen appear more lifelike.

Solid Drawing-

This is the ability to take a 3D character and transfer it into the 2D space while still retaining all the essential features such as density that help this character retain some sense of realism. Prior to the rise of 3D animation this was a very important principal for animators to learn as everything was hand drawn and relied upon more intense observation of related subject matter.

Timing-

Timing is the practice of keeping everything running at a smooth, understandable pace for the audience who are watching. If texts moves too fast it is hard to read and if people are too slow to move then the animation becomes boring. Having good timing ensures that the animation is accesible and truly gets across the intended idea and purpose behind it.

[ezrasanimationblog]

Week 12-

Narrative poem end.

This is the final version of my narrative poem. Reflecting on this work I think in the future I will try to be more aware of my limititations due to time constraints and I would like to include more colour and detail. However I am pleased with angle changes.