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Final + Evaluation

15-3-17

When looking over my work I am pleased with the outcome. This is because the illustrations flow connectively, the images are attractive to look at, and as a whole this helps it work well as a gif. I feel that I planned my project out well using my schedule and stuck to that and my work has been flowing continuously through the project and I have had time to refine my idea further to this final which I am happy about. Another element in the process of my work is exploring new methods and analysing them, I have done this as I have planned shot and edited a few different methods such as gif, stop motion and cinemagraphs, and analysed what they are, how they are made and why impact they can all have. While refining my idea I am happy that I experimented with different methods of completing a gif, like thinking to drop my illustrations on top as it is something different and this appeals to the purpose intended readers (the majority of young people on phones/laptops) this is because it is simply designed for the web.

Throughout my project, one thing I could have done better is research, I struggled to find a photographer/artist who did something similar to my final idea, because as far as I know I haven't seen an idea too simliar to this. Another thing is i could have varied my final idea more, in a sense of how thought of an idea and stuck to that one as I was invested in it to an extent. When alternatively I could have tried other methods of creating the drawings on top, maybe by shooting them in camera or physically drawing them on top of the images and scanning them in. Secondly the quality, I am somewhat disappointed at how on this blog the quality is a lot lower after importing it which causes unwanted and rather visible blocks of shade gradients on the background; this is distracting and lowers the impact of my final outcome. However to improve on that I should have taken into consideration that you social media sites cannot hold top quality work.

In terms of when I started to think of my idea, I achieved what I set out to do, I am very happy with this because the idea I had in my head I was able to create using the skills I had learnt during lessons. Although achieving what I originally wanted was good as it shows how I can successfully create something the way I want it, it isn't very experimental as I didn't try to think of different ideas or methods as I did what I had to do as I wanted it to look a certain way. Alternatively I could argue that because I had time to refine my gif a few times before I was happy, that I don't think I would approach this assignment in a different way.

At the beginning of my project, I did some research on different forms of timebases media formats (cinemagraphs, gifs and stop motion). I found doing this very useful for two main reasons, one because it let me learn how to create them, and secondly because by learning how to do them I work backwards and think of an idea that can actually work with it which made it easier to think of my final idea.

Although I find feedback very useful as it allows me to ask someone with a fresh pair of eyes what they think of what they can do to improve my work. In this assignment I did receive feedback from one of my peers however it was all positive which means I did not need to adapt my idea in any way.This positive feedback did boost my motivation to complete as I had outside opinion that they liked it so I did not have to worry as much about wether viewers would like it or respond to it well.

I feel that even though I could find a photographer or artist who has done a moving gif with illustrations over an image, a key inspiration in my idea making was the artist Laurene Boglio. Her gifs are illustrations she has drawn showing simple movements which are usually comical. I like her work because it is effective and it allows me to easily watch it over and over without getting bored. I aimed for my time based outcome to be in the same respect in that it is attractive an interesting to look at and i feel like I have achieved that.

I think that through out my project, my narrative has stayed the same. This is because I was so set on creating this idea that came to me and I knew it would challenge me to work hard and create a successful gif. Anyone can look at my gif and see a clear and outstanding narrative, it flows well, it shows what is happening clearly and it also makes the reader wonder what happened before and after the bit of the story you can see. I think one of the reasons this works is because I left the gun out, without the gun you can't tell who shot the bullet, what gun, from how far away or even why; even by blatantly showing what happens comically to the boy it leaves a lot of room for wonder. Another factor is the lighting, it adds a somewhat confusing if the reader thinks about it; it looks a bright and lively image, yet contrastingly he is dying. As well as the fact of being shot in bright light is something you don't hear about as often. I think that learning about these methods of creating time based outcomes has helped me with my 2D unit, this is because by starting with time based you can easily choose a few moments of a narrative to show which leads me to the wonder and realise that in my 2D unit I have to tell the reader a shot narrative simply with one or two images. I makes you think behind what the viewers might think, if they can see a clear narrative within my gif, I need to make sure they can see as clear of a narrative in my other unit too.

By the end of this assignment I am happy at how my work and the skills and processes I have learned have come along. It has definitely given me a whole new area of photography to potentially work in, develop and broaden any possible further work I can do.

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Refinement

8-3-17

I have refined from my first gif attempt and learnt from what I did. The first thing I did was added more frames in, there are now 10 frames as seen below you can see the order swell as each stage. This allowed me to create my gif with an understandable narrative as well as having a slightly smoother transition.

0.2 Seconds Per Frame:

This gif is 0.2 seconds per frame, this was the first one I tried as I thought it is a place to start so I can see what it looks like. Although the frames along with their illustrations are smoother, I think that the speed of the frames is too slow. This causes the gif still seem a little disjointed and it doesn't work to convey my narrative in the way I wanted it too. Hopefully by speeding up the frames it will create a smoother look overall which will help my narrative, I aim to do this next.

0.1 Second Per Frame:

By speeding the frame up, it has made the gif work a lot better to successfully convey my narrative. This works because each frame is shown for 0.1 seconds which plays the images, along with the illustrations on top faster and it appears smoother because the previous image stays in the eye very briefly and then the next one will enter the eye and it flows successfully. Although the illustrations are successful and I am happy how it has turned out, but I should have focused on the images themselves as well as completing the rest of the gif. So to improve I feel like I need to lighten the images as they appear a bit flat. It is too in contrast the the bright and cartoon-like illustrations on top. This has an overall effect of lowering the impact and the flat image isn't very eye catching. I will aim to make two layers on the images, one to lighten my model correctly, and another to lighten the background to give it a lot more depth.

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Editing

4-2-17

The first thing I did was select the images I wanted that were in the position I wanted (didn't jump backwards or to far forwards). Once I had chosen my images I opened them up into photoshop and started on the first frame, drawing on the cartoon bullet. To do this to a high standard I used my Wacom tablet. This allowed me to draw with a pen and it come up onscreen which, although this process was long and somewhat difficult to draw it all on, it made it easier than using the touch pad on my mac book. After drawing the bullet I then did another frame with it entering my models head. This was an easy process, however planning each frame and carrying it out so it is all in line is somewhat challenging. The last two frames are of the splat coming out the other side and the bullet exiting. I did all these illustrations using the custom shape tool (which by using the select tool I could move every single point and create my shape).

However the main tool I used for the majority of my illustrations were simply using the paint brush tool. This tool was greatly useful as I could freely create the look I wanted and it allowed me cartoony add my drawings on top.

Once I had completed each frame separately, with a total of 5 frame, I imported them into photoshop again and opened up the timeline window. I could then select to have each layer as a frame, this would create my GIF from the images I had just made. I chose the time each frame was on for which was 0.1 seconds and began exporting my GIF. I went to file - Export - and save for web. (as seen below).

Then I had to make sure the looping options were on forever, this was because it is a GIF so it loops constantly. Another really important thing I had to check was the size of the GIF; I wouldn't make one any bigger than 1080 px width. This is because GIFs are simply designed for the internet and so if it is any bigger than they won't fit well on most social media sites where my outcome is designed to go. Then all that was left for me to do was to drag the saved file of my gif into a blank web page and see if it worked which it did!

Below is my first Gif produced for my idea:

I think this is a first draft of my final GIF, this is because it doesn't work as well as I would of hoped. It is rather jumpy and its a little difficult to see what fully is happening. Think this is due to two reasons, I think the frames are played too fast so you can't see what is happening in each frame to actually understand a narrative. Secondly I think that the drawings on the frames are too far apart in steps. This causes the effect you can see above of it jumping too quickly and at a glance it doesn't seem like the images are to related. Alternatively I think if I could add more frames in the illustrations would work really well to help convey my story. I am happy with the idea so far as it is a clear story that anyone can see and clearly understand that the boy is getting comically shot in the head. The images are not meant to flow smoothly, although they should be slightly more relative. So that it my next step for improvement.

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Contact Sheet

1-2-17

I did my shoot the way I planned it except for one difference, which was instead of having the soft box to one side and the window to the other, because the day was rather dark so I had the soft box directly in front of my model. This was to avoid shadow more on one side of his face than the other.

The first few images are me trying to figure out my lighting as well as slightly adjusting the frame. I chose lighting set up which lit the whole face evenly and also had room either side for my illustrations on top.  Another key thing you can see in my contact sheet is how half way through I change the framing and lower it. I did this because with the frame being slightly higher the bullet and shapes will go through the head which would leave a lot of negative space near the tops of the images. A key thing I kept in mind was to keep shooting so I could get the best face expressions with the best movements along side my narrative. I wanted to move the head in small increments so I could pick and choose the best ones to use to create an effective GIF.

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Story Board

24-2-17

Before starting to shoot for my GIF I have created a story board so I could plan my stages and what steps I need to do. This will help me to not miss a step or have to go back and take more images to fit in my GIF. I have also annotated next to each stage to help me plan what is going to happen in each frame.

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Brief Feedback

21-2-17

This is my feedback in response to my personal brief, I am happy with this feedback because they couldn’t find anything to improve on. Even tho I wanted something to change and make better, I am happy at how they like my idea and it had given me more confidence and motivation to complete this idea knowing that it should go down well.

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Personal brief Schedule

15-2-17

Time-based media places a heavy emphasis on time management, So I aim to create a flexible and well thought out plan that will be essential to successfully completing my assignment. I will devise and create a production schedule, ensuring I consider how much time I have until my deadline, production and post-production.

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Personal Brief Plan

15-2-17

Aims & Objectives  -   
My narrative will be of a cartoon bullet entering someones head and coming out the other side along with some pink liquid pouring out. I will take images and the draw the illustration over the top in photoshop. I want it to be cartoon like and fun, I want to show the gif having a quick but clear and creative narrative.

Influence -   Who are your key influences and why? What are you taking from their work and putting into yours?  Bullet point every element – these are your guidelines to work towards. Include one or two key images/works here that demonstrate what you want to achieve. My key influences are Laurene Boglio and Uno Moralez, I love both of these artists work as they are so creative and the talent behind their illustrations are good. I take inspiration mostly from Laurene’s work I love the illustration aspects from her GIF, the big bold lines I like and think they are effective as they are clear and successful in the GIF. As you can see in her GIF’s below they are clear and fun and creative:

Constraints -  What technique/process are you going to be working with? I will be making my narrative in Time Based Media using a GIF. This will mean I need to consider each step and what affect I want to have at the end. Gifs don’t have to be a smooth animation and most aren’t. For the effect I want my GIF will be in stages to show the narrative rather then run smoothly, I think this will add to the cartoon/caricature effect I want. This means I need to plan out each frame of the GIF to see how they fit together as I want there to be the same level of flow throughout and It needs to be pleasing to look at.

Look and feel - I want my final GIF to look clean and crisp while having the contrast of the soft and smooth cartoon like illustration on top. I want an innocent look at first before the drawings of the bullet come in and come through the head comically. I want a white background behind my models head with the model herself looking tidy and clean in each image. I will try Natural soft lighting as I don’t want the harshness of artificial lighting. I don’t want many contrasting shadows however so I may have to use a soft box to achieve the look I want.

Genre -  I feel my genre is experimental as it will take ma a few tries to get the look I want. I am also using an experimental technique of combining my images and my drawings over the top. I feel this works with my image and I hope readers will find it interesting as they might not have seen something like it before.

Audience -   Since it is a GIF it will be aimed to circle to internet, and the most common age of people who use the internet (especially to look at GIFs) is teenagers and young adults. I feel like my target audience will relate jokingly to my GIF, the stress and challenges young people go through I think will allow them to comically enjoy my GIF. Focusing on my audience has helped me confirm my narrative idea for my final piece of work.

Equipment/Models/Sound -   To create my final GIF all I need is a model, tripod, camera and photoshop. I will not be including sound in my GIF for two reasons; one is because it will not add any extra effect without ruining it. Secondly, GIFs are short and I think they would become a bit much to look at and listen too over and over in a loop. It may perhaps instead become annoying which I do not want.

Location - I will shoot my images in the studio against a white background, this is so I have easy access to my desired model, I can have a fully white background, and lastly because there will be studio lights available there for me to use if artificial lighting doesn’t help me to achieve the look I am going for.

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Review Of Processes And Techniques

12-2-17

Within the techniques of time based media, there are many different types. Some I have already explored and created my own. Stop-Motion, Cinemagraphs and GIFs. All of these styles I have covered and recreated as seen in my blog. Each of these has similarities and each are also vastly different. 

Stop-Motion videos are images played in a sequence, each showing an incremental movement to create an animation. Cinemagraphs are still images with a small area ‘cut out’ to show a moving part underneath. GIFs are short looped videos created by a series of images played consecutively. Immediately I can see a similarity between Stop-Motion and GIFs, seeing as to create them it involves playing a series of images in quick succession to give the illusion of motion. However Stop-Motion animations are unlike GIFs in the way that they are much longer, tell more of a narrative and they do not loop. They are played like a short film, where as GIFs are short, only lasting a matter of seconds, and they are not as smooth. Gifs show majority jumpy movements but Stop-Motion aim to show smooth seamless movements.  Cinemagraphs in comparison to both of these methods are more similar to GIFs, this is because they are both short in length, both loop and both are actually exported as a GIF. Whereas there is very little relation between a Cinemagraph and a Stop-Motion animation other than that they are both Time Based Media techniques used to show movement.

I feel the process of making a quality Stop-Motion animation requires a lot of time and patience, it was fun to make and I feel a lot of freedom within what I could do. However I found it the hardest one to create because of the tiny movements you must do and the amount of images you need to shoot to get a smooth few seconds of video is rather extensive. I think making a Cinemagraph also was longer to make, but it was more so lengthy in time when editing. You have to be careful when masking out the video and to get a good effect I feel would be easy to do now I know how to do it. I also feel like this process wasn't hard, I just feel knowing what to shoot is the main issue as at the time i didn't know what would work well. But in future I think I could create a working a effective cinemagraph. GIFs are the easiest and fastest to make, they consist of images played together in a loop and its such a simple concept and it is also simple to create. Saying that however I think the difficult part was thinking of what to shoot, I want to try thinking of GIF ideas I can make which will be effective in telling what is happening. I might use the technique of a GIF to produce my final Time Based Media outcome; this is because I really want to experiment using illustrations over images I have shot to tell a narrative. At the moment I am having the idea of having pictures of a head and I can illustrate a bullet going in and shooting through the head. I feel that will be fun to illustrate in a carton and creative way.

Regarding my research I feel it has been useful in the progression of my ideas. I feel it was the Gif research I enjoyed the most. I enjoy the freedom you can have and the creativity I could potentially put into my work to make it reflect me or tell a narrative. Laurene Boglio’s work has played a part in this progress, I think her illustrations showed me the freedom I could have in my work making GIFs. I think when producing my final Time Based Media outcome, I must consider the amount of space between each shot (including the illustrations on top) as it is a Gif not a Stop-Motion Animation. It does not need to be smooth or perfect and I think I will draw out a story board showing each of the frames for my gif so I have a plan to stick to and so I won't try to make it perfect or flow naturally. To successfully show a narrative I think the storyboard will also help with this, it will help me se if it shows a story as well as being able to ask feedback from others before I start producing anything.

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My First GIF

11-2-17

Today, I learnt and tried to make my own GIF. I worked with TM and we came up with a few ideas: - Spinning on a chair - Rock paper scissors - feet dancing - pouring water - walking / up stairs - drawings

We tried to think of ideas that we liked and also don't appear too hard to make. We ideally wanted a few images that show movement so we can create a short simple GIF. I am more focused on learning the process than the idea itself.  The idea we chose was to move forward with the feet idea; it will simply consist of 5 or 6 images showing feet in different positions to portray an motion of dancing when played as a GIF.  We first wanted to use a tripod to avoid the framing of the images changing too much, however there weren't any left so we had to make do with hand holding the camera. I am hesitant about this as I feel I will have to be extremely careful with the camera position and try to keep it in the same frame, but I still think it will make the outcome a little jagged and will loose effect. Next we decided where to shoot the feet, we didn't want it on carpet as it was patterned and may have just been too distracting. Instead we chose a spot in the hall on a wooden look floor infant of the window. This then sorted our natural lighting and location. We then had to just plan out the positions we wanted the feet in for each image and we shot them.  After shooting all the images, we checked to see if we had enough and at a consistent movement to see if it would work as a GIF. We thought it would work well and so we moved on to editing. I found this very simple and easy to do, I imported the photos into photoshop by this process: File>Scripts>Load files into layer stack>Browse>Select files>OK. Then using the timeline bar I selected create frame animation so this would play my images in succession. Then I had to move my images onto the timeline in the correct order and click ‘make frames from layers’. When selecting a time for how long each image was shown for I chose 0.3; this was because 0.5 was too long but 0.2 was too fast and you couldn't quite focus on the images to see what they were. So 0.3 worked best and I am still hoary with that choice. Lastly I had to save it, and you have to select save for web and during this process you also need to check the size of the frame, I had to lower mine to a width of ‘1000′ this was to monitor the size it would come out at. Another thing I had to change was the loop style, and as it is a GIF I needed to select forever. This process allowed my GIF to be animated as sen below.

After finishing my GIF I definitely have things to improve on in the process, mostly with shooting as the editing side I found easy. For example, the light in the images is slightly different in each image because of the shadows in the light, I feel this is something I need to watch fro next time when making a GIF as the light needs to be more consistent to create abetter flow. Secondly I need to use a tripod to control the framing, although the frame doesn't move too drastically it still lowers the effect of the animation because it jolts a little between images. However overall I think that as my first GIF, technically it works and I think it shows the motion me and TM wanted to portray. I think it is an effective method and I would like to explore GIFs more because they are such a common thing and I want to try different things. As well as how the process is so simple but effective I really like. I would perhaps try incorporating more complex movement into my GIFs and show more of a story in the process. One thing I am very keen to try is illustrations, I am inspired by the work of the artists shown below (Laurene Boglio and Uno Moralez). They can show crazy story’s with their work and I want to try to portray a narrative through mine using a more creative process of illustrations. I may try to mix both images and illustrations over the top to add a unique feel to my work as I haven't seen much of that out there and I think I can show some strong points within that area. 

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GIF

9-2-17

Graphics Interchange Format. GIFs are image files that are compressed to reduce transfer time, they are loops of either still images or a short video. Steve Wilhite who works in CompuServe was the engineering lead on the team that adapted the GIF file format. The GIF or graphics interchange format, was introduced to the world by Compuserve in 1987. The compressed format was the ideal for performing image transfers across the slow modem connections of the time. The format also allowed for color, replacing the black-and-white run-length encoding format (RLE). On June 15, 1987, the team at compuserve, which included inventor Steve Wilhite, released an enhanced version of the GIF called 87a. Wichita said “I think the first GIF was a picture of a plane. It was a long time ago”.

Much has changed in the world of GIF animations. - 1990s culture: GIFs contain classic animation; the backgrounds are transparent so they can be used in many graphical contexts. - Beginning of the 21st century: Big, motionless, glittering (or other automatically generated) graphics used on Myspace and other PimpMyProfile-style social networks. - Current time: Looped sequences made from video captures of movies or TV shows, distributed in blogs, not integrated into the page design surrounding it.

One modern artist who uses illustrations and graphic design to create GIF’s is Laurene Boglio. She first started making animated GIFs roughly 4 years ago. Each one of her GIFs is linked to something that happened in her life that she didn’t understand or at least caught enough of her attention to make me think about it. She has said that her work she likes to take time to make them and do them frame by frame, the old fashion way.

I really like Laurene’s work, I like the mesmerizing effect it creates. You can stare at a her GIF’s for a very long time without even realizing it. It also adds an element of surprise to her drawings. I find it amazing how she fully brings her illustrations to life and each can have an element of surprise as you don't know what is going to happen next.

Another artist whose work I love is Uno Moralez. He is a Russian enigma whose work is both drawn and published in digital pixels, the outcome results in the form of bizarre and creative images/gif galleries.  When he was a child, living in Russia and it was behind the Iron Curtain, and everything that was foreign was unusual he saw. he had a few issues of action Marvel comics and he was said to have flicked through them, and later tried to imitate their style.he has since stopped reading fiction; and now he mostly reads translations of ancient mystical books. I think this plays a large role in his work and the goings on that happen in his brain for his work to come out.

I really like how he turned pixel art into something almost mystical and a bit creepy. I think it reminds me along with some other readers a little of Tetris and all those classic game boy games but I really like the authenticity it adds to his work. Moralez’s work is mysterious and clever; I think it is clever because all the pixels in that specific order create such intricate and seemingly ancient pieces of work. They give off the sense that what’s happening makes sense to the individuals involved, which is the most fascinating and harrowing thing about Moralez’s work. You seem so distant from what is happening in the work, yet because it is so well done and so precise, it lets you see into his work and into that world to try and connect in the illustrations.

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Stop Motion VS Cinemagraph

25-1-17

I have researched and experiments with different aspects of Time Based Media within this project, I am going to compare stop-motion animation and cinemagraphs which may help me consider what to do for my final idea. These two techniques are very different processes with two different results. Stop motion animation consists of taking a series of images and playing them consecutively to get a video at the end, whereas cinemagraphs are short 10-20 second videos but edited to show a still with only a small section moving.

Out of the two, I found cinema graphs much easier to make, not only easier but it is also a lot quicker. My cinemagraph can take me about 20 minutes to shoot and edit, where as stop motion is a lot more tedious taking up a lot more time. However, the main part of cinema graphs is editing, but contrastingly stop motion is more in camera shooting, so depending on what skill you are better at I think this effects who prefers what process. Taking the original video/images I find a lot easier when making a cinemagraph, this is because I simply have to take a short 10-20 second video and then I can go straight to editing (which I like doing), where as for a stop motion video I had to continuously shoot images one after the other only moving the subject tiny increments at a time, which isn't bad, I just find it harder to do as I can't seem to find enough time. The editing side of these processes is different; stop motion animations are a lot easier to edit as I simply imported the photos into iMovie and it will start to play them to create a short video. Unlike stop motion, cinemagraphs take a lot longer to edit as you have to use photoshop and create a layer mask on top of the video and erase a section of it to allow part of it to move while the rest is still. I found both processes equally new and interesting to produce, but stop motion was open to a lot more mistakes, like having some frames in the wrong order or moving an object too much which will ruin the effect of a video at the end. Alternatively you can ruin a cinemagraph too but badly editing the layer mask on top or by shooting video which doesn't work too well. e.g The background behind subject moves too (this will affect what you can see moving and will be hard to edit), or the video doesn't do a complete loop well (creating a jagged and not smooth looped cinemagraph).  Looking at the entire process as a whole, I find cinemagraphs and stop motion equally fascinating and fun to make. Stop motion takes patience and skill and you know the effort that goes into them, yet cinemagraphs take less time but still show skill and I think both methods create really nice pieces of time based works. However if I had to do them again I am more inclined to experiment with cinema graphs for my ideas, this is because I feel like I can explore a lot me and create something that is different and imaginative. I might try allowing more that one object to move in my cinema gram, or perhaps use a few cinema grams in an order or place them next to each other to combine together to firm a larger image or simply tell a narrative.

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My Cinemagraph

24-1-17

These are my original idea’s when I was thinking of my Cinemagraphs:

- Water pouring into bottle. - Match reflection in mirror/puddle. - Tongue sticking out. - Crowd/person still or moving separately. - All still but one tree moving. - All table and things still but one coffee moving with steam. - Eyes rolling/looking. - Nose flaring. - Car driving past but everything else still.

I tried to think of different ideas that can change areas of the picture for the cinemagram, such as a full landscape image or a small framed image with just one small element. However because I haven’t made one before it is hard to know what will work or what will be easier that another. Since I didn't know what would work best, I shot video for some of the simpler ideas as they are the only ones I could do in the time period I was allotted.  I shot a short 10-20 second video for the tongue idea as well as; water into a cup, eyes rolling and nose flaring. The others I didn't do for reasons such as they were too long to do in the time I had, as well as how I cannot have matched or hot drinks in class. To complete this I used a: - Tripod - Camera - Photoshop - Quicktime Player Being cautious I shot around 4 videos of each ideas so I could used the best one, as there could be things like the wrong focal point or camera shake, the clips I shot were just over 10 seconds long. What shooting the videos I wasn't too concerned about having the start and end of the video exactly the same as I can cut the video down when I put it into photoshop to edit. Once I had uploaded the videos onto my computer I looked to see which one would work best, I was deciding between the one pouring water and the eye roll. I chose the eye roll because a a lot of other people did pouring water and as I thought it would be slightly more challenging. I kept the ideas fairly simple because it is my first attempt at a cinemagraph and I am more concerned about learning the skill than the idea.  I imported the video into photoshop and I cropped it down to the loop of video I wanted where it started and ended in roughly the same place. I then duplicated the layer (making sure it was on top of the original video) and rasterised it in the selected frame I wanted to be the still image on top. After that it is then simply a matter creating a layer mask with the rasterised layer and by using the paintbrush selected on black I was able to ‘erase’ some of the layer to allow the video to come through.

I think as a first attempt i am quite happy, mainly because I now understand how to make them and because I know this I now know what video will work best to to create a better effect at the end. I think I have shown a clear and distinct contrast between the moving bit of my image and the still part, so I think I have made a successful cinemagraph. Although I think my cinemagraph isn't too bad, there is still clear room for improvement, for example I could have included more elements to the side or background to further the contrast between the moving and non moving elements. However I mainly feel that Making a cinemagraph using facial expressions or body parts is a hard thing because you can move one section of your body but not without slightly moving the parts around/next to it. You can see this in my cinemagraph above, the eyes move slightly because as my model was looking around her head moved ever so slightly, so through the layer mask you can see not only her eye balls move, but her eye sockets follow. This weakens the effect by allowing the viewer to see where the mask is more clearly. I did try to compensate for this slightly by changing the opacity and fading out that section of the mask yet you can still see it.  If I were to make a cinemagraph again I think it would be a lot more successful, not to do with the editing side of it as I found that rather easy, more so to do with shooting. I now understand how to shoot a video for a cinema gram and can predict how it will behave if I try to edit it. Next time I would also like to try having more that one thing moving in the scene. I think a set with grass or a leaf on a tree with maybe small details like that moving would be really effective and as it is outside, depending on framing I don't think it would be too hard and I wouldn't have to consider background too much.

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Cinemagraph

4-1-17

Cinemagraphs are still photographs in which a (most commonly a minor) element in left playing in a loop and thus repeated movement occurs, forming a video clip. Cinemagraphs are made by taking a series of photographs or a video recording, and using image editing software, compositing the photographs or the video frames into a seamless loop of sequential frames. This is done so that motion in part of the subject is perceived as a repeating or continued motion, in contrast with the stillness of the rest of the image. They are published as an animated GIF most commonly, and can give the illusion that the viewer is watching an animation.

Jamie Beck and Kevin Burg created the first Cinemagraph. “We began collaborating as artists in 2009 after years of friendship. In 2011 we created a new form of digital photography we named the Cinemagraph.” Since then they have married, traveled the world creating work that has been seen by millions of people and as pioneers of the medium they shaped and defined what a cinemagraph is, sparking new trends in digital imagery.  It exists in the world in between a photograph and video to bring to life the image and make it last forever.

This Cinemagraph is looking through Armani glasses as a newspaper while the coffee is being stirred. At first glance you think it is just an aesthetically pleasing animation, however after looking closer you start to realise that it is a still image yet the coffee is being stirred. There is not only that, but the fact that when looking at the image a story coming into your mind, you look at the image in slightly more detail and you wonder the background. I feel like I am being shown a clip of a story except I am having to figure out what came before or what might come after. Is she in a cafe,what paper is she reading, how did she get to the cafe and is she meeting someone? Just from this Cinemagraph I have thought and received the story that she is in a cafe waiting for another person as and she is a well presented and artistic person; and mainly that she has been waiting a while since she is reading and stirring her coffee over and over. This cinema graph is effective as it could tell me all that from just this clip. I assumed she was in a cafe from her coffee and croissant, the little pot of jam is uncommon to have at home, she was meeting someone as she had two croissants and hasn't started them yet, she is well presented as she has clean and well kept sleeves and hands and lastly that she is artsy as she is reading an “arts” newspaper suggesting she is interested in the topic. I believe it is the attention to detail that has made this Cinemagraph effective.

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Stop Motion

4-1-17

Stop Motion animations are created using a technique where objects are moved in small increments and pictures are taken at each step of movement. This (when all frames are played all together) gives the inanimate figures the impression of movement and creating a short video. The common objects used in stop motion are clay figures, puppets and miniatures as they can be handled and repositioned easily. Stop motion animation is almost as old as film itself. The first ideas of it begun when film makers needed a way to animate objects on screen and make them move, so the technique was devised. The first example of its usage is credited to J. Stuart Blackton and Albert E. Smith for bringing a toy circus to life in Humpty Dumpty Circus (1897). Another key duo in the stop motion animation history is the Lumiere Brothers, they were the first people to make a stop motion film. The Lumière brothers, Auguste and Louis, were sons of well known Lyons based portrait painter Antoine Lumière. They were both technically minded and excelled in science subjects and were sent to Technical School.Antoine, noting the financial rewards of new photographic processes, abandoned his art and set up a business manufacturing and supplying photographic equipment. Joining him in this venture was Louis who began experimenting with the photographic equipment his father was manufacturing. By early 1895, the brothers had invented their own device combining camera with printer and projector and called it the Cinématographe. Patenting it on February 13th 1895, the Cinématographe was much smaller than Edison’s Kinetograph, was lightweight (around five kilograms), and was hand cranked. The Lumières used a film speed of 16 frames per second, much slower compared with Edison’s 48 fps - this meant that less film was used an also the clatter and grinding associated with Edison’s device was reduced.  The brothers began to open theatres to show their films (which became known as cinemas). In the first four months of 1896 they had opened Cinématographe theatres in London, Brussels, Belgium and New York.

Tim Burton is an American film director, producer, artist, writer and animator. He is known for his dark, gothic, eccentric and quirky fantasy films just like the Nightmare Before Christmas. This film is an example of a stop motion animation, however it had a incredibly large production size; with a crew of over 120 workers, utilising 20 sound stages for filming, 227 puppets to represent the characters in the movie, with Jack Skellington having around four hundred heads, and in total there were 109,440 frames taken for the film! 

In this clip of a stop motion that I have chose you can see a clear narrative, it has the story of how he is fascinated with the lights, something he has never seen before, it has the emotion of joy and a feeling of wonder. His eyes cleverly light up with joy when he puts the bulbs close to and new his eye sockets. I love this film as it is incredibly effective, within just this two/three second clip of this stop motion film it has managed to convey feelings and a narrative. I believe they have done this primarily by the emotion in the characters face, the expressions in each and every photo of his head that combine together to form the story and portray these certain emotions have been planned and executed. This character had just over 400 heads all with mildly different expressions which shows the passion and dedication in this film. You can see that a form of clay has been used for the face of the character as well as other small objects and materials in this animation, I have gathered this because you can see very small increments in the shape of the head as well as small fingerprints seen momentarily which can be left in modelling clay. I like the fact that you can see these adjustments or fingerprints, I like it because it shows its made, it adds authenticity to the film. I think it is the smooth flow of detail that makes this stop motion film so effective, it really looks like a video and I find it incredibly well done.

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Artists

3-1-17

Julien Douvier is a Time Based Media artist who specialises in cinemagraphs. A cinemagraph is an image that contains within itself a living moment (or clip) that allows a glimpse of time to be viewed. They are made in photoshop and simply allow only part of the video to be played and replayed while the rest stands still.

This is one of his works, I find the colour scale of black and white pleasing, this is because it helps draw attention to the moving subject within this cinemagraph. Compositionally I think it works well, it contains a shallow depth of field wish works well to make the bird stand out more, there is also rule of thirds which allows the image to be appealing to the eye. Another element within this cinemagraph that works to complete the image is leading lines, the fence or wire the bird is sitting on leads upwards, it allows the readers eye to naturally flow along those lines through the image and to the bird. The bird appears to be looking around at something and it makes me wonder and think about the narrative. What is the bird looking at or why is he just sitting there. I think the video choice was good as it is effective and it is easy to edit, there into moving things in the background nor is there a busy area where he chose his subject to be, it is edited well as it clearly is only the bird that is moving and there is no cut off points or obvious movement separation. I think this particular cinemagraph has worked very well.

Pes creates stop-motion films of including some of his works called Western Spaghetti and submarine sandwich; as seen below. He transforms familiar and ordinary objects and brings them to life in his short films. He makes these films by taking images at every stage and every position of the story and edits them so they play in order and create the illusion of a video.

I really love Pes’ work, the transitions between the shots are so smooth and fluent, which is what makes his videos so effective and satisfying to watch.  “Fresh Guacamole” (one of his videos) took 4 months form start to finish and that was just the production. I feel his work stands out and captures attention by the abstractness of it, some of the objects aren't what you associate and expect them to be, instead he uses materials that he controls and positions to act in the way the real thing would. For instance, in his video western spaghetti, instead of using water he used tinfoil to give the same effect. I find this is incredibly practical as its almost impossible to control water, and it is possibly even more effective as of the reflections from it and it accompanies the running theme of the different objects. Another incredibly clever element to his stop motion videos are the sounds he accompanies along with he plot line, I feel like it challenges my brain and makes it hard to distinct between what is actually happening. e.g Along with the tinfoil in the pan implying water, there are sounds of water reiterating the effect it the video has and I find this technique ingenious and effective.

My favourite video of his is the Western Spaghetti film, this is because it is very clever and it is shot and put together smoothly. He combines a comical side by using the wrong objects yet it is still so effective and he combines it together with sound to confuse you and add to the real time realism. Overall I love the passion he has for his work and he does it beautifully.

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Time Based Media

3-1-17

Time based media can be contemporary artworks that include video, film, slide, audio, or computer technologies such as gifs. They are referred to as time-based media works because they have a duration and unfold to the viewer over a period of time, perhaps showing a progression, emotion/feeling or even a story.

As well as many modern methods of creating time bases artworks like photoshop and even just digital cameras; you can go back to film reels being spun and projected with light. However you could even go back to the 1800’s when the Zoetrope was invented. A Zoetrope is one of several pre film animation devices that produce the illusion of motion by displaying a sequence of drawings or photographs showing progressive phases of a particular motion. It works by having a cylinder with slits cut vertically in the sides. On the inner surface of the cylinder are images from a set of sequenced pictures. As the cylinder spins, the viewer looks through the slits at the pictures across. The scanning of the slits keeps the pictures from simply blurring together, and the user sees a rapid succession of images, producing the illusion of motion. These would take time and precision to make, yet with modern technology a repeating loop of images can be made in a matter of minutes.

One of the first examples of a zoetrope was by a man who was important in the evolution of film making, Eadward Muybridge. He began in 1872, when he was hired by Leland Stanford (the later the founder of Stanford University) to photograph horses; he found out that if he took a series of photos of a horse galloping you would be able to see the way the legs move when a horse is running and he also discovered that when a horse runs, there is a point where all of the horses hoofs are off of the ground. He did this by putting triggers either side of the horse which would set of the cameras, this helped him to get the perfect and accurate photos. It would work in a similar manner to the one seen above, by spinning he could see the imitated motion of the horses and he could see their running patterns. Before this another way of creating an illusion of a motion picture was the chronophotographic gun. This gun used a number of different pictures inside the gun so when the reel was rotated and you look through the hole you are able to see all of the pictures on after the other, creating an illusion as a motion picture such as a moving train or a flying bird.