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ANIMATION IS A PLACE PROJECT - STORYBOARD

2020/04/24

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ANIMATION IS A PLACE PROJECT - MOODBOARD

2020/03/28

i have made a moodboard for my animation. The photos are mostly taken by me.

When I was visiting Ouseburn Valley, I had no idea what my animation would be focusing on, or how it would look like. I realized that I took a lot of photos about the Ouseburn River instead of the bridges in which I was going to focus on originally. At that time, I found that I am actually more interested in the Ouseburn River. I think the photos including the river are more beautiful, and thus I would like to make an animation that brings such effect.

(Reseources/References - Photo at the top-right corner: [https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/188236459395438776/?nic_v1=1a4lCKodqTlRfdDUaDk8ZTALSb7hORt%2BGFKc5wlp44YqYxCvFkgSl7XUJLfAqXvORr], Photo at the bottom-left corner: [https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/388154061612634885/?nic_v1=1a1hz0Oip2tUoHqJsI%2Bj4V%2FnMbYyN%2FhiQXxnTDDJ0kEtZOrduPeqbLdN87wpSUEcoB], Second Photo at the bottom-left: [http://www.monkchester.co.uk/crawfords_bridge.htm])

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ANIMATION IS A PLACE PROJECT - RESEARCH ON THE OUSEBURN RIVER

2020/03/21

After making the final decision of choosing the Ouseburn River as the focus point in the animation, I need to do some research before creating the animation. By looking up the information of The Ouseburn River (which can also be called Ouseburn), we can know that it is a tributary to the River Tyne. “Its source is at Callerton, near Newcastle Airport. It flows through Kingston Park, Newcastle Great Park, Gosforth Park, Paddy Freeman's Park in South Gosforth and into Jesmond Dene, Armstrong Park and then Heaton Park. After this, a culvert takes the river underground before coming out under Byker Bridge and through Ouseburn Valley where it meets the River Tyne.” (Ouseburn (river) | Co-Curate, n.d.) I am going to focus on the attractions near the river and features of Ouseburn Valley, therefore there will be the farm and the bridge, and travellers and families visiting and playing around.

Resources/References:

Co-curate.ncl.ac.uk. n.d. Ouseburn (River) | Co-Curate. [online] Available at: https://co-curate.ncl.ac.uk/ouseburn/

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ANIMATION IS A PLACE PROJECT - STATEMENT OF INTENT

2020/03/18

For my Animation is a Place project, I would like to focus on the rivers in Ouseburn Valley in the animation.

Whether there are sounds like when cars crossing the three bridges, duck quacking in the farm, or visitors laughing and talking, the sound of the running rivers exists all the time and never stops. “Great Virtue is Like Water.” (*) This is a phrase coming from the Chinese word “上善若水”, which is about a virtue that accepts all the kinds and doesn't vie against each other, just similar to the property of water. I would like to show this virtue through the animation in the ASMR way, also I would like to bring out the features and attractions of Ouseburn Valley, a peaceful and interesting place with visitors and families hanging around happily.

The animation starts at focusing on the stream that is under the three bridges in Ouseburn Valley, happening in daylight time. The scene includes the running river and the branches near the river. You can hear the sound of the running river without any other sounds. Next, the camera changes to ground level shot, including the running river, the branches and the bottom of the bridges. There will be sounds of a few cars crossing the bridge that have covered the sound of the running river. But after that, the sound of the cars will be gone and the sound of the running river comes out again.

Then, the camera changes to hip level shot, and the shot includes the Ouseburn Farm and the running river at the bottom. There are sheep, cows and ducks in the farm at that moment, so there are the sounds of sheep baaing, cows moaning and ducks quacking. You can hear those animal sounds frequently, but you can also hear the sound of the running river continuously.

After that, the camera changes to the bird’s eye shot, showing the river at the left and the bushes at aside. Some children are visiting Ouseburn Valley, and when they are passing by at the right, the bushes are being blown slightly by the wind and making some sounds. The children running sound and the bushes moving sound have covered the sound of the running river at first, and it comes out again a few moments after the children left.

Later on, the camera changes to the knee level shot, showing the river at the right and some visitors passing by at the left. The visitors are walking slowly and talking with each other, therefore you can hear the sound of people walking and talking, and when they walked away from the frame, you can hear the sound of the running river again in the quiet environment.

Finally, it comes to the aerial shot, showing the river in Ouseburn Valley connected to River Tyne. In this shot, you can hear the river sound and the yelling of the seagulls that are flying upon River Tyne, and the animation ends quietly and comfortably. 

(Resources/References - (*): [https://kknews.cc/culture/bxn4p3o.html])

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ANIMATION IS A PLACE PROJECT - RESEARCH ABOUT ASMR

2020/03/11

Recently on the Internet, there are many ASMR (Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response) videos for people to listen in order to relax themselves. “ASMR is a previously unstudied sensory phenomenon, in which individuals experience a tingling, static-like sensation across the scalp, back of the neck and at times further areas in response to specific triggering audio and visual stimuli.” (Davis, 2015) It becomes a popular trend among the video makers, as people enjoy the comfortable process of the ASMR sounds and visuals stimulating their senses. This leads to the result that Youtubers or social media users use it as the theme of their channels or accounts so as to increase their popularity.

I am focusing on the research of ASMR sounds as I would like to add a similar effect to my animation. Other than the sounds coming from the nature, the sounds like whispering, page turning, blowing, chewing or typing can also be ASMR sounds. (Sharkey, 2019) Here are some of the videos about different kinds of ASMR sounds.

ASMR Whispers in Different Languages by Latte ASMR

두부김치찜에 통스팸 흰쌀밥 먹방 ! (ft.계란후라이) 집밥 리얼사운드 kimchijjim spam mukbang housemeal ASMR by  문복희 Eat with Boki

ASMR 📖PAGE TURNING Old Book, Comic Book & Magazine 📚NO TALKING by Made In France ASMR

Getting back to the element that I would like to focus on in my animation, the Ouseburn river. Is the sound of the running river one of the ASMR sounds? “Sounds with a consistent frequency are known as pink noise, and they’ve been found to improve sleep quality by slowing and regulating brain waves, so that you wake up feeling more well rested. Natural sounds like falling rain and the sounds of the wind or ocean are in the pink noise category.” (Sleep and Sound | Sleep.org, n.d.) Consequently, there are many videos of natural sounds serve the purpose of making listeners relaxing and calm, so they can focus on their studies or work, or sleep comfortably. 

3 HOURS of Gentle Night RAIN, Rain Sounds by The Relaxed Guy

Relaxing River Sounds - Peaceful Forest River by  TheSilentWatcher

I found this video which is close to my expectation on the effects bring out from the animation. I want to try making the environment quiet and peaceful in my animation, therefore the audiences can be comfortable and relaxing when watching.

Resources/References: 

Davis, N., 2015. [online] Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR): a flow-like mental state. Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4380153/ 

Sharkey, L., 2019. New To ASMR Or Unsure Where To Start? Try This. [online] Healthline. Available at: https://www.healthline.com/health/asmr-triggers

Sleep.org. n.d. Sleep And Sound | Sleep.Org. [online] Available at: https://www.sleep.org/articles/sleep-and-sound/

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RESOUND ANIMATION PROJECT - RECREATE SOUNDS FOR NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS

2020/03/05

In today’s class, we tried resounding a clip from the movie The Nightmare Before Christmas, and here is the result of my work.

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I used the sounds recorded from the studio, using vegetables such as lettuce, carrots, celery, etc. Moreover, I found some sounds from Freesound and added to the clip. I also kept some of the singing parts so as to make it more natural in hearing, or else you can only see the characters singing without any sounds.

After this exercise, I learned how to edit the sounds and put them into a clip. It is actually difficult to find the accurate sound for each action, but we may surprised by the way of using some unexpected objects to obtain the expected sounds. Therefore, we should use different objects to create different sounds before resounding any videos, so that we can find the most suitable sound for each part of the clip. Besides, from my perspective, using Adobe Audition to resound a clip is more convenient than using other software, for example audacity. Although audacity is a useful software for editing sounds, you can watch the clip and edit the sounds simultaneously using Adobe Audition.

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OTHERS - RESEARCH ON SOUND DESIGN AND EDITING

2020/02/24

To help me understand more about how the sound design and editing work, I researched some information about the Behind The Scene of the sound effects of some films.

How The Sound Effects In 'A Quiet Place' Were Made | Movies Insider

“A Foley stage is a super quiet environment where we can put picture up on the screen, and then record using our microphones in sync with the picture.” From the behind-of-scene, it has mentioned that the sound designers and editors have come up with different ideas to resound the film. We may expect that the shotgun loading sounds and the water splashing sounds were made with the same objects, but using objects that you wouldn’t think of to create sounds are surprisingly good in matching those to the film. For instance, they twisted the crab legs to create the sound effect of the monster walking, also they twisted the celery and lettuce to create the sound effect of the monster’s ears opening. Moreover, they sprinkled the grain silo to create the sound effect of kernels against a car door. Consequently, before you do any clip resounding, you can first explore different sound effects created by different objects in different ways, so that you can get the best sound for your project.

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ANIMATION IS A PLACE PROJECT - SKETCHING OF OUSEBURN VALLEY

2020/02/19

I have made some sketches according to the photos I took in Ouseburn Valley.

The two sketches are about the elements that I would like to focus on: the bridges and the river. I want to see which I should choose at last and include it in my animation. 

In my opinion, the bridges are easier to sketch as they have a clearer structure, however at the time, they took more time to be sketched in details as the structure of them is complicated. The river may be a bit difficult to sketch out as there were branches and bushes nearby, and they mostly covered “the line” of the river. Nevertheless, it is less detail than the bridges, which means I can save more time in creating an animation for the river.

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ANIMATION IS A PLACE PROJECT - VISITING OUSEBURN VALLEY

2020/02/11

Today, I and my classmates have visited Ouseburn Valley to learn more about the location we will be working on in the project. I didn’t make any sketches during the visit as the weather was too cold, but I took some photos of the place.

There are a lot of elements to look into in Ouseburn Valley, such as the Ouseburn Farm, the bars and restaurants, bridges, galleries, etc. I was amazed by the beautiful scenery in Ouseburn Valley, as I have never been to any parks or valleys in England before, and I thought it would be the same as the parks in Hong Kong, which doesn’t have the beautiful scenery because of covering by the skyscrapers. However, it is out of my expectation and I really love visiting here, and of course in warmer weather!

At first, I would like to focus on the architectures in Ouseburn Valley. There are a few buildings with special designs, and I would like to look into the Byker bridge and the other two bridges.

The bridges are awesome as they are really enormous when looking from the bottom to the top. They seem like three huge walls that protect the Ouseburn Valley. Nevertheless, I am more interested in the Ouseburn River after the visit and I want to change my focus area to it.

Looking at the Ouseburn river at this time (it is Winter now), it ebbs and there is a little water in it. However, the river is still running with just a little water and you can still hear the sound of the running river. Moreover, the river goes through the Ouseburn Valley and between the attractions in Ouseburn, and at last connecting to the River Tyne. Therefore, you can see the river wherever you are in Ouseburn Valley, listening to the comfortable sounds of the running river, and this is the reason why I want to look into the Ouseburn river and focus on it in my animation.

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ANIMATION IS A PLACE PROJECT - RESEARCHING AN ARTIST: ALICIA ARADILLA

2020/02/09

To enhance my sketching skills, I made some research on the sketching artists and here is a Spanish artist, Alicia Aradilla.

(Photo from: [https://passionpassport.com/author/aliciaaradilla/])

Alicia is a travel sketcher around the world, and she is currently active on Instagram. She sketches wherever she travels to and therefore she uploads many sketchings on her Instagram, and they are all beautiful and elegant.

(Photos from: [https://www.instagram.com/a.aradilla/])

Alicia usually sketches with watercolours, this makes her sketchings look more pretty and attractive. Sometimes she will add some descriptions around the sketching so that the paper can be more tidy and elegant, which I really like and may help for my project. She has made some online classed to teach people about her skills, and I would like to learn from her if I can!

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OTHERS - RECORDING ENVIRONMENT SOUNDS

2020/02/04

In today’s class, we are asked to record some environment sounds in the library/ in the classroom. To be more comfortable to listen and have an understanding of what the sounds from, I made the video that gathered the sounds we recorded, including the failed version of the sounds.

The upload time of the video was delayed because there were some problems with the video before, but they are solved and it can be posted here.

So, these are the sounds I and my group have recorded on February 4 in and outside the library, in the studio and on the street. To enhance the sound quality, I edited some of the sounds using Audacity, with the effects of fading in, fading out and noise reduction. As the sound volume of the recording sounds was too low, I increased the sound level in order to make them louder.

From the failed recordings, I learned that the surrounding needs to be quiet when only recording a certain sound, or else there will be unnecessary noises in the soundtrack, and it will take more time to edit them. Besides, as we don’t expect that there will be a little mistake in our recordings, we need to record the sound of the same object for at least two times, thus we can find the most suitable sound to use at once instead of recording again and again.

Although it is hard to enhance the quality of the sounds with limited resources, it was a fun process and I enjoyed it a lot. Therefore, I am excited about creating sound effects for a short clip later on.

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ANIMATION IS A PLACE PROJECT - POSTER OF OUSEBURN VALLEY

2020/02/02

After researching some information of the Ouseburn Valley, I still didn’t have any specific aspects to continue on yet, but I have summarised some information about the industrial history and the cultural development of the Ouseburn Valley.

This is my poster about introducing Ouseburn Valley. As I haven’t been to there before, I referenced the photo of the bridges in Ouseburn Valley from its official website and made a sketching of the view, and I used it as the background of the poster. Here is the photo that I was referencing:

(Photo from: [https://www.ouseburn.co.uk/about-ouseburn/])

I followed what my teachers have suggested, and for now I would like to focus on the architecture of the bridges (or maybe some of the buildings) and do more research on it. I am interested in the buildings and I love to appreciate the beautiful designs of them, also the reason that I choose the bridges is that they are the one of significant figures in the Ouseburn Valley, they are closely related to each other.

I will see if I change my mind after the visit to the Ouseburn Valley, but I will try sticking to the architectures at first.

(Resources/References: [https://www.ouseburn.co.uk/about-ouseburn/], [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ouseburn_Valley])

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RESEARCH ON ANIMATION IS A PLACE PROJECT - OUSEBURN VALLEY

2020/01/31

We have a project based on the location, Ouseburn Valley. Before starting any progress on the project, I would like to do some research on Ouseburn Valley to give myself an understanding of the place.

History

In the past, Ouseburn Valley was a place similar to a port, as its location is on the River Tyne, barges could load goods and coal from Ouseburn and the items would be shipped around the world. Therefore, it was called ‘The Cradle of the Industrial Revolution’ in Newcastle.

The Victoria Tunnel, which is the heart of Ouseburn, is an underground wagonway that transports coal from Leazes Colliery down to the Quayside by the power of gravity. It was later used as an air-raid shelter during the Second World War.

The Creative Community

Ouseburn has become one of the most vibrant creative communities in the North East since twenty years ago. Not only is Ouseburn the home to artists, musicians and designers, but also the major thoroughfare in Ouseburn, Lime Street is the home to several creative hotspots. Nowadays, Ouseburn Farm, the community-run urban farm, and Stepney Bank Stables provide activities such as educational days, charity days and horse-riding lessons to visitors and  encourage them to get up close with a range of flora and fauna, as well as helping others and enjoying themselves.

There are some places where are full of elements of arts and culture in Ouseburn. For instance, the pub The Cluny is the best music venue in the region, as it is the place where big-name bands, independent local musicians and indie DJs entertain music-lovers. Moreover, The Biscuit Factory is the largest independent art, craft and design gallery in the country.

(Resources/References: [https://www.newcastlegateshead.com/explore/ouseburn])

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THE BRIEF

Sound design and editing, this is a totally new module to me because I have never tried remaking the sounds of a clip before, and I have only a few knowledge in this aspect. I am a bit excited to seek more new stuff in this module and I hope they will be useful for my future works.

For my target in this module, I would try to upload the blog at least once a week, not leaving all the work to the last moment. I would also do more research about sounds and related stuff so as to enhance my cognition of it, being easy to understand the coming lectures. As I don’t know well about sound design and editing, I don’t have any specific expected outcomes yet and therefore this is the brief at all.