Group 2 animation

Group 2 Animation

*Megan Arch

*Joshua Wooderson

*Joe Viner

Group 1 animation

Group 1 Animation by 

*Pippa Glanville

*Rebecca Doctor

*Laura Mansfield 

Hereford Cathedral School Visit (5th June)

On the 5th of June me, and two of my class mates Ben Smallman and Ben Whitehouse (affectionately known as the two Bens), where given the privilege of teaching a small group of gifted and talented student from Hereford Cathedral School. When I say privilege believe me i say it in the purest sense of the word. The day was truly one of the most memorable and enjoyable days i've ever had at university. The kids we amazing, bright ,intelligent ,articulate ,well mannered, not to mention exceptionally talented and brimming with enthusiasm. I can only hope they took as much from the day as we did. 

The day was such a success that the school are looking to return next year to repeat the day. I can only hope to be involved and expand upon the great work the kids did this year.

The following e-mail was sent to our course leader Neil Hadfield by James (Deputy head of Hereford Cathedral School)    

Dear Neil,
 
Just wanted to say a huge thank you for last Friday. It was a great success and the pupils were full of it on the way home and have sought me out in school this morning to say what a good time they had. Please can you pass my thanks on the the Bens and Kyle - they did a superb job  - and thanks to you for sorting things out so smmothly.
 
Let's make it a regular thing!
 
Yours,
 
James
 

This has Inspired me to do a similar project with children from my mothers school, I will post the results up over the summer. 

The Subject of the Seminar

The subject of the seminar was an advertisement we had written for university. The documents shown are my pitch. This goes from brief , to plotting the idea ,through to the treatment stage and finally onto the complete script pitch, complete with references. The final script that was used eventually was comprised of a hybrid of the two script our group produced. All in all the project went really well and was a definite success. Unfortunately due to Blogger's frankly odd posting system the order of these photo is bottom to top. I will attempt to alleviate the situation shortly.   

Response to Critical Studies Brief.

I Have written up a seminar plan. This is for our group seminar to be presenter on Monday June 15th

Seminar Preparation :

Kyle Jobson, Ben Whitehouse, Lauran Newman, Natasha Williams, Ben Smallman.

Audience: Rob S. Possible Maggie, Tina and Neil. Kelvin will be in Hong Kong.

Equipment:

O.H.P

DV Camera

Photos of brainstorms etc

Powerpoint slides to visually back up vocals and assist in re-enforcing our statements.

Laptop or Mac

Internet connection – rules out laptop as connection issues may occur. Room 138 seems best as the end of year shows are taking up the majority of the rooms. Thought of using animation rooms however room 004 would need rearranging and 27 would require the windows being blacked ou and finding a projector. It would also add to the internet connection issues.

Allow participant to partake in a vocal mind mapping session. Encourage visualisation of script. Word association with key words. One person heads each session and others will participate as 5 people heading the session may be over bearing for participants.

Breakdown of seminar: 

Ask Rob about Abigail from the office minuting the seminar in order to be posted onto moodle at a later date, for personal and academic reflection.

Mind maps. Vocal mind map of audience.

Ideas, short script, word association etc. Idea generation and experimentation.

Refine and Combine.

Vocal Visualisation of script.

Evaluation does it work, can it be visualised.

Consideration of role of Ben Smallman, possibly put him in charge of technology and powerpoint presentation. Also supporting visuals. He will also beparticipating throughout. This will help to alleviate strain on both Ben and the Group and Ben has often said that he struggles to present his work orally.

Natasha mind mapping.

Kyle and Ben W; idea generating and experimentation through word association. 

Refine and combine; final script

Everyone visualisation of script

Everyone; evaluation, does it work, can it be visual?

Ben presentation: Brief on brief / audience/ references.

Lauren – breakdown of seminar handout

Final – June 12th 2009. Critical Studies Brief

Final – June 12th 2009. Critical Studies.

Audience: (TED Lectures)

Visual communication / Meaning

Script – presentation to group of peers 30%. Audience documentation 20%

Critically deconstruct and evaluate media from point of view of visual communication theory. (Animatrix) Analaysis of film 30%. Done as a visual essay with voice over. Screen grabs and footage etc.

Seminar: Devise plane and deliver a critical seminar.

Show critical understanding of given audience and effective communication visually. Audience (30%) Script (20%)

Video Journal: Critical deconstruction and evaluation of media.

Repurposing of message to communicate via technology ie The Age of Stupid – own animation work or films. (50%)

Statements to underpin production.

Statements to underpin production:

Define your principles?

Set your own standards? My films should have exceptional consideration of lighting to define mood, atmosphere and aesthetic.My best example I feel of this is Constantly board. The film shows me that with careful consideration of ambient lighting, you can get as good if not better effects than with a lighting rig. Clearly this depends on situation, at night though i feel this especially true.  

Will be set predominantly at night as colour palette is more effective. Birmingham is grey. Michael Mann’s LA; Kyle Jobson’s Birmingham.

No shot or frame to be filmed at head height unless seated. Visual hierarchy is important to convey character internal emotion and how they are viewed externally.

Using a combination of live action, Toon Boom and Rota-scoping in order to convey story.

Detailed storyboard combining photography and drawing.

What does having as live action practitioner and composer bring to the project? I feel what it brings is depth to the piece but also heightens the production values. Bringing in people with experience in there field means they are considerably more prepared for a variety of circumstances. Plus an outside critical eye. 

I've been getting in contact with Simon (in the field live action and moving image been in industry 3 Years now), and also Joe (A Classical composer who attends the Birmingham Conservatoire)

An example of two e-mails sent to both Simon and Joe respectively. 

Kyle Jobson

Today at 12:33pm 

Hey Si just running through some ideas for next years university projects. Most of my ideas involve a live action/animation cross over and i was wondering,if it wasn't to much trouble if i could run them by you. Just to see what you think really, advise, criticism, practicality issues etc. 

cheers Si ,let me know. 

Regards Kyle 



Simon Price

Today at 1:57pm 

do it.. 

Kyle Jobson

Today at 11:26am 

hey dude, how are you doin ? bin looking for you under parker lol oops (name change always good lol) i was wondering though are you still going to be in bruming town next year ? because i have three major projects and two of them im doing modern day fairy tales so just wondered if you fancied your name in the credits. if you fancy it let me know and we'll meet up for a drink and a chin wag. love and whiskers joe ,

kyle 



Joe Kelly

Today at 6:46pm 

Report Message 

Hey hey !! Yeah i'm good. Changed the name to kelly as i never married my father !! LOL Yeah still gonna be in brum (unfortunatly lol) Yeah i'll defo be interested in that :-) Will defo meet for a chin wag soon and can bring some idea's for you. I have THE perfect fairytale theme for you :-))

Joe x

p.s. changed my number to 0***********

Experiment with lighting and how it translates into animation.

Define a theory? My theory Neon Composition. Composing the existing light to add effect and mood to the aesthetic. This is a theory I have effectively developed in live action and photography. I will utilize the summer months and attempt to translate the effect into animation. 

In this post it is my aim to perform a skills audit. What am i good at what am I literate with and what really needs work. 

Skills Audit

Positive:

Live action film making aspects such as editing, 

camera work, composition of shots.

Photography – impactful aesthetics, strong use of colour, 

Presentations 

Verbal communication

Visually divulging information

Historical and academic knowledge of film art, 

Base knowledge of animation

Sound track use

Technical script writing

Acting, lighting, theatre craft

Rotoscoping

Simplistic character design

Enthusiastic

Intermediate:

Drawing skills

3D proficiency maya

Texturing

Lighting

Animating

2D rigging (Toon Boom)

Use of textures

Set building 

Model building

Storyboarding

Photoshop and photographic editing

I dint not choose a course in animation because it is what I am best at, I did it to challenge me and expand my knowledge of film making as a whole “add a string to my bow” to help me tell stories.

Negative:

Macket making

3D rigging

Life Drawing

Advanced drawing techniques

Some software such as after effects

I can over analyse and look to much at the theory and too often rely on it. 

Fear of producing written synopsis

I talk too much

I am too broad in my approach to my subject

I rely on film and art knowledge to kindle my animation as opposed to allowing work to evolve. I rely on my ability to articulate in order to get my point across instead of allowing the work to speak for itself

I am aware that some of the positives could be viewed as negatives and vice-versa. However, I am attempting to be as Honest as possible. I am trying hard to break down my abilities and see how best to utilize them.   

Habbits

So here's the hard bit. This is where i decipher my habits my do's and and do nots as it where.

I feel one of the best ways to ascertain my habits , complacency's and the things I must improve on, would be a skills audit.     

Constantly Board

My skate film constantly board(also a bit of a love letter to Birmingham). The aim of making this documentary was simple. I wanted to inform people why skaters skate. Why they go out on cold winter nights to slap there hands off the cold hard concrete of the urban sprawl. Despite the immanent threat of injury and some what absurdly, arrest. The main aim was not to do this in the "MTV" way, through the dizzying heights of Jackass and Bam Magera.  But instead through the eyes off everyday skaters. I think my visual influences are clear to see in this film, Blade Runner, Collateral ,Lost in Translation and of course Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait(all shot at night coincidentally)......Enjoy, but mainly let me know what you think. 

Finally a big thanks to Moby Gratis for the music, it truly adds to the film no end and for that. I am truly grateful. 

Dracula Stop Motion Animation

A stop frame animation based on the story of Dracula. This was a group project. We all dabbled in all parts of the production process. this was the first piece of stop frame five out of the four in the group had done. In the end i feel the final product is reflective of the hard work we put in. All of us had our own areas of expertise and we combined well as a team(not to say there where occasional differences, a teams not a team without them). So well in fact that this very team comprises the entire second year of BCU animation and we still often collaborate.  

New Media Final

Final animation for new media. The things i felt went well is that the character is simplistic yet memorable. The set design achieves both the mechanical look and the textured look i was originally going for. The biggest let down is the sound quality of the recording at the end of the piece (though Sarah, my girl friend, did a superb impression of a ten year old) 

New Media Project Set Design.

I then begin building the set in separate layered elements. I used a combination of Photoshop, Flash ,Illustrator and Toon Boom to composite these elements into a tangible whole. Here you can follow the set design from original sketch, through to the final composition.  

New Media Project Textures.

The Hunt was on for on textures, different papers , cloth and card board etc 

New Media Project Story board.

Ideas for Character and setting

This was my original "Lil Man" that made my final animation i tried to stick to the simplistic principals i laid out in my research. Also my original brain storm of ideas for the advert.  

New Media Project Research

There are so many things I love, however from a purely artistic point of view I adored the hand made mechanical look of it. I Decided to draw on this as my inspiration for texturing.  

Research into Kids Drawings

I also decided to look at children's drawings for inspiration . Simple shapes and colours. i also noticed the fact that never coloured in backgrounds. Instead they used textures, sugar paper, sweet wrappers etc and this took my mind to one place... Little Big Planet. 

New Media Project Research

The New media project brief was to make an advert for CITV. With this in mind i began to look at current CITV shows to see what they currently showed. Also what where the strong players in the market. I begun to realize the predominant feature of all the characters was there simplicity. I took this on board and decided to bare this in mind when designing my character. 

Black and White photography.

A photographic series based on the fading memories of a fair ground. Used as research for my German Market project.

Visual Essay(Smaller version)

Smaller version of my visual essay. Posted just incase there are any streaming issues due to the mammoth file size. 

Visual Essay

This is a visual essay i've done for a module, entitled visual communication for animators. In it i study the way in which Mahiro Maheda communicates his ideas and the themes of the piece visually.

Memory of a market Movie

This is the final movie of the German market narrative. The film is based on the fading memory of a blind man. I feel this is probably the best piece of traditional animation I've done yet. Still always room for improvement . The snow globe scene lets the animation down badly.

memory of a market(Characters)

The Puppets Return. only this time "yet more lighter and yet more whiter".

memory of a market(Characters)

The Hanging puppets. I realized the more time I spent animating them the more sinister they became. Like little suicidal teddies.