Innovative - Week 8 - Guilherme Marcondes

This week we looked at Guilherme Marcondes who is filmmaker and creative director. He combines live action with animation techniques to create worlds you can get immersed into.

His website - http://www.guilherme.tv/about/

We looked at some of his animations:

Caveirao - http://www.guilherme.tv/shorts/#/caveirao/

I like how bright the colours are in the animations and the characters are kind of like graffitti styled. I also like the use of both live acton and animation.

Tyger - http://www.guilherme.tv/shorts/#/tyger/

This animations was inspired by the poem with the same name. I like how the Tiger is a pupet and you can see the people who are moving and controlling him. I also like how he has tranformed people and other objects into other animations suggesting what they really are. Again he has used light and dark as a contrast in his animation.

Skyline - http://www.guilherme.tv/shorts/#/skyline/

This is similar to the one above in the fact that he has made it so you can see who is moving the objects and it again uses light and dark.

Innovative - Change in Idea

Bethany and I have decided to do the project together. We both wanted to do something similar to Osbert Parker style and Bethany showed me the video below where the town is made out of cardboard and the people are made from paper silhouettes and we decided we wanted to create a town similar to this.

Heart for Homeless - https://vimeo.com/88030126

Heart for Homeless the making of - https://vimeo.com/88113374

We thought that if we worked together we would get a better result and we can build a better town, as it was going to be a big project. It would be more like what we wanted it to be like if we both helped to make it.We also have similar ideas and work well together.

We first started to brainstorm ideas. We knew we wanted it to be similar to the one above, Osbert Parker and Lotte Reiniger with the use of silhouttes. We wanted to cut out a scene from a movie but not have the details in the people and just have them outlined. We wanted the main focus of the animation to be about the atmosphere and the story and not of the details of the people.


Our idea was to have something creepy and almost scary so we could play with the lighting and sound to intensify the creepy atmosphere. We immediatley thought of something that was Jack the Ripper based so the man could be wearing a cape and you would know he would be villan and the woman, we wanted to be wearing an old style victorian dress so she would be recognisable.

To give them contrast we wanted the woman to be in grey card the man to be in black card. He is the dark villan and so black card would suit him and we wanted her to be a different colour to show she was an innocent victim but we didnt want something that would stand out like pink as, it was a dark creepy setting.

For next week we want to have picked a scene froma creepy movie to keep with the Osbert Parker styel and edit together the scene. We also want to have a plan of how we will construct it so we can manage our workflow.

Character Development - Week 7 - Creating a Scene

In this weeks lesson we looked at how to write a scene for our character and then perform the scene to the class.

Good acting is being believable and interesting enough that the audience is engaged with whatever you are doing. You can achieve this with a decent script and a good scene.

We looked at Charlie Chaplin's film 'The Kid' - Charlie Chaplin is forced into an extreme situation and it is funny to see how he handles having to raise a kid. You realise after watching the scene that you pick up some of the personality of his character without even realising. For example he is good at making contraptions that help him look after the baby and so is intelligent.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgnEJgvb7fM

Another clip we looked at was the Lift scene from the film 'You've got Mail' Again set in extreme situation each one of the characters personalities start to appear and you get to see the real them and how they would handle things.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7eMH8QoMZk

 We also looked at the show 'Who's line is it anyway?' which is an improvisation show where comedians act as different characters.
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNV8_lVmSyw

We looked at this show to help us with our next task which was to create a scene for our own character and then act it out in front of the class. If we struggled to act out our own character then it would be a struggle to animate it.

 There is a famous saying: ‘Animators are actors with pencils.' 

Classwork:

Bethany and I help each other with our scenes. I struggled with this task as my character becomes characters in the books to get over her anxiety and because of this it was hard to see what her real personality was.

My first scene was that Molly could be in a library struggling to carry a massive pile of books and collecting more as she went and becoming more and more excited. When she reached the desk to check them all out she was told that she could check out 3 at a time and you see how disappointed she is.

My next scene was she would be reading a book and be getting really into it, as she gets to a good bit she suddenly turns into the main character and starts to act out the scene.


After the class seeing both of these scenes they chose the second one but I also got feedback about maybe he being sucked into a book or diving/ jumping into a book and seeing what she does once she is actually in the pages. I will take this forward and work on another scene for next week.


 

 IDEA IN CLASS AND VIDEO OFF BETHANY 

Advanced 2D - Week 7

For this week i tried to carry on with my animation doing the next couple of scenes as I had finished the tree growing. After changing the storyboard I wanted the animation to flow so the storm scene will be using the top of the tree and then there with be a lightning strike and a flash. This will then make it flow into the next section where we will see the full tree. The transition will be smoother and less jumpy than my last storyboard.

https://vimeo.com/147831628

The next scene was about the tree growing towards the sun, so I wanted the tree to be burnt after the lightning strike and the sun to start to shine. The next part will be one trunk/stem reaching for the sun and camera will follow this.

Burnt tree

https://vimeo.com/147827976

I feel that some of this section needs neatening up and maybe changing the way the smoke looks to make it more realistic as it does not look like smoke at the moment.


I then put all the beginning sections i had together:

https://vimeo.com/147828044

I feel that what I have done so far flows together. although i might change some of the burnt section.


After discussing with Isaiah he feels that the tree colour i have is too bright and i should recolour the tree in photoshop, to make it look more like the original tree i drew and coloured. The only reason it is brighter is because tv paint has different colours to photoshop. I see where he is coming from and will try and do this for next week.


I started to recolour the park scene background as i had changed the colour of the tree in Tvpaint. But after discussing with Isaiah I am going to recolour my tree to match the original design as that style is what i want my animation to be like. These colours are too bright for the theme and style of my animation. This means i will be changing back to the original look. 

This is one of things that will be happening in this scene, although i will be changing the guy to make him look older. and adding a dog catching the frisbee.

https://vimeo.com/148081895

Character Development - Character Sheets

Below are my character sheets and turn around sheets:

In the drawing above i used my maquette to help with proportions and drawing her from different angles.



For the expression and pose sheet below i tried to draw expressions and poses that i felt Molly would use and have. She reads a lot of books and so i thought she would sat down in different positions most of the time. Since she doesn't like to interact with people often her expressions would normal show something she has read in a book: like shock/surprise and confusion.

I found it hard to do the facial features for my character as i am not great at drawing human faces and although i could draw her in certain position i found it hard to make them all look the same especially when she was looking to the side. This is something i need to work on in my own time and become more confident with.

Character Development - Finalised Character Style

After showing the different styles of my character and everyone agreeing on this style

I went and changed some parts of her to look less confident and sexy. 

 

I made the legs shorter and made the body proportions bigger. I also made the face rounder and the massive cheeks smaller along with he mouth. I think this made my character more like her personality of shy and people don't notice her a lot because of this. She is supposed to be a 'normal' looking woman and so i think these changes have definitely de-sexualised her.

I then sketched her as a front view. I started off with her head.

I brought the nose back down as the nose looked weird between the eyes, so I brought it back down to the original design.

I then drew her full body.

Character Development - My Maquette Head, Full figure and Process

These images are of the process of my Maquette head during the lesson. I started with the basic shape and tried to see where all the feature would go. The first picture of the eyes i had to redo as the eyes where not big enough or angled enough. Once the eyes where on my character looked mean because of the shape and the way the eyelashes and eyelid line were. I tried to make the eye shape more curvy so that she would look less mean./

The above images are of the head maquette when i finished it off at home. I added more shape to the top of the head and the hair as it was quite flat at the beginning.

I feel for a first attempt this is okay but i need to look at the jaw shape of my character and make sure i know where it is, this will help me when doing the lips because from the face looks quite flat and weird.


Fully Body Maquette:

For homework we had to make a maquette body, because i had done the head so big i chose to do the body smaller as i had never done a whole body before.

I chose to use a wire to support my maquette and it was easier to see where the head, shoulders and hips were.

 

This is my final maquette:

I feel for my first attempt she looks good, although as I was making the body i had trouble with certain proportions and where the crotch should be. I am pleased with the overall shape and i feel you can tell that she is wearing a jumper.

Innovative - Week 7 - Caroline Leaf

This week we looked at an animator called Caroline Leaf.

Her website - http://www.carolineleaf.com/

She uses many techniques in her animations, from sand manipulated on a lightbox, watercolour and gouache fingerpaing on gladd and scratching images onto exposed colour 35mm and 70mm film stock.

We watched and discussed some of her animations.

The Street - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGWSYrgB6gM

I like how this animation was smugdy and was not perfect lines. She also did not draw everything fully which was nice to see that it was not a 'perfect' animation and i think it went well and added to the emotion of the animation especially talking about death and it coming from a childs point of view. A child is not tidy and neat and this shows that.

Two Sisters - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeizQismg2o

 I like the sketchiness of this aimation and the use of light and dark. The dark shows how she is trapped in the house not wanting anyone to see her and the light shows the world and everything she is missing and how nice the world looks.

Advanced 2D - Redone Storyboard and Animatic

 Stand tall oh mighty oak, for all the world to see,
your strength and undying beauty forever amazes me.
Though storm clouds hover above you,

The tree will grow big and strong from a tiny sapling and then storm clouds will come and it will start to rain.

your branches span the sky,
in search of the radiant sunlight you
count on to survive.

The storm clouds will go and the tree with stretch out it's branches and reach for the sun.

When the winds are high and restless and
you lose a limb or two,
it only makes you stronger, we
could learn so much from you.



A strong wind will blow the tree to the side and then some branches will fall off. When the wind stops the tree will look very bare and then the leaves will grow back.

Though generations have come and gone
and brought about such change,
quietly you've watched them all yet still
remained the same.

People will start to come on and off the screen doing different things, similar to what happens in a park.

I only pray God give to me the strength he's
given you,
to face each day with hope, whether
skies are black or blue,
Life on earth is truly a gift
every moment we must treasure,
it's the simple things we take for granted
that become our ultimate pleasures.

It will then zoom in so we are looking up at the tree and the sky will change colour. It will zoom in more to a bright light then back out to reveal a grandfather and grandchild holding hand and walking into the light. The light will fill the screen and it will end.



I feel this Animations will flow better than the previous one as i have thought properly about how each scene will transition to another.

My Animatic with no sound.
https://vimeo.com/149005076