Animation Research and Practice - Sea Life Centre and Animatic

I went to the Sea Life Centre with my parents and found it EXTREMELY helpful.

I tool a lot of images, the ones on this blog post are the ones I took on my iPad along with the videos. I have a lot more but they are currently at my parents house on the camera they used and I haven't been able to get them off them yet.

I really like the shadowing of the floor in the images below and I really want to test this out for animation in the next couple of weeks.

I noticed there were particles floating in the water and is something I would like to try out and test

I took a lot of the bubbles as this is what I mainly need for my animation and there were so much there. It is very useful for me as it allows me to see what they look like in the water and how they move.

The Jelly fish were really helpful for the tentacle that I have in my film and the way they move was fascinating. 

I took a lot of videos, especially ones that showed creatures with tentacle like limbs as this is something I need for the tentacle I have in my film. I really want to get the way it moves right and accurate and these videos will help me do that.

compilation of sea life centre - what i took from Summer Davies-Newton on Vimeo.


Animatic-

This is my animatic so far, I have made some of the changes that were mentioned before the christmas holiday. Like changing the memory parts slightly so that they flow a bit better and adding an ending to it. I still need to do some more things to it, but I feel it is coming along.

28 - Final Film Animatic from Summer Davies-Newton on Vimeo.

Professional Animation Project Submission

From the last time Jamie saw the animation, I had felt like most of the animation was done and all that was left was to finish it to a high quality. This included adding: the colour, the final outline, the ETC logo at the end, and a camera pan on the Wifi character walk.

I also changed the timings of the Earth walk and splash at the beginning to make it flow better. I was going to add a camera movement to the splash as it does move across the screen, but because it is only a few frames a camera would of been too quick and look weird. Instead I took out a couple of the frames and re positioned them better and I hope it looks smoother and less like a sudden jump.

I found the score from http://www.bensound.com/royalty-free-music
and the other sound effects were from http://www.freesfx.co.uk/

I feel the sound works well with the piece and adds to the carton feel of it. I also think the sound effects make certain parts stand out like the splash and when the logos are popping up, drawing the audience to looks at these parts more. I managed to time the popping up of the logos to match with when they are being said, they are not directly when they are said but they come up a little after. I think this looks a lot better than the way it used to be and now the audience can see it while the voice over is saying it.

Overall I feel that I have kept to the brief, that I have created an animation to high standard and I have conducted myself professional when talking with the client. I tried to keep to the original style, although I realised that the Earth character is more oval shaped than I originally drew him, but the colours and styles of bot the character are still the same. I did have a bit of trouble with the Wifi character walk, as the legs cannot cross over and so it looks like he has a little limp, which I feel gives him a cute personality.

This module has really helped me to gain knowledge of this part of the industry and I have learnt a lot about how it works and how to communicate with a client.

The Progress of my work is on older posts.



Professional Animation Project - Final Submission

Professional Project Submission from Summer Davies-Newton on Vimeo.

Professional Project - Christmas Period - Project Progress

Over the Christmas period I have continued to fix things up and finish the animation.

Below I have fixed the internet and put in the wire properly and I have added the Wifi character and have coloured him.
I have tried to incorporate the ETC colours when the internet is plugged back in. I have also added the shadowing under the logos to make them stand out against the Earth character more. It looked flat without it.

47 from Summer Davies-Newton on Vimeo.


The animation below I have added the Earth characters eyes. I have tried to make them expressive as possible since he does not have a mouth and I think they work well with the character.

53 from Summer Davies-Newton on Vimeo.


Below is the finished animation with no sound. I have finished adding the shading to the Wifi character and just made sure everything looked finished to a good standard.
58- ETC Project finished with no sound from Summer Davies-Newton on Vimeo.

Below is the Final Finished Animation with the sound included, which is the same sound and sound effects from the previous week that Jamie thought worked well. I didn't think I needed to add any more and too many sound effects would make the voice over hard to hear.
60 ETC Project finished with sound from Summer Davies-Newton on Vimeo.

Animation Research and Practice - Week 12 - Project Progress

Unfortunately this week I have not done as much as I would have liekd as I have been trying to finish my other module so that over Christmas I could focus on this one.

Essay Feedback

This week I received my essay feedback and have a few things to add and change, but overall I just have to finish it off. I will continue to do this.

Reference Videos Off the Internet:

This week I also been researching on the internet for some reference videos as it is hard to film everything myself. 


Below is some sort of kite, but I thought the way the tentacle moved would be a good reference for the tentacle in my film.


I also found the video below of a camera inside a bubble of water, I really liked the effect it has and I am thinking of something similar for my film, but I need to research futher to how I would go about creating this illusion.


I also found this videos of an ink experiment type thing. I liked it as I like the way the ink is in the water and I imagine the tentacle being surrounded by a substance similar to this and so I will research this further.

More Reference Videos:


I also took more reference videos this week of my Auntie and this is why there is a password. It was very helpful to see they looked and the way a woman's figure looked on it's side. 
reference videos for private from Summer Davies-Newton on Vimeo.

Feedback off Mum and Emily:

Emily feedback was that the ending still needed work and I completely agree with this I have been struggling for an ending to fit and so will continue on with this. 

The main part that needed work was the memories part, Emily suggested:

• For there to be a few graves to come us and to have names on not just RIP 
• To get rid of the water washing it away and change it to something else, like maybe a fade out while the next one comes on 
• To have the wheelchair pushed on by the tentacle and have him signal to the character to get into the chair.
• To find something else to represent the army boots as the way they are drawn, not everyone will pick up on what they are. 

When she steps into the bubble to have her fall a bit as if she has lost her balance and disorientated. Maybe to add the particles into the water - Which I was going to do for the final film but will add to the animatic to show. 

Have the slamming of the character more dramatic

My Mum was very happy with it, she agreed with Emily had said and suggested that for the ending to have her get into a bubble and start to float off and then the audience could see the tentacle reaching out again for the character but you don't see what happens next. 

Feedback off Sam and Ross - 

In the lesson we did our usual production meeting and we got feedback for the stuff we had done, we were also going to be told things we needed to work on for the hand in. 

Overall they were happy with the way I was going. I hadn't had chance to make some of the feedback changes from Emily and my Mum so a lot of the feedback was similar. I feel I am happy with the direction I am going in and will continue to research and work on it. 

Professional Project - Week 12 - Project Progress

After feedback from Jamie and Emily I started straight away trying to fix the certain parts up.

Emily helped me with the speeding up the fall and how to fix up my walk.

Fixing the fall:
Shortened and cut frames out trying to make it have weight behind the fall.

25 trying to fix the fall from Summer Davies-Newton on Vimeo.

Fixing walk

26 trying to fix walk cycle from Summer Davies-Newton on Vimeo.

It has better timing and moves properly how a walk should (going up and down).
29 trying to fix walk cycle from Summer Davies-Newton on Vimeo.

I was going to have a camera move the shot along to where he lands, but the camera would be really quick only a couple of frames long and would be pointless because of how quick it would be. So I decided to keep the cut in of where he is falling but becomes bigger and add the internet behind it to give it context of where it is that he is falling.


Below I have started to colour in the Wifi character and this is the walk onto the screen.
39 wifi character walk from Summer Davies-Newton on Vimeo.

I then went on to add the camera pan to try and centre them better on the screen and to move along with the Wifi character walk. I feel it works a lot better then what is was before and it flows better.

 
39 moving camera from Summer Davies-Newton on Vimeo.

Below if what I have so far, the Earth is fully coloured and neatened and the camera pan from above has been added. I have left to finish neatening the Wifi character and the internet and add the eyes to the Earth.
I can see it starting to come together now and I am very pleased with how it is going.
43 from Summer Davies-Newton on Vimeo.

Animation Research and Practice - Week 11 - Project Progress

For this week I wanted to concentrate on getting my animatic done in rough so that I could then carry on adding too it and changing things.

Below is adding more frames after what I had shown last week.
Again I have taken the section out from my storyboards, where the bubble surrounds her and I think this has worked well and it has more flow now.

animatic 14 only so far from Summer Davies-Newton on Vimeo.

Again I carried on adding to it and making the timings of parts better, for instance when she is being dragged down I wanted her to be fast but also has some slow parts where we see close ups of her face. I also wanted it to be dynamic that is why she is pulled from one side to the other and then down the front of the screen.
animatic 16 so far from Summer Davies-Newton on Vimeo.


I knew I wanted it to then go into her point of view, original I was going to have it just cut to seeing threw her eyes, but while I was animating I got the idea of the blink of shock when she wakes up after being smashed on the floor. I think this works better than my original idea.

I know the blink needs fixing on the timing and it wont look like this in the final look, as I know blinks are not just a black line.

17 blink from Summer Davies-Newton on Vimeo.


This is the blink added to the first bit of the animatic.
animatic 17 so far from Summer Davies-Newton on Vimeo.



Next I went onto the memories section and from last week I wanted these to be animated more as they were really static and weren't coming across properly.
I feel they are starting to come across a bit better now that they are moving.
I thought adding more blinks between the memories work work as a good transition between the memories.
animatic 19 so far from Summer Davies-Newton on Vimeo.



Below is with the last memory of the army boot marching towards they screen and then that transitions the screen.
20 so far 2 from Summer Davies-Newton on Vimeo.





Below is the animatic so far but with added music. I have added more of an ending to this animatic. I have repeated the feet part but instead of jumping she takes a step back. I wanted this part to be like she got help or there was hope almost.
But the tentacle part after shows how that she may never get away from the depression.

Both videos have the same animatic but the scores are different.

The first score I prefer as it is sad and the strings sound sad and emotional and i feel it fits well with what I am trying to create.
22 with first score from Summer Davies-Newton on Vimeo.


Below is the second score, although I like it I do feel it doesn't fit as well as the first one, but I want to show both to the class and see what they think.
22 with second score from Summer Davies-Newton on Vimeo.


Music and Sound Effects:

I got all the music off of Ben sound the link is below. non of it is my own music and they are a royalty free site.

I found 4 different one from the link below that I liked but once they were put to the animatic they did not work and did not match. The two above I liked, but as I have said I prefer the first one called Better Days.

http://www.bensound.com/royalty-free-music/cinematic

Reference Videos and Images:

Below is the reference videos I have taken this week and I think they will help with my animation. I like the foot one especially as you can see the toes moving as Bethany is balancing and I feel this will add to my character and work. 

Some of the videos have come out smaller, but they are still usable.
reference videos from Summer Davies-Newton on Vimeo.

Ethics Report:
I have known since the first couple of weeks of doing this project I would have to right an ethics report. I have finished it and found it useful to go through the process for future reference and to bare things in mind. I am waiting to hear back from Denise and hope that it is accepted.

Below is the final report.

4^th October – 2:00pm – 3:30pm

11^th October – 2:00pm - 3:00pm

I asked both my Mum and my Dad the 30^th September, if they would be willing to come into University and be recorded in the sound booth and talk about their experiences of Depression and how it makes them feel.

When they came to the university and tried to make sure they were comfortable as possible. Getting them food and drink, making sure they were sat in the sound booth the way they wanted (next to each other). They are my parents so we were chatting and it felt pretty relaxed.

I did give a sheet of basic question:

1.       How does depression make you feel?

2.       How do you cope with depression?

3.       When did you first start to realise you were becoming depressed?

Although I gave them the questions, I did say that they did not have to follow them and that they could say what they felt like saying. I also made sure they knew that we could stop at any point they wanted to. I also made sure they had read the questions before they were recorded and they both agreed they were okay questions.

I felt like the both recordings went well. The first time we recorded my dad need a bit of encouraging from my mum, but they were both happy. It was a shame that the first lot of recordings did not come out as clearly as they should of. The second time we recorded it was exactly the same apart from I only got my mum to record. I still made sure she was comfortable and she was happy at the end of the recording.

Both times we recorded we had to stop a couple of times because of becoming emotional, but we chatted for a while and made sure my mum was the one to say when she wanted to carry on.

If I was to do something similar to this again, or if I had used a person I did not know I would do it very differently.

I would make sure that the participant had signed a consent form, which stated all the questions that would be asked and that we both agreed on the questions, along with what would happen and what they were volunteering too. I would also make sure the participant was anonymous, this would include them being referenced as a letter or a number, whenever mentioned.

I would make sure they are comfortable at every stage of the recording and they felt calm and okay. This including anything from getting them food and drink and just talking to them normally. I would also make sure that what was being asked, they were okay with answering and that if they happened to get upset, that the recording would immediately stop and I would get the participant anything they needed to feel okay again. Even if that meant stopping the recording all together.   

Feedback:

I still need to fix the ending and add too it as it suddenly just ends. The feet are okay and timed okay but the part where the credits comes up need to be moved to after my mum finishes talking as Sam felt it distracted away from what my mum was saying and looking at it now I agree.

I need to hold the black screen at the end for a few more frames to let the audience breathe and her what my mum is saying.

I need to research more into blinks as they are not a black colour and a solid line or colour. But this can be something for the final film not for the animatic.

Everyone agreed that the first score sounded better and so I will be using that one. The second score gave off a vibe of hope, which is not what I was gong for, depression isn't something you just quickly get over.  I still need to think about sound effects and whether they will add to my animation. I hope to test this soon.

Professional Project - Week 11 - Project Progress

From the last time Jamie came in I was to get rid of the ground line, but this will be done for the final piece as the ground line helps me with making sure everything is level.
I needed to exaggerate the Earth fall and have him tug more on the wire, re position the character to the centre of the screen when the Wifi character is helping the Earth up and to think of adding sound and sound effects to the animation. 

For this time I have tried to changed all of these things and to also try and finish animating the ending, where the logos pop up on the Earth character. 

I did a rotoscope test for the ending weeks ago, but it was not very good and it was rotoscoped, so this time I just went with what I thought and I looked at the reference footage but I also just went with what I felt.

Below is the first bit, in rough as I am just seeing if the arms work and the jumps.
16 end scene from Summer Davies-Newton on Vimeo.

I then went on to make it a bit neater when I was happy with the rough, so it is easier to see what is going on.
18 end scene from Summer Davies-Newton on Vimeo.

I next added the logos, to make sure they looked okay popping on and added the hands to see how to position them. I think it looks a lot better from the rotoscoped test I did and it works better for the animation.
20 end scene from Summer Davies-Newton on Vimeo.

I then went on to add it to the rest of the animation so far to see if it would fit and flow with the rest of it. I feel it looks good and flows from the part before it.
21 all from Summer Davies-Newton on Vimeo.

I reall wanted to get some sound on the animation, so Jamie could start to see it come together and because it was the last time he would be able to give us feedback face to face, so I wanted to animating to be mostly done and to just be on the finishing everything off stage. I feel that I am now at this stage.

I got the score from http://www.bensound.com/
I feel the sound works well with it and the voice over and it goes with the jolly cartoon feel of it.
I found the sound effects off http://www.freesfx.co.uk/ I only wanted to added souns effects top certain parts like: the splash, when the internet is plugged back in and when the logos are popping up. These are all important parts and I think the soundeefects go well to make these parts stand out.

 
22 all with sound effects from Summer Davies-Newton on Vimeo.

Feedback

The feedback off Jamie and Emily was that the beginning walk and fall still needed some work, which I am going to do next now that I have finished animating everything else.

The sound and the sound effects work well and add to the piece.

I need to add the ETC logo at the end and make the music fade out

I am in the final stages now and I am fixing and neatening everything.

I need to look at when the logos pop up and although they like it, Jamie suggested maybe having them timed to the voice over, or start when both the characters are cheering.

I hope to have some of this done by next week and to be on my way to finishing.

Professional Project - Week 10 - Project Progress and Lesson

Unfortunately this week I have been concentrating on my other module and have only done a small section for this project, but I hope to make it up for next week and have most if not all of the animating finished to show Jamie.

15 just the happy part from Summer Davies-Newton on Vimeo.


Lesson:

This week in class we discussed adapting children's books into animations and ideas generating. In recent years there has been a big trend of children's book adaptations and small books becoming 30 minute films for children. This enables them to sell more and more merchandise because of the popularity of them for children.

An example is the film 'The Snowman (1982) directed by Dianne Jackson and Jimmy T. Murakami. This was very successful and still is as it is shown every year at Christmas. There are times though where films over franchise and it doesn't turn out so well. This happened for the film 'The Snowman and the Snowdog' (2012) directed by Hilary Audus. It was not a great success.

We next went on to look at the film 'Lost and Found' Written by Oliver Jeffers. His booke was adapted as a film by Studio AKA. Unlike many other children films there was not any merchandise for the film, even though it was a success. Studio AKA made sure that the film kept to the same style as the book and even had Oliver Jeffers involved in every step to make sure this happened. 

Below is what the book looks like:

  

Below is what the film looked like:   

After watching the film we went on to look at Oliver Jeffers work and how he comes up with ideas for the children's books he creates. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnPk8gmwPuQ  

It was very interesting to see what gave him inspiration and how he started doing children's books.  

Animation Research and Practice - Week 10 - Project Progress

This week I wanted to start by doing character sheets and what she is going to look like. 

I had, had a rough idea from the very beginning that she would only have certain facial features and would only be the outline of a 'normal' female body. This was because I wanted her to be relate able to people. I wanted her to be as neutral as possible. 

Below is what she will look like, she will only have certain details when needed. For example her feet are just a shape below, but will look more like feet in the begging of the animation, when the audience is more focused on them. 

I also tested colours and I liked the white and black and how the worked together. In my animation I want the audience to see she has changed colour as she jumps. 

The black will be when she jumps as it has got too much for her.

The white will be in the beginning to show contrast.

The face will just be a 'normal' shaped head and you will only see her eyes. Which will be round.

I then started to draw some of her expression she may have and how the eyes would move. After getting feedback off Emily we realised the eyes looked a bit too much like Spiderman and I hadn't kept the round shape.

I also looked at the colour of the eyes. Below is with the black underneath.

Below is without the black

After Emily's feedback I changed some of the shapes of the eys so they were more round and added pupils so you could see which direction she was looking and it gave more expression too her.

I do still need to work a bit more on the eyes.

Storyboards:


Carrying on from last week this is all the storyboards.

Animatic:
I then put them into an animatic to look at the timing and how it would fit with the voice over. Some of the timings are off and very slow in places where they need to be faster and so I need to work on this. 

Animatic with just storyboard frames from Summer Davies-Newton on Vimeo.


I then started to add more frames to the animatic.

begining to title scene from Summer Davies-Newton on Vimeo.



Animatic - adding more frames from Summer Davies-Newton on Vimeo.

I only managed to add more frames to the beginning 22 seconds, but I feel already that it looks better. I also cut some of the storyboard out. The part where the bubble starts to wrap around her was too long and didn't add anything to the story and sop I cut it and feel it flows a lot better now.

Animatic - so far from Summer Davies-Newton on Vimeo.

Feedback:

Feedback off Mum -

She felt that the ending dragged a bit but once I explained that I hadn't added more frames to the end yet she understood.
She liked where it was going so far and liked that she was getting to see the process of it.

Feedback off Sam -

The memory bits could be too long, but this should be fixed when I have finished adding more frames to animatic.
Beginning might with the feet might be off and I hope to fix this by taking reference videos next week.
Sam suggested drawing swimmers at the swimming pool in Wolverhampton- but hopefully my sister should be getting reference videos and pictures for me on Sunday
I also need to look at music and whether I want a score or just sound effects or both.

Animation Research and Practice - Week 9 - Project Progress

After the last week changing my background and how I wanted it too look I went back and started to rethink my storyboards.

Below is the link to where I got the brown paper background off the internet.
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=brown+paper&espv=2&biw=1920&bih=979&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiS5tLMnLLQAhUBvRQKHV2rA1gQ_AUIBigB#imgrc=5hvmK0wrbkwjVM%3A

Storyboards:

I liked the feet part at the beginning and I liked how it was sketchy in my last storyboard, so I decided to keep it in this one. After talking to Sam last time she also mentioned that I could included the title screen after the feet before she lands in the water and I really like that idea, so although I have no title at the moment it will be after the feet.

I have been trying to catch up on work this week because of the Animation festival last week and so I did not manage to finish all the storyboards, but they will be finished and in an Animatic for next week.

From Manchester Animation I was inspired by different animations, one that caught my eye was about sex slavery and I thought it was a very powerful piece. Although the topic of the animation is horrible I liked the style and the chain that grabs her. I liked how hard hitting it was and I sort of want this for my piece.

Waiting For You To Notice from Shared Hope on Vimeo.

After watching this animation I started to think about what could happen in my animation. I took my ideas and spoke to my mum. This helped as we both were trying not to be literal and it was easier to bounce ideas off each other.

We decided that after the feet, the title would appear. The she would jump into the bubble which would start to float her to the top. The bubble would then start to shrink and trap her until it pops, where she would be left floating in the water. A tentacle would then reach out and grab her pulling her down to the bottom. It would then be from her point of view and she would start to see memories she didn't like (grave, wheelchair and army boots). These are memories and experiences my mum has been through. She would start to fight with the darkness.
We hadn't figured out the ending yet and I wanted to do the storyboards so I could test out the length and timing.

Animatic:

This is the beginning of the Animatic, I wanted to test out the timing, I feel I still need to play around with it and carry on with the storyboards so I can get a better picture of the timing. 

beginning of animatic from Summer Davies-Newton on Vimeo.

Also this week I started to test what kind of brush style I wanted to use on the, I wanted the animation to be messy and smudgy and not neat but when I tried out the chalk one I felt it was too messy and didn't look right. I preferred the clean lines but with a sketchy feel. 

For next week I want to work on some character sheets to properly say what she will look like. 

Richard Phelan and Avgousta Zourelidi Feedback  

This week we had a talk from Richard Phelan (Head of Story at Aardman Animations) and Avgousta Zourelidi (Currently a Director for Rovio Entertainment Ltd.). It was very cool to see both of their work and the different jobs they do and how they got there. 

After the talk the third years that had attended showed them our ides for our final year work. I showed the storyboards above and explained what my final film would be about. Some of their feedback was that they really liked the style and the simplicity of the lines, of how I only want what is important to be shown. They also agreed that I needed to be less literal with my animation and that the direction I was going was good.

They said to carry on with what I am doing and it was great to get their thoughts. 

Feedback from Sam - 

Unfortunately I could not attend the lesson because of a family funeral, but I got Bethany to show some of my work.

Sam had not seen the stuff from the previous week because of the Manchester Animation Festival. The feedback I got was that the idea of doing it more graphic like and on the brown paper was great and she liked the fact it was less literal. 

She also liked the way the character had more fluidity and only would have hands and feet when they are needed. Overall she is very happy with the direction I am going. But I need a one on one tutorial for my essay. 

I have got feedback for my first draft of essay I handed in last week and will implement this in my work for the next draft hand in which is the 2nd December. 

Profession Project - Week 9 - Project Progress

For this lesson I wanted to try and add the feedback I got from the last time Jamie saw the animation. That was to make it so the internet wire came unplugged from a distance as the cut to the close up was too quick. Also to add a slosh when the Earth character hits the floor.


Below you can see I have added the feedback and have carried on with animating more the of the overall animation (the Internet character picking the Earth character up). I have also started to add more of the features to the Earth character like the land.
7 from Summer Davies-Newton on Vimeo.

I then went on to start and make the beginning 7 seconds neat and added the shading to the water.      
9 from Summer Davies-Newton on Vimeo.

I then added the Eyes to the Earth character.    
10 - no sound from Summer Davies-Newton on Vimeo.

This is everything I have done so far with the voice over.
11 - with sound from Summer Davies-Newton on Vimeo.

I continued with the rough animating, adding the plugging in of the internet and the ETC letters appearing. I will be doing the ETC letter in After Effects to add a light up affect to them.

13 from Summer Davies-Newton on Vimeo.
I feel that overall the animation is going in the right direction and it turning out the way I wanted it to and hopefully the client Jamie wanted.
I still have to carry on with the animating and neatening of everything but I am about half way there.
For next time I hope to have a lot more done and finished and also I will start to think about sound affects and maybe a backing track.

Feedback 

The feedback I got off of Jamie and Emily was to get rid of the ground line as it is not needed, and the internet box looks like it is floating off the ground because of the ground.

The Earth falling still needs to be more exaggerated. Also to add a tug on the wire as he is tripping over the internet cable. 

to preposition the character when the wifi character is helping up the earth character as they are too much over on the left side of the screen. This I will hopefully fix with a camera movement in Tvpaint.

For next time I also need to think about sound and putting sound effects and music to it. 

I hope to have as much as I can fixed for next time and also more of it finished. 

Animation Research and Practice - Week 8 - Project Progress

This week is Manchester Animation Festival and so this weeks lesson is cancelled as we will be there.

Project Progress - 

After last weeks feedback off Sam I spoke to my mum and got her to watch the animatic and tell me her opinions on it.

My Mum liked the feet part at the beginning at the reaching out for the light, but she also got that it did look too much like what she was saying and so we talked about what she would like to see animated. 

Since she liked the feet part at the beginning we were going to keep that. 

She liked the idea of the bubbles and suggested that when she jumped at the beginning she would jump into a bubble instead. This bubble would then float towards the light or top of the ocean.

A chanin or seaweed would grab onto her and pull her down, where she would have past memories hit her.

These memories would be of:

• the Army 
• A wheel chair
• Someone towering above her
• A Grave

After getting the feedback off my mum I started to sketch ideas and I sketched on brown paper, adding only lines to represent the water, not colouring the whole thing. They are rough ideas of what could be happening. Below are the sketches I did:

After this I decided I liked the look of the colour on the brown paper and the way it was simple with the lines, but you knew what was happening. I liked that you didn't need the whole colouring of the water to know she was in water and this is something I wanted to have all the way through. Thus I have decided top have a brown paper background for my animation.

From this I hope to create a new storyboard and rough animatic by next week to help give a better feel of what I want my animation to look like, but I feel better that I am going in the right direction of what I want.

Below is Ryan Woodward's Animation - Thought of You



This is a similar style I am going for but why more colour and based in water. I like how it has the drawings on the brown background and can see this working well for my animation.

Another animation that is of similar style to want I want to produce is Nephtali by Glen Keane - I like how there is only objects in the animation when needed and there are not really detailed backgrounds, until it is needed. Which is something I want for my film, the audience will get she is in water but wont necessarily have to have all the colour of the water to get that she is.


Essay - 

Last week we had to hand in our first draft which I have talked about in the previous post. I am waiting on my feedback to carry on with my essay, but I am continuing to read the articles and resources I have collected.

Professional Progress - Week 8 - Manchester Animation Festival

We are Manchester Animation Festival this week so there is not lesson.

Animation Research and Practice - Week 7 - Project Progress and First Essay Draft

Storyboard - 
For the storyboards I wanted to do them digitally this week and start to think a bit more about what will happen. I know I want to not be stuck to the storyboards and be able to change and add but I like to have some sort of a storyboard in the beginning.

I decided that at the beginning I would have the feet of someone stand on a ledge and step off and then fall into the water. The woman figure would splash into the water and the bubbles would appear. She would then be floating and see the light coming through the water. She would reach out for the light and it would start to go round her. She would then be pulled down and you see the black creature engulfing her. she would then become black herself and until the light came back and you think she is going to go to the light to be helped but she is then pulled back down again.

I din't manage to finish them all this week because of concentrating on the essay, but I wanted to put it into a moving storyboard to see what it would look like and how it would in with the voice over. 

moving storyboard 1 from Summer Davies-Newton on Vimeo.

Feedback off Sam - 

The feedback I got off Sam was that i needed to work on the timing of the piece and make the beginning faster.
She also still thinks that I am being too literal about the voice over and I need to be more abstract, the audience is going to here it they don't need to see every word.

Sam also suggested that I got my Mum to look at it and see what she thought about it. This way my mum could say if things don't look like what she imagines them too.

Sound - 

Sam also wants me to look at sound and what kind of sound I am going to have with my animation.
Thinking about it I want sound affects for parts to tell the audience things and I want to look into musical scores and whether it will go with the voice over. 

Essay Structure and First Draft

For the first draft I wanted to send as much I had done in, even if that meant that it was slightly confusing at parts. Below is the draft and I have tried to write what I want to include in the essay as well as starting it, so although parts are not written correctly they were thoughts at the time and I thought it better to but them down now. 

I will wait for the feedback and carry on from there, in the mean time I will carry on to read the article I have and make notes. 

How is Mental Health Portrayed in Hollyoaks?

Introduction –

This essay will look into and discuss the way the soap Hollyoaks (1995 – 2016, created by Phil Redmond) portrays mental health and the characters in the show that have a mental illness. It will look at whether the show has used negative stereotypes to portray mental health or if it has accurately portrayed them. The soap Hollyoaks was chosen as the case study as it is a contemporary television show that is very popular in today’s society and is watched every night by a wide variety of people of all ages. This essay will look into whether the stereotypes of mental health and how the public sees mental health as something negative and how soaps like Hollyoaks have helped to show the audience what mental illnesses there are and how not to be afraid of them, along with how to talk about them.

Paragraph 1 – Contextualisation of the topic, key terms, ideas, questions and motivations –

What the most common mental health illnesses? (facts)

Which mental health illnesses have been portrayed in Hollyoaks?

What are the main stereotypes of mental health and the mental health illnesses?

Include facts – How many people have a mental illness in the UK?

Chapter 1

What is meant by mental health?

There are many mental health illnesses, that range from more common e.g. depression, anxiety, OCD and phobias to more rare illnesses e.g. bipolar disorder, personality disorders and psychotic experiences. As said by Mind “Mental health problems can affect the way you think, feel and behave.”(mind reference) Mental health illnesses can affect people at different times in their lives and can last for short periods of time or last a life-time. Statistics Mental Health.org states that “One in four people will experience a mental health problem at some point in their lives.” (mentalhealth.or – stigma and discrimination) This show just how common they are and how anyone can have a mental health problem.

What is a stereotype?

A stereotype is “a fixed, over generalized belief about a particular group or class of people.” (Cardwell.1996) It is when people define a set of characteristics to a certain group of people. They are not always made on purpose and can be a subconscious act.

In the case of mental health, people often stigmatise people who have a mental illness to be: dangerous, unpredictable and incompetent. But in actual fact “according to data from the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions, only 3% of people with mental illness are violent. That means 97% of people with mental illness are not violent.” (scatter good foundation) There are cases of extreme and rare mental health illnesses that do have violent tendencies but that does not mean that everybody who has a mental health illness is the same. So why does society see mental illness as negative? The stereotyping of a mental illness can affect the person with the illness. This can include getting the help they need and so can lead to not being diagnosed, the not getting the proper treatment and in some extreme cases suicide. 

An example of stereotyping is in the film franchise Batman (add director), Dr Peter Byrne, a psychiatrist and film expert says, “Batman describes the Joker as schizophrenic clown…” (time to change) The Joker in the franchise is an evil character who is depicted as being a crazy and mentally ill and because of this is a violent, killing character.

Chapter 2 – key points and case studies

One of the main character from the soap Hollyoaks this essay will look into is the character Cindy Cunningham, who is played by Stephanie Waring. Cindy has bipolar disorder in the show and although suffers from further problems has used the character to gain awareness for the illness.

Stephanie says, “ Mental health can be difficult to diagnose and recover from, which is why support is so essential and why we have to stop the stigma surrounding mental health problems, because being able to talk about it is the first step.”(time to change)

Need to go into more detail about how her character is depicted in the show (RESEARCH)

There are many negative depiction of mental health and the media and television show have had a massive impact on this and are also now a day trying to turn it around by having a positive impact. The more it is publicised the more people react to mental health, so it is portrayed negatively, people react negatively. On the other hand if they are portrayed positively people will react positively, which is what a report by Time to Change, working with the Glasgow Media Group found.

The report found that: (time to change)

•              Over half (54 per cent) of people say that seeing a well-known character on screen has improved their understanding of mental health problems.

•              48 per cent said it helped to change their opinion about the kind of people who can develop these problems.

•              31 per cent said it actively inspired them to start a conversation about the storyline with friends, family or colleagues.

These findings back up the fact the television shows affect the way the audience see mental health and that if the show speaks out about it and depicts characters with mental health illness accurately and properly that it impacts society view of them.

More Hollyoaks characters: need more research on these

Hannah Ashworth played by Emma Rigby – Eating disorder – anorexia

Lisa Hunter played by Gemma Atkins – self harm

Anita Roy played by Saira Choudhry – skin bleaching

Newt played by Nico Mirallegro – schizophrenia

Chapter 3 - Why this is related to my project?

I chose this topic to write the extended essay on because I feel it will help me develop my final film. In the essay I have researched and discussed stereotypes and what stereotypes there are for many mental illnesses. I can then use this to make sure that my final film does not use the typical negative stereotypes and uses accurate portrayals of depression. It is a very interesting subject and is something very close to me and so it is interesting to see what other people think about the subject, it will broaden my research and understanding of it.