Professional Project - Week 6 - Showreel Homework and Presentation Skills

Two weeks ago we were set the homework to create a showreel. I looked over the tips that Emily gave us when we had the lesson and I wanted to make sure the music was catchy and that the editing matched that.

I feel I have done this and It keeps the audience engaged and not bored. I have only used work that I am pleased with and because I want to be a generalist animator I had more of variety of work I could put in.


Showreel 2016 demo from Summer Davies-Newton on Vimeo.



Feedback - 

The feedback that I got was that the music may be too load, I din't need to add when I had worked with someone. I needed to take away the tree part as it didn't fit with the rest of it and it wasn't finished very well. After this module I should hopefully have more animation to put into the showreel. 


Lesson - 

In today's lesson we looked at body language and how the way your body comes across can tell people looking at you things. 

We watched a Ted talk about body language, it talked about to not just fake it until you make it, but faking it until you become it. If you fake being confident eventually you will become confident and this is what we have to teach ourselves to do. 

http://blog.ted.com/2012/10/01/10-examples-of-how-power-posing-can-work-to-boost-your-confidence/

Creative talking about pitching: http://www.lynda.com/Business-Business-Skills-tutorials/Preparing-pitch/73563/78225-4.html

The Elevator Pitch - 

A really good example of an elevator pitch is below - 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6O98o2FRHw

The task this week was to come up with a pitch about a pink fluffy pen top and then pitch it to the class. We only had 10 minutes to come up with the idea.  

My pitch-

I decided to do my pitch on people use your pens and then don't give them back to you and so you are left without a pen and so the pink fluffy pen topper was a gps tracker so you could get your pens back.

My feedback off the class -

My feedback about my pitch was that I was very clear, but I could be more confident and maybe walk/ move around a bit.

I will keep this in mind and try and work on my confidence more when we present in class.

Animation Research and Practice - Week 5 - Character Development, Essay Structure and Sound Lesson

This week in Sams lesson we discussed the essay and structuring the essay.

Do you have – 

-A central question (Answered)

-A case study (compared)

-An investigation (Discussed)

5 part Structure (to consider when writing chapters)-

-Intro

-Contextualisation of topic, key terms, ideas, questions and investigations.

-Layout of central and arguments/discussion you are using, use of specific examples.

-How this relates to your practice (can be first person).

-Conclusion.

Homework -

To redo our structure keeping in mind the above

Ross's Lecture - 

We discussed music and how it is linked to the moving image.

-Depict motion

-Relation to the plot (Leitmotifs)

-Provide an aural commentary on the images 

-Render emotion (One of the most effective uses of music)

-Locate the image geographically, socially and culturally (Invoke time and place through cultural references)

-Reference time and historical periods (Ex. Using a baroque sound can take us back to the 18th century, or can be used as flashbacks for subtlety etc.)

-Link scenes and support transitions (Can assist in linking montages together)

-Manipulate ideas (Propaganda and audience manipulation)

-Change perceptions of time (Altering the tempo of music can influence the pace of a scene)

-Support fantasy and the unreal (Music enhancing the unreal)

-Create a feeling of space and scale (the perception of space can become radically affected by the music too)

-Parody (Contrasting music to the perceived character can lead to a feeling of parody and irony)

-Collectively unite the audience and Create physical reactions in the audience

-Modify and emphasise size perception and relationships

Animation Research and Practice - Week 5 - Project Progress and Colour Script Homework

Colour Scripts

For this week Sam wanted us to start to think about colour and what colours we wanted to use in our animations. After the lesson last week on colour scripting I used different media to come up with different colour scripts. 

Water Colour- 

Aqua Pens -

Pastels - 

I knew that I was mainly going to use blues and greens since it is set in the ocean and that there would be times when it is brighter and darker. 

I then went on to, using the same media, play around with some concept art and sketches.

Pastels-

 Watercolour -

I then went onto sketches of the female character

I feel at the moment some of the drawings work but I haven't got her design right yet. I want her to look simple but I am still drawing specific elements that people wouldn't be able to relate to. Like the long hair, small figure. I need to work on this.


Bethany also drew some sketches of her for me, but after getting feedback off Emily and Ross I realised she is too overly sexualised and this is not the animation for that. Emily also said to be careful not to make her too other wordly and to stick to her being a human being. 

I want her to be smudgy and so she is kind of almost not there. 

Storyboards


Since last weeks storyboards were really rough and we had talked about colour I decided to create a colour storyboard.

For next week I want to do some digital drawing and storyboards so I can put them with the voice recording.

Essay

Title - Mental Health Stigmas and Whether the Media has had an Impact on this.

Structure -

Introduction - What will the essay be about - Has media had an impact - if so is it negative or positive

Paragraph 1 - what are the stigmas of mental health - looking at some of the most well known mental illness and what the stigmas are - backed up by facts

Paragraph 2 - Case studies - shows that show the above

Paragraph 3 - Look at case studies that are trying to help people and don't show mental health negatively (Hollyoaks)

Paragraph 4 - Survey - asking people if they see the stigma in media and if they have noticed if it has changed

Conclusion - Sum it up


More sources I have found - 

http://www.kingsfund.org.uk/audio-video/alternative-guide-mental-health-care-england

http://teenmentalhealth.org/product/mental-health-animated-series-dvd/

http://www.storypick.com/mental-disorder-short-films/

http://animationtherapy.co.uk/

http://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev.pu.16.050195.001251

https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=ShOQAgAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA453&dq=to+what+extent+has+animation+been+used+to+make+the+public+understand+mental+health&ots=evPbzZESFN&sig=f-vSK1GD5lh52Kmtf3CB-eXnqJA#v=onepage&q&f=false



Character Profile for Ross-

Gender - Female
Age - Adult but no specific age
Health - depressed
Appearance - plain, simple,basic in shape and features, no detail
Sense of Humor - none
Fears/Desires - darkness, loneliness, loss of family, desires to be free, not feel the way she does
Goals in life - none really, to be free maybe from depression
Relationship to other Characters - no relations
Intelligent - not applicable
Culture - not applicable
History - not applicable
Poor/Rich - not applicable
Job - not applicable
Religion - not applicable
Family - not applicable
Friends - not applicable
Name - not applicable

She is supposed to relate to to people and so is simple and not detailed so she can be relate-able.


Feedback - 

In the lesson I played the recording I had edited together last week. Emily had already suggested editing it further and moving the ending to the beginning, which I am going to have a look at doing, but Sam and Ross both agreed that it could be edited down. 

They also wanted to see some images with the recording, which I am hoping to do for next. As well as start to think more deeply about my character and start to draw her. 

About my Essay, at the moment it is still too broad a topic and would on the verge of a sociology paper, which is something I don't want and so I will start to think about how I can narrow this down. I am hoping that since I have a lot of sources that once I ready them all I will be able to narrow it down easier. 

For next week :

• Digital storyboards
• Digital concept art
• moving storyboard with the voice recording
• To have edited the recording more
• To have a more narrow essay title and a better structure. 

Professional Project - Week 5 - Project Progress

Final Characters -

 Earth Character:

Wifi Character - 

Reference Videos -

I wanted to make sure I had reference videos for when I animate and start to key frame. I feel the one below are good and will help me to make sure the movements are right and timings are good.

Reference Videos for Professional Project from Summer Davies-Newton on Vimeo.

Key framing and tests

Earth character key frame walk cycle:


earth character keyframe walk cycle from Summer Davies-Newton on Vimeo.



Wifi Character key frame walk cycle:

I found it hard to animated a walk cycle without the legs crossing over because of the position they are in this is not possible and so this was slightly confusing and why the character looks like he has a slight limp. But I do like the walk and just need to fix it up. I want this scene in the whole animation to pan across at the same time to reveal the Earth character on the floor. I hope to have this test done by next week.

wifi character keyframe walk cycle1 from Summer Davies-Newton on Vimeo.


End Scene test:
For the end scene because it dragged on I tried to make it so the Earth character jumps and things pop up and it tries to hide them with his hands. In the clip below I have rotoscoped over the reference video I took the other day. It is very messy and looks odd because I need to still adjust it to the Earth shape and not a human. I hope to have this end scene more fixed my next week.

rotoscoping end scene from Summer Davies-Newton on Vimeo.



Starting to key frame :

Rough start to keyframing from Summer Davies-Newton on Vimeo.


Feedback from Jamie and Emily :

After showing the above to Jamie and Emily they had a few suggestions.

With the ending, because it is flat and simple the step back doesn't work and so to remove that bit and have the Earth jump in some other way.

The Wifi characters walk to Emily does not work properly and she suggested attaching his legs in the same place so the legs can cross over. But Jamie said it looked okay and to just animate the front leg more. So I will do this and see if it looks better and has less of a limp.

Jamie also suggested having a camera shake when the Earth hits the floor to show more of the Earthquake.

In the next two weeks I hope to have done:

• The ending better key framed and drawn so you can see what is happening.
• Fix the Wifi Character walk
• add a camera shake to the earthquake part 
• and to carry on key framing and animating

Animation and Research - Week 4 - Colour Scripting, Extended Essay and Acting and Performance Lesson

This week in the lecture we talked about a colour scripting, but before we discussed that we looked at Motion Disabled, which was an exhibition in Birmingham that looked at people with disabilities and how they looked with the motion capture. It was very interesting to look at and see how peoples bodies work.

Colour Scripts-

Colour scripts is an important part of the production as it can help people see how the film or piece with move through and help see where the emotional parts are, whether the colour actually changes and how the colours will change. It also helps with how the palette will work together.  

When it comes to colour, many people look back at old painters and take inspiration from them. 

An example of colour scripts is from Pixar - http://pixar-animation.weebly.com/colour-script.html

UP -

The Incredibles

We also watched a useful video also created by Pixar about colour scripting. - http://www.pixar.com/behind_the_scenes/Colorscripts#


Colour sripts do not have to be the finished style and look of the film but help show the moods and lighting of the piece and helps the person animating to see how the film will fit together with all the colours.



We also discussed Life drawing and how it essential to keep drawing from life and this will help improve our own drawings and make us more confident.

We looked at an ex students who works for Aardman and his Lunchtime Life Drawing that he posts on his blog - http://richardphelan.blogspot.co.uk/

 

We next went on to Discuss Bibliography's and how to write them. We have to be careful when writing them and make sure that we are putting the , full stops and comas in the right place. We also have to make sure that they all look the same and everything hat is referenced in the essay is all referenced the same. 


Homework

• Create a colour script (not a full one) using different mediums and put it into our spaces
• Refine our essay titles and make a rough structure of our essay
• Discuss how it will relate to the practice.

Ross - 

In Ross's lecture we looked at editing and Hitchcock in particular. 

The below is a clip from the film 'The Birds' along with part of the storyboard for the same section

Hitchcock was known for using a lot of storyboards when creating his films as it helped him to set out the film. Which is what we have to do for our own films.

It is important to keep the audience and Hitchcock did this a lot with the the different shot that he used. 

Acting and Performance-

We next went on to discuss the how to develop a character and the story behind a character. Knowing who the character is lets us create a better character performance, thus making the character more believable for the audience. 

Homework-

For our homework we have to craete a character bio for the characters in our film. They need to include: gender, age, health, appearance, sense of humour, desire/goals, culture, history, occupation, family, friends, name and how the character would act.

Animation Research and Practice - Week 4 - Extended Essay Research and Final Film Progress

Study Group Research for Extended Essay-

We met on Tuesday for our study group meeting and although we are all doing films for our final projects all four topics for our extended essays were very different. We decided to go through what each person wanted to write about, helping each other try and narrow it down or come up with things to look into. We then split up and started to try and find article for each other. This was extremely helpful as we could help each other and although we are not looking at similar topics we could still say ideas for each other. 

These were the article I found for other people and myself and then the article they found for my subject. 

Raj –  Evolution of family friendly animation

https://journal.animationstudies.org/sheuo-hui-gan-the-transformation-of-the-teenage-image-in-oshii-mamorus-the-sky-crawlers/

https://blog.animationstudies.org/?p=1272

https://blog.animationstudies.org/?p=1268

https://blog.animationstudies.org/?p=1144

https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=0srtp8elakMC&oi=fnd&pg=PR7&dq=propaganda+in+children%27s+tv&ots=PxSTzftiRF&sig=ALtz0B1kyaHlA1LBwgvyFBDFDVk#v=onepage&q=propaganda%20in%20children's%20tv&f=false

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/08838158709386672

http://jlr.sagepub.com/content/24/4/433.short

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1300/J367v04n02_05

http://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED390579

http://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED386771

Bethany – sound

https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=5qrTtKm42yMC&oi=fnd&pg=PR2&dq=the+importance+of+sound+in+animation+&ots=f0WGWicS2F&sig=P5C_xPWK0xon--aih6Q9n4acsF8#v=onepage&q=the%20importance%20of%20sound%20in%20animation&f=false

http://marketing-bulletin.massey.ac.nz/V9/MB_V9_N2_Rae.pdf

Nathan – noir or genre (horror or dark)

https://journal.animationstudies.org/actors-in-sin-citys-animated-fantasy-avatars-aliens-or-cinematic-dead-ends/

https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=9nMVrd7F9GIC&oi=fnd&pg=PA87&dq=horror+animation&ots=DKhay1Tn3Q&sig=J7aKMSpNnT2Us0t_RxQCLY1f-Sc#v=onepage&q=horror%20animation&f=false

me – documentary animation and mental health

https://blog.animationstudies.org/?p=169

http://animationtherapy.co.uk/Studio

https://blog.animationstudies.org/?p=1596

https://blog.animationstudies.org/?p=214

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17522430802578395

https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=NAmVy_4xZ58C&oi=fnd&pg=PR1&dq=how+documentary+animation+is+used+in+mental+health&ots=RY9DMZcl7z&sig=--VI1ABe8J43e0URZWS_4HAtAu0#v=onepage&q=how%20documentary%20animation%20is%20used%20in%20mental%20health&f=false

http://www.jmir.org/2015/1/e11/?utm_content=buffer87aa3&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

http://digitalcommons.brockport.edu/ehd_theses/143/

https://journal.animationstudies.org/rachel-walls-abstract-inclusion/

https://journal.animationstudies.org/victoria-grace-walden-animation-textural-difference-and-the-materiality-of-holocaust-memory/

https://journal.animationstudies.org/maria-lorenzo-hernandez-the-double-sense-of-animated-images/

http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/1270759/?arnumber=1270759&tag=1

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3900192/

http://anm.sagepub.com/content/early/2011/09/13/1746847711422496.extract

http://www.jstor.org/stable/3815174?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

https://blog.animationstudies.org/?p=1596

https://blog.animationstudies.org/?p=169

http://anm.sagepub.com/content/early/2011/08/11/1746847711417954.abstract

http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/prj/24/4/335/

http://www.cmaj.ca/content/182/2/177.short

I still need to go through and read the link I got so I can try and narrow down my question, which I will hopefully have for next week. 

Final Film Progress - 

Ethics - 

It was brought to my attention this week that I needed to think about ethics because of the topic I am dealing with. Although this had somewhat come across my mind in that I wanted to make sure my mum was okay and that everything was up to her, I hadn't thought about this as if she wasn't my mum. What would I have done if I had recorded another person about depression and what I would need to put in place and consider before doing this? My animation is being brought up in the next ethics meeting at the University and they will say whether or not everything is fine with what I have done, but until then I am going to write a ethics report making sure I understand what I should of done if it wasn't my mother.

Animation - 

This week I wanted to try and get a better idea at what I wanted to create. Up until this point I had, had a basic idea of how I wanted it to be but because I hadn't had the voice over I didn't quite know what would happen. I had also researched a lot so that now that I have my voice over I have a better understanding of what I like and what I want the animation to do and look.

I started by going through the sound clips I had rerecorded from last week. I have narrowed it down to around a 75 second voice over. I felt this gave me the most inspiration when I imagined what I could do with it.

This is the clip below:

The clip of voice over I am using from Summer Davies-Newton on Vimeo.

As I listened to this section I could imagine a net type creature luring the main character, my mum, in and then grabbing her foot and pulling her down into the darkness. As she was being pulled down she would struggle and not be able to brake free. The monster would wrap all around her and then she would go limp. It would then go to her mind where everything would be dark and creepy and then lights would start to appear with different people in them shouting for her. The lights would continue until she wakes up, the lights take over the screen and she is able to swim free.


Refining the idea: scripting it better:

Me and Bethany went through both of our ideas trying to see what camera angles we would use and refining our ideas better.

The voice over is 1:11 minutes long, which give me plenty of time to play with timing.

• It starts off with the female character floating into the water with sunbeams streaming through the water
• she reaches out towards the light
• you then see her dragged off screen 
• bubbles float up (all above up to 16 secs)
• follows face from above being dragged down - almost drowning
• her trying to escaped and but just being dragged down. (until 30secs)
• net creature engulfs her and she is trying to fight it off and swim away
• she ends up going lifeless(30-49 secs)
• goes black (49-50)
• cuts to her face being - closed eyes
• the light streams on again
• her eyes open quickly (until 55 secs)
• starts to swim up taking the net with her 
• detaching from it as she is swimming 
• end with her being pulled back off screen 
• bubbles (until 71 secs)

Reference:

I started to look at different references for my animation. Particularly water and how people move in water and what it looks like to scream under water.

I need to do more research on the above as this is only picture I would prefer to have filmed references if possible, but it gives me a good idea for my initial sketch storyboards.

I also found the below videos to look at both animated and filmed water scenes.








Initial storyboards - (really rough)

The above are my initial sketches the story. I did not finish them for the lesson but by next week they will be much better, with more detail.

Styles - 




I really like the look of this animation and I want a similar look in the face and eyes, very simple but emotional.

Lois Van Baarle - http://blog.loish.net/
The above link is to a blog by Lois and shows her work which is very fluid at times, which i envision for my animation. The picture below if one of her work and I like this sort of style mixed with the video above for my female character.

I also found the link below which are illustrations of mental illnesses and I liked the dark and sketchy style of them. Although I may not go this dark, I may use this to create my net creature.
I also liked this to see what other people see them as similarly liked the other link I posted on a previous blog post about another artist that does the same.
http://www.boredpanda.com/for-inktober-i-focused-on-mental-illness-and-disorders/?page_numb=1

I still need to look further into the style I want.

Colour - 

Sam had asked us to bring in colour chips for this week. Bethany had brought a lot of different ones and so gave me some. As I was storyboarding I thought about what colours I might use. Since it was going to be in the ocean I knew I would need a lots of greens and blues, with maybe yellows for the sun beam. I need to research more into colours that you would find, but for now I have a rough idea of the colours I would like.

Below is what my space looks like and the colours I am thinking of using.