Animation Research and Practice - Week 6 - Project Progress, Essay and Feedback

Sam suggested looking at



Since it is my mum talking in the recording I can find out lots of information from my mum that will add to my animation. Also do I want to reveal everything all at once. In the recording my mum says the question first then answers it and I want to edit that out as I don't want to reveal too much at the beginning. The audience will get it without it being told to them.

Ross suggested looking at the artist David Hockney -

http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/hockney-a-bigger-splash-t03254

A Bigger Splash

Since my animation is in the ocean Ross suggested looking at the artist above as he has some works of art that are about water.

I like the way he shows the distortion of the water and I want to look at doing this in my animation.

In the beginning she is nearer the top of the ocean and so it is brighter and she can see the sun rays. When she reaches out for it I want to have her hand distort, which is what would happen and since she has depression it will give a feel of losing herself.

I have found the below picture of what I want it to look like - none of the images are mine

Character Concepts - 

I have been thinking about the way my character looks this week. I have an a general ideas since the beginning that I want her to be simple and not detailed so she could be anyone. But it is hard to think of a character that could be interpreted as everyone with every body type and face and hair, so I thought about just having her as simple as possible so that people can interpret her as they want. She is as plain, no hair, no really defined female eyes, no nose, and only a mouth when is needed.

Below is how I have tested the look of my character this week, going through the different stages of what she could look like.

First I got inspiration off Pinterest of people styles and interpretations of a simple woman who is depressed and then I used these images to style test my character.

Non of the above images are mine^

Below are the style I came up with I particularly like the sketchy messy one (bottom right) I feel this will best suite my character and the fact she is depressed. I might remove the hatching on it as I want her to be see threw or just one plain colour (white).

I then went on to think about head shapes taking on the similar style :

I preferred the middle one as it is simple

I next tested hair styles :

I prefer the one that is bald and has no hair. Although I had started my initial sketches of her weeks ago with big flowing hair, I feel this is not right for this animation and give off too much of a sexual feel.

I then looked at the face and especially the eyes - I had always just drawn circle for her eyes in past sketches and I still feel this is the best option. There is going to be emotion but I want her to almost have like dead eyes, as if she is already dead inside and we are seeing this.

I next need to look at her body.

Moving Storyboard - 

I also wanted to start to look at adding my storyboards to the recorded sound.

Below is the original recording and the storyboard I had done for last week.

moving storyboard with no edited sound from Summer Davies-Newton on Vimeo.


Edited the sound

I next went on to edit the sound, I cut breathes and quiet parts out I didn't think were necessary. I also cut the part where she talks about not being able to carry on to the begging I felt starting off with this is shocking and draw the audience in. I slowed this part down and added a gap between this and the rest of the recording giving me time to add visuals and be able to play with the timing. 

I also did something similar at the end with it finished with 'It's just too dark and black where you are'. I did this to finish off with as again it is dramatic and I also slowed it down and left a gap in the sound so I could play with the visuals. 

I know that by editing the sound it is verging on the truth and non-fiction, but I don't feel I have edited to be not truthful, I have just moved the order of which my Mum says things. 

Edited final sound from Summer Davies-Newton on Vimeo.

Moving storyboard with the edited sound. There is no beginning at the moment and so for next week I want to play around with the visuals for this section. Maybe have a woman jumping/falling into the water.

moving storyboard with edited sound from Summer Davies-Newton on Vimeo.

I spoke to Emily this week and I am going to take her advice and take scene I really want to be in the animation and test them and let the ideas come as I am animating. I can then make them morte dark and mess around with the animation as I am doing it. Then I can piece them together.


Extended Essay - 

From last weeks feedback I was told that my essay title was too broad and that I needed to focus it down and change the wording from media to something else as media would be more than 4000 words.

I have since thought about my essay and have decided to look at TV particularly Hollyoaks. I know this is not animated related but I felt I struggled to find a feature film a lot of people had watched that portrayed mental health characters and I knew Hollyoaks has a lot of episodes and has been going for years and has built up a big audience of viewers, that watch every night.

Essay Structure - 

How TV Shows, that Portray Mental Health, are Shaping People’s Attitudes towards the Illnesses?

Introduction –

This essay will look into and discuss the way TV shows portray mental health and how theses portrayals are affecting people attitudes towards the illnesses. I will be looking at Hollyoaks as a modern representation of the portrayal of mental health. Hollyoaks is a very popular soap that is watched throughout Great Britain every night and is for varying ages and so affects more people with how they show and portray mental health characters.

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

What is Mental Health?

What are the main stereotypes of Mental Health?

What is a soap?

What is meant by Portrayal?

Include facts

What TV shows and why – shows that have been around for years as it gives a broad case study.

Paragraph 2 – Layout of central question and arguments/ discussion I am using, use of specific examples -

Looking at the different characters that have had Mental Health storylines in Hollyoaks.

I will discuss how Hollyoaks have portrayed them and whether they have gone with typical stereotyping or whether they have showed them in a different way.

Comparing maybe two different Mental Health character – one portrayed like a stereotype and one portrayed accurately (depending on what I find)

Do these portrays affect the audience?

Has it changed over the years of episodes?

Paragraph 3 – How it relates to personal work -

My film is based depression and so I want to look at how mental health is portrayed to make sure I do not follow the negative stereotypes of mental health. This investigation will also help me with my work and could influence and inspire my work.

Conclusion –

How have the portrayals affected people’s attitudes? What my findings are.

Have the stereotypes stopped and so people have a better understanding of mental health.


Feedback - 

After the production meeting today I got feedback on the work I have done for the week above.

My moving storyboard was okay and some of the shots were good but I need to make sure I am not just following what she is saying and to experiment with being more abstract. This is what I would like to do for next week.

the character should have no mouth even in the scenes where I have put a mouth in, she should have no mouth. This will make her seem more innocent and like she has no voice, thus making the audience feel sad for her.

Maybe go to the sea life center

For the essay:

change the title from tv shows to contemporary Tv shows or How Hollyoaks portrays mental Health.