Transcription Update: Ideas For Sound

The animation is all finished. Now all I need to do is add sound, which I propose to do in Premiere Pro.

Notes to future self when animating:

- Always draw each component over the background. That way, you'll get a better idea of structure, proportion and movement. The movement in this animation, while it is good, is rather dodgy and inaccurate.

Transcription Update: Animating Progress

Here is how far I've got on the movement of the actual animation. When I go on to make sound, it will be through either Audition or Premiere Pro.

I feel like the movement is okay, but what I think I should've done was drawn out more frames to better contribute to that. In the future if I happen to make any more animations, I shall always draw each component over the background, so that I have a better idea of where everything goes.

Transcription Update: Background Characters

As was suggested to me during my crit last Friday, I am going to include crowds of people among the scenery. I think my problem though is that all of my characters look rather similar in height and appearance. If I knew my characters a lot better, then it would be easier to design them around the personality that they take on.

RSA Animation Progress: Realisation Of Time

Much to my surprise, I have successfully sketched out the outlines for most of the frames of my animation for "Building Possible Futures". As of now I aim to have them all drawn out by tomorrow at midday, and tomorrow afternoon I can have a go at compositing them all and adding sound. This may continue into Friday morning.

As I've been working though, I feel as if there's something that's been holding me back, yet I couldn't quite put my finger on what it was. I've just now realised what it might be: the time. Yes, I am aware that we don't have to complete the entire thing by Friday, but with two other animations that I'm making that are currently in progress, as well as having to submit my UCAS application soon, I may not get another chance to further pursue it; this is why I aim to get it done by Friday, to make way for more important matters.
I love the sound of working with a client's idea and putting it to my own vision. Graphic novel illustration is the sort of thing I'd like to go into for a living, but for the most part I feel like I'm not good at writing, so I aim to collaborate with an author. This progression week project has been good so far because it really puts me to that test of working alongside someone who also has a particular vision, but one week doesn't feel like sufficient time to carry out research, make observational drawings and visual moodboards, design characters and settings for reference, and then make a complete storyboard out of that. I feel bad having only spent one day doing the storyboard. If I had three days at the very least, I would have more time to better think about what I'm making and keep refining it. The same applies to the entire project, in which it's best for things to gradually keep building up.

Progression Week RSA Animation Progress

These will be the base of which I build my animation upon. I aim to have this finished by Friday, which is highly unlikely, even if it doesn't have any colour. So far I think this has been a good and fun project because it allows me to work to a professional standard and realise the needs of a client. I wish that it could be longer than one week though; that way, I'll have more time to think more about the ideas that I come up with and how they can be freshly conceived.

Progression Week: RSA Animation

Here is how far the animation is coming along for my Progression Week brief. So far I have worked out the proportions of my main character, the setting, storyboards and items such as furniture and clothing. Tomorrow I aim to get started on drawing out the landscapes and hopefully start animating the figures. I know that we don't really need a FINAL final outcome for Friday, but it's still something I'd like to get done asap.

Transcription Animation Progress

I am starting to add extra people to serve as a crowd for my animation, since Andrew (the guy that did the sound workshop with us a while back) felt that my setting was too bleak/miniscule. If I add more people who closely resemble the simple man, it will make the hooded figure feel more and more small and isolated.

Transcription Animation Progress

I've drawn out all the fundamental components; now all it takes is making things move and using the right colour.

Project 3 - Transcription: Gallery Visits and Idea Generation

These are all rough sketches, annotations and observations taken yesterday from all of the gallery visits. My favourite out of all of them was the Julia Margaret Cameron exhibition at the Science Museum. While more of a photographer and less of an animator/illustrator, I loved the way that Cameron played with light and shading to give off a certain impression of a subject/person, as if to say that everyone has both a light and dark side. I like that idea of what lies on the surface is very different to what's underneath, which is what I want to try and accomplish for Project 3.

Who Are You? Final Piece Progress

Slow progress is better than no progress, as they say. I aim to have these finished by tomorrow and printed off in A3 by Monday morning. So far this project has been good at testing my ability to work towards deadlines.

Who Are You? Progress

This is how I'm doing on my series of illustrations for the portrait project. I think that moodboards are not only good for visual references, but also for generating new and exciting design ideas. I always annotate my rough sketches aswell, so that when I go on to make the actual thing, I know where I can't go wrong.

While my sketches are coming along nicely, I still feel like I have trouble composing things out like they're meant to be a portrait. I love drawing detailed and scenic locations to symbolise a hidden meaning, something which I cannot do with just a figure.

Who Are You? Idea Generation

Here is the initial planning and sketches for my portrait series thus far. I aim to produce at least 4 A3 drawings as my final outcome, which shall be backed up by moodboards, note taking and rough sketches with annotations.

Cheesus Christ

A long time ago, long before your Uncle was born, a piece of cheese was floating through space, when all of a sudden it went crazy and just did a big bang. Because of scientific chemicals, all the planets such as Earth and Venice and the stars began to form, as you can see in the detailed photo above. On Earth, creatures began to form in the sea...the ice age happened...Vikings happened...Shakespeare happened...the Victorians happened...laptops happened and, well, here we are.

One And All, Somerset House

The One And All exhibition marks the 50th anniversary of the National Trust's dedicated programme to care for England's coasts. In 1965, John Betjeman wrote of the many threats to our coast in his poem One & All, from where the exhibition's title is derived: our relationship with the sea affects us all. Two leading artists - Tania Kovats and Martyn Ware - have worked with filmmaker Benjamin Wigley to create an online digital film journey through poetry, sound and film.

The first room shows a changing vista taken from Wigley's exploration of the many coastal landscapes cared for by the National Trust. Here, a series of shores are seen one by one, and they all differ greatly. They all range from being very calm to loud and roaring. There isn't a lot of information to go on, but the cinematic presentation of it gives us a clear idea that there were a lot of perspectives involved in the making of this exhibition, and that a lot of personal care and feeling has gone into it.

The second room was home to Martyn Ware's What Does The Sea Say?. Ware has vivid childhood memories of outings to the seaside from his home in Sheffield. His involvement in One & All was a portable beach hut where members of public could write on the wood inside their personal feelings towards the beach and the sea. Because of these personal expressions, the beach hut almost reminds me of an untouched box, a box that must never be opened because it contains something of precious value. As such, childhood is something that is precious to all of us, and having your thoughts enclosed in a small, desolate beach hut seems ideal if you are to keep them safe.

Also present was Kovats' bronze bell, which she casted with the travelling foundry Ore + Ingot at the autumn equinox on Porthcurno beach, Cornwall. However, I didn't find it particularly interesting since I can't say a lot about a bell.

One & All is small. Because it's small though, it feels more like an intimate personal expression that is precious to a certain group of individuals. The only commission that I found to be just remotely intriguing was Martyn Ware's beach hut, because there's a strong sense of narrative and personal exploration involved. Although it is a free exhibition I wouldn't highly recommend it due to it's lack of deep content in most places.

Source:

National Trust, Tania Kovats, Martyn Ware, Benjamin Wigley (2015) One and All [exhibition], Somerset House, London, 6 Nov 2015

Who Am I? Animation Progress: Wednesday 4th November

Here I am adjusting the speed of each frame in PhotoShop's animation timeline. So far I think it's looking good, and as much as I want to complete it even after the deadline on Friday, I have other ideas on my mind that I would like to get on with, such as (Spoiler Alert!) my graphic novel series that I am currently writing.

Who Am I? Animation Progress

Here is how far I've got on my animation so far. I aim to finish what I can on Wednesday, and then experiment with sound on Thursday, so that it is finished for Friday. Even if I don't meet the deadline, I still want to continue making it, since I find it to be quite fun.

Who Am I? Animation: Creative Process

Here is the design process for the animation that I aim to produce by the end of Thursday. My idea developed rather naturally and I like the results that have come out of it, with the help of Tom Hooper's guides from Friday and my own storyboards, which led to some visual research. I have a bad feeling that Thursday may not be when I finish it (I aim to include sound aswell), but I'll give it all I've got!