Understanding: The Golden Age of Animation

The Golden Age of animation has its prestigious name for a reason. Though it endured some dark times, it came out with some of the most iconic animated feature films and characters that we all know and love today. This period in history, began at around 1928 and ended in the late 1950s as it faded out due to the rise and demand in television.

This era is called the 'golden age' because it is really when animation started to get the recognition it deserved. Animation was a novelty art that really was starting to die out and people were becoming less interested in it, and this was something Walt disney acknowledged and wanted to change. Thus 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs' came about. This was the first animated feature film that combines both sound and colour. Sound and colour were two elements which were slowly progressing, however independently, and Snow White was really the animated film that combined them both to a good degree. At this point, animation was expensive (and still is) to make, therefore to have sound was just extra money that wasn't necessarily of particular demand, so as a result was usually just music from a public domain added on top of a short animation. As for colour, most animations were hand painted until the process of 'Technicolor' came about, but took a long time for companies to catch on to, because there were still many black and white animated films for a long time after this came about. Therefore 'Snow White' really was a table turner. But a bittersweet one.

Because 'Snow White' was the most innovative of Western animation yet, this meant that animation was increasingly becoming more expensive but simultaneously, was a real eye opener as it illustrated that animation has the ability to compete in the cinema with actual live action feature films as well. Not only that, because everyone saw Disney as doing something right, many companies copied them, their aesthetic and their process, however due to their intense focus on character connectivity and the actual plot of their films, Disney was always the most popular. Many foreign countries were not unfamiliar with the idea of animation feature films and had actually made many before the invention of 'Snow White', to a high quality as well, therefore the Golden Age of animation could actually be seen as just for Western animation.

However this era declined in the 1950s due to many factors. Obviously the main one was the rise and demand of television, but there were also dark times in this period. Disney's 'Fantasia' and 'Pinnocio' didn't do as well as they had liked and there were also social pressures during the war to produce films in connection with propaganda to keep authorities happy. Production costs were exponentially rising, and also the style of animation was ever changing and loads of people were losing their jobs because they were unable to keep up with these demands. Yet this age produced some of our favourite animated films to date and will always be an extreme turning point in animation history.

The Classical Elements: Progress 5

I finally decided on a background that i made and I liked that didn't clash with the colours on my match stick characters. Since they have both green and red on them, there isn't really much choice in colour left that would actually look pleasant. However, I really liked the idea of purple, and a sun that has set, because it wouldn't blend in with the fire.

I stuck with the concepts from my initial storyboards and it was what I imagined the background to be as I was actually animating my characters. And I am really happy with it. I was stuck for a while because I didn't know what colour I should have for the wallpaper. Every other colour looked too contrapuntal to the match stick couple, and I even attempted textures for google images and then overlaying them, but still nothing. But I stuck to my style of gradients and ended up with this and I think it works quite well.

I also wanted to have an intro to my main scene of the match stick characters, that was of a house where you can see through the window the match stick couple on a date, and I drew it all out on Photoshop:

But I literally had no seconds left to spare, so I didn't end up using it in my final 20 seconds. Plus now looking at it, it doesn't really go with the aesthetic of the animation at all, or it's colour scheme, so in hindsight I am glad I didn't have time for it, but was still able to see what I could have added if necessary.

The Classical Elements: Progress 4

Here I have continued the kiss, added fire and then started the last scene of my animation. Since fire is my element, I wanted to try it out before I added backgrounds. After having looked at countless videos that animate fire, I have noticed that not a lot of them 'move'. I have noticed that there is usually 2 frames of fire in different positions, and the animator will switch between them to get this 'flicker' aesthetic. I wanted mine to flow a bit more so I just drew my fire on every single frame instead of copying and pasting just so I could make it look like it flickers more frequently. 

I also didn't opt for a orangey/yellow flame, rather a red/pink flame with orange in the centre plainly because I had drawn a bunch of flames out but something about this colour scheme attracted me most. And also because it sort of compliments the characters colour palette as well, as I wanted everything to look good as a whole. I did have some specs of fire sizzling off their heads as well, just to be a bit more effective and make the fire look hot, and for a first time animating fire, I think I did okay.

I also decided to have my female matchstick character pull back and scream for the ending of the animation, one reason being I hadn't really planned on much sound other than matches setting alight and crackling, so I wanted more depth for the audience to feel like these are characters with personality and I just went with it. I quite like this part of the animation and I am glad I added it in.

The Classical Elements: Colour Palettes

After starting the initial animation with my match sticks, I now want to consider the mis-en-scene in which my animation is taking place. I wanted to create some colour palettes to give me a brief idea of the look I will be going for as reference. Even though this concept may seem like a waste of time, since I really like to concentrate on colour and the initial aesthetics of my work, I actually think this was the most important part of my planning and research.

The first colour palette set I wanted to look at includes a pastel variation because I think this would be a nice contrast to the very vibrant aesthetics of my two main characters. I love the idea of having gradients in my settings because I feel like it captures the mood of the animation very well, therefore I would like to use them again. On the other hand I am not too sure both pastels and bold palettes would work together, so I then made another variation in colour palettes:

Instantly, there is a very large visual difference, but that is what I love about colour, and how powerful it actually is. These colour palettes I am making are intended for the setting outside of the window, therefore I was very interested in having a sunset or a dark night sky. I preferred this colour palette set, therefore started to apply it to my animation. I initially really wanted a sunset to fall to re-enforce this romantic atmosphere between the two match stick characters, however I realised when applying the reds and oranges to my animation background, that when my match sticks go on fire, the colour of the sunset and the colour of the fire blends in to each other to the point where you can't differentiate which is which. So that was my first issue in this brief and I was actually really disappointed. I obviously couldn't work my way around it in terms of changing the colour of the matchsticks to suit the sunset, because my matchsticks need to look warm and red, because since I am given them characteristics, I need the audience to recognise that they are matchsticks, therefore the colour of them is very significant. However instead of thinking that my animation would end up looking aesthetically bad, I thought how about still incorporate a sunset, but as it is almost set, where the sky is a purplely-red and is transforming into a dark night. 

Looking back now I think this sets an even more romantic element to the animation. Plus it is a little bit of a new and different direction instead of primarily thinking 'sunset' and just going with it. Therefore I think this problem has actually come up for the good as I can now actually stretch a little out of my comfort zone and experiment with colours and setting that I would not naturally flock to.

Understanding: Phenakistiscopes

The Phenakistiscope is seen as a greater improvement to the thaumatrope, which was rather prestigious for its time. It was invented by Joseph Plateau in 1841, and is considered one of animations most early devices. Even today, Phenakistriscopes are being used, more often than not in museums to carry on the historic legacy.

Phenakistiscopes work in a rather complex way, to me anyway. They use a spinning disc, which is vertically attached to a handle. Along the outer edge of the disk are a series of images/sequential drawings that show phases of the animation to be seen. Cut through the sequential images, are a perfectly spaced slits which their purpose is for the user to look through after spinning the disc in order to view the animation.

The reason why the Phenakistiscope is a step up from the thaumatrope, is because unlike the thaumatrope, the phenakistiscope uses several images to create the illustion of movement. Though this is a short movement and its scale can range from inches to feet, it is still illustrating an action as opposed to a still image like that of the thaumatrope. 

I have personally seen a phenakistiscope, and I am always perplexed at them. I really enjoy them but I found it really difficult to get my head around how they work until recently. The concept is extraordinary and the prospect of ever having the chance to have a go at making one of them sounds like a challenge I would like to take.

Understanding: Thaumatropes

The thaumatrope can be considered the first instrument to exploit the 'persistence of vision' on the eye. 'Persistence of vision' is when the eye applies its ability to keep an image for 1/20th of a second after the image has disappeared. This is important in terms of the thaumatrope because this is an optical toy in which is made up of a simple piece of card or a disk, that features a different image on either side. The card/disk is attached to two pieces of string and when they are spun, the card will start rotating very quickly and the two images will combine to form on still image. This is why it exploits the persistence of vision, because the brain tricks the eye into thinking that there is an illusion of movement, when in actuality it is just two separate images.

Why is the thaumatrope important? Because it can be considered one of the first ever steps to animation. Though it doesn't apply any sort of the 12 principles of animation, it relies on the persistence of vision principle, therefore is like a stepping stone and a look into the future of how people could expand on this and make more images 'move'. It was created by the astronomer John Hersechel in the early 19th century but was made popular by John Ayrton Paris, an English Physician, therefore this goes to show how animation has been ever-changing and developing for almost 2 centuries now.

However, with the thaumatrope, the eye only sees the two images come together to make one still image, so there is no real movement or action, but it was a start. Therefore this is why the Phenakistoscope is considered by many academics as an improvement to the thaumatrope, as it starts to build on this persistence of vision, into actual movement. 

The Classical Elements: Progress 3

After I had all my anticipation animated, I thought I would begin animating the moment before the climax of the animation. Obviously the climax is where the two characters go on fire, but they have to kiss first, so that was the next step.

The gif above shows the pull and the kiss, because I wanted to see how they both looked together. I also began adding smoke ever so slightly, but that was not the concentrated part I was animating. I really do like this scene but there are so many little errors that I can spot immediately. For example I feel like the matchstick woman's hair moves too much, so that is something I am going to change right away, and maybe they move too fast. Up to this point i probably have around 12 seconds done, which I am really proud of, so it is just a matter of animating the intro, and then setting them on fire. I also need to do the background setting obviously, but I am looking forward to playing around with the colour palette for that.

The Classical Elements: Progress 2

I have decided to carry on with my animation as opposed to straying behind and fixing up small errors which I may be just being too picky about, and then once I have got my 20 seconds animated, I will go back and fix parts I am unhappy with. 

Therefore I then went on to 'the pull' scene. After the matchstick woman accepts the match stick man's offer to hold hands, I then decided to have him pull her in to the kiss. I think this is really good in emphasising the anticipation for the first five seconds of the video as it is the first real movement of the characters. This took me forever to do because I really didn't know how to go about it. I had to record my friends pulling each other as a reference because I kept getting confused with who moves first, etc. when going straight in to animate it. Having a reference REALLY helped, because I could follow the path of movement from my friends, and always look back at it. Obviously there is an issue, that physically my characters and my friends are very different, so I did exaggerate my match stick characters movements, quite a bit more.

In terms of how happy I am with it, I think it looks okay. I don't know if I am looking at it too much that my characters may seem a little too 'bendy', but this may be something I could look at afterwards to clean it up a bit. I wanted it to be exaggerated so that the audience could distinguish what the matchstick man is doing, but I am unsure if it may be too exaggerated, and the matchstick man does not need to bend as much as I have him doing so.

The Classical Elements: Progress 1

This is the first 5 seconds of my animation involving my matchstick characters on a date. I have no backgrounds/mis-en-scene as of yet as I am mainly focusing on the actions of my characters first, though I am thinking about the colour scheme that I want to use for my backgrounds as I find I am particularly interested in this element for this project. I opted to create my animation in Photoshop because it is my preferred medium and I would like to strengthen my skills so that I can have more confidence for future projects.

I am very happy with my male match stick character and his particular movements. I love his facial expressions and the flush on his face as he is caught staring at my match stick woman, however it is the female character who I am a little unsure of. After the match stick man holds his hand out as an offer to the matchstick woman, I feel her arm drops fine, but then swings like rope as if there isn't really any weight within the arm, but at the same time I quite like it, because matchsticks are light. I then got some feedback and found that my teacher didn't see the problem I had with the arm until I pointed it out. He said if I was that worried about it instead of her arm just dropping all the way, maybe I should have her dropping it slightly, to signal her caution and then keep her follow through movement to join hands with the match stick man. He said the problem isn't THAT bad, but if I want to I could change it, so it all depends on how picky I am being and if I manage my time well.

Overall I think the first 5 seconds, are quite nice, I have involved a great deal anticipation before the matchstick man even offers his arm and I have concentrated highly on the timing of each character, especially as they blink. What I found most challenging was the match stick woman's pigtails. They were really difficult to animate as I had to draw them in multiple perspectives to get them to look realistic, so I think this is the element I am most proud of, so far.

After Effects Induction: 2

In the second class of our introduction to After Effects, I feel like we learnt A LOT. It's not that the programme is particularly complex, only really if you make it that way, but there is just a lot that you can do with it, and it was a little overwhelming. I would say the aspects we covered mostly were, formatting and preparing assets.

To begin with, we looked at easing in and easing out, a principle I am familiar with after the pendulum task we did for our last module. That took me a few hours to grasp, but in this induction, it literally took me two seconds to achieve on this programme. It is so simple, because there are such simple options for 'Easy ease', 'Ease In' and 'Ease out', and the programme will do it for you. There is also a graph button which you can toggle so that you can see the properties of that ease in/ease out, and then go in yourself and alter the speed to your desire.

Then we went on to preparing assets in Photoshop/Illustrator to use in After Effects. We learnt you can save files as .Jpeg, .tiff, and .png (which is especially good for transparent backgrounds) in order for them to work. Once you have saved them you can import them in to After Effects and then drag them on to the timeline, and they will work as well as the solids we had been experimenting with before. Whilst we had a quick break, I had a play around with these layers and made a quick video of them, just for further practice.

After that, we were given more images, however with texture and dimension and were told to have a go at animating them. The images we were given were a lot brighter and flat, so once I had set the composition that I wanted I went in and adjusted the levels and the hue/saturation of the sky and the mountain. Since I liked the idea of making them look darker, I ended up conveniently finding the option for rain, and added that to the background of my animation, just to emphasise the dark setting. You could adjust the speed of the droplets and the direction they were going in and I thought this was very useful and could come in handy for the future. I also made the balloon less opaque, so that it would look more realistic and blend in a bit with the sky so it looks further away. Then I started animating. I find my priority lies with the aesthetic of the product before i animate it, because it is what the audience sees first and judges; by its appearance. 

We also learnt about keyframe interpolation, which if you use the 'convert vertex tool' and click on each keyframe, it will change the curve to a straight line which will be useful if you want a more sporadic type of movement. 

From this induction, I feel like I have actually considered using aspects of this programme in 'The Classical Elements' brief. Especially when it comes to my setting. I am focusing solely at animating my characters primarily, but I think once I start animating my background, this programme could perhaps be the perfect choice. Either way, so far After Effects is not for just editing clips, you can actually animate with it, which when I was working on the pixilation brief, I had no idea about.

Adobe Premiere Pro Induction

I really enjoyed the Premiere Induction as we were given a walkthrough of the programme, then a task to apply and time to have a play around on our own. I have used premiere before, not for animation but I had to create a 5 minute film for A Level film studies, so it wasn't as foreign to me. The only thing that was foreign was dabbling with audio, because I have edited live action footage, but only ever added a audio clips, not editing individual ones and changing the pitch/tone.

We were given a few pieces of footage and some audio and were told to use them and create a video illustrating that we could put them together and use some effects. This is what I came out with:

I really liked the fire clips as opposed to the space, time lapse ones, so I imported them to the programme and tried to create the effect of a zoom, but with a fade in and a fade out. I then reversed the clip, just to see what it would look like, and left it in because I thought it was effective. I also changed the saturation of the images in the last part of the video, just to see how it would apply as i've ever only turned video to black and white on this programme.

As for audio, I used the alarm type sounds, but changed the pitch and 'speed' of them. That is why some of them sound deeper and the last one has a longer duration, at least a little bit longer as the clips themselves are quite short anyway. Even though it wasn't much, it allowed me to experiment with the settings without too much pressure, and get familiar with the different areas of the programme.

I wish I could have dabbled with speeding up actual clips and slowing them down, because I think these would be very useful actions to apply in the future, but since you do it the same way as you would sound, at least I know how to go about it for next time! 

After Effects Induction: 1

Our first lesson in introducing us to After Effects consisted of me taking way too many notes after having a very bad experience with After Effects during the Pixilation study task. I obviously took notes of an extensive amount, but because they are this thorough, I feel like I have no excuse to get stuck again, because I literally have everything I could possibly need written down. 

In this induction we learnt how to choose the format and presets, which is basically the size and frame rate (25fps) for our work when we want to create an animation or edit one in After Effects. We also learnt how to re-edit those settings, and how to change the playback quality because in the end it will have no effect on the final result. 

We also went over layers and 'solids', which are just shapes filled in are are incredibly easy to work with. We were also given a bunch on shortcuts, like 'R' for 'rotation' and 'T' for 'Opacity', which come in extremely useful when tampering with the properties of a layer. We briefly went over keyframes, but they remind me similarly of 'Premiere Pro', so hopefully in the next induction I won't struggle with them too much!

In the end, instead of being thrown into this software, since we are slowly being introduced to it, I think it doesn't seem as intimidating as my first encounter with it and I could potentially be able to use it with ease after a bit more practice!

Video DSLR Induction

In our 'Video DSLR Induction' we went over the basics on how to use a DSLR to film. At first we were a little confused as to why we would need to film live action because that defeats the purpose of animation, however the principle of referencing came up as an ideal answer and therefore I thought this induction came in handy. Like the Photography induction, we were recommended to use the DSLR on manual mode and were given a bunch of 'base' settings to use which I took notes on as shown above. Some tips were given, like to format the card every time in case you run out of memory half way through and have to stop what you're doing and manually delete frames, and also check that you have all the kit in case you go on location and realise something valuable is missing and you can't start. 

Overall, I am glad I attended this induction, and I am also glad I have a few notes because there would be no way I would remember all the numbers and technicalities, because I have never used a DSLR to film, but for referencing, I now think I would like to have a go.

Visual Language: Sketchbook 2

This is my second update for the sketchbook we are encouraged to keep for Visual Language. I have found that I am managing my time quite well because I am up to date on all briefs, and I am able to get some extra drawing in, but not as much as the last update which for me is a little disappointing. I also find I am taking longer on my sketches because I like everything to look like it's finished which is a habit I have to get out of, if I want to do more sketches and be more time efficient.

One thing I have noticed with doing more and more drawing on a regular basis, something I am not used to doing, as I usually used to draw when I felt like it, is that I am starting to see things differently. If I take to something that I find would be good to draw, I look at it and instantly think about what medium i could use to draw it, and in what way. For example, I came across a cover of a magazine that I wanted to replicate in a drawing, but knew pencil wouldn't do it justice, so I went ahead and practiced my digital painting. I know digital painting takes forever, but I find I am drawing and drawing in pen and pencil more and more, that I am worried that I will become less sharp on my digital drawings so I went and had a practice with it and thought I would add it here as well, because I consider it as practicing my drawing skills as well.

In terms of in my actual sketchbook, I did my first architectural-type of drawing for that book, and really enjoyed it! It was interesting to draw part of a building and have to take in the natural light, artificial light, to reflective light.. there are many elements to consider, but I think this allows you to get more out of the drawing. I also attempted to draw something with no shading, just using pen and a few dots to indicate shadow, as a different style to experiment with, and I did like this result.

In conclusion, after forcing myself to draw in my spare time on a regular basis, I think I am improving a lot, and gaining more ideas that I would like to apply to my actual work. For example I am about to start another Visual Language brief where in which we are to draw 'places', and I am thinking of doing places which have interesting architecture and characteristics, because I think it would be great to capture the essence and history of a place but in an image.

Visual Language: Set, Series, Sequence - Feedback

After completing the visual language brief for 'Set, Series, Sequence', we then presented our work to the class and collected some feedback. Since we had to show physical copies of our work, I was a little nervous at how my work was being shown. I did most of my work in my sketchbook, but I am also working on another brief in that same sketchbook, so there were some little blips in terms of the fluidity of how people were seeing my work. I had previously scanned in all my work and organised it all and uploaded it to this blog, but I was unaware that we were presenting in this way so I was kind of dreading the feedback.

Nevertheless, I was pleasantly surprised. I got mostly positive comments, which has given me some confidence in my drawing. I also really enjoyed looking at everyone else's work and I found I was inspired by it also. For example I really want to play around with water colours a lot more because the end result that some of my peers came out with blew me away. I also got some organisation tips off other people, not even on purpose. I saw someone has cut their page in half, in order to have two drawings on one page but easily separate them, whilst also adding some character to the presentation. I really liked this aspect and I am thinking about playing around with it in preparation for next time. 

A lot of people complimented my post box with the line illustration, where I basically etched the whole thing, and I think I am going to apply this style to my next brief because I also really liked the outcome of it. The only downside to this is that it takes so long to do, but hopefully it would be worth it, especially since i am planning on drawing a lot of architectural type pieces.

Other people commented that they would have liked to see more colour in some of my drawings and some in my narrative. I saw this brief as an opportunity to explore a wide range of materials and see what my strengths and weaknesses are within them. Though I am nervous about adding colour to things as opposed to digitally, because I find I can work with that medium with much more confidence, however since I know colour can make such a big difference in aesthetics, then I think I will definitely try it out next time I do a storyboard, because I have yet to do that.

However I really appreciate all the comments I received on my work because it has motivated me to work even harder on the next visual language brief and it has influenced my direction to go in terms of styles, and it has also given me tips on how to improve which I am excited to work on!

The Classical Elements Research: 10) The Wanted Zin

                  

First things first, this is a commercial animation, i.e- an advertisement. Not only that, but it is an advertisement for red barbecue wine and there was no way I could see fire being animated in it when I first clicked on it, but I was pleasantly surprised. And also the whole colour palette for this piece is stunning, sets of soft yellows and deep oranges, very enticing.

There is not just fire animated in this advert, but also smoke, which also appears when there is a fire and is not an aspect I ever considered in researching this element, which I should have done because it is so obvious. And thinking about how it looks in this piece, I have an idea of how I could apply it to my own animation. Since it looks visually transparent here, then I think playing around with opacity setting in Photoshop if I do my animation digital, is definitely a way to go about it. 

I also like how there are bits coming off the fire, like little sparks or sparse flames. I think breaking up the fire would be a more time consuming process, but I also think it would look better, depending on how committed you are to spending time on it. I would say it gives a rather realistic perspective of fire as opposed to previous ones I have researched.

As far as setting goes, I think I have been influenced a great deal. I usually outline my animations in some sort of black line, relatively thin, sometimes thick, but there is none of this in this advertisement. And it is actually very appealing to me. It actually makes fading things into the distance appear more visually pleasing and just in general looks very well put together. I think I am definitely going to consider this once I start adding backgrounds and settings. 

The Classical Elements Research: 9) Keepers of the Flame

                 

'Keepers of the Flame' is a little short actually about a metaphorical flame as opposed to a literal/physical one, however there is a flame being animated in it. This little flame represents one in which we all have, and it is up to us whether it goes out or not. This is a sweet, motivational little short, but it is the physical animation of the flame which I am most interested in. 

The short starts off by having an opening title white displays the production company's name 'Fablevision':

This little opening title actually move/shakes which is something I am interested in applying to my opening and ending sequences. I think I could do this by writing the title of my animation once in whichever style I like and then making a new layer on Photoshop and altering it a little bit and then making a little animation out of it. And again, it is white on black which I also like.

The only way I can describe the flame in this animation is that it 'wiggles' or more so, 'sways'. I think I like the idea of having swaying flames instead of sporadic ones, at least after the flame has initially sparked. I think this video is also interesting because it looks as though it is done on brown paper, so as a whole, the visual style of the piece is quite vintage looking, as opposed to contemporary digital. In saying that, it makes the flame appear rather neutral. I like how it moves, but it doesn't look hot. Perhaps because it is supposed to me a metaphorical flame, and the character does hold the flame for the duration of the video, but still I love the concept and how it is applied.

There is no audio for me to analyse/take influence from, but again I think this just emphasises how well fire is effective without noise.

The Classical Elements Research: 8) Magic Matches

              

'Magic Matches' is a short animation and is actually stop motion, but incorporates the audio of matches being lit and extinguished really well. If a stop motion piece can make match stick audio work together really well then hopefully so can 2D animation. 

The clips of the actual matches are very short, but considering this is how they actually sound then it compliments the animation really well. The aspect I like about the audio in this video is that the sounds aren't harsh. I know when you light a match, it can be strikingly harsh and not a very nice sound to listen to, so I think going off this I would like my sounds to be more subtle that in real life. I could easily edit this whilst putting my audio together so I wouldn't have to worry about this too much, however I run the risk of the sound being too low, especially if I want to have other non-diegetic music in the background also. I think this would be something I would like to test, however after researching this and loving it's opening title also, it is definitely something to think about.

Also speaking of opening titles, I love the white on black combination, because it sets up this enigma on what the piece is going to be about. It gives nothing away, which I like as I initially after seeing this, did not know a stop motion animation would continue afterwards. Therefore I think this is a clever, little piece.

The Classical Elements Research: 7) Evil Eyes with Matches

                   

From start to finish I LOVED this animation. Mostly down to the zooming in and outs and how the matches sweep in and out and across the screen. There is so much movement, but I love it. Now for my animation I want it to start with a zoom in of a house, just like how this animation zooms in on the door, and in on the matches. It's a very slow zoom, but very effective and smooth. I know there are numerous types of zooms you can do and often a quick zoom is successful, but since I am animating frame by frame in Photoshop, i'm not sure I could do this without making it look jumpy, personally. Where as doing a slow zoom I feel would be more comfortable for me.

From this piece I have realised that there are so many takes on how to draw matchsticks and how to animate fire. I love how 'hand-made' and 'crafty' this piece feels, but i'm not sure I would draw mine in this way either, I like how they move towards each other and set each other on fire, so I may take influence from this, but I love how even contemporary animation still has the ability to feel hand made and innovative.

The Classical Elements Research: 6) Candle, Matches and Cup

               

Now this animation was very short and sweet and is very aesthetically different to what I had planned mine to look like, but again I feel influenced by the audio. however not in terms of fire this time.

As well as my characters being on fire, I was also considering having them make squealing or screeching noises, to emphasise their position, however I had no idea what way to take this approach. I didn't know if I wanted realistic people screaming or whether to record people screaming then adjust the pitch or the tone in order to portray an exaggerated response. I think this has been done in this video. The tone is definitely a lot higher than anyone I have heard and it is very effective. There also is no non-diegetic sound (a backing track), so the scream kind of comes out of no where and is rather alarming, which I like because it adds a shocks factor to the piece, a bit of suspense. 

I'm not sure I would draw my matchsticks in this way, especially as I have done extensive character design on them, but I do like the audio and I am definitely going to consider taking the same approach if I decide to have squealing match sticks.

The Classical Elements Research: 5) What Is A Flame

                

Despite the science lecture in this animation, and the poor protagonist being burned alive, this animation illustrates the exact colour palette I was going for with my animation. This has the perfect colour scheme I was picturing in my head. It is vibrant, and looks HOT. Which fire is, and since you can feel it by just looking at it on a screen, I want to make my fire look scorching, so that it it not just this thing moving.

Though the fire in this video is rather choppy and not fluid at all, it more red, vivid and blazing, and sounds like it too. The fire in this 'crackles', sounds more like it is burning something that just a candle being lit or an electric fire. And this is exactly what I want to achieve. I'm not sure how I will go about doing this though. I know i want to record matches being lit myself, as that is easily achievable, however I may or may not have to browse the internet for some audio, to have the true representation of fire crackling. I want everything to be crisp, from the colours to the audio, but this video has definitely given me a clearly vision.

The Classical Elements Research: 4) Alphabetical Echo

                 

I didn't have much luck 'googling' or 'youtubing' 'Intertitles', therefore I went and typed in 'indents' instead and had a much more successful turnout. And alright, this animation doesn't involve any of the classical elements, but it was something I came across when researching a different approach that I could perhaps take on my opening and closing titles.

I was so captivated by the fluidity of the transitions in each of the alphabet letters in this video that I literally watched the whole thing, from A-Z. I am not too keen on the colour scheme of this piece, but I love the typography and how the letters fly around the screen. If I have time I would love to do something similar, but obviously not to this degree. I am also not very sure how I would about creating it either, but again like 'Timber', this animation has sound in it, something I thought was a rare occurrence, but obviously not. How and ever, I am definitely keeping this video in my mind if I feel like changing my mind on my opening and closing titles.

The Classical Elements Research 3) Timber

                  

'Timber' is an animated short I viewed at BAF, and has already influenced me in my Process and Production brief. For one, I immediately had to look back at this animation, as I distinctly remember it's opening titles:

There is just something about the aesthetic of this opening sequence that I am captivated by. To anyone else it may just look like a bit of text but I love exaggerated and emphasised thick writing in a title, and therefore instantly loved this one. I also liked the snow falling in the background and the texture of wood in the name 'Timber', just to add extra emphasis. 

There is also audio in this sequence which is quite unusual. There is wind whistling so you already know the setting will be in winter, and as I have already tested out my inter titles, I am open to adding sound to them as another stretch as I didn't think about this. I may do this at the end though if I manage my time well, just because this may be a bit of extra work that is not entirely necessary. 

As for the actual contents of the animation, I noticed like the other two pieces I have researched, that the fire is once again not very realistic, but rather minimalistic. I don't know if this is a sign for me to also do it this way, but the more I am seeing it being displayed like this, the more I want to try it in this manner. The colour palette is very similar to that of 'Alight', though I think I would like to perhaps add more red.

Either way this animation has been very influential to me, and has actually been my first influential starting point.

The Classical Elements Research: 2) Playing With Fire

                 

This particular animation I stumbled upon when having a look on Vimeo has given me a good reference for what I want my fire to sound like when my matchsticks are on fire. The sound is very crisp, easily distinguishable as a flame alight, and perfect for having in the background if I want my characters to make noise as well.

This animation also involves a backing track as the fire is lit, and I surprisingly like this addition. I wasn't completely certain whether I wanted to even have a non-diegetic backing track but after seeing this video, I am not opposed to the idea at all.

Like in my previous post I explained I was hesitant in what way I wanted to illustrate my version of fire, because I am in between wanting it to look realistic or slightly like a cartoon. This animation illustrates their fire in a very basic way. But that is because the whole style of the animation is very minimalistic, therefore I am not sure if I would draw mine similarly, but I am keeping it up in the air as an option of influence.

Another aspect about the sound of fire that I never considered was that in this animation, the further away the character is with the fire, the quieter the sound becomes. This is something I am highly willing to consider, as this didn't even cross my mind. But I would like my animation to have dimension to its audio, therefore I am very glad I came across this so that I can incorporate it.

The Classical Elements Research: 1) Alight

Since for 'The Classical Elemental' brief, I am going to involve matchsticks going on fire, I wanted to firstly have a little look on the internet for animations that involve this element. At this point, I wasn't researching into specific details, such as matchsticks or fire being extinguished, etc, but just how fire moves and what it may sound like.

I came across this animation which I have seen before for some reason and I really liked it. I love the fluidity of the fire character, and how fast the flames are being emitted from the characters body. At around 1:28, the fire transforms into other patterns and shapes and I love the aesthetic of this. I am also hesitant in what way I should paint the style of my fire, and in this animation I think has given me some colour influence. 

There isn't any diegetic sound for fire in this animation, but it has shown me that fire itself is a strong element, and if it is illustrated right, then sound isn't really needed as a primary factor. Though I would love to have it in my animation as a personal preference.

The Classical Elements: 9) More Feedback

After being given more feedback from my teacher, I have finally narrowed my story down even further. We both agreed that there was a lot going on for just 20 seconds, especially since I added more fillers to emphasise the awkwardness with the two characters, but I was advised that it was not needed. Going off my storyboard and animatic, my animation can start with the matchstick man and woman stood beside the window as opposed to them starting off at the dinner table. But with a view from outside. Then the narrative can follow through true to the storyboard, and either end with the characters on fire with a bit of enigma as to how they get out of their predicament, or if I have time left out of the 20 seconds, end it with them blowing each other out with kisses.

We also discussed the audio I could involve. Since they are right by the window, I could introduce noise from outside, from cars and just people in general, but at a very low volume so it doesn't interject with the diegetic sounds from inside the house and between the two characters.

Overall I am very happy with the feedback I have got as it has it has given me a clearer mindset in what I will be animating as opposed to just a grey area.

The Classical Elements: 8) Intertitles

I am sure that I want to make my 20 second animation digitally, however I was uncertain as to what programme to make it on. I have previously done both hand drawn and digital, using Photoshop to make my past animations, therefore I thought I would have a dabble with Illustrator to make the outlines of my characters. I thought there was no point in starting the animation on that programme, if half way through I decide I don't like it or I am not happy with the appearance, so I decided to make my inter titles on there, as a test to see if I could work with the software, and like it.

These are the two pieces I ended up making and they didn't take up as much time as I thought they would. The main reason I wanted to try Illustrator, was due to the ability to draw freely using the brush tool, but then have it automatically smooth out, so there are no shaky, distorted lines. This came in quite useful when making my inter titles and I don't actually think they are that bad.

I then went and saved them as PDF's and imported them to photoshop so I could make them as gifs to put on my blog. As of now, I am unsure as to whether I will actually use them or not, but they do only play once instead of ongoing, so that if I do decide to use them I can just quickly import them into After Effects.