Wednesday, 14 January 2015

Visual Language Place 3 - Salford Quays

The last place I visited was Salford Quays. In college last year, we were given a project on this area and I found it really interesting so I went and had a look for myself. Immediately I was overwhelmed with the size of the buildings and how gorgeous they were. I know Salford has a bad reputation, so I couldn't see it looking so elite that this particular area - Salford Quays. I think the main aim of my drawing here is to encapsulate just how large and grande these buildings actually are.

Quick thumbnails for Salford

Then I went on to actually drawing them:

                                        

I started off with this statue outside of the Lowry Theatre which I thought would be great to draw via etching. I got such a good response from the Set, Series, Sequence brief when I used this technique but it takes so long to do as it is literally just a bunch of fine short lines. However I really like the outcome of the statue and it goes to show the longer and harder you work on something, the better it will be. I even feel like the drawing illustrated the material of the statue because it is so dark and has a lot of depth. So I really liked this piece.


I then went ahead and drew another building which I have no idea what is for. I don't actually think you can go inside this building however I wanted to emulate standing right in front of the centre of the building and looking up to the sky. I think I did this alright, as the building gets smaller the more you look up, but it may have been more interesting. This building really makes you feel extremely tiny, so I tried to capture this aspect in pencil form. There was literally nothing in the background of this building except the sky since I was looking up, however the sky was just clear grey so I couldn't even add texture to it, but I think it could have benefitted from something in the background nonetheless.


I then tried out making this apartment building look like it could actually be an architecture plan of some sort. I initially just drew the whole thing out in a very fine liner, but then thought it would look more effective with a thicker line around the outside. I've never done this before, so I could have potentially ruined the image and had to start again, but I think it looks fine. I like it a lot better than it just all being in fine liner, and I also like that there is no shadow this time, because there is enough line detail to compensate.



This building was particularly interesting to look at due to the windows all being different shadows of black/navy. I did these with pen, but then for the dark black areas used acrylic paint just to make it look extremely bold, because that what it was amongst the whole of the Quays. It stood out because it's colour was so do dark and fascinating. I've never seen a building like this one before so I had to draw it. I also drew this from far away which I wanted to try and replicate, hence why it looks so small, but the buildings beside it are slightly popping out.


Then finally, since the whole of the Quays buildings are rather dark and neutral, especially this area where MediaCity is and the BBC studios, I thought I would still draw the buildings as they look, however put an almost neon effect on them by using neon pencil crayons. I love how each building contrasts each other because in reality it is hard to differentiate which building is which and you really have to look at them because they are all made of glass. And they are all beautiful so I still used how they look for example the designs of the glass, however I just made them look extremely vibrant like the people who pass through them.

Overall, I really enjoyed this project though I had difficulty with some of the drawings. Sometimes they would go wrong and I would start again and it would then go wrong AGAIN, so I had to try a different building completely. Observational drawing is quite hard I have found but with practice gets a lot better. I think I have been able to use a mixture of colour and techniques as well as materials and styles. I also found that I have pushed myself out of my comfort zone, not only drawing sketches in public but also drawing in styles that I normally wouldn't gravitate to. I also haven't done observational drawing in such a long time, I am used to digital drawing, so I think this brief was well worth it.

Visual Language Place 2 - Hebden Bridge

The next place I visited was a place I have passed on the train so many times I couldn't even begin to count, but I have never actually stopped off and had a look around there. I really liked Hebden Bridge, and found it had a real archaic feel to it with all the little houses and villages, and interesting pop up shops. There was also a lot of greenery, but it was such a nice place to visit and I think would have been a lot nice if the sun was shining. I intended for my medium within this area, to be pen, pencil and watercolour, and I think I have a good selection of drawings that demonstrate this.



I again, did a few thumbnails, but there is one drawing I actually did while I was there, so I didn't plan it, and I still think it turned out nice which I was surprised about since I didn't plan on drawing anything on the spot!



Again, I started off with an illustration style that I am not the most confident in, because I really like how it can look, and it isn't that time consuming, plus it was the first place I went to and was able to draw it on the spot. This time however, unlike the other similar style drawing I did for The Trafford Centre, I went ahead and added some detail, because I thought it would just add to the image. And I think it did, if I hadn't have added that detail, I feel like I wouldn't have been able to capture the historical feel to the place, through the brick detailing and thatched houses, etc.


The next image I drew I think turned out really well and looks effective. I really wanted to use my coloured fine liners for one of the observational drawings, but I didn't anticipate to use just one in combination with coloured pencils. I started off drawing one of the windows in red fine liner, and then used a red crayon also to lightly shade the area and give it some depth. And I really like the result of this image. The door of the actual building which is named 'The Traders Club' is red, as well as the window curtains and the logo, so I thought why not just do the whole thing in red seen as how that is the most visible thing when you look at the building. This is perhaps one of my favourite pieces out of all them and I am glad I experimented with a technique I have never done before.


This next drawing I did as my friend and I took a shortcut to the actual town centre and bypassed a bunch of shacks and houses. This is something I have seen passing on the train so I really wanted a closer look and to draw it. Again I opted for pen, but with even MORE detail, and I found this was one of the best line drawing from this study task that I came out with. This particular shack was surrounded by trees and grass, so was pretty much desolated, therefore was really interesting to draw. I partially made up some of the detailing to make it look more simplistic, and also more like an illustration. But more so, because I didn't take a picture and my thumbnail didn't have detail except for a few notes.

                                     

After those drawings, they didn't take me very long, but I did have a few trial and errors where I had to throw some out and start again. So i was getting quite frustrated with just pen and pencil crayon. Although the end results are really satisfying, it was taking me a few trials to get them. The red 'Traders Club' building was an exception though. Therefore I went and had ago with drawing on the towns building which you see when you walk straight down the centre, and then shading it will watercolour. I found with the particular paper I was using, didn't take well to watercolours very well, but I didn't have any specific paper for that so I didn't go crazy with the watercolours, I did it quite slowly. I think the bricks took me the longest time because I wanted to get them as symmetrical and organised as I possibly could, and in the end I do like them. I feel like I shouldn't have used pen for the window panes and ledges because they stand out way too much from the rest, but other than that I think it looks okay.


And then finally I returned back to colour because playing around with colours are one of my favourite things to do. I took a really quaint shop that I saw and ended up drawing that, from no specific angle, just head on and I came out with this. The shop is originally a mint green colour, but I don't have that shade and I didn't want to mix green and blue because I knew I wanted the blue for my windows so I stuck with green but followed the shadows and ended up with this. I love the green and blue bits of the piece, but it isn't the most exciting area of Hebden Bridge.

Overall I feel like I looked at lots of different areas of Hebden Bridge, from fancy places to not so fancy places, and I experimented once again with different mediums. I also switched from horizontal to portrait quite a lot during this area, and I am leaning towards landscape a lot more, which is helping me think cinematically. 

Visual Language Place 1- The Trafford Centre

For the 'Environmental Storytelling' brief, we were to choose 3 places, 1 familiar and 2 new, in which we were to draw the inside or the outside, taking into consideration the colour, tone, architecture, and mood of the places and then draw at least 5 images for them trying to illustrate all of these elements. I chose to start off with my familiar place to gently jump into this brief, and I chose one of my favourite places; The Trafford Centre. 

I feel that The Trafford Centre embodies a place where anyone of any age can visit and still find something that entices them, whether it be clothes, food or appreciating the interior of the place. Personally, I think The Trafford Centre is one of the best shopping malls in the UK, due to its elegant and antique architecture. Literally, ALL the floors are marble, and everything is for lack of a better word 'shiny' and attractive. I also find that The Trafford Centre is a really colourful place, from the contents of the shops, to the actual fashions of the people that go there. Everywhere you look there is something interesting going on.

I started off with just doing really quick sketches in thumbnails when I was at the Trafford Centre, and I did them really quickly because it was extremely packed due to it being just after Christmas. I also wanted to thumbnail so I could decide which would be better, portrait or landscape and to see how I use choose the composition of my drawings.


Quick thumbnails

I then went back and did larger drawings using my notes to try and capture the essence of the place and also experiment with different styles and materials.


I first started off with drawing the outside of the building, and one aspect of the entire building that I really liked was one of the roofs that was transparent, like a Skylight. I think the ceilings in The Trafford Centre really make the atmosphere of the place. Since they are all Skylights, either the sun shines really bright in lighting up the place, or if you're shopping at night and there is a lot of low lighting, the area just feels really atmospheric, and a really nice place to be. Therefore I didn't want to just use pen or pencil to illustrate this area of The Trafford Centre, I wanted to use colour, but be able to show the transparency of the roof. I loved playing around with the shadows and the depth of the colours in order to make the drawing vibrant. I think I got the vibrancy but down to encapsulate this aspect of the place in general.

                                        

I then drew the building from the side as I was entering and noticed just how big the place really is. When stood beside it from the outside, you really feel quite small and feel the opposite of vertigo. I thought this was going to be really tricky to draw, so I stuck to pencil so that i could focus on depth and perspective which was easy to rub out when I made mistake seen as how perspective is quite hard for me to perfect. I think I got again, the depth bit down and hopefully embodied the how big of the surface area, the place is.


I then decided to draw from inside the building, even though the outside is much more interesting, the other places I had on my list to visit for the rest of the brief, were mainly outdoors based, so I really needed to draw some pieces from indoors. I have seen many drawings/illustrations just done in pen and fine liner and I really liked the end result. Therefore I thought I would try it out here. Again, The Trafford Centre has brilliant architecture, it is constructed at so many different angles which were really hard to draw, so for me this was a challenge, especially since I didn't want to have any pencil or etching to shade as this wasn't the look I was going for. I think this piece went okay, but it was really interesting to draw from a perspective that I wouldn't usually take and force myself to use only a certain medium and go outside of my comfort zone.


I then went back to colour, because when I entered this dressing room, it was SO vibrant and colourful, I didn't think watercolour would even capture it, so I chose pencil crayons again. I love how the pink contrasts with the brown and I feel like the image kind of makes you feel like you are in the centre of the room, and everything is completely surrounding you, which I really like. I also love the vibrancy of this piece and to improve I feel like I should have added more detail to make the room look a bit more interesting than it actually is.



I lastly did one last drawing in digital because I felt like I experimented with quite a few mediums here, but I wanted to try and see how a line drawing could work here also. I really like the way it turned out however I don't feel like it captures any essence of The Trafford Centre, and therefore I think I will stay away from this style for my other places. It looks really clean cut and sharp, but it doesn't capture the vibrancy of how I think this area really is, which I think colour does really well.



Environmental Storytelling - Place 3

Salford Quays

The last place I want to visit for this brief is Salford, The Quays. I really want to visit here because it is a place with such gorgeous buildings, and also holds a lot of important offices. For example, the BBC studios are here, as well as the Coronation Street Studios and that of 'The Voice'. Therefore I think it would be a really interesting experience to go here and see the buildings where television is so highly involved. 

I am anticipating a lot of high rise buildings that would be really good to draw from a low angle perspective. And this really interests me because I hope it will strengthen my use of mis-en-scene and staging for the future. From the research I have done, I really liked the idea of architecture type drawings, and since the focus of this area is buildings and offices, I am really excited to do a bunch of these drawings. 

Thus I think pen and etching would be my preferred medium for this area which I am really happy about. I used to think pencil was my favourite medium, but until I got such good feedback from all my pen drawings it has given me more confidence to do more of them and become stronger with it. I also obviously want some colour in there, so maybe some neon coloured pencils would be nice to contrast the dark shadows of the high rise offices.

I am hoping to both take pictures and do some sketches. I am unsure as to whether The Quays is a busy place or not though I would assume so since many things are filmed there, how and ever, I hope to do as many sketches as possible.

Texture is something interesting I am going to look out for, because I think a lot of the buildings have a lot of glass in them. And the National War Museum also has a unique texture, so once I am there I think it would be really good to take note of that, and see how i could convey that through a drawing.

Environmental Storytelling - Place 2

Hebden Bridge

The next place I thought about drawing was Hebden Bridge. I have passed this place so many times on the train but have never actually stopped off at it. From passing on the train I noticed that the area is very green, and has a lot of old buildings, which I thought would be quite exciting to capture. The area is also very hilly, therefore I think it would be exciting to look at perspective, and the different angles of the different locations. I also chose to have Hebden Bridge as one of my places to visit because I have been recommended to go there a few times for a nice day out. These recommendations were given to me in the summer however, but hopefully it doesn't change the atmosphere of the place, being in winter.

I am mainly interested in the actual bridge area and the centre where there are lots of nice, little, pop up shops. Hopefully when I go to Hebden Bridge, I will be able to draw SOME of the drawings on the spot, and also thumbnail and take pictures. I intend to make notes to try and capture the feel of the town, but I expect it to be quite quaint and a rather quiet place. This then, is the complete opposite of my first are; The Trafford Centre, which I think is an interesting turnout. 

Since the area is archaic, i'm not sure what materials I will be using specifically. I hope to have some colour, even though when passing on the train, the area just has a palette of neutral colours. I think watercolour then would be a good option to go for, as well as pencil and also fine liner, since I got such good feedback using this medium in the last study task. Since there are a lot of trees, I think shadows will also be exciting to take into consideration, and shading. I hope to draw portrait and landscape depending on the composition and what works best at the time.

Environmental Storytelling - Place 1

The Trafford Centre


The first place I had in mind to visit is the Trafford Centre, mainly because it is a familiar place that I have been to before that has really stunning architecture both inside and out. And it is a place where I always end up having a good time at, so therefore brings back lots of good memories. What interests me about the building is the construction of the inside of The Trafford Centre, which is all marble. There are lots of pillars, and archaic looking statues and fountains and I hope to roughly thumbnail these out while I am there as opposed to drawing them on the spot. This is because The Trafford Centre is an EXTREMELY busy place and the experience of going there during the Christmas time, although is very atmospheric, is also at the same time, very intense. So I would probably find it difficult to just stand and draw whilst knowing I would be in everyone's way.

In terms of the media that I am going to use, I hope to have a large variety. I think that The Trafford Centre is a very lively place and therefore I hope to incorporate lots of colour, but I also hope to incorporate an architecture-like style, which is quick to do and also looks quite effective. I just generally hope to capture the essence of the place because it is really grande and a really memorable place, so I hope I don't disappoint.

Also, everything in The Trafford Centre is circular. From the convex ceiling to the patterns on the floor, everything is smooth and round. This could be an interesting element to incorporate in a storytelling narrative, but also would be good as a mis-en-scene aspect. 

Monday, 12 January 2015

The Classical Elements: The Kineograph

A Kineograph is also more commonly known as a 'Flipbook, and first appeared in 1868. The term 'Kineograph' itself, means 'moving picture' and it essentially a book that follows a sequence of images that when 'flipped' forms the illusion of movement. The Flipbook is also considered one of the first forms of animation, but it differs from say, phenakistoscope because the flipbook is a linear sequence of images, as opposed to a circular one.


Even today, Flip books are still used quite frequently, however more often than not, on the internet and social media like 'Youtube'. The access to the internet, allows these forms of animation to become viral, and opens a door for people to promote their art work and exhibit different forms of it. Flip books are more of a physical form of animation, so websites like 'Youtube' make it much easier for people to continue using this art so that it doesn't go extinct. You can't go to the cinema to watch a piece of animation from a flip book, so it is much harder for people to access.

Flip books are also a real hand crafted type of animation. They are often created with pens, coloured pencils to different types of paper. It is a really intricate form of animation, but there are people who extend further on this, and digitally make flip books and get them printed. This illustrates how the Kineograph is embracing new technology as well as keeping its novelty. It also creates  new market, so they can be mass produced instead onfdoing them individually and being extremely time consuming.

               

Sunday, 11 January 2015

The Classical Elements: Evaluation

‘The Classical Elements’ brief for me was very challenging, mainly because it is the first animated project that I have done start to finish. This includes the whole aspect of research, concept art, brainstorming, to then actual running tests, animating everything and then editing and putting everything together. I didn’t realise just how much thought and hard work you have to put into an animation to get it the way you want it to.

I came across many errors and problems when creating my 20 second piece, some were creative errors and other were technical. I love focussing on the overall look of my work and I found choosing colour palettes for a whole setting was very enjoyable but then when it came to adding my element, fire, I found the initial colours I wanted blended in too much with the fire and therefore you couldn’t distinguish what was happening, which was a major issue seen as though this was my actual plot. I then had to change the setting of my background in order for the fire to be apparent and in the end I was happy with the colour scheme.

I also ran into a massive problem when trying to convert my animation into a .mov file. Though in the end it was a simple process, it took many tries from downloading video conversion apps to experimenting with Quicktime, I just simply used image sequences instead to import into Adobe Premiere. I’m not the most confident when it comes to the technical aspect of editing, but after sticking by it and finding a resolution myself, I feel like I have much more confidence when it comes to understanding file formats and how to import footage. 

Something I found tedious but I did actually enjoy was adding sound. What was tedious for me was sitting through numerous songs to try and find the right one that would fit the atmosphere of my animation. I found it difficult to even find certain sounds that I wanted in my animation because of copyright, but in the end it was fun looking for them and adding them into Premiere. I thought this was the easiest bit to work with out of the whole project because I have used Premiere before, and therefore felt less pressure to get it done.

What was most useful for me however, was all the feedback I received. From the first interim crit that we had, the final crit, and to just in general asking for advice from my teacher and peers. Sometimes when you look at something for so long you miss certain errors and flaws or those flaws you become too concentrated on, so I found constant feedback was mandatory for me and helped me get my animation done.

Overall I feel really proud of what I achieved. I feel like I did everything myself and came up with my longest piece of animation so far and added sound to it. It took me a long time to do and it was hard but I also really enjoyed it and I am proud of all the solutions I came up with to all the errors I encountered myself.

The Classical Elements: Making Sound Adjustments



In response to the feedback I got, I couldn't stop noticing the awful scream that I added to my animation (As shown above). It was way too high-pitched, extremely loud and just overall, really hurtful to the ears. The reason why it was so awful, was because the scream I chose, was genuinely too short for the match stick woman's response, so I slowed it down and added grain to it, which in the end just made it worse. The only thing that worked was that it lasted the duration I wanted it to last. Therefore I went on the hunt for another scream. 

I ended up with this one, and slowed it down a fraction of what it was, and it is barely noticeable. I also faded it in and out, and kept it in the same place on the time line as the other audio because from feedback from the final crit, my peers told me they preferred it with a little delay. And this is my final animation with the final audio result! 


Wednesday, 7 January 2015

The Classical Elements: Final Crit

During our final crit we presented our final animations/where we had got up to, a week before the actual deadline. I thought this was a good chance to see other people's work and art style in general, and how they interpreted the brief independently.

I found I got a lot of feedback for my animation and a lot of it was actually positive. My primary concern was to do with the aesthetic and the colour of my animation, and this seemed to be the element people were most pleased about which I was really grateful for. It took me a while to get the colour combinations right, but I think it was worth the trial and error because the feedback I received was positive.

I was also really surprised at the response to the first playback of the animation. I didn't have any intention to make it 'comical', but during the scream part of the sequence, I noticed people thought it was funny, and I was also pretty pleased with this response as well. I didn't think I was able to provoke any reaction from my element, but I am very happy I did.

Some constructive criticism I received, was to have the scream of my match stick woman not so loud and high pitched, because it was very intense. I did notice this myself, but didn't know if it was just my headphones or not, so that is something I definitely plan to change. Also someone suggested if I was to be picky to perhaps enlarge the match stick woman's eyes when she is on fire, just for a bit more exaggeration. I was going to do this instantly, but then noticed when you scream in person, usually your eyes are shut, and so I wanted to keep my animation as realistic as possible and decided against this.

I also brought up the question whether I should bring in the scream a bit sooner as it seems a bit delayed to me, but I found that no one really noticed this aspect and they thought the timing was fine. If you think about when someone actually screams, they don't do it right away, there is an actual delay, so once someone told me that, I thought that I was just being too picky here as well.

Overall I feel like I got a lot from this crit, and also come confidence. I think I am being able to explore colour more strongly and also learning how to combine sound to make an equally effective animation.

Monday, 5 January 2015

The Classical Elements: Intro Before the Intro



Since I had time to tweak parts of my animation before the final crit, I thought I would play around with the setting I drew to see if I could add a small piece to introduce my animation. It was already pre-coloured and shaded, so I could instantly re-open it and see where it would take me. 

I initially thought it would be a good idea to use this setting for a more fancier opening title, having the words 'Match Maker' on the roof of the house in the same style as the inter titles I made in the beginning before I actually started my animation. But once I placed them on the piece, due to the colour and the font, it ended up looking like 'Watch Waker', so inevitably, it would not work.


I still had time to try something else, so I thought I would place my match stick characters in the window of the house, like I had originally planned, but lower the opacity to half way so it would look more realistic. I then animated them so the match stick woman turns towards the matchstick man, and then the camera zooms in, introducing the audience to the pair, without being too invasive and going straight into the dining room.


Though I do like the end result, I feel like it is unnecessary. I played around with this piece because I didn't want to leave out something I spent a good amount of time on, however I felt like it wasn't really needed and detracts from the actual storyline of the sequence. Not only that, but I had the music for my animation in perfect timing and with this added in the beginning, alters every beat I had in time with certain movements, so I thought it was best off to just simply leave this bit out.

The Classical Elements: Adding Sound

This is my final product with sound:



Adding sound was actually one of the bits I liked most about this project. It was definitely challenging trying to find the sound for my piece, but when I did and I started to see my animation come to life I was really pleased. 

First off, I wanted a backing track throughout my whole piece in which I could fade in and fade out in various places, depending on if I needed to or not. I immediately thought of 'Soundcloud', but I coincidentally came across the youtube audio library where there is literally a bank of music and sound effects which you can use for free:


I ended up choosing one named 'Dog Walk', however despite its name I think worked well to introduce and end my animation. I then thought that it seemed that something was missing with just this backing track. Even though I knew I was adding sound effects, I felt like it didn't have enough ambience or just in general I wasn't happy with it. So instead whilst I had been browsing fire crackling noises, picked one which lasted quite long so that I could have it on as well as the back track, but quieten it down so that it isn't overpowering. I think this worked alright.

Then I wanted to focus on the sound effects. I needed to find a gasp, but after much searching I felt like they were all too dramatic and were not what I was looking for. So I actually found a clip from 'Coraline' on youtube and took a gasp she makes for my match stick woman. I then needed a scream, which was easy enough to find but none of them lasted as long as 2-3 seconds which is how long my match stick character screams for. So what I did was I took a really high pitched scream that I thought would suit the animation, then I slowed the speed so that it would last longer, and then also in Premiere I added a grain so that the pitch would be higher because when you slow audio down the pitch gets lower. Her scream sounded more natural and therefore I left it at that.

Lastly I needed the perfect matchstick ignition for when my matchstick characters kiss. I searched everywhere for one and couldn't find the right one. I even recording my own but when I did I could catch the cripsiness of the crackle for when the match sticks initially set alight. I ended up coming across on youtube a community called 'ASMR' where they use extremely high tech microphones to record sounds. One youtuber did a video on fire and ice, and the sound was perfect so I did a youtube to mp3 conversion and used that.

Since I probably won't be uploading my video to youtube I think I do alright for using my audio for educational purposes, where as if I were to upload it, I would definitely ask the youtubers permission to use their work. Overall I think my audio is alright and is synchronised enough to match the images.

The Classical Elements: Putting Everything Together

Since I don't have the Photoshop timeline option on my version of Photoshop, I had to create my whole 20 seconds through the other animation option on Photoshop, through layers and then converting them into a gif. Though this was a lengthy process, I was able to craft up my own onion skinning by changing the opacity of different layers to see where my characters were going next and it meant I could work on different scenes individually. What became such a complex however, was then having all these .gif files and needing to convert them into .mov files so that I could import them into premiere and then add sound. I googled for hours searching all the different ways to go about this, and absolutely nothing was working and I was at my wits end.

I started off with coming across an apple forum who offered that the Quicktime app has the ability to convert .gifs into .mov files, if your software on your macbook is up to date. Mine was not and therefore wouldn't even let me preview my .gif files in Quicktime. So that didn't work.

I then thought maybe I could download an app from the app store, as an external software which could covert the files for me, really quickly. I came across one that looked like this and tried it out:

                 

This app allowed me to input my .gif files, and turn them into a .mov, but the video it outputted ended up being a black screen for the duration of the 3 seconds, so that didn't work. I then tried a different output format, .mp4, and that DID work, but it compressed the file so much that it was resized terribly and also very blurred:



                             


At this point I was starting to get worried because I thought that I would be able to convert these files with ease. I then however, remembered that you could import image sequences into Premiere, and though it seemed so far fetched to turn my .gifs into image sequences, I had no other ideas on how else to make my animation and went for it.

Since Macbooks have this 'Preview' app, which when you open a .gif file through it shows all the frames within that .gif, I had the ability to copy all those frames into a new folder, and I did this for all 8 .gifs that I had created. Once i had 8 seperate folders, within them I remembered I had to rename them all 001 to 030, in order for them to be recognised as an image sequence in Adobe Premiere. At this stage I was really hoping they would work, so I went straight into Premiere and had a go at importing.

Once I imported the first image sequence, I dragged it over to the time line and was extremely worried when it played back rather fast. I had no idea how to change the frame rate on this programme as I have only ever edited live footage on it, however after a quick search on google and interpreting footage, I easily changed the frame rate to 12fps, did this for the other 7 sequences, and came out with a 20 second animation. Here it is as of yet, there is no sound but I am very relieved to have a .mov file after a whole day of trying out different options and having none of them work! 


Sunday, 4 January 2015

Understanding: Gender in Animation

Gender in animation is very contraversial, in two ways. In the technical sense and in the actual aesthetic sense in how they are portrayed. In the technical aspect, it is said that there are less female animators than men, and when researching into it, I came across this:

        

When I first read it, I was actually kind of upset, because it comes from Walt Disney, the Walt Disney who made animation so popular. But at the same time you have to remember he is just one person and therefore it is just one persons opinion and there are many female animators who are becoming extremely successful, so it is really relevant for this day and age.

But it isn't just this technical sense where women are inferior. It is also in gender roles. Now I will admit that gender roles are changing, and even in some cases men are being exploited, however over the years it is women who have been the sidekick or the 'damsel in distress' which has been extremely visible in animation. In fact, it is what they are known for.

Take Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs for example:

                                 


She is the ultimate damsel in distress, and can only be saved by Prince Charming. Plus her only redeeming quality is in her name, 'beauty'. This then makes people think about objectification and only seeing women face on, which is a highly touchy subject in feminist movements. But you also have to remember the time in which this film was produced, the late 1920's. If there are only female movements being taken seriously now, in 2014... then you can imagine that it was the norm to be portrayed this way almost 100 years ago. But it is rather helpful that there are films such as this where we can take a step back and notice these changes and notice how female roles have changed. 


Looking at another Disney film, Brave:

             

In 'Brave', there is no prince charming that she wants to save her. In fact she gets a choice out of three suitors and she doesn't even want one of them. Merida is also not Disney's conventional princess. Though she is of high social status, as she is actually a princess, she is a tom boy and likes to shoot arrows. She has character and personality and is really easy to connect with. I think she is a great role model for little girls, and sends out the right message to them. And it shows how Disney have gone from 'damsel in distress' to 'hero of her own film'...  even though it took about 100 years, literally.

Overall, I think gender roles are very important in contemporary and historical animation because they are literally the focus of the animations. They are what the plot centres around and dictate whether or not the audience should align with them. I think gender roles have changed quite a bit and this is a great thing, and hopefully will effect young girls in a more positive way instead of their life goal being to find 'Prince Charming'. If anything, this is the best thing that could have evolutionised in animation, and I hope it only continues to do so.

Understanding: The Introduction of Sound

Sound can be considered what 'makes' a film, not just an animated film but films in general. If you mute a film when you're watching it, you either become disinterested or completely confused. Storylines have become to such complexity that sometimes sound can help foreshadow a key moment in the film, or help aid the audience. Sounds are not just ambiences, they are voices of the characters, diegetic sounds, music, sound effects, it is such a broad topic and is this way because of how much there is to consider.

There seems to be this jump from the silent era to the golden age but this is not the case. The silent era was not so silent, as usually inter titles were accompanied by some sort of music, whether it be instrumental or what, it was often there, take Charlie Chaplin's movies for example. And before there was the complexity of sound in films today, there were 'talkies'. This was where producers recorded people talking, but struggled with matching the voices to the images on screen. It is not like today where you can go into an editing software and match each audio clip to a time frame, as there was no such thing as this technology back then. 


Steamboat Willie (1928, Walt Disney), was the first animated piece to have actual sound, not just accompanying music. This involves more diegetic sound than voices, such as Minnie's heels, the sound of the steamboat, etc. There are also lots of sound effects that aren't realistic but for it's time this was a major stepping stone! Especially for the animation world. The sound and the image were played together, not on separate devices, which was a first.


'Peludopolis' (1931, Quirino Cristiani) was the first animated feature length film to use synchronised sound. This was a few years on from Steamboat Willie and is actually a Spanish film. This goes to show that Western animation was not that far ahead from the rest of the world, and in fact animation was popular everywhere. Unfortunately this film is lost and can no longer be seen, but it's acknowledgements and documentation allow academics to see how sound in animation progressed.

After these sound became more and more common and many companies started to involve it in their animations. It progressed and progressed until today where surround sound is an ultimate demand and there isn't really a future for animation without it. I personally think sound makes a film, and it sub-consciously forces you to align with certain characters and connect with them, and I think it such an important element to the success of a film.

Understanding: Animation and Politics

Political animation is very well not a new concept, nor is it the most welcomed concept in film either. Political campaigning can be considered dangerous as the audience of it is most likely going to have a large fraction of children who cannot be stopped in watching these films. This is mainly down to the freedom of the internet. For animation culture, the internet has let to the possibility for any animation with any political message to be shared, watched and go viral, and it is dangerous because these political messages are not always good.

There is a branch of political messages that can be considered dangerous and this can range from, propaganda, to war, sexism, environmentalism to even socialism. The list goes on and it is a sensitive subject for many people and some are more reactive to it than others.

I think a very memorable political time for animation culture, was during World War II, when Disney had to consecutively produce propaganda films for the public, making Germany look very, very bad. I remember being shown one of these films quite a few years ago in my History class in high school and couldn't believe Disney were even capable of making such films.


                    

This is the exact one which I had seen and even I knew it was propaganda before I even learnt what propaganda really meant. 'Der Fuehrer's Face' involves Disney's famous Donald Duck being recruited to be a soldier for Hitler and following his rules. The whole piece depicts Hitler as the enemy, something America was desperate to get across. Donald Duck has to hide his possessions, be forced out of bed, eat nothing but bread and water and march all day as his job. Though Hitler really was a bad person, this animation by Disney just goes to show how much they can actually enforce on to children, how far they can go to get their political campaigns across. This is the dangerous element, because children are in no place to have such strict independent views at their age.


                     

On the other hand however, America weren't the only ones producing animated propaganda. Taking Japan for example, they went to the extent of making animated full feature length films, some going up to 70 minutes long! They also made short films involving an evil Mickey Mouse who attacked Japan and took everything they had. Though this wasn't WWII, it was actually for WWI, perhaps this is where Disney got their influence from, either way at the time Mickey Mouse was the 'it' animated character, so for children to see these films obviously turned them off Disney and the USA.

In conclusion these are just two incidents that display propaganda, but display it in the sense of how influential it was and how dangerous it was. The messages were far from subliminal because they knew what they were doing, and are extremely immoral. And I don't think Disney would be caught dead creating something like this, today! 

Understanding: Where Animation Was Being Distributed

I have taken an interest in the distribution of animation ever since I did my Extended Project in it, but what has not changed is that here is little focussed solely on where animation was distributed in comparison to who distributes it, however after much note taking, it has become clear to see how it has evolutionised throughout the years.

The first recording of animation being shown to the public, started from Charles-Emile Reynaud's Theatre Optique where he presented his animations through a projector but through a Praxinoscope. There was live music played in the background behind a white screen but this was the very early days of animation being presented for money.

It then seems as you get into the 1900's that many different small theatres emerged. This was still during the silent era however, and most of them resided in Paris because that seemed to be where most of the famous animators of that time came from. The type of animation being presented were only animated shorts, at most 15 minutes long because this had just been the extent of animation for this time.

Then there seems to be this jump from small theatres to screenings where animations were actually recorded on a device and projected onto a screen. Disney for example was very famous for this and did particular screenings for his Mickey Mouse shorts. This wasn't until the Golden Age did he see potential in a full feature length animated film to compete with live action, did the time frame go from 15 minutes to a full 60.

After the Golden Age became a phenomenon in Television. Thus, rose the invention of cartoons and cinemas were long forgotten about. Of course shorts were still shown at theatres however it was all about the television at this point. Shows like 'The Flintstones' and 'Scooby Doo' were amongst some of the popular. Though the cinema became more popular again, still today cartoons are very consistent within the television industry. Look at 'The Simpsons' and 'Southpark', they still have a large fanbase and are shown very frequently.

During the Television Era, the internet was created however it was not as much of a sensation in comparison today. Around the 1990's, Apple came up with a way for creating 3D animated films, thus 'Toy Story' was released and feature length animation was back up and in full swing.

As of in the moment, animation is distributed in several ways and is popular in every aspect. Obviously cinema is number one in terms of where animated films are primarily distributed, but Netflix is an up and coming medium that distributes also. The internet is also extremely popular, mainly because it is free and also because it is the most accessible. Finally museums come under the list and since there has been this history of animation built up, opens this door to show animation and all the different types, because of how it has evolutionised.

Understanding: Early Practitioners 2

James Stuart Blackton


James Blackton is another practitioner who is considered to have made one of the very first iconic animations. His 'Humorous Phases of Funny Faces' involves drawing on a blackboard and then moving parts of the faces/bodies via stop motion animation. I wanted to include Blackton in my 'Understanding' posts because a lot of early practitioners use complex devices and mechanisms, but Blackton uses stop motion and this is a technique I am particularly interested in and I find it fascinating to observe where it derived from. Also in this particular video, he uses stop motion through drawing small parts of a face until it results into a whole face and a whole person and then starts to move it and I think as well as his brilliant aesthetic illustrations, if the frame rate was speeded up, could still be used in animated shorts today. 

I also like how he has used chalk and blackboard. He could have easily used plain pencil and paper but he enforces the ability to manipulate and take away shapes and lines in order to create this short piece and since this was created in 1906, I think this was well ahead of its time. 

Blackton created other pieces of work that are live action which shows that he had a keen interest in the film industry and had an eye for other areas in the field as well. But to me, after seeing one of the first stop motion animation pieces, I appreciate how this area of animation has developed and evolutionised since, but it is nice to see the very beginnings! 

Undestanding: Early Practitioners

Emile Reynaud:



Charles-Emile Reynaud was responsible for the first projection of animation. He took the invention of the zoetrope which is a device that involves several frames of an animation and is spun to create the illusion of movement. 

Praxinoscope


What Emile Reynaid did, was take this device, and put his frames on black card so that he could replace it with any background/setting he wished. This was then a new device in which he called the 'Praxinoscope'. Along with this he advanced this device so that up to a duration of 15 minute films could be produced and projected on to a screen to an audience. He then opened his own theatre and for 10 years projected his animations to audiences that he had created. This was if not, THE first animation to be projected to the public. Though he died penniless, he is recognised greatly by scholars and students who study animation and is acknowledges as a great inventor who opened up a door to animation.

What I like about his animations is that they have no dialogue but you can easily distinguish what is occurring for the duration of the animation. When he projected his animation in his own theatre he would hire musicians to play live music behind the curtains and the screen so that the audience would be able to listen to some sort of soundtrack as the animation played. Since the animations were quite short, this was ideal but still allowed an atmosphere to be created. For his pieces being the very first to be shown to the public, they aren't as 'choppy' as you would have imagined, they are actually quite smooth, and this is perhaps due to the speed of the praxinoscope. The bigger the device, the longer the animation usually was, but for early stages of animation, I think this is a very impressive practitioner.