My very interesting room.

For my final location I decided to go for somewhere a bit more personal, and where is more personal than your own bedroom? Again I timed myself of these and only spent a few minuets on each but used a mixture of pencil and fine liner. To be honest these drawings aren't my favourite but I think I have shown in some way, that this is a personal place for me and it is my space.

Walking through a forest..

During the christmas break, one of my friends dragged me out for a walk in the snow in order to cure out hangovers.. it proved to be a very productive day! We went to Delamere Forest which is a local public forest near us and its pretty huge. I used this day to create another 5 drawings because the lighting looked really effective especially at the time of day we went! I did the rough drawings with pencil whilst I was there but the added other medias such as paint and fine liner once I was home.

I decided to use a bigger range of media this tie side the drawings before were done with just pencil. Whilst we were there one of the things I noticed a lot was the fact that although it was a cold day the sun was really strong and played a big part in the areas which I drew which is why I have tried to show the sun coming through the trees in some of the drawings. I found it really interesting to look at the trees up close which is why I have done some quite "swirly" interpretations of the tree trunks. 

Restaurant time!

Over the Christmas break I had to create 15 drawings, 5 of each being from a different location. I wanted the first 2 locations to be somewhere completely new to me, I wasn't so worried about the 3rd.  The first location I decided to get some drawings in when I was out having dinner with some friends at a new restaurant. These drawings are all quite quickly done because I didn't spend longer than a few minuets on them, I kept these five pretty simple with just pencil.

Even though I didn't incorporate colour into these, I did consider the aspects of the surrounding environments that are not noticeable through just these drawings alone. For example, with it being a restaurant there was a lot of deep reds, browns and purples around (apparently these rich colours have proven to make people more hungry..) 

The other obvious thing I noticed about the environment was that it smelt AMAZING. Food is the best. It was a fairly relaxing environment, I could hear the clattering from the kitchen but thats a given in a restaurant I suppose. I tried to draw from as many different perspectives as I could from just my seat alone. 

Pipe Dream

I came across thins animation of sound, "Pipe Dream" on youtube and thought it was brilliant. The timing of the animation is so sharp it fits with the music perfectly. I love the build up of the sounds too and the fact that not all of the instruments are visible to begin, they come in just before they are needed so this adds to the build up.

One of the things that makes it so realistic is that, when the balls are fired at the instruments, they get gradually faster as they get closer to the end of their journey which is what happens in real life, an object picks up gradual speed. Also seeing the objects bound back off the instruments onto another surface which leads to the next sound draws attention to eat sound, no matter how small it is. Also, there are some parts that keep moving through out the entire animation which were the first bits to build up and the last bits to die down, so it is so consistent because the timing stays right. 

Oscilloscope

After doing some research on the animation of sound I came across the Oscilloscope. This device was invented over a century ago and it is an instrument which is used to look at the waveforms of electronic signals. When managing sound on a computer, music can be created which when shown on an Oscilloscope it produces 3D imagery. 

Its interesting to think that with the development of technology we can now literally draw with sound. In the clip above, it is crazy to think that even from just talking some really interesting magery can be created. 

Tchaikovsky

When it comes to the animation of sound, one of the films that have stayed with me since my childhood is Disney's Fantasia. I have heard mixed opinions about this production but I was obsessed with it when I was younger and am now at an age where I can appreciate the animation of the music in a different way. One of the most terrifying parts of this film was, The Night on Bald Mountain. It frightened me more because of the music than the actual visual side of it, but the way the animation has been placed around the music is brilliant and that is what I think made it so frightening.

(The music used in this clip above is not the original music used in the 1941 release) but it is still the same. For me the most memorable part of this was the very beginning when it starts to pan inwards on the mountain which is then followed by the devil awakening. It is animated at brilliant timing to fit with the dramatic build up of the music. It is awesome. Later on in the animation when the music the devil picks is holding 3 dancers in his hand which seem to be made of fire, he suddenly changed them into animals and at this point the music goes from being quite bouncy and soft to suddenly louder and more threatening. Another thing to note is that at the very end, as morning comes the music sounds much more hopeful and contrasts hugely to the start. The animation that has been placed with this music really helps tell the story and still does a good job of scaring me! 

Coraline

When thinking about the use of effective backgrounds I immediately thought about of Coraline. This film has one of the most detailed, intricate sets I have ever seen in stop motion.

The use of colour range of materials make each aspect of the background look believable. For example, the tiles on the buildings, leaves on the ground and even the blossom on the trees which were actually created with popcorn. This has definitely got me interested in set design especially. The huge range of colour has helped make each part of the environment more individual and easily noticeable, for example the house is pink which stands out significantly since the mood of the first world at the start is to be quite dull. In the alternative world, brighter colours are used which captures how artificial and dream like this world is supposed to be.

Mary and Max

I have chosen to look at this clay animated, stop motion film because when I watched it for the first time one of the things that really grabbed my attention was the attention to detail when it came to the backgrounds. The film is set in Australia and New York, one of the things that I found so impressive was the detail incorporated around Max's home, in New York.

I found the detail in Max's apartment and the streets of New York really helped with putting across the melancholic aspects of his life. The fact that it is in black and white could definitely effect the mood of the viewer to fit the mood of Max's surrounding environment. For example, litter has been added to the streets which makes it look more believable. His apartment has been deliberately made to look dingy and simple. I think the smaller details like the wallpaper, and the scruffiness of the rug on the floor bring the environment to life and it suits the character. Max's side of the story is shown in black and white and I think this contrast is good at representing the dark side of Max's life. 

Duet - Glen Keane

As part of my research into animations which incorporate effective use of backgrounds, I have chosen to include "Duet" by Glen Keane. This animation is quite traditional as it was hand drawn. The backgrounds used are really simple but I think they are really effective because they focus the viewer's attention on the movement of the characters. This isn't the only reason I think that he has used his backgrounds so well. It stays the same colour through out however different aspects of the background develop with the story, for example the growth of the tree, the use of rocks and grass to show the changing environment as the two children get older. The background of the first becomes slightly more in-depth when the boy climbs the tree, which I think really signals the age he is supposed to be at. The colour scheme stays the same which avoids the animation from looking to heavy. There is a lot of movement going on from the characters so I think if the surrounding environment was all in colour it may take away some of the attention to detail that has been made.

This is such a beautiful and well constructed piece of animation, and one of the background plays a major part in it because of its simplicity.

Final Evaluation!

I have learnt a lot during the process of creating this animation and feel like I have stepped out of my comfort zone since I haven't ever created an animation of this length that wasn't all drawn by hand. Over all I'm quite happy with it, however I do think that the Dragon is quite 2 dimensional which is something my tutor and I did discuss but by that point it would have taken too long to go back and redo the work, so next time I'll put more thought into the angling of the characters. The Man however, I was happier with because he wasn't completely side on so he did have some roundness to him. I had tried going with the style of having the background hand drawn with coloured pencil and having the characters coloured digitally which I thought would look good, I did like the end result, but I think the background could have done with more detail as the characters seemed to stand out a bit too much from the surrounding environment. Since there was so much to colour digitally it required a lot of separate layers which did make the process quicker. However, there are a few frames where some of the layerings were not quite right, so there are some moments where the colouring doesn't look very consistent, but unfortunately I didn't get the chance to go back and alter this. I did however go back and alter the original audio so it would sound more appealing and not pull too much attention away from the animation and I think this was a big improvement.

Putting this animation together has felt really challenging because I have been trying to push past my little fear of using new software. Im really happy with the story I have produced and it is actually really out of the ordinary for me because I am used to creating characters of a more creepy nature, so it was quite refreshing to create something a bit less terrifying! If I was to go back and produce this animation again with a different technique, I would consider hand drawn or stop-motion. This is because I know hand drawn animation comes to me more naturally and I feel stop motion is more suited to me. However I have really this brief because now I feel like the next time I create an animation in the same way, it will be better. My favourite part of this animation that I think I have done well, is the fire. When the dragon blows fire, I think it looks effective as it meets the campfire. This is something that has been pointed out by other people, so I'm pleased. Even though I will end up producing work that is much better, I'm feeling pleased with it because this technique hasn't come to me very naturally, it has left me feeling keen to get better at it and to not make the same mistakes.

Final Animation "Toasted"

Changing the Audio (thank goodness)

After my feedback from other classmates and tutors I went ahead with changing the audio on my animation. I recorded a friend playing "I See Fire" on the guitar. I thought as well that this would be a better option because it doesn't make people's ears want to bleed, unlike the whistling.

Final Crit Feedback

After presenting my animation to the group, I was able to get some really helpful constructive feedback. One of the main things that people pointed out was the audio. I had originally created a whistling soundtrack to play over the top however this didn't go down as well as I had hoped with the viewers. The soundtrack itself seemed too loud and high pitched and it took a lot of the attention away from the actual animation. Also there are some areas where the colour could do with polishing up.

How Do I Plan to Change this?

I have decided to change the audio all together instead of just making it less loud and at a lower pitch. I have gone back to my original idea of having myself or a fellow classmate play guitar in the background. I like the idea of playing Ed Sheeran's "I See Fire" because it relates to my chosen element. I am aware that there is the issue of copyright so I will only be using this animation for college purposes! Also I will try and find the time to go back over my animation and clean up any areas which look a bit sloppy.

Trying to teach my brain..

Alongside creating my animation I have had the chance to play about with different software that I have not really been familiarised with until now. For example After effects. This was quite strange since I had never used it before but being given these small tasks did really help with my understanding.

Let there be sound.

For my audio I knew from the very beginning that I wanted to create something that was quite simple and pleasant in order for it to fit with the mood of the story. I had considered playing my guitar however after doing research for another purpose I came across Walt Disney's "Steamboat Willie" and loved the scene at with Mikey Mouse steering the boat and whistling. I found it so simple but really effective at the same time because there wasn't too much to it, but it was still a major contribution to the animation.

I did do about a billion attempts at this because whistling a tune into a microphone for 27 seconds isn't always as easy as it may seem! 

I did it on Garage Band because it was the software which I had available on my laptop, I also added the Fuzz effect to it because it made it sound more enhanced. Once I was ready to add this to my animation, I needed to convert it to a Quicktime file in order for it to be applicable with the Macs in college. 

Even though it is just a tune I made up in my head, its amazing how much it gets stuck in my brain. I am wondering how many people will be sick of hearing it by the end of this brief.. 

Titles Frames! (please no more frames..)

I had decided to leave the beginning and end title frames until the end because they could just be slotted in when the animation itself was fine. I chose to do these by hand purely because the background for my animation is all hand drawn so I wanted to keep it consistent in that sense, however I did also like that idea because well, hand drawing comes to me much faster and naturally compared to doing it digitally.

I knew the audio I had created would also be playing over the titles and I wanted to make them slightly more interesting than just words on there own. I also tried to make them quite quirky and funny because it would fit with the whole mood of the animation. (which has been strangely very cheery compared to the stuff I normally create!)

So once these frames were scanned in on either end of the animation I just needed to make sure they played for the right amount of time and that they connected with the begging and end of the animation. Also I gave them both a cheeky "fade in" and "fade out" effect. Because I'm so high tech. 

Getting it to play at the right time..

After the whole shebang of adding colour and making sure my animation ran okay, I needed to make sure it actually played at 20 seconds! Before it was rendered, it was playing at 12fps but 25 seconds in Photoshop for some reason, so it was time to do some playing about!

I was told by some other people that they rendered theirs in After Effects and it worked much better. After rendering it in Photoshop it only played at 8 seconds long.. so yep I thought After Effects would be my friend. I also altered the length of time that some of the frames would show on screen for and eventually it came to 20 seconds!

Avatar

This 2009 science fiction film was directed, written, co-produced and co-edited by James Cameron. In 1994 the idea of the film developed when he started writing for it, there had been plans for filming of this to take place in 1997 but Cameron decided that the technology needed was not yet available and therefore his vision of what the film was going to be, could not yet be created. This movie was one of the most groundbreaking animations I had seen. Through out its production there were different techniques used in order to achieve its high level. The use of motion capture allowed the actors' facial features to be held onto through out the editing process. A Virtual Camera System which was a new way of filming motion capture was used, this allowed the Directors to look through the camera and see the actors in real time, but in their digital surroundings. This enabled them to get a much better idea of what was being achieved and allowed them to play with the environment and move it about.

This use of motion capture is very much the same as the way Gollum was filmed for The Lord of The Rings in the early 2000's. This technique was so huge for its time, so its amazing to see how it has developed in just a small number of years. Its so effective because we don't loose the individual facial features of each actor, which enables each character to stay just as individual and each to their own as they would with just live action alone. 

Multicultural Disney!

One of the biggest developments of Walt Disney Studios, mainly during the Renaissance period, was the branching out into other cultures. At the time of the earlier classic feature films such as Snow White and Sleeping Beauty, all of the characters were very white orientated. As we come into the late 1980's more of the released films consist of character of different cultural backgrounds. For example, Aladin, Mulan, Pocahontas, are all set in different places of the world with characters of different ethnicity. These films were later followed by The Princess and the Frog in 2009.
I think this was a really important development for the productions of Walt Disney Studios, because of its young audiance. Its good for children to become used to seeing characters of different ethnicities from a young age because, well, it just teaches them that people's cultural backgrounds vary!

Putting the serious stuff aside however, I think the different settings for these films make them all the more interesting to watch. The environments and music are all suited to the specific place in which they are set, which makes them eve more distinctive and memorable.

Arthur Melbourne Cooper

Arthur Melbourne Cooper (1874-1961) was the creator of what is said to be the earliest surviving stop-motion animation advertisement, "Matches Appeal" This film was created in order to encourage people to send money to Bryant and May who would then send matches to the British troops. 

This "Matches Appeal" advertisement is amazing to watch, because I think it is easy to forget just how far back some animation techniques go, such as 2D drawn animation and stop - motion. Its bonkers to think how long this would have taken!  

Cooper filmed many newsreels, sports events and comedies. In 1900 he filmed "Grandmother's Reading Glass" In the belief of some historians, this is the first films where a close up is deliberately shown in a medium shot. The purpose of these closeups are to represent what the boy sees through the magnifying glass. This is a really important turning point in the development of film making due to the fact that at this time, closeups were not something to be seen like they are today. Closeups are now a massive part of film making because they help set the mood, for example they are a good way of showing suspense or tension. 

J Stuart Blackton.

Born on January the 5th 1875 - August 13th 1941. Was a film producer who was known as the father of American animation, due to his creation of the first silent film that included animated sequences that were recorded on standard picture film, "The Enchanted Drawing" - 1900. Through out his films he used a variation of stop-motion and hand drawn animation. H was a pretty cool guy, he was also a Director of silent film and the founder of Vitagraph Studios.

After watching "The Enchanted Drawing" I can say its pretty cool. Even though the general quality of this silent film is obviously not up to the standard of the stuff we see today, it is still so interesting to see. Seeing stop-motion work this early on is great because it highlights the developments that have been made from this point. This film is actually very well made and I can see why Blackton became so well known for his work, because he clearly knew what worked. Also,we have to remember that it takes quite a lot to keep a film interesting when there is no sound to it. So hats off to Blackton!

Disney Renaissance

The period of 1988 to 1999 saw the release of a selection of new feature films from Walt Disney Studios. These films helped to restore recognition for Walt Disney Studios. There were 12 releases which were, Who Framed Roger Rabbit (which was a mixture of live action and animation) Oliver and Company, The Little Mermaid, the Rescuers Down Under, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King, Pocahontas, The Hunch Back of Notre Dame, Hercules, Mulan and Tarzan.

One of the reasons this era is so significant, is because of the change in the roll of women. A lot of the female characters through out these films differ hugely from the more classic Disney princesses. This is mainly because they have much stronger characteristics, for example they seem more independent and hands on. For example, the character of Areal in The Little Mermaid is much more rebellious and stubborn than the earlier characters such as Snow White and Cinderella. Characters such as Jasmine and Meg are rather sassy and have very strong personalities which I think is a positive change in the way these female rolls have changed. Mulan is a really significant one because she literally fights a war in her father's place, which I think is pretty "Girl Power"

Even in the most recent Disney films such as, Frozen and Brave, there is a lot of emphasis on the boldness and capability that these female roles have, which is probably why when we see the classics such as Snow White nowadays, the representation of women isn't always positive because the char characters are pretty helpless most of the time. 

The Phenakistoscope!

This was another early animation device used to create the illusion of motion (it has a few other spellings too, but lets not go there.) This device was fully recognised in 1829  by Belgian Joseph Plateau, but it had been brushed over previously by Newton in some of his experiments. I t was officially invented by Plateau in 1841. Unlike the Zoetrope, this device could only really be appreciated by one viewer at a time. The way it was constructed was very similar to the Zoetrope in the sense that it consisted of a series of separate pictures and in the gaps between them would have been vertical slits.

These early devices are so clever, because even though they look simple, they wouldn't be as easy to make as it looks. 

The Zoetrope

The Zoetrope is one of the pre-film animation devices which was used to create the illusion of movement. It consists of a cylinder with slits cut vertically down the side, and on the inside of the cylinder, a sequence of drawings or photographs facing inwards. When it is spun, the viewer looks through the slits and sees the pictures moving. the slits are there to stop the image becoming one big blur. This device was developed in 1833 and 1834 by mathematician, William George Horner. It works similarly to the Phenakistoscope except it is more practical because it allows the animation to be seen by several people at the same time.

Even though this is a very simple, old fashioned way of animating, I think its awesome. A lot of the time nowadays, when somebody says "Animation" I think a lot of people's mind automatically go to the more modern practices like CGI and 3D animation, so I think its important to appreciate the early methods of animation just as much because this is where it all developed from. 

Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs, and women.

This 1937 American Animated film was produced by Walt Disney Productions and was based on the German fairy tail by the Brother's Grimm. It was the first full length, cel animated feature film and the first in the classic Disney series. I have taken a particular interest in this film because of the way the main character, Snow White, is represented. In comparison to modern day Disney films, she is portrayed in a much more innocent way. She is a very naive character and I think when this film is watched nowadays she can sometimes come across as rather annoying and frankly, quite clueless. We don't often see the modern day, female Disney characters having full on, one sided conversations with  big groups of woodland animals.

Even though she is quite a helpless character, I think this does add to the character appeal, especially for the young children who watch it. A lot of the modern day female leading rolls are a lot more hands on and not as easily broken down, however I think this links to the more typical stereotype that women used to have placed on them. This becomes more apparent when she is singing songs about cleaning, and "whistling while you work." Lets face it, she's a domestic goddess. I doubt there would have EVER been a scene like this which had the leading roll of a male. 

Appart from her being insanely kind and sweet, and a bit ditzy I don't really think there is much else to her, personality wise. A great deal of her appeal is shown in her small round face and figure. This really contrasts to some of the modern day character designs, who often have much larger facial features and smaller waists. Also, this film along with some of the other early Disney classics all give off the impression that a woman needs to be saved by a man. Which is completely contradicted in some of the new disney movies. 

I have chosen to look at this topic because I'm really interested in looking at how the roll of women has changed in Disney though out the years. To be honest, I think it has changed for the better. GIRL POWER!

King Kong

As an example of more traditional animation, I decided to look at the 1933 creation of King Kong. It was Directed and Produced by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest. B Schoedsack. The Screen Play is by James Ashmore Creelman and Ruth Rose. This film was distinguished for its Stop Motion animation.

I wanted to include this animation, because even though it could make a few people giggle today, it was hugely significant when it was released. I think even though the quality of Stop Motion animation has developed hugely, it is still important to appreciate the early work. It had to have started somewhere! 

The Magic Lantern

The Magic Lantern is also known as the "Laterna Magica" and was an early method of image projection, created in the 16th century and was used mainly for education and entertainment. It was most likely invented by Dutch Scientist, Christiaan Huygens. Light would be directed through the lantern slide, where the image would be placed. The image would normally be a photograph or a painting. There were a few down falls to this..sadly. At the time of invention, there were limited sources of lighting, such as candles and oil lamps which weren't very efficient. However the invention of the Argand Lamp in the 1790's did help.

The Magic Lantern is a direct ancestor of the Motion Picture Projector, and could also be used to show moving pictures and not just separate images. Two slides would be placed over one another, one image being stationary and the other being the moving image. They would be projected at the same time, and the second image would be moved with a device to tell the story. 

Im pretty fascinated by this invention, because to be honest its so old! I had never really done much research on this before, so I was really interested in finding out more. Its amazing how this invention has evolved over the years into something that is in some ways, taken for granted.