Fourth Idea For a Final

My fourth idea for a final also continues with the bird theme...

For this idea it starts with a boy climbing up a tree, showing him getting higher, then as he gets to the top and puts his head in the tree a bird flys out the top, the focus then goes onto the bids journey showing it flying through the sky, with the image eventually fading as the 30 seconds is up...

I think this idea goes with my three words:

Posh - It uses simple colours

'Silent Film' - It tells a short story of the boy scaring the bird out of the tree without any speech, but there is an element of mischief coming from the boy

Again I don't think it really works with 'Jane Austin/Mr Darcy' ...

Third Idea For a Final

My third idea I experimented with for a final continued with the theme of birds...

For this ideas I had a few birds flying out of a box, then the focus is on one bird and her journey as she flys past trees until she gets to one certain tree, it then shows her going into the tree and there is a nest there with her family in...

I think this idea goes with two of my three words:

Posh - It uses simple colours

'Silent Film' - It tells a short story of the bird getting back to its family

I don't think it goes with 'Jane Austin/Mr Darcy' again though ...

Second Idea For a Final

After a review presentation about my first idea for a final it came across that my idea of birds coming out of a tea pot was a bit scary and creepy, and if I wanted it to work I should make it so that it leaves the viewer feeling like their skin is crawling.

This was not the outcome I was going for...

So I decided to experiment further, but still with the idea of birds, just to make it a bit more light hearted and to go with the music a bit more.

So my second idea for a final is to have a bird fly out of a cupped pair of hands and to follow its journey through the sky...

I think this idea goes with two of my three words:

Posh - It uses simple colours

'Silent Film' - I think it fits into the silent film theme as there is a little short story going on with no speech

I don't really think it works for 'Jane Austin/Mr Darcy' though...

Mini Animation

In a group of 3 we created a mini animation which we hand drew and put onto AfterEffects.
We created three simple characters, a bat, a girl and a boy. Our mini story was about the bat chasing the girl and the boy coming and saving her, then the boy and girl are happy ever after.
Instead of creating standard boy and girl, the boy looks a bit like a robot/alien and the girl is basically a triangle with feet, the bat also has a fun characteristic to it, this makes our animation more fun and silly.

To make our animation we had to draw a series of slides between us to create the story moving the characters only slightly on each slide...

Here are a few examples of what our slides looked like...

We then scanned our slides in and put them on AfterEffects and set a time for the slides to run together to create our animation, here is our final mini animation:

Rayograms

To experiment with different ways and methods of creating images and slides we went into the dark room and experimented with rayograms. To do this I bought in a few small items from home, placed them on the photograph paper and experimented with different light exposures to see which times worked best and which images worked best. Here are my results:

These are the first couple I did, they didnt work out too well...

I didnt put enough exposure on the end which is why it's bright white and you can't see the image on the right hand side.

This sample worked better, I got the spacing and the timing better to work out my exposures:

I decided to make bigger sample sizes and to include extra objects to see how different items would work and whether making it on a bigger scale would improve my experiments...

These worked much better

I moved away from these objects and used different objects to make images with just one light exposure instead of sample slides...

I used an earring and some coins to make this piece with one light exposure over the whole piece

I used my headphones for this image and again just one light exposure over the whole image.

I liked the idea of using rayograms to make a final animation, however I think this would be a very expensive method and would be very time consuming as it's hard to stay in the dark room for a long period of time.

First Idea For a Final

I have decided to go with idea 5, at the picnic with the tea pot...

However I have decided to develop further on this idea, I think that having a range of wildlife animals coming out of the tea pot might be a bit too random and not actually make any sense, so I have narrowed it down to just birds. So when they go to pour the tea a bird flys out, followed by a couple more birds, then the last bird out blows a love heart towards the screen.

This makes my overall storyboard like this:

I think this idea goes with my three words:

Posh - I think that having a tea pot at a picnic is pretty posh

'Silent Film' - The idea of all this suprise going on but nobody saying anything, I think that because it is random it's a bit like a silent film theme

'Jane Austin/Mr Darcy' - I think it fits into this theme because it is an elegant couple at the picnic

Ideas

After listening to the music several times I came up with a few ideas for a small animation to go with it. I didn't want my animation to be too predictable and boring with the music, so some of my ideas are a bit random, I tried to give a Charlie Chaplin/Silent Film kind of theme to some of them ....

Idea 1
A scruffy looking guy --> Posh girl walks past --> He asks her out, she rejects him --> He gets an idea (lightbulb above head) --> He reappears in a suit and top hat --> He asks her out again, she rejects again --> He then reappears in his suit with flowers --> She accepts --> They leave happily ever after

Idea 2
At a posh dance, boy and girl dancing --> Boy and girl kiss --> 'Larger lady' comes over, she's angry --> Boy runs away --> Girl looks shocked --> 'Large lady' chases boy off screen

Idea 3
A couple of guys messing around --> Start playing pranks on their friend --> After two pranks the friend plays a prank on the guys --> In the end guy is better off, leaves happy laughing

Idea 4
At a posh dance --> Man asks a woman to dance --> She says no --> Man reappears with two glasses of champagne --> She drinks both --> He carries her out off screen, happy

Idea 5
Couple at a picnic --> Goes to pour  cup of tea out of a teapot --> Instead of tea random items come out of the teapot --> Birds, squirrels etc --> Last random item blows a kiss at the screen

Idea 6
Man painting house up a ladder, big piece of artwork --> Two guys run into the ladder --> House is ruined --> Man chases them off screen

Idea 7
Posh girl looking sad --> Scruffy looking guy shows up , trying to impress --> She sends him away with a tear --> Second guy comes up trying to impress, he's too short --> She sends him away with a tear --> Third guy shows up with a walking stick and beard --> Too old so she sends him away with a tear --> Then a fourth guy shows up, he's tall and handsome --> Big eyes and love hearts all round --> They leave the screen together happy

Research - Methods

After looking at exsiting animators i decided to look into the different methoids that you can use to create an animation:
Stop Motion
Video
Flip Book
Zoetropes

Stop Motion







Video






Flip Book







Zoetropes

Research

Before I got too into my own ideas I decided to research into existing animators to see what was already out there...

Pixar
"John Lasseter says that it takes three things to make an animated film: world, character and story. In the simplest sense, that is the heart of this exhibit, the handmade designs for the worlds, characters and stories of Pixar’s first twenty years of filmmaking" (http://www.pixar.com/companyinfo/about_us/exhibitions.html 7/5/11 12.35pm)




Disney
Disney have made the majority of films I was bought up as a kid, I still enjoy watching them now! There are so many they just never get old...




Family Guy
Family Guy is more of a cartoon for adults and for a certain sense of humour, I like it but sometimes they can take their jokes a bit too far...

Print To Pixel

For this brief we were given a piece of audio to listen to and to create an animation for 20 -30 seconds of it. The piece of music i was given was JS Bach - Goldberg Variations BWV 988 01. Variation 1.



While listening to this i noted down words that came to mind as I was listening to it, the words i thought of were:
Elegant
English
Old Fashioned/ Black and White
Romantic Love
Old Fashioned Fairytale
Classical
Piano
Posh
Jane Austin/ Mr Darcy
Tea Pots
Charlie Chaplin
Harp
Ballet
Comdey - Fast Paced
Silent Film
Pride and Predjudice
Posh Dinner Party

From this I chose three words which I wanted to work with and use as my inspiration:
Posh
Silent Film
Jane Austin/ Mr Darcy


To further my inspiration i listed words and ideas that represented these words:
Posh
Precise Drawings
Well Dressed Characters
Simple Colours
Wealthy Appearance
Black & White

Silent Film
Fast Moving
Love Story
Comedy
Black & White
Characters
Short Story
Mischief
No Speech

Jane Austin/ Mr Darcy
Love Story
Posh
Romantic
Traditional
Wealthy
Old-Fashioned