Animation Project Talk with Andy Symanowski

Andy Symanowski came in to give us an introductory talk on stop-motion animation. He will be helping us throughout this project and I'm excited to learn from him!

What makes a good animation?

• Showing emotion (through eyes / eyebrows)
• Having control
• Correct scale
• Considering camera angles
• Considering foreground, background, and midground
• Importance of sound - Narration / Music / Lip syncing characters

Tips:

• Design specifically for shots
• Only build what you can see
• Allow space for your characters
• Keep good communication in the group
• Video us doing actions to copy movements
• Make a mockup (sizes in comparison to each other)
• Don't rush the story - give space for development
• Think about colour
• Establish a style to shoot it in (genre)
• Experiment (can give interesting outcomes)
• Testing EVERYTHING is IMPORTANT
• For lip syncing do recordings before animating (photograph mouth movements)
• Research stop-motion films

I will refer back to this throughout the project to make sure we're on track and don't make any silly errors.

Contextual Studies

Today we found out we have a unit of work on contextual studies which will involve two essays and presentations based on films we will be sent to see in the following weeks.
I found it quite strange that we were only just finding out about this element of our course when it would have been helpful to know from the start. In fact I am kind of disappointed we hadn't carried on contextual lectures from the start of our course as I found them quite interesting and I think it would have been great to build up knowledge on the subject. Our contextual studies also doesn't seem to be very tailored to our course and the aspects of film that would be useful and important to learn as background knowledge for our practice.
Despite this I am looking forward to analysing films in more detail as this is something I touched on and loved when doing Media Studies at GCSE level. It also reminded me that I should be regularly watching new screen content to broaden my knowledge of film in general and inspire me in my work. I'm going to set a target to start watching a few films a week (I hope I stick to it)!

The Lion King : Theatre

UAL had arranged another theatre trip and this time it was The Lion King. I had heard so many amazing things about this production that I couldn't turn down the opportunity. I wasn't disappointed either!

The sets and costumes were all stunning! I was amazed at how they'd thought to represent some of the scenes from the film such as the stampede!

Notes to take from this experience:

• Simple techniques can work very well (simple paper/fabric effects)
• Colour scheme ties a production together

Research for sign

I decided my sign would be a shop sign for an opticians. Mostly because I'd recently finished A Series of Unfortunate Events on Netflix and was obsessed although the original is still in my opinion the better version. 

After designing a steampunk looking version of this I thought it didn't give me many different materials and techniques to learn. I thought maybe I could make my sign change depending on whether the shop was open or closed. This is when the idea of an aperture eye came to mind! The idea excited me and I instantly started googling how-tos to see if it would be viable. From what I saw it didn't seem too complex and with all the workshops at uni I believe I can make it work!

Websites I used to help me with the aperture:

https://www.lomography.com/magazine/117722-making-a-diy-cardboard-aperture

http://www.instructables.com/id/Wooden-aperture/

Research for Colour Model

In our Photoshop induction with Jack Pratt we learnt how to make moodboards, I put together the board below for my steampunk alleyway.

In the holidays I came up with some design ideas for my space and possible primary research I could do. I did some googling and found there was a Victorian walkway in the Museum of London. This would be perfect inspiration for my location. I went with Emily as she was also designing her set to look like part of a Victorian street.

I think I might copy the design of the shop door from the left photo as I like the arch details. These shops also gave me inspiration for how to make a window display. I'm glad I visited the museum as being in the environment really helped me get an idea of the atmosphere I wanted to create.

New Years Parade London

Initially, I intended to put a lot of effort into this project. The first meeting made me excited to get together as a group and discuss our ideas!
After several meetings, it was decided that there would be four puppets as well as props and costumes. I had raised some concerns about the workload at the time suggesting maybe we should do one larger puppet or maybe three. Already a lot of my time was being consumed with our uni work and I couldn't make it to all the meetings.
Despite this, I still stayed for part of the holidays to come into uni and work on the spider puppet. Unfortunately, I couldn't stay for many extra days.

This was a real test of collaboration and I found it hard. On occasion I'd have to defuse tensions and this I feel is a skill that I've carried with me from growing up with three siblings and constant conflict at home.

Transforming a location: White Card Model

Throughout the white card model making I have been incredibly ill (headache and general cold symptoms) which made this process so much more effort for my poor brain. Despite this I was determined to try get as much done as possible whilst I was at home.

It was all quite straightforward until I got to the point where I had to make the stairs and bridge. I made the railings as a seperate sheet to the base and I had to make two sets of these which was very time consuming. The bay window was also a little fiddly but not as complicated as the stairs.

To make the poles for the structure holding up the bridge I used a piece of mountboard cut to the diameter of the pole and then wrapped thinner card around it to get the cylindrical shape. This wasnt as neat as I had hoped but it doesnt look too bad in the grand scheme of things.

~My finished model~

I was able to complete my model for Monday in time for our lecture on colour models and to move on to the next stage. I am very pleased with how my first white card model turned out!