Villagers - Cecelia & Her Selfhood

Four Questions.

1. What technology, equipment and software are you likely to use as a practitioner?


Working with stop-motion animation, I' am likely to encounter programs such as Final Cut Pro and other more stop-motion animation specific programs. The main, and quite obvious equipment I'll require in this model is a camera - I actually own a dslr with a large sized memory card, so this shouldn't be a problem. Other resources I will need to access are the stop-motion apparatus/camera frame, various mediums (papers, mouldable and shapeable clays/plasticines e.t.c). I may also require lighting equipment (attached to the camera frame for stop motion animation).


2. Identify gaps in your knowledge?


I lack a lot of experience with stop-motion animation but have enough curiosity to be enthusiastic and passionate about this module. I lack knowledge in various programs that might prove themselves important in my practise. There's alot I don't know about the range of traditional stop-motion techniques, so the next 5/6 should introduce me to most, if not all of them.


3. What projects are you doing to support this learning?


4. How do broader developments in technology affect the future of visual communications?


I believe the use of stop-motion will exist just as prominently as it already dose over the next few decades, possibly experiencing a commercial revival at some point.

Rotoscope Experiment

I've spent today getting to grips with rotoscoping and just how

difficult it is. I've found it's really quite time consuming, and will

take a lot more practise, particularly keeping my drawings rough

but detailed enough to be understandable.

Rotoscoping

Since my contact with Frater films, Jim's told me that the main technique for combining much of the illustration with the animation was a technique called "Rotoscoping". Rotoscoping basically involves tracing over each individual frame of an existing piece of film, and then arranging these drawn frames as a replacement film, with an illustrated effect.

Most notably this technique (according to Wikipedia, an early source for this standard of information) has been used in films such as Tron, Watership Down and Juno. Well known music videos such as "Take On Me" by A-Ha (probably the most famous use of this technique), Kasabian's "Shoot The Runner" and The Strokes with "12:51" have all accessed the use of Rotoscoping to enhance the aesthetics of their music videos.

Here's just a few Youtube examples of existing footage that's been rotoscoped:

Frater's reply.

The lovely guys at Frater replied to my inquistive email over night, here's what they had to say:

"Thanks for getting in touch, we're pleased you like the Ladyhawke promo. We did an interview with Digital Arts magazine not long after it was released, I've attached the link to the article below which should help enlighten you on how it was done. The brief was to bring Sarah's amazing paintings to life - the challenged lay in it having a fluid watercolour feel. It was all rotoscoped from live action footage of Pip directly into the computer - 2000 frames in less than 2 weeks!"

I' am really glad Frater got back to me quite so soon - here's a link to their site: http://www.fraterfilms.com/
I' am going to follow the link to their feature on Digital Arts magazine and see what I can learn. By taking this advice from industry professionals I can hopefully learn alot about the practise and how and where to start.

The link to their Digital Arts feature can be seen here:
http://www.fraterfilms.com/fraterblog/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/digitalarts1_resized1.jpg

Jim also added: "Impressive painting on your blog..." which was really lovely of him.

I now can't wait to establish alot more contacts and advice from established professionals that have experienced a commercial success in some shape or form.

Aardman: The Biggest and The Smallest

Aardman are known as the greatest stop-motion production company in the country, if not the world, with various titles that everyone can name under their belt. But these challenges were a little bit, and stretched the possibilities on the scale of stop-motion animation.

The smallest...





And the biggest...

Important Resources

http://www.slashfilm.com/geekbomb-a-brief-history-of-stop-motion-animation/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_motion

http://www.stopmotioncentral.com/articles-5.html

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/12/31/50-incredible-stop-motion-videos/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/filmnetwork/films/recent/page/20

Rapunzel's Flight

This surreal miniature fairytale enhances the use of nature as a third character, which (as I've tried before) it's perfect and offers up interesting motion in stop-motion animation. This animation uses a fast frame rate meaning the character's movements as seamless. The protagonist comprises of a moveable skeleton (which cost!) so in reality I myself may not be able to work with a skeleton, but this should stop me from using fimo or putty to form characters.

This animation actually reminds me of the work of the extremely talented Tobias Stretch - who's work can be seen HERE.




I want to establish contact with Tobias as soon as possible to gain an insight in to his career as an animator and the challenges that he's encountered along the way.

She Farted and Created The World

"She Farted and Created The World" is a fabulous short from Scott Coello featured on the BBC Film Network. The story is based around the creation of the earth and the evolution that occurs over thousands of years, packed in to two minutes. What I love about this animation is the use of collaging old pieces of text and cut outs to create a continuous texture throughout.

When I watch this animation, I believe I'll need more experience in programs other than Final Cut Pro in order to create specific effects and camera movements involved in much of the shorts that I've featured on this blog so far.

Stop-motion styles and techniques.

I've decided that in order to explore the various styles of stop motion, I should by the deadline have tested techniques that excite me. At the moment these include the process of tracing paper over frames of existing footage and collaging this together to see what the effect is. These frames would then be photographed using the stop-motion apparatus we currently have in the vis com studio and edited together in Adobe Final Cut Pro to create a short film where traced frames flow seamlessly from scene

Another idea is to draw each frame out on to paper like before, but not relying on any existing footage to trace from and to create a story. I would then use the same apparatus and software to create my video.

Another technique is to ask people to volunteer in a "human stop motion" - similiar to LCD Soundsystem's video "Daft Punk Is Playing At My House" seen here:



I intend to explore and learn about other examples as I come across them.

Frater

I've found out that Frater Productions are the team behind the "My Delirium" video and animated Sarah Larnach's paintings. It's imperative that I find out the technique for animating paintings and creating certain effects like the splashes of colour and layering as the video progresses.

I have now emailed Frater productions with a few questions as to how the animated sequences of the video were produced, how long it took and which programs/software were used.

Hopefully it won't be long until I recieve some sort of reply.

Sarah Larnach

As I mentioned in an earlier post, Sarah created all of Ladyhawke's album art work (watercolour paintings) and much of her illustration was animated for two of Ladyhawke's videos, one being "My Delirium" and the other "Magic". Fortunately, she emailed me back over night (she's a New Zealander) with some replies to a few questions I asked her. This is what she had to say:

On her biggest influences:

"Norman Rockwell, for casual realism and 'capturing an era'."
"Drew Struzan, for composition and doing all the images I loved as a kid."
"Derek Riggs, for continuity with album art."

She also mentioned a couple of directors that had an impact on her cinematic approach, them being:

"Tim Burton, for imagination and trail blazing."
"John Waters, for humor, cheeky-ness and trail blazing."
The email's quite short and doesn't give an big insight in to Larnach's career, but she did give me some background on how she got started. She stated that "Working for someone for free is great, because you love them/what they do might be a good place to start. that is what got me the exposure I needed to kick start my career. I make a fine living, mostly for private sales and exhibition work but my collectors have come because of the exposure I've had from Ladyhawke and the snowball effect of that."

That's just about all the information I had from that one email, but it's a good example that contact with a creative can be established quite quickly when you email them with praise. Graham said yesterday that practitioners aren't going to throw away an email that praises them, because they're normally pleasantly surprised by the fact that someone has emailed them in admiration.

I intend to email practitioners of both animation and illustration more and more this weekend and simply get as many emails flying out to relative folk as possible. It's imperative that I gain contact with this people sooner rather than later.

RSA Animate - Smile or Die

The now quite famous RSA Animate videos aren't the most obvious
examples of stop-motion animations, but they always carry across
the most wise and truthful of lectures and speeches. The animation
does not distract from the narration, but it actually visually narrates
a path made by the speech itself.

Although I admire these videos artistically, I don't know at this
moment in time whether I'd be capable of producing such large
scale illustrated animations, but this is always something to aim for
nevertheless.

Ladyhawke - My Delirium

This is one of my favourite ever music videos, and has had a big
impact on the direction my illustration has taken and my interest
in animation in the first place. Sarah Larnach's original artwork for
Ladyhawke's album is so well animated and filmic in this video, it
works wonderfully with the contrast of stop motion footage.

One detail that stands out for me is the continued paper texture
that the music video uses, which amplifies the freshly painted and
patches of watercolour splashed across many of the short's scenes.

I' am always mythed by how Larnach's 2d paintings were animated
by the production team, so it's important that I try my best to get
to the bottom of this curiosity in order to potentially use
watercolour in my own animations.

Vibrancy and fluidity is key in the cinematic scenes in this shot, as
any deep meaning takes a back seat, after all, this is a music video
and it's only true purpose is to visualize the song.

Hitchhiker's Choice

This is the third (and probably final) video that I'll feature from
the Futureshorts platform today. It's blatantly stop motion, but
what I love most about this is the fact it utilises a white board and
some markers to capture an ever-changing, flowing and
unpredictable sequence. Although this film doesn't explore any
important theme or have any clear purpose, I do love the
inventiveness of the medium (especially as it's nostalgic).

It'd be really interesting to spend just one afternoon with a
whiteboard and some markers to produce my own fast paced stop
motion animation as a half/one day project.

One Minute Puberty

This is the second short animated film that I've discovered under-
neath the Futureshorts umbrella. As opposed to solely interpreting
one or a short series of illustrations that might explore the theme
of puberty to say a class of sex education pupils in a secondary
school, this animation has the power of delivering much more than
just a light message about puberty and the hormonal/physical
changes.

This particular animation delivers a voice that speaks to young
people. It's fast, short and sweet, the scenes chop and change fluidly
from one to another and it safely sticks to the basic line work that,
like the last animation, doesn't over-complicate the way in which
a story is told or a message is spoken.

One thing I' am unsure of about this animation is whether or not it
falls underneath the bracket of stop-motion, so I may just take some
time to research the production team behind the short.

Vovô

Ok, so this is the very first animated short that I've stumbled across
since our briefing for this module. It's evidently used the stop-motion
technique, which I believes creates a beautiful linear flow and
uniformity from scene to scene. The use of line can simplify things
and allow the viewer to interpret the film with an open mind, as
opposed to a short that might be cluttered with "mixed messages"
and various different mediums crammed in to four minutes.

Since seeing Lily (Glover)'s short animation for the major project, I
think it's ignited the thought in my head that I too could be capable
of producing animated work that can improve over time and achieve
it's own success in the public and professional arenas.

Day One

After today's extensive introductions to PPD2 and Communication Technology, I've been doing some thinking. There's been a doubt in the back of my mind about the "buy-ability" and purpose of my work. It just seems that's it well and good drawing and painting and constantly chasing a style, but what I often fail to take in to consideration is the reason behind it. I feel like my technical ability needs a platform upon which it can shout louder and clearer, so I' am looking to ANIMATION as that stage.

Now I' am not just picking a new place to use my illustration out of a hat, but animation has always been an intriguing and highly attractive new direction to go in. Growing up as any child did on Disney, and then to French animated films like Belleville Rendezvous, I can't help but imagine "I could try that..."

But it's not only this that has informed my important decision, it is also the fact that out of all the illustration work I come across, it's always the cinematic ones that to me are the most thought-provoking. They to me express a story where the audience fills in the ending, displaying a certain ambiguity and an openness to interpretation.

Using animation, I believe my illustration work is more likely to have a purpose and the chance to express a visual message much more clearer than simply working on paper. Although people give me praise when I show my work, and I happily accept that praise, it feels my work is pointless and has been for quite some time.

One challenge I expect to confront is adapting my work in to a moving image, I' am scared of changing from the style I've always felt safe in, so in that sense it's a leap of faith.

Something I wish to pursue that I began throughout the summer was interviewing the various illustrators that inspire me heavily for Don't Panic Leeds' online magazine. As I explore animation more and more, and the more renowned talent in this community of practise, I hope to produce several interviews that can then be submitted to Don't Panic, and thus give anyone that views the interviews an insight, as well as myself. This contributes nicely to my "work on the side" with Don't Panic.

I intend to attend as many animation based events as I can, which will mean going to the Bradford Animation Festival amongst others that I'll soon stumble across. But I'll also be contacting animators outside of the Don't Panic context. I hope to immerse myself in as many short and feature length animated films that include the process of hand-drawing stop-motion frames, as this is the main of animation that interests me most. I'll also be browsing and linking videos from sites such as Future Shorts and BBC, as well as any other animation and stop-motion related networks.

Aside from this secondary research, I'll be attending meetings with both Matt and Sharon to hear about their careers, and to hopefully open my eyes and evoke some questions that I can then explore.

For now, this is the end of the post but it's likely that I'll come back to rejig it and make alterations if anything isn't included or doesn't make sense.