FINAL ANIMATION:

Evaluation:

Overall I am really pleased with my animation... I found it fairly difficult to adapt to using after effects however after a couple of hours practice I was soon familiar with the programme... My final animation stayed true to my original story boards apart from a few minor developments...

 

My only criticism of the animation would be the tribal faces towards the end... Overall I think they worked well however if I had had more time I would have liked to spend longer on syncing the mouth movements to the tribal voices in the music as I think it looks a little rushed compared to the rest of the animation... 

Overall, I have really enjoyed the print to pixel module and to say this is my first ever attempt at animation I really couldn't be happier with the final outcome I have produced...

FINAL DEVELOPMENTS:

After scanning in my tribal face, I used photoshop to cut it out so that I could animate it... 

By using pins on after effect I was able to animate the mouth... I did my best to sync the movements with the voices in the track however it was very difficult to achieve perfection... 

I rendered my animation thinking it was almost finished however after watching it back I soon realised the smoke was far too thick therefore making it difficult to see the tribal face coming through...

I deleted a few of the smoke layers as well as lowering the opacity on the remaining layers... I did this so that the smoke would appear less dense/thick therefore allowing the tribal face to slowly emerge through the slightly transparent smoke... 

The animation is almost finished!... I just want to add my name to the end and then it will be complete!...

Tribal face animations:

For the final section of my animation I planned to animate some sort of tribal face/faces coming out of the smoke produced by the fire...

Using the pen tool on after effects I drew up some simple shapes for the eyes & mouth... I tried to animate the mouth in sync with the tribal voices on the track...

This was good for my development process however in my opinion the face looks too lateral, and doesn't fit with the style in the rest of the animation...

following this attempt on after effects I decided I would draw the faces by hand using the same technique & style as the background & firewood resulting with the coherent style throughout the animation...

I drew up multiple variations so that I could choose the best suited one for my animation...

I chose to use this drawing because of it's rough abstract style, It looks intimidating with a strong tribal influence also unlike the others it is not too lateral. The next step is to scan it into after effects and begin animating... 

Firewood:

I wanted to hand draw the firewood so that it would suit the background... 

Once again I used ink on brown paper to create a similar effect...

After editing the scanned image into photoshop I was able to easily add it into my animation..

After Effects Development:

After successfully creating fire & smoke, I used brown paper, masking tape, charcoal and paint to draw up a mixed media forest scene to scan in and use as the background for my animation... By making it a 3D layer, I could add lights and camera effects to give the animation more depth...

Next I need to add the fire wood, as well as the tribal faces emerging from the smoke... Then I can sync the timings with the music and my animation will be complete!

How to create Smoke in Ater Effects:

(youtube after effects tutorials)

After watching this tutorial I was able to create my own smoke to add to the fire animation...

Smoke:

Smoke & Fire:

After Effects Animation:

After attempting to create fire with stop motion, I had a go at creating fire using After Effects...

I followed various tutorials on youtube to help me...

I think this fire looks allot more convincing than my stop motion attempt therefore I've decided I will be doing the majority of my animation using after effects... 

After Effects Workshop's:

character manipulation workshop:

Batman Workshop:

Spiderman workshop's:

Green screen workshop:

Fire animation using After effects:

(youtube tutorials)

Real Fire Research:

here are 2 videos looking at a Lighter & BBQ flames to study the fire and record it's movement, range of colours and it's general characteristics... Hopefully this will help to inspire me to create more realistic fire for my animation...

Stop motion fire development:

using a simple stop motion app on my phone, I attempted to animate fire using cut out pieces of paper... The concept is there however it looks very jumpy, and would need to be allot more fluid to look realistic... i'll try again using the stop motion equipment available at the university: hopefully this will result in a better outcome...

Next I moved into the studio to attempt stop motion at a higher quality using coloured card to create a short stop motion clip of a fire starting...

I took some pictures of the process:

 

This short 5 second clip took me about 2/3 hours to make... I found the process very slow and quite frustrating.
I can see this technique working well for other animations however fire needs to look fluid and smooth which this does not... I'm happy I attempted it however this development has almost certified my decision to use after effects for my animation... 

Second attempt at stop motion using Lego (snake)

First attempt at stop motion using Lego:

Stop motion Paper animations:

(research)

Storyboards:

I started to draw abstract shapes/patterns whilst listening to the music, this helped me to visualise the shapes & movements of the sound...

The music starts quite, and gradually builds towards the deep tribal voices... I had the idea to animate fire because:

Similar to the music a fire could start out small and build into something bigger, gradually developing...

I then started to think how I could introduce the tribal voices into the animation which gave me the idea of animating tribal masks forming out of the smoke produced from the fire...

first attempt at drawing a simple storyboard:

After coming up with a simple concept for my animation I drew up a first draft for the storyboard... 

Now I have an idea of the structure for the animation I can start to develop my ideas in more detail to produce a better final outcome...

Development:

Finished Storyboard:

Stroyboards: 

I found several examples of storyboards so that I could look for inspiration for my own storyboard designs. I found various different styles, some look messy and rushed however still show the purpose of the cartoon where as others are more detailed showing the animation in more detail... 

Tribal Masks:

(inspiration) 

Basic 3D Animation:

Cel Animation:

"Traditional animation, (or classical animation, cel animation, or hand-drawn animation) is an animation technique where each frame is drawn by hand. The technique was the dominant form of animation in cinema until the advent of computer animation."

"Generally, the characters are drawn on cels and laid over a static background drawing. This reduces the number of times an image has to be redrawn and enables studios to split up the production process to different specialised teams. Using this assembly line way to animate has made it possible to producefilms much more cost-effectively."

I like the idea of hand drawn cel animation, however after attempting it myself in the workshop before easter I soon realised how difficult & time consuming it would actually be...

This video explains how cel animation was made before the use of computers... 

Claymaytions:

"Clay animation or claymation is one of many forms of stop motion animation. Each animated piece, either character or background, is "deformable"—made of a malleable substance, usually Plasticine clay.

All traditional animation is produced in a similar fashion, whether done through cel animation or stop motion. Each frame, or still picture, is recorded on film or digital media and then played back in rapid succession. When played back at a frame rate greater than 10–12 frames per second, a fairly convincing illusion of continuous motion is achieved."

Stop motion animation:

here is a good example of stop motion animation... I really like the concept of this, and how simple yet effective it is...

This video shows various different ways in which stop motion animation can be used...

Organic:

I will need to cut this piece of music down from 7:46 to about 20-30 seconds... 
Then I can start to think about my animation as well as starting the story boards...

I found this video on youtube explaining the basic principles behind persistance of vision... I find it really helpful to go back to the basics as it helps me to understand the key principles/rules in which modern animations have developed from...

In our last lecture/seminar before the easter holiday our tutors explained the basics of animation and how it has developed into what it is today. We looked at how animation has developed from simple techniques such as persistance of vision, zeotrope's, and thaumatrobe's... This helped me to understand the basic principles behind animation as well as giving me a much clearer understanding of how I might begin to work on my own animation...

Before this lecture I was thinking of complicated ideas such as a deer running through a forest however It soon dawned on me that I didn't have a clue how to put any of my complicated ideas into practice...
In the lecture the tutor's discussed Iconic abstraction, and how ideas can be reduced down to their simplest form. on the other hand, They also mentioned that it is equally important to control the meaning of the object/animation to prevent it from becoming too abstract/unrecognisable...

During the seminar we discussed ideas for our animations... The tutor put allot of emphasis on how we should keep our animations simple otherwise we might struggle; he suggested that we start with simple abstract shapes which would make it easier on ourselves... obviously a deer running through a forest wouldn't be as simple as I first thought therefore this seminar really helped me to realise what would actually be possible to achieve rather than what I would like to achieve for my first ever attempt at animation...

Rather than thinking about complicated forms/concepts I started to think about simple changes that I could introduce to shapes to create simple animations...

change in:

- shape
- colour
- depth
- transparency
- size/scale
- motion
- rotation
- mood
- speed
- light

(notes during the lecture)

Heres another example of animation for a condem advertisement: Once again the aim of the advertisement is clear however the way in which it has been approached makes the animation humorous, relatable, and fun therefore making it seem less serious, and more approachable for the target audience... 

I love how simple this animation is, and how they managed to add so much personality to the penis, making it look & act like a human would... 

USE A CONDOM! Animation:

This animation works really well because the characters have strong personality's which helps to become lifelike. The advertisement is obviously aimed at teenagers, promoting safe sex however by using humor they have managed to make it fun and entertaining...

New Project: Print to Pixel 

(notes from the briefing)

This is an animation based project in which I have been given a piece of music to create a 20-30 second animation for... The tutors suggested we should listen to the music and try writing down the first 3 words that it provokes: 

- Mysterious

- Curious

- Tribal 

^^ These are the words that came to me while listening to the piece of music for the first time...  

After listening to the piece a few more times, I'm trying to start the process of developing a concept for the animation... I've got some initial ideas therefore the next steps will be to start writing down some notes/ideas as well trying to draw up some basic storyboards to help me piece the animation together...

I'm also going to start researching animation on youtube looking for any inspiration/ideas that might help me to develop my own concept/style... 

My first idea was to animate a deer running through a forest, however after listening to the music in more detail, I think I could think of something else to animate that would be more appropriate...

Presentation Boards:

Finished Packaging:

Development:

I used my graphics tablet to colour my scanned in drawings for the 'Who Makes The Laws' board designs... 

I drew some lines on a skateboard outline and scanned it in to use as the background for my new coloured designs...

I redesigned my original idea for the Alcohol design as I thought it was a bit too complicated...  
I drew a vodka bottle with a toxic sign which I think clearly shows the message and definitely fits in well with the style and feel of the other 2 designs...

I also used the same background for my boom box design so that the designs had a consistant theme...