For this project i worked within my group to create our own pixilation animation short film.
After some brainstorming we decided that our main ideas would be creating a scene showing the seasons passing by as a person moves within them (e.g. cloths of the person changes, weather etc) and making the word animate with hands. Using the hands animation idea s the title sequence or title animation for the seasons animation and we would film them separately and then add them together.
Brain storm of potential ideas to choose from for the project:
Seasons In motion
08/09/14
The idea for our weather changing animation came from Tomas Mankovsky's short film. We decided after seeing how he manipulated objects and was able to suspend them by having everything on the floor with the camera above that this technique would work best for this idea and also creates a scene in which a person is largely involved in (as the actor would be fully in the frame the whole way through) and so is perfect for pixilation animation.
Our initial idea was to have the actor lay on their side with the camera above (like in Mankovskys animation) and create the appearance they were walking through the scenes of each season. However we made some adjustments by deciding on having the actor lay on their back and just standing still as the seasons move around them as opposed to the actor being on their side and creating the appearance of walking by moving legs, as this would probably be quite difficult for the actor in our group due to uncomfortable positioning of being lay on one side for too long especially for our first attempt.
Like Mankovsky, we decided to use everyday objects to create and represent aspects in our animation that we would use as props, for example the clouds we used were made out of polysyrin blocks wrapped in white material, the grass was represented by a green cloth we positioned to make a hill out of and the tree was made of dark cloth and some found twigs and leaves.
Before we started filming the animation we sat down to discuss what would happen in each scene, what was do able and what would represent the seasons best.Background and permanent aspects in permanent in all scenes:
Blue sky - blue sheet of material tall and wide enough for actor and tree
green grass floor - wide enough for blue sky length
Tree with leaves (fall in winter) - slightly taller than actor
Actor - long hair (in order to do spring scene)
Spring:
we decided that in spring we would have a bit of sun showing from behind a cloud as we wanted summer to emphasise the presence of the sun. We also decided that spring is the season of birth of animals and so decided to have birds present in this scene as well, which stemmed onto our next idea of having the birds fly into the actors hair which would turn into a birds nest shape (again representing the idea of animals giving birth, chicks, eggs in nests etc). This also meant that at this point we established the actor would have to have fairly long hair.
. 1 cloud
. Sun (slightly covered by sun)
. Flowers growing out ground (only 2)
. Birds
. Tree with leaves (all green)
. Actor wearing jacket (this will emphasise summer when it is removed)
Summer:
in summer the idea is to emphasise the heat and the sun. in order to do this we decided to have no clouds visible in the sky with the sun being more prominent. we also decided we would make the actor take off their jacket to show getting hotter, along with putting on sunglasses, rolling up trousers, putting on a cap. We also decided to make more flowers visible to show the full extent of the summer sun.
. Sun
. tree
. All Flowers
. tree with leaves (all green)
. cap
. sunglasses.
. rolled up trousers
Autumn:
For this season the idea was to emphasise the weather starting to get colder, rainier and windier as these are generally the weather changes that happen around this time. To display this we decided to have a coat engulf the actor, wrapping around them from behind until they are wearing it. we also decided that we would attempt to make rain fall out of blue clay. moulding the clay into the shapes of rain drops and then making them split into two when hitting the actors head (who would them react to the rain and put an umbrella up). And then to display the wind the actor would open up an umbrella and fight against the winf with it, umbrella turning inside out again exaggerating the fact that this scene is windy. Another aspect we decided to involve for this season was the changing of the couolour of the leaves on the tree in the film to brown and having some fall off the tree.
. 1 cloud
. Sun (covered by cloud and no rays around it)
. Coat
. Umbrella
. Brown leaves
. Rain (clay)
Winter:
Again for this season the main idea was to exaggerate the stereotypes and symbolisations of the season in order to clearly display the time of year to the viewers. To do this we decided we would have no sun present in this part of the animation and two clouds which would snow at a certain point in this scene. we also decided we would make the leaves fully fall off the tree in this scene leaving it bare. For the snow we decided we would either use balls of clay or scrunched up white paper to represent the snow fall, and would use polystyrene flakes to build up on the floor around the actor. However when discussing this scene we decided that the blue background might look out of place or odd with a snowy scene over it and so we decided to use a white background. this however unraveled a second problem of the snow (white paper scrunched or white plastasine) not being visible. to solve this problem we decided we would use the lighting to create shadow, making the snow visible again. Also in terms of the actor we would have gloves move from the top of the screen as they lift their arms up and gloves slot onto hands, along with scarf and hat moving onto the actor.
. 2 Clouds
. Snow (scrunched up paper or plastacine depending which looks better with the light)
. White Background
. Tree with no leaves
. Polystyrene snow build up on ground
. Coat
. Gloves
. Scarf
. Hat
Once we had established what was going to happen in each scene we delegated roles to each person in the group of, snapping the shot, moving the leaves, moving the actors hair, moving the clouds, and each change that happened in the seasons (different from what stayed in scene). I was chosen to be the actor for this particular animation as i have long enough hair to do the spring scene. This meant i had to think about the order of what was happening to move and respond to the changes in the direction they were happening in around me. I had to think about facial expressions and try to exaggerate each of my gestures and body language as this creates the most obvious responses to the audience. I also had to listen to directions and have lots of communication from the group about where to move as i could not see the screen the snapshots were being taken on and could not always tell if i had moved too much, little etc.
Tester (setting up the scene after gathering props)
Behind the scene of the actual shoot:
I had to hold the positions i was in for long periods of time and slowly transition my movements, while the rest of the grip moved props, directed and took the snap shots for each frame:
Animate? With Hands
15/09/14
we decided rather than to carry on with the season in motion animation (as we did not have time to complete the winter scene) to instead move on to our next idea, so we could have a go at creating a pixilation animation in a different way and so each of us could have a go at doing roles different to what we did in the season in motion animation. We had already created a good animation with the seasons in motion and were able to get the over all feel for this technique and of working in this way.
Our idea for the animate with hands creation was initially to have each person from the group create a doodle and then write their name, with the ink trailing from the end of our fingers, creating an introductory setting whilst still retaining the surrealism of the idea itself (creates the effect of magic hands!) However we decided after doing some testers that this would take too long. So in order to shorten this process we decided that each of us would create each individual letters of the word ANIMATE? including the question marks as this means there are 8 characters to create and there is 8 of us in the group. To Make this idea look more visually interesting we decided we would create each of the letters using different methods with our hands.
Our Ideas:
. Cut out paper using fingers to pull the letter out of the page, so it looks like there has been no cutting and the actor is just pulling the shape out of un touched paper.
. Make the shape of the letter with string or sew, using sewing movements with the hand
. staple the shape of the letter onto the page using punching motions with the hand to represent the motion of a stapler
. Tape, finger pushes/ unrolls tape out to create the shape of the letter.
. Grab letter from the real world and enlarge / minimise.
. nails on wood, hand would nail each nail into its position to make the shape of the letter using hammering motions.
. Ink/ marker pen comes out the end of actors hand and creates a letter shape
. shape is make with clay, hand simply prods and pokes into a crisp shape. (reverse filming may be best for this, cut out neat shape with clay then slowly morph it out of shape).
We then discussed who wanted to do each of the ideas and chose letters that would would best for each one. We chose a font to use so that each letter would be in near enough the same font when created and so would look relevant to each other and more organised. we then printed out these fonts and used them as stencils so create out letters. For example i was doing the cut out techniques and so i drew onto the paper (very faintly so not visible) around the letter stencil i had made, and then used this to slowly cut out and pull the shape away from the page (taking the snap shots in-between so as not to see the full process, just the bazar appearance of my hand pulling a shape away from the page.
Pulling the cut out parts of the shape out shot by shot (sliding the yellow card under each time while the shots are being taken):
We were each given our methods and letters after discussing what each of us would do and agreed we would find our own way of doing it when doing this process.
I did the cut out letter and helped with the tape letter so there were the two processes i was involved in after the brainstorming for this task.
For the cut out:
The idea of this was to make it look like i was pulling a shape out directly from a page, so none of the process of actually cutting the shape out could be visible. To do this i would cut only a small piece of the shape out at a time so that the cut marks shadow did not show up on camera (if i cut the whole shape out at once this would happen) and would slowly pull the shape out bit by bit, taking pictures of each tiny movement on istop. In-between each shot i would put a cutting board underneath my page (so as not to damage the surface i was working o) and would then slide a yellow card underneath the page so that when the shape was fully out of the paper the shape of the n would be more clear (as opposed to white on white). Due to all this movement i had to do between each frame this meant that i had to then try and position my hand and the paper i had lifted out of the page back to where it was from the previous shot by checking with the "ghost image" of the previous shot on istop. The whole thing lasted under 10 seconds and probably consisted of about 200 frames.
In-between shots (cutting first part of the shape out):
For the tape:
For this Animation we wanted the effect to be that of creating the appearance of a persons hand moving across the page and the shape on an a appearing from underneath where the hand has moved, as though the hand is magically creating the letter as it moves across the page from nothing.
I was directing when creating this piece and so my job was to make sure the actor kept moving back into the same place (so the jumps between shots were not so big, making the film look jumpy) as well as explaining what hand movements to make and making sure no parts of the a would show apart from those that were coming out of the end of the hand. I also took the shot for each part of this animation.
In between the shots more parts of the A needed to be added in order for the next bit to appear in the next shot. so my partner would add more tape to the shape of the A and then hide this part she made with her hand. she would then move her hand slowly away from the tape as i took the shots giving the impress it was just appearing out the end of her hand from nothing.
We then decided to add an extra bit of animation on the end just to make sure the visual effects of this animation and overall all appearance in how the letter was created looked different to that of the other letters the rest of the group were making, so that when put together the title sequence would show a variation. Once we had complete mde the shape of the A, we then decided to make the roll of tape we had been using to make the letter, roll onto the page underneath the A and then when it reached the letter left a trail of tape that would cut off at the other end of the letter. Bringing the roll of tape to life in this clip.
I videoed the over all results of this letter making:
22/09/14
We decided once we had all made our letters and had created the animation for each of them, that we would then each have a go and edit each clip (size them up and adjust lighting etc so they all look similar with regards to these visual aspects) and slice the clips and place them next to each other so that the screen would be split into 8 with each animation for the letters placed next to each other in an order that spells out the word animate? we will show each clip move individually so that the screen is not over complicated with lots of different clips playing at once and so the audience can focus on each individual creation of each letter as they play in the order of the letter sequencing in the word animate. This also meaning that the audience will see each individual animation and so each person in the groups creations will have their kind of time in the spot light.
Short clip of some of the editing process:
We decided to place each of the animations next to each other with the frame space being long in height and short in width to get the letters as close to each other as possible to make up the word with out the spacing between the letters looking gappy. Before we placed each animation clip next to each other we had a template of the word itself in after effects which we used to scale the animation clips too, so that the finished letter of each of the clips fitted into this template, meaning that when all of the letters where placed next to each other they would all be scaled correctly to each other and would look neat and organised and more easy on the eye (this is important especially considering there will be lots of different animations for the audience to be watching). Using this technique to create the word also means that all of the individual animations could be done at the same time and so makes good use of time (otherwise this task would have taken too long) and also means that if an error occurs in the creation of one if the letters the others will not have to be re done as well (this would be the case if the letters were being physically created one after the other on the same surface).
What we had at the end of the animations:
this still needed some work as the backgrounds and lighting/ colours for each of the clips look diffrent creating a patchy effect.
Before (dull some letters hard to make out, and too much contrast between each clip)
We altered the colours and contrasts of each of the clips so that they were not overly diffrent to each other and so that for example the T which was hard to see before, has most contrast and can be seen easier. We found that, especially due to shadowing in certain areas of some of the clips, it was rather difficult to match each clip up perfectly, however we got them slightly closer to each other making it look neater and more pleasing to the eye, however i think this patching, mix and match effect of the different coloured back ground and letters creates a charming effect for this animation. Due to the fact that in a way it emphasises the diversity of ideas and techniques that comes with the diversity of people (each person out of the group created a letter in a different way, on a different background) and this visual emphasis on the differences between the clips celebrates this diversity but also shows how the different ideas have come together and work together with the clear display of the word and the neat edges around the clips making them as one.
If we were to do a similar task to this again however i think it would be a good idea to consider the lighting and how different lighting for various clips can effect the overall look of the animation. It worked well fortunately in this project and actually in a way emphasises our ideas and group collaboration and working together. However in future projects, not considering the lighting and consistency for our animations could result in results we do not want.
Another aspect we should remember for the future is the colour scheme for the letters. For this task we did not discuss this aspect in depth as we wanted it to be more like we each go off create our own inputs and combine each of our outcomes at the end. However it would be good in the future to consider what colours go together and the order they go in. As a coincidence this animation shows all of the a's as being red, which looks quite interesting and emphasises the fact that the e is an upside down a (which we made happen on purpose to add the extra movement and emphasises of grabbing from the environment and re using a letter in that particular part of our animation, and rotating it so as to recycle the letter into an a)
Our Ideas:
. Cut out paper using fingers to pull the letter out of the page, so it looks like there has been no cutting and the actor is just pulling the shape out of un touched paper.
. Make the shape of the letter with string or sew, using sewing movements with the hand
. staple the shape of the letter onto the page using punching motions with the hand to represent the motion of a stapler
. Tape, finger pushes/ unrolls tape out to create the shape of the letter.
. Grab letter from the real world and enlarge / minimise.
. nails on wood, hand would nail each nail into its position to make the shape of the letter using hammering motions.
. Ink/ marker pen comes out the end of actors hand and creates a letter shape
. shape is make with clay, hand simply prods and pokes into a crisp shape. (reverse filming may be best for this, cut out neat shape with clay then slowly morph it out of shape).
We then discussed who wanted to do each of the ideas and chose letters that would would best for each one. We chose a font to use so that each letter would be in near enough the same font when created and so would look relevant to each other and more organised. we then printed out these fonts and used them as stencils so create out letters. For example i was doing the cut out techniques and so i drew onto the paper (very faintly so not visible) around the letter stencil i had made, and then used this to slowly cut out and pull the shape away from the page (taking the snap shots in-between so as not to see the full process, just the bazar appearance of my hand pulling a shape away from the page.
Pulling the cut out parts of the shape out shot by shot (sliding the yellow card under each time while the shots are being taken):
We were each given our methods and letters after discussing what each of us would do and agreed we would find our own way of doing it when doing this process.
I did the cut out letter and helped with the tape letter so there were the two processes i was involved in after the brainstorming for this task.
For the cut out:
The idea of this was to make it look like i was pulling a shape out directly from a page, so none of the process of actually cutting the shape out could be visible. To do this i would cut only a small piece of the shape out at a time so that the cut marks shadow did not show up on camera (if i cut the whole shape out at once this would happen) and would slowly pull the shape out bit by bit, taking pictures of each tiny movement on istop. In-between each shot i would put a cutting board underneath my page (so as not to damage the surface i was working o) and would then slide a yellow card underneath the page so that when the shape was fully out of the paper the shape of the n would be more clear (as opposed to white on white). Due to all this movement i had to do between each frame this meant that i had to then try and position my hand and the paper i had lifted out of the page back to where it was from the previous shot by checking with the "ghost image" of the previous shot on istop. The whole thing lasted under 10 seconds and probably consisted of about 200 frames.
In-between shots (cutting first part of the shape out):
For the tape:
For this Animation we wanted the effect to be that of creating the appearance of a persons hand moving across the page and the shape on an a appearing from underneath where the hand has moved, as though the hand is magically creating the letter as it moves across the page from nothing.
I was directing when creating this piece and so my job was to make sure the actor kept moving back into the same place (so the jumps between shots were not so big, making the film look jumpy) as well as explaining what hand movements to make and making sure no parts of the a would show apart from those that were coming out of the end of the hand. I also took the shot for each part of this animation.
In between the shots more parts of the A needed to be added in order for the next bit to appear in the next shot. so my partner would add more tape to the shape of the A and then hide this part she made with her hand. she would then move her hand slowly away from the tape as i took the shots giving the impress it was just appearing out the end of her hand from nothing.
We then decided to add an extra bit of animation on the end just to make sure the visual effects of this animation and overall all appearance in how the letter was created looked different to that of the other letters the rest of the group were making, so that when put together the title sequence would show a variation. Once we had complete mde the shape of the A, we then decided to make the roll of tape we had been using to make the letter, roll onto the page underneath the A and then when it reached the letter left a trail of tape that would cut off at the other end of the letter. Bringing the roll of tape to life in this clip.
I videoed the over all results of this letter making:
22/09/14
We decided once we had all made our letters and had created the animation for each of them, that we would then each have a go and edit each clip (size them up and adjust lighting etc so they all look similar with regards to these visual aspects) and slice the clips and place them next to each other so that the screen would be split into 8 with each animation for the letters placed next to each other in an order that spells out the word animate? we will show each clip move individually so that the screen is not over complicated with lots of different clips playing at once and so the audience can focus on each individual creation of each letter as they play in the order of the letter sequencing in the word animate. This also meaning that the audience will see each individual animation and so each person in the groups creations will have their kind of time in the spot light.
Short clip of some of the editing process:
We decided to place each of the animations next to each other with the frame space being long in height and short in width to get the letters as close to each other as possible to make up the word with out the spacing between the letters looking gappy. Before we placed each animation clip next to each other we had a template of the word itself in after effects which we used to scale the animation clips too, so that the finished letter of each of the clips fitted into this template, meaning that when all of the letters where placed next to each other they would all be scaled correctly to each other and would look neat and organised and more easy on the eye (this is important especially considering there will be lots of different animations for the audience to be watching). Using this technique to create the word also means that all of the individual animations could be done at the same time and so makes good use of time (otherwise this task would have taken too long) and also means that if an error occurs in the creation of one if the letters the others will not have to be re done as well (this would be the case if the letters were being physically created one after the other on the same surface).
What we had at the end of the animations:
this still needed some work as the backgrounds and lighting/ colours for each of the clips look diffrent creating a patchy effect.
Before (dull some letters hard to make out, and too much contrast between each clip)
After (brighter, sharper appearance, where the clips work together better and all letters are clear. Still some contrast between clips however adds charm)
We altered the colours and contrasts of each of the clips so that they were not overly diffrent to each other and so that for example the T which was hard to see before, has most contrast and can be seen easier. We found that, especially due to shadowing in certain areas of some of the clips, it was rather difficult to match each clip up perfectly, however we got them slightly closer to each other making it look neater and more pleasing to the eye, however i think this patching, mix and match effect of the different coloured back ground and letters creates a charming effect for this animation. Due to the fact that in a way it emphasises the diversity of ideas and techniques that comes with the diversity of people (each person out of the group created a letter in a different way, on a different background) and this visual emphasis on the differences between the clips celebrates this diversity but also shows how the different ideas have come together and work together with the clear display of the word and the neat edges around the clips making them as one.
If we were to do a similar task to this again however i think it would be a good idea to consider the lighting and how different lighting for various clips can effect the overall look of the animation. It worked well fortunately in this project and actually in a way emphasises our ideas and group collaboration and working together. However in future projects, not considering the lighting and consistency for our animations could result in results we do not want.
Another aspect we should remember for the future is the colour scheme for the letters. For this task we did not discuss this aspect in depth as we wanted it to be more like we each go off create our own inputs and combine each of our outcomes at the end. However it would be good in the future to consider what colours go together and the order they go in. As a coincidence this animation shows all of the a's as being red, which looks quite interesting and emphasises the fact that the e is an upside down a (which we made happen on purpose to add the extra movement and emphasises of grabbing from the environment and re using a letter in that particular part of our animation, and rotating it so as to recycle the letter into an a)
clips over lap slightly so that it is not too long and so that the over all appearance of the animation as a whole looks active and lively reflecting the physical and active technique we used to create each of the letters.
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