12 Principles Of Animation

19/11/14

The 12 fundamental principles of animation

(As listed in "Disney Animation - The Illusion of Life" by Frank Thomas & Ollie Johnston)
Jeremy Cantor – Animation Supervisor – Sony Pictures Imageworks - May 4th, 2002

1. Squash & Stretch: Organic objects tend to have some degree of malleability. When forces act upon them they will deform appropriately depending on the nature, direction and degree of the forces. One important thing to remember when applying this concept to your animations is: if volume is not maintained, your object will appear to be expanding or contracting. For instance, if you squash a tennis ball vertically, it should simultaneously widen horizontally.

2. Anticipation: The setup before the main action. It lets the audience know that something is about to happen. For instance: reaching behind you with your fist before delivering a punch.

3. Staging : The clear presentation of an idea. What is the story being told? What is the best way to tell it? What is an appropriate camera angle? Screen direction. Posing. Composition.

4. Straight Ahead Action vs Pose to Pose: Two methods of animating. Straight ahead involves stepping through the individual frames of your scene & manipulating them sequentially. Pose to pose involvesdefiningtheextremesandthenfillinginthespaces inbetween.Stopmotioncanonlybedonevia Straight Ahead. Cel animation can be done either way.

5. Follow Through & Overlapping Action: Follow through is an extension of a main action. For instance, the continuation of a tennis stroke after the ball contact (the main action). Follow-through is also evident when a secondary appendage (tail, antenna) at some distance from the source of the main force is indirectly driven by it. Follow-through will occur later than the main action because the force takes longer to get there. When an object in motion changes direction, stops accelerating or stops completely, secondary parts of that object will continue in the original direction after the change in the main force. A woman's dress fluffing forward after she stops walking. A ponytail bouncing in an "S" motion when someone jumps up and down. Follow-through is often reduced if an appendage has (and uses) its own muscles. When a cat runs, the muscles of its tail often tighten to reduce follow-through & maintain balance. Overlap is the concept that not all moving parts of your body will start and end on the same frame. If you turn your head and point, your arm movement might begin before your head finishes turning. Overlap is nonexistent if the head and arm start & stop on the same frame or if the arm waits to move until the head has completed its motion. Such non-overlapped motions tend to look robotic.

6. Slow In & Slow Out: Organic motion tends to accelerate and decelerate into and out of action. (Except when met with a force that causes an abrupt stop or direction change.) This type of motion often does not apply to mechanical objects.

7. Arcs: The parts of an articulated skeleton move as a result of joint rotations. When a wrist travels from point A to point B, it gets there as a result of elbow and shoulder (etc) rotation. The motion will tend to arc because of this. It is possible to move one's wrist in a straight line but a lot of continuous compensatory adjustments in the rest of the arm are required in order to achieve this particular motion and such movements tend to look less organic (or at least more deliberate - like a straight punch). If you want a character to animate like a robot, simply ignore the concepts of arcs, overlap and slow in/slow out.

8. Secondary Action: Any motion that is 2ndary to the main action. Drumming your fingers on your knee while talking, ie. 2ndary actions often reveal emotional subtleties or hidden thoughts. If the 2ndary action pulls the viewer's attention away from the main action, though, it becomes the main action.

9. Timing: Varying speed of motion can indicate different types & strengths of forces. Timing can demonstrate different attitudes. Turning one's head very quickly implies a different motivation from doing so slowly. Fast walks can imply determination. Slow walks can imply depression. Metronomic timing is usually undesirable.

10. Exaggeration: Exaggeration is used to increase the readability of emotions and actions. Animation mediums don't deliver all of the same information as in real life. A video screen is not truly 3-D. Sound comes from a single source. Depth perception is not interactive. Because of the limited information being presented, it's often necessary to exaggerate what is being presented in order to effectively tell the story of a particularperformance.Effectiveexaggeration isn’talwaysaccentuatingamotionthough.Significantly decreasing an action is also a type of exaggeration. Accentuating the subtleties that is. Completely stopping a character's motion for an unnaturally long period of time can demonstrate a particular emotion: Impatience or disgust, ie. Exaggeration is, of course, especially apparent in cartoon-style animation.

11. Solid Drawing: In cel animation, each individual drawing should be a successful work of art on its own. This adds to the appeal & readability of a performance. It is also important to stay "on model". Each drawing should look like the character being presented. It is distracting when the size of a character's head is inconsistent during the course of an animation.

12. Appeal: Is the presentation of your idea pleasant to look at? (Or unpleasant if that is the intention). Are general aesthetics being effectively applied (composition, character design, color, camera angles, etc)?
And 12 more...

13. Simplicity & Readability: Don't unnecessarily overcomplicate your scene, character or performance. Do just enough to tell the story. Too much secondary and too many details can sometimes confuse the issue and make the idea being presented unclear.

14. Posing: A subset of "staging". Interesting poses are extremely important to effective & natural-looking animation. Pay attention to center of gravity issues (does your character look like he's going to fall down?). It’s usually a good idea to avoid too much symmetry in your poses. One hip is often a little higher than the other. Weight is rarely distributed evenly over both feet. How does the silhouette read?

15. Composition & Texture: If you “freeze” any individual frame in your scene, will the resulting still image be a well composed work of art? Do the elements of your scene work together visually? Are different objects moving too symmetrically? If so, is this intentional? Are your object’s trajectories too linear? Or perhaps too complex? Is there enough variety in the trajectories of the individual elements? Are important elements of your scene hidden behind less important elements? Pay attention to the overall “texture” when animating groups of objects or characters. Is there enough variation in the movements of the individual elements? Consider a school of fish or a flock of birds or a field of grass reacting to the wind. What is the overall feel of the group? Is every bird flapping its wings at the exact same frequency? Is the wind affecting every blade of grass in exactly the same manner at exactly the same time? Are the individual elements supposed to be working together? If so, are you using an appropriate amount of variation between these individuals? Are your synchronized swimmers exactly synchronized, or are there minor variations in the movements of each one?
16. Forces: An object moves when forces are applied to it. Consider where these forces are coming from. Are they being generated from within (desire, intention, muscle movement) or from without (gravity, the wind, a push from another character)? The origin, magnitude, direction & duration of these forces will dictate how your characters move. How is your character affected by these forces? Does your character resist them or does he “go with the flow”? Do multiple forces cancel out one another? Understand a force’s “attack & decay”. How powerful is the initial “hit” of the force? How long does an object continue reacting to the force? Consider the material of the object. Rubber “decays” slower than cloth.

17. Weight: Demonstrating the implied mass of a character. This is a function of the proper application of squash & stretch, anticipation, follow through, overlap, timing, exaggeration, and slow in/slow out. Whether or not a character looks especially heavy or especially light when getting up from a chair is dependent upon how these principles are applied. A heavier object requires more force to set it in motion. This is often demonstrated by increasing anticipation. Likewise, it requires more force to slow, stop or reverse the direction of a heavier object. Placement of your character’s center of gravity is an important aspect of weight. Physics rules indicate that a static object’s center of gravity must be directly above or below the average of its point( s) of suspension. For instance, when you stand on one foot, your COG needs to be directly above your support foot. Otherwise, you will begin to fall. Of course, this all changes if you are in motion. Pay attention to pivot/leverage points as well. Watch out for isolated body part movements. Even the simplest arm move often involves contributing motion from the shoulder & torso. Keeping your individual body parts appropriately working together is another way of indicating weight.

18. Non Symmetrical Motion: To maintain natural-looking performances, it is usually desirable to break up the motion of individual body parts so they are not doing the exact same thing at the exact same time. ie: when slapping your character’s hands on a table, you might want one hand to hit a frame or two before the other.

19. Details: Sometimes the difference between a good animation and a great animation comes from effective attention to detail. You never know where a viewer's eyes may be wandering. Just because the main focus of a shot is on your character's face, don't forget to animate the toes. Details like thigh muscles jiggling when a foot hits the ground add to the naturalism of a performance & can help tell the story. Keep in mind, however, that it is usually not desirable to confuse the action with too many details. (see principle #13) Watch out for technical glitches such as geometry intersections and IK “pops”. Material integrity is also an important detail to consider. Is it appropriate to squash & stretch a rigid object such as a stone? Some animators will do this as an aesthetic choice. Others prefer to follow realistic rules of physics. And don’t try to hide animation errors behind overly detailed modeling, lighting, texture maps & particle effects. This is an undesirable variation of the “attention to detail” concept.

20. Planning Ahead: It's always a good idea to plan out a performance before starting. Act out the motion with a stopwatch and take down some numbers. This is very important in stop motion where it's impossible to go back and fix an individual part of a performance after it has been filmed. It's especially important to plan ahead when you have a deadline. Most of us rarely have the opportunity to animate by trial and error. As the carpenters say: Measure twice, cut once.

21. Hookups & Continuity: To maintain flow and readability, each scene needs to “cut” properly with the next. Are the spacial relationships between your characters consistent from one scene to the next? Does an object’s trajectory look like it continues sensibly after a camera cut? Does the new camera position confuse the clarity of the action? If you cut away from a particular action then return later, do the changes in the scene make sense with the length of the time lapse? Do your actions overlap? Should they? Sometimes it is desirable to intentionally break the rules of continuity, but care should be taken when doing so.

22. Acting: Animation is acting. Always keep this in mind. What is your character's motivation & emotional state? Such information should be revealed in your performances. A shot’s story can't be told if the characters are simply moving through the scene without any indication of intention or personality. Always ask “why?” Every movement should have a purpose. Arbitrary motions rarely contribute anything to a character’s performance. Contrasts are an important element in acting as well. Animating the same character with significant contrasts in timing can imply completely different personalities & motivations.

23. Blocking/Refining: A third method of animating as opposed to Straight Ahead or Pose to Pose. This method (very often utilized in CG) involves initially establishing the overall posing, timing and trajectories of your character as a "blocking" phase. Details are added after these global issues are refined and approved. Similar to the (sometimes) preferred method of painting where the overall composition and colors are established rather abstractly and the image slowly comes together as a whole as the details are refined with smaller and smaller brushes. As opposed to finishing one corner of the painting before moving on to another. This blocking/refining method is especially desirable in CG so that global timing can be refined before there are a huge number of keyframes to tweak.

24. Understanding The Principles: It's not enough to simply be able to recite these principles from memory. To animate effectively, you must truly understand them. These principles need to be applied appropriately, and sometimes certain ones need to be left out entirely. Squash & stretch isn't necessarily appropriate on a bowling ball. A cat does not crouch down in anticipation before jumping up because its natural posture is already an anticipatory crouch. If you are asked to make your character look heavier, you can only accomplish this if you truly understand which principles need to be applied and how. Rules are made to be broken, but one must truly understand a rule before it can be broken creatively and appealingly. 

Kentic Verb

19/11/14

Kinetic Verb

Poor animation can look lifeless and robotic, this task is to help me learn to emulate from the real world to create more natural and expressive movements in my work. I am going to be exploring some of the fundamental principals of animation in this project.

I will come up with a word and animate it in a way that reflects the nature of the word. I will consider  weight, squash and stretch, slow in and slow out (easing, to create a more natural look as opposed to a robotic one), exaggeration. anticipation, follow through and overlap. 

I will be using adobe After Effects to animate my word and will try to keep the movements pure and clear for now so as to not overcomplicate things for my self and to show clear message of the action of the word and therefore relate the action to the word clearly. 

The 12 basic principles for animation were developed by the 'old men' of walt Disney studios, amongst them Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston, during the 1930's. These principles came as result of reflection about their practise and through Disney's desire to devise a way of animating that seemed more 'real' in terms of how things moved and how that movement might be used to express character and personality. 

(i have added these principles on another post)

Animation Cartoons shows these principles well as they tend to exaggerate them making it obvious to notice when a principle has been applied. 

Roger Rabbit: Animation Directed by Richard Williams :

Looking back over his many triumphs – as well as some notable disasters – Williams himself ascribes much of his success to a decision he made in the late 1960s, when he effectively demoted himself within his own, highly profitable and multi-award-winning, company. At that time, on the other side of the Atlantic, some of the great animators of the 1930s and 40s were beginning to retire. And as Disney and Warner Bros dispensed with their services, Williams began to hire them.

              

This videos shows numerous uses of each of the 12 principles. To give examples of a few of them:

Exaggeration - This is the main principle used in this animation and same with many of the disney animation. When roger rabbits eyes pop out of his head when he sees the baby walking across the oven. This gives a humorous effect to the animation as it is an exaggeration of the 'extremely shocked / scared' expression. People generally tend to widen their eyes when shocked and lean forward as though they can't believe what they are seeing and need to get a closer view. Onto of this roger jumps in the air and hovers for a moment in his shocked state. When people are scared they tend to jump, this again is an exaggerated version of this reaction showing that roger is scared and shocked when he sees the baby. These are three actions that the animators have exaggerated, that people will relate too and understand, it then becomes humorous due to the exaggerated and unrealistic add ons, it only works however due to the grounding factors stemming from realistic movements and reactions that people know. 

Stretch - This can be seen in the video when the baby is trying to get out of the crib it is trapped in. He stretches the bars open and his body extends and stretches. Again this is exaggerated, but if someone was half in and half out of a small space and trying to pull their lower half out, the body would extend somewhat to do so. This tension also shows the anticipation action before the follow through movement of flying through the air.

Squash- when roger rabbit crashes into the vacuum his body compresses due to the impact.

Anticipation - is the movement before an action. In this video there are many examples. When the baby lands on the plungers handle, before it is sprung up in the air by it, there is a backwards movement showing momentum and showing a realistic movement of the baby landing on it and the force of its weight against the springy nature of the plungers handle flinging it up in the air. (of course however this is again exaggerated but the main underlying principles of force and momentum are there)

Follow Through - Follow through is the movements that follow after an action such in the video the obvious one to point out is rogers ears. As he moves his ears trail after his and reflect the movements he is making. 

Here are some quick words i did as practise before i created my chosen word:

This animation shows exaggeration of the principle squash. This helps emphasise the word as it makes the moving motion of the word from the right to the left of the word seem quick and there for makes the audience view the result of this as hitting a wall hard. Connecting the motion 'slam' to the word. 

I made this animation using the idea of the movement of a leaf. I made the text move gently and made it take longer to reach the bottom to appear light swell as making it move side to side in rack movements as it travels down the screen again to male it appear lighter. The font i used reflects the nature of the movements as it is lower case and curvy and small. 

This word i made sway by parenting the letters to each other meaning that when the bottom letter moves side to side the top letters follow the movements. 

In this second attempt at the word sway, i made the letters move separately rather than all together to add more movement into the animation and make it seem less robotic and stiff and more natural. I have included some follow through with this animation as well which can be seen when the letters flick slightly after a big movement. 

For this motion i made the animation fairly quick in order to show the force behind the compression of the text and make it seem springy due to the compression. 

Leap

I decided that i would animate the word Leap as it is one that i have not tried yet and i think it can offer me a challenge without being too complicated or fiddly to animate. 

Synonyms:
Surge, Upsurge, Upswing, Rise, Bound, Escalation.

Antonyms: 
Plummet, Fall, Reject, Drop.

What is the difference between a leap and a jump?:
The Collins COBUILD English Dictionary (HarperCollins, 1995) describes jump as being somewhat more frequent in usage than leap. 

It describes jump this way: "If you jump, you bend your knees, push against the ground with your feet, and move quickly upwards into the air." 

And it describes leap this way: "If you leap, you jump high in the air or jump a long distance."

From what i have gathered after looking into the two words and the motions behind them jump is more of a vertical movement where as leap is from one point to another, and possibly a more powerful jump. On the other hand hop would probably be a similar movement to leap however much smaller and with less momentum.
This is a video i found online that demonstrates the action of leaping in both a person and a horse:

I have decided that for my research of the movement of leaping a horse would be a good animal to look at, and how it jumps.  
    
             
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFImjWUvgQI

Various action poses of the horses jump at each stage:

This image shows the actions of each stage of the jump, however not including the beginning anticipation movement which should show the horse riveting backwards slightly before the jump (even when running). It shows the stretch of the horses body as it jumps of the ground and the body extends and then shows a stretch just before it lands. The point of the jump in mid air is less stretched. (this can be seen in the first diagram on the second row). These diagrams remind me of Edweard Muybridge's recordings of movements.

Eadweard Muybridge:

Eadweard Muybridge was an english photographer, important for his pioneering work in photographic studies of motion and early work in motion picture projection.

He used multiple cameras to capture motion in stop motion photographs and was the first photographer to develop sequences of moving objects.

This is one of his pieces where he has captured the movement of a jumping horse and the stages of the jump. 

He also captured the movement of a jumping man, who compresses his height a lot and uses his arms to get momentum and to hurl himself forwards. this shows extreme squash and stretch, before and after the jump and in the middle of the jump.

This videos shows a different type of leaping to the previous action i was looking at:

(0.30 seconds - 0.36 seconds,  0.41 seconds - 0.48 seconds)
           

This video shows fox leaping into the air and diving into the snow. The fox is at a stand still before the leap takes place and so there is no previous momentum of running behind the jump, meaning the fox has to bend really low to create his own momentum (the anticipation of the movement) before he springs himself up into the air. I think this would be a good movement to try possibly as it very exaggerated before and after the movement due to the subject matter being stationary before and after (when running after the jump the 'sqaush'/ bend effect of the force of the jump is lost some what) it also shows follow through animation which i could consider in my own animation when making my word move (the trail of the letters perhaps flick at the end slightly as the word falls and lands).

The type of leap preformed by a ballerina will be much different again from the previous two jumps i have looked at:

         
As it is a form of dance and is supposed to be elegant and is more controlled. There is a more exaggerated stretch in the middle of the leap as the ballerinas do the splits in the air. the general flow of this leap is more smooth, less bounding motions. and the legs bend slightly backwards on themselves when they split. Natural leaps the legs keep a slight bend in them.

This movements most focusing principles are :
Arcs - All natural things move in arcs, leaping is a very clear example of movements in an ark as all of my research show that the movement of leaping makes a semi circle from where the subject jumps from to where the subject lands, the height and width of this ark varies depending on the momentum of the leap (the more anticipation, the higher the jump the higher and shorter the ark made by the jump)
Squash- This can be seen in my research before and after the jump even if ever so slight.
Stretch - This can be seen in the middle of the leap
Also i will involve:
Anticipation - before the jump (the squash)
Follow through - the trailing letters movements in the air

Types of Fonts to Consider:
Depending on the type of movement i choose for my leap (be it a high leap or a long leap or smooth or more clumsy) i will have to choose different fonts to represent this movement.

Horse style leap : a more lean and sturdy font such as Malayalam MN or rockwell extra bold. Engravers MT.
Ballerina style leap: a more dainty fragile font possibly curly and representative of ribbons (like on ballerina shoes) such as Lucida Calligraphy or Harrington.

This is the animation i made for my leap animation. I decided to use the leap made by the fox in my research video from 41 seconds as the jump that i will be creating for my animation. I used a font that reflects the leap slim nature of the fox in one of my research videos. My animation shows the Anticipation before the jump when it squashed down and tilts back on itself to create momentum, the small jump at the beginning of the jump also shows a build up of momentum. I also made sure i included the follow through motions of the tail flick at the end of the jump that can be seen most exaggerated with the L as it flicks up wards at the end when trailing after the other letters. However i think with the motion of this jump the ending dons look quite right and perhaps is too slows and control. It appears as though the P is pulling the letters down like a roller coaster after the leap reaches the top of the arc rather than gravity pulling the down. Perhaps the letters stay in the air for too long as well. 

I then decided to try and create a ballerina style jump version of this animation just to start to get an understanding of the principles and differences in motion between the two jumps. I used a more curved font for this animation to symbolise the ribbons that are associated with ballerinas and also to represent the flowing movements made by the dancers,The font is also slim to represent the delicate nature of the appearance of the dance. The movements i changed in this version is the exaggeration of squash which i made less so for the ballerina jump and made the first little jump quicker like a small skip before the jump as the ballerina video i watched shows that the dancers made small jumps before the big leap however they were very tiny and quick dainty jumps. I also made the word bend back on itself slightly imitating the shape made by the dancers legs when at the height of the leap. i also slowed the speed down in parts of the jump to create a more flowing and controlled effect to the animation similar to how the dancers move. 

Observation

3/11/14

Observation

 

By observing the area from different angles and aspects of it i found that it changed the mood and overall feeling of something that originally and at first glance seemed quite insignificant. this method of recording celebrates and amplifies the spirit of the subject matter, bringing them back to life almost as they become re noticed again. I crouched down very low for this picture with the camera on the ground in order to include the leaf that was growing out of a crack in the concrete floor as well as a low angle of the abandoned couch. This shows the urban battle between the struggle of plants trying to grow in man made areas.

ob·ser·va·tion [ob-zur-vey-shuhn] Noun

1.  an act or instance of noticing or perceiving.

 2.  an act or instance of regarding attentively or watching. 

3.  the faculty or habit of observing or noticing.

In animation it is important to become a great observer and to notice the minute. To study the world around you with all of its contents and complexities. This project is to start the process of observing and 'seeing' as well as looking. In the environments we find ourselves in there are many new things to discover. Some of the things we may pass by, at first glance perhaps their precious or interesting qualities not noticed. I am going to become aware, and notice these precious aspects of things. and record and save my findings in various ways.

flâneur/flaˈnəː,French flanœʀ/

noun
A person who saunters around observing society.

We are going to wander to Stockport's Market Square to a courtyard at the back of an art cafe called '7 miles out'. We will be "les Flâneurs". Explorers with the simple intention of noticing things, and noticing things that perhaps may not be immediately obvious. This task allows me to take time to notice things in small confined area narrowing my range of space to observe and there fore encouraging me to look deeper into this area. 

I will record my findings with a range of methods and materials such as papers, drawings materials, cameras, sound recordings, and impressions with clay to build my collection. I will use them to explore the place but also to explore the idea of "capturing". 

Leonardo Da Vinci 1452-1519:

Leonardo was a great observer. He excelled in many areas, his range wide and way ahead of his time in a broad range of areas. He closely observed the body and how the brain worked and the circulatory system. His findings of these topics became the basis of research today. 
He was one of the most famous, inventors and scientists who ever lived. His energy was limitless when i came to asking questions and searching for answers and on top of this he was the master of observation, which led to more questions and discoveries. He had a strong desire to learn as much as he could about everything he observed. He learned from experiencing, experimenting and observing everything he came in contact with. 

“The average human looks without seeing, ! listens without hearing, touches without feeling, ! eats without tasting, moves without physical awareness, inhales without awareness of odour or fragrance, ! and talks without thinking.”!

- Leonardo da Vinci 

Elliot Erwitt Newyork City 2000:

Elliot Erwitt is a photographer from France who observed the world as he walked through it searching for moments and timing, taking into consideration the angles and positioning of an image and the importance that all of theses have combined. One of the subjects Wdward frequently photographed through out his career was dogs. This picture below is one of his photographs of observation.

Since the 1970s, he has devoted much of his energy toward movies.

This photograph shows an image that has not been digitally manipulated or manipulated in any way, but shows how the photographer has taken an observational recording of a situation at just the right time and angle to capture this moment in a certain way making it seem as though the dog on the persons lap is actually the head of the person with a human body. 

"To me, photography is an art of observation. It's about finding something interesting in an ordinary place... I've found it has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them."

- Elliott Erwitt! 

Scene from American Beauty Directed By Sam Mendes:

                           

This short clip from the film shows the observation that one of the characters from the move made and how by observing the dancing plastic bag he brought it to life, noticed its precious qualities, if movements how it flowed and gave it human characteristics by describing it as a child and by saying it was playing. This way of describing and viewing the inanimate object most would see as just rubbish, gave it a personality like a human would have and gave it life. 

My Own Observations: 

When visiting the courtyard there was not much space to observe as it was a small confined area that had been left untouched for some time. My task was to observe and record unnoticed aspects of the area and small sections of interest and this idea of being in a confined area allowed me to delve deeper into sections of the area rather than being overwhelmed with subject matter of a large area. I wanted to observe the textures of the area along with the shapes and spaces within it and also the inhabitants of the area such as the creatures that had moved in and made it their home due to the lack of human interference such as the numerous spider and insects that had made their homes here.

I wanted my recordings to show the atmosphere of the place and the components that make up this area to give viewers a sense of the place and show them a more in-depth view, delving deeper into the perhaps less noticeable observations rather than showing the area as a whole. This way the viewer can feel each aspect of the area individually and build up their own overall feelings of the atmosphere and personality of the place. Almost like a more forensic unraveling of the courtyard.
To do this i recorded my findings in various ways, making sketches of the natural structures in the area and broke/ chipped fragments in the wall, i made rubbings of the various marks and textures of the area and used different materials to capture and symbolise the atmosphere of the place.
I found that when recording

These are two images i took while observing the courtyard i was in. I recorded them by taking photographs, a very literal method of recording, however i took them from unusual angles and of unusual subject matter such as the top image which show shows an image in which i positioned the camera from underneath a small tunnel in the side of a wall of a spider web, to show the perpective of this section of the are that the spider may hve, giving the audience a diffrent point of view. This shows how i have used an extreme close up and angles and positioning to show a new approach and perspective of the area to the viewer which celebrates a very noticed yet intriguing section of the place. The second image shows how i have used black and white photography to emphasise the contrast i found in some areas. the effect of taking pictures in black and white is that it reduces all the distractions of colour in the image and shows clearly areas of high contrast but also emphasises the textures on the floor in this image. Again i took this picture in a perhaps unusual side angle in order to prevent the audience slightly from seeing the image literally (as a couch near a sheet) breaking the everyday connects made with the image at first glance and allowing the audience to sense the atmosphere of the image and so see the textures, lines and shapes made by the area, rather than just to look at recognisable objects that are easily dismissed. The image requires more thought and deeper observation that just first glance due to its angle and so starts to make the audience themselves observe this area in a deeper way.

These are two more of the image i captured at the courtyard. The top image shows another example of contrasts in the area between light and shadow and creates a rather humble effect in the this image i think as the small spotlight in the abandoned dark gloomy surface highlights the subtle mossy textures that can be seen in the image showing the formation of life on the crumbling bricks and emphasises the organic nature of the textures in this image. There is also an element of movement in this image created by the line made by the edges of the bricks in the middle of the image which travels to the top of the image and shows perspective. this line leads the eye along it and creates an aspect of movement. It also shows some repetition as the eye leads along the line due to the fact that the bricks are in town and repeat one after another along the line.

These two images were the most straightforward images i took with regards to how the audience will view them as straight away we see the couches and know what they are with out having to look any deeper into the image etc. However i liked the feeling these images had and the qualities they possessed with the message they portrayed about the area and their literal appearance helped with this. I think these images show the overall feelings i got from the area of abandonment, with traces left and clues that show how it used to cared for at one point. This image of the chair shows the regal design of the couch and its form and textures still intact, however the viewer can also see how the chair has become weathered and broken and now sits abandoned in the urban outdoors, however even so, the image still shows a humble and even charming appeal about it, with the contrasting textures and subtle tones of washed out naturalistic colours. This image shows how the abandoned objects can still be captured as precious and how their spirit can be revived through observation.

The top image of these two shows text in the top left corner behind the curling barbed wire. the curling of the text reflects the curls of the wire. These two images of the same area next to each other shows the contrast of the elements inside it however with one main theme of 'abandonment'. The wires suggest a more industrial and urban environment while the spider web show a more natural and earthy environment. 

Slide Show of all the images i took for my observational recordings:

Time-lapse Videos i captured of the area:

This video is showing some of the movement in the area. The movement is subtle and simple, of a piece of leave attached to a string of spiderweb swaying slightly, it suggests the simplicity of the area with regards to the fact that it has been pretty much untouched and emphasises this feeling of loneliness and abandonment about the place as this is the only movement i show of the area and so gives a feeling of no business or human interference. This video also gives the visual perspective and point of view of the small inhabitants of the area such as the spiders (keeping up with my reoccurring theme of spider webs).

This image is a timelapse video i took of a worm moving through soil on the floor. The effect of it is a twitchy hard to focus on almost eery short clip as it shows the dirt around the worm and the organic form of the worm itself. This is showing a more naturalistic view of the area and its inhabitants, but also displays an uncomfortable atmosphere that reflects the subtle uncomfortable feeling of the courtyards mess and abandonment.

Some of the drawings i recorded of the area (can be seen in sketchbook): 

This is a charcoal rubbing i took of one of the textures in the area. This was the texture and form of a rusted grid on the floor. The effect of using charcoal creates a gritty dirty appearance and reflects the nature of the grid. This idea of rubbing to record an image, is directly recording each fragment of the subject while still maintaining a rather abstract and not completely figurative appearance of the grid. 

Drawing i made to represent one of the spider webs i noticed and recorded.

Drawing i recorded of another spider web that leads into a hole in the wall. 

In the courtyard there were wires along the walls that hung limply and as though they were about to fall off. I drew the lines made by these wires and overlapped the different trails made by each of them to make an abstract representation of these wires. The creases in the tracing paper represent and suggest the cracks in the wall behind the wires. 

05/11/14

Displaying my work 

I placed my display under a desk as it is hidden away slightly and the viewer has to crouch down to see it. this in a way reflects the nature of the area and my experience of the area as there are many hidden aspects of the area that are interesting and when finding these i had to move around, crouch down lean over things to observe some hidden parts of the area as opposed to just walking round it staying at a constant height.

These photographs show how i have hung up my elements and recordings in my display area, some of my recordings can not be seen such as two small screws i hung up from the ceiling of my display that i collected from the courtyard and brought back with me. I also had my videos playing at the back of this display however i had to move them by the time i photographed my display. 

I arranged my display in a way that would represent the area as a whole even though i only recorded small individual section of the area such as the numerous spiderwebs. i organised my findings in a way that they were spread out with in the area. For example i have placed many of my spider web recordings hanging from the roof of my display as most of the time they were up fairly high and hung. i have placed my recordings of the old couch at the back of my display as this is where it was situated in the courtyard. there were also some wires that hung on the wall of the courtyard, i made drawing of these and placed them on the walls of my display. I chose to have my display in a this section underneath a table as it creates a darker environment and emphasises this gurney abandoned feel that the courtyard gave to me, and allowed me to reflect my experience more clearly.
The way i organised my work in this section is layered. Some of my work is behind others, meaning that the viewer has to look further to see more of my findings. This represents the area and the nature of how i recorded my work with regards to the fact of the more you look, the more you find.