STOP MOTION - PICK UP BOX

Today, we started working with armatures to create character animation, showing how they'd react to, and lift a box.

Before that, we looked at the employability aspect of animation, specifically in stop motion. We learnt that it's not a good field to go into if you plan on settling down, since there'll be a lot of moving around to different studios wherever jobs need filling in.

To get a job in the field, you'd need:

• An understanding of the Animation Principles
• To be able to work without supervision under a brief
• To deliver on schedule / under pressure
• FOCUS
• Good communication skills
• The ability to work well with others
• To be able to operate equipment correctly
• Problem solving skills

We also had a quick look at the various jobs in stop motion production, including:

• Animator
• Assistant Animator
• Model Maker
• Rigger
• Key Senior Animator

(Daniel Alderson is a stop motion animator for Laika - credit: The Academy)

From there, we moved onto the task for the day! We had already created storyboards, which followed the brief of having a character walk into frame, notice a box, and then pick it up. We could be creative with the idea, adding in anything we wanted just so long as the original idea is still there. I worked with Billy for this task, who I had never worked with before.

We used the following storyboard:

We were in the animation production studio area of the building for this task, where I had only worked once for a practice task. The setup was different this time though; instead of using magnets to keep the armature in place, we used pins this time. This, in my opinion, was a lot easier than the magnets, since there was a lot less guess-work in figuring out where the magnet was meant to go. The pins were a lot easier to just push into the feet.

Along the way, we came up with little touches and actions that weren't in the storyboards, but would fit in between the main 6 action poses. One of the key ones Billy came up with was a slight fourth wall break, where the character would look into the camera for a brief second, and then continue on with the action.

It all went really well... until I knocked the camera accidentally. Since the camera was on a pole attached to the ceiling, it'd be more difficult to knock than a camera on a tri-pod. But I did manage to knock it, and it threw the frame off. I had a panic about it, trying desperately to fix it and get the camera at least close to where it was before. Thanks to Billy's help, the camera was fixed to be close to what it was. I still wasn't entirely happy with it, and thought that it'd be obvious that there was a change in framing. But after watching back the animation with new footage... it was fine. I panicked over nothing.

After that, we managed to get the rest of the animation finished just fine! We had to come up with a good way to show the box flying up into the air, and then falling back down again. The idea settled on was a very rudimentary rig, which involved tying the box to a string, and looping the string around a pole above the set. It would act as a pulley system of sorts. And it worked! We got the effect we wanted, and had a fun time doing it!

And the finished animation looks like this!



In the end, I'm REALLY happy with how this animation turned out! It's definitely made me enjoy stop motion a lot more, and I think it's a combination of working with other people and what we were actually animating. The armature was a lot easier to animate than the bouncing ball, strangely enough. I think it was mostly from how much more stable and well put-together it is, over the more DIY feel of the ball bounce rig. If I was to do this task again, two things come to mind; a minor thing, which is making sure the last shot doesn't have the pins visible in frame, and a MAJOR thing: don't over-panic about things going wrong. I worried for far too long about knocking the camera and not being able to fix it, only to have it turn out looking fine. This is a lesson for me to not worry so much about things going wrong, and sometimes just going with things being as good as we can get them.

WEEK 6 SUMMARY

WEEK BEGINNING - January 21st, 2019

WEEK ENDING - January 27th, 2019

MONDAY - Maya introduction

Original blog post: https://ncarolannua1b.blogspot.com/2019/01/cgi-introduction.html

- "Overall, I'm really happy with both the animation and the introduction to Maya in general! Being completely honest, I was not expecting myself to find Maya as (for lack of a better term) easy and user friendly as it was; I actually understood it, unlike After Effects. Everything is laid out how I would've expected it, and things do what you want! It shares traits to other programs I've dabbled with, but in a way that makes the translation from 2D to CGI usage easy to understand! While I'm happy with the animation that came out of this session, I think I want to go back and add in more details; model in a barn, a background, and more cows to make a more interesting animation!"

TUESDAY - Narratology: Animation is a Uniquely Visual Medium

Original blog post: https://ncarolannua1b.blogspot.com/2019/01/narrative-animation-is-uniquely-visual.html

- "And that was the final lecture on Narratology! At this point, we should have a film in mind, or at least have whittled it down to 2 choices. I'm sticking with Who Framed Roger Rabbit? for my film; it fits into my chosen question format too well. From here, I need to settle on a plan of action for the essay, and do deeper research."

THURSDAY - Stop Motion introduction

<to be added>

SUMMARY

This first week for a couple of things, and I loved one a LOT more than the other.

The CGI / Maya introduction was the one I really liked! CGI was my introduction to animation, and watching films like Toy Story and Shrek really inspired me to go into animation. I learnt later on that CGI was allegedly very difficult, even the simplest things. But now I've done the simplest things and discovered that they weren't too difficult, it puts my mind at ease a LOT. Despite only having one session on CGI, I feel like I've absolutely fallen for it; definitely a medium I'm looking forward to doing more of!

Stop Motion... isn't as enjoyable as I imagined, or as I remember from past experience. The process is a lot more fiddly and complex than I recall, and you really need a good sense of patience when you do it; and I'm willing to admit one of my faults is lack of patience. Maybe this session with the bouncing ball was a one-off? Things kept falling apart, and injuries were almost sustained (luckily, no-one was actually hurt). When we move onto armatures, hopefully it'll be less... personally frustrating.

We've ended our traditional lectures with Lynsey now, and this last one was somewhat helpful. It covered a few points that I could apply to my Who Framed Roger Rabbit themed essay, but nothing overly helpful like last week. The presentation was more so on how animation tells a story visually, but not handy in my essay exploring how animation is used in conjunction with the plot itself. If anything, this session was most helpful in solidifying that, now everything's concluded with lectures, I should really sit down and put my points down in concrete.

Sketchbook project this week has been a bit down, a combination of being busy with the work this week and, being completely honest, a lack of motivation. I feel like I burnt myself out on it the past two weeks getting things done, that I've subconsciously gotten tired of the sketchbook. I still pick it up every so often for a little scribble on the page, but not much else. I'm sure the motivation will come back.

NARRATIVE - "WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT?" AND STORY BREAKDOWN

This post is focusing on my chosen film for the Narrative essay. My film is Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, released in 1988 and was directed by Robert Zemeckis.

(Who Framed Roger Rabbit?'s trailer - credit: Touchstone Pictures)

The film stars Bob Hoskins as Detective Eddie Valiant, Christopher Lloyd as Judge Doom and Charles Fleisher as Roger Rabbit.

The story is set in 1947, in a world where humans and cartoon characters, referred to as "toons", co-exist. P.I. Eddie Valiant is hired by famous cartoon director R. K. Maroon to investigate the wife of one of his biggest stars, Roger Rabbit, after a series of poor performances. Valiant, despite being a notorious toon-hater, takes the job and manages to sneak a few shots of Rabbit's wife, Jessica Rabbit, spending time with another man. Roger runs off after being shown the photos in a fit of rage and jealousy.

The next day, we find out the man Jessica Rabbit was seeing, Marvin Acme, had been killed by a toon; they dropped a safe on his head. Roger is the main suspect in the case. Valiant meets with Judge Doom at the crime scene, who announces that he's created a toon-killing chemical called Dip. Doom is the highest bidder on Toontown, and threatens that toons who don't respect the law will face the Dip.

Upon returning home, Valiant discovers Roger broke into his apartment, pleading his innocence. Valiant reluctantly agrees to help prove it, by finding Marvin Acme's will, a missing piece of evidence in the murder case. The will outlines that Toontown would belong to the toons for eternity, and would block Judge Doom's plans. Roger is hidden in a bar run by Valiant's friend, as Jessica Rabbit meets Valiant later to also plead Roger's innocence. Roger is eventually found at the bar by Judge Doom and his gang of weasels, only for Valiant to save him at just the last second. The two jump into a cartoon taxi and make their getaway.

They lay low at a theatre for a bit, where Valiant reveals his past to Roger; he was a part of a detective duo with his brother Teddy, until a toon dropped a piano on his head and killed him. Valiant then starts putting together that Doom's company bidding on Toontown also bought out Maroon Cartoons. Confronting R. K. Maroon, he confesses that he only sold the studio out of fear for the toons' safety... and then he gets shot.

Valiant sees Jessica fleeing the scene, and follows her straight into Toontown. After some hi-jinks in Toontown, the two bump into each other where Jessica explains Doom killed Maroon, and that she had Marvin Acme's will all along... only to find it blank. The weasels then find Valiant and Jessica, and take them to the Acme factory.

At the factory, Doom reveals his intentions; after buying the public transportation in California, as well as Toontown, he plans to steamroll & "Dip" the town to create a freeway. Roger suddenly bursts in, launching an unsuccessful rescue attempt which only ends in him and Jessica being tied up and aimed at with Dip. Valiant defeats the surrounding weasels operating all the machinery that would put the plan into action, performing a variety of vaudeville stunts and cartoon gags; they die of laughter.

One of the now loose machines flattens Doom, only for him to reveal he was a toon all along. And not just any toon... but the one that killed Valiant's brother. The two fight each other using various toon weapons, but Valiant ultimately gets the final blow when he strikes Doom with a high pressure hose of Dip. Doom dissolves away. The steamroller crashes through the wall leading to Toontown, only to be destroyed by a train.

Roger starts reading out a love poem he wrote on a seemingly blank piece of paper on the night he found out about Jessica seeing Acme. Turns out the paper was Acme's will, written in his trademark disappearing ink. Roger and Valiant now see eye to eye, as everyone happily walks into Toontown.

NARRATIVE - "ANIMATION IS A UNIQUELY VISUAL MEDIUM"

This session was our final dedicated lecture looking at our Narratology project, and looked at how animation works with it's visuals, and how the medium can bring forward stories that can't be presented any other way.

"People keep saying 'the animation genre'. It's not a genre!" ~ Brad Bird, director of The Incredibles, Ratatouille and The Iron Giant.

Like the above quote suggests, animation in itself isn't a genre like a sci-fi or a horror. Animation is a medium.

A medium is the means or method of conveying information. In the arts, there are many different mediums: painting, photography, fashion, film-making... and animation. Animation is mostly considered a genre by the general audience as films made for young children and nothing more. However, animation has been used to get across more than just those types of films. We've seen hard hitting social commentary, risque shorts, and even entire movies & TV series with an adult only orientation.

(South Park has been running since 1997, using animation to show a variety of vulgar, controversial actions and commentaries - credit: Comedy Central)

Animation encompasses a wide range of styles and stories, the latter of which may not even be able to be told without animation. The medium can be intrinsic (vital) to the narrative.

This is where a comparison of Content and Substance comes in. The two can be respectively paired with Story and Discourse, and represent two factors of the story:

• Story / Content - what's told
• Discourse / Substance - how it's told

The substance of an animated film can be just about anything. Through this, we can use animation to tell unique stories that other mediums can't.

"Implicit in the study of the animated form is how 'meaning' is generated by the unique vocabulary available to the animator, which is not the province of the live-action film-maker" ~ Paul Wells

An example of a somewhat exclusive technique to animation is metamorphasis. Cartoons from the mid-1920s to later 1930s used the Rubberhose style, which involved metamorphasis for more comedic effect.

(Snow-White by the Fleischer Brothers and starring Betty Boop incorporates metamorphasis during certain sequences, including the Queen's head turning into a frying pan with two eggs. The short also uses rotoscoping during the Saint James Infirmary Blues sequence ~ credit: Fleischer Brothers)

Another technique animation uses is fabrication. In this context, fabrication means to take existing materials - be it natural or artificial - and reinterpret them within an animated film.

(Bottle by Kirsten Lepore uses fabrication with the items the sand and snow people send to each other - credit: Kirsten Lepore)

(Wladyslaw Starewicz's The Cameraman's Revenge took dead insects from a previous project of theirs, and repurposed them to be animated puppets; audiences were amazed, and considered Starewicz to be more like a magician than a film-maker - credit: Wladyslaw Starewicz)

Animation, as briefly mentioned before, can be used to show more daring subjects & imagery with the facade of a cartoon. Many people associate cartoons and animation with their childhood; moreso, innocence. So seeing horrific actions played out through a cartoon would make it seem a lot better than it actually is.

(Tex Avery's The Cat That Hated People continually shows abuse towards the titular cat; horrific if shown in live action, but played for laughs in animation - credit: Metro Goldwyn Mayer)

The Cat That Hated People also follows the carnivalesque rule animation can incorporate. It essentially means that normal rules are disabled, reversed or altered. It's usually applied to emphasise humour, satire or grotesquery.

One very important element to animation is it's visual storytelling.

"If it's a good movie, the sound could go off and the audience would still have a perfectly clear idea of what's going on." ~ Alfred Hitchcock, director of Psycho, amongst others

The film-making rule of "show, don't tell" is also applicable to animation. You should plant hints and clues to things, or just straight up show them instead of having things be disclosed through just dialogue.

Roland Barthes stated there were 5 Narrative Codes, two of which we discussed; first there's the Hermenautic Code. This code is when you build mystery & suspense, posing questions that only the narrative can answer. For example:

• "What happens after death?" is NOT a Hermeneutic question
• "After her death, Jane found her day-to-day activities become much more interesting" IS a Hermeneutic question; only the narrative following and/or preceding it can answer this for us.

Linked to this is also Casual Connection and Ellipsis.

Casual Connection is when two random words or images are put side by side. By default, our brain will try and guess what the correlation is through some kind of mini narrative. For  example, showing the words BANANA and VOMIT next to each other. When asked in the lecture what the link would be, the unanimous answer was "it's a bad banana". 

Ellipsis is related in that it's the deliberate omission of what the correlation is, leaving the audience to figure it out themselves with context clues and/or later surrounding actions.

"Explanation kills drama" ~ John Yorke

A smaller, somewhat similar code is the Cultural Code. It involves the audience filling in the gaps that the ellipses creates with their own experiences. 

We also looked at the Kuleshov Effect. The effect is simple; you take three shots; one of a person looking at something, one of what they're looking at, and finally one of their reaction. When you replace the middle clip with something else, the final reaction shot can take on a whole new meaning.

(Alfred Hitchcock explaining the Kuleshov Effect - credit: CBC)

Older texts that use these techniques may be more difficult to read into, given that you may need proper historical context.

Finally, we looked at Narrative Statements.

In a narrative, there are two types of statements it can bring up:

• Process Statement - something that is done or happens
• Stasis Statement - something that simply is or just exists

We finished off by watching an animation that takes the "show, don't tell" rule to it's extreme, by telling a 22 minute story with nearly no dialogue.

(The Old Lady And The Pigeons only has dialogue in it's opening and closing minutes; the main storyline features no dialogue whatsoever - credit: Sylvain Chomet)

And that was the final lecture on Narratology! At this point, we should have a film in mind, or at least have whittled it down to 2 choices. I'm sticking with Who Framed Roger Rabbit? for my film; it fits into my chosen question format too well. From here, I need to settle on a plan of action for the essay, and do deeper research.

STOP MOTION - INTRODUCTION

Today we started our 3 week Stop Motion unit!

We started out by looking at this project's outline, which includes:

1. Ball Bounce
2. Character lifting a Box
3. Walk Cycle / Change of Emotion

For this first week, we started with the ball bounce. We were advised to consider several factors, including where squash and stretch could be applied and the timing / spacing. The only real requirement for the task was that the ball had to be on the spot, and make one full bounce.

But before we started, we looked at other stop motion animations, and the people who animated them; an example of which is Kevin Parry.

(Parry's showreel, showcasing shots from Kubo and the Two Strings - credit: Kevin Parry, Laika)

Parry works for Laika Animation, who made Coraline, The Boxtrolls and Kubo and the Two Strings. In his showreel, we see the various rigs and setups he used to animate characters, from smaller setups for the human characters, to more complex, greenscreen-required rigs for larger creatures.

We then moved onto the task. I was paired up with Rachael, someone who I already knew I worked well with. We had a simple rig to work with; a wooden block supporting a single wire, which had a Plasticine ball on the end of it. We created several iterations of the ball bounce animation, each time swapping roles between animating and capturing pictures, and making changes that made the animation look a little better each time.

(One of our first iterations; the timing wasn't working as well as we wanted, and we had issues with the camera and rig we were using.)

Our biggest change came with visualising our timings. In DragonFrame, the stop motion program we were using, it lets you draw references on the screen for different things using a pen tool. With this, we made a small reference of what our timings would look like, creating a long line upwards for the vertical high and low of the ball, and then small horizontal lines for where the top of the ball would be on each frame. We considered easing in and out when working out the timings, making it so the ball would speed up and slow down where necessary.

(A later iteration that worked much better; we were much happier with the timing and overall look of the animation)

Once we had an animation we were satisfied with, we tried experimenting with start points and timing a bit more. In my opinion, these didn't turn out as well as the finished animation, but it was interesting to see what more variation resulted in.

(Two of our later variations. Timing was changed to be slower, but ultimately didn't look as good as our 3rd original iteration.)

We had issues along the way when making these animations. The main one was the rig we were using. It wasn't ideal for the task we were doing for several reasons; the ball kept falling off, as well as being really difficult to mould when we wanted to add some squash and stretch in. The wire was not stable at all, it would wobble about after trying to put it into a new position, often just returning back to the pose it was in the previous frame. It kept coming out the wooden block, and it was strangely sharp. It wasn't necessarily dangerous, but it certainly could've been safer.

In the end, I'd say this session went... alright. I'm not the biggest fan of animating in stop motion, since it's a little bit too fiddly and requires a lot more patience to pull off effectively than I have. Admittedly, those feelings could be just from this one session; animating this particular task was frustrating, purely because the materials wouldn't work the way we wanted them to. But perhaps the next stop motion task can sway me a little bit.

CGI - INTRODUCTION

This session was our introduction to the program Maya.

Maya, also known as Autodesk Maya, is a program used to make CGI models, games and animations. 

(An example of the Maya UI - credit: The Gnomon Workshop)

For this session, we learnt some of the basics of Maya's workspace, how to model simple shapes and elements, and how to animate them.

In Maya, you create things out of primitive shapes; cubes, spheres, cylinders, etc. Through various means of manipulating faces, edges and vertices, you can change how they look and how they go together. We started out by using the sphere shape to start to create a classic-looking flying saucer.

First, we took a sphere and scaled it up on all factors, essentially just making it a bigger sphere. From there, we brought one of the dimensions down, turning it from a sphere into more of a frisbee-like, flatter shape. We had the saucer bit of our flying saucer! 

Next was the main dome of the saucer. That was easy enough; just make a new sphere, scale it up a little bit, and then change it's position so that it's in the right place on the saucer. We then used that sphere as an anchor point for smaller domes surrounding it. Using a duplication shortcut combined with the new anchor point, Maya was able to create a circle of domes surrounding the anchor point.

At that point, there was a complete UFO! Then came the animation.

I'd never crossed paths with CGI animation, so I was genuinely surprised to find out that animating in that medium worked exactly how I thought it would. You set up individual keyframes, adjusting the object's position, scale, rotation, etc. And then Maya fills in the movements between! It's similar to how Premiere Pro and After Effects deal with moving elements, but I never expected it of a professional CGI program. This is called interpolation, where the frames between keyframes are approximated by the program.

While learning how to do basic animation, we found out how to create nested animations within them. For this, we decided we wanted the UFO to continually spin as the main movements went on. For this, we went into the object's own timeline, and found it's Y axis control. In it's line graph, we changed the value so that it would continue going upwards. Through that, it allowed the UFO to just keep spinning!

After we finished up with the UFO, we were let loose with trying to model a cow all on our own. We were allowed to have fun with it, so I made a cow using some ridiculous proportions and shapes. And also a top hat.

(I dubbed him "Mr. Bull")

So we had a UFO, and we had a cow. The last thing we modelled was a tractor beam. While making it, we learned how to apply colours to our models (which we then added to the cow and UFO). Flat colours are called lamberts, and shiny textures are called phongs. A bright blue lambert was applied to the tractor beam, and then it's opacity was brought down by about 50% to give it some transparency. 

The tractor beam was then parented to the UFO; this means that the two travel together, but can still be manipulated individually. 

Now we had all the elements to make our animation; a UFO abducting a cow. This meant manipulating all 3 objects created, but at different times. I started by blocking out the UFO's movements. The animation starts and ends with it, so it'd be a good indication of how long things needed to last for. The UFO stays still for about 60% of the time it's on screen, sharing 20% on each end for it's moving in and out of shot.

Next was the tractor beam. It had it's scale manipulated to get bigger, remain big for a couple of seconds, then recede back. I had it's anchor point set to it's top point, so when it got bigger, it was growing out from that point.

The cow was next to be animated, which would then be animated in the timespan that the tractor beam was onscreen. It needed to get dragged up by the beam, and disappear into the ship. I did that, and added a slight change in rotation to give off a more floaty look.

I added one final touch of my own... I noticed that there was a text tool, so I wanted to add a little "moo" coming from the cow. So I did that.

And the animation was done!


Overall, I'm really happy with both the animation and the introduction to Maya in general! Being completely honest, I was not expecting myself to find Maya as (for lack of a better term) easy and user friendly as it was; I actually understood it, unlike After Effects. Everything is laid out how I would've expected it, and things do what you want! It shares traits to other programs I've dabbled with, but in a way that makes the translation from 2D to CGI usage easy to understand! While I'm happy with the animation that came out of this session, I think I want to go back and add in more details; model in a barn, a background, and more cows to make a more interesting animation!

WEEK 5 SUMMARY

WEEK BEGINNING - January 14th, 2019

WEEK ENDING - January 20th, 2019

MONDAY - After Effects continuation

Original blog post: https://ncarolannua1b.blogspot.com/2019/01/animation-principles-iteration-3.html

- "At this point, I'm really happy with how this is coming along! It's looking as smooth as I wanted it to, with the only thing I need to fix at this point already being mentioned. This post was mostly about the build up to turning back into the Gauntlet, but the actual transformation is what's next."

TUESDAY - Narratology: The Hero's Journey

Original blog post: https://ncarolannua1b.blogspot.com/2019/01/narrative-heros-journey_15.html

- "There wasn't too much that spoke to me in terms of the films or questions I have in mind, apart from one aspect of the non-conventional narratives; specifically, the evolution of materiality. I want to explore how animation can be integrated into the narrative, and seeing an unconventional structure with that very idea could be useful to look into!"

WEDNESDAY - After Effects continuation

Original blog post: https://ncarolannua1b.blogspot.com/2019/01/animation-principles-final-iteration.html

- "So that's it for the morphing animation! I'm really happy with how it came out! The colours, animation and visuals all match what I want, and it even made me get along with After Effects a little bit more! I feel like if there wasn't a restriction on the colour palette (maximum 4 colours), then I could've presented a more accurate Infinity Gauntlet, just in terms of bringing in more Infinity Stones. That was the only real part of the brief that limited me, everything else I was fine with!"

THURSDAY - TINE KLUTH STOP MOTION INTRODUCTION

<to be added>

SUMMARY

This was a good week! I got a satisfactory amount of work done, and it was a great way to segue from the first part of BA1b into the second, with each half of the week being somewhat dedicated to each.

I finished my morphing animation! I spent a lot of time just working on it this week, I had a lot of motivation all of a sudden! I'm really happy with my end result; a phrase I should stop using so often, but that's the only way I can really put it! The visuals and motions are all clean and look really nice in my opinion! I got some positive feedback from some peers, and any advice they gave was very helpful and immediately got implemented into the animation (if I saw eye to eye with them on it).

Narratology this week was unexpectedly helpful in it's subject matter. I don't plan on doing my essay about the Hero's Journey, but there were some parts towards the end of the lecture that are going to be very helpful when talking about Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Specifically, there was a term we learned about at the end regarding riffing, an animation narrative type where gags and jokes take over story. In my chosen film, riffs are used as full on story beats, so definitely one to keep in mind going forward!

My sketchbook was more doodles than anything this week. I've been trying to treat this less as a uni task, and more so as just another one of my own personal sketchbooks; and that attitude has been helpful with filling up sketchbooks! I've also looked back on sketchbooks of mine from 2013-2016, seeing what kinds of things I drew there and if I could recapture the same kind of things I was doing then.

ANIMATION PRINCIPLES - FINAL ITERATION

This post is looking at my final iteration of my Infinity War Morphing animation!



I sat down for a while to get this completely finished. I had a list of things I needed to do, and was determined to get them done to the absolute best I could.

The main bulk of the work was turning the Eye of Agamotto back into the Infinity Gauntlet. I decided the best way to make the morph look natural was to have corresponding colours from both props turn into the elements of each other. This mean the light gold base of the Eye of Agamotto would turn into the light gold hand plate, and the darker gold Eye inner casing would turn into the Gauntlet's cuff.

I tried to make both sub-transformations look unique from each other in some way; to achieve this, I had one be transformed by squishing flat down and re-emerging, and the other growing outwards.

I created a new path for the Time Stone to travel along to get back to it's original place on the thumb plate. I kept the same general idea of travelling with a loop incorporated in, but changed the speed from something quite fast to something slower. I also got rid of an element connected to the Time Stone; the rune from iteration 3. I ultimately decided not to use it, both out of it somewhat distracting from the start of the morph and it didn't fit with everything else going on.

The fingers also needed to come back, so instead of making them just reappear, I had some fun with it. I made them all sprout up one at a time, having a little jump as they did. I thought it was a fun little visual, and it fit with everything else. The thumb plate also pops out, but not as prominently as the fingers do.

The final thing I added was the placements for the other stones. Last time I had them applied, they were too fine-lined and weren't noticeable. This time, I decided to make them bigger and bolder. They used dark gold outlines and black insides, to show them off more. They were all one object, so the five could move at the same time. There wasn't a good way to make them move out the way during the morph, be it collectively or not. So I decided that, at an appropriate point, they would leap off the hand plate towards to viewer, but in a way that the gap between them becomes an excuse to have them disappear. When they came back, they'd slam back down onto the hand plate as the penultimate action.

So that's it for the morphing animation! I'm really happy with how it came out! The colours, animation and visuals all match what I want, and it even made me get along with After Effects a little bit more! I feel like if there wasn't a restriction on the colour palette (maximum 4 colours), then I could've presented a more accurate Infinity Gauntlet, just in terms of bringing in more Infinity Stones. That was the only real part of the brief that limited me, everything else I was fine with!

NARRATIVE - THE HERO'S JOURNEY

This session, we looked at The Hero's Journey, 6 reasons stories are told, the 7 Basic Plots and Unconventional Narratives.

We started off by looking back on Proppian narratives, which always start with a lack of or desire of something. The characters in those narratives are less complex than real people, and audiences like seeing characters with simple desires, fuelled by complex psychological reasons. The hero suffers from acts of villainy, offer to fight villains, and are bestowed magical items.

(Link from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is an example of a hero who takes on Proppian traits - credit: Nintendo)

A lot of the time, characters are given psychic wounds. In this sense, it's some kind of defect or flaw that makes the character different, and in some cases "special". For example, Anakin Skywalker in the Star Wars prequels has the psychic wound of, unbeknownst to him, being bestowed with great power and strength in the Force.

John Yorke calls this Three Dimensional Storytelling, in which characters go on journeys to fix or define their flaw.

We also looked over what has been coined as the "6 Reasons Stories are Told". They are as follows:

1. REHEARSAL - Prepares the audience, in the event that they have to go through the same challenges as the character(s).
2. HEALING - When we see characters healing and recognising their flaws, it can lead an audience to do the same.
3. INFORMATION RETRIEVAL - Stories & narratives help people to remember information; showing cause & effect, plotlines and characters help us tie down facts and info.
4. PANACEA - Happy endings give us hope; even history can be rewritten to suggest a sense of order and justice
5. PROCREATION - Ends in sexual union, or it's "symbolic manifestation through marriage".
6. PSYCHOLOGICAL - Lets the audience integrate their psyche onto the story, helping us conquer our own shadows, and give up our own ego-centric wants to fulfill our needs.

Aristotle said "Stories are about change". That's also true of society.

"Stories carry in their DNA a blueprint for society" - John Yorke 

Stories change us, and in turn helps us change society. And that change comes from when we face opposition. New ideas come from posing an idea, or thesis, with it's antithesis.

Take Toy Story for example. Woody is our thesis; an old school, self aware, rational cowboy doll. The introduction of Buzz Lightyear, Woody's antithesis, shows Woody how to deal with a modern, deluded and rash spaceman action figure. Their dynamic is the catalyst for Woody's change, showing him how to achieve balance in their setting with the two of them.

(The first scene of Buzz Lightyear and Woody meeting shows their conflicting ideals and personalities bounce off each other, creating conflict - credit: Pixar Animation Studios)

THE HERO'S JOURNEY vs THE PLOT OF REVELATION

The Hero's Journey is a transformative structure; someone changes, and there's either happy or tragic resolution. 

However, there also exists the Plot of Revelation. This structure focuses more on establishing the characters and settings, where events take a back seat. It's character oriented, and things stay essentially the same.

The two both have a focus on characters, but there's a narrative theme or question.

There's also the topic of character's wants vs needs. For example, the hero wanting to be in a relationship with the attractive cheerleader over the typical girl-next-door could lead to a less fulfilling, more shallow relationship.

(Taylor Swift's "You Belong With Me" music video perfectly captures the example given above - credit: Big Machine Records)

CATALYST HERO

Catalyst heroes mostly appear in franchises or TV shows, where they should remain largely the same across all their appearances. They should get a few moments of change here and there, but still remain recognisable.

(This fan edit of the Marvel Cinematic Universe character Tony Stark / Iron Man shows us some of the key changes the character experienced. He's a catalyst hero, appearing in 7 films so far with major changes only coming from 2 or 3 of them - credit: TopScreen, Marvel Studios)

THE 7 BASIC PLOTS
Christopher Booker outlined 7 basic plots that can be seen in whatever medium stories are told.

1. OVERCOMING THE MONSTER - Defeating an antagonistic force threatening the protagonist, and/or their home; e.g. Moana
2. RAGS TO RICHES - A poor protagonist gains power & wealth, loses it, then gets it back; e.g. Cinderella
3. THE QUEST - Protagonists & co. go to get an object / go somewhere, with obstacles and dangers; e.g. Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark
4. VOYAGE & RETURN - A protagonist goes to a strange land, and overcomes a threat, returning with experience and newfound knowledge; e.g. The Wizard of Oz
5. COMEDY - Light & humourous, with a happy or cheerful ending. Triumph over adverse circumstance with a successful or happy conclusion; e.g. Toy Story
6. TRAGEDY - The protagonist is actually the villain, and their death is deserved and expected; e.g. The Dark Knight
7. REBIRTH - The protagonist is a villain, but this time, they live and redeem themselves; e.g. Venom

NON-CONVENTIONAL NARRATIVES

"Traditional animation tends to imply that it is a film that tells a story in moving drawings... and contains what has always been called 'personality animation'"      - Pilling

There are rarely used story structures which narratives can utilise. Some include:

• ABSTRACTION - Laying out only the necessary details, mostly in terms of visuals. Simple shapes and colours replace largely detailed sets and models.
• SPECIFIC NON-CONTINUITY - Rejects "logical & linear continuity". This format can have illogical, irrational and sometimes multiple continuities.
• INTERPRETIVE FORM - Leaves questions and gaps so that the audience can fill them in, leading to a more subjective experience over an objective one. Delivers a feeling or sensation over anything else.
• EVOLUTION OF MATERIALITY - Involves the medium itself into the story / film. Colours, shapes and textures "evoke certain moods & ideas".
• MULTIPLE STYLES - Combines various different styles and techniques to best express the artist's "vision"
• PRESENCE OF THE ARTIST - A personal, subjective film that exists for the individual's vision
• DYNAMICS OF MUSICALITY - A form used to "resist dialogue", and is essentially visual music.
• PROTO-NARRATIVE (or RIFFING) - In line with early animations adapted from comic strips, riffing relies on using gags and jokes over a story.

And that was about it for this session! There wasn't too much that spoke to me in terms of the films or questions I have in mind, apart from one aspect of the non-conventional narratives; specifically, the evolution of materiality. I want to explore how animation can be integrated into the narrative, and seeing an unconventional structure with that very idea could be useful to look into!

ANIMATION PRINCIPLES - ITERATION 3

This post is about the third iteration of my Infinity War Morphing animation.

This was the start of the second half of the animation, where the Eye of Agamotto turns back into the Infinity Gauntlet.

I knew I wanted the Eye of Agamotto to break, and then turn back into the Gauntlet. Not only was this part of the original plan, but it also stays true to Avengers: Infinity War, the movie the animation is based on.

Near the end of the Battle of Titan scene, Thanos takes the Eye of Agamotto away from Doctor Strange, crushing it in his hand.

(Thanos snatching and crushing the Eye of Agamotto - credit: Marvel Studios)

To replicate this effect, I needed to do three things;

1. Move any unnecessary details for this action out the way
2. Show how the Eye is being crushed
3. Show the Eye breaking

I did two of these steps at the same time; as the Eye of Agamotto gets squished from the sides, the two prongs recede into the Eye. They detatch from the Eye before it's crushed, and go back once it's dimensions change.

To show the actual breaking, I created a lightning-bolt shaped crack. I coloured it black, so that it would match the background and look like there was an actual crack left in the Eye. I hid it just to the left of the action when it wasn't being used, seeing that it blended in with the black background. When I needed it, I positioned it right above the Eye, and made it stretch down when the Eye snapped. What I did notice after working on this was that there's one frame where the prong that snaps off gets covered up by the crack. Something to fix next time, either by moving the crack somewhere else or by adjusting the layer placements.

One extra detail I added was a Time Rune. In the films, the rune appears when time is being manipulated. I thought it could be a good callback to the MCU's usage of the Eye of Agamotto to make it seem like time was reversing and reforming the Gauntlet. I'm not sure if I'll go forward with this though; while it looks cool at this point, it could distract from the rest of the morphing going on.

(A time rune being used in Doctor Strange - credit: Marvel Studios)

At this point, I'm really happy with how this is coming along! It's looking as smooth as I wanted it to, with the only thing I need to fix at this point already being mentioned. This post was mostly about the build up to turning back into the Gauntlet, but the actual transformation is what's next.

WEEK 4 SUMMARY

WEEK BEGINNING: January 7th, 2019

WEEK ENDING: January 13th, 2019

MONDAY - After Effects continuation, Norwich Castle sketchbook trip

Original blog posts: https://ncarolannua1b.blogspot.com/2019/01/animation-principles-iteration-2.html 

- Continuing to work on morphing animation between two props from a live action film

- "So with that, the first half of the animation is done! From here, the main thing to do is to go back into the Infinity Gauntlet. And now I know how to make the morph look, and in an effort to keep consistency, the next half should go by much better!"

https://ncarolannua1b.blogspot.com/2019/01/sketchbook-project-norwich-castle-visit.html 

- Visiting Norwich Castle to do observational drawings

- "And that was about it for the visit! No real set task, just "go and draw". I found it alright, but not overly exciting? Observational drawing isn't what I particularly enjoy. I'm happy enough drawing just about anything in a cartoon format, and I'm becoming more fond of drawing just people thanks to life drawing... but observational drawings of regular things aren't my favourite thing."

TUESDAY - Up viewing and plot summary

Original blog post: https://ncarolannua1b.blogspot.com/2019/01/narrative-up-plot-summary-and-character.html

- Watched Up by Pixar Animation Studios, and give a plot summary afterwards, as well as identify Vogler's character archetypes.

SUMMARY

This week was a good return to form for me! I wasn't able to get as much work done over the Christmas break as I wanted, but I still got a decent amount done to act as a good jumping on point for this week.

This week was strange for the Narratology side of things. Lindsey wasn't there today, so we were just told to watch Up and write up a plot summary / character archetype breakdown afterwards. I think it was mostly an exercise to see if we could identify these on our own, not just by being taught what each one was with examples like in the PowerPoints we'd used before. I also feel entirely comfortable with my choice in question and film; Question #4 about how animation influences the narrative, and Who Framed Roger Rabbit respectively.

In After Effects, I continued on with my work on my morphing movie props animation. This week was a HUGE leap in terms of what I managed to get done. I struggled in Week 3, for reasons out of my control. But after some time away from the program (I wasn't able to work on the animation during Christmas, since my laptop can't run After Effects), it cleared my head and I was able to take a step back. I got back into the animation, and now it's running much smoother than it was last time! Now it's just a matter of keeping it up.

The Sketchbook project this week was mostly observational drawings from the Norwich Castle visit. I found the more interesting things to draw there were the taxidermy animals, instead of the scenery and castle structure. Creatures and beings are a lot more interesting for me to draw than locations and details in them. I did give the location a go, but it ultimately didn't speak to me very much.

NARRATIVE - "UP" PLOT SUMMARY AND CHARACTER ARCHETYPES

In this session, we watched the Pixar film Up, released in 2009 and directed by Pete Docter, current Pixar Animation Studios CCO who also directed Monsters, Inc. and went on to direct Inside Out.

(Up's official trailer - credit: Pixar Animation Studios)

PLOT SUMMARY

Up starts by introducing us to Carl Fredrickson and Ellie as children, whom share a love for adventure and their idol, Charles Muntz. Muntz is exploring the fictional Paradise Falls for a mysterious creature; "The Monster of Paradise Falls". Upon their first meeting, Ellie invites Carl to her adventurers club, and gives him a badge made from a grape soda cap. Ellie and Carl decide that, when they get older, they would journey to Paradise Falls and settle a house next to the waterfall.

As the years pass by, we see them living out their life together; getting married, turning a run-down house into their dream home, and enjoying each other's company. After an unfortunate miscarriage, the couple decide they should finally take a trip to Paradise Falls. This dream slowly fades as they reach old age, but Carl decides to buy the pair tickets to the Falls. But before they can make it there... Ellie dies.

(The "Married Life" sequence is widely agreed to be the film's highest point - credit: Pixar Animation Studios)

After Ellie's death, Carl becomes a grumpy old man, adamant on keeping his small, cosy house in the middle of an under-construction metropolis. One morning, he's greeted at the door by Russell, a Wilderness Explorer, who offers to help Carl to get his "Assisting the Elderly" badge. After sending Russell away, Carl hits a construction worker touching, and breaking, his mailbox. This results in a court case, and Carl having to be sent to a retirement village.

As some carers from the village come to pick Carl up, he unleashes over 20,000 balloons through his chimney, lifting his house off the ground, with intentions to fly to Paradise Falls.

(Carl's house takes flight - credit: Pixar Animation Studios)

During the flight, Carl hears a knock at the door; Russell was on the porch as the house took off. He's let in, but minutes after, the house runs into a lightning storm. The house is rocked around in the sky, with furniture and pictures shifting and falling. 

Carl passes out, but when he awakens, Russell explains that he steered the house towards South America. They drop to the ground, only barely managing the hold onto the house by the hose after being thrown out. "Where are we?" Carl asks. The fog clears, and he sees they're in Paradise Falls!

(Paradise Falls - credit: Pixar Animation Studios)

After deciding to fly the house down to the falls "like a parade balloon", Russell runs into a strange bird; 10 foot tall, colourful, and with an affinity for chocolate. Russell decides to name it Kevin, much to Carl's dismay and disapproval. Kevin follows the two around, and as Carl yells at the bird to go away, they hear a voice in the fog, which responds to them with:

"I can smell you!"

It's revealed to be a dog named Dug; the voice they heard came from a collar his master made for him to allow him to talk. After encountering Kevin, Dug claims it's the bird he and his pack are looking for, and Carl tells him to take it. But Dug ends up following along too; mostly due to Kevin following in the first place.

(Meeting Dug for the first time - credit: Pixar Animation Studios)

The group set up camp for the night, where Russell opens up about his personal life to Carl. Russell makes him promise to protect Kevin, using the same method Ellie used to make promises when they were children.

When dawn breaks, Kevin is revealed to actually be a girl, who leaves the group after stealing Carl's food for her babies. Shortly after she departs, a group of dogs approach the remaining three; it's Dug's pack. They heard that Dug had the bird through their radios, and escort them back to their master. That master is none other than Charles Muntz. An ecstatic Carl and confused Russell are invited to dinner on Muntz's airship to apologise for the mix-up.

During dinner, Muntz says many explorers have visited the Falls trying to take what's "rightfully [his]". It's revealed to be Kevin, and Russell spills details about her. Muntz then believes them to be more thieves, leading to a grand escape. Kevin made her way back to the house, perching on the roof, as Carl and Russell run away, leading the house with them. Dug tries stopping the herd of dogs, to no avail. Carl, Russell, Kevin and Dug jump a small canyon to avoid them, but not before the dog leader injures the now-running bird.

With Kevin injured, Carl keeps his promise to protect her and get her home, so long as they hurry. But when they get there, Muntz captures the bird, and starts burning Carl's house to prevent anyone stopping him. With Kevin gone, Carl lashes out at both Russell and Dug, sending the latter of them away.

Carl brings the house to the Falls, where he can finally sit inside and enjoy it. But he doesn't. He goes through one of Ellie's most prized possessions: her Adventure Book. She'd shown it to Carl as children, with blank pages saved for all her Paradise Falls adventures. But upon coming to those pages, Carl sees they're filled with pictures of their life together; their wedding photos, their picnics, even the simplest of times just staying at home. It's all ended with a picture of them sitting next to each other, with the text: 

"Thanks for the adventure; now go have a new one! Love, Ellie"

(Personal note: This scene never fails to make my bawl my eyes out - credit: Pixar Animation Studios)

Carl walks outside, with a more happy outlook; but he sees Russell using a leaf blower and balloons to fly up to Muntz's airship to save Kevin. In a desperate rush to help out, Carl pushes all the furniture out his house to make it light enough to float again with limited balloons; he succeeds, and recieves yet another mid air knock at the door. It's Dug, who was hiding under Carl's porch because he loved him. Carl accepts Dug, and essentially takes him in as his new master.

They save Russell after he's captured and tied up by the dogs, and Carl fights Muntz as they hurry Kevin out the ship. The four of them make it to the top of the airship, but Muntz returns with a gun. Carl holds onto the house as Russell, Kevin and Dug rush inside. As Muntz enters the house, gun cocked, Carl holds up a chocolate bar. Kevin crashes out the front window to get it, with Dug and Russell on her back. As Muntz tries to grab them, his leg gets caught on some balloon strings, and he falls thousands of feet to his death.

Carl gets the other three up to safety, as they all watch Carl's house drift away.

"Sorry about your house, Mr. Fredrickson." 

"You know, it's just a house."

We wrap up with Russell's badge ceremony, where Carl takes Russell's absent father's place onstage. Carl kneels down to Russell, and starts putting a badge on his sash.

"Russell... for assisting the elderly, and for performing above and beyond the call of duty, I would like to award you the highest honour I can bestow: the Ellie Badge."

Carl's given him the badge Ellie gave to him when they were children. The two hug, and go to get ice cream. We end on a final shot of the house right next to Paradise Falls, echoing the drawing Ellie had made all those years ago.

(Carl gives Russell the Ellie Badge - credit: Pixar Animation Studios)

VOGLER'S ARCHETYPES IN UP

Hero - Carl Fredrickson is, undoubtedly, the hero of the story. The simple point that he's the morally good protagonist the audience follows suffices the point, but there's other things to it as well. We see Carl's full character arc, showing his progression from a grumpy old man who enjoys his own company much more than anyone else's (barring his dead wife), to opening his heart to new people and animals. He learns to put his trust into new people in his life, and how to trust others. He learns that your idols aren't always who you dream them to be. But most importantly, he learns that the real adventure he and his wife craved was the one they were having all along; a life together.

Villain - Charles Muntz is the villain of the story. He follows an, at the time, rare Pixar trend of villains starting out as characters we think we can trust, but then end up having negative coding to them. Lotso from Toy Story 3, Ernesto de la Cruz from Coco and Evelyn Deavor from Incredibles 2 also follow this trend; the only villain using it before Muntz was the Prospector in Toy Story 2. Muntz's villainous actions are mostly implied instead of outright stated; when talking about previous "thieves", he knocks over mannequin heads, implying he killed them. His collection of weapons, including swords and muskets, also hint at the more dangerous edge to him.

Shapeshifter - The trend mentioned before also explains why Muntz can fit into the shapeshifter archetype as well. The dinner scene towards the end of the second act shows us Muntz's true side, as he strips the persona he's invented down.

Herald - The herald isn't necessarily a person in Up, but an event; the threat of being brought to the retirement village. Carl sitting in his house the night before the carers come and get him is when he reflects, and eventually decides to make his house fly away. It could be a stretch to say his wife's death was the herald, but I feel that happens too early for it to be the direct herald.

Mentor - I'd say that there are two unconventional mentors in Up: Ellie and Russell. They both give about the same amount of wisdom and guidance to Carl, but the strength and frequencies are different. What I mean by that is, Russell's mentor moments are dotted throughout the film, with little lessons all amounting up. However, Ellie's one mentor moment, being her posthumous message in her Adventure Book, has a lot more power to it.

Threshold Guardian(s) - The threshold guardians are, essentially, the other dogs. One loose definition of a threshold guardian is that they're henchmen. Muntz has an army of dogs, including the main ones we follow for a little bit, Alpha, Beta and Gamma. There are about 100 other dogs too, who all acts as obstacles during the capture of Carl & Russell, the escape from the airship and Kevin's rescue.

Trickster - The trickster is essentially the comic relief of the film, and I'd say that Dug and Kevin play that role. Russell would also be a considered choice, but he feels more like an ally who does funny things occasionally, it isn't a part of his function in the film. Dug and Kevin go for jokes & gags that rely on animal humour. Dug's whole shtick is that he's a dog that talks; anyone who has a dog will find the things he says funny. The rapid change in mood when he thinks he sees a squirrel, the unusual speech pattern, the happy-go-lucky naivety is all part and parcel with the dog stereotype. Kevin is more of a physical comedy character, mostly from movement. The main scene I'm thinking of is when Carl tells Kevin to scram, and she copies his dialect (somewhat) and body language.

Ally - Russell is the main ally of the film. He joins the hero, Carl, on his journey to Paradise Falls (much to his dismay). He helps out where he can, such as helping to pull the house to the Falls. Russell is an ally by choice; he's somewhat aware that he's not the main focus of the trip, and he's mostly there to get his "Assisting the Elderly" badge. 

MY THOUGHTS ON THE FILM

I LOVE this film. Up is a part of what I consider the "Untouchable Pixar Trifecta". Released between 2007 to 2009, there are three Pixar films I consider to be masterpieces (among their other ones), and that should be left on their own with no sequels, spin-offs, etc. This trifecta includes Ratatouille (2007, dir. Brad Bird), WALL-E (2008, Andrew Stanton) and Up. This film has characters that feel genuine, some stunning animation, and even rewatching this 10 years after it's initial release, I keep finding more and more to love! I think my favourite aspects of this film are it's moments and it's soundtrack. A "moment" in a film is a scene or sequence everyone remembers, and is commonly tied with the film; for example, The Lion King's "Circle of Life" opening or The Empire Strikes Back's "I Am Your Father" scene. Up has the "Married Life" sequence, which has been dubbed by society as one of the best fictional love stories of all time, told in just 8 minutes (including the backstory to Carl and Ellie as children). And the score by Michael Giacchino is outstanding; every track stands out, and it all feels like it fits together. No awkward change in style or genre, just all... Up. This wasn't Giacchino's first foray into a Pixar film; he also did the scores for The Incredibles, Inside Out and Ratatouille; but I think this was his best work with the studio.

Up, simply put, is a perfect movie. 10/10.