WEEK 7 SUMMARY

WEEK BEGINNING - January 28th, 2019

WEEK ENDING - February 3rd, 2019

MONDAY - Maya Modelling, Stop Motion Box

Original blog posts: <to be added>

TUESDAY - Narratology Check-In

Different sort of session today; it was just me and one other person going to meet up with Lynsey and discuss our essay plans. I said that I wanted to look at how animation was intrinsic to Who Framed Roger Rabbit's plot, and that the two are practically inseparable. I suggested some points involving the character Betty Boop, the Toontown location and how certain events relied on the animation medium. In response, Lynsey offered up some of her own ideas, including some helpful advice on how to write about Jessica Rabbit. I also found from this session that the conclusion should be bigger than last time, and a lot more rich in what I'm trying to say. A helpful session! Definitely going to be applied to my essay plan.

SUMMARY

This week was pretty great! I enjoyed everything I had on, which I'm pleased with! I've already gone over how Narratology's going, so here's my final summaries on everything else this week.

The Maya modelling was, just like last week's introduction, a lot easier than expected. I really enjoyed making the assigned objects, so much so that during our break in the middle I just kept making more things to go alongside them! One thing I did find a little bit weird to get a grasp of was the colouring paired with selection tools. There'd be an instance where I thought I had the right areas selected to apply a texture, and then when I did, it would texture everything else. I already need to go back and redo the radio task, the one I had this issue with, so hopefully I can figure out what's up with it there.

Stop Motion was a lot more fun this week than last, mostly due to the workflow feeling a lot better. I was working with someone who really understood what I was trying to get at with suggestions, and I feel like it was mutual between the two of us. Armatures are a lot easier to work with than Plasticine balls on wires, surprisingly enough. They don't fall apart as easily, and you can get better looking consistent movements from them. The wire and sockets can't physically change shape like the Plasticine can, so it made animations look weird and inconsistent. Luckily, armatures don't have that, and everything went well! Main thing to remember for next time is don't knock the camera. And if you do, then don't panic for too long.

Sketchbook is still at the same point as last week, where motivation seems down for it and not very much is getting done. I don't want to force myself to fill pages, because then I'm not really putting my all into what I'm doing. But at the same time, actually getting up and doing it is what could get me back into the flow of it. I'm gonna have to try exclusively doing my comics and then hopefully adding in little things if sparks of ideas crop up.

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.

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.

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.

WEEK 3 SUMMARY

WEEK BEGINNING: 10th of December, 2018

WEEK ENDING: 16th of December, 2018

[DISCLAIMER: I missed some of this week for personal reasons. Sessions I missed will not be covered in depth.]

MONDAY - (absent) Sketchbook Project introduction, After Effects Workshop

Blog posts: https://ncarolannua1b.blogspot.com/2018/12/sketchbook-project-introduction.html

- I've found through the brief and other people who attended what this project entails. The blog post I have for this project is just brief notes on what I need to do; I won't be writing about what happened in the session.

- The After Effects workshop was continuing our "Guess the Movie" morphing animations.

TUESDAY - (absent) Narratology: Proppian Fairytales

<to be added>

THURSDAY - After Effects continuation

Blog post: https://ncarolannua1b.blogspot.com/2018/12/animation-principles-iteration-1.html 

- I started my movie prop morphing animation after missing the session where everyone else had started.

SUMMARY
This wasn't a great week for me, but it had nothing to do with university. I've fallen behind a bit with work from both last week and this week, and my head space isn't too good at this point. I feel like, given my circumstances, that's understandable. 

I was able to get a little bit of work done this week for my morphing animation, but I got frustrated at it very quickly. Nothing worked how I wanted it to, and the fact I was working in a program I already wasn't getting along with didn't help either. I'm going to have to give myself a little bit of time to be in the right head space to work on this animation further, because I feel like continuing at this point would just make me give up a lot faster.

The Narratology presentation isn't really speaking to me this time around. Looking at fairytales and a lot of the rules that go into making one aren't really what I'm interested in. Again, I'm not in the best headspace at the moment, so I'm probably going to give myself some time and make sure I'm 100% ready to look back and focus on the presentation I missed. 

ANIMATION PRINCIPLES - EYE OF AGAMOTTO DOCUMENTATION

One of my two chosen props for the Morphing animation is the Eye of Agamotto from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This post is a documentation of what it is, it's various appearances and how I plan to use it in the animation.

THE EYE OF AGAMOTTO

The Eye of Agamotto first appeared in Strange Tales #115, in the possession of Doctor Strange.

(The Eye of Agamotto, explained in the early comics it appeared in - credit: Marvel Comics)

The Eye's powers revolve around the supernatural and magical side of the Marvel Universe, including being able to see through illusions & disguises, look through time, and locate beings by psychic means. It can create portals and suspend objects too, but it's most recognisable purpose is just as the clasp for Strange's Cloak of Levitation.

In 2017, Marvel introduced the human embodiment of Agamotto from 1,000,000 BC. He was part of the Stone Age Avengers, and was the Earth's first Sorcerer Supreme. He wears a pendant similar to the one Strange wears named after Agamotto.

(Agamotto from a variant cover of Marvel: Legacy #1 - credit: Marvel Comics)

In 2016, the Eye of Agamotto was introduced into the Marvel Cinematic Universe in Doctor Strange, directed by Scott Derrickson. In this continuity, the Eye itself was just a case for one of the six Infinity Stones spread throughout the MCU; this one being the Time Stone. Using the Eye of Agamotto allows the user to control time itself; make it start & stop, slow down, speed up, and create time loops on repeat infinitely.

(Doctor Strange using the Eye of Agamotto to create an infinite time loop; every time he dies, he restarts from the beginning of the loop - credit: Marvel Studios)

The Eye later reappeared in Thor: Ragnarok (albeit without being used) and Avengers: Infinity War, in which the Eye casing was destroyed and the Time Stone was stolen from it; both actions comitted by Thanos.

The Eye of Agamotto has only had two designs throughout media; the comic design and the movie design.

In the comics, the Eye is comprised of a disc, two hollow quarter spheres, multiple small beads around the edge of the disc and the eye inside. It's completely gold, and the actual eye changes colour.

(The comic look of the Eye of Agamotto - credit: Marvel Comics)

In the movies, it's squashed down from a circle to more of an oval, with spiked edges where two semi-circles meet. There's more depth to the casing, including a hollowed out circle holding the Time Stone, two quarter spheres covering the stone (similar to the comic design), and a cross hatch design overlaying the Stone resembling the Doctor Strange emblem. Instead of acting as a clasp for the Strange's Cloak, this Eye of Agamotto more resembles a necklace, with two prongs sticking out at the top. The Eye uses different shades of gold, bronze and silver for the casing, and the Time Stone inside is green.

(The Eye of Agamotto from 2016's Doctor Strange - credit: Marvel Studios)

For the animation, much like the Infinity Gauntlet (see this post), I'm going to use the MCU design. The two would fit together much better than if one design was from the comics and one from the movies. The two mediums, while trying to convey the same idea of the prop, have different visual languages that aren't too compatible next to each other.

WEEK 2 SUMMARY

WEEK BEGINNING: 3rd of December, 2018

WEEK ENDING: 9th of December, 2018

[DISCLAIMER: I missed some of this week for personal reasons. Sessions I missed will not be covered in depth.]

MONDAY - Introduction to "Guess the Movie" task

Original blog post: https://ncarolannua1b.blogspot.com/2018/12/animation-principles-introduction.html

- This was just our introduction to our "Guess the Movie" project, that's running for 4 weeks and involves taking two props from a live action movie and making them morph into each other.

- "So this project seems REALLY exciting! I love working with media I love; it's the kind of stuff I was doing before starting this course. When both your subject matter and your medium involves something you're passionate about, then you become a lot more invested in it, which is exactly what I'm going for! From here, I think asset creation is what I'm going to aim for next. The drawing tools in After Effects, the program we're making this animation in, aren't really my cup of tea. However, I'm a lot more comfortable in another vector based program, Illustrator. I could make the assets there and import them over somehow? Will have to look into that."

TUESDAY - Narratology: "Only Trouble is Interesting?"

Original blog post: https://ncarolannua1b.blogspot.com/2018/12/narrative-only-trouble-is-interesting.html 

- We discussed if stories had to have some kind of conflict, and looked at the ideals of Western storytelling standards vs Eastern ones.

- "This session was generally very interesting! Before this, I thought I had a pretty good understanding of plot structure, but I learnt a lot more that I wouldn't have known had I not attended! The most interesting thing was definitely Kishotenketsu; it's a fairly unconventional plot structure for western societies, and one I didn't know about beforehand. I really want to keep the structure in the back of my mind, so that when the time comes to make my own story, I can consider this less seen method!"

THURSDAY - (absent) After Effects session

From what I've gathered, this session was just getting a start with the "Guess the Movie" task.

SUMMARY
Getting the brief on our After Effects project was a lot more exciting than I thought it would be! I love working on projects that involve the things we love, and being a huge fan of superhero movies, I was up for working on anything that meant I could incorporate my favourite movie in it! Although it does come with the angle of it having to be done in After Effects... my experience thus far with the program has NOT been good. But I guess it's something I'm just going to have to get used to, especially if I want to be able to do the things I want to with this task.

Narratology this session was really interesting; a lot more so than I usually expect from these types of lectures. I knew beforehand there were certain formulas and tropes that stories fall into, but I never knew there were certain ones that are almost always present dependent on your location. Kishotenketsu was really interesting to look into as well! We also got the 5 question templates for our essays; I think I'm going to look at the one regarding how animation is intrinsic to the narrative. It seems really interesting, and right up my alley! It also means my ideal film of Who Framed Roger Rabbit? fits a lot more.

ANIMATION PRINCIPLES - INFINITY GAUNTLET DOCUMENTATION

This blog post is just a rundown of the one of the two props I've chosen for my morphing animation; what they are, a brief history, and how I intend to use their characteristics in the animation.

THE INFINITY GAUNTLET

The Infinity Gauntlet first appeared in Marvel Comics in 1990, in Silver Surfer #44. It later became the main story element of 1991's mini-series The Infinity Gauntlet.

(The cover of The Infinity Gauntlet #1 - credit: Marvel Comics)

The Gauntlet was made to house the six Infinity Gems, each one controlling an aspect of the universe; Time, Space, Reality, Power, Mind and Soul. When you claim one of the gems, it grants the user the ability to manipulate whatever the gem represents; for example, using the Power Gem can be used to enhance the user's physical strength.

When Thanos assembled them all in the Infinity Gauntlet, he became more powerful than a god, and fought Earth's combined forces after eliminating half of all life to impress Lady Death, an personification of death itself.

(The iconic finger snap from Avengers: Infinity War was inspired by these panels from the first issue of The Infinity Gauntlet - credit: Marvel Comics, art by George Perez)

The Infinity Gauntlet storyline was then adapted into Marvel Studio's Avengers: Infinity War and the upcoming Avengers: Endgame. The former of the two borrowed heavily from the first 4 issues of the original comic run, including Thanos using the Gauntlet to remove half of all sentient life, a herald falling into Doctor Strange's Sanctum to warn Earth of Thanos, and an outer space assault on Thanos.

(Thanos at the end of Avengers: Infinity War - credit: Marvel Studios)

The Gauntlet has made appearances in other media, including the Avengers Assemble & Marvel Super Hero Squad Show animated series', as well as the Contest of Champions mobile game.

(Thanos with the Infinity Gauntlet in Marvel Super Hero Squad Show - credit: Marvel Animation)

Over the course of the Gauntlet's near-30 year history, it's had various different designs. It's first design, heavily utilised in the 90s, makes the Gauntlet seem like a flexible, one-piece glove with some metal elements looping around the fingers and following down to the housing for the stones on the back of the hand.

(DC Villain Darkseid with the Infinity Gauntlet in a crossover event, showing the more flexible, almost rubber glove like behaviours of the Gauntlet - credit: Marvel Comics and DC Comics)

The modern comic design takes more cues from both the MCU's tease appearances, with more mechanical aspects and making the Gauntlet seem like real metal.

(Tony Stark with the Infinity Gauntlet, during a 2011 Avengers issue - credit: Marvel Comics)

The Marvel Cinematic Universe took the approach of having it be designed, in-universe, by Eitri the Dwarf, who also created Thor's weapons. The design has the same visual language as the Asgardian weapons he'd designed in the past, specifically with the design of the cuff using weaves and feather patterns.

(Thanos with the MCU's Infinity Gauntlet in Avengers: Infinity War - credit: Marvel Studios)

The MCU design is what I'm going to use for the morphing animation, simply because the animation has to feature the film's props, not the comic's.

ANIMATION PRINCIPLES - MOODBOARD AND RESOURCE GATHERING

Before doing any actual animation, I decided to make a Powerpoint to document the things I needed prepped. This included:

• A Moodboard
• Colour schemes
• Colour tests
• Sketches

I started with the moodboard, which included the Infinity Gauntlet and the various Infinity Stones in different scenarios from different movie appearances across the series.

(Every appearance of the Infinity Stones in the MCU, pre-Infinity War - credit: Marvel Studios)

Even though I was settling with the Eye of Agamotto, I thought I'd include all of them. In the films, all six Infinity Stones were revealed over the course of 7 years. In order, they are:

• Space Stone - 2011 (Captain America: The First Avenger, The Avengers, Thor: Ragnarok, Avengers: Infinity War - encased in the Tesseract, kept in Odin's Vault)
• Mind Stone - 2012 (The Avengers, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War - encased in Loki's Sceptre, moved to Vision's forehead)
• Reality Stone - 2013 (Thor: The Dark World, Avengers: Infinity War - encased in the Aether, with The Collector on Knowhere)
• Power Stone - 2014 (Guardians of the Galaxy, Avengers: Infinity War - encased in the Orb, with the Nova Corps. on Xandar)
• Time Stone - 2016 (Doctor Strange, Avengers: Infinity War - encased in the Eye of Agamotto, with Doctor Strange at the Sanctum Sanctorum)
• Soul Stone - 2018 (Avengers: Infinity War - kept on Vormir, guarded by Red Skull)

The Eye of Agamotto was definitely the best choice between all six stones, due to a combination of the casing itself and how interesting it looks. As it stood before Infinity War, the only other encased stones were the Reality, Space and Power stones. But their casings were basic 3D shapes, with nothing interesting to look at with them. The other two stones, Mind and Soul, were stored in a character's head and a planet respectively, which I couldn't really do. Thus, the Time Stone, and the Eye of Agamotto casing, won out.

When deciding on potential colour schemes to use, we used the Adobe Colour website to experiment and test different combinations. The website lets users use a wheel to create their own colour palette.

I made two main colour schemes while testing what would look good; one which focused more on colour reusage based around the stones themselves, and one that focused more on the Gauntlet itself. In the end, I put opted for colour scheme 2, after seeing it work better in a Photoshop trial of the original Infinity Gauntlet comic cover. 

The final thing I decided to document was the assets I needed to create. After trying out the tools to create shapes in After Effects, I elected that it wasn't quite right for me. I think that making them in a separate Adobe program, like Illustrator or Photoshop, would be best. For each prop, I split them into their core pieces. For the Infinity Gauntlet, they were:

• Fingers - The fingers of the gauntlet
• Hand plate - The plate of the Gauntlet that houses the stones
• Thumb - Similar in function to the fingers, but somewhat different in shape
• Cuff - Where you put your arm into

And for the Eye of Agamotto, they were:

• Time Stone - A green oval
• Main casing - The base of the entire Eye
• Doctor Strange emblem - A cross hatch design associated with the Doctor Strange character

All my visual documentation can be seen in the Powerpoint below.

ANIMATION PRINCIPLES - MOVIE TASK INTRODUCTION

This session, we started out the main project for the After Effects unit: a looping animation, taking two props from a live action movie and having them morph into each other on a continuous loop!

First, we were all tasked to choose our favourite live action movie. I decided to go with Avengers: Infinity War, directed by Joe and Anthony Russo.

(Avengers: Infinity War trailer - credit: Marvel Studios)

Once we had a film, we had to choose two props from it. The aim, as stated before, was to make the two repeatedly morph into each other.

Infinity War had a lot of props to choose from, so I wasn't really short of choices. The most obvious one I had to do was the Infinity Gauntlet. In the film, the Infinity Gauntlet is a glove that has 6 slots to fit 6 Infinity Stones. It's coloured gold & bronze, with the only other colours coming from the stones themselves.

(The Infinity Gauntlet prop, as shown at Disney's D23 Expo - credit: D23)

The Gauntlet is the most important prop from the whole film, so it was an easy decision to include it. The other prop, however, was a difficult decision. 

The film includes many other props aside from the Gauntlet, including the casing for 4 of the Infinity Stones, Iron Man's helment, and Thor's weapon Stormbreaker. I came up with an idea for the animation which would involve an Infinity Stone remaining unchanged, with it moving between it's casing and it's place on the Gauntlet. This left me with four choices, between the four Infinity Stones. In the end, I opted for the Eye of Agamotto, which houses the Time Stone.

(The Time Stone encased in the Eye of Agamotto, from it's first appearance in 2016's Doctor Strange - credit: Marvel Studios)

I made some sketches as to how things could look, since the props needed to abstracted enough to look recognisable, but at the same time not include every single detail on them. I also had to accomodate a limited colour palette, since we were only allowed up to 5 colours.

So this project seems REALLY exciting! I love working with media I love; it's the kind of stuff I was doing before starting this course. When both your subject matter and your medium involves something you're passionate about, then you become a lot more invested in it, which is exactly what I'm going for!

From here, I think asset creation is what I'm going to aim for next. The drawing tools in After Effects, the program we're making this animation in, aren't really my cup of tea. However, I'm a lot more comfortable in another vector based program, Illustrator. I could make the assets there and import them over somehow? Will have to look into that.

WEEK 1 SUMMARY

WEEK BEGINNING: 26th of November, 2018

WEEK ENDING: 2nd of December, 2018

MONDAY: Introduction to Unit BA1b, Introduction to After Effects

Original blog posts:

Intro to BA1b - https://ncarolannua1b.blogspot.com/2018/11/unit-ba1b-introduction.html

- A general introduction to what we'd be doing over the next few months, involving a practice task involving morphing.

- "Overall, I was happy with this session! But what I'm most looking forward to is the rest of the unit. Especially learning how to do 3D animation in Maya; I've never done CGI animation before, so it'll be interesting learning if it'll be easy, difficult, or maybe even something I'd want to keep doing throughout all 3 years! The Mystery Box project seems interesting as well; I'd seen previous examples of it, and it looks like a lot of fun to come up with the ideas and execute them!"

After Effects - https://ncarolannua1b.blogspot.com/2018/11/animation-principles-after-effects.html

- An introduction to our Motion Graphics and After Effects Morphing projects. Taught us the basics of After Effects.

- "Overall thoughts? Honestly, I didn't really like this session. Motion graphics usually don't interest me, but I thought I'd give it a fair shot with this introductory session like I had done for things I previously didn't like in the last unit. But ultimately... I don't think it's for me. The combination of the subject matter itself and After Effects wasn't my cup of tea, and I can't see myself utilising motion graphics outside my university work."

TUESDAY: Introduction to Narratology

Original blog post: https://ncarolannua1b.blogspot.com/2018/11/narrative-introduction.html

- An introduction to our new essay project, looking at Narratology.

- "[...]But I did enjoy this lecture! Granted, the subject matter for this essay isn't as personally interesting as the last one was (the subject was characters). But I just need to make sure I choose something I'll be happy writing about and then it should all be alright from there! I'm struggling to come up with a comprehensive pool of films I could choose from for this, the one I'm gravitating towards most is Who Framed Roger Rabbit?. I'm going to have to double check if I'd be able to use that film though, since it's only partially animated. But overall, enthusiastic about this project!"

THURSDAY: After Effects Development

Original blog post: https://ncarolannua1b.blogspot.com/2018/11/animation-principles-after-effects_29.html

- Further development on After Effects skills

- "Overall, this session was a lot like the last After Effects one; I didn't really enjoy it too much, nothing really appealed to me personally. After Effects still doesn't feel like "my thing", especially after giving it a fair go both at uni and when finishing work at home. While the animation came out alright, it just about meets my own personal standard. The thing I feel holding me back from making it better is just my incompatibility with After Effects. I should try and find ways to make things easier to work with next week."

SUMMARY
Overall, this was a solid week in terms of introductions to the new projects. 

The entirety of BA1b looks interesting, in terms of the range of things we do and the time we get to do it. It seems as if it'll be more fast paced than BA1a was, where it was 1 project for about 2 months; now it's a few weeks per project. CGI and the Mystery Box are what interest me the most; aspiring to do CGI at an early age was what got me into animation, but I've not done it before up to this point. And seeing previous year's Mystery Box animations look really cool, creating a character of your own and bringing them to life! That's right up my alley!

After Effects on the other hand... is not. I've said it in my previous blog posts about the program, but I don't really get along with it. I gave it a fair chance to sway me, but I think it's gone under the listing of "programs I don't like". I'll use it if necessary, like for this project and such, but I can't see myself using it outside of university usage any time soon.

Finally, the Narratology project. Like I said, the topic we're looking at doesn't appeal to me as much as the Character project did, I can still spin it to become a lot more engaging to me personally! One of my main goals with this research project is to use a film I don't know inside and out; that means no LEGO Movie (even though I did that one last unit) and none of the Toy Story trilogy. This still leaves me with a lot of films I really enjoy that I could write about; as stated before, Who Framed Roger Rabbit? has been on my mind a lot; that could be a good choice.