WEEK 8 SUMMARY

WEEK BEGINNING - February 4th, 2019

WEEK ENDING - February 10th, 2019

MONDAY - Stop Motion Change of Expression

<to be added>

WEDNESDAY - Maya UV Application

Original blog post: https://ncarolannua1b.blogspot.com/2019/02/cgi-applying-textures.html

- "And that wraps up the final dedicated Maya session! I really enjoyed working on all of this, and unexpectedly so! I was worried that CGI and CG Modelling would be really intricate, and that unless you had years of experience, you would NOT get it. But it was relatively easy to get the hang of, and I really enjoyed it at times! I think CGI is definitely a path to consider going forward, especially with the Mystery Box project looming."

SUMMARY

This week didn't really have too much on, and of it, nothing was really spectacular or made me really excited. So in general, this week was pretty good. 

Maya was definitely the best part of this week. These sessions are always the most fun to be in, and I think it's a really good sign that you're loving what you're doing when people are laughing really hard at the assigned work. Not in the sense that we're making fun of it, but in that it's such a good time already working on the project with little difficulty, that spirits and laughs are high! The cereal box and bird tasks were fun, and I definitely think CGI is my route to go with the Mystery Box project we have coming up!

Stop Motion was a more interesting experience this time more than any. I was working in a group of 3 this time, and we all had a somewhat similar idea of what we wanted to make. We communicated well, and came out with an animation we were all really happy with! The most interesting thing to me was after the session, when I showed people the animation; they genuinely believed the emotion being performed. I showed people only with the context "there's an emotional change midway through"... and people felt the need to say "aww" when the sadness started. I think that's a good indication that we got the emotion down! Is stop motion for me going forward though? Maybe? It's certainly something to consider, but out of the three main animation forms (2D, CGI and Stop Motion), it's definitely falling in 3rd place.

Narratology essay is at the point where I have my points all ready to go; now I need to find more reliable sources than just my own memory. I'm going to try using a question I build around the template, going much more down the route of "Is animation intrinsic to WFRR" or "If animation was removed, could you get the same experience from WFRR". Something like that could be better in finding a point better to focus on. But if I struggle with that, then I can swap in the template question and use that to refer back to instead.

Sketchbook was back up and running this week, a lot more like previous weeks in terms of what I'm making with it. Motivation has risen again, and I'm glad that it is! I've had some ideas I've thought were really cool, including a comic that can only be viewed using a UV light; getting some more unique materials in there! Generally, getting back into the swing of it!

STOP MOTION - CHARACTER WALK AND CHANGE OF EMOTION

In our final dedicated stop motion session, we looked at making a character walk and changing their emotion halfway through their walk.

Firstly, we looked briefly into industry research. We were shown a few good websites for news on the animation industry, including Skwigly and It's Nice That. We were also given some advice on how to use social media to our advantage. Most, if not all students on the course have some kind of art / animation social media account, and were advised to use them to follow animation studios, and the people working within them to get a more insider look.

We also had a look at another Academy "Credited As" video, this time for Georgina Haynes, the Head of Puppetry on Laika's Kubo and the Two Strings.

(Hayes talks about how she got into the industry, and what her role entails - credit: The Academy)

From there, we were sent in our groups to start animating. I was in a group with Jenny and Leon, both of which I know I work well with! We were, like last time, assigned to work in the Animation Production studio, and we used this storyboard:

We used the wire armatures again, and I made sure to be extra cautious with the camera after last time. We had lightly assigned roles throughout this animation; Jenny was mostly in charge of capturing the frames, where Leon and I were mainly animating the puppet. I say the roles were lightly assigned because we didn't outright declare who was doing what, but that was what roles were the majority of the time. We had swap arounds at points, but they were for shorter periods of time.

We did some live action references for the beginning half of the animation. We weren't quite sure what would be the right way to make the happy part of the walk look, so I was recorded performing the action. We had to do it twice, because halfway through the first one I started laughing and ruined the take.

One useful thing about working in a group was having everyone contributing ideas that we wouldn't have thought of individually. An example of this within this production is with how the change of emotion is expressed when walking away. Jenny suggested that instead of having the puppet just shuffle off, he should kneel down and put his head in his hands. Leon then built on top of that by suggesting that when the head was cupped in the hands, the puppet could shake their head and seem like they're crying.

We didn't run into any issues with animation, and everything went smoothly! It was mostly due to the people I was working with, they were really helpful and it couldn't have been done without them! 

There was one issue later on; exporting. When I exported the video, I got home to find the video file had an issue with it. The top 60% of the shot was darkened, something that wasn't in the actual animation. I didn't want to go back the next day and reexport it, so I tried to fix it myself. I brought the file into Premiere Pro and messed about with it until I managed to get the effects to work on the video, leaving me with a fixed file!

After all that, this is what the final animation looks like!

And that concludes the final stop motion task! Overall, I'd say this was the best project for me personally. I think it helped me become a little bit more friendly with stop motion, definitely in a better place with it than I was a few weeks ago. I don't think I'll be doing it for the Mystery Box project though; while I have lightened up to the method, I think it was mostly out of the aspects of working as a part of a team. The Mystery Box is a solo outing, and I think that stop motion would be the wrong choice for me. But overall, stop motion has been an interesting experience if anything!

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.

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.

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.