LBM WEEK 6 DAY 1 AND DAY 2 - Metamorphosis Project

Over the weekend we drew out a storyboard together so that on Monday we could directly start using the lightboxes to draw as much as we could. This was the first time I have ever used I lightbox before since I did not have the opportunity to use one in my old school in France. It took a little bit of time to get used to but by the end of the day I was used to it. I quite enjoyed this technique and I am tempted in the future to possibly use the lightbox again for a different project. The only struggle with the lightbox was to create pans, and I had to do quite a bit of visual research to get the effect I wanted. I took pictures around people and also pictures of different pan effects that were quite tricky to draw out.

We discussed only having one sound during the transformation part which would be a sound of a heart beat to add tension to our film. The rest of the animation would be silent.

LBM WEEK 5 DAY 3- Mood Boards

This day consisted of creating mood boards to provide further inspiration for our work, and furthermore find collaborators for this piece of work. I had already decided to work with Louis O'Shea because we had the exact same idea that of instead of having human Gregor turn into a bug, we would have bug Gregor waking up and having been transformed into a human. He also wants to be an animator and so we combined both our ideas and created a mood board.

Fig 1: Louise and Louis's Mood Board (2013), Louis O'Shea

We also wanted to recreate the scene where Gregor grips onto a picture frame which is a symbol of gripping onto reality however we were not too sure how to combine both of these ideas together. After group discussions we figured out how we would combine these two ideas together: We would concentrate on the picture frame scene and add in a transformation when Gregor drops the picture frame as he 'let grip of reality' and turns back into a bug.

We also decided on the technical plan. We would create a short 2D animation film drawn out frame by frame using a light box.

LBM WEEK 5 DAY 2- Life Drawing

This second day of the project consisted of a full day of life drawing which I absolutely loved. The day was made even more interesting as the model would pose in different 'creature' positions which I found great for animation. It helped me to imagine even more the metamorphosis of Gregor, and especially visualize how he would have twisted and turned into his new bug body. After reading the short story 'Metamorphosis' by Franz Kafka I decided that I wanted to animate Gregor turning into a bug, or even an alternative metamorphosis of his bug-self transforming into a human while having him act like a bug. The life drawing helped me to break down the movements of metamorphosis and to open up my imagination to different transformation ideas.

LBM WEEK 5 DAY 1 Metamorphosis Project - Trip to Brighton

Today we went to on a day trip to visit Brighton University's gallery which was showing some of Jan Svankmajer's work. I absolutely loved the sculptures he created which were made out of different animals. It reminded me greatly of Joan Fontcuberta's 'Fauna' exhibition where he also does a similar thing. I felt that his work here is centered on metamorphosis. He even, for example, transforms 'Alice in Wonderland' into his own animation piece.

During this day I took a lot of photographs and I also collected quite a few items found along the beach which should be quite interesting for future use in character design work. The different textures and shapes of seaweed were in particular intriguing.

LBM WEEK 4 DAY 3 Transcription Project Final Outcome

I was honestly not very happy with the outcome of my own project as I thought that the image moved too much and I was not at all satisfied with the visuals. However, when I showed it to my critic group I was extremely surprised with the audience's positive response. They really enjoyed it!

I struggled to find a suitable sound for this animation, and I only added some sound at the end, which was an explosion. I wasn't too keen on this because it seemed like my stop motion film was a silent. However apparently this added emphasis to the end of the film and even surprised the audience which was a good thing. They also really liked the visual work I put in with the background colour and the materials which the character was composed of. I know that I need to work on my filming technique and I also need to work on the type of sound that I use.

LBM WEEK 4 DAY 1 Transcription Project

I commenced the day with quick storyboards to aid the planning of the exact story I wanted. I then moved onto character design. I did some research on Parkinson's Disease and found out that the majority of people whom have it are elderly. I started drawing the character as a human and soon decided that I wanted to experiment using different kinds of material as I saw in the 'Saint Jerome' sculpture. I used various items such as screws, paper clips, needles, springs and drawing pins to create the character. However one of my main concerns was trying to keep all of the items in place and also attempting to keep the character looking elderly.

Fig 1: Character Design (2013) Authors Own

LBM WEEK 3 DAY 3 Transcription Project Crits on Ideas

After having chosen the specific piece of artwork I wanted to transcribe I decided that I wanted to take a risk and to create a stop-motion animation for the first time.

In Michael Landy's piece ' Saint Jerome' I loved the idea of mechanics and so I decided I wanted to create a character made out of screws and paper clips and try to make him move like a robot. My initial idea was to make the character be a puppet and not be in control of his body however, during the crit I was told that I needed to find a reason for the character not having control over his body. After a long discussion with the other students in my group I finally came up with the idea of having my character have Parkinson's Disease which would explain why he cannot control his body.

LBM WEEK 3 DAY 2 : Gallery visit for Transcription Project

Today we had a day trip with the Media Production group to The National Gallery. We were told to choose a specific piece of artwork from one of the galleries which inspires us. We were then told we had to transcribe the concepts from that specific piece of work and create our own work out of it. I really enjoyed the 'All Saints Alive' exhibition. I have never seen anything like it before. My favourite piece from Michael Landy's work was a sculpture entitled ' Saint Jerome '. This specific piece of work was about a saint called Jerome who legend says ''used to beat himself with a rock to prevent himself having pure sexual thoughts''. What I liked the most about this sculpture was how it was built out of mechanical parts to be able to make the sculpture move but also it was made out of carvings of saint-like torsos and hands which I found a very interesting mix put all together. I also chose this specific piece because of the underlying concept that we are unable to control our bodies. I really liked this idea and decided that I wanted to transcribe it into a short animation.

In the late-afternoon we went to see a film called 'The Selfish Giant' (2013) by Clio Barnard. I thought that it was an extremely truthful and touching film. The story was original, and the scenery seemed natural which added to the reality of this film.

LBM WEEK 3 DAY 1 : Merging with Media Production.

Today was the first day merged with Media Production. We were given a day project called 'Radical Idea'.
In our groups we had to find or invent a radical idea and present it at the end of the day to the rest of the class. We had to gather information and create a believable piece in order to persuade the rest of the class that this radical idea is real. The presentation was to last for five minutes.

In my group we started to brainstorm and think of any radical idea we had ever heard of. We then chose the radical idea of  'The Big Red Button' which is where the government can at anytime push this big red button which would blow up each country with nuclear bombs. However this idea quickly changed to the theme of ghosts! We wanted to prove the radical idea that ghosts exist. We were going to show this through a series of photographs with blurry parts to them which would be the ghosts. However to make this idea more original we thought about showing it from the ghosts point of view and possibly trying to demonstrate that two different worlds live in one world and we do not even see it.

We decided upon that idea and used the means of photography to prove this theory.

Criticism passed to us was that we need to do more background research to have 'reliable' proof.

LBM WEEK 2 DAY 3 : Critics about the final outcome of project 'who am I ? '

I was quite nervous about showing my work for the first time to my new pathway classmates. However I was also very curious to see the different ideas and techniques they had used for this project. Everyone had a different idea and interpretation to this project which I found interesting. I especially liked the fact that everyone in my group used different animation techniques.

The criticism that I was given was that I need to work on the sound in animation because this would add a new dimension to my work. Also my sketches need to be bolder. However on a positive side, the tutors said that I had very good and original visual idea and interesting drawings which I should continue to work on.

Fig 1: Extract From 'Who Am I ' Project (2013) Authors Own

LBM WEEK 2 DAY 2 : Learning about storyboarding

During this day we were shown a presentation about the importance of storyboards and the different types of storyboards that exist. From this presentation I now understand the process of storyboarding. Storyboarding is a visual representation of your ideas. It is also a first draft and you need to be prepared to cross certain storyboards out and replace them. This is why storyboards tend to be messy and understood only by the storyboarder unless it is to be shown to somebody else. A storyboard is  how you start to form your idea cinematically, and you transform your storyline ideas visually. It does not always have to be finished because it is more of a working plan than a final piece. Storyboards are essential to a film production because they help to identify problems which the production may entail. A storyboard also helps with camera angles which are extremely important to clearly tell a story. Comic strips are a final finished piece of work and not a storyboard.

When storyboarding you always need to have this question in your mind : ' What reaction do you want your viewer to feel ? And what action in the frame will reveal that? '

We were then shown an extract from a  film called ' Once Upon a Time in The West' by Sergio Leone. We analysed each frame to interpret what is both happening and what is going to happen. I learnt that close ups make us feel closer to the characters and so framing is extremely important while storyboarding. The Rule of Thirds is often used during the extract to help the film flow naturally.

Fig 1 : Extract From ' Once Upon a Time in The West' (1968) Sergio Leone

In the afternoon we continued working on our 'Who Am I ?' projects.
I was halfway through my animation for the second part of the project however for the first part of the project, I was struggling to transcribe the interview format into an original animation and so after a great deal of thinking about different ideas, I decided that I would animate a response to each question I asked the people I interviewed.
We were encouraged to use new equipment for this project so I borrowed a tablet and a sound system from  the CLR.

LBM WEEK 2 DAY 1 : Learning how to use Final Cut Pro

During this day we were taught the basics of Final Cut Pro. I have already used this program during my previous two years of film studies, however I am pleased to say that I did learn quite a lot during this day's tutorial.

Our tutor for the day explained to us the importance of file management and also how to save the files from Final Cut Pro properly. I learnt the importance of backing up files. I have now bought an external harddrive and shall continue to backup my work.

In the afternoon I learnt about the basic filming rules such as the 30 and 180 Degree Rules. These basic rules help you during the editing process and also aid to make the film flow and seem natural.

LBM WEEK 1 DAY 3

The end of the week consisted of us being taught the basics of animation and demonstrating to us the different kinds of animation which would inspire us with our work.  We were introduced to a program called IStop Motion if we wanted to use it for the 'Who Am I' project.

I was quite inspired by Kristian Andrews' work. In particular his animation entitled ''Bald Dad''. I thought that his storyline was very honest, and the fact that he drew each frame one by one beautifully in coloured pencils inspires me to one day be able to do the same. I also like the way his frames are very fluid and intertwine into one another to form a new image. I thought that the use of simple colouring pencils was very effective.

We also had a look at other animators' work such as Jan Svankmajer and Chris Shepherd's 'Who I Am and What I Want'. I found this work very original and raw. Chris Shepherd's work illustrates the possibilities of the 'Who Am I ' Project very strongly.

We were then given the chance to carry on working on our projects individually and start forming ideas for the afternoon critics.

For the first part of the project I want to create a storyboard and I am now sure that for the second part of the project I will create a 2D animation piece. I continued the day storyboarding and thinking about what technique and software I was going to use to animate my story.