Final Statement

WEEK 7 DAY 3 : Editing

For this last day, I showed my tutors my final draft and my tutor explained to me the small details which I needed to edit. These consisted mainly with further editing of the sound and so overall I am pleased with the outcome. I worked extremely hard on this project and it was a tremendous learning experience. I am contented with it visually and it was satisfying to see my concept. In the future I would like to try and work more on the story make it stand out more and test the limits. I took a huge risk producing my animation in a cartoon style however I am very pleased with it. I am pleased with the boldness and the colour palette. I would like to experiment more on sound to further gain more skills and understand sound in more detail for my future animation projects. I really enjoyed creating this project and I am none the less happy to see it finally finished. 

WEEK 7 Day 1: Finalising production, sound and editing

For this final week, for the first couple of days I worked on filling in the gaps for my animation with different short scenes in order to give flow to my work. I next exported the flash file and imported it into ‘Adobe Premiere’ in order to put the final film in order. I had never used this program before, however, in the past I have used ‘Final Cut Pro’ so it was quite easy to get the hang of this new software package. Once I had done this, I recorded lots of different sounds which I would need for each scene and imported them into Premiere and edited them in order to fit the characters.

Fig 1: Adobe Premiere Editing (2014) Authors Own






















Fig 2: Adobe Premiere Editing sound (2014) Authors Own

I found sound extremely hard to produce. What I found the most difficult about the sound was trying to edit the sounds so that they didn't sound too realistic, as it wouldn't fit in with my animation concept. In particular, I struggled to find the perfect voice-over for the troll as some voices were too high pitched. However, after a great deal of time and patience editing, I am pleased with my sound results. In the future I shall try to give myself more time during a project in order to work more on sound. Sound gives life to the characters and so it is important for it to be perfect.

I then added my credits and title ‘Marcus Lost in Trollslation’ to finalise my project. I decided I wanted the credits inside of the film and so I overlaid them over my animation piece using ‘Premiere’.

Fig 3: Credit Placements (2014) Authors Own

Week 6 Days 2 & 3: Production

For the remainder of the week I continued animating the difficult scenes in order to afterwards fill in the gaps. I also sketched out some quick princess concept drawings to give me an idea of what I would like her character to look like.

What I enjoyed the most this week though was designing the inside of Marcus's stomach. I had never designed something like this before and straight away I knew what I wanted to produce. A bit like ''The Dog who was a Cat Inside'' I want the spectator to be able to visualise the inside of Marcus's stomach. In order to do so I created an extra layer which I made transparent so that you can see the princess clearly. I really enjoyed this technique and I know that it is definitively something I would like to recreate in the future as I find it really effective.

Fig 1: Screenshot showing transparent layers (2014) Authors Own

Fig 2: Opaque stomach Design (2014) Authors Own

Fig 3: Final (2014) Authors Own

I also went on to computer designing the princess in order to begin animating her and adding her into different scenes. I wasn't too keen on the idea of designing a princess because princesses are stereotypically the same; as compared to monsters which are all different one to another. I tried to give her a little bit of a difference by giving her red hair and a crooked crown. I was generally pleased with the outcome as I imagined it coming out worse.

Fig 4: Princess Design 1 (2014) Authors Own

Fig 5 : Final Princess Design (2014) Authors Own

Another aspect of my animation which I really enjoyed creating was the vomiting scene. I really liked playing around with transparency and thought it would be fun to have see-through monster vomit as we would be able to distinguish the princess clearly.

Fig 6: Opaque vomit 1 (2014) Authors Own






















Fig 7 : Opaque vomit 2 (2014) Authors Own

Week 6 Day 1 : Production

  I made a plan for the up-coming next two weeks which consisted of finishing the most difficult scenes in the first week, followed by the easier scenes. I would work on creating the sounds for my animation in the final few days.

Over the weekend I started to animate some of the most drastic scenes such as the metamorphosis and eating scene. I thought that these were quite hard to animate as in my opinion as they focused on facial expressions. Strangely I found it easier to animate the characters bodies rather than their facial expressions. However it is the facial expressions is what mainly gives life to each character.

Also I realised that I made a huge mistake while I was creating the Marcus character designs when I created an arm I made it as one whole symbol and so I could not animate it properly. I didn't realise that when you create a character you need to follow the human anatomy and so have 3 different joints for an arm in order for it to move properly. I then had to recreate different parts of Marcus' body such as the arms and legs. I have learnt from this time consuming mistake and I shall never do it again.

I also experimented using the bone structure tool to see if I could animate my character that way. I was not pleased with the result because the way the character moved didn't align with my notion of his character. It was too smooth and I wanted him to move in a more jagged way. I decided to animate him the longer way which meant that I would be more satisfied with my end result and pleased with the way in which he moves.

Fig 1: Experimenting with Bone Structure (2014) Authors Own























Fig 2 : Eating Scene Screenshot (2014) Authors Own

Fig 3: Metamorphosis Scene Screenshot (2014) Authors Own 

























Fig 4: Marcus Walking Forward Draft (2014) Authors Own 

Week 5 Day 2 & 3: Story

As far as the story goes, I sat down for hours and tried to figure out which struggles Marcus should have. This is my final outcome for my story:

Marcus is a lonely troll whom isn't part of any social group. He roams around his lonely world and encounters a Princess with whom he tries to communicate with. They quickly understand that they speak different languages and cannot converse at all. Marcus gets frustrated and gobbles up the princess. The princess is stuck in his stomach. Marcus continues his journey and next encounters people who make fun of him for his physique as he is different and looks like nobody else. The princess realises this and feels his pain. The more upset Marcus gets, the tighter his stomach gets which is a struggle for the princess as she cannot move. Marcus feels even more shunned and sobs in a corner. All of a sudden walls start caving in and Marcus is caught in between two walls which enclose him and continue to squash him. In particular Marcus’ stomach is crushed so much that he vomits, allowing the princess to come out and climb over him to get to the top of the wall. Once she is up there, the princess helps Marcus to safety. She ends up saving Marcus and they walk off hand in hand. Marcus has made a new friend and therefore has somewhat integrated for the first time.

This idea is quite far-fetched but I wanted to represent my concept in a fun way and for it to be visually quite different. For this story I want to focus mainly on the character’s movement and relationship. I want to be able to see Marcus's world and so I am creating an environment with no background details, only a plain colour so that it symbolises Marcus's loneliness and cultural emptiness. There are no items which relate to his past or future, only the present moment which is represented through the characters aesthetic.

Once I had constructed my story I made a rough storyboard.

Week 5 Day 1: Experimentation : Walk Cycle

Over the weekend I worked on creating a walk cycle for my character Marcus. I thought about the way in which he would move around. I thought that if his hand/arms dragged on the floor it would give him more character.

Fig 1 : Marcus Walk Cyle (2014) Authors Own 

Fig 2 : Marcus Walk Cycle Stills (2014) Authors Own

I also thought about my story. I listed all of the things which I learnt from my own personal experience which I wanted to include into the story idea. These elements were:

- Learn how to stand up for myself

- Open mind

- Stronger person

- Fiercer

- Learn to accept yourself even if you are different to others

- develop a cultural understanding and compassion towards others.

- These elements are gained only through experience with different kinds of people and from being the odd one out.

- As I've grown older, I've learnt to embrace this individuality and accept myself for who I am and where I come from.

I then wrote down different potential storylines and different struggles as of which Marcus could encounter. What I found difficult about this part was the fact that I wanted to represent a concept/idea and I wasn't too sure how to convert it into a story. I think that this was the most difficult part of the Final Major Project that I encountered.

Week 4 Day 2 & 3: Concept Art and Character Design

For this week I decided to start thinking about the characters for my story, and in particular what they would look like. At the beginning of the FMP I conducted a lot of research on concept art and various character designs from different films.

I concluded that I wanted to create my animation on flash and so I began designing a variety of characters. I tried different styles however I was not happy with the first style I developed and so I started to look at other animation styles. In particular, the more cartoon style which I thought would be fun to create. It may not sound like such a risk, however for me as a drawer I tend to draw quite messily and sketchy. Using this kind of style, I had to decide on one bold line which is completely different to what I usually produce. I found this extremely difficult and time consuming, however I was pleased with the results.

                                                                                                                  

Fig 1 : First attempt at character designs (2014) Authors Own

For this character style sheet I was not pleased with it as I found it too flat and the colours used weren't bold enough. These characters did not stand out nor do they have much personality. I looked through my character concept research over again and considered further different styles. I found that I could enhance the character by creating it with black outlines. This made the colours stand out more.

                Fig 2 : Concept Character Design (2014) Authors Own

I was quite happy with the outcome of the animation style for this character although I didn’t feel that the character itself was appropriate for my story. I experimented with different faces for this character; I stretched, scaled, drew over and used my imagination to create different looking faces. I was intrigued by the face on the bottom far right as it didn't look as human-like as the others. I thought to myself that maybe my main character can be something else than human however I need to find a way for the spectator to relate to the non-human character. 

I went ahead and thought of all the different things that this person could be, relating to its physique. I liked the idea of this character being a troll and so I went ahead and created another character design for him. 

Fig 3 : Concept Character Design Troll (2014) Authors Own

On Tuesday, I received feedback from my Tutor who told me that this character resembled too much to Yoda. I hadn't realised it until he told me and so straight away I thought of the ways in which I could modify it. I did some research on trolls and what they wear. I decided to make the character taller and wear trousers instead of a cape. The character soon became de-Yodalised!

Fig 4: Final Character Design: Marcus (2014) Authors Own

This turned out to be my final design as to which I spent hours on, however it was worth every hour and I am extremely happy with the outcome. I am excited to begin animating Marcus the troll. 

Week 4 Day 1 : Post Preduction

For the beginning of the week I commenced by writing down every single animation idea I could think of linked to my theme. I came up with ten different ideas as of which I then started to develop and see if I could link a couple of them together to create more rounded stories. However, once I had done this, one idea in particular stood out: The idea of two different people from different countries trying to communicate in different languages and just ending up screaming and shouting at each other in different languages. This idea made me think of Jan Svankmajer's animation work in particular his 'Dimensions of Dialogue' piece where the characters eat each other and spit each other out again. 

I would love to be able to recreate this idea on flash. I also had the idea that these characters could 'tune' into each other like a radio or television to be able to find the same wavelength to communicate however this doesn't work and they just keep changing languages struggling to connect.

 I carried on watching a couple of animations on video in order to be inspired by different animation style ideas. In particular I absolutely loved 'My day' (2008) by Eamonn O Neill. ( http://vimeo.com/6253749  )

Fig 2 : My Day (2008) Eamonn O  Neill

What I liked mostly about this animation was the look and feel; the 2D and watercolour design. I loved the aggressiveness put into this animation which is what made it original. A lot of it came from the character. I admired the framing and change in proportions of each character to symbolise how they feel and to accentuate the theme of personal space. The story is easy to relate to. The situation of the man in the bus has surely happened to most of us before. What I found interesting was the way that the situation was placed in a public space, however through the different frames it feels placed in a private space. This piece inspires me to accentuate lots of different frames in my animation in order to show my story more. I think it will also help get convey the notion of frustration to the spectator.

Week 3 Day 1& 2 : Bank Monday and Crits

Because of the Easter weekend and the bank holiday the weekly crits changed to the Tuesday. These crits consisted of checking our blog and the research work we had gathered together for our final major projects.

After all of my research work my ideas started to change. I honestly had thought about my first idea so much that I started to not like it at all. The creative week helped me to think of different ideas and take a step back from my project which I really needed to do. I went back to the basics and started to think about HOW to integrate and what you need in order to integrate. For me the major points of integration are communication: language, body language and culture. I decided that I really wanted to focus on these points and also the feelings you have while integrating. I want my animation to send a message to the spectator which is that we all need to integrate however the process of integration can be a frustrating and long process; sometimes it's never ending.

Instead of creating a whole entire story I thought it would be more fun to create a short sequence and keep my animation simple.

During this week I saw two different films: '' Planet 51'' (2009) and Spirited Away (2001) Studio Ghibli as I want to visit their film festival at the British Film Institute next week.

Fig 1 : Planet 51 Collage (2013) Authors Own

This film is based around the theme of integration. The idea that humans are the aliens and that the aliens are good. What I enjoyed the most about this film was the fact that the aliens had their own lives and that we view how they live in a humanized world. They own alien dogs, alien cars and they have their own culture which I found interesting and amusing to discover. It gave me a whole new point of view on our own culture and world. The aliens have their own different types of personalities and what I found intriguing about this inversed situation is the negative view on the humans that the aliens attributed to us. I was fascinated by the inversed idea of this film however I did not like the story. Throughout the film, the interaction between the main alien character and the human, we view a share of culture which links in perfectly with my theme.

Fig 2 : Spirited Away Collage (2014) Authors Own

I had seen this film as a child and so I thought it would be interesting to see it again. I thoroughly enjoyed this film. I found the animation astonishing and I am in awe at the storyline. This film links in with my theme through the way that they have integrated Japanese culture into this animation through the bathhouse and the idea of spirits, also the main character Chihiro has to integrate into this whole new world full of spirits in able to stay alive and save her parents. At the beginning of her forced integration she is miserable, however little by little she discovers new people and learns how to behave like the spirits. She learns their culture in order to survive. Throughout the film she becomes happier. Chihiro becomes stronger and a more rounded character throughout the film development, as of which we could compare to a real life person integrating into a new country.

Week 2 Day 3: Creative Week Final Crits

Unfortunately for this day the graphics girls were unwell and unable to assist our crit however we still managed to get sent the final image and decided to project the veil image.

Fig 1: Man under Veil (2014) Authors Own

Our crit passed really well; we explained to everyone our technique and how our project idea developed. I really enjoyed this week as it helped me to take a step back from my final major project. This project helped unblock some further ideas I have had for my Final Major Project.

Week 2 Day 2: Creative Week

On the second day we edited the fire pictures that we had taken the previous night, and which had turned out better than we had expected. Creating this was something that I had never done before and so it was extremely different to what I usually do and I thoroughly enjoyed creating something physical with my hands. Matt had used this technique before and so he was able to guide us in what to do and how to hold the lit sponges.

I am delighted with the outcome of the images. Creating these was exciting, different and fun. I will definitively keep this technique in my mind for if ever I need to use it in the future.

Fig 1: Steel Wool Photography (2014) Authors Own

Fig 2 : Steel Wool Photography (2014) Authors Own

We then sent the pictures to Natalie and Alice who put the pictures together to create a fire man. They edited it in lots of different ways to decide how we would project it and in what way the image looked the most powerful. 

Fig 3: Man of Fire Idea 1 (2014) Alice Parker

Fig 4: Man of Fire (2014) Alice Parker

As a group we really loved the second design and decided that this would be the design to project upon a veil over a mannequin. 

Our final image would look like this:

Fig 5: Man of Fire with Veil (2014) Alice Parker

Week 2 Day 1 : Creative week

For this week we were given a one week project where we had to collaborate with the graphics pathway. We were paired up into groups. My group consisted in Lea (LBM), Jason (MP), Matt (MP), Natalie (Graphics) and Alice (Graphics).

We began by watching a presentation of different ideas and materials to inspire us with this weeks' project. The idea was to create something physical and by using means which we do not usually use. Our aim in this project was to combine all of our different ideas together from our Final Major Project and transform it into a 3D object or indeed something created with our hands.

For our group, this day consisted in sharing our FMP ideas and trying to figure out in which way we could link them all together. We wrote down our main themes on a piece of paper and tried to find common links between them.

The major themes we had to work with were:

Feminism- Lea

Relationships - Matt

Integration- Louise

Shape and Form- Natalie

Mythology- Alice

The main link we found between these was the idea of a character. Our first major idea was to create a sculpture while integrating all of these themes together. However, as we discussed these ideas further, our project idea morphed into the idea of projecting fire onto the sculpture itself to make it more powerful ( spurred in particular by the ideas of mythology and shape and form).

We liked the notion of projection so much that we decided to turn the idea upside down and project our final piece onto a mannequin to keep the idea of a character made out of fire.

We divided the group to perform different roles: Matt, Lea and I would create the fire through photography, whilst Natalie and Alice would create the piece. They would add on anything as they went along which would enhance the reality to their themes. 

Final Major Project Day 3 Crits (Research week)

In my spare time, I had time to visit the exhibition 'Body Language' at the Saatchi Gallery. The Saatchi Gallery is one of my favourite Galleries however I was disappointed of my visit as I had hoped that a lot of what was exposed would link in with my work, however, I found that this was not the case.

Body language is essential as to how we understand other people. In animation body language is fundamental as an action, as is how we speak. Body language is how we communicate with others. Some kinds of body movements can also be a part of a certain culture, for example, a handshake or a bow. Every culture has it’s own body language and international understanding. Part of integration can also mean learning a whole new body language which you need to adapt to. Even though I didn't think this exhibition didn't link in with my work it was still a pleasure to see the different art that they had. I loved Makiko Kudo's work. I also found the use of 3D space in this exhibition quite interesting.

Fig 1 : Buring Red (2012) Makiko Kudo

Fig 2:  After a Typhoon (2011) Makiko Kudo 

I also went to visit the British Museum where I had a look at Egyptian Art as in especially the Protective figures which I found quite intriguing as they were represented as human animals which made me think of monsters and gave me design inspiration for different aliens/monsters. I also visited the Roman section where I had a look at the sculptures and Roman Armour. Some of the Roman armour was made out of crocodile skin which I thought would be an interesting texture to use as a possible alien skin. Crocodiles also mean danger and so it would help build up a dangerous character.

From my Crit I was told to look at the theme of integration from another angle as in possibly through the idea of exile and forced integration, ie look at a darker side of integration.

Final Major Project Week 1 Day 2 (Research Week)

I began the day with a visit to the library and try to find 'Dream Worlds' by Hans Bacher,  which I had been highly recommended to read. I also took out two other books which are on character design to help me build strong characters; 'Creative Character Design' by Bryan Tillman and 'Alive Character Design For Game, Animation and Film' by Haitao Su and Vincent Zhao.

 'Dream Worlds' by Hans Bacher  is a stunning book, which is full of concept Art for Disney Animation Productions; it is a marvel to look at. I have learnt a tremendous amount from this masterpiece. Bacher demonstrates different composition rules, with advice to markedly improve your animation. I am enthralled by the variety of art styles and find this book inspiring. Bacher’s work has highlighted to me the importance of composition.

His work really inspires me to be more careful with my compositions and try come up with original compositions for my animation. Looking at different point of views makes the story more interesting and a marvel to look at. You can also see the amount of work put into the animation and the time the producers took to choose and create the perfect composition for each scene.

Fig 1 : Free Birds poster (2013)

As an animation introduction to the theme of integration, I decided to watch a film called ''Free Birds'' which is about Turkeys. A Turkey goes back in time to stop thanksgiving. This theme links to integration through the fact that this turkey integrates into the human world and is treated like a king, however when he is accidentally sent to the past through a time machine he needs to integrate into the Turkey tribe in order to save them and stop the invention of thanksgiving. I loved this film I thought that the storyline was really original and the animation was really detailed. I especially enjoyed the scene where the Turkeys visit outer space. We can see from this film that they have a invented a whole new culture, which is something that I would like to work on for my Final animation piece.

I also looked at Tim Burton's concept art and I read his book ''Tim Burton'' by Tim Burton out of curiosity, as his character intrigues me. I am immensely inspired by his work. He creates completely original characters and monsters which I find fascinating. I wanted to find out where he gets his inspiration from. Throughout this book Tim Burton is interviewed about each of his films and his past as a concept artist for Walt Disney, which he hated. This book made me realise that he is an extremely psychological thinker and has a strong opinion about every artistic decision he makes. His work is inspiring and reminds me a little bit of German Expressionism which I also adore. I was also intrigued by how he explained what he was like as a child and how fame changed him.

Fig 2: Concept Art Metamorphosis- Tim Burton

Final Major Project Week 1 Day 1 (Research Week)

For the first day of the commencement of my FMP I focused around on the main theme for my project, which is integration. I wanted to choose a theme which was very personal to me in order to discover more about myself through in-depth research. For me, the theme of integration is part of my life and has become part of who I am today. From a very young age I have moved back and forth many times between England and France and so I have had to inhabit two different cultures whilst growing up.

The first step of research I made towards this project was to look at different forums and blogs for people’s point of view on bilingualism and how to integrate into a new country. I discovered that socially you need an open mind, and by adapting to another culture you need to lose some of your other culture in order to make room for this new one (http://www.nassauweekly.com/jai-deux-amours/ ).  I found this information interesting and use this for the final piece, for which I will create an animation. This research will be extremely important for my main character as I begin to shape both his characteristics and the story itself.

I then planned some interviews for people whom have had to integrate into a new country in the past to gather further points of view as an addition to my own personal experience with integration. I composed a list of various questions to ask each person, and I shall interview each person during the coming week.

I am really happy with how this interview turned out. Surprisingly, I can relate a great deal with Imogen's background and her experiences. This reinforced my initial thoughts that in order to integrate you have to keep an open mind about everything around you and the people that you meet in order to connect with them. This is a character trait which my main character in my animation will have to have.

I also began to gather up a lot of concept art from various artists in order to start shaping an idea in my head of the various types, styles and methods of animation that I could use. I already had an animation idea in my head that I really wanted to create which involved aliens and space. Most of the concept art which I have printed out will then help to shape an idea for my character designs.