Animation 1 - Group Project Stop Motion Film

 Team Member's Blog Links: 

Yoori Kim: yoorikimblog.wordpress.com

Jiun Wee: shwuweevisualart.wordpress.com

Animation 1 - Wk 11 - Group Project Production

For the group project, we original had 3 members, me, Jiun and Yoori. When coming up with the animation for the theme cooperation, our main concern was come up with a concept that was simple and was 30 seconds long. So, we all just said some random idea until we came up with a bunch of letters spelling the word ‘cooperation’ as they are cooperating to save the letter y and Jiun ordered some fridge magnets.

While coming up with the storyboard, Spencer came into our group and we end up creating our own version of how the story world process and choosing the shots that looked the best for that scene. In addition, we all contributed on creating the design of each character. I designed C, P and E, Jiun designed R, A and Y, Yoori designed OO and I and Spencer designed T, O and N. Once we had our storyboard, me and Jiun started cleaning up the storyboard using photoshop, Yoori used premiere pro to edit the storyboard to be 30 seconds and Spencer was supposed to make the character sheet on photoshop, but he ended up not doing anything since he didn’t have access on the computer, so Yoori ended up creating the character sheet.

During this week’s lesson, Spencer was not here and was not replying to any technological form of communication, so we had Guy as a replacement. Jiun was the one who designed the production plan and told us that she will transfer the plan onto a website called ‘Trello’. Also, since the magnets did not arrive this week, we decided to start animating the character’s eyes. Me, Jiun and Yoori started animating the character’s eye to make them blink while Guy, since he has no knowledge of the program photoshop, ended up making the ‘Let’s Rescue’ sign for the film. I animated C, P, E, O, X and T eye’s blinking animation, Yoori animated OO, I, N, Z and A, and finally Jiun animated Y and R. 

For next week, we plan to start shooting the stop-motion and then edit the images so the letter have eyes and finally, if we have time, add voice recording and music.  

Animation 1 - Wk 9 - My Experience with Hand-Drawn and Stop-Motion Animation

 In my experience of both hand drawing and stop-motion animation, I found that both are used differently to achieve the same result. Some of these differences have their benefits and drawbacks. I will be using my hand drawing flip-book and my stop-motion video as my two examples.

While animating this, I started with a circle and then slowly added more features and detail so it looks like a girl transforming. I was able to blur out the character and make the character do a flip with little effort. If I were to animate this as a stop-motion video, I would either have to switch the model into a blur or frame by frame make the character do a flip. Also, I am able to squash and stretch my character to make the motion look realistic but if I were to do a stop-motion, I cannot squash nor stretch the character, and even if I did, the model would deform and will take time to re-position and model the character again. Furthermore, if you were to make a mistake such as the character moves too fast or too slow, you can remove frames or draw more frames, however, for stop-motion, you need to start all over again. Finally, the character is in the air so if I were to use a model, then I would also need a support stand to make the character stay in the air then, later edit each frame using an editing software such as ‘Photoshop’.

What’s good about doing stop-motion animation is that I position the object then once I’ve taken the photo, I sightly move the object depending if the action is fast or slow. In other words, I don’t have to redraw the same object/model. Same applies to moving arms or legs, I only need to make the arms or limbs slightly instead of redrawing the whole model again on a different page. Another thing is that the model already have shadows due to the light in the room or the sunlight, but for drawing, I need to shade each frame from the direction I want to put the light in. Finally, for drawing I can only flip through three pages to make sure the character action goes smoothly, for stop-motion animation however, I just need to look through my camera or phone and I can see all the frames I’ve taken.

All in all, both hand drawing and stop-motion animation have their benefits and drawbacks but are used differently to achieve the same result. 

Animation 1 - Wk 8 - Stop-Motion Exercise 2

Created by: 

Mareena Iqbal 

Yoori Kim

Jiun Wee

Emily Gear 

Although my group had more props last time, we didn't have a tripod and ended up using a box and plasticine as a replacement. We all did work and cooperated effectively as my group changed roles from moving the animals to cameraman but I stayed with moving the Lego figures so the figure move at a same pace. But I felt like the video is moving too fast. Both the Lego figure and the animals are walking too fast. Also, the camera is cutting too fast and sometimes made me dizzy. For improvement, I'll work on the lighting since it is constantly changing and be patient and move the figure slowly. For example, in the first scene, instead of 12 frames, I'll try 24 frames so the figure looks like its walking and not running.

Animation 1 - Wk 7 - My own Animated Piece

Stop-Motion Animation 

The reason why I choose this technique was because I didn’t have a lot of materials and I didn’t have anyone to help make the animation. So, I have to come up with a concept for this animated piece that is simple and ended up using coins and my hand for this entire short animation piece. I found twp principles of animation in my piece and they are anticipation and slow in and slow out.

Anticipation is also a principle that was highlighted in my animation piece when the hand is about to hit the coin. Anticipation is when a character is preparing an action so the audience an idea of what’s about to happen next.  When the hand makes a fist and is raised up, it’s preparing an action; so, the audience knows that it will try to smash the coin.

Slow in and Slow out was used whenever the coin moves fast. This is referred to all movement starting slowly, builds up speed then finishes slowly again.  If the video was slowed down, you will notice that the coin moves back before moving fast then slows down again and moves back. This makes the coin move natural.

In conclusion, only two principals of animation were highlighted in my piece and they were anticipation where the hand is raised and slow in and slow out wherever the coin moves as it slowly backs up then moves fast and finishes slow again. 

Animation 1 - Wk 7 - Peter Gabriel's Music Video Analysis

Peter Gabriel - Sledgehammer

In Peter Gabriel’s music video of “Sledgehammer”, there were three different animation techniques. The techniques were Claymation, Pixilation and Stop-motion animation.

Claymation is when each animated piece (background or character) is made out of a workable material, manly plasticine. In the music video, they used plasticine to model Gabriel’s face and frame by frame, move the model slightly. They also add extra materials such as, hammer for hands and legs on his face. They also do this to the background when adding a window or changing colour from green to red.

Pixilation uses live actors as a frame by frame subject and move vaguely frame by frame for movement. This technique has been used throughout the majority of the music video using different props such as a train set around Gabriel’s head or a roller coaster ride on a chalk board.

Stop-motion animation is used on an object so it appears to move on its own. The object can be both animate like a puppet or in-animatic object like coins when used in animation. The music video used in-animate object such as fruits to animate Gabriel’s face and slightly move the fruits to match with Gabriel’s singing. They also used this with chicken meat to make it dance.

All in all, in Peter Gabriel’s music video, “Sledgehammer” the techniques all used different materials to animate. Claymation used plasticise to add items like legs on face and to change the colour of the background. Pixilation was used the most throughout the whole video and used props like a chalkboard as a roller coaster ride. Finally, stop-motion animation is used to animate inanimate objects like fruit and chicken to look like it moves.

Animation 1 - Wk 6 - Flipbook

This flip-book was an improvement from my last one. I still had to come up with a concept for this piece but it didn't require a lot of thinking. Instead of pose to pose drawings for this flip-book, I did it straight ahead. It made the animation look smooth but the only issues I have when animating is when the character either shrink or grow. 

Animation 1 - Wk 5 - Animating cycles

 Walk cycle

 I originally wanted to try animating a walk cycle traditionally, however it got to a point where each frame was either bigger or thinner than the others. Also, flipping the pages got difficult and I lost track of the next key frame. In addition, its hard to pinpoint on the next frame and to either do 12-frames per second or 24 frames per second. For a solution, I would work on how to flip the pages easily and put less paper on the clipboard to not lose track.

Dog Running In a Circle
 

Although I wasn't able to do a walk cycle digitally, I decided on a dog running in a circle cycle. It was easier to do the animation on the computer because I was able to organise and keep track using layers in Adobe Animate CC 2017 ( Adobe Flash). It was actually easier and faster to work then working traditionally.

Animation 1 Wk 3 - Animating Fire

I decided for my next animation, I would animate fire but, as I kept animating and flipping through each frame, I realised that the fire was getting wider and didn't act like how fire would. For a solution, I would look at some reference of fire and how it moves and spreads.  

Animation 1 Wk 2 - Head Turning

It was very easy to make the head turn by drawing a circle making sure it matches and then started drawing the face structure, then the eyes and ended by drawing the nose. It took 8 pieces of paper in-order to make the cycle. However, while editing the video, the shots are not straight and accurate so I had to move some of the images to create a head turning cycle. I wanted to scan the pages using a scanner but I do not have one and had to improvised using my phone.

Animation 1 Wk 2+3 - Reflection on Exercises/Homework

Your second blog post is to reflect on one or more of the animation exercises done in class and in homework that have challenged you the most.  

While animating the flipbook from week 2, the most challenging part of the exercise was coming up with the concept. At first, I did simple thumbnails and character designs for the flipbook but I didn’t know where to place the camera for the scene and end up trashing the scene and moving on to a different idea. I ended up doing a simple transformation from a girl to a mutant creature and after getting the thumbnails ready, I split the flipbook in half leaving 50 leaves for each. I used one of them as a rough practice sketch for keys and in-between and once I was happy with the result, I copied it over the other flipbook so I don’t have to keep erasing a messing up the flipbook.  

 Another challenge in class was do a head turn of a character. What was challenging about was getting the nose right since there was no reference of the character and I ended up with a deformed nose. I did multiple attempts but all didn’t fit the character head turn. Also, I had trouble flipping the pages and ended up with creases and damaged paper.

Animation 1 Wk1 - Courage the Cowardly Dog

In your first blog post, summarise your recollections in a short paragraph, and reflect on how it has shaped your interest in animation study.  You may include one image if you wish.

- created by John R. Dilworth for Cartoon Network

It was not the animation that got me interested in animation studies, it was the characters such as Courage, Muriel Bagge and Eustace Bagge. Each character had unique design, shape and personality and no character were alike. For example, Shirley the medium is a fortune-teller who cast curses on those who disobey integrity. However, she is also very greedy and charges high fees in order to reversed the curse on the subject. Also, her design and colours are very fitting to her character, with her green skin matches her greedy persona.

It has inspired me to creating my own characters and shape my interest in animation studies.