Evaluation

I started by researching other animations and how they had been produces. I like the animations using other day objects and people to animate with, so I decided to animate myself.
I found an animation of barcodes, which made me think of the theory that barcodes are actually the mark of the beast. So I researched more into that theory. It worked well with the theme of "The Beginning of the End of the Word". The song I chose was "My Given Life" by Mammuth, with the lyrics "trying to find the motivation, to live my given life" links in with trying to not succumb to the order that the Beast imposes with the Mark.

I conducted some animation tests, looking at how I could get the barcodes to appear in my eyes and how I could get my eyes to animate.

After I had completed my tests and edited my music to the section I wanted to use I animated and then edited the final footage.

If I were to do the project again I would hope to get my idea quicker. I had to put quite a bit of time into idea generation.
I quite like the idea that I came up with for the animation, I feel that it explores the idea in an abstract way, allowing the audience to think about and question the theme that I was referring to.
I feel that the biggest threat to the project for myself was the tutor being off ill, resulting in a lack of input from a specialist animation professional.
The opportunity presented to my in this project was being able to explore ways of animating with a different medium, the human body and learn more about experimental animation techniques.
I would also like to light my animation better if I were to do it again, to give a better visual quality to the final.

Animation Final

Animation tests

Test 2:



This is a test for my animating with bar codes. I had wanted to animate myself so that I boil slightly and have an animated quality to the visuals however when automating cutting out the eyes in Photoshop the head doesn't stay still enough so I have decided to use a still frame within the animation. I used the fish eye effect in FinalCut pro to make the car codes look more like eye balls. 




Test 1:



 I am going to make sure that my eyes open fully in my final. This is just for a short section of the animation. I will also make sure that I am wearing a white t-shirt and have a white background when I produce the final animation to make it look professional.

Batteries not Included - Motion Graphics

I really like this visual representation of the phrase created in After Effects. This shows perfectly how typography can be used to communicate the meaning of words, which is something that I need to aim to achieve in my work. I will look at ways in which I can use the type to communicate the meaning of the words.

animation research

This is the music video for "Hey". The action follows the music and goes with the flow of the phrases within the music. Events such as crashing through floors etc coincide with a drum beat or certain guitar riffs.
The animation seems to have been produced via CGI, perhaps using a program such as Lightwave or Maya. It has more of a grungy feel then CGI can tend to, this has been achieved through texture and use of colour, rather then using bright, child like colours that CGI is often associated with in animation. I prefer this asI am not




I really like the grungy feel of this animation. It suits the style of music well. The use of textures and also cardboard as the material helps to achieve this.



All The Tears

Gojira | MySpace Music Videos


Although i generally like the actual animation of this piece I feel that it hasn't been edited to the music very well. The action of the animation should have been edited to the beat more to make it feel as though it is part of the music, it just doesn't really gel, they feel like two separate entities that just happen to have been placed together. In my piece I will make sure that I edit it to the music more professionally.



I really like the idea behind this, using everyday objects and giving them a different purpose and meaning. The message behind the animation is about western culture and what we value. The objects chosen work really well in this, and I feel that it is something that I would like to try doing.


I really like the idea of animating a human body as in this piece. It's experimental and different, which is what I would like to aim for in my piece. I also like the way that the frame rate is reduced, making it look like an animation (although slower) but still giving the feeling of motion. This is something that I could have a look at doing, or animating at a standard rate.


This animation actually gave me the idea to use barcodes to animate with. It lead to me putting together a narrative based on the idea of the beginning of the end of the world and trying to resist the mark of the beast.


Again this animation uses the human body to animate with. I like the fact that they have tried something different and turned the human body into a skateboard, seemingly achieving the impossible. The sound in this animation really enhances the action, it is realistic and changes in the right places i.e at jumps it sounds like the skate board has been lifted into the air and landed again.

Gorillaz Animatic

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJmCWeyRlpo
Unfortunately the embed utility is disabled for the above video. However it is an animatic for the Gorillaz song Dare. This shows how an animatic is used to pitch an animation, without going to the cost of producing the animation before it possibly being turned down - which would be a loss. The animatic is simple but shows more movement then a story board, it is also set to the sound track used for the animation. This gives the viewer an idea of what the animation will look and move like. This animatic also introduces some colour, showing the night club like lights again giving the feel of the animation to the viewer. Animatics are supposed to be fairly cheap to produce as the animation is not necessarily going to be commissioned at this stage and fully animating would cost too much for the risk of a loss.

Jamie Dean

I really like this stop motion animation. I love the old feel it has through the grey scale and jittery, achieved through the use of super 8 film. I would look at using filters and effects to recreate this style in my own work.
 The items used within the film also add to the old look of it. I really like the simple animation and the jerking movement of the obejects. This reminds me of old childens stop motions such as Camberwick Green and Trumpton and could be recreated through playing with the frame rates and/or shooting fewer frames.

The animator has used focus settings to create parts of the animation that started out of focus and then focuses in. I like this effect, it is surreal and really adds to the effect of the film.

The music really adds to the effect of the dark feel of the film, the spacing between the bass and the treble within the song and the contrast within this. The slow, lingering tempo of the song adds to the creepy effect as well.

The overall feel of the short film is Gothic and Surreal. I really like this. Again it shows the side of my personality that really likes creepy, strange things.

Lightwave

I have had my first 3D modeling & animation lesson today. We need to research, develop and create our own world of the future using the Lightwave software. I have come up with an initial idea which is actually drawn from an activity I did in a science lesson about 5 years ago in Year 9. We had to create a way for humans to live on another planet as the world was being destroyed. My idea was to build a large dome on the moon and use large air tanks to supply the air until a self sustaining environment was created, through the growth of plants. I am using this as my starting point and initial idea and developing it further from there.

Here is my first design sheet, it isn't very big because the college scanners are not working so I have had to take a picture on my phone (5MP so decent size) but then send it to Wordpress (as blogger doesn't have a UK mobile utility) and then save it to upload it. My life story over, that's why it is only a small image.

I have started to look at a couple of different ideas for developing the design.

I am quite excited about this project. I am now off to do more research!