We had a workshop with Jane focusing on framing visual narrative. We were tasked to capture 10 images of objects that do not belong to us in/outside our homes and display them in some sort of cohesive progression. I pondered this brief for a few days not really knowing what subject matter I wanted to explore, but as I was walking around my house, I realized I owned almost nothing. The door and locks that keep strangers out belong to my landlord. The radiator that gives us warmth in the winter belongs to my landlord. The stairs that allow me to reach my bed belong to my landlord. Etcetera etcetera.
My images ended up being a sort of political commentary on how the majority of people do not even own the very things that keep them alive, instead others hoard these basic necessities and leech of of our income instead of doing any actual labor.
We started with a workshop from David where we watched Journey by Daniel Szczechura. We had a very in depth discussion about our interpretations of the film and everyone got quite passionately involved. I personally viewed it as an exploration of mundanity, keeping in mind the context of the film being produced in soviet Poland. To me it was created as an expression of a common occurence, something that happens everyday that most can relate to. A way to make something out of nothing and just appreciate the mundane.
Later we had a lecture introducing the history of animation, exploring the very early stages of film and comic strips that lead to the very first animated cartoons.
On the Friday session we had time to independently work on our animations. I finished blocking out all the movement, however I had yet to edit any easing and animate the movement of the limbs.
On Monday we went over some stylization methods and began to implement them in our own work. We went over color palettes, textures and masks and using effects. For me this was more of a recap rather than anything new, but it was good to think about more than just movement. The visual style is necessary to tie everything together. I used the below texture for the liquid inside of my little character. I decided against parenting it and instead having it static because I really enjoy the styles similar to the Cartoon Network show ‘Chowder’.
I also used a boiling texture and color noise overlayed over the whole frame for a bit of an aged, retro visual effect. Finally, I transfered over a trick I use for lineart in Photoshop, where I duplicated the layers of the character, pre-comped them together and moved them below my shape. Then I set the entire pre-comp to the multiply blending mode and put about 10% gaussian blur on it. This gives it a bit of a ‘floaty’ almost beveled texture found in linework for cel animation, which I love the look of.
no blur layerwith blur layer
Then in my own time before Wednesday I added finishing touches. I followed the Ben Marriott tutorial on the hand drawn effect, however I skipped adding the posterize time effect as I still wanted my animation to run at 24fps. I also didn’t use roughen edges, mostly because I didn’t give myself enough to to play around with it on this project.
Finally, I used soundbites from pixabay to tie the whole animation together. I took bouncing sounds and layered them over some ambient sound of a needle on a blank record just for atmospheric effect. I initially wanted to be a bit more creative and make my own sounds, turning them to 8-bit but I couldn’t make it work the way I wanted.
On Wednesday we reviewed our videos and got feedback from Jess and our classmates. The list above is what I decided to change and improve. I crossed out the items as I completed them. These changes were subtle but really elevated how natural and fun my animation looked. I am very pleased with the result, and after getting back into Ben Marriott’s videos I’d like to take up some more motion graphics projects.
This is a very short post because essentially we did nothing. We had a quick lecture introducing the introduction to animation block and then got a homework assignment to take pictures of 10 things or objects in/around our house that do not belong to us. After a few days thinking about it I realized almost nothing in my house actually belongs to me, and I decided to take pictures of essential living items (eg. toilet, front door, heater) that all belong to my landlord. The concept explores the fact that so many of us rely on the posessions of a third party in order to survive.
I worked on the animation for a bit today. After having adjusted all the anchor points on each of the limbs and parenting them to the body I began to block out the general path of movement. I decided to quickly hand draw some boards showing my keys so I could better visualize here I wanted my little shape guy to jump and fall.
After blocking out the positioning, I adjusted the shape of the body to squash and stretch as it jumped and hit the top of the frame. I also edited the the paths of the limbs to make it appear as they were bending in order to initiate the jump.
So far I’ve only done the first jump and hit, and no easing yet. Some of the timing also needs to be adjusted. Then I will have to animate the liquid once the main body is done.
Today we continued with the basics of Ae. We covered shape path animation, layer parenting, masks, easing and the graph editor.
i swear this is a gif it just won’t play
I have a clearer direction for my final video however we have yet to cover topics I am unfamiliar with so I spent the day little bored again. However, towards the end we did do some squash and stretch exercises, and while the technical skills were not new, I enjoyed giving the little ball some character.
my little guy
We also looked into the 12 principles of animations briefly and basically said ‘yeah some of this is important, but also f*** it.’ Very in character of me to be a Disney hater, but yes, I do appreciate the emphasis on learning the ‘rules’ in prder to break them intentionally.
I will use my free day on Thursday to block out most of the animation and on Sunday I will do some touching up in preparation for feedback next week. I want to stylize the the textures so I will be looking up how to change stroke styles.
Today was the first day of classes. I was a little disappointed to begin with motion graphics but there are lots of interesting people in my class and Jess is a very fun lecturer. We began with learning the basics of After Effects, followed by some exploration of shape language and finally further exporation of After Effects.
I honestly spend a lot of time a little bored because I had taught myself After Effects last year, and while I am by no means an expert, I did use it for all of my classes on my CertHE course. The shape language section got us to think about certain feelings as shapes and movements.
Despite my lack of inspiration (hence the very ‘nothing’ doodles), this did end up prompting some thought on the shape self portrait. I looked at the concept of restrained chaos, something precariously balanced, free in a standardized way.
I ended up with an altered trapezoid shape; it can balance upside-down, but is not quite fully stable. It is then filled with some sort of fluid that moves around haphazardly and can spill out with any movement. Finally, I gave it some limbs to personify it a little.
Overall today was alright, albeit a bit slow. It will be nice to refresh my After Effects since last term and I think our final video will be a very cute visual.
