plan C

due to the terrible software used in the college i have lost my exported files as well as my original clips from both singing in the rain and the pixilation coins. because of this i have had to use my very first model based animation that i created during the christmas period.
with this animation i was very pleased as it was my first one.


below is a link to the finished and final animation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ar6kzw0zPio

once i was happy with this and agreed that this was the best option i submitted my animation to an online website called padlet. this is somewhere you can submit your work and people can write comments and their opinions on your work

http://padlet.com/lauramoodyvpa/2lee574pqnak

Edited and exported

I decided last week that i was going to change my animation to a form of pixelation using coins. i thought that this would be a good way to demonstrate both clay based animation and pixelation.
I collected together all of my clips which included a wide shot and close ups of each individual pile of coins. once happy with the clips i took them to Adobe Premier Pro (a video editing software i feel most comfortable using) and i put the clips in the order i wanted them. The timeline of the clips seemed a little short so i used some different video editing techniques to make the clip longer these included slowing down the clip speeding up the clip and transitions.
because of the camera quality and angle of the clips i shot i wasnt happy with the appearence so i changed the colour of the clips to black and white to make them more even through out the animation.
overall i am pleased with how the animation turned out.
next week i will find some quirky creative commons music to place in the background of the animaton to bring it to life.

back up plan

i decided that i wasnt very happy with my animation so i created a back up plan.
the reason why my first animation didnt fit to my expectations was due to the model itself i didnt think that it was very moveable which caused the animation to look tacky.
For the back up plan i decided to use still life items in this case money. i wanted to show the money piling up and down to funky music. i will subit both animation as they are both different techniques of stop motion animation.

This week i finished all of the clips i would use for the animation this involved close ups of each coin piling up aswell as a full wide shot of the piles forming next to each coin. After half term i will focus on editing the clips together and play around with different effects to make the animation more appealing.

close ups and editing

This week i worked on the close ups for the animation.
i think that there are still alot of room for improvements which i will work on over the next few weeks

i took all of the clips into imovie, and decided that i didnt want to edit in that programme so i decided to edit in Premier pro.

I got the clips in the order i wanted and added the music in the background
next week i will work on tightening up the clips and editing the music to to sections that i desire to use.

starting filming

i created the main shot of my animation where the model enters the street and dances i am not very happy with the shot so i am thinking about filming it again.
next week i am going to do some different angles and close ups of the model to use as cut aways
but i am happy with the back drop

creating the model week 2

i carried on working with the model this week aswell as finding possible back drops for the animation.
for the model i used bent wires to secure the body parts securely in place. i then added facial features such as eyes mouth nose and eye brows. i made the suit appear more 3 dimensional and tested the stability of the model and how long it can stand in place.
the model could possibly be improved in stability but it can stand for about 30 seconds which is more than enough time to stand without being touched when i begin to make the animation.

Next week i will work on the props for the model using paper/card to make the lampost and the umbrella for the model to hold, i will also set up the back drop by printing out the chosen image and sticking in to card to make it stable

making the model

27/02/14

This week i started making the main model for my singing in the rain animation.

i used black, white, and pale pink plasticine.

i started off by making each individual body part before using wire to attach them altogether

i didnt have much time to do this this lesson so next week i will add further detail to the model and ensure that it is stable enough and is easy to move the separate body parts for the animation.

Singing in the rain animation

My second animation is a music video or scene from a film. as singing in the rain is a well known song/scene i decided to re-create this. the scene that i would be re-creating the scene where he climbs up onto the street light while it is raining and spinning his umbrella

The sections of the song that i will use are 1:15-1:30 = where he is on the lamp post
1:48 - 1:53 = where he is walking and spinning the umbrella
and finally 2:27-2:32 = where he is tap dancing in the rain.

although all of these sections are split up i would make them all fit together, i would do the walking and spinning the umbrella first then the lamp post and then finish with the tap dancing. the song would be the chorus through out and maybe if i run out of time i would play the tap dancing part with the tap dancing scene.

The dolls house animation

As mentioned previously i want to use Real life, plasticine models and paper cut outs within this stop motion animation. i find this a bit of a challenge but want to see if i can get the out come i hope for.

The opening scene of the animation will be a shot of a child (of a student from the class) playing with the dolls house and then looking over their shoulder before putting the dolls down and leaving the room.  Once the human has left the dolls that are sat around a plastic table will turn their heads to check that it is safe before all three leaving the table 2 walking to another room and 1 pulling up a fourth chair.
The second scene will be in the second room with the two models. one of the models will pull up a small piece of paper while the second one draws a rough sketch of a man on the surface. once the drawing is complete the models will swap places the one that was drawing will now be holding the paper while the other one will now pick up some scissors.
The third scene will be back in the first room where the 3 model was pulling up a chair. this scene will purely be to clearly identify what this model is doing in the other room as it shows the model just neatening things in preparation.
The fourth scene will be back in the other room where it cuts to the model using the scissors to cut the sketch out. once it is cut the models will lay the paper on the floor and both will bend down to grab a hand each of the sketch. after 3 attempts they pull up a paper person after looking around and steadying the paper person while they get used to their new legs they return back to the table and all sit around before the child comes back. thus ending the animation.

Here is an example of what i would like the dolls house to look like. as long as it has the two rooms and basic furniture the design of the dolls house itself isn't really that important.

 this is a basic of the furniture that i would require for the scene. 1 table with 4 chairs.

 

 Because a lot of detail is going into this animation the detail of the models themselves do not need to be perfect as these are created by a child. as long as they resemble people that is the main point. both examples here are how i will create the model very basic but i could make them look a bit more details like the first image.

This is the paper person that will be cut out. i will pre cut this as the one that will be made while filming will be very messy but i will ensure to make it look like the characters are actually drawing and cutting a real paper cut out.

My animation idea

after learning about all the different techniques that can be used to create animation i have decided that my favourite style is model or paper based animation.

my idea is to create a mixture of  3 different techniques to create the illusion of real life animation.

i want to use real people, plasticine models and paper cut outs in my animation.

I have 3 different ideas for my animation. My first idea is to use a mixture of humans, models and paper cut outs.

the plot is a young child is playing with a dolls house when she leaves to go for tea. as soon as she leaves the models come to life and start using scissors to make there own models but with paper.

I would create this using stop motion animation showing a wide shot of the child leaving then panning inside of the dolls house to the plasticine models sitting around a table 2 out of the 3 models will walk into another room while the third pulls up a fourth chair. In the other room one of the models will trace a person on a piece of paper when finished the second model will use real scissors to cut around the paper. the final scene of the animation will be the two models helping up the paper model before returning around the table just before the child returns.

My main worries about this idea are the lack of props. the main prop that i need is a dolls house with basic furniture in (table with 4 chairs). as well as this the only other issue is the time as the animation is suppose to last 30 seconds i may run over time, if this is the case this could create a longer filming time which could risk meeting the dead line in time.

My second idea is to create a small section from a song. the song i have chosen is singing in the rain. like the first idea i would use models and cut outs. the model would be the main character and the cut outs would be the back ground as well as the people walking by to bring to life the scene from the musical. To create this i would find the back drop from the actual film and set that up against a sturdy surface. i would make the famous street light out of a painted stick placed on a small block and add lighting effects during the editing process. The section of the song i would use would be the first chorus and i would animate the part where he walks while spinning the umbrella and then spinning around the street light. If possible i would like to use special effects or small pieces of tissue to create the illusion of the rain. As all props are easily made i dont think that there would be any problems that could risk this animation being created.

My final idea for the animation is to take a scene from a film and re-create it. although the last idea was from a film it is different as that was a song from a musical more than a scene. 

for the film choice i would choose an action film and use plasticine models and paper cut outs like the others.  Out of the three this is my least favourite idea, purely because i would struggle to choose which film and which scene to re-make.

After discussing with my tutor i have decided to attempt to create both the dolls house animation and the singing in the rain. i struggled to choose between each idea as both idea really fascinated me. i wanted to see if i could manage to use 3 different techniques for the dolls house and i also wanted to re-create my favourite scene from one of my favourite musicals.

Time Lapse in animation

Time lapse is the oposite to stop motion but uses the same process to create it. To create a time lapse you must set up a tripod in a set location and not move it at all, depending on what you are taking the images of depends on how often you take them, for example if you wanted to create a time lapse of the skyline through out the day you would take a picture every 30 minutes to an hour depending on how effective and detailed you want it to appear, another popular creation using time lapse is watching the decay of carcases, in this situation you would have to take a picture every so many hours - a few times a day. This can take weeks of years as creating a time lapse is a long time consuming way of creating animation.

- denoting the photographic technique of taking a sequence of frames at set intervals to record changes that take place slowly over time. When the frames are shown at normal speed the action seems much faster.

Modern day animation

Over the years animation has evolved not only in technique but also with target audience.
Many animations now aim not only towards children as their target audience but also young adults and teenagers. many examples of animations that have been produced in my life time have a target audience of young adults and teenagers, some examples of these are. The simpsons, Celebrity Death match, Family guy, American Dad, Cleveland show, wallace and gromit, adventure time, south park, spongebob squarepants, regular show, futurerama and many more.
i have chosen too do 3 well known animations to talk about in depth.

Adventure Time

Adventure time is a cell based animation for cartoon network created by Pendleton Ward a actor/writer from the USA. The show was originally suppose to attract children of young ages but because increasingly popular by teenagers due to the sexual innuendoes and drug references that children are un able to pick up. The show was first aired in 2010 with an episode titled "slumber party panic". this episode has speculated around the internet as the opening scene shows one of the characters fall onto their head, every episode afterwards the same character has came across as mentally challenged. it is said that this is the reason for this characters actions.

Family Guy

Another animation that has been produced in my lifetime is the much loved Family guy. Created and staring Seth Macfarlan, first aired in 1999 and has carried on to this very day up to the 14th series.
It consists of a family man and the antics that go ahead with their ugly daughter, talking dog and world dominating baby. The show has a lot of racial, sexist, alcohol and sexual relations in pretty much every episode which some people can find offensive. The show also add a musical twist a lot of the time with spin off episodes with Stewie and Brian where they go on adventures such as to multi-universes and different states in america. Again family guy is a cel-based animation with 5.25 million viewers. It reached  a 2.6 adults 18-49 rating down 21% from a 3.3 last year. in December 2013 the producers of the show pulled a stunt which affected the viewers and got everyone talking about the show. They killed off one of the main and much loved characters, the family pet Brain, and the episode saw the heart breaking emotion of the toddler on the show aswell as the replacement of the dog with another called vinnie. The new dog was shown in 2 episodes untill a christmas special where the new companion helped the young child travel back in time and save the beloved family pet. Producers of the show stated in many interviews "as if we would EVER kill off brian"

                                                  music and lyrics by stewie griffin

                                                                      brian death

stewie saves brian

Celebrity Death Match

This is a show that again is aimed towards teenagers and young adults, but unlike the others that are created by a cel-based style of animation this show is model based which is rare to see these days.
The short length shows created by Eric Fogel ran from 1998 too 2007 when the show ended on season 6. the show consists of plasticine models based on celebrities that enter a wrestling arena and fight... to the death. The show has a lot of violence and possibly offends a lot of people. The show was cancelled in 2007 due to the producers feeling the show wasn't going anywhere with the views decreasing a lot.

                                         

Editing an animation

Once the footage was shot for my animation i used imovie to cut the 2 clips together and add a title and credits scene at the beginning and end of the animation to make it more realistic and professional.

imovie

To add text

                                                       Choose text style to add credits

To add the audio to my animation i used a Apple Mac programme called garage band. I started off by adding the clips to the time line before creating a new track to add the music, as the track was very long i cut the track down and faded it out so that it didn't sound odd when it cut off.

                                                    Screen shot of garage band editing

                                      To make the music slightly different i added special effects

The Finished Animation

Now that my first animation is finished i am extremely please with the results, considering it was my first time creating a stop motion animation i think it looks good. The next time we create a stop motion animation i will try to make it a lot more professional making sure the camera is still and that and ensuring that the background is secure and no gaps appear through. I will also want to experiment a bit more with sound effects next time maybe by creating a action animation and adding sound effects with cars, footsteps, shooting and shouting.

plasticine models

this week we made some models out of plasticine,As plasticine is a well known material used for animation.

I decided to make something simple but add detail to it. i made a penguin and an igloo and added a feather detail using one of the modelling tools. this is my finished model.

With the models we created we had a practice session of making a 5-10 second animation using out plasticine models. we used a hue camera which we connected to the computer and used the istopmotion programme to capture the images. we set the animation to large wide screen which captured 12 fps on footage. with my animation i created a set to the scene to re-create a snowy area for the penguin to live. although i did not finish my animation this week i managed to get the first scene recorded.

How Animation is made

There are a number of different techniques you can use to create animation. Pixilation, Cell based and model animation are the most successful techniques used.
Model animation usually consists of creating 3D models usually from plastercine, paper or plastic objects. In order to use this un-movable objects to create a moving picture you first must bring the objects to life, how else than by using stop motion.
Stop motion with model based animation works by placing the object in the desired area/scene and photographing it before moving it slightly by hand to photograph again. By doing this a number of time you will eventually mimic the illusion of movement. When playing the animation back the human mind perceives the photographs of slightly changed objects to actually appear that the object is alive and moving on its own.


                                                 Model based stop motion animation 

amateur model animation

One of the most famous model animators known is a man called Art Clokey. In the 1930-1950's animation was becoming increasingly popular with walt disney creating full length animated films with competitors the fleicher brothers doing similar projects. Clokey decided to make his animation from plastercine. In 1955-1982 he created a character called Gumby. 

                                                 Art Clokey first animation gumbasia

Gumby

Plastercine isn't the only substance that can be used to make 3D models another popular material is wood. using wooden characters as models for animation has been very popular with students and amateur film makers using these characters is believed to be easier and more realistic as it represents a human and can move with the same joints like real people do.

                                                         example of wooden animation

Although model animation is effective and gives excellent results when used properly we have adapted to that style of animation and now create amazing styles of coloured cartoon animations such as Walt Disney films. This is called cell based animation.

WHAT IS CELL BASED ANIMATION?

"A traditional form of animation used in the production of cartoons or animated movies where each frame of the scene is dran by hand. A full-length feature film produced using cel animation would often require a million or more drawings to complete" - http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/C/cel_animation.html

Cell based animation because very popular 1930's and was most famously seen with the Walt Disney film Snow white. Windsor McCkay demonstrated the same style on cell based animation but this was before plastic was created so his animation was shown on paper. The process of using cell based animation is firstly a story board is made by all the animator and directors coming together to discus the entire film. Once they are made the storyboards are presented as the story, after it has been laid out the dialogue is recorded. This tends to be done before animation that that the animators know exactly what the characters will say. Once the dialogue is recorded the animator make rough sketches of the characters they are usually rather messy with no colour or background. Once the entire film has been drawn out on paper they are transported to the inking department where the inkers copy the animation drawings on clear celluloid acetate these days known as plastic. After the inking department have outlines the characters the unfinished cells go into the painting department where the painters flip the cel over and paint all the colours needed to created the characters characteristics on the back, they do this so that the character appears crisp with an outline.Before the cels get photographed a background image must be added, as the cel is clear with only a character on once a background is created it can be placed directly underneath the character. Usually the backgrounds are painted with water colour paint, in some Disney productions the backgrounds were painted on glass with glass painted backgrounds to create the illusion of extreme movement. With all the combined elements the images can now be photographed. Although the final product is not filmed with a normal projector or camera, but with a lens mounted facing down onto a table top which is covered with the cels that have been created. they cover them in a large piece of glass and then the images are photographes. Once the drawings are filmed the dialogue is added and occasionally the film is edited at this step the animation is now complete.

                                                  artist drawing characters to be animated

                                              short film that was created using cel animation

If that isn't enough explanation a well known example to demonstrate how cell based animation is created is stick men drawings drawn in a flip book. Many people do this during childhood and it is perfect to demonstrate just how cel based animation works.

                                      

During class i decided to create my own animation using plastercine i played around with different models for a while and then decided to create an apple falling from a tree. enjoy.

Animation in the 60's and 70's

television was invented in the 1920's with only 1 channel to show, when world war 2 was going on the television was shut off until around the 1950's around this time america was creating television animation. Hanna Barbera was the first major animator for american tv. she started out only providing animations for her own production company Hanna-barbera productions but when MGM closed the company down in 1957 she began producing for television only.

Some of the well known shows that she created were things such as the Ruff and Reddy show and the first run syndication entry the Huckleberry Hound show. in the 1960's the studio hit a stride with the first half an hour animated sitcom the Flintstones. The Flintstones were the first of several animated sitcoms along side The Jetsons, Topcat, and Johnny Quest.

Hanna-Barbera was also the genius behind the very successful Scooby-Doo series which was produced in 1969 to present day. In 1986 Scooby-Doo was cancelled and only aired the spin off of the characters as children in  ' a pup named scooby-doo'.

Most of the animations that were created took there audience ideas from Disneys success with children as the audience although a few cartoons still attracted the older audience with there hidden messages and political references such as the magic round-a-bout and the Flintstones which started out with an adult audience until later aiming towards children.

In 1990's cartoon network a cable tv channel aimed at children created a new channel called 'Boomerang'. The idea of this network was to air re-created animations from the 60's-70's which is why many young people still know of the old animation and have a lot of love towards them. Some of them were also re-created as films such as the magic roundabout. As well as animation being made into films some animations were made into realistic films such as Scooby-Doo and the Flintstone which had a hit with actors such as  John Goodman and Rick Moranis and Sarah Geller and Mr Bean Star Rowan Atkinson.

1930s-1950s Animation

Disney

Disney was at its prime with short animations but when the 1930's came Walt Disney had an idea. He wanted to create a full length film made of animation. The film itself would take 3-4 years to make and that film was snow white and the seven dwarfs. The animation was made up of 362,919 frames of coloured pictures, and took more than 1,500,000 individual ink drawings to create.

http://blog.modernmechanix.com/the-making-of-snow-white-and-the-seven-dwarfs/

After snow white was such a success and received oscars for best animation Disney wanted to create more animated films. The film that astonished everyone was 'Dumbo' from one specific scene where Dumbo gets drunk and starts to hallucinate about pink elephants. The use of bright colours and exciting use of cinematic animation.

Fleicher

While Disney were making their short animation they had competition from another group of animators called the fleicher brothers. The fleicher brothers are different style of animation compared to Disney, where Disney is animation for children Fleicher created for a more adult audience, which characters such as sex symbol Betty Boop and agressive sailor Popeye. The characters that we more commonly know are not the same characters that the Fleicher brothers created as they went bankrupt after trying to compete againsts Disney by creating there own animated film called "Mr bug goes to town" although the film is known for having better animation to Disney the company Sold off their Cartoons to different companies and never animated again.

Art Clokey

while most animation was created using cell animation the process of drawing onto plastic, a man called Art Clokey decided to make animation from plastercine. He created the character Gumby in 1955 till 1982.  Clokeys first animation called 'Gumbasia' lasted 3 minutes long and was made up of strange lumps of clay moving around to the Disney music fantasia.

TV cartoons in the 1950's

The 1950's was a very exciting time for animation, with animation making films it was now time for TV to introduce animation. Many well known cartoons that we have watched in our childhood were some of the first shows shown in the 50's. Foghorn Leghorn, Looney Tunes, Woody Woodpecker and Merry Melody.

The Beginning Of Animation

George Melies

George Melies was a illusion magician he saw his first moving picture in 1895 and later the began creating his own. Melies is one of the most memorable animators still known to this day, By accident he discovered that he could use stop motion photography to render trick effects. He created special effects not by using electrical effects but instead using cut outs to manipulate futuristic effects within his animations.

The most famous of his work is a moving picture called "a trip to the moon" which was created in 1902 which portrayed his idea of what the future world would be like and how it would be for man to take a trip to the moon.
                                                  "a trip to the moon- George Melies"

Aswell as his unique style of moving pictures Melies was also the first to use movie techniques such as fading in and out and the dissolve to create the first real narrative film.

Winsor McCay

Winsor McCay is well known as being the first great cartoon animator, he is mostly known for the creation of Gertie the dinosaur where he created moving cartoon images of a dinosaur. When McCay's children were born, a son in 1896 and a daughter in 97 this prompted him to take up a new job to support his family as a cartoonist/reporter for Cincinnati Commercial tribune. while working here he did a lot of freelance work for magazines which involved creating comic strips, at this time comic strips were extremely popular this prompted McCay to start creating his own ideas like "little Sammy sneeze" and "rarebit fiend" he did these two pieces for the New York telegram. McCay's popularity increased and he began performing on Vaudeville doing speed drawings of various characters including the two he created. After a few years McCay left his job at the tribune to take up a new job oportunity with Hearst a New York newspaper. During his time here he began to experiment with the idea of using animated pictures as part of his speed drawing act his first attempt was with a character called "little Nemo" it was a success and this led to the development of Gertie the Dinosaur, Which was to become a feature film.

     

Lotte Reiniger

Compared to the previous animator Lotte Reiniger a German animator had a different way of producing moving images for animation. Where the other two used either people or cartoons, Reiniger used silhouette paper cut outs with certain limbs able to move to bring the illusion to life.
The style of animation had never been seen before which made Reiniger extremely popular. Her unique style which stood out to the eye was astounding. Each individual character that she created was hand cut.
  

"The art of Lotte Reiniger"  

Reiniger created many childhood fairytales that are still told today stories such as Cinderella, Jack and the beanstalk, Hansel and gretle, the from prince and many many more. 
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0718201/

 

 

 

 

Walt disney

Walt Disney is the most known animator in the entire world. He was born in 1901 in Chicago Illinois. He attended McKinley high school during the day but when night came attended the Academy of fine arts.

"His talents were first used in a silent cartoon entitled Plane Crazy. However, before the cartoon could be released, sound was introduced upon the motion picture industry. Thus, Mickey Mouse made his screen debut in Steamboat Willie, the world's first synchronized sound cartoon, which premiered at the Colony Theater in New York on November 18, 1928." - http://www.justdisney.com/walt_disney/biography/long_bio.html

 

      Steamboat Willie.

 

Disney has grew and grew and is still growing from re-creations of old fairytales and new stories created by Disney. Disney later opend a TV channel called 'Disney channel' which can be viewed on satalite TV. Aswell as this they also opened up a Disney Land theme park In Orlando Florida and Paris. You can stay at the Disney trademark castle, cast members dress as characted from films and books and ride the Disney themed rides at the park itself.

 

 

                                       "Halloween advertisment for Disney Land themepark'

 

 

 

 

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