FINISHED ANIMATION- 'CAPTURED'

Here is my finished animation uploaded onto YouTube. I feel it represents my three key words 'mysterious', 'strings' and 'oriental' and moves with the piece of music. The lighting and quick movement creates drama and pace. The initial concept, illustrated on the my storyboard, was maintained and is a easy 'story' to follow. For my first ever animation and first time using After Effects I am pleased with the results.

I added a pale murky green colour to the light throughout, this intensifies as the tentacle appears.

LIGHTS & CAMERAS

LIGHTS & CAMERAS- Due to the 3 waves being on separate layers the camera and select '2 view' was important, this enabled me to position the waves in distance order to the camera. To this I then could place the ship and tentacle.  I followed my original intentions and added a light, starting at the left, it follows the ship and then directs at the bottom right as the tentacle enters. As the sea rises the spot light lowers then widens as the eyes appear. Finally as the eyes blink shut, the spot light closes central and the frame ends in black. 

BACKGROUND- SKY & CLOUDS

I decided to use the softer crumple light blue as the sky, the texture darkened looks similar to smudged charcoal and this is a nice subtle effect. I simply cut the clouds out the other papers using the Lasso Tool. I think the block white will fit better with the design of the boat and sea rather than a feathery, realistic cloud I could of created with the brush tools. The first shows the lighter paper clouds, this had a   light blue photo filter and then I used the filter 'rippel' to create a softness to the lines. The second is the darker paper and the brightness was lower with a darker blue photo filter applied. The darker clouds with come into the animation when the tentacle enters to show the mood changing.

BACKGROUND- SKY & CLOUDS

TEXTURED PAPER

These are crumpled pieces of paper which I scanned in, the top two and last one are the same piece and the third was gently pressed to create softer, less frequent crumples. I put these on Photoshop and applied different contrasts, brightness's and photo filters to make different effects suitable to use as clouds and sky. These four pieces were the most successful as they have the right balance between light and dark and won't take too much attention from the animation. 

END SCENE- blinking eyes

Digital Paintings- The first one I did and thought they looked too cartoon like and cute. The eyes to the right are the same but with more of a eye lid created and bags under the eyes. The effect of this is sinister, it ages the eyes and add more mystery. Next to this are the eyes shut, covered by the eyelid, I did this to use for when the eyes blink. 

Tentacle Puppet Pin Tutorial AE

I found this tutorial really useful as it showed me how less puppet pins worked more effectively to create the worm like motion, he also copied and pasted frames so that the original puppet pin stayed in the same place. His result is a really nice movment and the motion blur helps this.

My animation so far...

So far I have got to where the boat enter from the left to the center  zooms in the waves splash. I have started to introduce the tentacle but am struggling how to have part of it behind the boat and part of it in front. During all this the waves move up and down along with the boat. I have done this by changing the position and rotation. I am happy with the circular motion the waves are making as the three layers of them work nicely together. However rotating the boat back and forth just isn't working. When the music's pace quickens I have done it so does the boat but the quickness distorts the movement and the result isn't boat-like. So although I have come so far I have decided to delete all of the boats key frames and use motion sketch.

Motion sketch will enable me to play the music at the same time I want the boat to move by moving the cursor back and forth along with it. Below is a tester I did on a block shape, it shows the arch movement that the boat will follow.

MOTION SKETCH

PUPPET PIN TOOL

On the tentacle I have placed the puppet pin tool five times along its center. Along with this I have changed the position and rotation so that the tentacle enters from the bottom right reaches towards the boat and then curves to drag itself back down. I am currently looking at tutorials on YouTube to figure out how it'll drag the boat down with it. My initial thoughts are that I could parent it but I don't want them stay together at the start. I also need to see how I can put the tip of the tentacle in front of the boat and the middle behind as it drags it down. I could possibly do this by having the tentacle as two sections on different layers and parenting the tip. 

WORKSHOPS;

Unfortunately I was unable to upload the results of the workshops, instead I’ll show some print screen shots and write about the processes and my thoughts on their impact to my animation.

AFTER EFFECTS BATMAN LOGO

This was my first ever After Effects tutorial. The task was to make it fly in, spin and then fly out. This wasn’t as daunting as I initially thought and it introduced me to the transform options of rotating etc and key framing. It eased me into After Effects and helped a lot.

AFTER EFFECTS PARENTING AND THE PUPPET TOOL

For this tutorial we had to animate a 2-D character. We did this by parenting the body parts to other body parts to make them follow each other and move as one. We then learnt how to use the puppet tool and this was basically selecting the joints on the body where we wanted it to move such as knew, elbow etc. These were both good techniques and I will try and use the puppet tool to move the tentacle in my animation. The idea of using a character in my first ever animation is far too complex but hopefully just the tentacle arm will be achievable.

AFTER EFFECTS 3-D LAYERS, LIGHTS, CAMERAS AND TEXT

This After Effects tutorial was more difficult than the previous as it involved firstly removing Spiderman from his cityscape background. I learnt a lot from doing this as I didn’t know how to feather the edges when selecting or how to spot heal the background to blend it in. We then made him move from the top left to bottom right using the position tool and others we had previously learnt. I then learnt how to add 3-D elements such as cameras and lights to give a dramatic realistic effect. I shall defiantly use lights in my animation as it creates mood.

AFTER EFFECTS GREEN SCREENING AND MOTION SKETCHING

When I first heard we were doing green screening the process seemed advanced and ‘Hollywood’ but to my surprise and joy it was simple and enjoyable. We experimented doing it in two different ways. The first was by creating a mask around the man’s head using the pen tool and then moving the points throughout the sequence to make sure no green could be seen as the head moved. The second was using the key light effect and high-lighting the green of the background to remove it then replacing it with a different background.

After that we did motion sketching and this involved creating text and a path trail for it to follow. It was simple and really effective. To this we added a shape and changed the size to make it increase and decrease throughout the sequence. This made me think that this technique could be used to make my boat move as it could achieve a nice fluidity bobbing back and forth in the sea.

STOP MOTION- I Can Animate

This was a really fun and simple workshop. The programme I Can Animate is very simple in comparison to After Effects and therefore was quick and easy to learn. However the time consuming aspect of stop motion is its downfall. We produced a Tetris game using Lego and this meant repeatedly moving the Lego pieces down slightly. I could of done my animation using stop motion but I felt it didn’t fit my storyboard as it couldn’t provide justice to splashing waving and fluidity. 

Here is the sea with all three layers combined, the two larger waves layers will be infront of the ship and the smallest waves will be behind the ship. This will give perspective and appear that the boats actually in the sea.



FINAL CHOICE-

After making the woollen sea this boat seems the most suitable choice. It is oriental, traditional and the white of the sails will fit nicely with the peaks of the waves. 

Here is the waves I created out of wool combined with the digital drawing.

TEXTURE- wool waves

WOOL WAVES:

After experimenting with digital painting my thoughts were that having it all in one media made it look flat, lack texture and have no variation. In effort to fix this I went back to one of my original ideas of using string. String is one of my key words so it fits perfectly. I chose a dark blue and navy wool and followed and glued to my previous wave drawings to create curves and peaks. After this had dried I scanned them in. The pieces will have digital painting added over the top to create the white peaks and stay coherent with the other elements of the animation. 

VECTOR SHIPS

Digital painted ships? Maybe not...

These are vector images I created, they seem to be more graphic and the simplicity is dramatic. I chose to do two ships, the one on the left and top right are the same ship but with things took away and added. I think it is the ship on the bottom right that works the best, in my opinion it has more character and I can imagine it moving along the waves.

DIGITAL PAINTING

DIGITAL PAINTING

FINE LINER

DIGITAL PAINTING-TENTACLES

TENTACLE STRAIGHT-

to be used on After Effects with the puppet tool.

STORYBOARD

STORYBOARD

FOUR KEY SECTIONS

STORYBOARD

PEN TO PAPER the shape, speed and dynamic.

PEN TO PAPER

 

 This is what I did intially to find the 'shape' of the piece, it is from this that it gave me the idea of waves and therefore a boat on splashing waves.

 

 

 

MOOD BOARD- 3 KEY WORDS

 

Research-MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU

 

 

 

This video shows an everyday wall coming alive as comical creature street art is created and morphed into different things. I could do this using a smaller scale of paper and pen and then photographing or scanning in every frame. If I chose to photograph it and do drawings stop motion I could include my hand making the initial drawing at the beginning and then then the drawing moving on its own.

Research- Le Retour A La Raison by Man Ray 1923

The simplicity of black and white works really well with this film. An eerie atmosphere is created by this and the creepy high pitched music. The image goes from textured moving static like a television with no signal to a mysterious spinning top in block black and white. The spinning motion runs from this and throughout giving the impression that time is running out. I could like to create this urgency and drama in the motion graphics piece I create. This would show one of my three key words 'mysterious'.

Research- Len Lye - KALEIDOSCOPE - 1935

The pattern and movement is what attracted me to the video. This is something that I could use to create the sea. Rather than having a plain blue I could fill the sea with simple moving patterns. The patterns could be oriental or aquatic themed to link to the piece and create more drama to the splashing waves.

Research- Norman Mclaren Boogie Doodle

The playfulness of this is created by the quick transformation of the shapes form and size and how the different shapes interact with each other. This is something I want to mimic with the movement of the creatures tentacle. I want the movement to be varied to fit with the music. I hope to create its movement so it's snake like but with the chaotic jitteriness of the video above.  The colour scheme of blue, red, white and black is striking and is coherent with the fun jazz theme. My colour scheme should fit with the oriental theme and I will stick to a palette of blues and oranges.

Research-Stop Motion Lego

 

The White Stripes -

This stop motion piece is highly entertaining, fast faced and matches the rhythm of the music. This is something that I would love to achieve as the vibrant colour of the objects matches the upbeat tempo. However the piece was obviously time consuming to create with all the clever different elements and I don't think it is something I could achieve in my time limit. The idea for my piece could easily work in this media, by using stop motion and Lego for the boat and material for the sea. I could experiment to see what this would look like but it's a more realistic idea for me to use digital media.

Research- 'The Sea Monster'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ao5Wry_ER-E
 This is a motion animation piece titled 'the sea monster', the waves are on seperate layers and move up and down at different times. The pace is slower than what I will produce and I plan to make the waves splashing with more movement. This video captures the subject moving from layer to layer and the relationship between each wave that I need to consider.

INITIAL IDEA-Section choice 1.06 to 1.36

SECTION CHOICE- 1.06 to 1.36

The decision behind the selected section is that I think it shows dynamic and story through it's range of pitch and pace. It begins at a medium pace for a few seconds then there is a rise of pace and this then climax's and finally slows down to a final ending of sleepy longer notes. 

INITIAL IDEA-

The back and forth rhythm inspired me to think of an oriental boat rocking back and forth on moving waves and finally sinking.  

1.06 to 1.08 - 3 quick back and forth movements

1.08 to 1.10- fast pace

1.11- 1.17-  back and forth rhythm 

1.17 - slight rise in pace

1.25 to 1.28 - fast repeated climax

1.29 to 1.36- good end section sounds 'final'.

 

 

 

 

 

FOUR KEY PARTS-

• 1) 3 SECONDS The boat enters frame from left to center then zooms into it.
• 2) 13 SECONDS The boat rocks back and forth to the music's pace and the waves move with it.
• 3) 7 SECONDS As the sounds changes the mysterious creature hypnotically drags the boat unitl it's gone
• 7 SECONDS The frame displays the empty sea, from this the waves flatten to a straight line and this rises to the top to form a block color. The mysterious creatures eyes appear them go.

 

 

Research- COLOUR & MOVEMENT

http://vimeo.com/60999448

This is a music video titles 'Fight For Everyone'.What attracted me to this is the use of abstract colour, basic shape and movement.The enlargement sequences of shapes and transitions from frame to frame are lively and upbeat. The simplicity of using the hand leading through varied bright colour and shapes tells a story and remains interesting.

Research- STRINGS

One of the three key words I intend to experiment with is 'string'. I found this stop motion by Dan Ojari titled 'Camira Fabrics, it plays with the yarn and has a lovely flowing movement throughout. The second video displays the string moving in curving waves and this is something I would like to replicate and think it would be well suited to the 'Builgan Shar'.

http://motionographer.com/2013/01/30/dan-ojari-camira-fabrics/#comments

EAR, PEN AND PAPER- useful development

 Making of Star Guitar by Michel Gondry
In the lecture today Patrick Mcentaggart showed us the planning of the Michel Gondry's video followed by the video that formed from this. It was the planning of the video that I found incredibly helpful. The use of roughly jotting down shapes and lines on graph paper while listening to the music, created the beats,base and rhythm in image form. From this Gondry had the main structure of his video, on graph paper I will repeat this process using the ' Builgan Shar' piece.

ORIGINAL VIDEO

I found this YouTube video of the 'Builgan Shar' piece.

The video is incredibly simple and quite dull. The un-intentional humour can be found in the asian man sitting in the field and and playing his instrument in a captain-like costume. It interchanges to scenes of moving clouds and doesn't capture the pace or tension that the music itself embodies. In the motion graphics piece I create, I hope to create something that fits and compliments the quick paced rhythm.

INTIAL MIND MAP

3 KEY WORDS...
STRINGS, MYSTERIOUS &ORIENTAL

After listening to 'Builgan Shar' copious amounts of times, these are themes and connotations that came to mind. I will use the three key words achieved from this to form the style, colour scheme and influences of the 20-30 second motion graphic.