Style - Stop Motion and will incorporate/experiment with various shades of blue to emphasise the characters emotions. All the objects will be made out of coloured clay on a white background to brighten the colours.
A stop-motion animation that captures a character gradually being over loaded physically with thoughts, issues, worries etc. all of which drag the character down, their back struggles to carry the weight of these problems and collapses to the ground, dying. The character's 'soul' a translucent version of the character leaves the body, slowly fading up into the sky.
Idea two (Chosen idea):
Style - 2D animation (After Effects and Animate)
A 2D style animation that is narrated through a 30 second section of a poem, the animated illustrations will explore the themes, emotions and tone of the poem and will most likely feature a character who explores and expresses my own interpretation of the poem.
The poem that comes to mind that I feel reflects a part of me is The Crunch by Charles Bukowski. If I were to use this poem in my animation, I would use the audio from the video below and create visuals that are personal to my feelings and interpretations of the poem and how it relates to me.
Visual Inspiration
The videos I have linked below capture the simple animation style I want to craft and also capture the emotive tone I would like to create in my own animation.
I drew each frame of this storyboard using Illustrator. The visuals are very personal to me and depict piece of myself, my thoughts, questions etc. The visuals will be animated in After Effects and Animate, I will also include more details and effects once I begin production.
Synopsis:
The character reveals the various thoughts, questions and pressures that flood through their mind, each of these elements are shown through both the animation and text. The symbolism of scribbles, faceless figures and themes of love/hate tie into the poem by reflecting a message that is universal for people to relate to, as it simply represents both the external and internal reflection of yourself and other people around you.
What will 'success' look like?
I will measure the success of my animation by reflecting upon its fluid movement through the frames and the emotive message being conveyed through the character. As I struggle with animation, I feel as though success will look like a completed 2D animation that reflects a part of myself and also looks visually smooth.
The success of this animation will also rely upon my story telling skills, if I effectively reflect the poem and my own personal meaning behind the animation through the symbolism and text, then I feel my animation will have turned out successful.
Management
To be able to create this animation I will need to watch tutorials on how to draw simple 2D frame by frame animation using both After Effects and Animate and practise my drawing skills during the whole period of my pre-production process.
To manage my time for this project in order for me to reach my deadline, I have created a schedule that breaks down the periods in my week where I will can research, plan and create my animation. This will help me be organised and allows me to follow a routine that keeps me on task.
Extra skills needed for your chosen idea
The extra skills I will need for my chosen idea consist of the following:
- Illustration proportion accuracy (Illustrator)
- Frame by Frame motion (Animate)
- Graphic deigns/text layers (After Effects)
Research complete so far
The research I have noted/completed so far across the duration of this animation unit consists of the following:
- The timing of an animation is determined by its amount of keyframes
- The fewer frames means equals to a faster speed, the more frames equals to a slower speed
- The acceleration/de-acceleration can be transformed by changing the ending of the timeline
- Momentum and gravity of an object are key to the physicality of the animation
Test animation
The videos below show visuals I created to practise my animation before I begin the final piece.
Creating the Animation - Development
Visual one
The first visual I created for this animation was the brain pumping then shrinking into darkness. To create this I first looked at images of illustrated brains to draw influence. Using Animate, I drew frame by frame the brain pumping (using around 8 eight keyframes), I also used the onion skin tool throughout animating in order for me to see my previous frames. Then I began to make the brain shrink, which used around seven keyframes.
The images below depict the three stages of the brain visual:
Final outcome:
To make the brain fade out into darkness, I exported the animation, uploaded onto After Effects and changed the opacity from 100 to 0 near the end of the video.
Visual two
The next visual I created was an eye slowly opening with tears. At first I struggled terribly with creating this animation as I am very good at drawing proportions and needed an image to reference. I came across the image shown below that shows frame by frame an illustrated eye opening, this image helped me tremendously as I could now break down the different frames I had to create.
On Animate, I drew frame by frame an animated eye opening (nine keyframes). I used the onion skin tool to help guide my accuracy by viewing the my previous frames.
After I finished the initial visual of the eye opening, I wanted it to look as though it were crying, in order to do this I added an extra layer to the animation and called it 'tears filling'. For this layer I had to make sure it was below the eye layer in order for it to create the illusion of the water coming from the eye itself. I then drew frame by frame the water filling in the eyes using a blue fill (eight keyframes).
Lastly, I had to create a tear drop falling from the eye, in order to do this I added one more layer and called it 'tear drop', this part was the most difficult when trying to create the tear, as I had to change the shape of the tear drop subtly in each frame (nine keyframes), while also making in move downwards in motion. I also had to make sure this layer was on top of the eyes layer to give it the illusion that it was above the skin of the eye.
The image below depicts the three layers of the eye visual.
Final outcome:
Changing the audio
After coming across the song The Pure and the Damned by Neohtrix Point Never, I felt the spoken interlude would work better as an audio for my animation as I relate more to the lyrics and feel it expressed more of myself than my original audio (poem).
The interlude from the song:
'Every day I think about untwisting and untangling these strings I'm in
And to lead a pure life I look ahead at a clear sky Ain't gonna get there But it's a nice dream, it's a nice dream'
Once I tested this audio with my visuals, I experimented with the animations I had created andended up changing the style of my whole animation by making it more abstract but also personal in relation to my internal feelings.
For example, one of the key changes I made was deciding to have the crying eyes visual come before the brain visual, as timing wise it worked better with the lyrics spoken.
Visual three
For visual three, I did not reference my original storyboard because now that I changed my audio I wanted to create more ideas for the animation. One of those ideas which I did create was to have a visual of scribbles expanding eventually covering the whole screen. This visual would be in time with the lyrics 'untwisting and untangling these strings I'm in'. The scribbles would be metaphorical for the 'strings', echoing the song through symbolism.
To express this idea, I created a rough storyboarded visual and then began to create it on Animate.
Using Animate, I drew there scribbles expanding frame by frame and had then build upon each other. To make sure they moved at a good velocity and not too fast, I made more frames then planned of the animation and extended the duration of the keyframes.
The images below capture two frames of the scribble visual:
Final outcome:
Lesson review - 23. 11. 2020
Over the course of this lesson I updated my blog with all the visuals I have been animating, I also wrote about the the difficulties and changes I made to my animation.
Lesson review - 24.11. 2020
Over the course of this lesson I uploaded my current animations onto an After Effects project and played them alongside the audio to make sure they worked well together. I also added a glow effect to the visuals and added a displacement map effect to my scribble animation to experiment with the style and aesthetic of my animation.
Water Visual
For this water visual, I wanted to create a tranquil and calming visual that would play alongside the 'lead a pure life' line in the audio. To create this visual I followed the tutorial shown below. The tutorial was easy to follow and showed me new effects on the program such as 'noise and grain' which create the fountain layer of the water in the animation.
Overall I quite liked the way this visual turned out and thought it looked realistic, but once I added it into my after effects project with my other animations, it did not work well alongside them and I decided to scrap this animation.
Tutorial:
Final outcome:
Lesson review - 30.11.20
Over the course of this lesson I created animated water by following a tutorial and using the program After Effects. I liked the outcome of the animation and found the tutorial easy to follow. However, once I added the animation to my other visuals it did not fit alongside them and I decided that I will not be utilising the water animation in my final cut.
Hand Visual
As my previous water visual did not work alongside my overall animation I decided to create a new visual of an outlined hand that fills up with white ink, almost like blood. I chose to make the ink white as that colour has connotations to 'purity' and would be symbolic of the 'lead a pure life' part of the audio.
Overall creating this animation was simple, I used Animate to draw an outline of the hand on one layer then added another layer which would be the 'ink' and frame by frame I drew the liquid rising inside of the hand. I quite liked the outcome of this visual and thought it worked well alongside the other visuals.
Lesson review - 1.12.20
Over the course of this lesson I created an illustrated hand which became animated as a white liquid filled in its outline. I thought the outcome of this visual was okay. I will use it in my animation as I believe it will work well alongside the quote in the audio 'to lead a pure life', as for me the visual is somewhat metaphorical for the meaning behind the words.
Illustrated character
For this visual I created an illustrated character that had its back away from the audience to visually portray the words 'look ahead' in the audio. To animate this visual I exported it into after effects and added the turbulent displacement effect then used the expression 'time*10' on the evolution settings which subtly animated the illustration.
Overall I like the way the visual turned out and thought the turbulent effect was effective, but I do believe my drawing proportions of the character could have been more accurate.
Eye reverse
For this visual I edited the opening animation of the 'crying eye'. To do this I reopened my Animate project, I deleted the 'crying eyes' layer and exported the animation as just the eye opening. Once I imported it into after effects I then added a reverse effect to make the eyes close.
I made this visual to give structure to my animation as the opening scene is a pair of eyes opening and the last scene is the same pair of eyes closing, making it feel as though the emotions of the character are never-ending. The visual also worked with the last line 'its a nice dream' as the closing eyes relate to falling asleep.
Before reverse effect:
Lesson review - 4.12.20
Over the course of this lesson I edited the 'crying eye visual' in the opening scene of my animation. I edited it by deleting the crying layer, then exporting it onto after effects and adding the 'reverse' effect to make it look as though the eye was closing.
This lesson I also created an illustrate character. I made the character face away from the audience's point of view, this was the emphasis the line in the audio the states 'look ahead at a clear sky'.
Lesson review - 5.12.20
Over the course of this lesson I added details and transitions to my visuals. I used the Turbulent Displacement, Gaussian Blur, Flicker Exposure and Glow effects to make the visuals look more immersive. Overall I liked the way the animation turned out and thought these effects worked well by giving the animation more of an aesthetic and consistent style.
Lastly, I added text to my animation, the first line of text states 'who am I?', the second text appears in the illustrated character visual and quotes the audio 'clear sky' and the third and final text states 'its a nice dream' which also quotes the last line of audio. To make the text flicker I added an effect called 'Flicker Exposure'.
Draft One - Animation
Feedback - Change its to it's
Draft Two - Animation
Feedback - Add transition between eye and brain visual, add touches to illustrated character until proportions satisfy my own expectations.
Lesson review 7.12.20
Over the course of this lesson I received feedback from my teacher, I was asked to change its' to it's in there last visual of my animation. Once I finished adding this spelling mistake my teacher gave me more feedback to complete for next lesson, I was asked to try add a transition between the eye and brain visual and change the proportions of the illustrated character until I liked them.
Improving my illustrated character
As I disliked the proportions of my illustrated character in the 'clear sky' visual, I re drew some parts of the character's head, neck and right arm, I also added some more sketch marks to highlight the creases in the clothing of the character. Again, I re drew these parts on the same project on Adobe Animate.
Once I completed the drawing, I imported it onto my after effects animation project, copied and pasted the same effects e.g glow, turbulent and flicker from the pervious character visual onto this improved version and then was finished.
Overall I thought the outcome of this version was better then the previous one as it has more realism due to the heavier sketching around the creases and the proportions look more even/accurate.
Adding transition
To create a transition between the opening eye visual and the brain visual I thought of having the eyes scale towards the screen, as if you are entering the mind of the visual. To create this I simply key framed the scale of the eyes, then towards the end of the clip increased the scale until the visual was not visible (scaled so large it was past the audience's view point). I also added motion blur to smoothen the motion of the transition.
Lastly, I faded in the brain visual in by key-framing the opacity from 0 to 100 in order for the visual to look although it was appearing from inside the eyes.
Overall I thought this transition made my animation look smoother and worked well in terms of representing the idea that the brain was inside the eyes, making the animation more meaningful and detailed.
Lesson review 8.12.20
Over the course of today's lesson I improved my illustrated character visual by re drawing their right arm, neck and head. I then uploaded it onto my animation project and added effects to it. I also added a zoom in/scale in transition between my eye and brain visual. By the end of today's lesson I exported and uploaded my final animation on Youtube, therefore completing this project.
Harvard Reference - Song
Oneohtrix Point Never ft Iggy Pop (2017). The Pure and the Damned: Elite Music Studios Miami, Florida
Final Animation
The video below will lead you to my final animation. Overall I thought the animation turned out quite well, although it was simplistic I thought it helped convey more emotion and symbolism. Reflecting upon the animation, it has grown to be very personal, it expresses my internal feelings about myself and challenged me because I had to create visuals through self-reflection which I have never done before.
Evaluation
At the start you said what would success would look like to you - were you successful?
My version of success in the beginning of creating this animation was making sure it conveyed an emotive message that reflects a part of myself, while also having smooth animated 2D visuals. Now, after completing my animation, I believe I was partially successful as I feel my animation turned out visually smooth and I think it does convey an emotional message but I know this is mostly likely due to the audio I used and not my visuals. I feel my animation would lack in it's emotive message if it weren't for the audio and think my visuals relied too heavily on the words spoken rather than focusing on how the animation can reflect who I am.
My animation was also successful as I developed drafts of my animation using my feedback to make sure it was to a good standard while also hitting my deadline on time.
What was the hardest part?
The hardest part of this animation brief was developing the visuals. In the beginning of the pre-production process I created a storyboard and tried to sketch and illustrate my visual designs, however the outcome of these rough sketches looked poor and they were not successful or useable. After contemplating what other visual designs I could create, I re-listened to my audio and noted down visuals that came to mind, e.g the eye and scribble visuals.
Once I had a few new visuals that were more feasible to create I began drawing. The eye visual was hard to develop once I create it as I was unsure of what effects or new animation I could add to the visual due to its blandness. In the end, I resulted to adding a tear to the eye as I thought it would help give some more layers to the animation and make the visual more emotive. After this, I still thought the animation could look more visually enticing and I decided to export the eye visual an add it onto After Effects to play around with the effects. Eventually I decided to use the 'glow' effect because it enhanced the animation subtly without being distracting.
Developing the scribble animation was difficult too as once I created the initial visual of the scribble expanding, I was struggling to make it more interesting and personal to the words of the audio. I thought exporting the animation onto After Effects, like I did with the eye visual, would allow me to experiment with effects and see if I could develop the style of the visual. After experimenting I found that adding the 'turbulent displacement' effect was most effective as it worked alongside the audio's lyrics 'These stings I'm in', as visually the animation looked like tangled strings with the turbulent effect.
Overall, the hardest part of the animation was trying to develop the visuals by making them more relevant to the lyrics of the audio and also making them more enticing and pleasing to the eye.
What was the most enjoyable part?
The most enjoyable part of making this animation was the post-production when I got to order the different scenes of the animations and also add text and effects to each scene.
For instance, a really enjoyable part of editing the animation was exploring different effects. One I particularly liked that I thought was effective in making the animation more stylistic and immersive was the flicker effect. Although this effect was subtle, I felt it made the animation look more alive as the consistent glint of light flashing between the scenes worked well with the black and white contrast and theme of the overall visuals.
I also really enjoyed adding the small quotes of the lyrics in the audio, as I thought it helped emphasise the words and also gave the visuals more meaning by consistently referencing them to the audio.
How did you improve your animation skills?
I improved my animation skills exponentially using Animate, especially as I had never used that animation program before. In the beginning, when doing my animation research I really struggled to animate digitally and was more drawn to stop-motion. However, after experimenting with stop-motion I realised the technical feasibility I would struggle with and decided to push myself by choosing to create a 2D animation.
Once I began to explore Animate, I found looking at visual illustrated references of frame-by-frame motion most useful and this helped me really develop my animation skills in terms of understanding fluidity and movement which allowed me to add more motion into all of my visuals.
Another way in which I improved upon my animation skills was understanding proportions by re-sketching and designing my characters/figures until they looked realistic in their size and shape. When I created the brain visual, using the onion skin tool I sketched frame by frame the brain shrinking, by doing this it allowed me to develop my accuracy in proportion when animating as I constantly re-drew parts that did not work but always had a reference to follow. I continued using the onion skin tool and progressed in my realism and movement of my animation.
Lastly, I improved upon my expression animation skills, as the specific settings of the turbulent effect I used in the different scenes needed an expression and taught me how to animate using symbols/values.
What changes to your workflow could you make in future projects to improve your outcome?
For future projects I will ensure I stick to my schedule more and be consistent in my redrafting of ideas and planning as I felt in this project my workflow became sloppy and disorganised, both because I did not follow my schedule strictly and lacked in my development of ideas, practise and research.
Overall, in future projects I will be more concise in my research and pre-production to advance my work and for it to breach a higher standard. To do this I will gather feedback from peers and my teachers throughout my creative process to explore more ideas and expand upon my initial ideas/work.
How could you improve your presentation skills (get feedback if you haven’t yet)?
I believe I can improve upon my presentation skills in many ways, one way for me to better my pitch to clients/mentors etc. is to be clearer in my points and breakdown my ideas in a simple way using references and examples. I also believe I can improve my presentation skills by making sure I practise my pitch to other people besides my client, in order for me to receive feedback and understand the flaws/unclear statements. I also feel I tend to be vague and brief in my presentation and can improve upon my presentation skills by being more detailed in my description and show step-by-step the stages and production process I have planned in order to feasibly create my project.
Lastly, I can improve my presentation skills by researching and watching other peoples 'successful presentations' online to gain tips and knowledge about how to compose myself and explain my initial thoughts and ideas in an engaging and straightforward manner.
You did lots of work before beginning your animation, included in this was lots of research, trying out animation techniques etc. Which research was the most useful (explain)?
The most useful form of research for me was watching the 'animation basics' video and learning about the different frame rates and understanding that the more keyframes you add, the slower the animation will be. This then helped me later on when using animate as I knew how to organise the duration and movement of my animation which allowed me to make my visuals go in time with my audio.
Another form of research that was most useful when planning my animation was learning more about stop-motion, as I was unaware of the how technical it was and time consuming, once I understood stop-motion was a very laborious form of animation and most likely not feasible given my deadline, I decided o 2D digital animation.
Who would you say is the target audience for your animation(consider: age range, gender, interests)?
Age: 15 plus, this is because it deals with themes that may not be appealing or accessible to audience members under this age. The animation is quite abstract and up for interpretation, this makes it appealing and accessible to multiple age groups as they can each find their own personal meaning to the visuals and audio.
Gender: All genders, this is because the animation deals with universal themes that are relatable to everyone and is not suited to one type of gender.
Interests: Music and poetry, this is because the animation incorporates poetic visuals alongside an interlude from a famous musician who's voice is recognisable to many music lovers.
How successful were you at evidencing your progression and work as you went along?
I believe I was quite successful in evidencing my progression for this project. After each lesson I would review the work I completed, I added screenshots of my current stage in production to evidence my work and also wrote about the tasks I planned to complete in the next lessons.
How would you manage your time differently next time?
For future projects I will manage my time differently by creating more in depth and detailed schedules that I can mark off. I believe this would help me feel mentally prepared as I could visually see which tasks I had completed and know how far I am in terms of each stage of my production process. The time schedule I made for this project was poor and needed more description and I should have included a 'tick box' for each task to help me visibly see my development. However, I have learnt from this and now know how to improve my time management for future projects.
Lastly, another way in which I will manage my time differently for future projects is by creating a timetable that breaks down the duration I should spend on each task. I feel this timetable will help me be more punctual all round and can allow me to plan out my frees/breaks to know when I can receive feedback from peers/mentors to help me develop my final cut/draft before hitting the deadline.
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