Extended Practise: Briefing and First Live Brief

 Extended Practise
Module Briefing and First Live Brief

• This week:
• We were briefed on the Extended Practise Module and I was contacted by Emily and Joseph to work with them on the 11 Second Challenge.
• I produced an animatic, storyboard and some initial character concepts for the competition.
• What Went Well:
• I will be contributing to the animation and visual development for the short animation and we started to come up with ideas for the specific audio clip. As it was horror themed, we wanted to keep to those generic expectations, so we came to the idea of animating a spider and a fly. This would also keep character designs and the concept simple, so we could focus on the visuals and animation.
• I started by producing a quick story-board based upon our ideas and then developed some concepts for the two characters.
• As I storyboarded into Toon Boom, I was able to see the movements play-out like an animatic, which made things easier to visualise. 
• Using my research from COP, I looked at 'Acting for Animators' by Ed Hooks and he explains that a form of bad acting is not making the character do anything- for example, the frightened fly wouldn't just shake and tremble, it would try to break free. This is something I kept in mind when animating the performance.
• Small Improvements Worked Upon:
• My first animatic had the spider loom over the camera and chomp down at the end. As we felt that the sound didn't have a noise at the end to indicate the "CHOMP!" it didn't make much sense to have.

First Animatic:

• I also changed the perspective of the spider and fly, so they were framed so the spider was on the right and creeps into shot.

Final Animatic:

• This worked much better and felt it held onto the moment long enough for the spider to loom over the fly. There is a short lipsync, where the fly asks, "What's happening?" before spotting the spider.
• Here is the final storyboard:

• Furthermore, I worked on some initial concepts for characters. Here is the visual development I have so far:

• I really like the simple style, I think it works really well for animating. I also looked at a variety of shapes and sizes for the spiders' head, which helped me to narrow down what works and what might not. The final image is based upon some concepts Emily made and I tried to merge the styles together.

• What Could Be Improved:
• I think there needs to be a close-up of the flies face, saying, "What's Happening?" before it pans out to reveal the spider. I will discuss this with the group to see what they think. It could maybe pan out from the shot before, rather than having too many cuts to close-up and mid-shot etc.
• The spider and fly designs need to be developed and finalised further. I will be exploring some colour adaptations of the silhouetted spider design, during next week.
• Next week:
• We will be finishing the quick pre-production stages to start animating, as the animation is due on the 31st October.

Here is a chart, created by Emily, showing our overall schedule for this:

Context of Practise 3: Research Post 1

Context of Practise 3
Research Post 1

• I have decided to create a series of research posts, which will go through my process of exploring and breaking down the topic. They will also look at specific books at a time, in order to break down the research workload, also.

• This week:
• I looked at the books: "Acting for Animators" by Ed Hooks, and his responses to me from my email, "The Animators Survival Kit" by Richard Williams and a video series by Aaron Blaise, which explores the principles of animation. 
• What Went Well:
• I found there was a lot of research into Acting for Animators, as the methods of acting apply for animation, as well. Ed Hooks explained to me that a lot of audience response and the way and audience will relate to the character is mainly due to a deep psychological, evolutionary basis. For example, an audience will feel empathy for a character, if a character is expressing emotion. Some areas of further exploration from this can be body-language and movement, which feeds into why a certain character may react certain ways to things and how this is then demonstrated to an audience. 
• Here are the written notes I made from The Animators Survival Kit, Aaron Blaises' video tutorials and further notes on Acting for Animators.

• I initially took these principles explained by Richard Williams and Aaron Blaise into practise, by producing an animation of a daisy blowing in the wind. This doesn't have acting or personality, like what I had learnt from Ed Hooks, but it simplifies what I had learnt, so I can build upon it when I do animate a character.

• What Could Be Improved:
• There's a lot of information at the moment and a lot to write about in terms of character personality in animation, so I think I need to narrow this down a little bit more. This could be exploring "How animators use appeal and body language to express a characters unique personality in animation," or "How animators use acting to emote in order to convey character personality." This still needs work!
• Next week:
• I will be doing more research by looking at the books: Drawn to Life by Walt Stanchfield.

Context of Practise 3: Statement of Intent

 Context of Practise 3
Statement of Intent

• This week:
• I wrote a Statement of Intent for my COP 3 essay and practical.
• As I had changed from my original idea, I had to do more research this week to get a better understanding of the practical responses I could do. After talking to Mike, I found it easier to gather my thoughts and research character performance and decide on a practical outcome, based upon my research.
• Here is my final statement of intent:

Context of Practise 3: Time Management Lecture

 Context of Practise 3

Time Management and Planning Lecture

• This session:
• Michaela spoke to us about techniques and tips about managing time and work-load.
• What I learnt:
• Here are the notes I made:

• Based on this lecture, I wanted to create myself a Gantt chart for my COP process, so I can schedule myself better, whilst having to work at home more. The Gantt chat I created is a lot more general, but it works to help me find the general idea how when and what I want done by certain times. I have also considered to give myself a little more time than I may need per job, to keep more organised - as things may take a bit longer than I expect.
• One thing I also do every single evening is make a To-Do list for the following day. Every week I have set out goals written onto a whiteboard in my bedroom, then the daily To-Do list is for daily tasks.

Gantt Chart:

Using a To-Do List:

• I've been using a daily to-do list since I first started University and this notebook has been something that I have written in a daily to-do list since the beginning!

Whiteboard Weekly Tasks:

• This hangs above my desk, so I know the overall tasks I need to complete this week. This weeks was more specific, but some weeks it can only have one or two things written there.

• I will continue to follow this organisation method as this has worked the best for me!

Extended Practise: ClipStudioPaint Competition

 Extended Practise
Live Brief: Clip Studio Paint Competition

• This week:
• I produced a last-minute entry into an International Illustration Competition hosted by Clip Studio Paint, with YouTuber Lavendartowne judging.
• What Went Well:

Here is the brief:

• Despite only having a day to get the illustration finished for the deadline, I produced a few initial ideas for the character, before the final illustration. I wanted to have a hedgehog character, as a lot of the entries featured cats, bunnies and humans. I also wanted to use a theme which was about re-using plastic and cans to make a rocket and suit. Also, Hedgehogs are pretty cute.
• I started with a few traditional roughs, and some digital exploration. I had to work quickly as I didn't have much time, so the ideas were drawn pretty roughly.

Idea Exploration:

• I, then, produced a bright, colourful, fun illustration of the Hedgehog in space! I focused a lot on textures, such as using textured brushes, images and layering, which adds a lot of "feel" to the drawing.

Here is the final illustration:

Here is the evidence of entry:

• What Could Be Improved:
• If I had more time, I would have looked into other creatures, characters, moods and style. I wanted to explore the composition more, as I felt that it could have been arranged better, to be more visually appealing.
• Next time:
• I will produce more concepts and exploration of possible character ideas, before moving onto my final illustration.

Context of Practise 3: Changing my Ideas and Research

 Context of Practise 3
Changing my Ideas and Initial Research

• This week:
• I decided to change my point of exploration from video games to acting in 2D animation, as I felt this best fit my areas of interest. I also felt that I could learn and develop my acting in animation, which would significantly help in my Extended Practise module.
• What went well:
• I gathered a selection of books and articles which explore acting for animators. The list of these include:

1. Acting for Animators by Ed Hooks

2. The Animators Survival Kit by Richard Williams

3. Animated Performance by Nancy Beiman

4. The Illusion of Life by Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston

5. Acting and Performance for Animation by Derek Hayes and Chris Webster

6. Acting and Character Animation - The Art of Animated Films, Acting and Visualising by Rolf Giesenand Anna Khan

7. Skwigly Animation Magazine:

1. Acting for Animation and Character Performance by Andy Joule

2. Acting for Animation: Character Development

8. Acting in Animation Thesis by Niklas Bjorklund

9. Animation: The New Performance? By Teri Silvio

10. Animation Arena - Acting and Animation by Doron A. Meir

11. Emotions and Acting by Elly A. Konijn

12. Animation World Network: Performance and Acting For Animators by Judy Lieff

13. The Nine Old Men by Andreas Deja

14. The Artifice: The Use of Animation to Convey Character Traits

15. Cartoon Animation by Preston Blair

• Furthermore, to gather primary research, I contacted Ed Hooks, Barry Purves and Reg Isaac, asking about their approaches to animating characters and how they convey personality and emotions of a character. Here are screenshots of emails, evidencing contact:

Barry Purves:

Reg Isaac:

Finally, Ed Hooks, who responded!

• Ed Hooks provided a lot of information and insight for acting, as he has also written the book on Acting for Animators. My questions mainly focused on putting yourself into the characters' shoes, how to animate emotions and animating to for a character's personality.
• What Could Be Improved:
• I need to gather more varied research from videos and video-based analysis. I plan to look at some short animated scenes and analyse them with the knowledge I have learnt from reading through the written-based research!
• Next Week:
• Ill continue research from videos and pencil tests and create some pencil tests of my own to start applying some learnt methods and ideas.

Context of Practise 3: Initial Research and Presentation

 Context of Practise 3
Initial Research and Presentation

• Over the summer:
• I started research into areas of animation which I would possibly enjoy specialising in. These are:
• 2D Animation
• Concept Art
• I decided to combine these specialisms for COP and explore it within video games. This would be following on from my research question last year, which was looking into creating atmosphere in 2D and 2.5D video games. This year, I want to expand on this, mainly focusing on the animation part - as opposed to character design analysis and use of colour, lighting and mood to create atmosphere. 
• To prepare for this research, I decided to look into Unity 2D and try to understand the basics of this, followed by research into the creation of 2D video games, how animation is used in video games and how this expresses the narrative. My main focus will be how animation impacts the creation of a believable world.
• Here is the presentation of my initial research: