Ceramics 27/02/15

For the final lesson we were making our foam models. we tok the two halves of our plaster cast, coated the inside with some jelly so that we can seperate the foam from the plaster. I put the two halves together and tied together with a thick piece of rubber so that it was secure. I measured out the two parts of the foam liquids which will react to create the foam. I measured out 30 to 70 and mixed the tow part together well. I then had to quickly pour the mixture into the feet of the mould as it turned to foam at speed.

My model turned out well. some small details such as the nose did rip off, so I'd have to consider these small details when creating models in the future. Another thing I need to do is mix the foam liquids well as it causes bubbles.

I really enjoyed this workshop, it made a change from sitting at a computer, and I'll definitely use these skills to create models for future projects. I think this animation processes is where my skills lie, as I enjoy making and working with a 3d object to animate with, so I will be experimenting further in the process in future tasks.

Maya - segmented pendulum

I couldn't select each ball, to give it a different kind of weight so it would swing differently. I could just select the whole thing and rotate it as a set to give this outcome.

I'd say I find maya slightly easier to use, however it's not really a program I enjoy using. I did manage to follow the steps, but I still find it difficult navigating my way around the program and it just has that many options and settings.

Maya - bouncy ball

This one I managed to get the hang off, I made the ball squash as it reached the bottom, and then slightly stretch as it was coming back up, to give the motion a realistic look. 
I didn't quite get the key frames right, but at least I know hoe to create a bouncing ball now. 
Again I batch rendered the files to put into a sequence in after effects. 

Maya - pendulum

 There was a file for me to download and open up the scene in maya. 

 I then had to adjust the frame rate to 48, and at frame 1 and 48 I rotated the top sphere to -80 and at frame 24 rotated it to positive 80. 

 At first it swung too fast but this was because the frame rate wasn't set to 24 frames per seconds.

 I then had to batch render the files so I would have jpeg files to put into a sequence in after effects later. 

E4 ident ideas

Like with the discovery channel, I'd looked at a veriety of things and picked the images from Google, Youtube and existing E4 idents, that had created some ideas in my head and put them into a mood board.

 I started with the idea of a flower growing, because E4 are a bit crazy with their idents, I thought about the flower turning into a man eating monster, but then when I looked back at existing E4 idents, they were very full and busy with different things. So I needed to fill more of the screen. I then came across an image of 3 potted plants, that gave me the idea, so have a similar styled pant, growing out of control, and blooming little E4 shaped flowers. 

I did a short animation and liked how it looked, but I still felt it needed more things in it, and had the idea of having little objects on the window sill that the plant could pick up. 

 The colour scheme is the usual E4 colours, purples and white, and I obviously have the natural colour of a plant which goes great with the purple anyway. 

Discovery channel ideas

I put together a few images to help me gather my research and get a few ideas of what to do for my ident. I like the soft tone of the back light in the top right image, and will consider using a back light with my work. I also like the angle of looking up to the surface of the water, where the colour is lighter and fades into a darker shade, I think this would also work nicely with coloured paper like Owen Gildersleeve's work. 

I drew out some initial ideas, and though that an ocean typed scene would fit some of the program that the channel airs. I want to work with paper as I feel it's more for an older audience, I don't want it to be too bright and outgoing, as that is what I'm aiming for with the E4 ident. I found some images of underwater environments and worked from them to create a digital scenery of how I would want my stop motion to look.

I just did a quick digital drawing to help me visualise the whole thing with colour, and get an idea of composition. I want to get rid of most of the black space either side of the composition, and make the animating space bigger. 

I could create the same style of layered paper in after effects, which I will have go at to see which I prefer.

   

Plasticine flower

This is a nice stop motion example of the growth of a flower, the movement is fluid and the bud opening is very smoothly done. I do however think the lighting could be better, as it's very dark and unclear to see in some parts.  

Flower time lapse

After deciding I wanted to animated the growth of a flower, I looked for some videos of blooming flower time lapse. This will help me with the movement of the flower as it grows, and I can adjust the shape to fit the logo and or style I want it to be. 

E4 ident research

Whilst searching for things to help me get ideas of what to do for my E4 ident, I came across this little stop motion.


I clicked on the video I liked the bright colours and set of it. I expected to see a plant growing or something but it was just this box, that a companies name came out of. 

So I though, why don't I do a stop motion of a flower growing.  

Ceramics 20/02/2015

now that my model is finished, I traced round him onto some thicky rolled out clay, and cut out his shape. 

I placed him in, and made sure the clay was flat and there were no gaps between the clay and model. 

i built up walls around the model making sure there was a gap except on the feet as this is where the paster will be poured in through. 

I covered the model and clay with a jelly substance so that it won't stick to the paster.

i also put two clay bits in so that i can put the two plaster bits together  correctly. 

Hari & Deepti

I really love these paper shadow boxes, and taking the idea of layering paper to create a scene, I think I can develop it further by bringing in the animation aspect.

Black Book Gallery state that “What amazes us about the paper cut light boxes is the dichotomy of the piece in its lit and unlit state, the contrast is so stark that it has this mystical effect on the viewers.”

I really want to work with layering paper for on of my idents, and after thinking about which it would suit the best, I decided on the Discovery channel one. Existing discovery channel idents are quite simply animated, so I want to carry on with this theme of simplicity and not have the whole thing too busily animated.

Now I need to research into imagery to help me design and storyboard my ideas. 

Owen Gildersleeve

I looked into other paper artist, not necessarily animations but just paper art, to try and help me get more ideas for composition and shape. 

A paper artist I like, is Owen Gildersleve, he creates these beautiful, clean cut, illustrations and typography pieces made from cutting and layering coloured paper. 

He has been commissioned by a number of companies, the image above is an advertisement for Harrods, which was displayed on their website. And his work had been displayed in various magazines, for both advertisement work and as an artist.  

he also does a lot of personal work, which involves creating abstract pieces like this image, . This image reminded me of two other artists, Hari & Deepti who create scenes by cutting and layering paper.

Amanda Nedermeijer - Animation of man

To begin my research I looked online for some stop motion animations done with paper, as this is the media and technique I really want to use.



the Animation of Man - 2012 from Amanda Nedermeijer on Vimeo.

I came across this stop motion by Amanda Nedermeijer, it is such an initiative way of telling a humours story of the evolution, or in this case, the animation of man. I've never seen anything done this way before and I really like how the paper builds up, you can really see the time, effort and amount of paper that went into it. 

Maya - Do it yourself

For the do it yourself part of the maya induction, I chose to model a simple wooden toy train. I picked an image that had simple shapes to reference from. 

 When it came to the top of the train, I couldn't get the bevel setting to round over, like it had when creating my last model, so I added more more edge lines so that even though it wasn't a smooth curve, it still looks rounded over. 

I struggled with adding colour last time, and struggled again today, I just ended up assigning the model a material, and used the colours that were available to me on there. I then added a light source, which I played around with putting it at different hights and positions, to try and make my model look as good as possible when rendered.     

I felt better using the program, and didn't get stressed with it, so I think the key thing here is to practice using the program if this is the kind of animation I want to use in my projects, to get better with it. 

Turn around - visual language

I chose to draw this ornament because I thought the pose would be quite interesting to draw, she's not in a simple pose, but her features are quite simple so that part is easier for me to draw.

I didn't have a wheel to turn her on, but I drew out a circle with lines to help me get the 30 degree angle turn right. 

This is my finished turn around, I scanned them in and edited the level so the line quality was darker, and played around with the positioning if needed, so she spun better. She is slightly jumpy in some parts, but it's turned out pretty good I think.

Feed back I got was that I could now refine the lines which I'll either do digitally or hand drawn, and to make the video widescreen.
 

Ceramics 13/02/15

The next lesson, I bandaged up the milliput arts so that the plasticise will stick better, and got on with moulding my character.

Maya tutorial - keep on truckin'

In our Maya tutorial, we were given a pd document guide to create our own truck, using the skills we have just been taught. I was good at following the guide, creating the shapes, and placing them. But I would definitely need more practice with the program, as when it came to adding colour and rendering, everything went a bit wrong and I got frustrated with it.

This is my finished truck, I think the lighting could be changed as it's very bright, I am pleased with the outcome because 1, it looks like the image of the truck and 2, I spent ages on it. 

We now how to create a 3d model of our own, putting the skills we learnt in the lesson into practice. 

Applied Animation - chosen brief

Idents

E4 – Pop culture entertainment.

"Hey there, we want a new animated ident that smacks of E4 attitude and can be played on the telly during the daytime so, no naughty stuff!! It has to be exactly 10 seconds long and include our wicked logo, preferably included in the animation and not just at the end. The sound bed (that's technical speak for backing track) ought to reflect our irreverence and most importantly be an original composition or license free, it's fine to include sound effects too. Awesome stuff, can't wait to see your work!!"

I chose E4 because I'm familiar with the channel and feel confident that I could create something that fits with what they want. I also like the colour scheme and think it would be good to work with these limitations, but then have the freedom to create whatever I want, within reason, as the channel is quite open to when you create.    

Discovery Channel – Reality TV and pseudo-scientific entertainment.

"Right, let me get straight to the point.... we need a new ident for our channel and you're the person with the knowledge to get it done..... animator vs ident.... nice.... I'll save that idea for later, could get some viewing figures out of it once we're done with the sharks eh! Anyway... back to why I've contacted you, we've seen your work and we think that you'd be able to do our channel justice so what about it, are you up for the challenge? There's a couple of things that you need to know before you start.... Number 1... it needs to be exactly ten seconds long. Number 2.... our logo needs to be shown. and C........ You've got to have permission to use any audio that you choose. Nice one, can't wait!!"

I chose to then do the Discovery channel, fist of all because it's quite a contrast to the type of animation I'd create for E4, this would have to be more serious and factual instead of weird and random. 

I decided not to go with CBeebies because I feel like I'd be too temped to follow there theme of the bugs, and I want to create something different. The idents used are primarily animated and I don't want to just follow their style, but would't know what other style would fit their channel.   

I didn't choose BBC4 because it's not a channel I know much about, even though I've looked at existing idents on their channel, I don't quite know what kind of style animation wise would fit their channel. 

Ident research

BBC4 

This is the only really animated BBC4 ident I found, I'm not really familiar with the channel, so I don't think I'd know what they want for an ident. In most, they have these four sections with, for example different perspectives in, this is live film and of something nature related or life related. 

The channel as they describe 'has a built an unrivalled reputation as the home of television of intelligence, wit and verve.' and describe their audience as people who are 'fascinated to see expertise and unfamiliar viewpoints expressed with passion, conviction and authority.' So the ident I'd think they'd want would be something for intelligent viewers who want somethings arty but sophisticated.




Discovery Channel

The Discovery Channel is a channel of history, science and technology etc and mainly features documentaries. It's an educational channel for adults mostly. The ident's usually feature a sphere object in place of the world in the logo, like here, for christmas idents, they used a bauble just hanging and turning, something as simple as that. 

The ident would have to fit with the themes of the channel, so something to do with technology, history, or the environment.       





E4 

E4 idents are quite odd. There's a set colour scheme in the channels idents, unlike most of the others. With E4 I know that they have had a range of animation styles used, so I know that whatever I create would fit with their random pop culture theme. 

The channel is aimed at a young adult audience (16-30), so the idents have to fit with this age group, which they do because they are quite weird. 





CBeebies

CBeebies is a young child's channel, so the idents are very colourful and lively. A running theme the channel have, feature these little bug creatures. They change shape and bounce around and they're fun, I like them.

The animation style they have has been the same for a number of years, so I think if I chose this channel, I'd use a different style to create something completely new.

Ceramics workshop 6/2/15

We were asked to design a character to make as a 3d model. First we were told to drill two holes into a piece of wood, this would allow out puppet to stand securely while making it.

I kept my puppet simple for this process not to over complicate things.

we took a piece of wire about 2 meters, looped it around a wooden dowel and spun using a drill. this was to make the wire thicker and stronger.

I cut the wire where needed for my model and treaded it through the holes of this plastic (i've forgotten the name) to hold the wire securely in place.

I used news paper to bulk up the head, and would use it to build up if I had a larger character.

I took the two parts of milliput and mixed them. the two parts react and will set solid in a couple of hours.

I put miliput on the arms and legs, so that these parts could not be bent.