Infographics - Finished Basic Animation

This is what My infographic title sequence looks like for now. If I have time tomorrow I'll animate the opening and end text. I also need to fix a couple things, which I annoyingly have only just noticed while uploading. I'll try adding some more animation as I feel like right now the animation is quite basic, but I wanted to make the basics first so that I had a somewhat finished product. I'll also try using the Bouncr script to add some more animation, however, I have never used a plug-in script with After Effects before, so I'm not sure how successful I'll be.

Infographics - Early Animatic

This is an animatic I made for my title credit sequence a couple of weeks ago. I've made a few changes to the sequence since making this. I've changed the timing of the scenes so that they are in time with the opening song and also stretched the time of the scenes a little so I don't have to draw out another scene to fill the "Work in Progress" part.

Infographics - Work in Progress 2

I've edited the animation so that it fits a little better with the music. I'll also add some animation to the title and fix the timing of the 'Chelsea Peretti' text so this also appears more in time.

Infographics - Animation Work in Progress

This is what my infographic for 'Brooklyn Nine-Nine' Looks like so far. I'm going to make quite a few changes to it but I just want to set down the basic animation and work out where things should go. I think I'm going to lengthen out the second and third character's scenes so that the animation fits better to the opening song. This also means that I won't need to draw another scene to animate. I'm having a little trouble working on files at uni and at home as the computers at uni don't have updated After Effects or Media Encoder, so I can't work on the first character I animated at uni, and when I try to edit the scenes of the second and third characters, which I animated at uni, The files are missing and I don't know how to fix that. I'll try fixing that so I can work on the first scene a little more. I'm also going to try and use some plugins like Bouncr to add a little bit more movement to the characters.

Infographics - Second Animation Test

Perspectives - Andrew's OGR

Infographics Animation Test

Premise - Initial Ideas

Here are a few of my initial ideas for my premise project, I'm finding it a little difficult to set things in motion, hopefully I'll settle on an idea soon as I'd really like to get things going a lot sooner than they are right now.

Idea 1 - Develop my Character Design project:

An animated short set in 1920s Paris, in Art Noveau style. A story about a human and a ghost that fall in love. The human works as a Moulin Rouge dancer that hates her job. the Ghost, an aristocrat's daughter from the late 1800s, stabbed through the heart by her own father. The ghost shows the human how to find confidence, and in return, the human shows the ghost the "modern" world.

This is my least favourite idea as i don;t think i am as passionate about it as my other choices, but i would also be happy to work on this idea if neither of my other ideas work out.

Idea 2 - "Safety Dream"

A short animation about a conversation I had with my dad about anxiety, he showed me the seven steps I need to take to calm down when i'm feeling anxious.

1. Breathe in through your nose
2. Push your stomach out
3.Breathe out slowly through your mouth
4. push your shoulders down
5.Sink
6.Safety dream

He explained to me that a "Safety Dream" is a safe head space that he thinks about when he has difficulty sleeping, which is something I have struggled with my entire life, and I like the idea of exploring what my safety dream or what other people's safety dreams are. However after discussing this with Alan he warned me to not go down the 'dream' route as this theme is rather overused and cliche. There could be another way to talk about safety dreams without making the animation about dreams, I could simply animate what to me, is my safe head space. Or perhaps an informative video using the seven steps my dad gave me to deal with panic attacks. The only issue with this is that I'd really like to create some kind of story for my third year project, I wouldn't really want to make an informative video. I'm a little stuck on this idea as I'm not really sure what I actually want to create/what point I'm trying to make with the animation.

Idea 3 - Working with Music

This is the idea I have thought about the most, but also may be the most trickiest to pull off, so i need to understand what my limits are, and try not to aim for something unrealistic. This idea somewhat uses parts of the 'Safety Dream' Idea. I'd like to create an animation to accompany a piece of music, the only issue is, i still haven't found a song/piece I would like to use. I need some advice about the legality of using music as I know I can't use any music that has been copyrighted. I would love to reach out to a composer and create an original song for the animation, as I'm aware that this has been done before on the course, but I'm not sure who to reach out to. For now I have been listening to non-copyrighted music and classical music. For now I have been developing what I would like the animation to be about, instead of focusing on what song I would like to use, as this has already held me up longer than I would have like it to.

Similar to my "Safety Dream" Idea, I would like the theme of the animation to be about anxiety. Anxiety is often portrayed through jarring, chaotic imagery, people often associate anxiety with panic attacks, freaking out, and chaos. I'd like to be a little more abstract/subtler/gentler in the way that I portray anxiety. I would like the video to be about a journey of overcoming to reach a destination, I have thought of a couple ways that I could show this.

1. Showing a character going on a literal journey, having to overcome obstacles like harsh weather, possibly foes that represent different aspects of anxiety etc. Along their journey they come across people that resemble friends, tutors, parents, that help them overcome their anxieties and reach their destination, the destination would symbolise them being on the right track to overcoming their anxiety.

2.The character is trapped in a house, this, for me personally, is something that makes me extremely anxious. When I was going through hard times, I would lock myself in my room and wouldn't accept help from anyone. It took a lot of time for me to be able to open up to other people and accept help. The house would symbolise my anxiety. The character would start out weak confused and lost in a chaotic house,  full of dead ends, doors that lead to no where, stairs that go on forever, small claustrophobic rooms etc. The character also has a rope tied to their leg, symbolising a force that is holding them back from escaping, I also thought that this force could possibly be their shadow, or some kind of creature. as the animation progresses they try to remove the force. The more control they gain over the force, the more the house starts looking like a normal house, and the animation ends when they eventually escape, and walk out into a peaceful, bright outdoor scene. This would symbolise getting rid of people or habits that are holding you back from improving your mental health.

I'm not feeling too confident about any of my ideas right now, and could do with some advice on how to get back on track, whether I should keep trying with these ideas or try something new all together.

Here are a couple of animated music videos that inspire me. I would like to use songs similar to these for my animation, But I have also looked at classical music because I think, depending on the piece, it could accompany my animation well.



This video uses 2D animation, but I love the colour palette, and the simple story, that can be interpreted by the viewer in many ways.



I like this video because it is again, simple, and conveys a message about mental health, but is subtle in the way that it shows this.

Here a few pieces of classical music that I like that I think would fit in with my animation:






After discussing what music I should use with my Dad, he recommended that I listen to Debussy's Preludes, Children's Corner, Satie's Gymnopedies, Shostakovich's Preludes and Fugues.

I'm not feeling too confident about any of my ideas right now, and could do with some advice on how to get back on track, whether I should keep trying with these ideas or try something new all together.

Life Drawing - 11.02.19

Three Fifteen-Minute Poses Edited Together - Digital

Fifteen Minute Pose - Digital

Fifteen-Minute Pose - Digital

Fifteen-Minute Pose - Digital

Original, Unedited Fifteen Minute Pose - Digital

One Minute Poses - Digital

Drew for as Long as I Could Hold My Breath - Digital

Portraits of my Classmates for as Long as I Could Hold my Breathe - Digital

Ten Minute Poses - Digital

Twenty Minute Pose - Digital

20 Minute Pose - Digital

Mudbox - Session 5

Today's Mudbox session was a little frustrating as I made a mistake with my UVs again, meaning I had to re-do the model. This is something I really need to work on as it continually causes problems for me. This time I didn't realise that my UVs were overlapping, so I couldn't paint my model properly in Mudbox. Also, Mudbox was being weirdly glitchy today, and not letting me sculpt the leaves properly, and I was constantly needing to smooth the model because when I went to use any sculpting tool on the model, it would flatten out and become pixel-y, so I've just left it as this for now and will probably come back to it later. The last thing I need to do for this mini Mudbox project is to add all the fruit I've modeled to a scene and light it. 

Persimmon Maya Block Model

First Attempt at Painting and Sculpting in Mudbox

Second Attempt at Painting and Sculpting in Mudbox

Infographics - Brooklyn Nine-Nine - Developed Storyboard

Following Alan's advice, I've added backgrounds to the scenes in my opening credits sequence, I've also cleaned them up so hopefully I can take the psd files straight into After Effects and start to make some animation tests. I'd like to finish the storyboard and tweak a couple things as there's still two more characters I'd like to add, but I need to prioritise getting some animation done.

Film Review - Ponyo (2008)

Fig.1 Ponyo (2008)

Set in present day Japan, Ponyo is a family adventure/fantasy film about a goldfish princess that lives in the sea. The princess escapes her controlling father and visits the human world where she meets a human boy named Sousuke, who gives her the name Ponyo. The film follows their friendship, and as it becomes stronger, Ponyo becomes more human like. However, When her father brings her back to the underwater world, she escapes again, but spills her father’s magical elixirs into the ocean, causing imbalance and danger to Souske’s village. The film explores themes of fantasy, friendship, loyalty, love, acceptance, devotion, and happiness. The film is lighthearted and fun, and is definitely created for a younger audience to enjoy, but can still be enjoyed by older audiences as the story and visuals are so engaging. The film also has an underlying narrative about balancing the mind. Ponyo and her ocean world represent the creative subconscious of the human mind, contrasted by Sosuke and his life on the land, which represents the outer, conscious human mind. This narrative is something that perhaps only older audiences can identify.

Although Studio Ghibli films have used small portions of CG in the past, Ponyo was animated by entirely hand drawn frames. The director of the film, Hayao Miyazaki was heavily involved in the animation process, And drew a decent amount of it himself. There was a lot of experimentation involved in the process, especially when animating the sea waves. In an interview with Collider, he spoke about how he realised he wanted a specific style to animated the waves in. “So the waves weren’t as difficult as I thought they would be. So as I was drawing, I thought, “Well, I should have done this from beginning.” I realised that I should do it like an Ukiyo-e woodblock print, draw them that way.” - Hayao Miyazaki. the film set a new record for Miyazaki’s films with just over 170,000 hand-drawn frames.  The use of 2D hand drawn animation enhances the fantasy film well, not only making it more appealing to children, but making it a beautiful film for people of all ages to watch and enjoy as they can appreciate how much work has gone into making the film so complex and visually appealing.

Fig 2. Ponyo Poster (2010)

Hayaozaki’s films have often been compared to as the Japanese equivalent to Disney, often because the films are often re-released by Walt Disney Studios as English dubbed versions to Western audiences. They have become one of the most famous film studios in Japan, and are well known for having an iconic 2D style. All of Studio Ghibli’s films have a signature style and way of storytelling. Most Ghibli films include fantasy of some kind and just cannot be told through live action. There are too many magical visuals that are showcased so beautifully through Studio Ghibli’s 2D style that wouldn’t translate well if the stories were told through live action films. 

Ponyo was written and directed by Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki, and animated by Studio Ghibli,a Japanese animation film studio based in Koganei,Japan. Miyazaki has worked with the same animators for almost his entire career. Miyazaki wanted to create Ponyo as he is commonly known for making films that revolve around the sky, but always wanted to create a film about the sea. 

"I have always dreamed of making a film with the sea as a motif, but animating the waves is really hard, so I wasn’t able to do that up to now. I decided to change the way of animating, and had a change of thought: that the sea is actually a living thing. Of course, it took courage to draw eyes on it! But a lot of the staff thought it was interesting so I thought, ‘Oh, okay, it works!” - Hayao Miyazaki.

He also felt like he hadn’t made a film specifically targeted towards young children in awhile, e.g My Neighbour Totoro. 

“I also thought maybe we’d travelled too far away from children, that we should go back to the five-year-olds. But I can’t go back and make the same innocent ‘Totoro’ kind of film. So I put in more complex things. If you want to make something innocent, a shorter film is better. It’s not a good thing to make something very long for small children.” - Hayao Miyazaki.

The reception of Ponyo was a little mixed, it was received very well by the general public, and achieved worldwide success.It received a 91% “Certified Fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and won several awards such as the Japan Academy Prize for Animation of the Year.  It also won five awards at the Tokyo Anime Awards. The awards included "Anime of the Year", “Best Domestic Feature", “Best Director”, “Best Original Story” and “Best Art Direction.” It was originally released across Japan under the title: 'Gake no Ue no' which means; 'Ponyo on the Cliff',on July 19, 2008 in 481 theatres, and achieved $91 million  into it’s first month of release. It was released in Southeast Asia under the name; 'Ponyo On the Cliff by the Sea.' on January 1, 2009, in the United States and Canada on August 14, 2009 by Walt Disney Pictures, it reached 927 theatres across America, which broke the record for the amount of showings a Studio Ghibli film had ever had across America. it was released in the United Kingdom and Ireland on February 12, 2010. The film raked in over $201 million worldwide, however, some die hard Ghibli fans felt as though Ponyo wasn’t quite up to par to some of Miyazaki’s previous films.

Bibliography:

Rotten Tomatoes, s.d. Ponyo (2009). At: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/ponyo (Accessed on 06.02.19)

Ghibli Culture. (2014) Analysis of Ponyo. At: https://ghibliculture.wordpress.com/2014/04/28/analysis-of-ponyo/

(Accessed on 06.02.19)

Weintraub, S. (2009) Hayao Miyazaki Interview PONYO At: http://collider.com/hayao-miyazaki-interview-ponyo/ (Accessed on 06.02.19)

Jolin, D. (2011) Miyazaki On Miyazaki: The Animation Genius On His Movies At: https://www.empireonline.com/movies/features/hayao-miyazaki/ (Accessed on 06.02.19)

The Massie Twins, s.d. Ponyo (2008) At:https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0876563/ (Accessed on 06.02.19)

Images:

Figure 1. Ponyo. (2008) From: Ponyo. Directed by Hayao Miyazaki [Film Still] Japan: Studio Ghibli. At: https://www.nytimes.com/watching/titles/ponyo (Accessed on 06.02.19)

Figure 2. Ponyo. (2010) From: Ponyo. Directed by Hayao Miyazaki [Poster] Japan: Studio Ghibli. At: http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRUj7UnYxLXtFeZF0iYaxzgeR-RDidUtR20y9Kl_IblXS0lanr5(Accessed on 06.02.19)

Thesis Presentation - Advice and Notes

I've written up some of Phil's advice from my thesis presentation today so the advice stays fresh in my memory. I've got quite a clear understanding of where I'm headed with my thesis, I just need to cut down and focus a bit more. I think I'll be using 'Get Out' as my case study to support a discussion about black tropes, theories of race, and scientific racism.

Notes:

• Postcolonialism - look at specifics, theories of race, scientific racism, you don't necessarily need Freud or Marx unless you find it useful.

• Gone With the Wind was invisibly racist.

• Look at who has theorized most reputably about race relations and anthropologies. Claude Lévi Strauss. 

• Enlightenment project of dividing races into categories, look at postmodernism slides. White/ European privilege sneaking through.

• Look at scientific racism, Darwinism and the study of race, Find the people that critique this work and those critiques will be useful theoretical frameworks.

• Reservoir dogs, Spike Lee's opinions on Quentin Tarantino.

• Digital blackface, Sex Education: a black actor that has been put into a trope.

• Choose one out of 'Get Out', Black Panther, Spider-Verse.

• Get Out is a film about racism, Black Panther is a film that has facilitated a discussion about racism. 

• Get Out continued the representiations on screen; the black maid, the groundskeeper, smiling docile black man. it is about the debate itself in the commentary of the film.

•  Black Panther gets its head above the debate, asserts itself and uses this incredibly conventional genre and causes a transformative, social phenomenon.

•  Spider-Verse because it's about animation and diversity more generally, but it's not just about having a black Spider-Man, it's about a universe in which all people can be spider-man. 

• Get out because it is a critique and it's a specific genre and the director himself is positioning black characters in a genre where there's even less latitude. 

• The genre of Blaxploitation, a moment in 70s cinema where it was all about black characters, there were suddenly black actors on the screen like Pam Grier, Shaft, in terms of progressiveness, there was the 'pimp' and other tropes.

• The other place where you still see black representation being expressed in ways which suggest that things aren't very progressive is in porn. Taboo, inappropriate fantasies figures, you see race relation playing out there. While looking at more progressive tropes, there is still this kind of place that is frequented by lots of people where things haven't moved on very far at all. 

• The tropes of the black brute, the mammy, the comedic uncle tom's cabin smiling docile black man in the fields you see in 'Get Out', but they are being used for a critical effect. In the plot, there's still tropes like; black men are fast, black men can dance etc. 

• Chapter 1 - A users guide to black tropes in literature, fiction, advertising, and representation.

• Chapter 2 - Theories of Race, scientific racism to help understand those tropes.

• Chapter 3 'Get Out' as a case study with critique and reflection on the previous chapters.

Proof of Concept Presentation

Mudbox - Session 4

In today's class, I finished my apple model and my banana model. The problem with the banana model was that it was too small, once I resized the model the tools worked fine, it was almost frustrating that it was such an easy fix but I'm glad to have sorted out the problem.

Finished Apple Model in Mudbox

Finished Banana Model In Mudbox

We also looked at creating Extraction Maps. I made a normal bump map. I realized when applying the bump map to my model in Maya that I had set up my UVs slightly wrong, I had put the seams in very obvious places e'g, at the top and bottom of my orange and banana models, you can see the seam very clearly. 

First Try Using Bump Maps

Orange Model - Wrong UVs

The seams were rather frustrating to fix. I tried taking the bump map into Photoshop and fixing smoothing the edges of the map. This didn't work, So, I re-did the UVs on my original Maya model and sculpted the banana again. I didn't paint on too much detail as this was just an experiment to see if this would fix the seam issue. 

Rough Model

This is an updated version of the bump map for the banana model. This bump map worked for my model, but something still seems off about it.  I think my UV skills could definitely improve.

New Bump Map for Banana Model