Category: animation
I am going to be evaluating my 2D animation, which I have created. My animation is a hyper-lapse, which consists of around 26 images in 30 seconds. I have shown my Animation to an audience and within this report I am going to record and discuss the qualities and feedback of my animation.
Feedback
(open questions with qualitative responses)
The questions I asked to my small audience was:
- what did you enjoy about my animation?
- what could I improve?
- did it fit my teen target audience?
- did the audio fit my Animation?
- whats my genre/narrative for my Animation?
During this process I gathered lots of different feedback. For example some negative and some positive. Melissa Davey a member of my group said that my animation was unique because she hasn’t seen any other group animations like mine. When I asked her about my target audience she disagreed from teens and suggested because my character was older I should aimed it at a more mature audience. Melissa and Naomi both said that my genre is adventure because my location is outside for the whole animation which I agree with; Melissa suggest comedy as a sub genre. They both stated my improvement should be that the ‘slurp’ noise should be made a lot less noticeable. The next responses I got were from Carmen and Anne-Marie and they thought my genre and narrative was about loneliness. For example, I only had one character and you saw the back of her head a lot, I felt this wasn’t what I was trying to aim from my animation. They liked the audio I recorded and said it was better than having a long soundtrack. they said I could improve by changing the angles of how she walks and some different things in the editing. I asked if they felt my animation fit my teen target audience and Anne-marie said a younger audience mainly because animations are for kids. They suggested I improved the length and cut it down to 30 seconds.
I also showed my animation ‘ Day at the Green’ to my family (mum and sister). I felt having an opinion from someone who isn’t studying my course would be a good way of having feedback.
My sister and mum felt the audio fit well with the clip, for example the seagull sounds when she is near the sea. They both agreed when I asked about my genre and narrative it was adventure and love, mum suggested love because she was In the video and she’s family. They said I could improve on the movement of my animation; make a bit more going on. My improvements, such as the storyline, I would like to make more interesting. if I had another opportunity to re create my animation I would plan harder and research in detail more about the different animation options. Also adventure more with the editing and allow myself more time.
My Response
I agree with my feedback, I think the changes I need to make are mainly are with my storyline and audio which I felt were my weakest points during my editing. Melissa and Naomi stated that the slurp noise needed to be a bit quiter, but I feel thats down to opinion because it made the ice-cream scene more effective with louder sound. I also agree with my animation being unique I feel no people in my class did a hyper-lapse and I agree with it being unique. Overall, I am happy with my animation and my audience seemed to enjoy the hyper-lapse animation.
The pre production
For my pre production , I undertook a few tasks and requirements which were needed for me to create my animation. some of these factors were:
- Risk assesment
- storyboard
- production schedule
- location recce
- props and costume list
- sound and recording prep
All of the above things enabled my production to go a lot smoother and easier because I had thoroughly planned my animation. For the risk assessment I listed loads of different outcomes which could go wrong whilst creating my animation. For example a lot of my filming was outside so I had to be aware of the weather conditions and the camera. The production schedule allowed me to follow my shots straight from the piece of paper- which made the picture taking process a lot easier with guidance. In my opinion the pre production was the hardest stage of my production because planning my final idea, for relaying on characters and planning dates and location took a lot of effort and planning to make sure everything went right on the day of filming.
Sound
The sound for my animation went quite well. During college time, I rented out a Tascam, XLR cable and a microphone to record my software that I was going to need. The production of the sound went really well, because my location had all the perfect objects I needed to make my sounds. For example, the ambience of the outside, cars driving past and natural sounds like trees swaying and people talking. Also we made a few sounds of our own by stamping our feet, making slurp noises and rustling branches. For the sounds I could get with a microphone and Tascam, I downloaded sounds from the internet, A software called ‘Ben Sounds’. For the editing, I used an Apple software called ‘ Premiere Pro’ and i imported all my sounds from either my SD card or converted them through the internet.
In this report I will be discussing 2D animation and how it has evolved in the industry over time.
What is animation?
Animation is techniques built together with computer technology and optical illusion of the eye. Its mainly photographing drawings or images at different angles and adding them together to create a sequence. For examples puppets or models.
Stop Motion and Frame Rate
The concept of Stop Motion Animation is to form a narrative through photographs speeded up, creating a sequence. The frames will be slightly altered each time and eventually form movement on its own. For example Flip Books are prime example of a non- technical animation, you just draw movement on individual pages. Stop motion is also used in films, music videos and featured films but its not as obvious to notice with the most recent technology. In drawn animation, frame rate is used. Its the length of time a image/drawing stays on the screen. The concept of frame rate is that each frame has two shots (frames) and the average film usually runs at 24 frames per second which is only 12 drawings per second.
Eadweard Muybridge and The Lumineer Brothers
Eadweard Muybridge was an English photographer, most famous for his pioneering of motion photography. He was born on the 9 April 1830 and died on 8 May 1904. At this time in history, modern camera and other high quality technology wasn’t even distinguished. In the late 80’s Eadweard BEGUN producing over 100,000 photos of so many different animal and people through animation which the eye couldn’t work out. On the other hand, the concept of animation is to be an illusion and from just looking you wouldn’t be able to work out what was going on. Some examples of his work are;
In my opinion, I think his animation’s were unique and he had some very creative ideas. for my own animation I am inspired by the step by step photographs. The animals he chose and the actions people did would be hard to understand when he first created them. As a pioneer, his motion work would of been impossible to find anywhere else and I think the silhouette like frames , hide identity and create a more mysterious outlook. my favorite image is the cheetah because they would be a very difficult animal to take photos of with a camera.
The Lumineer Brothers
Auguste and Louie Lumiere are the pioneers of moving image, such as the cinema and Television. They were born in 1848 and 1854 and after discovering there passion in moving image they went on to creating film, they had a first film screening in 1895. The first images they exposed were factory workers leaving the building after a day of work;
Auguste and Louis’s first screening on 22 March took place in Paris, at the “Society for the Development of the National Industry”, in front of an audience of 200 people. The length of the film they used was approximately 17 metres long which converted to time would be 50 seconds. The moving images they created via cinematography
Developers of stop-frame animation; Walt Disney, Warner Bros Willis O’Brien and Ray Harryhausen.
Firstly, Walt Disney has had such an impact on children and even adults lives throughout its past and current years of entertainment and its still evolving to this day. Walt Disney’s first idea of Animation was Mickey Mouse and to create a film length animation he used a piece of machinery called the Moviola , this allowed him to get a detailed view of his sketches on a high technical screen . The Moviola was a popular piece of editors technology in the early 1900’s. After Walts hand drawn creation of mickey mouse he went on to creating sequences such as ‘Soup Sequence’ and used the images he drew similar to a flip book technique. Some more recent methods of Walt Disneys animation are ‘Hyperion renderer’. This is a piece of software which takes all models,drawings, animations and textures such as light and produces them into a final image which creates the animation.
Ray Harryhausen
Ray harryhausen was a visual effects creator and was very popular in the animation industry, he created a Stop Motion animation called ‘ Dynamation’. This is a technique which uses a split screen with high quality projections. An example of when something similar was projected with special effects before hand wad the clip from France showing a bicycle rider travelling through the city.
This is the first development example which Ray Harryhausen used. This is related to the King Kong film he paid a contribution too way before his theory of Dynamation . Harryhausens use of Dynamation allowed him to create miniature sets such as the example image. It became popular very quickly and was further used in other films for close interactions with the animated characters and normal actors. This has been used in films such as King Kong, Casper, Scooby Doo.
Contemporary Stop-Frame Work
Aardman Animations is a worldwide Animation film company started by Peter Lord and David Sproxton they started of small creating characters with play-doh at school. There first major animation in 1993 was ‘The Wrong Trousers’ which starred Wallace and Gromit. In 2000 they though of the idea ‘Chicken Run’ this was one of t here most popular early days films creating $220m in the box office in US. Chicken Run was personally a film I watched when I was younger, So I know the target audience would attract young children and families. In my opinion I think the world of animation has came so far since The Lumiere Brothers and other pioneers starting from basic drawings. now in the 21st century, animations can be hand drawn but created by software such as Illustrator or Photoshop.
Genres and Forms of Animation
Animation has so many different forms and animations of which they come under. For example, Claymation, rotoscoping, flick book and time-lapse are examples of all different kinds of animations.
Claymation- Claymation is one of many forms of stop motion which has each piece of character or background made deformable. The technique for Claymation is to use an under piece called ‘armature’ which is used as a guide to where the plasticine is going. It has ben used to create famous films such as Wallace and Grommit, Chicken Run and smaller more recent programmes such as Morphe and Pingu.
Timelapse animation is when you take an image shot by shot to create a sequence with a lower frame rate so you can see whats going on in each image. This technique is often used in Photography and short videos such as Adverts. For my own animation, this is the technique im going to use because I like the end product with all the images added into a sequence.
Flipbook- A flipbook is one of the simplest forms of animation which is still used today in film and animation. The flip book was invented in 1866 but became most popular towards the 20th century. The creator of the flip book is a man called Josh Barnes Linnet. I think its something that can be used for fun its lots of different situations, young children and it might be used in films, this is because of its universal characteristics. In the modern day of animation flip book isn’t used as much now, due to technology becoming so popular , hand made animations are no longer as important.
2D Animation
Vector and Bitmap
2D animations is a traditional, popular scheme of animation. Its created in a two-dimensional space and focus’ on creating characters and backgrounds in this environment. 2D animation is different to 3D because it doesn’t appear to come at the audience or leave the screen and it can only move up snd down, or left and right. 2D animation uses Bitmap and Vector graphics to create images. Its software consists of Adobe photoshop, Flash and After Effects. Vector animation Is used as a reference with animation, the motion of the sequences are used with vectors instead of pixels. Vector can be zoomed in on and still not become pixelated, this is because its made up of lines and shapes. Bitmap images are stored as tiny little pixels which makes an animation. The biggest disadvantage of bitmap is that when the image is zoomed on the piles enlarge and ruin the photo.
Cel animation (Traditional and Non- Traditional)
A traditional form of animation is when the scene is drawn by hand. A full-length feature film produced using ‘Cel Animation’ would usually require a million or more drawings to complete a finished piece. A lot of time and effort would go into one Animation.
2D animation techniques
there advantages and disadvantages
like using After Effects or Animate and the process used to move the object
What Animation is used for and Software
Animation is one of the most popular elements of TV, its used throughout a range of different places such as; Advertising, TV entertainment, education, music videos and indents. On TV its watched by a younger audience such as children aged 2-10. Its used for lots of different children animations such as ‘Shaun the Sheep’ ‘Winnie the Poh’ and ‘Tellie Tubbys’ . Children animation helps them become more aware of colour. It also opens up there imagination and keeps them happy and satisfied watching bright colours and silly, basic characters. Animation is a good way to catch an audiences attention especially through advertisement. The bright colours and unrealistic content will ensure the viewers to remember and potentially buy the product. An example of animation in advertising is the ‘Krave’ cereal advert. This is because its unrealistic design of the cereal coming out the box will be remembered,
Some examples of software used for Animation is After Effects and an Anime Studio. After Effects is a software which specifies in digital visual effects and motion graphics. It was initially created in 1993 then taken over by Adobe in 1994. The software has improved massively over the years, it started with basic layering and masking to now you can add 3D effects, add project labels and create things that you would imagine technology couldn’t portray.
Conclusion
In conclusion I think that Animation has had a massive impact on the Media. the Industry has progressed from black and white cinematography to coloured live animations in After Effects. An example of a basic animation created would be Mickey Mouse, which was evolved from a black and white sepia character to having a personality and not just a black outline on paper. In the world of Modern animation , they are usually created straight from technology they are no longer hand drawn. I think animation was progressed massively and will continue to grow with the technology such as computers and similar software, animation will forever grow.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
https://www.biography.com/people/walt-disney-9275533
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auguste_and_Louis_Lumi%C3%A8re
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0366063/
https://www.webopedia.com/TERM/A/animation.html
https://www.thoughtco.com/introduction-to-vector-animation-140890
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flip_book
RACHEAL
My Average frame rate is going to be roughly 12 frames per second because I have to take a lot of photos to film 30 seconds, so I have chosen a slightly lower frame rate but I think it will add to the jump animation effect.
My characters aren’t going to be animated they will be real people acting in an animated form. I am going to be using two of my nieces, ages 3 and 7 for the first section of my animation then I will begin to involve older charters such as my mum and older friend which is 18.
I want them to wear all the same clothes, so it portrays the growth between them in the park and my audience can easily realise that . They all have blonde hair and blue eyes.
The outfits will be something simple like;
- Black trousers
- white top
- trainers
- and a pony tail
My chosen Animation is Time-lapse, which is a sequence of images put together to create a sequence at a much lower frame rate than an Animation. 1911–1912 was the year when the first time apse occured by Arthur Pills bur, who built a special camera for this purpose and recorded the movements of flowers through their life cycle, which is still, today, a popular theme. Time- Lapse’s original features are sequences such as;
- Moving People
- Landscape
- Weather Change
- Lights or traffic
- City Life/ Urban
I chose Time- Lapse because I think it’s a very effective genre of Animation. The overall product looks nice and flows together nicely, especially with my layout of what I want to do, with the park life and growth, I think it will come together really nice and tell a story rather then throwing a load of different images together.
My storyline of Growth, which I’m going to show through the different ages will look good as a time lapse, because I can add all the images together with an appropriate frame rate to create an outlook of them moving towards the camera, slowly growing and different times of them becoming to old for the park. The music will help show this
| Risk
|
Why it’s a risk | Resolution |
|
Weather
|
This is a risk because the weather could ruin my animation. For example, the camera lenses and equipment will get distorted from the rain or dark skies etc. | Checking the weather beforehand and planning for a day when the weather will be clear. |
| Earth | The floor or earth may become sloppy or wet due to the bad weather, whilst I am recording with kids it won’t be ideal for them. As they may easily fall or my images will look messy. | Going out on a particular dry day. |
| Falling of an object; Such as a slide or swing | A Risk for my Characters might be them falling of the equipment, which could leave them in quite a bit of damage, if they fell on their head. | Being supervised at all times, all staying together. |
| Uneven surfaces or mud | Uneven surfaces could lead to falling over or tripping- bruises and tears. | Avoiding it. Watching where you walk . |
| General Public | A risk will be watching out for the general public, I want to make sure I have clear shots, so no other people in my view other than my character. | Being friendly if spoken too or keeping all together don’t approach anyone. |
| Park animals | Park animals might be dangerous and its best just to leave them alone, they might feel threatened or at harm. | Staying out of their way and not annoying them. |
| River or water features
|
In my location there is a few rivers, so it’s best to stay away in case someone falls in. | My animation isn’t water based so we won’t be going near the river anyway. |
| Becoming lost | Another risk could be losing one of the team or wondering of. | We could all wear jackets or text each other if we worry. |
Risk assessment
| Date | Time | Scene | location | |
| March 2018 | 11:00am | Firstly, I will meet up with everyone that’s going to take part in my animation, preferably at my house so we can travel all to the location together. Let everyone introduce their selves to each other if there not aware. | My house, Torquay | |
| March 2018 | 12:00pm | We will arrive at our location and slowly begin to set up the camera, on a tripod in our first location which will be the park, in Shiphay. Kitson Park. | Kitson Park | |
| March 2018 | 12:15pm | Start to take photos, first 5 shots of the youngest character, wintering the park. | Kitson | |
| March 2018 | 12:30pm | Look back at the images, a quick break to make sure everything’s fine/ | Kitson | |
| March 2018 | 1:00pm | Repeat the process, take different images of different pairs of the playground- starting with the slide. | ||
| March 2018 | 1:30pm | Change location to the forest, run through the image process. | The woods | |
| March 2018 | 2:00pm | Do a practice set, taking pictures to make sure its going to turn out how id like. | woods |
| March 2018 | 2:15pm | Take the first shot of the walk through the forest. |
kitson |
| March 2018 | 2:25pm | Goes to touch a tree, catch each arm movement to the tree. Same facial expression etc needed. | woods |
| March | 2;45pm | Change the character, do the different steps through the forest and along the bridge, entailing a ‘seaaonal walk’ | woods |
| After the forest I want all 3 characters to do three different sets, 2 or 3 images each stepping closer to the camera, starting with the youngest to the oldest. | |||
| This will symbolise growth. And end my animation just how I want it to. Telling a story. |
For my animation I am creating a time-lapse, therefor its difficult to draw out what each movement will be. Visually, my idea is going to be set in different stages of growth. firstly I want a few shots of my niece who is 2 years old, then grow into Katie my cousin who is 7. In this duration they will be playing in the park, and the forest slowly changing frame by frame into a older character. Then lastly I want my friend Page to be involved, as a last resort, ,for example sat on the swing, symbolising growth and she doesn’t want to play in the park anymore. for the editing I want to add in transitions of black outs and cuts to add emphasis on the change. I am also going to let the clips roll of one another , not dragged out images or lags.
For my design I want it to be set in a park, preferably on a nice day so the lighting makes the footage a lot brighter. I will film on the same day to ensure that the quality and lighting stays the same throughout. Also the park I want to locate in which is , KitsonPark in Shiphay. I have chosen this location because I think its a good shoot place and will represent the growth perfectly as I can use the forest and park to show them playing.
Below is some sketches of my layout and shots;
For my Animation I am going record lots of different audio sounds which will fit into my Animation. For example at college I may record the sound of crunching leaves or the sound of rain coming down onto a window ledge. Im going to an a sound track which will change over time, to fit with the age difference.
I will start with something more energetic and end with something soft portraying the age range from 3 to 18. Below is some inspiration;
This sound track is similar to what I want to record and add into my animation, whilst my characters are near the beach. I think for my own production it will be easy gather these sounds because I live close to a beach.
This sound track of the swings is what’s inspired me to create my own sound. during my animation scene In the park I think it will be good to hear the swings whilst they play. This is because it adds effect and gives my audience a better imagination of where they are.
Another recording could be the leaves in the background; I think as my animation will be based outside its important to capture its surroundings such as leaves, water, if the weather is rainng maybe try balance a recording under a umbrella to get the sound of water dripping.
Racheal Leonards blog 