Start of Level 3 extended

Storyboard Animation

Brainstorm Mind Maps

Evaluation for animation

Evaluation

In b Tec media level 3 this term we were given the task of making our own stop motion animation.  This was one of my favourite projects of this term due to the fact it could be as weird as I liked it too be so my true colours could shine through. However there were certain aspects of this projects that were very difficult like the technical aspects of the cutting out, if not done properly the things would look messy and unprofessional. This meant I put as much effort as I could into them.  Another part which I found hard with cut out animation was the fact everything had to be in the same place all the time, as if they moved the final piece would not look professional and you had to try your hardest to find where it use to be or start all over again. Sadly this did happen during my own and starting again happened more than once.

At the very start when we were first given the project we had to make a timeline of animators on our blogs. It required 10 and at first I thought this would be hard to accomplish due to the fact at the time I did not know 10 animators. Soon after we were then told that we had to create presentations with a partner about an animator of which we were given. I was the animators Oliver Postgate and Peter Firman and their show Bagpuss. I sadly had to do most of the presentation, as my partner did not complete their part. This wasn’t hard for me to do as I enjoyed learning about their work  and how they came about their creations. I listed about their early work, who they were, 2 of their creations (Noggin the Nog and Bagpuss) and a short history behind them.

Once I had presented this to my piece my peer and taken notes on their ones it was time to add them to my blogger. Each animator I had to write a paragraph about them and with my notes and help from my friends, this was done quickly and properly.

After the timelines were done we had to then practice with claymation and cut out animation ensuring we knew how to do them properly and decide on which one to choose as a basis for our final project. Before practice of each one, we were given a short presentation about them to know what we had to do and how to do them properly. It was just them time to practice around with them, messing around with them and see what worked and what didn’t.

I choose to work on my own for the cut out animartion as I already had an idea in mind and just wanted to get on with it. I wanted to do something with NME and make a band play infront of a crowd. This worked very well as I made them look lke they were singing and cheering and have them crowdsurf. It took me a while to work out how to time them perfectly but once I decided to take three pictures at once so it would be prolonged I was on my way. I would say I can cut out fairly fast so it did not take me long to find what I wanted and cut them out and test them.

I enjoyed cut out animation a lot more than claymation as it was more effective and I didn’t have to be artistic which isn’t my strongest side. I chose to work in a pair for this and work with Catalin as we get on so well and work really well as a team. Once we all set up with a camera we had a few ideas in mind and went a clay man walking into a lake and being dragged under. This wasn’t hard to achieve as all I had to do was cut out a piece of him and move him back to where he was. It was very messy which is why I didn’t enjoy it very much. But it wasn’t horrible I just choose to do cut out for my final piece.

For our final piece, again I chose to work with Catalin as we worked really together for the claymation. This difficult though as we only had a day to film it due him being in an exam and me being ill the week previous to starting the final piece. We scrapped an idea mid way meaning we didn’t have very long to film and edit the piece and upload. We went with a giant mouth eating things and spitting them back up into a city. It ate things from Beyonce to minions and even a guitar player. It took us only an hour and half to film due to us being fast and efficient with it. It took us no time to edit due to Catalins experience so we added music and sound effects and we were done.

I got some feedback on my animation from my peers. They gave me both an equal amount of strengths and weaknesses. From Carlo of whom I asked first to watch and evaluate my piece he told me that it was very comical and smart to use the mouth and how the weirdness of it made it a lot better. The sound effects were very effective and made the mouth more realistic. He told me a few weaknesses and that was the length of them and how we should made the segments longer, if made longer it would be more enjoyable to watch. He also went on to say that we should spend longer on the cut outs as some of them you could still see some white background from the newspaper. These are understandable as I feel if we had longer to do it we could take our time alittle more and cut out more precision.

My other feedback came from AJ who watched my piece and seemed very amused by it. He said that it was a very good piece and again commented that the humour of it was very effective. He also went on to say the weirdness of it made it. This is understandable, as I wanted to make the piece very weird and funny. Some negatives he gave the piece was the background was small and did not cover the whole frame, he said if we had the chance to do it again try and cover it the whole frame. I totally agree with this as I wanted to make the background as big as possible but sadly it wasn’t big enough in the paper.

Comparing my piece to something of a professional standard like the intro to Russell Howards good news they are both different and alike. They are different due to the professional standard and the narrative that is being portrayed. As it is being shown on the BBC and to the public it needs to be properly done and to have the right frames in place with no signs of hands or real body parts. His one also contains real footage and the movement along a page. They are similar as mine and his are comical, my own is a mouth and his one is of him dodging news stories and tvs. We also share the motion of movement as our mouth and cut outs move along the page to show a story just like his one.

In conclusion, this project went very well and I enjoyed it very much. In the very beginning I thought it would be quite stressful but after a while and finding my feet I could then show my true colours and create something funny and remember able. If given this task again the only thing I would change it the time spent doing it as I feel like I could make the narrative longer and more detailed but due to time not being on my side we had to make do with what we had.

Final Animation Sequence

My presentation

Timeline of Animation

1. Max Fleishcer - Out of the inkwell - Born in 1883 at an early age was interested in mechanics,was a pioneer of animation, he invented the rotoscope with his brother. Created the characters like Betty Boop. Paramount turned him away so disney employed for them but was then asked back by paramount in 1930. Sterotopical process to create early 3D.

2. Winsor McCray - Gertie the Dinosaur - 1914 - specialised in key framing, produced comic strips,  every frame had to be drawn. Worked in the circus but then moved to the city to created advertising posters. Worked on animated films. Used Gertie as a live performance where he would tell Gertie to do things like bow and on the screen Gertie would obey the commands. He also used a live band to add more effect.

3. Pat Sullivan - Felix the Cat - 1919 - Australian pioneer animator, each cartoon would be hand drawn as would each frame. An animation camera would then be used in black and white to clean it up before production. Changed the way cartoons were made.

4. Walt Disney - Steamboat Willie - One of the most well known animators of all time. Created steamboat Willie in 1928. First show to have synchronised audio with animation. The first Mickey Mouse film to be disturbed. Considered the debut of mickey mouse. Was the most popular cartoon of its day.

5. Oliver Postgate and Peter Firman - Bagpuss 1974 - Bagpuss uses a variation of animated techniques for example : stop motion, animation, puppeteering and hand drawings. The stop motion and animation was used in Bagpuss of which told a different narrative each week. Many people till this day remember who Bagpuss is.

6. Nick Park - Creature Comforts - 1989 - Was an english director and animator and writer. Created various things like Wallace and Gromit, Chicken Run and Shaun the Sheep. Many works with clay and figures to create his pieces. For creature comforts they use claymation to represent real peoples voices and opinions through animals. This adds humour as people dont expect animals to say these things.

7. Beavis and Butthead - 1993 - A american animated sitcom created and designed by Mike Judge. It originated from Frog Baseball which was a short film made in 1992 by Mike Judge. Once MTV saw the short they signed Mike Judge to develop the concept. It ran from 1992 to 1997 and in 1996 was adapted into a feature film. It was later revived in 2011 by MTV but only for a short 2 months. They would use alot of crude and some episodes were banned due to storylines and jokes used in the TV. One of the ones that was banned was an episode called Heroes which MTV refused too air due to images of guns and mockery of a school shooting.

8. Daria - 1997 - Daria is an american television series created for MTV. The show is set in a fictional suburban town, with storylines following school life of a teenage girl, her journey through puberty becoming and women and boys. This was a spin off of Mike Judges animated TV Beavis and Butthead. Daria appeared in B and B on regular occasions and was a hit character. It ran for 5 seasons between 1997 and 2002.

9. Robot Chicken 2000 -  2005 - A stop motion animated comedy series shown on adult swim. So far they have 7 seasons out basing around everything from disney to DC to Star Wars.  It was created in 2005 and was based off a comic strip appearing in ToyFare toy magazine called Twister ToyFare Theater. It mainly appeals to adults as the story lines for most of the sketches are quite mature. This isnt always the case as most curse words used are bleeped out which means younger people are able to watch. I think it appeals to people so much due to the fact the sketches are based off well known people from disney princess' gossiping to superman becoming santa claus' neighbour.

10. The Simpsons 189 till the present day - One of the longest and most successful animation tv shows of all time. It has over 20 season with 572 episodes. Each episode is different following comedic storyline involving the the Simpson family. It was created by Matt Groening who is also the creator of Futurama another another popular TV Show. They have a movie which came out in 2007 and growsed over $527 million. They used cartoon animation and over the 572 episodes you are able to see the development in quality of each character. Shown on FOX in America and SKY in England it is very very well known.