This is my narrative for my final animation piece. I decided to go with the idea of using a Toucan dancing as i feel the idea was most suiting to the music, and i feel i could have alot of fun with it. This is just my first draft of my storyboard, i now need to draw each slide in more detail so the story is obvious to the reader without my explanation. The final animation will be made by using plasticine and outdoor environments, where i will then photograph each frame eventually completing the animation in stop motion.
Now that i have my three words i need to decided on narrative ideas. Since i have already decided my chosen character is going to be a bird most of my ideas keep with this theme. But before i had the idea of using a bird i came up with some other ideas...
Above is my first ever narrative idea, in this storyboard i will take a selection of images of peoples facial expressions, while wearing a Brazil carnival mask. Each expression will be different (even if only slightly) and will fit in theme with the music. The images will then be put together using stop motion.
Now that i have decided on my character for my animation, i have began to look into how i will construct the storyboard. Clay? Hand drawn? Still frames?
I am most drawn to the clay idea as i think it will be a good media to create character with. Here are some examples i found on the internet.
I particularly enjoyed this video as it is something a little bit different, not only does it show the use of clay but it shows the making of the character. This video will give me inspiration when creating my own bird.
While looking through Youtube i found it increasingly hard to come across any bird animations made from clay, especially impressive ones.
I also came across this video, which isn't exactly anything special but you get the idea. I am going to give this idea a try for myself, hopefully it shouldn't be too difficult!
I have never really done rayogram's before, or knew what they were for this matter. I found the tutorials with laura really helpful as it give me an insight into something knew. We were then left to create are own rayogram's and see what we could produce. I decided to use jewellery and paper clips as i thought this would create a good outcome, i also think the perfume bottle works well as you can see the insides of the bottle.
This is my outcome:
I used a test strip so i was able to see which one created the best exposure. Using 1,2,3,4 and 5 seconds, i decided the best outcome was at 4 seconds.
These are a few of my favourite rayograms...
The necklace didn't work as well as i would have liked it on the pendant but i still think it has created a nice effect.
For this piece i used a range of square pieces of paper with smaller squares cut out the middle. I arranged them in an uncontrolled fashion, i think this is one of my favourite rayogram's.
This piece didn't work quite as well as i wanted it too, but still think it has created a nice effect. I placed me hand at different angles and heights for 1 second at a time to create this desired effect.
Now that i have chose my character i am trying to gather as much research and thoughts as possible. This is when i remembered this song, i remember listening to this song ages ago and coming across the animation version on Youtube. Someone has created an animation for pretty much all her songs, but i thought this was most fitting.
Now that i have decided that my chosen character is going to be a bird, i now need to choose, what kind of bird? I've started drawing up some (very rough) possible character ideas.
Eventhough i am beginning to steer towards the toucan idea, i think i need to maybe come up with some more character designs.
We were given a session on creating an animation. We were told to draw a selection of several basic characters, the characters could be literally anything you wanted but trying too keep it simple. We then had to choose one of the finished characters and draw it from a range of different angles, then working in pairs or groups we had to come up with an animation using each persons character. The animation needed to show a beginning, middle and an end and be made up of 36 hand drawn images, very tedious! My chosen character was a bird and my partners character was a cat, so we came up with an animation of the bird sat in a tree, when the cat sneaks up on the bird and eventually ending in the bird dying.
These are the first character designs i came up with.
I decided to go with the idea of the bird as i thought this went will with my partners chosen character of a cat. We then went on to create the storyboard for the beginnings of are animation.
Before my induction with Laura i didn't really know anything about rayograms or what they were for that matter, so i decided to see what other artists had produced to give me a feel for the task.
Define Rayogram- 'A photogram is a photographic image made without a camera by placing objects directly onto the surface of a photo-sensitive material such as photographic paper and then exposing it to light. '
I particularly liked these two designs, i love the idea of using the film as you can see all the twists and turns. I am going to think of using something similar on my own rayograms.
While looking through Youtube i came across the two videos shown below. The first one is a short 10 second animation made from paper, the finished animation looks very effective but i imagine it wasn't easy to do! It is something i am willing to try if it is fitting with my initial ideas. The second video is a chalkboard animation, for this particular animation it works very well, but i think if your drawing was to detailed, the excess chalk would end up making your animation looking very messy and unclear.
After researching into different type of animals i definitely think birds is most fitting to my chosen piece of music. One of the main things that i was attracted too while researching into Brazil was the birds. I think this could be a good place to start for my character generation. Here are some examples of tropical birds i could use within my animation.
Toucan
Parrot
Although this bird isn't from Brazil i really like the idea of using a peacock...
I then went on to think of examples of animation in which i have seen the use of birds.
For The Birds
Tweety Pie
Rio
I came across a new film Rio, which only came out this year. It used the 2 main birds i had in mind for my own animation. I plan to go see the film in hope it will help me with my own animation ideas!
I have thought over and over about possible characters or animals i could use for my animation. The idea of animals came to mind as i think it is a good basis to start, characterizing something that normally doesn't show much expression or obvious characteristics. Well not as obvious as humans do anyway... I definitely get a tropical, exotic feel while listening to my music. Here are some examples i found which i could use for my final animation.
As a guideline for are animation we were asked to come up with 3 descriptive words, in which we would base are animation around. I decided to come up with 3 different mood boards for my chosen words CELEBRATION, DANCING and HAPPINESS. I thought of a lot of words earlier on in the project, but i feel these 3 were the ones that were most fitting to my chosen music.
Celebration- When i think of celebration i think of balloons, parties, cakes, fireworks, alcohol, dancing, bright colours and happy faces.
Dancing- When i think of dancing i think of carnivals, festivals, parties, music, confidence, skill.
Happiness- When i think of happiness i think of achievement, celebration, joy, things going well, people, smiles, friendly faces.
After researching into different types of animation i then started to think about my own final piece. I first of all started by putting my chosen music onto my ipod, this way i could get a feel for the song whenever i wanted. I feel this was very helpful as it meant i could listen to the song in a range of different situations and environments, therefore coming up with a range of different ideas and outcomes.
Below are a few pages from my sketchbook, in which i created after listening to my chosen music in different environments, situations and moods.
After writing down my initial thoughts into my sketchbook, i now have to start my idea generation, in which i have to pick 3 words to base my 20-30 second animation around. While listening to the music i was reminded of being on holiday or somewhere in the sun. I think this piece of music most reminds me of Brazil or Africa and would quite like to use this as one of my main focus points for my animation.
Research on Brazil
I decided to get some background knowledge on Brazil as i found this was the best way to start my research process, doing this has helped me generate more ideas towards my final piece. I especially love all the bright colours used within Brazil and the factor of celebration.
Starting to get a feel for the project... I have never done animation before so i decided it was a good idea to get some research of different types of animation to help me with my own animation series.
Here are a range of different animated techniques i could use for my final piece.
Stop Motion
After looking through the internet & youtube for different stop motion videos, i came across this one by Christophe Collette. An award winning cinematographer, created entirely in stop motion. Although the video appears quite morbid throughout due to the settings and colours used, it is impossible not to watch the whole animation through. Amazing!
Hand Drawn
I came across this video on youtube while watching hand drawn animation videos by Donato Sansone, his videos are weird and a little bit twisted but follow a very similar theme. I cant find the artist behind this bit of work, but i assume they were inspired by Donato Sansone. I love the effect behind this, it gives a whole different feel to hand drawn animation and is definitely one i want to look into more.
Computer Animation
Of course when people think of computer animation they immediately think of Disney Pixar. I came across the original video of 'For the Birds', i remember this video from a few years back. I quite like the ideas of using birds in my final piece as i think you can use them in a range of different situations and with a range of personalities.
Thaumatrope
This is a very simple form of animation, it is basically a circular piece of card with a piece of string attached to both sides and a drawing on the front and back of the piece of card. The card is then twirled backward and forwards, creating an illusion, very simple! I may have a go of creating one of these myself as part of my research.
