The Live Project has been a very frustrating and disappointing project in many aspects for me, but at the same time, it’s been equally satisfying and rewarding in others. I am disappointed in my lack of completed work to show at the close of this project; I feel I should have completed at least 2 of the 5 suggested animations put forward in my proposal form and original rationale. If I consider the first 4-6 weeks of the project, this overlapped with other work commitments and deadlines and therefore I didn’t kick off with a strong start and as a result projects died out and I became frustrated at how little drive I had for producing work that I had set myself.
This is when I stepped back and thought about whether I felt animation was my main practice or if I was just dragging out a phase of something that I had previously enjoyed doing. I set myself a single animation to complete within the last 3 weeks of the brief, and would use this experience to determine what I really wanted to do.
I started to push myself to learn more useful areas including becoming more confident in Photoshop and using a graphics tablet, learning the technicalities of animating in stop motion, including how to use a camera on Manual mode; setting aperture, shutter speed and white balance relative to the lighting set up in my makeshift studio spaces. These processes made me come to realise, perhaps I’m not actually ready for the 5 animations I originally put myself down for, and I would be best completely mastering the very basics, rather than taking leaps and keep falling ten steps back.
Other elements throughout the project including the Artivism community project, the Community Projects Workshop run by Nick and the animation workshop day at Cockburn College of Arts, all started to open my eyes to how I can use my work and interest in animation in other ways. I’ve always been a keen learner and love becoming completely involved in something that I’m excited about, these opportunities have made me consider how teaching or sharing my interests with others can pass this on and I can still learn in the process too. I found it so rewarding spending the day at Cockburn and being involved in motivating and working with children and sharing with them something that I enjoy.
As well as gaining from the experience at Artivism and Cockburn, I have also started to bridge some connections, which have already proved positive. I have an invitation to spend more time back at Cockburn running further animation workshops, which are in the process of being organised before the summer holidays. Other networking opportunities and contacts have been positive in respect of my work and some have offered to give advice and ideas on future work I take on as well.
I have experienced briefs failing throughout this project, but I’m slowly learning not to be put off when things go wrong. I am much more aware of networking and work experience opportunities and becoming more confident in taking them on. I have researched plenty of upcoming animation briefs, festivals and competitions and will keep them in mind over the Summer, as well as my plans for my hand made crafts. Looking over this project as a whole, it has become much of a learning curve for me and I feel will act as a spring board for a strong, focused start to the third year.
Showing posts with label Live Brief. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Live Brief. Show all posts
Wednesday, 26 May 2010
Tuesday, 25 May 2010
Return to Cockburn
Just had a call from Kelly earlier inviting me back to the school before the Summer holidays kick in. Also might be able to get a bit of money from their left over budget, which will be my first official paid work in a creative position! So excited!
Kelly said it'll involved a few shorter sessions with just students from Cockburn, but still based around animation workshops. Perhaps a session spent making something, then shooting, then editing. The college only has Final Cut on one computer, but there's a Mac Suite with iMovie available, it's not ideal, but it'll be good to introduce the basic idea of editing and it's a really easy program to use. The age range will vary as well, but details are yet to be confirmed. Woo, looking forward to this so much! :)
Kelly said it'll involved a few shorter sessions with just students from Cockburn, but still based around animation workshops. Perhaps a session spent making something, then shooting, then editing. The college only has Final Cut on one computer, but there's a Mac Suite with iMovie available, it's not ideal, but it'll be good to introduce the basic idea of editing and it's a really easy program to use. The age range will vary as well, but details are yet to be confirmed. Woo, looking forward to this so much! :)
Clouds....
I tried out the second clouds storyboard, no moving cameras, just straight on shot. My attampt with dodgy lighting defnitely shows - even with my blind down, my bedroom light on, and my makeshift lamp, the lights still go a bit here and there..
The movement works quite well, I played around with the speed of the clouds and it's tricky trying to get it right. I think as the clouds are the only subject in front of the camera it's difficult to compare it to something? Maybe I should have tried more of a set or some other visuals within the shot.. Would have to think about the scale of things as well then ..
Also tried out my rain clouds, really pleased with these, the lighting isn't too much of an issue, kind of adds a thunderstorm feel - adding some sounds to this could maybe work?! I'm pretty happy with the effect of the beads falling down as well, again might need to tweak on the speed of things, but I love the fact it's just a really simple concept yet effective and exactly what I wanted.
The movement works quite well, I played around with the speed of the clouds and it's tricky trying to get it right. I think as the clouds are the only subject in front of the camera it's difficult to compare it to something? Maybe I should have tried more of a set or some other visuals within the shot.. Would have to think about the scale of things as well then ..
Also tried out my rain clouds, really pleased with these, the lighting isn't too much of an issue, kind of adds a thunderstorm feel - adding some sounds to this could maybe work?! I'm pretty happy with the effect of the beads falling down as well, again might need to tweak on the speed of things, but I love the fact it's just a really simple concept yet effective and exactly what I wanted.
Monday, 24 May 2010
Animating Set... (minus the fancy lights)
My makeshift set at home on my set of draws.
(Desk lamp and tripod firmly stuck down with half a masking tape roll..)
(Desk lamp and tripod firmly stuck down with half a masking tape roll..)
Technical Stuff
Unfortunately the bulb in my lamp is a softer 'pearl' rather than bright white, so I've been tweaking with the white balance to try get a not-so-orange/yellow photo.
Auto:
Fluorescent:
I do like the softness of the Auto setting, it's a little warmer than the Incandescent setting, which looks a tad flat and cold... But I think the whole image looks better with a cooler, fresher feel... It shows the blue beads in a much better light as well.
I'm satisfied that I'm understanding the process of setting everything up a lot better the more I'm putting it into practice. This requires much more understanding about photography than I anticipated, so it's a really good lesson all round, and I can apply what I've learnt to general photography, not just shooting animations. This is respective of the aperture and shutter speed settings once I have my light adjusted to how I want it, I've been tweaking the other settings to get everything at a sound level.
Next thing to conquer when I can, is the positioning of the lighting, as you can see from photos I've gone for a makeshift studio in my bedroom, using a desk lamp and some masking tape to hold things in place. Now I feel more confident setting things to create the best, or most appropriate atmosphere, with the quality of the photograph being produced, when it comes to positioning the lights I should be able to adjust my camera as necessary straight away.
Sunday, 23 May 2010
Sunny Shine :)
If I'm completely honest, the glorious sunshine of the last 2 days completely distracted me from my animation plans ... I fully embraced the 'you only live once and the sun doesn't come out very often so go enjoy it while you can' attitude to life.
This meant an amazing couple of days spend in Roundhay Park, exploring and loving the sunshine....
This also meant I lost 2 days worth of shooting some animations. In all honesty, there must be some health and saftey issues being locked in a small bedroom in 23/24 degree heat with 2 of those readhead lamps burning your face off...
So I've taken the redheads back to college, held onto the tripod, and as I got myself organised on all the paperwork bits over the weekend, I have a couple of days left to play around with different aspects of the animating techniques.
I think I keep taking too much on, I'm running before I can walk and I end up falling back ten leaps to the start because I haven't quite mastered the basics.
Therefore, I've decided to work with the lighting I have, but this time really focus on timing and movement of my animations. I want to make it slick and smooth, so I've got a really basic planed out storyboard, with specifics on times and amount of photos to be taken.
Even though I'm annoyed with myself for not completing an animation, my drive to want to make it perfect is making me realise I need to master a few techniques and understand a few things before I can crack on with the next phase.
This meant an amazing couple of days spend in Roundhay Park, exploring and loving the sunshine....
This also meant I lost 2 days worth of shooting some animations. In all honesty, there must be some health and saftey issues being locked in a small bedroom in 23/24 degree heat with 2 of those readhead lamps burning your face off...
So I've taken the redheads back to college, held onto the tripod, and as I got myself organised on all the paperwork bits over the weekend, I have a couple of days left to play around with different aspects of the animating techniques.
I think I keep taking too much on, I'm running before I can walk and I end up falling back ten leaps to the start because I haven't quite mastered the basics.
Therefore, I've decided to work with the lighting I have, but this time really focus on timing and movement of my animations. I want to make it slick and smooth, so I've got a really basic planed out storyboard, with specifics on times and amount of photos to be taken.
Even though I'm annoyed with myself for not completing an animation, my drive to want to make it perfect is making me realise I need to master a few techniques and understand a few things before I can crack on with the next phase.
Card Designs
I want to prepare myself for Summer...
I have plans to make cards/hand made gifts and pretty things to sell- I know of more shops back home than up North, but I'm also looking at locations around Leeds and Yorkshire... Hepton Bridge, which is just outside of Leeds is a prime example. Discovered this after Steph mentioned she visited one of the galleries and thought of me when she saw some of the work for sale there.
I want to go over next week, and will pop into the Heart Gallery and ask if they would be interested in selling any of my work, or if they know anywhere that might sell it. They seem like a good place to start, as they describe themselves as, 'a unique contemporary jewellery and craft gallery featuring an eclectic mix of ever-changing work by around ninety emerging and established designers and makers, with quality and originality guaranteed.'
There's some really lovely stuff on their blog as well, take a look! http://heartgalleryblog.wordpress.com/
Friend from back home, works at Narborough Hall, possibly mentioned it on here last year when doing my Major Project. I wasn't confident enough to go in and ask about my work to be sold there, but definitely feeling it now. There's some absolutely adorable, cute and incredible hand made things to be found here, full of wedding, new home, new baby and general gifts and nifty things in here.
I want to start building up something I could work on and run as a part time thing in the back ground, something that I can be proud that I'm designing, making and can call my own. The more I think about it, the more excited I get, so I really want to get cracking on it and sell sell sell! It would be really useful if I can access the print rooms at college or Vernon Street, then I could pop back up to Leeds for a few days and bang out some printed things,
A couple of ideas sketched out so far.....
But first off, need to wrap up this project though and get my animations underway.
I have plans to make cards/hand made gifts and pretty things to sell- I know of more shops back home than up North, but I'm also looking at locations around Leeds and Yorkshire... Hepton Bridge, which is just outside of Leeds is a prime example. Discovered this after Steph mentioned she visited one of the galleries and thought of me when she saw some of the work for sale there.
I want to go over next week, and will pop into the Heart Gallery and ask if they would be interested in selling any of my work, or if they know anywhere that might sell it. They seem like a good place to start, as they describe themselves as, 'a unique contemporary jewellery and craft gallery featuring an eclectic mix of ever-changing work by around ninety emerging and established designers and makers, with quality and originality guaranteed.'
There's some really lovely stuff on their blog as well, take a look! http://heartgalleryblog.wordpress.com/
Friend from back home, works at Narborough Hall, possibly mentioned it on here last year when doing my Major Project. I wasn't confident enough to go in and ask about my work to be sold there, but definitely feeling it now. There's some absolutely adorable, cute and incredible hand made things to be found here, full of wedding, new home, new baby and general gifts and nifty things in here.
I want to start building up something I could work on and run as a part time thing in the back ground, something that I can be proud that I'm designing, making and can call my own. The more I think about it, the more excited I get, so I really want to get cracking on it and sell sell sell! It would be really useful if I can access the print rooms at college or Vernon Street, then I could pop back up to Leeds for a few days and bang out some printed things,
A couple of ideas sketched out so far.....
But first off, need to wrap up this project though and get my animations underway.
Friday, 21 May 2010
Cockburn College of Arts
The plan of the day - brief children about the poem and the story behind 'Flannan Isle', encourage them to think of and then make an animation, showing their idea of the real events to the mystery.
Children were then given time to come up with some ideas, sketch out storyboards then start making sets and characters. Also started to talk with them and bring in ideas of how to use the camera - come up with close ups/long shots to emphasise the way the story can be told.
To begin with, I found it quite difficult to know how to encourage ideas or get people motivated, although considering circumstances, there were only a couple of children from each school, so not knowing anyone could make them a little more shy and nervous, so sometimes they didn't seem so involved.. As the day went on though it definitely became less awkward, with some really good ideas being generated, some great characters and sets being made, and behind the whole theme of the day, it was really evident that some of these kids are truly gifted and talented! Some of the drawings, and the care being taken to build and make things really demonstrated that these children have a talent, and the whole day felt like such a rewarding opportunity to let them shine at what they do best.
When it came to editing in the afternoon we encountered a few problems with software & downloading images, but of the couple of pairs that started to work on their animations, it was really great to see things starting to come together. Unfortunately the day was cut short due to the other schools having to leave, but we just about summed it all up and gave a brief idea of how the finished animations would be.
There was a final quick presentation with the other groups that were taking part in the day, (drama, dance and music), giving a taster of what they'd been up to in their workshops. Again, it was really great seeing children doing something they evidently enjoy and working hard at something, creating such a rewarding feeling.
After the presentation I had few words with Bill and Kelly; Bill said if any workshops come up and if I'd like to help out I could do in the future, and he'd keep in touch. Also I forwarded him my blog,vimeo and youtube addresses so he can check out the kind of work I've been doing myself. I had an email back from him today saying that he loved the diversity of my work and had some really great things going on. It's really great to hear such positive feedback from a professional, particularly someone who's working in a field that I've set my sights on!
Kelly also suggested if I'd be interested in coming back I could come help out in some of the classes running a similar form of animation workshop but over a few sessions rather than a full day, so she said she'd be in touch.
Overall, I had such a great day, I've learnt a lot with regards to watching how Bill and Kelly addressed and managed the class, how to communicate with younger people and trying to encourage ideas and ways of working without telling them what to do. The day has left me wanting to get involved even more and work with young people again and I've come away with even more opportunities and more doors open, so it's been a real success!
Children were then given time to come up with some ideas, sketch out storyboards then start making sets and characters. Also started to talk with them and bring in ideas of how to use the camera - come up with close ups/long shots to emphasise the way the story can be told.
To begin with, I found it quite difficult to know how to encourage ideas or get people motivated, although considering circumstances, there were only a couple of children from each school, so not knowing anyone could make them a little more shy and nervous, so sometimes they didn't seem so involved.. As the day went on though it definitely became less awkward, with some really good ideas being generated, some great characters and sets being made, and behind the whole theme of the day, it was really evident that some of these kids are truly gifted and talented! Some of the drawings, and the care being taken to build and make things really demonstrated that these children have a talent, and the whole day felt like such a rewarding opportunity to let them shine at what they do best.
When it came to editing in the afternoon we encountered a few problems with software & downloading images, but of the couple of pairs that started to work on their animations, it was really great to see things starting to come together. Unfortunately the day was cut short due to the other schools having to leave, but we just about summed it all up and gave a brief idea of how the finished animations would be.
There was a final quick presentation with the other groups that were taking part in the day, (drama, dance and music), giving a taster of what they'd been up to in their workshops. Again, it was really great seeing children doing something they evidently enjoy and working hard at something, creating such a rewarding feeling.
After the presentation I had few words with Bill and Kelly; Bill said if any workshops come up and if I'd like to help out I could do in the future, and he'd keep in touch. Also I forwarded him my blog,vimeo and youtube addresses so he can check out the kind of work I've been doing myself. I had an email back from him today saying that he loved the diversity of my work and had some really great things going on. It's really great to hear such positive feedback from a professional, particularly someone who's working in a field that I've set my sights on!
Kelly also suggested if I'd be interested in coming back I could come help out in some of the classes running a similar form of animation workshop but over a few sessions rather than a full day, so she said she'd be in touch.
Overall, I had such a great day, I've learnt a lot with regards to watching how Bill and Kelly addressed and managed the class, how to communicate with younger people and trying to encourage ideas and ways of working without telling them what to do. The day has left me wanting to get involved even more and work with young people again and I've come away with even more opportunities and more doors open, so it's been a real success!
Refreshed Storyboards
Some new thoughts on where I can take this plus a few storyboards - been much more loose with the storyboards and more detailed on timings/shots to take. (This proves more helpful than pretty pictures!)
Wednesday, 19 May 2010
Contacts! Yay!
Just had a phonecall from my family friend from home about working on workshops over the Summer. Coincidentally she's meeting with the county's head of creative workshops to discuss the program for the summer. She's asked me to forward a CV or a quick letter to say what I can do and what I'm interested in - as she can promote my personality, hard working skills and enthusiasm, (her kind words not mine!), and I can give an overview of my qualifications.
YAY things starting to click together :) I'm looking forward to building up my CV and feeling more confident in myself and as a practitioner.
Also, I've been contacted by Bill Beaumont, the animator running tomorrow's workshop. He was really friendly and just wanted a chat to find out what I've done in the past or any animation/workshops I've had experience of. He's given me a quick overview of what his plans are for tomorrows workshop, sounds really great! The music workshop going on are looking at the Wilfrid Wilson Gibson poem, Flannan Isle. Bill's suggested looking at the tale of the 3 lighthouse keepers that went missing, and get the children to think about coming out with stories of what could have happened to the 3 missing men, and then spend the day making sets/characters, filming and editing the pieces... A lot to do in a 5 hour day, but it should be a good fun-filled day! I'm really looking forward to it! :)
YAY things starting to click together :) I'm looking forward to building up my CV and feeling more confident in myself and as a practitioner.
Also, I've been contacted by Bill Beaumont, the animator running tomorrow's workshop. He was really friendly and just wanted a chat to find out what I've done in the past or any animation/workshops I've had experience of. He's given me a quick overview of what his plans are for tomorrows workshop, sounds really great! The music workshop going on are looking at the Wilfrid Wilson Gibson poem, Flannan Isle. Bill's suggested looking at the tale of the 3 lighthouse keepers that went missing, and get the children to think about coming out with stories of what could have happened to the 3 missing men, and then spend the day making sets/characters, filming and editing the pieces... A lot to do in a 5 hour day, but it should be a good fun-filled day! I'm really looking forward to it! :)
Eye Catchers
Just watched these via the Best of animation/stop motion/puppets channel Im subscribed to on Vimeo.
It's got so many little gems in there! A few techniques of animation I'd like to have a go at, at some point. I like the methods using live film and technical effects rather than pure stop motion - also the extensive hand-made craft stuff and paper making going on makes my eyes light up a bit as well!
Wax Tailor feat. Charlie Winston " I Own You" from SoLab on Vimeo.
And the making of...
Making of - Wax Tailor feat. Charlie Winston "I own you" from SoLab on Vimeo.
This is simple, easy on the eyes and just makes you smile.. perfect.
Leo's Song from impactist on Vimeo.
And this is probably just my ideal animation - although I'd probably get carried away with eating half the set ...
Jesse & Joy- "Chocolate" from Carlos Lopez Estrada on Vimeo.
It's got so many little gems in there! A few techniques of animation I'd like to have a go at, at some point. I like the methods using live film and technical effects rather than pure stop motion - also the extensive hand-made craft stuff and paper making going on makes my eyes light up a bit as well!
Wax Tailor feat. Charlie Winston " I Own You" from SoLab on Vimeo.
And the making of...
Making of - Wax Tailor feat. Charlie Winston "I own you" from SoLab on Vimeo.
This is simple, easy on the eyes and just makes you smile.. perfect.
Leo's Song from impactist on Vimeo.
And this is probably just my ideal animation - although I'd probably get carried away with eating half the set ...
Jesse & Joy- "Chocolate" from Carlos Lopez Estrada on Vimeo.
Tuesday, 18 May 2010
The Revised Plan...
I completely wish this all came to my head a few weeks ago, I feel like I'm going to end up rushing this all to get something finished - rather than being able to steadily develop my ideas and let this grow into something really worthwhile...
Even so, with the time left, I'm spending a day or two sketching out ideas, making bits and pieces and buying a few craft pieces like wire and ribbon, to see if what I want to do will work. I have ideas of ribbon/buttons/patchworks spelling out 'lovely', felt grey clouds raining pretty blue beads onto my handmade flowers that open and grow, cupcakes and tea pots in stop motion sewn illustrations (if I can get them precise enough)..?
One of my housemates is away for the weekend, so she's kindly offered me her desk in her bedroom to set up and work on my animation there, so so long as the photography department will let me hang onto the equipment til the end of the weekend, then this could work. And this means as I'm at home, it's more time to stay up late... do a couple of all-nighters and see if I can pull this off?!
If not, then at least I've tried!
I'm out all of Thursday for the workshop at the school in Beeston, and it's my friends birthday so we're out on Thursday evening.. this gives minimal time to piece everything together, but I'm gonna keep my cool and see what I can do.
Even so, with the time left, I'm spending a day or two sketching out ideas, making bits and pieces and buying a few craft pieces like wire and ribbon, to see if what I want to do will work. I have ideas of ribbon/buttons/patchworks spelling out 'lovely', felt grey clouds raining pretty blue beads onto my handmade flowers that open and grow, cupcakes and tea pots in stop motion sewn illustrations (if I can get them precise enough)..?
One of my housemates is away for the weekend, so she's kindly offered me her desk in her bedroom to set up and work on my animation there, so so long as the photography department will let me hang onto the equipment til the end of the weekend, then this could work. And this means as I'm at home, it's more time to stay up late... do a couple of all-nighters and see if I can pull this off?!
If not, then at least I've tried!
I'm out all of Thursday for the workshop at the school in Beeston, and it's my friends birthday so we're out on Thursday evening.. this gives minimal time to piece everything together, but I'm gonna keep my cool and see what I can do.
Monday, 17 May 2010
Some advice and help! :)
After feeling really frustrated that I don't know who to ask for help on the technical stuff, I was going over some old animtions and came across the stop motion piece by Eleanor Stewart, graduate of Glasgow School of Art, Visual Communications.
Hoedown from Rodeo from Eleanor Stewart on Vimeo.
As a fellow VisCom'er I thought she might be a good person to ask if she's had support or not with animating, and if so what's the best thing to do when doing a stop-motion... any advice on planning/lighting/frames per second & timing of things etc....
She emailed back pretty much straight away and gave me loads of info, so so grateful!! Thank you Eleanor!!!
* Aardman Animations book by Peter Lord, called Cracking Animations ... Great for basic info on timing, lighting and movements
* Make sure all equipment is firmly secured - tables/camera/tripods/lights.. use tape,blue tack, anything!
* Storyboard everything down to the last frame - plan it out at 12 fps, it's time consuming, but makes the filming much easier and much more slick
* If you're using music, recommended to find the music first so that you can break the music down and animate to it - change in tempo/key changes/sound effects etc.
* Ask photography department for advice on backdrop/lighting/settings
* Good method of lighting is one light pointing at subject, and another bouncing off white card or wall
Hoedown from Rodeo from Eleanor Stewart on Vimeo.
As a fellow VisCom'er I thought she might be a good person to ask if she's had support or not with animating, and if so what's the best thing to do when doing a stop-motion... any advice on planning/lighting/frames per second & timing of things etc....
She emailed back pretty much straight away and gave me loads of info, so so grateful!! Thank you Eleanor!!!
* Aardman Animations book by Peter Lord, called Cracking Animations ... Great for basic info on timing, lighting and movements
* Make sure all equipment is firmly secured - tables/camera/tripods/lights.. use tape,blue tack, anything!
* Storyboard everything down to the last frame - plan it out at 12 fps, it's time consuming, but makes the filming much easier and much more slick
* If you're using music, recommended to find the music first so that you can break the music down and animate to it - change in tempo/key changes/sound effects etc.
* Ask photography department for advice on backdrop/lighting/settings
* Good method of lighting is one light pointing at subject, and another bouncing off white card or wall
The Standard Belated Epiphany
Scribbled these notes down at 2am this morning when I decided a few important things ....
So, I've taken down all the equipment from the seminar room and moved it home... I'm now rustling up some pretty textile bits and pieces and I'll get something on the go over the next day or so. I'm feeling terrified that I've left this so late - but sometimes that's just the way it rolls.. this feels like a much more positive thing though.. so here we go?!
So, I've taken down all the equipment from the seminar room and moved it home... I'm now rustling up some pretty textile bits and pieces and I'll get something on the go over the next day or so. I'm feeling terrified that I've left this so late - but sometimes that's just the way it rolls.. this feels like a much more positive thing though.. so here we go?!
Sunday, 16 May 2010
Eye Catchers
Some more from UnitedFakes (Makers of the Tim Burton piece below)
Such a simple concept, yet done absolutely brilliantly! Love this..
JOYEUX NOËL from UnitedFakes on Vimeo.
Adorable... Makes me want to play with paper again..(no more tape please)
Handcraft Love Land from UnitedFakes on Vimeo.
Another from Animade TV's blog..
Actually struggling to work out how this is done, it's beautiful.
Toshiba: Timesculpture from Alex Kehr on Vimeo.
And finally, I love Johnny Cupcakes when he came to the college to give a talk last Summer, and I love the high speed videos - this is just a great combination that made me smile, (probs more to do with the cakes being thrown about more than anything)
Cupcake Canon from Designer_Drugs on Vimeo.
Such a simple concept, yet done absolutely brilliantly! Love this..
JOYEUX NOËL from UnitedFakes on Vimeo.
Adorable... Makes me want to play with paper again..(no more tape please)
Handcraft Love Land from UnitedFakes on Vimeo.
Another from Animade TV's blog..
Actually struggling to work out how this is done, it's beautiful.
Toshiba: Timesculpture from Alex Kehr on Vimeo.
And finally, I love Johnny Cupcakes when he came to the college to give a talk last Summer, and I love the high speed videos - this is just a great combination that made me smile, (probs more to do with the cakes being thrown about more than anything)
Cupcake Canon from Designer_Drugs on Vimeo.
Another Crazy Idea
Whilst everything's going so swimmingly, I thought I'd check out what else I could throw myself at for future projects...
Definitely want to try find some project for doing something along the lines of this - possibly a slightly smaller scale though if I'm going it alone.
Mr.Burton's Rabbit hole from UnitedFakes on Vimeo.
And the making of... I love the fact the whole structure is made from some long cardboard tubes a few blocks of wood and some tapes of metal.. definitely manageable...
Making of "Tim Burton's Rabbit hole" from UnitedFakes on Vimeo.
Definitely want to try find some project for doing something along the lines of this - possibly a slightly smaller scale though if I'm going it alone.
Mr.Burton's Rabbit hole from UnitedFakes on Vimeo.
And the making of... I love the fact the whole structure is made from some long cardboard tubes a few blocks of wood and some tapes of metal.. definitely manageable...
Making of "Tim Burton's Rabbit hole" from UnitedFakes on Vimeo.
Sound?
Just been browsing back over Twitter as I've not checked it out for a while. I always make a point of looking at the Animade Tv blog via Twitter as they're always full of some great animations with varying styles and techniques - great for opening my mind up to new ideas...
Came across this animation posted a few weeks ago, not mad on the animation itself if I'm honest, but the music really stood out for me, it's really pretty and lovely - which made me think of what music to put along to my piece... (in particular the first 20 seconds or so of music)
Small Wonderland from Graham Cross on Vimeo.
Something with this simple little 'clinky' style of tune would be fairly straightforward enough for me to sit in the AV room for an afternoon and come up with something to go with my piece. As I've got a basic knowledge for Logic now, after doing the sounds for the VisCom exhibition idents, I think I'll give it a bash
Came across this animation posted a few weeks ago, not mad on the animation itself if I'm honest, but the music really stood out for me, it's really pretty and lovely - which made me think of what music to put along to my piece... (in particular the first 20 seconds or so of music)
Small Wonderland from Graham Cross on Vimeo.
Something with this simple little 'clinky' style of tune would be fairly straightforward enough for me to sit in the AV room for an afternoon and come up with something to go with my piece. As I've got a basic knowledge for Logic now, after doing the sounds for the VisCom exhibition idents, I think I'll give it a bash
Saturday, 15 May 2010
More Competition Briefs & update on contacts..
A couple more competition briefs/festivals I've come across that I'll hopefully enter in the finished animation to...
Encounters International Film Festival, based in Bristol, deadline 30th June
http://www.encounters-festival.org.uk/
Watershed's super-short filmmaking cometition, (part of Encounters International Film Festival), deadline 6th September
http://www.depict.org/
Aniboom and Saatchi & Saatchi Competition, deadline 24th June
http://www.aniboom.com/Competition/Saatchi/?&utm_source=saatchistage1&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=txt2#sort:Shuffled;page:0;filter:|
Also, I've emailed Frilly & my friend back home who's involved in youth & community work groups ... hopefully hear back from them both soon and I'll update on any progress.
Encounters International Film Festival, based in Bristol, deadline 30th June
http://www.encounters-festival.org.uk/
Watershed's super-short filmmaking cometition, (part of Encounters International Film Festival), deadline 6th September
http://www.depict.org/
Aniboom and Saatchi & Saatchi Competition, deadline 24th June
http://www.aniboom.com/Competition/Saatchi/?&utm_source=saatchistage1&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=txt2#sort:Shuffled;page:0;filter:|
Also, I've emailed Frilly & my friend back home who's involved in youth & community work groups ... hopefully hear back from them both soon and I'll update on any progress.
Fighting a Losing Battle?
After spending a good 2 and a half hours catching up with everything lost on my camera before, I managed to get up to date and do a little bit more - but still in reality I've lost out on a full day of working on this for the mess that's happened today. Just losing confidence on everything about this now, still, I'm fighting on and seeing if I can manage to scrape something together.
I've been home for an hour now and trying out how things look so far with the photos I've got (now saved on my mac) and I'm not sure how it's all going to come together - I'm going to have to save some of the photos in sections as some parts I've captured need slowing down more than others, meaning I should be able to tweak it and hopefully get a good consistency throughout.
Here's a sample of how things are looking so far, this is just one photo after another played back with a time stretch on AfterEffects of 400%, a lot of it's still really fast, but you get the idea.
There's so many bits wrong with it - like where the camera jolts about when I tried to smoothly tilt it up, (around 9 seconds in), I think the text flows on too fast - but I can't do anything about that as I haven't taken enough photos on it.
I think I'm finding it most difficult because there's only me in the room running between the wall and tape and back around the lights to the camera to take the shot, and back to move the tape at the wall, and back to the camera (so far 200+ photos taken, so that gives an idea of time spent on this so far..) I enjoy it when it's looking promising and working, I love the whole process of this coming along and working out - but when you sit down at your laptop hours and hours later and play it all back and you feel like it looks like a pile of crap, it's a bit of a kick in the teeth.
I wish I had more support technically on how to go about doing all this - I can find tutorials on youtube for the software aspects, I can ask tutors and other students on the ideas or concepts behind everything - but I feel like I'm lacking support on how to actually animate in the first place. Like roughly how many shots should I do per second to make action flow nicely - especially when I want to introduce a change in zoom or camera angles to successfully show the movement of the camera?
It's little bits and pieces I come across when I'm working away on the animation, I feel like I'm just finding everything out the hard and really really long winded way, and not really doing myself any favours.
Well, now I've got that off my chest.. I'm emailing my CV over to NFTS asap to hopefully get to assist on some of their students' upcoming animation projects. This might help me actually seeing something happen on a first hand level - and seeing someone working on a live project who's on an actual animation course might help me out a lot more. I'm thinking of checking out other animation courses so that I can send my CV off to them too and get a wider experience of animation styles and techniques.
I've been home for an hour now and trying out how things look so far with the photos I've got (now saved on my mac) and I'm not sure how it's all going to come together - I'm going to have to save some of the photos in sections as some parts I've captured need slowing down more than others, meaning I should be able to tweak it and hopefully get a good consistency throughout.
Here's a sample of how things are looking so far, this is just one photo after another played back with a time stretch on AfterEffects of 400%, a lot of it's still really fast, but you get the idea.
There's so many bits wrong with it - like where the camera jolts about when I tried to smoothly tilt it up, (around 9 seconds in), I think the text flows on too fast - but I can't do anything about that as I haven't taken enough photos on it.
I think I'm finding it most difficult because there's only me in the room running between the wall and tape and back around the lights to the camera to take the shot, and back to move the tape at the wall, and back to the camera (so far 200+ photos taken, so that gives an idea of time spent on this so far..) I enjoy it when it's looking promising and working, I love the whole process of this coming along and working out - but when you sit down at your laptop hours and hours later and play it all back and you feel like it looks like a pile of crap, it's a bit of a kick in the teeth.
I wish I had more support technically on how to go about doing all this - I can find tutorials on youtube for the software aspects, I can ask tutors and other students on the ideas or concepts behind everything - but I feel like I'm lacking support on how to actually animate in the first place. Like roughly how many shots should I do per second to make action flow nicely - especially when I want to introduce a change in zoom or camera angles to successfully show the movement of the camera?
It's little bits and pieces I come across when I'm working away on the animation, I feel like I'm just finding everything out the hard and really really long winded way, and not really doing myself any favours.
Well, now I've got that off my chest.. I'm emailing my CV over to NFTS asap to hopefully get to assist on some of their students' upcoming animation projects. This might help me actually seeing something happen on a first hand level - and seeing someone working on a live project who's on an actual animation course might help me out a lot more. I'm thinking of checking out other animation courses so that I can send my CV off to them too and get a wider experience of animation styles and techniques.
Day 2 ... Getting nowhere.
So after all the troubles yesterday, I managed to get going last night and got a good chunk of animation done. Was pretty happy with the progress - moving the tapes around and started spelling out my word on the wall... got to ten to 8 so had to pack up and get out of college but back in college again early this morning.
When I was checking back the shots, I noticed I'd moved a notepad that was on a chair in the background of the frame, so i've just been doing a few test shots to get everything into place again. But then the memory card decides to be a little tempermental and go and delete everything apart from 3 random photos.
Yep. lost everything.... now wishing I'd backed it up last night.
What can I say, another lesson learnt? again.....
So, here we go again, take 5 is this now??
When I was checking back the shots, I noticed I'd moved a notepad that was on a chair in the background of the frame, so i've just been doing a few test shots to get everything into place again. But then the memory card decides to be a little tempermental and go and delete everything apart from 3 random photos.
Yep. lost everything.... now wishing I'd backed it up last night.
What can I say, another lesson learnt? again.....
So, here we go again, take 5 is this now??
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