I found the museum experience to be really enjoyable. Being able to get out of the classroom and being somewhere completely new and full of so much cool interesting items was a delight on the senses.
While we were all walking through the painting section and looking at all the old portraits I for some reason cared more about how extravagant some of the frames that were used for the Paintings. It felt as if the frame was just as much a part of the paintings as the actual work of art. Which is why when I took the photos I made sure to focus on the frames more than the paintings.
I really enjoyed looking at the old fossils and skulls, it really gives me the appreciation of how complex and detailed every single creature is as well as see all the details we would never have seen while they were alive. A bit morbid I know, but seeing each bone fit in place and being able to see how those animals would walk or move just from there bone structure is always something that intrigues me.
Dinosaurs for me are one of the most interesting things to know about. Almost mythical in nature it’s amazing that creatures like this actually exist. The mystery behind them as well is so intriguing, how did they die? What did they look like? Do they a have feathers? All questions that keep getting brought up due to how interesting and still unknown these creatures are.
I enjoyed this little exercise, since I haven’t worked with animating on paper in awhile it was nice to get back to basics and see how far I’ve come from last year.
Each had their own little problems that I had to overcome and figure out the best method of animating them.
The first animation having it move was really fun to see it come to life, but the struggle of the lighting continuously changing while I’m drawing made me get all the information down as fast as I could. Which was a fun exercise.
The second animation was of a still fossil so I had to use different drawing styles to show off the look of the fossil that couldn’t move. I found this one to be the hardest since I had to make the same image without moving the fossil while also keeping in mind each page had to look different.
The Third animation was merging to exabits together which was a real fun time seeing my first few pages morph into the other was a real fun exercise I never really did before and id love to do more with that.
What I want to pursue and what ideas do I have?
When it comes to what I felt more emotional towards while I was in the Museum, I would have to say it would have been the Dinosaur exhibits. Millions of years, evolution and research have gone into learning more about these almost Mythical creatures. Something like that really makes me want to pursue more about these dinosaurs.
As an animator my first line of thinking is to create an animation based on those dinosaurs. Using some of the dinosaurs that were seen in the museum, like the Draco Raptor or the T-Rex.
The ideas I had for animating these would be things like gaining toys from toy stores, my childhood toy’s or asking for my nephew’s toy dinosaurs and animate them living there day to day life.
Another idea would be for me to continue my interest in Stop motion. Grab some clay and create Dinosaurs and create an animation of them realistically moving, running and walking.
Research
I really love the character designs of these dinosaurs. They’re simple with their colour schemes and their designs are recognisable as well as the simple clean story telling makes this animation really stand out. Plus, for me the little added bits of comedy really help this little animation give off something you’d see on a Saturday morning children’s show.
Both animations to me are so charming and cute. The level of detail on how the dinosaurs move and act brings so enchanting wonders for me, seeing these cute tiny clay models of dinosaurs, even if they’re not necessarily realistic. Just the fact they look close enough to a dinosaur, with added noises to push that further, really makes me enjoy them even more.
While I took those ideas to our first meeting and I explained my ideas. This led on to people giving me ideas, since I focused quite a bit on how when I was a kid, I really liked dinosaurs. These ideas led onto me thinking on focusing more on the fact that kids tend to almost instinctually be interested in Dinosaurs. So, me focusing on both dinosaurs and how to be able to target kids and their interests.
My first idea was to create sock puppets of dinosaurs, this was fun to design and come up with different ideas, felt like I was creating my own Muppets. Coming up with if I wanted them to be furry or how to represent their eyes or teeth through things like Ping-Pong balls or cardboard.
I decided however against this since I don’t feel confidant enough to have properly produced these creations, since I’m not at all confidant enough to stitch or sew.
My Second idea was of how kids’ drawings were essentially there starting point at creativity and art. Plus the knowledge that they love dinosaurs was something I really wanted to explore. So, my idea was to create childish drawings as similar as possible to what kids would normally draw. I had a lot of fun messing around with shapes and colours but unintentionally I was creative while I was doing it.
My third idea was having cartoon dinosaur characters while I create a small animation of shorts. The idea for this was how kids love to watch cartoons so having a cartoon about dinosaurs would be something they would love to watch.
My Proposals
Proposal 1
Overview
Creating stick puppets and then creating a short film with a basic story about Dinosaurs.
Items Needed
- Paper – Could use book paper or Card.
- Sticks – Wilko
- Glue – Pritt stick or Tap
- Colouring Pencils
What Has To be made/Collected
- Pre Created Dinosaur designs
- Background
- Camera and Camera stand
Final
I create my own Dinosaurs that appear to look like childrens drawings. I then create a simple story using those puppets.
Proposal 2
Overview
Gather all the equipment needed to have kids create there own Dinosaurs and then take those designs to create puppets. We then film their results.
Items Needed
- Paper/Card
- Sticks – Wilko
- Glue/Pritt Stick/ Tape
- Pencils and Colouring Pencils
What has to be made/collected by me
- Background
- Camera and Camera Stand
Final
I give kids the equipment needed to create there own Dinosaurs and create there own puppets. I record them making their own storys in groups with their designs.
Proposal 3
Overview
I create a short animation using Dinosaur designs that kids would love to watch. Like a saturday morning cartoon shows.
Items possibly needed
- TV Paint
- Paper
- Coloured Pencils
- Clay
- Camera
- Lights
- Background
Final
I create A really simple animation of Dinosaurs but in the style of kids drawings.
This would look crude but have a childish, almost charming look to it.
What Proposal i have Chosen
I have decided to focus my efforts on Proposal 1. The reason for this is because I have already practiced creating characters while pretending, I was a child, drawing. I feel that this idea of making my own puppets both take my sock puppet idea and my child drawings idea and organically place them together. Since I’m unable to use the idea of proposal 2 to be able to get actual children to create the drawings for me, since I don’t have the resources or skills necessary to do this. Which is why I feel my First Proposal would be the best choice of action to continue with.
These were my final ideas for my dinosaurs.
I found it difficult to keep a balance of childlike drawings and keeping my own artistic skills supriessed to not make them feel unchildlike. But by the end of it i feel ive been able to have a good balance to show a childlike drawing style with just a hint of my own knowladge to at least keep the designs recogniseable as well as make them distinct from one another.
While i had finished the designs i still had to come up with what colours i would use. While designing the colours however i had to stick to how kids would normally go about colouring a picture. The answer to that is that they would both do it randomly as well as inconsistant. Maybe they’ll get bored colouring and leave massive gaps of uncoloured dinosaur, they’d go out the lines, something me and other artists have now been prone to avoid. They also would have little to no understanding on colours and just use whatever colour they want, even if those colours dont work together or are typically assosiated with that dinosaur.
While colouring i had a lot of fun, not caring about all the basic fundamentals ive learnt from designing and colouring characters. It was like i was going back to when i first started off my life drwing. It was a plesent expirience and i was suprised how much i got invested at just colouring randomly.
Unfortunatly however while i was colouring these i realised that colouring them on Photoshop with a crayon texture i realised it didnt feel real to me. It felt more manufactured and fake than if i had done it with actual Crayons.
This is why i went out and bought actual Crayons to fully make my colouring feel as real as possible while coming up with what my Dinosaurs would look like.
I feel that actually having the dinosaurs in crayon really shows off a more natural look for the designs for them. Each mistake, harsh colours and randomness put together i feel brings the whole piece together.
Final Thoughts
Throughout this project I feel like I was reliving a part of me I haven’t felt like for a while. The excitement of seeing all the different fossils and skeletons as well as having a newly appreciation for everything within the exhibits as an adult show both my growth as a person and how far my interests have changed and developed.
For my work I realised a great interest in the idea of having more interactivity within a museum space. The reason for this is how on the first week spending time in the museum I noticed a lot of kids running around the Dinosaur exhibits and trying to touch the fossils, even trying to clime over barriers to get to them before there teachers could stop them.
I liked the idea of gathering the items that kids could use to express there own creativity through creative and interactive methods.
When you’re young you tend to be told not to do that or this is the “proper” way to do something. Over time that becomes normal and you normally don’t go outside that line of “proper”.
Which is why while I was designing the dinosaurs and colouring them, I had to go back to the beginning of my creativity. Through going back to my artistic beginnings, I realised just how much creativity we tend to lose due to being brought up being taught how to do certain actions. From colour schemes and what goes better with what, to staying in the lines when drawing a character. In a way we try to improve and get better at drawing things perfectly that in fact, just ends up as us becoming less creative and more prone to sticking into our own line of thinking due to our upbringing and how we were taught at a young age. Which stops us expressing true creativity.
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