With my Ideas I just wrote down whatever I found looked visually interesting and stood out. I decided to not create a storyboard for my work this time because since I would be creating a music piece with the music being my storyboard I wanted to focus on what visuals I could achieve with the audio to get a much more authentic, in the moment, creative animation.
What Song have i chosen?
I’ve decided to use the song LEX by the band Ratatat. The reason for this would be that compared to “For River” and “Monody” which are slow and have a big build up. Ratatat Jumps right into the song and keeps a steady beat and melody the other two just dont have. And as much as i like both songs they’re both very repettative.
More song animations ive looked at
The use of colours and mood of these animations i feel give off a very errie vibes within it. Especially the first shot, with the centure being the only sense of colour while the background is just plain darkness. I like this visual alot and may keep this thoughout my animation and keeping with that Errie vibe.
While the other animations ive looked into were good i feel this is more the sense i wanted, having each part of my animation hit in time with my music to give it that extra punch is what i want from my work. and this animation does it pretty much perfectly.
What will i be animating?
Due to LEX having a very robotic sounding beat to it. I decided to focus on that factor with my animation. Due to how ive focused on my drawing skills when it came to past animations, this time i will be working in stop-motion. Stop-Motion has an almost offputting style while moving which works perfectly with the robotic sounds.
To show off the sense of Roboticness within my animation i have decided to use items such as Nails, screws, nuts and bolts as well as prioritizing Tin Foil for being able to create whatever shape and size i want, while still sticking to the robotic type of theme im after.
This video i created in TV paint was made so i was able to work out the timing for my music video. I then took the timings and put them into a timing sheet and added to Dragonframe notes so i was able to know when and how long my shots would take to do.
FINAL
Final Thoughts (500 words)
I feel that this Project has helped me understand timing better. Being able to properly see what time the objects should take to properly feel like the music is the animation was a challenge but a challenge I feel I succeeded in completing. I think due to having the music involved with my timing I was more comfortable in figuring out where to move and how long I had with it compared to my other projects where I found I was ether to fast or not fast enough to make the movement believable.
Some of the challenges I came across was just how much a lack of storyboard opens up your creativity while thinking about what should go with each set of notes and sounds. If I had decided to storyboard this I feel it would have lost the spur of the moment randomness and creativity I wanted to create within my work and for me to fully commit to improving my creativeness.
While working with Tinfoil I was given the advice to add colour within my work, this was done through coloured sheets placed over the lights I was using which managed to bounce off the tinfoil and other metal object I was using to give off a really lovely shine affect within my work. My favourite combination of lights to use would have been a blue and Green combo, this gave the look more of a space or a shooting star vibe.
As much as I enjoyed having the chance to be more experimental I do feel that some parts of my animation could be changed to improve the overall flow of the movement.
At 1:04 a representation of what I could hear of strings from a guitar being played, managed to play till 1:18 which is 14 seconds long which I feel is way too long of the exact same animations being played.
I feel this would have been improved if I had shortened it and used other examples of the strings. Maybe have the strings move or morph into another object and mess around with them or just giving more life to the strings compared to what I did.
If I were to go back and improve my work in any way I feel I would have liked to experiment more with colour, this would have been done by changing the background colours to also show off colour and not just what lights I used on the Tinfoil and metal. Sheets of paper like whites, blues, oranges, Reds I think would have been a very visually pleasing thing to witness.
Another Idea I had was to use TVpaint to add some special effects to my already existing animation. Having blue particles sparkle off an exploding ball of tinfoil, adding white lines to show a rippling effect on the strings. Or even just the TVpaint could be used to tackle the other music notes the stop motion work wasn’t able to pick up.
Lastly, I feel that this project has helped me understand timing better and I cant wait to practise my newfound knowledge in future animations.
This is the only interaction between the two main antagonists of Jungle Book Shere Kan and Kaa.
At this point Kaa is about to eat the main character Mowgli, but before he can eat him Shere Kan asks where “The Man Cub” is, since he wants to be the one to kill him.
Both face off against each other intellectually to try and get what they want.
From the video given to us on Moodle, Shere Kan hears Kaa singing and tries to get his attention, thinking he may have ” The Man Cub” so he patiently waited my Kaa’s tale before pulling it like a bell. Showing his personality and attitude as sophisticated and intellectual within this situation.
Kaa’s expression to getting interrupted is being annoyed from being unable to eat Mowgli. he huffs and complains about having company, but immediately changes attitude to greet his guest. showing him to be two faced.
They both greet each other calmly and respectfully however with clear differences, Shere Kan gives off the noble and pompous attitude to the situation while Kaa seems to have a lade back, and conniving attitude while talking to each other.
Shere Kan makes the First move on taking advantage of intimidating Kaa by releasing his claws, while Kaa can clearly see and is surprised with this new threat of danger.
Even with this danger Kaa’s character is very deceiving and talks his foes into believing him. So he starts to lie about knowing where “The Man Cub” is trying to get Shere Kan to leave.
You notice there are a few “um’s” and “Ahh’s” used to show he’s making up excuses and reasons for why he doesn’t want to eat, sleep and has’t got time to think about “The Man Cub”
This scene really shows who’s in control of the situation.
Shere Kan first off isn’t buying anything Kaa is saying, he sarcastically nods his head in fake agreement and keeps Kaa at a lower level than himself, keeping him as the dominant predator.
Kaa then tries to use his strategy of mind controlling Shere Kan, this is to show that Kaa is trying to flip the script and become the dominant predator and tricking Shere Kan. Also notice that Kaa is trying to be on the same level as Shere Kan, trying to make himself on the same level as Shere Kan.
Shere Kan however isn’t dealing with that and pushed Kaa Back to the floor but lower, making Kaa seem even more less important than himself.
Shere Kan keeps looking up in the trees where he has the suspicion of Kaa holding someone with his body, thinking that he may have ”The man cub”.
Kaa then without thinking says “Search me” and tries to close his mouth knowing he caused more problems for himself as well as giving Shere Kan more power over the situation.
So as Kaa’s character has shown before he tries tricking Shere Kan again by only showing the front and back of his body, stopping his grip on “The Man Cub” from loosening as well as keeping Shere Kan busy.
That does not work however due to both hearing Mowgli Snore. This is shown with Shere Kan lifting his ear to the sky being able to get a better location of the sound. Kaa again tries to trick him by pretending it was him and it was to do with his Sinuses and his general unwellness.
Shere Kans reaction shows he doesn’t believe Kaa and still wants to check if he is lying to him. So he asks to see the middle. Kaa Accepted and Shere Kan getting annoyed with Kaa decides to check himself by grabbing Kaa’s body to see if he had eaten anything with no results.
With Shere Kan unable to get anything from Kaa he gives up but still believes that Kaa is lying, which is shown with a final look into the trees.
As a final farewell Shere Kan threatens Kaa once more and letting him know that he should tell him if he ever sees “The Man Cub” again.
Both these characters show character archetypes within there actions.
Shere Kan is clearly a Ruler Archetype, he is calm, powerful and intelligent. He has the ability to always be the strongest in physical strength as well as keep up with his intellect. He isn’t a good Ruler due to how he is willing to use threats and flexing his power to get what he wants.
While Kaa in my opinion would have the Sage Archetype, He’s smart and cunning as well as being knowledgeable about hypnosis and keeping people to his own will.
He’s also shown to be very deceitful and selfish which i think works well in the clip with him lying to Shere Kan.
So this was a fun project to create and finalise our very own characters based off certain archetypes used in many story’s and can be mixed and attributed together to create a satisfying character.
This was the first creations where we used a square, triangle and a circle to create different silhouettes. This would be used by taking a few of these silhouettes and change them into actual characters based on how the shape looks.
These are the two designs i decided to go for. I wanted to use them for the two archetypes Ruler and Rebel. Reason for these choices is because of how both of these archetypes work really well with each other.
I decided to focus on these two because they both seem well to rival each other. One being in power and being able to control while the other would more likely be a loner and wouldn’t be as powerful.
Personality wise id see the ruler as someone who would be to arrogant and proud of his own self, I also envision them as being lazy, selfish as well as self-absorbed that if anyone got any other attention they would be spiteful because of his own ego.
The Rebel however Id see someone who’s more closed off, keeps to himself but would jump at the chance to help others. But they still want to change the world and if something is wrong they want nothing more than to fight against what they believe is wrong.
The silhouettes are both very similar in design which really works well with contrasting each characters designs and personality. This would also show that both characters are not as different as you would assume.
Both these characters would play off really well since one would want to change the ruling while the other wishes to stay as the ruler and keep the power they have.
IDEAS
Ruler ideas
So these where my starting ideas for my Ruler character, when coming up with them i wanted him to be taller than my Rebel character to show him overshadowing the Rebel making them seem powerful and strong due to its size.
With these designs i realised i liked the idea of having my Ruler have something on its head or around its neck to show authority, such as a crown or a neck collar you’d find for old Victorian kings and queens.
For my ruler character i looked at characters such as the Queen of Hearts (Alice in Wonderland 1951) as well as Yzma (Emperor’s New Groove) Both look very different from one another but both show the Ruler archetype. Both Show power with handling there subjects with ruthlessness and unforgiving natures.
Both also don a big collar around there necks as well as some form of hat showing off there ruling presence.
Both thrive being the centre of attention as well as being the victor to any situation, power corrupts after all.
This is shown with queen of hearts always being the loudest and the most self absorbed character within Alice in Wonderland, always shouting, threatening people and cheats for her own self absorbed importance during a game of Croquet against Alice.
While Yzma is a natural born leader who tries and succeeds overthrowing the main character Kuzco. She constantly berates people she finds to be beneath her and gets rid of the people who fail her. She’s a born liar who will manipulate and scheme just so she can become more powerful and be the Empress.
With the knowledge that i wanted to have my character have a type of crown or neck piece i reworked my character. I liked the idea of having the character have some sort of helmet sometimes acting like a crown while other times acting like defence with having horns within the crown which i enjoyed having and wanted to use within my final Ruler.
After creating the Ruler having sharp horns for a helmet or crown i really got the sense of a beetle like design due to how the shapes of its horns remind me of my character, this got me thinking of making my characters more insect like since having that creepy and terrifying look is exactly what insects are able to do so well.
As well as the beetle insects i originally chose i also went with two evenly terrifying but majestic looking insects a black widow Spider and a praying Mantis.
All three of these insects are very recognisable as well as give of a very Ruler vibe, with Spiders being one of the most well known insects (or arachnids if you want to be more accurate) and spiders are the spawn of may peoples nightmares.
Praying mantis’s have that regal look, maybe its how its standing or maybe its due to its hand like pincers but they do give off a Royal look.
With my idea here I’ve really enjoyed my design of ruler near the end. i gave it a more thin look to appear more insect like, but i also added more mass near the solders to give off a more threatening vibe.
I really like the idea of having its crown just be massive pincers, makes the character appear more threatening as well as being able to show dominance due to its headpiece.
Rebel
So these were my starting drawings for my Rebel character. I really dont like how i started off creating this character. Reason for this is i felt that it became to brawly and muscly, when i want my Rebel to be the counter opposite to my Ruler.
With this new info i decided to reinvent what my Rebel was going to be.
I made a list explaining what i needed this Rebel to be to fully be my rulers counter opposite.
Such things like since my ruler is going to be tall and thin, making my Rebel appear smaller and a bit more rounded in size.
Even with colour i want my Rebel to show off some type of colour compared to my Ruler which i want to keep to darker colours like blacks, greys, dark reds.
While for Rebel i was thinking colours like light reds, yellows, blues, three primary colours that are simple and would really bring out the character and make them more likeable.
Both these characters (Fievel and Coraline) share traits I am looking for within my Rebel character. Both want there lives to be more exciting and interesting, both having the adventurous attitudes. Both have bright colourful outfits so they can easily stand out within a crowd. Fievel with his blue hat and red coat and Coraline with her yellow coat and wellies. Both also have to deal and defeat opponents that are clearly stronger and powerful that them, but they manage to think of a way to beat them through other means than physical strength.
The insects i wanted to use as a Rebel had to have colourful looks. Which is why i settled on a butterfly, a ladybug and ether a wasp or Bee designs.
Reasons for this are there beautiful colours and patterns, these would make wonderful looking characters if i use similar designs for my character plus giving them that standout type of colours would make them more noticeable than my Ruler.
Also since bright colours in nature normally signal danger, maybe ill have my character have some form of power over Ruler such as speed, power of flight, is it smarter than Ruler or any number of reasons.
All the insects I’ve chosen also have the appearance of cute and or nonthreatening, maybe its because they dont have horns or share much insect like features, with the butterfly wings looking beautiful to the ladybug not being that threatening and how a bee is actually furry and not like an insect at all really.
After coming up with the general idea of my Rebel being smaller but more colourful i set off on creating a more bug like design.
I started to really go for the Ladybug ascetic, no idea if its because i really liked the polka dot design or how the wings sort of open up to reveal the inner wings before they fly off.
So i kept experimenting with these designs, and how to use the wings within the work.
Maybe i wanted them as a poncho or a bag on its back, maybe just a blanket it raps itself up in. I realised i really wanted to have the pattern on both the front and the back of this character, i try’d bringing the wings forward more, but that didn’t look right, i tried rapping them round my character like a scarf still felt off, Or even having the wings open to show more of the red colour to the front. none really suited what i was aiming for though.
IDEAS PART 2
In the second week we went into designing our characters through means of Collage, Paints, ink, photos and other styles other than just digital or pencil.
I enjoyed experimenting and really liked trying out different textures for my final characters to have than to just stick to what i am use to.
When designing my characters again i realised that i had to focus on what colours i wanted them to be. For instance, if Ruler was to bright they would have come off not as evil as i envisioned them but more neutral or kind looking. With this i knew i wanted Black to be a centre point to Ruler, “Black is associated with Power, elegance, Formality, Death, Evil and mystery” I wanted to show that my Ruler is evil and black suited the need for my character.
I also wished for my character to gain a second colour of red, why red? Because “Red is the color of fire and blood, so it is associated with energy, war, danger, strength, power”
With this mixed with my idea for Black i think compliments both colours perfectly for my final colour scheme for my Ruler.
Id also like to link this back to my research with insects and how this is used with Black Widow spiders. Since Black widows have the distinctive red pattern down its back.
Plus Spiders are known to be one of the most well known “evil” types of creatures in story’s, examples could be Aragog from Harry Potter: Chamber of Secrets or Shelob from Lord of the Rings. Both are giant towering Spiders that course problems for the main character.
With this idea in mind for my Rebel i wanted to see if changing its design from a Ladybug design to more of a bee/Wasp design, reasons for this are that i wanted to make my Rebel more colourful than my Ruler and if both characters were Red and Black it could get confusing who was who and i wanted to keep both different but still seem related in the same world.
With this in mind i thought of having the Rebels colours be Red and Yellow. Light Reds are good for showing Determination, Passion, Desire and Love while Yellow is the colour of sunshine, joy, happiness and energy.
but after more experimentation i was interested in the blues and yellows more than reds and yellows. this could be due to Blues and yellows being complimentary colours.
Blues are used to show, depth and stability. It also symbolises trust, loyalty, wisdom, confidence, intelligence. But i wanted to go with more Dark Blues over all, this would be able to give the yellows in the design a needed boost as well as the Links Dark Blues have to being related to show knowledge, power, integrity, and seriousness.
When the class were discussing our work, people mentioned with my Rebel designs that there could be multiple versions of these characters running around, living together while my Ruler was used as a giant monster within this town.
I really liked the idea of having multiple versions of these characters but i also would have to create a lot of them and as much as that idea would be amazing to do. i dont think i would have the time and patience to create and animate all these characters. But nonetheless i love the idea of having multiple Rebels running around, but i think ill continue sticking to just one.
I was also interested in if i wanted certain textures to be used within my characters. Things like, having burnt marks on my Ruler or off coloured areas to show age or have my Rebel have fur or soft looking textures to make it appear more friendly compared to Ruler.
Ideas 3
Now it was time to come up with the final looks for my characters. I will be looking for an insect like designs for both since insects have that creepy and grotesque sort of appearance that id really want to push.
Starting off with Ruler i really loved the spiked crown like head. so i played around with its thickness and figuring out about how the arms and legs would look like, since i wanted them to look like insect parts, such as having multiple legs like spiders or having the arms and legs as spikes instead of humanistic arms and legs.
I also experimented with having patterns along the body and being coloured in a reddish colour to show off danger.
This was my final idea. I wanted Ruler to be big and threatening, so i gave him a massive top half, showing its strength and power. I also decided for its arms to have armed weapons that would detract past its hands while in combat but then retract and be able to use its hands to pick up items. Its legs i thought of having them as massive thick legs with pointed bottoms, so its able to carry its own body, but at the same time still appear insect like.
With Rebel i wanted to ensure its face was concealed, so you wouldn’t be able to know what exactly its face was which hides its appearance and keeps its true nature ambiguous. After experimenting with the design i really liked having the bee/wasp design imprinted on a jacket/coat which really helped simplify the hiding the face want i was going for. I also thought about giving the character a backpack to be able to carry items or keep its weapons freeing its arms to be able to move without having to worry about items.
Here was the final design for Rebel. I really liked this design from the backpack to the really simple looking design and the jackets design mixed with the design a bee and wasp would have really brings this design together. Its both cute and simple which to me still has enough insect like design to it with its more human items used within it to bring the design further.
After finishing my design for Rebel i was unsatisfied after looking back on my ruler character. To me it looked to bulky and to insect like to really suit being in the same universe as my Rebel. So i decided to look into human items that would suit a Ruler character.
My first redesign was to see if adding a back like cape to my character to make it appear more fancy. I then though about the feathery scarf used by fancy women which would rap around there arms and along there back. that would be incorporated into my work as a sort of cape design.
I was still unhappy with the legs but once designing i was interested in a dress idea, So i wanted to explore that.
As you can also see i changed Rulers Eyes from two to one. I decided that this would make the character stand out more due to it appearing more disturbing and less human, as well as making it look less cute and more intimidating due to its lack of humanistic features
After coming up with a few designs with my Ruler wearing a dress i soon discarded the idea of having my character wear one. The reason for this was how even with the benefit of not having to deal with animating the leg movements i feel that it would be difficult for my character to actually be able to use it without having the dress get caught on its feet or being in the way with movements.
For this idea i decided i still wanted some thing to be done to Rulers lower half other than just its legs. That is when i landed on the idea to use elements from a Waiter and butler uniform together for my Ruler. A Waiter/ Butler are seen as posh and proper and used for noblemen and women, so having these ideas merge with Ruler seemed like a suitable fit. The final design for Ruler appears like he is wearing a coat which makes him appear prim and proper but with its insect like appearance still being used brings a juxtaposed look to the design but i feel makes the design fall together fluently and is a welcomed contrast.
Class show and tell + character discussion
After showing everyone my two characters i was given the critique that my Rebel design looked to innocent and less Rebel like than what it could have been. This was an interesting input that i wanted to amend but still keep the design ideas i really enjoyed relevant within my new retake on Rebel.
First off i wanted to make sure i kept the hoodie idea as well as the shape of the hood being with its triangle/ diamond appearance.
One idea i wanted to go with was adding a mask, having that added amount of secrecy as well as having the eyes appear constantly angry gives off more of a stand offish and threatening design which was a quick departure from my first idea.
I also thought about giving my character a scarf, since in my original sketches i designed a similar idea which i almost used. I wanted to have the Scarf come off as more like a cape which i wanted to mess around with.
I then messed around other ideas like increasing the eye sizes to make the design simpler having it overlap with the mask. As well as seeing if i wanted my design to have anything on its back or shown on its front like straps where he could put items or something smaller than a backpack.
I also liked the idea of using Bee Cone designs within my character which could be seen on its lower arms and lower belly.
Also wanted to mess with the scarf design to see if having it torn or messy would help it appear more used and worn in.
After creating this version of the character i realised i was creating more of a ninja type of character which was really interesting to explore. Ninjas are mysterious and cunning and i wanted to be able to keep that general idea alive within my Rebel but still stay within the ideas i liked in my previous work.
This was my new Rebel, its more threatening and more antagonistic compared to my original idea. The Added Honey cone designs on its arms and belly keep within the bee/Wasp aesthetic i wanted to stick too but still have a human quality within the design. The Scarf i think almost appear to look like wings which i think fit well with the design.
Moho work
After creating both my characters i started to create them with colour and create final looks for them to be used within Moho.
I wanted to try out Moho because its a software i knew nothing about and it was something i was interested in seeing the results.
This is Rulers full design now cleaner and with colour.
I decided to settle on a dark red to not take away the dark tones i wanted to go for my Ruler, i brightened the Black to almost a dark grey so you can notice the small details better.
Both colours i believe compliment each other nicely and both dont take full control over the design with a nice balance of colours.
This is Rebels full design now cleaner and with colour.
With its colour scheme i wanted to may them more colourful and brighter than Ruler.
I decided to settle on a yellow and Dark blueish/Purple.
I decided on these so Rebel would be able to stand out more than Ruler making Rebel appear to have more personality than Ruler due to the Darker colour scheme.
Here are the sizes i have settled with for my characters.
The reason for this was i wanted Ruler to be a towering and foreboding antagonist. Having it appear taller and more Insect like gives off a creepy factor to Ruler i feel makes the character stand out more as well as create a sense of unease towards the viewer.
The Rebel also with its colour scheme being different from Ruler, its size being small was also intentional.
Both are complete opposites both in colour and Size, but both still keep an insect like quality which i am happy with.
Moho thoughts
So after creating a rig for Ruler I started understanding more and more on how to actually use Moho better. It was a small disadvantage to work with a less than perfect version of Moho with it not being Pro, but I’m still happy with how i was able to work through that and create a pretty good Rig.
But after creating the Ruler rig i feel that i am not that interested in using Moho anymore. Its a pretty good Animation tool and i am glad i took the time to try it out. But i feel that with the designs i have created i dont think Moho would create the animations i am after. Hopefully in the future i can go back to Moho to explore how to use it further however.
Another Change
Again i decided i wasn’t happy with the end all design for Rebel.
After my first design which i was a fan of, and having to change the design i thought i liked my newer design.
Unfortunately the more i tried to use it the more problems i realised didn’t quite worked with the design. Its scarf for one was to big and having it flap behind the character the more i tried to use it didn’t work or look pleasant.
Another thing i feel pulled away the design was the colour scheme, the super yellow mixed with the dark purple was an eyesore, the colours were to contrasting and it was hard to look at the design.
I think with a darker hue to the yellow bringing it down to in brightness the look of the character would appear much nicer. There would also be a change the dark Purple and Blue colours i used, i want to change it to more of a contrasting colours that work well with Yellow, such as colours like Oranges, Reds and Greens.
I wanted to keep ideas from my past two designs that i liked, so things like the bee/wasp pattern and having the character have a hood and mask were items i really wanted to keep.
I settled on a diamond like hood design compared to the big triangle like design i used for my past two. This makes it look a lot more animation friendly honestly. Its more natural and i think suit the design more.
With the designs for the body i thought bring in more bee like quality, thought about adding wings at first which i thought seemed interesting to design. I desired to keep the triangle ideas for the arms and legs since that still keeping in the insect designs i am after.
I wanted to keep the bottom half as the biggest part of its body, to compleatly contrast from the Rulers upper Body design, to show how different the two characters are.
The final new design is a fine mix of both designs i believe.
Its simple and has a basic colour scheme like with my original idea.
And its got the essential equipment from the second design without making it appear to complex.
The colours i settled on is more of an orange hue than the blue/purple idea i had to begin with. As you can see the design stands out a lot more with its design and colour scheme.
I think having the colours appear more natural also has a good mix of nature than the Rulers more Stern and colourless scheme which could be linked to pollution or disease.
Story Boards
First thing to do first was to write up ideas i wanted.
Ideas about what the characters were like, how tall they’d be there personality’s and how they would move and interact with each other.
Ideas on where they’d be located and where the story would affect the environment they were in or if the environment affects the story for my characters.
Story idea 1
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My first idea for my story was to have both characters fight over food.
It would have started with Rebels stomach growling while hes searching for food, then he notice a cherry out of no where. He goes up to see it and then Ruler hand comes to pick it up startling Rebel. Ruler then tries to drop the food into his mouth put Rebel fly and grabs it. leaving Ruler to try and grab the food before Rebel fly’s away.
Story idea 2
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This story start with Ruler and Rebel being trapped inside a Can while its raining. Ruler being dominant asks for Rebel to get out of the can, Rebel refuses and the camera shows Rebel getting thrown out into the rain.
As Ruler is sleeping Rebel ties him up and as Ruler awakens its revealed that he’s been glued to the wall as Rebel enjoys a hot fire.
Story Idea 3
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The idea for this one was having my character interact at a dinner party Ruler would try to act posh and sophisticated drinking correctly and eating right. While Rebel would act immature and slurp up his drink and chew loudly. This would result in each character trying to ruin things for each other. Ruler would slam him hand on the table having Rebel his drink on himself, while rebel would sling food at Ruler with his slingshot. until it ends with rebel flying and pouring water on Ruler and ruler flips the table.
Story idea 4
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This idea had Ruler and Rebel fight over a flower. Ruler being bigger and stronger than Rebel picks him up and the flower, looks at both then tosses Rebel and then puts the flower on. Ruler starts to walk away before Rebel chases after him. He toss’s a stone at Ruler which results in ruler getting angry and looking around for who threw a stone at him. Rebel ask for the flower back before Ruler disagrees and kicks him away.
Rebel then fly’s past ruler and steals the flower with Ruler chancing after him.
What idea have i chosen?
What i was looking for was to be able to show off both Rebels and Rulers characters simply through camera angle and actions, since i wasn’t going to use dialog. So the story has to be simple enough that people get what is happening.
I have chosen to go with my Forth story idea because i really enjoyed the camera angles i was working with for this story and with the simple plot i think help keep the story grounded and easy to understand.
Finalised Story Board
Change from Thumbnail storyboard.
Instead of having the Rebel character come into a cave like area and look at the flower i found it better to just start with the character looking at the flower, this was to focus on the character before Ruler stands behind him. Also not revealing Ruler until after its shadow builds suspense and lets the audience wonder what does this character look like.
I also changed the idea of having Ruler walk away from the situation. I did this because i found it broke away from the conflict more and i wanted it to be more confrontational, which i why cutting out Ruler walking away and having Rebel try and gain his attention was replaced with having Rebel immediately get frustrated and cause conflict by using his slingshot.
I also took out a scene were Rebel would ask politely for the Flower back and have Ruler kick him away before Rebel would fly up at just take the flower.
I think this was the right move since it took away from Rebels character and having him be polite right after him just using a slingshot and getting upset with Ruler seemed out of character which i am glad i changed.
Why i chose those scenes and camera angles
Having the forced perspective on the Flower and Rebel was a cool idea, being able to push the flower to look bigger than Ruler to then reveal it to be not at all as Rebel make the flower become the most important part of the shot, having Rebel look at the flower exemplifies this by having him focus on the flower, which gives the flower power within the shot.
The second shot not only was used to show how small the flower actually was, but was to show how small Rebel was. From using the rule of thirds it makes Rebel seem small as well. Plus having such a negative space with nothing in it invites the idea that something will show up which makes the scene stronger since you’re now waiting for something to appear.
I really liked the idea of having the shadow first to introduce Ruler compared to just showing him outright. Reason for this is, having the shadow can show danger, show that their is this darkness looming over Rebel. I feel however to exemplify how small Rebel is i would push him even lower into a corner keeping with the Rule of Thirds and to really push the Shadow to show how massive Rulers presence is.
The shot with Rebel and Ruler in the centre of the frame really pushed how their size differences really well, Seeing the the camera push up to reveal more and more of Ruler while sticking to Rebels size really pushes the height differences between the two as well as keeping ruler as a looming threat.
With both these shots i wanted to mess with the fact that Ruler is massive compared to Rebel but still keep the shot interesting and keep the focus on both.
Going back to the same shot i mentioned earlier with having Rebel next to the Flower But this time with Ruler in the exact shot really show both, how Rebel is tiny and How Ruler towers over him.
With both shots i have shown they both show triangles in composition.
I believe this really helped push the idea of having Ruler come off as the most intimidating character when both were shown on screen together. and having Ruler be massive within the last shit while Rebel and the flower took small sidelines in the corners shows off Rulers Dominance within the Scene.
This scene was a fun inclusion. I liked the idea of using a characters design be used within a story organically. Having the idea of having a ball roll up and down Rulers head seems like a real fun comedic idea that i just had to incorporate it into my work.
This also helps keep the shot interesting and not be classed as a boring face shot as a lot of these shots could be.
I absolutely adore this show. Released on 16th August 2013 before ending in 27 June 2016 totalling 43 episodes for 2 seasons this show has some of the most amazing visuals put to screen through animation.
No better episode shows off its animation chops than this episode. where its just 2 characters interacting with each other with little to no backgrounds.
The reason why this is amazing to me is just how perfect the characters look and interact with one another, they’re both super distinguishable from each other which is easy for the viewer to pay attention to who’s who.
The camera angles are wonderful as well really pushes when a character is super small and pushes how exaggeratedly large the other character is.
This Bee flying Video was a good help in figuring out how to make Rebels flying scenes look like actual wings flapping. I also looked at other sources such as the Grasshoppers from Bugs Life due to how fluttery and bury there wings flap.
Music?
While i was busy at work animating my characters and getting them to work correctly, i was listening to music. This music was from a game called Crash Twinsanity, which was a part of my childhood i keep coming back to, why?, because of the music.
Unlike most games Twinsanity went with a fully a Capella soundtrack.
Whats a Capella? Its when theirs little to no actual instruments used in the music and is all preformed solely using mouths and your body parts.
This fascinated me so much that i really wanted to go full force with my animation and add my own a Capella into my animation, instead of just copy and pasting a free to use music onto my animation.
Unfortunately i was unable to add a proper a Capella due to my little knowledge about how to make one and how to properly sync and tune music together. This however just wants me to push further in future into learning more about music so i can eventually be able to create my own soundtracks as well as hopefully work with more experienced music creators so i can learn from them as well.
Animatic
The Animatic for me really pushes the timing and ideas i had within my storyboards. Even with my storyboards i changed a few ideas around. First thing is i added a beginning and an ending to my animation, i decided to add this after speaking to Owen about my story boards, he mentioned that there should be a more clear beginning to show a reason why Rebel looking at a flower would be classed as more Rebel like than just him being there. Which is why the idea of the location Rebel is in is actually Rulers property, also having Rebel graffiti Rulers sign and Fence seen at the beginning and ending adds to Rebels character than what i gave him in the storyboards.
I also wanted to change some scenes slightly, such as the scenes where Ruler terns to see Rebel having the camera follow Rulers gaze as well as putting the camera right in Rebels slingshot gives a much more dynamic shot that really made the scenes stand out more than what i did in the story boards.
I think the timing works out pretty well and its clear what is happening at any given time. Hopefully when i start to animate some of the scenes will look much less still and much more fluent than what is shown.
Backgrounds and other Items
These are some work i did to add a little life into the background of my animation to show off that this property belongs to Ruler and how Rebel would be trespassing.
Also i decided to merge the 2 signs i had in my animatic to just one since i think the flow would suit the mood better and having a cleaner version before Rebel comes and Ruins it seems more comedic moment.
My trees and bushes artwork were to be place around the animation to give off a more lively and Nature driven place. i may not be able to use all my designs but i am hoping to use as many as i deem worthy.
Animation
What i liked
With the finished animation i was super happy with how it turned out. I loved my animations of both Ruler and Rebel turning and really felt like they were living characters.
I am glad to be able to clearly see how far I have come since the start of Uni, My line work is a lot more clean as well as how i was able to actually add colour to my Animation which was something i really wanted to improve on from my Metamorphosis piece, which I am happy to say was a success.
Both characters are lovely coloured and are really distinguishable from one another and have really pronounced character designs. The story is easy to follow and has some slapstick within giving the story some comedic value while viewing.
What i would improve
As much of an improvement as this animation was compared to my last there are still things i wish to improve on and change with my completed work.
Firstly i feel that the backgrounds are very bare and barren. Adding more of a world and life within my world would make it stand out more and feel more lived in compared to my nothingness void i seem to have made.
I also feel that if one scene from my animation needs to be changed it would be the one after the flower is stolen from Ruler and he turns to see Rebel flying.
Having him turn as well as slide out of frame doesn’t sit well with me. I would if i could redo it ad a few more frames having the character look at were the flower was look back at where Rebel was before realising that he took the flower and have him turn before quickly changing the camera to Rebel. i feel that would be a much better scene if that was done.
I also feel that after re watching the animation that i should have added a bounce or two when the rock hits Rulers head before it started to roll.
I also feel that with the music and background sound i used i wish i had more time to use the recording studio to be able to use and create my own sounds.
I really loved the idea of creating them as well as making an acapella to company my animation. As much as i feel the song i ended up using was sufficient i feel that it was a cop out.
What would i like to do going forward
After this brief i feel that my next big step would be to manage Lip syncing. I haven’t yet tackled that obstacle yet and i really want to see if i can push my animation capability.
Id also like to dive into more of a narrative maybe try out script writing and even more character designing.
Creating worlds and working more on backgrounds also to me seem like something id like to improve on and stop having the characters run around in a void and create liveable or recognisable areas.
While practising creating walk cycles I’ve already had experience before coming to uni by reading the animators survival kit which was really helpful with starting out creating a walk cycle.
This first walk cycle is a personification of me to be able to show off a clear walk cycle since i know me and i should know how i walk.
So being able to create my walk cycle was reassuring actually helped show me that not all walks are the same and things could be different with each walk, such as the height of the foot rising off the ground, the movement of the arms, and any secondary animations like the hair or the hood.
This sad walk cycle works well, with the head lowered to show that its not confident and having the stomach be large gives more of a cartoonish sight compared to my first animation with myself.
I liked having the arms wiggle while walking since it gives the sense that this person really cant even be bothered to move them. But i do think that having his hands in his pockets would have made him look more sad and less cartoonish. It would have also made it gain less movement in its arms since they wont be moving as much due to the pockets.
This is a happy/confident walk cycle.
I wanted this dude to look physically strong so i made its upper body and hands bigger, making them stand out more compared to the rest of his body. This makes the character come off as more like a cartoon and due to this i can bring out a more cartoonish style of walking with its hands forcibly moving down and back up to his chest. This gives off a confident walk cycle due to how his chest is pushed forward and his arms move up to his chest.
My last walk cycle has a secondary animation within it.
Because i got the hang of animating a walk cycle i decided to add in a second cycle with the water withing this guys head.
It was difficult to really get the movement right since water is one of those objects that has wild uncontrollable movements.
Luckily with help from Morgan i was able to realise that it would be better to instead of planning the water cycle out with pose to pose i should instead just go full straight ahead with the animation which made the water really come to life.
Here’s the PowerPoint i used for my Summative Assessment, the videos i used are the same ones used in my learning journal and wont play on the slide show.
I enjoyed talking about my progress throughout my projects seeing what animation styles I’m interested in, how i like to experiment in colour and finding out how i feel about story telling throughout my work.
What do i want in my story that would incorporate a metamorphosis?
Changing body
Changing into a different being.
Is it an object or another animal
Is it a real creature/mythical/made up
What are the characteristics of said object/animal (How does it move)
Is the transformation slow or fast?
Will the change be painful and gruesome?
Or will it be sudden and unexpected?
Will some parts be faster than others and if so how will it be shown. Will it make sense?
What objects and animals are interesting to transform into?
Spiders, Easily scary on their own adding the gruesome of a human turning into one would be even more frightening.
Crow, Sparrows, Pigeons, all are different and present themselves differently through their movements, how they fly and how they interact with items.
Bugs/insects, there’s such variety with insects that it would be fun testing out ideas with them. Will my character grow wings? How many legs will they have? What about teeth?
Changing mind
Will it be an internal struggle?
How will I show off their mood?
Their stance, how they walk, how they dress?
Is it something out of the characters control?
Are they being bullied, mental illness, depression
Has someone in their life died and they try to overcome the tragedy?
Has it got to do with Love? Falling in love but getting rejected
How will I show the emotional pain?
Environment
Location change
Will it take place on land, sea, space, nowhere?
Will it link to my story? If my character changes into an animal will that animal be able to survive where it appears?
How will I change the scene to show a change in the environment
Do I need to change the environment?
Mood Board
Story Boards
Two Synopsis
First Synopsis
I want to be able to turn a human looking figure into an animal/object (haven’t finalised what it will be yet) But the main Point I want to get across is how Painful the transformation would actually Feel like. Things like how bones would bend, snap and crack while being moved. How the skin would stretch, peel off the new body, or would it start spreading fur. This is hopefully going to end with the creature moving around the environment giving it freedom to wreak havoc within the animation.
Second Synopsis
I want to try and show emotions through masks. When we went to the Oxford museum I got the idea from looking at the mask exhibit they had. Each having their own value and impact.
Using masks seem interesting to me since they don’t really show emotion.
Final Synopsis
I have settled on using the second idea because this gives me more variety of ideas to work with.
My idea is to create a blob creature that shows its emotion through a mask.
This would be useful to us since the blob wouldn’t show any emotion, only the mask would represent what the blob is thinking.
Final Video
Thoughts?
I had the best time with this animation.
I enjoy coming up with stories and using the idea Metamorphosis to create a story from that initial idea was something i love to do.
I went above and beyond with creating not one but 2 initial ideas.
Having the freedom to not just stick to one script and to experiment with my other thoughts and idea was enjoyable.
What would i improve?
If i had to i would really love to clean some of the line work, just to make it look more professional. id also would have likes some more time with colouring my creation. I managed to get the animation down but adding the colour to my creature was the only thing i wished i could have done.
Whats going on?
Creating a short 30 second looping animation. This can be in any style i wish, from 2D to 3D but it has to be able to loop on itself. This can then be used again to see if i can create the same idea but with a different technique. Example: If i created an animation in 2D how would i go around creating the same idea in a 3D environment, what would be different?.
Group work video
This video was a great start on how to incorporate colour within my work as well as changing shapes and creating a basic story which can be looped simply.
Week 1
So far i have been coming up with 3 ideas.
The first consists of basic shapes with squares and circles, the idea is having one ball bouncing within a square, then having more balls bouncing within other squares before the camera pulls back to reveal tons of bouncing balls and squares.
I haven’t decided if each square and ball with have its own unique colour or if every time the balls land on the ground they both change colour adding more colourful variety.
My second idea is simplistic but simple. The idea is having a character carrying a bag, he then discovers a light switch and they pull it. once they do they’ll morph and change shape and appear as a Rabbit. The rabbit would then start to hop away before being shot by a hunter, who places it in the same bag from earlier and walk away, before it repeats on its self. Given the dark humour i have added into this one i’m pleased with how simple it is, simplistic and with a shocking revelations are things i love within a story. Compared to my first idea this one seems a lot more manageable, considering the first has a lot more movement and colours my second idea is more minimalist, which to be honest doesn’t push me to try something new and experiment with more outlandish ideas.
My third idea is to create a clay character and have him clap. this sounds simple but with a twist. Every time he claps the background and himself will change colour. This is the best of both worlds for me, this is because i get to create many different coloured versions of my clay character as well as ether create backgrounds with clay which will be placed behind him or i could cut him out of all the scenes and use TV paint to draw in the backgrounds. This is the best of both worlds i get to use claymation and Digital but i can also mix both techniques seamlessly with each other since the character changes every time he claps i could easily and effortlessly add each animation technique with each clap.
So far with my ideas i have i’m more confident with my third idea, this is due to how simple the idea is but it can get complex with how i’m adding colour within the animation. While they second animation i feel to be a bit to simple, even though the story is interesting and i’m a fan on how it could work, i dont see it challenging me compared to the other two. while the first animation is a little to complex to start off with in my opinion.
Week 2
This week was to start creating the looping animation.
I decided to start off with creating it in Stop motion because i wanted to get more acquaint with using that type of animation.
I also decided to mix two of my ideas.
My first idea with the bouncing balls and the character clapping.
Why did i pick these two? more movement honestly.
I was going to go with only the clapping character but that to me showed little to no movement. That’s why adding the bouncing balls adds a constant flow of movement that it takes away from the still movements my clay character would be repeating.
The new idea was every time the character claps they would change colour, but the previous colour the character was escapes from them and becomes 4 bouncing balls. This would continue until most of the screen is covered with bouncing balls, a constant flow of movement.
Then the character would return to its default colour and the balls would be sucked back into the character and the cycle would then repeat.
Planning for next week
So my plan is to possibly make the same basic idea of clapping and colour changing in a new medium, maybe in TVpaint i could create a simple animation of hands clapping, maybe have them be different colours so when a different coloured hand claps the background changes to that colour. or maybe create something in after effects, like a ball bouncing and every time it hits the floor the colour changes or there is a beat of music that makes the colours change within the animation.
Week 3
For my animation on TV paint i decided to create a eye blinking. Every time the eye blinked it would change colour and repeat. I used blue, red and yellow since they are distinct from one another when they change its very noticeable and shocking when it happens.
After that i had to create a way to link both the animations together seamlessly. First by taking my clay character and transforming it into an eyeball which would then blink into they second animation. While the eye would break apart and start to morph into my clay character again.
Final Thoughts
I’ve enjoyed this Brief. Having to create whatever i wished was super relaxing and was nice to try out. Also having the goal of looping the animation was a cool test to see how i’d manage to get from point A to point B. Being able to use 2 different animation styles with stop motion and digital 2D work will always be a plus for me. Love both concepts of animation equally and can be used wonderfully if done correctly.
This video is to help me see how different types of balls bounce.
STOP MOTION
Bouncing ball
The arks are clear and fluent. Its pleasing to the eye.
Squash and Stretch
Shows off speed nicely as well as keeping its volume.
Heavy Ball
Since the ball came in at such velocity its natural for the heavy ball to have bounced as high as it has to then slid on the floor before stopping.
Mind of its own
being able to change the size of the balls was amazing to try out. Having every ball coloured was intentional to make sure when the blue ball leaves the screen near the end and reappears you know that’s the same ball just bigger.
PAPER
Bouncing Ball
I feel that the final sequence seems to show a tiny size decrease.
Heavy ball
Short sweet and the timing is good.
Squash and Stretch
Very cartoony but still keeps its volume.
Mind of its own
I wanted to merge all different types of balls together, thought it would be a cool idea. But I’m not entirely sure if changing the balls size at the end works or not. It acts like a sudden surprise if anything.
Computer Drawn
Bouncing Ball
I absolutely love this one. The arks decrease naturally, the ball bounces fine and the added detail of the tennis ball completes it.
Heavy Ball
simple and straight to the point.
Squash and Stretch
Acts like it’s made of cartoony jelly, has a wavy feeling to it.
Mind of its own
I really enjoyed creating this one, having all three balls merge together to create a recognisable image and having them all have different properties as balls worked well.
I really enjoyed this project, being able to try out different methods was wonderful to experience. I think out of the 3, the paper drawn animations are my least favourite to do. This is because I disliked not being able to properly see how fast or slow my animations would have been and being able to instantly see my animations move from stop motion and Computer drawn animations, paper seems very lacking. That however doesn’t mean i wont try out paper animation again to help me get more acquainted to the process.
Before I arrived at Cardiff Met I had the sense of wanting to gain more knowledge with how to create more fluent and realistic animated characters. I feel more comfortable with hand drawn animation with my tablet since the process is easy to pick up and with enough practice is a wonderful way to create life within the movement in hand drawn animation.
I’ve used the book “The Animators Survival Kit” as a base start with in my work to understand and practice the use of hand drawn animation. His walk cycle tutorials were the perfect starting off point, giving me knowledge with timing and spacing. I still need more practice with this technique since I feel I need to practice with different body types as well as different types of animals to really understand movement within animation.
After reviewing and collecting my drawings I completed for the summer product I’ve noticed an ever-growing interest in stop motion. This new love for this type of animation would be due to how perfect it blends into the horror genre creating a discomforting and unpleasant scenario whenever it is used.
This image is from an animation created by Suzie Templeton with the simple title of “Dog”, the animation dives straight into being uncomfortable, due to the almost but not quite realistic characters she uses, which makes the animation feel more grounded. This helps make whatever the characters do within the story more impactful thanks to the realistic story Suzie is telling.
Both hand drawn and stop-motion would be amazing to dive right into and see how I can improve with them both. On one hand, hand drawn animation gives me the visual freedom needed so I’m able to deform and exaggerate their expressions giving a more cartoonish but more variety within their performances.
While stop motion works far better within more realistic movements, creating a more discomforting experience due to its link to being uncanny.
Both types of animation have gained my interest and I would like to experiment with both types of styles, maybe even blend the two types together with simplistic and more inviting hand drawn animation mixing with the uncanny and unpleasant movements stop motion can offer could lead to an interesting visual spectacle if done correctly.
This was the first creations where we used a square, triangle and a circle to create different silhouettes. This would be used by taking a few of these silhouettes and change them into actual characters based on how the shape looks.
This is Rebels full design now cleaner and with colour.
used the book “The Animators Survival Kit” as a base start with in my work to understand and practice the use of hand drawn animation. His walk cycle tutorials were the perfect starting off point, giving me knowledge with timing and spacing. I still need more practice with this technique since I feel I need to practice with different body types as well as different types of animals to really understand movement within animation.
The Animation Blog 