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Reading and Writing:

Chapter 6:

 This chapter dives into the quality that sounds adds when applied to a video or animation. One thing that popped out to me right away was the notion of leading your video with sound. Honestly, when I storyboarded the ideas for my video, I knew that music would be in one of them (and ultimately, the one I went with). But, I didn’t go into that process with music in mind. That was the first creative edit I had to make in order to plan the way in which my animation was going to take shape.

I was also really interested in the way the chapter went into diegetic and non-diegetic sounds. Honestly, I don’t work with sound at all in most creative endeavors, and never realized how literal and non-literal audio are in categories of their own. I went in just kind of think “sound is sound” and really had to re-frame my thinking when choosing how and when to use these two types of audio and the effects that it will have on the project as I move through it.

The rest of the chapter seemed pretty straightforward to me and covered things like sound effects, music scoring for films/videos and the importance of timing. I’m really glad I did the reading before starting any filming because has shaped my thinking about the applications of these qualities as a part of the planning process. **EDIT** Now that I HAVE finished the video, I am even MORE thankful that I read this first. It would likely be a totally different kind of video if I hadn’t.

Chapter 7:

The one thing I love about this book, is that after reading a chapter like ‘Design Wonderland’, I really feel like I could jump into any type of unexplored creative endeavor with ease. It makes me feel confident, despite having no previous experience creating physical or social laws for a place that doesn’t exist.

But enough about that, I bet you’re wondering why I used an image from Disney’s Beauty  & the Beast here for this section. Well, it’s my earliest recollection of catching an issue with continuity, and it made me angry. If the Beast had been cursed for however many years, there is no way that his portrait would look the same then as he did in ‘real life’ when the curse is broken. This chapter touches on the importance of sticking to the rules that you create for yourself because no one wants to be caught out of line in their own made-up world.

I particularly felt more connected to the section about motion graphics and brand identity than other parts of this chapter. It just felt more applicable to the type of work that I do, and the real-world implementation of motion graphics. However, this section was REALLY short when I felt it could have an entire chapter dedicated solely to it, and that was a bummer.

Research to inform:

Audio Example:

I wasn’t expecting this video to be as amazing as it was, but it doesn’t miss a beat. The animation syncs with the music in ways I can’t imagine ever doing. Since my video will contain some combination of movement to music, I wanted to find a good example of this, and I couldn’t find anything better than this video.

This is another one I found and loved for its quirky nature and attention to sound design.

Text Example:

When I think of great text animation in a title sequence, I can’t help but think about the opening to ‘Catch Me if You Can’.

The combination of animation and music works perfectly together and the fluid movement of the text guides the viewer’s eyes across the screen in a very deliberate motion. I feel like I could watch this 100 times and always find something new to appreciate about it.

I love this show and equally love the opening credits. Even though it is short, I feel that the text really reflects the tone and visual movement, and complements it without overdoing it. An example of how sometimes, less is more.

Create:

What a rewarding experience to see the finished product after fighting with all the elements that go together to make a video like this. I learned a number of things:

• Cats make terrible actors, but that anything is possible with treats and toy mice filled with catnip.
• I should have got a more stable tripod to work on, as it was hard to keep the camera steady when facing towards the floor due to its weight.
• I feel like no amount of pre-planning really prepares you for getting in there and getting your hands dirty. I expected everything to go smoothly and to just follow my storyboard to the ‘T’ and well, let’s just say that I was happy we had three weeks to make this.
• Building on that, I was really hard on myself for not being able to get certain elements right the first time. A reminder that in the end, it can always work out.
• One element I could not get to work was some sort of animated text in the beginning and end credits. And since I left that task to the very last part of the process, I didn’t give myself enough time to get it right.
• When you make the choice to start filming a project in the evening, you are limiting yourself and your work hours – ESPECIALLY when you have so many damn windows in the background.
• Also, it was hard to do this in such a common area of the house – try telling a kid that the toys on the rug have to stay RIGHT WHERE THEY ARE for days at a time or insisting that the tripod CAN’T BE MOVED no matter how many times someone almost trips over it. Next time, I’ll use a more dedicated area.
• I didn’t anticipate the amount of work it would take to slice the video in order to speed up or slow down different sections. I took close to 400 photographs for this piece and uploaded them as one continuous video. I should have thought about creating smaller batches and then placing them back to back in order to eliminate all the chopping I had to do.

Overall, this was an amazing project, and something I would consider doing again if I get the opportunity to but will work in some of the unanticipated hangups into my pre-planning next time.

Non-Linear Storyboard:

Storyboard_NonLinear

Thoughts: This process was probably the easier of the two because I wasn’t as concerned about following any certain format, and was able to morph my thoughts to fit one of the non-linear styles. Because this story idea would be taking place in a “real world” setting, it meant I really had to look hard at the area in which I would set things up when sketching my storyboards instead of being able to be a bit more creative with my staging.

Why did you choose this story and format? My cat is kind of obsessed with sleeping on the record player as soon as we put an album on. Maybe it’s to music or vibration, but he goes right to sleep. After doing a test animation with clay, I thought it would be fun to utilize some toys in a similar fashion and the cat’s toys seemed like something fun I could tie in.

What challenges might come up? Well, I’m going to have to stage my cat to pull this off, and while my cat is pretty chill, I might have to try this in a number of different ways in order to get it right.

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Linear Storyboard:

Storyboard_Linear

Thoughts: This was a struggle…I am really no good at being forced into a creative headspace. I reviewed some of the earlier chapters of the textbook, and despite the feeling that I was capable, nothing was coming out. I knew I wanted to do something with construction paper cutouts, and we happened to be talking about David Bowie earlier in the day, which led me to an outer space theme and then it all kind of just poured out on to the paper.

Why did you choose this story and format? One of my favorite stop-motion pieces is The History of Typeography because of the paper cutouts, which is why thought it would be neat to employ that here.

What challenges might come up? Cutting up all the pieces and putting it all together may prove to be time-consuming and frustrating.

Are you leaning towards one or the other? I’m leaning towards the non-linear story because I think it will allow me to play a bit more and be more forgiving if/when I hit any roadblocks during the filming.

Original Animation:

I filmed this with my Nikon D7100, because the D810 I have was a bit too heavy for the tripod I was using at the time. Honestly, the entire process was much easier than I thought it would be. I think next time, I’ll use a remote because I noticed some of the camera shake from hitting the shutter button. I was impressed with how smooth the entire piece ended up being because I was afraid that I was moving the clay too much between shots. This exercise gave me a lot of confidence to complete the next module so I’m really looking forward to diving into a longer animation.

1:

I really enjoyed this one for its homemade, gritty feel. The animation isn’t always fluid, and the camera has a bit of a shake from frame to frame, but it is pretty amazing despite its imperfections and that I something I’d like to keep in mind while creating my pieces for the next module.

2:

This was a super creative video that I chose because of the amount of planning that must have gone into getting the final product. It has an interesting camera angle and is a good reminder that stop-motion animation isn’t limited to just inanimate objects.

3:

I chose this because I loved the movement and fluidity of the clay. I can’t even begin to hypothesize how some of this motion was created.

4:

I was fascinated by this reoccurring clip on Sesame Street as a child, so I thought I’d include it for purely sentimental reasons. It was interesting to go back and watch some of these so many years later and think about the work it must have been to manipulate the appearance of the cup to complete the scenes.

5:

This is another sentimental one but included for the intricate parts that all needed to be moved to make every part of the frame, particularly the reverberation of the bell that continues while another bell is being rung.

6:

I watched SO MANY of these and could see using Legos in order to get the hang ofstop-motion n animation. Legos seem like a forgiving medium to work with since they are so easily stabilized by being interlocked. Also, there really isn’t any way to achieve smooth fluidity with such stiff working parts.

7:

OK Go have some of the most creative music videos I have ever seen. I looked them up and came across this video that was done for Sesame Street which I hadn’t seen before. Another example of how people can be used in stop motion. I’m also pretty interested in incorporating post-it notes into an animation since they are pretty versatile, as seen below.