Posts tagged: animation

Reading & Writing

Chapter 8: Techniques

This chapter covered a lot of the creative choices a filmmaker has when heading into the home stretch of an animated project. Mainly, it discussed the differences between technique and style, listing such technical options as implementing hand-drawn art, 2D stop motion, 3d stop-motion, 2D CGI and 3D CGI, and stylistic choices such as fluid transitions, Kinetic art, handmade, collage, film, and 3D.

What kind of surprised me was that this chapter was so close to the end of the book. I feel like if you commit to a technique and style early in the process it can affect all of the other parts of the pre-production timeline that we have already covered. Like, if I decided to go with a hand-drawn animation, the colors I chose for it might be more natural and toned down than if I went with a 3D CGI technique, where brighter, vibrant colors and texture might be employed. The asset-building process covered at the beginning of the book will likely look vastly different depending on these qualities.

I suppose that is where the adapt and adjust methods may come into play. I think that just as a personal habit, I struggle with this. When I get my mind set on something and I want it to work a certain way (while editing photos, for example), I plan around that vision. And that plan starts before I even get to the location of the thing I want to photograph. To get to the editing process and find that I need to make a number of creative changes would feel agonizing to me. When we made the cinemagraphs earlier this semester, I had to go back to a location to film THREE times because I wasn’t willing to adjust to the situation I found myself in so far into the process. So because of that, I feel that I would need to make these technique and style choices much earlier on.

Research to Inform:

1. Squash & Stretch

I think that this might be my favorite principle of animation, which is why I chose it. I think there is just something visually pleasing about following the motion with your eyes and getting the satisfaction of seeing a realistic movement when the ball hits the “floor”.

2.    Anticipation

Is it just me, or does this guy look like Mr. Darling from Disney’s animated 101 Dalmations? Either way, I really liked the slow-motion visual of the character getting into a jumping position and knowing what is about to happen before the follow-through of the movement.

3. Arc

I chose this one because I like how the animation went through two cycles – one, which gives you a nice dotted line to follow in order to see the direction of the animation, and then the second, which removes the line so you see it again. Because you’ve already seen the dotted line, you follow the animation as if they were there, which gives you a clearer example of how the animation would look as a part of a longer piece.

4. Exaggeration

I chose this just because of how goofy it was. It’s an advert for Deer repellent, but it uses an over the top animation to get it’s point across.

5. Staging

I liked this one because I’ve worked in that sort of cubicle environment before and it wouldn’t be weird to pop your head up over the wall and greet the head of a co-worker when a grumpy manager was fuming in the general vicinity. I don’t know what happens next in this narrative, but it certainly stages the idea that an intervention of some type may take place, and because that can be easily concluded, this example does its job well.

Original Stinger:

I’m on the organizing committee for the community event, Make Music Worcester. It’s a part of an international day of music that takes place each year on June 21st. This is our second year putting this event on and we decided that this year, we’d like to create a 2 minute video that showcases events throughout the day that we can show to potential funders in the future when we are applying for grants. I designed the logo for the event last year, and since we would be making this video this year, it seemed appropriate to use this logo to create a stinger animation with so that we can start off our fundraising video with it.

It was hard to get all of the motions synced up just right. I’m happy with the way the microphone, saxophone, and maracas (as well as the text) enter the scene, but I wanted the accordion to kind of hop and hobble in and while it does that to a degree, it was harder to get it to its final position due to this. All of the other elements have smoother transitions, which made it easier to slide into place. I chose that sound clip because I wanted the fun logo to be matched with something simple and uncomplicated, but also kind of silly. All in all, I think it came out pretty well and I’m happy with the final product.