Edgar Degas.

Edgar Degas is an artist I chose to study in relevance to the previous capturing of motion in paintings that we have briefly looked at. Degas was an artist I came across when conducting research on my Context Issues and Practice essay, when looking into Wassily Kandinsky and the abstract movement.
Degas was a realist artist who progressed in capturing the movement of ballet as an underlying theme, his charcoal and pencil drawings along with his complex oil compositions captured the movement intended in two dimensional form due to the blurred lines and colours used. I found research into this artist interesting especially after having been given the project of 'Things to Notice' in the past.
Degas' feathered, weaker lines represent past movements taken by the ballet dancers involved in the compositions, and often draw the viewer's eye around the negative space and through the movements created with the implications of the lines.

Kinetic Verb- Production of Sounds.

Monday 15th December 2014
In order to produce an effective outcome for the overall animation, it's wise to refer back to the Foley that we produced. For the Foley of these animations, here are a few ideas.

JUMP-
  • Energetic noise - spring noise, 'BOING' sound
  • The tension building up to the jump = some  tension being created
  • Dropping noise
LIFT
  • Scraping noise for the action of actually picking something up
  • Hard solid noise
  • Machine noises, highlighting the industrialisation idea that I had thought of when researching into 'Lift' with the aspect of using a forklift as inspiration.
  • Electric shavers, electronic humming noises
  • Scraping aspects.
  • Engines
  • Computer sounds 
  • Metallic objects together
  • Clanking noises
JUMP - 
  1. Creation of the sounds for jump included scratching of a back scratcher (metallic sounds repeated throughout) as a cause for tension. 
  2. Scrapings of various metals for the tension of the crouching also. 
  3. A lense blower (blows out air to clean lenses on cameras) to produce a 'whoosh' 
  4. Clanking on wood to produce a 'thud' 
LIFT- 
  1. Phone recorded on vibrate (using start and end tool selecting the vibration noise and repeating it to produce a monotone vibrate noise) to achieve industrialised sounds
  2. Tilting metal pieces and clanking them down.
  3. Ball rolling against surface for scraping sound that the forklift was supposed to create. 

Frida Kahlo - Context Review.

 The lecture on Frida Kahlo, was to help reflect the style in which we could express our own artists in the Issues and Practices Essay. There is the research process to break down the information and events of the artist's lives and then there is the overall application of relating the events to the practice of the artist's work.
Such things were highlighted that could be considered for this research process:

  • Family and country dynamics
  • Illness and personal dynamics
  • Entry into Art
  • Position as an Artist
  • Love, Marriage, Despair, personal relationships.
  • Politics
  • Movements 
  • Constructing Identities.
The overall research and points were made about Frida Kahlo to help to restrict the important movements in her life and apply them to how this effected her work. The first underlying points of her personal life and other politics of the time were highlighted efficiently in this process.

  • Mother controlled family life
  • Born into a Mexican family in 1900's
  • Uprising of Mexicans
  • Revolution of the Civil War
  • Mexican Revolution
  • Illness- caught Polio at the age of 9
  • 3000 children died of Polio - made her have a limp, and frail leg
  • Isolated as a child
  • One weaker leg
  • Interested in medicine due to her Father's influence
  • Had an accident that punctured her abdomen (a pole went through her) in a tram/bus crash.
  • Started to paint when recovering from the accident
  • Bedbound so painted a lot
  • "The Accident" 1926 - Reflects pain and trauma of the experience
  • Intense and needy relationships
  • Affair with Diego Rivera - 'Peasants' 1947 -his work
  • He was a communist
  • Rivera was someone she looked up to - influenced her idea of politics
  • Part of their culture to have more than one ongoing relationship
  • Rivera directed her artwork and political values
  • Rivera influenced her to look back at her Mexican roots.
  • Spanish Culture 16th Century onwards - influenced her
  • Researched into the Aztecs that were there to begin with - primitive styles
  • 21st August 1929 - Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera's wedding day.
  • Referred to as 'the Elephant and the Dove' - a toad like man in appearance.
  • Known to have fallen in love with his power and intelligence not looks.
  • Symbolism
  • Strands of Mexican culture began to influence her work further 
  • Mexico's relationship with America influenced her movements
  • She saw industrialisation and machinery as bad forces due to her accident
  • Unable to trust machinery
  • Influence of Mexican ketablo - votive paintings (a painting depicting an accident or event)
  • Produced a votive painting about her accident.
  • Diego Rivera's war mural 'Man, controller of the Universe' 1934, controversial content- further influences Kahlo's political views.
  • Lennon hiding in the mural- caused chaos. Court case ordered because of it.
  • Numerous operations to fix her problems due to the accident
  • Always painted in hospital
  • "The Flying Bed" 1932- Produced in hospital
  • Miscarriage after miscarriage due to the damage of her accident
  • Really wanted a child and family with Diego
  • "Frida Kahlo- My Birth" 1932
  • Death of Mother
  • "What the Water gave me" -1938
  • Surrealist movement influence
  • Marcel Duchamp helped her set up and exhibition
  • "The Little Deer" 1938 - Exhibition work - testicles on deer- bisexuality? Impossibility to have a child? - SYMBOLISM.
  • Affairs with men and women (Rivera also having numerous affairs)
  • Marriage Problems
  • Splits from Rivera
  • Decides to get back with Rivera but with no sexual relations
  • Becomes like a mother figure to Rivera
  • Surrogate children in animals-  takes on several exotic pets.
  • Diego Rivera "Mexico Today and Tomorrow" 1934-35 - Arrested by Police and put under suspicion due to strong political messages.
  • Frida Kahlo "a Few Little Pricks" 1935 - self portrait - shows pain and suffering
  • Cropped hair in 1940 - starts to dress like a man again - cuts off the hair Rivera used to love.
  • Due to Diego, she sheds her identity
  • "The Broken Column" 1944- showing the difficulties with her spine.
  • Constant expressions of her pain
  • Many operations
  • Wheelchair bound due to operations
  • Amputated her weak leg
  • A sad time in her life was when wheelchair bound - time of depression.
  • Aztec costumes
  • Pretending she's brave when in agony.
  • "She signalled the movement when women artists began to break the historic silence about women's experiences" - Judy Chicago 2010
After having listed all these points there was then an overall review of what was involved and how these applies to the practice.

  • Spinal Problems
  • Polio
  • Depression
  • Countless Operations
  • Accident
  • Heritage
  • Hatred of Industrialisation
  • Change of Identity
  • Betrayal 
  • Suicide
  • Lack of fertility 
  • Marriage Problems
  • Miscarriages
  • Gender
  • Disability
  • Economics
  • Class

Kinetic Verb 'LIFT'.

I've used the word Lift as an effective verb to be used with an additional element. (In this case the additional element being a line) The behaviour of the word I wanted was to capture the essence of being a heavy group of objects being gathered and then lifted by what I'd like to resemble is a fork lift truck. Through my research I learnt the behavioural patterns of lifting and how it can be associated with different forms of lifting. I looked into lifting weights, the mechanical forms of lifting, and simple lifting of objects. However I decided that lift with additional features of resembling a fork lift truck would be most effective to use for this design.
From the first attempt of the animation, I liked the interaction between the line and letters, but I wasn't so sure about the interaction of the bases against the white. The letters sat below the top of the shape and it just didn't look right, it seemed to appear more like the letters had sunk into the shape rather than being carried by it. Due to this, I learnt to prepare the letters to sit on the line of the shape instead to look more like it was carrying the letters upwards.

After having altered the key points in synchronisation with the changes to the Rotation and Position, I liked the position of the letters on the shape overall. However, I felt there were necessary changes that needed to be made to the letters to make the movement after they were scooped up less energetic, as they seemed to have someone got the energy from nowhere, and they appeared to be swaying in the wind rather than wobbling from the force of the lift. Therefore, I chose to improve on this copy further, making a duplicate of the composition with 'Ctrl D' to ensure that I could alter the movement whilst still noting the progress that has taken place.
There was also the consideration that had to made of the speed of the letters, using the research that I had collected, I referred to the fact that I wanted the shape and text to resemble a crate and fork lift truck, lifting the letters with strain but still reminding the audience of the lift movement and that it is industrialised rather than say a human lifting a box etc. Doing the research earlier onwards really helped to imagine what I actually needed to capture.

Kinetic Verb 2 - Research.

Initial ideas:

  • Pivot
  • Crunch
  • Lift
LIFT
Considerations-
  1. Overall weight and mass of the design 
  2. What sort of lift is it? 
  3. What is being lifted?
  4. What is it being lifted by?
'Lift' could vary overall, to what is being lifted to begin with to how it's being lifted. Maybe by a person or fork lift? Maybe a rectangle shape lifting the word onto a platform? 

Boxtrolls 2014.

 Boxtrolls is a 96 minute feature length stop motion film that explores use of customised puppets and intricate sets. I've been looking into some research into how the Boxtrolls was delicately produced with numerous character puppets and their alternate reactions. Alike to many stop motions of its time, it required an abundance of patience and delicate engineering to ensure that the stop motion ran smoothly and efficiently with the money and time given. The sets were produced in large scale designs, ensuring that movement and detail could be captured in more detail. The longest stop motion to hit the screens to date, the Boxtrolls really in my opinion from what I've seen captures an entertaining plot line with simple animation elements.
Laika who's produced other animations in the past (none as successful) speak of how the intricacies take a lot of time and patience which is crucial in the overall success. They even produced an intricate water system to replicate the sewers which looks beautiful when captured on camera.


Tim Burton Stop Motion.

Tim Burton is one of the many people who's animation has shaped the very aspect of motion design. His stop motion puppeteering produced some beautiful and quite dark movements, and how it's made videos like this show the intricate details that are considerate for the production overall. It's interesting when you look into Burton's original drawings and sketches and see how ideas are catalogued and changed from the original ideas to conceptual animations.
Looking back at some of his storyboards also develops the fact that Burton starts with a simple idea and further adapts these drawings into new storyboards. From this sort of research I've decided to begin my own sketchbook involving sketches and drawings separate to my other sketchbook, as this sketchbook will hopefully help to develop inspiration and ideas that could lead to storyboards and future animations.

Even some of the pencil sketches here are beautifully placed together to show his original idea development, starting with sketches and building up to more intricate plans. For each of his beautiful stop motion feature films there are many sketches and drawings leading up to it first. Such films as his recent film 'Frankenweenie' has the sketches that were originally constructed 20 years before the film was produced. It goes to show that simply sketching characters and drawings could develop into future work, even if it is many years afterwards Tim Burton catalogues and collects his drawings together.
 To ensure that the whole team of animators knows what the story entails and the overall aspects of the characters themselves, it's clear that Tim Burton would have to first off ensure that they knew what was involved via diagrams and storyboards, probably presented to the team individually dependant on their roles in the production. The quite sinister qualities of his illustrations can be captured in stop motion animation in a way that couldn't be captured in a live shot ideally with the allowance of being viewed by young audiences due to the dark nature that most of his animations include. (Such as Frankenweenie, Corpse Bride etc.) Development of the ideas could range in media that then produces prototypes for the animation, with sculptured models etc.
 Pencil sketches to start with are a primary element to include and then they'll be beautifully developed into more elaborate animations.
Burton was recently asked to produce a short trailer to advertise the MoMa exhibition. So here's a look into the making of the trailer, he brought in his co-workers from the 2005 film 'Corpse Bride' to help out. The storyboard and overall sketches included on the site are also rather amazing to see the development that actually took place.
 Reading through the article on the 'How it's Made' section of Tim Burton's MoMa trailer, I found it interesting of how certain points were explored and why and how. (Information found on http://www.moma.org/explore/inside_out/2009/11/13/the-making-of-tim-burton-s-moma-animation/)
“Typically a puppet character can take anywhere between twelve to eighteen weeks to produce,” says Pickersgill, “But Tim’s design lent itself to a very economical build and we put the puppet together in just ten days, probably something of a record!”
 The sketches alike to those of 'Corpse Bride' etc. were extremely helpful to Burton and his team for a visual understanding of what needs to be produced and how. Sculptors needed to know how to produce the puppet and what it needed to involve etc. For example, you can see in the photographs included that the  sculptors based their designs on Burton's sketches, showing that visually they relied on the sketches to give them the information and data that they needed to produce the correct idea and bring the inspiration of the idea to life.

The detail of the character and what it involved would have to be carefully considered to ensure that they had the right time and budget to produce the short stop motion animation. The overall trailer took a total of 3 days, but with a simple background setting didn't require the production of intricate sets etc.


"Tim wanted the robot and the balloon against a flat grey background. It was great because it further emulated the look of his original pen-and-ink drawings on a plain sheet of paper. We had three days to shoot the whole piece and my first take had to be right. I’d spent a day the previous week videoing myself performing the robot part. You feel a bit silly but Neil Sutcliffe, who edited the footage into his animatic, was very kind. He didn’t laugh too much!”" - Martin Kelly: Animator.

Kinetic Verb Production.

Within the research produced, I had a further understanding of the behaviour and physics of the word 'Spring', it was easier to plan out how the kinetic verb would react to such behaviours. However, during the production of such a word in After Effects, it had become clear that it was a complex procedure to ensure that the word mimicked the realistic aspects of behaviour that I wanted to achieve. It was decided that although this word had been quite effective in theory, it was extremely difficult to be captured by me as I have only just been introduced to the software and the controls.
The overall animation looks alright, with adaptive uses of consideration of 'Squash & Stretch', 'Slow In Slow Out' (Easy Ease) and a massive amount of 'Anticipation' used for the build up of the spring. However, I found myself needing a lot of assistance for the complexities of the physics behind the spring and began to feel demoralised and frustrated by the task.
Therefore I have decided to use this as a learning point and move onto a more tactile word to explore further.

After having explored 'Spring' I ventured into the production of the alternate word 'Jump' a word that I found would be a simpler and more playful word to use in the introduction to After Effects.
                                                                         

Coraline.

Recently I watched a film called 'Coraline' a feature length stop motion film produced with handmade puppets and painted sets. I knew after watching this a few times previously that their was the basic idea that I was aware of it being the puppets, but I've always wanted to research into it further, such research is on 'how it's made' videos, accessed on the DVD itself or on streaming sites such as Youtube.
Extraordinarily there were in fact 6, 300 replacement face pieces with over 207, 000 possible facial reactions. A catastrophic amount of attention to detail and expense went into the making of the puppets who made up each scene. Each animator completed 2 to 7 seconds of animation a week with over 70 cast members working on wig design, puppeteering etc for the 24fps film to take place.
 
 With production of ideas, Coraline's characters had to be perfect. It can be seen in the videos that the character development was key to the research of Coraline with the overall sketches and drawings to start off the ideas. Coraline herself had to be carefully considered, how conceptual can the plans be? Such characteristics as her blue hair were later added to the production plans to produce a more vibrant idea.



Engine Dissection- Stop Motion.


I came across this stop motion animation and found it inspiring that not only had the animator (an engineer by trade named Chris Herridge) used the animation to entertain, but also to demonstrate the technical practices of the engine being dissected and reassembled. That when paired up with the dramatic music track produces an aspect of tension and action within such a simple sequence as taking an engine apart. An extremely time consuming task but clearly very worthwhile, it's almost as if the whole thing is a form of choreographed dance.

The Pixar Story 2007- Full Length Documentary.

I recently in my own time watched a documentary (sourced on film streaming site Netflix) on Pixar's journey through evolving animation from the popular two dimensional characters (Most popularly Disney creations) into more contemporary three dimensional films we know today.
 I found the documentary pretty inspiring with alternate viewpoints from John Lasseter, Brad Bird, Steve Jobs and Tom Hanks. The handwork of the animators into particular successes such as their first three dimensional success of 'Toy Story' evolved into eight more hits, it also narrated that whilst the three dimensional developments were a success, there was a gradual decline of two dimensional animations such as the workings of Disney, causing a suggestion of teamwork of Pixar and Disney together as a whole, all funded to begin with by Steve Jobs.

Pictures sourced from http://www.magicofdisneyart.co.uk
It showed the development of initial drawings and storyboards of alternate animated short films that then developed into the long films we watch today. Such beautiful animations developed such as:

  • Finding Nemo
  • Toy Story
  • The Incredibles
  • Monster's Inc.
  • Bug's Life
  • Cars
  • Wall.e
  • Up

Manchester Metropolitan University Library Visit

Friday 28th November 2014
Upon our visit to Man Met Library facilities, I came across a series of books in the animation section of the library. My favourite of these books were 'Mickey Mouse- by Pierre Lambert (Foreword by Roy E. Disney)' and 'Disney Animation - The Illusion of Life by Frank Thomas & Ollie Johnston' I found these books particularly interesting as they included original copies of Disney's storyboards, which inspired me into my own storyboards and currently producing in the planning for the Animation Principles Kinetic Verb brief. 
It was apparent that with Disney, animation wasn't something that had been really gone into much detail before, so making their own rules and regulations into the Principles of Animation I found really interesting. 

"When we consider a new project, we really study it... not just the surface idea, but everything about it." - Walt Disney
I found the original principles and the overall detail of this book rather inspiring and it has made me want to research further into Disney's original ideas and set ups of his animation. The copies of his original storyboards were magical, you could clearly see his thoughts and ideas and the production of better thoughts being evolved within the drawings and sketches produced.
The book 'Disney Animation- The Illusion of Life' was particularly inspiring with the detailed application of physics into the animation, with considerations of what movements apply to alternate animations.

Such principles that we'd been introduced to were highlighted such as the jargon that Disney produced. The usual animation principles that we'd been introduced to were named in the book as just original ideas that soon developed into rules of the trade, unbeknown to the people that originally made them.

  1. Squash & Stretch
  2. Anticipation
  3. Staging
  4. Straight Ahead Action and Pose to Pose
  5. Follow Through and Overlapping Action
  6. Slow In and Slow Out
  7. Arcs
  8. Secondary Action
  9. Timing
  10. Exaggeration
  11. Solid Drawing
  12. Appeal

Mikey Please

With the amount of dark and dingy looking photographs and fragments taken previously at the Courtyard a couple of weeks ago, Kris mentioned the Oscar Award Winning Animator Mikey Please, who's work also resembles a dark side to animation. The short films I found particularly inspiring with the stop motion foam material used, and the intricacy that has gone into the animation is beautiful. You really get a sense of an alternate reality in his pieces, a different world accumulated by such detailed and beautiful sources of techniques.