War Story Final Audio & Planning Visuals

When buying books for a possible aspect of collage animation, I was influenced by old war images to try to capture a war story effectively and perhaps using the collage animation to illustrate it. When I thought of such an idea, I got reminded of the fact that my Great Grandad (My Mum's Grandad) was a pilot in the RAF, and that before he had died, he'd written an account of writing that shared his memories in detail of his experience in World War II in the planes. As a starting point, I read this piece of writing and realised it had within it a range of stories of his past, some of which were hilarious. He'd written one about his colleague being shot down in a Spitfire, and for his funeral, my Grandfather and another pilot were given the job to fly over the sea in the Wellington Bomber and drop their colleague's ashes, however, the lid fell off the urn and ended up covering his fellow pilot in ash. I decided this would be a nice, lighthearted story to be told for my animation, so asked my Mum to retell it remembering him speaking to her about it.

Off The Record by Laura Sans

Off the Record is a documentary compiled by Laura Sans as a collection of designers across the creative industry and the world separated into chapters, talking about their work and how they think design is reflected in trends, distinctive styles and technologies. I think what is also interesting is how different teams worked for design, the film showed the contrast between smaller design companies with only a few designers collaborating with perhaps more similar styles, to bigger corporations who collaborate with bigger brands and seem to have a variety of styles and designers working for them, I found it interesting to hear their stories.
 There was a vast amount of designers featured in this film but I have noted down and researched some that really stood out to me.

Joshua Davis Studios- Joshua Davis
America
On his website, Joshua Davis is described as an 'American Designer, Technologist, Author and Artist in New Media.' he codes his own software and mostly works with Musicians and Festival events for visual installations normally shown above stage or against backdrops.

Joshua Davis was featured in the film, he spoke about trends in a way that I personally agree with and favoured, he said that he designs what he wants to design, yes he caters clients but he doesn't follow a trend, he follows his own trends. He spoke about his own alterations of style, how he used to draw only floral work, and used to obsess over floral designs and natural organisms represented in his work, and how he then got bored of such a style on moved onto more geometric styled themes.
I found on his website a lot of his work is now installation work for work with musical collaborations such as in arenas, and stadiums as well as clubs to go in synchronisation with the music played. I think this piece "Triangles" that Davis has produced successfully works with the music and fits what the client would be looking for in a music industry, which is something bright, flashy and on trend, and yet retains Davis' original style.
Davis spoke on the film about how he likes the visuals to seem like they belong with the music, and works closely with the musicians to ensure that the requirements for the music are successfully retained within the pieces.

Vasava Studio
Spain
Vasava is a design studio based in Spain who prides themselves of being unique. With a variety of different designers, their work is very broad ranged and in some ways exciting because of this. On their website they're described in a lighthearted and exciting way.

"When you visit them it feels more like a kitchen; a joyous and slightly anarchic space where a disparate group of talents cook up multifaceted creations"

Subtitled in Spanish translated to English, the designers you could tell were very excited and passionate about their work, they also discussed the aspect of trends relating to their work and they say although it seems they go with the flow dependant on the client, they try to still stand out in order to succeed and love what they're doing with their work. 

Discussion Forum I- Is having an Individual Style Important?

Danny & Nayeem: Is Having an Individual Style Important?
The first Discussion Forum of the year has been by Nayeem and Danny, exploring the question of whether or not having an individual style is important within the design industry due to change of trends etc.

Bill Lumby- God View Screenshots

The pair began by talking to us about a cinematographer Bill Lumby, who is a producer based in South London, his collection of films named 'God View' all inherit the same distinctive style, which he's become recognised and successful for, the discussion was then lead to whether or not it was best to have your own style or whether it is better to find success with following the trends.

Tim Burton Sketches

Due to mass internet success of certain artists and Youtubers, their videos become viral, and trends may start, and without such a trend some designer's work may not be as successful. In our discussion, we were unable to find the source of what starts these trends, whether it's a famous person on the internet leading their fans in a direction for a trend, or a designer accidentally starting a viral thread, each trend is a wave that we can follow or hinder to.
The discussion made me think on a larger scale of designers like animator and director Tim Burton, who has a gothic style, but when reading a book on Tim Burton he lists films he rejected due to them not matching his ethics, and his style, with him favouring darker, and more misunderstood character designs.
The question was asked to us 'Would you rather follow a trend or would you rather try and stand out?' with mixed views on this, we discussed the fact that although trying to stand out is quite hard, with nothing really being original, having being influenced by various artists and designers before us it's hard to try to think of something that hasn't yet been done, but, we found that as designers we would love to develop our own work and try and fit our style around our projects and future work, rather than restricting it to following the popularity and trends.

Personally I'd say that style isn't necessarily restricted to the final appearance of something, I feel that the actual process of design and the generation of ideas itself reflects your own style.  I think that it is possible as well to explore alternate medias but still retaining a style that is distinctive to yourself, and yet can cater to the requirements of a client perhaps. This was a point we all discussed in the forum too, and all agreed that we can retain a certain individual style without being too engrossed in following trends. In order to be more aware of trends however, we knew that researching and analysing what existing trends and work is out there and why they are so popular, in order to understand how your work could impact someone else in the long run, and whether it would fit in with the trend, without you needing to follow it.

Visual Response From Audio

"I was 22, it was November, I took a day off work, thinking nothing about it, until I got that phone call, first thing in the morning, from the hospital, your Dad's died. The world seemed to end, how was I going to tell my Mum? It was my brother's 21st birthday the day after, and I'd just got engaged. Time heals they say- it doesn't. the pain just gets number, yesterday I remembered how bad it had been. A white cyclamen reminds me of my Dad"

This was one of the first recordings I did and an audio I thought I may want to develop further, so I began making collages to show the audio in a visual respect. In order to visually respond to this audio I chose the aspect of using old collage illustrations from old books I collected, within these books I found a book on World War I & II which inspired me more, and realised my family have connections to such an era. When talking to my family about the war, my Mum started telling me about my Great Grandfather, who was a pilot in the RAF for World War II who flew a Wellington Bomber Plane. Collecting such books gave the inspiration for my Mum to retell one of his stories, which I recorded. Although I have produced some visual content for the first audio, it has inspired me further for this audio that I am really inspired by. 

"My Grandad told me this true story that happened to him while he was a pilot in the RAF during World War II, one of his colleagues had been shot down in a Spitfire, and they'd conducted a funeral service and were asked if they would go and fly over the sea in the Wellington Bomber and drop his ashes over the sea. This they dually did, and at 2 thousand feet they decided to drop the ashes, they'd already decided that they needed to put this through the camera chute as it was safer than dropping it through the hole in the floor, so, a guy went to drop the ashes, my Grandad carried on flying, and then turned round and was horrified to see this same guy come back covered in white powder. He said to him: "The Lid Fell Off"

Collage Animation Idea

After having collected my audio files, one that particularly moved me was the audio clip of my Mum discussing her father's death when she was only 22. Although I may not use this precise audio, it gave me a lot of visual ideas and explorations that I could go into, due to it being memory, and it being something nostalgic and painful, a visual idea I'd love to explore is the aspect of collage in animation, something I have never tried before.
 In addition, I'd like to experiment with different combinations of collage, be it stop motion alone or stop motion combined with digital elements added afterwards or overlaying the clip.
Old books with illustrations are an initial idea in response to collage animations, so I have visited a charity shop and bought a selection of old books to cut into and find inspiration and whether to explore the media further. I could also play with this idea, such as make the story be applied to a different generation, such as a modern story be applied to old photographs, adding a twist that maybe would supply some humour. As a creative starting point for this media, I have started to produce some visual collages in my sketchbook to try to develop a static first response to the audio, alike to what we did for the 'Tiger, Tiger burning bright' quote.

In Addition to collecting some materials for collage, I have also looked into some existing animations on Vimeo as some secondary Research to explore how others have tackled this media.
Brain Lapse from Jake Fried on Vimeo.
Although I can see that this media used in such a format would be extremely time consuming, I love the effect that is produced. Jake Fried, the designer and animator of this piece 'Brain Lapse' has used combined media elements of coffee, collage, ink and water, which successfully adds to a beautiful animation.

Air Review - Young. from MiraRuido on Vimeo.
I've also looked into the collage aspect in a different technique, here using old photographs edited on Photoshop and applied to After Effects, this animator has pieced together a music video that a band commissioned. The running boy which is a photo animation on loop, travels through alternate worlds with collage backgrounds and some with running film.

New York- Gallery, Studio & Museum Visits

Cooper & Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum Exhibition

Pixar: The Animation Story

When in New York, we ventured out to the Design Museum, where the exhibition of Pixar's production of character design, and setting design was being held. I personally have always had an interest in the aspect of the storyboard and initial sketches produced for such pieces, due to the raw characteristics they present.
The Design story was an exhibition set out between two rooms, the first was the initial designs of recent films such as 'Inside Out' and the sketches alongside, as well as the other films such as 'Up' and 'Brave' with sketches and animations that showed the process of the design, from storyboards, set designs and character sketches to the final product.
The Pixar Designer Peter Sohn who produced Academy Award-Winning films Finding Nemo, The Incredibles and WALL.E, his collection were shown in his home city New York.
Alongside the exhibition, we were given a programme that described the pieces, and also withheld an interview that the Cooper & Hewitt interviewer had conducted with Peter Sohn himself.

Musem of Modern Art New York. (Moma)

On one of the days we had a group visit to the Moma, an art gallery with a wealth of visual pieces for us to view. As well as the public gallery, we enlisted to view Picasso's sculpture collection.

Times Square - The Visual Arts

Through our visit to New York, although the general site seeing did appeal to me, something that definitely stood out both with interest and visual elements was Times Square. There is a vast amount of commercial advertising publicised on the huge screens mounted on the buildings. In general, there is a lot of consumerism in New York like any other city, with vast amounts of sales on stalls, in big companies and profitable organisations gaining commercial recognition from the big screens.

When standing and looking at the screens, I could tell that each advertisement had been carefully designed and planned out to catch the eye of the wondering tourist, or the busy New Yorkers.


Brief History of Times Square
Times Square began in the 1880's, starting as the 'Long Acre' a stretch of buildings with advertisements normally centred around horses.
However in the 1900's the evolution of electricity had impacted the settlement, and produced a nicer, safer environment for the people there, adapting the electricity to displays to bring in and welcome newcomers to what would soon be a large city. With technology constantly evolving, and coloured television and animation coming into the 20th and 21st century, the screens were a big kick off for the advertising and marketing industry.
Since opening of Times Square in a commercial way, there were designers who designed the huge billboards that covered the sides of the buildings, however in the 1990's LED technology had grown in popularity and had become a sustainable way of catching people's eyes. The LED screens are now either rented or bought by large businesses and corporations who can spend over $2.5 million to place their advertisements on the screens.

Technology In Times Square
Although popular technology of LED light screens are used for mostly all of the screens in Times Square, the set up and sustainability of the square relies on the technicians who ensure the screens can run for the demanding 24hours and 7day week running times, and for the 'city that never sleeps' this is of upmost importance.
In 1998 the first testing of affordable LED lights came to play, alongside ABC News, using software to synchronise the screens with the image, making it curve, or flatten dependant on the screen itself.
The resolution of the screens has improved over time, with some screens running in ultra HD whereas the older screens retaining the pixelated resolution in wider spaced plates on the screen.
 Behind each screen is a wealth of wires and a hard-drive that stores all the advertisement files, each checked on daily by a technician.






Design of Times Square
Times Square itself supports over 385,000 jobs, including technicians for the LED screens, but also the designers who carefully design, adapt and synchronise their designs to the screens on display.

Information Sourced from:
http://gizmodo.com/how-times-square-works-1582269710?utm_expid=66866090-67.e9PWeE2DSnKObFD7vNEoqg.0&utm_referrer=http%3A%2F%2Fgizmodo.com%2Fhow-times-square-works-1582269710
http://www.timessquarenyc.org/times-square-arts/projects/midnight-moment/servitudes/index.aspx

Laser Cutting Experimentation

Rick is introducing us to the aspect of laser cutting, a technique I have never approached in practice, I'm looking forward to the approach to this method to see whether it inspires any ideas in evolution of this project.
Before selecting something to try out on the laser cutter, I decided to look into some existing artists that I could refer to, these artists have helped to inspire how to acquire new skills and how to approach the technique.

Gabriel Schama
During the process of researching some existing artists who develop the laser cutting technique, I came across this artist who works primarily with the laser cutting technique. I personally adore Mandala geometric patterns and shapes, so favoured this artist when I came across him on the internet, I was drawn to the abstract layers that ultimately and beautifully build up into mostly portraits or mandala-esque designs.
The artist who has his own laser cutter, mostly produces geometric patterns, which he then works on to build up into more intricate layering up.
 If I were to use the laser cutting method, I think the aspect of layering up numerous cuts to produce an outcome is definitely something that I personally would strive towards.

The most eye-catching pieces he produces for me, seems to be the beautiful silhouette style portraits he produced, where the outline is filled in with intricate layers of laser cut wood. I personally really like this idea, but it reminded me of the audio I produced of my Mum talking about the death of her father, a very powerful piece of audio, which I think I could elaborate on in this way. However, I'd like to approach the audio in a more metaphorical way, maybe with cogs turning in the head, making things as if they are 'Running Like Clockwork' a metaphor, as she begins the audio speaking about her thinking it was like another day.

 In addition to this, I looked into the aspect of using the laser cutter to build up layers, and found this short clip on a professor who explores how intricate you can go with the aspects of laser cutting, something I think is more effective.


Virginia Tech: Eric Standley from VirginiaTech on Vimeo.

'Journey' - Rachel Milner

Journey from Rachel J Milner on Vimeo.
When on Vimeo, I came across this interesting concept, of illustrating an aspect that can't visually be seen, in this instance, it's the sending of a text message, following the message on a journey, from one person's device to another.
The animation follows an array of letters, flowing through the sky like a flock of birds, as the camera seems to follow the letters, as if the viewer is part of the journey.
It ventures through a city, across a train track, over mountains, a forest and finally over to the sea.
The minimalistic animation used helps develop the importance of the message and the digital aspect it represents. I really like the idea of visually representing something that can't physically be witnessed in transit.

Richard Feynman- Ode to A Flower

Richard Feynman - Ode To A Flower from Cub Studio on Vimeo.
Here is an existing animation found in relation to the project, here an interview is animated to add more visual emphasis on what the interviewee is saying, and emphasising his points.
I like the style of the 2D colourful animation, as I found it's powerful and emphasises the necessary points needed.
The animator has visually added bright, and powerful illustrations but also his own sounds made, Foley of the flower snapping and bees buzzing, as well as the music in the background that is added on top of the existing dialogue.

'Conversation Pieces'- Aardman Animation

In order to have an insight into the animations and stories that are already out there, I have begun researching some already produced. Aardman Animation studios are famous for their innovative techniques when it comes to stop motion animation, one that has stood out to me in accordance to the brief is 'Conversation Pieces' which is a 1982 series produced by Aardman Animations which is a collection of real life conversations, recorded in different scenarios, and used as a basis of the animation, the conversations themselves retain their own colloquialisms and nice relaxed aspects, that you would only truly have in a recording that isn't scripted or set up like in an interview.

Hidden Stories

When looking into the aspect of telling stories that most may not think twice about, I came across this video on Youtube, by campaign group 'Rethink Homelessness' based in Orlando. I found the aspect itself moving in the fact that it explores the stories that people overlook and walk past, successfully making people wonder about the homeless stories.
I personally think that the aspect of strangers stories are interesting starting points for this project and could maybe be explored. Although this isn't the same style of storytelling, I completely admire the structure and idea behind it that could be explored further in the technique of animation and motion design.

Kelly Vivanco

Through the study of the Visual Exploration project, relating visual concepts to poetry, it reminded me of the theme of wonder, existentialism and the aspect of creativity.
When looking into artists that withhold such themes, I came across Kelly Vivanco, an illustrator and graphic designer who features her illustrations around the theme of wonder. Each of her characters' features reflects such wonder, confusion and dubious nature, something she also symbolises through her work.
 Alike to Blake's use of symbolism in the poem 'The Tyger' Vivanco also uses symbolism in her pieces, as most of the wonder contributed in her pieces is sourced by a theme of travel, with the houses depicting the characters taking their home and birth right with them, easily shown in the portrait of a boy with a house backpack design.

In addition to this, the characters always depict an unknown identity and make the viewers wonder who these people are, and why they have ventured out in alternate lands, this also links back to the poem, as the poet William Blake often questions the higher power who created the tiger and lamb, and how that could be so.

Vivanco prides her pieces as being a venture into the unknown, with an air of mystery surrounding them and the characters in them. The composition of which the characters are sat or posed also shows insecurity and tension for both the artist and the viewer, such as the character looking at something in the distance that the viewer can't see, or staring down at something, allowing the viewer to make their own minds up about what is there and why.

Professional Options- PDP

Project B- Visual Exploration

The Tyger Poem Visualisation Task
For this section of the brief, it's more the visual exploration side of the aspect of storytelling. The poem 'The Tyger' by William Blake, is one that we were given a quote* from to explore further in visual symbolism. I first of all produced a spider diagram and annotations on the poem to explore what my interpretations of the quote were in regards to the rest of the poem. In addition to this, I also made a small mood board in my sketchbook to represent my first thoughts, connotations and ideas in relation to the concepts and themes in the poem.
*"Tyger, Tyger burning bright, through the forests of the night"
Innocence and Ferociousness- Innocence and ferociousness are two contrasting main themes in the poem, the poet is questioning the creator of the world, God or otherwise, a higher power. The poet questions the innocence of a lamb in comparison to the ferociousness yet beauty of a tiger, and tries to comprehend how and why such a creator could create such a ferocious beast and yet such a good, and innocent animal as a lamb. In addition to this, the inclusion of blacksmith jargon shows symbolism of the God's higher power, the poet symbolises and relates God to a blacksmith with his 'anvil' and 'furness' to compare his creations to those of works of art or pieces of craftsmanship, instead of mistakes made.I also explored the aspect of dark and light tones within small mark making with acrylic paints, with red undertones, referencing to the blacksmith furness symbolism etc. 
Drawing, Painting and Stick& Ink
Having never have read the poem properly before, the first aspect I felt that the poem symbolised was a sense of good and evil, light and dark, with the tiger 'Tyger' representing a creation of evil, whilst the lamb a symbolisation of good.
Therefore, my first exploration of visual concepts derived from the aspect of good and evil, so I used minimalist tones of black and white to produce ink drawings and mark making as a starting point for the brief.

For the production of the mark making and experimentation with ink, I tried out different approaches than the usual, to begin to explore new techniques.
 I explored the aspect of using Indian Ink and a stick to produce loose and wild marks on the paper, and spreading the liquid through air, blowing through a straw. I felt these methods produced compositions that showed some sort of ferocity, with jagged lines and details, something I also felt the poet wanted to be conveyed in the metaphor with the tiger.
Symmetry through 'Snowflake' Technique

"What immortal hand or eye, could frame thy fearful symmetry?" 
Symmetry is a theme behind the poem I felt I could explore further, and within experimenting in my sketchbook, I recalled the technique of making 'snowflake' designs from paper, but decided to adopt it into more complex designs to represent Symmetry and design, alike cogs in shape, and furness themed colours of warm tones of oranges, reds and yellows.

Colouring and painting the paper I cut up first with acrylic paints and oil pastels, added the furness colours in the background, which I then used a compass to draw and cut out, and then cut the folds around the snowflake.
Overall, I like these compositions the best, as I feel they successfully symbolise the metaphorical aspect of the poem, which is questioning the creator being a craftsman, like the delicate forms that these paper outlines also symbolise. I produced a series of these cut outs, I feel the curved lines represent the aspect of innocence alike the lamb in the poems William Blake wrote, whilst the jagged, zigzag lines could represent the terror and ferocious nature that a tiger may symbolise.
Photography & Video
As well as wanting to represent the aspect of good and evil, I like the section of the quote that symbolises the fact that the tiger is something created beautifully and shines with deliberation. Relating to the 'burning bright', I took a few shots on my iPhone, as I knew this would produce blurred but bright light effects at night due to the low shutter speeds. Due to the project being given to us on the week of Bonfire Night, I decided that this was a perfect opportunity to explore the aspect of bright lights and blurs, luminous occurrences that link back to the furness references in the poem and the aspect of the Tyger burning bright and being seen in the dark forest.

I also did a short video clip of a firework going off to convey the brightness and luminous nature such a metaphor Blake wanted to present.
I have also applied a filter on top to add more of  a contrast for the light and dark aspect of the video.

Project A- Audio Exploration

For the audio exploration task, I'm with the understanding that ultimately it is to experiment with the different styles of storytelling within audio. There is the set up interview style with pre-constructed questions, and then there is the more casual recording of a conversation or story without the permission until after the recording is produced, in a release form.
If permission cannot be given by those recorded in the audio, a transcript must be made and the voices not used directly in public if the audio is outputted publicly instead of for private use. I intend to research further into the rules and regulations behind recording, and the history of transcripts etc.

For my first exercise, as practice, I interviewed Rachel, trying to get her to carry on talking without me having to prompt her. Although there was a wealth of information in what she says, it's obvious that she isn't as relaxed and open as she would've been had she not have been recorded, hence why comparisons can be made between interview style recordings and recordings that are hidden until after the recording has been completed.
I produced an array of clips, some are recordings that were recorded unbeknown to those in them, and others were set up with prepared questions to make the person involved speak further.

Final Animation Evaluation