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. 

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? 

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.

                                                                         

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

Kinetic Verb Research

Tuesday 25th November 2014
After having caught up on the kinetic verb brief, I am currently researching into a word that I think will be effective.

SPRING

The word spring I decided would be a good word to explore, the first build up of the word coiling back down to the ground and then springing upwards with both energy and tension. 

One of the first things I thought about when thinking about the energy of a bounce a spring makes is how these characteristics are applied to characters in a hyperbolic cartoon environment. The first instance of this became evident when I realised the character's connection to the word and an alternate outcome compared to the realism of kinetic physics. The character in question is 'Winnie the Pooh's Tigger, an energetic tiger character that springs up and down on its tail to travel, I found this interesting in the research of the word to see how different animators approach the characteristics of bouncing and springing.
Primary Research

'JUMP'

An additional idea was the idea for the word 'JUMP' with similar aspects of movement, but with less complex forms of behaviour, perhaps a better attempt for animating on the new software. I have learnt that the software itself can be challenging for new comers with complex words, so perhaps a research into this word itself will be more beneficial.
In first instances with jump I think of what does jump, primarily people, athletes, children etc, as well as some animalistic behaviour of jumping such as penguins and kangaroos etc. Obvious aspects have to be considered in order for this word to work out well, one of which is the aspect of weight, shape and size to be considered for the physics behind the animation. For example, a human's size and weight would be extremely impacting on the length and height of the jump. The same considerations I will have to make for this word, how high will it manage to get to? How can we further generate a hyperbolic sense without taking away the realism of the jump? Maybe an aspect of 'Squash & Stretch' could be used within the animation to produce an effect. I'm imagining the word crouching down with use of 'Anticipation' and then held for a few seconds, and then eventually built up into the full jump and then fall back down.

Kinetic Verb Brief

Physics In Motion

10th November 2014
In order for there to be realism within the physics of motion there has to be a considerable amount of thought into the physics behind it, even if it is so simple as a bouncing ball it needs to be just right in order to be realistic or plausible. The last thing a viewer wants is to feel uncomfortable watching something because they think it looks awful due to the lack of consideration of physics.
I personally would like to further study in my own time the physics because of the fact that there is probably a hell of a lot more of a theory behind it and more complex ideas too.

Differences in motion:
Fictional- Although all motion design concepts of cartoon etc. are fiction, do you want them to possess realistic physics? Most likely for such things as kids cartoons. Things will be emphasised more into more dramatic and almost humorous concepts.

Realism- Trying to capture the overall rules of physics within an animation is not only key to it's success, but it has to capture every quality in order to look realistic enough to be comfortable for the viewer.
 Certain considerations have to be made - do the wheels on a bus roll along the ground with the animator considering friction? How could the friction be altered with new materials? Going over rougher ground etc.

Stop Motion Exercises
Using stop motion animation, I cut out a circle for some exercises to imitate a ball bouncing etc. in order to do so I realised the following and this could be applied.
My first bounces were too sharp or the speed wasn't realistic enough, adding more of a bounce to it emphasises more of a cartoon perspective onto the design. Before producing the stop motion I applied my knowledge and imagination to the exercises - what material is used? how would they interact with each other? how could this be most effective?
To make it all smoothly run the movement had to be considered fully, the amount I moved the circle varied the speed of the roll etc.

17th November 2014
After Effects Exercises- 
Using similar exercises in After Effects, we tried some trial ideas first, the demo I found slightly challenging at first but then once we started the exercises it began to be more clear of what was most effective. Using such rules as making arcs etc.

I am looking forward to learning more on after effects and adapting these skills into further projects.

12 Rules of animation from Panop Koonwat on Vimeo.

Things You Notice

12th November 2014
The brief was re-examined in this case for a more broad review of motion. My ideas of motion were captured mostly in Paris, a place full of distraction and beauty so a perfect place to try to see things that aren't as obvious at first. Whilst most people swooned over the beauty of the Eiffel Tower and many other attractions, I tried to examine things that aren't as obvious such things as motion of traffic, motion of the crowds around them, the motion of the hustle and bustle of the city. I produced some gifs to enhance some of the movements that I managed to capture.
Simple aspects that maybe are overlooked by most who pass through the city, such as the maintenance of the streets etc.

Giacomo Balla

 Giacomo Balla was an artist that particularly stood out in the theme of capturing motion and noticing it too. The artist used his pieces to capture the essence of movement without actually allowing the piece to move. His blurred line usage and paint smudging techniques imitates the idea of movement, and the pace that the object is moving at. The blurred aspect particularly shows the speed of the motion, a technique that can be applied to animation such as on Adobe After Effects with the 'Motion Blur' tool, which applies a slight blur to  the music, creating an effective technique overall.

The way in which the movement happened was particularly beautiful in my opinion, the fact that instantly you can see exactly what he was trying to do especially in the featured painting of a dog running, showing the action and motion of the legs and tail. The aspect of colour is minimal in comparison to the bold forms of tone and black line, imitating the aspect of movement. I like the fact that an artist can sum up an idea of movement with not only a stationary form, but also a two dimensional aspect rather than a three dimensional form of animation.
 The more geometric the line forms become, the more and more abstract the pieces appear, but still withstanding the aspect of movement, forcing the viewer's eye across the page.

Seven Miles Out

Once taken to the destination of Seven Miles Out Courtyard in Stockport Old Town, I found certain elements of the place particularly interesting. Such elements I found most inspiring and interesting about the courtyard was the mess of line elements that seemed to weave through the urban decay of the building.
I noticed that throughout the entirety of collecting the pieces together of observing the courtyard in detail, there were a lot of implications of line within the compositions captured on photos as well as other rubbings etc.

Collected the following as documentation for representing the courtyard:

• Screws and bolts
• Pieces of brick and rubble
• Pieces of wood
• Rubbings from walls
• Rubbings from floors
• Sketches from around the area
• Plant debris
• A quick piece of descriptive writing I felt represented the courtyard's atmosphere and the lines I saw within it.

 Here's the following descriptive writing I constructed in the courtyard about the surrounding area as a different media to represent the surroundings.

Lines. Lines framing the very essence of the courtyard, the black webs of wire folding in and out of the rough tides of cement. A deep depth of eternal shadow, clinging to the frail cobwebs and broken bricks, wrapping its strength against the walls like a boa constrictor against desperate prey. A couple of lazy wires flap in possession of sloth like rhythm, warily wondering against the foundations they had once begun to constrict.

I felt that describing the courtyard in such a way really helped develop the feelings that I felt, almost as if the elements of the place were personified and brought to life.


10th November 2014
For the exhibition space we had to produce out of the fragments collected to represent the courtyard, I chose to compose my exhibition on an overturned table.
 I chose this set up as I decided that due to the line qualities I concentrated on and the intricate viewing that was taking place, I decided to imitate a forensic type of layout, with string connecting my fragments together as if in an investigation.
I framed the space with the fragments of rubbings from the ground, I wanted it to feel enclosed alike the feeling in the graveyard. One of my favourite photographs taken from the courtyard experience is the silhouette through the bars in the alleyway, as I feel this represented an ominous source of mystery which is perfect for the feeling of the courtyard. I placed this piece printed slightly off centre, to produce a slightly uncomfortable approach or to be quite intimidating (from the composition task, learnt skills of how to make the viewer feel alternate emotions through simple layout tactics)