animation - test

Been in uni today practising with the multi plane surface for the cut out animation that I am doing. After some problems with the dslr I managed to get on and the project is starting to look a lot better.

Stuff done in w/c 23rd April 2012

So finished all the presentations now in Theory. They all seemed to go ok. Have also done some more on my animation and now have the movements right just need to sort out the background and the timings now so that's what I will be doing next week.

I have also watched the complete collection of Gavin and Stacey this week something that I have never seen before. I enjoyed it as it was something different and seemed to have something real to it.
I have also watched both Iron Man Films this week as well as Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1, some Futurama episodes and James Bond Casino Royale. All good films and programs that I enjoy. Having now watched each of them several times.

I have also bought myself a DAB+ Radio this week so I will be listening to the radio a lot more from now on.

For the weekend I am not planning on doing much, probably sorting out props for my animation work for next week and will be going to the gym today and tomorrow, if I don't wuss out.

For now that's it.

Previous Posts

Hi well this is the new blog rather than the uni provided one so here is the previous posts.


First entry from Jan 17th 2012.

This is my first entry into the refelective space as I had no idea before the christmas holidays and am only now having the time to get round to it. So for the period between september to december the events and programmes that stand out to me are: having watched johnny english reborn twice, having watched ncis series 1-5 watching jackass 1,2 and 3, the tv programmes lifes too short and frozen planet. As for the course the parts that stand out are the life drawing class where I believe I was able to improve the standard of my drawing skills, the production design specialism where I learnt about different aspects that I consider to be useful to praacticing animation such as to scale drawing model making and script breakdowns.

For the project that I am still working on I learnt a lot more about how to use Adobe Flash and progresing this onto rotoscoping two things that I have trouble with previously.

Second Entry from Jan 17th 2012.

As this is my second entry I thought that I would say what I have been doing since the start of december up until now. Mostly what stands out is having animated the transitions for my project, watching series 6-7 of ncis series 2 of spaced and attending my mum's wedding. I will now try to update this blog each week.

Third Entry from Jan 22nd 2012.

This is a link to a news article that recently caught my attention http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16649957 and this is th comment that I left for it.

A couple of points in regards to silence when working on my uni work sometimes I like the background noise and will tolerate it or at others I will use my headphones and drown it out, depending on whether I really want to work or not. Secondly I have had two MRI scans in my lifetime, the first was just the MRI machine on its own making all the noise and the second with headphones. For some reason I found the first time without the headphones more relaxing and fell asleep.Lastly I have to say that I like to go swimming and swim underwater as it is so peaceful and quiet I can truly relax. But as I also like to play in the pool it allows my imagination true flow without interruption so that I can imagine that I am flying.

Fourth Entry from April 19th 2012.

Ok so since my last post I have finished my animation which can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHcqiQhzSGA. I have started on the next project based on a monkey wanting to get a banana and encountering problems along the way, this will be in a cut-out style. I have been watching more of my dvd collection and have seen Wrath of the Titans 3D at the cinema. Although the film does look good I am beginning to feel that 3D is over rated. I have also been continuing in drawing class where we have done a number of different exercises each week. These include picking an inanimate object and drawing life into it, as well as drawing 2 minute sketches of people out in the street. We have also done a practice on drawing the head using Preston Blair's book 

Animation 1 (HT26) (How to Draw) as our inspiration. In theory we have been researching a national animation school. So for instance I did Russian Animation and we have been presenting these to the rest of the class.

Most of my time has been taken up by carrying out research for my next project. Such as trying out cut-out animation.

Fifth Entry from April 2012. - Bradford Animation Festival.

Ok so I realise that I did not put this up at the time but here is my analysis of what I saw at the Bradford Animation Festival.

The first set that I will talk about is Professional 1.

The animation that I enjoyed the most was 'A Morning Stroll' this was because it was set at three different period in time with a simple storyline but adding humorous elements to it. This lightened up the screening for me as although I do like serious material comedy is where my heart lies. I think it also lies with the fact that as short animation goes I prefer them to be under 10 minutes in duration and this was. 'The Monster of Nix' and 'Plume' were both over ten minutes long and although they had good animation styles I didn't enjoy them because of this element, and i felt that they dragged on for far too long

Professional 2.

In this screening there were two animations that stood out 'Out of Erasers' and 'The Maker' as they both had very interesting elements to them. Such as in 'Out of Erasers' although the main theme was farcical in being about scribbled doodles taking over because the erasers had run out it was done in an entirely serious way without any speech and with the scribbled doodles done vey well as a rotoscoped piece, this for me enhanced it. The second animation 'The Maker' was a race against time for a strange creature to make the most important creation of his life. With the hidden twist that the sand timer is not counting down the time that is available to make the creation but rather the time that he has left before he ceases to exist. This is all done in stop motion and it really does take you along for the journey.

Student 1, Student 2.

Student animation always stand out for me as they show what can be done with very little money and it is within these screenings that I find my favourite animations the ones that stand out the most to me being, '366 Days' 'Damned' 'Swimming Pool' and 'El Macho' (from student 1) with none being from the second collection. Maybe this is just me but the animation from the first collection spoke more to me. I remember them as being funny and interesting and by having little surprises. Such as in 'El Macho' with the man of the household ending up loving the dog when at first he hated it, and in '366 Days' where the uncaring paramedic teaches the young one that there are times when you do have to let go and get on with life. These feel to me as if they are more personal than maybe some of the more professional animations that you see as well at the festival.

Music Videos

Out of the music videos that we saw the one that stood out most to me was 'Caffeine' as in the video it showed someone wanting a break from the routine that everyone else does and wanting to do something differently like I do want do at times. It has nice simple design to it that I think displays more the meaning of the music video than it ever could have done as a more detailed piece.

Commercials.

The 'Compare the Market' advert is the one I remember the most as it is the one that I have seen most often on the TV.