LAUAN503 - Weekly Update

Over the last week I have been colouring in the scenes of our animation in preparation for submission. I have taken time to carefully pick out what colours work and which ones don't against the background. I have used the stop-motion fish model as a reference for what colours to use.

Scenes so far:





Reference:


For these scenes I am only strictly responsible for the backgrounds and colouring of the animations. The animation itself is done by the director of my group.

What went well?

- Good colours that fit in well with the environments.
- Good contrast of colour between the fish and everything else.
- Diverse colour schemes for each human character.

LAUAN503 - Weekly Blog

I have begun my animation scenes of the characters I created. So far I have made the close-up scene animation of the astronaut and I have begun sketching the animation for the CEO.

I need to develop these sequences, however I am pleased with the outcome of the astronaut scene. I will focus on improving upon these sequences and fleshing them out a bit more. I will also be focusing on colouring my partner's animations.

Reference:





What went well:

- Good posing and timing between poses.
- Good sense of scale.
- Good use of colours that fit with the background.

What to Improve:
- Body proportions.
- Tidiness.

LAUAN503 - Weekly Blog

In this past week I have been working on more of the backgrounds and fleshing them out in order to look good for our animation. I have been focusing on the city landscapes and the office scenes, and colouring and shading them.

Office Backgrounds Completed:

For these backgrounds I have tried to keep the art style, colours and shading consistent while also trying to get a sense of contrast between the warmer and cosier office and the cold and polluted city. I did this by keeping the saturation levels of both different.

City Backgrounds Completed:

These two background scenes are among the last backgrounds of the animation. They will both include the fish scenes.

What went well:

Well coloured and shaded backgrounds, including vivid colours and dirty and polluted colour schemes.

Good consistency with previous backgrounds.

What to improve:

Line art and perspective needs improving.

More diverse building types and shapes.

LAUAN501 - Study Task 9

Evaluation

For my project I intended to create a video essay that would illustrate my points, findings and research. My first Idea was to create video essay in the style of a music video, where I would include a short animation accompanied by music to visually compare how animation can improve a musical piece. However, I discovered that it might take too long to combine a short ‘music’ video along with a video essay in the style of a music video. Instead, I have approached it in a different way, after researching the 1980's era of MTV and how they advertised and how creatively they used animation for their title cards.

I began by researching and looking at many different music videos, both animated and live action, and gathered clips of them for my eventual video. After this I began researching on various different articles and some interviews to give some context and to show how animation has been used in music videos.

After enough secondary research, I created a survey as primary research that would help me gather results and information that might help me to show that animation can indeed improve music, and do it better than live action music videos.

I found that this survey helped quite a lot in my research, as it implied heavily that animation did improve and / or change music.

From this, I began to write my essay that I would use to construct my video essay. After writing my essay completely, I recorded myself reading them and then edited the voice lines to suit an essay video. After this, I began sketching my title sequence for my practical.

After some planning, I began animating a logo sequence similar to that of MTV, linking my topic area, research and practical together. I created a sketchy version, originally intended as a transition sequence, but I instead used it as a concept for my final title sequence.

I used this sketch to create a title sequence similar to an MTV title sequence, which further emphasises what my topic is.

Research

In my research, I looked at several articles that might help to prove that animation can help, improve and change a piece of music. For example, on one blog on Dozmia, it stated "One of the biggest reasons why music videos are so useful to artists is their ability to provoke or further provoke the emotions that the song is meant to portray. Using animation can further demonstrate this emotional element of the music.”. This quote in particular backs up my point that animation can be used to improve music more than live action, as it highlights how emotion can be used visually to give a greater impact.

Conclusion.

Overall, I think I did rather well considering the time I had to create my practical and theoretical response. While I feel that I needed more contradicting evidence to challenge my own beliefs and the research I found, I think that my survey portrayed my points rather well. My practical response was an almost monumental task to complete, but I managed to complete as much as I possibly could. I believe it is a fairly entertaining and informational response overall.

LAUAN501 - Practical Response

My final practical response essay video:

Below is a list of sources used to create this video:

LAUAN501 - Final Written Essay - Study Task 8

Since last time I have updated my essay and added a bibliography, reference list and overall finished writing.

This is my final written outcome for this module, and it has been used as a basis for my practical.

What went well?

Very well structured essay.
Clear points backed up by research.

How can I improve?

Focus on the question more.
Find conflicting evidence that might challenge my ideas.

LAUAN503 - Weekly Update

Over the week, I have been working on more background art. I have fully rendered one city background and created more city-scapes for the animation.

Completed City Background




City-scape Line Art


City Scape 3



City Scape 4

LAUAN503 - Weekly Update

Over the last week, I have been working on my backgrounds for my group project. I have created various new backgrounds and created the line work for them. I have also completed the main city scape background.

Finished City Scape

I have added some shading and slight Gaussian blur in the backgrounds to make the city feel full, as well as make it seem grimy and filthy by using brown and a lot of grey.

I have used my mood board as reference to create this city background.

Office Line Art

I have created these office backgrounds based on the animatic and storyboard given to me. I have used different references to construct these backgrounds:

  

What Went Well?

- Well drawn and stylised drawings.
- Decent colour palette

What to improve upon?

- Clean up
- Higher Quality and Resolution Artworks

LAUAN501 - Script

For my written outcome, I have written a script essay for my practical - an analytical video into music videos. I have structured it specifically so it will be easy to read and replicate into speech, and numbered the different paragraphs so I know what dialogue lines to put in certain parts.

Now that I've completed the written section, I will now focus on creating a video for my practical outcome.

- What Went Well?

- A lot of research and findings displayed.

- Structured Well

- Easily identifiable quotes and research.

- What to improve?

- Less waffling.

- More precise information.

LAUAN503 - Weekly Presentation 1

For this module we were required to create a presentation showing all of our work so far. I presented this first presentation.

I think that this presentation is a good representation of how much work we've done.

LAUAN501 - Study Task 7

Rationale

Essay: For my essay I will be creating a script that will be used as a basis for my voice lines for my practical response - a video essay showing how animation can improve / change music. 

Research: For my specific research, I will conduct a survey and get as many people as I can to answer through it in order to gather data for my research. For my exploratory research, I will also be looking at many different music videos, as well as articles and interviews to use in response to my essay. So far I have found many articles and created my survey for people to respond to.

Practical Outcome: For my practical outcome I will be creating a short title sequence that bears a resemblance to 1980's MTV title card and logo animations. I will also be creating a video essay with different clips playing in the background, as well as different visual effects to create a VHS 1980's MTV aesthetic.

I have not done much for my practical, but I have created some sketches that will aid in my practical, specifically the title sequence.

Essay Structure

For the written segment of my blog, I have created a structured body of text to help me write my essay more efficiently. Some of these things may not appear in the actual essay due to to much words and information, and some new things may appear. This is a general outline of what I will be writing about.

Study Task 6

Practical Responses

For my practical response, I plan to create an analytical video that will be used to voice my reasoning, opinions and research that relates to my topic. Because of this, the written segment of my topic will be a video script that I will use to read off. The video will include some after effects animations to make it more visually interesting, which also related to my topic question - how visuals and audio synergise. 

I will also create a short and simple animation that will be shown within the video. This animation will include visuals that will respond to a certain emotional sounding music piece which will illustrate how visuals can improve the experience of music.

A few sources that I've found which will help with these topics include videos and articles that will assist me in script writing and video editing. It will also help create my animation.

How to write scripts

Tips for creating analysis videos

https://support.techsmith.com/hc/en-us/articles/214788157-Tips-for-Creating-Your-Analysis-Video

'How to Create a Killer Animated Music Video'

https://blog.dozmia.com/how-to-create-an-animated-music-video/

How to Make a Youtube Video

How to Animate Music and Sound

MTV Animation Adverts

Study Task 5

In this study task, we were required to write an introduction for our written part of our research topic.




I approached this by asking myself various questions:

What am I looking at?

• Animated music videos, and how audio and visuals syngergise for maximum impact.

• "What do I mean by 'maximum impact'?" - How accompanied animation can enhance a music experience by creating interesting and compelling visuals to evoke more emotion from a piece of music, and thus make it more enjoyable than simply listening to the song

• "Why animation? Why not live action? Is there a difference?" - I will be exploring the differences in appeal between live action and animated music videos. I propose that animation is more effective because there is more freedom of expression.

How and Where will I look?

• Social Media: I will be looking through Youtube, Twitter and other social media platforms to observe the different reactions to animated music videos. I will look at freelance artists who have been commissioned to create animated music videos and note down how they created their projects.

• Articles: I will read various articles in order to research the origins of animated music videos and how significant these early stages of animated music videos are. I will note their effect on animation on music videos as a whole. I will also triangulate these articles in order to make my own conclusions on how animated music videos become iconic.

• Interviews & Podcasts: I will listen to podcasts and interviews of different music groups in hopes to understand their reasoning behind using animation to accompany their songs.

What am I aiming to find?

• I aim to find whether animation is significantly more effective at synergising with music for maximum impact than using live action or no video at all. I also aim to find how animated music videos become so popular and why more bands and music groups are using the format.

What have I found so far?

• Origins of animated music videos: I have discovered what many consider to be the first animated music video; Elvis Costello & The Attractions - Accidents will happen. I have read a source that explains what the song is about and how the animation accompanies it.

• Commissions: Many music groups commission animators to animate many music videos for their songs. Many examples of this include Caravan Palace and SIAMÉS.

• Narrative: Music groups like Gorillaz use animations in their songs to tell a narrative of the virtual band. I have read sources of the origins of their expanding universe and how it's had a tremendous effect on the music genre as a whole.

• Sending a message: Some bands such as Linkin Park, Pearl Jam and Freak Kitchen use animations to further emphasise the message their songs send. Notable examples include Freak of the Week, Breaking the Habit and Do the Evolution.

My Predictions:

• Using a questionnaire and generally studying the reactions to different comparisons of animated music videos and live action / no music videos, I predict that people will find animated music videos more appealing and interesting than just listening to music or watching live action music videos. 

Practical Outcome?

• An analysis video to voice my findings and opinions.

• A short animation to illustrate my points.

LAUAN503 - Weekly Blog

I have been focusing quite a bit on my space-themed backgrounds for my group project. While my other team mates have been focusing on animatics and models, as well as storyboard, I have been focusing my creative talents on doing background illustrations for the short film. Here are a few I have worked on so far:

Saturn:

I have used a reference of saturn in space to construct this background, as well as a scene from my teammate's animatic.

I have used the colours and adjusted them to fit

the colour scheme of space.

Solar System:

I based this background off a similar concept art I made at the beginning of the year. I used various references such as typical space backgrounds, as well as a specific reference for mars.

I think I can improve upon the different space-like backgrounds by adding more vivid colours such as the one above to make space a lot more appealing.

Earth & Moon:

 

• In this depiction of earth I decided to make the backgrounds a lot more vivid in colour since it's closer to the sun. I also made this decision to contrast it against the now polluted earth, which is very important to the story of the film.

References:

What went well?

• Fairly well represented astronomical entities (Planets, asteroids, space etc.)
• Good lighting.
• Decent shading on the planets and space oddities.
• Good colour schemes.

What to improve?

• More detail to the space backgrounds
• Finish City-scape colouring, shading and lighting.
• Make more space-themed backgrounds.

LAUAN503 - Weekly Blog.

This week I have been progressing with my background artworks in order to have them ready for production during the process of next week. I have been focusing on 1 cityscape artwork as well as various space artworks.

City Scape - (W.I.P)

For this background, I have been using various different city-like scenes from other animations and photographs to construct this city wide shot piece. I have used an animatic based on my group partner's animatic short.

Animatic:

Resource Images:

I have used all the colours and building structures from these images as reference for my city-scape to make it as vivid as possible while keeping it industrial and washed out.

LAUAN503 - Backgrounds

In the past week I have been working on more backgrounds for my group project. I have been using my colleagues' animatics to create vivid and dynamic landscapes (cityscapes) for our animation.

Space /w Pluto.

This background has been quite simple in terms of design, however I struggled to find a good way to colour and shade in everything. In terms of cinematography. the planet and asteroids seem well placed for the animation that follows.


Cityscape Wide Shot (W.I.P)



The Cityscape Background is currently a work in progress, but I have been blocking them out in shades in order to grasp how the foreground, middleground and background will contrast with each other, creating depth.

Character Turnaround 2

Over the past week I have been focusing on creating my second character sheet of the CEO character that will appear in my group's animation. I have tried my best to keep it in a consistent style, as well as keep the proportions the same and fitting to the character.



I think I have done well with giving off the image of a bulky and powerful looking character that also has a sense of smugness and arrogance that comes with being a typical villainous boss-character.

What Went Well?

• Well proportioned body design.
• Character kept to certain shapes (Square head, triangle body)
• Good visualisation of the personality.

What can I improve on?

• Making the turnaround quicker.
• Overall drawing ability.

Study Task 4

For this study task, we were required to create a triangulation poster based on our previous study of a source evaluation. For my Triangulation poster, I separated it into three parts and three topic areas that were covered in my initial research poster. 

In this poster I attempted to combine secondary images, as well as primary sources to connect and compare them to each other. My main goal was to connect everything together using triangulation to create a cohesive and visual representation of my thought processes. This poster will help me keep focused on the question, as there are many types of animations including music that I can explore.

Evaluation:

• Good balance of visual and theoretical information.
• Well structured poster.
• Visually pleasing.

• More focus required on my sources (Further depth)
• More primary images + sources.

Study Task 3

For this study task we are required to find a source of text and read through it. Afterwards, I had to write a summary of my thoughts relating to the text.

Source Text:



I highlighted certain lines or quotes that I thought held important information. After reading thoroughly through the text, here are my thoughts:

• The writing style is very odd, consisting of various grammatical errors. However despite this, the points seem to be clear enough to read and understand.

• The writer's points don't seem to be very developed at some points. For example, when they say 'This video is an excellent example of how a well produced music video could push an unknown pop group (from Norway!) to the top of the hit lists all over the world'. This point does not immediately explain itself, and instead digresses into a whole story instead of keeping to the point.

Study Task 2

For this study, we were instructed to create a prototype question for our research topic.

For my initial question, I wanted to consider what areas I would be looking at, which would be Culture, Technology and Aesthetics, as I would possibly be looking at how animations look and feel, how they're created and how it differs from culture to culture.

The question I wrote was: 'Animated Music Videos: How does music help to create a more interesting animation, and how does animation synergize with music'.

After a review of the question, it was later updated and refined to: 'Animated Music Videos: How do Audio and Visual Synergize for maximum impact.'

I feel that the update to this question gives me a more specific are to look at, while keeping the question short and easy to understand.

501 Study Task 1

For this study task we were asked to create a diagram related to a research question to kick start our research for our chosen topic.

I chose to create a table with three different sub-topics and wrote down words relating to each.

I feel that these different areas will contribute most to my proto question, as it will explore aesthetics and the advancement of technology concerning animated music videos. It also will explore how different cultures may react to these music videos and how certain emotions may be evoked from them.

LAUAN503 - Maya

We created a project in Maya which involved texturing, shadowing and reflecting objects in a certain animated sequence and used after effects to clean it up. 

Character Turnaround Sheet

Over the week, I have been creating a character turnaround sheet for one of the characters of my group's animation, 'Fish Food'. The result can be seen beneath.

I tried to make Astronaut as original as possible without ruining the illusion that it is a conventional human astronaut, which is important to the animation as a whole.

Thing that went well:

• Well shaped character, recognisable design.
• Effective colour scheme.

What I can improve on:

• Perspectives of the 3/4 turnaround.
• Design consistency.

Maya

For maya, we made a model chair using the various tools found in the program.

LAUAN503 - Weekly Blog

This week I have been working on different concepts for backgrounds and for one of the characters for our animation. I have spent a little while colouring 2 different backgrounds and seeing what will work for our animation.

Space Background Concepts:

Astronaut Concept:

LAUAN503 - Mood Board

For our project we decided to create a mood board in order to help us understand and grasp what our short film will look like. It includes landscapes, cityscapes, backgrounds, colours and character designs that will assist in the preproduction and production of our animation.

LAUAN501 - Anima Animation

For this task, we needed to create an inanimate object or animal and create a sense of sentience within them, making them emote and such.

I created a bomb who seems quite excited to get blown up.

I have used squash and stretch, as well as timing to make the bomb feel fluid and alive.

Story Pitch

To begin this module, we were required to roll three 'prompt' dices to help us pitch a story for our upcoming group animation. I rolled these three images.

I interpreted these images as a rocket, a flute and a gnome. 

My story pitch was about an alien gnome person gifting a futuristic flute to an astronaut.

LAUAN404 - Study Task 10 - Key Frames, Extremes and In-Betweens / Final Animation

For this study task we were instructed to improve upon our animatic and create a full fleshed out animation. Throughout this process I have learnt quite a bit about TV paint, soundscaping and animation in general. I feel that I have genuinely improved in my animation skills, more specifically with timing, pose to pose and presenting my work in front of peers. I hope to use these skills in the future and improve upon my mistakes.

Final Animation

What went well:

• I have heavily developed my animation skills in general.
• Good timing and consistent style and tone.
• Well animated scenes.
• Incorporated many principles of animation

What to Improve upon:

•  Sound effects and Soundscape.
• Pacing of the animation.
• Work on making smoother animation.
• Make simpler character designs.

Overall, I am very proud of this piece of animation, as it's taken a lot of time and effort to make. I hope to use this as a gleaming example of how to proceed in my journey of animation to come.

LAUAN404 - Weekly Blog - Fight animation

Over the past few days I have been developing the final scene I need to complete for my animation, the brief clash between my protagonist and antagonist. In order to complete this scene, I went through several different phases to get the timing and poses right.

Simple Sketch

Detailed Sketch

Line Art

Final Animation With Colour And Background

I feel that documenting this scene is very important because to me it's the most ambitious shot of animation I've done yet, and I wanted to display how I worked through it.

I believe that the actual character drawings could use a bit more time and detail, however due to time constraints I've restricted frames and details in order to fit it into my final animation. Despite that however, I feel that I've done a good job.

LAUAN404 - Pitch Bible 2

In the past week I have worked on a second pitch bible with more content and improvements from the first. The biggest improvement I've made is the format: Instead of showing it in a google doc, I have used power point presentation. I feel that this was more effective in displaying my work and explaining it cohesively. I have also realised that I found it easier to communicate this time as I wrote down notes and simplified what I had worked on.

New Title Page

I feel that this new title page is a much bigger improvement from the last, as it fits the style a lot more.

Pitch Bible 2

Improvements that could be made:

• More visual content.
• More text to describe my work.

LAUAN404 - First Animation Attempt

In the last week I have been working on my first draft for my complete animation. While missing some scenes, I feel that I have done when with editing the animation with sound effects, transitions and camera panning.

I have received feedback as to how to improve my animation so far:

• Clean up the line art.
• Keep the antagonist in the shot for a longer period of time.
• More dramatic sound effects.
• First slime squishes too early.

I will address all these criticisms in my second and potentially final draft.

LAUAN404 - TV Paint

Here I will blog my experiences with TV Paint.

I have really enjoyed using this software, and I have grown very fond of it lately when using it to complete my animation. While I'm still getting accustomed to the different tools and shortcuts found in the software, I feel that I have utilised the programme well enough.

I have used the software to experiment, as can be seen with this bouncing ball gif.

I have practised like this in order to get more used to TV paint.

LAUAN404 - More Background Artworks

For my animation I have been working on more backgrounds that will feature in the 40 second animated short. These can be seen below:













Evaluation of Backgrounds:

I feel that all the backgrounds remain very consistent in theme, colour palette and tone. However, I do feel that I could go into more detail if I had more time to complete my animation. Either way, I feel that these backgrounds work very well for my animation.