Sunday, 8 May 2016

Perception Or Illusion?

This lecture was about showing us how to see and think about things we wouldn't normally take notice of in our daily life. We need this skill because this is what separates us from everyone else as animators or graphic designers. For example a person walking in the street, everyone will not take notice of the details they will just make a quick note in their head that a person is walking on the pavement next to the road while creative people will use a skill that will make them think about excessive detail especially as an animator they will take note on that person's movement.

I generally focus on the little things including when people walk, by looking closely you can see that every single person has their own style of walking or movement even if it is just slightly different.

Narrative Design

Narrative design is how something is structured and presented to tell a story. Literally every film has the same structure: The beginning with a rising action, the middle with a climax and then the end with a falling action.

Allen Feldman said "The event is not what happens. The event is that which can be narrated."

Narrative as an animator is creating a narrative for an animation that solves a problem.

Nancy Duarte said "The audience does not need to tune themselves to you - you need to tune your message to them."


Thursday, 5 May 2016

Rebecca Perez

Rebecca Perez works at Dream Works another company who make animated movies I love. Because I like these movies I decided to do some research on animator who works there.

Rebecca first became inspired to do animation at the age of 15 when she saw a commercial about a animated Listerine bottle done by CGI, later she discovered the animation was created by Pixar. When Rebecca was old enough she enrolled at the Ringling School of Art and Design where she received a BFA in animation but later on decided that she still didn't have the skill she needed to work on films so she hired a animation mentor. Rebecca's first job after education was at LucasArts where she had the job of 3D Technical Artist, putting completed animations into the game engine of the game the company was producing. Even though she wasn't working with animation she still could learn from the environment and study each process that happened in the gaming industry.

Eventually after building herself up Rebecca received a chance to work at Dream Works  where she worked on a number of movies:


Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009)






How to Train your Dragon (2010)





Megamind (2010)



Kung Fu Panda 2 (2011)



Turbo (2013)


I have seen all these movies and they inspire me to be an animator. All the movies from Dream works follow at specific style and have very interesting stories.

John Lasseter

John Lasseter is known for his 3D animation with Disney Pixar and taken part in the creation of amazing animated movies. I am a massive fan of Disney Pixar and have seen just about all of their movies so I have decided to look in to a animator who works for them. Most of John Lasseter's work is with Pixar but he has also been involved with other animations like Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away.

John Lasseter was inspired by Disney's Sleeping Beauty and Disney's Sword in the Stone to become an animator himself. Lasseter started his higher education for animation in Pepperdine University but left shortly after, after seeing a better opportunity to learn character animation at the California Institute of the Arts. Here he was taught by 3 members of Disney's Nine Old Men team of veteran animators along side his fellow classmates who also become great animators including Tim Burton and Brad Bird.

After education John Lasseter worked for Disney for a short time before getting fired because he was caught promoting computer animation as Disney have a passion for hand drawn animation. Lasseter then went to work for LucasArts who wanted and explored in the use of CGI (Computer Generated Imagery) but in 1986 this part of LucasArts was sold to Steve Jobs who turned the company into Pixar. John put his CGI skills at work for Pixar and directed some of the best Disney Pixar movies everyone knows and loves.

Toy Story (1995)

  


A Bug's Life (1998)



Toy Story 2 (1999)




Cars (2006)





Cars 2 (2011)




I have seen all these movies except cars 2 and I love them all. Pixar was the first animation studio to use CGI in 3D and make a full length feature movie from it. All the movies have a similar and obvious style to them and a Pixar movie can instantly be recognised. In the future I want to learn some aspects of 3D animation and Pixar is my inspiration to do so. 

Wednesday, 4 May 2016

Tim Burton

I am a fan of the horror genre and if there is a opportunity to play a scary video game or watch a movie that falls in to this genre I take it. Tim Burton is a animator who likes to explore with the horror genre through his animated movies, his movies aren't exactly scary but the setting and atmosphere are eerie and dark. Because I am fascinated with Tim Burtons style I decided to research his past to becoming an animator.

The Nightmare Before Christmas



Tim Burtons first animated movie that he wrote and produced was for Disney in 1993, it was a stop motion musical based on his imaginative world and characters called The Nightmare Before Christmas. The cartoon received positive reviews because of its stop motion, music and original story making $50 million as a box office success.

James and the Giant Peach



Tim Burton's next film came out in 1996 and it was a mixture of live action and stop motion footage. The movie was based on Roald Dahl's James and the Giant Peach and it was nominated for academy award for best original musical.

Corpse Bride


Tim Burton's 3rd animated movie was called Corpse Bride and this stop motion animation brought out his unique style of the dark eerie setting he is so well known for. The movie was released in 2005 and it was Tim Burton's first full animated stop motion feature length film he had directed himself. Corpse Bride was Burton's interpretation on light and dark through a musical.

Frankenweenie 



In 2012 Tim Burton brought out another stop motion feature length animation called Frankenweenie. Frankenweenie was remade from a short film Burton made in 1984 also called Frankenweenie, the idea came from a memory from Tim Burton's childhood when he was growing up with his own pet.

All of Tim Burton's animations are stop motion and he sticks with a constant theme and style of the setting and characters. I have seen Corpse Bride and Frankenweenie and these movies I enjoyed very much, the models and stop motion are very interesting to watch because I like to think about how they made it and analyse specific scenes. During my time looking at Tim Burton's work I have realised he is another animator that sticks with his own style with every project and I feel the need to do the same.


Tuesday, 3 May 2016

Hayao Miyazaki

I am very interested in Japanese cartoons and I spend some of my free time watching various series so I decided to do some research on a animator named Hayao Miyazaki who created the most popular feature length Japanese animations.

Hayao Miyazaki directed his first animated movie in 1978 called The Castle of Cagliostro and it won the excitement of film critics all over the world and it was heard that Steven Spielberg himself said the car chase featured in the movie was the best he had ever seen. Ten years later 1988 wasn't until his studio (Studio Ghibli) was recognised world wide thanks to his next movie My Neighbour Totoro. In 1997 the Studio Ghibli team brought out another animated movie named Princess Mononoke and this time breaking all of box office records and made $150 million in Japan. The next movie released by Studio Ghibli in 2001 was called Spirited Away making a total of $250 million and also winning the golden bear at the 2002 Berlin film festival. The Studio Ghibli team also made a ton of other animated movies in between these master pieces including: Castle in the Sky (1986), Kiki's Delivery Service (1989), Grave of the Fireflies (1988), Porco Rosso (1992), Whisper of the Heart (1995) and many more. Miyazaki more recent cartoons have also become very popular in the UK and the US as well as in Japan and these include: Howl's Moving Castle (2004), Ponyo (2008), From up on Poppy Hill and again many more.

The Castle of Cagliostro





My Neighbour Totoro

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Princess Mononoke




Spirited Away




I have watched Studio Ghibli movies My Neighbour Totoro and Ponyo and I loved every second of them. The movies all follow a similar style and when you see any footage from these movies you know instantly that it is work from the Studio Ghibli team. The animations are very powerful and offer a unique experience that no other animators can, to me these movies are a massive inspiration to who I aspire to be and encourages me to follow the path of an animator. 

Monday, 2 May 2016

Generating Ideas

I did some further research into creative thinking and techniques for generating ideas. I found a number of different ways that I want to try during my next project or brief.




Mind Mapping
Mind Mapping I would say is the most popular out of these six techniques of brainstorming ideas. I have used mind mapping in the past but I have not being a big fan of it but from this video and the other five techniques I think I will use mind mapping more often. Mind mapping involves taking the word of the topic and then branching off it coming up with other subjects that relate. This breaks down the topic hopefully creating a different view and approach which helps realising something that couldn't be seen before.

Right Braining
This technique interested me the most because I find myself to be a visual learner and I think it would be a fun way to come up with ideas. Drawing incomplete images that relate to a chosen topic and then redrawing theses images so that they merge together can trigger an idea as again something might be seen that wasn't obvious before.

Provocative Actions
This is also an interesting method for generating ideas. Maybe taking a scene relating to a topic or subject and do something that a normal person wouldn't do like use a object in a wrong way or differently. Like in the video turning all the chairs in a dining room upside down could spark an idea because this wouldn't be seen on a daily basis because this isn't how chairs are used. Also a out the box comment could be made which causes people to start thinking differently like What would happen if fish could build?

Break and Build
This technique doesn't really appeal to me but I will try it. By taking a general idea it can be broken down into more detailed pieces of information or it can be built up to a more simple viewpoint. This is another method of breaking down information or pulling key points to approach something differently.

Pessimist vs Optimist
I would like to try this because it does sound like a good idea. Two people take a role each, one person is the negative person who says they can't and the other person is positive and comes up with a solution on the top of his head until they come up with a solution. Starting with a statement the pessimist person starts with why it can't be done and then the optimistic person answers with a solution to the problem.

Randomness
This method also sees like a fun productive one. Taking a general topic and choosing a random object. Describe the random object in every way an then apply the descriptions to the topic so that it relates and creates something that triggers an idea.

I now have 6 new methods to try and experiment with to generate new ideas and hopefully at least one of these will be the best one I can use over and over again in the future.


Patrick Beaulieu

I decided to do research on animators who are involved with a type of media I am interested in, video games. I found an animator who works on video games at Ubisoft (Assassin's Creed and Far Cry) called Patrick Beaulieu and he took part in an interview about his career path as an animator while giving tips for people also interested in his chosen career.

Something that fascinated me and stood out the most about Patrick is that he accidentally went into animation as for his first job he was assigned an animation position without having any experience with animations or computers. In a short amount of time he learnt a huge deal of animation and learnt to love it. Following this he learnt the basic of 3D animation in a school named Institute Athena and then proceeded to teach himself.

Before working at Ubisoft and on video games Patrick worked for a company called Hybride Technologies where he would create 3D animations or special effects in movies. He was involved with popular movies including: Snakes on a Plane, Sin City and a feature length animation called Racing Stripes.

Now Patrick has his own website named Squeeze Studio (http://www.squeezestudio.com) where companies can hire him and his team to work on movies and video games. His company have a guideline they work with which I like the idea of: never jump into 3D without a 2D plan, trust the power of daily team review and have fun! Basically have a detailed plan, don't take offence from someone criticising your work instead take their word on board and adapt from it and finally enjoy what you do. Here is some of their work.


This is a 3D animation of a teaser trailer for the video game Assassin's Creed 4 Black Flag's downloadable content called Freedom Cry.


 This is a short 3D animation trailer for the mobile app game called Titan Empires.


This short 3D animation was a test for the studio to see how the Angry Birds would look like in 3D as it is normally portrayed in 2D.

Overall from Patrick Beaulieu I have learnt a number of different things. A good animator is a passionate animator, a person has to be very interested and needs to strive a lot of work and a lot of time. A animator also has to be very social because the majoritie of the jobs are team based and a co-operating team is crucial to meeting deadlines and meeting professional standards. When it comes to criticism accept the good and the bad, people aren't trying to drag you down but push you forward. Finally it is important to be original because that is what employers look for within interviews, but also practice the cliche as this is the fastest and most efficient way to get better at software.  

Sunday, 1 May 2016

Styles

In this seminar we discussed and explored styles. What is a style? What makes a style? Can you avoid being in with a style? Styles is an important aspect for someone who is creative and someone who creates various different things.

Styles is what puts anything into a category or group for example different social cultures. Goths, Emos, Hipsters they all have their own individual styles and it is not just their appearance that makes their style. The way people act and think also make their culture a style and a main part that makes them different from other cultures. Everything is a style and with cultures if someone doesn't want to be apart of any of the cultures what ever they then come up with will be their own style and a start of a new trend. This method of style with social cultures works with anything and everything no matter what it is, fashion, transport, different foods, choice of housing and living etc.

Styles for creative people is very important because it determines how your product will look and which target audience it will be aimed at. Animators will pay attention to detail on this subject as their animations and videos will be aimed a specific target audience so the style they choose and use will have to appeal to that audience. An animator is making a children's show they will be aiming the cartoon at 5 - 9 years old so the style needs to be very colourful and the lines used need to be thick as this will keep the look of the animation simple with little detail. Also the voice overs in the cartoon will need to use simple words and phrases to keep the interest and entertainment for the audience.

This seminar has taught me to think about every little detail I put into a animation because even the smallest of things can have a big impact on people's impressions. Also at the start of the project to choose a specific target audience so I have a style to aim for that pleases my the viewers the best I can. The most important point I have realised from this seminar is to come up with my own style so I can apply them to my own animations and then people can pick out my creations from anyone else's work so I would stand out.


Creating the Blog

Our first session on Process and Production was to create a blog where we can upload our development and research through the year on our course. Additionally we created an account with Vimeo so we had somewhere to upload our digital work like animations.

Step 1 - Creating the Blog



This is the first page after I clicked the sign up button on the Blogger website. The first part of the registration requires: my first and last name, a username so viewers have a nick name to know me by, a password to ensure I am the only person who can log into the account, my birthday, my gender, my mobile phone number and finally my email address so I can receive updates about my account.

Step 2 - Creating the Blog



The next step required me to create a display name for my blogger profile. This gives viewers a name when they want to know who wrote the blog posts and the name can literally be anything it doesn't have to be a real name.

Step 3 - Creating the Blog



This next step wanted me to choose a template design for my blog posts. A template design is made up of different backgrounds, colours, fonts and layouts. I chose a template called picture window which had a specific layout I liked and then I continued to customise the background and text with a black and orange theme.

Step 4 - Creating the Blog


The Final Step was creating the labels which I can then add to each of my posts to let viewers know what category the posts have come from. The two labels were Process and Production and Theory As Practice, so now my viewers can look at posts specifically under the process and production category or the theory as practice posts.

Overall I am happy with my blog. I like the look of the design and the colour palette I have chose. Most importantly my blog is up and running for my work and research.


Step 1 - Creating a Vimeo Account



The first step to creating an account with Vimeo I had to: put down my first and last name, input my email address and then a password I would use to personally log in to the account.

Step 2 - Creating A Vimeo Account


After putting down my name, email address and a password I basically have my Vimeo account, the last thing I did was go to my email to find a message from Vimeo to complete my registration which verifies my email address to prove I am a real user.

I like the idea of a Vimeo account as I have some where to upload my work and create a digital portfolio as I work through the years.