Week...........something
Last Post
It has been just over a month since my last post but it has been busy for me finishing up all my animations. I'll start with the claymation that I did research for in my last post.
Claymation
Below are links to my final video for the claymation, "What The Onion". I decided to post them on Vimeo after I realised that it's simply just better than YouTube.
This image above is an original frame from the claymation, you can see from the image below that I adjusted the overall look and feel of the scene. I wanted to create a more gritty scene, the original looks too clean and modern whereas the image below looks more like a livable environment for some weird fruit-clay creatures.
This image below shows the effect in Premiere Pro I have used to achieve this effect. It's called Luma Key. The Link below is to a video I watched on Luma keys in Premiere Pro. This doesn't have much bearing on my animation but I was still interested in knowing how to properly use Luma Keys for future reference.
This is the last frame before the belnder kicks in, This scene was achived with a combination of the effect above ad the effect below which I will explain next to that image.
I nested all my frames from the start, up to the frame before the blender begins, this means that all those frames are effected by the Luma key as a whole. I am then able to double click on the nested sequence and it allows me to refine and edit the frames individually but still keeping the nested sequence together in the main work area.In this image below, I simply adjusted the brightness and contrast to achieve the desires effect.
The brightness and contrast changes.
This image below is a still from my blender video...I actually blended apply juice rather than blending an onion.
I added a "tint" effect to make the whole video red. The reason behind this was to add a more horror vibe to it so the viewer knows that something bad is happening.
This last scene was achieved by playing about with a lot of different effects in Premiere Pro. The red actually came from the blender video. I wanted the sound of the blender to be carried onto this scene so I simply duplicated it over and because it's on the video track below this whole scene....it can be slightly seen appearing in the background during this part, and of course, that is where the red comes from. I also added an effect to the audio of this duplicated blender video to fit with the change of scene. I felt the sound of the continuous blender didn't do anything for the animation so that's why I changed it.
These are the changes I made for this last scene.
This image below shows the audio change in the second blender video. I added a "Phaser" to achieve the sound I wanted.
First animation test
This was the very first animation I did for this module, it was just a test I did to get back into Photoshop. There are very few frames and it was more to help with the technical aspects.
It's worth noting that the music in these three animations (this one and the next two) were created by myself using http://www.beepbox.co/.
Further photoshop etching idea
This idea was the beginning of my etching theme. I wanted to replicate crayon etches but in Photoshop. I found that the easiest way of doing this was using the eraser as my brush and my brush as my eraser. Hopefully with that you can watch the animation and understand what I mean. I have also made this animation loop and added my own soundtrack.
Rabbit etching idea
For this animation I wanted to take the etching idea a little bit further...so I drew a rabbit. This animation uses the same technique as above but I feel that I perfected it for this animation. I managed to get a smoother line quality for the end result.
Peer Feedback:
Feedback that I got from Elliot Mcarthur (classmate) was about the overall quality of the line work for this animation, That was feedback given on an earlier version . He said that it wasn't really good enough and that feedback prompted me to develop a better technique for the etching in Photoshop.
This image below is what I had before the feedback. My process that generated this was to literally copy the frame and then erase that little bit of black to reveal the colour underneath and to also make the rabbit, I did this each frame. Copy frame, draw next little bit of rabbit and repeat. That's why the line quality is that great.
In response to this feedback I changed my method and each new frame I literally redrew the whole rabbit with just a little bit more of the line added in that the rabbit is made from. This is clearly visible when you watch both of them. The above version you can see the line just growing out but the one below you can see the whole rabbit being redrawn each frame.
Below is a link to the version of the animation that had the messy line work.
https://vimeo.com/164100653
...and of course the link for the newest version with the feedback taken on board can be found further up this page.
Peer Feedback:
Feedback that I got from Elliot Mcarthur (classmate) was about the overall quality of the line work for this animation, That was feedback given on an earlier version . He said that it wasn't really good enough and that feedback prompted me to develop a better technique for the etching in Photoshop.
This image below is what I had before the feedback. My process that generated this was to literally copy the frame and then erase that little bit of black to reveal the colour underneath and to also make the rabbit, I did this each frame. Copy frame, draw next little bit of rabbit and repeat. That's why the line quality is that great.
In response to this feedback I changed my method and each new frame I literally redrew the whole rabbit with just a little bit more of the line added in that the rabbit is made from. This is clearly visible when you watch both of them. The above version you can see the line just growing out but the one below you can see the whole rabbit being redrawn each frame.
Below is a link to the version of the animation that had the messy line work.
https://vimeo.com/164100653
...and of course the link for the newest version with the feedback taken on board can be found further up this page.
CatSnake
This animation is is a combination of Photoshop and newspaper cutouts. I originally animated CatSnake in Photoshop before acquiring newspaper cutouts for his eyes. I also got newspaper cutouts for the background.
This is perhaps one of the more experimental animations I have created, it has also been the one that has received the best feedback from classmates throughout the semester. People seem to have liked the obscure narrative but also the newspaper eyes.
Peer Feedback:
I got feedback from another classmate about perhaps animating CatSnakes mouth...this was something that I hadn't thought about and would only be done if I took it further but for this project, the aim was more about combining the cutout eyes with the Photoshop animation so I diplomatically dismissed the idea.
This is perhaps one of the more experimental animations I have created, it has also been the one that has received the best feedback from classmates throughout the semester. People seem to have liked the obscure narrative but also the newspaper eyes.
Peer Feedback:
I got feedback from another classmate about perhaps animating CatSnakes mouth...this was something that I hadn't thought about and would only be done if I took it further but for this project, the aim was more about combining the cutout eyes with the Photoshop animation so I diplomatically dismissed the idea.
Rotoscope
This rotoscope animation was perhaps the most time consuming because I had to firstly do an initial pass of normal rotoscoping over every frame before going back over each frame with my new style of lots of horizontal lines to make up my frames.
Peer Feedback:
I got feedback from several people (Elliot, Roberto Fontana and Shuvojit) regarding the frame rate of this animation, they recommended I added more. Instead of getting more frames to then rotoscope over I decided to experiment with longer horizontal lines to make up the figure.
This frame below is one of my original frames where I had rotoscoped over it with small horizontal lines.
This frame below is one of my added inbetweens to create a sort of blur effect but to also add more frames. The purple was my way of adding even more movement to the animation while also making it more interesting with colour. One of the things I wanted to do with this rotoscope was make it different from almost everything I had come across in my research. So I have been able to add extra movement with the inbetweens but also the purple patch has been redrawn each frame which adds further movement. There is also the fact that its a rotoscope so I would say there is three-way rotoscoping going on here. colour, inbetween and keyframes.
Peer Feedback:
I got feedback from several people (Elliot, Roberto Fontana and Shuvojit) regarding the frame rate of this animation, they recommended I added more. Instead of getting more frames to then rotoscope over I decided to experiment with longer horizontal lines to make up the figure.
This frame below is one of my original frames where I had rotoscoped over it with small horizontal lines.
This frame below is one of my added inbetweens to create a sort of blur effect but to also add more frames. The purple was my way of adding even more movement to the animation while also making it more interesting with colour. One of the things I wanted to do with this rotoscope was make it different from almost everything I had come across in my research. So I have been able to add extra movement with the inbetweens but also the purple patch has been redrawn each frame which adds further movement. There is also the fact that its a rotoscope so I would say there is three-way rotoscoping going on here. colour, inbetween and keyframes.
Summary
Overall for this module, I have been able to experiment with a variety of different animations as well as software. This has given me a better understanding of how to structure animations since I haven't necessarily been so focused on animating characters. I have been allowed to focus on my preferred interest of storytelling in general and I see animation as my preferred medium for expressing myself and my ideas.
This module has been my favourite, I liked doing animations in just a few weeks because it doesn't take too long to get to the end result and its always uplifting when you can see a final product. This constantly helped to motivate me for the next animation throughout my project. I also learnt a bunch of neat tricks in Premiere Pro and Photoshop for getting the most out of my work. This year has been a bit lost for me, I came into it not quite sure what I wanted to do (like every year in college and University so far actually) but I felt more lost this year because of the looming presence of 4th year. It felt like I had to specialize in something so I could make the most of my remaining time here. Based on other modules, I don't want to go into modelling for games...modelling for animations wouldn't be too bad but I can't handle all the technical aspects of modelling for a game engine (my dislike might just be coming from having to actually use Unreal for a module but I guess that artists in industry today have to use game engines themselves anyway). So this module has shown me that my interests definitely lie in animations, but not necessarily just 3D like I have become accustomed to doing. It has been relieving to step away from 3D and truly experiment with animation while having the freedom to look into the narrative side of things and also looking into things I like in general as influences. I really enjoyed researching for these animations as it was an excuse to find the animations that truly inspire me.
I was actually think today on my way to University (on the deadline day) that I don't really have any animations that are show reel material and I feel that some of the animations I have created this semester are some of the best I have made ever and if I had focused a whole semester on the rotoscoping or CatSnake then I could have produced a really good animation. I am pleased with my animations this semester as they stand, I have learnt a lot about experimental animation and animation in general in use with Photoshop and Premiere Pro. I feel I have truly been able to focus on the overall animation experience rather than just the animation of a character, which, in my opinion, is a more satisfying experience.
I was actually think today on my way to University (on the deadline day) that I don't really have any animations that are show reel material and I feel that some of the animations I have created this semester are some of the best I have made ever and if I had focused a whole semester on the rotoscoping or CatSnake then I could have produced a really good animation. I am pleased with my animations this semester as they stand, I have learnt a lot about experimental animation and animation in general in use with Photoshop and Premiere Pro. I feel I have truly been able to focus on the overall animation experience rather than just the animation of a character, which, in my opinion, is a more satisfying experience.
