Environmental Storytelling: Third Place

After thinking for a very long time I decided that the third place I would visit is Rivington. Depsite the fact that I have been to Rivington Pike there is a lot more to Rivington than just a Pike. The place I want to focus on the most is Lord Leverhulme's terraced gardens. I don't know much about the history of Lord Leverhulme so I'm not sure what to expect whilst I'm there other than crumbling buildings (from what I heard from my grandma). Whilst there I will take a variety of materials from pens to watercolours and I will use a wide range of drawings surfaces such as brown paper, tissue paper, cartridge paper, etc.

After Effects: Induction 1

For our first After Effects Induction we went through the basics of how to use the program such as which panel was for what and how to open and set up a new project etc. Having used After Effects previously for my Pixilation project I was confident enough to do this with ease but it was nice for the reminder. We then began to look into how to use this program for animation, which surprised me at first because I was completely unaware that After Effects could be used to create animations. 

Like I said before this was really just a basic induction into After Effects so it was mostly a case of listening and taking notes. We went through how to open projects with presets for animation and all the useful shortcuts for animating a composition. I found this extremely useful and it will help me when I come to use After Effects next time around.

Towards the end of the session we went through key framing, in which you map out certain key frames along the timeline in order to make an object/ image move. From this we were asked to create a short animation using solid blocks.

Overall, I found this session to be extremely useful and I feel that I now have a good understanding of how to set up an After Effects project to use for animation.

The Classical Elements: Environment Concepts Continued

If I'm going to be honest, I haven't really had much experience when it comes to environmental concepts and I never know where to start or how to even begin to think about what kind of environment I want for my animation. But, like with anything else, I felt that researching visual references would be a good place to start. So I decided to go onto trusty Google and pick up images of trees from there (because I know I definitely want trees and a lake).

Using these images as a reference I then began to create an environment for my animation in Photoshop, as I am doing a digital animation. Although I'd already begun to think about environment, I feel that I was going about it the wrong way and I feel that this was a much more successful attempt, as I felt more prepared and had a much stronger sense of what I wanted to achieve.

After completing this environment I found that I was actually quite happy with how this had turned out on my first try and I feel that it is basic enough to use with the rest of my animation, as it doesn't draw any attention away from the main element of my animation. I also like how simple the background is and I feel that it wasn't too much work to complete either meaning I'd have more time to focus on actually animating. I think because of the time frame I have and because I am struggling with the water element within my animation I will leave my background as it is and create the others similar to this one.

I then wanted to experiment with placing my characters into the environment to see how they would work together.

I decided to experiment with my Earth character, as this is the character that I will have the most trouble with making it stand out. However, apart from the quick sketch being slightly too small, I feel that the character works well in this environment and that it stands out against the other similar elements around it.

Overall, I feel that I have a good idea of how to create my backgrounds. I just need to tidy them up a little and I can use them within my animation.

Observe, Explore and Consider: Environmental Storytelling

For over Christmas, we were given a new brief in which we are to explore and develop our environmental storytelling. As part of the study task we have to go and visit 2 places we are unfamiliar with and one we know well and produce 5-10 drawings between A3 and A4 using a variety of materials. We are also encouraged to create a number a thumbnail sketches in order to decide which angles I would like to create my 5-10 images from.

For the place that is familiar to me I feel that Newmillerdam would be a really good place to visit. I feel that I would be able to get some really nice landscape drawings and some really good perspectives from this area. Whilst here, I'd like to be able to experiment with drawing from different perspectives and trying to convey texture within my drawings through my line work and materials I use. I'd also really like to focus on the colour pallet. I think that the best way to approach an area this big when drawing from it would be to create a number of different thumbnail sketches and to also take photographs to refer back to when I'm no longer in that space alongside the drawings that I will produce whilst there. Also, because the location is so close to home this means that I will be able to take a wide range of materials, as I won't have far to travel. This opens up a window for experimentation.

For a place I am unfamiliar with I have decided to go visit the Wakefield Cathedral, as I realised that although I am familiar with Wakefield and the Cathedral's location I'm not actually familiar with interior of the place. In particular I am interested in the architecture of the building, as I REALLY like old buildings and the atmosphere within them. This is something I would like to experiment with creating within my images whilst there. I'd also really like to try and convey the vast space within the building so my focus will most probably be on my line work and trying to create tone and depth within my drawings whilst there. Because this is a public place and I don't know how long I will be allowed to stay there and draw, I feel that taking pictures to refer to later might be a good idea just in case I don't get the drawings I want whilst there. Also, I feel that I should limit my materials for drawing and break out of my comfort zone. I'm always using pencil, so to avoid using this I will leave all pencils at home forcing me to use other materials.

So far that is all I have and I will have to think on a third place to visit that is unfamiliar to me whilst I get on with my work.

The Classical Elements: Beginning to Animate

Reflecting upon my animation as a whole, I decided that I should begin with the water movement within my animation, as this is going to be the most difficult part of the whole thing, having never animated water before. At first I struggled to think of how to create a swirling column of water, as what I was trying to achieve went against the laws of physics and that made it really difficult to find any reference material to work from. But after watching a few Avatar episodes, I figured out how to create what I desired and I am quite pleased with the results. However, I have noticed that the water is very similar to that in Avatar and although I have used Avatar as a research point because I liked the colour choice and the style I should possibly try to make it a little more my own.

Once I had created the first 18 frames I realised that I was possibly too far zoomed in to the whole scene and had to zoom out. After overcoming my first little dilemma, I hit another one that is a lot more difficult. Now that I have my water column up in the air, I'm really struggling to figure out how to get my water column back down. I feel that looking at waterfalls and how they fall will help me to understand how to get my water to fall naturally.

This is proving to be extremely difficult.

The Classical Elements: Water Movement

In order to start getting my head around the movement of my water, I started to sketch out different ways in which I felt a water column would appear and found that this was proving to quite helpful, but, it wasn't helping me in terms of how I would actually get it to that stage. This was proving extremely difficult. 

Water Drawings Tests

So after drawing out a few I decided that I needed to find some visual reference of water moving in the style that I want for my animation. It took me a while but I remembered that Avatar:The Last Airbender wasn't just a film but also an animated series (and obviously one of the characters can bend water, so...). After researching Avatar: The Last Airbender, I finally got an understanding of how the water should move and decided to create a very small, short flip book to see how it would look. 

GIF of my very short flip book.

So I realise that it's a bit jumpy due to there being only 7 frames, but it gave me a really good idea of how it would look if I were to make my water move using this style. To test this more effectively I'll have to add more in between frames and work on spacing and timing. 

Overall, I am pleased that I have finally figured this out and I can now begin to move forward with my animation. 

Avatar: The Last Air Bender

Avatar: The Last Airbender is an animated TV series that follows the journey of young children that can manipulate and control the elements. Being a series I used to watch when I was younger it's been an influence to me for a very long time simply because it's an animation.

However, I feel that it has a lot of relevance to my project at the moment, particularly in the movement of water in unnatural ways. I really like the way that the water appears to have a lot of energy within this animation and the way that the lines are very simple yet effective. This is definitely something that I would like to capture within my animation, yet I am aware that I won't be able to create an animation of this quality at such an early stage, so I may not be able to create the exact same effect.

Not only do I like the water movement, I also like the overall style of the animation. I like the simple lines and the way that colour isn't overused. This has influenced me to think about the range of colours I use within my animation and to think about how too much or too little colour will effect how my animation is perceived. 

Not only do these things appeal to me, but I feel that it provides a good example of how digital animation can be used in various ways, as it differs from the previous animations I have looked at, and it has reminded me that animations don't have to be realistic to be effective. 

The Classical Elements: Research Into Animating Water

After having a talk with my tutor I realised that I didn't have much reference to work from regarding water movement. He recommended that I look at Elemental Magic, a book all about special effects animation, in order to get some visual reference for the movement of water and to kick start my research.

I found the section of the book on water quite useful not so much in terms of the movement of water in the way I want it, but it did give me some really good insight into the behaviours of water and how certain events such as splashing water (above), waves, etc could be animated.

In particular I was very interested in how to animate waves, as these will play a part in my animation and will start off the main event within my story so I feel that this would be an important factor. The book mentions how water and nature aren't symmetrical, how it is us who look for symmetry in nature and often find symmetry where there isn't actually any. However, by using this non-symmetry rule it makes the waves and water look very realistic and it is something I don't really want, as I feel it will be too time consuming to animate nor do I feel that it would fit in with my characters. However, that doesn't mean the principle of animating waves isn't relevant. 

I'm finding this book extremely useful and I feel that it is very good starting point to begin experimenting with animating my own water sequence. 

Visual Language: Set, Series, Sequence Part 3

For the final part of this project, I had to create a series of 12 images that told a narrative of my 8 images. Obviously my narrative was going to be based on dragonflies. At first I was thinking "well done Emma, give yourself the hardest bug to focus on out of what you've drawn", and I didn't actually have any ideas whatsoever. GREAT! So I brainstormed, as usual, and realised that dragonflies actually don't appear to do much of anything, they just fly around. It's quite boring actually.

I finally hit a good one though, and it originated from the inspiration I gained from I book I had previously read, Phillip Pullman's, His Dark Materials Trilogy, better known as The Northern Lights. In this trilogy dragon flies are used as creatures of transport for otherworldly warriors. So that gave me the idea to have a narrative based on dragonflies being used as a form of transport.

Based on my developmental images I decided to add colour, as I felt that most of my coloured image was successful. I decided to create simple line drawings using fine liners, as I felt that this was the clearest of all my development images and this would make the drawings of my storyboard clear too and I felt that the colour helped to communicate the story a little better.

Overall, I have really enjoyed this project, as it has given me the chance to improve my quick response skills, which were lacking greatly apparently. I've also really enjoyed experimenting with different media, as I haven't done this for far too long and it has made me realise that I should keep up with experimentation regardless of how terrified I am of it going wrong.

Visual Language: Set, Series, Sequence Part 2

For the second part of 'Set, Series, Sequence', I had to pick my most successful image and create a series of 8 images that develop upon my original image and focus on media, line, tone, etc. So after looking through all my images I decided to go with the dragonfly simply because I feel that it is the best one out of them all (it doesn't give me the creeps like the bugs do). I realised that many people may not actually see a dragonfly as a bug but more as an insect, but they're one and the same to me so...

Anyway.

Now that I had the freedom to experiment more with media and line, I really wanted to explore as much as I could with these so I tried to use a different line and media in each of my drawings. I also wanted to have a variation in the angles of my drawings so I also used a wide range of source photographs for this part of the project.

(1) For my first image I wanted to keep it quite simple in terms of not using too much media or line variation in one image, so I decided to use pencil and focus more on tone and mark making. I also wanted to break out from drawing A5, as I was getting quite tired of having to draw details so small, so I also focused on scale (I know A4 isn't much bigger but it worked). I really liked the tone I had created with the pencil and I was pretty surprised with my result as well, as I haven't used pencil like this in over a year. I realised just how much could be achieved with effective mark making. I also really liked how easy it was to create different line with the pencil, as this helped to portray the delicacy of the subject I was drawing.

(2) & (3) For these two drawings I wanted to focus on adding colour, as well as experimenting with line and mark making, so I used watercolours, as I am familiar with these. For the first drawing (2) I didn't want the colour to be part of the detail, more just a part of the image as a background, so I created a very quick wash of multiple colours that I could draw onto. I also decided that I wanted the drawings to be quite quickly done to match the background, so I used a fine liner and created 2 continuous line drawings. I find that this is a really effective drawing style, as I feel that it helps to portray the delicacy of the subject. I also just like the way it looks.
For the second drawing (3) I decided to do the opposite and have the colour be a part of the detail rather than just as a background. I also used a fine liner to add more delicate details that I couldn't achieve with the watercolours. Personally, I prefer the first drawing (2), as I feel that overall it more aesthetically pleasing and I don't feel that colour worked as well in the second drawing. I do however like the position of the second drawing. Perhaps it's look better at a larger scale.

(4) For this drawing I wanted to go back to tonal drawing, as the first was so successful, However, I wanted to try creating tone with a different medium, so I decided to used a fine liner with water, as I had no access to ink at the time. However, the paper I chose to do it on soaked up the water rather than letting it spread across the page, which resulted in my fine liner marks just looking blotchy rather than watered down. This was a really big shame, as I have done this technique before and I really like the result. This caused a problem for me so I let it dry and decided to do a detailed fine liner drawing instead. I really like the detail I was able to put into my image and the messy lines.

(5) Because I really liked the line that the fine liner made in image (2) it made me thing of other ink based materials that I could use and it lead me to experiment with Biro. Although I like it I feel that  made the image a little too dark so there isn't much tonal range within the image. However, I did like using Biro and it is something I will try again but will focus on creating more of a tonal range next time.

(6) For this image I decided to attempt watercolours again, as I felt that I didn't use them as effectively as I could have last time. However, I decided to use just black rather than colour, as my tonal drawings were working well for me. I found that this attempt worked a lot better and I feel that I managed to get a lot more tone into this painting (the bottom wing's a bit dark though).

(7) For this drawing I returned to fine liner, as I wanted to focus purely on line. I really wanted to see how the weight of the line effected how 'heavy' the drawing appeared. I found that the thicker the line the 'heavier' the image seem and the thinner the line the 'lighter' the image. I feel that this really helps to depict which part of the subject is the most delicate and which is more substantial. I also really like the simplicity of the line and how clear the image is.

(8) For my final image I decided to go back to colour however, I didn't want there to be too much colour within my image so I decided to stick to using monochrome colours. Having not used coloured pencils for a very long time I was a little nervous about the outcome and I was worried that I wouldn't be able to create the different tones that I wanted. However, I am pleasantly surprised with the outcome. I really love how bold and strong the colours are and how well they are blended. The only downside to this medium is that it takes forever to colour just one small image.

Overall, I've really enjoyed doing this part of the project and I'm really pleased with each of my experiments. This has reminded me that I shouldn't shy away to experimenting with media, line, tone etc, as I could create some lovely work by doing so. It has also given me an insight into which materials I am strong with and which ones I need to improve on. I also feel that I should incorporate what I have learned through this task into my observational sketchbook.

Visual Language: Set, Series, Sequence Part 1

For the first part of this project, I was given a set of 9 words (dance, tank, science, flight, envelope, fork, bug, skip, plant) from which I had to choose ONE (I know it was a nightmare for me) to create a series of 32 A5 sketches from. After a very long think about which word to choose I managed to whittle it down to flight however, I noticed that most of the people around me were also doing flight and I didn't want my work to be influenced by theirs so it was back to square one. In the end I decided to do bug.

Gif of my 32 images.

I must admit I found this task quite difficult, as I really struggled to come up with any form of quick response (in fact I struggled that much that it took me a week to create more than 4 images). However, after generating quick responses in the form of a brain storm, I did managed to finally come up with 32 images all depicting 'bug' in a different way and it didn't actually take me too long once I had the ideas. But, quick responses are something I am definitely going to have work on.

Now that I have my 32 different images I will have to pick out my most successful drawing and develop it further. This seems even more difficult than coming up with the first 32! Thinking about it now I'm feeling more fondness for my actual bugs, as I feel these will be easier to come up with a narrative for (so she says).

The Classical Elements: Character Development

Based on the feedback I received last week in my interim crit, I decided to experiment with adding texture to digital drawings of my characters. To do this I simply placed in a photograph of the element from Google on Photoshop and used different overlay settings until I found a balance between my drawing and the photograph that I liked. For my Earth character this was pretty straight forward, as I knew that I wanted her texture to be similar to tree bark. I feel that this character design is really successful and I don't feel that I will deviate much from this design at all.

For my water character though it was a lot more difficult, as there is many different textures to water depending on whether it's standing water, rushing water, etc. At the moment I'm leaning towards the second two designs because I really like the tone within them and I feel that the reflections from the light in the first character design are too bright.

After getting a couple of my peers' feedback, the second character design for water seems to be the most appropriate for my animation. Now that I have decided for definite that I will be using digital characters it's time to start creating my environment and experimenting with water movement, as this will be the biggest challenge of this animation.