About the Author - STORYBOARDING

Storyboarding 

> Key frames! Don't turn it into a flip book

> The whole reasons why we have storyboards is to help people know whats going on.

Animation - 4 key types of movement 

> Positional

> Pan

> Track

> Zoom

From our photocopied images, we tun had to create three different 9 frame storyboards starting with the same 5th frame.. which I didn't do.. I struggled quite a bit with this task. Although others were saying that it got easier as they got on with the frames, I found it a lot harder. I find it hard to come up with lots of ideas that are, running out of compositions I could create. This is making me panic a little for when it comes to creating my actual story boards for my animation. As well as this, I don't think I was put on this Earth to use After effects. I can't see how I can go from moving cubes on a screen to end up creating a full 15 second animation of my work. But at least now I know a career path that I definitely don't want to do..

anyway 

TASK 1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyYS-GzBSIg

First animation! This is taken from the modern film of Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, well taken from the edits as they don't actually show this clip, assumably because it talks about the non existence of God. But, I chose this because I really like the short animations they have during this film, they're so simple and well done. They explain a lot in such a short period but done in such a way that isn't confusing. I also like the colour schemes they use, never using more than two colours in each frame. This is something that I would also like to do in my own animation, I think it makes the frame easier to absorb as too much colour can get confusing and put you off. It also creates a certain mood/tone to what you want to portray in the animation, blues for sadness or bright yellows for happiness. And complimentary colours are always pleasing to the eye. 

The sound in the animation I think doesn't play a massive role in the storytelling. I think it's more used just because silence would be strange. But because it has a narrator speaking, I don't think in this case that a loud song with singing is really necessary. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5a7zewiXt9E&index=1&list=PL1z6a0cQpsXDRUsaeZgr1D6Y9PS6KGOGB

Second animation! This animation I stumbled across on youtube. I chose it because it combines hand drawn illustration with animation, which is something that I would like to look into. It's also really clever, using the tissues as a frame, changing the size as the advert goes on. This has make me think that I could use something else to make a box/outline of a frame within the frame than just using the frame itself (that's a lot of frame). The music is also quite simple in this animation too. I think because it would distract from the images and the tissue, which is the main feature of the animation.   

About the Author OUIL504

About the Author 

After the workshop, I started on character design as this is my favourite. Thinking about what I learnt about using different colour pallets, I tried to apply this to my work. What I found hard about this was trying not to copy what the characters look like in the film, as they are described quite differently looks-wise in the book. I also found myself doing quite Disney styled character faces, which I don't really like because it's not different and doesn't have any original punch. 

I then moved onto the Babel fish (my favourite character, mainly because it's not a person). I started drawing it quite normally, using the colours described in the book and experimenting with materials. 

I then got quite carried away/obsessed with this fish, and kept drawing.. and drawing.. and painting.. and paper cutting this weird little fish. 

All the while working out in my head what's the best way of drawing it in a simplest form that's easily recognisable and how to describe it's function. Also trying to look at different colours to see what ones work best together - especially as the final product is only two colours. 

But I had completely ignored the author, so I thought I should go back to him. Exploring his past life and facial structure. I then wanted to try and combine his face with quotes, trying to show the quote in with the composition. I struggle a lot with giving my work a meaning behind it, so I tried to focus on this more than having a pretty picture to look at. So I went with something simple that expressed what the quote was saying. Not like I actually did a good job on this, but I tried my best. I again tried sticking to two colours, because I thought using loads would be counter productive as I'd stray away from the brief. 

I started using gouache to create these linear based faces, which I really like. I always draw faces realistically which especially for this project just isn't necessary. So I like how I've kind of adapted my style to what's needed from me and not doing what I usually stubbornly do and just draw what I want. This face, I then realised, would work great in lino! So I explored further...

I created bigger faces in gouache and in pencil, looking more into the line structure of the face and how I can simplify features. But still doesn't have any meaning behind it! Errrrrr so annoying!

So I experimented a further to try and combine parts if the story into the contours of his face so it has a lot more meaning to it! Yaaaay!

I then did a lino cut just with the lines and circles without the story in the face just to see what it would look like. Especially as I have never done a lino print before, so thought best to do something more basic to start with. Which, I don't think turned out thaat bad.. but I was really impatient and used acrylic which I have now learned never to do again as it dries far too quickly.. But you can still see the shapes and what I was trying to create. 

Now I'm trying to create different stories I want in the face -  his life, the characters in the book, motifs, locations etc.  First by drawing them out, then paper cutting to see if a lino cut would work!

About the Author OUIL504 - Workshop

About the Author - Workshop 1

Why I chose the author?

• Unconventional 
• Humorous
• Imaginative
• Backwards thinking
• Different

This task made me think a lot more about me and the author rather than the book. I think this was a good task to make you stop and actually think about why you like the author and why you chose them in the first place. It made me realise that I chose my author based on the kind of people that I like talking to and who make me laugh. 

IMAGES (MARK MAKING)

This isn't usually my kind of thing of 'expressing myself through marks', but I did find it quite therapeutic. I do like doing tasks that aren't just sitting down and drawing something conventional. It made me think a lot more about how I moved the pen/brush to create a certain mood.

DRAW MOTIF (IMAGE) 

Because I already had kind of drawn some motifs already, this task wasn't too complicated for me. Although, I do struggle a lot with composition and drawing a still frame of a scene. But, seeing as this was only a little task, I didn't want to overcomplicate things for myself, so just went for something simple. When Teresa told us to use an opposite colour for the mood of the situation - this for me was kind of a breaking point. It made me realise that by using completely different colours, it totally changes the mood, and for me, it reflects my author's abstract personality. So this really got me thinking and experimenting.

GROUP IMAGE

This task was something a little different and fun, which I quite enjoyed. I'm not too sure of the purpose of this though, maybe just some fun. But I guess it focuses on character design and how to quickly make a new character which no one else would every be able to think of. Mostly humorous, but of course there's nothing wrong with that.