Week 11: Changes made to the final product

As my animation is nearing its final stages, I thought I'd post about some of the changes I made during the production period.

Sound
Originally I wrote: "I am going to use just naturalistic sounds". At the time, this seemed like a great idea. However, after the majority of the production process was finished, it felt as if something was missing. The silence throughout the scenes didn't really add anything to the 'eerie' feel that I was attempting to create. In an attempt to resolve this, I decided to try out some background music, to see if it would change anything - and it did! I spent hours searching the Internet for some copyright free music and found various horror tracks that I were able to use. However, a lot of these were dramatic and over the top - and this didn't fit with the minimal theme of my animatic. Fortunately, I managed to find various tracks that were minimal, and when I decided on which to use, I turned the volume of it down so the audience can hear it, without it being too much of a distraction from the narrative.

Rotoscoping
There is a previous post about this, please refer to that.

Relativity
I initially discussed about using the themes from Relativity by Maurits Cornelius Escher in my animatic, and although I admire the piece, the use of metamorphosis art didn't fit well in regards to the overall style of my project. In the end, I decided to focus my inspirational values more on Don Hertzfeldt work - rather than complicating the imagery by using the work of Escher. This, again, helped me keep to the minimal stylistic production values I was hoping to achieve.

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These were the only dramatic changes made, and I feel that my project has kept the same values from what I envisioned in the planning stage.

Week 11: Technical Experimentation Episode 3

To add a sense of realism to my characters, I wanted them to blink (just as humans do). However, as I want to add an 'eerie' effect to my animatic, I decided to make their blinks more random and less constant than that of a human.

This episode of technical experimentation will show how I added the blink effect.

1. Before animating anything, the first thing I did was import the 'blink' and the 'character's eyes' into After Effects.

I then placed the blink over the character's eyes as this is where the blink will appear when the eyes are closed (see below).

2. The second step involves the timing of the blink. Naturally, when the character's eyes are open I want the blink to disappear, and the same vice versa.

To do this, I had to change the Opacity of the blink. As I wanted my character's eyes to be open at the start of the scene, I changed the opacity to 0% at 0 seconds (see below).

I made sure that the character's eye and eye lid were set to 100% at the same time (so they would be visible when the blink wasn't).

3. I then had to decide when I wanted the blink to appear. I wanted the character to blink a 1 seconds so I had to make the blink reappear then.

However, it is not as simple as simply placing a marker at 1 second and changing the opacity to 100%. If I did this, the opacity would slowly appear between 0 seconds and 1 seconds. I wanted the blink to appear immediately and not gradually.

To do this, I placed a marker at a split second before 1 second and made sure the opacity was at 0%. This ensures that the opacity of the blink doesn't change between 0 seconds and just before 1 second.

Then, at 1 seconds I place another marker and change the opacity to 100%. This ensured the blink appeared immediately between 1 seconds and a split second before. 

4. The fourth step included doing the exact same thing with the eye and eye lid but with the opposite values. 

For example, at 0 seconds I ensured the opacity of the eye and eye lid were at 100%, and at a split second before 1 second it was still at 100% and finally at 1 seconds, I made sure the opacity was at 0%. This made it so that when the blink appeared, the eye and eye lid disappeared, creating the desired blink effect.

5. The fifth and final step was the opening of the eye. I did exactly the same as before, but with opposite values.

I then repeated this wherever I wanted my character's to blink!

Week 10: Technical Experimentation: Episode 2

Technical Experimentation: Episode 2

In this episode of technical experimentation, I will show how I added a blur effect to a blank area on After Effects. 

I looked at many guides on the Internet, but they only showed how to add a blur to an object - I wanted to add a blur to a blank area (I was creating semi-transparent automatic doors, so I only drew the door frames and left the 'transparent' areas as blank).

I couldn't find any useful tips online, so I decided to take matters into my own hand and do a little experiment. After much trial and error, I finally found out how to do it:

1. Below, are a set of door frames with the antagonist behind them. As you can see, they don't look much like a set of doors as they're completely see-through!

2. I wanted to add a blur to these to make them look like a set of automatic doors in an office.

To do this, I clicked on Layer > New > Adjustment Layer.

I figured it would be an adjustment layer as this allowed me to create a layer on top of my current ones. Even better, it allowed me to modify the layer to a size and shape of my choice.

3. As you can see below, I modified the shape of the layer to fit half of the door. I did this because I want each half to move in the opposite direction, just as an automatic door does. If I put the layer over both sides, it would only be able to move in one direction.

4. I now want to add the blur to the layer. This part was easy. All I did was Right Click (on the layer) > Effect > Blur & Sharpen > Box Blur (Note: you can test any of the blurs, I just preferred the style of the Box Blur)

5. Once I did this, an effects column appeared on the left. Here, it is possible to modify the intensity of the blur. I played around with these settings for awhile until I found the amount I desired.

6. And finally, shown below is my final blur effect. As you can see, it looks like a pair of automatic doors!

Week 10: Technical Experimentation: Episode 1

It's that day - I have finally begun work on my final animation. I am very excited and cannot wait to have the completed product on my computer screen.

As part of my final project, I have decided to document my progress. This is to show you, the readers of this blog, how I went about creating my animatic. It will also allow me to reflect on my work once it is completed - the mistakes I may have made, what I did well and what I can improve in the future.

Technical Experimentation Episode 1:

As previously stated, I want the visual style of my project to mirror that of Don Hertzfeldt's Rejected. In order for me to do this, I have decided to utilise the 'stick-figure' drawing style that Hertzfeldt's makes use of.

1. The first part of the creation process consists of drawing. A lot of drawing. In order for me to animate my characters and scenery to maximum potential, I have to draw each part of the drawing on a separate sheet, then put them together on my computer.

For example, in order for a character's legs to move separately, I have to draw them separately, scan them into my computer and put each one on a different layer in Photoshop.

Here is a screenshot of the legs I drew for the protagonist of the animatic:

2. The next part of the creation process consists of removing the white space from around the object. This is to ensure that the object doesn't interfere with other objects in my animatic.

As shown above, I used the Magnetic Lasso Tool to cut around my object. This tool proved useful as it easily recognised the object on the screen, and cut around it almost perfectly. However, it didn't remove all the white space around the object. To counteract this, I used the Rubber Tool to delete any of the remaining space (shown below).

3. I then copied the cut object, and pasted it onto a transparent background (shown below).

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4. The next part of process was slightly more complicated.

In order for me to be able to animate the eyes and mouth of my character separately, I had to isolate them and put them into separate layers. 

To do this, I used the Magnetic Lasso Tool to cut the desired object, copy it, and paste it into a new layer. I then deleted the object in the old layer.

This allowed me to view each part of the character's face separately, whilst remaining on the same canvas. 

As an example, below is a screenshot which depicts all the different layers, with the character's right eye turned off.

5. I then copied each individual layer and put them onto a transparent background. I used the Mouse Tool to put the objects together to create my character (shown below).

I did this mainly for convenience. By doing this, I had each separate layer ready to animate all in one .psd file.

6. I then opened the the file in After Effects ready to animate! 

Shown below is each separate layer, which I can animate individually.

Week 9: Notoscoping

When creating an animation, the artist has to make many decisions in regards to the visual style, narrative and sound. When creating my animation, I wanted to utilise the technique of rotoscoping, as I believed it would fit perfectly with the visual style and narrative. Whilst I still believe this, I have decided not to use the rotoscope method to create my animatic.

After a brief talk with my seminar tutors, I came to the realisation that it would be more beneficial for me to utilise a more basic animatic technique - rotoscoping isn't easy, and I simply do not have the time or skills to do so. (If I continued to insist in using the rotoscope technique, I would have needed more time to learn the new skills required, and even more time to utilise these skills to create my animatic. This wouldn't feasible)

Whilst this is a shame, not all hope is lost. Adobe After Effects provides a fantastic set of tools that allow me to mirror the rotoscope effect. The most notable of which is the Wiggler effect, which I can use to make the objects and character's shake uncomfortably, much like they do in Don Hertzfeldt's Rejected Cartoons. Furthermore, I can make use of the blur and contrast effects, to enhance the eerie effect that I desire to create.

So what now? Roll on with the production! Although I am saddened about these turn of events, I still believe I can produce an effective and successful animation.

Week 8: Recording Sound

As I am trying to create an 'eerie' and 'creepy' effect for my animation, sound plays an integral part of the creative process. But how will I go about recording and retrieving the required sounds?

As I mentioned previously, I am going to use long silences, minimal speech and dramatic segments of sound when something significant occurs. Fortunately, none of these require any dubious sound work, so for the most part I will be able to record the sound myself. For the required sound effects, I will use the Internet to find the copyright free sounds that I desire. Free Sound (http://www.freesound.org) is a notable example of this.

To record the sound bites, I am going to use iMovie 09. With iMovie 09, it is possible to watch the movie whilst recording, so I will be able to record accurate and effective sound bites. I will do this once the visual side of my animation is complete.

Week 7: Creative Project Proposal

I am fascinated by animation. I believe that it is an exceptional platform to convey thoughts and ideas, values and beliefs. It is, partly, for these reasons, that I have chosen ‘Brief #1 – Select a poem by William Blake and devise an animation with sound in response to it’ as the main focus of my creative project.

Poetry is an art form. Just like animation, the author – or poet, is able to channel their patterns of thought onto the canvas, which in turn, allows the reader to engage in a synchronous conversation with them. Also, similar to animation, the author’s ideas are open to interpretation, and it is up to the reader to process them in any way they see fit.

William Blake was an accomplished poet, however his talent only came to prominence after his death. His poetic range extended from love, to philosophy, to war and even politics. He wrote the fantastic A Cradle Song, the thought-provoking A War Song to Englishmen and the philosophical The Tyger. He wrote hundreds of poems; however my choice of focus for my creative project is The Fly.

The reason I have chose The Fly is because it harmonizes perfectly with the style of animation I am going to work with (of which, will be discussed later). It deals with the issue of the significance of human life. In the poem, the protagonist has an encounter with a fly, and brushes it away thoughtlessly. However, he – or she comes to the realization that the life of the fly isn’t so insignificant – they both live, breath and eat. They are both living creatures on earth. The one difference is, is that human life is capable of understanding that death is inevitable, whereas the fly lives a blissful ignorance.

The style of animation I have chosen to utilize is rotoscoping. This is a technique that enables an animator to create an animation that is similar to that of a live action video. According to scholar Benjamin Bratt, rotoscoping was devised in 1917 by animator Max Fleischer. It consisted of a ‘camera mounted behind an animation desk, projecting film footage onto a slate of frosted glass. The animator would trace the frames of live action onto paper… having the lead animator drawing the “key” poses’ (2012, p 3 – 4). However, in modern day, the practice of rotoscoping is usually completed on software programmes such as Adobe After Effects and Adobe Flash.

My desire to employ the technique of rotoscoping for my creative project is for various reasons. First of all, I believe that it creates an ‘eerie’ effect, and promotes a sense of detachment from reality. The removal of every few frames creates a ‘wooden’ effect – and a sense of unease is achieved. Secondly, a rotoscoped animatic can be drawn very simplistically and minimally, yet produce signification and meaning.

As mentioned, this corresponds perfectly with The Fly. The ‘eerie’ and ‘wooden’ effects work well with the nature of the poem – the protagonist is contemplating his – or her own life in conjunction with that of a fly, and the reflection of life as a whole can be a terrifying thought. And although the poem concludes joyously, I want to create chilling effect, which resolves itself as in the poem. To achieve this, I will animate as simplistically as possible. It doesn’t need a lot of colour or detail; by utilizing the rotoscope technique my animatic will be basic yet thought provoking.

Sound is an integral part of my creative project. It helps create depth and adds to the feel of a final product. As I believe the technique of rotoscoping adds an ‘eerie’ effect to an animatic, I want the soundtrack to reflect this. In order to do so, I am going to use just naturalistic sounds - such a footsteps, movement and background noise – there will be no theme music. I am going to add long and provocative silences between these sounds, to keep the viewer guessing as to what is going to happen next.

As part of the planning for my creative project, I have undertaken research into various animators from all aspects of the field. However, my main source of inspiration derives from the American animator Don Hertzfeldt. Hertzfeldt has been in the animation business for over a decade, and ‘his films have collectively received over one hundred awards’ (EDIFF, 2009).

He is perhaps most famous for his series Rejected (2000) (see Figure 1) – a collection of short, hypnagogic films which are presented as a collection of rejected advertising scripts. Each scene makes little to no sense, but due to the minimalistic style (and the removal of every few frames) of the rotoscope effect, it creates a sense of instability, which in turn provokes the viewer to keep watching.

Figure 1 – The opening scene from Rejected presents the viewer with an eerie rotoscopic effect

Rejected is an example of the style of animatic I desire to create. Towards the end of the short, the animator is shown to have a break down, and kills all of his characters violently. I want to portray something similar this but in the context of The Fly. As mentioned, my short film will begin in a state of confusion and angst, which resolves itself towards the end (just as the poem does).

Although Don Hertzfeldt’s work is a primary source of inspiration for my creative project, I have also engaged in further study of other famous rotoscope artists. These include and are not limited to Aaron Lear, George Oliver and Gregory Chin. However, to not limit my research (and possibly jeopardize my project), I have also explored various different types of animation and art styles.

One of which I admire is Metamorphosis Art, and within this most notably the work of Maurits Cornelis Escher. Escher, a Dutch artist, was known for his impossible constructions. According to scholar Robert M. Craig, there was an ‘urge to explore alternatives [which] implies a rejection of convention’ and this was reflected in Escher’s work (2003, p 558). This is portrayed in perhaps his most famous creation: Relativity (see Figure 2).

 Figure 2 – Relativity

To me, Relativity holds several different meanings and connotations and this is why it is a favourite of mine. Like The Fly and Rejected, Relativity is open to interpretation, and it is up to the viewer to decide what they receive from it. For me personally, Relativity signifies the horrors of the world – we have problems with war, famine, poverty and terrorism – and when we are told of a fix for these problems, more arise. We as a world are the cause of these problems, especially war and terrorism, and the endless stairs represent this – we are constantly going round in circles - there is no end.

The idea of impossible constructions is something I may choose to include in my creative project. However, I am yet to decide whether they would be compatible in regards to the context of The Fly. Maybe Relativity could even work? The endless stairs could be perceived as a metaphor presenting the relationship between the human and the common fly. Unlike the protagonist, not all humans consider the fly as an equal entity, of which the relationship is never ending – we as a race will never be fully at peace with the fly.

Something else I must consider when constructing my creative project is the ethics of representation. Sensitive issues such as race, religion, gender, age and sexuality cannot be disregarded and must be examined. I want my animatic to appeal to as wide an audience as possible, so I will attempt to take a neutral stance in regards to these issues. As for the political angle of my creative project, light references to capitalism will be projected, and as the western world is under a capitalist regime, these will be light-hearted and humorous.

In his book Media Ethics: Opening Social Dialogue, scholar Bart Pattyn describes the ethics of representation in an ideal world as ‘…based on a well-balanced social dialogue in which various actors with various points of view participate’ (2000, p 11). Obviously, this is a very hard task to complete, and would be near impossible for a 90 second animate. However, in order to appeal to such a wide audience I will address the following factors:

• Profanity kept to a minimum
• Sexual references kept to a minimum   
• Violence kept to a minimum
• The sex of the protagonist kept neutral (to not alienate male and/or female viewers   
• Any religious views and/or references kept to a minimum (to not offend those who practice a certain/other religion)
• The race of the protagonist kept neutral (to not alienate a certain race/ethnicity)

If I abide by these guidelines successfully, then audience alienation will be kept to a minimum. However, I recognize that I cannot cater for all audiences – such as the blind or those who cannot speak English – but this is inevitable and something I cannot control.

Another point I must consider when creating my project is the type of software used to do so. This is fundamental; the process of animation is not a simple one, it can be long and time consuming. It is for these reasons that I have tried and tested various different pieces of software to determine the one(s) I feel most comfortable with. The programmes I used are Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Flash, Auto Desk, Adobe After Effects and Anime Studio.

After much careful deliberation, I chose to use Adobe Photoshop and Adobe After Effects to create my animatic. The reason behind this decision was not an easy one. First of all, the programmes I listed are excellent tools for animation construction - they have powerful features with almost endless possibilities. Secondly, they have been designed for beginners such as myself and are incredibly easy to use. However, the reason I chose Photoshop and After Effects is due to the fact that they work brilliantly together - they are part of the Adobe package suite and have been built to work in conjunction with each other.

So why didn’t I choose Adobe Flash? This is something I much considered, however the final decision came down to the fact that I am far more experienced with the GUI of After Effects than that of Flash. I have had over a year of experience with After Effects and believe that I will need a few weeks training to be able to use Flash effectively – I simply do not have the time to do this. Furthermore, I have created various test animations on After Effects in preparation for my final product (see Figure 3).

Figure 3 – A test animation I made in After Effects

In order for any creative project to be successful, it is vital to create a plan of production. In the past I have found this to be a necessity – when set a deadline I feel it is important to plan my time accordingly, and this enables for me to create a product to the highest possible standard. This time is no different, and it is for that reason that I have compiled a production schedule to ensure I meet the deadline for submission, and receive the highest mark attainable (see Figure 4).

Term Week	Date	Plan	Additional Notes
1	17/09/12 – 23/09/12	N/A
2	24/09/12 – 30/09/12	N/A
3	01/10/12 – 07/10/12	- This week I was introduced to my creative project, and I have started to think about possible ideas for it. - Update blog
4	08/10/12 – 14/10/12	- Chosen idea: William Blake – The Fly. Begin to research and write Project Proposal. - Update blog.
5	15/10/12 – 21/10/12	Finish Project Proposal and begin work on narrative storyboard. - Update blog.
6	22/10/12 – 28/10/12	- Finish storyboard and begin work on 10-second animatic. - Update blog.
7	29/10/12 – 04/11/12	- Finish 10-second animatic. Hand in all deliverables for Assessment 1. - Update blog.	Hand in: -        Project Proposal -        10 second animatic -        Narrative storyboard
8	05/11/12 – 11/11/12	- Begin 90 second animatic and practice recording sound. - Update blog.
9	12/11/12 – 18/11/12	- All images for 90-second animatic should be uploaded to computer. First 20-30 seconds of animatic should be completed. - Update blog.
10	19/11/12 – 25/11/12	- All sound files should be recorded and uploaded to computer. 60 seconds of animatic should be completed. - Update blog.
11	26/11/12 – 02/12/12	- Animation should be completed. Final editing begins - Update blog.
12	03/11/12 – 09/11/12	- Begin writing project reflection. - Update blog.
13	10/11/12 – 16/11/12	- Final touches to animation, blog and reflection essay should be completed and ready to hand in. - Update blog.	Submission: -        Blog -        90 second animatic -        Reflection essay

As shown, I also run a weekly blog to document anything I find, research or create in regards to my creative project and animation in general[1].

Figure 4

To conclude, I am extremely confident with the current progress of my creative project. As mentioned, I am fascinated by animation, and I am overjoyed that I have had the chance to study such a thought-provoking subject. This proposal has enabled me to lay the groundwork in what will become a fantastic end product. I will adhere to the ideas and values of which I have discussed, and I am very excited to begin work on my final animatic.

Bibliography

Berimbau10 (2008) ROTOSCOPING SHORT ANIMATION, [video], YouTube, 3 April 2008, Available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZOHv9B0j7o [Accessed 27 October 2012]

Bratt, Benjamin (2012) Rotoscoping: Techniques and Tools for the Aspiring Artist, Oxford, Elsevier Inc., Pp. 3 – 4

Craig, Robert, M. (2003) ‘M.C. Escher and the Pardoxical Staircases of Post-Modernism’ in Moffett, Marian., Fazio, Michael, W., and Wodehouse, Lawrence., [eds] (2003) A World History of Architecture, London, Laurence King Publishing Ltd., Pp. 558 – 560

Edinburgh International Film Festival (2009) An Evening with Don Hertzfeldt, [online], Available at: http://www.edfilmfest.org.uk/films/2009/an-evening-with-don-hertzfeldt, [Accessed 27 October 2012]

Escher, Maurits, Cornelis., (1953) Relativity, [electronic print], Available at: http://www.mcescher.com/Gallery/back-bmp/LW389.jpg, [Accessed 27 October 2012]

Hertzfeldt, Don (2000) Rejected, [video], YouTube, 28 April 2007, Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuOvqeABHvQ, [Accessed 27 October 2012]

Pattyn, Bart (2000) Media Ethics: Opening Social Dialogue, Beligum, Peeters, Pp. 9 – 11

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[1] http://jordans-animation.blogspot.com