Introduction to Animation Studyblr

Finished Animation

This is my final animation, set to Between the Buttons by French 79.

Overall, I am quite happy with the end result, especially with how difficult I found animating with oil paint - one of the problems that I encountered was that every change I made to the animation was permanent as I only had one sheet of acetate since I didn’t have a multi-plane plexiglass setup to have multiple laters. So I used one sheet of acetate to keep the animation flowing from one scene to another and I think this worked quite effectively.

The oil paints also blended a lot with each other and the backround, especially in the firework scene where the lighter colours (the yellows, oranges and reds) blended with the black background as I tried to apply them so it was difficult to get them to show up vividly. I tried using a palette knife to apply them which was slightly more effective but still difficult. I also got a headache from working with oil paint for up to 6-7 hours at a time when I came into the studio to animate.

My idea changed a lot since the original storyboards, and I departed from using my dope sheets too as once I started animating, I realised my idea was too linear and complicated to create using just oil paints. My original idea that I storyboarded would’ve been more effective using a medium like cut-out animation - the vehicle could be moved through the city, the buildings could rise up out of the ground and move sideways, etc. But since I chose to use oil paint and acetate instead, I had to change my idea.

So my idea stayed focused around the visuals of the city, stars and fireworks, but was less linear and more abstract, changing and flowing as I painted - since I couldn’t pre-make my frames, I had to paint them live in the studio on camera.

Walk Cycle Redone

Since my first walk cycle was more of a run cycle, I remade it. I drew out all the frames and then scanned them in using a printer. I also had to move them around using Photoshop before exporting them as an mp4, as they were too far apart originally so the movement was janky and the character seemed to float across the screen unnaturally.

The first 3 loops are exported at 30fps (the default photoshop export setting) and the next 3 loops are exported at 12fps, the framerate setting we have been told to work with.

I think since I had to move the frames around in Photoshop, the movement is still somewhat strange as the frames are at different distances apart.

Imagery Moodboards

Dope Sheets

Next I tried creating dope sheets based on my storyboards along with the music, using the dope sheet feature in DragonFrame.

I found this somewhat helpful for planning out which movements/actions I wanted on each frame exactly.

Animation Storyboards

Based on my moodboards and concept tests, I made storyboards to plan out my animation.

They start with a fade in from black on shooting stars, one of which gets bigger as it spins on the screen. it gets big enough to fill most of the screen and then smudges round to transition into the wheel of a vehicle (since initially the music reminded me of driving around a city at night).

Then the shot zooms out to reveal the vehicle (either a motorcycle or a car).

The shot further zooms out to show the car driving down a road into a city which starts appearing out of the ground on the beat, and the vehicle eventually driving up one of the buildings and out of frame.

In the silence, the car is launched into the air, and once the music the starts back up again, the car lands on the ground and fireworks shoot off in the background on the beat.

Finally the camera pans upwards to more shots of the fireworks.

I also sketched out a few possible insert shots of the driver of the vehicle which could work to show the reflection of the city/gap in the building where they jump/fireworks in their helmet visor.

Also I tried an alternative to the shooting stars which is the small meteor shower which crashes and then the city starts to appear from the explosion.

Animation Tests

Here I tried a few of the animations based on my storyboards I could have in my final animation, the first being a star spiralling and getting bigger, and then smudging/blending into something else.

The second animation is a simpler, quick shooting star (which uses slow in/slow out to help with timing/realism).

The last animation test is a firework (also using slow in/slow out).

Out of all of these, I think the firework was the most successful. I like the timing and will aim to replicate it in my final animation, however I don’t like the smudge at the end so I will change that and just try to make the colour fade instead.

I like the simple shooting star as well and could try to make somewhat of a meteor shower in the final piece.

I somewhat like the first spinning star although I had to cut the acetate and move it across which I found was distracting and looked messy. Also at some point in the test, the star changed the direction that it was spinning which is also distracting so I will make sure that I keep spinning directions constant in my final piece. I also found that I used too little paint so when I applied it to the acetate, it was very see-through. In my final animation, I will make sure to apply thick coats of paint to ensure full coverage and a rich colour.

Final Stop Motion Walk Cycle

This is my final walk cycle made using stop motion.

Overall I am quite happy with the fact that I finished it as my puppet couldn’t stand on its own so needed a lot of support to keep it up, especially with the poses it needed to be in for a walk cycle.

Although it is a little jumpy (due to the fact it is a very short cycle, repeated), some of the movements are quite smooth and fluid such as the arm movements.

One thing that was different than what I had planned for was that everyone was doing the same basic 8-step walk cycle, whereas I had designed my character for a personality-based walk cycle (walking straight and upright, holding her dress up and ahead of her, which is why I designed it with a loop to go around her hands). Therefore her dress is covering most of her legs in the finished walk cycle. Although this is not ideal for showcasing a walk cycle, although I think that the movement of the skirt behind her makes up for this somewhat.

Finished Stop Motion Puppet

Overall I am quite happy with how my puppet turned out, although I did struggle with using the Plasticine to create the skin as it would constantly get covered in dust/hair (which was made of black yarn so shed a lot of small fibres) and there was no easy way to clean it off as I did not have rubbing alcohol. Luckily, this is not too visible in the final animation.

Oil Paint Experiment (Acetate)

Next I tried out the oil paints on acetate since this is what I was planning to do for the animation. This was much easier than on paper as the paint would slide around a lot more. Colours blended very well and brush strokes are clearly visible which could add to the sense of motion in the animation.

Another benefit of using acetate is that it is see-through so I could have a pre-painted background or coloured card so that I wouldn’t have to repaint every single part of the canvas each time, rather just the element on the acetate that is moving.

Creating the Puppet - Decoration

Next I sculpted the face and limbs using plasticine. This was quite tricky too as I have never done 3D sculpting of any kind before but I tried to work with the profile view and front view drawings I had to help me work out where the volumes and shapes of the face should be. It was quite difficult to work with the face as the polystyrene base I was using for the head ended up being too wide so the proportions are somewhat off. After finishing sculpting, I painted on the lips and eyes (which I decided to have closed rather than open as this gives the character a more elegant and somewhat relaxed look as she is walking) using acrylic paint so it would stick and be vibrant and opaque.

Next I started making clothes for the puppet. I started by sketching out what the finished dress should look like very simply, and began by making a base dress since the pink material I bought was quite sheer and see-through so the polystyrene would show through otherwise. After this, I used one of the sleeves of the pink sheer top I bought to make the main body of the dress, cutting arm holes and tying it in the middle with a thinner strip of the material to resemble a ribbon. Next I sewed on the sleeves, made of very loose pieces of material to make them large and puffy. Then I sewed on the ruffle around the neck which I created by putting the needle and thread through the material very loosely, not pulling it apart, and tying it at the end to keep the ruffles bunched together. Finally, I added a ruffle to the bottom of the skirt too and a loop to hook the skirt onto the hand so the character could have it hoisted up as they were walking to show more of the movement of the walk cycle.

Next I added hair, for which I used black yarn as I couldn’t find any brown, and used a hot glue gun to glue them to the head.

The final things left to do were:

-To experiment with foil underneath the skirt so it could be shaped as the character is walking to simulate the way material moves.

Creating the Puppet - Body Mass

Since my puppet was quite tall, I decided to try to make it as light as I could so the balance would not be thrown off too much by any particular body part. I tried to accomplish this by first creating a sketch of my puppet and deciding what materials I could use for the main bulk. Light materials included sponge or polystyrene, which could be coated with an outer layer of plasticine to achieve the actual colour/texture I wanted.

Aleksandr Petrov

Since I was thinking of using a mix of oil and acrylic paints for my animation, I looked into other animators who have done a similar thing. In my research, I found Aleksandr Petrov, a Russian animator most well known for his 1999 film, The Old Man and the Sea - a 20 minute animation consisting of pastel oil paintings on glass, stylistically described as ‘Romantic Realism’.

He used multiple levels of A3 glass sheets to add depth to his scenes. He would paint and photograph one frame, and then manipulate the paint around slightly and photograph it again for the next frame. The film took him two years to create, consisting of over 29,000 frames. At times, his work can also get somewhat abstract, with how scenes transition from one to the other, which is relevant to my project too.

The oil-on-glass technique gives a very fluid movement, but can also seem jumpy at times if moved around too much which can be somewhat uncomfortable on the eyes.

Em Cooper

I also looked at Em Cooper’s oil-on-glass animation, which has a very rotoscoped feeling to it as the movements of humans seem extremely realistic. This is reinforced when their work transitions from being animated to the referenced/rotoscoped live action footage.

Loving Vincent

Em Cooper’s work reminded me of the movie ‘Loving Vincent’ since this was a full feature film, mostly consisting of rotoscoped oil paintings for human animation, and regular animation for some of the more environmental work.

“The film brings the paintings of Vincent van Gogh to life to tell his remarkable story. Every one of the 65,000 frames of the film is an oil-painting hand-painted by 125 professional oil-painters who travelled from all across the world to the Loving Vincent studios in Poland and Greece to be a part of the production.”

The film was created using the technique of painting the first frame as a full painting on a clean canvas board, and then painting over the top of it for each next frame of the shot. The film consists of 853 shots, so by the end of shooting, there were 853 individual oil paintings. This animation is a lot more controlled than the other two - the colours don’t seem to jump around quite as much and this could be due to the fact that it is rotoscoped and the shadows/highlights are mostly referenced from the live action footage so they stay consistent.

Witold Giersz - Pożar (1975)

I also found an animated short using oil on glass from the 70′s about a forest fire. I found the use of multiple planes of glass to add parallax in the panning shots quite interesting as it added an interesting depth to the scene. Since I don’t have access to glass panes to paint on, I think I will be using acetate and this would be harder to make multi-plane, especially as I cannot use it like cell paper and just stack it since it will have wet oil paint on it. I could find a way to lift up a second piece of acetate higher than the base sheet but then the paint would be difficult to move around on it since it would be suspended in the air.

I also found the use of colour very striking and similar to my concept - the animation starts with lots of natural and earthy tones, lots of blues, greens, browns, yellows. When the forest fire is introduced, it engulfs the whole screen in a dark, harsh black, and later bright reds and oranges for the fire. This clearly shows a contrast between the nature and life of the forest beforehand and the doom and destruction that the fire brings.

This also features an interesting animation technique where the previous frames don’t get painted over at times, so multiple motions of one character are on screen at once. This gives it a lagging, slow-motion surrealist effect which I could utilise in my own animation.

Can You Focus?

As for animations using acrylic paint, I couldn’t find much as most people don’t use acrylic for animation as it dries very fast and therefore cannot be manipulated/moved around as easily. I did however find a slightly different animation that used acrylic gouache and cut paper on multiple planes of plexiglass. It is very abstract and the focus keeps changing between the different planes to create a chaotic and disorienting effect. It also combines visuals with audio, similarly to my own project. The first and last frame also allow for the animation to be looped.

Oil Paint Experimentation

Since I wanted to possibly use oil paint on acetate to create my animation, I bought some oil paints and tried to fill a page with them to see how they work since I have never used them before.

They were a lot thicker and harder to spread around than I expected them to be, but this could also be due to the fact that I was painting on paper and not on acetate which would hopefully allow the paints to be more fluid.

I tried using both a brush and a palette knife, both of which were quite difficult to work with but the brush did leave a nice texture which I like as it emphasises the motion of the brush stroke and therefore adds movement.

The colours blended quite well although they also stayed embedded in the brush which created colour contamination. This was especially noticeable when I tried to use the yellow and it came out dark and muddy due to the fact that I still had some leftover black within the brush bristles, despite cleaning it with a brush cleaner solution. This teaches me that I will have to clean my brush more thoroughly or use multiple brushes when creating my animation - some dedicated to light colours and some to dark colours so that I can keep the colours bright and vibrant.

The Song

The song that I was assigned was Between the Buttons by French 79. French 79 is an artist called Simon Henner, an electronic producer from Marseille, France.

The album from which the song comes, Olympic, was released in October 2016 so it is quite a contemporary album.

Genre: Electronic  //  Style: Deep House, IDM, Synth-pop  //  Year: 2016

There are no discernable instruments, mostly synth/electronic noises - this gives it an 80s sound.

The section I have chosen is between 1:35 and 2:15 (adding 5 seconds on each side to add a crossfade for the music to fade in) as I feel this time selection has a good range of various sounds, from faster paced, quick, quieter sounds that gradually crescendo while getting higher and slower each time to the moment of silence to the quicker tempo beat that plays directly after.

Visuals/Initial Brainstorming

I listened to this segment a few times and did a similar exercise to the one we did in class where I drew whatever shapes/colours/visuals came to my mind.

Since this song sounds very modern due to the electronic genre, visuals that came to my mind when listening to it included a big futuristic cityscape, and the deeper bass sound resonated with a dark blue colour in my mind. The very start of the time segment I selected was very fast paced and relatively high pitched which I associated with falling and shooting stars/meteorites. After the silence, when the sound picks up again, the sound has more layers to it which made me think of warmer colours - reds and yellows, particularly with fireworks and explosions (as the sound starts quite suddenly after the silence).

Moodboards

Inspiration

Len Lye who is well-known for his abstract work with colour set to music, where he painted directly on film, as well as his forms of early rotoscoping. His films were very experimental and I could take inspiration from his use of abstract shapes and vivid, contrasting moving colours. His animations are very fast paced and convey a lot of quick movements of varying patterns and textures.

ALB - The Road

Another one of my inspirations for this was ALB’s music video for The Road, which is animated in sync with the song – for example, there is a scene where as the camera is moving forward, axes are falling and hitting the ground on the beat of the song. Since my song also has a very distinct bassy beat, I could use this technique of animating things appearing on the beat, such as having buildings rise up from the ground, as if they are only just coming into view.

Materials

I wanted to use a variety of mixed media for this animation, mostly involving paint but I could incorporate more mediums/materials to mimic Len Lye’s style of having a range of textures. Since I have never used paint to create an animation before, I thought this would be a fun experiment that would take me out of my comfort zone and help expand my skillset.

Ideally, I would use oil paint on top of acetate so that I could manipulate it and move it around the ‘canvas’ for each frame, since oil paint takes a very long time to dry. This would mean I could use less paint as a whole as I could be ‘re-using’ the paint as I went, almost mimicking stop motion. I could also gradually add paint so the image/animation looks like it is being painted on-screen.

However since oil paint is very expensive, I could go for a cheaper alternative which is acrylic. A problem with this would be that acrylic would dry very fast, particularly under the harsh rostrum lights. I could try to combat this by painting on acetate instead of paper so that I could still reuse the same background painting and add over top of it and this might give an interesting effect.

Another material I could add in would be ink (to drop it on acetate or water-soaked watercolour paper and photograph the way it spreads around the page).

Experimentation with acrylic paints and colour schemes:

Visualising Music

As a preparation for my final piece - which is going to be an animation set to music - I did an exercise in class which involved listening to a new piece of music (French 79 - Golden Times) and trying to visualise what the sound would look like on paper using lines and shapes.

The first attempt was that the first 30 seconds of the song was played continuously a few times and I drew out my thoughts of how the music would look as it played. I found it quite difficult to keep up with the music using this method as the 30 seconds was extremely varied with what kind of sound was playing, between the beat, the vocals, gaps in the music and other strange instruments/noises featured.

My next attempt was one where the music was played 5 seconds at a time, each of which was repeated 4-5 times. This helped me develop a stronger sense of how each different part of the music might look as I only had to focus on 5 seconds at a time so I could better pick out individual sounds or instruments.

Walk Cycle

This was my first attempt at a walk cycle, which I tried to make quite energetic, however it ended up warping into more of a run cycle rather than a walk so I will re-do it and make sure I keep it as a walk.

I found shooting it quite difficult as I wasn’t sure how to position the frames to keep the character walking on the spot for a clean loop so I ended up moving each frame along but did so apprehensively and this is visible as the character isn’t moving enough each frame so they look slow and awkward while running, particularly towards the end when I was worried I would go off-screen with the frames. This is another thing I will improve when I re-do my walk cycle.

Walk Cycle Research

Before creating my walk cycle animation, I researched what makes a walk cycle. I found a very in-depth video tutorial by Alan Becker that explained everything from the key poses needed, to how to add personality to a walk cycle.

The four main poses needed in a walk cycle are:

Contact Pose - when the front foot makes contact with the ground.

Passing Pose - when the back foot passes in front of the ‘front’ foot while it is moving forward.

Down Pose - when the character’s head is at its lowest point, happens after the contact pose.

Up Pose - when the character’s head is at its highest point, happens after the passing pose.