Super Animation Things BA1b

Showreel This week I was able to do a bit of research from my showreel project before finishing it. I found 6 showreels that all had good and bad points about them. I tried to incorporate the good points into my showreel. I am really happy with the changes I have made to the showreel this week, I am very proud of my showreel as it shows all of my work for this year and I hope my showreels will continue to improve in the rest of the years.  

Media Industries This week we had our presentations showing all of the research I have collected for this part of the project. I felt that the presentation has gone well andI was able to present all of the information correctly. I was extremely nervous but I didn’t mess up and I was able able to clearly say all of the information that I needed to say. Overall I didn’t like this project as much as the other projects but  I felt that I have done well and I am proud that I was actually able to do the presentation.

Mystery Box This week I was able to complete all of the Mystery Box part of the project. I finish it I re- recorded my Mystery Box sequence, however looking at it after finishing and showing other people I have come to the conclusion that the first attempt I did is much better so I have chosen to go this that one. I added in the background to the animation and masked out the pliers that I accidentally court in one of the frames. I was also able to finished my experimentation reel which just needed my re- recorded sequence in it and my chosen finished animation which I was able to add and export once quickly and I am know all ready of the deadline. I felt that this week has gone well and I am really happy with how my work has gone and I feel I have made it all to the best of my ability.

For the last part of this project we had to write and 500 word summary of all the information I had collected for the presentation. This is my 500 word statement: For my part in the presentation I was in charge of researching the history of stop motion puppet making. I mostly ended up finding out about the people who have had an impact on the way stop motion is today. The main person I found out about was Wladyslaw Starewicz who because Ladislas Starevich when he had to emigrate form Russia during the revolution and fled to Paris. Wladyslaw Starewicz was born 08/08/1882 and died 26/02/1965. Starewicz was born in Moscow to a Polish family (though hi place of residence and work he would mostly become acquainted with Lithuania, Russia and France). Starewicz main jobs where Animator and director and his childhood passion was entology (the study of insects). The work he is most famous for is ‘Lucanus Cervus/ The Battle of the Stag Beetle as he used dead insects that he inserted wire rigging into so they could more they way he wanted. Another piece of work that he created was The Tale Of The Fox which was called a masterpiece for its level of detail and subtlety which is outstanding especially for the time it was made. The puppets which he called ‘Cinè marionettes’ where able to show incredible facial expressions, the size difference between all of them was incredible. The smallest puppet was 1 inch tall and the tallest was the lion king which was nearly 3.5 feet tall. They often appeared in elaborate battle scenes which reportedly had up to 273,000 different movements, and there are about 75 individual character. Starevich was able to complete the project within 18 months from script and scenery to filming. Also the only crew that he had where his family which consisted of his daughters and his wife. The first ever made stop motion film was the Humpty Dumpty Circus made in 1898 but J. Stuart Blackton and Albert. E Smith. Albert E Smith supposedly came up with the film concept and used his daughters toy circus to make the film, however this is contradicted in several websites which say J. Stuart Blackton actually came up with the idea and used his daughters toy circus. The film was however lost to time and only screen shots remain for the film, it is also said that the film is unlikely to ever be found. The Humpty Dumpty Circus was placed in the Guinness book of records. Another type of animation is Clay Animation which which is an early concept of sop motion where the objects are made of a malleable substances like clay or plasticine. Oskar Fischinger was a German animator show is a pioneer in the art of claymation in the 1920s an 30s paving the way for the 90s to catch up and produce vast amounts of claymation films and tv shows. One of the most popular clay motion shows was’The amazing Adventures of Morph’ aired on the BBC. The first ever clay motion film was ‘Modelling extraordinary which influenced other claymation directors such as the makers of Wallace and Gromit.  

This is my finished Experimentation reel for the mystery box project, all I had to do to finish it was add in the second attempt mystery box sequence and the finished attempt that I am going to submit at the end of this project. I am happy with the way it looked and I felt like this is the best I could had done.

This is my finished first year showreel, to complete it I added in my second attempt at the mystery box where my first attempt was before. Then I added the first attempt with the background afterwards to show the process for planning to finishing for the mystery box project. This meant that I had enough for the full time length. I also changed the background colour of the text and added in my own logo design animation at the beginning, at the end I put another title which has my name university and my blog link on it. This my finished work that I will submit. 

This is my finished Mystery box sequence, I had to add in the background again and the last attempt it did when missing. I also had to mask out the pliers that I accidentally court in one of the frames by mistake. I had to ask for a bit of help from one of my friends as I forgot how to do a mask, however once they explained it was much easier to do and I am happy I was able to get it all finished. Once I finished it I exported it into quite time and then added into the correct folder.   

Today I re- recorded my stop motion film, I felt like the start of this was going well but after I made her turn around the walk cycle when a little funny and didn’t look quite right. Overall there are parts of this I liked and parts of the other I really like but the first attempt had more of a natural look to is as opposed to this one which looks far more jumpy then I though the first one did. This means my first attempt will be the one I will add the background to and submit.     

Today we had our presentations, this is what all of our research has been leading up to. I have been very nervous about this as I am very uncomfortable with presenting in front of people. I found this to be the hardest part of the whole year and I really didn’t want to do it. I was super relieved once it was over and I was able to sit back down, I was really loud to of done it especially as I was able to show all of the information I had collected. When I came to the questions I found that people had very few for my part of the presentation which I was happy able as it means I had managed to cover all the parts people would have had questions for. Im happy with this because I means I had done enough research and everything I was presenting was clear and didn’t have anything missing. 

Today I started my experimentation reel, which consisted of all the photos and videos surrounding my mystery box project. I have placed them all in order to show the process of how I have progress throughout the whole project. I still need to add in the re- recorded of my mystery box sequence to finished it off I am happy with the progress I have made and I will all be finished once I have added in the last video. 

Today me and my group meet up as put our whole presentation together. This allowed us to see what we had all done and how much each of use included in our slides. It also meant we had the chance to practice, we got to do an entire run though of our presentation. However one of our group members couldn't make it so we emailed her the presentation so she could put her information in but this also meant our timings would be slightly out and we wouldn't know how long it was take over all of the infuriation she was presenting what the middle part of the whole presentation. I was still happy with the run though I didn’t take that long and I know it will be much quicker tomorrow when we are presenting infant of the class. 

This showreel I though was okay, I felt that the music didnt really go with the types of animation it was more action and cool but most of these animations where extremely good they would have worked better with a different pieces of music. Also there was so repetition of work which was present as the start and end. I felt at some of the animations repeated one to many times. I really like that the music was muted for the lip syncing so you can hear what they are saying. Also the titles where really good they said who's showreel it is and as information about where others bits of their work can be seen. 

I didnt find this one as good as the last, all of the animations in this where very similar there was no real range of work. Also the tiles that where telling you what the animation was where good but they kind of cut the flow of the show reel, they would have been better appearing whist the animation was playing as it is repeated twice so there would have been time to read it and watched the animation. The timing was okay it wasn’t to long however the music and the same kind of animations made it quite mundane and repetitive. Everything wad done very well in the video but it was all to similar it needed a bit more of a range to it. 

This has been on of my favourite showreels, it has a really good range of animation styles, theres finished work and sketch work in it also well as a well thought intro that moves fluidly with each other. I also really like the use of the curtain to transition between each of the pieces of work that is show. Also there are titles with his name continually reminding the audience who its by. Also It has the title of the work so people can see what he has called his animation. The music is also dimmed then there was work with lip syncing. One pieces of criticism I would have is the it is just slightly to long and it cuts off very abruptly. Overall though it is my favourite so far and I found it very entertaining to watch and I found the work looked amazing. 

Showreel This week I started my showreel project, I am really happy with how it is going so far, I didnt struggle to much with using the software as I have used premier pro before in my other subjects but I took a little while to get used to the new update and layout but it wasnt to bad. What I did struggle with though is thinking of the order to put my videos and how I wanted it to look so I found my music first because them I know what kind of beat it would have. Once Inserted the music it became so much easier and I was able to get though I slightly quicker. I had to look up how to dim sound on the new update with a youtube video which was extremely helpful and it meant I could lower the sound for the parts of my showreel that has audio with it. All I have left to do is to add in my mystery box animation once I have re- recorded it next week. I feel that it when well where is still some areas that need a bit of touching up and improving but I am still really happy with it and I can wait to finish it next week.

Animating to Sound This week I was able to finish my Lip Syncing project, I found I still had so issue with timing so most of my time was taken up trying to get better timing with the mouth movement and the audio. Once I was able to get this to a stage where I was happy with it I add in for facial expression and movement, I had the puppet frown until he says ‘family’ as he puts a lot of emphasis on that word so I decided to have an eye roll was he says the words. I also put an eyebrow life there to help present the moment more as this part of the audio is what stands out the most. I was also able to do a little research on historical and Cultural lip syncing and how the used to or do handle lip syncing. Overall I am very happy with the lip syncing, I didnt enjoy it that much as it became very frustrating at point but I am still really happy with what I was able to accomplish and hopefully I will just continue to improve and get better at lip syncing.

Media Industries This week I was able to send off 6 more emails to different Museums about the presentation. I did reverse replied though out the week, all of them gave me a bit of advise on where to look but none of them could help answer any of the questions I had. One reply to contact the BFI which I did however I still haven't received a reply so hopefully they will reply before Tuesday. I also had a meeting with my lecturer and my group about the progress we have made and we have all decide to put our work onto a power point and them all come together and put it all into one presentation. I was able to get all of my sides done but I have a lot of information on them so after talking to my group we decided it would be best to leave it and them discuss what should be cut and I can just motion on my note cards for the presentation. I also put all of my work onto one word document so I was able to see the information I had and what areas I need to do more research for to bulk out my research and information more. Me and my group where able to meet up today and we started to put the presentation, the others didn’t have it all complete so we are going to meet up again on Monday and put the finishing touches on it so then we can have a practice run though it. I feel like our presentation is going well so far I would have preferred to of had everything sorted know but we still have time and I have my part finished so I am ready for the presentation and hopefully the practice will go well. Overall I am happy with the progress we are making, If I was to do it again I would have liked to of worked slightly faster but I am still happy with what we have done.