6DM015: Week 2 & 3 (22nd november- 4th november) : pre-production knowledge and study notes

2nd Week:
For the second week, we learned how production processes work from two artists johnny hardstaff and a group called black heart gang.
Johnny Hardstaff:
Website: http://www.johnnyhardstaff.com/index.php?menu=yes&section=press
History of Gaming: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUKHDqyAZ-o
what I've discovered is that he done work for Microsoft within the video game franchise 'halo' and for food marketing companies like Kenco.

Black Heart Gang:
website: http://theblackheartgang.com/
Tale of How: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1p-qZkutGPo 
Tale of How production: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRlZNIIjLU8


What we also did in this session is show our lecturer, Ross Winning our two final ideas and get some general feedback into improvements and advice on starting up some concept work.
3rd Week: 
For the third week, our main task was to produce a full synopsis of the final idea to get a full view of where the story is going to go from beginning, middle and ending. This would be published on the university's student webpage, WOLF for our lecturer and fellow students to see and comment upon for better improvements and vice versa. The second thing we had to do was write up a treatment of the methods and processes we will undertake to get a perfect outcome and also get my fellow colleagues understand how I am going to approach this. Below shows the write up but this is not final and will be constantly changed overtime from feedback.
full synopsis:
It begins with a boy excited and enthusiastic to go out tonight but his mother doesn't want him to because she doesn't want him to be in harm's way especially at night in the grim, appalling area they live in.
So what she does is tell a lie and pretend there are awful things that creep around in the night called ghouls. She does this by telling the boy a story about these ghouls that every so often on the brink of midnight they go out at night hunting in packs and prey upon children that asleep throughout the night.
Once they've found the right pray they can easily stray away without being detected, they either in most cases east the child to survive or if they have a twisted connection to their victims, they make them into their next kin to keep cycle of hunters of night going.
By the end of the mother's story, this frightens the child and the mother is relieved that he'll be out of harm's way for the time being, but as she leaves the room the boy's mood changes and thinks this tale isn't real, that ghouls don't exist.
Once then, he starts to get ready to go out at night ignoring his mother's protective advice. But what he doesn't realize is that these creatures are real and they are hunting this very night.
Through the dark, gloomy alley way the three vicious and cruel looking ghouls stalk the streets near the apartment block the kid is staying searching for their next prey quickly and quietly; unnoticed and without alerting the local residents of the area. As they search around, they come across scent of the kid in one of the apartment near the top of the block.
As they climb near the top of the building using the balconies and building's wall foundations that stuck out especially since the building is derelict and old their would be nooks and cracks the creatures can use to climb up.
When they reached their destination, they quickly search for advantage points to enter the property but this was an easy task as they noticed the main bedroom window of the kid's is open as the kid is ready to sneak out.
As they enter the room one by one whilst both the mother isn't noticing a thing and the kid's got his back turned, all three ghouls get ready to nab the kid but suddenly the kid turns into a werewolf and attacks the ghouls and starts rips them apart with his claws and teeth.
By the end, one of the ghouls manages to escape the ongoing slaughter and comes to realize that they've chosen the wrong child to take this night especially when it sees the full moon drifting clearly in the night's sky.

Treatment:

• Pacing: The pacing should be quick to fit the 90 seconds but it would need quick for the parts that don't contribute to the important parts of the story that would need to be visually told. It would have be quick to keep the audience engaged with the story but leave time for the important bits of the plot to jump across to get the viewers to understand better.
• Style: It would have to be gritty and dark so it would have influenced art styles of obvious people like Tim Burton. It should have the sense of being unrealistic and surreal to get the true depth of the horror genre. The colours would have be presented as decrepit and worn out.
• target audience:
• mood and overall vibe:
• production methods:
• musical score:
• Software:  TV paint, after effects, Adobe Photoshop
• sound effects:
• editing:
• length of time:

(This section will be completed but also constantly changed)

What we also learned in this session was what is colour scripting and examples of concept art which our lecturer exampled Pixar's The Incredibles as good source of inspiration and knowledge of what pre-production requires.

6DM016: Week 3 (27th october- 2nd November): Ambitions goals for the future

For last week's task our homework was to mind map our goals and sketch our ambitions with imagery and written description to form a showreel that talks about us as students and show our determinations for the futures we want to create.

The list in question include:

Task: Sketchbook ambition: Use a mind map with images if you prefer.

1. Where do you see yourself in 5 years’ time?  (Shorts Bafta winner? Pixar concept artist? VFX co-ordinator?) Try and be specific, if you know what company you want to work for, or the name of your own company include them in your statement/drawing.
2. Make a list of your personal strengths and weaknesses with regard to the industry.
3. Does your showreel reflect your ambition?
4. Name 5 steps you need to take in order to reach your goal
5. Put a rough date next to each goal

1. In the next five years, I would like to see myself working for an animation studio as a concept artist or a character developer. Creating and publishing new ideas across to small studios.

2. Strengths:

• communication skills 
• always ready to work with other people
• easy to adapt drawing skills and improve
• presentation skills
• determined to achieve
• independent to take on multiple problems and work at my own pace.
• confident in what I can produce but always open to others suggestions for improvements 

weaknesses:

• time management
•  being able to keep on track with production work

3.  showreel:

I reluctantly happy with what I've produced and I feel that it shows my determination to work at different standards and being able to take different approach and techniques to produce animation pieces. It also shows my skill sets to the viewers to show that I am able to work in different mediums.

4. 5 Goals

• study more on character developing and look into different forms of art and inspiration to improve my skills.
• Always find time to draw of anything to not stray off the path.
• be open to more opinions to captivate better stories to fit the criteria.
• continue in building my knowledge of animation especially from books as the main source
• keep developing and learning character development to get better visuals in final project and future film projects.

life drawing sessions and independent studies (2)

this week we look at drawing from different perspectives aswell as a task being given to us to constantly draw objects that we see everyday. Even though I know this knowledge already, its nice to get reminded of it and it helps to improve and get better ready for producing my final idea for the end this course year.

6DM022: Week 2 (22nd-28th october): group discussions

As part of research, one of our main tasks is to be about to produce information based on sources we look at and create an argument of our own to add the topic board as it would give a new perspective into the subject matter.

For this matter the topic I've chosen to do was Children and Animation and I would be working with fellow students Andrew Taylor and Richard Bailey who have also chosen this topic.

below shows the notes so far on the subject at hand:

Stereotypical

Animation that people think it’s just for children.

Great examples of animation that isn't just for kids is family guy, the Simpsons and South Park. These are good examples as they are able to acknowledge and use a large variety of subject matter to present their characters in other forms of light and express their different types of personalities and traits. Whereas child friendly shows and films are constrained to feature certain subject matter which can sometimes feel the same especially if the subject matter in question is related to films plots like Cinderella or the little mermaid, presented in one form or another.

What makes the use of adult topics to strengthen the seriousness of animation is that use of vulgar, satire humour aswell as their presentation methods can easily relate to topics and stories that are happening in the world at this present moment, making the plots believable and understandable in what the show is trying to tell the audience as a whole.

Having complex plots being understood by adult audience members can reflect some forms of society in one way or another.

If it was stuck for children, it makes it feel that animation is stuck in a gutter and can’t be about to break that boundaries and see it animation from another perspective. For new artists that want to go into the industry, makes them feel that animation can’t tell a story or visualize it a way they want it to be.

Video games are a good example of using animation as they use this to present the visuals of multiple genre based stories like horror, realism plus the hidden humour that only adults can understand.

What makes it worse is that being believed just for kids is that it wouldn't be taken seriously in the eyes of big critics and when it’s being presented at award ceremonies. But animation can be taken more seriously because the teams behind the creations are more flexible in how they want to approach the visuals and crafting the best way to tell a story. Animation can also do a better job that live action as they can get weird and unusual when creating story elements and also how they can represent society and culture.

Another way animation can be taken seriously and break the boundaries of viewership is that it’s an art form because when animators draw, they are able to move freely in how they want to stylize and tell the story. It also makes each individual piece unique and separate to other forms of animation.

As an adult when the term ‘it’s just for kids’ or ‘why are you watching this kid’s stuff’ it makes a person feel like they want to explode as kid shows or films such as inside out or SpongeBob can inspire people to be acknowledge-able in what they want to do when creating a story of on their own terms. It’s also a fact that many films and animation programs can contain deeper stories means and themes that only adults can generate better than children. So, if we as adults keep thinking that this is just for children then we are missing out on well produced storytelling that might have more understandable plot points and a deeper connection to a wide age variety of audiences than other forms of film making.

When it comes to parents, they don’t acknowledge the fact that when their children are watching cartoons they don’t realize that the subject matter they see are reflecting how children are going about in their daily lives which sometimes would make it easier for children to open up if their problems relate to what’s happened when they've watched particular animation shows or films. This also can present sensitive and complex issues that kids can understand better if the simple plot has a deeper meaning that needs explaining such as death, puberty and the way the world works.

Research links

http://the-artifice.com/animation-modern-entertainment/

http://uk.ign.com/articles/2013/07/15/top-25-animated-shows-for-adults

http://animation.io9.com/why-saying-animation-is-only-for-kids-is-bullshit-1561023216

6DM016: Week 2 (20th-26th october): media trends

As part of our homework into researching clientele, one of the main tasks is research current trends in animation and moving images to get a good feel on the commercial and advertising market. Below shows the subject matter I chose to talk about.

product advertising
drinks and food:
One of the big things that animation is incorporated into around the advertising industry is showing products on tv or the internet through films particularly in different types of food and drink adverts from famous companies. In my opinion, the way they want to use animation to advertise their consumers and customers is they care deeply about their product and it makes it recognizable and its makes the product individual to other brands.
One of the biggest companies to advertise their products is Coca Cola. Their most notable to create animation commercials that feature the happiness and care that goes into the drinks they are making; they put out there that they care about encouraging exercise and healthy eating habits especially towards children when presenting their product of adverts and they also create simple adverts that collaborates the seasons of the year particularly Christmas or summer. Others who have included some forms of animation include Ribena  juice drink or McVities with the animals adverts in the past few years.
One of the biggest reasons why companies use animation to advertise is that they want to be viewed by the audience and customers visually professional, presentable to show they've made an effect and also show they want to be a trusted brand and give the consumers what they want. This is the same for any product whether it being broadband, toys or home appliances.

Toys:
Normally when it comes to advertising toys and other accessory products, they would normally branch in certain seasons of a year or when I new/classic and popular theme has come the media industry. For example, with the new star wars film coming out at Christmas 2015, they advertise new toys and video games that link into the upcoming film. Lego can be a big brand to use animation; the toys superstore smyths is another to feature big branded toys especially with what particular from film fan base including the upcoming star wars, Jurassic world and minions aswell as others that have always been popular. A simple way they've used animation to advert big brands is stop motion as they give the customers, especially the kids, that they get a taste of what the new toy brands are going to be like. For lego sets, not only do they use stop motion filming techniques but also 3D methods to get that cinematic look for more presentable excitement in the product aswell as showing what they were originally created for.

medical adverts:
Another way animation is used for trending advertising is presenting products to the public with medical properties. One company that invests time into sponsoring medicine is Aardman studios, the creator of Wallace and Gromit as they're famous for creating the underdog for the national accident helpline and in most recent years the Nytol sleeping aid. What this does is make the product or service more noticeable and make it feel and look individual to other brands that might form the same type of service.

Home and leisure appliances:
When advertising, the biggest part of that used method is to present things that people would use in their day to day lives such as broadband for TV and internet like freeview and netflix or gas and electric appliances. A big company to use animation for their advertising is British Gas as they constantly change their commercials to show their way way of looking after people's homes with the use of their advertised products and services. Another way they use animation in their adverts is to link it to the season changing and the use of certain animals plus certain characteristics to present the feel of the moment to remind people what's to come and encouraging them to have the service and the offers they present.

For broadband services animation can be popular to use to show off their individual services and also being able to show what benefits they can give from other services through colorful and flashy visuals. Pixar is a good example as they sponsor in advertising sky broadband and vice versa the adverts would show why they would use these films, mostly with telling the audience the cinema release dates.

6DM022: Week 1 (15th-21st october): Introduction

For this module, the aim is to produce a professional piece of writing that fits into what we want to aim and what you want to do in the future when going into the animation industry or others companies related to the course. It's also creating a piece that forms a good argument and shows your own personal approach in this creative movement aswell as showing that we know a deeper understanding into subject matter we are deeply interested in.

as part of our research, our lecturer Samantha moore put up some suggestive resources we could use for our research and practice within this module. 

•Animation journal online http://journal.animationstudies.org/

•Animation 2.0 http://blog.animationstudies.org/

•Books

–Understanding Animation, Paul Wells (1998)

–Re-Imagining Animation: The Changing Face of the Moving Image, Paul Wells & Jonny Hardstaff (2008)

–Animation: Genre and Authorship, Paul Wells (2002)

–The Animated Bestiary: Animals, Cartoons, and Culture, Paul Wells (2009)

–Animation and American Society: Cartoons to Computers, Paul Wells (2002)

–Art in Motion: Animation Aesthetics, Maureen Furniss (2002)

–A Reader in Animation Studies, ed. Jayne Pilling (1999)  

–Forbidden Animation: Censored Cartoons and Blacklisted Animators in America, Karl Cohen (2004)

-Animation in Process, Andrew Selby (2009)

6DM015: Week 1 (15th-21st october) : introduction

For this module, the main aspect is to develop our final ideas before they go off into production which is why its called the pre-production stage. For this process, it would include a number of methods including character development, colour script, sequencing, story boarding, script writing etc.

one of the main things our group did through the intro is discuss our ideas with other people in the class and vice versa. In the outcome it helped to get come feedback and give some feedback back to better improve the storytelling mainly so it would enable to get better results.

final film ideas

As part of the summer project, we were asked to develop two to three animation film ideas ready for our last year of university. Below shows the storyboards I created for two potential film ideas but as this will be used throughout the year in most modules, these will be changed to fit the aimed audience; improved titles; change in design work; style; feedback from peers, lecturers and colleagues and even change in story structure to feel fresh and original.

Idea 1: Living Graffiti

This story starts with a graffiti artist creating random street art and once he leaves, the art skeletal figures takes a life of its own. As they are excited to be alive they both start to create dance routines using graffiti styled patterns to express their emotions. But one of them starts to get jealous of the other and begins to create evil across the art whilst the other is trying to suppress it to keep the joy in the art. As the good figure realizes he losing this fight, he takes drastic action and uses spray cans from the real world against the evil which works by erasing the evil figure from existence off the wall.

Idea 2: Bedtime Nightmare

This story starts with a mother telling her son a bedtime story about cannibalistic ghouls who kidnap children to either eat or turn into their own kin.  The son doesn't think much of it believing it isn't real not realizing they are as several ghouls are praying the streets that very night. Once the ghouls found who to take they sneak inside the house through the bedroom window unbeknownst to the mother. As they prepare to take the child, the boy turns into a werewolf making the ghouls realize they've picked the wrong child to take especially on a full moon.

life drawing sessions and independent studies

since I haven't drawn in a while I decided to start the basics to get back into the trends in preparation for the final projects I intend to achieve at the end of my third year at Wolverhampton university.

6DM016: Week 1 (13th-19th october): introduction

For the professional animation project is being able to create and provide a professional and informative animation from the choice of two different clients. One being the university of Wolverhampton represented by our animation lecturer, Emily Mantell and the RSA school of arts. The aim of the two briefs given is to provide ways of making them understand the way the company works and what they can provide for people who want to join the courses they offer.

These include a 20 second animation based on advertising the client's company logo and the other where it can be a documentary type animation informing the user on the clients company offers.

As part of the planning stage, my first aim is to research the client to make sure that the information I present is accurate and informative to the client's brief.

For the first week as part of the introduction, the whole class had to create some of ideas on how they would present the logo of the company we are going to produce for and also how we would inform the public about the education of the company. One of our main inspirations of how to produce this project is how 3rd years from last year created their logo and client advertising for the BFI films industry for the their showreel using art styles they used to simply present logo.

For meeting the brief on time we all decided to work in pairs or groups so this would help with working as a team and preparing for the wider world if we would work into companies that requires some forms of team building skills and collaborative thinking. For the quick 30 minute task,I worked with fellow student/colleague Andrew Taylor to create logo presentation ideas for the Wolverhampton university client.
Below shows a list of the ideas we came up with that could reflect and draw back the client:
1. Look at the progress of being in the animation course given from personal experience of what it like which enables the user/viewer understand what is to come if they choose the course. This would be shown through the first year being the developing stage; the second year being the one to express yourself; then the final year being the one to prepare for the creative industry.
2. flip book/sketch pad styled logo presentation
3. film strip presenting the success of animation through previous years final animation projects, ads and showreels to show the outcome of success in this course with quick showcasing of  artistic elements, influences and developments involved as examples before the logo appears.
4. a day and night cycle showcasing the simple but visually informative examples of life at Wolverhampton university which links back to the clients brief.

first and second year sketches