Tuesday, 13 December 2011

Green Screen... or should i say RED SCREEN!!


For this i am going to animate my princess character next to me. I am putting a crown on her head!
I had many difficulties with the screen and may have to re-film.

Character Implementation and Animation

CONFLICT IN SELF

My idea for conflict in self was for a strong princess to watch a beautiful butterfly fly past her and then it lands on her hand and her evil side squishes it! Then her good side feels bad yet she is glad she squished it for making a mess on her hand.




Wednesday, 17 August 2011

NEW UPCOMING ANIMATIONS TO WATCH OUT FOR ........

Frankenweenie by Tim Burton
Frankensteins Dog




Brave by Disney Pixar
Set in the Scotish Highlands a Princess sets out to protect her kingdom



Dorothy of Oz
Classic tale visit http://www.dorothyofoz.com/ out 2012!!!!




The Rabbi's Cat (Le Chat du Rabbin)
A french animation about a little french family and le chat!


A Monster in Paris
AFrench animated family movie about a monster who lives in a garden and falls in love with a French singer



The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn
Directed by Spielsberg need i say more...



THE BEST TILL LAST
I'm a huge fan and this is the new studio ghibli film VERY EXCITED TO SEE THIS!

Arriety by Studio Ghibli
An adaptation of the borrowers




and on the hush: the next one is predicted 2014
Kokurikozaka Kara
Hayao Miyazaki and Keiko Niwa are adapting the film from the manga by Tetsurô Sayama and Chizuru Takahashi. The story centers on a high school girl named Umi whose life in 1960s Yokohama takes a turn as she must grow up quickly when her father goes missing.



There are still lots more to look out for in the next couple of years:

Madagaskar 3
Happy Feet2
Rise of the Guardians
Monsters University (Monsters Inc 2)
Hotel Transylvania
Turbo
The Croods
Me and My shadow
How to train your dragon 2
Animal United
Chico & Rita
Bunyan & Babe


 HOPE YOUR AS EXCITED AS ME
REMEMBER YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST!!

Sunday, 8 May 2011

Tuesday, 26 April 2011

Andy Matin and the E4 music idents

Watching tv you come across all sorts of interesting things. Andy Martin created a slightly odd and creative selection of idents for the E4 music channel. Due to my high interest in quirky and music interpretation with animation i have wrote an essay on him for university. Some of his work is shown as followed i hope you enjoy.










all images for Andy Martins Blog see research materials.

E4 Music essay contacting Andy Martin

Looking more into my essay i found more interesting sites:
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^


Cone, Justin. Motiongrapher. (2008) E4 music ids directed by Andy martin. [Online]




http://motionographer.com/2008/03/08/e4-music-ids-directed-by-andy-martin/ [Accessed 7th April 2011]



Andy Martin (2011) Andy Martin motion graphic designer, animator and illustrator. [Online] http://www.andymartin.info/ [Accessed 2nd April 2011]



Martin, Andy. (2009) Behind the scenes E4 music idents. [Online] September 22nd 2009.



http://www.andymartin.info/blog/?tag=e4 [Accessed 2nd April 2011]




Martin, Andy. (2011) E4 Music Ident. [E-mail] Message to J.Mellor. 12th April 2011.

_______________________________________________________________________________

I was in comunication with Andy Martin via e-mail wich helped alot here is a snipit of my questions and answers....


Was the music made for the animation or was the animation made for the music?

I made both the music and the animation myself so it was all done in tandem. Where the characters are 'singing' the music was done first and when the characters are out having adventures the sound was done to picture.


How long did production take?

About 3 months.


How many people worked on the idents?

5 animators, an editor, 2 props guys, a camera man, a producer and a runner....and me.


Did you have a clear idea for the character designs?

Yes. I wanted them to look Eastern European. Odd, weird, slightly creapy. They couldn't look cute.


How many did you do?

Characters: 15
Idents: 30


What materials did you use?

Fimo, paint and various found objects for the sets.

How many sets where made?

15 sets and the other 15 indents were shot in locations.


How was footage put together? / Which programs were used?

Edited in Final Cut and animated in After Effects.


Is stop-motion your preference for animating?

Sometimes, it depends on the effect I want to create. I like mix media animations, the use of stop motion with traditional 2D animation with CGI.


How did you find the making of the E4 idents?

Hard work but really rewarding when the result came out.


Any advice for working with music and animation?

Listen to the music carefully and highlight parts that you can enhance with animation. Moments of animation that happen timed up to beats/notes etc are lifted by the two of them synced together. Eg a footstep in time to a beat is much more satisfying than a footstep that isn't.


Any advice for getting into the animation industry?

Get a good showreel together, focus on the type of work you want to make, make it and then send it to the places that you want to work. Make a website and plug your work.
I found e-mailing Andy very helpful so whenever in need i wont hesitate to do it again most animators are happy to answer any questions and i made a good contact in the animation industry.

Ident Animation Essay Research

I am writing an essay on Andy Martins direction and animation design in the E4 music idents produced in 2008. I choose to look at his work as i found the use of music also made by himself was choreographed perfectly with the animation. Interested by the link of sound and motion i decided to investigate his design choices.

Here is a list of the things i have looked at:



Williams, Eliza. (2008) Creative Review Blog: New E4 Music idents. [Online] March 5th 2008. http://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2008/march/new-e4-music-idents [Accessed 5th April 2011]




Wells.P. (1998) Understanding Animation. London: Routledge.



Webster.C. (2005) Animation: the Mechanics of motion. London: Focal Press.



Purves.B. (2010) Basics Animation: Stop-motion. Switzerland: AVA Publishing SA



Winder.C. & Dowlatabadi.Z. ((2001) Focal Press Visual Effects & Animation Series: Producing Animation. London: Focal Press.



Furniss.M. (1998) Art in motion: Animation Aesthetics. Australia: John Libbey & Company Pty Ltd.



Wright. J.A. (2005) Focal Press Visual Effects & Animation:Animation Writing & Development, from script to pitch. London Focal Press.

Wednesday, 9 March 2011

a bird

Here is my finished hand drawn traditional flight cycle of a black headed gull.

It consists of a 21 frame take off, a 7 frame flight cycle used 3 times in my video and a 22 frame landing.






Enjoy, i did :)




Sunday, 6 March 2011

Flight Animation

Currently working on a few projects one of which is a traditional drawn animated flight of a bird.
This includes the bird taking off, a flight cycle and a landing.
First off i have started by drawing some birds. Mainly to get use to drawing them and to learn the anatomy. As we see all birds look very different therefore have different types of flight due to mass, weight, function etc. I am going to focus on a medium sizes bird like a pigeon or seagull, this is the easiest to resource.

Here are some of my drawing i first did to get in the mood for the project.








These are some rough animation poses i did during a lecture.





I then went out into Bristol to whiteness some bird flight first hand.


This i broke down into a sequence of images using quicktime pro:






 more images to come .......