Elysia's University Journey: Narrative and Sequence

For this subject I will be gaining experience in story and character development and will be going to workshops to experiment with different ways of materialising narratives (e.g. film, theatre, animation, comic books etc.)

I will be creating a character and spend a week living with it to help my imagination create the characters personality.

I will then work in a group to use what I have learned in the workshops to create a group narrative and sequence in a form that we decide.

Week 1

Introduction to course

I am in two minds about this subject already. On the one side, in college I liked film and animation and quite enjoyed working with a team.

On the other side, my course has just moved into a new building and although the design of the building is very suited to the courses that are studied here (design, architecture etc.) it lacks privacy and is very open plan making it slightly harder to concentrate on the lectures with other conversations in the background and people walking past constantly. But I digress, It is only the second day I have spent in this building and I will learn to zone background noise out.

This subject is about experimenting and having fun, hopefully I will do both and still create a pretty good sequenced narrative at the end.

I have to bring equipment to create a character next week and am already mentally listing what I should prepare; wire, card, glue, scissors, tape... I will finish that list later.

This subject has already got me thinking about little animated narratives that I have seen.

Charlie and the unicorn is one of those, which amuses me because of the random, weird sense of humour used. It seems a little childish but it is a light-hearted animation created to make people laugh. It uses what I can only describe as primary, childish colours that helps create the light-hearted atmosphere even when the topics can get more tragic at times.

Simon's cat is a series of sketches that I quite enjoy. The simplicity of the drawings helps to focus the attention to the narrative, which has proved to be an ingenious technique since these little animation are very famous now.

http://www.simonscat.com/

Things to improve from last year:
I will write ideas and thoughts down when I have them so that I don't forget them later
I will try to use more creative ways of documenting ideas and thoughts
I will try to have more fun when doing my work instead of seeing it as a compulsory task.
I will learn to take failure as a learning curve instead of imminent doom!

Creating a Character
Today I had to create a character to use for the rest of this project. The lecturer said don't think too much about you're making (she didn't want us to all make stick men and woman... that would be dull). As you'll see from my little village of creations, I took her advice and didn't think much.

I chose this last little character because I had started creating little characteristics for it.

His name is sunshine (I didn't pick the name, it just stuck), Sonny for short.

I think I might rebuild him because he is quite small. Also, he is already unbalanced and about to fall apart.

Rebuilding Sonny

I rebuilt sonny a little bigger and with a heavier base so that he was more stable and balanced.

I didn't like him like this but I wanted to see if he would hold.

I took him to the lesson where he was put into a group with Mahbuba's "Cleogin" and Luke's "Alli Dino-Croc".

By the end of the lesson he had fallen apart again so I decided to put him in a pot and weigh down the pot to balance it out.

Rebuilding Sonny Take 2

I found a small plant pot to put Sonny in and filled it up with plasticine. Once I was sure the plant pot weighed more than Sonny's "head", I put the "head" into it. I didn't like the materials I used for arms before so I thought about what I could use instead. I needed the arms to bend easily but also be fixed in to the base (plant pot). In the end I found some straws that worked perfectly.

I think this looks much better than the last attempt and it is much more sturdy and practical too.

Character Profile

My week with Sonny

Sonny settled in very quickly and he found his favourite spot almost instantly. He loved sitting on the window ledge next to our solar-powered dancing flower. I’m not sure whether he was trying to blend in by being just another flower sitting on the window ledge or he was sitting there because it was a good view of everyone in the room.

He followed me almost everywhere I went and sat there watching me.

He seemed to like watching television with me. He sat on my stomach as we watched pointless one afternoon. I was having a bit of a lazy day but that didn’t seem to bother Sonny, he still sat the quite contently.

I had to do some housework after lazing on the sofa and Sonny followed me. He sat there watching as I did some washing and he seemed fascinated as I was washing the dishes.

I let the cat in after I had finished the washing up and Sonny was able to meet her for the first time. She sniffed him for a while but soon lost interest which Sonny seemed relieved at. I think he may be afraid of cats.

He seemed much more content watching me prepare dinner. Although at one point, whilst I was cutting an onion, he seemed very confused. Maybe the onion doesn’t affect him as much as it affects humans.

After dinner we sat on my bed and he watched as I completed some of my work. He seemed to get bored and a little tired after a few hours and I knew how he felt. I decided it was time to sleep and Sonny settled himself down on my desk.

The next morning the alarm woke me up at 7:30. I turned it off and decided to go back to sleep but glanced at Sonny first to see him watching me to see what I would do next.

I got up a few hours later and after getting dressed I had breakfast and watched TV. Sonny stayed on my desk watching me the whole time.

After the show I was watching finished, I decided to take Sonny out to get some supplies for work. We took the bus into town and Sonny seemed to love sitting on the ledge at the front and watching all the traffic. He didn’t like sitting normally on the seat because he was too small to see out of the window.

The first shop we went into didn’t have what I needed so we moved on to a shoe shop because I was looking for some boots. Sonny sat on the seat as I tried on boots in front of him. He didn’t have much to say about the boots I tried on but luckily I didn’t need his opinion because I couldn’t find anything I really liked that looked good on.

We decided to stop wasting time and move on to get the glue and black card that I needed. We found both in WHSmiths and paid for them. The cashier seemed to give Sonny a very strange look to which he replied by glaring at her. We searched some more shops but I couldn’t find what I was looking for and the time was getting on so I decided that we should head home.

I was in a bit of a rush so I left Sonny on my desk as I got ready. I told Sonny that I wouldn’t be back until late that night so it might be better if he stayed on my desk for the day. He seemed okay with that, I think he was tired after our little shopping trip. I left the house soon after and as Sonny reminded me later when I had gotten home, I had forgotten my memory stick.

I didn’t get back home until about 10pm that night. I had some dinner and sat with Sonny for a while but I felt quite tired so I went to sleep.

The next morning my alarm woke me up at 7:30. I didn’t want to get up so in an attempt to wake up I played games on my phone. Sonny seemed a little amused by this although I’m not sure why.

I left Sonny on my desk as I went to get dressed and get breakfast. I had a long day so I told Sonny he should stay at home again, he seemed okay with it again. I wonder what he did while I was gone.

I didn’t get home until late that night. I stayed up with Sonny for a while, I checked my emails and played a game or two as he sat and watched. I then decided it was time to go to bed and we both settled down for the night.

As usual, my alarm woke me up at 7:30 and as usual I turned it off and went back to sleep. Sonny seemed to be getting used to this and didn’t even seem surprised or amused anymore.
At around 9am I thought I felt my cat lay next to me but I wasn’t quite awake so I rolled over and accidently knocked her off the bed. Sonny laughed so much at that (more proof that he doesn’t like her).
I laid back down for a while but then decided I should get up and cuddle the cat for a while to make it up to her. Sonny seemed to almost roll his eyes at that.

I decided to get some breakfast and play games for a while. Sonny sat watching me play as usual. Just when I decided to get dressed my whole family decided that it was also I great time to use the bathroom so I had to wait as three people ran in an out of the bathroom before I even had the chance to move. Sonny seemed quite bemused at this point.

I decided to go downstairs for a while and let Sonny have a bit of time to himself.

I came back not too long after to do some work. I spend some time working on the computer while Sonny watched intently (probably because it was about him). Then I took Sonny downstairs to create a silhouette of him. We both sat looking at blank pieces of paper for a while. I was staring at the paper trying to figure out the dynamics of creating Sonny’s silhouette but I think Sonny was staring at it trying to figure out what I was doing and if I was in fact just staring into space.

I created so many prototypes that I was getting annoyed I couldn’t get it right and Sonny was getting annoyed that I was making him look strange in silhouette form. I finally formulated the perfect design but had to take many breaks to relax my hands and eyes because I had to concentrate on cutting out some very delicate parts. I finally finished creating two separate silhouettes (a spare one just in case the other one broke) at 10pm at night. I had been working on them for eight hours and was exhausted but so happy to be finished that Sonny and I took a selfie with them to celebrate.

I decided I deserved a little extra celebration and finished off the chocolate ice cream while Sonny laughed and watched me gorge myself. I relaxed for a while with Sonny before tidying up and then went to bed.

Just like always, my alarm went off at 7:30 the next morning and just like always I turned it off and went back to sleep. Sonny was now used to this and didn’t bat an eyelid.

I woke up a few hours later to the phone ringing. I think Sonny almost leaped out of his pot in shock since the phone was sitting right behind him and was extremely loud.

After answering the phone and having a very short conversation with my cousin, I got breakfast and watched TV. Sonny seemed to be recovering from the shock of the phone ringing so I left him alone for a while.

I soon got dressed and did some housework which Sonny seemed very uninterested in. He became a lot more interested when I started playing games.

I went out with mum in the afternoon to get the boots I failed to get earlier in the week and to get shopping for dinner. Sonny did not want to go through the boot shopping again and opted to stay at home.

A little while later I dropped off the shopping for dinner and rushed out again saying a quick hi and bye to Sonny, he seemed too confused to say anything.

About an hour later I got back home victorious. I had finally got a pair of boots fit for the autumn and winter. Like most guys on the topic of shoes, Sonny didn’t seem at all interested.

I spent most of the evening watching movies on TV with Sonny. He enjoyed one or two of the movies but seemed to get bored after a while.

I attempted to do some work but got writer’s block almost instantly. Much to Sonny’s amusement, I watched another movie before the writer’s block was gone and I was able to do my work.

I stayed up quite late and by the time I finally went to sleep, Sonny had already drifted off.

It was a quiet end to what seemed like a frantic week for me, but was more likely a quiet week for Sonny since he stayed at home most of the time.

Creating Sonny's silhouette
I started creating Sonny's silhouette by making prototypes out of paper to see how they would look and work.

I had to make the arms move but I didn't want to have the split pins on show so I attempted to stick the split pins on the back of the pot. Of course this didn't work at all.

I attempted a few different prototypes out of paper and card and finally came to the conclusion that the split pins would have to be on show.
Cutting the detail out of the card was very difficult because the detail was quite small. I had to take a lot of breaks to rest my hand and eyes because of the concentration it took to make so it didn't go wrong.

After 8 hours of attempting to create a silhouette I finally completed two! One had the detail cut out and was extremely delicate so I made sure to create another one that had the detail printed in white. This was just a precaution in case the detailed one broke.

I really despised the fact that the split pins were on show and I didn't want them to stay gold and show out so I got a permanent marker and coloured the top of the split pins in. It took two coats on the split pins and a lot of time to dry but it eventually worked and I think they look much better even though they still have a slight shine.

Group animation storyboard
We decided that we would make a short stop motion animation that introduced all the characters to each other.
We wanted to start the animation off with a short text based introduction but were advised to focus more on the animation.

Creating the stop motion animation
After finalising the storyboard and finishing off our silhouettes we headed down to the animation studio to create our stop motion animation.

Mahbuba and Luke took turns at taking the pictures, replaying the stop motion back and giving me direction.
I mostly worked on moving the silhouettes with Luke and Mahbuba stepping in occasionally so I could take breaks.
Mahbuba took most, if not all of the pictures below to help us document the time we spent on our animation.

Sunshine (Sonny), Cleogin and Alli Dino-Croc silhouettes

Luke controlling the computer and taking the pictures

Me moving the silhouettes ever so slightly

Stop motion animation in motion

Stop motion animation is an extremely delicate procedure

The trick is to move only the part you intend to move

Alli's tail and leg got stuck together at times

Moving Alli's favourite bone into view

Exploring the onion skin technique

It is quite hard to focus on the onion skin for too long

However, it is an extremely useful tool

The silhouettes were quite big in regards to the paper so we had to stick two sheets together

The process of making Alli invisible then visible again was quite a long one with lots of little pieces of paper

The first attempt at our animation was good but needed a few improvements

We were told that we needed more feeling in the animation. We needed to personify the characters a little more and move them around more. We were also told to try making Alli's camouflage flicker before he disappeared to give more effect.
We booked the animation studio again and took a second attempt at creating our animation.

After Effects workshops
The first thing we did was learn the basics. We learnt how to put text on a clip and how to make it move. To do this I created the text, changed the position of the text and rotated cleogin's name as it moved.

The next thing we did was make a character fly into the sky.
For this I needed to cut the sky out of the cityscape, add a seperate cloudy sky and make it move. I then needed to animate a wing flapping up and down. After that was done, put it all in one composition then give Sonny a wing which i duplicated and flipped to create a set of wings. All that was left to do then was move the cityscape and sky down to give the illusion Sonny was flying up.

The final thing we did was make a dinosaur walk through/up a street with a few effects added in.
To make the dinosaur walk up the street, I scaled the dinosaur up with every step it took. I then added a mist to the clip. I added a slight glow and a light burst and then the last thing to do was to add a camera shake at every footstep. To do this I added a wiggle but instead of keeping it at the same wiggle amount, I made each footstep a higher wiggle amount which worked well with the dinosaur getting closer.

Space located film with 3D characters

To create our short film we went around the Tower Bridge area. We took a lot of photos with the intention of putting some pictures into the film. In the end we chose not to because we had enough video. I uploaded the pictures we took anyway because they document our time.

Sonny, Cleogin and Alli. All very excited to be filming.

They found a nice place to sit. Alli was trying to hide

Cleogin likes this bag

Alli thinks red is his colour

Confusingly, Sonny liked the leopard print.

Cleogin loves huge sunglasses.

Alli looking awesome with a tan coloured belt

Alli putting on a face

Cleogin taking a break next to a jewellery box

Cleogin seems to like fur

Getting into the christmas spirit early

Cleogin thinks that pair of trousers would look great on Alli

I don't think Mahbuba will buy that for you Cleogin

Hiding next to clothes, I think Alli found you.

They haven't recovered from going down the slide yet

Cleogin, Alli and Sonny posing for a photo

They didn't see this photo coming

Me ready to film Alli, Cleogin and Sonny coming down the slide

The finished film

Presentation for final project

References of style links;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovHzV26YmUw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmkLlVzUBn4

Final Project Presentation

Research and influences;

This link is to a Tom and Jerry clip where a dinosaur grows right in front of our eyes. This was inspiring to us because we wanted to bring our dinosaur out of the flip book and have it grow.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sV14QqbKuxE

This link is to a clip from "A Space Odyssey". The particular part that we found inspirational is the part where the bone is in the air. We liked how the bone transformed into a satellite. We don't intend to make the bone transform but the idea that it doesn't have to just fall to the ground looking exactly the same was unique.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtbOmpTnyOc

We used this link in our last presentation. We added it in this presentation too because bringing 2D to life was what we wanted to do and this was part of our inspiration.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmkLlVzUBn4

Final video- not completed; WARNING- I suggest you turn sound off to watch this or at least turn it to a minimum.

For this video we did not leave ourselves enough time to edit. I also made the mistake of putting it into after effects straight away instead of Premier Pro (if I had put it into Premier Pro first I would have been able to take away all the sound).

The video seems to be not very good quality although I am sure it was good quality when I filmed it.

Despite the video not being completed, we managed to get useful feedback which we used to finish our film to a better standard.

Mahbuba, Elysia and Luke’s week 11 film feedback

-Better explanation of relevance, using a physical bone to better connect.

-Removal of digital flipbook

-Add a lot more to the end, to show the bone animation better.

-Maybe change the position of the elements.

-Show the bone in the tree, think about the bone scale and visability.

-Fix Alli’s feet on After Effects so that it doesn’t look like he has broken legs.

-Add movement to Alli.

-Sound. Tom & Jerry sound?

-How does he get back?

-Alli missing from book at end

-Other characters need more video time.

The feedback that is in red is feedback that we would not have needed if we had finished editing.

We took the feedback in black into consideration when we re-filmed our video.

Before we re-filmed we added a lot more pages to the flip book to emphasise the bone had got away from our characters. We also decided that all the characters should come out of the flip book so that all the characters had more video time. We decided that the characters should be the main focus of our viewers attention. We used shots that had Mahbuba in the video but not as the main focus after the characters had come out of the book.

Final Storyboard