Finished Animation

Lost And Found

Lost and Found is a 25 minute animated film adaptation ofOliver Jeffers childrens book of the same name. The film, a co-production betweenStudio AKA and Contender Entertainment Group, has been adapted and directed by Studio AKA's Philip Hunt, with narration provided by Jim Broadbent and original usic by Max Richter. [source: http://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2008/december/lost-and-found-film-oliver-jeffers-prints]
I thought it only pertinenet that I also watch the short award winning film Lost and Found which is based on a different Oliver Jeffers book. As I have already talked about the development work for this film in PPP and how it was part of an exhibition at Bradford National Media Museum, I shall simply discuss elements I would like to inspire my work.

First I really like the fluidity of the boy character and how his legs bend and walk. Although his character is three d and mine will remain two did I think this technique could be easily transferred. I also think that this movie has strength in it's use of sound, as there isn't talking extra effort in the actions and the tone and mood of the sound, therefore I think picking the right song is imperative. I also like he pace of the trailer. where most shots are in between 2-5 seconds with a couple of longer ones and thats something I want to mimic in my title sequence.

A History of The Title Sequence

A History Of The Title Sequence from From Form on Vimeo.

As I've already talked about this video for context of practice I just wanted to show this to look at each of the mentioned in this to gage an awareness of what's come before and maybe influence and inspire my work.

George Melies


Geroge Melies is the original specialfx artist who filmed people and layered them on top of each other to create sets. Tricking the audience. Although his work is really interesting because it's so avant garde for his era, I would really define him as being a title artist, I'd say he was a short film maker being one of the first special fx artists.



Saul Bass

Saul Bass obviously is renowned for the splicing in a title sequence of with block colours and chopping characters and objects up during the course of a title sequence. He is also a very renowned storyboard artist. And his work is primarily known being associated with Alfred Hitchcock. Fun fact about Alfred Hitchcock he asked to film in Walt Disney's disneyland and Walt disney said no he had made “that disgusting movie Psycho.”


Saul Bass' title sequences for Alfred Hitchcock from MovieTitles on Vimeo.


Maurice Binder

Is the man behind the classic James Bond titles, using circles to emphasise the focal point and action and combining black and white and psychedelic colours of the time.


Maurice Binder from duncan gidney on Vimeo.

Stephen Frankfurt

The man who is mainly famed for the opening credits of To Kill a Mocking Bird, who brings simplicity to the title sequence, with text overlay film reel.



Pablo Ferro

Pablo Ferro: A Career Retrospective from Art of the Title on Vimeo.

Richard Greenberg
I really like the diversity of the work in Pablo Ferro and Richard Greenberg I feel like Richard Greenberg is a newer more controversial version of Pablo Ferro. I think I'm overwhelmed by so much I don't know what to take into my own work I just want to take it all.


R/Greenberg Associates: A Film Title Retrospective from Art of the Title on Vimeo.

Kyle Cooper

Danny Yount
 

I love this sequence it's so beautifully done.

I think they are like the cool versions of animators, i imagine them to be less geeky and more hip and have lots of friends who are graphic designers. I don't think I have enough 'cool' in me to make a title of this standard. I need to surround myself with more so it oozes onto me.

Ceramics

During the ceramics workships I made a wizard armature and and a ceramic wizards head. I really enjoyed these workshop as they were so playful. I love how it's all about the detail when creating these kinds of models. I had so much fun I would definitely do it again. If I was to do it again I would be more prepared and I'd want to make a puppet, with a ceramic head and hands and on a larger scale as working small is really difficult and it difficult to make the armatures models arms and legs move on a small scale.

Sound

Carnival of the Animals - Aquarium



Django Django - Life's a Beach


These are the two songs I think will fit best with my title sequence. I can imagine the tinkles from carnival of the animals fitting with the kite flying away and the forty second intro of Django Django would fit perfectly I also like the beat and the coolness of Django Django fits with how cool Oliver Jeffers is.

One thing I need to really consider is Copywrite with Carnival of the Animals beings classical music it's copywrite is now avaliable, however with Django Django as this song is less than two years old there is a breach of property. The record label they belong to clearly states that they can't grant permission to use it you have to go to the band direct

http://www.becausemusic.co.uk/about/

However for a student project, as I am only sampling, after reading this website I feel confident in saying that because I've credited them it would be acceptable.

http://www.copyrightsandwrongs.nen.gov.uk/students/music

I decided to go with Django Django's intro over carnival of the animals because the tinkling takes a long time to change and isn't the right pace to what I want the credits to be and I think Django Django sounds newer and fresher and the stroy is a contemporary story there's no classical fairytale ending it deserves the freshness.

Also how cool is DjangoDjango's music video I've never seen it before what great fresh animation.

The Gruffalo Short

The Gruffalo, Written by Julia Donaldson and illustrated by Axel Scheffler, is a children's story book turned into a half an hour short film. I think this short animation works well because because it stays true to the illustrator and author. I think they have brought the book to life successfully







Kariem Saleh - "The Gruffalo" - Compositing Reel from Kariem Saleh on Vimeo.

Compositing isn't anything I know much about but I really enjoyed this little video, it's clear how much work has gone into the colour correcting and backdrop. Every single detail even to the snow adds to the tone of the story. I think this quality and attention to detail has made it award winning because every single element is fine tuned, and I think it's something that relates to being meticulous and thorough with all aspects and is a skill I hope to develop throughout my time at uni.





The above video was taken from Max Lang's (joint director with Jakob Schuh) blog, and shows how close the storyboard is to the actual animation. I think this is an art form in it's own right to have such brilliant storyboards to work from is a skill. And emphasises the importance of storyboarding and animatics.


http://maxlanganimation.blogspot.co.uk/
http://www.studiosoi.de/
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1461418/

Momoco / Mcgruffin

http://www.watchthetitles.com/designers/Momoco
http://www.imdb.com/company/co0109898/?ref_=ttco_co_4

I decided to look at Momoco and McGruffin as they created the Titles for the hit TV show The Musketeers one which has grasped my attention every sunday night. The TV is a replacement of Merlin and Sinbad, it's a period drama set in an english speaking france back when there was a monarchy and pistols and women weren't educated. They touch on illegally educating women and it's all very controversial it's strange to think how much times have changed.

However I remember the first time it came on and I was captivated with the title sequence, it has a lots of layering, and inky magic. I think it's a really interesting way of combining animation and live film and the characters posing really over the top in between the inky splats that are carefully constructed that match the fluidity of the musketeers uniforms. It emphasises the romantic period.

I mainly like it because it's over the top cheese. But also I like the colour scheme and I think this is something I should think about as I'm no longer making sets I made a conscious decision to stick with the colours on the front of the book which may leave it seeming basic but I think It will flow nicer.

Filmore

I think this title sequence is really successful because it has a lot in it in such a short space of time. I've been saying that I need to keep it short and sweet but from watching this I really need to take some of the details from it. I think what makes this title sequence successful is that although there isn't a lot of animation in it there's a lot of fast cut shots, which makes the pace very fast and almost frantic.

When researching this TV (one of my childhood favourites) I discovered that the creator, Scott M. Gimple also worked on american dragon, which is also fast paced and a similar style which probably influenced the style of this show but also since this has moved to the walking dead. (In between he worked with Seth Macfarlane and on the simpsons) but it seems like such a big contrast I found it really fascinating.

What I want to take forward from looking at this title sequence is the simplicity in the animation. I don't think the book deserves the same pace as this as if it was a short it wouldn't be fast paced as there isn't much storyline to shot between, but keeping the animation simple yet effective. It has to be clean and professional.

Game of Thrones Title Sequence

http://www.artofthetitle.com/title/game-of-thrones/

So this is a really interesting title sequence. Almost hypnotic. I am obsessed with the Game of Thrones books, I've almost finished the penultimate book. It is an addictive series that takes a while to get into but you get sucked into the world you become attached to the characters. It's almost like your not rooting for anyone person to get the throne you are actually waiting for them to fall, which is such a deep thought to think how much the author knows about our psyche that as a society we are hooked to this series because we want to watch the incest and see who falls next. Rather depressing really. To me the TV show hasn't gripped me like the books have because I have a very vivid imagination and I actually think I've made up a different story to the one my boyfriends read because we've both picked up different details. Therefore the characters really don't match the ones in my head, so it's taking me a while to get into it. But I'm forced to stick with it as my other half loves it so much, we are actually going on holiday to where King's Landing is filmed, Dubrovnik in Croatia because of this series. One main annoyance I have with the TV series is the title sequence. Don't get me wrong technically the way the cities build up and the detail in the animation is incredible but what is with the glowing yellow ball. And the font is so unreadable on the map. However I think the editing is really successful how the shots flow with cuts of different pans of each city/area and then panning onto the next bit. I also think the pace matches that of the story because it is really fast and does move on with each character each chapter. But I just think the yellow ball lets it down so much. I think it'd of been so much more successful if it had centred around the Iron Throne. But that's just my opinion.

Other possible techniques of production

When I first started this module I was so motivated and so determined that I was going to paint the characters on glass green screen. I could picture the process so throughly in my head. However as I started to get onto my second and third storyboard I actually decided I didn't want to, because I was already falling out with module. I just don't think I'd of had the patience to paint the characters. I didn't love them enough. Also I could already predict problems with this method, reflection from lights, alignment issues, possible residue. Paint with a shine reflects light so it would be crucial to get the lighting right otherwise it'd end up like this stopmotion.



and I saw this one


Oil Painting Animation Demo Reel 2013 from Xin Li on Vimeo.

And it just put me off I think it would just be such a struggle at this stage, I think it's something I need to have a project I really really love and lots of time to devote to it.

So then I had some other idea's one idea was to do it like the John Lewis Christmas advert where they printed out the characters on card and created a stop motion that way. Again I didn't even need to test it to know that you going to have allignment issues and be really patient and use software like dragon frame to do it properly and build sets. I also thought about printing them on something like acetate and painting them to keep in theme with Oliver Jeffers Style. But with it being easter and the end of the financial year I didn't get my act together in booking printing resources.







I am in awe of this advert, I've talked about it in more depth in another module but I'll just reiterate what a horrible song choice! Sound is something I need to discuss next.

Moose Walk Cycle

After colouring the cycle in I noticed that he was still getting bigger so I decided it was time to move the frames and loop the walk. I learnt lots of things about animating on photoshop in the process and actually took me a lot longer than I thought it would which made me reasses the method in which I'm going to animate the project. I basically decided to scrap testing the other methods because I think I need to practice animating via photoshop with my new drawing tablet as theres so many things that you can only learn by actually using the software.

So I started by procrastinating as always and watching this which shows a different style of moose and I think by adding the joints to Oliver Jeffer's moose it is a half way point between his illustration and these. I think with these I'm very envious that the characters don't gain in volume but in retrospect what I should of done when hand drawing them, is number one not done them when I wasn't in the mood taken more time and analysed the key frames in size and shape more closely before doing the inbetweens, then it wouldn't of been as a bigger task redoing them.

Brother Bear Animation Moose Tony Stanley and Broose Johnson from Helpful Bear Productions Inc. on Vimeo.

After doing half the walk cycle I learnt that you can highlight several images and move them together in a video group on photoshop, rather than moving them individually. I could of kicked myself for not thinking about trying that sooner. This also works for resizing them and cropping. However does not work for adjusting the frame length.

I was really unhappy with the frame rate and I was changing it and saving it and trying to render it out, and then photoshop would play them at the fastest speeds. By this point I'd started animating his legs moving in the water, I chose to rewrite the storyboard and I decided not to jinx by just scribbling it down, rather than procrastinating by drawing another story board. I decided that the kite flying off could be smoother if you saw his feet and then the kite and it breaking then the moose saving the kite and bringing it back theres a lot less scenes and I think with the process and production module I confused things by having too many scenes. This way wilf isn't revealed as the main character till later on and i think the moose is a much more interesting character so it flows nicer.

So after doing the legs dancing (moving with the wind as he's flying the kite) notice i didn't use joints in his body to the same extent as the moose as i thought it would draw attention away from the moose. I went back to the moose walk cycle as it's a crucial part of the animation I was planning on recycling the frames. I looked back at the video's I'd rendered that were supposedly at a higher frame rate, and they didn't seem to be at a higher frame rate they were just skipping frames, they were still 23seconds long. Which is a ridiculously long amount of time for a moose to walk across the screen, people will fall asleep. I realised, it took a good few hours of shouting at the computer, and more procrastinating with videos like these,

imagine how much fun you could have with a round moose, wilf could use him as a kite.
I realised that although I'd altered the frame rate I hadn't changed the lengths of frame. So Not knowing how to do them as a group I went through and altered them to 30fps, I was so happy that it removed the jerkiness of the walk although I really wished I hadn't done as much shading. That's something to note for next time.

See the moose walk file for all these video versions.

Before this point I'd decided to do a floaty shadow on the background with three different video layers that like fluttered below the moose, but I didn't know how much I'd have to rescale it to change it so I just deleted it. I decided that 30fps was too fast and went down 24. which also put it at a good speed of 10 seconds.

I then mastered how to do a floaty shadow and move it across using the position keyframes. Took me a lot longer than a normal animation student but I was pleased with myself. The moose walk was complete a stress head later.

I also used this walk in the scene where the kits rescued from the tree, however I deleted several frames to make him get to the tree faster, and I flipped it for the final scene and drew the kite on his antler on top of the layers.

Also did his eyes and nostrils in each frame of each cycle separately. He does blink but supersonically fast.

Moose Walking Research

Richard williams animators survival book, horse walking

mashed with the birds legs, from fear of flying,
A glimpse into the MAKING OF "FEAR OF FLYING" from conorfinnegan on Vimeo.

I looked at this video as in the short animation Fear of Flying the legs are put in ontop of the stop motion and as I haven't decided my style of process of production I thought this could be a possibility.

I also decided to look at videos of Mooses walking to look and make sure I have the right research, although I think it's important to keep the style to the author I have to imagine the characters moving and although they don't have joints in the illustrations, I think it's important to test them having joints, because I think it would add to the animation of the moose.




Unfortunately this was the only video I could find of a moose but to me it seemed like a more jerky version of a horse walking.




I also had a look in the Animators Survival Kit and there horses walk cycle who break it down and make it easier to read, comparing the two back legs too an ostrich, and the front legs more elegant like a human walking. I then drew some key frames and then hand drew the inbetweens. It took me three attempts to do the walk cycle, most of the excess paper i just discarded but the third attempt still wasn't right for me as I'd managed to draw the moose getting fatter which would be a nightmare to repeat.

So instead of hand drawing I uploaded each outline to photoshop and before colouring and skinned down the last fifteen frames and then coloured them in. I'm not going to upload these as that would require putting them on youtube and they are just tests I've labelled in the submission folder.

Charlie and Lola

This title sequence caught my eye because it flows really nicely from one scene to another. The composition of each shot leads into the next sequence of movement. For example the way charlie is on the straw and the pink milk flows past and leads you to lola's actions. It's the same style of animation as the tv show and I think this is relevant to my work.

I also like how they don't make it obvious that they are brother and sister in the title sequence but they use key recurring themes from the tv show such as the pink milk and the butterflies. These appear on all charlie and lola merchandise too.

I also really like the use of a plain background which emphasises the animation in the foreground, a lot of the backgrounds in the tv show are textured with crayon colouring and materials fill the background but I think it's really effective they've kept it black.

Charlie and Lola is a Bafta Winning tv show, and I believe this is primarily down to the fact due to the narrative, it is simply charming i believe the connection Charlie and Lola has is the stereotypical older brother younger sister one and oozes sweetness and love, much like the story of This Moose and Me.