Final Animation

My final animation was based around my chosen article, in which, a study explained how nurturing transgender children improved their mental health and well being. Which, however obvious it may be, was the only positive articles I could find surrounding the topic of transgender issues. I was so set on doing an article about those who are transgender because it's a very personal topic for me, as I am transgender, and I wanted my animation to have a more personal touch rather than it be about any old random news story.

The animation itself was compromised of 44 hand drawn frames, all of which where drawn out in pencil, fine liner and then coloured in with pen, before scanning everything onto the computer and putting all of my images into flash. From there, I set each frame to be a little longer, stretching everything out so that the animation would be easy to read, and set everything to 12 frames per second. I was not initially going to lengthen my animation, however I got a second opinion once my animation was 'compete' and found that others found it hard to read, as my animation is quite text heavy, so from there I slowed everything down, thus solving the problem. I did considering using one of the techniques we learnt during the first few weeks of our brief, but then decided against it as, to convey the message I wanted, any other form of animation would be too jerky for my liking as I wanted my animation to have smooth transitions into each sentence to keep the audience from losing interest.

Initial artist research for my animators played heavily into my final animation, as I wanted my animation to be more traditional in its styling, whilst also keeping everything within the brief of our animation having to be stop motion. My main point of interest was the entire Studio Ghibli franchise, as they used to work primarily with hand drawn frames that they would then string together. And although Walt Disney did this, I feel that Studio Ghibli was more organic in their approach as they kept the practise for longer, and have not yet gone completely digital, like Disney have done.

The point of reference for styling my drawings was my own, as I couldn't find any interest within any other's work, especially for what I wanted to do with my piece. The piece itself is meant to be aimed at a younger audience, and is meant to be more educational than story telling, as my article was based on a study rather than a story. It's also a good way of getting the point of the article across, without being too pushy or like an 'informational slideshow'. The styling itself was very 'cutesy' and simple, with basic characters that are easy to notice and distinguish between.

colouring is also a big part of the animation, as the main character doesn't adhere to any colours usually considered 'male' or 'female', really solidifying the fact that this character is in fact, transgender, without it being pushed into the audience's faces. The opposing groups of characters are also colour sensitive, as the group that pushes 'Alfie' away are all in cold, darker toned colours, whilst also fitting into the pastel aesthetic of the animation, and the welcoming group are all lightly coloured, with brighter and warmer colours. This link to colour, could also be linked to the fact that being transgender is a spectrum, much like colours fit onto a spectrum, and although it isn't the forefront idea, it's an idea that I chose to link together subtly throughout the animation. Even if it's one that has to be pointed out rather than obviously shown.

I encountered a few problems when making my animation as the whole hand drawing process was quite stressful and ordered, there were a few times when I got my frames mixed up, therefore messing the entire thing up, and there was also a moment where I hadn't scanned all of my frames and had to rush around getting tat done. Eventually, everything worked out. However, looking back on my animation, I see many things I would like to change, such as the amount of drawn frames within the animation as, despite me not wanting it to be, the animation is still quite jittery and stilted, so if I were to go through the process again, I would draw out more frames, and possibly give more detail to each scene.

Conclusively, I really like how my animation turned out, I don't think it would have been as good without all of my previous experimentation, and the research really helped get what I wanted from the piece. Which was to convey a message about how being kind to transgender people, really helps them, and that acceptance is all that is needed.

My video won't upload on here, so here it is on youtube.

Cut Paper Animation

Our cut paper animation was based around a ghost, who accidentally scares a little boy, then apologises. The idea itself had nothing to do with any of our chosen stories, but we felt that it would be better to do an unlinked one rather than try and merge all of our stories together as they were so different.

The style of the animation itself was loosely based on on 'The Adventures of Prince Achmed' An extremely old animation (it was made in 1926!) that uses paper cut outs to tell it's story. And although ours wasn't as detailed or refined as that animation, the basic principle is still the same.

Our ghost animation itself was quite tricky to make, as there quite a few parts to each frame and cutting out each piece of paper was tricky in keeping everything together, and it required a bit of verbal planning to make sure everything went right within each shot. I think I would have enjoyed making the animation more if it wasn't so complicated, although I did like creating the characters for the shots and making sure each little detail was as close to perfect as we were going to get.

Personally, I found it quite clunky, no matter how many frames we tried to include, and the paper itself was quite crude looking, despite that being the very aim, creating a simplistic animation. I just don't think it was to my personal taste where animation is concerned. But despite this, it worked well for what we were able to do, and although it was tough to make, it was also fun and we were able to create a simple story and get it across effectively. To improve for the next time, I feel that we could go on to make more solid and neat looking props for the animation and include more frames, but I feel like we did a good job overall.

After making our large animation, I went on to make a smaller one, with only one prop that floated a little around the page. It was a very simple and basic animation, but I like how it turned out. Using only two pieces of paper, an exacto knife and a camera, it's funny how an animation can be made effectively.

I think it was a valuable experimentation, as I found that, even though I wasn't the most fond of the style of animation, I was still able to use it some what effectively.

Flip Book

Our first animation was done on post it notes to show us one of the oldest variants of animation which was the flip book. The flip book itself works by drawing a different frame on each page of the post it note, and once rapidly flipped through, an animation will emerge.

Within my flip book, I drew a calm sky, entitled 'A Calm Day', before a dog in a hot air balloon floated across the page, with clouds floating in the background continually to keep the animation animated. Each sheet of paper was a different frame, moving the drawing on only a little each time so the animation would flow smoothly and seamlessly.

I think mine worked well for how much we could do considering the limited pages and space for the drawings, as the animation itself isn't too jumpy or too fast paced, I would like to think I gave each frame enough time for the animation to be successful in getting the story across. I preferred working on a flip book than the chalk board animation we did, as I felt that this method was cleaner and less eclectic within its final outcome.

The paper on the post it notes however, is too small for the animation to be clearly seen. And the viewer would have to hold the post it notes at a funny angle to see all of the drawing fully for each frame. So I feel, to make the animation better next time, I would work on bigger pieces of paper as to give the viewer more room to see. There was also the problem of occasionally missing frames. To fix this, I had to go through the 'book' a few times, working the animation over to see where the tiny gaps were and going over the missing few in pen. Then, the animation finally looked well put together and complete.

Despite this, the animation itself works for the most part, and the pen overlaid over the pencil gives the animation a clear and crisp outcome, making everything easier to see and more stylised. The style itself is one simplified of my natural style to fit everything onto the page, and although i'm not too happy with the outcome of the style, the simplified nature of the drawing was one that was needed to fit everything onto the page and make the animation look better, as too much detail wouldn't translate well.

Found Object Animation

Within our found object animation, I chose to tell a love story based on buttons and puns.

I really enjoyed creating this animation, as it made you scavenge for things to use, whilst also still making you use your own initiative and creativity to create something from usually mundane things.

I'm actually quite happy with how my animation turned out, using four frames per second on a short enough scale that made the story quick, straight to the point and effective. However, to make it better, I could have included more frames to give everything a smoother and better looking effect, as I feel that everything looks quite jumpy as there weren't enough 'in between' frames.

I would have liked to try this out using the style of PEZ, but taking out frames after making the video to see how that would have effected the final outcome, as PEZ was an inspiration for this piece, using mundane objects in a fantastical way.

Making this animation was quite finicky, and I had to do the animation a few times before I got it right, as often I wouldn't have moved the props in the right way, or the text would be misplaced, or occasionally, I wouldn't have moved my hand out of frame fully,as it was hard to judge the placement of things when looking through the small screen of my ipod. Despite this, I finally got the final outcome I was looking for, and for a first attempt as using inanimate objects for an animation, I think it turned out pretty well.

Doodle Animation

I didn't enjoy the doodle animation, as I don't feel that a group effort is needed for an eventual personal animation, and I didn't like the final outcome for the animation itself. I feel that, if left to work alone, I could have produced a more personal and effective outcome as I would have more time and space to fully draw my own responses to the subjects, and be able to fit everything onto the one page and make it look as though everything was 'meant' to be together. Instead of having an 'everywhere' and scruffy outcome.

The group animation, involved six pieces of paper being stuck to the wall, and then we were unleashed upon it with pens as subjects were called out to us. They first started out happy, with 'Family' and 'Love' before turning to more morose to 'War' and 'Death'. I couldn't take part much in the activity, and was only able to draw a few things onto the page as I feel that were to many people on the one task.

The outcome itself is quite messy and rushed looking (as we had time parameters for each subject) and I don't think that it works very well. Each drawing is cramped and doesn't flow smoothly into one another, lending harsh lines and bold colours to the final outcome. Each drawing differed hilariously from person to person for each subject, showing that everyone had a unique view on each subject that was shouted out. That was the one interesting aspect out of the whole experiment, as I enjoyed seeing how everyone responded to the same topic.

The animation made from it, I don't feel works either, as it's quite clumsy as it includes the people drawing the subjects, although thats through no fault of anybody's own as filming had to be from 'over' the crowd. Personally, I just don't like this style of animation, however I could see how people would like it as it is quite unique and expressive.

-need video

Chalk Board and Collage Animation Workshop

Today we used chalk on black paper to create a stop motion animation about global warming, deforestation, industrialisation or a subject similar to those described. My group and I chose to make an animation about deforestation as we felt that we could do more on that.

For our animation, we drew a tree growing in stages, using chalks as the tree grew, taking pictures at each stage. We then went through two seasons with the tree before ripping the page up in strips, signifying that the tree was getting cut down. After putting another piece of black paper under the first, we then transferred the stump of the tree to that paper before starting to cover it with small pictures of buildings, leaving a small patch of the trunk visible before finally covering that with a picture of the tree when the buildings had been ‘built’ up. The tree signified that, people will chop down trees and build upon their grounds for their own means, but then want that greenery back so they construct parks, or greenery, despite having it, and taking it away.

Taking pictures at every change in the page, out final animation is quite bitty, but works as it shows the tree’s growth and fall, with the buildings taking over. Due to the unreliability of height of the camera and lighting, everything seems a little disjointed, however it still works. We used 12 frames per second for our animation, so it was a little slower than average, but the slower pace worked in explaining the story better as you had more time to process what was going on.

The chalk itself was a hard medium to work with, although the faded effect we could get from it worked in our favour in making the tree’s and background more present, in contrast to the building, which was quite strong and bold, with crisp and dark lines. For the chalk, we used ‘Autumn story chalkboard’ on YouTube for our inspiration as the chalk’s hazy outlook followed it across the use of multiple chalkboards, much like the haze followed our tree.

Our animation was very different to the other groups, as our focused on deforestation whilst there’s focused on pollution, using props with theirs as ours only used chalks and a collage effect. Each worked in different ways, however ours had text too to explain what was happening at the end, whilst there only showed what was happening. Each differed greatly in that respect, as each showed a journey, whereas ours was the timeline of a plant as it grew and died, and there’s was following a car on a physical journey while polluting the area as it went.

To make our animation better, we could have made things neater, and took into consideration the ghost like effect the chalk left to use it to our advantage. However for a quick first attempt, ours worked quite well.

Conclusively, the animation worked well, and our choice of frames per second really hit home the impact of the tree getting cut down as everything was slightly slower than average, bringing attention to the actions. The animation itself was simple, but effective, in showing the takeover that buildings have on nature due to deforestation.

Animators

2D Hand drawn:
Hayao Miyazaki – Miyazaki used to animate before moving on to becoming a producer of some of the most well-known films eg ‘Spirited Away’ that reached international success, which he hand drew the story boards for (which he did for all of his films). I chose Miyazaki as a point of reference as I like the more traditional style he works in, as well as the level of simplicity within his technical work as everything is quite clean and 'proper' despite it looking highly complicated.

Eric Larson – Disney based, one of ‘Disney’s Nine Old Men’, worked on things such as Lady and the Tramp, Bambi and 101 Dalmations and went on to teach plenty of the newer animators such as Henry Selick after opening a recruitment training program. Of course, doing an animation course, I had to pick a renowned disney artist, otherwise my research would not be complete. I chose LArson as he worked on some of my favourite disney films.

2D Computer drawn:
Alex Hirsch – Creator of Gravity Falls, Hirsch started out as a story board artist as well as experimenting with animation whilst studying at CalArts. Since the arise of computers, the animation was simply done there instead of traditional pen and paper. Gravity Falls is one of my favourite new cartoons out today, so it was an obvious choice for me to pick Hirsch as one of my artists.

Cleo Harrington – Harrington is a self-proclaimed feminist artist, and dabbles in stop motion, hand drawn and computer drawn animation. She has worked on things such as ‘100 square Inches of White’ as she liked having control over all elements of her work and ‘Moushole Cat’ which was for the BBC. Granted, there are not a lot of credited female animators out there, as most are pushed into the background, so I tried really hard to find some female artists for me to reference, and i'm very glad I did as I really like Harrington's purely different way of styling within her animation.

Stop Motion:
Henry Selick – Worked on the likes of The Night Before Christmas and Coraline. He studied animation in California in CalArts along with the likes of Tim Burton and Brad Bird.  His work is some of the most well-known within the Stop Motion world as most of his work is critically acclaimed which was the reason I researched him.

Alice Dunseath – A more recent animator, Dunseath is an English animator who has worked on the likes of ‘Fantastic Mr Fox’ having the ability to manipulate materials. She has also worked on a number of title sequences for things such as Gucci. I really enjoyed watching fantastic Mr Fox, as I liked how smooth the transitions were in between each frame within the claymation, whilst also retaining it's very 'old' style which looked a little stilted.

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I chose a variety of artists form each of my researched methods as I wanted to have a range of artists for my inspiration as I didn't want to limit myself throughout the experimentation process. I chose each of my artists for their rather unique sense of work, as each artists style differs greatly. 

Types of Animation

2D Hand Drawn Animation (Cell animation)
It’s one of the oldest forms of animation, and ranges from flip books, to older Disney movies. Each frame is drawn by hand after a rough mock up is drawn to see how many frames would be needed for a particular scene or action. Once each individual frame is drawn, photographs would then be taken of each frame to be processed.
Examples of Hand Drawn Animation: Early Disney / Studio Ghibli

Early Disney Studio Animation

Princess Mononoke Animation still

2D Computer Drawn Animation (Vector animation)
Is one of the newer forms of animation and has rose to popularity over the last decade. Computer based animation is very much like it’s ancestor hand drawn animation in that cells are drawn after a mock up in produced, and characters are animated in tandem to backgrounds and objects. However, everything is done on the computer, to make things more accessible.Examples of Computer Drawn Animation: Gravity Falls / Steven Universe

Stevens Universe Animation still

Gravity Falls Animation still

Stop Motion Animation
Stop motion animation is the act of setting up a scene, taking a picture of it, and then moving whatever needs to be moved, ever so slightly, and then taking another picture until the scene is done. Anything can be used for this, such as clay or puppets. This is one of the most tedious forms of animation.
Examples of Stop Motion Animation: Chicken Run / Frankenweenie

Frankenweenie Animation Still

Chicken Run Animation Still

Mind Map

Before we began to look into articles for our brief, we made a mind map looking for ideas. I already had an idea for my article (something about transgender issues) however the mind map was helpful in gathering more ideas just in case I couldn't find a suitable article about those who are transgender.

I then went on to create a smaller mindmap to tackle what I wanted to do within my actual animation, which then led to some brief story boarding and a lot of planning.

mindmap

mindmap

storyboard

storyboard

storyboard

Planning

My Article

The article i'm basing my animation off is one discussing the study of transgender childrens mental health.

Within the article, it explains that letting a trangender child express themselves and accept their identity, leads to the individual having much better mental health.

Which, however obvious, is interesting within itself.

I chose to to an article about something within the transgender community, as I am technically transgender myself (being agender) and wanted to do something personal to make my animation more unique and more informed, as I have first hand knowledge of the subject.

The article itself is one of the more positive ones I found, as it expresses the facts that, if transgender children are nurtured and shown acceptance, they are far more likely to flourish as they grow up.

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/feb/26/crucial-study-transgender-children-mental-health-family-support

To back up this article, and give myself more options if ever I needed them likend to LGBTQAI issues, whilst also broadening my range of ideas, I also looked into a few different articles which are linked below.

Lack of Guidance Failing Transgender Pupils
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/12098112/Lack-of-school-guidance-failing-transgender-pupils.html

MI5 Most Inclusive Agency Studies Show
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/jan/19/mi5-comes-out-top-stonewall-list-gay-friendly-employers