February 2024 – MA Character Animation

Hearing Juliana talk about her final film, ‘Sketches’ (puppet stopmotion) is very inspiring and I’ve really enjoyed assisting her. Juliana was inspired by times spent on train and tube journeys observing and drawing people. I also have to travel a long way in on the train and I like to watch people and overhear interesting conversations. She has also been very kind, answering lots of questions about second year.

She is collaborating with a sound artist to create the background music and a costume designer for the clothes. I love that she is working with other people, which is something that I am looking forward to doing.

I have learnt lots of new techniques and tips:

Using a colonoscopy bag to create the puppet skin (gives a natural looking effect)
Using electrical wire plugs to make joints on a wire puppet
Having a 12 principles checklist for each shot
Be organised, have your files well labelled

Live Action Video Reference – Drawing

Level One – Character starts drawing people and doodling over them. Something strange happens, is it just a trick of the eye?

Level Two – Character continues to doodle on the drawings. Things are definitely happening to the people in real life! Character tries to rub it out.

Level Three – Character is very distressed and confused. The people have completely changed!

Live Action Video Reference – Bored/looking on phone

Adding frames into the Animatic

Juliana wanted to insert some new movements into the animatic. My drawings are in the middle of this clip.

This was a very interesting task as I had to draw in Juliana’s style to make sure the animatic didn’t change too much! I felt more confident to help with the TVPaint animatic; I’m still learning, but I used Vanessa’s advice from life drawing. This task gave me an insight into what an animatic is. It seems a bit like a moving storyboard. However, I think the phone needs to be added in (I didn’t realise there was a phone, I thought it was the hand.)

Music

Juliana asked for my advice on two music files she had been sent by the composer. The music is meant to be played quietly in the background to add to the idea of a waiting room and sense of mischief! I really enjoyed this task and I realised just how important sound is in animation.

Here are some of my thoughts.

Paint Colours

I really enjoy research so I jumped into this task. Juliana wanted me to look up beige, cream and pale blues. Juliana’s animation is set in a waiting room, she wants it to have a warm mood and for the characters to look calm.

Juliana found a pale blue piece of wallpaper to use. That is one of the things I love about stop motion and small sets; you can use anything.

Screenshots of some of the paint colours.

I would like to help with some of the physical making, but Juliana is making her animation at home (so it makes it harder to understand the sizing of the puppets and set.) I am planning to visit Juliana after Easter to see her set which will be very exciting. I hope I can continue to help Juliana next term.

This unit has been very challenging; I’ve made lots of mistakes, spent hours trying to fix them and had to start whole projects again! However, when I look back on where I started in September, I am very proud of my progress.

Tuesday’s stopmotion workshops have been my favourite days. I love making analogue things with my hands and physically moving them frame by frame. I find it therapeutic, and I will explore more stop-motion techniques in future animation projects.

Attending Vanessa’s life drawing sessions has helped me gain more confidence in gesture drawing. I have actually begun to enjoy drawing humans in a more realistic way (not just as robots or creatures!) Learning ‘The Bean’ technique has helped me to understand proportions of the human body better, which has benefited my 2D hand drawn exercises. I found the perspective and colour theory classes very interesting as I’ve never thought much about the science and maths behind them.

I’ve pushed myself out of my comfort zone and tried to take every opportunity to learn something new. I need to worry less and enjoy the process more.

Bouncy Character Exercise

Learning how to animate a bouncing ball

Bouncy Ball Video Reference
How does a foam ball bounce?

Experimenting scratching circles onto old film. I really enjoyed playing with this technique and hope I can go back to it!

Initial Test: Experimenting with exaggerated squash, stretch and timing.

Test Two: I like the firmness, but the lines are changing thickness and the drawings aren’t spaced out correctly.

Experimenting with claymation

Shocked Frog

Character Design and Inspiration

Sketchbook – working out the design and movement.

2D bouncing Shocked Frog done on Animate.

Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures of the claymation process but here is a screenshot. Cut and rolled out clay on a Lightbox, shot overhead.

Lift/Push/Pull Exercise

First Attempt (TVPaint)

Adding in-betweens to give a smoother movement. I need to watch the shape and size of the head, and the bottom is moving around too much.

Second Attempt (puppet)

My design, ‘The Robot Caterpillar’, painting

Drawing a simplified design for the puppet

Sketchbook

Shooting

First attempt in stopmotion.

Mood Change Walk Exercise

New video reference for the second mood change walk

Silent Film/ Body Acting

Initial idea, before I knew we had to use someone else’s character!

Izzy’s Character Design

Identifying the keyframes

Drawing the keyframes

Adding the rough character on top

After feedback from the tutors, my story was not clear enough. Instead of a fish, a fly will suit the movement better. Please see this in my submitted animation.