01/02/19 - FIRST LECTURE WITH BOB
MODULE REQUIREMENTS - 30/60 second short with motion graphics, incorporating the 12 principles of animation
WHAT IS A MOTION GRAPHIC?
Small bits and pieces of simple animations often used for stand alone animations i.e. adverts. The skill set used in creating these little pieces can be referred to the "bread and butter" of our work post degree, and it should be pretty important to have a knowledge of how to work around after effects.
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SQUASH AND STRETCH
In our first lesson, we explored the first principle of animation. Good ole squash and stretch.
Using the basic tools in after effects, we took a square and made it jump about. Lecture also brought up some other interesting points on different types of timing, and the effect that it can have on your style of work.
We also began to discus some ideas for our hand in, and our home work was to have some stylistic reference and an idea to talk about for next week.
ANTICIPATION
The next principle of animation and the focus of this weeks class is anticipation. Can be with along with the first to be a useful tool in portraying what the character is doing on screen to the audience. Animators need to over exaggerate movements and expressions to add a more fluid and normal feel to the way that they move on screen
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In additon to this, we needed to present some of our ideas. I have came up with an anti smoking message, where a man walks out of his office to have a exaggerate, but when going to light it, water comes from the lighter instead of a flame, leaving him with a soggy feg.
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Stylistically, was looking at looping gifs, and some dynamics. Think the best way to do this would be using a 2D/3D medium. The original idea came from a reddit feed consisting of odd images. The set would be very minimalist, made out of basic shapes and forms with good compositing and realistic lighting, then some backdrop in a pixel art style. Animation wise, I think that a stop motion approach would fit better with the aesthetic I'm going for.
For next week, we are to have a brief story breakdown, some concept work, and then an after effects play through of the principle of anticipation.
ANIMATIC
Although it is a nice idea, I found that it was hard to fit it into any sort of theme or rope it back into a product or a clear message. It is much more about character animation. Still a good concept for some future work, I think that it would be best to rethink things.
RESEARCH
Found a great presentation breaking down a lot of the elements of motion graphics. Great idea for the kind of scope I want to go for with my new idea.
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https://prezi.com/fiavc7mfzzvt/motion-graphics-and-compositing-video/
I have found that a big limitation on my original idea is the fact that Im not that good of a drawer. To compromise for this, I think that It would be a good idea to stylise my work with the use of pictures taken from around the internet, and use some painting techniques to merge them together. For my character, I am going to take photos of my own face and lay them out as the character.
ASSETS
Tomorrow will be moving on with the character. Im thinking to stylise, taking footage of me doing the actions in the animatic, take every, lets say, 6 frames or so and then use the footage together as a form of stop motion for the animation. I will need to take different expressions from my face, for example different mouth movements. I think that it could pay off pretty well, and I am liking the style which I'm going with.
LIVE FOOTAGE IDEA:
With working with a final year on some sculpting stuff, I had to do a brain for his project. It's not a bad sculpt, and since I want to do more stuff with Nuke. My idea is some serene shots of the Belfast cityscape at sunset, with a large floating brain around it. The spin will be on mental health with the tag line:
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" Its here, so why cant we talk about it? "
The ad will be followed with a figure about suicide rates in Northern Ireland and information to organisations to seek out to get help.
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The biggest and most obvious challenge with this is how to shoot it. What format of video should be used? How to actually composite a floating brain around something like this?
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PIPELINE RESEARCH
STORYBOARD
LOCATION/
SCOUT
FILMING
3D SCENE SET UP
RENDERING
COMP
Although this idea is still valid, pulling it off in a competent way with so little time for this deadline is not only going to be hard, but idiotic. The amount of equipment used to go into this