This is the second week I am home from University. As Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday will be incredibly busy, I need to make sure I do as much work on the remaining study tasks as I can in my free time.
On Monday, I worked on the lip sync task. I also messaged my group asking for progress reports.
Then in the middle of the week, I celebrated Christmas with my family. I also had to make time for my job.
At the end of the week, I refined the articles for Study Task 3, so they were ready to publish. I also continued working on the lip sync task.
Sunday, 29 December 2019
Saturday, 21 December 2019
Study Task 1 (Week Commencing: 16/12/19)
At the beginning of the week, the musician messaged me about the length of the updated soundtrack. He explained that the total run time is one minute and forty-three seconds. I had a word with the director about whether to A) run over the allocated time, B) negotiate the times with the lectures, or C) tell the musician to trim it. My main concern was that last year, a lesson we were regularly given was to follow the instructions in a commission perfectly, as television stations can't allow for animators to run over or under a given time due to the set timetable. So, I encouraged the director to have a word with one of our lectures to look at our options. She messaged me back saying it was fine to run over.
Later on in the week, he sent me the updated soundtrack.
Nearing the end of the week, I worked on Study Task 3. I found this task really difficult and it took a lot longer than I had anticipated.
Later on in the week, he sent me the updated soundtrack.
Nearing the end of the week, I worked on Study Task 3. I found this task really difficult and it took a lot longer than I had anticipated.
Monday, 16 December 2019
Study Task 1 (Week Commencing: 09/12/19)
This is the last week I have at University before I go home for Christmas which means I have to make it count.
On Monday I re-exported the close up shots of the hand and face as .png sequences to remove the edge halos when I added the background footage.
From here, the lighting and dirt layers need to be added; then they will be completed shots.
On Tuesday, I added the colour to the bird shot.
I also messaged another classmate who wants to gather experience for their voice acting portfolio, to arrange a time they could help provide a voice over. Stacey booked the sound booth on Wednesday, so I let him know the time and place, and he was available. Stacey will book the booth once more over Christmas to record the foliage sounds.
Once I was done adding the colour, Joseph updated the bird shot by adding the background and lighting. However, there was a problem with outline, which I pointed out, as when the bird's wings crossed over it's body, or when it flew in front of the branches, the outline was okay but the parts that weren't overlapping disappeared, so he will refine this over Christmas.
Meanwhile, I continued to outline the shot of the man's back morphing into the beast. This took up most of the week.
To break this practice up, I added the colour layer to the shot of the foot transforming as looking at the same shot all day, every day, became a bit tedious.
Once done with this, I finished the outline of the back and then went on to add colour to this shot.
On Friday, I finished refining the colour and added the background Kate animated. She then presented the weekly. Comparing what I saw from the class weeklies overall to what we have so far, it looks as though we are on track. Although over Christmas, I will continue to check up on my team as while I won't be at University, I am still the producer, so need to keep on top of my teammates.
Based on the animatic from the weekly that Kate put together, and the updated scenes Joseph and I completed in class, I edited together an updated version and sent this to the musician to work on the final soundtrack. He said most of the visual cues from the first version match up with the latest version so it shouldn't take too long to refine.
I also updated the production sheet and uploaded it to Drive so the team will be able to access it over the holiday.
On Monday I re-exported the close up shots of the hand and face as .png sequences to remove the edge halos when I added the background footage.
From here, the lighting and dirt layers need to be added; then they will be completed shots.
On Tuesday, I added the colour to the bird shot.
I also messaged another classmate who wants to gather experience for their voice acting portfolio, to arrange a time they could help provide a voice over. Stacey booked the sound booth on Wednesday, so I let him know the time and place, and he was available. Stacey will book the booth once more over Christmas to record the foliage sounds.
Once I was done adding the colour, Joseph updated the bird shot by adding the background and lighting. However, there was a problem with outline, which I pointed out, as when the bird's wings crossed over it's body, or when it flew in front of the branches, the outline was okay but the parts that weren't overlapping disappeared, so he will refine this over Christmas.
Meanwhile, I continued to outline the shot of the man's back morphing into the beast. This took up most of the week.
To break this practice up, I added the colour layer to the shot of the foot transforming as looking at the same shot all day, every day, became a bit tedious.
Once done with this, I finished the outline of the back and then went on to add colour to this shot.
On Friday, I finished refining the colour and added the background Kate animated. She then presented the weekly. Comparing what I saw from the class weeklies overall to what we have so far, it looks as though we are on track. Although over Christmas, I will continue to check up on my team as while I won't be at University, I am still the producer, so need to keep on top of my teammates.
Based on the animatic from the weekly that Kate put together, and the updated scenes Joseph and I completed in class, I edited together an updated version and sent this to the musician to work on the final soundtrack. He said most of the visual cues from the first version match up with the latest version so it shouldn't take too long to refine.
I also updated the production sheet and uploaded it to Drive so the team will be able to access it over the holiday.
Monday, 9 December 2019
Final COP2 Weekly Update (Deadline: 10/12/19)
On Monday I spent the morning checking over my essay and visual journal to make sure they didn't need any more refinements. I also checked that every study task was uploaded to my blog and memory stick ready for the deadline.
Then in the afternoon, I converted my blog into a PDF as tomorrow is the 10th December and I don't want to do this at the last minute in case something goes wrong.
This is the final post for COP2.
If I had the chance to do this module again, I would have started working in my visual journal from the first session so that it was more developed. This would have also given me more time to experiment. If I could redo the survey, I would ask the participant their date of birth to see if this played a factor in their preferences. I would also give all the character designs the same pose so the silhouette results were fairer. Another suggestion of what else I could have done from one of my classmates was to choose a list of female animated characters, and read their character descriptions only. Then, based on how they were described, design my own versions to see if people could tell who they were or not, and what decade they were originally from.
Then in the afternoon, I converted my blog into a PDF as tomorrow is the 10th December and I don't want to do this at the last minute in case something goes wrong.
This is the final post for COP2.
If I had the chance to do this module again, I would have started working in my visual journal from the first session so that it was more developed. This would have also given me more time to experiment. If I could redo the survey, I would ask the participant their date of birth to see if this played a factor in their preferences. I would also give all the character designs the same pose so the silhouette results were fairer. Another suggestion of what else I could have done from one of my classmates was to choose a list of female animated characters, and read their character descriptions only. Then, based on how they were described, design my own versions to see if people could tell who they were or not, and what decade they were originally from.
Sunday, 8 December 2019
Study Task 1 (Week Commencing: 02/12/19)
At the start of the week, I worked on the lip sync task as despite saying I was going to focus on this over Christmas, I wasn't happy with how it looked at all and I wanted to fix it as soon as possible so that my mind was at rest.
Then, based on my lecturer's feedback, I updated the character turn around sheets by making him dirtier, ready for the 'Art Of' book we also have to produce.
I started by searching online for tea stain textures to add an extra layer to the piece. I then fell down a hole where I looked at brushes as well as textures, including: painted wall textures, dirt textures, paper textures and different dirt brushes. I downloaded a few, tested them out and sent my favourites to the group chat to get a vote on which brush to use.
The group vote was unanimous, and we ended up going with brush no. 10.
Once decided on a brush, I updated the dynamic pose sheet too and while I was at it, I removed the pants from the wolf so that this is also ready for the 'Art Of' book.
Then, I continued with the animation. Kate brought me some shots of the background that she had animated, to make sure they worked with the 2D elements. As I'm not very confident using unfamiliar software, I stuck to what I know, and imported both her footage, and my sequence of images into Photoshop. I couldn't make the background transparent for some reason, so I had to manually do it which was time consuming. In the future, I will try using After Effects or Premiere Pro to see if these are easier to get the hang of.
I did the same method with the next shot and once we were both happy with the perspective, I exported the footage.
I moved onto the foot shot. As the Christmas break is coming up, and I won't be able to access TVPaint from home, my team and I decided it would be best if I focused on the outlines only and then someone else in the team would add colour so the work was shared a little more evenly.
Kate then brought me some of the perspective shots from inside the cage, so once I had the outline ready, we tested the shots again to make sure they worked together.
I am happy with the follow through I added to the hair on leg as it grows, but I struggled with the movement in the foot here as I wasn't sure how to make the foot grow without the proportions looking wrong. I also struggled with making the actions look painful and agonising because the beast is stood up, so I had to consider the weight, which limited the movement.
Based on the work we had so far, I updated the production plan sheet so it was ready for the weekly presentation however when Friday did come around, we skipped this week's anyway.
On Thursday morning I attended a sound booth induction. After that, I continued to work on the shot of the bird landing on the branch. I worked on this shot for several hours, and found it incredibly difficult. I saved regularly throughout this process however, when I came to move the file from the desktop to my folder, something went wrong with the updated file and I could no longer access it. This meant I lost all the work I had done that day on that particular shot.
In this time, I had key framed the second half of the wing animation, and also key framed the feet. I added in-betweens to the body, wings and feet too, and as I struggled so much doing this, I began to panic as I wasn't sure I would have time to redo this whole shot as well as the other jobs I have.
I was completely devastated and went home. So on Friday, I came into class ready to start again; determined to get it finished.
I found this attempt went a little faster than the first, and this time I saved the file to my Google Drive first before I saved to the folder, as I didn't want a repeat of the day before. I also now export whatever footage I have every time I save so that if I lose a file again, I at least have some form of the progress saved.
I then moved onto the shot where the bird looks down at the beast. I wasn't sure how far the crow was supposed to look so I consulted with the director so we were on the same page. I then messaged Joseph, asking for the shots of the sky he painted, so I could add them to the animated shot of the bird to see what they look like together.
I used the same background for the previous shot I finished. This time, I exported the footage as a .png rather than a .jpeg so I didn't have to manually remove the background from each frame.
This weekend I am visiting home which means I won't get any work done over this time. Next week, I need to rough out the shot of the wolf's back, and then key frame it and add in-betweens. If I get this finished before next weekend, I can start adding colour to the remaining shots as next weekend I go home for Christmas which means I won't be able to access the software I use in University.
Then, based on my lecturer's feedback, I updated the character turn around sheets by making him dirtier, ready for the 'Art Of' book we also have to produce.
I started by searching online for tea stain textures to add an extra layer to the piece. I then fell down a hole where I looked at brushes as well as textures, including: painted wall textures, dirt textures, paper textures and different dirt brushes. I downloaded a few, tested them out and sent my favourites to the group chat to get a vote on which brush to use.
The group vote was unanimous, and we ended up going with brush no. 10.
Once decided on a brush, I updated the dynamic pose sheet too and while I was at it, I removed the pants from the wolf so that this is also ready for the 'Art Of' book.
Then, I continued with the animation. Kate brought me some shots of the background that she had animated, to make sure they worked with the 2D elements. As I'm not very confident using unfamiliar software, I stuck to what I know, and imported both her footage, and my sequence of images into Photoshop. I couldn't make the background transparent for some reason, so I had to manually do it which was time consuming. In the future, I will try using After Effects or Premiere Pro to see if these are easier to get the hang of.
I did the same method with the next shot and once we were both happy with the perspective, I exported the footage.
I moved onto the foot shot. As the Christmas break is coming up, and I won't be able to access TVPaint from home, my team and I decided it would be best if I focused on the outlines only and then someone else in the team would add colour so the work was shared a little more evenly.
Kate then brought me some of the perspective shots from inside the cage, so once I had the outline ready, we tested the shots again to make sure they worked together.
I am happy with the follow through I added to the hair on leg as it grows, but I struggled with the movement in the foot here as I wasn't sure how to make the foot grow without the proportions looking wrong. I also struggled with making the actions look painful and agonising because the beast is stood up, so I had to consider the weight, which limited the movement.
Based on the work we had so far, I updated the production plan sheet so it was ready for the weekly presentation however when Friday did come around, we skipped this week's anyway.
On Thursday morning I attended a sound booth induction. After that, I continued to work on the shot of the bird landing on the branch. I worked on this shot for several hours, and found it incredibly difficult. I saved regularly throughout this process however, when I came to move the file from the desktop to my folder, something went wrong with the updated file and I could no longer access it. This meant I lost all the work I had done that day on that particular shot.
In this time, I had key framed the second half of the wing animation, and also key framed the feet. I added in-betweens to the body, wings and feet too, and as I struggled so much doing this, I began to panic as I wasn't sure I would have time to redo this whole shot as well as the other jobs I have.
I was completely devastated and went home. So on Friday, I came into class ready to start again; determined to get it finished.
I found this attempt went a little faster than the first, and this time I saved the file to my Google Drive first before I saved to the folder, as I didn't want a repeat of the day before. I also now export whatever footage I have every time I save so that if I lose a file again, I at least have some form of the progress saved.
I then moved onto the shot where the bird looks down at the beast. I wasn't sure how far the crow was supposed to look so I consulted with the director so we were on the same page. I then messaged Joseph, asking for the shots of the sky he painted, so I could add them to the animated shot of the bird to see what they look like together.
I used the same background for the previous shot I finished. This time, I exported the footage as a .png rather than a .jpeg so I didn't have to manually remove the background from each frame.
This weekend I am visiting home which means I won't get any work done over this time. Next week, I need to rough out the shot of the wolf's back, and then key frame it and add in-betweens. If I get this finished before next weekend, I can start adding colour to the remaining shots as next weekend I go home for Christmas which means I won't be able to access the software I use in University.
Thursday, 5 December 2019
COP2 Weekly Update (Week Commencing: 02/12/19)
This is the last full week I have to work on COP before the deadline which means I need to make the most of it. At the beginning of this week, we had a lesson where we were set another task that involved writing an evaluation.
Halfway through the week, I continued to look through the suggestions my peers gave me in feedback sessions on what to paint in my visual journal. One suggestion, which links to my essay, was to look at a specific show/film which featured somewhat sexist or unfair designs between the male and women characters, and redesign them.
I looked at the characters from 'Inside Out' as not only had I researched this for my essay, however one of my classmates had suggested I specifically look at shapes, so I thought 'Inside Out' would be a good example. Another suggestion was 'Up' however I hadn't mentioned this in my essay, and was worried about time so if I had more time, I would also redesign the characters from that.
I continued to refine my practical sketchbook so that it was completely ready for when I record it and submit it. I also found a way to make my sketchbook even more symbiotic by incorporating the silhouettes I painted into my essay response.
At the end of the week, I proof read my essay again to triple check that everything was correct, and submitted it to estudio.
Then at the weekend, I visited home for the first time since I came back. As I knew I wouldn't get much done during this time, it was imperative that I made sure I achieved all the deadlines I set myself over the week so that I wouldn't have to do anything last minute next Monday, considering the deadline is Tuesday.
Halfway through the week, I continued to look through the suggestions my peers gave me in feedback sessions on what to paint in my visual journal. One suggestion, which links to my essay, was to look at a specific show/film which featured somewhat sexist or unfair designs between the male and women characters, and redesign them.
I looked at the characters from 'Inside Out' as not only had I researched this for my essay, however one of my classmates had suggested I specifically look at shapes, so I thought 'Inside Out' would be a good example. Another suggestion was 'Up' however I hadn't mentioned this in my essay, and was worried about time so if I had more time, I would also redesign the characters from that.
I continued to refine my practical sketchbook so that it was completely ready for when I record it and submit it. I also found a way to make my sketchbook even more symbiotic by incorporating the silhouettes I painted into my essay response.
At the end of the week, I proof read my essay again to triple check that everything was correct, and submitted it to estudio.
Then at the weekend, I visited home for the first time since I came back. As I knew I wouldn't get much done during this time, it was imperative that I made sure I achieved all the deadlines I set myself over the week so that I wouldn't have to do anything last minute next Monday, considering the deadline is Tuesday.
Study Task 9 - Reflective Writing
In this lesson, we began by sketching a chain diagram filled with different symbols that were supposed to represent the different processes we took during this project.
I then refined these symbols and painted them so they fit with the general theme of my sketchbook.
From here, inspired by the symbols we drew, we were asked to create a piece that summarised our time working on this project. I sketched a self portrait, of what I looked like for the majority of this module.
From here, we then had to write up an evaluation.
At the beginning of this project, I went to the library and found as many books as I could that covered topics I wanted to talk about. I started here as when it comes to essay writing, I am more of a reading/writing learner than a visual or auditory learner. At this point in time, I was struggling to come up with a practical response that linked to my essay question, and it was only during our first peers feedback session that I considered a visual route I could potentially go down.
This was to look at the silhouettes of certain characters. Seeing as I wanted to study the evolution of character design, I decided to break the characters up by their decades to see if I could spot any similarities or differences. I felt this exercise was really helpful as it provided me with figures to use in my essay. It also made the evolution more apparent as I could notice certain reoccurring features better, such as head to waist ratios, or how small the hands/feet were. I broke the characters up by their decades as one of the books I found ('Women, Feminism and Media' by Sue Thornham) believed the feminism movement in media first appeared during the nineties, so I wanted to see if I noticed any differences in design around the same time.
From here, I decided to paint some characters inspired from shows that came out during the 1980s-2010s as while I could still compare the decades and find similarities between designs, this also gave me the opportunity to explore character design for myself, as while the shows styles were already established, the designs were still original concepts.
I continued to listen to what my classmates had to say during feedback sessions as I wanted to explore as many paths as I could in the time I had before I focused solely on my final outcome. I also did these extra experiments as I thought looking at the question from a fresh perspective would help me consider alternative opinions when answering the essay question.
The first idea I had for my final outcome was to take the best aspects from all decades and make a character turn around sheet of a completely original character. However, I didn't think this was very symbiotic as there wasn't a way I could seamlessly add this outcome to my essay response. So, I ended up making four character concepts instead, each based on a different decade. From here, I made a survey where I asked the audience to rank the characters from most appealing to least as this would provide more primary research for my essay. I also attended the Manchester Animation Festival to gather up as much primary research as I could. I feel because of this, my essay response was well informed. I also looked at articles and interviews to get secondary research too as this was cheaper and faster than gathering the data for myself and again, provided contrasting insights into the essay.
I then refined these symbols and painted them so they fit with the general theme of my sketchbook.
From here, inspired by the symbols we drew, we were asked to create a piece that summarised our time working on this project. I sketched a self portrait, of what I looked like for the majority of this module.
From here, we then had to write up an evaluation.
At the beginning of this project, I went to the library and found as many books as I could that covered topics I wanted to talk about. I started here as when it comes to essay writing, I am more of a reading/writing learner than a visual or auditory learner. At this point in time, I was struggling to come up with a practical response that linked to my essay question, and it was only during our first peers feedback session that I considered a visual route I could potentially go down.
This was to look at the silhouettes of certain characters. Seeing as I wanted to study the evolution of character design, I decided to break the characters up by their decades to see if I could spot any similarities or differences. I felt this exercise was really helpful as it provided me with figures to use in my essay. It also made the evolution more apparent as I could notice certain reoccurring features better, such as head to waist ratios, or how small the hands/feet were. I broke the characters up by their decades as one of the books I found ('Women, Feminism and Media' by Sue Thornham) believed the feminism movement in media first appeared during the nineties, so I wanted to see if I noticed any differences in design around the same time.
From here, I decided to paint some characters inspired from shows that came out during the 1980s-2010s as while I could still compare the decades and find similarities between designs, this also gave me the opportunity to explore character design for myself, as while the shows styles were already established, the designs were still original concepts.
I continued to listen to what my classmates had to say during feedback sessions as I wanted to explore as many paths as I could in the time I had before I focused solely on my final outcome. I also did these extra experiments as I thought looking at the question from a fresh perspective would help me consider alternative opinions when answering the essay question.
The first idea I had for my final outcome was to take the best aspects from all decades and make a character turn around sheet of a completely original character. However, I didn't think this was very symbiotic as there wasn't a way I could seamlessly add this outcome to my essay response. So, I ended up making four character concepts instead, each based on a different decade. From here, I made a survey where I asked the audience to rank the characters from most appealing to least as this would provide more primary research for my essay. I also attended the Manchester Animation Festival to gather up as much primary research as I could. I feel because of this, my essay response was well informed. I also looked at articles and interviews to get secondary research too as this was cheaper and faster than gathering the data for myself and again, provided contrasting insights into the essay.
Study Task 8 - Essay Structure
While uploading this task to the blog isn't mandatory, I decided to write up my progress and thoughts anyway as I find it easier to manage my workload through regular blog updates.
Below is my first attempt:
Link to First Draft of Essay
Then, making the most of the one to one sessions I have scheduled with my lecturer, I continued to refine the essay until I was happier with it. I also took notes in the lectures building up to the deadline on how to structure a formal essay as that was the direction I went in.
The main struggle I had with the first draft was the introduction and the conclusion. This was picked up on in my 1:1s. I was advised to focus on the conclusion and refine it before the deadline. The other points were much smaller tasks, such as: I was asked to remove the square brackets from my shortened quotes, lose the reference list and add the page numbers to the quotes from any books.
Link to Final Essay Draft
I initially found this task difficult as I wasn't sure how to combine the practical element to make the outcome more symbiotic. I feel when I start a new module or task I lack the confidence to believe the work I'm doing is correct. Once I overcome this hurdle, I then get into a better workflow. After Christmas when I start my next modules, I will try to remember the problems I faced here and how I overcame them.
Below is my first attempt:
Link to First Draft of Essay
Then, making the most of the one to one sessions I have scheduled with my lecturer, I continued to refine the essay until I was happier with it. I also took notes in the lectures building up to the deadline on how to structure a formal essay as that was the direction I went in.
The main struggle I had with the first draft was the introduction and the conclusion. This was picked up on in my 1:1s. I was advised to focus on the conclusion and refine it before the deadline. The other points were much smaller tasks, such as: I was asked to remove the square brackets from my shortened quotes, lose the reference list and add the page numbers to the quotes from any books.
Link to Final Essay Draft
I initially found this task difficult as I wasn't sure how to combine the practical element to make the outcome more symbiotic. I feel when I start a new module or task I lack the confidence to believe the work I'm doing is correct. Once I overcome this hurdle, I then get into a better workflow. After Christmas when I start my next modules, I will try to remember the problems I faced here and how I overcame them.
Sunday, 1 December 2019
Study Task 1 (Week Commencing: 25/11/19)
Looking back at my last weekly blog post, I hated the way the bird's whole body moved as I didn't think it looked natural. Instead, I feel he should just turn his neck so when I am back in university, I will change this.
At the beginning of the week, I worked on the lip sync study task. I need to add more frames to what I have so far but I will most likely do this over the Christmas break. I also continued to communicate with the rest of my team to make sure that whoever nominated themselves was prepared to deliver the weekly presentation, as well as staying on top of their work.
Then on Tuesday, I continued to work on the animation.
At first, I roughed out the general movement of the hand. Then, I refined the outline and key framed this. Finally, I added the in-betweens to give the hand a trembling effect, as I wanted to convey a sense of shock and fear.
After hitting a mental block with the hand shot, I decided to move onto the shot of the bird looking over it's shoulder. I did the same technique as above to make sure the timing was right before I refined it and added in-betweens.
Once happy, I added colour to the shot and sent this to my teammates. Next week I should hopefully add a background to this.
Once I finished this, I decided to go back and attack the shot of the hand again. By this point I received the updated animatic and the shot of the hand is from a different perspective however, as I had already animated the main movements and my director didn't raise any issues at this point and said they liked the trembling effect, I decided to continue with this original perspective and went on to add the hair and nails.
Then, I added colour to the shot. I feel this looks better than the first werewolf transformation I attempted as the closer up the camera is to the body, the more detail I can add to the fur. I based this transformation on the dynamic pose sheet where I had already considered how the hand would look. To make the shot more dramatic, I suggested we zoom in slightly as not only will this make the shot more intense, but it will also make the hand look larger.
At the end of the week, I started animating the shot where the bird flies down and lands on the branch, as this is another shot that looks challenging and I am nervous about.
I started by roughing out the general movement. The body remains somewhat constant, while the wings and feet move quite a bit. I looked at some slowed down footage of birds landing on branches to help me.
To make sure the shot looked right as I was using a placeholder branch for my rough animation, we took a photo of the set to test that he landed correctly. For a first attempt, it was closer than I thought, so when I refine the outline, I will make sure the feet land properly on the branch.
We did this in front of a bluescreen so we can add the Joseph's sky in post. We also filmed some practice shots last week, and once we can rent out a more professional camera, we will start experimenting with them more.
Throughout this process, I have been messaging the musician and letting him know all the changes that are being made.
At the beginning of the week, I worked on the lip sync study task. I need to add more frames to what I have so far but I will most likely do this over the Christmas break. I also continued to communicate with the rest of my team to make sure that whoever nominated themselves was prepared to deliver the weekly presentation, as well as staying on top of their work.
Then on Tuesday, I continued to work on the animation.
At first, I roughed out the general movement of the hand. Then, I refined the outline and key framed this. Finally, I added the in-betweens to give the hand a trembling effect, as I wanted to convey a sense of shock and fear.
After hitting a mental block with the hand shot, I decided to move onto the shot of the bird looking over it's shoulder. I did the same technique as above to make sure the timing was right before I refined it and added in-betweens.
Once happy, I added colour to the shot and sent this to my teammates. Next week I should hopefully add a background to this.
Once I finished this, I decided to go back and attack the shot of the hand again. By this point I received the updated animatic and the shot of the hand is from a different perspective however, as I had already animated the main movements and my director didn't raise any issues at this point and said they liked the trembling effect, I decided to continue with this original perspective and went on to add the hair and nails.
Then, I added colour to the shot. I feel this looks better than the first werewolf transformation I attempted as the closer up the camera is to the body, the more detail I can add to the fur. I based this transformation on the dynamic pose sheet where I had already considered how the hand would look. To make the shot more dramatic, I suggested we zoom in slightly as not only will this make the shot more intense, but it will also make the hand look larger.
At the end of the week, I started animating the shot where the bird flies down and lands on the branch, as this is another shot that looks challenging and I am nervous about.
I started by roughing out the general movement. The body remains somewhat constant, while the wings and feet move quite a bit. I looked at some slowed down footage of birds landing on branches to help me.
To make sure the shot looked right as I was using a placeholder branch for my rough animation, we took a photo of the set to test that he landed correctly. For a first attempt, it was closer than I thought, so when I refine the outline, I will make sure the feet land properly on the branch.
We did this in front of a bluescreen so we can add the Joseph's sky in post. We also filmed some practice shots last week, and once we can rent out a more professional camera, we will start experimenting with them more.
Throughout this process, I have been messaging the musician and letting him know all the changes that are being made.
COP2 Weekly Update (Week Commecing: 25/11/19)
At the beginning of the week I had my second one to one with my lecturer. Based on the feedback I received, I continued to refine my essay response.
When I felt I hit a wall with my essay, I went back to my book to produce some more practical responses and then once my mind was refreshed, I returned to my essay.
Throughout the week I continued to work in my visual journal; experimenting with the different ideas I received from the group sessions where my peers gave me feedback. One of these was the challenge where you draw yourself in different cartoon styles. I thought this would be an interesting way to explore the evolution over different shows from different years.
Nearing the end of the week, I worked into my conclusion, and I hope next week's lesson will help me even more.
So, moving into the next decade, does this mean more animators and directors will challenge how expressive and diverse female character deigns are, or rather will there be a resurgence of more nostalgic and aesthetically pleasing character design? Based on the findings from the survey, it appears that audiences aren't after stereotypically pretty or perfect designs; they prefer designs that challenge the norm, and are more expressive, unique and fun. It would make sense for studios to listen to their audiences as if they continue to portray outdated ideals, competitors that do listen to their fans, take criticism on board, and who go on to develop and grow, could become more appealing.
As time progressed, higher numbers of people, especially those from minority groups, were given opportunities that wouldn't have been available to them in previous generations. This meant more inclusive and representative character designs were, and will continue to be, explored and challenged - particularly female designs. As society's standards continue to develop and change, so will the content being produced as women are tired of outdated stereotypes; it forces society to be better. As the industry is becoming more influenced by women, this progression is natural as audiences are no longer hearing stories that are only being told from men's perspectives. Women help provide an insight into what it's like and therefore, the animators have fresh perspectives to create art from.
When I felt I hit a wall with my essay, I went back to my book to produce some more practical responses and then once my mind was refreshed, I returned to my essay.
Throughout the week I continued to work in my visual journal; experimenting with the different ideas I received from the group sessions where my peers gave me feedback. One of these was the challenge where you draw yourself in different cartoon styles. I thought this would be an interesting way to explore the evolution over different shows from different years.
Nearing the end of the week, I worked into my conclusion, and I hope next week's lesson will help me even more.
So, moving into the next decade, does this mean more animators and directors will challenge how expressive and diverse female character deigns are, or rather will there be a resurgence of more nostalgic and aesthetically pleasing character design? Based on the findings from the survey, it appears that audiences aren't after stereotypically pretty or perfect designs; they prefer designs that challenge the norm, and are more expressive, unique and fun. It would make sense for studios to listen to their audiences as if they continue to portray outdated ideals, competitors that do listen to their fans, take criticism on board, and who go on to develop and grow, could become more appealing.
As time progressed, higher numbers of people, especially those from minority groups, were given opportunities that wouldn't have been available to them in previous generations. This meant more inclusive and representative character designs were, and will continue to be, explored and challenged - particularly female designs. As society's standards continue to develop and change, so will the content being produced as women are tired of outdated stereotypes; it forces society to be better. As the industry is becoming more influenced by women, this progression is natural as audiences are no longer hearing stories that are only being told from men's perspectives. Women help provide an insight into what it's like and therefore, the animators have fresh perspectives to create art from.
Monday, 25 November 2019
COP2 Weekly Update (Week Commencing: 18/11/19)
At the beginning of the week, I had a one to one with my lecturer.
Later on in the week, I worked on expanding my essay, by triangulating some primary and secondary research. One being a film I watched at MAF and the other, a blog I came across while researching my topic.
Recently, Netflix released a Christmas film titled 'Klaus' (2019) which is one of the brilliant examples of varied character design from this decade. Each female design is unique; it doesn't suffer from "sameface syndrome" which many films released within this generation have done, including those produced by highly respected corporations such as Disney. Every design in 'Klaus' is distinctive and provides an insight into the character's personality. This extra context helps the audience to understand each character's motives, backgrounds and actions better, and also provides a refreshing adaptation of a story the audience should be familiar with. While the designs are all varied in regards to: body types, face shapes, ages, etc. this doesn't stunt the viewer's enjoyment of the film. On the contrary, the style suits the tone of the story perfectly and every character is still aesthetically pleasing to look at.
While 'Klaus' demonstrates an understanding of the importance of representing a variety of body types and face shapes, alternatively, there are still major films that do not. Tumblr user Turbomun was shocked and disappointed after finding out the posters that were released for 'Frozen' (2013) were official, after being convinced that they were fake, "I seriously believed that someone […] had photomanipulated some screenshots of Rapunzel and tried to pass them off as the official Frozen designs". They argued that the female characters in Disney's recent cache of films such as 'Frozen' (2013) and 'Tangled' (2010) all had the exact same features, "the same facial structure, the same eyes, the same nose, the same mouth... and while we're at it, the same body too" and this became even more discouraging after seeing how much potential the original concept art had to offer.
They criticised this trend, calling it "disturbing" and argued that it is more prevalent when analysing female designs than the male counterparts. They do note however that designing a character that is skinny and/or pretty isn't where the issue lies, as it's an artist's job to exaggerate certain features that represent certain traits. The aim isn't to eradicate stereotypically pretty designs all together, but there is a problem when films, particularly those that are directed at a young and impressionable audience, continuously, and arguably subconsciously, promote an unrealistic and unhealthy body image as the most desirable while always depicting the evil characters as fat and ugly, "the problem doesn't occur when a character is given a small waist or large head, it occurs when design after design after design portrays these traits as the height of beauty".
Compare this recent trend of character designs to that of the 1980s. Has there been an evolution or are we still producing the same results?
Bibliography:
Klaus (2019) Directed by S. Pablos [Film]. Spain: Sergio Pablos Animation Studios.
I also collected the results of my survey.
Then, I typed up my conclusion.
Throughout the week, I continued to work on some paintings in my sketchbook.
Later on in the week, I worked on expanding my essay, by triangulating some primary and secondary research. One being a film I watched at MAF and the other, a blog I came across while researching my topic.
Recently, Netflix released a Christmas film titled 'Klaus' (2019) which is one of the brilliant examples of varied character design from this decade. Each female design is unique; it doesn't suffer from "sameface syndrome" which many films released within this generation have done, including those produced by highly respected corporations such as Disney. Every design in 'Klaus' is distinctive and provides an insight into the character's personality. This extra context helps the audience to understand each character's motives, backgrounds and actions better, and also provides a refreshing adaptation of a story the audience should be familiar with. While the designs are all varied in regards to: body types, face shapes, ages, etc. this doesn't stunt the viewer's enjoyment of the film. On the contrary, the style suits the tone of the story perfectly and every character is still aesthetically pleasing to look at.
While 'Klaus' demonstrates an understanding of the importance of representing a variety of body types and face shapes, alternatively, there are still major films that do not. Tumblr user Turbomun was shocked and disappointed after finding out the posters that were released for 'Frozen' (2013) were official, after being convinced that they were fake, "I seriously believed that someone […] had photomanipulated some screenshots of Rapunzel and tried to pass them off as the official Frozen designs". They argued that the female characters in Disney's recent cache of films such as 'Frozen' (2013) and 'Tangled' (2010) all had the exact same features, "the same facial structure, the same eyes, the same nose, the same mouth... and while we're at it, the same body too" and this became even more discouraging after seeing how much potential the original concept art had to offer.
They criticised this trend, calling it "disturbing" and argued that it is more prevalent when analysing female designs than the male counterparts. They do note however that designing a character that is skinny and/or pretty isn't where the issue lies, as it's an artist's job to exaggerate certain features that represent certain traits. The aim isn't to eradicate stereotypically pretty designs all together, but there is a problem when films, particularly those that are directed at a young and impressionable audience, continuously, and arguably subconsciously, promote an unrealistic and unhealthy body image as the most desirable while always depicting the evil characters as fat and ugly, "the problem doesn't occur when a character is given a small waist or large head, it occurs when design after design after design portrays these traits as the height of beauty".
Compare this recent trend of character designs to that of the 1980s. Has there been an evolution or are we still producing the same results?
Bibliography:
Klaus (2019) Directed by S. Pablos [Film]. Spain: Sergio Pablos Animation Studios.
I also collected the results of my survey.
Then, I typed up my conclusion.
Throughout the week, I continued to work on some paintings in my sketchbook.
Sunday, 24 November 2019
Study Task 1 (Week Commencing: 18/11/19)
At the start of the week, I nominated myself to create and present this week's weekly. I also continued to work on the werewolf transformation shot. I really wanted to portray a sense of agony and discomfort, especially at the start of the transformation however, there were a few issues I encountered during this exercise.
Firstly, I came across the issue of timing. As I only have seventy frames (just under three seconds) in total to animate this sequence in, I feel a lot of the action looks rushed, especially the transition from him lying on the floor to getting to his knees.
Another problem I realised when I got home was that this action takes place in a small cage, so there wouldn't even be room for him to be rolling around on the floor. So, in order to overcome both these issues, I am planning on cutting the first part down so that way, I can give him more time to transform properly and also won't have to worry about the space. By the end of the week, the set should be nearing completion so this means I can start animating this scene properly, rather than just testing out the line art.
Halfway through the week, I ran into another problem as on the same night I finished the shot above, I got a migraine and had to stay home the following day, which means I couldn't continue to work on the scene like I had planned.
As the next shot shows a close up of the eye that hair is still growing around, that also restricted me as it meant I couldn't animate a complete transformation. To overcome this, once back in university, I experimented with colour to see what the hair would look like still growing.
Next, I need to animate the pants ripping off and I also need to add some eyebrows. I sent what I had so far to the group chat and they were all happy with the result.
Around about the same time, another member of the group sent a shot they were working on, as seen in the weekly PowerPoint below. I was immediately concerned with the fact they had gone off model, so I messaged them about changes they needed to make. We then continued to message back and forth and eventually decided that it would be worth making a 3D puppet of the turn-around to help them get an understanding of the character design.
I also feel this will help us later, as there is a tricky shot where the camera zooms into the cage so using the 3D model here as well may help me get a better understanding of the shot as the perspective changes.
Nearing the end of the week, I made the weekly presentation and delivered it to the class.
The feedback I received was exactly what I expected: the transformation is too fast/rushed.
So, after the presentations were over, I spoke with the director and negotiated that the scene be extended from what was originally two seconds, to eight seconds. We also talked about what the shot would consist of, so rather than one shot of the wolf's profile, like the original storyboard and animatic shows, the director has now updated the animatic to make the transformation more interesting.
After a few updates to the animatic, I now have even more time to experiment with the wolf's transformation, which will show close ups of the hands, feet, and spine morphing.
For the rest of the lesson on Friday however, I decided I needed a fresh scene to animate, so I began to key frame the shot below.
Next week I will continue to work on both this shot and some of the close ups of the transformation.
Firstly, I came across the issue of timing. As I only have seventy frames (just under three seconds) in total to animate this sequence in, I feel a lot of the action looks rushed, especially the transition from him lying on the floor to getting to his knees.
Another problem I realised when I got home was that this action takes place in a small cage, so there wouldn't even be room for him to be rolling around on the floor. So, in order to overcome both these issues, I am planning on cutting the first part down so that way, I can give him more time to transform properly and also won't have to worry about the space. By the end of the week, the set should be nearing completion so this means I can start animating this scene properly, rather than just testing out the line art.
Halfway through the week, I ran into another problem as on the same night I finished the shot above, I got a migraine and had to stay home the following day, which means I couldn't continue to work on the scene like I had planned.
As the next shot shows a close up of the eye that hair is still growing around, that also restricted me as it meant I couldn't animate a complete transformation. To overcome this, once back in university, I experimented with colour to see what the hair would look like still growing.
Next, I need to animate the pants ripping off and I also need to add some eyebrows. I sent what I had so far to the group chat and they were all happy with the result.
Around about the same time, another member of the group sent a shot they were working on, as seen in the weekly PowerPoint below. I was immediately concerned with the fact they had gone off model, so I messaged them about changes they needed to make. We then continued to message back and forth and eventually decided that it would be worth making a 3D puppet of the turn-around to help them get an understanding of the character design.
I also feel this will help us later, as there is a tricky shot where the camera zooms into the cage so using the 3D model here as well may help me get a better understanding of the shot as the perspective changes.
Nearing the end of the week, I made the weekly presentation and delivered it to the class.
The feedback I received was exactly what I expected: the transformation is too fast/rushed.
So, after the presentations were over, I spoke with the director and negotiated that the scene be extended from what was originally two seconds, to eight seconds. We also talked about what the shot would consist of, so rather than one shot of the wolf's profile, like the original storyboard and animatic shows, the director has now updated the animatic to make the transformation more interesting.
After a few updates to the animatic, I now have even more time to experiment with the wolf's transformation, which will show close ups of the hands, feet, and spine morphing.
For the rest of the lesson on Friday however, I decided I needed a fresh scene to animate, so I began to key frame the shot below.
Next week I will continue to work on both this shot and some of the close ups of the transformation.
Wednesday, 20 November 2019
Study Task 7 - Developing a Rational
For this task, I have to write up a plan of action.
Primary Research:
I am attending the Manchester Animation Festival where I hope to find some primary research, such as films that either demonstrate the advancements in modern female character design, or lack thereof. I am also planning on making a survey from my practical development where I ask the audience to compare four different character designs and silhouettes that each represent a different decade's common design traits. In lesson we have also broken off into focus groups for certain tasks to get feedback directly.
Secondary Research:
Whilst writing my essay, I have gathered up several secondary sources such as: books, articles, interviews, and blog posts. I then triangulated these sources to form an argument that answers my essay question and alternative opinions. Information I collected here also helped guide me when painting my practical responses.
Plan:
At this point in time, I have written the main body of my essay, and need to now find a way to tie the paragraphs into one another and write a conclusion. In my visual journal, I have been comparing silhouettes of iconic characters to my own designs based on the shows from the same decades. Over the next few weeks I will continue to work into these drawings. Based on this evidence, I then designed four original characters and made a survey. After I have enough participants, I will collect the data and add this to my essay. If I have time I will do some more practical experiments based on the feedback I received in a group progress review.
Primary Research:
I am attending the Manchester Animation Festival where I hope to find some primary research, such as films that either demonstrate the advancements in modern female character design, or lack thereof. I am also planning on making a survey from my practical development where I ask the audience to compare four different character designs and silhouettes that each represent a different decade's common design traits. In lesson we have also broken off into focus groups for certain tasks to get feedback directly.
Secondary Research:
Whilst writing my essay, I have gathered up several secondary sources such as: books, articles, interviews, and blog posts. I then triangulated these sources to form an argument that answers my essay question and alternative opinions. Information I collected here also helped guide me when painting my practical responses.
Plan:
At this point in time, I have written the main body of my essay, and need to now find a way to tie the paragraphs into one another and write a conclusion. In my visual journal, I have been comparing silhouettes of iconic characters to my own designs based on the shows from the same decades. Over the next few weeks I will continue to work into these drawings. Based on this evidence, I then designed four original characters and made a survey. After I have enough participants, I will collect the data and add this to my essay. If I have time I will do some more practical experiments based on the feedback I received in a group progress review.
Monday, 18 November 2019
COP2 Weekly Update (Week Commencing: 11/11/19)
On Monday we had a lesson on how to structure a formal essay. Then, I went to Manchester for the Animation Festival.
On day one I went to the Tricky Women/ Tricky Realities Showcase as I felt this would help me gather primary research for my essay. Two films in particular stood out to me: 'Sleepincord' and 'Egg'. The first featured a women with a unique, refreshing design, in which she had leg hair, hairy armpits and fat rolls. The second was a story about a woman with anorexia. All the films in this showcase were made by women.
On the second day of MAF I attended a screening of 'The Happiness Machine' with a Q&A at the end. Again, this featured films that were directed by women, with accompanying music that was composed by women. At the end, I asked the members on the panel whether or not during production, did the animators see what each team was working on or was it revealed to them after the project was over. They said that at the start they had a group chat where they became familiar with one another however they didn't see any other group's work until the film was made and premiered.
On the final day I went to a screening of 'Klaus' and a panel called 'In The Frame: Diversity in Animation'. I found 'Klaus' extremely useful as all the female characters in the film had different face shapes, body shapes, ages etc. which is unlike many films that the Sameface Syndrome blog dissected. I feel that I may be able to triangulate this.
During MAF, I continued to work in my sketchbook.
I think in the future I need to work on what colours I choose as some combinations don't look very good together. I could paint a colour wheel and see what compliments and contrasts with one another.
Then over the weekend I designed a character in four different styles based on the practical work I have been doing. Each character has elements from female characters over the last four decades.
I then changed the order and made a survey asking people to rank the designs from most to least appealing.
I then added colour to the designs and also made silhouettes to see if this effected the results.
I posted the survey and will wait until a decent amount of people have voted before I work out the results.
Link to Survey
On day one I went to the Tricky Women/ Tricky Realities Showcase as I felt this would help me gather primary research for my essay. Two films in particular stood out to me: 'Sleepincord' and 'Egg'. The first featured a women with a unique, refreshing design, in which she had leg hair, hairy armpits and fat rolls. The second was a story about a woman with anorexia. All the films in this showcase were made by women.
On the second day of MAF I attended a screening of 'The Happiness Machine' with a Q&A at the end. Again, this featured films that were directed by women, with accompanying music that was composed by women. At the end, I asked the members on the panel whether or not during production, did the animators see what each team was working on or was it revealed to them after the project was over. They said that at the start they had a group chat where they became familiar with one another however they didn't see any other group's work until the film was made and premiered.
On the final day I went to a screening of 'Klaus' and a panel called 'In The Frame: Diversity in Animation'. I found 'Klaus' extremely useful as all the female characters in the film had different face shapes, body shapes, ages etc. which is unlike many films that the Sameface Syndrome blog dissected. I feel that I may be able to triangulate this.
During MAF, I continued to work in my sketchbook.
I think in the future I need to work on what colours I choose as some combinations don't look very good together. I could paint a colour wheel and see what compliments and contrasts with one another.
Then over the weekend I designed a character in four different styles based on the practical work I have been doing. Each character has elements from female characters over the last four decades.
I then changed the order and made a survey asking people to rank the designs from most to least appealing.
I then added colour to the designs and also made silhouettes to see if this effected the results.
I posted the survey and will wait until a decent amount of people have voted before I work out the results.
Link to Survey
Sunday, 17 November 2019
Study Task 1 (Week Commencing: 11/11/19)
At the Manchester Animation Festival I made sure to keep an eye out for any short films that I could take inspiration from.
In the Student Films screening, there was one animation called 'The Kite' which could be helpful if we encounter any problems down the line. Two elements of my group project that my team seemed to be struggling with were how the clouds should look and how we were going to make stop motion puppets fly. In 'The Kite', cotton wool was used for the clouds and was very effective, and it also featured puppet birds flying. I made notes throughout and will fall back on these if my teammates ask for help.
While at MAF, I messaged my group asking for updates to make sure they were still on track being one member down.
Then in class we had our first session of weekly's.
Once they were over, I got to work on a more difficult shot. As I wasn't sure how to approach this, and our set still hasn't been built, I thought it would be best to do a few tests.
This isn't finished, and I am still not happy with it so next week I will continued to key frame, and refine this shot.
After the weekly, I made a list of shots based on the storyboard and labelled it with who was in charge of animating each scene. The director initially suggested I animate all the shots with the characters while Joseph, the other 2D animator, focused on the shots of the moon and any scenes with lightning/fog. However, after breaking these shots down, it was very unbalanced so next week I will probably update this sheet as I am concerned about this, as is the director.
In the Student Films screening, there was one animation called 'The Kite' which could be helpful if we encounter any problems down the line. Two elements of my group project that my team seemed to be struggling with were how the clouds should look and how we were going to make stop motion puppets fly. In 'The Kite', cotton wool was used for the clouds and was very effective, and it also featured puppet birds flying. I made notes throughout and will fall back on these if my teammates ask for help.
While at MAF, I messaged my group asking for updates to make sure they were still on track being one member down.
Then in class we had our first session of weekly's.
Once they were over, I got to work on a more difficult shot. As I wasn't sure how to approach this, and our set still hasn't been built, I thought it would be best to do a few tests.
This isn't finished, and I am still not happy with it so next week I will continued to key frame, and refine this shot.
After the weekly, I made a list of shots based on the storyboard and labelled it with who was in charge of animating each scene. The director initially suggested I animate all the shots with the characters while Joseph, the other 2D animator, focused on the shots of the moon and any scenes with lightning/fog. However, after breaking these shots down, it was very unbalanced so next week I will probably update this sheet as I am concerned about this, as is the director.
Study Task 6 - Practical Approaches
For this task I need to write a proposal for what I intend to create alongside my essay.
I am intending on investigating how the designs of female characters in animation has evolved over the last several decades as more women begin to speak up about representation and diversity. Based on the areas I have researched so far for my essay, I have began to create practical outcomes that break my question down and help me visualise the differences.
The practical side of this module is going to consist of me analysing the evolution of women in animation over the last four decades. For each decade, I have studied the silhouettes of iconic characters from that decade and then on the opposite page, I have sketched, outlined and painted my own character designs based on shows from the same decade. This way, I can see the evolution for myself by picking apart the trends such as: body types, clothing, hairstyles, and face shapes, as well as how diverse the characters are.
My initial idea for the final outcome was to focus on the best aspects of the designs from each decade and then create a character turn around sheet showcasing a unique design. However, I wanted the practical outcome to be more symbiotic and as my essay focuses on the evolution, I didn't feel like this would translate very well. So I considered going in a different direction.
From here, I am planning on designing a female character using the common elements I found from each decade. I will then create a survey with all four designs of the same character and will ask the audience to rank the designs from most appealing to least. This way, the evolution should be more clear.
I will also be attending the Manchester Animation Festival halfway through this module so I am planning on finding primary research here.
I am intending on investigating how the designs of female characters in animation has evolved over the last several decades as more women begin to speak up about representation and diversity. Based on the areas I have researched so far for my essay, I have began to create practical outcomes that break my question down and help me visualise the differences.
The practical side of this module is going to consist of me analysing the evolution of women in animation over the last four decades. For each decade, I have studied the silhouettes of iconic characters from that decade and then on the opposite page, I have sketched, outlined and painted my own character designs based on shows from the same decade. This way, I can see the evolution for myself by picking apart the trends such as: body types, clothing, hairstyles, and face shapes, as well as how diverse the characters are.
My initial idea for the final outcome was to focus on the best aspects of the designs from each decade and then create a character turn around sheet showcasing a unique design. However, I wanted the practical outcome to be more symbiotic and as my essay focuses on the evolution, I didn't feel like this would translate very well. So I considered going in a different direction.
From here, I am planning on designing a female character using the common elements I found from each decade. I will then create a survey with all four designs of the same character and will ask the audience to rank the designs from most appealing to least. This way, the evolution should be more clear.
I will also be attending the Manchester Animation Festival halfway through this module so I am planning on finding primary research here.
Friday, 15 November 2019
Study Task 1 (Week Commencing: 04/11/19)
This is our first week of production. As we are animating in TVPaint and I do not have much experience with this particular software, I have decided to start with a simple shot from the animatic. Once I have the hang of it, I can move onto more complicated scenes. I watched a tutorial to teach me the basics.
Listening to the music over this shot, I felt a Dutch tilt would work really well, especially with the zoom. At the moment however, I am focusing on the animation, and will add these effects later in post.
When I first animated this shot, I was worried the emotions were too exaggerated and didn't make sense within the context of the scene. So, I tried to tone these facial expressions down. I still had these concerns with my updated line test however, the director and the rest of the team were happy with them so I decided to move on and add colour.
I added the main block colours to the man, and will come back to this scene later to add extra details such as the shading and dirt, once I have an idea of what the background and lighting will be like.
I moved onto another shot where you see a close up of the beast's eye.
The animatic shows the beast's eye looking around however I was worried this shot didn't have much movement as the previous shot shows the beast's transformation so I decided to have the hair form around his eye instead. I showed the director my line test and she was pleased with the results so I went on to refine this and colour it.
Throughout the week I found TVPaint wasn't as difficult as I dreaded it would be. If I have time at the end I might add a hairy eyebrow to this shot to make the wolf look more angry.
In the next lesson however, we encountered some issues.
In a tutorial, I was questioned about my character designs. When I initially designed this character, I interpreted the story in a different way to my teacher. I felt this was a man who, once every full moon, took responsibility to lock himself away so he wasn't a danger to those around him. Even though he turns into this hideous beast, he is still a person going through something horrendous. So, for his design I dressed him in pants, something small, cheap and easy to replace every full moon. I also felt this was more dignified than being completely naked and also made sense in this context.
The lecturer however had originally thought that someone else had locked the man away. Arguably this could be considered miscommunication within my team however I would like to argue that that is the point of the piece; to leave the audience with questions. Who is this man? Can the crow be trusted in the telling of this story?
Throughout all stages of pre-production, I regularly updated my teammates and the director with any changes to my designs, asking for opinions, and I only continued after the whole team said they were happy, which they did. However, after showing one lecturer my early concepts, they actually preferred these designs. My director feeling torn, approached me about these changes however as the producer, I recommended that they consider some alternative routes that were less time consuming as we had already animated two shots at this point, so changing the designs this late into production would only raise more problems down the line.
I was also questioned why the character's design was very cartoon-like as another concern was that this style wouldn't suit the mood of the piece. However, as the director originally took inspiration from shows such as 'Over The Garden Wall', I would argue that cartoons that are more horror-esque or creepy don't necessarily have to be realistic to still portray that uneasy atmosphere. Even so, isn't it our job to challenge these overused and predictable tropes in films?
Still, as our lecturer didn't like the pants, I decided to remove them to see whether my team did prefer this design or whether we should return to the previous one. I did the same with the wolf turn around.
I do prefer the naked wolf design to the one with pants because I feel this is more accurate to other transformation scenes, such as the protagonist in 'An American Werewolf in London' when he tears his clothes off, or 'The Incredible Hulk' whose clothes rip as he grows.
I only added the pants to be show consistency between the two turn arounds as I wanted it to be clear they were the same character. However, I trust in the audience to work this out and therefore I am more than happy to remove the pants from the wolf's design. Then in the animation, I will have them rip off as he's turning.
I discussed these changes with my team and we had a vote on what would look best. We are deciding to keep the pants on the man and have them tear off for the beast.
At the end of the week, I looked at another scene in the animatic. As the character is in the cage for this scene, we put two halves of the cage on a greenscreen to see whether we could make it work with this particular shot. Firstly, I filmed the back half, then the front and then I sent this footage to Joseph who experimented combining the two.
Next week I will be attending the Manchester Animation Festival which means I haven't got as much time to work on this moudle. As the producer however, I will continue to message my group to make sure everyone is on track, especially with one member down.
Listening to the music over this shot, I felt a Dutch tilt would work really well, especially with the zoom. At the moment however, I am focusing on the animation, and will add these effects later in post.
When I first animated this shot, I was worried the emotions were too exaggerated and didn't make sense within the context of the scene. So, I tried to tone these facial expressions down. I still had these concerns with my updated line test however, the director and the rest of the team were happy with them so I decided to move on and add colour.
I added the main block colours to the man, and will come back to this scene later to add extra details such as the shading and dirt, once I have an idea of what the background and lighting will be like.
I moved onto another shot where you see a close up of the beast's eye.
The animatic shows the beast's eye looking around however I was worried this shot didn't have much movement as the previous shot shows the beast's transformation so I decided to have the hair form around his eye instead. I showed the director my line test and she was pleased with the results so I went on to refine this and colour it.
Throughout the week I found TVPaint wasn't as difficult as I dreaded it would be. If I have time at the end I might add a hairy eyebrow to this shot to make the wolf look more angry.
In the next lesson however, we encountered some issues.
In a tutorial, I was questioned about my character designs. When I initially designed this character, I interpreted the story in a different way to my teacher. I felt this was a man who, once every full moon, took responsibility to lock himself away so he wasn't a danger to those around him. Even though he turns into this hideous beast, he is still a person going through something horrendous. So, for his design I dressed him in pants, something small, cheap and easy to replace every full moon. I also felt this was more dignified than being completely naked and also made sense in this context.
The lecturer however had originally thought that someone else had locked the man away. Arguably this could be considered miscommunication within my team however I would like to argue that that is the point of the piece; to leave the audience with questions. Who is this man? Can the crow be trusted in the telling of this story?
Throughout all stages of pre-production, I regularly updated my teammates and the director with any changes to my designs, asking for opinions, and I only continued after the whole team said they were happy, which they did. However, after showing one lecturer my early concepts, they actually preferred these designs. My director feeling torn, approached me about these changes however as the producer, I recommended that they consider some alternative routes that were less time consuming as we had already animated two shots at this point, so changing the designs this late into production would only raise more problems down the line.
I was also questioned why the character's design was very cartoon-like as another concern was that this style wouldn't suit the mood of the piece. However, as the director originally took inspiration from shows such as 'Over The Garden Wall', I would argue that cartoons that are more horror-esque or creepy don't necessarily have to be realistic to still portray that uneasy atmosphere. Even so, isn't it our job to challenge these overused and predictable tropes in films?
Still, as our lecturer didn't like the pants, I decided to remove them to see whether my team did prefer this design or whether we should return to the previous one. I did the same with the wolf turn around.
I do prefer the naked wolf design to the one with pants because I feel this is more accurate to other transformation scenes, such as the protagonist in 'An American Werewolf in London' when he tears his clothes off, or 'The Incredible Hulk' whose clothes rip as he grows.
I only added the pants to be show consistency between the two turn arounds as I wanted it to be clear they were the same character. However, I trust in the audience to work this out and therefore I am more than happy to remove the pants from the wolf's design. Then in the animation, I will have them rip off as he's turning.
I discussed these changes with my team and we had a vote on what would look best. We are deciding to keep the pants on the man and have them tear off for the beast.
At the end of the week, I looked at another scene in the animatic. As the character is in the cage for this scene, we put two halves of the cage on a greenscreen to see whether we could make it work with this particular shot. Firstly, I filmed the back half, then the front and then I sent this footage to Joseph who experimented combining the two.
Next week I will be attending the Manchester Animation Festival which means I haven't got as much time to work on this moudle. As the producer however, I will continue to message my group to make sure everyone is on track, especially with one member down.
Sunday, 10 November 2019
Study Task 5 - Writing an Introduction
This lesson aided us in writing an introduction to our essay. I started by writing a list of bullet points of things I wanted to talk about and then, moving away from the first person, I began writing my introduction, crossing the points off as I went.
Overview:
- women (female characters)
- character design (blonde, tall, skinny, white, etc. vs varied designs)
- sexism/ feminism (strong independent women characters vs real feminism)
- representation/ diversity (breaking the mould)
- society (standards and opinions)
- body image (important issue to raise or purely aesthetics?)
- evolution (80s - now)
- character turn arounds (practical outcome)
- body or narrative? what is more important (empowering)
'How has the portrayal of women, in animation, evolved within this generation circa 1980 - 2019?'
Over the last several decades, the depiction of women in media, particularly animation, has continued to evolve as the standards of society have transformed. While most forms are a reflection of the times, there are still some films being released in this decade which aren't as diverse or inclusive as its competitors. Likewise, not all films that were released thirty years ago had characters that fit into the same, arguably sexist mould that was often present in that time.
This generation of animation has introduced various designs for male characters that have consistently been diverse and unique. However, when considering the female roles from the same era, more often than not, the only time the designs deviated from the norm (roles such as the mother figure or the love interest) was when the woman was the villain. Characters such as Ursula from "The Little Mermaid" (1989) or Yzma from "The Emperor's New Groove" (2000) were given unique designs that didn't restrict them to the same skinny, young, model. These double standards are also visible when analysing the face shapes alone. Kat Brown, a writer for The Telegraph, expressed concern in her article "Disney and Pixar's female characters all have the same face" (2015) after Tumblr user Every-Flavored-Bean noticed a pattern emerging from recent Disney and Pixar films. While the male counterparts had expressive, diverse and unique designs, the women all seemed to have the same round face with large, doll-like eyes and a small button nose. The blogger calls the lack of diversity "lazy sexism" and argues that something needs to change
In 2013 Lino DiSalvo, the head animator for "Frozen"(2013) was heavily criticised after claiming it was "really, really difficult" to animate female characters as "they have to go through these range of emotions, but you have to keep them pretty". A year later in an interview he claimed he was misquoted and never meant to imply that only the women were difficult to animate, "It's not difficult because they're girls. It's difficult because when you're exploring animation and getting characters to look unique like Olaf, doing that range of emotion test and trying to identify what that emotion is is very very difficult" (2014).
Bibliography:
Amidi, A. (2013) "Frozen" Head of Animation Says Animating Women is "Really, Really Difficult". Available at: https://www.cartoonbrew.com/disney/frozen-head-of-animation-says-animating-women-is-really-really-difficult-89467.html (Accessed: 4 November 2019).
Bailey, I. (2014) Q&A: For this animator, working on Frozen created a tricky career legacy. Available at: https://www.globeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/qa-vancouver-film-school-alum-ready-to-move-on-from-frozen/article20072363/ (Accessed: 4 November 2019).
Brown, K. (2015) Disney and Pixar's female characters all have the same face. Available at: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/film/inside-out/disney-pixar-characters-same-face/ (Accessed: 3 November 2019).
The Emperor's New Groove (2000) Directed by M. Dindal [Film]. California: Buena Vista Pictures Distribution, Inc.
The Little Mermaid (1989) Directed by R. Clements and J. Musker [Film]. California: Buena Vista Distribution Company, Inc.
Tumblr. (2015) Every woman in every Disney/Pixar movie in the past decade has the exact same face. Available at: https://every-flavored-bean.tumblr.com/post/112569173199/every-woman-in-every-diseypixar-movie-in-the (Accessed: 4 November 2019).
Tumblr. (2014) Sameface Syndrome and Other Stories. Available at: https://turbomun.tumblr.com/post/80012362197/sameface-syndrome-and-other-stories (Accessed: 4 November 2019).
Women and Hollywood. (no date) Statistics. Available at: https://womenandhollywood.com/resources/statistics/ (Accessed: 4 November 2019).
Overview:
- women (female characters)
- character design (blonde, tall, skinny, white, etc. vs varied designs)
- sexism/ feminism (strong independent women characters vs real feminism)
- representation/ diversity (breaking the mould)
- society (standards and opinions)
- body image (important issue to raise or purely aesthetics?)
- evolution (80s - now)
- character turn arounds (practical outcome)
- body or narrative? what is more important (empowering)
'How has the portrayal of women, in animation, evolved within this generation circa 1980 - 2019?'
Over the last several decades, the depiction of women in media, particularly animation, has continued to evolve as the standards of society have transformed. While most forms are a reflection of the times, there are still some films being released in this decade which aren't as diverse or inclusive as its competitors. Likewise, not all films that were released thirty years ago had characters that fit into the same, arguably sexist mould that was often present in that time.
This generation of animation has introduced various designs for male characters that have consistently been diverse and unique. However, when considering the female roles from the same era, more often than not, the only time the designs deviated from the norm (roles such as the mother figure or the love interest) was when the woman was the villain. Characters such as Ursula from "The Little Mermaid" (1989) or Yzma from "The Emperor's New Groove" (2000) were given unique designs that didn't restrict them to the same skinny, young, model. These double standards are also visible when analysing the face shapes alone. Kat Brown, a writer for The Telegraph, expressed concern in her article "Disney and Pixar's female characters all have the same face" (2015) after Tumblr user Every-Flavored-Bean noticed a pattern emerging from recent Disney and Pixar films. While the male counterparts had expressive, diverse and unique designs, the women all seemed to have the same round face with large, doll-like eyes and a small button nose. The blogger calls the lack of diversity "lazy sexism" and argues that something needs to change
In 2013 Lino DiSalvo, the head animator for "Frozen"(2013) was heavily criticised after claiming it was "really, really difficult" to animate female characters as "they have to go through these range of emotions, but you have to keep them pretty". A year later in an interview he claimed he was misquoted and never meant to imply that only the women were difficult to animate, "It's not difficult because they're girls. It's difficult because when you're exploring animation and getting characters to look unique like Olaf, doing that range of emotion test and trying to identify what that emotion is is very very difficult" (2014).
Bibliography:
Amidi, A. (2013) "Frozen" Head of Animation Says Animating Women is "Really, Really Difficult". Available at: https://www.cartoonbrew.com/disney/frozen-head-of-animation-says-animating-women-is-really-really-difficult-89467.html (Accessed: 4 November 2019).
Bailey, I. (2014) Q&A: For this animator, working on Frozen created a tricky career legacy. Available at: https://www.globeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/qa-vancouver-film-school-alum-ready-to-move-on-from-frozen/article20072363/ (Accessed: 4 November 2019).
Brown, K. (2015) Disney and Pixar's female characters all have the same face. Available at: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/film/inside-out/disney-pixar-characters-same-face/ (Accessed: 3 November 2019).
The Emperor's New Groove (2000) Directed by M. Dindal [Film]. California: Buena Vista Pictures Distribution, Inc.
The Little Mermaid (1989) Directed by R. Clements and J. Musker [Film]. California: Buena Vista Distribution Company, Inc.
Tumblr. (2015) Every woman in every Disney/Pixar movie in the past decade has the exact same face. Available at: https://every-flavored-bean.tumblr.com/post/112569173199/every-woman-in-every-diseypixar-movie-in-the (Accessed: 4 November 2019).
Tumblr. (2014) Sameface Syndrome and Other Stories. Available at: https://turbomun.tumblr.com/post/80012362197/sameface-syndrome-and-other-stories (Accessed: 4 November 2019).
Women and Hollywood. (no date) Statistics. Available at: https://womenandhollywood.com/resources/statistics/ (Accessed: 4 November 2019).
Study Task 4 - Images, Examples and Theories
Following on from the previous task, I refined my poster by adding more images that related to my theme. This allowed me to start writing about the main differences I could spot. I separated the images by the decade they were created in. Whilst doing this I also compared the silhouettes of certain characters in my visual journal.
The poster allowed me to see where the changes in female character design began to occur. In the nineties, more cultures and races were explored, but the bodies and faces were still limited to the same, tall, slim form. From the 2000s onwards, while skinny characters were still being created, we began to see a wider range of body types emerge. The designs themselves were also more experiential and unique.
In class, we learned about the process of triangulation.
Jerome Vincent, an author for Medium, criticises the unrealistic body standards in animated films in his article, "The Unrealistic Body Image in Many Famous TV Animations" (2017). Films and television series that are aimed primarily at children will often be criticised if the main character is morally ambiguous or a potentially bad role model for younger viewers to look up to. Vincent argues however, that characters shouldn't only be criticised for their actions but also for what they say about positive body image, "this form of media can lead to eating disorders among kids who […] do not fit the unrealistic body image of their favourite princess". Vincent goes on to argue that directors and animators should be held responsible for creating these unattainable standards as the designs could be potentially very harmful to a young, impressionable audience, "these characters have an influence in our lives […] what do they portray about a healthy body image?". Catriona Harvey-Jenner, a reporter for Cosmopolitan shares the same concerns in her article "Disney Princesses get given realistic waistlines and - oh look - they still look great" (2014) where she praises the work of artist Loryn Brantz who edited images of animated female characters to look healthier and more realistic. Harvey-Jenner believes it's imperative for young girls that "a message of unattainable thin-ness isn't sent out as an image of the most desirable body shape" and rather designs should encourage healthiness over skinniness. Both articles provided examples mainly from films that came out in the 1980s and 1990s however there were cases for films that came out more recently, one being the live-action "Cinderella" (2015) film where actress Lily James, despite being naturally thin, wore an extremely tight corset which restricted her from eating solid food. It was so tight that many believed her waist had been animated.
Vincent holds the animators responsible for these artistic decisions, arguing that they shouldn't always follow what society deems acceptable at the time as this can lead to creating harsh biases against something that has been stigmatised, "because of the rise of the stigma against being overweight and obese, it is believed that being impossibly thin or having an incomprehensively thin waistline is socialy acceptable and aesthetically pleasing". He believes creators of such content should be more representative and instead should shine a more positive light on those who don't fit the mould, "it is hard for kids to understand what is healthy or not, but they can see what is stigmatized vs. socially acceptable".
However, should these controversial choices fall directly on the artist or are these decisions merely made because the outcomes are more aesthetically pleasing? An audience may argue that the designs for characters from the 1980s and 1990s, even if they aren't what young children should be looking up to, may be more appealing to look at. Even the silhouettes of characters from then to now are arguably more recognisable and portray more character than more recent character designs. Vincent admits that "one of the goals of the movie animator and director is to make the screenplay as aesthetically pleasing as possible".
Bibliography:
Cinderella (2015) Directed by K. Branagh [Film]. California: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.
Harvey-Jenner, C. (2014) Disney Princesses get given realistic waistlines and - oh look - they still look great. Available at: https://www.cosmopolitan.com/uk/entertainment/news/a30901/disney-princesses-given-realistic-waistlines-look-amazing/ (Accessed: 3 November 2019).
Puckering, C. (no date) Artist Creates 'Realistic Disney Princesses' and the Pictures Are Amazing. Available at: https://twentytwowords.com/artist-creates-realistic-disney-princesses-pictures-amazing/ (Accessed: 3 November 2019).
Vincent, J. (2017) The Unrealistic Body Image in Many Famous TV Animations. Available at: https://medium.com/@jmvincent12/the-unrealistic-body-image-in-many-famous-tv-animations-80e02d0dbd1e (Accessed: 3 November 2019).
The poster allowed me to see where the changes in female character design began to occur. In the nineties, more cultures and races were explored, but the bodies and faces were still limited to the same, tall, slim form. From the 2000s onwards, while skinny characters were still being created, we began to see a wider range of body types emerge. The designs themselves were also more experiential and unique.
In class, we learned about the process of triangulation.
Jerome Vincent, an author for Medium, criticises the unrealistic body standards in animated films in his article, "The Unrealistic Body Image in Many Famous TV Animations" (2017). Films and television series that are aimed primarily at children will often be criticised if the main character is morally ambiguous or a potentially bad role model for younger viewers to look up to. Vincent argues however, that characters shouldn't only be criticised for their actions but also for what they say about positive body image, "this form of media can lead to eating disorders among kids who […] do not fit the unrealistic body image of their favourite princess". Vincent goes on to argue that directors and animators should be held responsible for creating these unattainable standards as the designs could be potentially very harmful to a young, impressionable audience, "these characters have an influence in our lives […] what do they portray about a healthy body image?". Catriona Harvey-Jenner, a reporter for Cosmopolitan shares the same concerns in her article "Disney Princesses get given realistic waistlines and - oh look - they still look great" (2014) where she praises the work of artist Loryn Brantz who edited images of animated female characters to look healthier and more realistic. Harvey-Jenner believes it's imperative for young girls that "a message of unattainable thin-ness isn't sent out as an image of the most desirable body shape" and rather designs should encourage healthiness over skinniness. Both articles provided examples mainly from films that came out in the 1980s and 1990s however there were cases for films that came out more recently, one being the live-action "Cinderella" (2015) film where actress Lily James, despite being naturally thin, wore an extremely tight corset which restricted her from eating solid food. It was so tight that many believed her waist had been animated.
Vincent holds the animators responsible for these artistic decisions, arguing that they shouldn't always follow what society deems acceptable at the time as this can lead to creating harsh biases against something that has been stigmatised, "because of the rise of the stigma against being overweight and obese, it is believed that being impossibly thin or having an incomprehensively thin waistline is socialy acceptable and aesthetically pleasing". He believes creators of such content should be more representative and instead should shine a more positive light on those who don't fit the mould, "it is hard for kids to understand what is healthy or not, but they can see what is stigmatized vs. socially acceptable".
However, should these controversial choices fall directly on the artist or are these decisions merely made because the outcomes are more aesthetically pleasing? An audience may argue that the designs for characters from the 1980s and 1990s, even if they aren't what young children should be looking up to, may be more appealing to look at. Even the silhouettes of characters from then to now are arguably more recognisable and portray more character than more recent character designs. Vincent admits that "one of the goals of the movie animator and director is to make the screenplay as aesthetically pleasing as possible".
Bibliography:
Cinderella (2015) Directed by K. Branagh [Film]. California: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.
Harvey-Jenner, C. (2014) Disney Princesses get given realistic waistlines and - oh look - they still look great. Available at: https://www.cosmopolitan.com/uk/entertainment/news/a30901/disney-princesses-given-realistic-waistlines-look-amazing/ (Accessed: 3 November 2019).
Puckering, C. (no date) Artist Creates 'Realistic Disney Princesses' and the Pictures Are Amazing. Available at: https://twentytwowords.com/artist-creates-realistic-disney-princesses-pictures-amazing/ (Accessed: 3 November 2019).
Vincent, J. (2017) The Unrealistic Body Image in Many Famous TV Animations. Available at: https://medium.com/@jmvincent12/the-unrealistic-body-image-in-many-famous-tv-animations-80e02d0dbd1e (Accessed: 3 November 2019).
COP2 Weekly Update (Week Commencing: 04/11/19)
In class we were set two new study tasks. I found this a little overwhelming as I am struggling to find ways to incorporate the written essay into my practical outcome. So, I decided to take a break from my essay this week and focus on my paintings.
I continued to make my way through the decades; first looking at the silhouettes and then, using shows from the era as inspiration, designing characters that look as though they could have come from the same show. I am hoping to produce my own character turn arounds for this module so I feel drawing a range of character designs from different decades will help me.
Next week I will be attending the Manchester Animation Festival where I am hoping to collect primary research.
I continued to make my way through the decades; first looking at the silhouettes and then, using shows from the era as inspiration, designing characters that look as though they could have come from the same show. I am hoping to produce my own character turn arounds for this module so I feel drawing a range of character designs from different decades will help me.
Next week I will be attending the Manchester Animation Festival where I am hoping to collect primary research.
Monday, 4 November 2019
Study Task 1 (Week Commencing: 28/10/19)
This week we discussed building a rough set for when we start production. I was intending on making an updated Gantt sheet for this extra task however we instead had a group meeting where we weighed up the pros and cons of this extra task and decided it would be better to revert to our original plan of just making one set which would be used for the final animation. I still made an updated sheet and marked off where we were to make sure the team was still on track. I also fixed any mistakes that were in the first one.
In class I learned about lip syncs and what remapping is. I also had a lecture on sound and it's importance in animation.
I then worked on updating my blog as next week I will begin production.
In class I learned about lip syncs and what remapping is. I also had a lecture on sound and it's importance in animation.
I then worked on updating my blog as next week I will begin production.
COP2 Weekly Update (Week Commencing: 28/10/19)
At the beginning of the week, we had a lecture on writing an introduction and were set our fifth study task.
I stayed behind to add sound to my looping animation. I found a cartoon blink noise to add to the eyes in the background, and as we were advised to listen to sounds that could be used for other actions, I searched for footsteps walking in snow to use as the cat walked across the carpet. The last sound I added was a cat happily purring.
Link to Animism Animation
I feel as though the purring may be too loud as it seems to overpower the rest of the animation. The blink is also very harsh and sharp, and the footsteps seem too loud. I will ask my peers for a second opinion but I feel as though as the weeks go on I will go back to this and refine it.
Nearing the end of the week, I continued to work in my visual journal. I started by looking at characters from the 1980s. I painted their silhouettes on one page and then designed and painted my own characters inspired by the original designs on the other. I also updated my blog posts.
I stayed behind to add sound to my looping animation. I found a cartoon blink noise to add to the eyes in the background, and as we were advised to listen to sounds that could be used for other actions, I searched for footsteps walking in snow to use as the cat walked across the carpet. The last sound I added was a cat happily purring.
Link to Animism Animation
I feel as though the purring may be too loud as it seems to overpower the rest of the animation. The blink is also very harsh and sharp, and the footsteps seem too loud. I will ask my peers for a second opinion but I feel as though as the weeks go on I will go back to this and refine it.
Sunday, 3 November 2019
Study Task 3 - Reading and Understanding Texts
Part 1
This task involves finding a text and analysing it in various stages. First, I have to skim read the text. Then, re-read the text, finding additional information that relates to my theme. Finally, I have to read the text thoroughly, and repeat these steps until I understand exactly what the author is trying to say.
One of the books I found in the library was titled "Women, Feminism and Media" by Sue Thornham. I decided to read the second chapter of the book, "Fixing into images" as this focused on how women have been portrayed in the media.
Step 1: Skim Reading
- exploitation
- the male gaze
- feminism
- two roles: sexy and mother
- women in advertising
- equality
- what is 'image'?
Step 2: Re-Read
I feel the author is trying to convey a sense of understanding for the lack of representation of women in media as these characters are often created by men to fulfil men's needs.
Step 3: Read Thoroughly
- "visions of women are contaminated by male-defined notions"
- "inaccurate stereotypes that damage women's self-perceptions"
- "entertainment programmes in all types of format emphasise the dual image of woman as a decorative object […] and marriage-oriented passive person"
- "their sense of identity bound up with a sense of 'woman as image', forever unattainable"
In chapter two of "Women, Feminism and Media" (2007), Sue Thornham, a British film professor, is arguably trying to communicate a sense of sympathy for the unrealistic standards women have been held to, by exploring the way in which women in media have been categorised, "inaccurate stereotypes that damage women's self-perceptions"(pg.23). An argument Thornham raises is how, due to the lack of representation of women in the industry in the past, men have distorted this idea of what the image of woman should be as the stories were told from their perspectives. Thornham quotes Rita Felski here, saying "visions of women are contaminated by male-defined notions" (pg.23). Thornham uses similar examples of this, to really demonstrate how women who look to these warped ideals as role models, may be left with a sense of unfulfillment, "their sense of identity bound up with a sense of 'woman as image', forever unattainable" (pg.43).
This theory surrounding the way in which women are portrayed in media has been explored before. Feminist and film theorist, Laura Mulvey named this concept 'The Male Gaze' and argued that as most films are told from a man's perspective, this could often lead to sexist overtones. A teacher on SlideShare called Mr Smith explains this by writing "events which occur to women are presented largely in the context of a man's reaction to these events" (slide.4). By exploring this concept, this may allow the audience to recall similar instances where the male gaze is present in day to day life, such as film posters. Many examples of movie posters have been shared when debating equality in media, particularly those that have been designed in a way that only the actress' body is shown, while her face is cut off. Comedian Marcia Belsky first brought attention to this when she made a blog on Tumblr dedicated to posters and promo art that featured women's bodies called "The Headless Women of Hollywood" in 2016.
Within animation, the same issues occur. In Thornham's book she references "Mass Media: The Image, Role and Social Conditions of Women" (1979), explaining "entertainment programmes in all types of format emphasise the dual image of woman as a decorative object […] and a marriage-oriented passive person" (pg. 24). As times have changed, women in animation have arguably become more diverse and inclusive, however there are still cases where young children are looking up to models with standards that are unattainable.
Part 2
Then in class we were briefed on the second part of this task, which was to write a summary or create a research poster relating to the themes of the text. As I had already written a summary, I decided to create the poster for this next task.
I looked at female designs from the 1980s to the 2010s. I also wrote a list of sources, such as: books, articles and films I could look into, as well as trips I could attend to gather primary research.
Overall I felt the first part of this task was more helpful than the second part as I prefer writing my thoughts down over creating something visual.
Bibliography:
BBC Three. (2019) These film posters of headless women are going viral, again. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/article/42cae8ac-5ca6-4672-93b3-d3235f0f384a (Accessed: 20 October 2019)
Ceulemans, M. and Fauconnier, G. (1979) Mass Media: The Image, Role and Social Conditions of Women: A Collection and Analysis of Research Materials. Paris: Reports and Papers on Mass Communication.
Felski, R. (2000) Doing Time: Feminist Theory and Postmodern Culture. New York and London: New York University Press.
Lanquist, L. (2016) Women's Faces Are Often Missing From Movie Posters. Available at: https://www.self.com/story/womens-faces-are-often-missing-from-movie-posters (Accessed: 20 October 2019).
Smith, M. (2009) The Male Gaze Laura Mulvey. Available at: https://www.slideshare.net/fleckneymike/the-male-gaze-laura-mulvey (Accessed: 20 October 2019).
Thornham, S. (2007) Women, Feminism and Media. Edinburgh University Press.
Tumblr. (no date) The Headless Women of Hollywood. Available at: https://headlesswomenofhollywood.com/ (Accessed: 20 October 2019).
University of Sussex. (no date) Prof Sue Thornham. Available at: http://www.sussex.ac.uk/profiles/166435 (Accessed: 20 October 2019).
Wikipedia. (no date) Laura Mulvey. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura_Mulvey (Accessed: 20 October 2019).
This task involves finding a text and analysing it in various stages. First, I have to skim read the text. Then, re-read the text, finding additional information that relates to my theme. Finally, I have to read the text thoroughly, and repeat these steps until I understand exactly what the author is trying to say.
One of the books I found in the library was titled "Women, Feminism and Media" by Sue Thornham. I decided to read the second chapter of the book, "Fixing into images" as this focused on how women have been portrayed in the media.
Step 1: Skim Reading
- exploitation
- the male gaze
- feminism
- two roles: sexy and mother
- women in advertising
- equality
- what is 'image'?
Step 2: Re-Read
I feel the author is trying to convey a sense of understanding for the lack of representation of women in media as these characters are often created by men to fulfil men's needs.
Step 3: Read Thoroughly
- "visions of women are contaminated by male-defined notions"
- "inaccurate stereotypes that damage women's self-perceptions"
- "entertainment programmes in all types of format emphasise the dual image of woman as a decorative object […] and marriage-oriented passive person"
- "their sense of identity bound up with a sense of 'woman as image', forever unattainable"
In chapter two of "Women, Feminism and Media" (2007), Sue Thornham, a British film professor, is arguably trying to communicate a sense of sympathy for the unrealistic standards women have been held to, by exploring the way in which women in media have been categorised, "inaccurate stereotypes that damage women's self-perceptions"(pg.23). An argument Thornham raises is how, due to the lack of representation of women in the industry in the past, men have distorted this idea of what the image of woman should be as the stories were told from their perspectives. Thornham quotes Rita Felski here, saying "visions of women are contaminated by male-defined notions" (pg.23). Thornham uses similar examples of this, to really demonstrate how women who look to these warped ideals as role models, may be left with a sense of unfulfillment, "their sense of identity bound up with a sense of 'woman as image', forever unattainable" (pg.43).
This theory surrounding the way in which women are portrayed in media has been explored before. Feminist and film theorist, Laura Mulvey named this concept 'The Male Gaze' and argued that as most films are told from a man's perspective, this could often lead to sexist overtones. A teacher on SlideShare called Mr Smith explains this by writing "events which occur to women are presented largely in the context of a man's reaction to these events" (slide.4). By exploring this concept, this may allow the audience to recall similar instances where the male gaze is present in day to day life, such as film posters. Many examples of movie posters have been shared when debating equality in media, particularly those that have been designed in a way that only the actress' body is shown, while her face is cut off. Comedian Marcia Belsky first brought attention to this when she made a blog on Tumblr dedicated to posters and promo art that featured women's bodies called "The Headless Women of Hollywood" in 2016.
Within animation, the same issues occur. In Thornham's book she references "Mass Media: The Image, Role and Social Conditions of Women" (1979), explaining "entertainment programmes in all types of format emphasise the dual image of woman as a decorative object […] and a marriage-oriented passive person" (pg. 24). As times have changed, women in animation have arguably become more diverse and inclusive, however there are still cases where young children are looking up to models with standards that are unattainable.
Part 2
Then in class we were briefed on the second part of this task, which was to write a summary or create a research poster relating to the themes of the text. As I had already written a summary, I decided to create the poster for this next task.
I looked at female designs from the 1980s to the 2010s. I also wrote a list of sources, such as: books, articles and films I could look into, as well as trips I could attend to gather primary research.
Overall I felt the first part of this task was more helpful than the second part as I prefer writing my thoughts down over creating something visual.
Bibliography:
BBC Three. (2019) These film posters of headless women are going viral, again. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/article/42cae8ac-5ca6-4672-93b3-d3235f0f384a (Accessed: 20 October 2019)
Ceulemans, M. and Fauconnier, G. (1979) Mass Media: The Image, Role and Social Conditions of Women: A Collection and Analysis of Research Materials. Paris: Reports and Papers on Mass Communication.
Felski, R. (2000) Doing Time: Feminist Theory and Postmodern Culture. New York and London: New York University Press.
Lanquist, L. (2016) Women's Faces Are Often Missing From Movie Posters. Available at: https://www.self.com/story/womens-faces-are-often-missing-from-movie-posters (Accessed: 20 October 2019).
Smith, M. (2009) The Male Gaze Laura Mulvey. Available at: https://www.slideshare.net/fleckneymike/the-male-gaze-laura-mulvey (Accessed: 20 October 2019).
Thornham, S. (2007) Women, Feminism and Media. Edinburgh University Press.
Tumblr. (no date) The Headless Women of Hollywood. Available at: https://headlesswomenofhollywood.com/ (Accessed: 20 October 2019).
University of Sussex. (no date) Prof Sue Thornham. Available at: http://www.sussex.ac.uk/profiles/166435 (Accessed: 20 October 2019).
Wikipedia. (no date) Laura Mulvey. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura_Mulvey (Accessed: 20 October 2019).
Study Task 2 - Writing a Research Question
For this task, I needed to write up a prototype question based on the themes I mentioned in the previous task. The main themes I am exploring are history and society; specifically how society's standards have changed over time. My first proto-question is:
'How has the portrayal of women, in animation, evolved over the last fifty years?'
Based on the feedback I have received, I am continuing to refine this question so that it isn't too broad, as I need to be wary of the word count.
My second draft is:
'How has the portrayal of women, in animation, evolved within this generation circa 1989 - 2019?'
Something I realised while looking at animated films and shows, and also something that was mentioned within areas of my research so far is that the main change began to appear in the nineties. So, I decided to change the question once more so I can compare the designs that came before the nineties to the designs that came after.
My question is now:
'How has the portrayal of women, in animation, evolved within this generation circa 1980 - 2019?'
I am going to focus on character design in my visual journal. At this point in time, I am hoping to produce some character turn-around sheets comparing previous character designs to the more diverse and inclusive designs of today.
Update:
The final question is:
'How has the portrayal of women, in western animation, evolved over the last forty years?'
'How has the portrayal of women, in animation, evolved over the last fifty years?'
Based on the feedback I have received, I am continuing to refine this question so that it isn't too broad, as I need to be wary of the word count.
My second draft is:
'How has the portrayal of women, in animation, evolved within this generation circa 1989 - 2019?'
Something I realised while looking at animated films and shows, and also something that was mentioned within areas of my research so far is that the main change began to appear in the nineties. So, I decided to change the question once more so I can compare the designs that came before the nineties to the designs that came after.
My question is now:
'How has the portrayal of women, in animation, evolved within this generation circa 1980 - 2019?'
I am going to focus on character design in my visual journal. At this point in time, I am hoping to produce some character turn-around sheets comparing previous character designs to the more diverse and inclusive designs of today.
Update:
The final question is:
'How has the portrayal of women, in western animation, evolved over the last forty years?'
Monday, 28 October 2019
Study Task 1 (Week Commencing: 21/10/19)
At the beginning of the week, I began looking into potential musicians that could provide a score for our animation, as by this point, the animatic had been made so I roughly knew the length of the piece. I ended up talking to a student called Luke Bryan who seemed interested in our project. He sent over his showreel and I sent our animatic. We discussed inspiration and the timescale, and he has started to work on the main crow's theme.
I also continued to work into my crow turn-around by adding colour and testing this colour against our colour palette, using the concept art for the old background.
I struggled with the 3/4 perspective as I wasn't sure exactly how short or rounded his beak would be, nor could I picture exactly how his tail and wings would sit. So by the middle of the week, I worked on the 3/4 pose specifically until I was happy with the proportions. I also sent each turn around to my group chat so they could give me any advice or tips on how to make it more consistent.
Once I fixed the beak and wings, I added the colour and sent this to my team again for any last adjustments.
Nearing the end of the week, I shaded the crow and tested these tones on the original concept art as by this stage, the latest background art wasn't finished yet. Once I have a copy of the new concept art, I will add my characters to that just to double check that the characters and background blends seamlessly together and doesn't look too out of place.
Throughout the week I also worked on a dynamic pose sheet. By this point, the director had sent an updated animatic and I noticed that the beast's eyes at the end are yellow. I included this detail on the sheet and asked if the team preferred the yellow eyes or normal eyes. They agreed that the yellow eyes looked more haunting and creepy so we decided to keep them.
So I went back to the wolf turn around and changed the eyes here too.
Next week we will begin to look at building a replica set so that the 2D animators can start animating as soon as possible and don't need to rely on the 3D set builders. This step was only considered this week so it doesn't have a place on the original Gantt sheet. So I will also look at updating the Gantt sheet next week.
I also continued to work into my crow turn-around by adding colour and testing this colour against our colour palette, using the concept art for the old background.
I struggled with the 3/4 perspective as I wasn't sure exactly how short or rounded his beak would be, nor could I picture exactly how his tail and wings would sit. So by the middle of the week, I worked on the 3/4 pose specifically until I was happy with the proportions. I also sent each turn around to my group chat so they could give me any advice or tips on how to make it more consistent.
Once I fixed the beak and wings, I added the colour and sent this to my team again for any last adjustments.
Nearing the end of the week, I shaded the crow and tested these tones on the original concept art as by this stage, the latest background art wasn't finished yet. Once I have a copy of the new concept art, I will add my characters to that just to double check that the characters and background blends seamlessly together and doesn't look too out of place.
Throughout the week I also worked on a dynamic pose sheet. By this point, the director had sent an updated animatic and I noticed that the beast's eyes at the end are yellow. I included this detail on the sheet and asked if the team preferred the yellow eyes or normal eyes. They agreed that the yellow eyes looked more haunting and creepy so we decided to keep them.
So I went back to the wolf turn around and changed the eyes here too.
Next week we will begin to look at building a replica set so that the 2D animators can start animating as soon as possible and don't need to rely on the 3D set builders. This step was only considered this week so it doesn't have a place on the original Gantt sheet. So I will also look at updating the Gantt sheet next week.
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