Design This Year's Union T-Shirt Brief

As well as looking for animation competitions, I looked through my student email as the University often sends us live briefs. One email I saw, was to design the new Leeds Arts Union t-shirt.

There were limitations I had to consider; the most important being that the design couldn't have more than two colours in it. I decided because of this, to keep the design simplistic. I also needed to be wary of time, as while design briefs like this can help me gain experience working towards a deadline, this won't supply me with any outcomes I can add to my animation showreel.

I looked through some old photographs I took while studying fine art at college, and after experimenting with the composition, I tried to capture the models' essence in as little lines as possible.

LoopdeLoop - Whoops

I had to get to work quickly to make this deadline in time, as the module briefing was on Monday 27th January, while the deadline for LoopdeLoop had been extended to Wednesday 29th January. I prioritised this competition over others as the website explained this would be the last official theme for six months.

The theme was "Whoops!" so as I only had a day or so, I began working on the first idea that came to mind. I also looked through any unused background art and character designs to see if I could repurpose any assets to speed up this process. One character I designed for the previous module seemed to work fine, so I began animating.



Link to Whoops LoopdeLoop Submission

For this submission, I needed to make a vimeo account, which also helps in the future when it comes to networking.

Link to Vimeo Account

Final Animation

Link to Final Animation

Final Study Task 1 Post (Deadline: 09/01/20)

On Monday, I worked on the annotations for the 'Art Of...' book. In the afternoon, I went into University to meet up with my teammates and review the progress of our final animation. All we have left to do is add sound and make sure it syncs up properly.

On Tuesday, I continued to refine my blog posts, and doubled checked that the study tasks were all ready to hand in.

Then on Wednesday in class, we had a screening of all our final outcomes so if we needed to, we could use the feedback we received to add some last minute refinements to our animation. We didn't receive any notes however so, I continued to work on my blog.

I have to make sure everything is ready for Thursday as this is the hand in date.

Study Task 5 - Evaluate

Below is my evaluation.



Link to Evaluation

Study Task 4 - The Art Of...

In class, we were told we have to make an 'Art Of...' book to accompany our final animation.

As this task shouldn't take too long, we decided to focus on the animation first and the book second. It is still however, just as important, which is why I allocated quite a bit of time for it in our team's Gantt chart.

Below is the final version of our 'Art Of...' book.



Link to Art Of Book

Before I began, I asked my team whether the annotations should be in the first or third person, as continuity is important if we want the book to look professional. While making the book, I found the images I wanted to contribute and wrote a short sentence for each one to provide some context.



Then on Google Drive, I spent about an hour gathering my contributions and labelling them, in order, ready for the 'Art Of...' book. Unfortunately, when I tried to make another copy for my personal drive, the folder deleted itself so I had to start over.

Link to 'Art Of...' Google Drive Folder

We then decided, however, not to use the captions as we didn't want there to be too much writing.

Study Task 1 (Week Commencing: 30/12/19)

This is the last week I am home from University.

On Monday, I began writing up Study Tasks 4 and 5 for my blog.

The middle of this week was just as busy as the last, as not only did I have work commitments over New Years, but it was also my birthday on Thursday. Yet again, I needed to prioritise my time and make sure I completed the tasks when I was free.

On Friday, I continued to refine my lip sync animation until I was happier with it.

Then at the weekend, I travelled back to Leeds.

Study Task 3 - Research (Article 2 - Technique)

For this article, I am focusing on the techniques behind mixed media animation.


Article 2

The combination of 2D and 3D animation is called Hybrid animation. Many films have utilised the benefits of this technique.

Some issues may arise with this particular method however; especially among students. Certain animators may be skilled in one medium, but not in another which could cause issues for the project, "If you do not have a production schedule that allows for training […] it will ultimately sway the medium choice." (What-When-How, no date).

For trained professionals however, this shouldn't be an issue. Experimental animation such as this has been developed for years, as animators search for more sustainable, inventive ways of animating particular shots, "The use of 2D/3D at Disney predates The Black Cauldron […] There have been many combinations of media." (What-When-How, no date).

As technology continues to advance, so do the techniques used to provide a more flawless result.

'Gorillaz', for example, continued to develop their visual style as technology advanced, "the integration of computer-generated imagery with two-dimensional animation is more seamless than in previous Gorillaz videos, creating a more textured, layered effect." (Passion Animation Studios, no date). This can be seen in Figure 1.

While some hybrid film's results are made to look seamless, such as 'The Iron Giant' (1999), as seen in Figure 2, others made the difference noticeable such as in the film 'Mary Poppins' (1964) in Figure 3, as the use of mixed media plays an important role to the narrative here. Similarly in my own group's short film, we use mixed media to add another layer to the narrative.


Figures List:

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3


Bibliography:

Desowitz, B. (2019) 'The Iron Giant' Is a Classic, But Brad Bird Still Accepts Some Blame For Its Box Office. Available at: https://www.indiewire.com/2019/08/the-iron-giant-is-a-classic-but-brad-bird-still-accepts-some-blame-for-its-box-office-1202163624/ (Accessed: 21 December 2019).

IAD. (no date) Mary Poppins. Available at: https://www.intanibase.com/shorts.aspx?shortID=24419#page=general_info (Accessed: 21 December 2019).

Passion Animation Studios. (no date) Gorillaz 'Feel Good Inc.'. Available at: http://www.passion-pictures.com/uk/animation-studios/project/gorillaz-feel-good-inc/?fbclid=IwAR0ayXXZ2Ya96wCkB1ZInJlA5j8VOKUlE0p96qt_B7nTLqYQDe3p1q-oxEg (Accessed: 21 December 2019).

Wallpaper Memory. (no date) Gorillaz wallpaper ID: 273523 for hd 1080p desktop. Available at: https://wallpapermemory.com/273523 (Accessed: 21 December 2019).

What-When-How. (no date) Hybrid Animation: The Main Problems (Hybrid Animation - Integrating 2D and 3D Assets) Part 1. Available at: http://what-when-how.com/hybrid-animation-integrating-2d-and-3d-assets/hybrid-animation-the-main-problems-hybrid-animation-integrating-2d-and-3d-assets-part-1/ (Accessed: 21 December 2019).

What-When-How. (no date) Hybrid Animation: The Main Problems (Hybrid Animation - Integrating 2D and 3D Assets) Part 2. Available at: http://what-when-how.com/hybrid-animation-integrating-2d-and-3d-assets/hybrid-animation-the-main-problems-hybrid-animation-integrating-2d-and-3d-assets-part-2/ (Accessed: 21 December 2019).

What-When-How. (no date) Hybrid Animation: The Main Problems (Hybrid Animation - Integrating 2D and 3D Assets) Part 3. Available at: http://what-when-how.com/hybrid-animation-integrating-2d-and-3d-assets/hybrid-animation-the-main-problems-hybrid-animation-integrating-2d-and-3d-assets-part-3/ (Accessed: 21 December 2019).


I struggled again with this article. I couldn't find a way to talk about the potentials, the limitations, the main processes and alternate processes of my chosen medium, in depth, while referencing throughout, and relating theories back to images without going over the 150 word limit.

Study Task 3 - Research (Article 1 - Aesthetics)

For this task, I need to produce two articles exploring an area of my practice. For this particular article, I have decided to focus on aesthetics.


Article 1

Nearing the start of this module, one lecturer urged my group to combine both 2D and 3D animation, while another raised their concerns about the popularity, or lack there of, of mixed media animation in today's entertainment.

Looking to previous examples, especially from decades where technology was still considered new, these concerns are reasonable.

There are however, cases where this style of animation has worked. A popular example is the virtual band, 'Gorillaz', as shown in Figure 1, who time and again have experimented with mixed media animation and whose results are aesthetically pleasing, "His images were striking for their depth, using rich textures that echo both printed halftone and computer generated pixels, a neat distillation of Gorillaz' ability to transcend the on- and offline worlds." (Gosling, no date).

These methods also work well over a range of different genres. Creator of 'The Amazing World of Gumball', Ben Bocquelet, credits 'Gorillaz' as his inspiration for the show's visual style, as seen in Figure 2, "The mixed media combination of 2D and 3D animation […] was inspired by Gorillaz music videos" (Fandom, no date). The show has been described as "A success both visually and aurally" (Wired, 2012) and the style is one of the main contributing factors to this, as the media provides an extra layer to the narrative, and is often used cleverly, such as the episode 'The Money' where the scene gets broken down into the different layers of production.

One of the first examples I saw of this style was 'Amaro and Walden's Joyride' by 'The Line', as shown in Figure 3, and I found this style memorable and unique. 'The Line' went on to animate the music video 'Humility', as seen in Figure 4, "The video […] blends beautiful traditional hand drawn animation techniques with stunning live-action." (The Line, no date).

Visually, hybrid animation allows animators to explore a range of techniques that wouldn't work under the limitations of using just one medium. Some examples broke the mould so much that they are now considered iconic, and have influenced animation, "marked the start of Gorillaz' extraordinary impact on popular culture and public consciousness" (Passion Animation Studios, no date).


Figures List:

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Figure 4


Bibliography:

Amaro and Walden (JOYRIDE) Animation Video - YouTube. (no date). Available at: https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=amaro+and+walden's+joyride&sxsrf=ACYBGNTXdhQhc244JsS93Anuo5LpRGSzaw:1576867545367&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&fir=PebOqM9fOlQHRM%253A%252CcZoXltgN6khVSM%252C%252Fg%252F11b7x3j6tw&vet=1&usg=AI4_-kSK_Y51Gx1VU9_Q1ZMl8ijZLGV3Ow&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwix1piv8cTmAhUaM8AKHS5ECfUQ_B0wD3oECAkQAw#imgrc=UygJmL_puRhdQM:&vet=1 (Accessed: 20 December 2019).

Cartoon Network UK. (2018) 'The Amazing World of Gumball | Don't Be a Sell-Out | Cartoon Network', YouTube, 11 February. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqFJ5tiIJ94 (Accessed: 21 December 2019).

Fandom. (no date) References to Gorillaz in Popular Culture. Available at: https://gorillaz.fandom.com/wiki/References_to_Gorillaz_in_Popular_Culture#cite_note-4 (Accessed: 20 December 2019).

Gosling, E. (no date) Pop Art: Tracing the Artistic Development of Gorillaz. Available at: https://crackmagazine.net/article/long-reads/gorillaz-art-retrospective/ (Accessed : 20 December 2019).

McCarthy, J. (2017) How the Gorillaz embraced mixed reality to tell the story behind their new album Humanz. Available at: https://www.thedrum.com/news/2017/05/04/how-the-gorillaz-embraced-mixed-reality-tell-the-story-behind-their-new-album-humanz (Accessed: 20 December 2019).

Moore, M. (2017) Promoting Good Animation: The Amazing World of Gumball. Available at: https://medium.com/betweentheframes/promoting-good-animation-the-amazing-world-of-gumball-2715f479f8b5 (Accessed: 20 December 2019).

Passion Animation Studios. (no date) Gorillaz 'Clint Eastwood'. Available at: http://www.passion-pictures.com/uk/animation-studios/project/gorillaz-clint-eastwood/ (Accessed: 20 December 2019).

Passion Animation Studios. (no date) Gorillaz 'Feel Good Inc.'. Available at: http://www.passion-pictures.com/uk/animation-studios/project/gorillaz-feel-good-inc/ (Accessed: 20 December 2019).

The Line. (no date) Amaro and Walden's Joyride. Available at: https://www.amaroandwalden.com/ (Accessed: 20 December 2019).

The Line. (no date) Gorillaz Humility. Available at: https://www.thelineanimation.com/work/gorillaz (Accessed: 20 December 2019).

Williams, E. (2018) How I Got Here: Jamie Hewlett. Available at: https://www.creativereview.co.uk/jamie-hewlett/ (Accessed: 20 December 2019).

Wired. (2012) Be Amazed By The Amazing World of Gumball. Available at: https://www.wired.com/2012/09/be-amazed-by-the-amazing-world-of-gumball/ (Accessed: 20 December 2019).

Wolfe, J. (2012) Season Three of 'Amazing World of Gumball' Greenlighted. Available at: https://www.awn.com/news/season-three-amazing-world-gumball-greenlighted (Accessed: 20 December 2019).


I struggled with this task, as trying to condense the techniques, the pros and cons, and the alternative processes into only 150 words, while still referencing throughout to show our research and development of theories is incredibly difficult. I couldn't explore the limitations as much as I would have liked as I was already over the word count.

Study Task 2 - Talk This Way

In class we were given a list of sound clips to choose from and then using the mouth templates, in After Effects, we were expected to animate a convincing lip sync using the remapping techniques we were taught.

I started by listening to the clip over and over again, and frame by frame, I filled out a dope sheet to help aid me when choosing what shape the mouth would be for each sound. This wasn't the end of the task however, as we then needed to make our own lip sync using our own designs.

In order to get a better understanding of what each word would look like, I decided to try and complete this exercise in class as while it isn't mandatory, I thought this would help me when it came to animating my own. Below is the result.



Link to First Attempt

I had to give up nearing the end as After Effects started to glitch when I tried to change the timing of certain key frames. While I had no issues using the same technique for the first half of the clip, for some reason if I changed the image, the software wouldn't listen. I even closed down and restarted the software to see if that would help, and asked my lecturer for assistance however they explained this was a glitch that they had also encountered and there was no way of fixing it.

Using this test as a starting point, I went on to animate my own lips. I also referred back to my dope sheet of the vocal breakdown so that if I needed to, I could add extra mouth shapes to make the movements seem more natural.

I am not happy with my first outcome as the lips have no real weight or bearing, because they are just floating in the blank space. I decided to develop this further however, as the group project started production at this point, I couldn't focus on it until later.

Then over the Christmas break, in my spare time, I tried to experiment using different software. I decided to add the lips to a face to provide context and make it more interesting.

I rotoscoped a video I recorded of myself over-acting to the sound clip to try and make it more animated. I am worried however that the animation looks too stiff as while I was exaggerated when recording myself, I feel I lost that in the animation. I was also worried it was too difficult to complete in the time I had so I decided to just focus on the face. To add a bit of movement, I changed the shape and positioning of the eyes and nose.



Link to Final Lip Sync