BILBO – Final Animation

“It is inevitable that we will all experience bereavement at some point in our lives after the death of a partner, relative, friend or pet. Grief manifests itself in a range of different ways, and although we know it is an inevitability – how we understand death and accept it when it occurs can be unpredictable. “Bilbo”  is a 2D stop motion animation, which illustrates the relationship between an owner and his cat – subtly approaching the idea of the cat’s passing – showing the void left, yet presenting the idea that life continues.  My main intention for my animation is for it to act as a supportive film for young children dealing with the loss of a pet. I’d like for it to encourage the remembrance of a life, whilst also offering up conversation and discussion between parents and children – aiding explanation and support”

So above is my final outcome for the Convergence/ Divergence unit – something a few weeks ago I didn’t even think was possible. As an illustrator, this entire project has put me out of my comfort zone. “Animation” is a terrifying word, and still sends shivers down my spine now. But after rendering my final animation, I couldn’t help but sit back grinning and watching it multiple times.

Something I’ve been really interested in since Level 4, is illustrating for children – but I’ve also had a real interest in working on projects that tackle difficult or taboo subjects for children. In order to move forward with my progression as an illustrator – and towards the end of my time on Level 5, this was an interest I wanted to continue to carry forward. About a week before we were briefed for the project I sadly had to say goodbye to my pet cat – who I’d had since I was 5 years old. It was this event in my personal life that informed my practice, I hadn’t yet approached death within my work as I think it’s a subject that has to be dealt with the upmost care and sensitivity – especially with children. But this project not only allowed me to grieve, but allowed me to channel that grief and inform the context of my animation. For instance the scenes that involve the cat as all experiences I’ve had as an owner – it’s a very personal film – yet easily associable by any other pet owner.

Although we were being asked to produce an animation – I didn’t want to leave behind my individuality, style and what interests me as an illustrator. Something I always knew I wanted to retain within my animation was my illustrative style. I also wanted to be comfortable in the way I was producing work – I don’t often work digitally, so it was a case of choosing a direction of animation that would not only allow me to retain my current working method – but also project it into a digital format. Stop frame motion was the perfect technique. I think a big challenge with animating my drawings was having to visualise them as separate components – it was a very thought out process, getting my head around which bits needed to be drawn separately in order to be easily manipulated during the animation process.

If I were to do the animation again there’s probably a number of things I would change (some of them are very minute issues which only play on my mind – so I won’t point them all out to your eyes!) But I would definitely have liked to have a bit more continuity with the lighting of the images – something probably affected by the exposure of the camera during the photographing of the animation. However, the lighting creates these wonderful shadows which people have picked up upon. Visually I find it really interesting, you can see it’s paper cut outs – and this isn’t something I want to try hide or make it appear like it hasn’t been done with 2D cut outs. But it’s a stop frame animation, and I think along with my illustrations and the imperfections in regards to shadows and lighting give it a certain amount of attractiveness. It’s a really charming video and I’m really proud of what I’ve produced. I’ve had a huge amount of positive feedback from various people, they’ve all found it very emotional and all had a personal connection – with regards to their own experiences.

It’s been a challenging – but weirdly enjoyable experience & it’s something I’d definitely like to do again.

But for now I need an excessive amount of tea & a good nights sleep where I’m not dreaming about animating a pink cat.

This one’s for you Bilbo, big love x

Animation Fail

This was supposed to be my first scene for my final animation. However after rendering the photos together into a video format in photoshop, I realised that my camera hadn’t been secured enough as at the bottom of the frame, you see carpet creeping into the frame 😦

Some people suggested that I could crop the animation, however there are some issues with lighting (as I was using natural light) So I decided to re-animate the scene entirely – it only took about 20 minutes so wasn’t too much of an issue. Since this mis-hap I’ve created a small set up in my bedroom – with lights and a decent tripod!

The set up of lighting and setting I have on my camera enhances my illustrations – providing strong images for my animation.

Animation & Sound

Last we I took part in a sound workshop ran by Chris Reed of The Paper Cinema – a collective that perform live animation with music. (See link below to their website for more on them, check them out – they’re amazing!)

I worked with the cat under the table animation I had produced, and decided to add some sounds in order to enhance the audience’s interaction with the animated short. I recorded myself scratching a plate with a spoon – to match the stirring of the cereal in the characters bowl. I used the rough side of a sponge on a mouse mat – to try replicate the sound of the characters shorts rubbing against the chair whilst swinging his leg. & then using a free sound database (www.freesound.org) I used a recording of a meowing kitten to bring the Cat in my animation to life.

There’s some background noise from the recordings due to other people being in the studio – but for my final animation recordings will be more controlled and refined. But as a test, I think this proved a successful outcome & allowed me to get to grips with iMovie and Adobe Audtion.

The Paper Cinema:

http://thepapercinema.com

Character Designs & Animation Development.

Over the past couple of weeks I’ve been focusing on character development for my animation – the main character being Bilbo the Cat. Character design is something I’ve been interested in ever since my final project of Level 4, so this kind of development has been very prominent throughout my Level 5 projects. In my physical sketchbook the development of character is much more clearly illustrated – and you can visually see where stronger traits have been identified and weaker have been dropped. My final character design focuses on quite a small cat, big eyes and chubby limbs to help strengthen the characters appeal to the audience. I’ve had a lot of good feedback from peers & also from when I’ve updated my Facebook & instagram, so I know the final design is successful. I think the main thing is I’ve created a character that I really like & really want to animate – and hopefully the audience will too!

More recently I have been developing possible ideas for scenes to be included in my animation. Here is a quick stop frame animation I produced, experimenting with the manipulation of paper cut out layers and how these could be manipulated to convey movement.

Below is one of my tests with stop frame motion – using a potential character with Bilbo. It’s a brief scene, and is made up of around 80 frames, the quality isn’t amazing as I the camera I was using isn’t great quality – but will be borrowing a better model for producing my final stop frame animation. It’s quick a quick animating process. Once I figure out what bits I want to move and separate the components in order to animate, it’s a simple method of taking photos overtime you slightly move the model. Once I’ve finished taking photos, I simply compile the photos into a video format on photoshop – setting the rate of frame speed in order to produce a fluid animation.

I really like this style of animation, I think combining an old animation technique with my graphic-like illustration, helps makes a historic technique have a contemporary vibe. I’ve decided to progress further with stop frame motion animation, I really like the movement and mainly it’s a form of animation that will retain my illustrative style – something I think is key in my development throughout my level 5 experience.

Further Rotoscoping experimentation.

After my first rotoscoping workshop, I wanted to experiment further with the technique – specifically with animating Cats, as Cats will be a main feature within my final animation story. So below I’ve linked two more trials that I did from footage of my boyfriend’s cat…

I enjoyed learning how to rotoscope and I’m pleased with the tests I’ve produced. However, with regards to my style I think it’s lost my individuality – something as an illustrator I’m keen to retain within my work as I progress. I think rotoscoping is so far removed from my usual working practice that it isn’t a method of animation that I’m considering using to produce my final outcome.

Physically the method takes it toll too, I sat staring at a computer screen for 8 hours to produce a small amount of footage & ended up going home and lying down in my room with the lights of in bed for several hours haha! So for the sake of my eyes and sanity I think rotoscoping is off the animation menu for this project.

Rotoscoping Workshop

Last thursday I took part in my first ever Rotoscoping workshop – an animation technique, in which I traced over a short film on photoshop – frame by frame. It was my first experience with using a pen and tablet to draw on the Mac’s & it ended up being a very intense day staring at a screen for 5 hours! I managed to produce around 25 frames, so ended up with a second of footage. It was a lot of effort to draw my own face 25 times, but I’m really pleased with the outcome – even if it is a second long!