Christmas Message

Hello!

I'd like to thank all the staff and students for making my first full term of teaching an absolute pleasure.


Here is a (pretty unfestive) festive message i made in response to breaking my phone last month...



Ho ho ho, Meeeerrrrry Christmas...

Animated Videos in eBooks

From today's discussion with Allison about her eBook animations project:
Links to various pages discussing aspects of iBooks and Kindle publishing and incorporating videos into them.

Publish on the iBook store

Creating My 1st iBook for the iPad with Adobe InDesign CS5

Adding HTML5 video to iBooks

My ordeal with the iPad, iBooks and video embedding

Next Kindle To Include Animation? (VIDEO) A Peek At The Next Generation Display

One Day / One Minute Challenge

Hello!

With deadlines drawing in and the end of year looming, I thought it would be interesting to look at a way of generating new and exiting work, either to give you a break from your main projects, or to top up your portfolio ready for assessment.

The One Day / One Minute brief was something I set myself during a particularly long and busy production a few years ago. I was becoming restless and frustrated with my work and needed to take a break, so I decided to give myself a brief to complete in just one day.

Step 1 : Find an object...

Look around you now. What could you bring to life? Maybe a piece of paper / a child's toy / an item of clothing / a blinking cursor on a blank screen; anything that you could animate in a style you are confident in.

Step 2 : Get stuck in...

Get your head down, churn out some frames and head towards your 1 minute goal... Sound doesn't have to be a big part of it, but if you're itching to practice your foley skills or work with a piece of music, then factor that into your day.

Explore your medium.

You could take your object on a journey, give it character or just examine it's inner workings and subtle movements.

Most of all, enjoy yourself! Revel in the magic of breathing life into inanimate objects. Remind yourself why you decided to animate in the first place.


Here are 3 examples of of films I've made using these principles :

THE BIG DRAW : Beyond the Line

Object : A Post Office Form

SCREEN PRINTING MACHINERY LTD

Object : A Screen Printing Drying Rack

USELESS BEAUTY

Object : A Confusing Email

Film Watch - (Double bill!) The Pianist and Sucker Punch

As I will be away in Canada next week here are two films to keep you occupied! Both live action but somewhat different in tone... The Pianist and Sucker Punch.

The Pianist

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0253474/

Sucker Punch

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0978764/

Notes from the 23rd November session

Notes

• Technical development of final project pre-production:
  - Covered 'Time Remapping' techniques with Mary and how to use the basic key-framing of After Effects.
  - Ashley discussed illustration and animation mixtures of a selection of footage with Dan and gave an overview of some After Effects tools.
  - Discussed some small issues with Flash with Allison as well as her approach to the lead into the christmas deadline and next semesters projects.
• Matthew started work on building a new Stop Motion armature - thank you to Steve from 3D for assistance with the threaded rod cutting.
• We inherited a piece of history, a VHS video camera!

Task

Watch this fortnight's films The Pianist and Sucker Punch.

Also a challenge: find a short animation online that you have particularly enjoyed and post a link to it as a comment on this post.

Film Watch - The Incredibles

This weeks film is a CGI piece by the masters at Pixar, The Incredibles.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0317705/

Short Bites - Pixels and The Cat Piano

Pixels

The Cat Piano

Notes from 16th November session

Notes

• Trouble-shooting Photoshop issues with Mary.
• Matthew uploaded his T-Shirt design to Threadless - sign up and show your support with votes!
• Ashley discussed with Dan about his current illustration work.
• We watched the short films Lighthouse and Father and Daughter

Task

Watch this weeks film The Incredibles and, as usual, check out the shorts too!

Tech Cues - Premier Pro exporting settings

A quick post main aimed at Paul for outputting his Stop Motion animation today, but others may find it useful as a reference when doing their own quick exports through Premier Pro.

(Note that I've put this together using a Mac CS5.5 so some things may look a little different but the same general ideas will apply)

(Also, if any of the images are too small to read just click on them to see them full size)

Set your project up with HDV in the capture format, and use Frames as your video display (which makes it easier for animators to work out their timing I find).

Make sure you choose HDV 1080p24 as your sequence preset, this will ensure you dont get squashed video when you import your footage onto the timeline.

1 - You import your video footage and sound files into this area (Either: right click in this box and choose 'import' OR go to the 'file' menu and choose 'import' OR Ctrl and I)

2 - Drag your video files from area 1 into the timeline here.

3 - Drag sound files from area 1 into the timeline here you can then drag them forwards and backward (Right and Left) in time to align them. If sounds need to overlap each other then drag them down into the empty space below the 'Master' sound strack and it will create a new audio layer.

4 - Drag the blue playhead to move along the timeline.

When you are finished, go to the 'file' menu and chose 'export' then 'media'.

In the export settings make sure you make the following selections:

1 - Format = Quicktime (or if this is not available use WMV also known as Windows Media Video)
Make sure the 'Export Video' and 'Export Sound' check boxes are ticked.
Clicking on the 'Output Name' will let you name the file and choose the location it will be saved to.

2 - Video Codec = H.264

3 - Width = 1920
Height = 1080
Frame Rate = 24

Then just click the 'Export' button at the bottom.

Good luck!

Are you a Brony?

Topics discussed today..!

Film Watch - Les Tripplets de Bellville

This weeks film is the strange and disturbing world of 'Les Tripplets de Bellville' a brilliant 2D drawn feature animation directed by Sylvain Chomet.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0286244/

Short Bites - A Sheep on the Roof and The House of Small Cubes

A Sheep on the Roof

The House of Small Cubes



Notes from 9th November session

Notes

• Technical development of final project pre-production:
  - Working with combined tweening and movie clips in Flash with Allison, how to use keyframes to controll paths and add slow in and slow out to add detail to animated movement.
  - Discussion of use of After Effects instead of Flash with Matt, multi layering and lighting as well as faking globe rotation. Ashley also worked with Matt to work out asset lists of backgrounds, character faces etc.
  - Ashley introduced the use of a JPEG sequence within Flash to Mary for her hand to tree animation, as well as the process for exporting an image sequence out of Photoshop and image cleanup.
• Jess set up her blog Eagle Town !

Task

Watch this weeks film Les Tripplets de Bellville and take a look at the shorts too.

Two Excellent Shorts on a similar theme

Manipulation by Daniel Greaves

Rejected by Don Hertzfeldt

Short Bites - The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello

A bonus extra film to make up for the gap over half-term, this one is a dark and brooding, half hour, silhouette animation from Australlia.

The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello

You can read a brief overview of the blend of CGI, 2D cutout, miniatures and effects techniques used here:
images.autodesk.com/adsk/files/JasperMorello.pdf

The Conet Project

Some interesting discussions in the classroom today. Matt has been listening to the sound of the cosmos to research the soundtrack to his (as yet) untitled space epic.

This led us to talking about the Numbers Stations and the Conet Project...

http://www.irdial.com/conet.htm

The Numbers Stations were / are a fascinating series of seemingly unintelligible broadcasts on shortwave frequencies, which were supposedly used by spies in the Cold War to communicate with each other.

The sound of these broadcasts, which are often just srtings of numbers and letters, are deliciously distorted and full of texture. And the names of the different stations are a wonderful collection of obscure and evokative titles.

The subject has intreagued me greatly and I'll be looking into the history in greater detail. Hopefully I'll be able to track down a Conet Project boxset for us to use as a resource.

Also in our discussion about science and sounds, the 1971 film 'The Andromeda Strain' cropped up. It's a masterclass in spare and dramtic sound design and I would recomend the film to anyone!

Short Bites - Tango, The Monk and the Fish and Heartstrings

Tango

The Monk and the Fish

Heartstrings

Notes from 2nd November session

Notes

• Viewed Matt's space animatic. Great use of highly atmospheric sounds (including the 'sound of Jupiter' to underlay the visuals).
• Covered further technical topics for production:
  - Introduction of cutout technique and tweening in Flash with Allison and use of Photoshop layers.
  - Rotoscoping and masking in AfterEffects with Dan, linking these techniques to the moving photography work of Jamie Beck and Kevin Burg.
  - Aspect ratio choice and overlapping cycled layers using boils with Matt.
• Briefly covered website layout using tables within dreamweaver and html with Katie.

Task

Watch this weeks film Hero and check out the short bites Tango, The Monk and the Fish, Heartstrings and Jasper Morello also.

Keep up with the blogging too. Try and get one or two published each week!

Film Watch - Hero

Another live action film for you this week, Hero; one from the easten director Zhang Yimou. Take particular note of the way colour has been used to symbolicaly indicate elements such as mood, scene seperation, time differences, attitues and the 'spin' of the storyteller; all particually bold and magnificent in this film.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0299977/



Short Bites - How to Cope with Death and Madame Tutli-Putli

How to Cope with Death



Madame Tutli-Putli

Notes from 19th October session

Notes

• Discussion of production techiques for final films.
  - After Effects and green screen practicality within Paul's Red Bull idea.
  - Smudge and boil effects for Matt's space senario.
  - Use of movie clip layers inside Flash for Allison's animated book illustrations.

Task

Watch this weeks film Corpse bride.

Keep blogging! There's been some great posts so far.

Film Watch - Corpse Bride

This week's film is Corpse Bride. How do you feel about the level of sophistication behind the puppets' mechanics? Do they make the animation too precise and absent of the humanistic mistakes or is it simply a step toward more detailed control and greater expressive power for the animators?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0121164/

Short Bites - Skhizein and Dix

Skhizein

Dix
(Warning: contains some gore)



Film Watch - My Neighbours the Yamadas

This weeks film is the quirky and illustrative Studio Ghibli animation My Neighbours the Yamadas.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0206013/

Notes from 12th October session

Notes

• Matthew discussed progress of blogs with Matt, Paul and Allison.
  - Anyone wondering what to do for their own blogs should take a quick look at these three blogs (linked on the right), there is some exemplar work.
• Ashley reviewed progress of projects and highlighted the Red Bull Canimation competition as a possible project.
• Studio work continued on the major projects and competition briefs.

Task

Watch this weeks film 'My Neighbours the Yamadas' an animation with a quirky style and some illustrative flair.

Matthew is available again next week for running through blogging with anyone who needs assistance with creating posts so please come and ask for help if you need it.

Art Clokey

Hello! The Google front page has informed me that today is Art Clokey's 90th brithday. I was aware of his creation, Gumby, but didn't know much about the man. He seems like a interesting chap and I'll look further into his life and work some time soon. His first film (entitled 'Gumbasia') is a perfect example of how you can create exciting and entertaining stop-motion work without spending a lot of time or money; his exuberant ideas, and a bit of clay was all he needed.

Fashion Photography meets Animation

An interesting artical I came accross yesterday, possibly of use to you Dan?

How a Blogging Duo Is Changing Fashion Photography With Animated Cinemagraphs

Comics festival in London

Just a note to those interested in comics (Katie, Nat & James). This is a 3 day series of events in London involving some of the most popular Graphic Novelists. Please check out (at least in terms of research) and possibly visit. There are some really interesting people here and you can follow links from the site to check them out further.

www.institut-francais.org.uk/bdandcomicspassion

I particularly like work of Bastien Vives (pictured)

There are also competitions which you can enter and general contact information for this area of Illustration.

Film Watch - The Dark Crystal

This weeks film is the Jim Henson and Frank Oz, puppet-tastic saga 'The Dark Crystal'.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083791

Notes from 5th October session

Notes

• Reminded eveyone of the need to have a professional blog up and running ASAP
• You need to be posting brief updates during every week to keep track of the progress you are making on your pre-production work - these can be as simple as one sentaince + an image posts!
• Continued with studio work
• There is now a Facebook group to keep you up to date, just search on Facebook for 'WMC BA Illustration with Animation' to find it

Task

Watch this weeks film 'The Dark Crystal', and catch up with last weeks 'Moon' if you didn't get a chance to see it.

Also make at least 1 post on your blog, remember...

Tech Cues - Basic blog posts

Remember you need to be blogging your progress through the pre-production work. This can even be a simple image with one line of text a la Twitter style, or an occasional more in depth summery of your thoughts so far on your project. The important thing is to post regulally straight after you create or discover somthing new! It takes less than 2 mins.

A really basic guide to putting up a blog post for anyone who is unsure / needs a reminder.

Film Watch - Moon

This weeks film to watch is the enigmatic SiFi thriller 'Moon' directed by Duncan Jones.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1182345/

Notes from 28th Sept session

Notes

• Continued with project ideas work and preperation in the studio
• Ashley discussed learning plans 1-to-1 with students and reviewed peoples aims for their project.
• Every week going forward from now there will be a film listed in Tasks to watch during the next 7 days, which we will then discuss as a group the following Wednesday.

Task

This weeks film to watch is 'Moon' directed by Duncan Jones.

Tech Cues - Aspect ratio / Resolution & Frame rate

Selecting the aspect ratio / resolution and frame rate for your work is a really important part of your planning stage as both of them make a huge technical impact on the film and are often difficult and messey to change once you have begun work.

When taking on commercial work, these are two things you must confirm with the client before production starts and, particulally where your client isn't knowledgeable about these technical aspects, you will need to talk through with them how they plan to use your animation or film work so you can make the most appropriate choices.


Aspect Ratio / Resolution

This is the screen size and shape of your film, the width and height in pixels of each frame.

• The aspect ratio refers to the relationship between the two values eg. 4:3 (4 pixels wide for every 3 pixels high) or 16:9 (16 pixels wide for every 9 pixels high)
• The resolution is the number of pixels on the screen eg. 1920 wide by 1080 tall (giving 2,073,600 pixels per frame).

If your production is going to be projected in a classroom then you will likely need a different set of values to if you are creating a short film to submit to a festival or an advert for a web banner.

Some of the main standard resolution values you will come accross currently:

• 1024 x 768     [4:3]
  This is the old non-widescreen format used on TVs. Many older projectors used in theatres and schools still need this ratio as widescreen footage (16:9) can appear squashed horizontally, or letterboxed to a scale that is harder to see, if used instead.
• 1024 x 576     [16:9]
  Low res wide screen format. Some TV productions are still produced at this resolution but it is rapidly becoming much less common. It's a good size for streaming over the internet to mobile devices or slow connections as it keeps the overall file size down but gives a good picture quality.
• 1280 x 720     [16:9]
  The scale you see with "720p" video, sutable when you need HD footage but also want to keep the file size down. A good size for streaming over the internet if you want a crisper picture and the audience is likely to have a reasonably speedy broadband connection.
• 1920 x 1080     [16:9]
  What is currently reffered to as full HD, aka "1080p" video. Most non-cinema commercial work tends to require this format, and it is the scale you should try to work to for personal productions if you intend to submit them to festivals as it will give a nice, clear picture even when projected onto a cinema screen. Be aware that file sizes can grow very large, very quickly with this resolution so for HD productions you may wish to work at 1280 x 720 resolution on less powerful computers.
• 3996 x 2160     [1.85:1]
  One of the two formats used for American films along with [2.39:1] (see below). The resolution quoted here is for a 4K camera which is a recent introduction and an averadge home computer will not handle projects of 4K resolution. However, the same aspect ratio can be created with a lower resolution such as 1920 x 1038.
• 4096 x 1714     [2.39:1]
  The usuall world cinema standard ratio, also known as "two-four-oh" as it may be thought of as rounded up to 2.40 i.e. [2.4:1] Again I have quoted the ratio for a 4K camera, so for your own productions it would be better to use 1920 x 803.

Frame Rate

As an animator it is important to understand clearly the difference between frame rate and animating on singles, doubles or any other multiple.

The term frame rate should be reserved for when you are talking about your output film and the scene file / timeline you are animating within on the computer. It is the number of frames per second (fps) not the number of drawings per second.

While a 24fps film animated on doubles looks the same as a 12fps film animated on singles, you should not think of animating on doubles as setting up a scene file at 12fps! There are still 24 frames of footage, you only have 12 drawings but you are exposing each drawing twice, hence doubles.

Any change in fps, when also keeping the length of the film the same, will always lead to either frame blending (where you see part of two ajacent frames overlayed on top of each other at the same time) or exposure extension / skipping (where the computer chooses certain frames to show for longer turning singles into doubles etc. when increasing fps or remove entiarly when decreasing fps - very bad if one of your key frames is removed so try to avoid decreasing fps when possible).

When capturing live action footage for a slow motion shot it is always preferable to film at a high frame rate so that you will have a smoother picture once the footage is stretched out to a slower (lower) fps. This does not lead to problems mentioned above, asuming you are using a devision of the original frame rate e.g. 120fps down to 30fps, as the overall length of the footage is also changing.


The main standard fps values you will come accross currently:

• 24fps
  The 'norm' for animation. It divides down into smaller factions very easily: 12, 8, 6, 4, 3, 2, 1. Usually you will want to animate at 24fps even if that means you need to convert it up to a different rate, as getting the timing right will feel more natural. 24 fps is also the European PAL standard frame rate.
• 25fps
  What most basic digital video cameras will film at, also the North American NTFS standard frame rate.
• 30fps
  A more modern frame rate for capturing on digital video cameras.

Tech Cues

Every so often I'll be putting up a 'Tech Cues' post. These will be condensed snippets of technical knowledge, that will be of use to reference during your production process.

If there is anything in particular that people would like me to cover in one of these please leave a comment and I'll try to do an explanation or demo to answer your quirey.

Animation & Film Festivals

A few animation, games and film related festivals you might like to visit this year. It's a great change to hear about some of the most recent work being done in the industry as well as getting some inside knowledge into the techniques used to produce it. Also you can meet other students working on similar projects and build contacts with the people who will become your contemporary professionals in the future.

Flip Festival
27th - 29th October 2011
Light House Media Centre - Wolverhampton

Leeds International Film Festival
3rd - 20th November 2011
Leeds

Bradford Animation Festival
8th - 12th November 2011
National Media Museum - Bradford

Encounters International Film Festival
16th - 20th November 2011
Watershed and surrounding area - Bristol

Animex
7th - 11th Febuary 2012
Teesside University - Middlesbrough


Also take a look at some of these foreign festivals, you might not choose to travel this far just yet, but that doesn't stop you from submitting your films to the judges!

Sundance Film Festival
19th - 29th January 2012
Park City, Utah, USA

FMX
May 2012
Stuttgart, Germany

Internationales TrickFilm Festival
May 2012
Stuttgart, Germany

Australian International Animation Festival
May 2012
Wagga Wagga, Australia

Annecy
4th - 9th June 2012
Annecy, France

Melbourne International Animation Festival
June 2012
Melbourne, Australia

Notes from 21st Sept session

Notes

• Introduced Ashley Dean who is taking course tutoring duties from Laura.
  http://www.brokenpixel.co.uk/
• Continued working on our ideas for the upcoming semester's work, including mini briefs and the three ideas pitch.
• We talked more about the possible competitions available for animators and illustrators which might be appropriate for the mini briefs component.
• Began to complete the Learning Plan sheet for the upcoming semester's work.

Task

Continue work on your three ideas for the major project in preparation for the pitch next week on 28th September.

Complete your Learning Plan and ensure this is handed to Nick by the end of the week.

External Projects

Updated 21st Sept

Here is a list of various Illustration and Animation competitions and other external projects that you may want to choose from for your 100 hours Mini Projects part of the module. I will add more to this list as I find them, so check back on this post occasionally for additional options. Also be aware some of the deadlines are quite soon, so get cracking!

Illustration

• Graphic Competitions
  - Muppets Fan Tee Design Contest - Oct 2nd deadline
  - Tapirulan International Illustrators Contest - Sept 23rd deadline
  - Ilustrarte 2012 Children Books Illustrators Contest - Sept 30th deadline
  
• Eyeka
  - Speedo - Sept 29th deadline
  - They update regularly, so check the site again later for more options
  
• The Calendar Project Competition
  - 3 colour, self motivation topic - Oct 14th deadline
  
• Communication Arts
  - Various categories - Jan 6th 2012 deadline
  
• House of Illustration
  - Book illustration - Jan 10th 2012 deadline
  
• Tigerprint
  - Female Special Relationship Card - Oct 13th deadline

Animation

• 11 Second Club
  - Weekly competition
  
• Eyeka
  - Speedo - Spet 29th deadline
  - Dell / Intel - Oct 5th deadline
  - Puma - Oct 11th deadline
  - Knorr - Oct 25th deadline
  - Danone - Oct 26th deadline
  - They update regularly, so check the site again later for more options

Notes from 14th Sept session

Notes

• Introduced Matthew Duddington to the students.
  – Matthew will be responsible for administrating the Blog and Liaising with staff and students to develop content that is animation and illustration led.
  
• We jotted down initial thoughts on ambitions and directions for the next twelve months.
  – What plans or ideas did people have for future career development which could lead and inform the major project.
  
• We began work toward building our project research file (see task below).
  
• In the next few days, Matthew will create a post ‘External Projects’ on the course blog (drawthedinosaw.blogspot.com) that will provide links to potential sources for the Mini Project part of the module brief.

Task

Begin to create a research file (for example: images, URLs, story extracts, photos, sketchbook work, sculpture, collage, diagrams, models) that includes your influences, ideas and interests in animation or illustration.

Use this research file as a foundation for developing 3 possible ideas for your major project which will be pitched on the 28th September.

Additionally consider the design of your online identity (Avatar and Name) through consideration of your influences and peers. This research will include subscription to Blogs and Forums if not already doing so.

For Wednesday 21st September please bring along any initial ideas and work in progress, which we will continue to work on in studio and discuss amongst the group.