Contextual thinking
past projects:
Over the past year or so, I've been trying to learn about animation, and have completed several projects, both personal and for college experimenting with this. I'd like to expand on these skills in my FMP.
april 2020
A small project, (about 6 hrs) which was my first time attempting animation, I wanted to have these characters act out the lines which I thought fit their personalities quite well. This introduced me to concepts like frame rates and expressing how emotions on moving characters.
August 2020
An attempt at more complex animation, I wanted to animate an equine gait since I've drawn them for a couple years now and wanted to see it in action. I chose to make it a canter and referenced stills of horses. This taught me about refining the workflow as much as possible, like reusing assets to keep it looking similar throughout.
September 2020
First animated task for college, focussed on lip syncing to audio of singing. This made me think more deliberately about frame rates and even the character design in the animation. The lip syncing was not done in an effective manner and did not correlate well to what to audio was actually saying.
September 2020
Another attempt at cycles, this time experimenting with looping movements. I tried to use some strong colours to add interest. This was quite basic but looked effective enough.
january 2021
A mix of 2D animation done in After Effects and live footage. This project taught me about character design and introduced me to using AE. The animation is very hit and miss with the pin tool. I'd like to expand on using this tool in this project. I also was introduced to character turnarounds.
february 2021
Animated clip that was inserted into a portal effect and composited into live action footage. This process taught me the process of keyframes, inbetweening and then lining and colouring. This was quite challenging and I would like to refine my workflow to ensure it doesn't take as long to make something as short.
Why make a narrative piece?
I have chosen to create a narrative piece because story and character driven content is what I'm most passionate about creating. Creating a film driven by things I'm passionate about will help motivate me to push myself and complete my work.
I love to draw and create characters and stories, it is something I'm very eager about. I want to take skills I have learnt through creating many characters and designs to help me create strong character designs in this project.
Why did i pick my chosen themes?
I chose my themes of escapism and media due to my own personal experiences within the past year. The idea of a character becoming inundated with constant bad news and then turning to the internet for some sort of relief stems exactly from what I’ve done myself during the pandemic and amongst all the political strafe of the past few years. I like to keep up with the news and being informed of important happenings, but sometimes there was just too much to keep up with and the constant bombardment of negativity never fares well for my mental health. When overwhelmed with things I turn to being creative to get my feelings out about something.
I was inspired to create something with this idea when I remembered how my first response to the first announcement of schools closing and exams being cancelled was to draw something and consume media I find comfort in. This continued throughout 2020 when stuck at home, all I did was just make things. I took this idea and these feelings and thought it would be a good inspiration to create art from. Just like what I find escapism in.
Is my idea feasible?
I believe my idea is feasible because I am quite adept at drawing and using digital art programs and would like to expand on my skills and take these into animation. I also have access to and knowledge on how to edit video and audio which I would like to use to enhance my film. Timewise, I think that if I plan myself well and develop a good workflow I will be able to execute my vision, if I follow my GANNT chart I believe that I’ll be able to get work done with enough time. To make sure that this will be achievable, I want my story to not be too complex and make a shorter film.
I also have access to the resources I plan to use for this project at college and at home, so I’ll be able to complete my work effectively.
do i have the skills to make this project? and which ones can i develop?
This project will revolve around 2D animation, to create this I will use many skills I have learned.
More specifically I want to use my skills in After Effects to animate things like the computer screen and parts that move on that. I will use my knowledge of audio editing in Audacity and Premiere to add sound to my piece. I will also use my skills know-how of colour grading in Resolve to create my final edit.
I want to learn more about drawing backgrounds. After seeing some videos that inspired me, I knew that I needed to be able to create environments that help establish the setting of my scenes. I struggle a lot with drawing these and often heavily rely on photographic reference. I want to practice drawing these as it will help me create the backgrounds in my animation in an effective way.
I also plan to use strong colour palettes to help show what the characters are feeling. I want to research more into colours that work well together aesthetically and utilise colour theory and meanings to help convey atmosphere and tone. I already really enjoy using strong and bright colours and I'm excited to see how I can use this in my project.
I also want to use what I know about shading and drawing to add more depth to the piece. I plan to add shade on top of the finished frame layer. This too will help push tone by what type of lighting and colour I use. For example, a sadder scene will be dimly lit and dark, a dramatic scene will have more ambient lighting.
who will be my audience?
I plan for my target audience to be teens and young adults, around the age ranges of 14-25 years old.
My ideal audience member is ideally someone younger, more nerdy and interested politics and more aware than not about things like fandom culture, I want my audience to be inspired to think about their own internet habits and it they're harmful.
Inspirations
Here are some films/creators who's work I've found inspirational towards this project.
'Model citizen' by dead sound
Model Citizen is a 3D animated short film by animator David James Armsby. It is the fifth short film in his 'Autodale' series, the series follows a dystopian town run by robots where humans have adopted robotic values and lives. Citizens of Autodale live to go to work and to raise a child that will eventually replace them, anyone who is not useful to this society by means of not fitting into the perfect nuclear family is branded an 'ugly' and must be rid of. This film follows what happens when a couple have finished raising their child, their replacement and are no longer useful to society. The husband and wife realise that their time is up and waltz happily to their graves, even thanking the robot about to execute them, safe in the knowledge that they had fulfilled their purpose and been 'model citizens'. They triumphantly kiss as victory music plays and the man in front of them is horrifically murdered by the robot they just thanked.
This film was inspirational to me because I found myself strongly drawn to the darker subject content and how it was conveyed through animation, sound design and colours. The entire film is greyscale, resembling the black and white television of the 1950’s when this nuclear family ideal was most prevalent. The only colour shown is the red of the blood when the ‘uglies’ are being killed at the end. This well thought out use of colour inspired me to want to look more into colour theory and use colour meanings to add meaning to the scenes in my animation. I was also strongly drawn to the way he was able to convey a darker tone and subject matter through the animation. I want to take this idea and convey some serious ideas that I will research through my animation too.
'twins in paradise' by vewn
'Twins in Paradise' is a 2D animated short film by Vewn, it follows twin tennis stars Darcy and Marcy as they prepare for the big tennis championship amidst nuclear armageddon. I found this relevant to my project idea, in the way the artist tackled heavier issues though a narrative animated piece. Amongst their tennis training the twins deal with their own demons ; there seems to be no parental figure in their life lest for their dead mother, an exploitative coach and Darcy's therapist who couldn't care less. Marcy deals with the angel and demons on her shoulder and Darcy ODs on her prescribed medication for her "chronic despair". Whilst taking these drugs the twins go into a 'portal' world.
Apart from the more obvious messages about substance abuse, suicide, greiving, mental health issues,war, I really liked the less obvious issues they mentioned like religion and divorce. Throughout the film the TV’s flash advertisements “The end is nigh! Repent now or perish.”, a politician is also seen saying to news crews, “ I will nuke my country because God wants us dead”. Similarly prevalent is is exploitation and abuse of children in the mainstream media, the coach feigns concern for Darcy in hospital from her overdose, more concerned if she’ll be able to play teniss later, same coach tells Marcy to “stop asking stupid questions” when she and a high Marcy are having pin up style photos taken as advertisement for the tennis championship. I really liked the idea of using animation to cover darker themes like this and would like to do something similar (though perhaps more lighthearted) for my project about media and news. I also would like to take inspiration from the artist’s more simple art style with it’s rough aesthetic that really complemented the subject matter, the jagged lines and scribbles had a great hand drawn quality to them.
Artist/ Youtuber Lavender towne
(Haley Newsome)
Lavendertowne is youtuber and comic artist, popular for making relatable art videos and tutorials. Particularly character designs from things like astrology and social media apps. She has a very prominent cartoon style, with strong lines, silhouettes and colours and big emotive eyes usually with images and symbols inside instead of pupils. I've used her tutorials before whilst teaching myself digital art, like her shading do's and dont's videos.
Such tutorials I found invaluable to improving my technique, like learning cell vs soft shading and using blending layers. I want to take inspiration from this artist in terms of art style and character design, I want my film to have a more simpler art style than my usual more real/anime inspired one. I want to research more into types of visual styles I could use and experiment with how they affect my character designs.
research
This research plan will help me plan what research I need to carry out. By specifying which types of data I'll collect, I can make sure that I am getting a good range of research from varied sources.