Animation Group Project Update.

In just a couple of hours we have come up with a decent idea for a quick animation, made the models and got the background sorted. We will soon be ready to animate.

This is the background that is going to be used.

Animation Ideas/brief

For this Project, we will all have our different roles for this project. This means we will all have some responsibility and all have to work together. I have the responsibility of animating. Declan Bailey is in charge of making the models, and Jack Simpson is in charge of the editing.
Of course, just because we are in charge of our own areas, we can still help each other with other pieces of work. I for instance could help with the model making or set designing etc.

The actual animation will be promoting 'The Silver Arts Award'. The idea is as follows; We don't want to make something too long, so we are looking at no longer than 20 seconds. We are going to be promoting the silver arts award. It will start with a man walking down a road. He will be walking across the street when suddenly he will get run over by a car or a bulldozer. He will get completely flattened and when he comes out the other side of the vehicle it will spell 'Arts Award' where his body would normally be. It could be set out like a bit of a 'sting' similar to what you might find before a television programme on Channel 4.  

Planning Practical Issues

For this animation, we thought it would be best to keep it very simple. This is because if it is simple, it will be easy to make as well as look good.  As we couldn't think of a really good idea, we decided to try and advertise the Arts Award in a funny kind of maner.
We are thinking of the idea of having a small blob crossing the road. While Crossing he gets hit by a vehicle. His Squashed body on the floor then spells, "Arts Award". The real Arts Award logo will then fade into view.

The Software I am going to need to use below.

• Adobe Photoshop - Photoshop is a sophisticated programme which is used to edit photos and images. I am going to use this to edit some of the background images and the road that could be used in the animation.    

• IStopMotion 3 - IStopMotion 3 is a decent piece of Software which is used to make short films using the 'Stop-Motion' technique. Stop-Motion is a way of creating films by taking many pictures. You combine these photos together and play them back and you will be watching a movie.    

• Adobe Premier - Adobe Premier is a Very Sophisticated Video editing programme. We will use this for adding a title to the video and to add in sound effects.       

Unit 2 Arts Leadership

For the next unit, i am going to be doing animation, again. Will will be doing this Second Animation Project with Jack Simpson, and Declan Bailey. We will each be taking up our own jobs in which we are going to be in charge of a particular aspect of the overall Project.

Declan said he would like to work creating and designing the clay models and backgrounds. Jack Said he would be happy to edit the finished video. While that leaves me with the actual Animating. 

Although we are all in charge of these particular aspects of the Animation, we can all do a bit of each other's work. 

Model Making and Designing - This job requires an understanding of how plasticine works, and the different ways you can make whatever you want with it. You need to understand how the 'crafting' works when making a clay model.      

Editor - The editor Must be able to collect all footage and edit it into a masterpiece, or at least a decent(ish) film. As this is an Animation however, there won't be too much that needs cutting. It will be more of a adding effects, sounds and anything else that needs touched up.   

Animator -  An animator is the person in charge of the actual animating. A typical animation tends to be 24 frames per second. You take a picture every frame moving the object just a small amount, then after a while when you play it back, it should look very smooth and you can watch it come to life.          

The particular skills I would like to develop myself through being the animator for this project are being able to time each frame correctly. If you don't time each frame properly, the finished product could either look too slow or really 'jittery'. Either way it won't look very professional.
I would also like to improve on my model making. Although Model making is not strictly an animators job, they may have to do quick fixes or repair a model if something goes wrong. 

Animation Update 11/03

I have Filmed more of my Animation today. You can view it below.

I Think somebody has been tampering with my plasticine models in the past week, because one of them was 'dirty' looking and had strange marks all over it. This meant i had to do my best to fix it quickly and try, get some animation done.
Although there weren't any network errors this week, i was still having problems with the istopmotion Software.
As this is my Arts Award, i think i may have enough animation for this project. But i must still continue with my animation, as it is being used in my other project.

A review of this Project will follow Shortly.

Animation Update 4/03 - 6/03

Today i got another 15 Seconds completed of Animation. Here is the video below.

As you can see, it looks a little rough, and without sound, it is certainly missing something. I plan to re-shoot some of this as it looks a little too rough for my liking. But overall i am happy with the progress i am making with this project. 

Last week i had completed little to no work at all, because the Apple Mac Computers were not working properly. Despite them not working too well this week either, i was able to work around it (just), and get something completed. I am hoping to finish the animating process within a 3-4 Weeks. I will then be able to get on with the editing and begin my evaluation of this project. 

Animation update

Today i started my animation. This animation will be used for not just for my Silver Arts Award, but for my Creative Project as well.
After building the set exactly how i wanted it, i set-up the camera, to make sure that the angles were going to work how i wanted them. I then began animating. I only got around 3 and a half seconds complete as shown in the video to the right here. This had taken me around 15 minutes at most to animate and the video when completed will probably be around the 1 minute mark, probably a little less.
I hope to get this finished within 3-4 weeks, and will hopefully then start the editing at that point which should not need too much work done to it.