Category: 2022

summary essay | bcm325

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During this semester the progression of my Digital Artefact did not go to planned. I changed my original idea two weeks after pitching my first Digital Artefact idea, to my new Digital Artefact, “The Art of Animation”. and thought changing my Digital Artefact made me more driven, I know I didn’t achieve what I intended to achieve, and this summary will also provide a critical analysis of my work. The body of work I produced for Future Cultures, and the self-driving it took to get to the completion of the project is something I am proud of, nonetheless.

My original Digital Artefact (DA) idea focused on “The Future of Me” and was going to act as a reflective investigation into my future, and what it meant for me to create plans in thinking about my life 5 years into the future. And thought this idea did meet the criteria of the subject, I couldn’t find the drive to push myself to continue the research. My original idea was going to be on multiple platforms and be more accessible online. But along with the existential crisis the research made me feel, I just couldn’t continue to blog about and vlog about myself for my original plan of at least six blogs and 3 video blogs. And thought in theory the idea sounded up to the task of the DA, the scope was just too great a workload for me to handle. I did begin the project by taking the advice my peers, and tutor gave me, and investigated five-year plans and the “science of planning”. And following the model of FEFO (fail early fail often) the idea failed early and never made it to its first blog post.

The new DA has assisted me into my graphic design work and helped me look deeper into a field of work I admire. If I had to re-pitch ‘The Art of Animation’ I would say the project investigates the past and how it’s shaped the future of animation and the trajectory and scope of the artform. Before beginning my new DA, I took the same steps I did with the original, pretending in a way I did have to do a Pitch. I planned for what the future of animation would look like in five year’s time, when (if I choose to pursue it) would be in the industry myself. I landing on creating three blog posts that explored the past, present and future of animation along with a concluding video essay. I choose this topic because I was working on animation for the first time in my life as an artist. I’ve always appreciated animation but never knew the different processes it entail, and the history that has shaped the presence and the future possibilities of animation.

Blog 1: I addressed the history of animation and different inventions that have shaped the way we animate today. In addition, a few techniques that have been replicated to computer-animation from traditional handmade techniques. I considered I set myself well with this first post, and it felt like I had a clear trajectory in mind. But in the research, I failed to even mention that I was looking into the future of animation in the span of five-years. And that’s where I must have set myself up for a bit unsuccessfully when I failed to mention which window of the future I was looking in.

Blog 2: In this blog I wanted to address the changes made to animation in the current and near-future using examples of CGI and mix medium animation like in Spiderman: Into the Spider-verse. I re-reading this blog I feel I got lost in wanted to talk about all the interesting things about animation in CGI films to the point of not even addressing the future.

Blog 3: I did an overall recap on the previous blogs. As well as looking more into animation in the game industry. I feel if I separated the genres of animation more instead of touching on various points, I could’ve covered more thoroughly. As well as leaving myself room to address the future of those areas and spaces of animation.

Video Essay: In my video essay I summarised the blog series and brought it to an overall conclusion. I liked this part the most out of my DA for the fact it gave me to show the animation in motion, without just clipping a YouTube video to my blog. It allowed me to provide commentary while a clip played. The only problem is if I did multiple video essay, it would have been time consuming and overwhelming. Thought it would’ve been beneficial to my DA. But I am glad I got to include at least one to my project.

The passion for my new DA allowed me to pump out the content the project and assessment needed, but I know I missed the brief. My project only addressed the future, as a whole. Nowhere in my project did I mention if I was referring to the future in 5, 10 or 20 years. I believe my project does have social utility, particularly as a Visual Communications student, who knew there are currently other students in my cohort studying Motion Design for the first time. And most likely looking into animation for the first time in their lives. I found it had a lot of use for people, even after the glimpses of CGI animation we saw in our weekly viewing and live tweeting in the subject. I knew there would be people out there with some interest in animation and knowing “how the sausage gets made”. The regret I have is, I only made my blog series available on my own personal blog, and re-blogged the links to my twitter. In hindsight I could have made use of the subject blog and posted my content to that platform. As well as advertising my blogs on Reddit or other social media’s to gain engagement and feedback on my weekly posts. Underestimating the workload and need for research hindered my final product of the DA this semester. Also not using social media to its fullest, really didn’t allow my DA to flourish the way it could have.

What I have learnt from producing ‘The Art of Animation’ is that when a topic has relevance, and some kind personal passion to you, the work just flows. And it didn’t feel like work, it felt like I was researching for my own knowledge in that particular field of graphic design. Which I know was something mentioned to the cohort at the start of the semester in selecting a topic to investigate for our DA’s. But perhaps that’s where the meaning of my DA got lost, in my own passions and excitement for animation itself. I forgot to address the brief of the DA because I got lost in the facts and art of the animation I was looking into. If I could go back now and refine the scope of my DA again, I would do what I said in my “new pitch”. Look at the industry in five years, as if I were to be joining it. And thought I mentioned new techniques and new age methods of animation, I didn’t insert myself anywhere in the DA. Nor did I mention that period of five years. I got lost in the word “future” and the mantra, “the future is now” and just kept mentioning the vastness and immensity of the future of animation.

In one way or another completing my DA this semester for BCM325 was beneficial to me and my future.  My DA is a body of work I am proud of producing. Though it did miss the brief in some ways, it did address the way history has shaped the future of the topic. And if I choose to step into the animation field, I know vital information that will assist me in producing content because of the work I have done this semester.

the art of animation – a conclusion

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Video Transcript:

The animation industry is changing rapidly, and it won’t be slowing down any time soon. In the years to come, we can expect to see even quicker changes as technology advances and tastes change to reflect artists and animators capabilities.  With all of these animation trends happening simultaneously and the quality of animation becoming realistic more than ever, it is evident that the animation industry will become in demand for its fans.

In my blog series I’ve spoken more on the side of animation in the film industry. But its important to know animation isn’t limited to this. I touched on animation in interactive games and virtual reality. But animation even has its own generes within like Anime and mix mediums like rotoscoping and CGI animation. As well as adult animation – there has been wild success of shows like South Park, Rick and Morty and Robot Chicken. Theres also interface animation like we see on Ironman’s mask in the Marvel Films. As well as IOS Apps that feature graphics – thats all animation.

I wanted to share with you a short case study on my favourite animated gang. The first episode of Scooby Doo Where Are You! aired on thr 13th of September 1969. Today, there have been 13 series of television shows, each with multiple seasons, 1 animated theatircal release, 3 Limited animated releases and 5 live-action animated adaptions. And in 2021 it was announced there would be a 14th series of the Scooby Doo, turning to adult animation and centering on the character Velma. The original creators: Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, Inc. which was an American animation studio and production company that produced fully animated and live-action programming for television broadcast from 1957 until 2001 until Scooby and the gang were sold to Warner Brothers. The gang have had many face changes and face lifts to match the audience they’re being presented too but they’ll always be recognisable to their audience. The franchise has been able to regenerate in different animation styles throgh the years because of the evolution of animation itself. The characters are able to live on.

The world of animation is very vast, and can be limitless is the imagination allows it. Only slightly dipping my toes into the world recently – I found what I had already known, that the art is very hard. To make something stationary appear to realisitcally move can be very difficult even with the Persistence of Vision. This is my current project, and to say it took me hours to complete seconds of film would be an understatement because I need to yell it. Hours go into creating a project that involves cell animation, particularly if you’re the sole and only animator. Using Adobe After Effects to bring life into a stationary image involved so much time and patience. Of course this is my first experiment with animation, so I’m no professional. But I have such an appreciation for the art of animation, particularly the early cell animations.

the evolution of animation

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Animation is an industry that has kept up with the film indstry in the way it produces content and adapts to growing and everychanging technologies. Since the beginning the art has been constantly evolving. If you look at the difference in a years work of animation compared to a feature from the current year you’d already see a significant difference.

“With virtual reality and augmented reality now on the rise, animators are doing their best to make environments and objects even more similar to what we see in real life.”

Sora (Character) from Disney Interactive Studio’s Kingdom Hearts Games 1-3

Animation in the gaming industry has made major improvements over the years. And they are expected to continue to do this, they are expected to have better graphics and advanced tech to take players out of the everyday world while feeling like they’re in realistic worlds. Computer graphics is to blame for displaying art and image knowledge effectively and meaningfully to the gamer and viewer. it’s conjointly used for process image knowledge received from the physical world. special effects development has had a major impact on many varieties of media and has revolutionized animation, movies, advertising, video games, and graphic style generally.

But animation in the film industry. There will always be a need. Most noteably for childrens features and for their booming empire, Disney will not stop creating animated features, even as the film industry changes. Animation has had a major growth spurt in recent years but CGI has become populare as well due to films like ‘Avatar’ as I previously mentioned. Pixar’s ‘Inside Out’ won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Film. What’d interesting about Pixar is that they do not use a publicly available form of animation software, but have in fact developed their own in-house software. ‘Avatar’, however, released in 2009, was created using multiple pieces of widely available software, such as Autodesk Maya, Avid, and Adobe After Effects. The software Pixar uses is called ‘Presto’ and they have been extremely secretive about what going on inside their animation studios. The software is not avaliable commercially and was developed with the help of Steve Jobs.

Some Pixar employees describe Presto as the race car of animation softwares. 

It needs highly trained mechanics and drivers that have been trained and briefed on how exactly it is going to use the fastest. But due to how finely tuned it is, it is also expected to crash once in a while but no other tool comes close to doing the job as well as Presto.

Animation itself is a powerful tool for storytelling because a story can stretch as far as an artists imagination can. It isnt cheaper than a live action film, but it does excel when it comes to shorts, or for marketing purposes rather than a full animated feature. When most people refer to the renaissance age of American animation, they’re generally talking about the period that began in the late 1980s and ended in the 1990s. This period, sometimes also called the Disney Renaissance, saw a huge rise of critically successful animated films. No one is unfamiliar with the Disney Renassance of the 90’s with children growing up watching Disney’s Princess movie collection. But many independant and internation studios have been able to catch the eye of big companies like Disney, producing popular media for television. Like I mentioned in my last post, “Spider-man: Into the Spiderverse” film, which featured a fantastic style evoking comic books. Rather than using traditional CGI, it was animated using new rendering styles combined with hand-drawn elements. Sony Animation isn’t always recogonized as one of the big studios, but with the way they produce popular franchises like Hotel Transilvania and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs they are one of the big contenders. Producing a film like “Spider-man: Into the Spiderverse” showed how many rules of animation can be bent in order for the right kind of storytelling.

The future of animation looks to be on an interesting journey as the quality of films is becoming higher and higher. Most people would now aim for a 4k film, however to achieve this quality in animation would take twice as long to create. The artform will continue to have it’s “basic”
(and I used that word very lightly) techniques and toolkits – but it will get more technical and evolve with the human industry of film it’s trying to keep with, and even overtake.

References:
– Author N/A. Year N/A. The Present and Future of Animation. Spinning Clock. https://www.spinningclock.com/services/animation/presentandfuture
-Author N/A. Year N/A. The Future of the Animation Industry. Business of Animation. https://businessofanimation.com/the-future-of-the-animation-industry/
– FIN Staff. 2022. The Future of Animation: Is there potential for a new renaissance? Film Industry Network. https://filmindustry.network/the-future-of-animation-is-there-potential-for-a-new-renaissance/39346
– Matthew, J. 2019. How Technology Is Transforming Gaming Industry. Medium. https://medium.com/dataseries/how-technology-is-transforming-gaming-industry-c28a53b45a45

tweet summary 2 | bcm325

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please click hyper links to see my favourite interactions & discussions
with my peers! 🤗

WK6 – Robot and Frank 🤖

⬆️ my highlight tweets ⬆️

Robot and Frank looked at healthcare and robotics. As advanced AI solutions are able to ignore anything that isn’t relevant to their assigned goal, until they “evolve”. Doubters in these advancements see no future in tech and humanity working side by side. It is inevitable at this point in our timeline; AI will exist. The question is how societies, cultures and individuals will regulate, experiment with and integrate AI into their daily lives.

This video from 2018, Shows INF Robotics prototype of a robot specifically designed for the elderly, just like Robot in the film. Something that seniors would be able to find “accessible and trustworthy”. The robotics company has the vision of making this robot accessible for many families, as well as helping seniors keep their independance and stay that way to improve their quality of life. And with their being minimal delay between innovation snad introduction to the market, it won’t be too long now until this become a reality for aged care. With algorithmic analysis and other artificial intelligence applications robotics is more flushed out than ever before.

WK7 – Arrival 👽

⬆️ my highlight tweets ⬆️

Arrival looked at the future on circular path, not linear. If you could change the future, would you? If you could evolve humankind, would they listen? Not only does the film cover this but also covers extraterritorial beings and the respect we have for one another in a crisis. It looked at Louise, the protagonist, as a Futurist and futurist must do as well as imagine.

Arrival also takes as through the artform of linguistics. And how among everyone in the film, Louise was the one able to crack the Alien language, starting with fear, she had the heard to see that they were on Earth for a different reason rather than to attack. In most of the films we’ve seen a deeper look at future technologies, Arrival, besides the alien’s “gift” to humanity, shows us the technology that already exists to us. It was Louise’s mind who chose to use the technology for the purpose she did. She was a futurist from the start, knowing there was more to the story for the arrival of the aliens.

WK9 – Alita: Battle Angel 👩🏻‍🎤

⬆️ my highlight tweets ⬆️

Alita is a cyborg “born” into an overpopulated city, who slowly learns about her past through battle and relationships. A cyborg forces us to rethink ideas about our relationship to technology and to our own bodies. VFX and CGI were used to create the world of Alita and Alita herself. It also shows us how technology, and Alita’s advance tech, is able to save the one she loves which can be a reflection of prothestics in our world.

The world of Alita reminds us that technology is the new ordinary, but also that humanities has control over its own biological evolution, which to some can be a spiritual challenge. Being able to modify the human tissue is regulated in our current medical practises in prothestics and metal bone-simulators. But Alita shows us what could be beyond, even our own imagination of what the body can become.

The animation of Alita also feels intentional, it stikes my eye because im doing my DA on animation itself. But the way they have animated her with large cartoon-like eyes make me believe they did that to show that even if she wasnts “completely” human – she still had such a big heart and soul. She also looks similar to Motoko Kusanagi in Ghost in the Shell.

They both have been brought up “fight the bad guy”. Both cyborgs both in their own ways actually do dream of a community; it is outside of communal thinking because it is no longer human, it has an affinity for networks but is not human or machine, it is not natural or unnatural but both, it is something new. Alita more so as she seeks love and affection.

WK10 – Ready Player One 👾

⬆️ my highlight tweets ⬆️

Ready Player One follows our male protaonigst Wade as he escaped his over-populated city through a virtual-reality headset and enters the world of Oasis. In the end he learns the lesson that Oasis is just a game that’s meant to be played, not a new reality. The film pays homage to the 80’s, a new age for technological advances.

The films message reminds us that the Cyberspace is real. And thought it cannot be traveled into, as encompassing as the film’s cyberspace OASIS – it is every present and surrounding us everyday. Cyberspace can mean impressive new Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality technologies but it is also the concensual hallucination experiences daily by billions of people. It is the encompass us daily with the use of mobile devices. It is the visual representation of the infomational computer space. The things that happen in cyberspace have real consequences. As we see play out on screen in the film when Wade succeeds in the cyberspace of OASIS, he puts his family and real world body in danger.

The VR technology in the film felt like it was so futuristic form the full bodysuit with touch sensory and the omnidirectional tredmil. But these technologies aren’t so different or far away to those that exist in the real world.

WK11 – Don’t Look Up ☄️

⬆️ my highlight tweets ⬆️

Don’t Look Up is a dark satire about humanity’s efforts to deflect a comet that’s going to destroy us all. In the film social-media is a major part highlighting the majority of the world’s response to the news from the two main characters. Which rings very similar to when the COVID-19 pandemic first appeared on the news. The movie, though dark – hones in on the message that if those in charge choose to ignore public conern, there won’t be much to do when it’s too late.

Reminicent of the WK1 of BCM325 where we looked at planning for the future in war. The same goes for natural disaster’s which though can be presumed, are more unpredicatable than war tackics, and can also be bigger than war.

The film follows Randall and Kate’s Media Junket after they discover the comet in order to share the news with the world via a”tour”. Presentational media involves the sociocultural transformation of social networks, which includes the redirection of traditional media content – toward the layering of the online self. The added element of them becoming “celebrities” from this change the message theyre trying to convey. Intercommunication is used in the film itself by casting Leonardo Dicaprio in the lead role, an actor who has been very vocal about his concern for climate change.

blog post 4 | vcd302

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My Project is the 54th Street opening title sequence, which uses 2D analogue animation techniques to pay homage to the beautiful artform and show my illustrations in a new light.

The area of motion design my project intends to cover is 2D animation, using secondary motion and camera techniques withing After Effects to pull of a short hand-drawn animated sequence. The function of the project will cover this and my technical ability to create moving images from my illustrations.

The form of my project is a opening title sequence to a fictional television show that I have created. The sequence will follow a short story line, similar to that of the opening sequence of Catch Me if You Can, without telling a full narrative. It will follow a short linear story for the viewers to understand somewhat what goes on in the “series”.

The production techniques I intend to use are prodominently cel animation using Procreate and my iPad to illustrate. My hope for the project is to be able to create the bulk of the animation using the “Animation Assist” tool on Procreate – and then transfer my work into After Effects for refining. But through creating my opening shot, it looks like I’m going to have to do alot of experimenting with vectorizing and dropping into AfterEffects to see what works.

The inspiration and reference for my work is the Only Murders in the Building Opening which uses Laura Perez’s artwork and animated it in a uniwue way, with minimal movement. Also using the comic book animations on Moodle for inspiration. The way it’s page to screen animation is able to tella story the waya graphic novel can with choppy movement that still flows. I’d really like it if my sequence looked like a graphic novel brought to life/choppy/ paper-cut out like. That would be my ultimate goal for my major project.

MY PROOF OF CONCEPT:

The next steps I will be taking with my project is working on the storyline and storyboard further. Asking myself if more than the three main characters characters are going to be shown… or should I stick with just the three and not over sell it, and not overestimate my timeline and ability. I know my goal is MOTION, not just a story here. But as a piece for my portoflio I really want a beautiful balance of both.

my final project | vcd302

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If I compare my present After Effects skills to where I was in Week 1, I can proudly say I’ve made a big improvement, and learnt so much more than I thought I was capable of.

I have a well rounded understanding of the principes of motion design, particularly those of the 12 Disney Principles. But as well as Primary and Secondary Motion. I have implimented all I have learned into my 20 second motion design project from my findings in the research stage. By aborbing visual information and finally making a leap to do preliminary play in After Effects I was able to extend the knowledged I had picked up in my research.

When I was told to be ‘abstract’ it felt foreign to me, because I always feel my designs have to tell some kind of a story. I read in my resarch that illustrator, Geefwee Boedoe, working on Pixar’s Monsters Inc. created the opening (with hand drawn images), yet with a sence of stylized abstractness. The quirky opening wasn meant to ease the discomfort of the theme’s of the film by using preppy colours and

As mentioned in my previous blog, I planned out my strategy by choosing which 12 Steps I saw myself being able to include in my sequence. When a shapes moves it has the anticipatory motion, as well as when it stops the top of the shape still leans forward before it becomes fully stationary. As well as squashes and stretches when a shape lands. I wanted some movements to remain stiff and track like motion but others to be fluid, which took me many attempts and prototyping in order to do this while still retaining their structure.

motion design in motion

If I had more time to perfect my project I would ensure my grid like structure was perfectly shaped so the different elements would fit perfectly like a puzzle. When looking at the sequence carefully you can tell each shape doesnt line up percetly and their are little gaps and space between them. as well as when shapes move they appear to move around ever so slightly which is a mistake I couldn’t correct fully as much as I implored myself to attempt many trouble making strategies to do so.

self critique of my work

I’m very happy with my project and what I was able to achieve. Knowing what I know now is to jump into a project after a brainstorm or a slightly spark of inspiration will help me achieve better than dwelling on an idea in the beginning. When I found a colour palette and got my inspiration I hit the ground running and started playing in AfterEffects, the fear of starting is what hindered me. Having this knowledge helped me decide what elements would be the kinetic motion in my sequence, allowing me to choreograph the shapes and find a flow that made sense to the eye of the viewer. In the next project I’m going to pick and idea and just keep prototyping. Once I did that in this sequence after learning motion design principles it help easy to find spaces to impliment them into my work.

The final steps of my project included refinging the shapes, adding easing the the different key frame movements to ensure the hand made movements I had created weren’t to still and were believeable when the sequence plays. Overall it is very exciting to see something you never thought you’d be able to create become a reality.

(Please use the artivive app to see this picture come to life!)

References:
Krasner, J 2013, Motion Graphic Design : Applied History and Aesthetics, Routledge, Oxford. Available from: ProQuest Ebook Central.
Landekic, L. 2016, Monsters, Inc. Art of the Title. https://www.artofthetitle.com/title/monsters-inc/