Dominique’s Animation year 1 blog, BA1b Part 2

Week 4, (week 25) weekly summary.  Mystery box

Week 3 (week 24) mystery box     (Date. Friday The 23rd March 2018) Over the weekend I headed to fabric and accessories shops in Anglia square. ‘Anglia Fabrics’ had very unique patterns and fabrics, however I bought white felt, a tan artificial leather scrap piece, a meter of chiffon and a red feathery accessory. Over that same weekend, I tried to glue (using a hot glue gun) the leather material as a skin to my model. This happened to be a big mistake, the material that I tried to use was very tough! My model struggled to move. Also, it was too thick, and would not flatten, overall it was very stiff and instead of taking shape of the model, would stick out. It ripped the dress I had made and when I tried to take the material off, if also ripped a lot of the foam layer away. Wreaking the body I had created for her. In which meant; I had to redo her foam, try to fix or remake her dress, and find a new skin. During the week before, she had also lost both her fifth fing...

Week 2 (Week 23)                        Friday the 16th 2018   Week 2 (Week 23) Friday the 16 th , March 2018 Mystery Box Project; This week I had a lecture by John Lee about his career in model making, in which I found his work outstanding and inspiring, it opened my eyes to different types of possibilities of materials that I could use for my animation puppet, and the props. Also Monday I began the construction of my puppet, using wire and milliput, which I had to leave my wirer Skelton untouched for the rest of the day after the putt. In the rest of the spare time during my session, I researched fabrics I could use for the costume and tutorials on how to make gloves and hats. On Wednesday, I spent my day researching and looking for materials. I bought some red fabric and began practising making gloves and dresses using the material, to see any problems that may occur with the fabric. With glue the fabric sti...

Media Industries Roles & Practices;     Week 1 (Week 23)   On Tuesday we were introduced to the new brief, Media Industries roles and practices and were shown different roots that animation can lead too. We were grouped into four, and given the task to pick an practitioner in the animation industry whom we will write and present a presentation about their job role, company ect. My group choose Glen Keane is using Google slides, so we are free to access, add and edit the presentation. this week I researched my part, if his job was working pre production, production post production and other related information to this. Overall; This has been a very quick paced week with much progression in design, construction but also learning both in and outside of scheduled lessons.  

In this session, I continued on with my puppet. I began by sanding and shaping the blue foam, to creat the body for the Skelton. I created arms, legs with. Carved out knee, and torso. carving them down but making sure there larger than I want them to be in the final product, as when I later add clothing and skins and other fabrics in will flatten and be tight on the foam. To attach the foam. To the body, I cut a slit deep into the foam, using the glue ‘IMPACT’ adhesive, making sure to directly put it on the wire and the foam, as it is a contact glue. It dries up rather quickly, but allows enough time to fiddle. It does however leave a Yellow mark, so best to make sure it’s neat. For the torso, to show off the very curvy hips and narrow waist, Barry suggested tying around cotton thread vestry tightly around the waist, forming the foam to creat the illusion. I also stuck a large rectangle of foam to both the chest and back, to creat a big bust and buttocks. This took the whole sessio...

Today we were introduced into the 3d workshop, that is apart of the gunton building. The work shop has facilities for wood making, metal, plastics and wax/molds. The different variety of materials was outstanding, full of possibilities, such latex and materials I had never heard of. Exciting to use this in the future, however maybhot be relevant nor needed for my puppet. For the puppets head, an magical eight ball I asked one of the workshop technicians advice on how I should go about making it, for a nice smooth polished surface, wondering if then plastic vacuum could be useful. He suggested against this, because of the shape being an sphere it would head to be done in two different half’s, which would be an uneven edge where the seem would be, he offered the idea of buyying a wooden ball and spray painting it.

MEDIA INDUSTRIES , ROLES & PRACTICES [deadline; 11th may] Our objective, to research into media industry roles. Project aims; ▪️ Learn about employability  ▪️ Research into the animation industry  ▪️ Find areas of interest as a starting point. Project outline; ➖ working in groups ➖ contacting practioners  ➖10 minuete group presentation on chosen subject ➖ everybody in group must present their own findings ➖ research portfolio blog showcasing your research for this project  ➖500 word statement that summaries your findings.  〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️ Types of animation; ▪️ 3D compture generated ▪️2D digital ▪️ 2D traditional ▪️ Stop motion Different areas; ▪️Advertising ▪️Tv ▪️Animated features ▪️Independent Shorts ▪️Music videos ▪️Internet/mobile tablets ▪️Visual effects ▪️Games Content producers; ▪️Studios ▪️Tv channels ▪️Prouduction compamies ▪️Independent creatives ▪️Stings/ idents INDEPENDENT ...

John Lee Model Making John lee is an industry professional prop maker and set builder, they way he found himself into the industry is by networking, and met with the people who worked on the films he loved (he would watch all the way to credits to research the people ). One of the films he worked on was Charlie and the chocolate factory, surprisingly a lot of things I didn’t relise were prop models, for example the doll hospital and Charlie’s home town, and the exterior of the chocolate factory building, which was feet high. He tipped us that’s you should; ▪️only build what you will see in the film, for example only doing two sides of a building,  Many as fifty people work on a sculpture and it takes months to create. hence the less to make, the more money and time less spent. ▪️ Props are never stuck together, so that they are easy to brake down. It has to be collapsible and rebuildable. John lee also worked on the John Lewis Christmas advert of 2013, featuring the bea...

In today’s session we have begun to create our puppets. Using my construction drawings as a base, I have chosen the type of wire to use and created the Skelton, holing it together with milliput, with the Advise of  industry professional and lecture of this brief, Barry Leith. Choosing the thickest wire to hold my characters large sphere head and busty body, I was advised to give her long wire legs that will be partly used for her heels. As a group we were guided to use milliput, an plasticine clay like texture that can be molded, and dries out to form a rock hard surface that can be sanded and drilled into. We were instructed to mix the two different molds in the packet 1000 times together, to make sure it’s well mixed. The reaction of theses two clays mixed makes them binding and turn into a rock hard clay. When putting them on our wire, we had to put on bit of the mixed clay  down, then the wire then another layer of mixed clay on top, then smooth it out and make...

 Front view dressed.  basic view, for wire. Back view, clothed.  These construction drawings will be used to construct the wire body of my armature. In the making, I will be measuring wire to the length of this A4 drawing. However, I will not be using wire for the head, this will be made from anther material to get the perfect sphere shape. However, I will need a wire to hold the sphere. I used free different drawings, to show the details of the heels. As this will most likely be the most complex part for wire, and fabricating-- and may also create challenges for balance.

Weekly summary 1, week 21. 📦 MYSTERY BOX  PROJECT  📦 During the Monday session, we were introduced into the new brief, the mystery box project. In which the final outcome will be a finished sequence of our character reacting to a box, with rules of; 1. Character must not touch box 2. The viewer must not see the boxes contents. My design for my character so far is a ‘feminine’ lady, with a Hollywood glamour/ studio star 20’s look and theme. However, with a twist... Instead of a human head, she has a magical eight ball as a replacement. The design has both positives and negatives, by not having a face that shows expression, it enables me to focus mainly on the characters body performance, of poses and movement. A negative is the ball may be too heavy for her body, however I will research into lightweight materials. To get the head perfectly smooth however will be challenging, to create for my maquette. Not having much experience with model making, I will ne...

STORY BOARD WORK SHOP ON THURSDAYS SESSION..... We had a storyboard Worksop with Helen Schroeder, an independent freelancer  animation storyboard artist, who has worked many animated films such as Arthur Christmas and many more. What we learnt was that storyboards are very interactive, and have to be very flexible. Storyboard artists must consider the acting of characters, what characters look like, where they are in the scene, what angle and where the camera is shooting from, and how many shots is needed to get story points across. Storyboards are a production tool,  used to; ▪️ Work out core ideas and structure of a project ▪️ Visualise action ▪️Portray physicals ▪️Determain costs and production time ▪️Identify issues with timing of action in the animatic ▪️Work out character performance ▪️  Communication ▪️Act out as a blue print, for the project ▪️Sell an idea to others Techniquely a storyboard is editing a film before it’s made. ...

Finished modelling of Maquette, styled in the iconic Marlin Monroe pose.

Later on in the week, after researching into sculpting tips I decided to reattempt my work with my new knowledge, and put some time into reworking my maquette. I decided to remove everything off the wire that I had done, taking off the sculpey, masking tape and tin foil. Other than the wire, restarting all over again. My maquette left bare once again, I had a lot of spare sculpey to rework with.   I re did the head, making sure it was smoother, and re did the torso with out using tinfoil this time. Despite the torso and chest body shape being perfect, I wanted to work on smoothness and had to prepare to give my maquette curvy hips and thighs. I also begun to add details to shape her figure, adding in layers. After watching sculptors on YouTube  tutorials, I saw them details in little parts instead of big bulks. They added on pieces to achieve this, even if it looked off or rough at first.   I then added layers to try build up a smooth coat, with ...

This is an basic concept idea  based off the idea I came up with in the session 'acting with animators'. Basic idea: Character walks down an alley but her path is blocked by a mysterious box, with much curiosity she looks in. What she see's shocks her, she throws herself back shook. She twists around franticly to find some one responsible for the boxes contents. Finding no one, she decides to take responsibility for the contents inside. Frame 1. foggy evening, my character is walking home, all alone. She is forced to stop her journey as her path is blocked off by a mysterious looking box. Curiosity pulls her to look in. She has one hand on her chin, showing her curiosity, anther on her hip to show her confidence. Frame 2. What she sees is something very unexpected, something very out of place in this cold dark misty alley. She is thrown back from shock, her hands flying to hold on to her hat as her back bends back. Frame 3. She see's something vulnerable, (exam...

today I attempted to create a maquette of my character. The materials that I used where; - wire (named ‘amnesia wire’ as it doesn’t remember and reform back to they way it’s been bent, making it easy to manipulate.) - sculpey ( super sculpey original) - wood blocks ( a base for our maquette to stand on) - tinfoil and masking tape (to shape and fill out our figure before applying super sculpey) - wire cutters as a tool. (Our figures have to be 15cms or smaller.) I have started my figure, but not yet finished...  Having created the wirer skeleton, I have begun to add tinfoil and masking tape. There is a few parts I feel I may have to redo, as I am not satisfied with the way it looks. (My attempt to add Sculpty to this showed that I needed to redo this)  The head needs to be rounded and smoothed, as it’s a sphere/ magic eight ball. In my previous experience I have not been very good at model making; so I will need to further research too improve my work. ...

In today’s session, I attended ‘acting for animators’ where we had to act out our characters and others characters. The performance had to show the way the characters moved, based off ; body type, mood, age etc and motive. Showing them walking, finding the box and interacting then reaction. It was rather interesting showing different characteristics and personality’s. Picking the preferred performance of our character presented, we recorded the scene on a cannon camera, which will be later used for reference. As an concept idea, I had my character walking down an alley way, curious to a box that Is blocking her way, when she looks in she is shocked, she sees something (that should not be left non its own, for example an baby) and looks round trying to find an guardian. Eventually she decided to take responsibility and looks after it herself, which can be shown by looking it to admiringly. This is not my final idea however I may used parts of this and adapt it.

I have created a turn around of my character to inform me for my next session, creating a maquette. My character has a thin waist, skinny yet curvy body, an hyper realistic version of a females body. Her head is an large sphere, possibly making it hard for the body to support. Which could prove difficult in the manquette session.

for my character, I wanted to create something “different”, we were instructed to make a character that is bipedal (two legs & two arms), so I wanted to make a person who is  non generic, not completely human. To experiment with restriction of being bipedal, instead of keeping basic like my previous character. The best way to make a character seen non human is to change the face, as that’s where we tend to identity people (facial features that make us recognisable, eyes that we connect and empathise with..) So I have researched into different objects that I possibly use instead of an head, possibly making it the most effective way to take away human characteristics. I looked into using flower heads, fruit, furniture, and other natural objects. Eventually I settled for  using a magic eight ball  🎱 (a eight ball that is used to ask questions, predict the future etc) I thought that the qwerty essence of magic eight ball was fitting for the theme of a mystery box. ...

BA1b Part 2 Week 21 📦 Mystery box project 📦 [Due date; 11 May 2018] ‘To create a short animation with a character of your choice, show casings principles. The rules are; - only allowed to be one shot - the character must not touch the box. - 5 to 10 seconds long. In this brief we will need to do; - character design and model sheet - storyboard - an animatic - experinemtnal reel - mystery box sequence (the complete sequence) - research portfolio blog link - reflective journal