Conclusion of Animation

There were many problems encountered during our time as a group and making our claymation a finished product. Some issues in which can be seen within our animation is that we were unable to film all of our production within one day, making it very difficult to get the lighting and camera position back to the exact same scenario as the last session. Half way through the video there is a noticeable difference with the light and camera angle. Due to timescales we were unable to overcome this problem. If this project was to be replicated we would ensure that such issues would not prevail.

Other issues encountered where with the use of clay we were able to move our characters into different positions which was fantastic, but throughout the duration of our claymation Adam and Eve body position had changed alot due to be moved a lot. Again due to time restraints we were unable to replicate the way in which they both looked within the first few segments as the last few. Even though this was a problem, due to the level our production was aimed for we feel as though this problem does not greatly effect our animation.

My personal opinion on the software we used was that it was very limiting. In having to use the ipad in order to take images of our set and then upload this video to a computer in order to edit scenes and to add sound effects made it very tedious. If i was to carry out this project again i would use the webcam accompanied by windows movie maker or Zu3d in order to complete this animation. The ipad was a difficult device to use in order to make our production seem clean and fluid.

Overall the experience of this project has been very fun. The learning process of learning how to use programs and features such as onion skinning or fading music into each scene of the production was enjoyable. Seeing a finished product, knowing that over 500 images were used in order to make our characters seem animated is satisfying.

Hope by looking through this blog and seeing the processes myself and my group took will help you in the future. Thanks for looking

Issues whilst filming

In order to get a two minute video clip using images takes a lot of time. My group and i found this to be the case. During our first day of carrying out our stop motion production, in which we worked solidly for 3-4 hours with only 30-40 seconds worth of footage to show for our efforts. The problem we encountered due to the amount of time it takes to build up a solid collection of images in order to animate our clay characters was that we have had to film over a few different sessions. There are several issues in which were presented in doing this:

• lighting problems
• animation of characters
• position of characters along with the set
• position of camera

We found it difficult to replecate the exact same settings throughout our production. The one tool in which we could not have done without throughout was the use of onion skinning. This feature allowed us to align all of the characters and backdrop to almost the exact same position as the last filming episode. 

         'onion-skinning, an option that you can turn on that shows a range of frames both before and                    after your current frame, progressively fading them out as if they're layered on translucent paper                  on top of each other, or "onion-skinned'( Taken from About animation;Onion skinning                  Animation http://animation.about.com/od/flashanimationtutorials/qt/flashonionskin.htm)

Other means of overcoming other issues we relied on going back through our recorded footage and then making changes to the set to get each filming episode to look continuous and flawless.

The birth of our cast

Here are images i took whilst building Adam and Eve along with other subjects used in our animation.

The clay made it very easy to give structure and emotion to our characters. We decided on going for a rug-id look to make the production feel a whole lot animated. In this instance we felt the less detail (realistic) our characters looked, the more effective our production would seem in making them seem animated.

Chroma Keying

Chroma keying is the use of technology which is used on a daily basis. The most common form of chroma keying is the green screen. These have been used in 10,000s of films along with being used on the news everyday, yet people dont understand this is what it is.

Here is a green screen in action.

They are used on a regular basis so why is it no one understands the term chroma keying?

'Chromakey opens up the horizons of your portfolio. Event and studio photographers can benefit financially from using this. Cruise ship photographers can slip a photo of Venice behind images of embarking passengers, Wedding shoots in bland and brown registry offices can be transformed by dropping a portico behind the subjects to frame the happy couple, Children dressed in Spider Man outfits can hold a specific pose and you can insert a wall behind them, and hey presto they are climbing the Empire State Building'(Taken from Creativity Backgrounds website, http://www.photography-backgrounds.co.uk/Photography/How-to/Using-Chroma-key-with-Blue-or-Green-Screen-backgrounds.html)

It is an effective tool when putting together a creative production. Due to the lack of facilities and exspenses this form of production is seen to be unsuitable for the production of my animation at the end of term. It is however something in which can be useful within my career in the future.

The impact of sound

"The right music can help your animation flow, and sound effects can give your work a solid feeling thaty adds to the illusion of life" Mark Simon

I completely agree with this statement. the key reason being is by adding sound to a given animation makes characters and actions performed by the characters a lot more related to life like scenarios. By adding these effects the audience are able to assimilate with what i happening on screen. Without the use of sound effects some animations at times can be difficult to interpretate exactly what is happening. Furthermore it is essential to use sound effects if the animation is to be enjoyed by children, sounds allow the children to be engaged and interesting in screen play.

My very first stop motion

Creating our own animation

During this session we were asked to devise an animation without the add of any modern technology. The means of creating animation prior to to modern ages is creations such as a zoetrope.

'The zoetrope consists of a cylinder with slits cut vertically in the sides. On the inner surface of the cylinder is a band with images from a set of sequenced pictures. As the cylinder spins, the user looks through the slits at the pictures across. The scanning of the slits keeps the pictures from simply blurring together, and the user sees a rapid succession of images, producing the illusion of motion.'(Taken from Zoetrope History website, http://zoetrope.org/zoetrope-history)

There was difficulties in trying to create this in that the cyclinder had to have a perfect curviture for the effect to seem clear along with all the incistions within the cyclinder had to perfectly line up with the images. This took a few attemps to get correct. Here is a video of my finished product. ENJOY!!

Animation Project

My desired form of Animation to use is stop motion. The reason being is due to the simplicity yet how engaging it can be. Through the use of using myself or an wax figure to put together a story. Here is a very extensive form of stop motion.

This is a very indepth idea i would like to base my project around. The idea of ingaging an audience through such a simple form is highly arousing. My project would preferably be based on criteria in which i feel not only myself to be relevant but the audience.

Here is a instrutional video in which allows you to see exactly how stop motion is created.
bbc simple movie making with stop frame animation