Animation - Final Animation Task

Issue

The issue of the animation is hard work in pursuing dreams. One's dreams can be pursued if they would only work hard for it, and this is what the story intends to show.

Story

The story follows a little boy named Simon, who comes from a poor family - but he has very big aspirations to become a racer. He wasn't...entirely sure what sort of racer he wants to be, however. One day while talking to his friends, one of those friends asks him what he would like to be when he grows up. Stumped, Simon looks around to glance at a bicycle parked not too far from them, and promptly answers with 'I want to be a bike racer when I grow up and win lots of races!'

On the way home from school on the same day, he finds that a brand new bicycle is on sale, but he has no money to pay for it. Determined that the bicycle would be his, he embarked on a series of odd jobs - two of which include walking an extremely fast puppy, and dealing with mice (which Simon is actually very afraid of) in a house.

Many odd jobs later, Simon manages to get the bicycle and uses it for his entire duration of his childhood to adolescence. In the end, he manages to become a racer - but instead of a bicycle racer, he turns out to be a champion Formula One racer instead. He never forgets the bicycle that had been his starting point, however.

Character design:





Final animation:

Reflection

I think I could have done better in a lot of aspects in this task - such as creating a better story or adding more to it, and coming up with a much better animation. Time constraints and lack of communication are one of the major issues in creating this animation, hopefully I can do better on future projects.

Animation Review: Astro Boy

Astro Boy is a 2009 3D animated film loosely based on a Japanese manga by the same name that was created by Osamu Tezuka. The story is about a robot that was created in the likeness of the son of Doctor Tenma, whom he lost following an accident.

3D animation is fast becoming a trend in recent years, and Astro Boy is certainly no different in joining the bandwagon together with other movies of the same medium. The film itself features breathtaking CG imagery while still retaining aspects of the original manga.

Figure 1: A scene from the beginning of the film. Movie Screenshots, 2011.

Due to many action scenes in the film, plenty of panned out shots are used in the film to capture as much action in a single frame. The shots are dynamic, and draws viewers to anticipate the next scenes that follow.

                      

Figure 2: A scene in the film. Movie Screenshots, 2011

That does not mean, however, that the movie is short of close-up shots that help create personal scenes in the film. As one of its core themes revolve around family and friendships, medium to close shots are used to create a warmer, comfortable atmosphere in the film. 

Figure 3: Father-son bonding. Personal collection.

The colors used throughout the film are vibrant and warm, even during nighttime scenes. It allows for a warm atmosphere to be created throughout the movie, and highly-saturated colors are used to create a sense of anticipation and danger in more fast-paced scenes. The film itself runs through a fast pace as it is packed with action scenes.

Astro Boy is a rather good film, even when it does not fully adhere itself to the original manga. While it feels a bit too fast-paced with little that can be considered remarkable, it still is an enjoyable film to watch.

Picture credits:

Movie Screenshots, 2011. Astro boy movie screenshots. Available at: http://moviescreenshot.blogspot.com/2011/05/astro-boy-movie-screenshots.html [accessed 26 July 2013]

Animation - Rotoscoping

Before the rotoscoping animation is done, a few thumbnail sketches of movement are done:

From these sketches, 10 of them are chosen, and a few notes on principles of animation are done beside them:

Then, the chosen movements are placed in a sequence, and from there, two of these sequences are chosen:

The first and the third sequences are chosen here. The movement is much more pronounced in them than the second, and has room for a lot of exaggeration.

From there, with the help of a few classmates, I recorded the movement for the first and third sequences:

Then, using Adobe Premiere, the frames of the video are exported and printed out before they are traced frame by frame using character designs from this post. The final animation results as follows:

Rotoscoping animation is a very interesting way to capture and understand natural human movement, but it can be very time consuming as it involves a lot of frames. Even for this, some of the frames I feel that drag too long were omitted. Nevertheless, it is very interesting to do.

Animation - Character Design

Character design is an essential part of animation. Characters help bring animation to life and helps viewers identify with the story, and characters that are well-developed and designed draw more attention from viewers. The character can be a simple shape or has a very complex design, but if the character is well-designed and developed, it will help with the animation greatly and enable people to identify with the characters.

The task is to create a character based on three famous characters from established series. These characters range from superheroes to video game villains. From this, three characters have been chosen:

The first character is Optimus Prime from the Transformers series. He is easy to identify as he is marked by his characteristic red, blue and white colors, as well as the unique shape of his head and bulky build. He is also known to be a wise leader to his Autobot comrades, and is generally a well-liked hero in the series.

The second character is Deadpool (Wade Wilson) from the Marvel Comics series. He is an anti-hero and is famous mostly for his very talkative nature and his tendency to 'break the 4th wall' in the comics. He has a very twisted sense of humor, so to speak, and his eccentricity is what makes him a very interesting character despite some of his questionable actions.

The third character is Xemnas from Kingdom Hearts, a collaborative video game series between Disney and Japanese video game developer Square Enix. In the series, Xemnas is a recurring villain, first appearing in Kingdom Hearts II and made other appearances in Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days and the recently released Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance. Xemnas is the leader of a group known as Organization XIII, and is easily marked by his black coat, silver hair and amber eyes. Personality-wise, he is a very cold and ruthless person, known to resort to anything in order to achieve his goals. Even though he is a villain, he is one of the more well-liked characters from the series, mostly due to the visual appeal of his physical features, as well as his personality. 

From these three characters, a new character is to be designed based on them. 

Character 1

The first character is based on Optimus Prime. Because drawing robots are not exactly a skill I'm good at, I started off with drawing the original character first, so that I know, briefly, how the body works.

From the original design, a few sketches of the head of the new character is made:

This character is very difficult to do due to a lack of skill in drawing non-organic forms, so in the end I never did go through with the design. But I ended up drawing a brief sketch of how the new character would have looked like:

Instead of drawing the character as bulky as how Optimus looked like, I decided to go for a more rounded, cuter design. The character is supposed to be much smaller in size and very childlike.

Character 2

For the second character, I played around with the size and gender of the character so that it would look markedly different from Deadpool.

Here, I tried creating a younger character, and tried drawing a female character instead of a male character. Firstly I tried sticking to the 'hidden identity' factor and drew the characters with masks on.

Then I started playing around with the size, and took off the mask from the character. The second character here has a bit of an appeal from the others, so that character is chosen.

Then I started playing around with the size of the character and simplified it a little, so the character would be easier to draw when animated. 

After establishing the character to be drawn, I created a simple character sheet for her. She is a little bit bright, and a little naughty. She's probably the kind of person who loves playing pranks on other people.

Character 3

The work flow of the third character follows the same steps as the second character. Here, I tried to create a much younger character based on Xemnas - younger by leagues, so to speak. I've also experimented with drawing a female character, but decided to stick to drawing a male character instead. The resulting character is a boy who always has the hood of his jacket up. 

Then I made a character sheet for him, too:

This character seems like he doesn't talk much, and would prefer to be on his own than be in the company of other people. He's not very sociable, at first glance.

Character design is actually a very complex process. Here, the principle of solid drawing is very important, and some unique traits of the character need to stand out so that it could be easily identified by viewers.

Study Skills - Metaphors

Metaphors refer to implications – they imply to what is not present and connect to other information and aspects that are linked to an artwork. In an artwork, metaphors help viewers to tell more about a certain work or an underlying message that comes with it (Meesen and Unteregger, 2013). Metaphors are also described as using one element to describe another; for example, in writing, a person may find phrases such as ‘as light as a feather’ or ‘as brave as a lion’. Visually, artists use images to do this instead of words (Artsalive.ca, 2013).

Visual metaphors help viewers understand a work more, as it gives visual cues that connect the artwork to something else that may be parallel, but connected to the artwork (Meesen and Unteregger, 2013). These can either be something the viewer is familiar with, or something the viewer may not be familiar with altogether. By using metaphors, artists can bring provoke thought into viewers for a brief amount of time by making unconscious connections to a certain issue, or message (Meesen and Unteregger, 2013).

Figure 1: A normal illustration.

In figure 1, the picture above may be a simple drawing with elements that do not connect with each other; a sleeping dragon surrounded by water and lotuses, watched over by an owl. When taken into account that Figure 1 is a drawing that represents the artist’s self, there are a number of visual metaphors at work here. For example, the owl on the bottom right corner is a symbol of wisdom, but as it is placed far into the corner, it suggests that wisdom may not be the artist’s stronger quality. The sleeping dragon suggests docility, but the dragon itself suggests courage and even ferocity.

Visual metaphors help create a richer sense of understanding between the viewer and the artwork, allowing for the viewer to achieve a deeper understanding of the artwork.

Bibliography

Meesen, Y., Unteregger, T., 2013. Metaphors at work. Available at: http://manifestaworkbook.org/metaphors.pdf [Accessed 16 July 2013]

Artsalive.ca, 2013. Visual metaphor: what is it? How do we use the concept?. Available at: http://artsalive.ca/collections/posters/pdf/en/ArtsAlive_visualmetaphor_e.pdf [Accessed 16 July 2013]

Proposal - Group Installation

1.0  Abstract

The introduction briefly describes the issue, concept and subject matter of the project. The problem statement further outlines the issue that is the core of the project, and details why the issue is chosen whereas the objectives are a list of what is intended to achieve in this project. The hypothesis describes the initial expectations of the outcome of this project before the project is finished.

A brief outline of the research and development of ideas for the project is detailed in the methodology, and the literature review talks about what research material has been used in this project. The process details a step-by-step walkthrough on how the project is carried out, and the conclusion reflects on whether or not the outcome reflects the hypothesis, and what problems have risen during the working on the project.

1.1 Introduction

Why do people litter despite being given numerous solutions and endless campaigns to cease doing so? According to Thomas A. Heberlein, people have been geared to not litter; they are told through public campaigns, parents, or schools that littering can uglify and harm the environment, so much that it becomes a 'norm' for them. Littering is not part of this 'norm', so when a person observes someone who litters, his tendency to litter will decrease. However, Heberlein also states that this 'norm' can be deactivated; when people start to think that it is not their responsibility, or the area has already been pre-littered, they are more likely to litter themselves (Heberlein, 2012).

According to the above statement, littering is more of an attitude problem, and this is what can be focused in this project in order to raise awareness in littering and its consequences through installation art as a wall art.

Installation art is a process of work rather than a style, utilizing traditional and non-traditional media and space. It requires active interaction between the viewer and the work, and can be viewed from all angles instead of from a single perspective (Irish Museum of Modern Art, 2013).

1.2 Problem statement

Littering is an attitude problem; people litter mostly due to their own attitudes; the Falkirk Council website lists down, among other things, that people litter due to ‘being lazy’, people are not bothered to throw their waste properly if the area is already dirty, or if they could not find any bins in the area (Falkirk Council, 2013). This is a mindset that needs to be changed and this is what this project aims to do via installation art.

1.3 Objectives

There are three objectives in this project.

The first objective is to research and understand why people litter and what makes them litter even when they have been told through various media and campaigns not to. This is done by reading various sources such as books or websites. 

The second objective is to analyse the research that has been collected and use it to develop ideas and concepts through the understanding of the research material. This is done through sketches.

Lastly, to apply the development of the ideas into an installation art. It is to be conveyed through a combination of three-dimensional wall art, and floor art.

1.4 Hypothesis

It is expected that the final result would be a 3-dimensional wall art and floor art depicting the negative attitudes of people concerning littering, in order to raise awareness on the dangers of littering.

1.5 Methodology

1.5.1 Books

First, research is done on littering and what causes people to litter. This is done by reading books on the subject, and understanding what causes people to litter. As mentioned in the introduction, Heberlein’s research had found that if a place is pre-littered, people are more likely to leave their garbage around. When a place is clean, people are less likely to do so as they have been ‘geared’ not to litter; it is only when they see a place already pre-littered or that many people are doing it that they begin to think that littering is alright, and that other people will clean up the place later (Heberlein, 2012).

1.5.2 Observation

This also includes doing observation in various places. As Heberlein suggests, in places where there is little to no litter, people are less likely to litter there, as opposed to places that are already littered.

Figure 1: An example of a clean area.

In Figure 1, the area is clean, and because of this, according to Heberlein, people are less likely to litter as this will make them think twice before littering. This is then compared to other areas:

Figure 2: An example of a littered area.

Figure 2 is an example of a heavily-littered drain that is located outside of the main campus area. As observed, there is a mix of rubbish that has been in the drain for a long time, and rubbish that has been recently dumped. This further proves previous research that people are more likely to litter when the area has already been littered before (Heberlein, 2012).

Figure 3: Another example of a littered area.

Figure 3 is an example of an area that has recently been littered, outside of a shop premise located close to the campus area. The particular area photographed in Figure 3 is usually clean, but sometimes it is littered with empty cartons and plastic packages of newly-delivered groceries. Usually this is cleaned up soon after.

The above observation help in a way that it aids in understanding the research done from books, as well as helping with the development of ideas for the installation.

1.5.3 Sketches

The pictures below are the initial sketches for the installation layout.

Figure 5: Initial layout sketches

Figure 6: Initial layout sketches

Figure 7: Initial layout sketches

Figure 8: Initial layout sketches

Figures 5 to 8 are the initial sketches of the layout for the installation. At first it concentrates more on the solutions to recycling, rather than actually focusing on the core problem itself. Then it gradually moves into the direction of showing how negative attitudes affect littering. These layouts do not work as they are too simple and literal to understand, and therefore more ideas are then developed.

Figure 9: Layout concept sketch

Figure 9 seems to lean a bit closer to what the entire project intends to convey, but even then this is much too literal in sending the core message to people. In other words, the problem with the sketch in figures 5 to 9 are that people may find it easy to understand what the installation intends to show, that they may not be prompted to think things through at all.

Figure 10: Initial layout sketch

Figure 10 leans just a little closer to the final layout, in which it is suggested that the outline of a brain, drawn to connect with the hand, is drawn. This seems to work well at first, and is the sketch in which the project is based on at first before the shape of the brain outline resembled more of a speech bubble. This then prompted one final sketch:

Figure 11: Final layout sketch

Figure 11 depicts a sketch of a speech bubble connected to a hand drawn on the floor, where the inside of the speech bubble is to be filled with a few words. At first the idea is to place a large question mark in the speech bubble, but the idea is rejected as it may evoke a sense of uncertainty. The sketch in Figure 11 is the sketch that the project is based on.

1.6 Literature review

Thomas A. Heberlein’s book, Navigating Environmental Issues, offers good insight on why people litter and what can be done about it. This book provides great insight to the issue that is the core of this project, as it is about how attitude is actually the core problem in littering.

Another book that has been referred to is Environmental Management by Bala Khrisnamoorthy. One chapter is relevant to the project, and it details on what waste management is and how best to manage it. The chapter in this book helps in understanding more about the problems in garbage management, which has to do with littering, and also details about how positive and negative attitudes affect how people manage their waste.

1.7 Experiments

One of the experiments done for this project is to identify the types of litter that will be used to create the installation. It has been suggested that perishable rubbish such as banana peels are used in this project, but using rubbish that degrades easily may pose problems to the installation in the long run.

One of the experiments done in this installation is to attempt to stick bottles and glass shards onto the wall with double-sided tape.

Figure 12: Attempting to stick bottle onto wall with double-sided tape

Figure 13: The bottle falls onto the floor after a few seconds.

In figure 13, the bottle falls down after a few seconds of being mounted on the wall with double-sided tape. A similar experiment is done using glass shards from broken bottles which also lead to the same outcome.

Figure 14: Filling bottles with water

In the end, it is decided that the bottles and the shards will be used to form the shape of the hand on the floor. To ensure the bottles will stay in place, they are filled with water as in figure 14, and placed and arranged around the outline of the hand as in Figure 15, together with the glass shards:

Figure 15: Bottles and glass shards placed on the floor.

1.8 Process

No.	Step	Description
1		The outline of the shape of the speech bubble is traced on the wall.
2.		The outline of the hand is traced on the floor with white chalk.
3.		Using normal double-sided tape and double-sided foam tape, bits of plastic, newspaper and other rubbish are placed around the outline of the speech bubble.
4.		Bottles and glass shards, together with some leftover newspapers are lined on the floor inside the outline of the hand.
5.		Using double-sided tape, the outline of the words inside the speech bubble are placed and newspaper bits are used to outline the words.

1.9 Conclusion

The hypothesis of the project is achieved in the end, as the final outcome turned out as a wall art and floor art. The problems that arose while working on the project is poor time management, as well as the absence of members of the group at any single time, leaving the group member that is present at the moment to work on the idea developments and the installation individually.

Bibliography

Heberlein, T., 2012.Navigating environmental attitudes. New York: Oxford University Press.

Khrisnamoorthy, B., 2005. Environmental management. Delhi: Prentice Hall of India p. 153

Irish Museum of Modern Art. 2013. What is installation art? Available at: http://www.imma.ie/en/downloads/what_is_installationbooklet.pdf [Accessed 6 June 2013]

Individual Installation Art - Proposal

1.0 Introduction

Since time immemorial people have been turning to nature for signs and symbols; using an object to represent a quality or trait. They turn to these signs as guidance on what they should do in life, or to celebrate a coming of age, or in rituals (Venefica, 2005). For this project, I have decided to use three symbols: a dragon, flowers, and water to make an installation art.

The first symbol is the Chinese dragon, or long. In Chinese mythology, the dragon denotes power, ferocity, courage, wisdom and balance. It is mostly a symbol of power, and was used in the past to represent imperial power (Cirlot, 2002).

The second symbols are flowers, and there are two types: the lotus and the rose. The lotus represents purity and perfection, as it emerges beautiful from mud, representing an inner emptying and outer splendour - a true nature of reality according to Buddhist philosophy. The rose, however, is a representation of balance and intelligence, further emphasized when paired with the colour yellow as a yellow flower can be taken to mean intelligence as well (

The combination of these symbols is to make installation art about the self. Installation art is a process of work rather than a style, utilizing traditional and non-traditional media and space. It requires active interaction between the viewer and the work, and can be viewed from all angles instead of from a single perspective (Irish Museum of Modern Art, 2013).

It is to be presented using a combination of a paper mache sculpture. Paper mache is material made from paper pulp or torn paper and glue. Pulp is often used for modelling while torn paper is used for layering. Paper mache is applied on an underlying structure called an armature (Wisegeek.com, 2003).

1.1 Objectives

There are three objectives in this project. The first objective is to research and understand the meaning of symbols and signs based on cultural and mythological contexts, as well as research on installation art. This is done by reading various sources such as books and websites.

The second objective is to analyse the symbols from the research, and then develop my ideas and concepts from this understanding. This also includes analysing about installation art and the types of installation art used.

The third is to apply these symbols as an installation art using paper mache.

1.2 Problem statement

Symbols may mean different things to different people based on their cultural background. It can be hard for people to understand the installation art and what the message behind it is without a description – so the idea is to use simple, more universal symbols in my project so people are able to understand the meaning behind these symbols without any descriptions.

1.3 Idea development

At first a visual mind map that describes the self is done – the idea is scrapped completely as it is far too complex to be realized as an installation art – and that it was too messy and disorganized.

Figure 2: First initial exploration on the self

After doing some initial research, an initial sketch is done:

Figure 3: Using visual metaphor to explore the concept - first sketch

This first sketch is designed for full stained glass in mind. At first the dragon is intended to coil around the flowers, and the entire installation is hung from the ceiling. But this idea is rejected as the original idea is too flat and the view would still look the same from every angle.

The sketch is then refined:

Figure 4: Another concept sketch with notes on meanings of symbols incorporated

This sketch has an added element which is water. This design is still done with stained glass in mind, but with water it would give a good, dynamic view to the overall installation.

Figure 5: Layout sketches

Figure 6: Layout sketches

Figure 7: Layout sketches

Figures 5, 6 and 7 are initial layout designs for the installation art. The original plan is to hang the final installation from either the ceiling, or mount it on A1 board and place it on the wall. The second idea is easier and more stable to do.

Figure 8: Study sketches of the dragon's head

Figure 8 is a study of the dragon’s head. This is to ensure the final result looks as accurate as possible before creating the paper mache sculpture.

1.4 Methodology

1.4.1 Reading

There are various materials about the chosen symbols that can be found through books and on the Web. For instance, Giddons et al. (2006) noted that dragons are an imperial symbol in ancient China – the symbol of the emperor is the five-clawed Imperial Dragon, and anyone else who adopted this as their motif could be punished by death. As it is the mark of the emperor back then, the dragon has been used to symbolize power, goodness, strength and wisdom.

There is also information on making sculptures out of paper mache. One particular tutorial is Good’s “How to Make a Paper Mache Dragon” (2008). Even though the tutorial focuses on making dragons from Western mythology, it can still be applied to make a Chinese dragon.

Figure 9: Paper mache dragon. Ultimate paper mache, 2008

1.4.2 Interviews

The question posed to the interviewee is whether there are alternatives to using glass for the stained glass. The interview is done with a friend from the United States via Skype.

The interviewee explains that acrylic over PVC sheet is a good alternative from using actual glass, and hair spray or clear glue can be used to seal the colour.

Figure 10: Screenshot of the interview

1.5 Experiments

The above interview then led to experimentation with acrylic paint and PVC sheet. Only one petal is made to see if the method works.

Figure 11: Result from the experiment using acrylic paint and PVC sheet

The following method did not seem to work as well as expected, as the colour of the acrylic looked dull.

Some research is done for alternatives of stained glass for the flowers, and by following the instructions found on the Web, a few experiments are made.

Figure 12: Process of the experiment

Figure 12: Result of the second experiment

There are also methods on how to make paper roses, and the following tutorial is followed:

Figure 13: Tutorial on making paper roses. Deviantart.com, 2013

The result of the experiment is as follows:

Figure 14: Process of making a paper rose

Figure 15: Process of making a paper rose

Figure 16: Final result of the experiment

The experiments are only done in the small scale at first, before the final result.

In the end, however, the flowers are not incorporated into the final installation at all, as the flowers did not seem to fit into the final installation.

1.6 Progress

	Steps	Procedure
1		Firstly, newspaper is rolled and secured to the mounting board with masking tape. This forms the basic shape of the body.
2		The basic shape of the head and legs are made with the same procedure as step 1 and attached to the body.
3		For the paper mache paste, flour and water are mixed together.
4		Strips of newspaper are dipped into the flour paste and placed on the basic structure, then left to dry before applying another layer with tissue paper.
5		Two coats of white paint is sprayed onto the structure until fully coated, and then left aside to dry, before applying gold paint.

1.7 Conclusion

A lot of mistakes are done while creating this installation art. The first problem that arose was due to poor time management and focusing too much on detail instead of taking time to carefully plan on what needed to be done – hence the work turns to be incomplete and did not match the result that I had intended. There is also a lack of experimentation for the paper mache dragon, and that makes it difficult to get the shape right in the process. The initial idea of placing flowers into the installation are scrapped due to that they seem to become unnecessary details onto the final installation, and therefore only the dragon is left.

A better result can be achieved by focusing on major details first before working on the minor details, to ensure a better outcome in future installations.

Bibliography

Cirlot, J.E., 2002. A dictionary of symbols. New York: Dover Publications.

Diel, P., 1980. In Symbolism in Greek mythology: human desire and its transformations. Colorado: Shambhala Publications, Inc. p.17.

Giddens, O. & Giddens, S., 2006. Chinese mythology. New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc

Wisegeek.com, 2003. What is paper mache?  Available at: http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-papier-mache.htm [Accessed 3 June 2013].

Wisegeek.com, 2003. What is stained glass? [Online] Available at: http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-stained-glass.htm [Accessed 3 June 2013Symbolism in Greek mythology: human desire and its transformations].

Jonni Good. 2008. Ultimate paper mache.  Available at: http://ultimatepapermache.com/paper-mache-dragon [Accessed 3 June 2013].

Avia Venefica, 2005. Life is symbolic, start interpreting. Available at: http://www.whats-your-sign.com/ [Accessed 3 June 2013]

Deviantart.com. 2013. How to make paper roses.  Available at: http://riotfaerie.deviantart.com/art/Paper-Rose-Tutorial-177657694 [Accessed 6 June 2013].

Irish Museum of Modern Art. 2013. What is installation art? Available at: http://www.imma.ie/en/downloads/what_is_installationbooklet.pdf [Accessed 6 June 2013]