Generating Ideas

When looking on Designspiration.net for some inspiration into ideas for a story line for my animation I came across an image that really helped.

In this image labelled Mr. Helium a man with balloons as a head a child looks as if he has just acquired one from him and is very excited about it. My possible story idea comes from this image which really helped my previous struggle to generate an idea that would of been possible with my current skills in animation. 

Idea 1

The animation starts with a child holding his pocket money that he's worked so hard for, he sees a balloon stand and immediately wants one. He runs over with excitement and hands the seller his coin and picks a balloon. (I really want to focus on the up close facial expressions to give a sense of emotion). As he walks away smug with the balloon the balloon awakens and gives the impression it is now 'free' or 'alive'. I haven't thought any further into the story line as of yet however I'm planning to do more research before I get an overall finished idea.

Idea 2

My second idea is the classic 'lost and found' type of story in which someone loses a balloon and spends the entire animation trying to look for it and then eventually finds what he is looking for. This second idea definitely has some potential and could cleverly be incorporated into someone elses animation and make use of the red start/end transition that we have to use.

AF201 Animation - Research 2 - Aladdin

Aladdin has always been a childhood favourite of mine, upon watching it recently there is a great scene that I want to analyse.

Around 1/3 through the film when Aladdin enters the Cave of Wonders he comes across the magic carpet that we all know and love.

The Magic Carpet from Aladdin

Aside from the brilliant animation for a 1992 movie what really impressed me was the level of emotion the animators managed to get into an inanimate object, in this case a rug.

As you can see in the screenshot above Abu (the Monkey) suspects that he saw the rug move but assumes he was seeing things, as he does the Magic Carpet creeps up on him and goes to tap him with one tassel, the animator has done an incredible job at making it look like a limb of a human, the tassel on the end is the hand and the gentle curve is the arm joining to the torso which is the main part of the carpet.

Again the Magic Carpet tries to sneak up to Abu this time the animator has bent the Carpet in such a way that gives you the impression its crouched or sneaking trying to look as small as possible.

Abu turns round and the Magic Carpet assumes what would be a 'normal' pose for a unused carpet, rolled up and put into a corner which is very comical gives a great entertainment value to this scene, Abu looks on the floor and cant see anything, completely fooled.

This is the scene that captures it all into one for me, the Magic Carpet on its third and final attempt tries to sneak up behind Abu the Monkey, by this stage its clear to the audience but not Abu that he's being followed  which gives it a pantomime "hes behind you" humor style which has always appealed to children. Was also needs to be said is that the Magic Carpet has subtly been shown as trying to play, or annoy where as this could all change if just a few aspects were altered, for example the if the colour of the rug was red/black and had larger tassels it could been seen as a threat/enemy so the attention to detail from the animator is brilliant ensuring that the right message is conveyed all of the time as first impressions with a new character can make or break its appeal.

Looking at the actual position of the Carpet in this scene is so well done, it might seem obvious to make the tassels act like feet but wouldn't be obvious if you weren't already shown it. It has one leg back poised ready to move and the right foot forward with the tassel stretched out like someone trying to tiptoe and be as quiet as possible, meanwhile the upper body/carpet is held back like its taking a risk and its hands are handing in anticipation ready to move quickly at any moment, with the twisted body of the carpet this all creates a fantastic effect of a creeping Magic Carpet trying to get close to someone without them spotting them. 

I'd really like to achieve a similar effect/feel in my animation and whilst previously I only had animation of a human to compare and take inspiration from, this scene gives me a great creative way to animate something without any arms or legs or a face and give it incredibly obvious emotion/actions. As I go through my research I will constantly be looking back at this scene to try and take some inspiration from it and hopefully incorporate it into my short film.

AF201 Animation - Research 1 - Paperman

Here I'm going to be trying to get some research together so I can collect several ideas and work out one to use for my final piece. Research is a great way to get inspiration for topics / areas that you haven't had experience in before.

To start things off I'm going to be looking at a short movie created by Walt Disney in 2012 called 'Paperman' this animation-short is a romanic comedy featuring a man and a woman and a paper plane. 

I freaking love this short film, all of the signs and emotions are so subtle which really leaves a lot to the imagination. This has to be my favourite all time short film and re watching it just confirms that again.

The subtle style of connotations is definitely an approach I'm going to be looking at, it shows skills on behalf of the animator and also confidence in his expressions on each character.

When looking at the animation it isn't anything over complicated, its relatively simple human movements, its very well done but nothing that I couldn't learn given a period of time. I feel the fact that the animation is black and white apart from the woman's lipstick really creates a powerful focus onto the love letter and its importance, it separates it from the other black and white documents that he is throwing out the window and makes it a part of the story.

After watching it multiple times I realised how many emotions the short film makes you feel within such a short space of time.

The film starts with the man standing still, you can hear the trains so you guess he's waiting at a train station, suddenly as you've finished analysing his emotions a train shoots past, startling both the man and the audience, he sees a girl and the wind blows one of his work sheets into her face, where he lipstick rubs off onto the piece of paper, she giggles and he looks and laughs, when he looks up she is off moving on another train. This is the 'taken away from him/her/it' stage, something sad happens. Then he goes to work and realises how dull his life is now he's had a taste of love, this is 'harsh reality'. As he's working he sees her in a building opposite by a window waiting patiently for what looks like a job interview, he's so surprised to see her and the music changes, he then thinks of anything to try and get her attention, as a viewer you don't ask why he's trying to get her attention as its obvious its a love story.

This is the effect I would like to achieve having such powerful emotions and actions.

In the screenshot above you can see the expression on his face, the animator has perfectly captured a surprised and anxious look, this is the moment he spots the woman in the building opposite his. When analysing the face closer his mouth is posed open with anticipation his eyes are wide with surprise and eye brows raised, this and the lowered jaw and the only things that have changed but give an you an immediate idea of what he's thinking. Certain traits won't be reproducible when working with a balloon, however the scene and other elements / possible people in the movie clip could be manipulated in such a way.

In this second screenshot you can see the moment they meet the expressions and eyes are telling a story, that they like to look of each other if nothing else, then later on you can see his shocked/realisation look that he is in love with this woman just as she leaves. The lipstick is the only coloured object in the entire film, as seen in both screenshots above.

The music also plays a massive part in the success of this short film, the classical simple and suitable song has been used as a guideline for the editing giving a nice effect.

In this scene the music has a beat every time each paper aeroplane hits the wall which is something I'd like to incorporate into my own short film, having the film and the music work in synergy can lead to impressive results.

Overall I think Paperman is the best short film I've seen, the first time I saw it as soon as I got home I watched it over and over again it is perfectly made from the animation to the editing 

New Year, New Brief

Its our first day back at Uni and our first project has been set.

The first project is to create a 25 second animation featuring a Red Balloon starting and ending with a red screen, this is to allow each students clips to be seamlessly strung together creating a story fading in between clips every 25 seconds.

My initial feelings are good for this project, it's been a while since I've done any animation my most recent being a DVD Menu for ALevel which I really enjoyed and actually used some stop motion in that for the introduction featuring a cardboard box being with string tied around it unravelling on its own.

My first step will be to look at existing animations of all types, CGI, stop motion and any others that I am not familiar with and then also the methods in order to recreate that. The first design method that came to mind was stop motion, having used it before in my previous project which turned out really well I feel that I could achieve a nice organic hand made feel to this animation which might become a reoccurring pattern in my work, trying to think outside the box and use unconventional methods of achieving a finished piece.

I also want to get to grips with Adobe After Effects as we will be using it over the next two years for additional projects and the skills will be useful, as I don't know much about it if I work out how to use it well I may find that I can think of a more suitable way to execute this project other than the way I know, being stop motion.

All in all I'm really looking forward to undertaking some in depth research and trying to identify my final idea.