Monthly Archives: May 2013

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My thoughts on this unit (Animation)

It's Niiiiiice!

It’s Niiiiiice!

This picture more or less sums up how I feel about this unit. On the whole I really liked it.

I’m quite surprised in a way because usually anything that is time consuming and repetitve I hate.

I loved it when I heard that we don’t have to animate an inanimate object (Even though I did because I love torturing myself) It gave me a freedom which I feel I havn’t really had in many other units.

A great thing about this unit for me also was the fact that I really enjoyed the research, because I wanted to make my animation a bit wierd that meant that I got to discover a lot of cool animations. The stuff that has really made an impact on me is David Firth’s work. I found it enjoyable and disturbingly similar to some things that go through my head.

I think I also learnt quite a lot about myself during this unit, especially about my art style and how that has developed from me thinking it’s just a disgusting collection of scribbles (usually involving tentacles) but to more of a method of getting certain feelings across to a viewer. For example, my art style is kind of messy and a bit wierd which relates to the type of narratives (or lack of) that I use in the animations.

 

One thing I have learnt about Maya is that I hate it… Sorry Liam, just being honest, Maya is a science lab with a lot of BMW driving twats working in it, whereas Flash is some guy sitting in his room surrounded by pizza boxes and energy drinks, making something because he simply enjoys it, not that he sees a way of making some cash out of it.

In truth, do I ever see myself making any money out of Flash? No… But I really don’t care, similar to me DJing, do I ever see myself making a big mark in the world of dropping tunes to a group of ravers on E? No… But I do it because I enjoy it. That’s why I went with flash, because I enjoyed using it, it wasn’t a task, or a punishment.
The only thing I ever animated in Maya were a group of balls with some wierd textures on making them look like tumors.

 

 

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The unsung hero (Post Production)

Ok you know what’s coming… I’m gonna bang on about music again.
This is the track I used in ‘Luxo JR’ It’s called ‘Collage of Broken Thoughts’ by ‘ID3’.

I truely think this is the ‘unsung hero’ of the film. I was tossing up between a few different tunes during the post production processes, these stemmed from an ‘Aphex Twin’ tune a track called ‘DMT’ by ‘XXYYXX’ but I thought that the connection with the artist and an already existing music video (one i have listed as an inspiration for my piece would be far to strong)

I always had this tune in the back of my mind, and I think I always knew I’d use it to be honest. Apart from the cat, this truely does make the film, the style of music it is as well (with the glitch fx) gave me a great opportunity to add some cool effects in post.

But most of all it just works on almost every level… don’t mean to boast but I can’t think up a better tune to go with the piece.

It was’nt however as simple as it sounded just to include the tune, I’ll explain how I had to edit the track to fit in with the video in the post above.

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Glitches & Pizza (Post Production)

This is a screen shot of the glitch effects used in 'Luxo Jr' These effects are meant to match to the glitchy sounds and noises in the song.

This is a screen shot of the glitch effects used in ‘Luxo Jr’
These effects are meant to match to the glitchy sounds and noises in the song.

This is a screen shot of some more effects i put in post. the static like effect works well with the shot, and shows an inner struggle. At 1st I was making the effects to obvious and to much.

This is a screen shot of some more effects i put in post. the static like effect works well with the shot, and shows an inner struggle.
At 1st I was making the effects to obvious and to much.

I think a big part of my development in this unit has been my understanding of what looks effective and what dosen’t.

For example at 1st I upped the intensity of the effects to much, drawing them out for too long, which didn’t look right.

Just because you have a lot of tools to your disposal, dosen’t mean you should cram all of them in. That would be like going to Pizza Hut and getting pineapple, anchovies, peppers, onions, mushrooms, jalapenos, ham, extra cheese and chicken on one pizza, just because you can. It wont make the pizza taste as good as it would if there were a few select ingrediants on it.

 

The best pizza you will probably ever had would be a plain cheese and tomato in a traditional Italian pizzaria… but people still insist on stuffing their crusts with sausage and cheese, when it does not make the end result any better.

I AM ITALY!

SKY REPLACEMENT IS AMERICA, ADDING SYNTHETIC CHEESE TO EVERYTHING!

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Inspiration (Post Production)

This music video was one of the key inspirations behind ‘Luxo Jr a Black & White Film About Two Washers’

It’s by XXYYXX and the use of masks, the smoke and the way the camera pans I thought are all really effective. Whilst editing my film, the subtle pans are added in post production. I thought that the zooms added so much more to the shots.

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United Colours of Everington (Animation Techniques)

United Colours of Everington (Animation Techniques)

I wanted to research into colour theory, because i think that in my animations there’s no point in randomly adding colour without thinking that the combinations, although my ‘Barry the Bean’ animation is in colour, I’m not totally happy with it… I don’t know why, because it’s realistic colours and pretty good shading, but I’m still not fully convinced.

So colour theory is everything from good colour combinations to the psychology behind different shades, and how they make you feel.