PPP1 Module Evaluation

PPP has been a brilliant module, it has allowed me to research into areas of interest and in the process, be inspired. Because of this, I have found PPP1 a very educational module, I have learnt a lot from having that valuable time to research and develop in the process.

Finding your interests and likes is vital for finding your path in industry, finding the process that suits you and the one where you see yourself. In my blog, I have critically analysed a wide spectrum of the animations out there in industry, and have found many areas I have profound interest in. But what has stood out to me the most and what I have got most excited about is Virtual Reality. Bringing my animations to life, immersing people in them, I am very passionate about this. Next I need to research obviously how to implement this using software such as Maya and Unity.

I feel this module has allowed me to develop on those key analytical skills too. Looking at a whole variety of animations ranging from 3D, 2D, Stop-Motion. I feel I have done well in looking behind the visuals and finding and analysing subliminal meanings. I have also researched from a wide variety of sources; reading journals, books and internet.

PPP1 has also allowed for that valuable time for reflection. Evaluating myself, as well as animations. Knowing your strengths and weaknesses is crucial for being able to develop successfully. The "who am I" task at the start of the year, allowed me to highlight my aims for the year and set targets, then at the end with the 'Reflect' presentation, I had the chance to evaluate how well I have achieved that. (if I have at all.) Which was a great method of evaluating my progress throughout the year and picking out areas that need more focus onto the second year.

The Disseminate and Reflect presentations have been vital towards my communication and presentation skills, and aiding with my confidence issues. I really enjoyed my Disseminate presentation, I feel it went much smoother than my Reflect presentation because in the Disseminate brief I was able to express my passion by talking about the areas that interest and enthuse me, I found it much more easy to talk about that, that self-criticising myself infront of everyone in Reflect, It felt quite awkward.

The seminar and lecture part of absorb has been very educational. In a series of lectures we have been taught about some aspects of the industry, such as the element of Copyrighting, which has been most interesting. These seminars have also added value to our skills, having seminars on what makes an effective presentation and so forth, I feel I have learnt a lot.

I feel one of my weaknesses in this module has been how OVER critical I have been with myself. Being my worst enemy and all, I tend to be more negative to myself than positive, which could prove detrimental to my personal professional practice in the future.

Googles Tilt Brush

Being an avid fan of VR, to hear about a piece of technology that allows you to create art virtually around you in a 3D space, I was instantly interested.

This is the new Google 'tilt brush'. After watching this video, I was first questioning, is this real?!?!

I just wanted to throw my money at the screen. Being able to literally make your art, come alive, walk around your art, your art is off the canvas and is physically around you in your space, amazing!

This is the next step in art. One I am very excited about.

Imagine the future, a technology where you can make animations PHYSICAL.

You can walk around your own animations, meet your animations.

Animation is where you make your drawings come to life and your imagination come to life on screen, imagine then those animations themselves coming to life from screen, to reality, virtual reality.

Very exciting.

The video effectively starts off with a woman, in a dull room, drawing on her note pad. This personifies how normal sketching is boring and dull, in comparison to when she puts on her VR headset and is suddenly immersed in this world of colour. 

Not only do your drawings come to life but if you observe the video closely, the lines themselves have a physical shimmer. Your lines are alive.

I also love the texture of the brush. Obviously because its in 3D space, your line placements vary slightly with perspective positioning, so it creates this original texture, never seen before, because only this drawing tool can make it.

I also love how you get involved in your drawing, if you observe the movements of the people in the video they are so full of life, physically sculpting their art in space, it also brings that other depth to it, the depth that you have physically created it.

Im so PASSIONATE about VR, I would LOVE to do something with this.

This has really inspired me, and I am even thinking about plans to buy a Vive, in hope to bring my animations to life one day, its where its going.

Radiohead - Burn the witch

Radiohead are one of my favourite bands, so when I hear a new song I instantly am intrigued and go to watch the music video.

I was delighted this time to find it was an animation, and a stop-motion one at that. My first thoughts were negative, I wasn't really sure on the style with playmobile, post-man pat style characters, and I wasn't so 'engaged', nothing was really drawing me in to watch it.

I also found it really sinister, the jerky tim burton style movements along with the character design, and even the song, with Thom Yorkes high pitched singing, really creating this creepy atmosphere over the whole animation. But this complements the sinister theme to the whole animation which is unveiled at the end, when the townsfolk from a town based on Salem from The Crucible, burn the main character in a creepy wooden statue.

I found it quite an uncomfortable watch, sometimes it felt like there are too many things going on, too many colours, commotion. It also didn't flow, after each scene the screen fades to black and then back out again, which left me feeling rather agitated, being used to effective screen cuts in film nowadays.

All these components I feel are intentional. Intentional to make you feel disturbed when watching, to intensify the sinister feel.

But why does it have to be so sinister?

Obviously the reason for this is because of its context. With the song named "Burn the Witch", Radiohead have wanted to create a sinister video with a dark context reflecting the Salem witch trials, and have definitely achieved this.


The most effective scene I feel was when the main character gets unexpectedly locked inside the wooden statue, because it coexists with the music very well, the music heightens and Thom Yorke sings his highest note yet, it really creeps you out, its quite powerful.

For Sofia

For Unicefs campaign for children trapped in crisis across the world, they have created this unique campaign ad named "#ForSofia".

From first glance, Sofia can easily be mistaken for a real life child, the compositing is hyper real, her movements obviously motion captured to be so realistic.

What was interesting to find out was how Sofia is an amalgram of 500 children currently trapped in crisis right now, this minute. This information adds another level of depth. It makes her more real, no longer is she just a 3D projection, she is a 3D projection reaching out to you with reality, the reality that the 500 faces she is constructed with have probably seen poverty, war, crisis, tragedy, maybe even death. It makes her more tangible, real.

3D animation is a medium that usually lacks tangibility and realism, even when textured hyper real, it can be argued characters still don't actually feel real, they don't have life behind the eyes, because at the end of the day, they are just a hollow 3D character. But Sofia is different. BECAUSE she is modelled from 500 REAL children all with different REAL experiences, there is something behind the eyes and its quite touching and emotional.

All this makes for a powerful piece of advertising, it captures you to listen, and is more powerful than just 1 child talking, we have become desensitised to ads which show emotional children making a plea because there are so many.

Spiral

Spiral from Matt Clark on Vimeo.


What drew me to this animation at first, was the fact that I couldn't tell if it was Stop Motion or 3D. When I pressed play, I was instantly intrigued, one moment it looked stop motion with the set design and thumb print texture on the characters face, then next with his movements he looked 3D. I love that crossover of traditional animation and 3D, especially stop-motion and 3D, they go very well together considering they are both 3D techniques of animation.

I love the character design, the droopy eyes and naval wrinkles, he looks so lazy and laid back. Complementing this is the way he is animated, the slow blink and the really slow, lazy walk cycle, which goes perfectly to the bass of the song. With the character design I also like the striking green gillet, half mast trousers and receding hairline, it all ties together to create a really distinguishable and original character.

If you think about it, the character is hardily animated, he walks with his palms flat, straight , with real gentle, slow, hardily distinguishable movements, this again complements his lazy appearance.

Overall, the narrative to this animation is very weird and unique, but I like it. Two people staring at each other, they instantly connect from obvious similarity, both envisaging touching each other and being close... This is personified by their faces projecting out of their heads and twisting and turning and touching together. It is very sexual, but why? They aren't naked or sexually explicit in any way. It is sexual because of their movements, caressing and twisting together in time with the music, in sync with each other, it is romantic. Also the fact that all you see is their flesh because of their projected heads, kind of gives the illusion that they are naked, making it even more sexual.

Another reason why I liked this animation so much is because it rings a signal with the human race, and how we are on public transport. We all sit there on a bus or a train, thinking all these thoughts, never knowing what everyone else is thinking, your so close, yet at the same time your so far removed from everyone. In this animation however, the couple are sat away from each other, yet they feel so close, joined by thoughts of touching each other.

Personal reflection of the year

At the start of the year I evaluated myself in the, Who am I, Why am I here? and What do I want to learn? study task.

Now at the end of the year, im taking time to personally reflect on how I have developed. One of the ways I am doing this is by looking back at the answers to those questions to see if I have met any of them;

What do you want to learn on the programme?

- Valuable skills in the world of work, improving my confidence and how to find my feet and make a living in the real world. 

- How to turn my lifetime hobby into a career. 

- The aesthetic that suits me best as an animator. 

- To develop skills in animation across all areas (stop motion, 3D etc) so I become a flexible individual industry. 

- How to work efficiently within a collaboration. 

What things do you feel you need to improve on?

- How to work around the top end (really complicated) software (after effects and maya inparticular) 

- Balancing work and play, I seem to work myself down far too much. 

- My focus in lectures. 

- To stop being such a perfectionist to an extent as it can get very time consuming focussing on the most minute and pointless details. 

- My animation skills in general !

With it being my first year, I haven't yet got to do the collaboration side of things and the career teaching side of things.

However skills-wise I feel I have improved so much. Having learnt and employed a lot of the principles of animation this year that I didn't even know really existed. I feel I can name them all by heart and describe them thoroughly in depth. This I feel was the most important factor that I wanted to learn as with this, I can develop as an animator with whatever medium of animating I want.

Next important was software, I have learnt so much about software this year. With me not even WANTING to touch After Effects last year because of how scary it seemed, now I am perfectly comfortable with it and can't wait to learn more. However I feel I haven't really learn as much about software as I would have wanted. This summer it is my task to binge learn a lot of After Effects, Maya and Unity. Because next year I am going to experiment a LOT more to make up for this year. I am going to try more digital mediums of animating (3D and 2D) maybe even some hand painted stuff too. Because I am quite upset with myself how I haven't experimented much, it got to the end of the year when I was reflecting to suddenly realise this..

Also In the reflection at the start of the year I said how I wanted to find my style, which I haven't really done. I don't really have a particular aesthetic, I keep switching between loads of different styles of drawing


However there are a few things I wanted to improve on but havent. These are; Balancing work and play, and also being a perfectionist.

Along the way this year, what I have learnt additionally is the ability to juggle loads of modules all at once and prioritise them all equally, and with that, manage my time effectively.

Ive really enjoyed this year, just having that time to develop valuable skills, with it being a year where grades don’t really count, it means you can experiment and develop in the process.

I’ve also loved the emphasis on art over tech, something I feel was lacking in all the other unis I went to, and is lacking with animators in general nowadays.

I heard a few weeks ago actually, how for the new animated van gogh film, they had to employ all these artists to paint each scene because the animators themselves they had employed, have no art skill whatsoever. Which is sad because animation is an art and it should stay like that.

I have also really enjoyed elaborating on my art skill with the life drawing classes this year, just being able to sit down and draw for a few hours is very theraputic, especially when taking time out of a busy schedule, I also really liked this part of Visual language too.

However, one thing I have disliked, which was really hard to think of  because I have thoroughly enjoyed the year, would be the fact that I would have wanted a little bit more time for personal professional practise. I would have loved just a little more time to watch tutorials in detail and not have on my mind at the same time how im wasting time just sat for hours watching countless tutorials when I could have been working.

A lot of the software is very difficult for me to get my head around and I need time to look at some tutorials on Unity, Maya and After Effects.

Mistakes I have made this year;

I feel I focus on aesthetic far too much. I want things to look pretty, and for the other side I feel that restricted me , I focussed too much on everything being too neat and nice, that I felt the movements were neglected when that’s what animation is mainly about.

Im also a massive perfectionist. So much time has been wasted from me refining and perfecting my work, I know perfectionist can be a good quality too, but I feel it always limits me, it also limits my experimentation because I want everything to look perfect all the time.

With the Other Side project, I felt I focused far too much on capturing a realistic movement that my animation almost started to seem quite robotic and unnatural, it went the other side of the spectrum of what I wanted. To work on this, I need to stray away from the perfection side and be more exaggerated with the way I approach animating to bring my drawings to life, rather than just alive.

I also feel I didn’t approach things as confidently as I could have, with the expectation to make mistakes, to learn and encourage experimentation.

What I identify as my strengths now at the end of the year;

I am very observational, I am good at focussing on the little details, finding little errors within my frames and being able to correct them to get the movement fluid and realistic.

With this comes my strength in patience. Animation is a long process, it takes a lot of time. So having patience is crucial, for being dedicated to tasks and having that persistence when things aren’t looking the way you want them to look.

I feel I am also good at making myself work.

I feel another strength is the fact that I ENJOY animating. Theres nothing worse than forcing yourself to work at something that you don’t like, which is probably why I am able make myself to work so well.

The whole labourous process of animating I really enjoy, its like a dream job.

Weaknesses;

I have difficulty balancing work and play.

Outside of college I have a part-time job and when im not working on that job I’m doing uni work, I hardily give myself any time to play. Ive not played any video games since I started the year which is a very sad fact, having being on them non-stop all last summer. I recognise it’s a weakness for myself but I am  a self confessed work a holic, when im not working, I'm thinking about working so it makes me happier just working.

I am very unconfident in my work and I often like my work at the start then at the end after seeing everyone elses, I then begin to realise how bad it is and end up hating all that I have done.

I did this for The Other Side, after seeing so many flaws I hated it so badly, luckily this was after I had animated it so none of this negativity showed in the production.

Obsessing over little things comes directly from me being a perfectionist. If something isnt right, however little it is, It will annoy the hell out of me till its finished. I know this can be a good quality too in areas but, I consider it a weakness how I spend so much time correcting things other people would believe are pointless and time-wasting. With animation you have to have that element of perfection but being far too over the spectrum would mean you would have issues producing things on time.

These weaknesses are hard to address, they will take a lot of time, its about building my confidence in my ability which is a long process.

Google Spotlight Stories

Being so avidly into VR, when I came across Googles Spotlight Stories, I was instantly caught.

Most of all by Pearl;

Which is a 360 production. The narrative follows a would-be musician and his daughter, told in a non-linear fashion, entirely from the perspective of the passenger sitting next to the driver.

In VR, you take the position of said passenger. You can turn your head and look out the window, observe the driver to your left, turn your head round and see people in the back, look at the floor and see junk accumulating, or just stare absently at the road ahead. You live inside the animation, this is something I would really love to do, REALLY, love to do.

The film was made in 4 different ways on different platforms. One for mobile, which is where all spotlight stories are, like a 360 canvas, the user can move their phone around like looking through a hole into another dimension. There is also a VR version on the phone, when put inside a headset configuration, theres a whole VR version with the Vive headset and theres even a 2D theatrical cut. Each version is rooted with the same story but they are all told ever so slightly differently. The fact they are all told differently kind of makes the story more real and physical, (which is like what the VR achieves visually) because its like each of the platforms tell their own version, like people round a campfire sharing stories passed down for generations, to each generation the story changes slightly, each person shares their own individual version.

I found an extract of the producer of 'Pearl' David Eisenmann going into more detail about the short; 

"We build the 360 world out in 3D, and with so much rendering being performed in real time one might expect animation akin to Dire Strait’s 1985 “Money for Nothing” video, but the simple yet sophisticated character design was attractive and conveyed their personalities nicely"

I agree, I loved the character design, they have that tangibility. Sometimes they look angular, like folded boxes, like you can reach out an touch them, even though they are 2D in style with the paint-like aesthetic. I also love the colour scheme, it makes you feel warm inside, with the over-pronunciation of red hues.

Patrick Osborne, director of Disneys "Feast" also had something inetersting to note about Pearl; “When you’re working on real time rendering you need a lot of computing power to make the animation look realistic, I think hand drawn animation on 2’s connects with people so well that your brain fills in the gaps. It gives people enough information to fill in the rest with their imagination.”

I love this statement, because I totally agree with it. Along with the painted, cubic style, I feel it really connects with the audience, really complementing the whole inclusiveness that VR offers you, so many components involve you in the animation. I find it amazing how you can feel involved in an animation thats so unrealistic in style, your brain and imagination can successfully immerse you in a world that is so far from being real, a world that is evidently painted and animated... This is what I would love to elaborate on, and play with.

Osborne continued; 

“The choices we made were impressionistic - we had to make production design choices everywhere. If you just look at the back seat all the time, there’s still a sense of a story, you can see junk building up. It limits you in a way but you can use those limits to make beautiful work; they’re not really limits.”

His words are inspiring me more and more to make something like this, to play with this. You have to think of all perspectives, all perspectives telling a story, the ultimate art of storytelling.

Monster Stains

Aardman and Kode Media have come together for a new advertisement for Persil to prove that "dirt is good".

I found this ad so creative, I love it. The whole animation is drawn on white T-shirts, , which even more imaginatively, were hand-drawn using products that are renowned for making "monster"stains;

From the puns to the animation, there are so many creative and original elements to this commercial, its brilliant.

"Every Stain Tells a Story"

This line defines the whole advert, its a very effective slogan. When children come in from playing outside, covered in stains, each stain remains a marker for where they fell over, what they spilt, what they rubbed against. The stains are evidence of fun, evidence of adventure. Persil promotes the goodness of dirt, to expose how efficiently they can get rid of it.

In this advert, the stains actually do tell a story. A story of two monsters (Stain monsters/Monster stains) going on an adventure across a bridge. Just when we think one monster has fallen to meet his demise, he find he has wings and rises up from the clouds, then they both fly off together. These monsters represent 2 children playing, utilising their imaginations creating their own stories in their heads.

I love the whole style that the stains on the T-Shirts creates, its messy, reflective of the messy nature of children. But it also creates this unique child-like aesthetic. The style and character design looks as if it has been scribbled and drawn by a child (but made more elaborate), yet again reflecting children, the primary reason adults buy persil. 

If the animation of the monsters was played on screen with no backstory, we would  assume it just a regular hand-drawn animation with a quirky style. But the impact of knowing the backstory is profound, seeing the concoction of natural stains being made and put into an art palette as if they are paints. I also love the introduction to the animation, how he paints the butterfly, washes the shirt, paints it, washes it, it gets faster and faster, till the butterfly starts to come to life. This highlights the repetitive nature of animation, but also the magic of it, drawings coming to life right before you. It also highlights the repetitive ritual (especially if you have kids) of washing your clothes. However there is also some clever subliminal advertising here, telling you to wash your clothes a lot, wash them with persil, so you use it more and buy more in the process.

I feel the animated sequence of the monsters also has a hidden message behind it. The monsters overcome the barrier of falling by learning to fly, like parents can overcome the barrier of stains, with persil's power of stain removal.

All in all, this is a very successful piece of advertisement in my opinion.