SNU | Mysite

To fulfill my SNU brief, I will be using this project as a time to experiment with aspects of my film making that will lead up to the beginning of my Master Project. I am currently working with this unit to create all my mistakes now, so that I can learn from them before I begin my final unit. I will be creating set pieces and experimenting with character design, costumes, props, lighting in order to understand my own film better, what is going to work and things that I will need to change. I will be creating armatures and animation tests that I will show to peers and others to gain feedback.

I will be using video footage of myself working on these areas of my work and adding a small description of what I am working on in the videos. As this unit is about experimentation, I am hoping, with the storyboards shots that I have created to make a small comic of these shots together, as I am hoping my film to have this element about it, I would like to try it out as a comic to see if people engage with it and if it works as a comic, then it may translate over to moving image, this is something that I would like to try out as it allows me to step outside film-making for a moment and gain an informative way of how viewers/readers engage with two different types of media, portraying the same story.

Overall, I will be handing in for my SNU a video of a short animation test that I will be recording on the set, characters, lighting and props that I have also created throughout this unit.

To begin with, I started with set design, for various reasons. I wanted to create the environment that I had visualised to see if it was actually possible and achievable. Working with the set also allowed me to be creative and spend my energy creating the environment, so that when the puppets arrived, I could place them in the world I wanted to see them in, and if both puppet and environment could work together.

I have produced an assortment of trees, grass and rocks to bring to life the world. I really enjoyed this process, creating the set pieces, making each tree and other prop different to the other, experimenting with height and depth to achieve a ‘pop-up forest’ look.

I am now at the stage where I am happy with each of the set pieces I have made and I am now looking forward to beginning animating with the character using the set.

I have begun some test animations, with the puppet on set. I am using both the set and the puppet to also film shots that I would like to use in the film, and I am experimenting and testing camera angles and character movement at the same time. This is an important part of my process through SNU as working with how character and environment work together, and how this is portrayed through the camera is visually important as this is how the audience will view my film and working out the camera positions to best represent the fight visually and how the character interact with one another is key to create my final piece.

Research File

Studio work

When I started my lighting tests, I had been looking at how light passes through glass as I had seen the effect of this, as light shone through a glass on my desk. It then inspired me to think how I could use this within my own film making. I know I wanted sound to represent my characters, but what about the lighting too.

I wanted to focus on lighting, particularly the Yokai fighter, when he enters the woods and during his fight. I found this to be a really interesting aspect to explore and I hope to feature this technique in my film. To do this I tested with a torch shining through a textured glass bottle that created wavy patterns that projected against my set pieces. Again, I really liked this look, and hope to use this in my film for character representation.

At first, I lit the scene from the side, as to cast shadows on from the side, and lowered the contrast in these shots, the results created a sunset/low sun feel. I like the look of this, and I will be experimenting with this more in order to see what this could look like throughout my film.

The lighting is an important aspect of my film to get right in order to add to the atmosphere, building tension between the characters and to visually represent the characters emotions. To do this, through my own tests, I have been researching and reading about lighting for animation/film. As I was reading, I came across three-point lighting and how it is an important factor to consider when lighting my own set. As of yet, I have done a few lighting tests (which I have included pictures underneath), I have experimented with different tones and different lights to explore how this looks and how I will light my scene as the tension builds before and during the fight scene.

At the moment, I only have a few images of my experimentation, but I am aiming to create more dynamic and different filters/colors to experiment as much as I can with this to ultimately be able to make a more informed decision when I come to my masters project.

Another aspect of lighting I have explored to potentially use as a feature to add to story and character development is refraction. Light was reflecting through glass onto my desk, and created a really eye catching pattern that I thought I would try out on my set. I used a textured bottle and shone a small light close up to it. As seen in the images, I cast the light to reflect onto the set pieces, this allowed me to see the potential, I liked the pattern that it created and I thought how I could use this to flash up and cast over the set as the Yokai appears. I would like to be able to perform better tests for this to see how this could work. For example, setting the lights onto rigs/tripods and having 2/3 smaller lights and to use filter/gels, alongside some animation in action with the lighting to see how/if it works together. This will again give me more variety to work with and to create more informed decisions on how best to represent my characters and overall tone to my film.

Before shooting my film for my Masters Project, I am using SNU to explore Stop-motion and how I can achieve believable animation. My story features a lot of movement between the two characters, reacting to one another. With this in mind, I am going to be creating small animation tests, to see how I can achieve this. To begin with, I have started to make short animation tests of the character swinging. I wanted to tackle this action as it is the action that kicks off the fight.

First off, I have created a wide shot, this was a chance for me to explore with full body movement. Although the movement is not necessarily right, I really enjoyed this process of working with the full body of the armature, the challenge of moving the whole body, and reflecting your movement onto the puppet is a rewarding experience. I again have created the swing shot but with different camera angles. This will allow me to see how best to portray the action, and ‘cutting on action’ to keep the action flowing. There are a lot of flaws with the test but it has set the foundation of what I need to work on and how I can improve my character performance.

Here are some still images of my work in progress. The images here are some of the key frames from the animation test that I have produced so far. Given the circumstance, I have produced a few tests, although my original plan was to have more of a sequence put together, alongside experimenting with the lighting in the shots too.

The key images that I have put together, I have been able to reflect on my work as an animator and through this, I have been able to make more informed decisions about my work and how this compares with other animators. Watching videos about other animators and their advice about keyframe animations and working with them to produce convincing/fluid animation. Although keyframe animation is usually used in 2D/hand drawn animation, this technique I have found to be a useful asset to reflect back on my practice tests In doing so, I can achieve more of an informed decision about my animation and what actions are important in order to tell the story and the emotion of my characters.

Here I have put together the keyframes from my animation tests. I wanted to put together the key images I thought best represented the action. In doing so, I have been able to reflect on my own practice. What actions are important in telling the story? Can I tell my story with X amount of frames? In putting the still images together, do they represent the intended action?

While I have been experimenting with stop-motion and I am approaching shooting the production, it has inspired me to keep coming back to my story. As part of my SNU experimentation I want to look at portraying characters visually. To do this, I created a few short animation tests as the puppet pulls back his clayface. I am using these tests as a reference to how I would like to reveal my Yokai character and add the dramatic reveal that I am looking for in my production. Ideally, when I come to shoot my film, I will have created two face masks that I can replace through the frames from the Yokais base/normal face to his unveiling of a Yokai underneath.

Animation Test - HAND IN

THE TESTS

I have also included in the test, a ‘face pulling’ action. As I would like to include this in my film. The antagonist reveals his demon face underneath his ‘base’ face. This was really fun to shoot and to practice with different timings and frame rates. I feel this will add a dramatic revile to my character and add more tension when he enters the scene.

Again, I have also included a different angle shot of the swing, again, to test perspective and what shot will convey the action and drive the story. With animation, I know it is important to storyboard/test the shots that I want to see in my film, so that when it comes to the actual production I am more informed and aware of what the final piece will look like, also, importantly time is less likely to be wasted.

Overall, I am generally not so happy with the tests that I have. Before the pandemic, I was only able to produce the few tests that I have included. I would have loved to have had more test animation completed so that I could get the feedback necessary from peers, tutors and members of the public (through Instagram). Although, working with what I have I have been able to see how much work I need to put into the animation and the practice itself to achieve visually pleasing animation. With my work, I can see that I need to add more frames into the scene to create smoother animation,and to be more consistent with my movement of the puppet and the frame rate I'm working with.

Here is my Pecha Kucha presentation. I enjoyed working on this part of the SNU as it allowed me to gather all my work together and see the direction that I was going in. I was then able to present my work to the rest of my peers and tutors. Included in my presentation, I have been looking into the different creative outlets that are there to help support the arts. The work I have been producing is building up to have more informed decisions of the industry that I would like to go into and how to go about it. Whilst reaching, I have found Creative England who invest in creative projects/people to help develop their ideas/stories or business. Another potential avenue I could approach is Aadram Studios. They are incolbration with the National Film and Television School and they run a 12 week full time intensive character animation course. This is something that I am highly interested in applying for, and I am hoping to use my Masters work and my final film in order to submit an application for this course. There is also Creative Arts England, who are also a company I could approach to ask for funding to help create the other films that I have in mind after completing my Masters film, or to help with funds towards the NTFS character animation course.

Creative England

“Film & TV.” Creative England, https://www.creativeengland.co.uk/film-tv/. Accessed 12 May 2020.

“Character Animation.” NFTS, 10 July 2018, https://nfts.co.uk/character-animation.

Critical Evaluation

To fulfill my SNU brief, I decided to look back through my other completed briefs and establish a foundation in which I could use to explore the process of experimentation through my pre-production practice, which will lead on to my final Master Project. My interest was to see how far I could push my experimentation and I was curious to find out what outcomes I could achieve by approaching different aspects of the film making process. During this unit, I was using my studio to create and document my process through my reflective journal. I wanted to take each aspect of film making such as set design, story, lighting, animation and story boarding and put time and effort into experimenting with them. To do so, I looked into refraction (light/character design) stop-motion animation (animation tests) set design (building props and placement on set) sound and character design (animatic, live action tests). During this process I found it incredibly rewarding to create, design and test different possibilities and outcomes. Given the work I have, and building upon that, I have been able to form a more established story and sense of direction to my project.

Before taking on my experimentation, I began with creating a spider diagram with everything that I wanted to achieve throughout this unit. This helped me to visually see what areas I would be exploring and I could focus on each segment at a time, to then fully be prepared for the actual experiment. To explore my practice, I used my studio to undertake most of my experimentation. I purchased two stop-motion puppets which needed to be built, once that was complete I began to look at other stop-motion animators such as Henry Selick, ….. and their way of telling a story and bringing their characters to life. ‘What stop-motion does best is present real objects magically brought to life in a very imperfect situation; the hand of the artist is there, the electricity of someone touching, massaging and torturing themselves to get life out of an inanimate object’ -Henry Selick. Bringing the characters to life through movement is an extremely important element for me to explore and refine into my own practice. To aid my learning I conducted first hand research, filming two participants depicting different movements of the fight sequence that are key to my story, such as the swing of the sword, so that I could reference this while practicing the movements onto the puppet. I filmed the scenes from different angles, again to help with story boarding and to drive the narrative. I am also researching refraction, and how this could be a potential element that I could feature within my film.

At the start of this brief, I knew that this was a great opportunity to venture into creating my own stop-motion animation tests. Creating the tests will allow me to gain feedback from tutors, peers, friends and through my social media page about my animation. I will then be able to make more informed decisions about my animation techniques and the general feel/tone of my film, while practicing the act itself to prepare me for my Masters Project. To begin my experiment I started with creating and designing set pieces which included mountains, trees ( both various sizes), and rocks. To keep in with the theme of creating set pieces that look hand drawn/from a storybook. I used white card and black fine liner to draw each of the designs, to give the trees their own individual look. Once they all had different details and marking on, I was able to cut them out and make each tree stand individually. I did this by using lolly sticks and cutting and using cereal boxes to create small ‘leg stands’ so they can be supported on their own once they are on the set. Once I had all the trees ready and standing, I began to experiment with depth with the props, creating larger or smaller trees/mountains to produce more range and variety to work with when filming close or longer distance shots. After most of the props were created I then began with setting out the trees,mountains and rocks in various positions. This is so that I get to see the props on the set that will be used for my film and if/how they work with the environment and the overall story and tone that I want to create. The next stage of my process was then to build the two armatures/puppets.I was particularly interested in movement and working with this through stop-motion animation. I wanted to test the character swinging the sword at different frame rates to better inform myself about working with puppets and how to achieve convincing animation that will also benefit the narrative. I practiced the movement I wanted to achieve by acting it out myself, and filming others for reference. I was able to create a few tests of the same ‘swinging’ movement from different angles to keep informed about my animation and what frame rate/camera angel best represents the action. While practicing the animation I was also conducting lighting tests for the same scene that the swinging of the sword will take place.To do this, I began with starting with one back lit light, and then adding filters over to create different moods, eventually adding more lights and moving the positions of the lights to create a dramatic effect and to open up the potential looks/tone/feel of the scene. In doing so, it will give me a clearer understanding of what the scene potentially will look like, and in turn, I can build upon what I have created for the experiment and make it better for the final piece.

Whilst working on this unit, I have been able to produce test footage of my main character. The main character will be swinging his sword to begin the actual fight sequence. The test footage I have is made up of different angels and frame rates of the character depicting this action. I have uploaded the footage to my website and have written my own thoughts about the work under each video. I felt this is an important action to begin my practice with. It kicks off the fight sequence and sets up the drama and suspense, which will carry the tone throughout the rest of the fight sequence. Creating the animation tests, I have been able to appreciate the time/effort that is needed to produce even just a few frames/seconds of animation. Working with sets, props, lightings and puppets has enabled me to appreciate and understand the work, time and effort needed to produce an animation. The SNU unit has been a chance for me to explore the possibilities of becoming an animator and what skills I need in order to transition into the animation industry.

My main focus of this unit, was in the end, to put together all the work I have produced from the very beginning of this unit (set,prop making and character design) and create a short animation sequence that could be reviewed by tutors, online, and peers. Due to the current situation, I have produced a few short animation tests of my main character swinging the sword that begins the fight sequence. (although I wanted to create a more developed piece of animation). I have filmed this action from different camera angles, as I wanted to cover as many as possible which then could be reviewed to decide which angles best depict the action and heighten the drama.I am beginning to understand working with puppets/armatures and the possibilities and the limitations they may impose. Although I only have a few tests, it has already taught me so much about frame rates and how to be consistent with the kinetic flow of puppetry. Reviewing my work, I can see the weakness in the tests that I have produced and what I need to develop. My actual animation skills will always be an ongoing process, but for these particular animation tests the frame rates are not enough. The animation may have benefited from smaller movements and more frames to create smoother action. Again, understanding how to work with puppets and how their ‘body’ moves will also benefit the overall animation.Although I am unable at the moment, I will produce what I originally intended to as I I would have liked to produce more of a narrative test, completing a dry run of one of the opening scenes to my film.This would have included the set,lighting,props all together with the armatures acting out the scene.

Overall, I have highly enjoyed the process and journey of this SNU brief. Working with this brief has not only made me aware of my own intentions as a filmmaker/animator, but how I intend to carry on outside of my studies Through this process I have thought about the potiernal impact my work could have on audiences/clients and how I can establish myself as an animator/filmmaker. Having thought about the future and what I would like to achieve, I wish to put my stop-motion film into UK film festivals next year. I have created my own Instagram that I upload my work to, with the intention of connecting to other animators/studios and also gaining feedback from others. In creating my own Instagram I am able to learn animation techniques such as working with puppets to working with green screen and the advantages/disadvantages this may bring to the production.I am also able to see the variety of what work is being produced from professional and independent animators.I hope that with my work, I am able to achieve working with other animators/studios in order to gain the valuable knowledge and experience that will enrich my own filmmaking and practice techniques. I have also been looking into the different avenues I can reach out to and apply for once I have finished my studies. Such as Creative England, who help support filmmakers with funding/connections. I have also been in contact with Aardman Studios, who run a 12 week stop-motion course which I am keen to apply and use my Master Project as part of my portfolio.

Quote

“Stop-Motion Archives.” Famous Inspirational Quotes & Sayings, https://www.inspirationalstories.com/quotes/t/about-stop-motion/. Accessed 12 April 2020.