Brief
Your assignment task is to undertake a more sustained and focused project that goes through various iterations and processes of making, addressing the theme of ‘movement’ in either the production of the work or in its content. This idea of ‘movement’ could produce an artwork that moves quickly or slowly, or moves from being large to small, or from colour to black and white, for example, or indeed any combination of all those qualities. The important thing is that you are documenting a process of making and change.
Using the material you have already produced for the exercises, you will combine elements of your work to produce ONE of the following options. The content is up to you, but it should take about 4 days to produce from beginning to end:
- Animation: This could take many possible forms. You could develop a ‘flick book’ approach, a stop-motion animation, or a digital animation or gif.
- A ‘zine’ or small book.
- A short film or video.
- At least three character illustrations with suitable backdrops and details of character traits.
Keywords from the brief
- A project that goes through various iterations and processes of making, addressing the theme of ‘movement’
- moves quickly or slowly,
- The important thing is that you are documenting a process of making and change.
- Using the material you have already produced for the exercises, you will combine elements of your work to produce ONE of the following options.
- Animation:
- A ‘zine’
- A short film or video.
- At least three character illustrations with suitable backdrops and details of character traits.
Mind map
To begin, I made a mind map of all of my likely ideas for this assignment to assist me in determining the best course of action for the project.
The first thought I had was to animate a comic I had created for a prior exercise. I used Skillshare to study how I could achieve this and discovered a great video created by Sarah Andersen, a webcomic artist and illustrator. The screenshot below is an example of her work. In the final panel, she animated the girl to dance.
Following this video, I attempted to create my own comic using my past work as a reference. However, after spending a significant amount of time attempting to animate various parts of my work, I discovered that when it came time to publish it, it would not load properly. Below is an example of a successful panel.
However, after being unable to get it to play properly, I decided to reconsider my assignment ideas.
Another concept I had was to make an animation about a young girl who enjoyed dancing but had never been able to pursue her goals due to poverty and perhaps bullying. I liked this idea because I thought there was no better way to demonstrate movement than through dance.
Research
Firstly, I researched into animation and found artists that are inspirational, such as:
Walt Disney
The first person that sprung to my mind when thinking about animation is of course Walt Disney. Having loved watching his timeless animations as a child such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, made me want to know more about how he started in the world of animation so I followed this thought on with some research and watched the video below.
It was intriguing to see how he began his career as an animator by accepting a cartoonist position with the Kansas City Star and Kansas City Journal. Initially, he was contracted to create stick figure cartoons with cutout paper. Two years later, Walt worked with his colleague Ub. They collaborated to create a series of short animated films known as “laugh-O-Grams.”
What inspires me the most about Walt Disney is his perseverance in the face of hardship. Although the laugh-O-Grams were a success, he then went on to make short animated films like Alice’s Wonderland. Unfortunately, he ran out of money and was declared bankrupt. Many individuals would have given up at this point in their careers, but he persevered and founded Walt Disney with his brother. He continued with the Alice project, which was a hit, and later went on to make further animated features. As the short films grew successful, Walt and his brother established a new studio. However, he continued to struggle when a competitor named Charles Mintz offeredHowever, he continued to suffer until a competitor called Charles Mintz offered Walt Disney’s employees higher pay and took the majority of his workforce. It was then that Walt returned to a prior project about a mouse named Mortimer and transformed it into the beloved figure we know today as Mickey Mouse. I find it really encouraging that he pursued his passion for illustration and animation despite the difficulties he had in the beginning.
William Kentridge
William Kentridge, a South African artist, is also recognised for his charcoal animations. His approach for creating these videos involves drawing with charcoal on a sheet of paper, photographing it, then erasing portions of the drawing and adding other marks and gestures, and repeating this process until he has completed the stop motion animations concerning political subjects.
Below is a video of William explaining his working process for his animations
Ballerina
Considering the context of what I want my project to be about, I thought about an animated film made in 2016 called Ballerina that I once watched with youngest son. It is very poignant to the idea I have. The film is about two children who escape from an orphanage and go to Paris. In Paris the young girl pretends to be someone else to gain entry into the Opera Ballet School. The film follows Félicie’s journey as she navigates the many challenges while trying to pursue her dream of becoming a prima ballerina.
Below is a short trailer of the film.
I rewatched it to see the different ballet moves during the film and thought about how I need to understand the movement of a dancer for the project to be a success.
Next, I researched different dance poses within ballet and saved them into a mood-board to use later for reference material.
When it comes to creating a basic animation, I know what I need to do because I’ve already done some preliminary study on how to produce a simple animation using Adobe Photoshop. Also, this time, I’ll export the work as a movie file, so perhaps I won’t have the same problems as before.
Story plan
Next, I needed to come up with a story plan for my short animated video. I had already written about an idea of a dancer who struggled with bullying in my mind-map. As this is a subject matter that I have dealt with personally as a child it was something I felt passionate about. During secondary school I suffered survere bullying both emotionally and violently for many years. It made me think could I create something for other children to look at and find some inspiration to carry on with their dreams and succeed in life?
This is when I began writing out a story plan.
Story plan
Title
Twirling through turmoil
Characters
Main character – a shy, pretty, slim girl with a passion for dancing who comes from a poor background.
Class mates – Nasty, ugly, cruel children with no compassion
Teacher – A woman that believes in the young girl and gives her strength.
Beginning of the story
Emotional start about a young girl struggling to believe in herself after children teasing her.
Middle
Teacher asks the girl to stand up and talk about something she enjoys.
Sorting out the problem
The girl finds strength in what she believes in and stands up in front of her bully and shows them her passion of dance.
End
The class mates cheer the girl after amazing performance and want to be her friend.
Setting
In school
Next, I wrote out the story before starting to design the main character.
Draft story
As I write in my diary tears hit the page, I don’t fit in with the other kids at school.
All my life I have dreamed of being a dancer but it will never happen. I know that now I am just a weirdo and a loner. They laugh at my shoes and call me names, I feel alone.
(Next, is a page of insults that the bullies call the girl.)
Then one day at school, my teacher asked us all to stand up in turn and talk about something we enjoy.
(The girl talks to her self) Could I talk about dancing? Show them I can dance and that I’m not weird?
We were allowed 15 minutes to use the computers to find examples. my teacher called me up first I tried my best to ignore the whispers.
(Another page of insults from the bullies mocking her)
I felt sick as I scanned the room and looked at their faces.
“Well this is going to be boring” said one bully
(could use past images of faces from previous exercise)
“Look, Bean Pole is next, she is so ugly” said another bully.
“I can’t believe weirdo is going to talk.” said another.
My teacher gave me a big smile and a wink.
Although I was shaking and could hear them laughing I had to stand up for myself and what I believe in. I told myself it doesn’t matter if I don’t have the best shoes or the best clothes. I need to stand up not just to show my talent but to stand up to them.
(Illustration of lake)
I can do this! (she tells herself)
I began to stand up and my voice shook as I said ” I love to dance”
(This is where the animation begins of the girl standing up and dancing)
The whole class clapped and the whispers had changed
(A page of praise from the bullies)
From that moment my life changed for the better.
Putting it all together
For this story I wanted it to come across like the young girl was writing in her diary. So I decided to keep the layout and illustrations simple and mainly use black and white.
Using photoshop I selected the font Sugar Cream and typed out the main story.
Using Photoshop’s blur tool, I blurred parts of the letters to simulate teardrops hitting the page.
After I completed writing out the story, I began deciding which drawings I wanted to include in it. I attempted to choose places that evoked strong feelings and began illustrating in my sketchbook.
Looking back at through my work for this unit I thought the clay sculptures would be fun to add to the project and I decided to use them to represent the bullies.
For the part of the story that reads:
“I decided to shut my eyes and think of my special place. A place where I have peace and can be myself.“
I decided would be a lovely place to add my illustration of a lake that I had previously created for one of the exercises during this course.
Next, using Photoshop I began animating the image of the young girl shown below.
Using this sketch as the first panel I then lowered the opacity and began a new drawing on a new layer slightly moving each limb. It was very time consuming and I now have even more respect for animators and the amount of work they put into their projects. Once all the frames had been finished there were a total of 107 frames to make up the video.
Next, I had to work out how long it would take to read each panel and adjust the time accordingly. To give the animation more atmosphere and emotion I added music called Loneliness LongGrand Project from Pixabay.
Below is the final animation I hope you enjoy watching.
Reflection
This has been an incredibly hard assignment. I have spent a lot of time trying to technically understand how to create an animation. It took a lot of time researching online and watching many tutorials. I am relieved that I have finally completed it. However, I know I would like to go back to it and add more frames to make it flow more smoothly, make some adjustments to some of the drawings, and add more of an ending to the production. I am proud of the progress I have made, but I know there is still room for improvement. Going back to refine my work will hopefully only make it better in the end. I have learned so much throughout this process, and I am excited to continue learning more about creating animations and developing my skills. Overall, I am happy with the outcome of this assignment and am eager to see how I can make it even better.
Refrences
Anderson, S. (n.d.). Bringing Your Webcomic. to Life: Create an Animated Comic! [online] SkillShare. Available at: https://www.skillshare.com/en/classes/bringing-your-webcomic-to-life-create-an-animated-comic/160113931/projects?via=watch-history [Accessed 20 Apr. 2024].
Enwezor, O. (2098). Swords Drawn: William Kentridge. [online] Frieze. Available at: https://www.frieze.com/article/swords-drawn-william-kentridge.
Ide, W. (2017). Ballerina review – city of light feet. The Observer. [online] 1 Jan. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/jan/01/ballerina-observer-film-review [Accessed 6 May 2024].
Project, G. (1AD). Loneliness Long. [mp3] Pixabay. Available at: https://pixabay.com/music/search/mood/sad [Accessed May 1AD].
The Art Newspaper – International art news and events. (2016). William Kentridge: an animated life. [online] Available at: https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2016/09/01/william-kentridge-an-animated-life [Accessed 6 May 2024].
Walt Disney. (n.d.). The Kansas City Years. [online] Available at: https://waltinkc.weebly.com/the-kansas-city-years.html.
Illustration list
Fig. 1 Fowler, G (2024) Mind map [sketch on paper] In possession of: the author: Gloucester
Fig. 2 Skillshare tutorial by Sarah Anderson, (N.D) [Skillshare screenshot] At https://www.skillshare.com/en/classes/bringing-your-webcomic-to-life-create-an-animated-comic/160113931/projects?via=watch-history [Accessed 20 Apr. 2024].
Fig. 3 Fowler, G (2024) Diary page 1 [sketchbook page] In possession of: the author: Gloucester
Fig. 4 Fowler, G (2024) Sketchbook page 1 [sketchbook page] In possession of: the author: Gloucester
Fig. 5 Fowler, G (2024) Sketchbook page 2 [sketchbook page] In possession of: the author: Gloucester
Fig. 6 Fowler, G (2024) Clay model 1 [Clay sculpture] In possession of: the author: Gloucester
Fig. 7 Fowler, G (2024) Clay model 2 [Clay sculpture] In possession of: the author: Gloucester
Fig. 8 Fowler, G (2024) Clay model 3 [Clay sculpture] In possession of: the author: Gloucester
Fig. 9 Fowler, G (2024) Lake [Acrylic painting] In possession of: the author: Gloucester
Fig. 10 Fowler, G (2024) Sketchbook 3 [sketchbook page] In possession of: the author: Gloucester
Fig. 11 Fowler, G (2024) Animation panels {Photoshop screenshot] In possession of: the author: Gloucester
Visual Skills 2 