A story about a girl

This is another video by the same practitioner as shown in the last post on this blog. In this video, KickThePj adopts his own style of manipulating the animations using his own actions and movement. After exploring his page further, I have also discovered that he uses the same programs that are available on the college systems, such as After Effects and Final Cut. I plan on contacting him so that he can give me tips and pointers on how I can go about doing a similar style of work to his.

A story about a boy

I found this video on the youtube channel KickThePj. The practitioner is in most of his videos like the one below and I found many of his videos to be very interesting. I believe that I will refer to this channel for the most part of my research. Again the practitioner adopts a very unique and innovative style which I hope to incorporate into my own work. One thing that makes his work different is that he seems to be in most of his animations himself. He also interferes with the narrative and uses his movements and actions to manipulate his work. His channel can be seen by using this link - http://www.youtube.com/user/KickThePj

Testing

Recently I have been experimenting further with the animation software Toon Boom Studio. The software develops animation and story-boarding for film, television, web animation, games, mobile devices and training applications. The software is certainly very easy to use and comes with an instruction booklet that talks you through the different tools of the program. I hope that I can continue the 'testing' part of the milestone that is to be completed by next week, by experimenting with a wider range of programs. Along with Toon Boom Studio, I have access to iStopMotion at home; but I am most looking forward to learning some programs in the adobe creative suite 4, that is installed on the computers at college. These programs are Flash and After Effects. Both have established themselves to be the most prominent programs in the animation industry and I can't wait to explore and test my techniques in both of them.

Western Spaghetti by PES

I like this video because it brings together animation and everyday life. The animator incoporates the environment in many different ways by using household objects and everyday practices, in this case, cooking, to produce an animation. It is also very simple by using an easy to follow narrative and I believe none of the elements of the video are boring. It is simply a fun and interesting video that anyone would enjoy watching.

Today...

Today I found some videos on youtube that I found really interesting and inspirational. I feel these videos are also really contemporary as apposed to the videos by the more traditional practitioner such as the two I have already researched - Mike Johnson and Nick Park. The videos I have found today are more the sort of style I hope to produce in my animation.

Today's Research

Today, I found Nick Park to be an animator that I find interesting and inspiring. Nick Park is the director, producer and writer of Wallace and Gromit. Although Wallace and Gromit is different to what I am wanting to do, I still find the films to be unique and innovative. Like Tim Burton's unique and innovative feature length stop motion animations, Wallace and Gromit is something different to the type of project I am trying to accomplish but contains numerous features that I could incorporate into mine.

Milestone 1

By the 5th July, the rest of the class and I have to...
1. Complete at least 3 pieces of practitioner research.
2. Develop and complete first round of product testing.
3. Make sure all of the above and proposal form is uploaded to this blog.

Today...

Today the rest of the class and I had to accomplish four tasks in order to progress through the extended project. We had to review and revise the proposal form that the rest of the class and I completed earlier in the project, continue research on practitioners, (the practitioners we research should be inspiring and adopt similar techniques to what we are interested in adopting in our projects ourselves) we also had to develop ideas for testing. By testing, I mean identifying what techniques I will be using in my project, what medium I will be using, troubleshooting, and what the risks will be in my project.
I believe I managed to complete most of these tasks that were set for us to complete today. I reviewed and revised my proposal. My proposal was one of the first things I completed in the project and I, along with my lecturers, believe it to be of a suitable standard, with nothing extra I could really add to improve it. I did continue to research into practitioners, although was unsuccessful in finding another suitable animator who, like Mike Johnson, adopts similar styles and techniques I wish to use in my project. I also managed to get hold of two industry standard animation programs - Toon Boom Studio and iStopMotion. The two programs are recommended as they are user-friendly, but also produce good standard products.

The Nightmare Before Christmas

I have managed to find the trailer for The Nightmare Before Christmas on the internet. The animator who I plan on using in my research, Mike Johnson, worked alongside Tim Burton to produce this film in 1993.

Today...

Today, the rest of the students and I had to focus on a more specific topic for this session. Today we all had to find a practioner who's work we liked and found interesting, what their style of work is and how we find that inspiring and we also had to research a little into their background. Although the students and I have previously found practioners who inspire us, we haven't yet researched further into them since we refined what it is exactly we want to do for this EPQ project. Now I know what it is I want to do, which is a more contemporary animation rather than the work of the likes of Walt Disney (who was the previous practioner I researched into), I looked out for more contemporary animations that I am interested in and who made them. I found one practioner, Mike Johnson. He has worked with Tim Burton on many occasions to produce feature length films, such as A Nightmare Before Christmas and Corspe Bride. I find his work very stylish and innovative and I was interested in both of these films before I found out that it was Mike Johnson who made them.

Development of Ideas

After further research into animation, I have discovered all the different forms of the medium. From stop motion to computer generated, their is a wide breadth of forms that I could pursue. Personally, I like the idea of stop motion animation. Stop motion is where you manipulate objects and photograph them one frame of film at a time to create the illusion of movement.

Today's Task

Now that I have found out what it is I would like to do - animation, today I had to research animators to get an idea of what style of animation I like best. Although my idea is now dominated by animation rather than street art, I am still going to keep the art side relevant to what it is I am doing by focusing more on creative drawings rather than using computer generated work to develop my idea instead. I found that when researching animators who had a style like this, that Walt Disney, an all-time inspiration for anyone, regardless of how interested they are in animation, is a perfect fit. Without him, you could argue that animation would not be as popular as it is today. I also feel that using an animator as prestigious as Walt for my inspiration, that there will be a very rich source of information and research that I can refer to when developing my ideas for my own animation project.
Today I was also given some targets that I have to achieve in order to further develop my ideas. I have to think of and develop a narrative for the project, identify a particular style of animation that I am sure I want to pursue, and finally, just continue researching into all the ideas I develop.

Further Research

I have recently found the website of the maker of the animation that I am using for my research. I found his email address on the website too and I plan on using this to contact him and query him about whether he has any tips or pointers on how to go about doing my own animation. You can find his website using this link - http://www.blublu.org/

Street Art Animation

Since my idea of street art, I have been very motivated to continue with the idea. However I feel that I want to produce something more out of it; something very unique and fresh. One idea that I think may fulfill this unique and fresh take on this idea, is animation. If I were to combine both street art and animation, I think I could produce something very different and impressive. The best way to show what I mean by this is to play this video that I found.

Exploring ideas for the project

So far, the ideas I have had for this project have been very diverse. From short films to graphic novels, I have been trying to think of inspirational ideas that I could possibly pursue, but nothing has really been that motivational. One of my most recent ideas that is maybe more innovative and different to what I would usually see myself pursuing, is street art. Although street art is new to me, I know that you don't have to be like Banksy to produce something of a good standard. I also think that this idea can be more easily achieved using help from computer software.
Today my three targets were to research different street artists, develop my ideas and to identify personal areas of interest. Today I feel that I have fulfilled two of my three targets, researching artists and developing ideas. I looked at a range of sources on the internet involving information and examples of artists' work and in doing this I believe it gave me a better idea of how I will go about doing my own work, if that is what I decide to do for this project. I still feel that I am in the exploring stage, but I know that from today I have made some progress in the ideas I have so far.

3D street art is one of the many forms of graffiti that today's 'graffers' can establish as their main style of artwork. As you can see in the picture on the left, it is a very unique style of artwork, and a style that requires great imagination and motivation to accomplish. I like this style of art because it brings 2D pieces of art to life by making them look 3D. I find it fascinating that it is possible to produce something like this with just a paintbrush.