After going to the After Effects Workshop I learnt that After Effects is a digital visual effects, motion graphics and compositing app for PC and Mac. We were taught how to use the programme and short cuts within the app. We learnt what all of the main tools do within the app and how to use them properly. Because this workshop was aimed at the animation side of the course, we were taught about key frames and how to edit our animations correctly.
For me the most interesting part was learning about motion blur. Motion blur is essential to creating a realistic looking animation. Using this can transform an animation from unprofessional looking and wrong, to looking smooth and realistic. This was something I wasn’t aware of until we had this workshop.
For our first task we had to create a ping pong gi from scratch in the After Effects app. To do this we had to draw out each individual shape and then animate it. To do this you press the stopwatch icon and position the play head where ever you want to start animating from. You need to keep moving the play head but each time also moving the shapes to have drawn. By the end of this you will have the animation.
for this animation we learnt all about the pinning process of a character. To create movement from a character pinning the joints give them the ability to be manipulated into positions to create realistic movements. Motion blur was also added to this one, for the cupcake to look like its moving realistically, it needs to have some blur as its flying through the air. If it didn’t have this then it would just be a flat shape being placed through the air and wouldn’t look believable.
Before this workshop I knew a small amount about rotoscoping however didn’t have much knowledge on the process of creating an animation from this.
Rotoscoping is an aimatoin technique where animators trace over a video, they trace frame by frame. They use this in live action and animated films. To start this you need to open up a video of choice in Photoshop and then create a blank video layer. Before the rotoscoping starts the frame rate needs to be changed to 12 frames a second. After doing this you then need to paint onto the blank video layer – not the actual video layer! After doing this you simply hide the original video layer and then export your rotoscoped layer.
A diagram showing where everything written above can be found. This was really helpful when it came to doing independent work. We were given a whole booklet on these processes to help us become more comfortable with rotoscoping.
To start with we looked at a guide video with different animals featuring in it. We had to pick a specific section that we liked and then start rotoscoping. To select the part of the film we wanted we needed to move the loop markers to the beginning and end of the desired clip. This way when you play the video it just loops the selected clip. We then make the blank video layer and kept it selected. Then frame by frame, outlined each image in whatever colour we wanted untill we came to end of our selected clip. I chose to do the tiger section. Even though it’s not very long, it gave me an initial feel to rotoscoping.
After practicing with the tiger rotoscope, I decided to try another one. For this one I took a section from another sample video we were given, this time a video of a man. I wanted to play around with colour in this rotoscope so changed the colour of the man in each frame. I really liked how this ended up turning out and thought it was a good attempt at this kind of animation.
For both animations, after the rotoscoping was complete, we created a new background layer and filled it black. After removing the origional video from the timeline, and replacing it with the new background layer, it left us with a short animation consisting of the coloured outlines and the black backgrounds. We then exported these as gifs which means they are short animatons, lasting for a few seconds, on a constant loop.
This workshop was really informational and will help in the future to create short animations in a small amount of time.
I decided to experiment with two of the animation techniques we had learnt. I wanted to see if sand and cut out animation would work well together and what it would turn out like. I kept to the water theme as it worked well in my cut out animation and I had a feel for the way the water moves and the elephants movements, already. To start with it was a struggle to get the balance between how much sand was needed on the lightbox and being able to see the maquette. I started off by having too much sand on the lightbox, this making it difficult to see the maquette clearly. I then removed some of the sand, however this made it too light and the background didn’t look the way I wanted it to, there wasn’t enough detail in the background because of this. I then altered the exposure on the camera to try and figure out other ways I could get the desired background. In the end I ended up having to play around with the sand, figuring out what worked best against the maquette.
I found out that having less sand around the maquette allowed the camera to pick up of the shape of the elephant, this making it more clear. Then to create depth and detail to the rest of the background, adding more sand in certain areas and creating diiferent textures within the sand worked well.
Trying to create the effect of water spurting into the air was much harder to do out of sand. I dont think it worked aswell as the crape paper did and it was more difficult to control and manoeuvre around. It a basic demonstration of how the water would move but didn’t include much detail and definitely wasn’t clear enough to make out what it was. Because of this the animation wasn’t very believable – when doing this again, I would have a practice at just trying to move sand ontop of the sand background, before trying to create a whole animation sequence.
For my initial animation idea I wanted to make a cat paper maquette and have it doing typical cat behaviours e.g stretching, jumping and sitting. I started out by sketching some of the cat movements, this after watching my own cats. I came up with quite a few which I intended to narrow down and use in my animation.
After doing the rough sketches, I decided to go ahead and start making a mock up paper maquette of a basic cat shape. Becuase cats need to be flexible I decided to give it three joints in its back, by doing this I thought it would be easier to manoeuvre the cats body into the positions I would need. However, I reaslised shortly after making it that this would not work for all of the positions and movements I wanted for my animation. I realised I would need to make seperate maquettes for each behaviour/movement I wanted to animate. I gave the legs the basic amount of joints, this mimicking an actual cats leg. I think this part would have worked well for the animation. After finding out that this way of making the maquette wouldn’t work for my whole animation I had to decided whether I was going to make multiple maquettes, or whether I was going to come up with another animation idea that would require only one maquette.
I decided to start thinking of new ideas for my animation, as making multiple maquettes would have been inevitably time consuming, this making it hard to finish my animation by the end of the week long project. I knew I wanted to stick with the animal theme, so thought of my next favourite animal which happens to be an elephant. I thought that making an elephant maquette would ensure that I could spend more time on the animating process rather than the maquette making process.
An elephant doesn’t appear to have much movement in it’s back meaning I wouldn’t have to give it as many joints as I would with an animal with alot of mobility. Whilst making the maquette, I decided to give it three joints in each leg, this giving it sufficient mobility based on what an actual elephant has. I gave it one joint at the neck in order to give the head the ability to move up and down. Elephants have control over each individual muscle in their trunks, I wanted to replicate this by giving my maquette multiple joints in the trunk. This would allow me to mimic the movements that the trunk would typically make.
FINAL ANIMATION –
For my final animation I decided to animate three different movements of the elephant in water. For this I decided to animate onto my lightbox, taking inspiration from the ‘Tease’ animation; by doing this the background would be white and give contrast to the maquette. For the water I decided to use blue crape paper which I shredded up. By shedding the paper into small strips I could try and replicate the free movement of actaul water. To create the illusion of free flowing water, I moved the shreds of paper after each frame; this made it look as though the water was flowing past the elephants feet, as it would do in reality.
I really liked how my final animation turned out. The three key movements are the elephant spurting water into the air, drinking and jumping up out of the water making a splash. I particularly liked how the crape paper looked against the lightbox, it was interesting how layering pieces created depth and shading to the water. Also another thing I dicovered whilst filming was that the size of the shredded paper can be useful in adding effect. For example, I used long shreds for the water across the bottom of the film, this allowed me to show the flowing movement of the water. Using medium sized shreds were effective as being the water spurted up into the air, this was easier that using long shreds as it meant I had more control over where the body of water was travelling, i could place the medium shreds exactly where I wanted them. Finally, the tiny pieces of paper were handy when it came to creating water droplets e.g lifting the water up with the trunk would obviously create some water fall out. The trunk, I think, works really well throughout the animation. Using many joints allowed me to get a realistic and believable representation of the trunk. Having the head on only one joint meant that I could move the trunk as much as I wanted without the heads actions being too drastic; allowing me to keep control of it during the animating. Having the elephants body as one singular structure which was un-jointed, made the maquette look more life like and believable.
When editing in Premiere, I had to experiment with the speed/duration of the frames. In the end I had to bring it down to around 25% as this made the animation flow much better. Anything above or below this made the film either too fast or too slwo, this making the animation look unnatural and didn’t allow it to flow the way it should.
Before starting my cut out animation, I decided to take a look at some video examples of cut out and how to make them. I have done cut out before however am still not confident in cut out. Researching this helped me to get some understanding and inspiration for cut out animation.
The first video I looked at was all about how to make machetes. I found this really helpful as give insights into things like making joints and how to make the movements look realistic. It demonstrates the cutting out and drawing processes which I think will be helpful for when I come to create my own. What I particularly liked about this video was the fact she created her maquettes to be silhouettes. I want to try this in my animation as I’m really interested in this style of cut out animation.
I really want to do my cut out animation based on some sort of animal so I started researching animal cut out. I liked this one because of the simplicity and control of the maquette. It’s in the silhouette style which I particularly liked about it which has made me want to try this style even more. The fact that the background is just white makes the animation look clean and keeps the focus on the animation itself. I also like that the artist has kept for minimal colours, which is something I would want to stick to in my animation. I also really like how easily his animation flows. Some cut out animations tend to look jumpy in parts, this one on the other hand is smooth and has realistic movements, especially in the legs and feet. I will try to take this and apply it to my animation.
For my zoetrope, I decided to try the method of using a CD for the base, shown in the ‘how to make your own zoetrope’ video. I thought it was different and more unique than other handmade zoetropes I have seen before. Many handmade zoetropes are made with similar materials (e.g card) for both the base and sides.
To make my zoetrope I found a zoetrope template online, I decided to measure it out so it would fit around the CD, I then cut out some black card using the template, and covered the base of the CD with a circle of card. I thought that using black card looked much more professional and clean. I decided to keep the white template out of my zoetrope as I thought it would look messy and not work aswell. After doing this, I poked a hole through the base of the CD and the card, big enough to fit a pen/pencil through, allowing the mechanism to spin and in turn making the zoetrope work. I liked how the structure of my zoetrope turned out.
I made a rough mind map to help me come up with ideas for my zoetrope animations. I ended up picking a few of these in my final zoetropes.
Instead of making mulitple zoetropes, I decided to make removable strips of animation that can be placed into the zoetrope. I wanted to do this to save time so I could spend more time experimenting with the animation side of it. For my first strip, I printed off some images of an evolution sequence (monkey turning to man). I did this in order to see how many drawings I would need to make my animations work, and also to see if my zoetrope would work properly. This strip of animation gives a basic indication to how the zoetrope works, and a simple demonstration as to how animation in a small zoetrope would look. I didn’t spend too much time on this one as I wanted to get on and start designing my own animation strips.
For my first drawn strip, I decided to create a bouncing ball sequence, this showing the ball squash and stretching to create the illusion it is continuously bouncing. To make the zoetrope work I thought it would be best to do 12 drawings in total, this sticking to the theory of persistence of vision. I decided to use colour (red) on this one so it would stand out from the the black zoetrope walls and to give it some life. I really liked how this one turned out as you can clearly see the ball bouncing up and down, meaning the animation was a success.
My last strip of animation is of two people dancing. In the animation you see and man and a woman spinning around slowly whilst holding eachother. I wanted to attempt an animation of people as I find animating people challenging and wanted to push myself. The strip consists of 11 drawings, all moving the characters slightly, untill they have rotated full circle. I decided to use fine liner and felt tip for this animation. I really like how using this combination worked in the final animation. I think for this animation to work better than it did, it would need to be on a slightly bigger zoetrope with slightly bigger drawings. Even though you can see the characters actions on the CD zoetrope, it moves quite quickly and sometimes is hard to see the animation clearly.
FINAL ANIMATIONS –
This is a short video of what my evolution animation looked like.
This is my bouncing ball zoetrope.
This was my final zoetrope animation.
For filming my animations, I decided that filming them in a dark room with a phone torch lighting up the centre of the zoetrope was the best way. Doing this made the film look less blurry and highlighted the animation well.
Before the workshop, I did not know what a Zoetrope was, so I took it upon myself to research it beforehand, and found a few videos online on how to create your own. This was really helpful as I didn’t know how I would make one until I researched it.
This video was very helpful with explaining how to make the structure of the Zoetrope, for example, he uses a CD as the base of his, which is different to the others that I have seen as most use card or wood. I think using a CD would be a good idea and is something that I’d like to try as it would be small and compact but also would make it structurally sturdy. I like the simplicity of his design and how effectively it worked. I want to use this approach in my work, and I think keeping the design simple for my first attempt will allow me to focus on figuring out and playing with timings, as well as the number of drawings needed to make it work. This video also talks about light and how it’s used for making the animation work; it talks about lighting up the centre more than the outside of the Zoetrope to keep the focus on the actual animation. This was something I didn’t consider before, but is something I would experiment with for my own Zoetrope.
This video inspired me by giving me several different ideas for potential designs; initially I was struggling with coming up with ideas, and this video has given me more of an insight into what kinds of imagery to use to create and effective animation. It also features a mixture of animal and human figures, which is helpful for me to see how I would approach such characters in my own work.
I also really like their use of simple colours, which I would like to explore more after I have completed a successful Zoetrope. I also found this video helpful as it sets a good indication to how many drawings I would need to make my animation work, and also how subtle the movements need to be between each drawing. This video clearly demonstrates the way a Zoetropes work; by using slits on the outside to split up the vision, allowing our persistence of vision to fill in the gaps. If there were no gaps in the frame, the animation would just be seen as one big blur.
The persistence of vision –
The persistence of vision is an optical illusion which makes these types of animation work. It works by presenting a sequence of still images moving quick enough that the viewer interprets them as a continuous moving images, seeing it as film. This is because the human brain and eyes can only process 10-12 separate images per second, whilst retaining an image for up to a 15th of a second. As the images are moving, they replace each other within this time, creating the illusion of continuity, making your brain think it is a moving image.
This was my first attempt at a sand animation. I decided to animate a pumpkin rotting down as we wanted to do a halloween themed film. As a first attempt I found this really difficult and didn’t really like how it turned out. I feel as though the animation was too dark and pretty hard to make out what it is. I think this is due to having too much sand on the light box, making difficult to for the light to come through to make the image. I only realised this after watching the images back whilst they were still on the camera. Once finished I decided to try another halloween themed animation.
For my second animation I decided to do graves coming up from the ground in a graveyard, with a bat flying through the sky and past the moon. I kept in mind the mistakes from the last animation and made sure that there wasn’t too much sand on the light box. I did a test run with the first sand drawing by taking a photo of it and seeing if enough light would come through the sand or whether I needed a thinner layer of sand. Luckily there was the right amount of sand for the animation to work. I wanted to keep the background dark to match the eerieness of the narative, but not too dark that no light would be able to come through. I left parts of the sky with less sand on to try a mimic either clouds or mist to try and set the scary scene. For this animation I also made sure the lines were prominant enought to make out the image and to make sure they wouldn’t disappear into the dark background.
My final animation for this day was a snowman losing his scarf. For this one I tried to make the animaion as smooth as possible by making very small movements in each frame. I was also interested in how the snow would fall and how it would impact the snow on the ground, and how this would effect the snowman. This animation was time consuming however I think it works well. I really liked how the the snow was constantly moving, which I did by brushing out the sky after every frame and placing new prints in the sand. I was also happy with the consistency of the snowmans shape and the features on him. I got some of my inspiration from the ‘ATORMENTA’ animation, which I used as research, at how the sand was also used to create shadows and effects. I tried to mimic some of this by leaving some sand scattered over the white parts of the animation (epesically the snow on the gorund) to create texture and depth to the scene. I like how doing this added to the moody feel to the animation.
Before starting this project I have decided to conduct some initial research, so I have a better understanding of what sand animations are and how they are made.
I really like the way this artist has created a sad atmosphere through the whole animation. They have done this through the use of pathetic fallacy, where they have used stormy weather to reflect the emotions of the characters. I also like the way they have created depth in the animation through the structure of the landscape; having things in the foreground and background allows the animation to look more 3D and less flat. In particular, I’m interested in how they have created the sky, I think its clever how they have made the clouds look soft and realistic throughout the whole animation. This is something I’d like to include in my work at some point. I intend to apply similar techniques to my own sand animation, taking reference from the clouds and applying it to my snow and the texture of it. The whole animation is smooth and has realistic character movements, in particular, how the clothes move in the wind, which I think is really effective in creating a believable animation.
I also looked at The Owl Who Married a Goose by Caroline Leaf. The reason I found this one so interesting was the fact that she actually creates the characters out of sand, instead of creating the animation within the sand. She does this for the majority of the film before switching to drawing in the sand, near the end. She keeps the background clean and simple, for the most part, which I particularly liked about this animation. Towards the end, the background was dark and not much light was coming through; the characters were kept bright and clear which I thought was pleasing to the eye and made the animation look crisp and neat. – I would like to try this when making my animation. The whole animation flowed smoothly and the movements of the animals looked realistic and believable. I would like to try and make my animation as smooth as possible and make the movements as real as they can be. To do this I would make sure that for each frames the movements are small and subtle, this making the whole film appear more realistic and less jumpy.
For my own book, I decided to make an animation based on a cat getting abducted by a spaceship. I kept it to black and white and also attempted to do it on lined flash cards. I did this as I thought it would be easier to create it using my light box. By having separate cards I would be able to place one on top of the other, in an attempt to onion skin, keeping the drawings at the right size and shape. However, having them all separate made it very hard to flick through, and I didn’t realise this until after testing it out.
I started out by using a fine liner pen, I liked how this looked however this method was very time consuming. I decided to try out a double sided felt tip pen, using the thin side for the outlines and the thicker side for filling in the images. Even though this way was much quicker, the detail in each drawing started to become less, and the sizes and shapes weren’t staying consistent throughout. Instead of carrying on with this, I decided to move on and try a new flip book.
The images above show what went wrong to start with. The image on the left was my initial idea of what I wanted the flip books to look like. There was a lot of shading in this one and it ended up being too time consuming for the short time we had to complete the animation. Because of this I decided to change the style of the flip book into what it is now. The images on the rights are some pages out of my flip book that weren’t staying consistent with the size and shape of the other pages. I took these out and re-drew them to make them fit better with the rest of the animation.
My cat flip book.
For my next flips books I used pre-made flip books to draw my animations on to, this made flipping and seeing the animation easier and clearer.
After making a black and white flip book, I wanted to experiment with colour and so looked at a few coloured animations, to get some inspiration.
These few coloured animations gave me some inspirations for my own animation. I really liked how the backgrounds were kept white, I feel as though this makes the animation stand out more and makes sure it doesn’t end up blending into the background. I think I would like to use this technique in my flip book. I also like how the colours are bold and quite blocked (not really blended), I think this adds a graphic quality to them which makes them look very clean and simple, and well polished. It looks as though the artist has used felt tip pens and a mixture of pencil and fine liner. I would ideally like to stick to these materials in my own flip book to try and replicate the look.
FIRE FLIP BOOK…
For my first attempt at a coloured flip book I decided to do an animation of a match being lit and burning. I liked how this turned out, I think the animation definitely allowed me to experiment with how a flip book work. I kept the background white, like in the video above, I think this worked really well as the animation was the main focus and there was nothing in the background to take attention away from the animation. I think the animation would have been better if it was slightly longer, in some parts, such as the sparking of the match and the burning out of the match, which were quite short and didn’t have many frames within them. This made these parts pretty easy to look over/ miss and weren’t really long enough to make the animation flow the way I would have liked. The match being burnt out only lasted for one frame and this was too short to be a noticeable part of the animation.
My fire flip book.
THE TALE OF A TREE…
I then decided to try a second attempt at a coloured flip book. I wanted to do something different to the flip book before, so made and animation of a tree growing and going through the different seasons. I kept the drawings to pencil and felt tips. I really liked this combination as I think it kept the main focus of the leaves, which were the most important part of the animation. I decided to vary the colours of the leaves to try and mimic the changes they go through throughout the seasons. By doing this I also used a mixture of colours for shading and texture on each of the leaves, making them look more realistic.
I really liked how this flip book turned out. I think it flows really well and kept consistent with its shape and size, throughout. Keeping the drawings consistent defiantly made the animation look better and allowed it to run like and actual film.
Sapphire's Animation yr2 