Summary of stop-motion

Creating the character Silver and Sheep were fun to make, though there were some battles I faced, but came out on top and finished the stop-motion.

Here are some images of our progress when creating the set and characters. I started with the main character, Silver. After making the head, I moved on to sowing up his pj's. Since I was already sowing, I also sowed up the bed covers. When both pj's and bed covers were cleaned up and finished, I sowed the pillow as nicely as I could, although was rough on the back.

With all that complected, I then started to scope the hair, like a wig at first. I made the head on a saprate ball that was a similar size to the head already made. When the hair had the basic shape, I twisted wire and started the sheep. I went back to stylizing the hair a lot more when I placed it on Silver's head.

Now with Silver's head done, I could trial how I would attach the head and body together. My partner Rebekka took care of the sheep, and I didn't take any photos, but by using a sponge base, the sheep was nice and light with a big round body. I gave Silver his hands and neck. He was finished. I mouths and eyes were done last. Little Silver and sheep was done.

Came time to film
One of the biggest problems Rebekka and I faced while shooting the animation was when the sheep head and tail fell of lots. This was hard to work with. Also, when filming, Silver's head was really heavy and hard to hold up for the scenes when Silver sat upwards. He fell over a lot of times when shooting, making the animation not as smooth as I would have liked. But with the power of teamwork and last minute thinking, we attached a stick behind Silvers head to act as a lever/support. With the head and tail for the sheep being clay based, it was easy to reattach. It was just annoying. Rebekka was the one on the computer while I moved the characters little.

Reflection Time
I know that, if I was to create another stop-motion, I would consider the characters mass a lot more so that if they have to sit up, walk, leap, it would be as such as an issue as it was when animating this time around.
Also, I am very happy to have been able to have Rebekka as my stop-motion partner, as will be very sad when she leaves to the North Island and then back to her home in Germany. I could never ask for a better partner.
Another thing I would want to change if animating is to try to take more information with how to use the camera myself, as I still don't much experience or knowledge.
The lip-syncing was easy to animate but a nightmare to sync with timing. The lip-syncing doesn't always match up with the sound and it creates a bad look for our animation. It matched enough so that some would not notice.

Stop-Motion animation

Rebekka and I have finished our stop motion project. Here is the finished animation.

Results

Day One Results of my Research Project.

My project is a huge success. My theory has been proven correct as, when I spoke to some patisapants of my project, they all come up with different and unique reasons for the characters relationship being what they viewed it as. Here are the current results and percentages.

Friendship 46 - 27%
Brotherhood 45 - 26%
Bromance 39 - 23%
Romance 42 - 24% (Maybe)

I have been made aware that the results for the 'romance' category has not been taken seriously, as both others and myself have seen my own class mates (who strongly believe in them being gay) taking a large handful and dumping it all in the romance jar. This gives off incorrect results. I had eye witness notify me that the jar had about 6 or 7 marbles inside, then one minute later magically has about 30. This is disappointing but its OK.

Also, here are some comments from some of the partisapants for two different category's (different from my classmates)

Friendship - "Of coarse their just friends, it's the most logical answer. First off, their both guys, and second off, one treats the other like how I treat my best friend. Coldly for a joke. I mean, I am not being cold to my friend to be mean, it's just who I am and my friend is a close friend of mine. It's more for a joke or something. But how could these two be anything else really? They do not seem to be in a romantic relationship at all, like, their not kissing or looking happy with each others presence, well one kinda is. I don't know. Them being friends is the most logical answer you see. Ya? Good."

Brotherhood - "I can tell. They must be bothers. I mean, one is obviously the annoying one. The other one seems to be having to be putting up with the other one. The only reason the smart one wouldn't kick him to the curve is because their brothers. Siblings will be siblings and more often than not, my sibling is annoying me at some point, and that character has the same face I used to have when they did. Their close, but not close enough. If they were romantically involved with each other, they would both have to be happy with each other, and looking into each others eyes and stuff like me an my hobby does some days. Nah, they are diffidently brothers. No other reason."

Extra information I found

These random people were asked by myself if they interact with the internet often, played a lot of video games, or watched a lot of YouTube/anime. Both responded, no. I asked this because I am aware that my classmates do interact with the internet a lot, game and watch anime, etc. This makes me think about if the people who are influenced by the internet have been given a new prespetive of how people 'should' interact and if they have relationships. These classmates introduced me to what they call 'Shipping' and 'Canons'.

Basically, 'shipping' is when two characters are 'shipped' together as, probably having a romantic relationship. They can 'ship' anyone together, when they don't have that kind of relationship. People will even 'ship' two male friends together for interacting a lot. A 'canon' is when the authors of the series that contained the two 'shipped' characters reveals that the two character have just started or are in-fact dating/romantically involved. So have a canon, the two characters announce that their dating, 'kiss' on screen or get married.

This is an interesting idea that I could dive into on a different day

Exhibition

I have set up my exhibition space in the RAW Gallery. This was very exciting for me, and also watched a few debits about which category was the 'logical/right' one. Every jar, last time I checked, already had quite a few marbles placed inside.

This excites me greatly as this already seems to prove the theory I had created. This is because different people have multiple different interpretations of what the characters relationship is. I look forward to checking the results I gather later. 

Here are some photos of my set-up.

Update on work

Lately, I have been able to start and complete 3 shots per day.

If I keep up the pace, I will finish my animation before the due date, giving me lots of time to clean up and edit, improving my entire animation. This is very good. I feel great hope for both myself and my work. 

Here is my current plan, yellow shots being what I finished in the last three days alone (10 shots)

Concept Art Poster

I have finished the Concept Art Poster.

Also, I was thinking about where I am going to exhibit my project.

After thinking for a while, I emailed the set-up organiser, Tyler Baikie. This is what I emailed to him:

_________________________________________________________________________________

Hello Tyler. I am emailing you about some space in the Raw Gallery I hope to have my BVA-103 research project. (sorry for the long email)

I have looked around and would like to notify and get permission to claim a space near the elevator, by the main entrance sliding door. This space would be really ideal for my research project, as my project has a survey/voting system. More people will see my work if it is near an entrance way.

My work is an A2 size (594.02mm - 420.03mm). I have already requested a table with my submission form for 4 jars and marbles to be placed upon and to be interacted with. I am also, to give you a better idea of where I am thinking of placing my work, going to place some sort of notice or note on the wall with the size dimensions of my project (the paper size).

Can you let me know if this space I am hoping to have is OK to claim?

Regards

Bethany H

With this email sent, I accidentally met up with Tyler and showed him the space myself, to give him a better idea about what I was thinking, also while telling him more about my project. When I checked my email, after this encounter, I discovered this email in response from Tyler:

_________________________________________________________________________________

Having an 'audience participation' aspect to the exhibit sounds like a lot of fun! This is a job specific for the install committee so I'll forward this request thought to Phil who's dealing with the layout. I hope everyone goes well and you're able to be accommodated for!

Regards,

Tyler

This is a good step forward with organising how my project will be presented and seen.

Artist Statement

Artist Statement

Bethany Hayes

Screen Arts

Year 1 Diploma in Animation

The Morning Rush

Short Animation, ToonBoom Harmany

I’m a first-year animator, aiming to create a story that will make people smile or laugh. At the start of the year, I thought of two different characters that were absolute opposites. I thought it would be funny to have both these characters put together and show how they would interact with each other, including the conflicts they’ll obviously face. Thus, the duo Oliver Moore and Silver Jewel was created.

With this animation, I experimented with both rigging and frame-by-frame animation, to get some variety in my animation. Also, when animating, I always tried to create a very clean and smooth animation, having an eye for any detail that could be added to make the animation that much cleaner. I also wanted to have music my sister and I had created included in my animation. I enjoyed creating and watching my finished animation.

With this being my first full animation, I look forward to developing and experimenting with more ways to show both this story of Oliver and Silver, but also with other stories I could create. I’m always hoping to create the reason for someone smiling today. (Jeremiah 29 -11)

Artist Statement

Artist statement

Bethany Hayes

Visual Arts

Year 1 Diploma in Animation

Friendship, Brotherhood, Bromance or Romance

Digital concept art, Photoshop

Friendship, Brotherhood, Bromance or Romance? What does it take to view others’ relationships differently?

Through artistic drawings, I am experimenting to see whether body language/positioning influences how the bond between these two characters are viewed. From working drawings to finished concept art, I want to find the factors that define what a friendship or a romantic relationship are. The key factors I like to focus on are the facial expressions of each character along with how the characters interact with each other though physical contact or posture.

The reason I am creating this experiment is to either confirm or disconfirm my own view about why other people will view the relationship between the characters differently. My own understanding is that the views of the different types of relationships seen are based upon the viewer’s own experiences/idea of relationships in general. Using myself as an example, I view the characters’ relationship as a close friendship/brotherhood. This is due to the very close relationship I have with my own triplet sisters. While others might view them as being in a romance due to the similar closeness that they have experienced with their partner, rather than a sibling or best friend.

With this viewpoint in mind, what relationship do you view the characters in… and do you know why?

Concept Art Poster

I have begun my Concept Art Poster for the upcoming exhibition 'Think and Create'.

Along with the poster, I have also requested a mini table from the people organising the event. This is so that I can set up 4 jars and marbles to have a voting system. 

The voting system is so that I can obtain the result of my question from the exhibition audience. Each jar will have a different possible relationship status: friendship, brotherhood, bromance or romance. After each day, I will gather and count the results from the marbles and calculate the percentages. This will give me daily percentages, plus an overall result. The poster is A2 size, which is not small.

Here is some images of the current process with the concept art poster:

Stage One, Lay out the poster

Stage Two. Clean and colour 3 main poses.

2D Sheep

Rebbekka and I have started to film our stop-motion. We started with filming the first 2 scenes in our animation, when Silver's bedroom door is closed and he is counting the sheep.

I will update more information about this experience later on with all my other research. I have photos of our process when creating our props and characters, Silver and Sheep.

Rebbekka is responsible for booking the camera and utilising 'Dragonframe', as she has a lot more knowledge about this software. My role is to move our characters and animate the 2D scene when Silver is counting the sheep.

Here is the beginning stages of the short animated clip:

I will be repeating the animated sheep multiple times instead of redrawing a different sheep over and over. At first, Rebbekka and I were going to have a simple walk cycle for the sheep, to simply walk across the screen. We have now changed our minds and have changed the walk cycle into a leaping cycle, where the sheep leaps forward and out of screen.

I am really happy with how our partnership fits and works out so well for both of us. We both enjoy each other's company and have become close friends :) 

We will continue and finish filming our stop-motion this Friday