Update on work done

Here is my current shot/animation checklist

I have been finishing all the shots with their backgrounds, also, I have been animating all the possible rigged animation first. This is so that when animating frame-by-frame/pose-to-pose, the style of animation will all be completed as a whole. This will help keep my animation consistent. Having a consistent animation is key for a clear/clean animation.

Also, I have counted how many shots I have finished, I have 13 shots complected. Out of 40 shots, I have finished just over a quarter of my entire animation. This really boosts my confidence in finishing my animation on time.

Comic page bases

I have the basics with the comic page line-work. Now, all I need to do is clean up the lines, add the dialogue and colour. I am well on track with finishing the comic on time.

Presentation finished

I have finished my experiments with the Kuleshov effect and have handed in my presentation. Here is the presentation I finished: 

1980 animation

1980 Computer Animation Milestones

Growth Model

Kawaguchi was a computer programmer and animator. He was a pioneer of computer software that grows images in an organic way. His program 'Growth Model' used algorithms to generate brightly coloured, psychedelic worlds digitally.

Dragon's Lair

In 1983, the arcade game name 'Dragon's Lair' caused a sensation within arcades with its full quality animated sequences, created by ex-Disney animator Don Bluth.

Commodare 64

Also in 1983, one of the first affordable home computers was released, the Commodore 64. One year earlier, the Sinclair Spectrum was released in Europe. This opened up the creation of computer graphics to everyone and inspired a generation of computer artist and programmers.

Autodesk Maya

Wavefront Technologies was formed in 1984 by Bill Kovacs, who along with Roy Hall, developed some of the software used on Tron. Kovacs then left and Hall was left developing some video manipulation and animation software. Then, in 1995, Silicon Graphics bought Wavefront Techologies and Canadian firm Alias Research to merge them to produce the advanced computer animation software 'Alias/Wavefront'. Softimage was released in 1988 and became the industry standard in animation, also the preferred choice for character animation. The first version of 3D Studio (3DS Max) was released by Autodesk in 1990. Autodesk later purchased Maya and Softimages and became the market leaders in high-end 3D animation products. Maya won the Oscar for technical achievements in 2003.

John Lasseter - Disney

Lasseter worked for Disney and created a test version for a CGI adaptation of the children's book 'Where The Wild Things Are', but due to the disappointing reaction from Tron, Disney felt that computer animation did not have much of a future and passed on the project. The film was then made by Spike Jonze in 2008, using extensive facial CGI.

John Lasseter - After Disney

Lasseter moved on to work at Lucasfilm and help create 'The Adventures of Andre and Wally B' in 1984. Soon after in 1986, this division of Lucasfilm was sold by George Lucas to Apple founder Steve Jobs (George Lucas needed the money from Steve Jobs, due to Howard the Duck being to unsuccessful). Lasseter then produced short films for the new company Pixar Animation Studios, including the short film 'Luxo Jr.' animation.

Steve Baron

Baron directed the music video animation 'Money for Nothing' in 1985, song created by Dire Straits. The animation was one of the first computer animated videos and is now a landmark in CGI. The animation was created by Ian Pearson and Gavin Blair. Baron also directed A-ha's 'Take On Me' music video in 1985. The video was animated by Micheal Patterson, who made the singer of the band come to life from a comic book using the rotoscoping technique.

1976-1980 world animation

1976-1980 world animation

Belgium

Eddie Lateste and Peyo

In 1958, the cartoonist Peyo created 'Les Schtroumpfs' (The Smurfs) that first appeared as comic strips in a Belgian magazine. Later, ten black and white animated Smurf shorts were made for Belgian TV in 1960. Sixteen years later, a full lengthed coloured feature film was released called 'The Smurfs and the Magic Flute', directed by Lasteste and Peyo. Hanna-Barbera made an animated TV series of the Smurfs in 1981 and due to its popularity, 'The Smurfs and the Magic Flute' was released in the USA in 1983.

Italy

Bruno Bozzetto

Bozzetto created 'Allegro Non Troppo' in 1976. This film focuses on different aspects of life using mythology and science fiction themes, all while being set to pieces of classical music. This film uses a mixture of live-action and animation.

UK

Jeff Keen

Keen made 'Instant Cinema' in 1962 and also 'The Cartoon Theatre of Gaz' in 1977. In his film, Keen often mixed stolen fragments of monster movies with sci-fi and home movies, along with action painting and rough home-made animation. They were really confusing in my opinion.

Roger Mainwood
Halas and Batchler studios was one of the first studios to use CG, as early as 1969. The short animation 'Autobahn', made in 1979, was directed by Roger Mainwood using a computer at London's Imperial College. Unfortunately, the primitive images it produced were not used much in the film. The computer styled images were mostly produced by traditional animation techniques.

Australia/Poland
Yoram Gross
Gross created 'Dot and the Kangaroo' in 1977. This animation used the technique of layering animated characters over the top of a photographic backgrounds. This animation sold well internationally and seven sequels were produced.

Croatia
Zdenko Gasparovic
Gasparovic worked for Zagrab Film and directed 'A Dog's Life' in 1966. Gasparovic then worked for Hanna-Barbera in the USA and returned to Croatia to work on the TV series 'Professor Balthazar'. Later, Gasparovic made 'Satiemania' in 1978. 

USA/Canada

Caroline Leaf
Leaf created 'The Street' in 1976. Leaf, at first, started out by making animations with sand, but then moved on to create paint-on-glass animations instead.

Plotting a plan

My game plan

Two weeks ago (I forgot to blog) I came up with a plan to get all my assignments finished on time, because at the rate I was going, it was too difficult and overwhelming to keep on track with all of my work at once. So, I decided to finish all my minor projects (BVA103 and BSA106) 'now' (before their due date) so that I could focus on my major projects. I noticed that my animation was taking up most of my time, so I then decided to focus on and complete my two other projects (BSA124 and BVA115). This was so that when the deadline came closer, I would not have to worry about the other projects so much and could focus on my animation (BSA127).

Pros: this game plan has been partially successful. I have finished and cleaned up my minor projects without too much stress. Also, I have finished building and setting up my stop-motion ready for shooting without much stress either. This makes me feel really happy and accomplished. :D

Cons: this plan has also been unsuccessful (due to stress). I have not completed my comic for I am currently only drawing up line-work for comic page 3, out of 8. I am (as expected) behind with my animation. Sadly, this has been causing me to get stressed (without my realisation) and sent me into my first panic attack during animation class on Tuesday (it's Friday now). It made me physically unable to work for a few a hours, even when I thought I was fine on Tuesday. Now, (since that occurrence) I have been struggling with constant panic attacks with everything I do. I know I am fine, and my body is just trying to cope with the stress I feel, but I am now getting even more behind in my work; it's a never-ending loop. :I

Now, I need a new game plan. I am meant to be finishing about 3 different animation shots per day. It has been 2 days now and I still haven't finished even 1. I have been telling myself that it's OK if I don't finish my animation on time for the deadline, that I will still finish it regardless. I also went to see a guidance counselor yesterday to get some help and was given really good advice. She confirmed that how I was reassuring myself was positive and helpful. Despite this, my body is still feeling really sick and uneasy due to stress. I learnt that if I act really happy and hyper to those around me, I seem to forget my stress-fulled body and feel healthy and happy once more. But this means that I am socializing instead of working.

I am not sure what to do, I was hoping to put my animation into an upcoming exhibition, meaning my animation is due on the 2nd of November at the latest. This means I have a good deal of time that I can use. I will not let the stress beat me yet. I will not plan to finish any specific number of animations, but to finish/start animating. Hopefully this will help me to get more work done. I wish to animate all day today, to catch up on my work. Tomorrow is comic day and then animation again the day after.

The stress will be long gone by the 9th of November. I will get though this :)

Comic line-work 2

I have finished the line-work for comic page number 2

I then found myself unable to decide about how to present a 'sigh' in my comic.

I trialed four different ways to present it:

I decided to use, '(Sigh...)' as my way of presenting the sigh. With this established, I have now finished my comic page

Without words

Finished

Comic linework 1

I have finished my line-work for my comic page 1. I moved my images slightly to better fit the speech bubbles
Untidy lines and speech bubbles placed

Finished page

I will colour my comic once I have finished all the line-work in my entire comic. This is so that if I run out of time, I will still have my entire comic story, and also so when I start colouring, the colours are consistent. Colouring is also the fun part in my own opinion.

Updating shots I have finished

Here is one shot I have finished and am proud of

Shot MR Ep-37.1

I am really happy with the natural look to my animation and lip-syncing. This was one of the longest dialogues spoken in my animation all at once. I am happy with the finished animation result. I managed to complete this shot well within a day. This was not the only shot I finished, I also animated and finished shot MR Ep-12.1 and MR Ep-13.1. I was behind in my animation but now I am back on track. This is my up-to-date plan today:

Reaserching

What I noticed when researching my subject area

When adding the word 'art' or specializing the gender in my search:

It seems to lean less towards friendships and more towards intimate relationships.

The only searches I would use in my work are those that did not include those key words.

This makes researching artist models for my subject area a large struggle. I will need to change my way of researching in order to obtain the results I want and will need to achieve.