Merry Christmas!!!!

Hope ye all have a great time and lots of food!! :D

 My mother went a little crazy when baking XD  (lucky me). 

Second Wind Animation by Ian Worrel

Second Wind

I found this video on vimeo It's by Ian Worrel :D I really love the style of it.The characters were hand drawn, coloured in photoshop and composed in after effects. 

Here is another one of his videos:

Icarus and the Tree Herder

http://vimeo.com/71781991

New Brief- Animated Short

After the Christmas holidays we will get a new Brief. This Brief is much longer than the ones we had before. It runs over 15 weeks (excluding Christmas) and it links in with the creative writing which we did last week.

We have to take certain aspects from the stories we already wrote and create our own story for the new animation. The previous creative writing workshops were just a way to help us get started.

The animation must be from 2 to 3.5 minutes long.


The Concept and Narrative will be 25%

Storyboard and Assets 25%

Presentation and Practical Skills 50%




Here is some animation Research from links that were at the end of the brief we got:

I like the traditional way of animation like in the video below. 

The video was on this websites : www.100animatedshorts.co.uk 

This animation has a really cool style. There are more cool shorts like this one on the following link:

http://shortanimatedfilms.blogspot.ie/2013/10/olympians.html

This video reminds me of the Gorillaz Music Videos

This video contains great imagination.

This animation is very unique and interesting. 

The backgrounds in this animation are so beautiful. 

Other useful links:

http://www.shortoftheweek.com/category/style/animation/

                                          www.motionserved.com

Animation Research

At the moment I am just watching and researching different animations to get ideas and look at the different styles which are out there. 

I really love the style of this one (850 Meters):

This animation was made by Thuristar, which is a small indie production company developing and producing animation content.

The author and director :                                Joeri Christiaen 

Creative Producer and Promo Chief :            Perrine Gauthier 

Composer, Musician and Music Producer :   Frederik Segers

Here is the link to watch it:

http://vimeo.com/80977329 

The next video I watched was this one. It is kind of random and funny. I especially love the watercolour drawings around in the middle of the animation. 

Here is the link:

http://vimeo.com/81385340

Bailey and the snowman is a short and cute animation.  I really like the style of this one because nothing has thick outlines, it looks very smooth.  

http://vimeo.com/32929293 

Continuation of Creative Writing

On the 9th of December our other tutor decided he didn't like our stories and wanted us to change them again…



Here is the newer version of the story:

The biggest change is the relationship between Mr. Long and Dalori.

At the start of the story they get married exchange rings and move into their new house. Mr. Long is moving one of Dalori's boxes and finds binoculars in them. He picks them up and looks through them. Then Dalori calls him and he turns around, still looking through the binoculars. He then finds out that his wife is in fact an alien monkey. He then panics and runs away with the binoculars.

A few months later in the office, where Mr. Long is the boss, Dalori and her fellow henchmen burst into the door. Mr. Long recognises Dalori and quickly gets out his binoculars to make sure if her henchmen are also aliens.

The office workers and Dalori's henchmen misunderstand the situation and feel threatened by each other and begin a fight in the office. So it's alien monkeys vs. office workers. In the middle of the fight Dalori and Mr. Long have in argument. During their discussion an alien monkey gets pushed by an office worker who hits off Mr. Long and makes him fall out of the window.

Dalori jumps after her husband and wraps her arms around him while they are falling. Dalori uses her alien skills for a smooth landing. Mr. Long was saved by Dalori and he falls for her again, only that  this time he knows the fact that she is an alien monkey from outer space.




The thing I miss about the story is the hippie in his hoping van. 

Creative Writing Workshop

On the 4th and 5th of December we had a creative writing workshop. Our tutor put up a list of 10 different, three random things. He gave a number to everybody and we then had to pick that number from the list and create a story with it. We only got a few minutes to think of something to write.

I got number five which was :

An ex-boyfriend, a pair of binoculars and a good luck charm.

Here are a few short ideas I had for the story: 

A girl visits the places she used to visit when she was still going out with her ex- boyfriend. And looking through the binoculars her grandmother gave her she can see the good memories they spend together. But the binoculars only work when she has an object which she got or used to belong to to her ex.

An ex- boyfriend carries around an obese cat over his shoulder as a good luck charm (the cat is alive),
hoping that he will meet his ex again and that they will get back together. He looks through his binoculars from high roofs to find her.

Girl gets a good luck charm of her grandmother which is just a keychain but it enables her to see things she most loves she looking through the binoculars.

Girl can see peoples true personality when looking through the binoculars. She find out the truth about her boyfriends real personality and breaks up with him. The good luck charm shines when he finally realises what he has done wrong and regrets his decision.

Girl gets a good luck charm from her grandmothers shrine to keep evil spirits away. And using the binoculars she can see the spirits including her dead boyfriend.

Grandmother gives girl binoculars that an able her to see Spirits. Through that she can see and meet her dead ex- boyfriend. He gives her a good- luck charm to help her move on with her life.

The things we had to consider for our story:

1. The tone
2. Main Character(s)
3. The Plot
4. And the Setting

With those ideas we then were split up into groups of three and had to combine our ideas to create an other story using one out of six starting sentences on the board. 

Colm's sentence was:  Aerobics, secret diary and a welcome back

Ross's sentence was:   A blue van a pillow and a forgotten passport

Mine was                :   An ex- boyfriend, a pair of binoculars and a good luck charm





Here are our ideas combined: 

Everyone in the office turned and stared…  (it's a boring office)
as the office workers burst into the door , squishing an other worker behind it. A bulky female business woman called Dalori is in the centre front leading the group that just burst into the door. There is a serious moment of silence. Just as the office workers step forward one of them trips and lands on his face.

Mr. Longs (Boss) office hair turns and a little midget is revealed. He quickly looks through his binoculars and can see that the people who just walked in are actually alien monkeys from outer space.

The alien monkeys are trying to invade the planet by mixing into the society unnoticed and one day  plan on suddenly attacking humans to take over the world. But the binoculars are in the way because they can show the truth of what they really are. So they need to destroy it, but in order to do that they need a secret code which is kept in a secret diary file inside of the midgets head.

Knowing the situation is dangerous the midgets puts the binoculars into his jacket pocket and jumps out of the window using a wing suit (his normal suit turns into one). He tries to run away but his legs are really short so he's so slow that the aliens are about the catch up with him. Thankfully Mr. Longs arms are really long and he uses them to run.

On the way he meets a hippie in a blue Volkswagen van and he joins him. They then hop to america. (the van hops it doesn't drive)

Mr. Long tries to hide in a Motel sweat dripping down his face but the alien moneys find him. Having nothing else to defend himself with he throws a pillow at them. A pillow war starts. Then Mr. Long gets injured and the aliens are just about to extract the code of information out of his brain when the head alien gets an important phone call. The invasion to take over the world is canceled and they leave. The world was saved and Mr. Long gets back to his office work.




After writing that we had to do a few rough doodle sketches of what the characters could look like. I had to think for Mr. Long's character and we all sketched what Dalori could look like. The title was going to be : Mr. Long vs. the Semiazoids or Semanoids...can't remember.

doodles of what Mr. Long could look like. 

I was trying to thing of what kind of office chair Mr. Long would sit on. 

The doodle of the woman on the right is what I imagined Dalori to look like But in the end we decided on a bulky body for her with broad shoulders. On the right is what Mr. Long was going to look like, with short legs and long arms. 

My first random doodle. 

Strange, Funny Animation by David O Reilly

 We were shown this video in class today and I found it really funny. It's so random that it makes it great. It has so many different stories in it and the animations are awesome. 

Eiko Ishioka-my Favourite Fashion Designer

I came across this great Fashion Designer after watching the movie "Mirror Mirror". I was so fascinated by her Costumes that I immediately looked up who the Designer for them was after watching the movie. It turns out she has won four Awards throughout her life for costume Design and one of them was from "Mirror Mirror". The clothes she Designs are so interesting and unique. I feel like she is definately my favourite Fashion Designer and I don't usually have any interests in Fashion. She was born in Tokyo and sadly, after looking her up further, she died in 2012 due to pancreatic cancer, I thought she was still alive so it's a pity I would have loved to see  further works she could have created.

Here are a few costumes that were in the movie "Mirror Mirror" ( I think they are so amazing):

Here are some more of her Designs:

I think I might Design a character for an animation some day and make the character were a dress inspired by some of her works. 

Moving Hand- Life Drawing

My boyfriend gave me the idea to animate the hands which I drew for the Life Drawing. I drew 12 different images and none of them were traced. They were all Separate drawings. The hand is a fist first then opens up . To make the video slightly longer the images were copied so the hand opens and then closes again.

Christas Card Animation

Here is the final Flash Christmas Card Animation. I didn't want to use the usual Santa and Reindeers as the Brief also mentions not to use stereotypical Christmas ideas. I got the Oxen from my Christmas brainstorm. Christmas celebrates the birth of Jesus and he was born in a crib beside an Ox. Instead of making Santa an old man I turned him into a young girl because I wanted to make the animation even more unusual. 

The music is a cover of Fairytale of New York by Nathan Walsh. 

The sound effect of the cow is from freesoud.org

The girls voice is me :P

Working on the Christmas Card Animation

Here are a four screen shots of different parts throughout my animation. I am a few days behind the due date because I just only recently recovered from my kidney infection and head cold. :D Now I am all better. YAY!!! Anyway, my storyboard is slightly different from the finished animation.

It was only meant to have trees and snow in the background, but I felt that it looked too empty so I added the city behind the trees. Personally I think it looks much better than it did with just trees.

I could have probably made the trees a bit more detailed if I had more time but then it might take away from the Oxen. 

Some parts in my animation are a bit fast like the scene where Santa reveals his true identity and when the Oxen land. 

The yellow of the buildings are a completely different yellow on this mac than on my laptop...they weren't meant to be so bright they are actually the same colour as the moon. Another problem I had was that the video went a tiny bit blurry when I imported into premier pro but apart from that I think it wash"t too bad. It could always be better but I learned more things on Flash and I am glad to be finished. Now I can focus on my exam…which is tomorrow… ;( 

Animatic Christmas Card

This is the animatic for my Flash Christmas Card Animation. My tutor advised me to make one as I have never done an animatic before and that it would help me with creating my animation.

The music is a cover of Fairytale of New York by Nathan Walsh.

Flexible Paper Sculptures by Li Hongbo

My boyfriend send me this link  www.thisiscolossal.com%2F2013%2F02%2Fthe-flexible-paper-sculptures-of-li-hongbo%2F&h=VAQHnuBoX and I thought it was one of the coolest things I have ever seen. It's still hard for be to believe that they are made out of paper they look like they were made out of plaster. Li Hongbo is amazing artist.

Christmas Card Storyboard

Here is my Storyboard, It's a bit late but I'm still recovering from my Kidney infection and head cold. The reason I didn't want to the usual Santa and his Reindeers because I want the animation to be unusual and different and not the typical Santa with his Reindeers. The reason I used Oxen instead of Reindeers is because I mostly got all by ideas from my Christmas brainstorm. We celebrate the birth of Jesus, which took place in a crib beside an ox. So my ideas are not completely random I have put thought into them. I also din't want Santa to be an old man but rather a young girl because it's unexpected. 

Life Drawing- Hand

Yesterday we had to draw 12 pictures of our non-drawing hand. We could use whatever medium we wanted. I used a HB pencil. The pictures had to start with our hands clenching our fist and the last picture would be our hand fully opened. So the 12 pictures had to show the process of our hand opening. Each image was drawn separately without being traced.


I didn't have a camera so I had to scan the pictures which made them lighter than they originally were.

Paperman- Adorable Animation

I was shown this video a year ago and I completely forgot about it till my friend mentioned it today.
It's nicely done. I like the style and it has a good story.

Christmas Animation Research

Here are some completely different types of christmas animations with different styles and ways they were made which I looked at. Some I like more than others. Looking up christmas animations will help me think of ideas for my own animation. 

This one seems simple enough but effective.

I just put this one on because I thought it was really cute. 

I love Simon's Cat videos

I like the style this one was done in.

It seems so mysterious at the start and for some reason I was electing aliens or something like that. I love the background.

I would have never thought of the Grim Reaper during christmas. 

The snowman looks cute.

This is something I would probably have never thought of. 

 This one is cute.

                                                                   Paper cuts outs

This one is really cool and creepy and reminds me of the nightmare before christmas

New Christmas Card Brief

Yesterday we were handed out a new Brief.  We have to animate a Christmas Card for LIT (Our college) which will be send to people through email.


The animation needs to be 10 to 15 minutes long and needs to be created on Flash.  For the audio copyright recordings of Christmas music can not be used. We can either create music ourselves or use music that has no copyright.


We were told not to use stereotypical visual ideas for Christmas and be creative and unpredictable.



Here are a few videos our tutor showed us as an example:


This video looks like cool paper cut outs and reminds me of Alice in Wonderland.

http://vimeo.com/48795475

This one was very unexpected and at first I didn't think of christmas at all.

http://vimeo.com/34161387

I like this Christmas Card, it's even more unexacting than the previous one.

http://vimeo.com/44513671

The next one is kind of funny

http://vimeo.com/33880786


I am looking forward to this project.

















3

Invention of Love- Animated Short Film

 

I came across this animated short film accidently, but I am glad I found it. It's done in a really cool silhouette- style. It was written and directed by Andrey Shushkov. It is called Invention of Love.

 

 

 

 

This film really made me think about what it's trying to tell. It reminded me of the Industrial Revolution and how people forgot completely about nature but rather thought about inventing more machines to help mass production to get more money, but they completely forgot about the safety of the employees that worked in those factories.

 

 

The man in the story seems to be an inventor and is so concentrated on the machines that he doesn't even notice that his wife is suffocating in this environment.

 

The short film could also mean that because of all the machines and advanced technology now days people seem to forget the most important things which is to value life and love.

 

The wilting flower at the end looks a bit like the flower used in the Disney movie The Beauty and the Beast. The wilting flower could represent the nature that's forgotten about or humans who have suffered due to machines taking their jobs.

 

I love the part at the start where the man makes the horse give the flower to the lady.

Destino- Dali & Disney Animation

Dali and Disney worked together to create this animation. But because Disney didn't think it was suitable it wasn't released till 2003.

 

Because we are studying Surrealism at the moment, our tutor showed us this animation done by Dali. The animation contains parts that are often seen in Dali's paintings. Like ants crawling out of a hand and other dream-like stuff. The only things that make it Disney, in my opinion, is the style and the music used for it. Apart from that I think it mainly shows Dali's work rather than Disney's.

 

 

Personally I really like it. It was kind of weird and in parts reminded me of a Tim Burton Movie. I like the way the animations look kind of 3D. It's very short but good.

 

 

 

Character used in my IDI Animation

Here are the original images that I drew of the character which I used in my animation. I then imported those images into Photoshop and coloured them in. or some reason some images come out blurry even though they aren't actually blurry.

Because I picked the category title Fashion I wanted the character to look completely different for each season.