alexandmiaomiao

Welcome to our reflective journal / blog that documents and our working process since story development right up to the present day. We are Alexandra Lunn and MiaoJian Dong, Animators at the Glasgow School of Art, aiming to make a final year animation alongside our independent works. These pages follow our development since starting the story in November '13. Now in production phase we would be really grateful if any staff or students could offer any critical feedback on our storyboards that can be found in studio.

[alexandmiaomiao]

Making the music for each sequence. We watched our rough copy and made noises with Fritz Welch on what we thought each image sounded like. 

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Back to basics:

Here is a video of what we came up with when we were first developing the story back in November

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Sarah Keshington // learning how to play.

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opera singers being silly.

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Tectonics Festival

Tectonics is a Music Festival curated by Ilan Volkov. Tectonics Reykjavik proudly presented by Iceland Symphony Orchestra. Tectonics Glasgow proudly presented by BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.

I went to Tektonics festival to think about different ways of creating audio. 

-- Alex

[alexandmiaomiao]

This is the part when the man found a box and climb in.

We make the background transparent, because there should be a real action film of the city model we made.

- miaomiao

[alexandmiaomiao]

This is how we edit with after effect for the language sequence part.

we hand drawing all the letters( the letters belong to the language we created). Then i use after effect to animate each one and then put them together  onto one screen. Then use key frame function to direct the scale position and rotation. 

we meant to make the language dancing as beautifully as they can with music as a breathing space part.

- Miaomiao

[alexandmiaomiao]

intangible space inside rock after editing.

Alex's drawings.

[alexandmiaomiao]

Since we have hand drawn every single frame we have copied all the originals in the copy room in the Ried building… Now our system is that I photoshop all the images (colour balancing, and making some backgrounds transparent) and Miaomiao to edits them all in After effects…. 

This is a lengthly process so we're well aware of the deadline that we have to meet on the 25th, to then edit the animation with sound on that day.

We need to have a version of the whole visual animation done by Sunday 18th May, ready to edit with music on Wednesday 21st.

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Yay! Miaomiao got into the RCA TO DO ANIMATION! Well done Miaomiao!!!! xxxxx

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New storyboard. Still in development.

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Test for feet walking through countryside…. we decided not to use this though as it is done on computer wacom tablet and we want to learn from scratch. 

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This is going to be used for the water

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Editing the water texture...

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  Our animation explores the relationship between the logical side of the brain and the irrational, yet creative side. It is clear, rational thinking and logic that can be utilised to reach success in design. It is conceptualisation and practicing meaning making that is important for art. It is creative play which is the most useful approach to take for me in both practices, and it is the combination of the two which help push this animation forward. 

The roles of Logical / Creative within our production...

It is a balancing act to ensure we meet the deadline successfully. It’s the constant exercise of stopping, stepping back and thinking about what we are doing and clear, precise and effective communication between the two of us which also keeps the project at least a little bit logical.

“The power of words and the willingness of people to follow them is unquestionably powerful, through text and language we allow ourselves to perform action”

It is my main incentive to take a step back from directorial roles that I oftentimes adopt during production and let Miaomiao take the lead. 

    Dear, R. (2011). The Grammar of the Dance. GSA Library Dissertations.

[alexandmiaomiao]

Since we have had the long christmas break we are able to reflect upon what we can do much, much better. this involves jazzing it up a lot more and bringing the flatness on screen into 3d. This is Miao making water sources for the background to the trees. the time which we have had away from our animation production was also spent engaging with our separate departments' learning outcomes. In Illustration, Miaomiao has been integrating type with her illustrations, and she made a short animation of hands moving. Both products are a result of her interest in how people with autism think and feel. In Graphics I responded to a fine piece of Graphic design ' Beat the Whites with The Red Wedge', through, dance, performance and music. Both separate pieces were placed in our 'Work in Progress Show' in Glasgow on 01/02/14. These experiences are useful to both of us to technically and conceptually enrich 'our baby'.