Annakarina

Year 1 Summer 2022 Year 2 Summer 2023 Year 3

[annakarinahumphreys]

Making of the Last of Us (TV Adaptation)

Whilst I have never played the video game, I have watched many play throughs and loved the story of the last of us for many years. When the show was coming out I was very excited to see the story on a grander scale, with even more of the story demonstrated. Seeing how they were creating the games environments, stories and characters in a new medium was very interesting.

In researching for my TV pitch brief I wanted to look at how things I find relevant are made, in how they were made for television and how design choices were made. Many things I wanted to look at are also critical successes so can also be used to inform my choices in my projects. From my earlier research looking at media with found family elements will also be helpful, allowing me to look more at how characters and their relationships are developed.

This video talking about the making of the last of us television series came out recently. I noticed many things from this video that can be used to inform how I can improve my projects in future. One thing that was made clear by this video is that projects flourish when everyone is passionate about what they're making. For this show, each stage of production is filled with people who have a great love of what they are making and deep knowledge of every element of the story that is important to the show.

The source material for this show was already vast and cinematic so adapting it to television was a very interesting endeavour. Many things were brought over to television on an almost one to one with the game. Despite the cinematic strength of the game, there were decisions made in the preproduction of the TV series that deviated from the elements within the game.

One major change that was decided was the way the virus was transmitted. In the video game, the virus was spread by spores but in the TV series they changed it to a more physical form of transmission. This decision was made for many different story reasons, the initial reason for the change was that in the game, due to the spore transmission, characters are wearing masks for large portions of the game. Removing the need for masks allows for the characters to express themselves more effectively.

From the seed of wanting to allow the characters to express themselves more effectively a whole new system of transmission had to be created and to do this the creative staff looked back at the root of the zombie infection. In looking back at fungus they found mycelium, a stringy growth of fungus, which helped inspire the new form of transmission. These stringy growths are also great as a new story element, making a clear visual connection between the zombies and the world but also makes the zombies bite that much more visceral and impactful.

As an animation student I wanted to look at the design work of the last of us and how the physical elements of the show told the story. In this documentary lots of the design work had already been completed as the game was already there as a reference. Despite this there was some talk of design work in the documentary, following on from the existing work of the games. I think it is reminded through the creation such a vast and enthralling world the importance of research. To create such interesting zombies designs and such an interesting post apocalypse they looked into similar things in the real world and used these real things to build and grow the designs and stories.

[annakarinahumphreys]

Final Major Project Brief - Project Start

My research this summer was based on finding the path forward that I would like to take with my future career. Much of this research led me to the realisation that moving forward my main goal is to improve my skills around animation.

My most rounded idea for creating a project and improving my skills this year was a short film idea that had begun to form during my research in second year. It would be a short film addressing attention struggles attention through a little personification of distraction. This would be an experimental project that would combine live action, 2D animation, stop motion and possibly 3D animation. It would allow me to continue to improve my animation skills and allow me to further explore the elements of animation and creation.

I am looking forward to developing this ideas as the pre-existing character designs and story work will allow me to create a very strong final product.

[annakarinahumphreys]

Television Pitch - Project Start

Following on from the television research I carried out this summer and the outcome of my initial ideas pitch I am going to be looking at pitching a show called Godd Jobs.

Godd Jobs is a sitcom about a world in which gods of many religions work regular retail jobs in the Godly shopping centre. No one shop would be highlighted but rather the back corridors of the centre as workers sneak off mid shift to chat about annoying customers and managers. Each shop would have gods tailored to the shop, for example, gods of things like marriage and fertility will work at the bra shop and gods of things like war would work in sports shops, Thor would work in a computer shop because of his connections with electricity.

Moving forward from this base idea I will be looking at further developing the idea to have a fully formed idea for the pitch at the end of the semester. To start I need to do more work on the universe this show is going to exist in as without that any design and story work will end up not making much sense. In a way this show will have a similar structure to shows like Brooklyn 99 and Parks and Rec which is another reason why I need to flesh out why the elements of this show exist as much of the story is drawn from the world they exist in.

[annakarinahumphreys]

Character Design in Television

From my prior research I realised I should look at the character design from different TV shows to help inform my pitches. From the research I have already carried out the shows Scooby Doo Mystery inc and Strange Hill High have two interesting approaches to character design and general theming. Both shows have horror theming yet have very different approaches to design. Obviously some of this design difference is due to the difference in animation approaches but there are still differences in how they present horror

Strange hill highs vinyl puppet approach to animation means that the majority of the characters are very round and smooth, with few harsh shapes. The show uses props most to create the unsettling feelings in the show, with strange things sitting all over the sets. All the environments in this show have a grubby look with dirt and mess, creating a creepy feeling of an old and unsafe place.

Scooby Doo Mystery Incorporated takes a much more traditional approach to horror design. Using harsh shapes and darker bluer colours allowing the whole show to have a eerier atmosphere while staying cohesive and clean.

[annakarinahumphreys]

Workplace Sit-coms

In looking at shows I have enjoyed for this research, quite a few of the shows have been workplace based sit coms. Shows like Brooklyn 99 and Parks and Rec were shows that I have greatly enjoyed in the past. I think half of their appeal is that the people in these shows enjoy their jobs and the like the people that they work with which is something many people aspire to.

The characters and personal relationships within the shows are the main strength of shows like these. The character interactions in these show are something I would like to emulate in my future works as they drive the shows and their popularity. Creating shows like these in animation give something to drive the style and movement of the show, with such strong emotions allowing for more extreme and interesting character animation.

[annakarinahumphreys]

Movement Studies II

After my first study I wanted to be try to capture more movement. To do this I decided to draw from a different dance that could have more movement. Of all the dances that came to mind I thought that Ghoomar from Padmaavati would have one of the most interesting ranges of motion. I think the movement of this piece is definitely improved from the earlier UCLAN study. I think this still could have done with including more of the movement of the skirt to show the movement.

[annakarinahumphreys]

Environment Design - My Work

From looking at the background design of other studios, I took away a key thing that could help with my work, that using real life environments to inspire my designs can strengthen any environments I create. I think having a base to build my work on is something that will strengthen my skills and allow me to create fully realised environments.

While on holiday this year, I stayed at in Italy with the view of a small Italian village. Given the use of references in Ghibli and Disneys design work I used my distant view of the village to create a wide shot of the environment. I think the difference between this design and my wide shoots of previous films is night and day, there is a greater sense of depth and realism.

[annakarinahumphreys]

Stop Motion Basics Armature by Extra Credit Studios

As a part of this project we were told to source some resources of our own to help strengthen our skills for upcoming elements of our projects. This is a video that talks about the different types of armature that can be used when doing stop motion animation.

The only armatures I have ever created/used are wire armatures like the one shown above from a stop motion piece I created in second year. When it was talked about in the video, the side effects listed are something I struggled with when I have used them for animations. When first using wire armatures I found the wire limbs incredibly fragile. The tip suggested of wrapping the wires together with other wires rather than twisting them together, I think this will be very useful in future armatures I make.

Even though the video was talking through different types of armature that are available it helped shed light on what is needed to create an effective rig. The things that make a a good rig is it being articulable, sturdiness, range of motion and price. For animation students, it makes sense that we are taught through wire armatures as despite how fragile they can be, their cost and the ability to customise makes them very suitable for teaching, especially given the shorter films we are expected to make.

[annakarinahumphreys]

Environment design

I wanted to look at environment designs, so I found this tutorial on how the process of creating a landscape to try and understand what makes a good landscape.

A major part of this tutorial highlighted how to create an image that would be most visually interesting and would highlight to the audience what you would want them to focus on. In this painting he wanted the focal point to be the boat. To do this he used many different techniques. The boat was placed using the rule of thirds, with the leading lines created by the mountains also drawing the eye to the boat.

What I found most enlightening was how he created depth. For the objects in the distance, to make them appear far away he reduced the objects contrast. Using cooler colours also helps things appear far away. I think keeping this in mind for future environment design would seriously improve my work. My environments in other projects often ended up looking flat so adding depth will help greatly improve that.

[annakarinahumphreys]

Movement studies

After my attempt at rotoscoping I wanted to try looking at drawing the movements without going over the top of a video. I looked at two videos of Indian dances to keep with the theme. I found a recording from UCLANs international night last year and thought I would follow the lead dancer and draw all his key poses. Trying to capture his movements I noticed that in this dance a lot of the movement is contained within the rectangle of the dancers body. Much of the movement was carried out by the upper body with the hands leading.

I was hoping to create the movement across the page to clearly show the progression of movement, I'm not sure I demonstrated this effectively. This might be due to the fact I finished the drawing series before the actual dance finished, the point I finished at more people joined and following one person became too difficult.

[annakarinahumphreys]

Lonely Mans Lazarus - Movement in Animation

For a project last year we were asked to find an animation style to emulate for our portion of a group project. In this project I chose to try the style of lonely mans Lazarus.

I discovered LML as they were posting the animation process of her the mind electric animation and found it fascinating. The amount of strong movement and emotion she is able to evoke in her animations is something I had never seen before and I found very interesting.

When talking about her animating process, Daisy mostly talks of her musical inspiration. With a love for opera she allows the music to lead the emotion and movement of the piece. Starting an animation, she already has music picked out and marks down the high and low moments of the music to lead the animation.

The amount of movement she creates in her animations is something I would like to try and move towards in future as many of my animations are quite static and I think that is one of the things that hold them back. In these animation she creates movement through not only the physical movement of the characters but also the movement of the camera, environment and the line work. This range of movement really heightens the emotions of the animations.

[annakarinahumphreys]

CBBC - Scheduling

For the TV show brief I'm interested in ideas for shows for tween/teens. I looked at the scheduling for CBBC to see what sort of timings and lengths that run on the channel. The number of the shows that are aired a day surprised me, the show playing changes very regularly. Most shows on CBBC aren't longer than around 30 minutes and 10-15 minutes is the most common show length.

[annakarinahumphreys]

Environment Design - Disney

One of the things that made Disney stand out in the early days of animation was their backgrounds. For the film Pinocchio they developed the multiplane camera in order to create a shot that would track to somewhere else. They created that movement with a rig that allowed the camera to move down through different drawing layers.

In the design element of their environments, Disney was very well known for their extensive reference libraries. To improve their designs, artists from Disney were sent to different places around the world to gather inspirations for their designs. They would create short films from these expeditions, highlighting elements of different cultures that they discovered whilst there. You can see the effects of these trips in the background designs of their films. In many of the early films to create the whimsey that Disney, they based a lot of their locations on woodlands and houses in Germany.

[annakarinahumphreys]

Colour In Storytelling by the Cinema Cartography

As a part of this project we were told to source some resources of our own to help strengthen our skills for upcoming elements of our projects. This is a video that talks about the use of colour in visual storytelling.

Colour has been used extensively throughout the history of cinema in various ways. Its main uses are to create a general atmosphere or to create a mental link between something and the colour. How colour effects a film can depend more on how it is used than the colour itself. When a films colour has a harmonious colour scheme, where nothing stands out, it often creates a balanced calm feeling to a film. When a colour is in stark contrast to the rest of the film it highlights it for the audience drawing their attention to it.

I think in my future pieces I should work to use colour more to tell the story rather than just make everything look nice. A lot of my films so far have been very monochromatic, for no reason other than that it made sense to me, I think many of them would have been improved by adding highlight colours to points of focus.

[annakarinahumphreys]

TV Show Studies: Record of Ragnarok

Record of Ragnarök is an ongoing anime following the Ragnarök tournament that will decide whether or not the gods will wipe out humanity. It pitches legendary humans against gods of many pantheons in intense fights to the death.

The show does a lot of work to characterise the opponents and why they were pitted against each other. Character design in this show is very interesting, as despite the majority of characters being ridiculously buff strong men, the majority of characters are still distinct enough to be recognised as separate characters. I think the most interesting interpretations legendary/mythic characters are their characterisations of Zeus and Jack the Ripper.

The mystery of Jack the Ripper is such that I have seen very few characterisations of them in fiction. What I find interesting about this shows Jack the Ripper is that in a show full of buff men, the evil murderer is a small man with little to no ability to fight. All characters get cut aways that explain each characters backstories, and for their Jack the Ripper they do the same, the interesting thing with his backstory is that while they show his troubled past, they never once make you feel like you have to empathise with the character. Despite all the tragic background they never once treat him as a likeable character.

I find this shows version of Zeus very interesting. In Record of Ragnarök Zeus is a very skinny decrepit looking old man for the majority of the show (except within his battle) and is also portrayed as a villain. The choice to have Zeus appear so small and evil is very interesting as it so starkly contrasts almost every other adaptation of the character. Zeus being evil is something that occurs more regularly in adaptations as many of his actions in the original stories are villainous but whether he's good or evil its very rare that he appears so small. Making him so small and creepy is an interesting move that in a way makes him far creepier and sets him apart from the other gods as their king.

[annakarinahumphreys]

TV Show Studies: Totally Spies

Totally Spies is a spy-fi series that follows 3 high school girls from Beverly Hills who live double lives as international superspies. The series follows the girls missions, their world saving shenanigans and their high school lives.

One of the things that really made this show stand out was the dynamics between the spies. Each girl fell into a different set of stereotypes and character types. Despite their differences the girls broadly always get along and put up with any of the quirks that are annoying about the others. Throughout the show no girl is put higher in value, it is regularly shown that they each have strengths that help lead to success on missions that differ from the others.

Another thing that they do to keep the girls on an even playing field is that a different girl falls victim to any of the mind controls or tricks that happen on missions each mission. This stops any of the girls from seeming any more stupid than the others and shows their different weaknesses.

A smart little side is that this show often leans more into its comedic side. This is mostly demonstrated through little side gags. I mentioned it because this show demonstrates working within a budget very well. Leaning into the comedy does this by saving animation time, small gags rely on quirky drawings rather than elaborate animations, small still scenes like this help speed up the animation process.

[annakarinahumphreys]

Gross TV

In approaching my animated TV brief I will be avoiding what I call "gross TV". Even though gross tv shows don't always fall within the same categories whenever I have come into contact with them I have found them unpleasant and unsettling. Gross TV is what I call TV shows that centre around or rely solely on gross/disgusting things for their appeal.

This sort of gross out shock appeal appears in both kids and adults TV. In children's television this relates to shows like almost naked animals or the rubbish world of Dave spud. These children's shows don't just use grossness occasionally but it is the entire premise of the show. Almost naked animals is a show that is designed to look gross and rely on gross humour, with most jokes being about farts or bogeys or other such bodily fluids. This gross out tv was aimed to make young audiences laugh but as a kid it always creeped me out.

In adult television gross TV begins to encompass other innuendos, involving more sex and gratuitous violence. Gross TV in more the adult ranges involves shows like south-park and Rick and Morty. These sorts of shows just don't really interest me, and in my work I don't want to constantly be making violent or gross things.