Ella's Animation Journal: Ba1b Part 2

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media industries

[ellasanimationjournalba1bpart2]

Media industries

Q and A with Alexis Deprey of Threadwood animations

What role did you play in the production process of the ‘share your gifts’ animation ?

“I as the Art Department coordinator on ‘share your gifts’.

2. Could you describe your experiences fulfilling this role ?

My day to day handles the Art Dept budget for the project, aided in scheduling/ assignments/ PAs, and kept the inventory stocked so builders and painters could work consistently. I also gave advice when asked (based on my typical background as an art director and builder). It as a generally small and fast production -  our “live action -  production designers” also functioned as the art directors.

3. Was the manner of your career development expected/ have you ever considered any other specialisms within animation ?

Not really, i thought based on my BFA in illustration that i was going to be an illustrator when i graduated. However, i built and shot my thesis picture book very similarly to stop motion. My professor saw my work and put me in touch with a local stop motion animation studio in CT. it's been a long journey since that job - with the last 7 years spent in LA - but that as the start. I haven’t switched animation mediums since i started specialising in stop motion shortly after college. I'm interested in designing for 2D based on my illustration background - but i'm not very interested in CG.

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Media industries

Q and A with Guldies transcript

Do you consider yourself to be an animation director? If yes, how would you describe the role of an animation director through your professional experiences ?

“I don’t consider myself a director, at least not to other people. I am my own director - if that makes sense? I am an animator and filmmaker when i work alone. I don’t see myself taking charge of a big feature film in the future.”

Do you consider yourself to be an animation fabricator? If yes, how would you describe your role as a fabricator through your professional experiences ?

“I see myself as a fabricator/ builder/ artist. I love to build things and sculpt things. It was my first true passion, and then came animating.”

Have you ever considered exploring other specialisms/ roles within animation?

“i’ve been to school this year trying to learn a bit about After effects and cinema 4D. I want to learnt other ways to animate to get better at stop motion!”

Could you give any advice for aspiring animation directors/ fabricators ?

“My go to advice is usually to start out small. If you want to learn animating you should just animate short and sweet stuff. Some people take on too big projects. They have this great idea for a movie, but lack the skills and stop motion takes time. It would only get too frustrating! Wait with the story and start with getting good at animating. Hope that helps : )”

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Media industries

Puppet Fabricator 

·    Develop and implement incremental improvements to the puppet to meet the demands of production.

·    Create and assemble all composite wire armature pieces and resin rigging mechanisms.

·    Make molds for resin, foam latex, epoxy, and silicone parts. 

·    Cast, seam, and patch all foam latex parts.

·    Paint identical treatments across multiple puppets. 

·    Repair and repaint all puppets before returning to set.Prop Design

·    Design and create static/animatable props 

·    Collaborated with a team of fabricators to conceptualize armatures and props

http://www.nicolehorsman.com/stopmotion

What are the roles of a fabricator ?

The role of a fabricator is to construct armatures, props and sets for the animation.

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Media Industries: Roles and Practices

12/03/19: I intend to focus my research on stop motion, the role of a director, art coordinator and fabricator. i found a stop motion short film which really interested me and decided to do some research on the director of the film. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dp2ZskwkhkA 

Director: Vincent Peone

What is an animation director?

‘the creation of all that is to inhabit the final picture from the tiniest speck of dust to the most terrifying of dragons’

The responsibilities of an animation director can vary depending on the budget of the production. The  director often has to perform a number of roles throughout the production process, such as  ‘initial script development and writing, storyboarding, creating the animatic*, casting the voice talent, designing/art directing, directing the animators, working with the composer and sound design team, to compositing and the final grade’.

‘Many animation directors began as Woody Allen like figures who multi-tasked all the creative roles in their film’

Andy: "My role as an animation director changes subtly from job to job but it always involves taking control of the overall look and feel of the animation. On lower budget jobs this usually takes the form of designing and animating everything myself. On larger budget jobs I have the luxury of other people who are experts in their field helping me put together the animation.

https://www.directors.uk.com/news/what-is-an-animation-director

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09/05/19:how to import an image sequence

Today i learnt how to import an image sequence into premiere pro.

file, import, Select first image, select ‘image sequence’, select ‘open’ 

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weekly summary: mystery box

03/05/19:

This week i learnt about parenting and the use of joints to attach the phone to my rigs left hand. I also keyframed the phone to not be visible until after the character reaches behind himself to retrieve it.  I also rendered and imported the rendered images into premiere pro

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mystery box

03/05/19: parenting and using joints

Today I learnt how to create and attach a joint to an object an how to parent a joint to the left hand of my rig.

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weekly summary; mystery box

01/04/19:

This week i went through the keyframes i applied for when the character is walking across the stage and realised that the walk would be more fluid and natural i were to use less keyframes. This was because the unnecessary keyframes in my sequence were created very jumpy movement in comparison to Maya predictive movements.

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weekly summary; mystery box

25/03/19: this week i began a second iteration of my animation because i felt as though there was too much going on in the scene and my attempt to force it all into a space of 10-15 seconds left the animation looking rushed. Positions which were meant to hold were not properly held, for example when the character first hears a voice coming from the box, he is meant to look very shocked. I don’t think that properly translated because that key frames wasn’t allowed to hold on for as long as it should have be. I focused a lot more on the timing when making my second iteration .

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weekly summary; mystery box

18/03/19: this week i learnt about area lights and rendering. I added to area lights to my scene. I learnt how to adjust my area lights by viewing them in render view to see a preview of what it will look like when properly rendered.

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weekly summary: mystery box

11/03/19; this week i worked on exercises to develop my understanding and familiarity of the rig. This was very beneficial to my understanding of how to manipulate the rig to present finer details such as facial expressions and finger movements. I was also introduced to graph editor which greatly benefited my ability to keyframe subtle movements and to manipulate the rate of progression between key frames.

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07/03/19: mystery box

Today I learnt how to change the settings of Axis orientation

I also worked on a small exercise that consisted of me blocking out three positions using a rig. The rig began sitting at a desk, then moved to its anticipation position and then concluded in a position which creates connotations of shock.

Today I began blocking out the animation up until the first change in expression. I started by working on the contact poses and then moved on to the passing poses.

I also learnt how to use the graph editor to create more subtle movements and how it is much better to use the graph editor when splining. This was especially helpful when trying to animate the small curvature of the spine as the rig enters the ‘down’ and ‘up’ positions when walking.

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weekly summary: mystery box

04/03/19 this week i focused on blocking out my animation. i focused only on the main contact positions and timing. This system will be beneficial for me because it allows me to preview the outcome before committing to certain positions or timings. 

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mystery box

04/03/19:

Today I worked on blocking out the animation, using just the contact positions. Although my computer crashed at the end of the lesson so I’m going to have to start again. Even though I lost everything I learnt a lot more about how to manipulate the rig. I also learnt how to set a camera.

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weekly summary: mystery box

25/02/19: this week i was introduced to the rig i will be using for my mystery box animation. This week i developed my familiarity with key framing and explored the capabilities of the rig.

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28/02/19: Mystery box Today I was introduced to the rig I will be using to create my animation. The rig was ‘Max’ from http://www.11secondclub.com/resources by Peter Starostin and James Hunt. Today we focused mainly on getting used to the idea of key framing and exploring the rig. I learnt the limitations of the rig and how to manipulate the rig to express and emotion.   i also learnt how to move a keyframe; Shift, click (let go of shift), drag using cursor