Megan McCarron

Second Year Animation and Motion Design

[k00239927]

These are my story board and mood board for my stop motion animation. 

[k00239927]

Desk and St Mary's cathedral sketchs. Still not up to the standard I want them to be.

[k00239927]

My photoshop frog

[k00239927]

Some different textures to look at

[k00239927]

Very rough sketches from the library today. Not great quality photos. I am hoping to improve my sketches in future with more detail and better perspective as this is something I struggle with.

[k00239927]

My front, profile and 3/4 view for traditional animation.

[k00239927]

Two other stories I found that environments suited their stories were 'The scariest thing of all' and 'The bear and the piano'.

'The bear and the piano' is a heartwarming story about a bear who gets his big chance to play piano in front of the world and claim fame, when he realises that he misses the forest and home is the best. The image of the bear sitting up on the rooftops while looking out on the city creates a strong mood for us. It really shows the loneliness and longing the bear has for the city. That no matter how famous it still isn't perfect. I believe this is a very strong image. At the end of the book The bear is reunited in the forest and bright lighting and soft colours give us that sense of happiness and justice. The bright yellows and reds used for the city is as strong contrast between the soft greens of the forest. I believe this is to show that the city and the forest are very different types of environments.

'The scariest thing of all' is a story about a petrified bunny who ends up lost at night and realises night isn't as scary as it once seemed. The use of dark lighting and colour across the story create a contrast to the small bunny. This puts more emphasis on the scary dark night that if a larger animal was the main character in this story. Lots of large trees, not seeming to really end, really show the viewer how lost the bunny is.

[k00239927]

For our first class in drawing we visited the local library. We were set a task of finding 5 children's books that the environment within the story suits the story.

While we were also there I took a look around at the environment in the library itself. I thought about the people who visit, after school clubs, people just getting in from the rain, job services available to people signposted everywhere, ect. I made some small observations that I normally wouldn't have really noticed about a place like the library. For instance the plug holes in the children's section had be taped over, various stains littered the floor around the children's section, in a small corner vhs tapes were collecting dust, with worn and faded names attached. Things like this can really almost be a story in itself.

The first book I read that suited it's environment was 'Queen of the Night'. In this book a young child is scared of the dark, in the shadows in her walls she sees big scary monsters. This book shows how she overcomes them fears. The environment suits the story by using full black, yet foggy monster shaped, shadows to show the story. The shadows aso appear much larger than normal to really empathize the spookiness and fear the monsters give. In contrast using a colourful bedroom wall reminds is that this still is the bedroom of a young girl and this is still just her being scared of things that aren't real.

One book I found that the environment suits it's story was 'There is no dragon in this story'. This book is based off the common idea in books and movies that dragons are the villian. This particular dragon decides to prove to everyone that he is not the bad guy. Using an environment with hills, witches in cages, knights and characters from other stories, such as 3 little piggies, spread throughout really shows us how the dragon is never accepted in any story.

'Humphrey's Corner' is a wonderful book showing a child's imagine while just simply running around the house playing with a teddy. The cluttered bedroom really showed that his is based around a imaginative young elephant. It showed a typical child's room which sets the environment. Regular items such as toliet paper and a kitchen stool throughout the story show us that it is all just based around this elephants home. Images such as playing with jewellery and trying on high heels shows this child is rilfing through his mum's drawers throughout the house. This is all something we have down as children. I felt this book appealed to our senses. It look at our sense our touch as the baby elephant is splashing his teddy around in the toilet, sense of sound when we decided the camo he made was too quiet, the sense of vision as he looks at all the pretty colours. I believe this would pull a reader in, especially one of a younger age.

[k00239927]

Some of my best drawings from the trip. The drawing trip has taught me alot about motion and the shape and movement of bodies. I will apply this to further studies. 

[k00239927]

This is a video I got of the incredible peacock while on my drawing trip in Fota Island. This will help with understand the motion of this creature and make my studies more accurate. 

[k00239927]

The rest of the photos from the drawing trip.

[k00239927]

Some of the photos from our Fota Island trip. 

[k00239927]

Final day of filming. Using Karen’s house we were able to create most of the final shots needed for our trailer. The pregnant belly which I made earlier in this project will be used in all these scenes. Space was an issue in this filming but it was easily worked around. 

We re shot the scenes that didn’t quite work out as planned earlier this week in Nathan’s apartment.

[k00239927]

Filming day 4. Thanks to Nathan we were able to film quite a few scenes in his apartment, but due to angles and camera shots not being accurate we decided we would re shoot two of the scenes later this week in a different setting. Having never done filming before I hadn’t realised the awkward positions trying to get the best shot puts you in. 

[k00239927]

Filming day 2. Using my set as a background for this piece didn’t quite go as planned. Matching Nathan and the set up was more difficult than anticipated. The college garden worked as a perfect background though.

The rest of the day we filmed using the greenscreen.

[k00239927]

Filming day 1. We spent the majority of today using the UL forest walkway to recreate several scenes in the trailer. This has been my first experience with filming and have a definite interest in it and would like to learn more about it. We all divided the filming up equally to give everyone a learning chance. 

[k00239927]

Lists and schedules are being made. This helps to organise us as a group, so will are all aware of what has been done and what is left to do. The filming schedule allows us to know what shots are being filmed when and who and what props are needed for each day .A group chat been made earlier in this project that has really helped us out. It has allowed us to give updates to each other daily about a variety of things, such as missing days, porps needed to be bought and help needed, ect.