RSA Moving Pictures - End Ageism

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RSA Student Design Awards. End Ageism Evaluation ;

In this module, the task we were given was to create an animation that would illustrate a spoken audio transcript. The main objective of this particular module was to collaborate with another student to help create this visual representation of the audio. The brief asks as a group to help illuminate the audio clip, turning ideas into a reality. Myself & Nesta to animate the second audio file ‘End Ageism’, by Ashton Applewhite. In a bid to create a world of age equality we need to research further into techniques to help produce the animation. The first research I did was to look further into different styles from traditional to more recent animations such as stop-motion, flip book, green screen, and kinetic typography. Researching and gathering relevant information on how to produce animations to help provoke a spark of influence by looking at different tutorials. Not only for this project but I have always loved learning from others and tutorials have taught me pretty much everything I know. It was of the most importance to me in this project as I felt I must understand animation before I could ever produce an animation for myself.

My original idea was to produce an animation by recording myself illustrating raw images, characters, objects and elements that related to the audio transcript. I got most of my inspiration and research by just listening to interviews of experienced animators. One interview was on the subject on how to approach illustrating audio by listening to the audio respectively which felt the best method for me to help produce ideas and illustrations that brought the audio to life. Myself & Nesta communicated pretty much every day even if it was just a few messages on facebook about the direction we wanted to take this animation project. We also met up multiple times to consider each other's ideas and help bring them together to produce an animation that really embraced the audio and communicated to the target audience effectively. 

As we produced footage for the animation I began looking further into techniques of editing using Adobe After Effect which I’ve had experience with before it really helped when editing the footage as Nesta had no real experience with After Effects. I really got him involved in the editing and showing him techniques that I’d learned in the past and from using tutorials. When it came to editing we both went hand in hand both getting involved even with the most difficult tasks. We decided to combined are styles by using different animation techniques like stop-motion, still frame, kinetic typography, collage and digital illustration. Which led to the problem of having huge sized video footage so we weren't able to transfer it to each other. I decided to change down the quality of the footage whilst we were in the process of producing the animation content. The animation included technical methods of animation such as masking around an object that was shot in stop-motion to help transition between the footage this gave a very raw look to the animation.

We both would produce a body of work for a particular sentence from the audio and send them each other to really do what we wanted. This made the process very productive and gave a real essence of both styles of illustration in the animation in order to create a solution for this project. The reason we chose this particular method of animating is to help achieve a collaborative animation using both of our work instead of working individually on different scenes of the animation every single scene has been worked on by myself & Nesta. Overall I feel the end animation does show that we both was dedicated to each piece of animation and it serves its purpose of visualising the audio transcript and stays relevant to the target audience. There is are a number of things that could be have been improved including finishing the entire animation. For example, we would benefit from being less precise with communicating the audio and focus more on producing a larger body of work. 

Also, we could have spent a lot more time researching into different transitions in order to produce a storyboard that conveys the whole audio transcript. If only we’d created a clear story to what we were animating the whole process would have gone quicker. I think we needed to create a better foundation of research, storyboard, and ideas before producing the final animation as I felt at times the animation would never come together. Maybe if we prioritised our time better we would have produced a full animation from the audio transcript. We definitely felt a huge pressure to get it done as soon as possible so that we had time to edit. At times we were rushing to produce work towards the end this had an effect on the team work and I ended up editing the final scene we had created by myself. This experience is not something I will forget and in the future will defiantly work harder to build up on research, experimentation, and storyboards. If I was to do this again I would most likely be more confident with collaborating with an artist that take me out my comfort zone and as an individual, I will defiantly pursue different styles of illustration. Although I enjoyed working with Nesta and we did produce an animation that I really felt works well as a visual representation of the audio. I do feel we both need to use our time wisely before going into any development which made it difficult when it came to editing. 

 This was the most difficult project I’ve ever worked on as it meant really trusting the other person to help produce high-quality work. I’ve always worked as an individual with no consideration for any other artists or illustrators only the client and target audience. This project allowed me to progress not only as an illustrator but as a person. I can now say I’m pretty open to producing work with other artists and look forward to doing so in the future.

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RSA Moving Image. Ageism Animation By Shane & Nesta.

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Final Editing Process;

A digital painting using a textured brush I created in Adobe Photoshop. I added the painting behind the animation. Importing the image into After Effects I should be able to move the camera between each illustration.

Creating a smooth path for the camera to pan follow over each illustration. Using a mask to cover the typography and keyframing the revealing to the audio. As the audio plays out the kinetic type follows revealing each word in sync.

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Stereotype Typography Print;

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As I listened to the audio transcript, “- from ads for wrinkle creams to children’s books, you know that have the passive granny or the evil crone and not much in between.” I could imagine an old tv playing a typical wrinkle cream advert.

The countless hour's people stand in the mirror looking at themselves and questioning their appearance. Which inspired this illustration of an old lady arguing with herself as the evil crone in the mirror.

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Simple Colour Transition. Adobe After Effects;

We needed a simple transition that would change between a scene quickly. I decided to use bright colours 2D solid layers that shifted and whiped the entire screen. Key framing the rotation allowed the solids to slide over each layer in a smooth whiping motion. A simple transition that I learned watching tutorials on YouTube when I first ever started getting to grips with Adobe After Effects.

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The More Different We Become Collage;

Faces collage by Nesta Costa

Using a mask inside Adobe Photoshop to get the collage by Nesta to animate with the wrinkled paper stop-motion transition.

I decided to add a speech mark animation using kinetic typography over the piece illustrated by myself & Nesta. 

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Animation Development;

Importing the first scene to our animation into After Effects. I was able to recorrect the colour using curves before we started transitioning into any other scene. Using a technique I learned earlier on in the project I imported the Ageism audio and used the waveform to get the correct time scale for the animation. 

While the stop-motion paper transition was a great way of going from scene to scene it had a white background. So to prevent the stop-motion transition stopping the scene below from being visible. I decided to use a mask to pen tool the paper ball as it opened and moved frame by frame. A very grindy task that took up time, one way this could have been prevented is by using the green screen technique to remove the background.

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Stop Motion Paper Transition;

Using a stop-motion apple software app I as a group we were able to create this transition of paper by opening the paper. To remove the background of this stop-motion animation leaving just the paper opening was a whole different process using Adobe After Effects. While this might be a simple animation we saw it as a representation of age wrinkles and the growth of the mind as we become older.

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Ashton Applewhite with her new book, This Chair Rocks. A book about rewiring the way we look at ageing. Applewhite challenges negative social stereotypes of growing older. Targeting, for this book, towards people in age denial is her first target audience. As we start getting old we become worried about ageing this appeals to everyone. Ageism is perfect target for collective advocacy because it affects everyone.

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Nesta & Shane. Style Calibration

Just before Christmas I was chosen to calibrate with Nesta. His style is the manipulation of visual arts, using multimedia images of different forms, thus creating whole illustrations. We both decided to collaborate by putting both my own style and his own to create animations that interpret the audio transcript.

This collage that Nesta created is a form of multimedia images to create the characters for the animation. We decided that Nesta would create the head and I will illustrate the body forms for the characters.

I found it difficult to get the right body proportion. The collage was dark and sits at awkward angles this became a problem when I was trying to illustrate the body. I tried to correct the angles of the collage and produce the body. The character above was the one I chose to start adding movement.

The character above was the one I chose to start adding movement. Lifting his arm in a very simple animation of this particular character.

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Social Insecurities - Ageism;

We are most defiantly a generation that is influenced in popularity, technology and social media giving us an inflated sense of self. Most of us don’t walk around feeling like we are great. In fact, we are shape our self-image and behaviour to please others, and that is insecurity. Ageism has a dramatic impact as we grow up, we unconsciously adopt and integrate this pattern of destruction thoughts towards ourselves and others.

“People aren’t born ageist, but it starts in early childhood. Kids are exposed to negative stereotypes about ageing all the time - from ads for wrinkle creams to children’s books, you know that have the passive granny or the evil crone and not much in between.”

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After Effects Kinetic Typography Animation Experiment;

Kinetic Typography

Kinetic typography is everywhere nowadays. From websites, infographics, television commercials to moveable type is a popular visual tool to share information. This puts together with some simple animation to create words that move on the screen, grabbing the audience's attention and describes the audio.

This kinetic typography animation was set up using a 3D camera that allowed me to rotate and angle the type in a stairs shaped position. Rotation can allow the type to focus on a pacific sentence as the audio plays out. Changing the opacity allows it to transition softly between text.

The second attempt of kinetic type was a different method, spreading individual letters from the audio transcript in size, colour, and position. It is an animation technique that I used to make lettering expand, shrink, fly, focus in motion, grow and change in numerous ways. The effect can be simple and short with only small changes or quite elaborate and lengthy.

Working with Audio

Using the run preview render so I can play the transcript in real time. Listening to the audio, marking out each word in the sentence to track against the moving typography. The waveform above enabled me to really come closer to the audio so I can see where the words peak in the audio. The transcript audio rolls out quickly which is very clear in the animation below. Camera movement is very abrupt sliding to each text to keep up with the audio. Tracking the audio this way was no easy task as I had to track over 60 words to the transcript. This really made clear that to animate this transcript I must simplify the meaning and not focus on each individual word.    

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'The Illusion of Life’ The 12 Principles of Animation;

#1 Squash & Stretch.

This gives weight and volume to a characters or object when in motion. Adding exaggeration to an object in motion gives it a greater sense of reality.

#2  Anticipation

Makes audience anticipate the next key movement that the character or object is about to perform. Each key action engages with pacific movements that the audience is witnessing is about to happen. 

#3 Staging

How you present an idea so it is clear to an audience. Staging helps establish mood, create focus and clarify what is about to happen in the scene.  

#4 Straight Ahead & Pose To Pose

A pose to pose animation is displayed with key positions that are done at intervals throughout an animation. Straight ahead action must refer to the technique of drawing each pose, which can yield a fluid realistic animation. 

#5 Follow Through & Overlapping

When the main body of the character or object all other parts move to catch up with the main action.

#6 Slow In & Slow Out

In the physical world, objects, characters and movements need to pick up momentum before reaching the full speed of action. It takes time to decrease the speed before an object or character comes to a complete standstill. 

#7 Arc

When you throw a ball, it rarely flies in a completely straight direction. The gravitational pull causes objects in motion to arc between the start and end point a way of movement. An arc provides an animation with natural action and better flow. 

#8 Secondary Action

Is an additional action that occurs during movement as a supplement of the main action usually the secondary action don’t distract from the main animation movement. In order to reinforce it and add momentum.

#9 Timing

Fewer drawings make an animation slower and more drawings or frames makes an animation faster and clearer. Timing maintains the complete appearance of an object or character while abiding by the law of physics. 

#10 Exaggeration

Exaggeration is not an extreme distortion of a drawing or really broad, violent action all the time. In feature animation, a character must move more broadly to look natural. Action traced from the live action can be accurate, but stiff and mechanical.

#11 Solid Drawings

Solid drawing takes an enhanced level of realism to the skill of drawing, adding good form and a three-dimensional feel to an animation. Taking into account the three-dimensional space gives the object volume and weight.

#12 Appeal

A quality of the charm that will please the audiences eyes. In motion design, an appeal can be established before anything moves in the animation.

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First animation;

“Stereotypes are always a mistake, but especially when it comes to age because the older we get the more different from one another we become."

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Traditional Animation;

My first experiment for the collaborative module, it’s a more traditional technique of layered sketches. This consisted of just 9 frames but this was not a process of smooth movement but an experiment of my first idea after listening to the ageism audio transcript. Coming closer to traditional animation as possible to create a storyboard. While this animation was very basic the idea resembled the first sentence of the transcript visually. I used the rule of thirds to try and find pleasing compositions. When I have the lines that overlap placing the point of interest on the lines give a more pleasing animation. 

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Winner of the Patricia Tindale Award, Dan Palmer uses kinetic typography to interpret his creative insight to the audio. I’m not a huge fan of moving typography in After Effect as often enough the movements are too abrupt and fail to help narrate the transcript and capture an audience's attention. The same can not be said for the animation each movement or transition are clean and smooth which gives an easy read. An incredibly easy method of communicating the transcript. This is a technique I’ve used in the past and will be definitely experimenting with in the future of this project.