Valentína_NUA

visual diary and reflective journal by Valentína Hučková aka van ghost from NUA Animation year one [psswrd_prtctd_vds = yfirbord]

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ON ANIME AS AN ART FORM AND HOW ‘THE WEST’ PERCEIVES JAPANESE ANIMATION by Valentina Huckova

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I became a blogger for Your4 during summer and posted my research on Japanese animation and how it is perceived by the 'western world'

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my finished independent study project poster reflecting on my first year at NUA Animation

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first stage of my independent study project, which I will finish by doodling on in real life and then scanning into digital again.

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This is the delivery version of my sequence where Emily helped me add a light effect to emulate a streetlight and I also added a flicker to the neon lights in sync with the box causing an energy disruption to accentuate the action. 

To describe this whole sequence - 

Lux, a black-market merchant in a dystopian futuristic pan-asian city is sent on a job to collect a mystery box. He knows the location is in a shady back alley. He walks in, and using the power of energy impulses from his cyborg body he control the movement of the box, raising his arms to shape its path to him. His robotic movement is apparent, though perfectly impersonates a human’s, due to his human brain being a part of his make. As the box reaches him and reflects its light on him, he looks in, only to belatedly realise the danger, with the mystery contents creating an energy disruption, short-circuiting him, bringing him to the ground. The box shrinks once it’s accomplished what it was made for and we see the protagonist heave breaths, as we are left unsure of what his fate will be.

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This is my delivery showreel for which I’ve selected relevant work from all three of our submission projects. I’ve edited it to music and kept the individual clips short enough to portray dynamic editing. I’ve played with the layout and effects and am overall pleased with the artistic appearance and the variety of media and styles included. I’ve waited to finish the post-production of my mystery box sequence to include it in the showreel for which reason I put it at the end as I wasn’t quite sure where else to put it and for me and the tutors it would seem chronologically natural to see it at the end as it was the last big project of the year. I have deliberately kept the amount of static work to a minimum and only showed my character design sheets (including one sketch wip of lux model sheet including rough sketch, outline and finished pose). I credited the free music on my outro contact detail screen and included my design logo which I’ve used since making my university application portfolio.

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my character design sheet

for the dynamic poses I used frames from my animation for reference and because he does not have a very expressive face I have kept it minimal. I have included a short character profile along with the colour scheme to support his design, and included the same little logo I designed for him.

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model sheet for Lux

I used my puppet photo reference and an existing model sheet drawn reference to help me shape the body realistically in 3D. I opted for a new technique within digital drawing which I haven’t used before and used new software options, learning more about Photoshop on the way which I’m pleased about. I also like the style I opted for, as it suits the design and shows he would work well within 2D digital, so I might recreate him in the future.

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first updated exported version. I will further edit this piece to bring it to a delivery standard.

[A TEST ON BOXES in perspectives]

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week 27 summary

This week I had my second official filming to add to my two separate test shoots and one partially failed filming. I had to book a separate slot to reshoot my sequence, because the first time around the insufficient time slot negatively impacted my process and I wasn’t able to produce a work up to my intended standard. Prior to the shoot I independently fixed my puppet’s feet, according to how we were taught to make them.

This time around, I was able to use a free double slot and within a total shooting time of three hours produced a somewhat smoother result with a more accentuated movement. During the shooting, however, I realised why it is that productions spend one day animating a four-second sequence to produce believable and smooth movement and that I should appropriate my standards within the time and resources that are available. I find the process of stop-motion both excruciating and enjoyable. I also finished my character design sheet and model sheet, which despite not needing for the shooting I wish I’d created earlier to inform my process better. In the future, I will strive to keep a logical schedule within pre-production and production. I will also aim to produce designs that push my creative limits. After shooting I have taken to After Effects to edit out the green screen and mask out unnecessary objects. Afterward, I applied my background which I created by referencing my researched environment materials. 

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process of background creation, showing initiall reference and line work to layering and after-editing.

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a new research into background environment and colour schemes, I searched for ‘Tokyo (dystopian) back alley’ and selected a variety of images with similar perspective and appropriate colours for my intended colour scheme.

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Final evaluation

To produce our own showreels we were inducted to use Premier CC which I really appreciate, as I understand the need to understand software is crucial. For my own showreel I compiled all of my animated work from this year, choosing ones that were relevant to showing my understanding of animation principles as well as ones to show my creativity and artistic approach. I heavily prefer 2D digital animation at this point, but I have decided to showcase all mediums of work, as I am still interested in every area of animation and wish to better my skill in each. I worked on appropriately cropping each clip to show its main essence and to create a dynamic progression in sync with the upbeat music I chose from a favourite band of mine from bandcamp, where they share their music for free. I had to wait with exporting my delivery showreel, because I’d wanted to add my final mystery box animation, which was slightly thrown off my presumed production schedule due to the pressure on resources and time which we were given in our Mystery Box project. I also used my already present artistic monicker and logo and edited these to create an aesthetic outro slide with my contact details, giving the showreel a slight feeling of professionalism. I am overall glad we were given this project as it is very useful for me now, going into summer holidays looking for internships. It is also useful to have this knowledge now already instead of second year, however, I wish we’d been given the project at an earlier time, because one week prior to hand-in does not appear to be quite enough to comfortably finish overlapping projects.  

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Showreel Project Reflective Journal

We were briefed on what will be expected of us within this project, which feels very last-minute due to the overlap with other projects which aren’t finished yet prior to next week’s hand-in. We were shown what makes a good showreel through examples. We were told what to focus on now in this project, and what to take into account for future reference when we have a wider selection of work. We watched many examples of successful and also less efficient showreels and researched our own examples during a short collaborative task. An example of a good portfolio shows editing to music, appropriate length, high quality of animations included, preferably a variety of mediums or techniques used if the artist’s versatility is to be shown and also an appropriate tone of the piece, along with the most important = contact details and being up to date. As an example of a less successful showreel would be one that is repetitive due to the breadth of work being small, edited to copyrighted or inappropriate music and too long in time. Furthermore, the design of the intro/outro contact details and the overall video design is essential in communicating the artist’s style and experience level, and should give off a good impression that the person is artistically capable, if it’s visually appealing.

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I really like the art style of this showreel and because it is consistently depicted throughout, it creates the impression that is the only style he is willing to work in, which is constricting, yet his personal artistic decision to be respected. By including animations that are somewhat unseemly he stands apart and markets himself to a specific audience. The music is undistracting and the editing is good, yet the length is a little too long, making this seem like a compilation of all work rather than showcasing the best examples. Nevertheless this is a strong showreel within its own bounds and includes contact details at the end, as well as crediting the music.

I have seen his work prior to this showreel, as he animated a popular music video:

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This is a great example of using background music commonly perceived as extreme and inappropriate for this type of work, yet here it fits perfectly and leaves an image of confidence and capability. The animations are stylistically unified and show the focus of the studio. It has great dynamic timing, high quality of work, sync to music and showcases the nature of the company. It has an animated intro and an outro with the website, which is presumably the only relevant link they need to promote as a point of contact. 

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Reflective Journal on Animation to Sound

I have really enjoyed this project because it was focused on combining animated visuals with sound, something that I’ve been long interested in, as I love animated music video clips. For this I have initially researched some of my favourite animated videos synced to music to analyse how the music and animation combine into successful outcomes. For the first lesson we explored how image and sound combine by using form, colour, scale, and movement within After Effects, to produce a visual outcome synced to a set music clip.

We planned our sequences in storyboards, however I expected I will want to freely experiment and see where the animation takes me and so after trying my intended storyboard in a short animation test, I decided to change my music clip and produced something true to my personal aesthetic and inspired by other artistic practices.

Despite the delivery version not appearing dynamic since I planned it to be minimalist and partially static, I have utilised the functionality of the software, which at the time we were still taught how to use. I have backed my delivery animation to sound with sufficient research to inform me of the contemporary practices.

For our lip-sync project which we started shortly before Easter break we have tested out or lip-syncing skills by using a wholly preset composition. This lesson was aimed at starting to use dope sheets by effectively analysing set audio clips and then translating our findings into a moving image outcome. After Easter break we have created and digitised our own set of mouth shapes to use with a new sound clip to produce our submission pieces. I chose a longer clip, yet content-wise interesting to sync movement to. I worked on analysing the sound, then translating that into the composition, which I found to be a lengthy process. After keyframing the main phonemes I worked on editing the result to appear natural, less cluttered and naturally synchronised. After receiving feedback and using my theory research I successfully edited the animation to appear in sync and proceeded to add facial expressions based on first-hand research to create a performance. In the end I have also decided to add a bit of extra value to the product by adding a ‘mood’ background and altering the audio clip slightly, to heighten the final impression of my piece.

This project was very useful and interesting and I am hoping to utilise my gained knowledge in the future, both on lip-syncing and animating to music.

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Media Industries: Roles and Practices (Statement)

I researched an international animation studio based in Los Angeles called Chromosphere, established in 2014 by Kevin Dart, with a vision to produce contemporary 2D digital and hybrid animation.  The studio is small in scale with a simple structure, having three permanent principals, who take on senior creative roles. Kevin Dart is the Creative Director, Myles Shioda is the Director of Production and Jasmin Lai works as their Art Director. Prior to its establishment Kevin Dart wished to collaborate with artists from all over the world, which allows Chromosphere to network and collaborate globally whilst still remaining a small LA-based studio.

A role of relevance for me within the industry is an Art Director, who is ‘in charge of the look and feel of the project’ (Milic and McConville, 2006). Art Directors will work closely with the director to achieve the visual aims of the project, and their talent and good communication are essential during the development stages. They will also supervise a team of other artists in the design and background departments, making this a senior creative role that requires considerable experience. On smaller productions this job would be divided between the director and character designer. Chromosphere, despite being a smaller production house, has an Art Director principal. Since Kevin Dart is the Creative Director responsible for developing concepts and overseeing the projects, it appears reasonable to have the position of an Art Director who executes Creative Director’s concepts (Smith, 2017)

I further focused on researching Jasmin Lai’s creative background to inform myself of her career progression. She studied design, then graduated from CalArts in Character Animation in 2012. Her specialism includes animation, illustration and design. She started working for Cartoon Network within a year after graduation in the position of a design apprentice. She then became a background painter on the critically-acclaimed show Steven Universe (2013). During the production she became the show’s Art Director, a position that Kevin Dart also held. Jasmin was also interested in the storytelling aspect of the show, so she frequented the writers pitch-meetings. This stood her in good stead for her future freelance career for the likes of Google and Disney (Alderson, 2016) She worked on a 2D animated short film ‘The Powerpuff Girls: Dance Pantsed’ (2014) as a background painter, for which she was awarded the 2014 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation. Her co-workers at the time were Kevin Dart and Stephane Coedel, who also went to work for Chromosphere. Jasmin Lai joined Chromosphere as the Art Director in 2016 and has since designed backgrounds and also conceptualised designs.

In conclusion, creative roles and practices differ from production to production depending on what the Creative Leader's vision is. I looked closely at the role of an Art Director and found what level of experience within the design field one needs before progressing to this role. Networking and connections are crucial within this industry. I have also noticed that an official Chromosphere account on vimeo complimented her teaser for her CalArts graduation film in 2012, prior to Chromosphere even being officially established, suggesting it was Kevin Dart (as Chromosphere’s creator) who noticed Jasmin’s work at this time, thanks to her online presence.