Deadline, by Bang-Yao Liu

Deadline, by Bang-Yao Liu, is an animation made entirely of post-it notes. It is documenting the times when essays and work need doing, but you are distracted by the tiniest little thing. It shows somebody working at a desk, and the wall in front of them has post-it's stuck on it to create different scenes, such as a computer game, or various computer icons. This animation is actually my favourite out of all the ones we watched, mainly because of the material it is made in. The audience is probably teens to early twenties - anyone who can empathise with having to work, but being really distracted. The animation was made as a project - Bang-Yao Liu was a university student at the time. It is a stop frame animation, and the only technique was sticking post-it's to a wall, and incorporating himself where a human was needed. Colour is very important, as all of the post-it's are bright to stand out against the white wall. The sound is a simple song without vocals, but sound effects are used during the rain section and the computer game section. In my opinion, the sounds make it more effective. The main character is himself, and the emotions are most likely frustration and boredom. I think the animator was using everyday problems as inspiration. The piece seems very modern and up to date.

The Seed, By Johnny Kelly

A favourite animation of mine is The Seed, by Johnny Kelly. The animation is about the journeys a seed can make, and varies from being hand drawn to 3D paper cut outs and some forms of origami. It does not have a specific target audience, and the animation was made to educate and entertain. I found the story behind the animation very clear and easy to understand, and loved the part with the journey of the apple through the human body. The animation is a stop frame, and uses a variety of techniques. Colour is very important to the animation, with it regularly changing from being bright to simply being white pen on a black background. The sound isn't quite so crucial - it is a very simple and repetitive song with no vocals. The narrative is following the journey of a seed, and the only 'character' of sorts is the seed. There doesn't really seem to be a theme, or any emotions - it's quite a clean and scientific animation. The piece seems to be quite modern and clean.

I Missed Late Night Shopping For This - My Final Animation

Evaluation

I am fairly pleased with my completed work. I made many mistakes along the way, and there are loads of things I would change, but overall, I'm happy. My favourite section is the scene where the sun scrunches up to become a cloud, I thought that was quite effective. I would change the speed at which I actually started shooting, because by the time the deadline came around there were still a lot of sections I wanted to change or re-shoot. I don't have a clue how to decide if my final animation is successful, I think if I'm happy with it that's a big part.

Throughout the development process, I learnt to keep things simple, and not be such a perfectionist - I had too many ideas to fit in or create in the time, and I also overcomplicated everything. I had a very wide range of equipment available - industry standard software on the iMacs, and a large amount of art materials. We also had two experienced technicians available to help us, and an experienced teacher. It took a very long time for me to adapt to using the program After Effects, but I got the hang of Final Cut quite quickly. My ideas didn't necessarily develop, more completely change due to feedback. My original idea (in the 'Initial Ideas' post) was to have a walk in the park scenario to cheerful music, but I was told that the idea would be overly complex and time consuming, so I began to listen to songs I could use as a soundtrack to kick start the planning process. After listening to 'Wild Young Hearts' and reading the lyrics, I decided that I would illustrate them in some way. I then talked to my teacher, who suggected paper cut outs as a way of working that would suit me. I then began to research paper cut out animations, and decided that it would be right for me. I chose it because it's fairly simple and quick, and can be easily manipulated to create an animation sequence. There was also a huge supply available to me, in a variety of sizes and colours etc.

My final work doesn't portray original ideas and intentions at all - it's definitely not a walk in the park scene! It does portray my storyboard in some ways, although I had to do a lot of chopping and changing once I'd realised that I had tried to cram in way too many sections. The majority of the scenes were on the storyboard, although they tend to be longer and in slightly different colours or materials. I had to cut many of them out, so most of the time I elongated the other scenes to make up for this.

I got my ideas from the lyrics of the song mainly, along with some things that I'd seen in other animations and wanted to try or adapt, that still fitted in with the song and the rest of the animation (e.g. a beating heart like 'The Seed'). The easiest part of creating my animation sequence was any of the scenes that were simply paper cut outs of the lyrics, and the most difficult part was the flames scene - I really struggled to get to grips with the software (After Effects in this case).

The risks during the animation production time are varied - moderate risks are for example looking at a computer screen for over an hour can cause dizziness, tripping over bags on the floor, and paper cuts. High risks are; having liquids near electrical equipment, and electric shocks. All of them have been considered, and the staff and the students have taken steps to reduce the chance of them occurring. Professional working practices were also followed - we were given a deadline, and feedback, and then left to work at our own pace - it was our decision to do lunch times etc to ensure that we finished on time - it was not a school - like project. Above is a copy of my risk assessment form.

Overall, I am happy with my animation, and although things could be changed, the majority is what I wanted.

Copyright

To whom it may concern,
My name is Louise Rigby, and I am currently doing an animation qualification at school. I am writing to ask permission to use the music of one of your artists as the soundtrack to the final animation I have to produce in order to pass the course. The song I would like to use is 'Wild Young Hearts' by the Noisettes.
Also, I would love to be able to submit my animation to competitions and festivals, and to do so I need permission to use the song. It would be brilliant if you could get back to me, thank you.
Louise Rigby

"Copyright is the limited legal right, given to a producer to print, publish, perform, film or record literary, artistic, or musical material, and to authorize others to do the same."

Above the quote is a copy of the email I sent to the company Mercury Records, to request permission to use the song I have done as the soundtrack to my animation. I am still awaiting a reply. Because it was used as part of a school project, and for educational purposes, I do not technically need permission for it's use, but because I want to enter my finished piece into competitions, I need to have authorization for it's use.

Developing Skills

What animation techniques have you used to develop your skills?
To start with, we watched some stop frame animations as a group. We then split off into smaller groups, and experimented using ourselves as models, to create an experimental animation. We started to understand the speed at which models need to be moved to avoid the animation being too jumpy. We had all had quick goes on Macromedia Flash before, during ICT lessons, so when Natalie Hinchley, a professional animator, came in to teach us lip syncing, it didn't take too long for me to grasp working with the program. Lip syncing itself was very different though.
When Stuart Messinger came in to work with us, he set us the task of drawing a 12 image piece of a character pushing or pulling. It had to also loop, to create a sequence. This was towards the end of the course, and was my first experience of hand drawn animation. I made the mistake of not separating the legs of my character, so it began to look like a worm! It was not very effective at all, but it was my first attempt and I learnt from it.

Storyboard Development Continued

How did you develop your script, characters and environment?
Before starting my final animation, I attended some sessions with professional animator Natalie Hinchley. She taught us about character development, model making, lighting and lip syncing, making me realise that I definitely didn't want to have to make models and lip sync them. I decided that if I didn't have a story, I'd have a lot more freedom with what I could do, and have plenty of room for adjustments if things went wrong or were not as effective as I'd hoped. I did want some guidelines however, and somewhere to start, so I decided to illustrate the lyrics of a song. This meant I did not have to create a character, or a specific environment, or script!