LAUAN 603 - Extended Practice Live Brief (1) : Kirkstall Forge, Post 2

The freedom of the Kirkstall Forge Brief really appealed to me and seemed a great chance to supplement my creative practice. The brief was to create a piece of contemporary, colourful, innovative artwork to be hung in new Scandinavian style houses built in the Kirkstall Forge area. It also outlines that inspiration and imagery from the surrounding woodland and industrial heritage was required. The £600-1000 prize money indicated that this would be a competitive brief and therefore innovation and uniqueness was required. Therefore, after seeing the Goldfinch featured on their website I decided quickly to make one from paper as I thought this niche medium would fit the brief well. It took about three to four weeks to complete and while making the bird I encountered few problems. My paper practice evolved, I changed to a more high quality glue and acquired smaller scissors better equip for the job. The main issue I encountered was in creating the surrounding set for the shoot. I wholly underestimated how long this would take and equally how much development is required in order to achieve a design that works cohesively. I feel that in the end, this is where I fell short, ultimately resulting in a no win for this brief. I think that the Goldfinch itself works well, it is well made and the beauty of shooting, as oppose to submitting the physical model, was that I could edit out mess/ errors and rig that held the branch up. However, the set in the background appears rushed to me, the colours seem basic and it appears flat in comparison to the bird itself. If I were to improve, I would have budgeted a week rather than a day to create the set, I would have invested in a more diverse palette of colours and experimented further with lighting. 

When thinking of pricing, I would estimate I spent 75 hours on this project, thus I would charge approximately £800, considering that the prize money was £600-1000 suggests I'm in the right ball park. Additionally, Lisa Lloyd sells her paper birds for approximately £1000, which is a good guide in this case.

No win from this project was a downer considering how much time I invested into the outcome. However, it was still a personal win, the final image proves a great addition to my portfolio, it received a great reception on social media and is something I’m massively proud of. Not only have I learnt valuable lessons in time management during this brief but I have also homed my abilities with paper and modelling in 3D. Off the back of this brief I will develop my colour theory and set design skills for the purpose of shooting.

Words: 456

Making:




Final Image:

LAUAN 603 - Extended Practice Live Brief (1): Kirkstall Forge, Post 1

I made a start on the Kirkstall Forge brief, deciding that I am going to make a paper goldfinch, featured on their website. This would be really appropriate as it'll be contemporary, unusual and vibrant, as the brief requests. I have never modelled anything in paper before but think that the best way is to use good references and experiment as I go along.

Initial research illustrations to understand colour and shape 

Lisa Lloyd references

LAUAN 603 - Extended Practice Post 1

After our briefing of extended practice my ideas for my final major project have come down on two sides.

1. I don't make my own film but instead focus on backgrounds and sets for other peoples films. This would inevitably take the pressure off a 'finished film' which I quite like and would also be a tactical choice as my work load would be front heavy. It would also give me the chance to really hone my craft and build a great portfolio that would be quite appealing to employers.
2. I make my own film. My initial idea is a 'Via' type film, a homage and celebration of background art/ set design in which I could make a set (maybe out of all paper or/and recycled materials) and make that the focus, involving stop motion elements to make the environment come to life. Here I would get to explore my other interests too such as producing, directing, animating, lighting.

Both options have equal appeal, pros and cons. I will discuss with tutors to see what they think would be the best option and continue to generate ideas. I may also pose the idea to other possible background/ set building people and see if they are interested.

* Update:

After speaking with Dotty she advised that I really focus on (paper) set design and backgrounds by not making my own film-as I don't want to be a film maker.  I also began identifying competitions and briefs.

-Free Sticker Friday
-Loopdeloop
-11 Second club
-TBC, D&AD and YCN briefs
-The Kirkstall Forge Artwork Brief- making a hangable piece of art for a new complex of flats and offices
-Christmas Card brief

LAUAN 504 - Documentary Week 8

Production was in full swing this week, I finished animating, lining and colouring my scenes and by and large am happy with the quality of my animation. It definitely isn't perfect; I could have achieved better consistency and accuracy of shape. On the other hand, an animation highlight of the week was the psychedelic element of the Jimi Hendrix scene. I was really pleasantly surprised with this abstract animation and learned that working closely from reference can make tasks a lot more manageable.

A medium size issue we encountered this week was finding a voice over artist. Not leaving enough time for our favoured voice artist to record meant that we are now faced with options B, C &D. In hindsight we should have left a lot more time to find and record someone - lesson learned.

Also this week was the final crit which went really well. We received good feedback and the animation is really coming along. The biggest piece of feedback that Matt pointed out is that the book is off centre for the end half, which is a shame. But again, lesson learned.

Animation from this week

Psychedelic Abstract Animation 

Still from African Queen Scene

LAUAN 504 - Documentary Week 7 (Easter Week 3)

This week I powered through and animated 2 of my 3 scenes. I was pleasantly surprised by the speed and quality of my animation- I always thought it wasn't a strong point of mine. On the other hand, my clean up definitely needs a bit of work. Not to blame the equipment but I think my lines would be better on a Cintiq, which I'll use in future for lining.
This week I also started researching and developing how to create a psychedelic animation for the Jimi Hendrix scene. Although fun, I am very much stylistically unsure of how to execute this. Having begun developing some ideas, I stumbled upon a mirroring technique on After Effects to create a kaleidoscope kind of effect. It definitely needs developing but I think I'm on the right track.

Kaleidoscope Effect Test:

Animated Scene- 

LAUAN 504 - Documentary Week 6 (Easter Week 2)

After returning home this week I took time to catch up on my blog, edit the footage together and begin animating. I struggled quite a lot with editing the footage. Because of the way we'd shot it (without easing, intending to take the frames out in post), I found it difficult to manually create the easing. I could definitely do some research and find a better way to edit the video, however with the footage now together we could begin animating. The animating was the highlight of this week! I really enjoyed choosing the acting of the birds. The outcome works nicely and I'm really wrapping my head around TV Paint too.

Also a note from last week- I realised our book isn't really a book, it's a stop motion set.

LAUAN 504 - Documentary Week 5 (Easter Week 1)

Week five was a very, very intensive week- considering starting the week the book was still under construction, by the end of the week we'd finished shooting. Constructing the pages individually worked fine and only using the coloured paper meant they all worked cohesively. Binding was a real issue. After trying and rip out two hard spines, we decided on a soft spine which in the end worked great and so was worth the trial and error. For the book cover, decisions on composition and colour were shared then I designed and constructed it. This turned out quite well and worked in sync with the rest of the book. Following from last week I also fixed my tree. I'm glad I did as it was worth adding the extra quality. Mainly this week we were shooting which went really well! We worked and communicated well with each other. Rory's wire construction in the book definitely worked at holding the pages up by themselves. Setting up and taking down the set wasn't too labour or time intensive. The soft spine worked well and all the pages popped up fine. Looking back at the footage however the lighting does feel quite cold and overly bright, slightly washing out some of the detail- we fiddled with lighting for a long time and couldn't get it perfect- in future more tests should be run. Some of the animation definitely could have been smoother too, such as the storm page which we should have done on 1's. However, as a first proper stop motion shoot for all of us, I think it went really well and the outcome looks great. 

Fixing the Tree

Front Cover Rough Sketch and Font Ideas

Timelapse Reel

Tests Reel

Binding Issues

LAUAN 504 - Documentary Week 4

This week was exciting as I completed my pages for the book. I encountered a lot of issues while making and was constantly problem solving. Making maquettes of the pop ups and referring back to 'The Elements Of Pop-Up'  helped hugely in solving issues. The biggest problem probably was the tree on the garden page which wouldn't stand up by itself. Now that it's complete I can see how different fold would have made it more effective. Although challenging, I enjoyed making the pages so much and really feel I found my feet with the paper construction this week. It's definitely something I'd like to do more of in 3rd year. Also, now that both my pages are finished I can see that I spent too long developing the picnic page and not long enough on the garden page, which feels spars and not as well thought about in comparison. The fans work really nicely but given more time I would have developed the foreground much further.
Dotty's rhyme was also finished this week which was amazing and we were all really pleased with- the animation started to come together.

Maquettes 

Construction: 

LAUAN 504 - Documentary Week 3

After our last phone calls to Hazel Jackson, Richard Arnold and Chris Thomas this week, we started to think about narrative and teamed up with Dotty to make the rhyme! This was an interesting experience to mock 'hire' someone for the project, laying down guild lines and a plan etc.
We began mocking up pages this week too. This task was aided by three books we took out of the library, one of which 'The Elements of Pop-Up' by David A. Carter and James Diaz, explained the engineering behind the different pop ups which was super useful. I thought about colour this week and what visual style the book will be in. Experimenting with paper cut outs was really useful in seeing what colours work together for the pages I will be making and also to explore constructing things out of paper. I really enjoyed the processes and research this week but could have produced more visuals.

Pop Up Books From The Library 

Paper cut out & colour experiments 

LAUAN 504 - Documentary Week 2

We undertook a lot of research as a team this week. I spoke to Hannah Peck, Rachael Dixey and Ian Woodward to gain primary research which proved very fruitful. The world design continued, again, this was mostly through generating ideas. To have improved I definitely could have produced some primary visuals, such as thumb nail sketches, to couple the ideas and aid the development.
The pre-production presentation was really well received this week- Halli's visuals, the natural triangulation from the interviews and the style approach went down overwhelmingly well. Communication between the group and attendance is really good, thinks are looking fantastic.

Moodboards I made for the presentation:

LAUAN 504- Documentary Week 1

This week our documentary team, Halli, myself and Rory as director were all tasked with coming up with ideas for all aspects of the documentary after deciding upon the subject of the Parakeets in London. I focused mostly on medium and style and came up with the idea of a pop up book(!) hybrid with 2D animation. I initially thought this could play with shadows and silhouette's agains block coloured backgrounds to tell the story and possibly experiment with materials such as foam, sponge or cardboard. All ideas currently are quite loose. So far we're working nicely as a team and the ideas are flowing really well. We probably could have moved things forward a bit more this week in prep for the pre-production presentation but at this stage it's also important not to rush.

LAUAN 504- Applied Animation Week 7

This week production and backgrounds continued. I finally landed on a background design that works for the animation, using photoshop watercolour brushes. By exploring with different weights and textures I learned how to make the brushes work for me which was a new and interesting skill that I really enjoyed this week. Building on this, I might make these backgrounds move slightly to make them more atmospheric.
Also this week I expanded my TV Paint skills by colouring and cleaning some of the animation from last week. Understanding the software more is making the work flow faster and more efficient. However this week, I feel the volume of work produced was not high enough due to the other modules/looming deadlines. Managing work load and using my time more effectively would be an area for improvement this week.

Background Study With Watercolour Brushes 

Completed Final Backgrounds

Animation From This Week

LAUAN 504- Applied Animation Week 6

This week Hannah divided the animations into sections of rough, clean up and colouring and production began. I continued to develop the background colouring this week, exploring a mixed media approach. I experimented with water coloured backgrounds and also tried scanning and edited them digitally. As a group we'll then decide which styles work best for the animation.
This week I also began animating using TV Paint, which I haven't used before. Despite encountering some frame rate issues, I used the software well and successfully made the roughs for the bubble section in the first part.

WWW- Good progress, time management, rough animation works well
EBI- Come to a conclusion regarding backgrounds, find a style that works, frame rate/timing problem with the animation

This Weeks Roughs 

(frame rate issue means it's too fast, but will fix this)

Further Background Developments:

LAUAN 504- Applied Animation Week 5

The last pre production tasks were undertaken this week; I completed the layouts, Jaimie the character design and Hannah the animatic, ready to start production next week. On my half, the layouts were well received. We did decide on some tweaks, for example, the final layout was too busy (this scene may be cut to save time) so we changed the layout to just a bench. I began colour concepts but the initial digital block colouring didn't work at all, perhaps because of the chosen colours or the execution but the concept really didn't look good. I will further develop an approach to colouring perhaps using watercolours/ fine liners as suggested by Hannah. 

WWW- layouts look clear and effective, working nicely as a team, good decision making.

EBI- refine layouts, develop and refine colouring of backgrounds, begin animating 

Layout that was cut:

Unsuccessful colour concept

LAUAN 504- Applied Animation Week 4

Concept art continued. While Hannah did the storyboards, Jaimie and I are focusing on making the characters fit in the backgrounds. I made a concept of the bedroom background which is getting closer to the final design, the layout needs to be tweaked however in accordance with the storyboards. Also this week I had a think about sound and spoke to William, who did the sound for our last project. Using primary imagery for perspective and composition this week really aided my designs. However in future when taking photos I will better consider the angle and viewpoint.

LAUAN 504- Applied Animation Week 3

This week we pitched our idea to the group. Feed back from this was by and large very positive with our story, concept, characters and house style being well received. Areas for improvement were mostly about the delivery and visuals of the presentation, eg we included the script and we were slightly over on time. Again, this week we were mostly thinking up ideas about shot and story boards. I also tried out a flat background lay out. The pink is much to pastel and bubblegum-y but the lay out does work. Next I'll photograph some bus stops to gain some more accuracy and composition ideas.

LAUAN 504- Applied Animation Week 2

This week not as many visuals were produced but together and separately we generated a lot of story ideas. The characters evolved into a non-binary teen about 14, an Asian girl about 18 and a black boy about 16- the brief specifies the necessity of diversity hence this decision. The premise for each part is that the children encounter a problem internally that negatively effects their mood, then personifications of this problem pop into life in the form of monsters. The kids then show the monsters how to solve the problem through solutions suggested by Childline.
Once this was solidified, I wrote up a script. This may well be altered and adjusted but the premise will remain.

Research Sources For Story:

• https://www.theguardian.com/education/2018/may/17/stress-and-serious-anxiety-how-the-new-gcse-is-affecting-mental-health      

Script:

LAUAN 504- Applied Animation Week 1

During the first week of Applied Animation I grouped together with Hannah and Jaimie. We quickly decided on the Childline brief and started brainstorming. Hannah would be directing and storyboarding, Jaimie, character design and me on backgrounds and sound. This week mostly consisted of brainstorming ideas about style, colour, story etc. I also made a very small and extremely rough sound experiment- my initial idea for the sound is to sing notes, repeat and layer them up to make an atmospheric and quite human sound.
After breaking down the brief, we decided on making a minute long animation split into three narratives and three characters. The characters would be teenagers, 13-18 years old and diverse in gender and ethnicity. We each then set about creating concept art for these character.

Character Design Concept Illustration

LAUAN 503 - Character and Narrative - Final Week

In the final week in the run up to the hand in, the group made great progress. The clean ups were finished and I helped with the colouring to get the task done faster. The music was also made this week, a few ambient sounds will need to be added however mostly the music will be the audio focus. Also this week the production booklet was made. As Gabbi and Rhys had not finished their scenes, I undertook the task and completed the book myself. In terms of its graphic design it could be stronger as I nor my other team mates have any experience in the field. Nonetheless, I made an effort to demonstrate the volume and depth of work we had created and also made sure everyone is properly accredited for their hard work.

WWW- production booklet is clear, concise and functional, animation nearly complete
EBI - Time management is always a downfall, leaving everything to the last minute is not relaxing, production book could look more appealing.