Unit 33 - Assignment 2

My stop motion is going to based inside a desert setting with the main characters being clay made dinosaurs. The dinosaurs will be fighting over a product.


My animation is an advert for a yoghurt company. The First half will start as an opening scene with a specified product. Dinosaur 1 spots it from a distance. D1 goes to explore the product and goes up to it with great curiosity. Dinosaur 2 spots D1 looking at the product and feels the need to also check out the product. D2 goes up to Product. D1 gets protective and stands infront of product and lets out a roar. D2 shows no intimidation and takes a kind of battle stance. D2 charges at D1 but D1 grapples D2 and throws over shoulder, with this ill be using my examples of arcs and gravity. D2 gets back up and takes another charge at D1 from behind, this will show D2 tackling D1 to the ground. D1 struggles but forces D2 off its back. D2 and D1 are left to a face off the both charge at eachother for a final time. However D1 who originally found the product pulls a sly move and turns around and smacks d2 away with its tail. D2 is shown slamming against clay made rocks and is left knocked out and D1 is shown eating the yoghurt.

Target audeince and genre:

The use of dinosaurs would make my target audience aimed at people young, it would seem quite suitable for children aged 6+. There isn't any dialogue in my animation besides roars so the target audience isnt very specific. Overall the advert im making will probably get a lager male response compared to females. Dinosaurs are quite a masculine, this is why i assume my animation will appeal to younger males. The screen shot below is a couple of top selling boys toys from amazon, as you can see its action figures and mythical and fantasy figures that are linked to dinosaurs and dragons etc. 

The audio for the animation will be a soundtrack of dramatic music that will run in the background throughout the whole animation. THe bangs and the impacts of the dinosaurs when they are thrown to the ground and the sounds of punches or tail wacks etc.


Children's adverts are watched the Most in the hours of 3pm-6pm. Popular adverts watched by children consist of the Hairbo adverts, these adverts are about a young girl that is incharge of the haribos in her house and her parents try to steal them etc, children like the concept of this because it shows dominance for children. they may be to young to understand that completely but its subliminal .

Children

Children watch an average of 2 hours and 9 minutes of linear TV a day Unsurprisingly kids TV channels are the main drivers of viewing against Children 4-15yrs As they mature their viewing increases and their tastes switch to a broader range of genres Children watch the majority of their viewing live. They time-shift 13% of their total viewing

Design

The colours will be quite light but faded colours to stick to the dinosaur and prehistoric effect and look of the animation. The dinosaurs will be a blue and another in red. The red being the 'villain' and red usually generates connotations of evil and blood etc so it fits the vallainous effect its supposed to give off. The blue represents whats right and victory. The set design will be built in a medium to large box with a layer of sand glued to the floor and a back drop of mountains, trees and skys etc.

Similar products:

The cravendale advert is a very similar style, its stop motion advert that is focused around one product (milk). This links to my idea which supports surrealism, cravendale is about cows and pirates dancing around because they have no milk left. My advert is about DINOSAURS fighting Over YOUGHURTS. they're both surreal ideas and are both for dairy products. The use of action figures in the cravendale advert links to mine, im also using figures but clay, but the relation is there. 
The bring on the trumpets advert is also a kids advert selling food. The use of colour in the advert to represent the food are similar to mine, bright colours to represent positivity also the fact that the sweet

Story Board:
P1: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6JA5LhpaCCfS0dnRlF1TElBOHc/edit?usp=sharing
P2: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6JA5LhpaCCfQXpfOFFjd2cxcnc/edit?usp=sharing

Sound:
ill use this link for the noise of the impacts and punches in my stop motion

The 'Rip their heads of and suck their guts out' will be taken from the link below



This sound track wil be used throughout my whole animation.

There are more sounds used in my production but they are recorded by me on the field recorder.

Unit 30 - Assignment 1

Principles of Animation

Time. Time it takes to make the action happen the number of frames you need to move the object. The fewer frames the faster. The more frames, the slower.Overlap and Follow through, parts of an object that dont all move at the same time, you have to think about where the centre of gravity is and where it will finish.
Arcs and poses, movement doesnt tend to be straight lines, but it follows curves or arcs, to show more natural movement 
Secondary action is natural movement of the body, such as arms swinging whilst moving etc.

Phenakistoscope - 1832

Zoetrope - 1834

Praxinoscope - 1877

Wills O'brien - 1886

Kinetoscope - 1889

Old Stop Motion:

The Tale of The Fox

Directed by: Wladyslaw Starewicz

Date: 1st January 1930

Claymation:
King Kong
Directed by: Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack
Date: 1933


The King kong fight scene was really impressive for its time, the use of arcs are used quite well, the T-Rexs' claws often move and curl. As king kong is tussled to the ground his legs bend as he falls and his arms fall in sync with his body, this also uses the principle of gravity. however, at around 00;48 the T-Rex is thrown to the floor but his back doesn't bend or move as he's being picked up and its really noticeable. The POV of the fight isnt great at all, it doesnt show much and is really restricted, there could be more variation. The footage is very jerky, this makes the audience think less of the animation, it makes it look unrealistic and therfor makes the audience but for the time it was produced you cant fault it much at all.                        

Jan Svankmajor - 1934

Ray Harryhausen - 1938

Claymation:
Little red riding hood
Directed by: Ray Harryhausen

Date: 1953

Little Read riding hood created by Ray Harryhausen was a very early day puppet stop motion made in the early 50s. THe sound of Little read riding hood opens with narration. The Naration engages the audience, allot of viewiers enjoy narration because its formal and can make the story easier to follow. Also the narration gives us a sligh background to wh Little red riding hood is. it tells us how she got her name and where she's going. Ray harryhausen uses puppet throughout this stop motion. His use of arcs are amazing, from where the wolf walks onto the rocks to when she sits own cross legged, this brings realism to the animation, arcs are realistic, therfor the audience are more engaged. There is more sound used throughout this animation, there is sound used when the wolf is chasing grandma, its dramatic fast paced music, this is creating tension and gives the viewer a sense of worry. Follow through at 6:33 when little red riding hood feels the Wolfs nose, she feels the wolfs nose to show little red riding hoods curiosity and when the audience know the main character has something to be curious about there could be an issue. More arcs are used to a good effect when the wolf is shot over the balcony and kind of rolls backwards, again, this is for realism. Also as the wolf falls the principal of gravity is played with. ONCE again, more realism. 

Stop Motion:
Mountain Music
Director: Will Vinton

Date: 1960

Lee Hardcastle - 1985

Children's Stop Motion: 

The Nightmare Before Christmas:

Directed by: Tim Burton 

Date: 13th October 1993

Modern Tech - 2007

Claymation:

Godzilla Vs Anguirus 

Directed by: Fred THe Dinosaur Man

Date: 23rd of June 2013

The Claymation battle between Godzilla vs Aguirus is amazingly done for a unrecognised animator. The use of sound is used to a maximum. from the striking of punches, roars and impact sound effects. Fred the dinosaur man really uses his arcs to create a sense of realism, he makes tails wiggle spontaneously as a real dinosaur probably would. As the clay dinosaur run or fall the arcs of the legs are timed to perfection. The joints realistically move in sync with the dinosaurs being tossed around. Also when the dinosaurs are being thrown around the principal of gravity is being used to add MORE realism and life like effect. Overall the animation is great and entertaining to watch for the audience. 

Real Life Stop Motion:

T Shirt Wars

Made in: 2013

i have chose T Shirt wars because of its use of soundtracks and its attention to in real life detail, for example at 0.43 a man is shown inflating a balloon on his t shirt, the sound matches what the balloon noise makes in real life. The slapstickish comedy aspect of the stop motion is entertaining to watch. as far as the principals of animation go, this isnt a great example, arcs are ignored etc but the focus is on the T shirts and despite the animations lack of principals its still entertaining to watch and keeps the viewer hooked.

Real Life Stop Motion:

Mario Kart In Real Life: 

Directed by: Simon Lachapelle

Date: 8th December 2013

Old Vs New

It doesnt take an expert to realise that animation has come a LONG way. Especially in the stop motion aspect of things. If we refer to my time line, we can see that the king kong fight is one of the first things on it, in the king kong we see a small attention to detail but for its time its classic. For its time it was considered the cutting edge of stop motion and probably inspired and motivated allot of animators. However if that was in this day and age it probably wouldnt even be noticed. We look at more recent things such as the nightmare before christmas, another stop motion animation and its flawless. The Arcs and use of gravity etc are used to absolute perfection, in some parts of the film we see overlaps, gravity and arcs all used at once time. Look at the image above Jack skellington is leaning (use of gravity) and his arms are curved in a sinister manor (Arcs) and His head is overlapping over his hand. We would be lucky too see more than one of them aspects in the King kong animation at one time. Slightly Later is Little Red Riding Hood by Ray Harryhausen, which was made with Puppets, You can tell animation has advanced a little bit from King kong to little red riding hood, but still, its nothing that we could see on our TVs today. 
Concluding the old vs new, we have to give credit to old animations because back then they had technology not even remotely near as good as what we have access too, but their use of what they did have produced some classic and timeless animations. However, our day and age they make some absolutely immense things. Some animations these days dont even look like they're made out of clay, i.e Paranorman and The Newest Wallace and Grommit film (Curse of the Wear rabbit) they look like theyve been made on a computer when in reality its exactly what was used 50 years ago. Truly Amazing. 

Unit 33 - Assignment 1 Worksheet

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6JA5LhpaCCfX2hiSDBsZGdnZUU/edit?usp=sharing

Kinetoscope 

A kinetoscope is a device which allows people to view motion pictures. The kinetoscope was one of the first such devices widely developed and distributed, and while the design ultimately proved to be a failure, it clearly inspired other inventors, so it could be considered a landmark invention in the history of film. This device was invented in the laboratory of Thomas Edison, and as was conventional for inventions in his lab, the patent was taken out by Edison himself, making it challenging to determine precisely who worked on the project. The design for the kinetoscope consisted of a closed cabinet in which the film was spooled. To operate the device, the user opened the top and peered through a small hole, and as the film was moved across a series of rollers, a backlight would illuminate it, creating the illusion of a moving picture, as long as the film was rotated at the proper speed. When the kinetoscope was first shown to the public in 1894, it proved to be a big hit.

Kinetoscopes began to spring up all over the United States, commonly being found in kinetoscope parlours  which featured a row of the devices which users could operate by inserting coins into slots. In addition to short films, the kinetoscope was also used to display footage of things like sports matches, allowing people all over the United States to see events which they had not been able to attend. A version of the kinetoscope accompanied with sound was also developed, and christened the kinetophone. Linking sound with pictures turned out to be quite a challenge, as it was extremely difficult to synchronise the sound and the picture. For viewers, the kinetophone was also not terribly comfortable or convenient to use, as it required wearing headphones while leaning over the cabinet to view the movie as it was displayed.

Phenaksitoscope 

The phenakistoscope (also spelled phenakistiscope or phenakitiscope) was an early animation device that used a spinning disk of sequential images and the persistence of vision principle to create an illusion of motion. The phenakistoscope used a spinning disc attached vertically to a handle. Arrayed around the disc's center were a series of drawings showing phases of the animation, and cut through it were a series of equally spaced radial slits. The user would spin the disc and look through the moving slits at the disc's reflection in a mirror. The scanning of the slits across the reflected images kept them from simply blurring together, so that the user would see a rapid succession of images that appeared to be a single moving picture. A variant of it had two discs, one with slits and one with pictures; this was slightly more unwieldy but needed no mirror. Unlike the zoetrope and its successors, the phenakistoscope could only practically be used by one person at a time. It was invented by Joseph Plateau in 1832. After going to market, the phenakistoscope received other names, including Phantasmascope and Fantoscope (and phenakistiscope in Britain and many other countries).  It was quite successful for two years until William George Horner invented the zoetrope, which offered two improvements on the phenakistoscope.  First, the zoetrope did not require a viewing mirror.  The second and most influential improvement was that more than one person could view the moving pictures at the same time. Although the principle behind the phenakistoscope had been recognized by the Greek mathematician Euclid and later in experiments by Newton, it was not until 1829 that this idea became firmly established by Belgian Joseph Plateau. Plateau planned it in 1839 and invented it in 1841. Later the same year the Austrian Simon von Stampfer Invented the stroboscopic disk, a similar machine. A contemporary edition of Britannica says "The phenakistoscope or magic disc...was originally invented by Dr. Roget, and improved by M. Plateau, at Brussels, and Dr. Faraday."

The phenakistoscope used a spinning disc attached vertically to a handle. Arrayed around the disc's center were a series of drawings showing phases of the animation, and cut through it were a series of equally spaced radial slits. The user would spin the disc and look through the moving slits at the disc's reflection in a mirror. The scanning of the slits across the reflected images kept them from simply blurring together, so that the user would see a rapid succession of images that appeared to be a single moving picture.

A variant of it had two discs, one with slits and one with pictures; this was slightly more unwieldy but needed no mirror. Unlike the zoetrope and its successors, the phenakistoscope could only practically be used by one person at a time.

How to make a simple phenakistoscope 

http://www.howcast.com/videos/148840-How-to-Create-a-Phenakistoscope

Lesson Notes - Assignment 1 (Merit)

What genre is the animation and what generic conventions (things you expect to see) can you pull out?

The genre of the animation is action/crime, we know this by the use of the props, such as guns and knifes. The generic conventions of the animation consist of the use of loud explosions and gun shots. The use of blood and make up tells us its also a action animation. The ending is very generic, with the Villain dying which is a common factor throughout films etc. 

What do you notice about the movement of the figures body?

The walking of the characters was unnatural in a funny shuffling manor. It breaks the principals of animation because usually one leg goes infront of the other. but Lee Hardcastle has defied that. When the characters are shot they fly backwards, and uses the effect of gravity to his advantage, he also does this at the end where the villain falls out of he building. This is to make it realistic.

What do you notice about the movement of the figures face and facial expression?

There's a scene where the cats are sweating, this shows fear and alerts the audience that there is danger for the cats, also the sweat falls which also supports the use of gravity and that makes it realistic.

What comments can you make about the use of sound?

Lee Hardcastle uses a rich pallet of sound, by using sounds for the stabbing and the guns, so sound to support the props. Also he uses a non-diagetic soundtrack + dialogue is also used when the cat screamed

What different styles of stop motion have we seen?

We've looked at numerous styles of stop motion. These include, 2D Animation, with the overdrive animation. Claymation, where we watched the Lee Hardcastle Claycats. and paper animation.

What two principals of animation have we looked about?

The two principals of animation are arcs and gravity, to keep realism throughout the animation

When defining 'Overdrive' what word did we use?

Surreal.

Whats the final deadline for the assignment?

19th September

What differences can you see in the two animations?

The movement between the two animations is different, the King kong fight scene is much more jerky and stutters allot. Where as the creature comforts animation has a nice on going smooth flow. Also the sound for the king kong scene cuts off and is looped and you can tell its not very realistic.

What similarities are there in the two animations?

The two similarities of the animations are they're both animal based, also, the camera shot of the animations are more or less the same as eachother all the way throughout, 
King King (0;59)
Creature comforts (0;27)

Can you tell if over time there has been a development in the skills and techniques of animation?

Yes, you can see a major advance in animation by just looking at 10 seconds of each animation, the king kong has lack of flow and doesnt look like its done by someone young, but for its time it was amazing, but now it really isnt that great. THe set designs and details are much more crisper, clearer and realistic, this means technology and skill desgin has advanced greatly. 

Principles of Animation

Time. Time it takes to make the action happen the number of frames you need to move the object. The fewer frames the faster. The more frames, the slower.

Overlap and Follow through, parts of an object that dont all move at the same time, you have to think about where the centre of gravity is and where it will finish.

Arcs and poses, movement doesnt tend to be straight lines, but it follows curves or arcs, to show more natural movement 

Secondary action is natural movement of the body, such as arms swinging whilst moving etc.

The craven dale advert is awful for abiding to the principle of animation as we see in this advert at 0;22 when the cow, pirate and man start dancing around the kitchen. The principle of arc is being completely ignored.

Genre Activity

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6JA5LhpaCCfM01NRU1iT0tGSTA/edit?usp=sharing