Flip books...

I decided to experiment with flip books and created one of my own, i think that these are really simple but effective ways of showing animation.

 

Animation...

Now i know what the story for my animation is going to be, i wanted to find a little bit more about animation and look at every possible way of how i could present my story. I looked at the definition of animation, cell animation, stop motion and flip books, which are:

'Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. The effect is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in several ways. The most common method of presenting animation is as a motion picture or video program, although there are other methods. Film is projected at 24 frames per second.'

'Cell Animation -  Traditional animation (also called cel animation or hand-drawn animation) was the process used for most animated films of the 20th century. The individual frames of a traditionally animated film are photographs of drawings, which are first drawn on paper. To create the illusion of movement, each drawing differs slightly from the one before it. The animators' drawings are traced or photocopied onto transparent acetate sheets called cels, which are filled in with paints in assigned colors or tones on the side opposite the line drawings. The completed character cels are photographed one-by-one onto motion picture film against a painted background by a rostrum camera.'


'Stop-motion animation is used to describe animation created by physically manipulating real-world objects and photographing them one frame of film at a time to create the illusion of movement. There are many different types of stop-motion animation, usually named after the type of media used to create the animation. Computer software is widely available to create this type of animation.'

'A flip book (sometimes, especially in British English, called a flick book) is a book with a series of pictures that vary gradually from one page to the next, so that when the pages are turned rapidly, the pictures appear to animate by simulating motion or some other change. Flip books are often illustrated books for children, but may also be geared towards adults and employ a series of photographs rather than drawings. Flip books are not always separate books, but may appear as an added feature in ordinary books or magazines, often in the page corners. Software packages and websites are also available that convert digital video files into custom-made flip books.'

My final storyboard...

My final idea:

 I decided to do my final animation of a bird flying, as i had already experimented with this in the cell animation workshops and i had done birds flying in my flick books. I thought it would be effective to show the bird flying through a meadow full of flowers, and as the bird flies over them the flowers begin to blossom. It starts of by the bird flying onto a tree branch and then follows it as it flies over the flowers. It then finishes sitting back onto the tree branch.

Beginning:

 

MIddle:

End:



Cell animation...

The cell animation workshop was the first experience i had ever had with it, on the first workshop we had to come up with a character, my idea was to have a bird i liked the idea of having it to fly accross the page. We then had to partner up with somebody else and create a 2-3 second animation with both characters. Here is the start, middle and end of our aimation...

My character which is the bird flies accross the page while the second character watches it, and waves as the bird leaves the page.

This is the end result of our animation:

Storyboard ideas...

Now i had more of an idea of what the music reminded me of, i was able to start forming ideas about what the final animation could be. I then decided to do a few rough storyboards to see which one would be the most effective one to use.

My first storyboard was this:

It shows a meadow on a sunny day and flowers gradually popping up and blossoming, I do like this idea and i think it suits the music but i feel it is too simple and i think i could do something more.

My second idea:

Another idea i had was a story about elephants as the music involves trumpets and sounds a lot like elephants marching. For this story i thought it would be good to have elephants marching and then one of them tripping over and making them all fall down. I could use stop motion for this idea if i was going to use it for my final piece.

My third idea:

Another idea i had was to focus on a band stand on a promenade with a brass band preparing their instruments on it. This would match the start of the music, by the end of the music they would be playing, with children dancing around the band stand. I like this idea but it may be to complicated given the time i have got.

My fourth idea:

For another idea i looked at season changes, when i listen to the music it feels as if the song is developing and changing this reminds me of how nature developes as the weather changes. I focused on a tree and flowers and as the sun comes out the tree begins to blossom flowers and then as autumn comes and the sun goes in, the leaves blow of the tree and it is left bare. I really like this idea and could use cell animation for it if i chose this idea for my final piece.

Ideas...

I started to think about my three words and what the music reminded me of, i did this by creating a brain storm and a mood board.

 The main feel that i got from the music was bright colours and nature such as meadows, flowers and trees. I also got the feel for summer and beaches or jungles, and the intstruments used reminds me a lot of animals such as elephants. These methods helped me to get more of an idea of what i could do for my storyboard.

'Babel"

I wanted to get more of an idea of where the piece of music i had been given had come from and what it had been associated with before. I found out that it had been in a film and the title of the film is also the title of the song...

Rayograms

We experimented in the dark room looking at rayograms, we were asked to bring in objects to work with. I decided to use a tape and some flowers, i really like the effect the tape had. I did enjoy this technique but don't think i would use it in my final animation.

Three words...

The three words i have chosen:
PLAYFUL
Part of the music reminds me of summer, children playing, laughter and happiness. My first word is playful as the music uses different instruments through out as the song developes. Its unpredictable and you dont know whats going to come next...
FRESH
Another thing that it reminds me of is flowers blossoming on a sunny day in a fresh meadow...
LIVELY
When thinking about the piece of music i imagine a lot of colour and movement, its entertaining and enjoyable. It reminds me of a circus or parade, with lots of things going on...

Films...

Music videos

Research....

I wanted to get an idea about animation and looked at a variety of media such as music videos, films and short clips on YouTube. Here's what i found that i thought was interesting and inspiring...

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