News Cast

Rhiannon and I put together this news report using software called Audacity.

We took it in turns to take on different characters.  After getting over the initial embarrassment, we both found this task really enjoyable and funny to do.  We had problems with the timing but with perserverance we got it right and the end result was great!

Evaluation of our work

Even though overall we were exceptionally proud and happy with our final stop motion animation, we did have a few problems along the way and also when watching our final piece realised some elements we wish we had changed, or do differently in future, they were;

> Lighting, due to the amount of time we spent filming and taking photos, the lighting throughout the day changed e.g. evenings darker than morning in the class room.  We tried to overcome this problem by blacking out one window using an A3 piece of card.  This did not solve the problem completely but it did minimize it.  When watching our film on the day of assessment the slight change in lighting conveniently occured when the sun was setting and moon was rising, I felt this ended up being extremely effective after all

>Moulding clay flowers, to make several flowers that were only slightly different to ensure a smooth flow of movement when creating our animation, we overcame this challenge by being patient and taking our time

If I was to re do this assignment I would aim to make my story line more complex, maybe more flowers growing at once or even a more detailed background.  I thoroughly enjoyed doing this project  

Our Final Piece

Our final piece of stop motion animation

After alot of hard work and time, our assignment is finally completely.  We are very proud of our work and overall happy with the end result

Filming

Filming Process Here we took it in turns to take photos, mould the clay flowers slightly step by step. Suprisingly the film is starting to come together, it looks alot better than expected. We had to overcome a few problems; . Moulding the flower gradually to make the growing process flow . The lighting of the film set overall, we had to block out the nearby window with black card . When the sun moved across the screen we needed to fix it in the sets sky, we decided to cellotape it on the side . The overall speed was a problem, we needed to fiddle with the speed to find a 'not too fast' and 'not too slow' speed which allowed it all to flow well and last 2 minutes

Design Process

Storyboard Before we started making our set and clay models we had to decide on a story. We deicded to write it step by step on our storyboard, the main idea was that it was to show a plant growing from the first point where seeds are planted, it included the following step by step; . Seeds are planted (By a hand) . Night time . Sun rises . Plant grows slowly . Watering can pours water (blue glitter) . Bees fly passed . Pollen (yellow clay) drops around the flower . Butterly flies past We are concerned that our might not last 2 minutes in total so we have decided if it does not last long enough we agreed that more flowers will grow around the original flower.

Design process of stop animation

At this point we realised we had underestimated how much work we had to do. After watching other groups taking pictures for their stop animation, it was obvious the most time consuming efforts were yet to come! We came up with the idea of a flower growing so we started with making our set and also making our flower and set out of clay and card. PROBLEM... as a group we are not the most creative bunch of people, we agreed to simplify our designs in home it would look more effective in the end result. Rhiannon was hard at work making the film set and I attempted to make some flower resembling objects out of clay along with a toadstool and some fluffy bees.

Importance of sound

“Sound effects play an important role in conveying action. Music helps express emotion.” Michael Geisler I agree with the above statement, when watching a film or animation it is effective to include the suited sounds to build emotion and suspense in regards to what is coming up. For example in horror movies, the observer is often scared with the music leading up to a scary scene and it gets them guessing what they are about to witness. Without the music or sound effects a scene is often left lacking an essential component. Many films have been made famous for their striking sound effects, such as; Jaws, James Bond. Regarding to soundtracks, certain music can trigger certain emotions within individuals e.g. heavy rock music could make someone feel angry or energetic. This contributes to many scenes of films to put us in the film and make it real to the person watching. )

Phenakistoscope

This was an early animation device that used the persistence of vision principle to create an illusion of motion. In 1832 Joseph Plateau created this device, it consists of two discs mounted on the same axis. The first disc had slots around the edge each one inch in measurment. When viewed in a mirror through the first disc's slots, the pictures on the second disc will appear to move. As a group we used the idea of a balloon rising into the sky, it was essential that all balloons were identical in size, colour and shape. Their position within each of their segments however did alter slightly to create the illusion. We had to also make sure each segment was exactly the same size.

Minion Flip Book

I thought this was cool :)

Thaumatrope

Today in class we made a thaumatrope using; card, scissors, string, pencils and a pin. The aim of creating this was to make it appear that the drawings on either side of the card were moving/changing in some way. I decided on a spider in a web for my design, the reason for this is that it was one of the easier options when trying to get both webs on each side exactly the same, if I had not done this the thaumatrope would not work. I also had to ensure the holes in which the string was threaded through were evenly punctured either side, this is essential to even out the weight of the card so it would be able to spin. Symmetry was essential for success in this task.

Claymation

Clay animation or claymation is one of many forms of stop motion animation. Each animated piece, either character or background, is "deformable" usually clay. Shooting a 30-minute movie requires making approximately 21,600 stops to change the figures for the frames; a full-length (90-minute) movie, 64,800—and possibly many more if some parts were shot with "singles" or "ones" (one frame exposed for each shot) (Wikipedia, 2014).

Benefits;

Fun

Motivating

Interesting

Modern

3D

If it can be imagined it can be made, anything is possible

Audience can relate more to the characters

Negatives;

Time consuming, creating characters

Highly sensitive process (slightest accidental indents on clay can ruin the process)

Cost- claymation is not necessarily an expensive process as the oil based clay is re useable and relatively cheap in comparison to other animation methods

Last Animation I Saw

Tangled... life changing film! This is a story of a girl with magical hair, it plays on the fairytale of Rapunzel and everytime the main character sings it makes people young and beautiful. I thoroughly enjoyed the film and would watch it again, the graphics were amazing and the music made the film very happy go lucky and easy to watch. My favourite part was the lizard named Pascal :) xx

Animation

Today I made an animation via Scratch, I found the whole experience very stressful as it requires a great amount of patience that I do not have as a person. I enjoyed deciding on my sprite and animations, my idea was to make her dance and for music to play after recieving a phone call. My idea did not translate into what I wanted it to as I found it hard to get each costume to flow smoothly into each other. I am however happy with my overall end result but will attempt to make it more challenging next time I use scratch