Category: Jumping to the unknown

After one month we finally finished this animation and honestly I’m really satisfied with this project both the final work and the group members.

The final work still has some point that we can improve. If we got more times we could do better. The link: https://vimeo.com/490165853

For example at the beginning, the white birds at left should have more actions, their wings could move more to show that they are going to fly away. We have the wings moving sound effect at this place so if these birds show their moves more it will be better.

Also at the end, the red bird leads white birds flying. It takes time to draw them one by one, so the white birds all have the same speed and actions of the red bird. We should show some differences between them because they have a different personality, the red bird is the first one who jumps into the unknown and white birds are the followers. Personally thinking, if we draw them differently, the whole scene will be more abundant.

But these problems are not quite influent our work I think. The final piece looks like just what I imagined at the very first stage.

I animated the character in Tvpaint. It was easier than I thought. But I still met some problems.

When I animating, I found the background moved too fast, although it followed the length which same as the animatic. The movement of the fragments was too much and too fast, and I didn’t realise it when I shooting. It has big influences on the character cuz the character flying as quick as the background. This problem leads to the lacking of the character’s mood, I didn’t have enough time to express the feelings and reaction of the character. And this is the final look of my part: https://vimeo.com/490029196

Director concluded an action description sheet for us.

This sheet is really helpful and has so many details. The bird should be shy and hesitant at first, it is exploring and struggling because of the hitting from the fragments and in the end, it should be brave and fast that it could reach the bright space. But it’s hardly showed in my final work. I tried to make the character slow but it didn’t fit into the background. It is obvious that every step in animation making is so relatively. I always need to fix some mistakes because of the impatience and careless that I was in the previous step. I have to avoid it when I work on the grad film.

I processed some pictures with PS and I think it is interesting to use digital software to make this part look like a stop-motion.

This part is about the red bird jumping off from the platform. When the character flying the background should be moving forward quickly to show the movement of the character. If we do it in stop-motion we have to prepare the extra paper for this part and it will cost time to change it frame by frame. To avoid this we decided to use PS to do the effect.

It’s not a complex thing. I made three layers in PS. One for the original picture and two for the texture picture. At first I thought it was two layers. But the texture picture that I prepared is not big enough to move so I need another texture layer to fill the blank space. And also the clone stamp is really helpful during this stage, I made this texture picture with it too.

Leave the triangle part blank frame by frame. Fortunately, there are not too many pictures in this part so it didn’t cost much time.

And this is the final work.

We also use PS to do the clean and colour adjust to make the scene have more contrast so the colour could be brighter and background darker.

Digital software can really fix some mistakes that we did during the shooting. But don’t become dependent on it, it’s necessary to keep everything correct at the previous stage otherwise it will be so tired when you process those pictures frame by frame.

My part starting from the red bird jump off the platform then finally reach the entrance of the bright place.

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This part is really a challenge for me. The point is to show the space which means I need to use the moving of the shapes in the background to create a tunnel. I realised I have to cut those paper into different size, big to small, and make them moves through the specific track which like a spider web.

So the big amount of papercut is necessary. Also, the direction of the works we usually do is from left to right and this time is front to back. It’s a challenge for my imagination of space. Inspired by this videohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-4OHQNwObk. I want to make the tunnel more clear, but I didn’t find a suitable material. So I decided just to use one black paper for the background.

Honestly, its really tired when I cut papers. I was like a machine with scissors. And everywhere is messed up except space under the camera.

I choose two ways to shot, in normal and reverse order. And the way of cutting paper is the opposite. When I shot in the normal way, the size of the fragments is small to big. Then I need to prepare a set of paper cuts. I did a test, although they are not perfectly in the same shape it still works smoothly because the fragments move too fast. So I shoot in the normal way when the bird flying fast.

The reverse order is suitable for the slowly part. I thought it’s going to be easier than the normal order. It is quicker when I cutting papers but it’s really hard to control the rhythm. If I got a reference at this time it must be very helpful.

I remembered when we decide which method we are going to use, our group kind of struggled during that period. We received different advice and its hard to make a choice between digital drawing and traditional stop-motion way. Finally, we decided to combine them. It made me very excited cuz after I watched the pitch from another group, they use live-action which is really attractive. It reminds me of the essay we worked on about the animation documentary the last term. During the research, I found a lot of directors they choose this way to create their work and this special visual effect their works shows is really interesting and beautiful. Also, this is the first time I work this way and it’s a precious experience for me.

After the long break during summer, we started the official making of the LIAF project.

During filming, we found its really difficult to make it as same as our animatic although we imported it and used onion skin. At first, we tried drawing the reference layer, but it works for the part which has a slight movement of the fragments. Thinking about the latter part, we got so many different shapes of paper cut and natural cotton. If we draw the reference for the whole animation is gonna be a really big work, taking a long time. So we decided to shoot directly without the reference.

Some update of our project. Finally we decided to combine digital drawing and do background with stop-motion. We plan to do the stop-motion when we are able to access in Uni.

The style frames that Sin made which is really beautiful. We decided to use paper cut and cotton to make the background. We think paper cut and cotton have a different texture which is suitable to express the different environment. I made a papercut stop-motion work during my BA so I think I kinda familiar with this style.

Also, we developed the analysis and design of the main character. This character is a paper cut figure which I think is much easier than the human character so the animating work may be much easier. I think the most challenging part must be the shot of background because excepting some background design made with the digital software, there is nothing we can do to develop it.

When we finished the storyboard, its kinda like a music video shows in the club. So I decide to do the music first. I divided the music into three parts. At the start of our project, I prefer not to add the music, with only the sound effect of the birdsong and wings moving will be enough. The music will start when the bird jumps off the platform and fly into the unknown. This part is very excited and with a very quick rhythm which reminds me of movie whiplash. I extremely love the drumbeat in that movie so I want to do something similar. But electric style is also suitable for the project I think. So I try them both in the Garage band(music-making application on iPad) and I find that the drumbeat is so strong and I couldn’t find a suitable melody for it. So I go with the style of the electric songs. A very deep bass sound also has a very strong effect and it works well with the drumbeats which are not that fast.

This is the drumbeats I chooses for the basic tone.

This part will end til the bird reached the bright entrance. I think the music of this part is playing in a wild and soft place which will have the echo. So I chose this melody for the base tone.

The last thing is finding the suitable melody for these two basic beat and melody.

When I edit the animatic with the finishing music it’s really a good experience. When I arrange the pictures to fit with the music, the animatic shows strong rhythm. It’s Different from the projects I did before, we usually add music when the animatic finished. I think it really depends on what kind of animation you do. The link of the animatic: https://vimeo.com/427666651 password: MACA

These are the first thoughts from me after a meeting of our group.

I was thinking about the character flying in a big black tunnel, the character moves dynamically and the background as well. And everything in this work is the geometric shape and in a bright colour. It’s very happy for me that our group keep this ‘tunnel’ idea. Maybe because of the ‘abstract’ title we got, things seem easier for us to design and create. It doesn’t have to be very logical and we could add different shapes into it.

And here is the ver 2 storyboard that natalia finished. Everything becomes more clear and the whole structure of the story was decided.