Here is an animatic of the storyboards for my Hidden Stories animation, made using Adobe Premier. I loved using the post-it-notes for the storyboards, as I could stick them on the wall and look back at them all, get others to look at them, swap scenes around - which was all really helpful. It is maybe not the neatest of animatics (the large border around the storyboard post-it-note bothered me slightly!) but I feel I have got the timing somewhat how I want it to be in the final film. Looking back however, I may make the start scene slightly slower just to ease people into the film so it's obvious where we are and what is going on. The film should be between 2-3mins long.
The story is based around a wooden horse toy; it is about a German Prisoner of War in Edinburgh at the end of WW2 who is making the toy and thinking back to his home in Germany. However his flashback to home is interrupted and destroyed by the war that literally "marches over the hill" in his imagination as he remembers that his home will now be war-torn. In the end scene he is leaving Edinburgh - either to be returned to Germany or moved elsewhere. A child notices his horse toy and at first he hesitates to give it to her, but in the end he realises he has to let go of the past and he gives her the toy.
The toughest challange will be communicating the flashback/thoughts of the PoW - I will need to clearly define what is flashback and what is the 'present' in the animation so the audience do not get confused! Depending on time, I could maybe do the 'present' in colour, and the past in black & white. Also, I am keen for the "war" that appears over the hill to be bright fiery red/orange colours in contrast to a black and white scene.
I definately hope to add some sound affects to the animation (some indicated in the storyboards) and would love to have radio broadcasts about the end of the war as a background sound also, which would help with setting the time period.
Monday, 18 February 2013
Thursday, 31 January 2013
Hidden Stories
Happy New Year!! Our first project of 2013 is to create a 1-3 minute animation based on an object held in one of Edinburgh's museums or galleries. It will also be entered into their competition called "Hidden Stories".
So to begin our research we visited some of the museums that are part of the 'Edinburgh Museums & Galleries' group. I visited the Museum of Childhood, the Writer's Museum, the People's Story Museum and the Museum of Edinburgh. The Writer's Museum and the People's Story Museum offered some opportunities; writer's lives, and about the different ways of life in Edinburgh through history. Then in the Museum of Edinburgh I was quite surprised to see Greyfriars Bobby's collar - which I didn't realize existed in a museum. So the museums were full of lots of interesting and surprising things!
There were two objects however that sparked my imagination in particular:
Firstly at the Museum of Childhood - the only thing that really caught my eye was the various toys related to horses, and the idea behind why horses were such a popular theme:
The object of most interest here was a wooden horse that was carved by a Prisoner of War in 1945. That is all the information that was given, but I thought this could have potential for an interesting back story - factual or imagined. So far I have been imagining a back story to the wooden horse starting with that the horse was carved by a German PoW in Edinburgh, as there were a few PoW camps here including Donaldson's College. So far I have made some quick sketches - some in a sort-of storyboard style to help me imagine how the short film might begin:
So to begin our research we visited some of the museums that are part of the 'Edinburgh Museums & Galleries' group. I visited the Museum of Childhood, the Writer's Museum, the People's Story Museum and the Museum of Edinburgh. The Writer's Museum and the People's Story Museum offered some opportunities; writer's lives, and about the different ways of life in Edinburgh through history. Then in the Museum of Edinburgh I was quite surprised to see Greyfriars Bobby's collar - which I didn't realize existed in a museum. So the museums were full of lots of interesting and surprising things!
There were two objects however that sparked my imagination in particular:
Firstly at the Museum of Childhood - the only thing that really caught my eye was the various toys related to horses, and the idea behind why horses were such a popular theme:
The object of most interest here was a wooden horse that was carved by a Prisoner of War in 1945. That is all the information that was given, but I thought this could have potential for an interesting back story - factual or imagined. So far I have been imagining a back story to the wooden horse starting with that the horse was carved by a German PoW in Edinburgh, as there were a few PoW camps here including Donaldson's College. So far I have made some quick sketches - some in a sort-of storyboard style to help me imagine how the short film might begin:
The second object which inspired me was in the Museum of Edinburgh. It was a stags head with a metal cross on it's head. The actual object was a bit gross I admit, but it had an interesting legend to go with it! The legend is about the creation of Holyrood Abbey and the Canongate Burgh in the 12th century, and explains why the Burgh's arms is an image of a stag with a cross between it's antlers. I thought this could make a fun little film and is maybe something little known about Edinburgh's history:
Here is a quick sketch of my imaginings of the legend. The story is set in a forest, a stag charges at King David I but stops suddenly, and David said he saw the holy cross appear between the stags antlers. I imagined that in this forest there could be some dramatic lighting from the sun shining through the dense foliage, which then makes the 'cross' appear above the stag in sunlight.
I really like this idea, but I think the wooden horse story could give me more scope with the narrative, and maybe be a bit more interesting in the long run (even though a stag with a cross on it's head is pretty dramatic). Although I think I will return to the legend at another time!
So I have decided to develop the PoW wooden horse story further, and I am looking forward to getting started...
Monday, 17 December 2012
A Christmas Card from Edinburgh
Here is my animated Christmas card, for our last project of 2012!
The idea for it is a magical reindeer flying over the city of Edinburgh and lighting up all the Christmas lights and decorations. I didn't really manage to animate the reindeer flying or anything like that, but I did put the reindeer in at the end there. The reindeer was animated on the computer with Adobe Flash, but the rest of the animation was drawn with pencil and pastels. I first walked around the city sketching the scenes from life and taking photos, then animated the Christmas lights. I put some scenes that are personal to me in as well - the castle view from Grassmarket, which I see on the way to uni, and the Conan Doyle Pub!
Anyway, hope you enjoy this Christmas card, and a very merry Christmas to everyone and a happy new year!!
Christmas Lights - Alison MacPherson from ECA Animation on Vimeo.
The idea for it is a magical reindeer flying over the city of Edinburgh and lighting up all the Christmas lights and decorations. I didn't really manage to animate the reindeer flying or anything like that, but I did put the reindeer in at the end there. The reindeer was animated on the computer with Adobe Flash, but the rest of the animation was drawn with pencil and pastels. I first walked around the city sketching the scenes from life and taking photos, then animated the Christmas lights. I put some scenes that are personal to me in as well - the castle view from Grassmarket, which I see on the way to uni, and the Conan Doyle Pub!
Anyway, hope you enjoy this Christmas card, and a very merry Christmas to everyone and a happy new year!!
Christmas Lights - Alison MacPherson from ECA Animation on Vimeo.
Tuesday, 11 December 2012
Time for Tea
Here is the finished animation for the "When Balls Go Bad" project. It is a little over 20 seconds, and is all hand-drawn. I have decided to name it "Time for Tea"...
It goes very quickly and is maybe not too obvious or clear to viewers what is actually going on. The narrative I tried to put in this film was most likely far too complicated for a 20 second film! Hopefully the film explains itself but just incase viewers are confused (and I wouldn't blame them!!), then here is the reasoning - a brief synopsis of the film:
The dog is in an inventor's studio where a "tea making machine" is being built. The dog wants the rubber ball on the shelf so jumps on the shelf which sends the ball flying. The ball then hits the tea-making contraption which is only a 'work in progress', therefore the ball breaks the machine/ sends it into havoc as it is not yet finished or trustworthy! The tea tray hits the old piano which then wobbles and the piano wheel (which is supposed to be unstable in the first place) gets forced off only then to fly across the room like the original rubber ball and cause more havoc. In the end the room is somewhat destroyed by the sequence caused by the dog and the original rubber ball (which then bounces back over to him at the end of the film, the dog having forgotten about it in the midst of chaos). The dog is happy at the end because he is rewarded with a rubber ball and a tin of biscuits, ignoring the room that is now in a total mess!
Anyway I hope you enjoy the very short animation! It was a lot of fun to make, and I learnt much from this project again.
Lastly, here are some photos for those non-animation folks to see a little of what it is like making the animation. Here is a photo of the lightbox where almost all my drawing was done and a photo of all the sheets of paper that made up the finished animation!
It goes very quickly and is maybe not too obvious or clear to viewers what is actually going on. The narrative I tried to put in this film was most likely far too complicated for a 20 second film! Hopefully the film explains itself but just incase viewers are confused (and I wouldn't blame them!!), then here is the reasoning - a brief synopsis of the film:
The dog is in an inventor's studio where a "tea making machine" is being built. The dog wants the rubber ball on the shelf so jumps on the shelf which sends the ball flying. The ball then hits the tea-making contraption which is only a 'work in progress', therefore the ball breaks the machine/ sends it into havoc as it is not yet finished or trustworthy! The tea tray hits the old piano which then wobbles and the piano wheel (which is supposed to be unstable in the first place) gets forced off only then to fly across the room like the original rubber ball and cause more havoc. In the end the room is somewhat destroyed by the sequence caused by the dog and the original rubber ball (which then bounces back over to him at the end of the film, the dog having forgotten about it in the midst of chaos). The dog is happy at the end because he is rewarded with a rubber ball and a tin of biscuits, ignoring the room that is now in a total mess!
Anyway I hope you enjoy the very short animation! It was a lot of fun to make, and I learnt much from this project again.
Lastly, here are some photos for those non-animation folks to see a little of what it is like making the animation. Here is a photo of the lightbox where almost all my drawing was done and a photo of all the sheets of paper that made up the finished animation!
Sunday, 9 December 2012
When Balls Go Bad - Animation Development
Now that the final film is finished, I can post about the development of my animation during the time I was creating it! The final film will too be posted very soon...
I made quite a lot of development sketches before and while creating the animation. This helped me to figure out how the action would play out. Here are the storyboards I drew up (which I made into an animatic that I posted on the blog earlier on):
The environment had to be clearly altered by the ball's movement. So I wanted to show the room before the rubber ball was let loose by the canine character, the ball then beginning a chain of reactions with the objects within the room, then the room at the end of the film after it had been completely dismantled by the balls actions and everything is in a mess. But the dog is happy because he got the ball, plus a tin of biscuits that fell of a shelf! (loosely inspired by the risk project also, and all those quotes about taking risks like jumping on a dodgy shelf to get a rubber ball. It is sometimes a good thing to do and has it's benefits... like biscuits).
I wanted the room to be a sort of 'W.Heath Robinson/Inventor's studio' so I put in a contraption/invention that would help the chain of reactions and relate back to this original inspiration. It could also help the narrative and animation be a bit more dramatic, although probably quite far-fetched. Then again however - Robinson's inventions are very far-fetched and silly!
I decided this contraption should be a tea making machine because I noticed a few of his sketches included people having tea (I especially liked the one of a horse's head being used as a tea tray... very silly of course... but I managed to reference it very briefly in my final film, so see if you can spot it!!). Designing the tea making contraption was challenging and took a lot of thinking through and sketching out ideas! I took most inspiration from Robinson - his designs also included lots of cogs, wheels and strings. I think the final version of the invention in my film is still a bit unbelievable, but with more time maybe I could have made it work a bit better. Keep in mind when watching the final film that the contraption is meant to be a "work in progress" and any disturbance could cause havoc!
(also if you remember the video by "OK Go" in my initial research post, that is where the inspiration for the piano came from. There is something very comical about a piano... whether I achieve that in my own film I don't know, probably not, but I can but try!!).
I wanted to know whether the animation would work timing and movement wise - so I sketched all the scenes first which I would then go over later with pen, neatening up the animation and the sketch lines. Here is the sketch test I made:
This sketch test was the task that took the longest time during this project; I was a bit slow and relaxed when creating it, and I now think I should have made done this much quicker so I could focus more time on finishing up the final animation. But I have learnt much from this project again!
When working on this project I also realized the importance of the previous project! What I learned from making the simple bouncing ball animations was vital when creating this animation. Not only was I again animating a bouncy rubber ball but also a dog jumping, a tin falling of a shelf, a kettle and tea cup falling, and piano wheel - for all these things I had to think about weight, material, arcs, and the time these things would take to fall and jump and land etc.
The final film will be posted very soon...
I made quite a lot of development sketches before and while creating the animation. This helped me to figure out how the action would play out. Here are the storyboards I drew up (which I made into an animatic that I posted on the blog earlier on):
The environment had to be clearly altered by the ball's movement. So I wanted to show the room before the rubber ball was let loose by the canine character, the ball then beginning a chain of reactions with the objects within the room, then the room at the end of the film after it had been completely dismantled by the balls actions and everything is in a mess. But the dog is happy because he got the ball, plus a tin of biscuits that fell of a shelf! (loosely inspired by the risk project also, and all those quotes about taking risks like jumping on a dodgy shelf to get a rubber ball. It is sometimes a good thing to do and has it's benefits... like biscuits).
I wanted the room to be a sort of 'W.Heath Robinson/Inventor's studio' so I put in a contraption/invention that would help the chain of reactions and relate back to this original inspiration. It could also help the narrative and animation be a bit more dramatic, although probably quite far-fetched. Then again however - Robinson's inventions are very far-fetched and silly!
I decided this contraption should be a tea making machine because I noticed a few of his sketches included people having tea (I especially liked the one of a horse's head being used as a tea tray... very silly of course... but I managed to reference it very briefly in my final film, so see if you can spot it!!). Designing the tea making contraption was challenging and took a lot of thinking through and sketching out ideas! I took most inspiration from Robinson - his designs also included lots of cogs, wheels and strings. I think the final version of the invention in my film is still a bit unbelievable, but with more time maybe I could have made it work a bit better. Keep in mind when watching the final film that the contraption is meant to be a "work in progress" and any disturbance could cause havoc!
(also if you remember the video by "OK Go" in my initial research post, that is where the inspiration for the piano came from. There is something very comical about a piano... whether I achieve that in my own film I don't know, probably not, but I can but try!!).
I wanted to know whether the animation would work timing and movement wise - so I sketched all the scenes first which I would then go over later with pen, neatening up the animation and the sketch lines. Here is the sketch test I made:
This sketch test was the task that took the longest time during this project; I was a bit slow and relaxed when creating it, and I now think I should have made done this much quicker so I could focus more time on finishing up the final animation. But I have learnt much from this project again!
When working on this project I also realized the importance of the previous project! What I learned from making the simple bouncing ball animations was vital when creating this animation. Not only was I again animating a bouncy rubber ball but also a dog jumping, a tin falling of a shelf, a kettle and tea cup falling, and piano wheel - for all these things I had to think about weight, material, arcs, and the time these things would take to fall and jump and land etc.
The final film will be posted very soon...
Thursday, 15 November 2012
When Balls Go Bad - Update
At the moment I have started to animate the scenes for the 20 second "When Balls Go Bad" animation. So here is a wee peek at what I have done so far:
The dog jumping on the shelf took about 2 days and I drew up various versions of the movement till I was moderately happy with it. I will come back to it later and neaten it up. This took a long time to animate but I also think this is the hardest part of my idea to animate.
I did look at videos of dogs jumping along with using my own memory/experiences (I did have to be a bit inventive however as I have never seen a dog knock down a shelf before!!). I also thought a bit about the previous project, almost treating the dog as a ball himself - the arc of his jump, when his body would fall faster or slower etc.
So far I am really enjoying doing the actual animating, and even though this is just a sketch that I will later build on, it is very exciting to see the little story and canine character coming to life!
The dog jumping on the shelf took about 2 days and I drew up various versions of the movement till I was moderately happy with it. I will come back to it later and neaten it up. This took a long time to animate but I also think this is the hardest part of my idea to animate.
I did look at videos of dogs jumping along with using my own memory/experiences (I did have to be a bit inventive however as I have never seen a dog knock down a shelf before!!). I also thought a bit about the previous project, almost treating the dog as a ball himself - the arc of his jump, when his body would fall faster or slower etc.
So far I am really enjoying doing the actual animating, and even though this is just a sketch that I will later build on, it is very exciting to see the little story and canine character coming to life!
Thursday, 8 November 2012
Storyboard Animatic
Here is the animatic of the storyboards I have drawn up for the "When Balls Go Bad" animation. The basic idea at the moment is; my canine character trying to get the ball, the ball being let loose and starting a chain of reactions which quickly dismantles everything in the room, but the dog is then rewarded for his efforts with the ball and the biscuits that fall of the shelf! The room is still meant to be an 'inventor's' studio sort of room. I was originally thinking of a WW1-period theme for the setting (from W. Health Robinson's sketches) but I don't think this is really relevant/worthwhile for such a short animation so I have left that out. However, I wanted to have the bunting in there as it can fall off the wall easily and make the room at the end look more messy!
Anyway, here is the storyboard animatic to give a general idea of how the animation will flow, the timing and how the short narrative will progress. Now to move on to the actual animating!
Anyway, here is the storyboard animatic to give a general idea of how the animation will flow, the timing and how the short narrative will progress. Now to move on to the actual animating!
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