The Man Who Lives in the Zoo - Making the Film

The collaboration project with Edinburgh Zoo has taken up most of my time this semester. I used this project as a chance to work on a slightly longer, narrative-driven short film. After making a number of short films this semester, it was refreshing to focus on a longer film!

Continuing on from last semester, I worked further on the story and animatic for a while before beginning to animate - I wanted the narrative to be the main drive in this film.
The main change was altering the ending slightly so it was a a more definite conclusion; Darren back in the zoo with his own Edinburgh penguins, and with a nod back to their Antarctic roots. Following advice from the last semester's crit also, I tried to make the transition from Darren's dissaproval of the whalers to teaching them clearer. So I made one more animatic before starting the animation! (Password = penguin. Bet you didn't see that one coming)


The Man Who Lives in the Zoo - Animatic from Ali MacPherson on Vimeo.


Development & Research:

To achieve the look I was hoping for, I undertook a bit of research and spent more time designing the characters and the environments. I loved working with an Antarctic location - South Georgia Island (which can be seen in the photos below, and is where Edinburgh Zoo's penguins originally came from) seemed like an perfect location for an animated story to me! Antarctic landscapes, rusting abandoned ships, deserted of people - animals now living in the human ruins as if we were hardly there...

(Photos by wildlife photographer Anthony Smith: 

http://travel.anthonysmithphotography.com/?page_id=907 )

While animating, I referenced videos of penguins frequently to achieve the right movement (I even tried walking like a penguin myself a few times!). I wanted the penguins to be charismatic and appealing characters, as well as be very much real penguins - I'm hoping the audience could watch the film and just from the movement alone know that these are penguins.

Before animating I also made a colour key/script. The frames were to be coloured digitally and I wanted the colour to be very vibrant and lively - but with a natural scheme of blues, greens, greys and browns. The key actually helped a lot when coming to colour the scenes and deciding on how to assign colour to the characters and props. It was also a good exercise to test out possible Photoshop brushes I could use in the final film. I wanted this film to have less solid, blocky colours and bold lines (like many of my previous digital films) and more of a sketchy 'natural' look, resembling traditional mediums.

Making the Film:

I was very keen on this film being animated traditionally with mountains of paper, pencils and the lightbox. After finishing the Ungaretti film, I had less time than I had originally wanted for animating this film - but still enough to get the animation done and have some wiggle room if anything went wrong! So I spent about 3-4 weeks animating (and colouring the frames as I went along).
I've really enjoyed being able to spend time working in traditional or 'classical' animation techniques, and I love the pencil drawn quality of the frames. If time allowed, I would certainly like to make this  my main method of working and has given me a lot of ideas for how I want to work on my final year film.
I also spent as much time as I could allow planning each animated scene - the layout, movement, keyframes. Although winging it can be fun and work well sometimes, prior planning proved extremely helpful in this case and usually made for better animation! The scenes which didn't work out as well as I hoped were usually those I hadn't had time to plan out properly. The walk cycles of Darren and a penguin proved the most challenging.

I have also been working with composer Luci Holland who has created some amazing music for the film! Working with a composer has been a new experience for me. The music became an integral part of the planning and an inspiring part of the filmmaking process. I love how the music and animation have influenced each other and suggested new ways to look at the narrative. Luci has been great to work with and her music enhances the film so much! You can listen to the teaser here: https://soundcloud.com/luci-holland/zoo-teaser/s-SOoKx


Although the film is not quite finished, the majority of work is done and all that is left now is colouring a few more scenes and adding the background art.
Here is the current film draft (password = zoo):


The Man Who Lives in the Zoo - Film Draft from Ali MacPherson on Vimeo.

Reflections on the film so far: 

 I have really enjoyed working on this film! I am glad I spend a good chunk of time planning out the story and rearranging the animatic till I felt it was right. Spending time designing the characters and 'look' of the film was also important to me. Although you could probably keep doing this forever, it was good to put more thought into these initial development stages - I think the film benefited from this overall. This helped achieve the visual look of the film and keep it close to my original hopes.
As for the narrative, it's difficult to step away from the film and look at it with fresh eyes, but I hope the story is understandable and enjoyable to the audience!

This project gave me a good grasp on a traditional/'classical' 2D workflow also. As I mentioned earlier, this is a technique I am keen to continue with for 4th year.
Some more time for animating would have been good as towards the end I had to rush scenes a bit - a few scenes have very little movement or are without any animation at all. I planned to do these scenes last, as they would be ok without any actual movement, but I still would have liked to have had more animation in them.

All the frames for this film!

Now I have just to finishing the colouring and backgrounds, ready to be screened at the zoo this Saturday (9th May)! 

Poetry & War Project - Final Film

Last semester, I got as far as developing a story and visuals with this project - ready the create a storyboard and animatic. I decided to focus mainly on Ungaretti's poem "Detachment" for inspiration. The film would follow the journey of two characters - a modern day climber and a soldier. The original idea was that these two characters would be related; the modern climber being a descendant of the soldier (thus carrying the photo of the soldier with them on their journey). I wanted the Alpine landscape to be an vital feature of the film, like a character in it's own right. For this I also took inspiration from other Ungaretti poems that mentioned the mountains and included themes of nature. The journey was to be a paralleled struggle - a challenge of character as well as survival - with a hopeful note in the ending.

Animatic:

Password = ungaretti 

Detachment - Animatic from Ali MacPherson on Vimeo.

Some development sketches:

I wanted my film to be ready for our animation exhibition in February so I soon got animating! I had originally wanted to do the whole film traditionally but due to lack of time I settled on animating digitally using Photoshop and After Effects - this was still good practice for working digitally. To maintain some of a traditional look however, I painted all the backgrounds with watercolour. I felt the watercolours were able to create that cold, pale atmosphere I was looking for in this film:

With a few weeks intense animating, I was able to get the film done in time for our exhibition! It was also screened at a student run animation festival at Queen Margaret University.

After the exhibition, and following advice from a crit with Ungaretti project organiser Carlo, I changed some aspects of the animation. This was mainly in regard to the colour; originally both characters had been coloured in a greyscale palatte, but this proved confusing and made it hard to differentiate the characters from one another. So I re-coloured the modern climber to be in full colour (but still a grey/blue/cold palette). I think this made a big difference and was the look I had originally hoped for.

The Final Film:


Detachment - Ungaretti Project from Ali MacPherson on Vimeo.


Reflections on the final film:

• To try and get the film made in a couple of weeks (in time for the exhibition) was a bit of a strain and I think the final film suffered for that. I wasn't able to spend as much time animating as I would have liked and had to settle on creating the whole film digitally rather than trying traditional techniques.
• In trying to keep the film as short as possible I think the narrative was lost a little in the film. It was not as understandable to the audience as it could have been and I think the original themes I wanted to incorporate were perhaps lost.
• Despite these flaws, I was happy with some of the actual animation. I enjoyed animating the characters climbing the mountain! Through the watercolour backgrounds I was still able to incorporate my original ideas regarding colour; that the colour palatte would begin cold and blue, and turn progressively blood red and darker as the climbers reached the summit and the peak of their struggle. I also think using watercolour here was the right choice and I really liked the gentle look it gave to the film.

"Shorts" Animation Exhibition 2015

Well - it has been a very busy semester, and is now time to update this blog with all the projects I have been working on recently!

First of all, a little bit about our animation exhibition held early in the semester:
After planning and fundraising in semester 1, we held our exhibition "Shorts" this year from 27th February to the 5th March in Whitespace. We put lots of effort into promoting our exhibition with posters, a Facebook page, bake sale, and animated trailers. We set up our own Vimeo page and released teaser trailers in the 12 days leading up to the exhibition. As a collective we named ourselves '12th House' (for 12 animators!). Here is the trailer I made;


10 days to go! from Shorts Exhibition on Vimeo.

For the exhibition, we all contributed a variety of our films which were compiled together to make a film of about one hour long. We used a lot of our very short '10 Films 10 Days' films as well as some new work. There were several screenings of this film on the opening night, and then played it on a loop during the week. Around the exhibition space, we also all had our own section where we displayed some physical work (drawings or 3D pieces) and a board each with a short bio.
Organising "Shorts" was a valuable experience - I certainly realised how much work is actually needed for planning an event like this! It was also a good chance to collaborate with our fellow students and bring together the diversity of our work we create.

There was an opening night on the 27th where we invited fellow students and industry professionals. The opening night was a success with a fantastic turnout and great responses to the films! It was a great night and was good to see so much support for the exhibition.

 

Yr 3 Animation Exhibition Plans

Time to write a little bit about exhibition planning!

As a group, us 3rd year animation students are planning an exhibition of our work. This semester we have been researching and organising a few key aspects for getting the exhibition going, these include:

1. When it shall take place
2. An exhibition space
3. An opening night
4. Fundraising
5. Content for the exhibition

We have been having fairly regular meetings to discuss these tasks, where we take notes/minutes, and then continue the conversation outside the meetings too. So here is where we have got so far:

We have decided to go for an exhibition in 'White Space' for 27th February - 5th March 2015.
- We decided on late February/early March for the exhibition. This seemed like a good time, when students will be still at university but before the busy exam period. This will also give us time to gather some content, possibly including project work, to exhibit.
- We also visited various possible exhibition venues - the other big contender was the Forest Centre, near ECA. We agreed to go with White Space, in Gayfield Square in the New Town, as it was an professional looking venue and would suit film screenings quite well.
- We will also be organising an opening night to start the exhibition - which we will promote and advertise with posters and trailers!
- As for content for the exhibition, we are hoping to have a mix of short animated films, sketchbook/drawing work and possibly 3D models. The title of our exhibition, or at least for promoting the exhibition, will be "Shorts" and "The Twelfth House".

Fundraising
We have started fundraising for our exhibition - to pay for the gallery space and fund the opening night. Yesterday we held a very successful Christmas bake sale that raised over £100! We plan to have more bake sales in the new year...

Keep tuned for more exhibition news!

The Man Who Lives in the Zoo - Penguins again!

My main project this semester has been "The Man Who Lives in the Zoo".
We have been working with Edinburgh Zoo creating a short film centered around head zookeeper Darren - 'The Man Who Lives in the Zoo'. We were not given many rules for our film other than it had to feature Darren as a character and not be disrespectful to the animals (such as have them wearing clothes - which is an alright request with me, as I like animals to be animals anyway!). I thought child-friendly was also probably a good idea. Personally I was keen on having an overall conservation message in the film, which could highlight one of the good points about modern zoos - educating and inspiring people about wildlife and conservation issues.

First off, thinking up an initial idea for the film proved quite challenging! There was a huge amount of possibilities at the zoo with all the narratives behind the animals and humans who spend their days there. I went to the zoo numerous times to sketch the animals and gain inspiration. Darren too spoke with us and provided inspiration for the story.
I eventually decided to narrow down my ideas and focus on the penguins. The penguins have a long and interesting history at Edinburgh Zoo; Gentoo and King penguins were taken from South Georgia by whalers and were the first penguins to be housed in the Northern Hemisphere. There is also the famous Penguin Parade, which was created by accident when the penguins escaped one time, and then there's Sir Nils Olav the Norwegian knighted penguin.

Here's a 2 minute clip from the BBC about the Edinburgh penguins:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01c9xc5

 Research sketches of the penguins:

The history of the penguins still proved a wide scope so I chopped and changed my story idea for quite a while. I eventually decided to focus on the Edinburgh penguin's beginnings 100 years ago in South Georgia, Antarctica. I came up with the idea of sending Darren back in time and onto the whaling ship that transported the first penguins from Antarctica to Edinburgh. One of the main inspirations for this was actually the design of Penguin Rock at the zoo - the round windows of the enclosure reminded me of round porthole windows on a ship.

Whalers and penguins:

http://photos.shetland-museum.org.uk/index.php?a=indexes&s=gallery&key=IYToxOntpOjA7czo3OiJQZW5ndWluIjt9&pp=10&viewName=gallerylistpage

The final story idea starts off with Darren locking up the zoo for the night and engrossed in a book about penguins. Suddenly he finds himself back in time and on the whaling ship that transported the original penguins to Edinburgh. Upon seeing the whalers inability to look after the penguins (however good intentioned they may be), he takes it upon himself to show them how to look after the animals properly (as any good zookeeper should!). 

This story went through many different phases! Below are some pages from my development sketchbook that show the development work.  In the end (as can be seen in the last page) I was happiest with the idea of Darren teaching the whalers how to look after the penguins, shown in a sort of quickly-cut 'teaching' montage. Darren gave a talk to us early on in the project where I gained some insight into looking after penguins; such as penguins have to be kept cold all the time and their feet need to be kept in ice when on the vet's operating table.
I'm hoping that the film will convey the themes of the relationship between people and animals; in particular the understanding and bond a zookeeper should have with the animals and the passing on of this knowledge to other people (which is perhaps what zoos should be all about).

The Animatic:



After meeting with Kathy from the zoo, she pointed out that the transition from Darren's disapproving of the whalers' actions to his decision to teach them is quite unclear. So I have made some more changes to the storyboard/animatic. You can see that the animatic is a mix of digitally drawn and post-it-note storyboards - again I did quite a lot of scene chopping and changing! Overall, I think the film could still be more tight in the telling of the story:
- The transition scene mentioned could use checking over a bit more, to make sure it's clear to the audience before animating
- Also the transition from the whaling ship back to Edinburgh (the end of Darren's daydream) could be shortened. Although I like the shots of the penguin on the deck, I feel it may be unnecessary. All I really need from this scene is an image of Antarctica and snow falling from the sky which will indicate the change of location.
- The ending could be more reflective and definite too. I originally had Darren thinking of the wilds of Antarctica fondly, of the penguin's natural habitat, and possibly include a conservation message at the end...
I would now like to start animating very soon, so I don't think I will make another animatic but instead I will use this one as a base and continue working out any improvements in my sketchbook.

I've also started to design the look of the film. I revisited my sketches and photos of penguins, and the photos of Darren we were sent, to help with designing the characters. My plan is to try and draw all the frames on paper with pencil, using the lightbox, and then digitally add the backgrounds and colour (the bottom image is how the finished animation could possibly look).

Next - time to start animating! Although there are a few areas of the storyboard I'd like to develop, most of the scenes are ready to animate. I plan on starting animation before the holidays and then possibly get the backgrounds ready during the break. When I return I will need to finish animating, colour, and then put it all together ready for the zoo in February! 

Poetry & War Project - Initial Ideas

Another project we were invited to work on this semester is an arts project called "Poetry & War" - marking the centenary of WW1 and the work of Italian war poet Giuseppe Ungaretti. The project is about different artists' (modern poets, illustrators and animators) response to Ungaretti's poems. So our task is to create an animation that is inspired by the poems. We are free to come up with our own narrative and be inspired by any of the poems in any way.

So, I found many of the poems to be interesting and inspiring. Ungaretti wrote the poems during WW1 when he was a soldier on the Italian Front. Most of his poems are about soldiers and their experiences; survival, grief, and the horrors of war. But Ungaretti's poems can also be very hopeful and life-affirming. I first wanted my film to share this mood of both grief and hope, and to be informed by the historical context (as I don't know very much about the Italian war front in WW1). Ungaretti would have fought in the Italian Alps, in trenches in the mountains, and in bitter cold winters - the Italian front was known as "The White War". This conjured up a particular image for me of a pale, cold and desolate mountain-scape.

 Camel Scouts on Patrol, by Sydney Carline (1918)

Photos from: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/world-war-one/10562017/Melting-glaciers-in-northern-Italy-reveal-corpses-of-WW1-soldiers.html

I was inspired by a number of the Ungaretti poems; in particular "Soldiers", "Brothers", "I am a Creature", and "Detachment". They are about the 'fragility' and the horrific shared experience of soldiers in war. In "Soldiers", Ungaretti likens the men to leaves in Autumn.

My initial ideas involved two different soldiers - an Italian and a Scottish soldier - who, although experience different areas of the war, ultimately suffer a shared experience. A dark red-brown Autumn leaf could be a motif to symbolise their shared fragility and mortality. As I already mentioned, I was particularly drawn to the image of the desolate Alpine landscape and the force of nature in contrast with the forces of war. I wondered how the Alps, being a popular tourist destination now, would have been looked upon by a soldier during WW1?
Upon studying the poems again, I found a few with more particular links to nature:

Drowsiness

These mountain slopes
have settled down to sleep
in the darkness of the valleys 


I am aware of nothing
but a clicking
of crickets 

Keeping time
with my uneasiness 

Also the poem "Rivers"- about  a soldier bathing in the Isonzo river:

like a relic
I lay at rest 

The flowing Isonzo
polished me
like one of its pebbles

Upon laying in the river, the soldier recognises himself as a "tender fibre...of the universe". This idea of the soldiers contemplation on his place in the world, as a living creature part of a living world, I find particularly inspiring. Later on in the poem, the river is also used as a symbol for the many rivers within the soldiers own life, writing;

I have retraced
the seasons
of my life


Overall, l I think I have found "Detachment" the most influential on my idea, and sums up a lot of the ideas I wanted to approach in my animation.

Detachment

Here is a man
like any other


Here is a soul
deserted
like an unreflecting mirror


I must wake up
and gather myself
and possess


The rare gift of having been born
so quietly having been born


Which when its time is past
just as imperceptibly passes away 




The story so far - the animation could portray a journey through the Alps:
This journey is undertaken by two characters, one being an Italian soldier and the other a modern climber who may have also been a soldier. One climber will definitely be the Italian WW1 soldier. The modern climber could be Scottish (as the more different the characters experiences are then the more impact it may have when you show the similarities in their existence, and the overall project is a Scottish-Italian collaboration). This character could also be Italian however, and possibly a descendant of the WW1 soldier.
The two characters both struggle mentally and physically on their journey. The climb will be animated as one journey - the shots flowing back and forth in time - the animation hopefully creating a flow as if the movement is only being acted by one character instead of two.

I would also like colour and the landscape to play a big part in the animation. I want the mountains to be an ominous character - pale and cold in colour, but increasingly jagged and sharp as the climbers ascend.  The sky too will increasingly redden as they climb. But when both eventually reach the top, and look out over the landscape, the colours change again - this time to the colours of a beautiful sunrise. This is the point when the characters (who have almost given up) must "wake up" and "possess" the "rare gift of having been born" before it is gone. The idea of a sunrise is also summed up in the poem "Morning":

I am illuminated
with immensity

This is where I have got so far with the story and visuals! Next step is to come up with a finished storyboard and animatic. At the moment I am thinking this may make a nice paint animation - although this depends on how long a paint animation might take and how much time I will have to make it. We are looking at having a finished film for February next year (same as zoo project roughly). The animation will then be shown at readings and exhibitions later in the year.

At the moment I am quite happy with the idea! I think my response to the poems so far has been a particular interest in nature - the mountains and harsh, winter landscape of the Alps - and the experiences of soldiers who must battle with so many things, yet can recognise the beauty of living and carry on.