My Animation

Here is my animation as it was on our final critique.  I will be making many adjustments on it.

 

Progress 11/13/13

I was feeling under the weather today so I decided to work from home.  Here are some more clips of my progress.  I have a lot to clean up, especially with the beginning, but that is one of the last things I plan on doing.

Update

Slightly longer clip...

Just a reminder of the style I'm going for, but the amount of detail depends on how much time I will have after the white outlined rotoscope.  

Progress

Here is a clip of the progress I've made with the actual rotoscoping.  It seems like so little, but is almost 100 frames...also the quality isn't that great on this version.

Reference

Below is a video that Dena showed me in class....just posting it on here so I have it!

Editing and Sound Effects

Today I worked on editing my video footage, and finding sound effects.  I also watched some clips from films for inspiration.

Inspiration

Just looking for inspiration, in terms of style, for my animation:


This animation is called "The Pursuit of Chaos," by Michael Chichetti.  I really like the style the artist used about 40 seconds in to the video.

This video is called "Snack and Drink," by Bob Sabiston and Tommy Pallotta.  I love everything about this animation, especially the the styles that are very detailed with bright colors. 

Assignment #3: The Contract

1      Genre of digital art:

The genre of digital art that I will be working on is animation.  Since I feel that my 3D digital animation skills are not strong enough at this point, I will be producing a traditional 2D animated short.  As suggested in class, I plan on using rotoscoping as the main animation technique in my short.  I have more experience with rotoscoping than any other technique and I enjoy the process of rotoscoping, so I think that I will be able to create a successful film using that technique.  My final animation will consist of one short film, for which I have not decided the length yet.  If I were to give a rough estimate of the duration of the film, I would say it would be five minutes or less. 

2     Idea/Concept:

My idea for this project is to create a short animation about some sort of alien invasion.  The overall mood or tone of the film will be playful and somewhat nostalgic of 50s Sci-fi themes and also of my experiences and memories from growing up.  As of now, I do not have a fully developed story, but I have a general idea of what will happen in the film.  I would like to have one main character who is a person.  The setting will be indoors at night.  The person will sit down in front of the TV to watch a music video or something of that sort.  The TV signal will be lost and after failing to regain the signal by beating on the TV, the person will get up and go to the fridge.  The first time they open the fridge, they are startled because all of the food has turned into some kind of alien form.  They slam the fridge door shut and after a few moments of regaining confidence, they slowly open the door again, and the food is back to normal.  Then the TV comes back on, but strange noises (like the radio signal noises heard in 50s Sci-fi films) are coming from it. The main character returns to the living room and stares at the TV.  Then a small chain of strange things happen, such as the cat acting out of character, a alien-like shadow scurries across the wall, something falls from a table, or the lights flash.  All of these things will make the person question their sanity.  All of this leads up to the main character being "abducted," but in the end it is unclear if they were actually abducted.  The themes that my animation will be dealing with are, "what's real and what's in our heads," and "we are not alone."  

3    Formal Aesthetics:

To achieve the look I have imagined for the film, I will most likely be using Digital painting/Photoshop to rotoscope over the video footage.  I have not decided on the color scheme yet, but I do know that I want the film to look somewhat dark, with light coming from sources such as the TV and fridge, and maybe the moonlight coming into the windows. I am hoping that this kind of lighting will help to convey that the main character is up late, probably past their bedtime, watching television.  I have not yet planned out the different shots and camera angles for the video footage, but I want the cinematography to be fairly dynamic, with interesting camera angels and maybe a few different cuts.  I have also not decided the point of view of the camera.  As of right not I plan on filming the main subject from behind them, with very few shots of their face. This is because I do not want the main focus to be about the character, but more about what is happening to and around the character. 

4      Final Format:

The final format of my project will obviously be video. I would like to have the video projected onto the wall, in a fairly large size, and somehow indicate to the viewer that they are to sit on the floor and watch the video, just like children often do.  I would like to have a digitally placed frame around the video that will look like an older TV.  The purpose of having the viewer sit on the floor in front of the TV, is to put them in a similar situation as the main character in the animation.  If possible, I would like to have some of the strange alien shadows that will be in the animation, run across the wall of the gallery.  This would happen fast, so that the viewer would also question whether they saw something.  This is just an idea though, I wouldn't want to have too many distractions from the actual film.       

5       See diagram below.

6.      Equipment needed:

-Camera and Tripod

-Projector

-Computer 
-Sound recorder

7       See calendar on progress blog.

Artwork Presentation

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1jRywyehl32fVkyocxnGGIW-hv5c8ehXFiMnHsPfmBFs/edit?usp=sharing

Self-Assessment Summary

Self-Assessment Essay

Megan VanBuskirk

In the realm of digital arts, I consider my primary focus to be animation.  Although I am leaning towards 3D digital animation, I love working in traditional animation as well, and I would love to continue creating work in both areas after college.  Since I am a film minor as well, I have also had the chance to work with live action films, which is something I also love to do.  So far, I have created short films and animations (only a few minutes long at the most).  I would not say that I have a particular style of animation yet, but I do think I tend to stick with similar themes throughout my work.  I enjoy working with narratives and especially stories that are fun and playful.  I am drawn to stories and themes that are youthful and somewhat adventurous, such as fairytales or time travel.  I also like to include a touch of humor into my work.

An artist that inspires me is Olga Stern.  Olga Stern is a Toronto based illustrator and visual development artist for film, television, and books.  I love Olga’s style of artwork because of the sketchy, colored pencil quality that much of it has.  The style is similar to what I would like to achieve with my artwork.  Olga’s themes also inspire and relate to my artwork.  Olga conveys exciting journeys through her work, which is something that I want to do through my artwork and animation.  Below are some examples of Olga’s art.

http://www.olgasternart.com/