Monday 30 June 2014

6.charity research

For our animation project we have been asked to research charities to create an animation for a final charity we have chosen. The five charities we chose were children in need, cancer research, cry (cardiac risk in the young), Gosh (great ormond street hospital) and the salvation army.

  • Cancer research: Cancer research is basic research into cancer in order to identify causes and develop strategies for prevention, diagnosis, treatments and cure. Cancer research ranges from epidemiology, molecular bioscience to the performance of clinical trials
  • Cry: cry stands for cardiac risk in the young and is a charity helping to raise awareness of cardiac risk, Sudden Cardiac Death (SCD), Sudden Death Syndrome
  • Great ormond street hospital: mission is to provide world-class clinical care and training, pioneering new research and treatments in partnership with others for the benefit of children in the UK and worldwide.
  • Salvation army: The salvation army is a christian and international organization. It has a worldwide membership of over 1.5 million consisting of soldiers, officers and salvationists. 

The charity we chose is children in need. We chose this charity because since 1980 is has raised over £600 million for disabled and young people in the UK. We also chose this charity because children in need has an iconic figure, pudsey the bear. 



























This advert sends out a message that there are too many homeless children sleeping on the streets. The target audience for this advert is for people with children because they will feel empathy and have a connection with the homeless children because they themselves have children. This advert has real life footage because it shows the seriousness of homeless children and makes it more believable. 








This advert shows people dressing up to try and raise money for children in need. It shows them having fun whilst doing a good cause and helping the children. This advert is also real life footage to show all the support that the people are giving to help children in need.












This advert made by Aardman is to show support for children in need. Wallace and Gromit are well known characters and therefore have a connection with the general public. Also, this advert is animated which will appeal to the younger audence as well.






Friday 27 June 2014

4. Aardman case study

Job Roles:

Animator- An animator is an artist who creates multiple images, known as frames, that give an illusion of movement called animation when displayed in rapid sequence. Animators can work in a variety of fields including film, television, and video games.

Story board artists- A storyboard artist is able to visualize any stories using quick sketches on paper at any moment. Quick pencil drawings and marker renderings are two of the most common traditional techniques.


Layout artist- A layout artist deals with the structure and layout of images and text in a pleasing format. This can include magazine work,brochures, flyers, books, CD booklets, posters, and similar formats. 


CGI animators- CGI animators are responsible for generating animated images by using computer graphics.











Characters/ props/ sets:

Characters- The process starts as a director comes through from creatives department with 2d designs and from this the  model makers sculpt and mould a 3d Maquette or prototype, usually in plasticene. This is then modified, adapted and fine-tuned. The sculptors then use this maquette to make a mould and cast pieces in different materials to create the puppet that can be animated.


Aardman do not build sets or props, with the exception of immediate props like hats or suitcases the sets and props are usually built by specialist local companies. 








Aardman Commercials


Change for life commercial: This advert was made using clay characters, props and sets. It was filmed using stop motion animation; like the rest of Aardmans work. The reason the commercial is animated is because it fits the corporate identity theory for Aardman, It appeals to both young and the older target audience and thirdly because the characters do things in the commercial that human couldn't do such as bending their bodies into letters. 














Vimto Vimtoad commercial: This commercial was filmed using both real life people and an animated character. The background is also real rather than animated. The animated character adds fun and appeals to the younger target audience. 













Maynards discovery patch commercials: This commercial is completely animated including, characters, props and the set. The characters in this commercial are animated hedgehogs which appeal to both the older target audience and younger audience because they are cute and cuddly. 




















Tuesday 24 June 2014

3. stop motion animation guide

Equipment List: 
- HD Camera (with loads of free memory space) 
- Tripod 
- Clay/lego 
- Film Set 
- Computer 

Stop-motion animation can be the most simple way of creating your own animation film. Not only can it be very fun but it also allows you to be very creative and artistic. 

First of all before you start anything you will need to think of an idea to base your animation around. It can be anything from an artistic video with loads of creativity in, or a simple story which has a meaning to it to send out to the public. Which ever idea you choose, it is best to start of with a simple idea, something which will not be too hard to create being as it is your first time making a stop-motion animation. 

Once you have come up with your idea you will need to create a set for your story to unfold on and also you will need to set up all the camera equipment including extras such as lights for example. When setting up your camera you will need to make sure that you have a tripod to place the camera on, this is very important as it will keep the camera still for each photo you take which will also reduce the chance of each photo being out of position which in the final product will show as a major mess. After you have set up your camera you will need to create your set, this can either be something as simple as a cardboard background with maybe images painted/drawn onto it to give the animation a feel of depth and atmosphere or it can be something creative such as lego or plasticine. However when filming you will need to make sure everything placed in the set stays in the exact same position unless wanting to move it, if not then the overall product again will look messy and un-professional. Finally when using l 
ighting on an animation set, the one thing you need to take inconsideration is shadows. This meaning that anyone standing in the way of the light or anything causing a shadow onto the set will cause the finish product to look once again messy and untidy. So when using lights you must make sure that there is nothing in the way of it to cause a shadow. 

When filming the characters you have made out of whether it be lego or clay or anything else, you must make sure that after each photo you take, the character makes a slight movement different from the other (unless you want it to stay still for the whole clip). Doing so will give the overall effect that the characters that you have created are moving around like a living thing. 

Once you have finished creating your stop-motion animation, it is now time to upload all the photos you have taken on the camera to the computer. You may notice now looking back at all the photos that you have taken that there are in fact a lot of photos, this is why on the equipment list i stated next to "HD Camera" that there must be a lot of free memory to take up on the camera, otherwise you would of struggled to complete a successful stop-motion animation. 

Now this is where your computer comes into play. You will need some sort of editing software on your computer in order to merge all of the photos that you have taken together to create your final animation piece. Simple softwares such as "Istopmotion" for Apple computers is a perfect example of  a simple yet effective software to use as it is so easy to use and still get an amazing product out of it. Once you have uploaded all of the photos you have taking to the editing software of your choice, it is now time to cut them down into smaller segments for them to all be places together so when played, it shows a fluid stream of photos which create a moving image. To accomplish this you must change the length of each photo to be shown to a shorter amount of time, for example if it is shown for 10 seconds, you will need to cut it down to 1/2 seconds, otherwise the overall film will last for ages and will not look like one moving image. 

Once you have cut down all of the photos together and made sure that they are in the right order then you have successfully made your first stop-motion animation. You can now go back and watch your finished product and make any changes if need be, but now that you know the basics of how to create a stop-motion animation, you can now create a whole new variety of different animations.



Tuesday 17 June 2014

2. Development of animation

Pioneers

Joseph Plateau was the first person to demonstrate the illusion of a moving image To do this he used counter rotating disks with repeating drawn images. He created this device in 1832 and called it the phenakistoscope. 














The zoetrope was invented in 1834 by William Horner, who originally called it a Daedalum.  It was based on Plateau's phenakistoscope, but was more convenient since it did not require a viewing mirror and allowed more than one person to use it at the same time. 

















In 1877 charles- Emile Reynaud  developed the praxinoscope It used a strip of pictures placed around the inner surface of a spinning cylinder. The praxinoscope improved on the zoetrope by replacing its narrow viewing slits with an inner circle of mirrors. 


















Edward Muybridge was an English photographer important for his pioneering work in photographic studies of motion, and early work in motion-picture. Muybridge is known for his pioneering work on animal locomotion in 1877 and 1878, which used multiple cameras to capture motion in stop motion photographs, and his zoopraxiscope.


















Thomas Edison created the kinetoscope. The Kinetoscope was designed for films to be viewed by one individual at a time through a peephole viewer window at the top of the device. The Kinetoscope was not a movie projector but introduced the basic approach that would become the standard for all cinematic productions. 















Auguste and Louis Lumiere are credited with the world's first public film screening on December 28, 1895. The showing of approximately ten short films lasting only twenty minutes in total was held in the basement lounge of the Grand Cafe on the Boulevard des Capucines in Paris and would be the very first public demonstration of their device they called the Cinematograph 
















George Pal produced dozens of Puppetoons for Paramount, and they were pleased enough to let him try feature films starting with Destination Moon in 1949. The film was a success with the public and critics and won an Academy Award for special effects, so he was allowed to make another, When Worlds Collide.
















Developers

Willis O'Brien was the special effects artist who pioneered the technique of stop motion animation and the man behind the 1933 movie classic King Kong. A former newspaper cartoonist and sculptor, O'Brien began making short films in 1914.





Ray Harryhausen was an American visual effects creator, writer, and producer who created a form of stop-motion model animation known as Dynamation. His most memorable works include the animation on Mighty Joe Young, which won the Academy Award for special effects. 




Jan Švankmajer is a Czech filmmaker and artist He is a self labeled surrealist known for his animations and features,  Most of his work is a mix between 3-D stop-motion animation, puppets and live-action, 




Contemporary work

Brothers Stephen Quay and Timothy Quay are  filmmakers, film directors and animators. They are identical twins most famously known as both either Brothers Quay or the Quay BrothersIn England they made their first short films, which no longer exist after the only print was irreparably damaged. 



Tim Burton is an American film director, producer, artist, writer, poet and stop motion artist. He is known for his dark, gothic, macabre and quirky horror and fantasy films such as Beetlejuice,Edward Scissorhands, The Nightmare Before Christmas. 
















Aardman, is a British animation studio. The studio is known for films made using stop-motion clay animation techniques, particularly those featuring Plasticine characters Wallace and Gromit.Aardman was founded in 1972 as a low-budget project by Peter Lord and David Sproxton, who wanted to realise their dream of producing an animated motion picture. The partnership provided animated sequences for the BBC series for deaf children Vision On.






































































































































Friday 13 June 2014

27. risk assessment


28. crew roles

Director: Harry 
definition: the director is the person that organises everything so that everything is in  the right place at the right time and is in charge of everything that is happening during the production of the filming.   
 

Producer: Charlie definition: the producer is second in charge during the filming as he as the producer has to make sure that everything is happening at the right time just like the director he follows what he does but has less control over what evereything that happens. his (the producer) main priorities is to make sure that the filming is happening correctly and everything is in place.     
 

Director of Photography (D.P.) Olly definition: as the director of photography every shot is taken as a picture has to be taken while the camera is still, making sure that the same lighting is being used in every image so that with the final edit looks good and has consistent lighting. 

 

Editor: Charlie definition: as an editor you are in charge of the editing when editing the main thing you need to do is to cut and crop together bits of film to make a final piece that looks good and professional. 

 

Camera Operator: Harry the camera operator the camera operators are in charge of the grips of the cameras that make sure the camera does not shake when filming.   

 

Minor Roles 
Assistant Camera (A.C.): Olly
definition the assistant camera helps the camera operator when filiming this could be helping with some extra grip or making sure the lighting for the project is good at all times anything to help the camera opirator.

Assistant Director : Charlie the assistant directors job is to complete any smaller jobs the director might want th to do this is to make there job a bit more easy. 
 

Art Director: Harry It is the art directors job to create any things that need to be made for the video for example: props. 
 

Location Scout: Charlie the location scout looks at potential sites for filming they have to determine if the site is good to film on and if it matches the theme of the production and if it also matches the description of the directors wishes.     
 

Production Manager (P.M.): Charlie the production managers job is to manage all the production aspects of the project. 
this means that they are in charge of logistics and budget there job is very important as if they did a bad job it might bankrupt the project.   
 
Screenwriter: harry 
the screenwriters job is to write the script for the project this means they are creating the story for the project. 
the screenwriters job is very important as they are creating the raw story for the project this means they have a say in the success of the project as people will judge the quality of the story and idea.