Week12

Visiting the Science and Media Museum - again

I have been trying to get my hands on the book below for some time now. However, it was taking longer than expected to order at the library and so the staff was very helpful in finding alternatives. They found out that there was a copy of this book in the University Library in Bradford. 

Unfortunately, it was more complicated than just turning up and I would need to fill in some form and come to Bradford again if the University Library was not already closed to visitors.

So instead, I went to the museum to spend some time in the Animation section. I have been here once before, but this time, I was here to see specific pieces.

Such as this set - I feel shame that I did not take a picture of the label as I have never watched the film itself:

Also, the set for The Wrong Trousers by Aardman:

It is amazing how detailed and precise the floorboards are and I like that as an audience I am still able to identify most of the materials on the first set.

All of a sudden the labels describing the materials are that much more interesting when I am focusing on doing stop-motion animation. 

I could not resist capturing my perfect drop of water either.

This year, back to the normal timetable, I actually had some time to make a Christmas present for my brother by painting him a handkerchief with some old fabric paint using existing illustration and quote from other artists. Limited to just three colours - blue, black and tan. It turned out alright!

Zero Carbon Headingley Brief continues developing in the background - this week we looked at creating textures and backgrounds for the assets.

Week11

Time is Ticking - Christmas Break is Coming

Li has done the Dad character concept, I am happy apart from changing is a cardigan to a shirt. 

On the last presentation, I have identified myself as the project's storyboarder. However, with the time pressing and storyboards not being my future interest, I spoke to Ava. After the CoP deadline, we then met to thoroughly discuss the story and solve any unclarities. There really is nothing like working on a problem with someone else in person. I wish I have done this more often, but I have been terrible at creating/maintaining work/friends relationships on my course this year.

On the positive note, thanks to my boyfriend I have done the following since August, I believe all the events are benefiting my learning of set design and set making, creating an atmosphere on a set etc.:

• going to see Le Miserable in Alhambra Theatre in Bradford and be able to compare the set provision in London with the one on tour was very interesting. I preferred the one in Bradford, the way they used rails for props was very clever and the set was magnificent and rich with depth.
• La Boheme at the Grand Theatre, Leeds - my first time ever seeing opera.
• Messiah at the Town Hall, Leeds - I had no idea the Town Hall was so beautiful inside, also the first time seeing such a big orchestra and choir.
• I have also finally visited Leeds City Museum for the first time - instantly fascinated by the WWI part of the exhibition.

On the negative note:

I am running behind the schedule already with finalising the script and storyboards as well as set design, all because of my fails with scriptwriting.

I have missed my CoP deadline by a silly mistake of putting the wrong folder onto my pen drive and the elections happening the following night made me feel rather depressed. If that was not enough, I have received a notification email from SFE straight after the elections, not quite sure what about. What a wonderful start to the Christmas break.

Lastly, I still cannot get over the fact that our University would like to reduce the amount of printed paper by reducing the number of posters around the building. When I first heard this I cried. Just look at the two sides of the same corridor in the photos above. My opinion is that if the posters are on the wall it remains a gallery of events and opportunities we can randomly stumble upon. It has also been one way of collecting research data - hanging questionnaires around the building. Whereas, by removing the posters, we can no longer be exposed to this random information without actively searching for it if it all starts being on online platforms. It is like Google, it is helpful when you know what you are looking for. But it is very easy to stay in a bubble. Even then, why do people forget that running electronic devices as well as using the internet too produces a lot of waste? From my experience, posters seem to support word of mouth and communication while online platforms support assumptions that everyone has seen the post  'Didn't you see it?, It was online!'.

Week10

Link With CoP Research

From my Context of Practice practical and theoretical research I have learnt that making of my sets will be hard as there really is not enough information out there about set making for animation. So it will hugely depend on my existing knowledge of techniques and materials and any further research in this then adapting it to animatable sets. 

So far, this is my favourite way of building a cave wall from cork, experiment - part of CoP practical.

However, this research was useful for me in other ways. Thanks to my CoP research I have skim-read number of stop-motion animation books and gained different techniques and views on puppet making as well as other tips and tricks, and difficulties I may face. 

 

Also Li has given me second version of the Mum character which I am really happy with.  

Week9

What is new

Latest weekly's presentation 

Photo reference I provided to Li

Li has provided me with first draft of Mum character. 

What went well (better late than never):

Creating a schedule, 

Identifying budget and list of additional collaborators I need to find, 

Knowing all my roles,

An event where students from LCOM visited our course - I was finally more confident than when we were selecting groups last year and pitched my project and learned about other peoples style. Coming out from the event with a music composer Matteo Falco, with a suitable style for my film was a good outcome. 

What went wrong:

Dialogue for my project is still a struggle. I really cannot connect with it emotionally which is probably to do with me still feeling bi-lingual and non-lingual at the same time. Or that I was never one to be good with essays and other writing. But giving it to someone else to write is not making much sense as I hold a clear idea of the story in my head already. Maybe I am overthinking this part way too much and need to close myself in a room for couple of days with just a pen and paper. 

I am struggling to keep consistent communication with my character designer Ben, because my part of homework is not complete yet and I am starting to worry he won't be able to do the design on time with the time we originally agreed he could commit to this project running out.

CoP is starting to be the priority with the deadline behind the corner. 

Week 8

(potentially) ONE OF THE FOUR 

https://vimeo.com/375295804

Feeling rather out of creative spirit in the past few weeks, I knew I had to do something about it. Especially with approaching CoP deadline and Christmas time when I need to finish my animatic for the main EP project. Struggling to even approach materials and just play around posed a huge barrier, however remembering the lesson learnt at the Twilight Cafe workshop a few weeks back when I made the pom poms - even 15 minutes of something creative can lift your spirit. I decided to put aside all the Uni work and play with cardboard and masking tape instead (materials I need to experiment with for my CoP final, I just did not have any energy to do so). I have also invited over a few friends, to create a positive working environment for getting our hands on different materials and bouncing ideas off each other, or just getting on with Uni work. 

Saturday: I made this cat from brown paper and masking tape

Sunday:
Tried Polymorph for the first time - Georgia helped, she has used it before. I want to see how I can use it for Puppets for my main project.
















In return, I helped Georgia to make a moving armature for a butterfly, showed her how to use the software, etc..

I asked Petra if she would collab with me for LoopdeLoop with only 7.5 hours to go until the deadline, one cat puppet, and a vague story idea available. Few hours is surely enough to create backgrounds and refine narrative, add sound, and submit. :D

We made it! I have refined the cat puppet, Petra made the background and then we set lights with what was available. 1 lamp that can be set to any light colour + intensity and one desk lamp (which we did not use in the end as it would show shadows of the animator on the set unless the animator walked across the room before every new frame being taken to get out of the way. Petra ended up animating while I was handing her replacement blue blobs of plasticine supported with kitchen foil and pressing the capture button.

Then we did the looping edit after Petra's reminder that we can just reverse the animation.

Thanks to my boyfriend who did several versions of the sound on an electronic piano. Sadly there was no time to get rid of the clicking noise of the keys. :(

P.S. still waiting to see whether we got in.
EDIT: we got successfully accepted https://www.loopdeloop.org/post/189370841344/cat-called-maria-having-a-chill-evening-by-the

Week7

MAF week

Characters in the story: Father, Small Child, Cat

Characters in the story within the story: Mother, Baby, Mother transformed into a big cat

After communication with my character designer, there was a missing link connecting materials I provided and him starting with the character design; it was concluded that some more concept art for the project is necessary first. At MAF I met Li Marrable, LAU alumni. Li presented me with her art style of hand made and drawn techniques, which I liked a lot, and had a good understanding of the project when we talked about it. So much so, we have agreed that Li will do character concept art for my final film before passing it to my character designer. Hi has agreed to do these on a paper to preserve the hand made feel within the production.

Discussing the project with Li at a meal. 

At Manchester Animation Festival, I got refreshed with many new tips and information about puppet making and sets through  the making-of presentation of A Shaun The Sheep Movie: Farmageddon 2019 and meeting the puppets from this film allowed me to ask questions about materials they used for specific parts.

Learning more about Lula and her friends

MAF Market - I had a good conversation with Mike Tharme, about using ball-joint armatures and its sections in the required parts of the puppet only, specific for the characters in my project. Something that means the technique is not completely ruled out for this project and it can still be on budget. I ended up getting a creature kit myself if not for this project, then to learn more about working with such armature. These armatures are expensive, however, saving money by using Too Good To Go app for food and attending the event by myself has saved me a considerable amount that I could then spend on developing my skills. I will be putting up a post about the armature I have borrowed from the University and why I felt the need to get my own.

Trip to Brimham Rocks - primarily a CoP research trip into landscapes, but also valuable for observing rocks where daylight and camera can get more easily than in a cave.

A badge/business card I made for MAF event, I made about 9 and one to wear, so time consuming, next time I will try to have a printed one! 

LAUAN603 Major Project – Statement of Intent

 

 The Spirit of a Silver Cavern

By Katarina Sucikova

‘A story about a father and his son, whose wife and mother is no longer around but the father is teaching the child about keeping her spirit alive.’ 

This project consists of producing a stop-motion short fantasy film focusing on bereavement in a single-parent family via a storytelling medium within the film. Finding inspiration in Fluke (1995), A Dog’s Purpose (2017) and Coco (2017). This project will result in building a portfolio as a set designer, stop-motion animator and will challenge project management skills of the director alongside camera framing and lights set up. 

It is employing collaboration with B. Gardener for character design, L. Marrable for concept art development, J. Leece for script development (specifically the dialogue). A production assistant will be essential to assist in the stop-motion studio and set dressers to be time-efficient. 

Collaboration with a sound designer is necessary and to be concluded in pre-production stages. C. Jeal is working on VFX in postproduction. The director will do storyboards, animatics and final film edit. 

Stop-motion studio space will be required for building and testing the set at pre-production stages and for production of the film. Number of lights and foils to be concluded further on in pre-production, two cameras with tripods will be ideal, and a personal device to keep time-lapse of the production. The puppets will consist of armatures suited for their movement, but some tie-down boxes will be necessary. Clamps to attach walls and to join the boxes for a bigger set are also required.

Week6

Staying Well and Thinking of Schedule

I feel as though I need to justify why is my story going to be made in stop-motion and why I am such a perfectionist/overthinker  when it comes to choosing the materials and techniques.

My notes on a theory justifying why animation for young children should be stop-motion animation.  

Making Pom Poms at a Twillight Cafe workshop - taking care of mental health:

I have been struggling to get started making art. I would not do what I normally enjoy - painting as I felt like I should be doing work on the project. This workshop made me realise that I really should take at least 15 minutes in a day to do something fun and let my mind free of worry to be able to evaluate my work with a fresh pair of eyes.

I needed a new wardrobe:

A lot of the materials I own are from when I was drawing and much younger and I have not updated my collection to be more specific for stop-motion just yet.

I felt very stuck as 3D stop motion demands a good knowledge of materials in order to make puppets and set. But after my negative and pretty much the only experience of puppet making ( I do not count the caver puppet from 2nd year, it went wrong in many levels too) in the 1st Year, I was not sure where to start. I knew that I did not want plasticine puppets for my project so this was a new territory.

To learn more about ball and joint armature I borrowed an Armature from the University in the hope that I will be able to build a fully functional puppet with this. Obviously, the armature is not a cheap thing and must return back in the same condition.

I am worried about this because the chosen technique and whether I have done it before or not is going to affect the pre-production schedule.

Trip to Long Churn Cave,  why not Alum Pot?

This weekend I went away on another caving trip, mainly because it would allow me to go to the Alum Pot ( an inspiration for my story) adjoining Long Churn. On Saturday I was feeling a bit ill and so I stayed away from cold, wet caves and missed my chance to go down Alum Pot and Long Churn exchange trip. The next day we did not have time for a long trip and so could only do Long Churn. However, the water levels were so low, I could have brought my phone if I knew. All of a sudden I was able to see the detailed surface of the rock that is normally covered with rushing stream. Amazing!

Week5

Exploring tradition

What a better way to connect with traditions than through a meal made by Grandma, the more pickles the merrier. 

This church looks like a cake in a fairytale. Hanzel and Greta? 

National Theatre at night-time

This week I have focused mainly on CoP research. Then over the weekend I went to Bratislava, this gave me an opportunity to emotionally re-connect with the feeling of Slovak traditions. This was good for the development of the film's story as it is carrying the storytelling feel that I have always connected with fairytales, folktales and traditions.

My friend who does tour guides around the capital city took me on a little evening tour so I could learn some more detail about Bratislava that I did not pay so much attention to before. 

I wish I had more time and could re-visit some of the museums I went to when I was little:

 - about puppetry - this would be great research for the theme of the film and the puppet's appearance
https://www.snm.sk/?muzeum-babkarskych-kultur-a-hraciek-stale-expozicie

- about Slovak villages - this would be valuable for set design and making.
https://www.snm.sk/?muzeum-slovenskej-dediny-stale-expozicie

Continued development of the script, including visual and written ideas for the set and characters:

Week4

Presenting the ideas

Presentation EP Main Google Drive Presentation

Initial ideas for the story:

Shadow play vs. Storybook -  storybook is overused, shadow play allows for more interactions between the puppets and the shadow puppets.

What went a bit wrong:

First written draft 

I am struggling to put the ideas from my head down on a paper, using words. It was easier with images.

 At this stage, I do not feel confident writing the dialogue but I know that the direction of the story and its environment has to come from me. It is all starting to blend a bit and I feel a bit stuck. Talking the story through has been bringing new knots but also solutions so that has been helpful.

I am focusing on how to make a short story as it is rather a complex one.

I did not receive much feedback and it is not the first time I felt like this at the group presentations. I am not sure whether there is something terribly wrong that I cannot see or all is ok. I will try to focus on this next time, it may be to do with the way I present my progress.

Other that happened:

Continued story and storyboard work for Zero Carbon Headingly brief at Leeds Animation Workshop.

Week3

Sketching the Story

Animal to human transition in two environments, K. Sucikova

Actually sketching the story. I may as well write it myself, now that I have a story to tell. 

This week I have also met with Ben Gardener, to discuss the character design and the schedule. 

 I made a decision to try to write the script myself; as a director, I seem to have a pretty clear vision in my head of what direction I want the film to go.

Applying for the UK Settlement status was just another thing that had to be done and I finally found a friend on who's phone the app that allowed passport scan was working. 

At the weekend I have also seconded a trip to a cave GB in Mendip getting some first-hand research in a dry and clean cave, unlike Easegill's Mistral, with mud sculptures and mud pool at the bottom. Photo by Lea Stracquadanio, the trip leader, with my edit to make it lighter to see the detail of the cave better = the quality of the image was sacrificed.