Research

Audience Research

Primary Research

Museum of  London: 27/02/20

Today, we went on a trip to the Museum of London to help further our knowledge on the different eras that London has gone through, through conducting primary research.

When going through the Museum of London, the main thing I was looking for were things that I could use as reference for my animation idea, because by this point I'm pretty confident that I'm going to be making an animation for my project. So because of my motive behind the trip, I was able to focus and practically streamline the things I would look for and gather as photo reference and evidence. Also, alongside the reference gathering, I of course gathered information that would assist in adding more depth to my animation, through the events and advancements that had taken place throughout the eras of London.

One of the first things I looked for when in the Museum was a chronological timeline of the eras London wen through. And I was able to find that pretty quickly as it was right after the section of the museum that covered the Roman city of Londinium. However, this timeline wasn't a full timeline to present day London, it only consisted of the events that took place in the eras from Anglo-Saxon London leading up to the end of Tudor London.

Roman London: AD 47 - AD 410
When venturing through the roman ruling section, I took photos of a few things that could serve as useful reference, for example a map of Londinium and the area around it, which I could use as possible establishing shots for the beginning portion of my animation. Another example, would be the clothing that was worn by the people of that time and also things that people of that era did as pass times and professions, since I could give the background of my animation life while being contextually accurate.

Anglo-Saxon and Medieval London: 5th Century - 1066 & 1066 - Late 15th Century

After Roman London, the next section was dedicated to Anglo-Saxon London and Norman/Medieval London. Overall, I mainly gathered information regarding weaponry and equipment. I did this mainly because I felt that for my animation, the difference between Anglo-Saxon London and Norman/Medieval London would mainly be seen through the type of equipment worn and used by the people, because from what I found out in the museum and sources prior to this project, these eras seemed to be known mostly due to their phases of conflict. And so I wanted to mainly focus on those areas regarding the two eras since I feel that they could be quite useful for adding action in to my animation. (On the left is Anglo-Saxon. On the right is Medieval)

Tudor London: 1485 - 1603

The next era of London I moved on to in the Museum, was Tudor London. The main things I took interest in and thought useful regarding Tudor London portion of the museum, was the architectural development and some equipment & weaponry developments since, during the late Tudor era, the armies began using gun powder weapons such as Muskets and cannons etc. I didn't feel the need to gather much information regarding the general culture regarding Tudor London, since I have a decent amount of knowledge on it and if I do require more information, I can conduct secondary research when necessary.

Stuart London: 1603 - 1714

The section regarding Stuart London was when I took a particular interest towards the clothing of the people. This is partially because, in my animation I'm looking to have quite dynamic shifts in mood and genre as the animation progresses through the eras.

I also found out that the Great Fire of London took place in Stuart London, in an area that consisted of many Anglo-Saxon buildings made out of timber. I felt that this would be quite a key event to use within my animation to really make the era of London apparent to the audience. Also, while typing this, I feel that The Great Fire of London could serve as an interesting transitions to the 18th Century.


18th and 19th Century London:

When it came to the 18th and 19th Centuries, the things that I felt could have the most importance, was the general look of the people regarding their clothing and demeanour etc. as well as some architectural and decorative developments but I felt that the main thing I should focus on for this era was the people's look and possibly the interiors of buildings, since they feel somewhat more iconic and well known so the audience could quite easily figure out the general era of London the animation was progressing through.

20th Century London: 

For the 20th Century, I focused on similar things to the 18th & 19th Century, except I felt like paying more attention to the architectural and technological developments. As well as some key events that took place, like the World Wars. Although I only feel the need to focus on a portion of one of them, such as a bombing of London, since I want to make the 20th Century portion of the animation more calm in comparison to the early eras but a little more action filled than the 18th &19th Century, which is why I felt that including one of the world wars would be useful, as well as it helping point out what time period the animation is travelling through.

Throughout the duration of the trip to the Museum of London, I mainly looked for visual aspects of the eras that London went through, since I feel those would hold the most importance regarding how useful information would be in comparison to written information. To enforce my understanding of the visual aspects, I was suggested to sketch some of those visual references in the sketchbook I kept handy. In doing so I feel that it definitely help with getting the feel of the era that I was able to sketch out during the trip and this should mean that I will be more efficient when it comes to sketching and drawing out the animation since I should be somewhat familiar with what I have to draw.

I also took notes alongside some of the sketches, for some little things to just remember, but I also took some larger notes, mainly regarding some key events that I would like to make use of, chronologically, in my animation. But I also wrote down a little bit in terms of the entertainment and activities that the people of Londinium used to indulge in.

Overall, I found this trip extremely useful, since it allowed me to gather an ample amount of evidence regarding the eras that London had progressed through, all the way to present day. However, I wasn't really able to gather much information on present day London within the Museum, but I can gather that information on my own if necessary. And I did so when we were leaving to making our way home when I noticed a somewhat traditional and satisfying building that also consisted of slightly more modern features.

London Touring and Reference Gathering: 05/03/20

Today we went on a trip to explore London to gather evidence and reference to compare with the accuracy of the games that we contextually analysed, as well as gather reference that could be useful to our projects.

During this trip, the main thing that I was looking for was references of grand buildings from a side on view because that is going to be the most likely angle that I'm going to use in the portion of my FMP animation that'll cover modern London, so I wanted to get a comfortable understand of how different buildings would be laid out next to each other, as well as what kind of building were placed next to each other because there's always a mix of modern and traditional architecture in London and these examples tend to be adjacent to each other from what I've seen on the trip and in everyday life. I wanted to gather reference of this so I could represent modern London accurately in the portion of my animation regarding modern London since I plan for my animation to portray London somewhat accurately and realistically although the method that London will be shown through is going to be very unrealistic.

I also wanted to gather references of the more stylistic and artistic parts of London because I feel that just having plain buildings in my animation would be a little boring so by having things that pop out and grabs the audience's attention a little keeps the feeling of the particular section of animation more intriguing and lively but not as lively as I plan for the other sections of my animation to be because I want the modern London portion to be a part of the animation that slows things down for both the character and the audience and lets everything that they've seen really sink in while walking along side the Thames with a calm and beautiful scenery, looking at how much London has developed as a city.

I feel that this tripped served me really well since I was able to get references that will most probably come in really handy when producing my animation, as well as gain a better understanding and clearer vision of what I want the last portion of my animation to look and feel like.

Artistic/Visual Research

Researching Information Regarding The FMP: 25/02/20

In this lesson, the class was tasked to conduct research on things that we would find useful regarding our work for the FMP and at first I didn't know what exactly to search for, although I knew it was going to be animation related. But then I remembered that I have a whole playlist on YouTube dedicated to animation, so I went there and picked a video that I hadn't watched yet.

Video 1:

The first video I watched was by an animator that I watch quite frequently and he was explaining 3 general ways to improve animation. The first way that was mentioned, was to scrub through the frames and check for arc adjustments. Adjustments to the arc of a movement can impact the feeling of depth within the animation because the arc of an arm swinging is going to be different at a 3/4 angle in comparison to a side view. The next tip was to scrub to look for timing to make the animation more dynamic since the timing basically determines how much of an impact certain frames are going to have, as well as how organic a movement looks, which can add life to the piece being drawn. The third tip was to focus on sections of the animation in detail when scrubbing rather than trying to look at the animation as a whole. This is mainly just for neatening up certain aspects of the animation. Another tip I ended up noticing, which ties in with the previous tip, was to make sure to maintain proportions in straight-ahead animation if that's what you're going for. In the video, the animator pointed out that these tips are just general tips for improving an animation in the early stages.

These tips were definitely useful for me and I'm most probably going to refer back to those notes and keep them in mind frequently when animating my project and looking for ways to improve it.

Video 2:

The next video was by the same content creator and this video was made to point out the mistakes that new animators make. There was not much information regarding  how to improve my animation skills directly but one big mistake that I notice my self falling in to a lot would be, that I get too focused on the end result and not actually enjoying the process itself, especially if I'm creating something more ambitious, such as the idea I currently have for my FMP. So it was a great reminder that I should enjoy the process and meditate through it so I don't hit any fatal slumps in motivation if I reach a rough stage throughout the process.

Video 3:

The third video I watched was made by another animator that I've watched a little previously. This video explained 7 tips for getting smoother animation.

The first tip was to plan out timing very well using sketches then draw a more finished piece over it once the timing is up to a pleasant standard, otherwise I may end up with a fully rendered character but the timing of his movements are completely off and jittery.The next tip was not to do everything in 1's because it's a lot more time consuming and also can be unnecessary work when the animation could get the same feeling and mood across with the use of less frames. The third tip was to prioritise the frames that need to be focused on so that those frames look right and make sense as intended, plus if you don't prioritise certain frames, one can find themselves wasting time on a frame that the audience isn't even going to notice.

The next two tips could be put into one overall tip regarding weight and distortion. The video points out that one should be very aware of weight because that's what gives the movements of objects and character feeling while making the movements organic. A situation where one wouldn't necessarily need to consider weight and inertia would be if they're animating a robot so the movements are more likely to be stiff and inorganic. When it comes to distortion, the video made it clear that it's good to use distortion for things that are moving fast, but one has to make sure the smearing and blurring etc follows the path of motion that the object is going through. The reason I put these two tips together, is because much like inertia, distortion prevents rigid movements but, unlike inertia, it helps blend movements together to make them smoother. I feel that these two particular tips will help me drastically since I'm planning for my animation to consist of quite dynamic movements and the tips regarding weight, inertia and distortion will definitely help with making the necessary aspects of my animation look satisfying.

The 6th tip in the video was a re-iteration of the third tip on the first video I watched,. However, the last tip in the video stated that one doesn't have to worry about subtle animations until everything else is fine, because majority of the time, those subtle animations aren't particularly necessary. They act more like the icing on top. This tip served as a great heads up and reminder that I mustn't waste time doing anything unnecessary, which somewhat ties in with prioritising frames.

Video 4:
After watching the third video, I was intrigued by the concept of smooth animation, so I searched for more videos regarding this concept and I came across a video that explained how to make my animations more fluid, by the same person who made the first 2 videos I watched for research.

In this video, it explains what flow is and shares some of the underlying principles that'll help me apply the idea of flow to my animation. In the beginning of the video , as well as explaining what flow is, the video also covers what the difference is between flow and smoothness.

Flow: The construction of frames in a sequence, which is mindful of the frames before and after, in a way that has aesthetic appeal as a consequence of being in a state of flow and is not affected by frame rate.

A way to identify whether an animation incorporates the idea of flow, is that when animating using the idea of flow, there'll be a ripple in the frames because they'll always be affected by what happened before that, which has caused it to change state.

Smooth: Relates more to frame rate. E.g. animating in 1's would be smoother than 3's but not necessarily flow better.

After covering what flow and smoothness is, the video moved on to discuss the principles of flow. The first principle discussed was the continuation of momentum, which is more on the scientific side but is still necessary to understand and make use of flow. The continuation of momentum points out that energy is required to change velocity, energy isn't created or destroyed and that arcs are more efficient in locomotion and provides more organic movement. This principle can be seen when looking at all forms of life, even in machinery this principle is present, for example when a car turns, it's more energy efficient for it to turn in an arc rather than have a sudden change in direction.

The next principle of flow was the "Body Ripple Effect". The body ripple effect explains that most movements start at the core and ripple outwards to the ends of limps and objects etc. For example, if something needs to change at the foot, the hip will still be affected, not just the foot.

After covering those couple principles, the video than moved on to suggest making studies on objects that embody what flow is to help further one's understanding of flow. The video suggested objects such as ribbons, chains, whips and things of that likeness. As well as pointing out what to make studies on, the video also demonstrated how one can simplify the seemingly random movements of these objects in to mounds moving along from the main pivot point and then showed a simple example of  how the movement could look when done on an object with joints.

Unfortunately, I was unable to finish the video by the end of the session but, I feel that the principles that I was able to cover will be very important to keep in mind when animating, since they'll most likely result in a much more satisfying and organic experience for the audience. Plus I feel that if I keep these principles in mind while animating, I should be able to animate more efficiently because I won't have to go through as many moments of trial and error trying to figure out why my animation may not look particularly appealing, since I'll know what I need to look for when scrubbing through my animation and making it look more fluid if I didn't already apply the idea of flow in certain areas when creating my animation.

Animation Practice: 05 - 06/03/20

Today, I decided to conducted some secondary research on animation before animating a scene I had in mind so I could get a little more in the zone as well as gain knowledge that I can make use of in my animation.

The first video I watched was a video breaking down the animating techniques of a well known, talented and highly skilled fight scene animator, Yutaka Nakamura. The video covers one main thing that Nakamura makes use of in his animation, and that's the use of contrast, particularly the contrast of speed, which exemplifies the feeling of speed and strength behind different movements and sequences. This concept can definitely serve to improve my level of animation in general, as well as be quite useful in the earlier portions of my FMP animation since I'm planning some of the animation to be a little more fast paced although possibly only for a short amount of time.

The next thing the video covered was proximity tension, and this was the idea that the closer an object/character is to another can really increase that feeling of tension in a scene, especially a fight scene, which is where this concept seems most likely to be used. Although I haven't initially planned to use this concept of proximity tension in my FMP animation; after learning of this concept, I feel like this could amp up the feeling of the character's initial confusion if I do make use of it.

Bahi JD

The next video I watched was a study on another highly skilled, talented and well known animator, Bahi JD, who's animations have a great level of fluidity and bounce to it. This video was a study on one piece of his animation, but the main thing I took from this and want to incorporate in to my animations, is how bouncy and fun his animations look and feel, as well as the way the he uses and exaggerates his effects like motion blur and explosion etc.

I want to be able to adopt certain aspects of his method for animating to my own method so that my general animating skill can improve by bringing more life to the things I'm animating but also for my FMP because the feelings of fluidity, bounciness and fun are the main things that I'm aiming to achieve with my animation on London: Then & Now.

Analysing Visual Styles: 24/03/20

Today, I received some feedback on my blog and was suggested to conduct some research on styles of drawing. And so, I began doing so and I started off by going through my animation playlist on YouTube since the art style I'll be deriving my art style from comes from multiple different artist and animators for different aspects of their drawing, such as line art, colour pallet and lighting & shading.

In regards to the differences in the characters, I referred back to an animation that I had saved and chose to go along with a character design like so, since with a simplified character design I feel it allows for more emphasise and feeling to be put on the actions and dynamic movements taking place. This also ties in with my desired style for the background because this simple character designing doesn't just allow for the actions to be felt more intensely, I feel that it also lets the the audience take much more notice of the background and what is happening in the background, which will most probably be quite integral to the success of my animation.

When it came to looking for a colour palette I could follow and take from I was stumped for a good portion of time so I just went through animated and art pieces that I really enjoyed and tried to figure out and breakdown why I really liked them. And although I was able to breakdown to myself why I liked many things in most of the pieces, the aspects regarding their colour palette wasn't exactly practical for me until I came across this animated piece made by the animator, Ethan Becker. At first I wasn't particularly able to put my finger on what exactly about the colour palette I liked but after a little contemplation I figured that the flatter toned colour palette had a really aesthetic feel without looking like it takes too much effort so it seemed quite practical in regards to animation and as well as efficiency it also allows the audience to focus on what the animator wants them to focus on while giving off a particular mood depending on how the colour palette is used.

This would definitely be something I'll attempt to take from since I'm not particularly adept with colours and so this colour palette, use of lighting and use of shading will hopefully allow me to make use of my limited ability regarding colours as well as help boost the impact of my animation.

Regarding Line art, I wasn't too sure of what I wanted exactly because I aim for there to be multiple different scenarios, events and changes in tempo & mood so different types of line art cater to the different moods as such but one animator I watched used quite thick, smooth and curved lines to outline the larger shapes of their characters, which allowed for more simplified yet satisfying designs.

So for scenes that are more up beat and not so serious in my animation, I feel that this style of line art could be quite useful, whereas for the more serious scenes, I could still use the thickness of this line art but I'd have to make sure to use sharper and more angular shapes to help enhance the necessary feelings for the scene.

Pre-Production Research

Creating FMP Script: 30/03/20

Today, I decided that it was time for me to move on to creating the script for my FMP animation but before I got to it, I was quite unsure of how to create a script for an animation short that is likely to have no dialogue in it, so I went and conducted some research on how to create a script for a silent film since that was the closest thing I could relate my animation to.

The first easily applicable source of information I came a across, was a website called RainDance and although it wasn't exactly discussing about making a silent film script but it provided information on creating a short film that focus on the essentials, which is what should happens when you make a short film without dialogue. So as I scrolled further down and read on, I found a chunk of information titled "Write your story as Action-Only" and in this chunk of information it stated that one should write a series of short paragraphs describing what the audience would see from beginning to end; and to also visualise different locations that quickly and dramatically set the stage, just as a sunny park and a dark subway establish different moods and context.

From this the main thing I aimed to keep in mind while writing my script was to write out what the audience would see from beginning to end, since my project actually is a silent animation and so the visuals will need to get across what is currently going on concisely and engagingly. Now knowing what to do when making my script, it was time for me to research how to format a script for a silent film because I felt that it would naturally be different to a normal script including dialogue.

When researching the format of a script I came a cross many scripts but their actual formatting and structure wasn't properly broken down for me to understand easily, so when I came across "Writers Store" I noticed that they had labels and annotations for each section of the script that was different and unique. They also had a portion below the script visual example that described the different elements of a screenplay script. And although this script example and description was mainly directed for someone who is simply pitching an idea, I was able to adapt the example and descriptions to suit my script for the FMP. One thing I did have to somewhat freestyle with was talking about camera movements and camera shots because those weren't discussed on the website since those aspects are normally done by the director.

So when writing my scripted, I followed this format, except for the dialogue sections since I'll only be having actions in my animation, all the while, keeping in mind that I should be describing what the audience will be seeing from beginning to end. Also while doing this, I felt that it became much easier to write in a script like format, although possibly not completely accurate.

However, when writing the script, I was having trouble figuring out the names of different camera movements that I want in my animation and so I decided to conduct some more secondary research to help make the script writing process smoother and more efficient.

The first thing I came across was a small blog on "Story Blocks" that covered 7 basic camera movements and when I was scrolling through, I starting thinking that these wouldn't be of much use to me since these basic camera movements weren't going to be too useful since I knew most of them, but then I came across the camera movement "Dolly", which is when the whole camera moves forward or backwards, and this turned when I saw this I immediately knew where this camera movement would be useful because there were a couple scenes where I wanted the camera to follow a character or move towards a character without zooming in and a dolly camera movement was the perfect movement for this.

Although helpful, dolly wasn't the camera movement I was looking for, so I continued to search for more advanced camera movements because I figured that the movement I was looking for wasn't basic. But still after researching I couldn't find the name of the camera movement I was looking for, however I did come across "VideoMaker", which was a website made to help people make and improve videos. And although this also didn't have the camera movement I was looking for, it did mention "Handheld Shooting" and so when seeing this, I felt that the movement I was looking was something that would be classed as hand held shooting.

With that in mind, I just called the movement I wanted, "Circling". However, later in the day I brought the question of, what kind of camera movement I was looking for, to my friend and he was able to find the actual name in seconds and the movement was called an "Arc Shot" and when I looked at an example of an arc shot, I knew it was the shot I was looking for.

Character List and Visual Description: 31/03/20

After finishing off the last of my script today, I thought it would be a good idea to create character descriptions for the noticeable characters within my animation so it'll be me much easier to draw them out in their character sheets since I'll have a description I can refer back to. However, when creating these sheets, I only roughly knew what Romans would wear and so I went to multiple different sites regarding the different types of attire for different types of people. For example, a female could wear a long-sleeved, ankle length tunic under their stola, which covered their body from neck to ankle and fastened at the shoulders; a male could wear a short-sleeved, knee length tunic and wear a toga over the top of it, which was a large woollen material that was cut in a semi-circle and draped around the body and one shoulder.

The results of my research regarding roman clothing allowed for me to create much more contextually accurate descriptions for the roman character in my animation, such as the gladiators, citizens, soldier and generals

Production research