Unit 53 2D Animation Production

MAGIC PAINTBRUSH ANIMATION

RESEARCH

Before I create an animation, it is best for me to do research on different types of animation, so that I understand more about the type of animation I am using and other types of animation that I may use in the future. There are three main types of animation which I am going to look into.

Traditional Animation

Traditional animations begin with paper drawings of what you want to animate. Each drawing is a frame, so to create the illusion of movement, each drawing must differ slightly from the frame before. 

Each drawing is a frame that will make the character look like they
are laughing. 

Once the drawings are complete, they are traced onto cels (transparent sheets of film material). One the tracing is done, the animator adds colour and then photographs each cel against a painted background.


Stop-Motion Animation

Stop-motion animation uses a similar process to traditional animation, but instead of animating drawings, you animate real world objects. This is done by creating your object (animators commonly use clay, cutouts or silhouettes), and then physically manipulating the object. while manipulating the object, the animator takes photographs to create the illusion of movement.

A scene from the film ParaNorman. It was produced using
clay animation. 

Computer animation

Computer animation is the modern type of animation, it uses computer software to create animation digitally on a computer. There are two types of computer animation, 2D and 3D. In 2D animations, figures, objects and sets are created and edited using 2D bitmap graphics applications (e.g. adobe flash).

A character walk cycle being animated in flash.

In 3D animation, animators create models using 3D modelling software (e.g. CorelDraw). The model is then given an armature (bones/sculpture) so that the model can be realistically manipulated. A wide range of variable may be added, such as gravity, simulated hair and other effects.

3D modelling software being used to animate the character walk cycle.

MAGIC PAINTBRUSH STORYBOARD

For my UNIT 53 I have decided to create an animation of a Chinese folk tale called the Magic Paintbrush. It is about a young man called Ma Liang who loves to draw. He wakes up one day and finds a magic paintbrush that creates what ever he draws. He goes around helping people in need, and defeats an evil man who tries to use the paintbrush for his own selfish needs (full story).

When creating anything, it is always best to plan it out before you make your project, so that you know what you are doing and are more efficient when it comes to making. When creating films or animations, it is best to plan using a storyboard. Storyboards are great for planning as they give a visual representation of what the creator wants each scene to look like, they also give descriptions of the camera angles, sounds and what is happening in a scene.

On the first page of my storyboard, Ma Liang has a dream where he sees the magic paintbrush and wakes up to find it there. He then goes on to start helping people with the paint brush. I decided when I started the storyboard that I wont show Ma Liangs full face. Whenever he is in a scene, I will either use extreme close ups, so you cant see all of his face, or I will use over the shoulder shots. I also I use some extreme long shots to show the effects that Ma Liangs magic has on a landscape.

On the second page of my storyboard, Ma Liang helps one more person. His magic paintbrush attracts the attention of the Bad Guy, who orders his thugs to kidnap Ma Liang. Once again on this page I only show Ma Liang from behind, so I will use over the shoulder shots when he is in a scene. Alternatively, scenes with the Bad Guy will all be one shots, this is to show that he is a main character, and so that viewers will focus on his evilness. I also decided to represent the Bad Guys thugs in coats and trilbies, this is because I wanted to make it look like they are part of a mafia.











On the last page of my storyboard, the Bad Guy tries to use the magic paintbrush and it backfires. He then forces Ma Liang to make him a mountain of gold. Before he makes the mountain, Ma Liang creates an ocean between them and the gold mountain, so when the Bad Guy sets sail, Ma Liang uses the paintbrush to sink the Bad Guys boat. The main shot that I use on this page is the extreme long shot. This is because I needed a shot with a large enough scale that could show an ocean, a mountain and the characters. I will also use the medium shot to show the Bad Guy failing to use the magic paintbrush.

ANIMATION

To complete Unit 53, I have to create an animation of my magic paintbrush storyboard in adobe flash. As I don't have much experience with this software, I started of by practicing using different tweens. I created animations that used motion and shape tweens. I also used the bone tool to make a basic leg.




                                                               

                                    

WALK CYCLES

After I made the tweens, I started to produce a walk cycle using a blank character from a Preston Blair walk cycle sheet. The walk cycle that I chose was just a normal one, but I might try animating a more interesting one later on.

The frames from the walk cycle that I animated.

 To make the walk cycle in flash, I first traced each of the frames from the picture above in adobe illustrator. I then exported the tracings into the flash library and added them to my animation. I made each one of the tracings a keyframe and put them each two frames apart.

 
After I finished my blank walk cycle I started to develop some of the characters from my Magic Paintbrush so that I put them into walk cycles. As I decided that I am not going to show the face of Ma Liang in my animation, I started to develop the Bad Man character instead.

 I already had a good idea of what the Bad Man was going to look like before I started drawing him. He was going to be an old man, with bulging eyes and a big moustache. In my first drawing I decided that he would have a hunch back due to his age. But I decided after that he would stand straight because it made him look less frail and more cold. I also did a drawing of his head side on. I added a monocle to him but I don't think that I will keep it as it will make it harder to animate him.   













After I finished the character development for the Bad Man, I made a Ma Liang walk cycle with footstep sounds. Although I am not going to show his face, I am basing Ma Liang around a character called Mugen from an anime series, Samurai Champloo. For some reason, when ever I try to visualise Ma Liang, I think of mugen, which is why I decided to base Ma Liang on him.

Mugen. The character that I am basing Ma Liang
from.

 The first thing that I had to do was draw up all of the frames that I would need for the walk cycle. I based the frames on the Preston Blair walk cycle that I used for my blank walk cycle. I did it in illustrator as the pen tool make drawing easier because you can edit the lines you draw.

After I finished drawing the Ma Liang frames, I exported them individually into the library of my first walk cycle animation. I then made another layer and lined up the Ma Liangs with the black characters in each of the key frames. I then deleted the blank character layer and added a walking sound that I downloaded from freesound and edited in audacity.

FINAL ANIMATION

Peer Evaluation

What I learned from my peer evaluation is that I have to finish my animation. I then have to research and add some sounds and also research how to use masks in flash.

I received some good comments evaluating my animation from my presentation. The comments that I got were:
  
Graphically strong

Great use of effects such as blurring and other animation techniques

Colours used very effectively

Graphic elements and style work really effectively.

Better time management would have produced a much better outcome.

Good tree.

No sound


Art style worth developing

Obviously the biggest problems with my animation was the fact that I didn't finish the animation and because of that I didn't add any sound. I also wish that I had more time to improve transitions beween scenes and some of the animations that I wasn't happy with. If I had the chance to do this again, I would defiantly use my time better to finish the animation and add sounds, I also would have left some time to polish the finished animation.

However, due to the feed back I got from my presentation I know that the art style that I used was popular and that I used effects such as blurring well. So hopefully I can develop the art style I used for future animations to make it even more effective. I could also learn how to use different types of effects to make my future animations interesting and diverse.

Saul Bass Style Star Wars Opening Scene

I chose Saul Bass style opening scene as it has all the main components to make it a good example of the Saul Bass style, its simplistic, has hand drawn fonts and contrasting colours.

One of the main things you notice about this title sequence is the fact that all of the objects are made of simple shapes such as squares and circles. But despite that fact, you can still tell what the shapes are meant to represent. This is one of the most important things when creating Saul Bass style work, making it as simple as possible while still trying to make it understandable.

One of the Main things that defined Saul Bass was his hand drawn fonts, it added to the theme of simplicity in his work, but also made it unique. It worked so effectively that everyone who has successfully created Saul Bass style since has also used hand made fonts in their work, including the creator of this title sequence, which is one of the reasons that makes it good.

This opening sequence also uses a lot of contrasting colours such as bright colours on black. this works very well because it makes the simplicity of Saul Bass style more interesting.

Unit 03 Ideas and Concepts

SAUL BASS

RESEARCH

My First Mood board

One of the best ways to research how to do something, is to look at past examples of the subject. As work that is inspired by Saul Bass is usually very visual, it makes sense to use mood boards to research this subject. 

These are all Saul Bass inspired posters that I found on google images. Like Saul Bass' original work, all of these posters have contrasting colours, hand drawn fonts and are very simple. I particularly like the fonts from the Red Dead Redemption and Dexter posters. the film that i have chosen for this project is True Grit, a western like Red Dead, so I think that if I use a similar font to the Red Dead font it will look good in my work. The font used in Dexter would also suit the western style of True Grit, as it resembles the text from an old western wanted poster. This could be useful when I make my Saul Bass style movie trailer, as . could use a wanted poster as one of the frames.

As a western, one of the main themes of True Grit is violence. The Jaws and Dexter posters both have a lot of red in them. The colour red is often used to portray anger and violence, so I could use the colour schemes of the Jaws and Dexter posters to try to add those feelings to my work.


  Both of these Posters effectively capture the Saul Bass style as they are very simple, but still manage to tell you about the movie. The only object the Fight Club poster has on it is a crude clenched fist. but it clearly shows that the film is about fighting as clenched fists often signify violence. the Star Wars poster is also very simple, it only has the silhouette of a man and a red triangle. But because of the way that the triangle is positioned, I can tell that it is meant to be a weapon. and the fact that the man is portrayed in a dark colour, tells 
me that he is the bad guy.
Even if I took away the movie titles, you would still be able to identify the films because the images are so iconic. I have learnt from these posters that when creating images for my own work, i must make them simple, but also recognisable enough for the viewer to know what the image is and how it relates to the subject.

TYPOGRAPHY DEVELOPMENT

Hand drawn fonts are important when doing Saul Bass style work. So it makes sense to begin typography development with hand drawn designs. All of the designs that I came up with are inspired by the posters on the mood board that I did for my research.

My first designs for my Saul Bass style movie title

On the bottom sheet, the bottom right design was based on a Star Wars poster, and the bottom left was based on the Red Dead Redemption poster. The top ones were inspired by the Dexter poster, and I attempted a design based on the Fight Club poster, above the Red Dead inspired design, but i wasn't happy with how it was
turning out.

On the top sheet I have developed the 
Red Dead and Dexter designs. The movie 
that I have decided to do in Saul Bass style
is True Grit. As True Grit is a western film, I
decided to develop those designs because they suited western movie style. I think that the top design suits because it it inspired by Red Dead redemption, a very successful western style video game. The bottom design is based on the Dexter title, because it looks like the font that was
used on old western wanted posters.

Below I have some Fonts that I downloaded to give me more inspiration when it came to making my own hand drawn writing styles on Adobe Illustrator. They are all based on Saul Bass style and I tried to get ones that would suit the movie that I picked, True Grit. I picked fonts like Scrunch, which looked gritty, and fonts like The Dead Saloon, which looks like it came from an old western movie. 

Some examples of Saul Bass style fonts that I downloaded from www.DaFont.com

The first 6 movie titles I designed in adobe illustrator were all based around my hand drawn designs or inspired by the fonts that I downloaded from DaFont. 

The first is of the Red Read style design that i hand drew. it is on top of an eye patch as one of the main characters in true grit wears an eyepatch. The second is based on the Dexter title as it looks like the font from a wanted poster. The third is of my own design which I didn't plan. the T's are meant to represent guns shooting at each other, which i why there is an explosion behind the type.

The fourth is based on the 20.000 Bail Bond font that I downloaded from DaFont. It doesn't really suit a western film, but I thought that it looked pretty cool. The fifth Is based on the Vermin Vibes Diet font that I got on DaFont. it looks more like it should be in a sci-fi movie, but I wanted to explore my options. I put the letters in a triangle because the font is quite triangular. The sixth is based on the mexican Fiesta font I got from DaFont. I liked it because it splits into colours, and it would suit a western movie, but it is quite hard to read because the letters are split in half.  

My first 6 Saul Bass style movie titles done in Illustrator

IMAGE DEVELOPMENT

A mind map with things that relate to True Grit

 To design and create a Saul Bass style movie opening sequence, you need more than hand drawn fonts. You also need to design images to add to it. The images have to link to the movie, but be as simplistic as possible. To come up with my own images, I first created a mind map of things that relate to the film True Grit, e.g. guns, outlaws, bounties.

A hand drawn mood board 

I then made a hand drawn mood board of images that relate to True Grit, so that I could see how they looked. The drawings of the beard and eyepatch and hat and plaits are based on two of the films main characters. I plan to develop them
more and hopefully use them in my final
story board.

After I developed six of the best ideas from the hand drawn mood board and mind map. The first is of a US marshal badge, as one of the main characters is one. the second is a simplified version of one of the characters faces. I only put the beard and eye patch because they are so iconic. The third image is a development of my outlaw idea. He has a big cowboy hat and a bandana to hide his face, so the only facial feature you can see are his eyes.

the fourth image is of a horses head. Because horses are so recognisable, I only needed to silhouette its head. I did the horses mane in a contrasting colour because it looks cool and it suits the Saul Bass style. The Fifth is of another of the films main characters. She has a very recognisable hair style and hat in the movie. As long as the image has two features, it is clear what it is meant to be of. The last image is of a shotgun. I chose this because Guns and violence are a common theme in western movies, and an image of a shotgun is easy to simplify.

6 images that I developed on illustrator

After I finished my research and development of fonts and imaged that I could put in my Saul Bass work, I then began work on a rough story board for my True Grit title sequence. It has twelve frames which introduce the characters and the directors, the Coen brothers. I am also going to use images that I have developed in certain frames to give hints about characters, locations and the story line.

The rough story board for my True Grit title sequence.

FINAL STORY BOARD

I have uploaded my final True Grit story board below. It is intended to be an opening scene of the movie, it introduces the main characters and gives a slight idea of what the story is. I have also briefly written about the shots and what the scene involves below each panel to give vital context to to others who may read my story board.  

HORROR POSTERS

RESEARCH

For this part of the unit I am going to produce posters for two different horror movies or games. I have decided to make posters for the movie Tucker and dale vs evil, and the video game Metro 2033. Before I make the posters, I am first going to research other horror movie and game posters to find aspects that I like such as the colour scheme or fonts. Once I find aspects I like, I can apply them to my own work.

My horror poster research.

More horror poster research. All of these posters are Saul Bass
style.

After I finished my research on other posters, I made mood boards based on things from the movie and game that I am making a poster for. I did this to research different visual aspects that I could include in my poster. The first set of the three mood boards is based on visual aspects from Metro, and the second set is based on visual aspects from Tucker and Dale. 

In my first Metro mood board, I mainly collected pictures related to the location. For example, there are pictures of Moscow, and the Russian metro, as that is where the game is set. I also got pictures of winter cloths, a gas mask and a haz mat suit, as the game is set after a nuclear apocalypse.

My second Metro mood board has more pictures relating to a nuclear apocalypse. It is also mostly made up of pictures relating to the different factions in the game. It also has a picture of venice as one of the locations is the game is called venice.   

My last Metro mood board is largely made up of photos that relate to items that you get in the game such as night vision googles and a Geiger counter. I also put a photo of a fishing boat as in venice you go fishing for creatures called "prawns". 

Like my first Metro poster, my first Tucker and Dale poster is largely made up of photos relating to the location, a log cabin in the West Virginian countryside. I also have photos relating to the main characters in the movie, hillbillies  college students and a police officer.

My second Tucker and Dale poster is mostly made up of items that are included in scenes from the movie, such as pancakes and a chainsaw. I also have a picture of a sawmill as the big fight in the movie takes place in a sawmill.

My last Tucker and Dale mood board is made up of a mix of things. The gun and tea are related to scenes of the movie, and it ends in a bowling alley, so I put that photo in last. There is also a scene where some of the characters try to talk and end up fighting, which is why I put a photo of politicians fighting.








After I finally finished my mood boards, I collected different textures that linked to the movies. I did this so that I could use the textures as inspiration for types of textures I could put in my final posters. I also took samples of colours from the textures and put them in the top corner so that I can use them when it comes to making my final posters.
                                                                                                                                                                     

some textures that linked to Metro 2033.

textures linked to Tucker and Dale.

TYPOGRAPHY DEVELOPMENT

After I completed my research, I began my typography development so that I would have fonts to use for my final posters. I began my typography development by downloading 20 different fonts from Dafont. I picked fonts that I thought would suit the movie or game I picked it for. For example, I thought that the remnant font really suited Metro as the game is set in the remnants of post apocalyptic Moscow. I also think that the blood dripping effect of the chung dipped font suited Tucker and Dale vs evil as the film is pretty graphic.

After I finished researching different fonts, I began developing the fonts that I chose to use in my final posters. The fonts that I chose were actually different to any of the fonts that I included on my font research as I found them on a later date, but I preferred them to any of the fonts that I put on my research sheet. I think that the best designs were the blood splattered Metro and the yellow Tucker and Dale title.

IMAGE DEVELOPMENT

After I finished my typography development, I began to come up with ideas of images that I could use in my final poster. I started of with Metro 2033. The first image that I came up with was a gas mask. Gas masks are a vital part of the Metro games as you need them to protect your character from radiation. As they are so important to the game and they look quite scary, I thought that it would look good on my final poster. I also drew a Spartan shield. I added the shield because the games main character Artyom is a member of the Spartans (basically the UN peacekeepers of the metro). Because the Spartans and all thing related to them are so iconic, I thought that it might look good on my final Metro poster.

The first of my two Metro 2033 image development sheets.

My second Metro image development sheet.

After I finished my Metro image development, I moved on to Tucker and Dale. The first image that I came up with was of a log cabin. The log cabin is on of the most iconic things from the movie as most of the film is centred around it. Thus it would make sense if it was included in the movie poster. I also drew a wood chipper. The wood chipper is involved in one of the best parts of the movie, so i am thinking of including it in my Tucker and Dale final poster as it is so memorable.

My first Tucker and Dale vs evil image development sheet.

My second tucker and Dale image development sheet.

POSTER DESIGNS

After I finished my image development, I started my final poster designs. One of the main themes of the Metro games is survival of the fittest. So I decided that I would include that theme in my final poster. I included it by drawing different stages of human evolution, with the dark ones (creatures that are superior to humans) at the end of the chain. I then added the title and the text at the bottom of the poster.

After I finished my Metro poster, I started my tucker and Dale final poster design. I decided to stick with the log cabin from my image development. In front of the cabin is Chad, the bad guy who gets half his face burnt off. I then added the title and the text.

My metro 2033 final poster design.

My final Tucker and Dale vs evil poster design.

FINAL POSTERS

After I finished my final poster design, I moved on to doing the final posters. I made them on illustrator with some help from photoshop and google. I completed the posters with varying degrees of success. I am happy with my Metro 2033 poster, the food chain and the ruined city look look good, the font suits the poster and I am happy with the colour scheme.

My final Metro 2033 poster.

However, I am not as happy with how my Tucker and Dale poster turned out. I spent so long on my metro poster that I didn't have time to complete the poster that I had planned to make, so I had to quickly make this one, which is based on another part of the movie. I also had problems with the font that I planned to use so I had to download another from Dafont. I don't think its terrible, its just not what I planned to do.

My final Tucker and Dale poster.