Arts Award Silver
Silver Arts Award Project Plan
What I need to do:
- Think of an idea for a short animated piece.
- Discuss my idea with my animation tutor
- Design characters and set/props
- Draw my storyboard/Plan camera moves
- Direct Angela to make the models
- Make trees for set
- Make Houses/picket fence/pavement etc
- Direct mum to felt a backdrop (Hills and Trees)
- Set up first scene and light it
- Animate using first stage
- Set up second scene and light it
- Animate with second scene
What I will need to make my animation:
- Models:
Small girl
Grown up lady (same outfit as small girl)
Young child - Large Tree for girl to sit in.
- Lots of smaller trees and bushes for set
- Woodland scene needs loads of leaves to cover ground (paper punch leaf pattern)
- Row of Houses
- White picket fence
- Pavement
- Grass Verge
Order of things to do:
- Storyboard idea (Plan all camera work/composition)
- Make characters
- Make set and props
- Light sets
- Set up camera/shoots
- Animate all scenes
- Edited film
- Add sound, titles and credits
Artist statement:
My animation is about the state of the planet and how we are replacing beautiful forests and nature with boring fabricated buildings and the impact this is having on the environment. My film aims to make people stop and think and realise they can make a difference.
My woodland set feels almost like a fairytale and create that sense of magic you get when you walk into a real forest when it is almost to beautiful to be real.
I choose not to give the characters faces so that anyone could relate to them, in increase the audience appeal and to inspire more people to think about the impact they are having on the environment.
The models in my film purposely look like dolls that are sewn together to represent living a a fabricated world.
As the young girl jumps from the tree she transforms into an adult to show that the beautiful forest she once grow up in was destroyed and replaced with a boring housing estate, where all the house are basically the same.
I chose to make the whole piece look like a fabric world to show how we are all sold this dream of 'perfection' when in reality we are destroying what was already far beyond perfect and replacing it with something ugly and repetitive.
After the young girls transform into an adult we see her with her daughter planting a tree sapling to hopefully bring that nature back one day. I wanted to make people think and do more to help protect nature and see its beauty.
My film represents how big businesses with big machinery come along and destroy nature to build houses and make loads of money, some people don't even realise that the piece of flattened land they now live could once have been a beautiful forest.
The little animals at the end of my film give each other a little nod of approval to say 'this is good, she is on the right path, she is teaching her daughter the right way of being a decent human being, there is hope'.
Art Project Review:
I feel I did good with my project. I am happy with how it turned out. I enjoyed making my animations. I achieved what I set out to do.
I found sticking to the timeframe the most challenging and also working on a computer without a mouse was hard for me.
It took a lot longer to make than I had planned but animation is a slow process so next time I would plan my project over a longer time frame to allow for this.
It was my first time trying a 'looped' animation and I did well at these.
I learned a valuable new skill of 'shadow animating' which I intend to use from now on with my animations as I was able to see how much this can improve your animating timing.
After sharing my animations on YouTube I received lots of views, likes and positive comments. One video has had over 7400 views and is still increasing quickly, it has also gained me over 200 new subscribers, which has increased the views to my older animations on my YouTube channel one of these is now at over 8200 views.
Some of the comments/reviews from my YouTube animations:
I have been replying to the reviews and enjoy the comments most from people who actually ask me questions about how I modified the characters or how I made them move in a certain way. I am pleased with this feedback and it has inspired me to modify my characters more and do even better animations in the future.
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Leadership Workshop Plan
Where will I run my workshop:
Carymoor Environmental Trust
Website: carymoor.org.uk
Address: Dimmer Lane Castle Cary
When will I run it:
19th - 20th June 2023
Set up equipment on 19th 4-6pm
Run workshop with participants on 20th 9-4pm
Number of Participants:
Approx 10
What will I need:
Materials:
Plasticine
Armatures
Felted background
Green floor
Eyes
Polyheads
Clothes
Stuffing
Props
(Scissors/pins/glue/rolling pin)
Equipment:
How to make a puppet/Instructions
Stage/backdrop
Magnets
Laptop
Lights
Camera
Tripod
Storyboard
The tree sapling models
Rig
(Spare tripod and camera bracket to record the workshop for arts award)
FNaF characters (for Rose to demonstrate animation)
Schedule/Plan for the workshop:
All participants gather together for introduction and explanation of what animation is and how to do it.
Intro:
Share project:
Show Storyboard
Show Models
Play 'Tree Sapling' animation
Next Rose will explain a bit about what animation is so you can understand a little more about how this animation was made and she will then give you a quick demo of how to animate
Notes:
24 fps smooth/slow clean animation
Move characters a 'fraction'
For faster movements you would move the characters a bit more
Rigs
How to make things appear to be off the ground and these are removed in post edit
Talk about the different types of models i.e. Wire armatures and Articulated models
What goes into making an animation?
Idea
Storyboard
Planning/camera work
Scripts
Lip sync
Design and make models
Sets
Props
Lighting
Timing/movements
Editing
Sound
Rose to demonstrate how to animate (using FNaF articulated characters)
Rose will now talk a bit about what you are going to be doing today and then I will run you through how to put your models together.
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Review of leadership Project:
I think I did OK at my leadership skill share. I had to adjust my plan a little as people arrived early whilst I was still making an animation ready for later to show a demonstration. But I rolled with it and in a way it worked quite well as people got to see this first.
I feel I worked quite well with the other people at the event, I gave some good advice when I was sat down and people were making their models. I had a slight panic the day before the workshop when I was setting up and running through what I was going to say, as I became worried that people would question me to much, but on the day it went fine and everyone listened well to me.
I set out to share my knowledge of animation and give the people a better understanding of how animated films are made. I even taught them about using rigs to make objects fly etc. I feel I achieved this. The best thing about my leadership workshop was that I let them have a go and make their own animations, rather than just explain how it is done, I feel they learnt more by having a go themselves.
The biggest challenge was getting people to stick to the time frame, as a few groups took a lot longer than I had planned, so the workshop ran over the time frame I had set out but I just went along with this and it was not a problem, perhaps next time I could set out clearer instructions on how long they have to make their pieces.
I find it really challenging to talk to people I don't know in general so getting up in front of a crowd made me nervous but I think I did OK. I am thinking if I did something like this again I would like to present it online and would like to pre record the tutorial so I could get it perfect and correct beforehand.
I feel to be a good leader you have to be a good communicator, a good listener and also be adaptable as people might have ideas you may not have considered so you have to be open minded.
I received some good verbal feedback from people that attended the workshop. They said it was better than they had expected and that they really enjoyed it and had fun making their animations. I am pleased with this feedback.
Review
I attended the Salvador Dali Immersive Experience in London on March 27th 2023.
We arrived at the event and got to walk around and see a bunch of his artwork and it was also very interactive.
There was a big room you could sit in and it had projectors displaying moving images of Dali's art work all over the walls and there were comfy seats all around for you to sit on and take it all in. It was almost like a sensory room. For me this part of the experience was a little too loud but i managed to stay a while and I enjoyed it.
There was a VR part to exhibition and this part was surprisingly good. I have been to events similar to this before and the VR parts where never very good with poor fitting VR, too loud sound and rubbish graphics and you normally just have to sit down.. The Dali VR part wasn't like this, this one was very interactive and you got to walk around, the VR was actually really well done. The VR wasn't too heavy, the graphics were good, and If you wanted to you could adjust the audio volume. I felt comfortable moving around in the room while wearing the VR because there was a railing in the room that you could still see with the VR on and you could see a graphic of your hand so you could easily grab the railing and not walk into the walls and you could also see all of the other people with headsets on so you didn't bump into them.
There was also a big section explaining what he was trying to say with his artwork and the influences that he had, i learned he was friends with Einstein and Freud. My understanding of Dali's artwork is that he was pushing peoples boundaries and challenging them to think deeper about life in general.
I found out that his art also involves a lot of science but that sometimes he would make the art first and then realise the sciences behind it, almost like he had a deeper understanding of the world already. I believe he could see life and the world differently to most people and wanted to share this view.
I learnt that Dali was a painter and that he was a surrealist artist which makes his art seems almost dreamlike. I feel his art opens a massive debate on 'what is reality?' i would have loved to have met him as i think we could have had a good discussion on this together as i feel i also see the world differently.
I don't know if the exhibition has had a creative impact on me as i will just continue to make the artwork that i like to make but i enjoyed the experience and i learned lot's about him and i can say that i like his artwork. I hadn't heard of Dali before attending this event, I had seen some of his most famous pieces like the melting clocks but now i know who the artist is behind those pieces.
I believe Dali was very clever and you can see this in his artwork. My way of explaining it is that he could see between the lines. Where everyone else sees things in just black and white Dali was able to see all the colours and possibly beyond that. He wasn't just thinking outside the box, that box was in a circle and he was thinking outside the circle!
I would recommend for others to go and see this event for themselves because it is good and is well put together and because it is an interactive event you need to go and experience it for yourself.
Career Plan
I have researched online for advice on how to grow a YouTube channel and followed the advice I found:
Things I found out and intend to do:
Researched and found out how to take a screenshot from a video to assist in making better thumbnails (press windows key and print screen button at the same time-photo will be in screenshot folder) once edited save as JPEG.
Other things I have done to grow my career as an animator and YouTuber:
Designed and had printed a Business card to hand out to people to gain subscribers.
Created QR code so people can scan direct to my YouTube channel
I helped Angela write an email to an animation company to see if we could visit. Sadly the reply was a no as the company did not have public insurance. But we received some great advice.
Contact a couple of you tubers I like and admire for advice and to make links/network
