WEEK 1
This week we looked at how diverse animation is with loads of different styles. When you think about it there are loads! Our task was to draw a character using 5 different animation styles. I chose to sketch Bilbo. I’m not confident drawing so I used a lot of tracing to get an idea of the different styles. Disney and Ghibli were easier with big eyes and simpler details, but I liked the character of Gorrillaz. Lots of nostalgia this week thinking about the animations I grew up with and definitely ended up going down a nostalgia rabbit hole… reconnecting to past memories!
WEEK 3
Creating stories this week! We looked at how to use storyboards to let a story and sketch out key moments in a story. We had to do this for some everyday activities like making toast and a cup of tea. I have added a 6 image storyboard of making a cup of tea without words. I found though straight after the session I started a long story board for an animation idea I have had in my head for a while now. It was a really great way to get my ideas out of my head and see what it might look like and start thinking about the arc of the story. As a visual learner, this technique was really useful to get my thoughts on paper and could be really useful in general to help me organise things!
WEEK 2
This week we looked at building characters and how basic shapes can be used to reflect personality. Our task was to create a character and their social media profile. I created a Monsters Inc. style character called Jelly who is a friendly monster. Surprisingly it was easier to draw the character than writing about their personality. Another example of the power of visual images to say more than words!
WEEK 4
We have been learning about making a move this week and how animation is created through CGI, stop motion, cell animation and more! I had no idea the number of different ways animation could be made. I decided to have a go at a bit of stop motion using old lego and an app on my phone. I will admit, storyboarding it crossed my mind but I got too impatient and went straight into the production. Needless to say it wasn’t exactly perfect, but a lot of fun! Definitely need to storyboard and put in prep time to iron out kinks. Click on the image to see the animation on my instagram.
WEEK 5
Making a move old school! This week we learnt about the origins of moving images and making things move manually through all sorts of different ‘scopes’ and ‘tropes’. Guest artist Alabama Thirteen from Loose Screw Film Festival shows us how to make a zoetrope and we had a go using the mini zoetrope in our pack. Click on the image to see the zoetrope in action on my instagram.
WEEK 7
This week we started to get into developing our animation ideas. After last week, I struggled to move forward with my own personal animation, and so I decided to try and sketch out an idea drawn from my research. In particular, I tried to visualise a metaphor someone used during my research about living with mental illness as being in the ‘same storm, different ship’. This always resonated with me and so I began to sketch out an idea of how this might translate into an animation.
WEEK 6
This was a tough week. We explored the theme of reconnection and what it means to each of us. We made mind maps to explore ideas in the hopes that some theme might become obvious. I have shared part of my mind map here, what I hadn’t appreciated was that in order to reconnect, first there must be a loss. So the process was not easy and I struggled to find a common theme. However, when I met with the group I felt less alone in this, and could resonate with a lot of other peoples ideas. It was from that I began to focus on a concept that resonated with me – searching – and perhaps there is no final destination so enjoy the journey…
WEEK 8
Last week this week, can’t believe it! It has flown by but learnt a lot. I have particularly enjoyed meeting all the people in the group and hearing their amazing ideas. I was inspired one evening to explore my own personal animation idea using white pastels on black paper. It took 2 hours to create a 13 second clip but I was really happy with it. Click on the image to see the animation on insta. I would like to explore this further!
Louisa Peters Research 