Stop Motion – Year 1 Projects

9th October 202320th October 2023

Week 2 – Final Film Outcome – 02/10/23

Our group’s whole project

In this post, I will document the creative process of this project and have the evaluation and feedback reflection in the next post.

SKETCH BOOK PAGES OF THE CREATIVE PROCESS:

*Page of sounds (and some staging plan from the team and thumbnails).*

*Material experiment, timings*, thumbnail sketches and original response to the sound

*Getting the brief idea of which shapes to cut:*

After getting the specifics of the brief, I sketched out thumbnails of the imagery I was envisioning for this sound. (The brief summary is in the Week 1 post). I went with a star since the original café sounds rough, spikey and overall chaotic – and I thought sharp edges can convey it visually.

After picking out of the thumbnails, I planned out the timings through writing and with an animatic sequence. Since I’ve worked with stop motion before, I wanted to try out something more experimental for this project – thus even though I have a general understanding of the pieces I need to cut out, I also kept it very loose so that I can improvise and try things out during the shooting day on Monday.

Animatic to check the timings for each object

CUTTING THE PEICES TO ANIMATE:

I used an array of recycled materials and colored paper to make the part visually stand out out of the black background that our group established. I think that I should’ve numbered my materials better and kept them in chronological order if it were a more precise animation and plan that I’m following. It could’ve gone better if I put wire at the back of the blue waves rather than acetate and my hands to hold them. However, I found that if I place the acetate in a sturdy position (folding it over twice), I could have the star float like I anticipated it to.

I think that the acetate added to the animation when I put a large curved sheet of it for the background particles – since it warped the reflections of the foreground – and contributed into the visual element of my part overall. I’m also quite intrigued with the way shadow plays a part in creating depth within the space.

My contribution to the project

In terms of team work aspects, since we had 7 people within the group with only 3 hours to spare, we decided to split the group into 2, where I was the middle. Knowing that there are 3 more people needing to make their part and me spending already 1/2 of the time allocated, I did rush a bit around the end. In terms of teamwork, we all discussed our main plan and structure, before creating our own individual parts. We would end with someone’s starting shape and we kept it very flexible.

[Proper feedbacks and reflections in the next post:]

8th October 202316th October 2023

Week 1 – Stop Motion Test – 25/09/23

GROUP PRACTICE ANIMATION:

1st week stop motion test with my group

We were introduced to the idea of 3D forms and team work in morphing our shapes into each other. My transition was from square to triangle.

In terms of teamwork, there was constant communication and ideas thrown around for all of our shapes. There were some mishaps on who is doing which transition but this was easily handled. During our shooting process, we each took turns taking pictures for our peers so that it’s a faster process with less changes in lighting shifting into different position. It also help decrease tripping hazards from going back and forth.

Brief page in my sketchbook for the rotation:
I like rewriting briefs in summary so that I can stay on track

CUT OUTS

The main structure of the cut-out I made redrawn (since I didn’t take pictures of the cutting process)

RESPONSE TO THE ANIMATION:

Due to the fact that I didn’t managed to take photos of the cut outs (they were mostly improvised after a brief discussion with the group), I’ve redrawn this diagram of the shapes I’ve cut out. To include both displacement and replacement techniques within my work, I rotated and prolonged certain shapes for a certain amount of frames. This is so that it not only matches the momentum of the last classmate’s animation, but also limits the amount of frames I need to cut and replace in the exact position.

To improve, I could’ve maintained the momentum and arc of the projectile further, and use the space on the left to follow the motion through. I could’ve also experimented with the placement and depth of focus, rather than sticking to one horizontal axis that the paper is travelling in. Nonetheless, I think the rip in the diamond to a triangle somehow gave some reality and texture of the material and was a somewhat smooth animation. The way that it rips created a 3 dimensional around itself.

In my next stop motion project, I’ll attempt to use the space around the shapes more, and create something ambitious with different materials and shapes as similarly to Selina Trepp’s “Working the flow” (depending on the time restraints) – where she adds many creature-like elements and simultaneously move them to create a lively atmosphere using displacement animation.

8th October 202321st November 2023

Week 2 – Evaluation & Feedback

I’ve collected feedback within tutors, class mates and also my relatives outside of University as well. In this post I’ll document the feedback, and a final evaluation of the rotation.

FEEDBACK FROM PEOPLE:

A group member’s helpful notes during the discussion:

With this feedback, I should slow down the movements of the star and prolong it’s frames next time.

Feedback from another group:

For these feedback, I think the only feedback that is semi related to my work was the comment about the lines, since I also included them in a part of my animation.

Feedback from my parents:

They told me that this part in my animation should be somewhat slowed down. But I think that if I slowed that particular part in post production, it looses part of the grungy choppy flashes of colour and texture. To respond to the sound, I wanted to feel as if the animation is hard to catch up to with a lot of things happening at once. But I think I could’ve still added a few more frames to establish it.

PERSONAL REFLECTION:

A few artists and notes I took whilst discussing my part with tutor:

There was a few points that were discussed that got me thinking.

QUESTIONS I WANT TO EXPLORE:

How much control do we have over the project and the outcome, do we need to control everything rather than be experimental? Would it loose some parts of the magic if the sync didn’t happen unexpectedly?

When I was being very experimental by cutting out literally any piece I could, would I have lost the structure I was mainly planning on making? Or would I make something completely different, special and improvised?

ARTISTS INSPIRED AND LINKED TO MY WORK:

I looked into Selina Trepp’s “Working the flow” where the motions of the figures runs consecutively all at the same time. I wanted to make my part look quite dynamic and vivid in the composition.

WHAT WENT WELL:

We were consistently practicing our teamwork and communication skills even after dividing up workload. Despite all of us having different skill levels in English, our team managed to create something with a balanced contribution and with a somewhat clear understanding of how we would execute this plan.

Since I had some experience in stop motion prior to this, I wanted to focus more on the extent of how I can play around with the timing, textures and elements to make the sound feel more vibrant and alive. Using the responsive sketch we had made before, I took elements of this and turned them into multiple thumbnails which helped me understand how many ways I can structure elements and transitions. During the group discussion, since we were a big group, we reached the conclusion of dividing up 2 workspaces to get work done twice as fast – but have enough continuity in the backgrounds to merge them together. Since I was the person starting halfway, I had to configure a lot of backgrounds and placings to match the first team’s and also make it easier for Jacob (the person going before me) to transition his work to mine.

Rather than cut out specific shapes that I was going to replace at specific times and frames, I made things easier for me by just cutting out shapes that felt right to me, and keeping the structure loose. This gave me freedom to completely do what I want during the shot.

IMPROVEMENTS:

To improve, I could try to make a more precise and structured work rather than trying to improvise everything completely. I could also preplan the exact pieces I need instead of making extra bits and pieces. I think we could’ve also communicated more as a team whilst working on our parts so that in a way, we could integrate each of our parts together in the same time.

Overall, this was a very interesting experience and a great start to working with a team.