Final Rayograms for Session #1

Here are my first two rayograms. Admittedly they have got fingerprints all over but for first outcomes they are interesting. I am concerned how these are actually going to work for my animation but I have learnt something new.

Tester pieces

Here are my test images where I have been checking and choosing the right exposure for my pictures.

 Coins (crack-change :)

 Clothes pegs

Foliage

rayograms!

Today was our first session in the dark room and I learnt about rayograms. They are black and white images  which sort of look like scans created by placing an object over photosensitive paper and being exposed to light for a period of time. I was hesitant at start because of all the different numbers for the different things - exposure time, iso rating, aperture setting, all these numbers baffled me.

I found that working by trial and error is the easiest way to get around these numerical problems. After placing a cut section of paper(less waste), I exposed the paper to 5second blasts of light, using a book to cover sections for progression of exposure increasing 5, 10, 15, 20 , 25. Once exposed, the paper went through a processing machine which reveals the photograph and protects the surface from further light absorption.

Taking the image out of the darkroom to review the best setting is vital but also is startling as of the epic light change to your eyes. Choosing the best section is personal preference but sometimes I was not happy with any outcome so would go back and use shorter/longer time intervals than the previous test based on the first lot.

I will add some of the pieces I have created in a new post :)

Animation using sketches

This is a mock version of the video of Take on me, it features some awesome sketching which has been created by hundreds of single drawings layered into an animation. It has taught me about how camera angles and transitions can be used for effect when animating sketches

This needed to be added ^.^

Basic animation

Thaumatropes were the first type of animation which date back to the victorian time. I have created a thaumatrope of a dancing stick man using two different line drawings either side of a disk of paper, held by two strings. This is my first animation I have ever made and yeah its basic but its a start : )

Looking at motion graphics

I have never worked with animation myself but have seen some amazing examples from graphic artists. Here is a particular favourite of mine from the film Juno.

This animation at the start of the indie film Juno is a gorgeous piece of handcrafted stop-motion footage created by Gareth Smith (part of the big animation company Shadowplay Studio) which they have created by hand-drawing and editing using basic methods but the outcome is spectacular. I have discovered it took the Shadowplay team over 900images to create the outcome which must have taken aaaages as each image was hand drawn and coloured.

To get such a smooth walk for the character Juno in a hand-drawn way confused me as surely proportions for the character between drawings would skew uncontrollably. I researched the method and I have found out: [[To create the cut-outs of Juno, Smith and co-designer Jenny Lee printed every frame, outlined Juno, then photo-copied the prints several times to degrade the quality. Each of these frames were then hand-colored and cut out with scissors. “A process that we've been wanting to try out for quite a while, and this project seemed like the perfect opportunity to do it.]]

I intend to have a go at this method of working and have found some interesting tutorials from the team which will help me, this method is painstakingly long so I will only create a small clip (hopefully!).

Inspiring animation

Levi Weaver - You are home

(Music and animation)

This is a handcrafted music video captures the mood of the song perfectly. This video has taught me the effect of only using simple line drawings can be powerful. The majority of this animation has been done 100% by hand as you can even see the artist working on the transitions. This gives the piece a certain characteristic which isn't achievable by using computers alone. 

Initial response

This task is to respond to a clip of sound in a graphical moving piece.  I have been given a tribal tune to react to.

This is my audio which I have been selected.

Here is a brief brainstorm to this:

I feel a bit gutted that I have been given a piece of music with such a strong identity already so have decided to ditch this idea and be more abstract in my thinking drawing connections but not from the literal and obvious.

Here is a more thought out, less linear outcome:

This list hopefully will allow me to be more creative and original in my response